The warmth of summer day carried uncharacteristically into the normally cold night when the eleven made their final camp of the trek. Daniel didn’t care that the remnants of the sun shone only on him.

No forest shielded the twin campfires, whose wood was collected more laboriously from lone trees. The waist-high grass was long gone and gravel broke through in spots of gray. The fires were set on the open ground off the side of the road. More care would have been taken if the eleven hadn’t grown to trust Daniel’s scouting power. Its range had suffered as they transitioned into rocky terrain and Ringcat’s senses were less tuned to the new environment, but still gave enough warning for people to sleep.

Evalyn made him wait an hour until she stood up, looked at him, and walked away from the camp. The thought that the guy had done that the last time occurred to him, but he didn’t care. You feel like hunting, Ringcat?

Yes. Ringcat sniffed at him. Anxious?

Just go nuts and meet me back here in an hour. No, two. Wait. He couldn’t make up his mind. I know we haven’t figured out the range of this telepathy yet, but wait two hours and I’ll tell you if I need more time. Don’t identify me or Evalyn in the meantime. He hastily stood up and looked blankly at the thumbs up Thomas was giving him. Normally he’d try to figure out if there were other hand signs the two worlds shared, but he didn’t have the time for that.

Ringcat didn’t give him any physical sign, but he felt the confusion from the beast as he left. He was starting to realize there was a very weak emotional connection between them when they were close together, an echo of the moment their bond had formed. Daniel was very glad it didn’t carry over long distances.

Without the concealment of a forest, Daniel had to follow the Bard for a few minutes before they found privacy. She was keeping just far enough ahead that he had to half-run to keep up. It reminded him of when Gadriel had led him to the Murdon’s manor, an image he immediately burned out of his mind.

The outcrop Evalyn eventually found pointed the wrong way to see the sunset that hid behind the mountains. Its absence severely harmed the romantic appeal as the only other features were a single tree and patchy grass. If the cliff was cut from the side of the hill and suspended it would have made a passable twin for the first sky island.

“I almost thought you’d bring your pet. It follows you everywhere else.” Evalyn put a hand to the tree and traced around the width of the trunk. From behind it, he heard Evalyn continue speaking along with a rustling sound. “Tak says you can peer into the hearts of women. What does mine tell you?”

There had existed a small doubt in Daniel’s mind that this was all an elaborate joke. If she’d been sent to his world instead of the other way around, she could have had it made on a modeling career alone. That was without the magical abilities that would catapult her into the ‘beloved dictator of a small nation’ category. Suffice it to say she was as far out of his league as he was his world.

“You don’t have an answer?” That doubt was erased as the Bard completed a half-circle around the tree. Her shirt had been lost somewhere along the way leaving only the undergarment beneath. “Maybe you need a better look.” Daniel didn’t move. He couldn’t. He didn’t even feel the vibration from his phone as it alerted him to the charm effect she'd just hit him with. Evalyn laughed at his red face and leaned against the tree in a relaxed way. “Most men would be all over me. Don’t tell me your charisma is so high you’re immune to my charms now?”

“Definitely not.”

“The man of stone speaks!” she laughed. It was honest, not deprecating, silly, or at Daniel’s expense. Evalyn knew she was in control but didn’t seem to be using that to his disadvantage. She did start walking towards him and took her time doing it. “You had me worried you’d pass out from holding your breath.”

Daniel laughed with her. “Well, either way, you’d be giving me mouth to mouth.” He answered the brief confusion that crossed her face without thinking, “It’s something from my world.”

“Your world? How intriguing.” She was standing right in front of him and whispered into his ear, "What else can you show me from your world?”

“Well…” Daniel beamed. In the very back of his head, the only suave part of him screamed that this was just banter. At that same time, there was actually something Evalyn might like. He’d looked at the music app to see how it worked but had never had a good chance to use it without drawing the ire of the locals with his otherworldly music, imagining them as stereotypical Amish hearing rock music. Now, though, was the perfect time to break out the function.

There was surprise on Evalyn’s face as the first simulated saxophone to grace the Octyrrum played out into the open air. She backed up a step and looked Daniel up and down. “Are you a Bard?” There wasn’t cruelty in her voice, but a lack of gentle teasing and interest made it seem that way.

“No?” Now it was Daniel’s turn to be confused. It had all been going so right for once in his life. He’d made friends, been successful in hunting, had grown his list of magical powers, and now had a shot at a covert encounter. She was a Bard, she should like music! But there was a look of conflicted disappointment in her eyes now that made him want to die. “If you don’t like it I can stop it,” he said and hurriedly paused the song.

Evalyn didn’t respond immediately as she seemed to be debating herself. Daniel awaited the verdict as a man of stone once more. This time he was holding his breath, and almost did pass out before she spoke again mournfully. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this.”

“Why?” Daniel blurted out indignantly as he felt the charm on him end. The effect was like an ice bath of rejection, exacerbating his immediate disappointment. That same fraction of himself deep in his mind grew worried about how much anger was mixed in but was again ignored.

“Do you know what happens when you mix oil and water?”

What? What the hell does that- oh. “You’re saying we’re too different?”

“I’m saying that’s what I want.” Daniel would have interjected if she hadn’t hit him with another question. “Do you know the first rule of being a Bard?”

“Sleep with everything that moves?” he asked with a slight shred of hope that this was a joke.

That made her smile, but it was a sorrowful one. “You’ve heard what everyone says about us. Ever think about what happens when a Bard tutors another and the kind of position the student could find themselves in? The first rule of being a Bard is that when we make music, we don’t play in harmony. Bards don’t sleep together,” she clarified.

“I’m not a Bard!” Why, god dammit! Why do people keep doing this to me!? Do I have to wear a sign that says ‘I. AM. AN. ARTIFICER!’? “Even if I was, don’t tell me no one breaks that rule.”

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“They do. I don’t, or at least I haven’t yet. I’m sorry.” She looked down, and if Daniel had been more aware in that moment he might have seen glimpses of the emotions Evalyn had been hiding so well since the Upswell. “I’m trying to give you an answer. This was a sudden change of heart for me, I wasn’t trying to lead you on.”

“So am I just not good enough? Why Tak and not me?” Daniel was being ugly now and he regretted the question as soon as he’d asked it, but the denial was cutting deeper than the alpha he’d killed.

“Because with him I’m oil and water. We joined and separated easily.”

“I could do that!”

“No,” she shook her head. “I don't think you could, Daniel. Not if I didn’t pull away completely.”

She still wasn't making any sense to him. “What?”

“You know what we’re facing. It sounds like you almost died yesterday and that was the first hunt. I’m not saying you’re weak,” she preempted him. “I’m saying these are dangerous times and we’re all just trying to get through this. It’s a time for smiles in the night and steel in the day. I need oil and water in my life right now, not water and water.”

He stared incredulously. “You’re saying you like me too much to date?”

“I’m saying I can’t afford to split my attention. I’m level one like you and I need to get stronger. With the way my class works..." she trailed off and redirected, "Before we came here you were an odd man who gave an avianoid dating advice, someone who I could have a brief encounter with without that leading to anything. But another world, if that’s possible-”

“You couldn’t do it,” Daniel summarized. It wasn’t that he actually got it, but his suppressed rationality had staged a coup and kicked the part acting like a teenager out of the control room. Damn it. Right after I talked so much about being a better person I make an ass of myself. “I could just be someone making things up to get with you, instead of an alien,” he added weakly, knowing they'd both already come to the same conclusion.

“I think you’re both.” Her smiles were poison to him now. “I think the man who brought a ringcat to heel without Beastmaster powers could at the very least get a claw into me if I let him. I’m not some avatar of love immune to attractions of my own. I like a little mystery, too much in this case. Honestly, I didn’t do this before the Upswell, but everyone needs as much potential as they can get.” She sighed with that, some regret for the current circumstances clear in her voice. “This isn’t the time to get into anything complicated, and the only clean break we could have is not needing one.” She looked back to the tree, no doubt thinking of her shirt, and sat so that she wasn’t presenting too tempting an image. “I can't imagine its fun to be charmed only to be rejected. I shouldn’t have used the ability.”

“It’s not your fault.” Daniel was shutting down, cringing as some of the words he’d just spoken replayed in his mind. It sounded like the kind of thing the jock villain would shout in a high school movie. The fact that he'd spilled his big secret was the last thing on his mind. “I’m sorry I said… I’m just sorry.”

“It’s not a no, it's a not right now.” Evalyn started to reach for his shoulder and then thought better of the gesture. “Crest, I shouldn’t do that.” She brushed at her hair self-consciously, and with a small amount of concern asked, “Are you going to be alright?”

“Yeah,” Daniel said blankly, unsure what exactly he was feeling. Disappointment sure, but it was now directed towards himself.

“It’s probably for the best if we don’t return right away. We could sit and talk more if you’d like.”

He considered what would be more painful, her going or her staying, and decided he wasn’t in any state to be good company. “I think I just need to think for a while.”

“Alright.” Evalyn stood, returning to the tree and coming back fully dressed. “If anyone asks, I’ll just say a Bard never tells.”

Thomas can never know, he thought without any real humor. “Yeah.” She left, and Daniel sat alone to ponder the darkening skies. He looked at his hands. Time passed. He’d told Ringcat to give him two hours and had no intent on returning to camp before his companion did. He didn’t know if he was going back at all.

With no fire and no armor, he soon grew cold. He walked over to the tree and looked out to the fields below the ledge. A large green shape regularly intersected with gray ones that briefly turned red before their aura died with them. Ringcat had started to only highlight the creatures he was actively hunting, so the light wasn’t overly spoiling his night vision.

Daniel looked at his hands again. Talon, he thought. His right hand was birdlike in an instant. The change that mortified him earlier was just something to occupy himself with now that his emotions were shot. His hand turned back to normal after a few seconds. Talon. The talons were sharp. He unleashed the formless turmoil inside of him on the tree. The talons shredded the bark just as easily as they’d pierced the alpha’s palate before they changed back. Talon.

The skin above the wrist turned rough as well. Not like dragon scales, but a tough leathery substance similar to what birds had on their feet. He hadn’t brought any weapons to test its durability, though he thought it might resist a blade. Talon. The change wasn’t even unpleasant. It was just a stretching sensation, and the novelty faded fast with repeated use. Talons. Both hands changed now. In the altered form they had four larger fingers instead of five and the talons were half as long as the fingers. He still had thumbs, but holding the crossbow would be awkward if not impossible like this. Talons. His feet didn’t change with his hands. It was probably for the best, otherwise he would have just ruined his shoes. Talons.

He punched the tree. It hurt, but not as much as it would have barehanded. Talons!

He punched the tree again, creating a depression in the trunk. It appeared there wasn’t just misdirected and unjustified anger augmenting his strength. Whatever ability this was added a good deal of force to the strike.

Then he realized he’d probably just killed the tree and was sad again. Talons, he thought robotically. Talons. Talons. Talons. He watched his hands change again and again until his mana ran out.

He didn’t even flinch when the level one ringcat slowly walked up behind him. It was as big as the others had been, the top of the head coming up to where his neck would be were he standing. What surprised Daniel most was the name that accompanied the green aura.

I guess you Grew. Looks like you’ve already picked your name.

The creature he’d named Ringcat circled to his front, inspecting him closely. You are sad?

I got friend-zoned by a Bard and I didn’t react as well as I should have, Daniel lamented, still just as down on himself as he’d ever been. But you look amazing. No, really. There wasn’t much feeling behind the words. Why that name?

Is it bad?

No. Daniel shook his head. It’s decent. It sounds a little like something a guy would name a Doberman he bought just to show off, but it fits. Besides, it’s what you want to be called. I guess you weren’t serious about ‘Longfang’ earlier.

The ringcat couldn’t exactly explain why he had chosen the name he did, other than it felt right. He was aware his new existence was due in part to the friend in front of him. Neither of them were what the ringcat had first thought they were. Borrowing the title he’d applied to Daniel’s kind seemed right in a way that he would call poetic if he was familiar with the concept. Finally, the ringcat responded. That is the crossbow’s name.

Right. He would have laughed if he had it in him. Instead, Daniel just lay down sideways and closed his eyes.

Return to the rest?

Not tonight buddy, Daniel thought. The ringcat could almost surround him with his longer length and he tried to. Rest came mercifully fast.

…

“Hey Guy, we were worried about you,” Thomas said the next morning. “Lograve was about to send someone after- woah, is that Ringcat?”

“His name’s Hunter now,” Daniel responded, his Grown friend following behind him.

“What, is one of Tlara’s monsters already named Killer?” Thomas asked sarcastically. The Cleric seemed oblivious to Daniel’s inner struggles.

“I don’t name my tools,” the avianoid shot back and fixed Daniel with a glare. He ignored her.

Evalyn was standing near the back of the group. He glanced at her and felt a shot of shame. Despite her sudden change of heart and odd reasoning, she’d tried to handle things well and continued to do so when he hadn’t. He did his best to put on an apologetic look and hoped she noticed.

Tlara stormed up to him when she caught where his eyes moved to. “Did you spend all night celebrating your conquest by taming a new ringcat?”

“What? No.” Daniel couldn’t say Hunter had picked his new name. “He’s just Hunter now.”

“Tamed monsters can’t Grow,” she said condescendingly. “You already fucked the Bard, no need to play yourself up.”

The simmering frustration Daniel hadn’t fully rid himself of found a new target. Talon, he thought, turning one of his hands avian with the mana he'd regained at dawn. He clenched the hand into a fist, then extended his middle talon to just in front of her beak. “Go fuck yourself.” Was he still being childish? Sure, but this time it was worth it.