After breakfast, Bayce fled to the basement, then to her room, tallying up all the magical resources we had in the cabin—everything that was made and could be made. Reed insisted on cleaning up the breakfast table and washing all the dishes. Chora and I took those minutes to talk shop. Combat-wise, I probably had something to learn from all of them, but her fighting style was definitely the closest to mine. Even if we had different ways of flailing our bodies into foes, we both were still, essentially, flailing our bodies into foes.
With the spirit board between us as we sat on the ends of the couch, Chora told me about her favorite lyen-chunst techniques: front kicks, windmill kicks, something called a “corkscrew kick” that I couldn’t even visualize…
“Mreaow,” I said, shaking my head.
“Oh. It’s all going over your head, isn’t it?”
I spelled out, “JUST FOCUS ON THE MOST HELPFUL PART PLZ”
“What’s a…did you say ‘peels’?”
I made a little breathless sigh. “MAYBE PLEEZ IS BETTER?”
“I don’t think we have to plead for help just yet, Taipha.”
“NOOOOO!” I screeched in silence, whacking my paw against the “O” for effect. Then I calmed down and replied sweetly, “I MEANT PLEASE”
“Oh! Yeah, that makes more sense.”
Reed was done by this time, and with her joining in, the conversation actually felt more streamlined.
“Why don’t we start from the strengths you have already?” Reed said, and Chora nodded in agreement.
“UM…” My paw lingered on the period. How would I describe…myself? Describing anything was already a big hurdle lately. “I PUT MY ALL INTO POWER, THROW MYSELF AT PPL. I MEAN PEOPLE”
“So you like pure power,” Reed said, and I nodded.
Chora said, “That’s funny. I didn’t think you’d say that at all.”
Wh…what did she mean?! I loved my claws, and those Fire and Attack Up Spells I’d used with Reed were amazing!
“When we fought together, I saw a lot of movement. I saw a love of movement. You’re not, like, a powerlifter-type.”
“And what is a powerlifter-type exactly?” Reed said, grinning brightly, blinking way too many times in a single second.
“You know, uh, not tactical.” Chora didn’t budge, but…she was shaken.
This was dangerous territory. Two humans were bantering in a way that definitely sounded insulting without the context of their friendship, and I was caught in the middle of it.
But wait! I was their friend too! “REED IS TACTICAL!” I cried spellingly. “THE TACTIC IS SHE USES A SWORD AND EVERYTHING DIES. WHATEVER WORKS. OK BUT ALSO SHE IS REALLY STRONG AND HER SPEED IS NOT THAT SLOW”
Reed flushed more and more with every word. Which was weird because I wasn’t any kind of next-level writer. Then again, I was starting to wonder if getting flustered like this was just normal for friends.
Don’t worry about it!
Just worry about Reed’s SPD, and weep for it.
“Ah, come on,” Reed said, trying and failing to laugh off her obvious blush. “It’s not my Speed that made me keep losing those races, it’s my stamina!”
“That’s still bad,” Chora said.
“M-moving on—I think I see what Chora was getting at with your fighting style. You certainly like to move…less like fire, more like wind.”
“Or…” Chora was stroking her chin now. “Ice.”
“Wait. Lightning!”
“You know what’d be super interesting for her? Earth.”
Reed looked like her conspirator. “Or the flow of water…”
“Meow???”
That got them to turn back. “Oh,” Reed said, “we’re sorry. It’s just exciting to talk about people’s elements sometimes. They can say so much about them.”
People had elements? Well, what sense did that make for those of us whose Skills involved multiple elements? I, for example, had Skills representing Wind, Neutral, Neutral…and…and Sleep? And the Queen had the element of Shimmers? Yeah, can’t forget about that one!
She seemed to sense my confusion. “It’s not so much the elements we have as the ones we choose to specialize in.”
“Like with Equipment,” Chora said. “Most weapons will have innate elements, and by channeling our energies through them, we’ll activate their power. The other ways are via Spells and the Skills that come with martial arts. And frankly,” she added, “I’m amazed there are people on this planet who go their whole lives without at least one of them.”
Reed coughed. “Let’s bring this back to how Taipha can fight more effectively.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Just when I thought it was getting interesting! But deep down, I did agree—let’s move forward. Just had to remember where we left off.
“THEN I SHOULD LOOK INTO MOVING FASTER AND ALSO ELEMENTS?”
“That’s a good way to put it,” Reed said. I knew she was lying just to make me feel better—it was merely a decent way to put it. Or maybe she had low standards, bless her heart. “But rather than simply ‘moving faster,’ think of it as focusing on your movement.”
Chora said, “Disorient the enemy. Jump to places you’ve never jumped before.”
Huh, when they put it that way, I did begin to wonder why I was so aggro and not more pinball-bouncy. Typically when I moved, I was either barreling forward or running away. Now, though, at Level 21, I had the springiness to rebound off branches, kickstart off ceilings, and weather what would have been bone-shaking landings—still on my feet.
I remembered Leaping off the Queen’s weapon. That gambit had been so satisfying! Until it totally failed. But the next time possibly wouldn’t!!
“I CAN LEAP FOREVER,” I said.
“Taipha, are you okay? Your eyes have, um, glazed over.”
“YEAH REED. THANKS FOR CARING.” I paused to refocus my focus. “WAIT I MEAN OOPS THATS NOT SARCASM!!!!!”
***
Besides trying to refine my combat skills and strats, I had some other business in the Vencian Wood that’d been lingering for a while. Sure, there was my Map Quest, and that looked more enticing than ever…but my progress with that was going to be slower than I would’ve liked. Today I’d fill more of it out, but if the Queen wanted a rematch anytime soon, I wouldn’t have the seventy-billion additional levels to confront her with.
That was fine. I’d progress in the ways that I could right now, and get to some smaller loose ends.
Chora newly pledged her allegiance to me, but like in a secular way this time. Before she ran off to light incense (slightly secular incense, I trusted), she vowed to trek to the village in the afternoon and read all the books she could get her hands on that might hold an inkling of information on the threat we were all now facing.
Surely she couldn’t read all the books in all of Outlast, or even in that one hotel! But maybe she knew what she was doing, what with all those human book-research skills she presumably had. I could only bow my head and thank her.
Reed, meanwhile, was going to write her mother Lily, that famous mage teaching at some fancy university. After all, if the signs of supernatural threats building around our cabin were going to spiral out of control, we might need all the help we could get. And not DeGalle either, because while she didn’t seem all bad or merely ruthless, this was still not a DeGalle-loving household. And either way, I would not entrust my life to her. She beat up a cat once! Hopefully Sierra could get back on the Goddess Hotline eventually just to gossip about what happened there.
Bayce had returned to her room by now, and things in there sounded pretty quiet. No frantic cabinet-pulling or anything. It was about time to pop in and ask about my Spell options, especially with the new food for thought Reed and Chora had given me about the whole thing. But first…
The door to Reed’s room had been left cracked open. Was it an invitation for me specifically?
I wove my way through, making hardly a sound. Reed's room was bright with still-early sunlight, though the yellow beams were changing to midday white. On the windowsill, I thought I saw a new picture or two. Photographs of a stag in the light. Dust motes bobbed around her as her pencil worked at a letter, churning across the page, pausing often, and erasing.
I made a soft "meow," enough to get her attention. I was testing the waters -- if she needed to stay put and concentrate without talking to me, that was fine too. This letter could be lifesaving, after all.
But she set her pencil down and turned to me with a sigh that, to my ears, sounded relieved. "Come in," she said with a warm smile, sunlight edging her hair and face.
I walked in. Then I paused, turned back, and yanked the spirit board in behind me, jolting the door open more. I felt like such a clumsy dog dragging a big board in this way, but it was either that, poofing it in overdramatically, or using a book, and the books had way smaller letters.
I set the board near her chair and spelled out, "BESIDES BAD THINGS HOW ARE YOU?"
"U-um, I'm fine. I'm great! Thank you for asking! How are you?"
"NERVOUS. ELECTRIC. GOOD THO. THO MEANS THOUGH. HOW WAS THE TRIP FOR YOU?"
Reed left her chair and sat on the floor beside me. I stretched out my back, letting her run her hand softly across it. That put me at ease, just a bit, and it seemed to help her nerves too.
"It was amazing. That stag...and seeing the mountains again, and all the animals...and just hanging out with you more. It was spectacular." She added with a chuckle, "And my legs still hurt!"
Memories of all the racing victories I'd had yesterday ran through my mind. "SORRY KINDA," I said. Instead of making a sentence like "GOOD TRIP FOR ME TOO," which just felt redundant, I let my head do the talking by laying it on Reed's leg and purring for a few contented moments.
Reed’s tone dipped slightly. “I doubt my mother is going to do much to help. She’s so busy.”
This surprised me so much I actually mraowed out loud. I swatted at the spirit board. “BUT WHAT IF EVERYTHING GETS DESTROYED? OR EVEN JUST UR HOME? SHE WOULD LET IT HAPPEN???”
Reed paused. I could tell she was distraught—not letting herself get her hopes up. “Yes. In a worst-case scenario, she would break out our absolute largest and heaviest-duty suitcases, put the cabin in, and go.”
“…U CAN PACK A CABIN?”
“Bayce was right, it is a little sad if your old world didn’t have magic.”
Alright, good—she wasn’t looking quite so down. I didn’t want to send her back into the mire of worry, but, well…she would head back in anyway, writing that letter. I was too curious. “WHAT DO U THINK UR MOM WILL SAY?”
“About…you?”
I shook my head fervently. A little too fervently, apparently, because then Reed’s eyes got kind of sad and squinchy.
She added quickly, “I-I’ll find a way not to mention you if you don’t—”
“NO ITS NOT THAT! I MEAN…HOW WILL SHE JUSTIFY NOT HELPING? UR HER DAUGHTER AND SHE LIKES YOU!”
“I think she’ll say…” Reed put her hands on her hips and lowered her pitch. “‘What a perfect opportunity for you to have a proper adventure! Mom’s sorry she can’t come by, but here, have a book about supernatural occurrences in this other, totally different forest, plus this fancy shield! They might help! Now, write me again if the cabin floods or something!’”
“Mreaough?! U MEAN SHE WONT SPREAD AWARENESS ON COLLEGE CAMPUS?!?!”
Reed dropped her arms and flopped over. “I doubt it.”
I could feel my tail twitching. This world was something else.
Then again, I wasn’t exactly counting on help from outside the woods (and outside the afterlife). Deep down, I felt convinced that I could handle it…somehow.
“Well, I think I’d better get back to writing that letter,” Reed said, sighing and standing. “I have to try.”
“I DONT THINK ILL BE BACK TONIGHT. TRAINING”
Reed blinked. “Oh, for a moment I was afraid you were running away. Which…I really, really don’t want you to feel forced to do.”
The word “night” reminded me. I looked around Reed’s room, at the carvings, the erratic paintings, and the bed. A single bed.
I’d felt so lonely downstairs last night, like an interloper more than a guest. And Reed herself had said that she didn’t want me to be alone, so…maybe it would be better for me to sleep up here?
Or it would have been, if not for the fact that the Sapphire Queen could likely cut off her head in a heartbeat.
That left a bitter taste in my mouth as I reached my head out to allow her one last head-rub and a brush against my chin. This, at least, was starting to become a little therapeutic for me. It was so nice to know people like her I could trust.
Now it was time to look toward the road. I had to get back outside and make a beeline for the east—but first, Spells.