19 Flee To Your Happy Place, Then Find It

There was an issue that needed to be solved before I could nap or nip or what-have-you. The entire campsite was essentially enemy territory at the moment, and even with the bloody swathes I had cut through the landscapes hadn’t done much to reduce their numbers. More starbanes were popping into existence all the time, and so ambushes were consistent. I couldn’t reasonably knock myself out for an extended period of time without doing something about that first.

“The first option is back down in the cave,” Authority posed as I failed to hold back another yawn.

I was already shaking my head before she was finished speaking or I was done with that yawn. “Air’s bad. Arachno webbing.” My chest actually still had a green magical circle sustained around it, and I was leaving it up because every so often I’d step on another patch of arachno webbing and set the local area alight with poisonous fire. The income from taking down miasma beacons was more than enough to offset its cost for now.

“That’s a shame. The rock in there melted when it was made. No lowly starbane that I’m aware of could burrow in there, apart from foundation serpents of course. They’d have to come through the front like you did.”

“The threebies?” I asked.

“Threebies?” Authority repeated. “Oh, you mean the Big Bad Beavers. But saying Big Bad Beavers is so much fun!”

I shook my head again. “‘S stupid. They’re moles.” In both shape and function, too. But that was too many words for me to articulate right then.

“Agree to disagree then. But no, they wouldn’t be able to burrow through.”

I swayed as I waited for her next suggestion.

“The courtyard,” the blue fairy said definitively. “There’s a novice level grimoire called the Bunker Bible, only forty three mana. It’s what I used to sculpt the concrete there, and you having it will let me- uh, Authority- grant you access to the mana left in the stockpile there.”

“Okay,” I said, accepting that easily. “Do you want to come with us?”

“It…” My offer caught the fairy off guard, and she took a moment to think. “While I would greatly appreciate that, there are perhaps too many starbanes out and about now. I’d need to cling close for anything like safety, and your armour would damage me.”

“Okay,” I said, accepting that. “You can hide under my cape. I’ll still have protection on my arms and legs.” So saying, I made an X with my arms and dispelled the chestpiece of my friendly racing armour. “There’s a seam to hold on to, I think? One of you was doing that before…” I trailed off uncertainly. “But you do have sticky hands? Just hold the cape.”

“That isn’t necessary,” Authority tried to tell me. “If something gets a lucky shot…”

“I’ll regenerate,” I cut her off, then cut off another yawn. “Besides, you’ll need to give me permission for the stuff.”

“I can do that from here if you get the grimoire.”

“Alrighty. Rascal, Bunker Bible. Authority,” I said, turning and gesturing at my back with my thumb. “Get on. Li’l Big Princess,” I pointed forwards and waited until I felt something rustle on my back. Then I pointed again. “Go fast!”

I waited a moment, then staggered forward into a run. My movement spell probably made it look more graceful than it actually was. It certainly made me cover the distance faster.

[If you are travelling to the aforementioned courtyard, we recommend rotating yourself 130 degrees to the left,] Rascal beamed into my head. It had been providing directions for a while, and I turned without sassing it like I had the first dozen times.

The route was actually familiar. I recognised the divots in the earth where my first hopscotch mines had exploded, and even pointed it out to the fairy on my back. “Look, that’s where I took down a Strider with that Hopscotch spell,” I said, pointing even though Authority wouldn’t see it. They were easily identifiable by the lack of bark and leaves that normally covered the forest floor. And the pit. Mostly that. “Wonder where the striders went.”

It was a detail that had been bothering me more and more as the night wore on. I could leave a clearing literally covered in corpses, but when I cut back through that area they would unfailingly be gone. The number clearly didn’t matter, and I was still unsure on how much time it took for the vanishing to happen.

“Has your rascal not told you?” Authority asked, but it was hard to hear because of where she was talking from. There were hitches in her speech with my every footstep, even though I purposefully wasn’t rushing.

“My what?”

“You called him Rascal,” Authority clarified.

“Oh,” I said, dodging around a tree and taking the time to use Anklebiter on a few smaller starbanes that had begun following us. “No,” I continued when I was finished.

[We saw no reason to distract you with a problem you could not solve,] Rascal told me.

“Says there was no reason to tangent,” I elaborated, paraphrasing rather poorly.

“I see,” Authority said, and spent some time humming. She spoke up again after I landed from Jumping over the lamper infested river. “Essentially, the Enemy are recycling the biomass. More powerful girls would destroy the bodies of the starbanes they killed, but you should save the mana.”

“‘Kay,” I acquiesced. I had figured the reason was something along those lines anyway.

“It takes time for that stuff to get recycled as well,” she continued. “Days, going by what my own familiar said. A corpse left behind isn’t going to translate into another hookblow trying to eviscerate you. At least not tonight.”

“Makes sense,” I responded. It was about then I left the trees proper, and was greeted by the sight of a mostly deserted camping complex. Or the small amount that was lit up. There were two striders that I could see, and all the corpses were gone again.

“I’ll stop distracting you,” Authority said quietly. It timed well with the hum of me channelling Anklebiter, which would have drowned her out anyway.

There was a close call with a third strider surprising me by approaching from behind, but I made it through untouched and came to a stop at a nostalgic spot. It was the table where I’d left that message for Alison, and where I’d cast False Self. Diane had also-

I was trying not to think about Diane.

To distract myself, I went around and added three charged choker crystals to the surrounding courtyard. That done, I sat at the nostalgic spot and unshelved my personal grimoire. I glanced at my mana levels while I was at it.

B: 0/171

U: 2743

3s

Seeing the timer count down to 2s, I closed my eyes and let the mana pulse wash through me. It was oddly cleansing, but had become easy to miss amidst the action, though when I did notice a pulse I tended to feel like I coordinated better in the immediate aftermath. How a freeing feeling made me clap and push a little better wasn’t something I had wrapped my head around, but I still hadn’t completed the stupid arbitrary task so it wasn’t actually all that effective.

“Donna?” I opened my real eyes to see the little simulacrum that life detection had already shown me hovering just in front of me. “Just a little longer, then you’ll have a full night’s rest in minutes.”

“Mm,” I nodded, suddenly aware of how tired I was again. The number in the bottom of my vision changed, and I glanced again to see the numbers 13/180 representing my bound mana. “Rascal, what was the new colour?”

[A lightly shaded purple,] it responded immediately. [We were worried you were incapable of finding a positive colour after the last two shades of mana you acquired.]

The colours it was talking about were both yellows, and much darker than the gold that decorated my outfit. I was sensing a stigma regarding dark shades, but like with many things, this wasn’t the time to ask after it. As for the seven mana missing from my recent pulse of twenty, that had been taken by upkeep. I dismissed my Friendly Racing Armour without doing the proper procedure because I was just that tired and finally got around to opening my book.

“Which one’s the Bunker Bible?” I asked, frowning at the many tabs I had accrued.

[We have not yet scribed that grimoire for you,] Rascal informed me, prompting me to give it a blank look as it lounged on the table, finally obeying gravity for once. [Assure us this is a decision you want to pursue, and we will provide.]

“I thought I did that.”

[You’ve said many things in your presently delirious state. Our favourite is your lamentation at the lack of an apprentice level tomb. Given the potential stored in all grimoires available to you, a moment of clarity will be required.]

I rubbed my eyes. Then I did it again when that didn’t push back the tiredness. I should have stayed standing.

“Is everything alright?” Authority asked.

I gave her a short nod, then told my Familiar, “I’m going to make a bunker, and I’m going to make it here. Without that grimoire I’ll just be sleeping out in the open. Or in the gymnasium, and that would just be weird.”

“The door also doesn’t open without a Knock being cast on it first,” the little fairy felt fit to add.

It shouldn’t have felt that good for my social awkwardness to have a legitimate reason supporting it, but it somehow did. Unfortunately what I heard next cut straight through that feeling

[Please inform the dwindling construct of mana that we are aware, and that such a weakness can and will be exploited by starbane forms with similar abilities,] Rascal told me, not sounding scornful at all until I paid attention to the words. [As for your reasoning, it is sufficient. Know that the majority of spells contained within the Bunker Bible will be less efficient than spells from the Grumskn Grimoire of Dumb Intelligent Hands because of your specific mana affinities.] The book finished its floating light show as it finished delivering that warning.

I found myself staring at Rascal. “Have you… seriously not been talking to Authority?” I asked with disbelief.

Its tail flicked, and it would’ve looked dismissive if the thing ever sat still. [We have not sent that, or any, simulacrum any words in our history.]

“This whole time?” I demanded. “I thought you two were supposed to be working together to help me through this!”

There was an almost awkward pause before the fairy in question fluttered up and in front of me, blocking my line of sight with Rascal. “Familiars don’t talk to others unless you tell them to,” she told me with a hushed tone. “And then they get belligerent if it's another magical girl. I know it was probably very rude to me just now, but that’s fine. Just focus on the spells. You’ll need Access Stockpile to start.”

I wasn’t ready to let that point lie, and felt strongly enough about it that my need for sleep had gone to the background. Unfortunately, sense prevailed, and I grumpily opened my book to look for the spell. The tab was simple compared to the others, but also stood out at the same time.

This one showed a squat trapezium shaped bunker coming out of an open book like it was a pop-up book drawn there. Only it was literally popping up. Because magic. I only remembered I could do the auto-searching thing after flipping to the spell in question because I was lost in lamenting the loss of novelty about the magic tabs.

Oh. I was supposed to be angry. Exhaustion hadn’t been pushed back as far as I had hoped, it seemed.

Reinforcing that was how the glowing text describing how to use the spell blurred together until I squinted my eyes. It took a minute, as in an entire full minute where proximity alarm pinged off of a sixball getting in range of a choker crystal, but I got the jist of the spell.

“Are you going to be doing anything special?” I asked Authority as I turned to face away from the table I was sitting at.

“Not me. The one outside,” the little fairy explained. “She’ll be reassured to know you’re still kicking. And that I’m still helping.” She bobbed up and down as she tittered. “Maybe I’ll get a nice reward for it.”

I blankly wondered how I would reward a magical construct of myself that I was going to merge with anyway for longer than I should have.

“Donna! The spell!”

“Right.” I shook myself. “Where’s the stockpile?” The spell was another one which was very much what was written on the tin. It let me access a stockpile of mana, but without knowing where it might be, it didn’t really do anything.

“It’s under the concrete. You can cast it anywhere within the boundary of the lounge.”

“Okay. Access Stockpile.” With my casting of the spell, a light blue magic circle spun into existence. Not in front of my outstretched hand like I’d come to expect, but around the entire courtyard that this place called a lounge. It stayed there, parts of it phasing through the ground where that was higher, rotating slowly.

“Now the real Authority just has to get over the relief of finding out that you’re alive,” the little fairy beside me said. “I bet she’s gushing to the Screaming Siren about how happy she is. Probably jumping around to get all the energy out. Might be flying a bit. And now she’ll remember that you pinged her for access to the mana.”

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

At that, the spinning circle reversed direction, and shrunk to a smaller size. Since it was elevated below the level of the ground where my feet were resting, that meant it went out of sight.

“And there you go! Siren probably had to remind her that she needs to ping the okay. She can be an airhead, the other me.”

“Huh,” I responded intelligently.

[We can illustrate an interpretation of the new resource available to you,] Rascal told me.

“Yeah, do it.”

A new line of text added itself to the bottom of my mana values, this time yellow gold in colour. I was too tired to give it much thought beyond noticing it.

B: 13/180

U: 2743

503s

Stockpiled Mana: 1004

[The mana here has been allowed to decay for some time, and sustains relatively expensive effects,] Rascal explained. [While it is used for multiple purposes, you will only be able to enjoy this mana while casting spells from the Bunker Bible.] I found myself glancing back at it and its twitchy tail, and caught the little thing turning its nose up at something. [It would still be wiser to practise defensive spells from the Grumskn Grimoire of Dumb Intelligent Hands.]

“I’m just making walls,” I told it.

[There are two hands that can fulfil the same task,] it responded, almost sounding snobby about it.

“Okay,” I said, then turned back to Authority. “Sorry about that. What next?”

“Um… Grow Wall, I think. There’s a cheaper spell to sort of melt and reshape the concrete, but that would interfere with the magistuff I put under there. Then you’ll want to reinforce the walls before putting the roof on.”

I cut off yet another yawn and pulled myself upright. “Okay. Grow Wall.”

It turned out that making a defensive bunker was a task that I really shouldn’t have put off for as long as I did. To start with, Grow Wall didn’t have as intuitive control as the spells I was used to. A clear idea of the length, height, and material used needed to be kept in mind before I even cast the spell, or it would grow uneven and fall over or crumble. And in the event of a failed wall, I had to get it out of the way before casting the spell again, or it would go wrong in even more dramatic ways.

There was a spell called Banish Embarrassment that helped. I tried to enjoy it, and it was empowering to point at a pile of something between wood and stone and have it disappear, but each casting cost me nearly one hundred mana. I couldn’t afford to waste it, and I eventually erected a perfectly circular concrete wall at Authority’s suggestion. For the material I had the most success copying the concrete I was standing on.

“Circles are easy-ish,” was her reasoning. And it worked out so I didn’t ask about the “ish” part of things.

Next came strengthening, which was preceded by a lecture about the better ways to strengthen things. I’ll be honest and say it all just went right through me, but I do remember running a hand the whole way around the wall and saying “Rebar Reinforcement” over and over.

“Now a door!”

I wasn’t happy about taking a part of the wall down after all that, but it made sense. “Double Doorway” was the spell I used there, again from the Bunker Bible. I cast it in the direction of the gymnasium, in case I had to run that way.

There was a spell I was going to use to make a door, but it fled my tongue when I saw a familiar face standing between me and the drifting shut gymnasium doors.

“Diane, no,” I said before she could get a word in edgewise. “It’s far too dangerous out here.”

To illustrate my point, a chiming sound had me snap my head to the left where a coldlight seeker was trying its best against a choker crystal. It was the latest in a steady trickle of starbanes coming to try and end me, and it wouldn’t be the last. I could tell because there was a hookblow behind it that started screaming bloody murder right then, only to freeze when the choker crystal moved on from its first target.

I was going to need a collaboration crystal here too, wasn’t I? My unbound mana was already down to twenty five hundred. Most of the stockpile went to failed walls, and I didn’t even have a roof on my bunker.

But Diane. She didn’t respond until the gymnasium doors clicked shut, and that felt like a purposeful decision.

“Oh no, the door closed.” Her tone was a perfect deadpan. “Now I'm stuck out here again.” She spread her arms in a wide shrug. “However will I defend us? Oh, and hello again.” Diane waved at me.

“That's…” I couldn't dredge up an immediate response. “You're being irresponsible.”

“I'm being irresponsible?” she asked, arching one of her perfect eyebrows. “In that case, pot,” Diane pointed at me, then tapped her breast with her other hand, “meet kettle.”

It took me longer than it should have to comprehend what she just said. I looked at the door behind her, contemplating casting Knock again and bodily throwing her back inside. But at the same time, she had just come through that door when Authority and Rascal had just been arguing over how it couldn’t simply be opened.

That was wish shenanigans. It had to be.

A harsh rubbing of my eyes brought my thoughts back on track. I needed to make a decision, to accept this or try to push her back to safety. She had the wish protecting her, but… “That,” I gestured, swiping with one hand, “is wrong, but whatever. Diane, what more do you want from me?”

The question took her off guard. “Excuse me?”

That swiping hand found itself being dragged down my face. “I’ve saved your life. I wished to make it better. I could’ve used that wish to just break the dome. You were safe in there.” I pointed past her at the gymnasium. “But now you’re not, so what more do you want?”

“I- Do you know how worried I’ve been?” Diane demanded, putting on more volume than I was used to hearing from her. “Nobody else up there knows it’s you. Some think, but nobody knows, and I had to lie down beside someone that I knew wasn’t really you while you were out here running about! Our group mates were taking bets on whether you were going to survive or not! They asked me what your magic was like so they could figure out more accurate odds!”

I waited. That couldn’t be it.

Diane took a breath, then straightened up in a way that pushed her noticeable chest out. “I don’t… I do want some things from you-”

“And what are they?” I demanded, taking a step forward and almost overbalancing. Still tired, I couldn't forget that.

“Time, conversation, some attention!” she rattled off, raising her arms in surrender. “My gun back, and some trust.”

“Every single one of those things is a very tall order right now,” I shot back.

“Is it so hard to believe that I might want to be friendly with you!?”

“Friendship isn’t free!”

“Girls! Girls!” Authority cut in, inserting herself between the two of us. “Donna, this is a safe place for Diane as well. That’s what this project is for, remember?” Before I could respond, the little blue one swung around towards Diane. “Your friend is extremely tired right now. Don’t push things.” Then she came back to me. “It would be good to have someone able bodied around while you’re out as well, in case you need to wake up early. It’s not something I can do like this. Not from Napnip.”

I glared at the fairy, too vexed for words. Well thought out and logical arguments weren’t what I wanted right now. The thing I wanted the most was actually a roof on my bunker, and to not have to deal with this.

“Now you two should hug!” Authority declared, fluttering off to the side. “Morale has been very low recently.”

“You, hush,” I told the simulacrum. Then, to Diane, “You’re going to be-” My burgeoning lecture was interrupted when I was surprised by a hug. It took me so off guard that I spent seconds trying to find where Diane had gone before I felt the heat of her body hugging mine. Most of the tension on my body drained away, not because it was relaxing, but because I could tell I wasn’t getting out of this.

“Why?” I asked after several seconds, still refusing to hug back.

“You don’t know it yet, but I’m repaying a favour,” Diane said, something like satisfaction purring in her voice.

I made a sound to urge her on.

“Your own simulacrum moraled me as soon as the doors closed,” she elaborated.

That made me sigh. “I don’t know why it would do that.”

“She,” Diane corrected me firmly. “She is another you, and she made me feel better when you didn’t.”

“Lies,” I said, closing my eyes and letting my head rest on her shoulder. “I healed so many of your stab wounds.”

“What was that?”

I turned my head so I wouldn’t be speaking into the shoulder of the vest I lent Diane. “I said I healed you. Does anaesthetic count for nothing?”

“Donna?”

This was actually relaxing.

Someone started shaking me as soon as I registered that.

“Donna!”

“Wha-” My eyes shot open and I tore myself away from whatever was holding me. “Frie- Anklebiter!” With a purple death laser in hand, I aimed it towards the nearest body shaped thing I could see and almost squeezed before I recognised it as Diane. We hadn’t moved, and were still in the roofless bunker. Oddly, I was on my knees, which was why I had aborted summoning my armour. When did that happen?

“Donna, it’s fine,” Diane told me gently, pulling my attention to her. “You fell asleep.”

A hollow laugh escaped me as I turned the magic handle to dismiss my active spell. “I… How long?”

“Only a minute! Enough for me to explain the situation,” Authority explained from above.

“May I have the gun back now?” Diane asked. “I’ll stay quiet until you cast that napping spell. Promise.”

I nodded with uncertainty as I got to my feet, but still hesitated in giving the gun back. Rascal had stored it away in the storage dimension all that time ago, but thankfully it came when I reached for it like my personal grimoire did. Admittedly, it didn’t work until I tried pulling it out from under my opposite arm, which I vaguely remembered was where I put it away.

“Thank you,” Diane told me with an odd smile when the purple BB gun was back in her hands.

“Don’t…” I trailed off, unsure what I wanted to say. Her image looked more complete with the gun in her hands. “Uh, it was… Rifling Acceleration?” I learned that spells could be phrased as questions and still be cast. The enchantment got topped off, then I turned to my Familiar. “Rascal, you have permission to take my mana to transmute Diane more ammo as she needs it.”

The glowing white and purple creature thing in question had decided once again that gravity was better when sideways, and was sitting on the wall at 8 o’clock if the doorway I made was 12. It’s tail flicked, because of course it did. [This new permission has been logged.]

“Oh! You named him Rascal,” Diane said from behind me. “It fits.”

I turned back and gave her a look.

“Sorry, I meant from now.” She mimed zipping her lips shut, turned what I assumed was a key, and threw it away.

I mimed catching the ‘key’ on impulse, and only because she tossed it somewhat in my direction. Diane gave me an oddly smug look as I awkwardly glanced between her and the invisible thing in my hands. Eventually I just put it in an invisible pocket that wasn’t there, then turned back to Authority and asked what the next step in bunker building was. I couldn’t tell if the minute long nap had been good for me or not, since my mind seemed sharper, but my body was complaining in ways it hadn’t been before.

In any case, things seemed to go faster. I was able to cast the “Grow Shelter Roof” spell correctly on the first try, and added six pillars that Authority insisted were necessary. The door spell that I had been intending to cast was set aside because of the drama. I looked at the gap several times, but didn’t end up coming back to it. All of that was done under Authority’s direction, since I was still genuinely exhausted.

“All that’s left to make this a real fortress are some murderholes, but that’s enough for now,” Authority eventually said, and I was so out of it that I didn’t chuckle at murderholes for several seconds. “Only Napnip left to cast now. And Insta-Camp if you want to sleep on something soft.”

That did appeal to me. My personal grimoire was already out so I tossed it up to let it do its searching thing. Curiously, it flipped out of the Bunker Bible section and went to the Book of Human Tricks. I read the instructions, and was relieved to find it was a point and cast sort of spell, so I did exactly that.

“Insta-Camp,” I cast, pointing towards the centre of the bunker I had just built. Several yellow magic circles formed in front of my pointer finger, but nothing else happened. After a few moments spent waiting, I referred to my book again.

The solution jumped out at me, and I quickly pointed at part of the floor by the new wall. “Bed.”

Of the four magic circles following my pointer finger, the third farthest from me spun and glowed as the magic flowed through it. No magic circle formed where I was pointing, but a simple mattress made of glowing yellow stuff started to form, growing out of yellow dust that apparated out of the air. The process was magical, but the result was a simple mattress with a single pillow and a thin sheet sized for a single person. I felt like I would have preferred it to be a dull green in colour, like I saw in army movies, but it was a deep royal purple with golden yellow edges. Because of course it was.

All the same, seeing that bed was like crossing a point of no return. I staggered towards it and fell to my knees on the thin and low mattress. My hand shook to dismiss the last spell, and I searched my mind for that other spell I was supposed to cast. “Napnip,” I finally remembered, and saw confirmation that the spell was going when dark green light started to glow all around me.

Then I was finally done. I let myself gracelessly fall the rest of the way to the bed, not even caring that I was lying face down on top of the sheet with my head barely on the pillow. There was an awkward moment where I didn’t drift off like I had when Diane was hugging me, and my head just so happened to turn in a way that I made eye contact with her right then. Our moment came to a swift end as an odd sensation buzzed inside my brain and my eyes rolled up into my head.

B: 0/180

U: 712

173s

Stockpiled Mana: 0

_____

I came to in a familiar place, but in an unfamiliar way.

My room had a fair amount of floorspace, and the door leading out was tucked away in a corner with a little extra walkway that made it difficult for someone to glance in and see everything from the hallway, but mostly it was a square. I had a bed and desk making an L shape on one side, and a bookcase filled with old schoolbooks sat beside my wardrobe on the other. There was a wide window that gave a nice view as well, only it looked uphill and my room being on the second floor wasn’t enough to peer over the neighbour’s two story house. For the moment, the curtains were drawn.

It was clean, I found as I sat up and got my bearings. No posters were on the walls, they were purple like they were supposed to be. Ever since moving to this place after the whole kidnapping thing with my mom, I hadn’t bothered unpacking the ones I had plastered about at the old place. My dad was also particular about putting dirty clothes in the hamper, although he wasn’t checking on mine nearly as much as he used to these days. He managed to give me the habit though, nothing was dirtying the floor.

Except me, since I woke up face down on the carpet. My hand came up to adjust my nose as I went to my desk in an attempt to place what day it was.

I came to a stop with a hand on my chair, ready to pull it out, but hesitating. Nothing was on my desk, which was strange, because I distinctly remembered arranging a study plan for when I got back from camp and leaving it right there.

Dad knew about it. He was the one who made me do it. He wouldn’t have moved it, so what gave?

A quick series of four light taps on my window drew my attention that way. I pushed the chair fully in as I stepped over and gripped the drawn curtains. Something made me hesitate and take a breath. I couldn’t place a finger on what exactly, and that troubled me.

But I still threw the curtains apart, expecting to see a bird or something tapping on the glass, or knocked out on the ground far below. Strangely, it wouldn’t have been the first time. I was expected to see the familiar sight of a fence with the neighbour's house peeking over the top, but I saw a massive empty space instead, with a white sky above forming a gradient with a black abyss below, and shades of purple and yellow between them.

As for what made the noise, I quickly noticed the Saint Bernard sized creature emulating Rascal’s complete disdain for gravity that went down in how it stood sideways on the glass of my window and stared at me with perfectly black eyes. It had four legs, but that was where the similarities to Rascal ended.

My Familiar was mostly white, with purple and gold bands on each of its legs. This thing reminded me of a tiger with how it was coloured, with orange stripes covering its entire body, intersected with a myriad of variously coloured stripes. I did notice that most of those other stripes were black, or not quite black. I was reminded of shades of blue that were so dark that they were easily mistaken, and the glowing nature of what I saw made it come off as quite intimidating.

There was no tail that twitched with an inexorable need to fidget, and no ears decorated this thing’s head. It didn’t have the rippling muscle of a tiger like its colouring made me imagine, but it still had an air of power just waiting to be released about it. Helping it with that was how its position meant it needed to look down at me through the window, even though I technically had to angle my eyes down as well.

The thing that unsettled me the most, however, was the slant of its pitch black eyes. Rascal’s eyes made it look concerned. This thing’s eyes slanted in the opposite way, and actually cut the circle into a near perfect semicircle. Anger was the emotion I associated with that type of slant.

No. Not anger. This thing seemed absolutely furious.

[Donna Vitale,] it ‘spoke’ while I was still getting over my surprise. The tone it used lent credence to my impression of its anger. [We were concerned you would perish before we found an opportunity to speak.]

“Oh,” I said, my voice coming out higher than I intended. “What about?”