Preparing the meat took most of the afternoon. Circe was a little grumbly but eventually got into it and managed to learn a few details. Everyone was involved, those with experience showing the amateurs how to do it. That meant, Cerberos, Jericho and Yria were teaching the four of us. I joined Alex and Yria, paying a little less attention than I probably should. I was more of a ‘rip off and swallow’ girl. The harpy understood me very well.
“You’re right”, she said, “It’s tastier. But we can hunt much more than we need. And if we want to sell meat, it needs to be prepared. The Erlons down the road do a lot of smoking and preserving. We only have a small rack back there.”
She indicated the shack.
“Only used for drying. The hides go right to the tanners after that.”
“I know it’s useful”, I said, “I just can’t find myself to care. My storage freezes time so I can always find a proper hunter or butcher if I want to sell my prey.”
“Huh. That’s handy.”
She wiggled her fingers. A momentary pang of envy radiated from Catori. It worsened a little when the harpy returned to handling a knife. I demonstratively picked up my own knife with my shadows and nimbly swung it around.
“Sorry”, came from the recesses of my soul.
“Don’t mind it”, I answered.
We went back to the lessons and I let Catori take over for most of it. She had some interest since her body would likely not have access to our storage Skill. Even imbuing the necessary aspects into [Winged Dream] was not possible. We would need four, at least, to make something similar. Tempus, vacuos, desiderium and ordo. No, I forgot about permutatio. And maybe even more. It had been quite some time since I had worked that Skill out. I should have taken notes…
“What has you worked up?”, the eye outside the window asked.
“Just thinking. About Catori’s body.”
“Oh? Have you two made a decision, yet?”
“No. I was wondering if we could project our Skills onto the puppet.”
“A trifling matter. You will quickly understand once you come upon a solution.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Helpful as ever…”
A feeling of mirth rolled over me. I grinned at Truth and waved before slipping back into reality. This time, I was going for the starling.
The little bird slept in some tiny slit in the rocks. The entrance was barely wide enough for it to fit through. At least there were a few bugs and spiders I could easily consume for some improvised breakfast.
I carefully peeked outside finding myself in a narrow valley, not far from the top. After a minute of observation, I felt confident enough to take off. A quick glance at the sun told me where the west was and I made my way further towards the Dwarven Hills.
There was nothing truly interesting for most of the time. It looked like Catori was approximately following the road connecting Trade Town to the capital. I passed by a suspiciously empty mining town at one point. Barely anybody was around. Was this the place Alex had been attacked close to? The one the nobles wanted to use as their relay for the attack on the dwarves? If so, it would only be another week or so to reach Serrington.
The starling’s flight was much slower and more exhausting than I was used to. I needed to pay more attention to the winds, at first. After half an hour, I figured out how to use the aer vis we had supplied it. That made it a little easier since I had control over the air around me. I just spotted houses in the distance in what I believed to be Trade Town when Catori pushed our [Telepathy] to let us speak.
“Fio, what’re you doing?”, she asked.
“Flying the starling”, I said, “It’s pretty boring.”
She snorted.
“Well, we’re gonna have dinner and then get back to the residence. You wanna swap back?”
“… honestly, I don’t mind if you stay there a little longer. I think I can see Trade Town in the distance.”
“Are we that far, already? There’s no strain on the comms.”
“I mean, it goes straight through our soul.”
“True. Hey, how about you find a safe spot near Trade Town and then we swap? I kinda want to explore the place a little.”
“Sounds good.”
It took another hour to reach the town and then some more time to find a spot similar to where the starling had woken up. I pushed myself out of the body after moving it into a sleeping position and flopped back onto the couch in our soulspace. The TV showed Catori’s vision of passing houses. She was looking at Circe who was talking about something excitedly and nodding here or there.
I decided against interrupting the conversation and instead got up to look around. Putting my hands on my hips and stretching my back made a few bones pop satisfyingly. The house was truly simple. There was mostly just the ‘living room’ with couch, table, and the TV mounted to the wall. A fridge stood to the side. One door led outside, two further inside.
I checked out the fridge first, finding some nearly realistic food. There were some veggies, fruits, a few types of chocolate, meatballs in a plastic box and some soft drinks. Randomly picking something out, I put a plum in my mouth. It had no taste but some juice gushed into my mouth as I chewed. Progress. The texture was there, at least. And no taste was better than cardboard. The cucumber slices I tried next actually tasted great. Almost like the real thing.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
I closed the fridge and eyed the two doors leading further in. One of them had a sign hanging on the handle reading ‘Do Not Enter!’ in bold red letters. A little plaque with flowers around it was fixed to the middle of the door. It read ‘Catori’.
I smirked and turned to the other door. The plaque was there as well, this time with a few feathers surrounding my name. Another sign hung off the handle, this time with green letters. ‘Please Knock’. I took the handle and opened it. The room was… blank. Nothing. White walls and ceiling with a monotone grey carpet. It felt soft under my toes. There was a window to my left looking out onto parts of the nest. I tried to look around the corner and the window shifted over to the edge of the wall.
I blinked.
I waved my hand and it moved back into the previous spot. I waved both hands and it turned bigger. Then smaller. Then round, then a triangle. I clapped and it returned to its original form. An idea came to me and I snapped my fingers. Suddenly, the walls looked like I was walking into a forest, the ceiling gone, the ground moss and ferns. Pain spiked through my head. Our head.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”, Catori screamed into our soul.
I clapped and the room returned to normal.
“Ouch”, I commented, “Sorry. I didn’t think it would hurt like that.”
“What. Did. You. Do..”
“I found my room. And I tried making it a forest with a door standing in it.”
“Oh… Did it work?”
“Yup. But it hurt a ton.”
“You can say that again… So you found your room?”
“I did. Did you set it up?”
“Yes. I thought you might want one if you ever stay for longer. You can just use the nest, though.”
I blinked.
“Right. I’ll try being myself inside here. Tell me if you want to swap back.”
“Sure thing.”
I felt the grin she sent me and responded with my own. Truth was looking in from the window.
“That was rather interesting. I would have expected you to fail completely.”
I tilted my head. With the motion, my body shifted, my arms elongating and feathers growing. Talons replaced my feet and a beak my mouth. Somehow, my size did not change. A flex of will and a mirror plopped up to my side. I glanced into it. I stood there. Owl me. In human size.
“I think I got a knack for this”, I said.
My beak was moving with the sound, somehow distorting to make it physically possible.
“You do, friend. I am glad I met you.”
“So, how do I make the forest without a headache?”
“Limit it. You set it to extend infinitely. Your soul can not handle that.”
“So, like a video game? With invisible walls, or something?”
“For example, yes.”
“How large can I go?”
“You will have to find out yourself.”
Carefully, I exerted my will. The carpet became grass. I knew the soil only reached five metres deep. More than enough. Then, a sky replaced the ceiling. It was ten metres above ground. From here, I could see the images of clouds running along the border. Instead of replacing the walls, I made the room circular. Then, the forest extended. Only ten metres, more images placed on the border to give the illusion of infinity. I added a soft breeze. Then I realized there were no shadows. I made sure there was an image of a sun running along the ceiling and throwing shadows. It was taking shape. I decided when the sun passed it would be replaced by a moon and stars.
My room was ready to be used. But I wanted a little… more. I pushed my will and everything… expanded. Soon, the trees were large enough I felt my normal size. A human walking in here would believe to have been shrunken. In total, my clearing and forest were sixty metres across and thirty tall. Then, I added one final function. A window, right where the sun was. And if he wanted, Truth could replace it with his eye. Though I could obviously block him out.
My friend quickly noticed and the sun turned into his rainbow iris.
“My, that is gorgeous”, he said, “A little bland, still, but the details are fascinating.”
I smirked.
“Thanks. Do you think I went too far? Used too much ‘space’?”
“Not necessarily. You should ask Catori to make her room a similar size.”
“It isn’t?”
“I do not know. She does not let me see.”
“Oh. I…”, images of naked skin flashed through my mind, “Yeah, I get it. I’ll ask her.”
I left my room and closed the door. There was a plop and something tugged on my body. It quickly stopped and I heard a thump behind me. I turned my head to see Catori lying there as our human self. She was rubbing her bottom.
“Oof. Hey…”, she looked up, “Oh, wow. You’ve done a number on yourself.”
“I like this more”, I said.
“I can see that.”
“Hey, how big did you make your room?”
“Like… normal?”
“Try and make it bigger. Mine is 60 metres across and circular. 30 metres high.”
“Wait, what?”
“She tried to go infinite”, Truth said, “That was the headache.”
Catori blinked.
“We get a headache from making an infinite world in our mind? Not… like… a pulverized brain?”
“Apparently. Though she was lacking flowers and animals and only used two types of tree.”
“Okay. So I get to make my own magical castle? Or what?”
“If you want”, I shrugged, “Before extending your empire, make sure your body is safe.”
Catori grinned. Then she hugged me.
“Okay, you’re the best.”
“On that topic, what’s our body doing right now?”
“Sleeping.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Right. Thanks for letting me… live? I guess?”
“You’re welcome.”
“You should pull on our memories to see what I did. It wasn’t too important but Alex figured out I was fronting. I think she understood a little better what we were trying to tell her last time.”
“That’s great”, I said, “I’ll take a look.”