Waking up early the next morning was just awful, neither of us wanted to get out of bed. What's more annoying is missing being able to take a shower after the previous night's escapades. We took a moment to clean ourselves that almost turned into a repeat of the previous night.

We cleaned up then geared up for a day of travel.

"Oh shit one second." I told Lluvia as we were leaning our house then I ran back inside.

"Sorry, I want to try one thing." I said then removed my boots and concentrated on my newest skill. All I did was make the skin a bit thicker on my feet. It didn't really look any different but my soles were less sensitive. I just hoped it would be enough to avoid blisters.

"Wait what are you… Oh that's cheating…" she said.

"Oh and how long did it take for you to recover from blisters?" I asked.

"Maybe 2 days?" She said questioningly.

"On dirt I heal faster but where I come from it can take a week to a month. Particularly if you can't tend to them properly." I said.

"If we could recover as fast I doubt our medical technology would be nearly as sophisticated." I continued.

"Well, are you done?" She asked.

"Yup let's go." I said.

We met the group near the edge of town rather than at one of the houses we had been using… too much of a chance someone would do something last minute. This trek was going to suck, I could recover faster but that still didn't make up for the lack of physical activity prior to the past two weeks.

I seriously considered trying to add more muscle mass to my legs but decided against it. This ability was far too new, I didn't want to harm myself even indirectly.

"Question for Iser or well anyone else that might know. Can you injure yourself directly when using a skill or ability?" I asked.

"If you mean blow yourself up with a fireball, yes." Root said.

"The skill won't harm the welder directly but it will not protect against ill considered actions." Iser then said.

"I can see how my mana bomb skill can go horribly wrong, but could I turn myself into the bomb?" I asked.

"No, based on how you described the skill you could not detonate yourself. But you could do an article of clothing for instance. The body and skill has built in safeties to avoid just that." Iser replied.

"Ok that makes sense, then what about magic that can heal? Can that be misused?" I then asked.

There was a pause.

"I was about to say no but if I had to guess a skilled enough healer might be able to do something." Iser continued.

"Did you acquire a new skill?" Turnip said with a knowing smile. "Maybe a shouting one? Afraid to lose your voice."

I stopped in my tracks in shock.

"Wa… was I that loud last night?" I asked in embarrassment.

"And then some… I didn't know humans could make those noises." Orlo added.

"Fuck…. This world's soundproofing sucks!" I said embarrassed.

I continued walking with the rest of the group in a brooding silence for a minute before I felt another body bump into me.

"Oh we give each other shit all the time, wait till we get back to a town then watch both Iser or Root go visit a brothel…Thinking about it at least Root has an excuse." Lluvia said.

The day continued on like that, overall uneventful, we were setting up camp when Orlo noticed something odd.

"How did you avoid so much of the mud, you have almost none on you." They said.

Orlo has gray and white feathers and plumage so it was more obvious but looking around yeah I was significantly less covered.

"Hmm… off hand not sure, let me check my skills… I can't see my homemaking compensating for that…. Oh my Path ability went up by 10%... If I'm not actually using a skill it can have that much of an impact?" I asked.

"Yep, unless your activity suppress some skills you sometimes don’t realize you use them." Root said.

"Yeah it took me a while to figure out the whole sneaking thing… I kept accidentally sneaking up people all the time." Lluvia said from behind me only allowing herself to be noticed when she talked… which made me jump.

"Yeah this might be good practice for you. I should have considered this sooner. Tomorrow you will take the lead and the rest of the group can guide in the general direction.” Root said.

That night was the first time I ever took a watch as part of a group. I felt both alone and surrounded by allies all at the same time, it was a little different as even the few times I had been camping we never needed to keep watch.

I spent a bit of that time practicing my new skill. I was focused on changing my skin underneath any of my clothing. At least that way if anyone woke up early or something it would not be super obvious.

We had a fire but it was very low and was just barely embers. One thing I wanted to try was to adjust my eyes to feline… but I was nervous about that. I was somewhat familiar with the biology of low light vision that some animals had like cats. It had something to do with a membrane in the eye and being able to reflect light again and giving photons a second chance to be detected. I didn't know enough to be able to give just that aspect to my eyes.

"Alright girl, your watch is over." Turnip whispered, I jumped a little at the sudden voice.

"Did you even try to sleep?" I asked quietly.

"I'll be fine, when playing mercenary there were many times where we didn't sleep for a few days straight. Once we've seen you handle a few watches it won't be that big of a deal. Also there are 5 others here besides yourself. We are very used to rotation." She whispered.

"Hey, a bit of a personal question but what's it like being a Bun?" I asked.

She gave a small chuckle "What's it like being a human?" She asked in reply.

"Ok fair point… but your hearing is better and you have 2 giant radiators on top of your head. And I'm assuming the ears can feel." I said.

She let out a soft and quiet chuckle.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Yes you can feel my ears…" she said with a hint of a smile.

I let out a quiet chuckle, "Thanks, I've been curious…" I said a bit embarrassed.

"For some Buns it's a bit of an erogenous zone to have your ears massaged by a partner… no it is not in my case." She continued.

I gently felt the ears, they did feel like a rabbit's ear but much bigger. I took a moment to gently feel around the skin, cartilage, and fur.

Turnip let out a small sigh of… well it sounded like pleasure.

"Ok…. Umm I just discovered something about myself…" she said and gently pulled her ears away.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to do anything…" I said embarrassed.

"You're fine, although once I'm in a better head space I think I'll ask you for an ear massage…. That did feel good…" she said somewhat embarrassed herself.

"Are you sure you didn't take a new skill involving others?" She said with a teasing smile.

On a really stupid whim I changed my hand to a talon not too much unlike Orlo's

"No a different skill." I said, she looked at my hand in astonishment.

"What? How did you?" She asked in a whisper.

"Still learning it, I'll tell you later how I got it but I will say it was very complex and completely by accident." I told her truthfully.

My mana was almost full originally so I was able to change it back but that left me with less than 30… I still had my back covered in scales but that I could hide.

"Well you are one surprise after another… also you really need to get some rest." She said.

I pulled her into a hug, she was stiff for a second but then relaxed.

"I'm really glad I met this group… I don't think I was handing Isolation very well." I whispered.

"The feeling is mutual, you have been a very unexpected addition to our little party… now get some sleep." She said softly.

I got up, went over to the tent I was currently sharing with Lluvia and cuddled up with her.

The night was uneventful and quite restful, or well if it wasn't then I somehow managed to sleep through it.

The next day as promised I was turned into a glorified mud detector. Which did work, I was able to intuitively avoid some minor dangers and many of the nuisance. The rest of the group was still guiding me in the general direction. The day passed uneventfully during our travels.

"Well that worked out quite well I think we made better time as well." Root said as we were setting up camp.

"My feathers are still a mess." Orlo said in a good natured complaint.

"Need some help? I am curious about the preening process." I asked

Orlo thought about it for a moment then shrugged "Sure I don't have half the tools I would like to have right now."

"See that's interesting and why I'd like to learn, I was wondering if Harpys used tools." I said as I headed over to assist.

I then added "Iser your next on my list if there are any communal tasks you would need assistance with."

"Ah yes shedding will be soon and none of these 'friends' ever want to assist in the spots on my back." They said.

"It's gross how that peels away… now where was I… oh right…" Orlo complained then continued focusing on me.

"Most Harpys do especially if you don't currently have someone to assist. There are traditionalists that shun anything more than a stick… but they also build nests during laying cycles… and all because that's how our ancestors did it." Orlo said then moved into a bit of a rant.

"Ok… that sounds like you have some back story there… umm I'm going to guess your parents were traditionalists?" I asked.

"It's such a foolish way to live, why give up comforts just because our ancestors didn't have it… so foolish." Orlo complained, it also explained there personally a bit particularly for anything dirt related. I didn't say it out loud but I had a suspicion it might be some form of OCD.

I sat behind them and started to look at all the different feathers. Having a closer look I could tell there were several types.

"So wild guess on my part but the small fluffy ones are for insolation?" I asked.

"Why yes they are and I am so glad you are not just pulling random feathers because that's what it looked like I was doing." They said as part of a clear indication that someone tried to help in the past and it didn't go very well.

They worked me through the process for the different types of feathers. I quickly got the impression doing this on the road was impossible even with a partner or tools it could still be difficult.

"Sorry I have to ask based on an earlier comment you made. Harpys lay eggs? I wasn't sure about the possible intersection between mammalian and avian traits." I asked.

"Yes… we lay eggs… it's during a seasonal rotation once a year… also mammalian traits? What's that?" They asked, sounding out mammalian like I had said it.

"Ah… well without getting too technical it describes a specific type of life… also while I'm familiar with the theory it's been a few years ago I'm very likely going to butcher this description…" I said.

"It's an attempt to organize a sort of group of different kinds of life. Examples like Reptile, Avian, Mammalian, and others. While they all shared similarities there is some distance between the different traits…" I said.

"It's part of a system that's used to describe something on my world called the Theory of Evolution. And how associated organisms are related." I continued.

"Ok so far I think I understand…" Orlo said a bit hesitantly.

"So well Mammalian describes creatures that will carry and birth live young as well as specific structures in different creatures' bodies." I said.

"Ok so what kind of structures?" They asked even more confused.

"Umm you and Iser have talons and claws respectively. They are more similar to each other compared to my fingers for example." I said.

"I'm sorry I asked… I think I will stick with everything evolved from Harpys… it's a lot easier." They said.

"That is utterly ridiculous and you know it. Recorded history goes back maybe 5 thousand years, at least that's the earliest I'm aware of. Maybe some fossils exist somewhere that will tell us more. Besides, all races came from Kobolts." Iser said with a knowing smile, this sounded like a common argument.

"5000 years? That's about when humanity developed writing… I think. But that's based on just memory on my part." I said.

"So how far back does Humanity go where you are from?" Iser asked.

"At least 100,000 years maybe longer, mind you I think there was some interspecies breeding with a very close genetic cousin." I said.

Everyone paused and looked at me.

"What's up?" I asked looking at everyone.

"100,000 years?" Root asked.

"Yeah, probably longer." I said a little nervously based on all their looks.

"You're… sure?" Iser said.

"Yes? I mean Earth has fossil records going back hundreds of millions of years." I said.

"If you are able to go that far back then that would indicate many of the species came from human stock a long time ago." Iser said.

"I would like to add that I'm unsure how long a year is here on Dirt, nor do I have any reason to believe time is currently passing at the same rate between this would and mine." I said.

"So what am I supposed to do with this feather again?" I asked in an attempt to avoid some species centric debate, with that the tension quickly ebbed.

“You are doing a pretty good job at this, I know Turnip was just teasing yesterday but did you actually get some sort of skill?” they asked.

“Umm… so I think this might be a bleedover from my homemaking skill… I think there is an aspect about caring for a household…” I said with a bit of embarrassment, I could feel a blush running up my cheeks about what that could mean.

“Wait, so does that mean you see us as part of your household or something?” Iser asked.

“That would be silly, we have only known each other for a few days. It's not like I didn't experience any life or death situations with you or anything…” I said, a bit confused about my own feelings on the subject.

“Technically a dungeon is life or death, especially a newly unexplored dungeon.” Iser said, I then realized they were much closer to me. Then I felt scaly arms wrap about my chest in a hug.

“It is ok I see you as family now too.” Iser said comfortingly.

“I…. thank you, I’ve been trying to ignore the loss I have been feeling being yanked from my home. I guess I always took my family for granted and now I will probably never see them again.” I said, as I felt tears start to trace down my face.

“I’m just glad you guys aren't a bunch of assholes or anything.” I said to try to break the tension.

“Oh we can be but generally only to people that piss us off.” Turnip said.

"So what's for dinner?" I asked in a poor attempt to change the subject.