Uhhgggg. *smack* "Ow." My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth and ripping it off just hurt like hell. Need water or something. Got to get the taste out of it. Light's also shining in my goddamn eyes. Can't see worth a damn.

"Marwall. Marwall. You up yet?" As my eyes adjust to the light, I think I can finally tell what's going on. It's morning, or at least I think it is. It's dang bight outside through the curtains. However, I think I can hear...snoring? I look over, to find that Marwall is fast asleep. I wonder why he can snore? Ehh, how would I know? I wasn't a biology student, but being mute shouldn't let you do that. *BANG* Shit. Crap. Uhhh, goddamn my leg. What the hell was that?

I rub my leg down to get feeling back into it, as I avoid the table in the middle of the carriage. Once I stop aching, I lean slightly against the fabric wall and the posts that run along outside of them. After rubbing for awhile, my leg still hurts, but at least I can put pressure on it without wincing, so there's that. I look around, trying to figure out what that loud noise was. None of the crates seem to have fallen over, and I don't think it was anything that Marwall could've done, given his present condition. I might as well go outside to see if anyone's trying to grift our mount. So, I walk towards the front of the carriage and lift the curtain door aside. My eyes briefly feel like I'm staring directly into the sun, before they adjust to get a clearer picture. There doesn't seem to be anything amiss outside. The pillbug is still tied up to a post and the lanterns are swaying gently in the breeze. I look up, maybe thinking that perhaps a branch had fallen on top of the carriage, but my eyes don't find any impressions as I step out onto the dirt. The only thing that I can see are the stars gently shining down upon...wait...why is it night? Wasn't there a lot of light coming in? Dammit. Am I hallucinating or something?

As my eyes try to make sense of the abrupt darkness, I can finally see what made the noise. The goddamn rhino-pillbug thing fell over. Goddamnit. Must be why Marwall is still asleep. Shit like this happens all the time, no wonder he became desensitized to the loud noises. Or perhaps it's because he lights fireworks as he heads into town? Sighing I head back in pushing my thoughts to the back of my mind, but...something is stopping me from walking back into the carriage to head to rest. Somethings wrong about this situation. What is it?...

Kojo! Yeah, that's it. That's the problem here. He's not here...Wait. Should I be worried? I mean...he could be hunting or something?...Yeah. Probably just wanted to get food or something...Wait...he's a plant. Maybe he wanted to get food for us? Yeah...maybe. He could also be trying to find a nearby river for water. Yeah, that's definitely the more likely one. Alright. Back to sleep.

I close the curtain and head back down towards my mat. Hopefully, it doesn't take as long to fall back asleep as it did in the first place. Sleeping on the wooden floor ain't exactly conducive to getting to sleep . I sigh as I lay back down and try to grab some of the spare mats and bunch them up for a pillow. Sleep...please come easy...

.

.

.

Goddamnit. Why is the light back again? Is it morning? *SMACK* My mouth isn't that dry thankfully, so I begin to move my still groggy body out of-*THUNK*.

"OW! What the hell!?" I sit up rubbing my head. I think I rolled over in my sleep or something because the back of my head feels like crap. Wait, is it morning, for real this time? I open my eyes to find Marwall sitting at the table in the middle with a ready-made sign next to him.

'Took you long enough.'

"What do you mean?" He looks over, notices I'm awake, and switches the board with another pre-written one.

'It's way past sunrise. You should've been awake awhile ago.'

"Look. No one decides my sleep schedule, least of all me. I can't control when I go to sleep, or even if I wake up in the middle of the night due to the goddamn mount we have." At this, he looks fairly confused and actually writes down something, probably for the first time today.

'What do you mean?' He slept like a baby didn't he? He didn't hear any of it.

"All the goddamn noises it made rolling around kept waking me up." At this, his eyes gain a bit of mirth as a gasping laugh rolls through the carriage. Finally he stops and sighs before looking back towards some papers in front of him.

"What are you looking at?" He looks up to me and holds up a paper point to a bunch of symbols. It...kind of translates as 'Expenditures' to my eyes.

"Shit...am I being a burden on you?" He shakes his head before bringing out another somewhat bigger tablet and proceeding to etch upon it.

'No. It's not your fault. Even with you being here, there is still money that I have lost. Albeit, less because of you. You did your job fairly well and earned more than enough to cover the food that we've been eating.' Curious. That still leave the question though.

"Why are you in debt if we sold so much?" He points to another word on the parchment. 'Reparations' Ahh. That still doesn't explain shit.

"What?" He sighs before wiping away the stuff he had on a tablet.

'I sold people products and they blame me for the issues related to them. Now, if you could stop asking questions, I need to finish all these calculations. I need these tablets for that more than answering your questions right now.' Ahh. Bills. Yeah, probably would be hard to deal with if you didn't have access to a calculator to do most of the functions. Wait...I could learn their symbols for math! Then I...Wait no. Why the hell would I do that? It's confusing enough to see symbols shifting every so often, I don't want to deal with math again.

I sigh as I fully sit up and stretch my back out. It pops in various places before I stand up. Wait...the carriage is moving. I thought that he had to control it to get it to move, but I guess not...Kojo! I rush towards that front entrance and throw open the curtain and...what? What is...

"Hey Dave! Pretty neat, huh?" What is...why is he like this? And how can he talk? I mean, before I was able to completely understand him because the skill let me read into his...intentions for his barks. I guess. Now, he's actively able to talk in words. Sure, I still have to translate, but it sounds similar to most of the other voices I've heard. How the hell did he learn a language in a night?

Stolen novel; please report.

"Hey Kojo. Ummm, why exactly are you..." I gestured towards him, because I believe that there wasn't anything more that I could say without possibly offending him. My eyes were still locked upon the figure that had decided to lay upon the driver's seat. Now, you might be wondering, inner logic, how exactly could Kojo sit on that little rinky-dink bench? He's not exactly people size and his weight alone would have definitely broken anything not built to take his titanic mass. Well...that's kind of the answer. He's not that size anymore. In fact, he's smaller than when I first met him.

"Yeah, I got this skill kind of unexpectedly last night. Figured that I'd try it out. So, what do you think?" I...should I give him my honest opinion. He's...no. I shouldn't. It wouldn't be nice to say that to him. No matter how true it is.

"I think that that is perhaps the coolest thing I've seen all day." There. An answer that's kind of true, given that most of the day I've been seeing taxes or something of the like and a somewhat grumpy cat man.

"Yeah! I knew you'd like it. Now, no one can see me coming. I am the perfect hunter now!" No. Don't...face, don't betray me. You can't...no. No! No smiling. I can feel you trying. Just...don't. No matter what happens. Don't...fucking...break.

"Yeah...combat advantage will be great now." I don't even know how I said that with that calm a voice. My friend smiles at me as he pumps a paw into the air.

"Now you don't have to worry about me being seen when there's no trees!" Why must you do this to me world? I...I can't hold up anymore. It's coming out. Without any pretense, I pick him up and squeeze him.

"I'm sorry, man. It's just you're so huggable now." No. It's not. He's just too cute. For some reason, my big intimidating wolfen treant has turned into this little mossy pup. His legs that used to be massive trunks, now seem to be only just growing bark. His ears, where before were just wooden knots, can now move a fair bit more due to the flexibility of the softer wood. His moss, thankfully, didn't leave his body, and only made him look fluffier than I'd expect him to be. His teeth, while still sharp, seem to be a bit more well adjusted to fitting into his mouth, where before they were just a tad too big. His tail is also shorter and has the same amount of moss on it as before so it's even fluffier. I just...I can't not hug him. I'm a dog person dammit.

"It's ok. I know that you wanted to do that for awhile now. You kept trying while you were riding me, after all." No, that's not why I did it. Sure, back then I had to to make sure I didn't fall off while you were speeding across the plains, but not now though. No matter what, I will take this secret to my grave if I have to. I don't want him to feel like I'm being demeaning to him, after all.

"How'd you even do this?" I relaxed myself and laid the little pup on my lap. He can fit in my lap now! Uhhhh, must...resist...urge...to...pet his snoot.

"I guess it was me hunting enough or something?" Wait. He doesn't know? Should I...wait yeah! I can just [Analyze] him. It should pop up what changed.

Name: Kojo Race: Timber Mariphosa Affinity: Fauna, Holy Class : Ounder's Chosen, Lv10 Level: 5 Titles: Loyal Warrior Intuitive HP: 3560/3560 MP: 1440/1440 AP: 500/500

Chosen? What the hell is that? Wait...didn't Kojo mention an Ounder before? Like that it was a god or something? Wait...does that mean that there's a god watching him right now? Ummm...I don't know if this is good or bad or whathaveyou. Best just to congratulate him given how smug he looks right now. Plus, if that god gave him this ability, I don't really see how they can be that bad. Fluffy is always good no matter what. Plus, he gained an affinity for...holy? Is that really a type of affinity? I had thought that it was only Nature that affinity's tended towards. Weird. Also, his level went seriously down, but his stats are so good still. I wonder why that is. Wait, he's looking at me. Shit, I got distracted from the conversation.

"Either way, congrats bud. Didn't expect you to get this kind of thing." The little pup tilts its head before staring back towards the open road. His eyes seem to glow a bit before the ridges around them narrow, looking ahead at the well pathed road.

"Neither did I." We sit in comfortable silence while we ride. I sigh as the wind strokes my face and the smell of flowers floats on the breeze from a patch I can see a bit away.

"What are you doing?" Huh. I look down to find...shit. I've been petting him.

"Uhhhh...."

"You don't have to stop. Just wondering why you were doing it." Is it...not uncomfortable? I figured since he was so proud, he might not like it. Plus...I think that his new body reminds me a lot more of my dog. I...I still miss him. He's probably...hopefully my neighbor finds him if I've been gone as long as I have. Otherwise...I don't want to think about it. I can't tell him that though.

"...I guess because its relaxing." He stares at me for awhile before laying his head down upon my lap.

"Yeah, it is." I wait for a bit, but nothing else is said. Slowly, reach down and stroke his back. We stay like this for awhile, just two friends basking in each other's company as we roll along. At least, until I accidentally brush his softer wooden ears. He noticeably stiffens as it happens, so I immediately apologize.

"Sorry." His body doesn't really make any other sudden movements, but his head does tilt up towards mine so that his eyes can view my face.

"No. It's fine. Had some stuff stuck in that spot anyway." He rocks his head back and forth as if in thought before going back to his previous position to rest. Is he...he might be hinting at something.

"...Anywhere else?" The real test here is how he answers.

"Mostly the joints. You wouldn't believe how often things end up in there." He shrugs his shoulders at the mention of his joints, and as he does I can hear the faint creaking of wood before he lets himself destress. Even with how his answer hints at what he want me to do, it's still not enough. I need direct confirmation, otherwise I might be overstepping the friendship bounds here.

"I hear you. You want me to get those places too?" There was silence. At least for a couple minutes, before his head lightly turned on its side, letting one ear face towards the sky and myself.

"If you wouldn't mind. Getting those places clean will probably let me stick myself together better." Yes! Except...that last bit...something's bothering me about his wording. I go to brush his ear, noticing how his words were indeed true. There was some sort of brown gunk that had found itself in the cracks of his wood. As I push my fingers into the cracks and pry out the offending substance with my finger nails, I push myself to ask the question that's been brought up due to the slight miscommunication.

"What do you mean?" His eye, having since closed due to whatever sort of treatment that I was doing for him, slightly opened and turned towards me.

"Most things that end up stuck in there aren't necessarily things I can control like the rest of my body. If something happens to get in there, I just have to work around it." I nod. I suppose that makes a bit of sense. The gunk might just be leftovers from whatever ability he used. It might even be bits of his original body that didn't fall away when he transitioned. No...I just might be extrapolating too much there.

"Alright. So, direct me." A tingling sensation occurs along my hands before I notice that moss has grown underneath them, grasping at my hand gently before bringing it towards a groove along the neck. I begin to scratch it earnestly, noticing that a fine layer of the gunk seemed to be caked on within the crack, almost an inch deep. However, after awhile of doing that, his moss once again grabs me and pushes my attention towards another patch of the stuff. This goes on for awhile, and I can tell that something is slightly off with my ministrations. He doesn't seem to be acting the way that most dogs I've seen would in this situation. Honestly, it just feels like I'm just giving him a massage. I'm not really complaining though. Doing this does give me some measure of dopamine, so it's fine.

And so, we spent the rest of the day on that bench, with me scratching him all over, while he stared out into the open fields. From time to time, Marwall would come out to redirect the beast of burden and give us some travel sandwiches. I was kind of surprised to find that he had roast beef, or something like it when I first bit into one. He, of course, already knew about Kojo's transformation, and didn't say anything, the jerk. Thought it'd be funny to see a freak-out. Thankfully, I was able to go against his expectations. What was really surprising to me though was how Kojo described how Marwall found out about his state of being. From what I could gleam, he seemed to have the same reaction that I did, although Kojo couldn't accurately tell all the little quirks that Marwall would give off, but I could tell. So for the last couple of hours, the cat man and I have at least bonded over Kojo's newfound cuteness. However, the thing about his reaction that I was most confused about was that he wasn't surprised by him talking though. I brought it up with him while I had gone back into the carriage proper, and I found out some new information that I think is rather important. Apparently, animals can sometimes speak languages, if they have enough intelligence. Though it's mostly either simple words or plain sentences. He thinks that perhaps I had something to do with this acquisition on Kojo's part, but I'm not too sure. He was plenty smart before this transformation of his, so I don't think that what Marwall is suggesting is inherently right. Other than that though, I can safely say that the rest of the day was relatively calm. As I stare out towards the setting sun, its light glinting off the familiar trees, I hope that the night is at least somewhat as calm. Even if Kojo is in as good of health that he claims to from before, I don't really know how he will be able to deal with monsters or other things on the road. He can't possibly have the strength or agility he used to have. Any skills that he had before would be even more useless in their application. There's also the fact that his level was brought so low. Even if his stats are high, there must be a reason that he's viewed by the system as weak, right?