We were walking quite a distance.

"Where are we going?"

"We have been assigned a tent in the Kwal prisoner camp for the time being."

"Kwal prisoners?"

"The Kingdom of Kwal was our enemy. What do you think? You appeared in the same place as the centaurs. So until this is resolved, you will be treated like them. Well, differently, because I will be with you to translate."

"What do you do with your prisoners?" Curse my imagination.

"Feed them, heal them and bargain with Kwal for them. The same as they would do with us. And now I hear they have signed a treaty, so hopefully everyone can go home soon."

Home soon, that sounds good. "Do you have any mages who can send me home?"

"Sorry, no mages here. But I think you will have to ask the Magic University of Kwal. They made the centaurs and hopefully understand the soul magic that brought you to our world. If anyone can, they can."

"So I am stuck here for now."

"Yes, sorry, I am afraid. It must be very scary for you."

I pondered the thought, "Scary? No, that was too strong. Strange, too strange, like an absurd dream. A dream from which I would not wake up. Well, maybe my life before had been a dream too. No, those thoughts led to nothing. Maybe when I met the mages. But there was another question occupying me. "You said 'unique body'. There isn't anyone like me?"

Freya looked down, embarrassed. "Yes, sorry again. I have never seen or even heard of anything like you. Of course, there are many stories about other beings, but even then none of them mentioned anything, hmm".

"Yes?"

"Oh, something almost godlike like you."

Now I froze. "Godlike?" That humble me?

"Well, mythical, like in the ancient tales. You know, she who is swifter than a horse, wilder than a tiger, wiser than a philosopher, and prettier than a flower in the morning dew."

Oh my god! I blushed so hard I felt my head would explode from the blood pressure. "But I'm not, how could you, I mean"

"Oh come on, just teasing."

"Juvenile!"

"Uh, that didn't translate. But you can't deny it, you're a bit of everything. Soon the news will travel and I am sure that will be your description."

I shuddered. But she was not wrong, I did stand out. I was surrounded by humans, but I was no longer in their peer group. Overall, they even treated me better than the reverse case. I shuddered at the thought of being inside a holding cell in Area 51.

"This is no longer the soldiers' area," I tried to change the topic.

"Oh yes. You see, the camp is divided by the guilds. We are moving away from the battlefield, so here are the non-fighting guilds like carpenters, blacksmiths, ...." She also seemed happy to have something else to talk about.

I tried to pin down the period more precisely. But I was no historian, and my historical knowledge came from films and fantasy books. Still, it was all very medieval, I saw no steam engines, and the carpenters over there used only hatchets, not even saws. In the soldiers' area, I had seen something like a crossbow, but mostly just normal bows and swords, and no guns at all. So sometime in the dark Middle Ages, if this would be my earth. Which it wasn't unless I had been lied to in school and there had been Middle Ages with mages and centaurs.

One more try, "Say, Freya, is the earth a sphere?"

I had derailed another train of thought at full speed it seems. Her face went through several expressions. My revenge for the godlike.

"Er, what, I mean, who cares, maybe. Why?"

"Well, my earth was a sphere, circling around the sun."

"Well. Hmm, I'll have to ask a senior healer about that. Anyway, here we are," she evaded my question.

Freya nodded to the two guards, as we entered an enclosure at the outer edge of the camp.

"Welcome to your camp," Freya said.

"But I know no one here."

"You know me!" Freya corrected.

"So you are the enemy now?"

"Ah, you are incorrigible! You know, you are special."

"And so are you. Everyone is."

We already bickered like old friends. Even if somebody could understand us, it would make no difference. Everywhere I went, people were gawping. I was still too overwhelmed to care. I only gawped back at five centaurs in an extra enclose at the far end of the compound.

"Kiara, heja!" Freya had walked ahead and held open a big tent flap. Large for a human, but I could just squeeze in.

Freya entered after me. Even with just the two of us, the tent was already crowded. So I asked the voices to fold my legs under me and they obeyed. Now Freya stood a head taller.

She giggled. "Don't look at me like that!"

"What?"

She sighed. "Your big puppy eyes. Can we have a look at the saddlebag?"

"Saddlebag? Oh, that one." I had noticed it, of course, it was strapped to my lower body. But I had completely forgotten about it. I stood up again and leaned forward, and further forward until my head was between my forelegs. My yoga teacher would have loved this. Well, I could not breathe but my arms had no trouble opening the buckle. I also noticed that the fur on my whole underside was white.

Then, I straightened up, turned around until I was facing backwards and lifted the heavy saddlebag off my lower back. It was heavier than I had expected, so I turned back more slowly and placed it in front of me, folding my back legs back under my body. I thought I would have stared like Freya when I saw myself doing this, but every movement seemed easier and more and more natural. Although I had no idea why or how, somehow, I was getting the hang of this body.

I opened the lid and started to take things out. "Let's see what we have here! Hmm, looks like a brass cup?"

"What are you doing?"

"What?" I looked down at the cup in my right forepaw. I turned it over. "Anything special?"

"You're sitting on your haunches and holding this with your paw!"

I had not noticed. In fact, I was holding the bag open with my two hands and had taken the first item out with my right forepaw. Without even thinking.

"You're amazing."

I blushed again. "Please, let's focus on the content. Here." I placed the brass cup in her hand and reached for the next item. The bag contained a lot of strange things. Quite a few brass tools looked like from an alchemist's laboratory (which they probably were), syringes and some other tools suitable for a dark age torture chamber, along with quills and things whose purpose I could not even guess. 17 tools and their parts now lay neatly in the grass.

The right bag contained colourful thick papers with faded mandalas. Freya almost screamed, and I had to place them very carefully in the far corner of the tent as if they were about to explode. There were also some broken glass tools, not surprising after all the jumping and running. Unfortunately, no mirror, that would have been great. At the bottom was an empty journal.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Maybe the brass had value here, but to me, it looked like utter rubbish. "Yes, I have never owned anything from this bag. Looks like someone wanted to get rid of their rubbish along with me. You can keep it all!"

"No doubt, because these are alchemy and mage tools. And we need a mage to get rid of those runes." She pointed to the papers in the corner. "I wouldn't even dare burn them. I will ask a guard for the clerics. He should be there soon." And she left the tent to just return moments later.

"So the cleric will come soon."

"What about the rest?"

"A few things we could use for healing. And I think most of them are very expensive. Even the glass shards."

She inspected one of the brass cups more closely, scratching at the burnt side with a twig. "Sidhagfagn Kwal Trottaretur," she exclaimed proudly.

She put one hand back on my shoulder and pushed the cup under my nose with her other hand. "Look, a monogram. I'll eat my hat if this isn't Kwal University."

Many of the brass parts had the same monogram, which to me was chicken scratch. Another thing to ask later. "So if this is Kwal University, then I would have been there before I woke up here."

She nodded. "Yes, but why did they wake you there? Something does not make sense. All the centaurs arrived at least a day after their first awakening."

"It would really help if I had been awake."

"Oh no, don't even think about it. The centaurs were blank slates, they barely knew how to talk and walk and which side of a sword to hold. Otherwise, they had the knowledge of a toddler, we even had to teach them how and what to eat. And they don’t have a full soul. They are like cripples compared to you."

I was shocked. "Cripples, isn't that too harsh?"

"I wish it were not. The poor centaurs are just a human torso instead of a horse head. Crudely made, there are even stallions with breasts and mares with male torsos. And badly done, the horse part fights the human part and vice versa. Their nose and mouth are much too small for two lungs, no stamina, everyone in the camp can outrun them. Not enough soul, they constantly needed mana potions or their soul would travel on."

"I think I have two lungs too. When I breathe, both the top and the bottom expand."

"Yes, but you have a much bigger nose, and the lungs seem to work well together, for such a display of vitality and endurance as on the battlefield would be impossible for a centaur. And you have only one heart, which is in your lower body. The centaurs are really like a human glued to a horse, two of everything, working more against each other rather than in synchrony. And their bodies often gave up the internal struggle, or perhaps their souls gave up. So many have already died." She took a deep breath. "That's why your arrival is so strange. If they can create something like you, then why make those poor centaurs? If they can summon a full soul with a full mind, why have only mindless centaurs with broken souls arrived so far?"

"So I'm lucky?"

She smiled, "Absolutely. Someone put a lot of effort into your body to combine the best features of animal and human; unless they found your race on another plane of existence."

"As I told you, I was human. And please never tell anyone, but I also believe that my body is really made up of many animals. I can hear something like their voices and ask for their guidance, like how to walk."

"You are too trusting, Kiara." Freya looked at me thoughtfully. "Sorry, I cannot promise that. But I will tell no one unless I am under oath."

"That's fine with me," I shrugged. "What else is different with centaurs?"

"This conversation, for example. The centaurs were given some pre-installed reflexes for fighting, and they could speak Kwal. This is why I am can mindspeak, lots of training. But they no other skills, no social skills. They were close to machines and had to learn everything else from scratch. And like I said, always sick from the beginning."

"I feel healthy."

"As the quick check in the field had found already. Maybe you can even outlive me."

For the first time, I saw her as a person, not as a healer or translator. She was a young woman, with full, blonde hair. She also had freckles, rather dark ones. There were no wrinkles in her eyes and she could hardly keep still. She must be very young. "How old are you?"

"Almost 10 years."

"A child?" I bit my tongue. Social skills, my ass. "Sorry, I think the years are different here because I was 36."

"That's quite old."

"I thought so. When, er, can women have their first child?"

"About 9 or so. You were not entirely wrong."

That would be about a third longer. "Hmm, then I was at least twice your age. So about 20."

"But you don't look any older than me now."

"Then the animals have made me younger." Then I giggled: I could be a teenager again but with the wisdom of the extra years.

* * *

The cleric soon arrived. He was far from the rounded monk stereotype. He could have been a soldier, broad-shouldered and tall. But the white, thin hair and the smile on his soft face did not belong to a soldier, and of course, he wore no armour but an almost white tunic. The tent was too crowded to bow with the things on the floor and three people inside. So I just nodded my head as a greeting.

Kiara showed him the thing from the saddlebag and the mandala papers she had been so afraid of. Apparently all safe, he simply waved them away. Then he turned to me, smiled and put his hand next to Freya's on my lower back. "Hello, my name is Clavs." His mindspeak was much more, um, quiet and much softer.

"Kiara, sir cleric."

"Clavs will do. I am pleased to meet you. I will just check your soul. It will not hurt, in fact, you should not feel anything. If you want me to stop, please give me a sign."

I nodded. Freya removed her hand.

"I will start now."

At first, I felt nothing. But then the voices came running to me and tried to hug me. I know it sounds strange, voices hugging. But we were all hugging each other. I counted six voices and myself. Then a light shone through his finger, brighter and brighter. I closed my eyes; the voice and I were scared. Although nothing really happened.

"Did you feel uncomfortable? I am sorry."

"All fine." Just now I opened my eyes again.

"I am sorry. But your soul is strange indeed. Not worrisome, but different. The former human part of your soul has died before, there are clear signatures of a stale soul. Quite stale, so about half a year ago, I would say. And you have memories?"

"Yes, I mean, I think so, I died, but it feels like yesterday. Uh, how?"

"Well, it's a mystery to me too. I would say someone very carefully grafted together several souls from animal parts to what you are now. This kind of soul magic is forbidden knowledge lost in time. Thus, I cannot tell you more than what I knew as a cleric. Firstly, the more life experience a soul has, the bigger it gets. That is why human souls are the largest, to hold all that life experience. But your soul is even bigger!"

"Should I be worried?" Well, I was already.

He smiled. "No, and your soul seems to be bleeding the excess mana and is shrinking to a size it finds better suited. Any cleric can tell you that. But there is more. This is forbidden knowledge, I had learned from caring for the centaurs. I can tell you since you are the victim, too. Please never tell anyone else! Not even other healers!"

I gulped and nodded.

He looked at me and continued. "As far as we know, the summoning of a stale soul never results in a full soul. Most centaurs have no more than half a human soul. Even combined with a full horse soul, this is not enough to sustain a human soul. Too small to hold the life of a human. Thus, the centaurs constantly need mana to anchor the souls in their bodies and feed them to keep them big enough. Do you understand?"

I nodded. With about the same level of understanding after reading a popular science book on quantum electrodynamics.

"In your case, the mages have grafted several animal souls to your soul. I would say cat, goat, squirrel; perhaps more. Although the animals contributed smaller souls, they have great vitality and together they were heavy enough to complement your human soul to form a soul large enough to sustain it on its own. Very remarkable, since you arrived without mana. The merging of these souls gave you enough vitality to wake up on your own. And from the quite uniform soul you have, your human soul must have arrived quite some time ago. In the centaurs, the human soul is more like a side lobe of the horse's soul but yours is a perfect sphere, fully healed. You currently have the vitality of more than a full human soul."

"That sounds all like good news?"

"Ah, sorry, yes, great news. You are complete, no need for mana, no soul to recover. There may be some side effects from having too much animal soul. But that has never happened before thus I cannot tell you more."

I decided to come clear since he already mentioned the animals. "I hear voices. They were scared when you probed me. Were these the souls of the animals?"

"That could be. I am really sorry that I cannot give you a better answer. But in the end, souls are resilient. Healthy souls will regenerate as long as the body and mind are willing. In the same way, your excess soul is, um, radiant. I felt it even before I probed you. Soon your soul will be fully settled and you will appear fully human."

"You mean two legs and all that?"

"I must apologise for my poor choice of words. You will have a perfectly normal soul to match your body and no one could tell that you were once dead or part animal. I mean apart from the physical animal part, sorry, I mean you non-human parts."

Obviously, he was very distracted by my anatomy. "Thanks for the nice explanation. What now?"

"Your soul will heal and you can live a long and healthy life, as long as your parts work together. You will have to ask Freya about that. Frankly, I am glad to see a healthy person with a healthy soul after all the deaths today. You are very interesting." He winked at me. "I must admit, the soul mana you are radiating is very refreshing to me after sending so many souls away. I would like to invite you to dine with us."

"Thank you, I will have to ask Freya. And thank you for taking the time to explain this, er, knowledge."

Then he removed his hand and his presence shrank a little.

Freya spoke to him, pointing to the saddlebag. The cleric looked at the bag again, then at the empty notebook, turned a few pages and seemed to read something on the blank page.

They discussed for a while and then the cleric spoke again through his hand on my front flank.

"With this, you are officially cleared. The things from the saddlebag will be sent to Krenburg for further investigation. You can keep the bag. There was never any magic on it. As for you, I will ask the general to let you go so you can recover and heal your soul. And stay in contact with the clergy, just in case."

"Will the general let me go?"

"Yes, I think I can make the case that you are a victim and a case for the clergy. You were obviously not involved in this war. Since you arrived without mana, there can be no hidden magic keys to trigger a rampage. No, you should be fine to go wherever you want." He nodded to me and Freya. "Sorry, this busy day is not over yet. Take care."

"Thank you," I bowed as little as the crowded room allowed, indeed very thankful.

When he left, he also did the complex hand pattern I had seen before.

I was relieved by his revelations. And I was more than happy that I was now officially not a magical time bomb.