After experimenting for a while I made a couple more interesting discoveries.

The first was that my soul-cord wasn't really a cord at all, but it was definitely a tether - meaning that I didn't have to stay in the original shape I had taken, but I did have to maintain the connection with my body. Not that I had much of a choice, since the anchor end of the soul-rope seemed indelibly attached to my corporeal form, regardless of what I did. Being an otherwise shapeless cloud, however, I was able to crudely manipulate my figure without any real restrictions except that my shape had to be continuous (no breaks at all), couldn't be thinner than the width of my thumb (roughly), and had to maintain the aforementioned attachment my physical body at one end.

The second was that I could move my perceptions to any point along the cloud instantly, even back to the anchor inside my body, although each jump was accompanied by a brief spell of mild disorientation, and the passing dizziness increased in severity depending on how dramatically my perspective changed between hops.

By moving my perspective back and forth I was able to stretch out quite far from my body, but it was difficult constructing, modifying, and then maintaining a detailed mental image of my soul-cloud-rope as it morphed into a long, thin line.

I kept a close watch on my mother and the other people in our safe room as I worked, watching for signs that anyone had noticed me. Not that I considered such a thing actually possible; I was just exercising due diligence on the off chance I was wrong.

I felt pretty certain that 'soul-stuff' was perfectly invisible to anyone who wasn't also a disembodied spirit, and I had never come across credible evidence of ghost sightings back on Earth (assuming that a 'ghost' and a 'soul' would even be made of the same stuff). On top of that, I was only able to even attempt astral projection due to a combination of the Celestial's book and having accidentally retained the memory of my recent reincarnation. Not possessing the firsthand experience of being a soul-cloud would have made this whole exercise a non-starter.

The intense focus required caused a gradually mounting mental strain that drew away more and more of my concentration as the minutes passed by, eventually leading me to acknowledge that a short break would be wise - and I also wanted to practice returning to my body. I began roughly moving my elongated soul-cloud-rope back towards the section of the room where Mom sat next to my sleeping form, but I soon discovered that the process was no easier than my initial stretch-out had been... meaning it would take quite a while for me to complete the exercise, and I didn't feel at all comfortable with the thought of being stuck outside my own body...

I needed to find a better way.

A flicker of concentration sent my focus back into my body, and I tried to carefully will my consciousness to awaken within the nearly motionless form of my body (which looked to be in a deep sleep).

There was a sense of something pushing back... not exactly preventing me from waking up, but more like an innate warning that let me know I would hurt myself if I pushed things. As if I was straining the astral equivalent of a tendon or a joint, and that overextended it could injure me on something deeper than a physical level if I was careless.

I expanded my senses back outside my body to check what was going on, I felt mild surprise to see that the majority of my soul-cloud-rope had already returned to my body in just a few moments, like an automatic reflex - or maybe an elastic band resuming its natural shape once external force was removed.

Returning to my body happened so easily that I hardly even noticed at first. As the 'astral-tendon' had relaxed, and I felt my mental image fade, my seat of consciousness had smoothly returned to the blessedly relaxing darkness beneath a pair of closed eyes.

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The mental strain that had steadily built up during my brief out-of-body experience simultaneously transformed, settling over me like a thick freshly laundered blanket, still wet from the wash, weighing down on my mind. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but it did make me want to keep my eyes closed for a while longer. I was tired, yet filled with a vaguely pleasant 'I-just-finished-exercising' sensation.

I was caught off guard, and only realized I had fallen asleep when I woke up to Mom feeding me.

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Floating through walls turned out to be easier than I expected. My perception moved through solid stone as I focused, visualizing my soul-rope traveling further and further away from my point of origin. I was also able to 'see' the stone itself, from the inside, but only those portions my soul-cloud was actually in contact with. It didn't strike me as a very useful ability... unless I wanted to inspect the stone for micro-fissures and imperfections.

I had found five more safe rooms in my explorations, but they were so similar - from the shelving, to the bathroom, and even the number of people they each contained - that I might have gotten turned around if I didn’t have the soul-rope always pointing right back to my body. I had also explored the columned courtyard outside our room, which contained dozens of combat-ready villagers resting in small groups, their weapons close at hand.

I was reaching the limit of how far I could stretch myself, and the mental fatigue was gradually accumulating again, but I had not found my father yet... There was a distinct possibility that he was located outside my range (the fortress was huge), but I had no intention of giving up.

I had already searched outwards, which left either upwards or downwards. I resolved to try upwards first, since I had more than enough range to reach the roof, and searching an open area would be far easier.

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I started to panic, and my mind went blank because I was on fire!

A warning sensation of discomfort bordering on pain shot through me, coming from my 'astral-tendon', and my thoughts settled instinctively back into the steady meditation required to maintain the soul-rope outside of my body. As the pain diminished, I began to furiously concentrate on moving out of the fire when it struck me that... it didn't feel like anything was wrong (aside from the unpleasant, yet helpful, astral-warning-pain when I started losing focus). I wasn't 'on' fire... I was 'in' fire.

There was no sensation of heat, and of course no sensation of cold - the fire actually felt exactly like the stone had, except that it was moving around a lot more.

I centered myself, recovered my composure, then moved up through the fire until I hit open air. My soul-rope was extending through the thick stone of the roof and poking out of a huge bonfire. There were three more bonfires visible in the distance, one for each side of the wide stonework fortress, and a thick steel contraption in the center that appeared to be a series of complicated interlocking gates, portcullises, and metal bars.

Leaving the bonfire behind (and not bothering to waste the time and effort to shift my soul-rope, since it would require painstaking readjustments cascading all the way back to my body down below) I moved as close to the edge of the building as my range allowed. I was about the width of two normal-sized houses back from the drop to the courtyard below, so I was unable to tell what the area around the exterior gateway of the fortress looked like, or if there were any defenders still lingering outside protecting the tunnel.

But it didn't seem likely... because what I could see was enough to shake my composure, and I nearly discovered what the consequences of snapping back into my body would be.

It was a gristly and disturbing scene... There were dead villagers by the score down in the large square courtyard, dimly illuminated by the bonfire and the faint light of the coming dawn. Dozens of shadow wolves were feasting on the dead, or busy dragging them further away, and there was movement all throughout the village...

... but none of it was caused by people, because none were left alive save those who had made it into the fortress.

There were thousands upon thousands of monsters down in the village, judging from the small section in front of me, and I saw them move in packs, prowling in and out of people's houses as though searching for something. Most of the doors were wedged, blocked, or tied open (like ours had been), but here and there I saw buildings where doors, windows, and even walls had been smashed in. I wondered if some people had tried to hide...

There was no way for us to recover from this. It would take hundreds, perhaps thousands of villagers as strong as Jaws to win this fight.

The village was lost, and we were all trapped inside it.