Bam trotted through the field of fully grown grain and considered that it was unfair that she wasn’t allowed to eat all of it. It grew so quickly, and nobody would notice if she nibbled on a couple, or several hundred juicy heads. It was truly outrageous, one of life’s great injustices. She walked along the dirt path towards the farmhouse in the distance. There were lots of buildings now, it felt like every day those with the misfortune of possessing thumbs would run around putting more up.
She didn’t understand why they liked the structures so much, wasn’t it more comfortable to sleep under the night sky? Well, most of the humans didn’t have fur, they needed to make their own, or steal it from other animals. Bam didn’t get it, but Lani probably did. Her sister was weird, she slept so frequently because she thought too much, it was bad for one’s health. Well, technically Lani was her daughter, but all the human’s didn’t know that, so they called them sisters. If Bam was being honest, she forgot the true nature of their relationship most of the time anyway, so it didn’t really matter. Hells, she didn’t even remember what the first years of her life were like, not like now, where she could remember not to eat the wheat.
The family that lived in the farmhouse saw her, and waved. She happily chewed in greeting.
Wait.
Whoops.
One of the farmers shouted, and Bam turned and scrambled back down the path, bits of half eaten grain tumbling from her mouth. She fled as quickly as she could manage, only stopping occasionally to sample the goods as she went. Bam reached the end of the fields, and hopped over a small stone wall. She could hear the farmers catching up to her, so she bolted down the road, legs flailing, almost bowling over two women holding baskets, and making a yak pulling a wagon huff in surprise.
Bam skidded to a halt, then backtracked to the shorter of the two humans. She gingerly plucked an apple out of the woman’s basket with her teeth, ducked under a grabbing hand trying to stop her, then skipped away from the scene of the crime, fruity juices squirting out of her mouth. So tasty, everything grown around the big rock with the tree was so delicious. The yak huffed in annoyance as she passed it again, but Bam ignored it, there were more people chasing her, how fun.
She lost her pursuers at the outskirts of what she knew were called ‘outer villages’. Smaller communities that had sprung up around the edges of the big tree’s life giving presence. Then the radius would expand, and more fields could be planted, which in turn meant more groups of wooden boxes. But the outer villages didn’t compare to the town that had sprung up around the two rocks. There were hundreds of buildings, all in different shapes and sizes. The paths had stones mixed into the compact dirt, and what had once been a tiny stream, from the big ice cubes that she wasn’t allowed to go near again, was now a flowing river. There was even a bridge.
It felt like every day more people arrived at Far-Reach, which meant more food, which meant more fun. When newcomers arrived they were always dirty, skinny, and sad. Which of course was stupid, they should have just eaten more, humans always made things more complicated than they needed to be. To prove her own point, Bam stopped for a snack break by nibbling on some tasty grass. Grass grew rapidly, and in great numbers. The council had gone to great efforts to eradicate the weed from around the town, but tiny clusters of the stuff would always spring from somewhere.
When she was done with the grass, Bam noticed a cluster of blue flowers, which tasted okay. Next to them was a log covered in moss, which tasted better, though she could have done without the ants. And besides that was a bench with a bunch of folded shirts. Well, if people were just going to leave this stuff lying around, she would clean up for them. Ignoring the shirtless people swinging around swords, spears and the occasional axe in the nearby training yard, Bam got to work cleaning up society.
“Bam, no!” Came a shout from behind her, and she sheepishly turned to see what was the problem. A large, muscular man who was sweating far too much for it to be healthy, ran towards her, his face red, lightning crackling through his long white hair. He had little horns too, but her’s were bigger, and therefore better-
“Stop. Eating. My. Fucking. Shirt. You. Stupid. Animal!” Olav yelled, wringing her by the neck. “Stop it! This is the third time this week! Why do you do these things?”
Bam, unable to talk, just blinked. Then she blinked away in a flash of light. Olav cursed, yelled for some of the people he had been training with to help, then gave chase. A minute, a small fire, and several nibbled fingers later, Bam was caught. She indignantly tolerated being tied up, hoisted over Olav’s shoulder, then carried up the stairs to the top of the bluff. Then she was hung upside down to a low hanging branch of the domain tree, and left there for the rest of the day.
As night fell, people laughed and celebrated in the town below. Bam could taste the food, and it smelled very tasty indeed. But right next to the big tree with red and gold leaves she didn’t feel overly hungry. Obviously that wouldn’t stop her from eating, nothing could, except for a certain member of her family. And even then only briefly.
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“Bam. Why did you light that house on fire?” Came a telepathic message full of exasperation and weary acceptance. Lani walked into sight, silver light shimmering off her back and down her legs. The tips of her ears sparkled, and Bam knew from experience that the light was quite tasty, though the results of finding that out hadn’t been overly worth it.
“Accident.” She sent back. It wasn’t easy to do so while having most of the blood in one’s body flooding to their head. Lani’s skill could be kind of finicky to connect to as well. Her tongue lulled out, and her eyes sparkled with innocence.
“Bam, that’s the fifth time this month you’ve set that exact house on fire.”
“Accident.”
“Is it because the owners don’t give you food?”
“... Yes. I mean no.”
Lani audibly sighed, a remarkably human expression on a deer. She knelt on the ground nearby and got comfortable. Several other animals all began to wander up onto the bluff, each having their own spot near the domain tree that they slept. There were rabbits, sheep, birds of all colours, badgers, racoons, a handful of snakes, an old bear that nobody had managed to scare off, many, many evolved hogs, several yaks, and much more. Even some guard dogs that had come with the refugees from the south had taken it upon themselves to stick around and keep the peace.
The tree healed them, nourished them, and on more than a few occasions, evolved them. Several of the roosting birds had undergone transformations, and one of the yak’s made the ground quake with every step. The people living in the town below called it a miracle, or good luck, but it wasn’t. All the animals knew, or at least sensed the truth. The one who was connected to the domain tree gave freely and generously, and that was the source of their fortune and safety.
As the night dragged on, Bam found herself drifting off to sleep. Nobody had come to cut her down, and while she could escape with little effort, she would only get in more trouble if she did. So she hung, swung, and snoozed. Eventually she was startled awake by nearby movement, and it took her several seconds to see who was the cause. Lani was awake, standing and looking skywards, southwards. Her ears were twitching, and the ethereal glow around her was brighter than ever.
Bam tried to ask what was the matter, but the telepathic bridge had long been severed, and she had no way of rebuilding it. Instead she hung there in silence, watching Lani watch the night sky.
===
The first hour of flight alone in the world of gold was terrifying. The skill kept rising and dipping at random intervals, and Roy was certain it would fall apart, plummeting him down into the sea below, or dashing him against the rocky cliffs he was soaring over. But after an hour or so had passed, and his tears had dried, Roy found himself watching the world pass by below him.
He saw the distant lights of coastal towns and villages, and larger clusters of light that must have been cities. The clouds parted as he flew north, and the moonlight let him see forests, hills and even several small islands. Leif’s skill carried him north, then west, and Roy found himself trying to remember the initial journey that he and Lucia had taken with their family to reach the imperial capital. He had been very young then, and could barely recall more than small flashes of moments. Still, he tried, watching the world from a vantage he had never experienced before.
So he couldn’t help but notice the fires, and the bands of moving torches that revealed ships all along the coast. He had never seen war, didn’t remember the one that had claimed his homeland, but the sight made him sick. Why did people have to fight, what was the point of attacking cities and towns? Wouldn’t everyone be happier, safer, if they just got along? He opened his mouth to ask Lucia, then closed it when he realised she wasn’t there. He felt cold, vulnerable, he didn’t know what it was like to be without his older sister. For his entire life she had always been there, even when things had gotten really bad, and his sickness had made him too weak to move. Sometimes he would wake up in a dark room alone, but she would always leave a note saying where she had gone off to, and he knew she wouldn’t be far, would always return before long.
But now miles passed every minute, and with every one that ticked by, Lucia grew days, if not weeks away. Roy hugged his knees and tried not to cry, he was a big boy now, he shouldn’t weep, it would feel wrong without his sister’s shoulder anyway. It took him several seconds to notice the massive city below him, easily the biggest he had seen so far. He expected the golden world to carry him by just like all the other’s, but it didn’t, instead he hovered around the settlement, circling it several times.
This let him make out the massive palace, towering walls, and intricate network of wooden docks built into the cliffside. He also saw the war taking place on the streets below. Men and women fought and died, groups leaping between rooftops, and several powerful figures doing battle in the sky. Roy’s breath caught, if one of them attacked Leif’s skill thinking it was caused by one of their enemies he might fall from the sky and plummet to his death in the streets below. Thankfully, before anyone could turn their attention to the steak of golden light circling their city, he was gone, heading north.
Roy could now see that he was following a road, then a path. He soared over a massive river lined with dozens of fortifications and bridges, then he was looking down on villages with no lights twinkling in their windows. Were there no people there? Why? Had something happened?
In the far north, a massive range of mountains loomed out of the darkness, and Roy knew what they were. Lucia had told him stories of the northern ranges, how his father had loved to explore them, hunting monsters and levelling up. He thought for a moment Leif’s skill would carry him all the way back to Pherin, but instead it aimed right for a town full of twinkling lights. He dropped rapidly, the golden world flashing through low cloud coverage. A massive tree with shimmering red and gold leaves took up everything he could see and the ground lurched upwards. Roy screamed and covered his eyes, then with a rush of wind the skill fell apart, and he dropped, falling, he was going to die-
He fell half a metre and promptly landed on something soft and warm, his legs sticking up into the air. He cried out, flailing wildly, but he couldn’t move. But whatever he had landed on certainly could. It was an animal of some kind, large and fluffy. It was going to eat him for sure!
All around him was movement and chaos as hundreds of creatures were abruptly yanked from their sleep. He wasn’t going to die from the fall, he was going to be trampled to death. He covered his eyes with his arm and tucked in his legs as he rolled off the animal and landed in the dirt. For over a minute he remained like that, shivering and terrified. And nothing happened. He wasn’t attacked, eaten or stepped on. In fact, the ruckus from so many animals had already died down. He spread his fingers and risked a look. Two pairs of eyes looked down at him, one curious, sparkling with ethereal silver light. The other was… upside down? And was that a tongue lulling from its mouth?
“Wuh?” He said dumbly.