Cael awoke to the sound of the guitar.

When he turned to see what exactly that was about, he spied Ava in bird form with her chest open.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

‘It’s been bugging me that I was unable to make noises, so I remedied the issue.’ She tilted her head and plucked the first few chords of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’.

“How did you do that?”

‘You thought it was a guitar. That’s the concept I am following. Thin metal cables that are pulled and released by my elemental control.’ She turned to face him and marked the location of the strings in her chest.

“What does Tar think of this?” Cael already had an idea of what the cat thought. He could feel him sulking at the end of the familiar bond.

‘He’s jealous because all he can do is whistle and I can do that too.’

She opened her mouth and whistled to demonstrate her superiority. Next, she outstretched one wing and played the feathers like a xylophone.

“Right.” Cael rubbed his forehead. “What time is it?”

‘Three.’ Tar answered and went back to sulking in his corner.

Cael looked out the window. The sun was brightly shining, so that probably meant three in the afternoon.

“Did I sleep all day?” He sat up and frowned slightly.

‘Not yet,’ Tar answered, ‘But you’re close. Let’s get going before dinner ends.’

Cael was incredibly hungry, so he got up. There was no reason to change clothes because he didn’t have another uniform to change into. He hadn’t really gotten it dirty, but it still didn’t fit his current form.

‘Maybe change back to your changeling form.’ Ava suggested.

‘Does that mean we get to shove him back through the weird soul hole?’ Tar sounded a bit too excited for Cael’s liking.

The changeling thought about it for a moment.

“Mmm… no?” He had an idea of how he was actually meant to use his inherent shape-shifting abilities.

As the mind magic incident had demonstrated, Cael could definitely change without having to enter his soul or even concentrate that hard.

Theoretically, at least. He’d probably have to practice if he wanted to get to the point of changing forms easily.

Until then, he could approach this much like when he’d first entered his soulscape.

Cael lay back on the bed and tried to recall the feeling of changing. At this point, he’d managed to do it twice. Intentional or otherwise.

But what had it been like? Both times, he’d been in a mental state separate from his body. It was hard to remember what he’d felt because he hadn’t actually felt it.

As he tried to recall, Tar sent him a series of sensations. It felt like… an ache all over his body and an intense desire to be different. It felt itchy too, but Cael didn’t think that was the part he was supposed to focus on.

He took a deep breath and visualized what he wanted to be, tracing through the feelings Tar had given him.

A moment later, he felt something drain from his chest, except he knew that wasn’t really what was happening.

He groaned in discomfort as the energy he’d regained through resting was sapped from him to fuel the changes that rolled across his skin. Did the change take stamina?

A growing ache spread through him, starting from his chest and moving across his whole body like a wave.

And it was so much itchier than Tar had let on.

Cael gasped as it covered his throat and let out a ragged breath as it settled like goosebumps over his scalp.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Fuck.” He panted quietly and rubbed at his chest.

Cael called up the System to check his theory.

Stamina: 10/30

Tar used his newfound sound-making abilities to wolf whistle at Cael.

‘You were making such cute sounds.’

“Shut up.” Cael reached out and shoved Tar off the bed.

While the elemental snickered to himself. Cael studied his hands which had returned to his changeling state. White and ball-jointed like the weird puppet creature he was always meant to be.

More importantly, his clothes fit again.

“Score. Now where was the cafeteria?” It was a rhetorical question. He knew where it was. It was literally the last place he had been.

Tar buried himself in Cael’s hair and Ava latched onto his arm in the form of the vambrace. Instantly, his arm was pulled downward by the sudden increase in weight.

“Ow,” Cael complained. “What have you been eating?”

Ava dropped onto the floor. ‘Are you calling me fat?’ she joked.

“Well, I’m not calling you a picky eater.”

She definitely wasn’t the same weight as she had been when she was just a vambrace.

‘What a rude thing to say to a lady.’ Her improvised xylophone chimed disapprovingly. ‘If you truly must know, one of the stair rails is now partly hollow.’

“...Why?”

‘Elementals grow by subsuming ambient mana or matter that corresponds with the element.’ Tar answered ‘It feels like hunger.’

‘Yeah, I got hungry.’

That was not nearly a good enough reason.

Ava latched back onto his arm and left a portion of metal there. It looked and weighed the same as the original piece of armor that had been there before Ava’s creation.

Cael could tell it was no longer a part of her form. Next, she slid into the closet and deposited the majority of her mass in a cube on the floor.

What remained was a thin snake that slithered across the floor and up his leg to burrow into his chest plate.

He hadn't been aware she could do most of that.

The additional weight was negligible and now she would be able to ride around to her heart’s content.

“Hitchhikers.” Cael accused the elementals.

‘Skinwalker.’

‘Bodysnatcher.’

Cael sighed heavily and left his room to go get food.

:(:):(:):(:):

The cafeteria had a lot of people in it, but he’d expected that. Presumably, there should be students from all of the preceding years’ classes.

If anything, he was surprised there weren’t more people present. In total, Cael would estimate there to be only a couple hundred students present. Roughly a third of what he believed to be the full student body.

He followed a student to the start of a short line and hesitated.

It was a buffet, but Cael didn’t know a single dish being served and nothing looked very good.

‘Maybe we could ask for help.’ Tar suggested.

“Uh…” Cael stepped out of the line to observe a little longer.

“You look lost.”

Cael jumped when someone nudged him in the side. He turned around to face a large drake with scales the color of a warm sunset.

“Hello there.” Cael managed after taking a brief moment to calm himself.

“Aren’t you jumpy?” The drake observed, looking down his snout at Cael.

“I didn’t expect anyone to talk to me,” Cael said.

“That’s an interesting thing to say considering you came to this crowded social space on your own.” The drake crossed his arms, but Cael didn’t sense any derision in his voice. As far as the changeling could tell, he really did just seem to be curious.

“Just because a person is in a crowded place, doesn’t mean that someone will talk to them. Besides, there’s some kind of universal stigma against changelings.” Cael pointed out.

“True enough.” The drake shrugged, eyes glittering in interest. “Anyway, what has got you looking so unsure of yourself?”

“Ah. Right.” Cael turned to look back at the long buffet table. “I don’t know what is edible.”

The drake wrinkled his nose. Cael didn’t know what that meant, so he soldiered on.

“I’m not from around here, so I don’t recognize any of these dishes…”

The drake tilted his head. Curious, but restraining himself from asking the question he obviously wanted to.

“You’re a fae changeling, right?”

“Uh…” Cael trailed off. He was pretty sure that was what Balbanda had called him. “Yes?”

“You don’t sound very sure.” The drake noted. Cael could practically see the questions piling up behind his eyes.

“No. I’m sure.” The fae changeling asserted.

The drake blinked at him.

“Well, in that case, you should be able to eat anything served on a yellow, green, or blue tray. Red trays might make you sick, orange probably won’t taste good, and everything else is some mix thereof. Mmm, purple might kill you.”

“Oh. Well, thank you.” Cael wasn’t sure what else he could offer him besides his gratitude. “Would you want to eat with me?”

“That would be nice.” The drake grinned, “But my friend lost a fight pretty badly and I can’t trust him not to get himself hurt if I leave him alone for too long. I just came to get food for us to eat back at the dorm.” ‘His friend sounds a lot like you.’

Cael resisted the urge to say something to the cat and end up looking like a crazy person.

“Alright. Well, I hope your friend recovers quickly.”

The drake wiggled his heavily laden tray in goodbye and left.

Cael turned and moved to the back of the line and reconsidered the offered food.

Ugh.

Just because he knew what was technically edible, didn’t mean it looked any more appetizing.