Kazue’s stomach was knotted in a combination of nervousness and excitement as she walked away from her dungeon self for the first time since her reincarnation. She wanted to visit Riverbridge and Ekuilance, and to visit the Azeria clan in between. She wanted to go see the ocean, and then come back home briefly before traveling through the elven kingdom.
From there, she and Moriko were going to decide whether to head east to the Alliance Nations and visit their dungeon, or head south and cross the plains of the nomadic tribes to visit the southern dungeon. And the idea of becoming a delver instead of the one running a dungeon sounded fun.
But she was going to miss Mordecai. Kazue wasn’t going to even be able to enjoy the mental communication that Moriko got to enjoy. And Moriko got to enjoy it with both Mordecai and Kazue’s other self. Mordecai seemed to treat the whole two-selves thing so casually, but it was very new to her.
On top of all that, Kazue felt weaker than her avatar had before. A little bit of that was physical, but most of it was in magical ability. Mordecai had described it correctly; it almost felt like she was having to relearn how to walk after having been able to run. And he’d done that repeatedly across many avatars, though he had also said that the relearning process was less arduous the more experienced one was at creating a new invested avatar.
At least she wasn’t going alone. She had her wife at her side. And that was a lot of comfort. They walked silently for a bit, but the last of the dungeon was just barely out of sight when Kazue stopped for a moment to hug Moriko tightly. “I am glad you are with me for this. I don’t know how Mordecai did it without this kind of support when he started.”
Kazue enjoyed the feeling of Moriko running her fingers through her hair, even though the half-elf was gently laughing at her. “Oh love, you get used to heading out on your own, I was traveling by myself when I met the two of you after all. But I agree that it is much nicer to travel with friends, and now I have such a cute little bed-warmer to keep me company.”
The redhead sniffed at the description and pulled back from the embrace so she could stick her tongue out at Moriko. “Bed warmer, is it? You better be careful, you never know just where you will suddenly find ice.”
Moriko laughed and then kissed her warmly. That extra connection in the back of Kazue’s head wasn’t there, but she could feel the love and care in her wife’s embrace. That would be enough.
There was still a connection in her head however. She could tell exactly how far away and in what direction her ‘true body’ was. This body and her mind within were autonomous, but she was technically an extension of the ‘real’ Kazue. Thankfully she’d gotten through most of her being weirded out by the thought back at the dungeon.
That reminded her, she should try her medicine. As Mordecai had mentioned, this body wasn’t exactly the same as her previous avatar, and they hadn’t had the chance to have any long-term trials with her not in the dungeon’s territory. So after she and Moriko had started walking again, Kazue broke out the leather roll her mother had given her and broke one of the leaves in half to chew on. This would give her more to talk to Moriko’s parents about before they finalized a formula for her to take with her.
But even with that stimulus to keep her brain’s buzzing down, it didn’t take long for the reality of the walk to settle in. “Hmm. I’ve taken long walks in the woods before, but that’s sort of a loop. And they aren’t a full day of walking either. This is going to take a while. Maybe we should have rented some horses from the traders?”
Moriko looked amused. “And kept them fed after your father’s caravan left? You guys could have taken care of that, true, but then they would have been in your territory. And I am pretty certain you wouldn’t have been able to resist inviting them to be inhabitants. And then you would have felt guilty about asking them to be riding animals for your trip, because they’d feel a strong loyalty to you. And we’d have to pay for them instead of renting, since they wouldn’t be returning to their previous masters. No, walking was the only option.” Now she leered as she looked Kazue over, “Besides, I’d rather have my favorite little fox foot-sore and unable to escape, instead of saddle-sore.”
“Er, eep?” Kazue giggled. “Okay, fair enough. I’ll just have to submit myself to your tender mercies tonight. But I don’t really know what to do with myself for a long walk like this.”
She got a shrug from the monk in response. “We can talk if we have something to say, but a lot of it is just letting your mind wander while you keep going. Keep your head up though, you want to see what is in front of you, and look around for anything interesting. Most of the time it will simply be to keep from being too bored, but it’s also a good habit to keep up in case you are someplace more dangerous. Though as I can attest, not even Kuiccihan is perfectly safe.”
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“Um, I guess.” Kazue did her best to try and enjoy the walk with Moriko, but she still felt a building amount of restlessness. So she did her best to practice her magic while they walked. Fox fire she had to be careful with, as she didn’t want to start any actual fires of course, but her minor spells didn’t hold that particular danger.
Casting a brief shielding spell on Moriko or herself was decent practice, but not very much fun. Using her dream weapon spell? That was much more fun. Being able to attack a falling leaf with a sword that wasn’t really there, but nonetheless cut the leaf in half, was quite fun. When she’d learned to cast this spell she’d been hoping it would cut only what she wanted to cut, letting it pass through other things harmlessly, but it wasn’t entirely that cool. But according to Mordecai it was cool enough to cut ethereal and incorporeal things like ghosts, so she’d take that! Kazue hadn’t had a chance to test that out yet, so she was taking his word for it.
It was also fun to tease Moriko with bobbing, weaving lights that merged into one bigger light, then split into four smaller lights again. The half-elf did her best to pretend to be stoic and ignore the antics of the hyperactive kitsune, but the corners of her lips were slightly upturned.
She also found herself eating a lot again. Kazue had forgotten how much she used to snack, and looking back on it, her snacking habits were probably half the reason her mother had so many fruit trees and bushes. Thankfully, trading fresh meals for dried meat was one of the things Mordecai had done, so she was able to snack on that as well as fruit that had been properly grown in their dungeon instead of just created. The seeds were going to be gifted to Moriko’s parents, so she was careful to save them. Most of the fruits that they had brought were unique to the dungeon.
And dried meat was all well and good, but fresh meat was better. “Moriko, can you cook up small game?” She asked as she eyed an oak tree from which an acorn had recently been tossed at her.
“What? Oh! No! I refuse to clean and cook squirrels if we aren’t starving. Leave them alone, consider it training for dodging attacks. And I don’t want to deal with cleaning anything if we don’t have to.” Moriko answered, chiding her a touch.
Kazue pouted, then stuck her tongue out at the squirrels, who chittered angrily at her. She made them scamper away by casting her little light spell at them and having the lights chase them harmlessly.
Moriko shook her head. “I thought you like all the cute fuzzy things.”
“Well, yeah, but squirrels are evil, and these ones aren’t my friends.” She grinned at Moriko. “I am not certain that I would have actually done it, but I have to admit it was tempting. I…” Kazue paused and tilted her head in thought. “Huh. I think these past couple of months have made me worry less about just being me. But now I don’t have a second brain sort of double-checking everything I think of saying. Or doing. Er,” She scratched at her ear, “I think I’m going to be even more impulsive than you have seen, or at least have seen in a while. Um, I hope you don’t mind.” She was suddenly feeling shy and uncertain again.
“Don’t worry love,” Moriko said with a smile that warmed Kazue’s heart and eased her tension. “I think it’s cute to see you acting a bit more like how you were when we met you. And I thought you were beautiful and adorable when we met, even if I did think you were young because of your height.” Kazue wrinkled her nose at the reminder, but Moriko continued on. “Though it will be interesting to see how much you squirm and fidget tonight. And I bet your skin will look beautiful in the starlight.”
Kazue felt her skin turning red right down to her toes as she blushed. “Moriko! But, um, there’s dirt and ground and stuff.” She didn’t exactly mind the idea of being outside, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to do it on the ground either.
“That’s what bedrolls and blankets are for love.” Moriko responded with a purr. “And this is going to be the first night that I will have you all for myself, unequivocally. I’m not going to let this pass by without a really good reason. Oh, and if you are too squirmy, I do have rope packed away. I am sure I could find good use for it.”
Kazue was having trouble focusing walking at this point, she was feeling lightheaded from all the blood rushing to her skin. “You’re awful.” She was being teased, leaving her flustered, but it wasn’t like how she’d felt being teased in her previous life. She was confident in the love behind the words and wanted what was being promised. The uncertainty and fear was gone.
Though she was having a bit of a problem coping with having to wait. It wasn’t even lunchtime!
Moriko chuckled, though not entirely at Kazue as it turned out. “Mordecai offers his sympathies, but he sounds more amused than anything. Your core might be jealous. Your other self is still very much you. And you have quite enjoyed the married life.”
“Now you are making my head hurt thinking about that again,” Kazue grumbled as her mind was pulled away from more enjoyable thoughts. They’d been continuing to walk during this conversation, but her connection to her dungeon-self hadn’t changed. She was still equally aware of the direction and distance to her core. She’d just been trying to ignore that awareness. “And I am jealous that you get to talk with Mordecai.”
“Mmm, well, if it helps you can dictate a letter for him for me to pass on, and I can ‘read’ his ‘letters’ back to you. And I can do that for your core as well.”
Kazue chewed on her tail thoughtfully for a moment before she realized what she was doing. Breaking that habit again was going to be a pain. “Sending letters to myself sounds weird. But it might be a good idea. Let me think on it.”
Moriko grinned. “Your core said almost the same thing. Come on, we have a lot more walking to do. You can dictate a letter during lunch if you want.”