The preparations were done. I had practised using the deer and tawny owl bodies to decent familiarity and the ‘shoes’ were ready. The probe I had thrown into the tainted area had not begun to deteriorate in six days. That was good enough for me. On the other end, Catori had gone through all my memories she had been missing and was ready to keep an eye on my exploration. She said something about wanting some rest, anyway.

I had talked to Elder Bloom again and he accompanied my deer body into the silverwood forest. We may not look eye to eye on some things but he helped without complaint. I was surprised by how little the bark-kin reacted before remembering the mind control. Then I remembered most of them weren’t actively controlled. Had Hive sent out word through the Elders or did they really not care about a deer just… walking by?

No matter what, I was ready to get started on my first exploration. The deer was sleeping a dozen metres from the border to the tainted land with the falcon in the trees a little further back. My real body was hidden high up in the leaves of Hive. As much as I disliked the tree-spirit… node-thing, I still trusted it to cooperate. And I had asked through Elder Leaf.

I planned to make the first trip with the tawny owl, the deer following soon after that. If anything went wrong, both of us could take the falcon to take a closer look. Every body was equipped with the silverwood boots, or sheaths for the birds.

“Well then, are you ready, Catori?”, I asked.

“I am. Let’s see what taint really does to the world.”

I pulled my soul into the Empty. Catori was sitting in an office chair at a desk where we had a couch and couch table before. She gave me a glance before returning her focus to the screens in front of her. A notebook sat ready to be filled with notes. I felt for the correct tendril and dove back into reality.

A set of eyes opened. My senses were… okay. I would have called them good when I first left my parents’ nest. Now, they were just that little too slow, too grainy. The tawny owl must have been a rather low level or had somehow avoided getting too many Attribute Points assigned to Perception. Sadly, the bonus we got in our main bodies when the other one was asleep did not extend to those we were using for this short of a time. Otherwise, I could have used all our Attributes right now since both main bodies were resting.

I shrugged and double-checked the silverwood sheaths around my talons. They sat properly if a little uncomfortable. I should be able to land on a branch of tainted wood without issues. The ground too, if it was solid and dry. Otherwise small amounts of taint might slip through the joints.

Satisfied, I took off. The silverwood forest was quickly left behind and I crossed the gap between… were these continental plates? That was probably the best description. Too large for floating islands, anyway.

The small stretch of clean land on the other side looked no different from a week ago. Beyond that, it was purple everywhere. Sure, there were tones to the madness. Parts of it looked more like pink, others were near-black. The latter was mostly the ground. Tainted soil seemed to be a dark tone with some sparkling highlights here and there. And yet, it was not dead. I had expected more of a wasteland. Maybe something like a lake of acid or an active volcano. Land that was just too inhospitable to live. That clearly was not the case for taint.

First of all, there were tendrils absolutely everywhere. Some were fibrous like plants, slowly writhing and undulating over the ground and trees, others had more of a fleshy texture and reached out into the air or slithered along the ground. I even spotted a few proper tentacles with suction caps and spikes dripping viscous purple goop. It somewhat reminded me of that goop-shroom Roguk had shown me all that time ago. What was it called again? Right, the goblin language literally called it ‘goop-shroom’. In Ordugh it was a Dripping Deathcap. Yes, capitalized. The mushroom was notorious for its destructive influence if left unchecked. And even though the stuff dripping from the tentacles seemed to be non-acidic, it gave off a much worse feeling. They were more ‘end of the world’ than ‘end of the forest’.

Between all of that alien flora, other things were moving. Swarms of glowing insects, a little like fireflies were the most common. Still, it took at least two kilometres into the tainted continent until I saw the first. Occasionally, an animal had kept most of its form and was moving slowly through the fibrous tendrils on the ground. I spotted a frog peek out from a puddle of bubbling liquid flux. Or what I thought was flux until I got close enough to see it was much too viscous. The frog was also purple, and not a natural tone. Its eyes were red and black and glowing slightly.

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I wanted to [Identify] it but then realized this body did not have the Skill.

“That’s annoying”, Catori remarked, “But just not worth the risk.”

“I agree. Maybe we can bait something to the edge of the taint?”

“Worth a shot. Probably easiest with the deer.”

I returned my focus to the world around me. I had clearly not thought the ‘sitting on a branch’ thing through since all the trees still had leaves. And of course, the leaves were tainted. So I just kept flying mostly straight ahead for a little longer, letting the winds carry me.

The land was slightly hilly with a lot of purple stone showing between the dirt, both covered in tendrils and the purple liquid I decided to dub tainted goo. The deeper I got the more life I spotted. Smaller animals, all of them landbound, and the occasional large bodies moved around randomly. There were nodes every once in a while, all of them tainted. Curiously, the aspects I could feel from them were not taint. Then again, it was a combination of magic and destruction. I could imagine a node with it would simply destroy itself.

Almost three hours after setting out, I finally spotted something new. Something very obvious from high up. A paved road. Cobblestone, yes, but still. There was a sign of civilization. The road snaked between a few hills as I followed it and occasionally disappeared under the tainted growths. Here and there I spotted the remains of something that might have been tools. Purple sticks and boards that one day had been wood. Something dark and puffy, almost like a sponge, took me a little longer to place. It was metal. Or a stone they used for tools. Maybe obsidian? Metal was more likely but I had no idea how old this place was.

“What do you think, Catori? Humans, or something else?”

“Impossible to tell at this point. A road and some things that might have been tools or wagons could be any kind of humanoid species. And a few others.”

“With the tech-level of the human kingdoms, I’m thinking something else. If they were related they’d have gotten a lot further.”

“Not necessarily. Rome was more advanced than medieval humans. A few changes in the environment, like dangerous monsters and literally mind-breaking magic, might have a similar effect. And there was that star shard that someone probably made.”

“True. I was just wondering. Oh, is that a city?”

I had spotted some pillars and spike on the horizon that were far too regular to be natural.

“Probably. How fit is your body?”

“I’ll need to get some rest soon if I want to keep my energy up but I can push it a lot further.”

“Look for somewhere to land, then. Who knows what’s going to be in that city?”

It took only a few minutes to find a slightly protruding stone cliff to take a break. It was only a little over two metres high but I could sit without risking coming in contact with any taint. I looked around a little confused at how large everything was before remembering I was the tawny owl right now. I had less than half the height I was used to. I also had no access to my storage or any way to get food out here. It was a good thing I had eaten enough to go for a full day and night. Speaking of, the sun had just passed its peak. I had a lot of time before I would have to turn back.

A squishing noise distracted me from my thoughts. I swivelled my head and looked in the direction it had come from. Down at the bottom of the cliff, a particularly large tentacle was contracting lengthwise. It shivered a little before releasing a mass of purple goo with another splotching sound. The third squelch came with a little more than goo: a swarm of small purple insects. Granted, they were quite large compared to my current body but that was not the problem. The problem was that there were probably a hundred of them.

The insects swarmed with a hiss more than a buzz, turning into what I could only describe as a living cloud.

I blinked.

I felt panic welling from Catori’s side and soothed her. I could go without that distraction right now.

When the swarm ‘turned’ to me, as much as a mass of not-really-living blobs of purple could do that, I decided I had enough and pushed some of the aspect I had given this body into its wings. I flapped them once, and two small waves of aer rushed out creating a gust much stronger than my small wings should have been able to. The swarm hissed and chittered angrily. I could see tiny mandibles clicking, though not much more. The glow obscured any detailed features.

Seeing that my attack had done nothing of note, I simply took off. The swarm chased me for a bit but it was too slow and I quickly lost it.

“That was… eugh! Disgusting!”, Catori said, “Thanks for keeping me calm. I don’t know how you do it.”

“The weakness of humans”, I grinned at her mentally, “Thinking too much. There’s time to think when you’re safe.”

She giggled.

“You’re right. But you’re also human-ish.”

“One of my few faults. Thanks for not distracting me any further.”

Catori sent me a mental hug.

“No worries. I can read your mind.”

I groaned.

“Right. You can. How did I forget that?”

“You… forgot?”, Catori laughed, “Oh, wow. Fio, you’re great. Never change.”

“Thanks. You too.”

We laughed more as I kept flying towards the pillars on the horizon.