I once again find myself in endless darkness, a single source of light making a cone of light in the sea of black. The woman stands in front of me her clothes have changed, the fabric appears to be space itself. Countless stars that create nebulas and galaxies dot the fabric. The more I focus on a single area the more detail I can see. The increase in detail makes me feel like I am diving into the field of galaxies, moving my focus I feel the detail snap away.

She smiles at me, "Don't get lost."

I blink a few times trying to get my bearing again. Trying to focus my thoughts I remember why I am here, "Why did Karack see you as a giant?"

Her laughter is loud and abrasive, "Really!? That is what you ask??"

"It's just what came to mind first, why did he?"

"You'll have to figure that one out on your own. We are here about your mutation." She speaks flatly, her earlier mirth gone.

"Okay, What are my options?"

"You can enhance their physical traits; heavily armored scales, thicker wings, and stronger bones. Or you can make them more magical this would be based on one of your affinities. If you had more affinities you would have more choice but that is too bad for you." Her response is flat until the last part where a smile cracks her lips.

"Why do my misfortune and failures bring you joy?" I question realizing she seems to have some sort of shadenfreude going on.

"Because you fail spectacularly but some how seem to always pull out ahead. It makes for a great show."

Realizing she just likes watching me flounder I ask, "So Physical, Space, or Raw?"

"Yes. Now choose."

"Wait, you make fun of me for not asking questions and now you try to force me to make a choice without elaborating? What do they do?", I plead.

"The physical one is the only consistent one. Affinity based wings change greatly based on you. It's how you view those things."

Imagining my wings turn into massive cones of raw mana on my back I can't help but chuckle.

"Well probably not that..." She says smirking.

"So if I choose a magical mutation for this I could end up with some random change?"

"Not random. You definitely won't feel like that at least. It will be based on your understanding or image of the magic."

The idea rattles around in my brain, *My only use so far of Raw mana has been my missiles and Space has been exclusive to creating a bag for holding things. Neither of them seem to be good for mutating my wings. Physical feels like the most reliable choice but both magics have shown to be incredibly helpful. I wonder what my breath is considered for magic type...*

"Soul.", Her flat response clearly answering my thoughts.

"I guess it makes sense that you can understand my thoughts. Will any of these choices be bad?"

"No. They might not be better or worse compared to other options, but none of them will be bad.", She replies with no hesitation.

"My gut is saying Space, I use it the most right now and I can't imagine how Raw would help me. Physical feels safe and boring." I think out loud. Her body language doesn't seem to give me any hints. "Space."

A smile cracks her lips, "Are you sure?"

"Yes." My vision rapidly dwindles to a single point of light before blinking out.

My eyes snap open the light coming through the waterfall tells me it is at least late morning. I stretch my body, my wings coming into view as the wrap around in front of my face. The membrane of my wings doesn't seem to exist, the area it occupied now seems to just be a hole in space. The membrane replaced by what looks like a infinite field of small pinpricks of light, much like my larger sheets of space mana. As the wings stretch in front of me the feeling of floating in space over takes me. I test the effect by moving my wings closer to my head, completely covering my eyes and head. I move my head back and forth and the sea of stars moves with it, the view reminding me of a no light night sky. I look down towards the ground and can see the massive slash of dark purple, red, and green that usually shows up in the night sky.

My investigation is interrupted by the feeling of a sticky paw touching the outside of my wing. Surprised I snap the my wings down, causing Karack to go flying forwards into the pool.

*Are you okay?* I send, watching as he rights himself underwater and surfaces.

*Yes!* His response comes with deep mirth.

I can see the other lizards swimming in the pool below me. The fishing seems to be going well based on the amount of bones that surround us. My stomach growls loudly as I watch Limaea exhale onto a fish and then gobble it down. I slip into the water towards the water fall and begin swimming towards the column of fish. My wings seem to work the same in the water but there is a strange tightness in them that wasn't there before. The sensation makes me think there is a muscle in my wing but that doesn't seem to be true. Trying to flex the area like I would a muscle seems to make no difference.

I continue swimming trying to get a feel for this new sensation but it seems to be out of my grasp for now. As I dive into the column I open my mouth, snatching multiple fish up in a single bite. Hunger driving me to eat them immediately instead of using the more effective breath method. After what feels like a long time of being under water my lungs begin to burn. I look up to gauge how far down I am and find that I am a significant depth down in the pond. I begin my ascent to the surface, the burning growing more intense as I swim towards the surface. The sensation grows from uncomfortable to painful quickly and I strain to push my body further. Using my wings I push hard with them and notice that as I'm pushing down with the wing I feel the sensation on the tip change.

The instinctual reaction of trying to get to the surface making a break through that my conscious mind was unable to make. The sensation in my wings is close to how ribbons of space mana feel. With space mana I stretch the ribbon's physical dimensions but there is also a fourth dimension that I can interact with. It feels like an in and out sensation as though I am creating depth where there wasn't any. With my ribbons of mana pushing in seems to create space within the mana to store things. Pushing in on the areas of my wings seems to create a pulling sensation on the area around it. This is very small compared to the overall power of my wings but still adds to the propulsion.

My wings allow me to notice something as well that I haven't noticed with my ribbons of mana, when I push in on one section another section on the opposite edge has the sensation of pushing out. I push in on the entire leading edge of my wing and feel as the trailing edge to expands. I look over at my right wing and see no difference in the wing itself. The water seems to be pulled into the leading edge of my wing and as it comes close the it is then pulled down the membrane and expelled out of the trailing edge.

The starry expanse of my wing membrane makes this look like the water is being pulled into space and then shot out the other end. The feeling of my lungs burning brings me back to the present. I use this new push-pull feeling to help swim to the surface. Expanding the effect to the length of my wings makes a massive difference in my movement. Previously I felt like swimming came naturally but with this new effect I slip through the water incredibly quickly. I breach the surface of the pond, my speed launches me from the water. My body breaches the surface to my back legs before gravity starts pulling me back down.

I splash back into the water, slipping back beneath as the ripples of my passage spread across the top of the pond. I start playing with the pushing and pulling along the length of my wings. I notice after a short time that it isn't actually a pushing and pulling, it is closer to a contraction and expansion. I also find that I can reverse it, contracting the trailing end and expanding the leading end. This reversal causes the water to flow backwards close to the wing itself. This makes swimming strange as my wings try to flip my body around the axis of the wings.

I find that I can hold my wings out rigid and contract the front edge creating a small amount of thrust forwards. By itself this doesn't make me fly through the water but it allows me to coast through the water with what feels like no effort. I use this to move myself back into the fish column, snapping up any fish that get close.

As I glide through the column I notice that the fish are impacted by the movement of the water around my wings. I watch multiple times as fish get very close to my wings and seem to shrink down before they expand back to normal. The fish are seemingly contorted like in fun house mirrors the degree of the distortion seems to be based on how close to my wings they get. A few fish seem to brush my wings, their bodies contracting and expanding massively before they pass. None of the fish even seem to notice the compression and expansion effect on themselves. I fill my stomach quickly and notice that I can stay under a lot longer when I'm not using my wing muscles and whole body to swim.

My stomach being full I continue testing out my new capabilities. I keep my wings extended and tip the front edge up, causing me to start making a wide arc towards the surface. When I'm pointed directly at the surface I flatten the wings back to the plane of my body. I quickly arrive at the surface, this time I don't breach and my head just breaks the surface as I take a quick breath and as I begin to dip back below my eyes catch something that makes my heart drop.

Sitting on the northern edge of the pond is a giant. This giant looks much smaller than the ones I have seen previously, appearing to be a child. They have their arms wrapped around their legs and seem to be crying, the sobs making their body shake violently. Hoping that they haven't been there long I dip back beneath the surface and turn my aura sight up until I can see them clearly from under the water. I being moving back towards the cave underwater, keeping the giant child in my sight as I move to the cave.

I make it back to the grotto without having to surface, the giant never seems to react to my presence giving me confidence that they didn't see me. I slip back up on the ledge and find all five of the lizards collapsed in a pile, half eaten fish surrounding them.

*Did they all go into food comas?* I chuckle as I realize that is definitely what happened. *I wonder how much they have managed to increase their attributes.*

I lay down a short distance from them and watch through the waterfall as the child lifts its massive form of the ground and moves closer to the cave wall on the eastern edge of the pond. I lose sight of it through the rock of the cliff as I lay there. Wanting to keep an eye on them I move into the water, the sound of the water fall drowning out the child's sounds. I slip into the pond, diving down beneath the waterfall before surfacing. I allow just my eyes and nostrils to breach the surface. The spray of the waterfall rains down around me, hindering my vision slightly but making me feel secure in it obscuring my form. From this distance I can see that the child's arms and legs have large quantity of seemingly superficial scratches.

I feel pity for the child it is clearly in distress and seems to have been through quite a bit of harm getting to where it is now. Unfortunately for both of us, there is not much I can do about its' plight nor do I think helping these giants would be good for my long term survival. I watch for a long time as the child cries, my mind tumbling as to what to do about this.

The child staying near by would be worst case scenario for me and the lizards. They will inevitably draw more giants to this area and that will always be dangerous. The safety of the grotto making that seem like less of an issue, but if something happens to the child here then the giants would most certainly scour the area. Feeling as though there is nothing I can do I slip back under the water and move into the grotto.

The lizards are all awake again and swimming in the pool. *Don't leave the grotto.* I send to all of them.

*What is wrong?*, Limaea sends back immediately, I watch as her form launches from the water. Landing next to me she looks up waiting for my response.

*There is a child on the edge of the pond. I'm not sure what to do about them yet, but it seems like there is nothing we can do.*

She nods at me and jumps back into the water. The lizards are all swimming in the pool but don't seem to be hunting fish. Finding that strange but feeling like there are other things I should work on I move my attention back to the waterfall. I lay down once again facing the waterfall, this time I pull a new ribbon of Space mana to work with. Thinking on the interaction of my wings with the fish from earlier I realize I have only been using half of my Space affinities capabilities. The novelty of being able to create pocket spaces eclipsing the intuition that Space mana can be pushed in and also pulled out.

I begin widening the end of the ribbon making another small sheet of space mana. This time I begin pulling out on the sheet of mana. The sheet of mana is still there but the center feels as though it protrudes out perpendicular to the plane of the sheet. In visible light there seems to be no difference, the sheet of Space mana still has the appearance of being a hole in the world. I watch the sheet, holding the feeling of contraction I begin moving it around in the area around me as I would my Space bag. As I move the sheet around me the stars showing through the sheet move giving the impression that this sheet of mana is actually a window through the universe. I continue moving it around beginning to feel that there is nothing different when one of the pinpricks of light seems to morph slightly.

The pinprick of light expands and then shrinks back down again as I move the sheet. I immediately move the sheet back and see that the pinprick does the same thing but in the opposite direction. I move the sheet so that the center of the distant star is expanded, making it look like an eye. I reach my right index claw out tentatively, the impact with some force catches me by surprise. I find that there is something preventing my claw from getting any closer to the sheet of space mana. Moving my claw slightly to either side cause it to slip closer to the sheet. I bring my left index claw up on the other side of the sheet, as my claw slips behind it I lose sight of it the space mana visually hiding the claw.

I move my head so that I am positioned edge on to the sheet of mana. The mana itself having almost no depth I can see my right claw hovering a small distance from the sheet. I bring my left index claw so that it looks like I am trying to touch the tips of my two claws. As my left claw passes the plane of the sheet it feels as though something is beginning to slightly pull at the tip. The force grows slightly more intense as it goes further beyond but it still doesn't grow to more than a small tug. The tip of the claw barely enters the backside of the mana before it is prevented from moving any further. The force of pulling is still present but I can't move it any further forwards. Flicking Aura sight to max I can see the structure of the sheet of space mana, it looks as though it is a hankerchief and some one has pinched the center ever so slightly.

Moving my claws away from the sheet of mana I pull hard on the sheet. I feel as though I can do a lot more when I pull than I could when I pushed at the start of my Space bag. Unsure if this is from my skill with Space mana or some other unknown factor I continue pulling. The feeling of contraction continues slowly as I focus, my sense of the sheet of mana growing over time as I focus on it more. It doesn't feel difficult like when I push for more depth in my Space bag, it is mentally taxing but pain doesn't follow as I expect it to.

The sun begins to slide towards the horizon as I focus on the sheet of mana. The lizards hunt the fish population down to almost nothing around me and then nap, waking shortly after and then repeating the process multiple times. The world moves around me as I focus fully on making the sheet of space mana contract more and more. The physical size and shape of the sheet of space mana stay the same through this process never seeming to deviate even slightly. The first distortion to the field of stars was a pin prick in the sheet, by the time my stomach growls with hunger the entire sheet of space mana has a small amount of distortion, the amount of distortion growing at the center of the sheet.

I do the same test from earlier, a claw on the front and a claw on the back. This time the pull on the back claw is much more significant. The front claw is held off the sheet by a, still small, but much larger than before distance. I find myself unable to touch any of the sheet's front side, the claw stops at an increasingly larger distance as it gets closer to the center of the sheet. Feeling intuitively that it is not dangerous I stop holding my left claw from being pulled into the back of the sheet. The claw moves forward at a increasing rate, eventually impacting something solid. The impact creates a resonance in the sheet, the sound of tinkling crystals coming off the entire sheet before cracks shoot from the center. The cracks all hit the edge of the sheet at the same time, the tinkling crystal sound abruptly ending. The shards of the sheet all evaporating in an instant.

What is left is an area where my left claw is visually distorted. It seems to stretch from the second joint, massively elongating the closer as it gets closer to the tip. A small stretch of claw is regular sized at the end of the elongated portion. Tapping my right claw against it I find that I can push from the right but there is significant resistance. Even pushing as hard as I can I find it nearly impossible to move. Hoping my claw wont be severed I move the entire claw through the distortion at an angle. All of the claws on my left hand are distorted as they pass through the area, It doesn't feel as though anything happened but the visual effect is jarring.

The middle claws on my hand distorting the most and the outer claws only marginally distorting. I grab a nearby fish bone and throw it through the distortion. The same jarring visual effect occurs, the bones seeming to expand and contract in impossible ways. The bones accelerate as they enter the effect. The bone towards the center of the distortion seems to accelerate slowly initially and bone towards the edge of the area accelerate quickly before reaching its final speed. The bone ends up going the same speed across its' length as it exits the area causing it to be shot perpendicular to the plane of what was a sheet of space mana.

*Well, that is interesting.*

Unsure of how long the effect will last I begin throwing bones into it watching them get shot towards the water fall before impacting the water and skipping a few times. As I am throwing bones I notice a bone I didn't throw flying through the air. My single minded focus snaps and I realize all of the lizards are looking at me. My probably crazy looking bone throwing having confused them. Based on the positions of the lizards it appears it was Karack that through the other bone.

*You guys can all join in... its actually kind of fun* I send to them mentally chuckling as the absurdity of my actions hit me. They all have been going about their day as I stare at a hole in the universe before slapping it with a claw and causing it to shatter and evaporate. Then I started throwing fishbones at it causing them to be launched across the grotto.

The distortion acts as a static cannon, we quickly clean what was becoming piles of fish bones. When the bones run out Karack throws caution to the wind and leaps into the distortion. The bones having been primarily linear had a very strange effect. The distortion of Karack going through the area is orders of magnitudes more strange. His limbs undulate around his head as he goes face first into the area. The four limbs and his tail look like a jumble of spaghettis around the central wedge shaped head. The stark contrast from the bones going through to Karack going through gives me pause for a moment.

He shoots out the other end and splashes into the pool by the waterfall. His swimming capabilities have improved a lot in such a short time. The webbing of his folded wings allowing him to easily power through the water. He lacks the mobility underwater that Limaea has but is a good deal faster in a straight line. Where Limaea used finesse to launch herself from the pool Karack uses pure power. The water being sucked up behind him and splashing down onto the peninsula of rock.

*Karack were you moving your limbs as you jumped in?*, I ask him.

His mirth is very clear as he responds, *Yes! I was flapping all four of my legs like I was flying!!*

He scrambles out of the small pool of water he created and lines up to launch himself again. The other lizards seem to all be content watching. Mektha moved forwards as he was lining up and began closely inspecting the area. She stretched her body to reach the distorted area and as her nose came close her head started to be slowly pulled towards it. Her head snapped back to the left as she recognized what was happening and pulled away from the distortion, putting far more than he required effort into the motion.

As Mektha jerks her head away Karack takes off running. He bounds across the small ledge and leaps using his back legs as a spring board. His front legs extend out snapping his wings out to either side. Karack's body is accelerated briefly before coming to a complete halt half way through distortion. He hangs in mid air front legs splayed out to the side with extended wings, rear legs stretched back behind him from launching off them.

He is held there for a moment as the distortion seems to unravel. His head appears smaller than normal initially and his shoulders are much larger than they should be. The distortion unraveling causes the proportions to snap to their original size before his head grows slightly in size and shoulders shrink to a slightly smaller size. This growing and shrinking effect reverses a few times. Each time the magnitude of distortion is significantly less. The entire thing looks like the space of the area is bouncing between compressed and expanded before finally settling in an unaltered state.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Gravity takes hold of him as the bouncing proportions stop and he lightly impacts the ground. The wet slap of his belly hitting the ground is the only sound as the rest of us watch him. He lays there for a moment as my concern for his well being grows. I watch as his head turns towards me, a sparkle in his eyes. The feeling of joy explodes from him, washing over me, as he jumps back to his feet. He looks at up me clearly expecting me to do something.

*Are you okay?*

*Yes! Make another!!!* His response not surprising me as his body language gave him away.

*It took me a significant amount of time to make that. It would take me a long time to make another of the same. We will make another, but not right now*, I respond, feeling like a parent telling their child 'No.'

His disappointment is evident as he hangs his head and turns away. He only goes a few steps before plopping down at the edge of the water and swirling his front leg in it. The hilarity of the 'petulant child' playing out in front of my eyes makes me chuckle. The low rumbling of my chest and throat surprising me again.

*I keep forgetting that I can make actual sounds, I've been stuck communicating in my head for what seems like such a long time without the ability to physically speak. I'll have to add that to my ever growing list of 'things I need to explore'*

I move so I can see out of the waterfall attempting to locate the sun and judge the time of day. The orb of bright light is easy to find as it continues its trek down through the sky. I estimate that there is an hour or so before it reaches the tops of the trees and begins to throw the world into darkness. I slip into the water swimming towards the waterfall before I remember the giant child. I stick my head into the raging water falling from above, flicking my aura sight up as my second eyelids instinctively snap shut The child is still there, now laying on its' side instead of sitting. I can't hear it over the raging waterfall to tell if it is still crying. The childs' presence causes me massive anxiety as I think of the possible outcomes again. My hope that the child leaves on their own is almost entirely dashed by their continued presence.

*It's going to be dark soon, this child has no shelter and there are probably still some wolves out there. I can't just leave them to the elements and potential death. That feels wrong, but it would also lead to even more problems with the Giants as a whole. Hopefully they decide to go back home soon.*

I dip back into the grotto and walk up the eastern tunnel to the small exit I had crafted previously. The child is laying directly below the exit, their still form rhythmically moving with their breath. It is hard for me to tell through only Aura sight so I move up until I can see down the cliff face. Their eyes are shut, body curled in the fetal position, clearly deeply asleep.

*Shit. There is NO way they are going to leave before dark. I need to do something, but what can I do??*

Ideas start tumbling around in my head but they all center around one thing, 'Can I even communicate with them?'. The anxiety of trying builds as I steel my resolve to trying to telepathically communicate with them. My body can't physically sweat but I still feel as though my hands are becoming slick with nervous perspiration.

*Hello?* My mental voice feels unsure even to myself.

The child stirs in their sleep slightly, giving me hope that they can at least hear me. My initial prodding doesn't rouse them immediately. The idea to try and disguise my mental voice snaps into my head, feeling like a gut reaction instead of a mental one. The feeling is strange, I know it came from me but it feels like it is some sort of skill or ability instead of a natural thought. I immediately think of the WIS threshold and realize that the attribute is probably worth investing in more. Going with the intuitive nudge, I try to disguise me mental voice as a wise old man. Even as I send the thought I can tell that it comes across not as wise, but as creepy.

*Hello young one!* I watch as the child jerks at the slightly louder thought. Their eyes snapping open as I continue. *Why are you sleeping by my pond?*

The child claws at the ground as I finish speaking, they snap up to a sitting position before jumping onto their feet. I can't see their eyes from my perch but I can see as they nervously move their head back and forth. Their shoulders are hunched forwards arms held in front of their chest. Even from this distance I can feel the anxiety blasting off them. I watch as they slowly relax their shoulders dropping down and back as they drop their arms down to their sides. Their head begins slowly scanning the forest, the quick harsh motions replaced by a slow steady motion. The anxiety coming off of them in waves slowly diminishes as their body language changes.

*Can you hear me?* I send in the wise... creepy old man voice.

I watch the child's head jerk to the pond, staring into the water as their body goes rigid again. Their hands tighten slightly at their sides with muscles tensing. I wait hoping that the child will respond in some way. Anxiety blasting off them again but this time it is not alone, fear and wonder come with it. The feeling of wonder catches me off guard.

*Why would this child be feeling wonder when everything else points to terror? Telepathy must be a rare thing. I'm impressed that they can even feel wonder with the level of anxiety that I can feel from them.*

*HELLO!?* The mental old man scream makes the child jump back a full pace.

"S-s-sorry!", The child's meek voice escapes their lips as they collect themselves, "Please don't hurt me Sir Marquart!"

*I will not hurt you young one! I am sorry for my gruff response, I was afraid that I was going unheard!* I send much more softly, trying to also send feelings of security and safety.

"Th-thank you Sir!" Their response sounds much more confident now. The deepness of their voice surprises me. I expect a smaller and higher pitched voice, but their voice is much deeper than I expect. The unexpected voice causes me to wonder if maybe this isn't actually a child.

*It is getting dark, the forest is full of dangerous predators! You need to go home to safety!*

"I will leave your pond if you wish sir. I won't go back to them though!.. Sir! I can find another spot to sleep" The child doesn't move to leave but their tense posture relaxes as we continue to converse.

The realization that if I can't convince this child to go home then I would just be sending them to die where I can't see them dying hits me. The thought sits poorly with me causing me to fall into analysis paralysis.

*The Giants terrify me. They killed Karack's mate as well as another lizard. They tried to find me after seeing me fly around but they haven't hurt me. They view the lizards as food so I can't hold that against them. I terrorized the rabbits when I found them and have done what would probably classified as a genocide... genocides on the fish. I wonder if I can at least find out more from this child before deciding if I'm okay with them dying due to my inaction.*

"Hello?" The now much smaller voice searches out from the child.

*Yes, sorry! I was lost in thought.* My old man voice being played again, it feels different even to myself though. *Why did you call me Marquart?*

"Because that is your name, the ghost of the pond Sir Marquart the Fisherman.", their response coming with conviction.

*Wow, what a fucking name.*

"There are two of you!?" The voice exclaims excitedly.

Realizing my internal thought had been an external thought I mentally face palm. *I just managed to change a ghost story by being careless, impressive.* Being careful not to project anymore unintended thoughts.

*Yes, but I don't like to speak to people* I send in my normal mental voice, changing to my attempt at an old man voice *They are just shy! Tell me more about myself, I love hearing my own story told to me by others!*

"Oh, that makes sense, I get shy too! You want me to tell you the... your story? Um, okay!" The child's voice gaining a large dose of confidence, "My mommy told me this story a while ago so sorry if I get some details wrong. A long long time ago, like a really long, you were a fisherman at this pond. You had a small boat that only fit you and mommy said you would go and fish all day and you didn't like people so you spent most of the night fishing too! My mommy said that you were really bad at fishing and never caught anything one day you went to fish and there was a bright flash in the sky. When the town came to find out what happened the pond was gone, and a BIG BIG hole was where the pond was, the hole was really deep and nobody could see the bottom. They could all hear you moaning from the bottom of the hole. The town people ran back to town to get rope to try and get you out of the hole. They tied it all together and started to let some one down but the water started rising again they went really far down but still couldn't get down to you before the water filled up the hole! Mommy said the bright flash was you being cursed for being mean to everyone in town, but some people said it was you casting magic that bounced back on you! I think you were casting fishing magicks though, that is a lot cooler after all. The next day the pond had filled back up and the creek was running again there were so many fish though! That's why I think you casted a spell you must have succeeded and made all the fish appear! Mommy says that you were cursed to be a ghost at the bottom of the pond and that you sit down at the bottom in your boat with all of the fish swimming around you that you cant catch. The curse gave the town endless fish and you endless misery. I don't think that's true though, I don't like that you don't get to catch any fish!"

I knew even when asking that the story would be like a run-on sentence. Based on the child's rapid breathing I can tell the only reason they stopped talking was a need for oxygen. I can't even fully digest the story the child speaks so quickly, leading me to let the silence hang. It wasn't my intention but the child took that as me telling them to continue.

"I just don't get it though why would you be cursed? Who cursed you? You just wanted to fish and they cursed you? That's mean! That's why I think you really were doing a big spell and the spell just messed up. You wanted to fish to bring everyone fish so you really came out here practicing the big spell and it worked! We get all of our food from you! We just walk to the creek reach in and the fishes just swim into your hand there are so many!", the child pauses again. This time it seems to be a pause because they ran out of things to say and not oxygen.

I let out a raucous mental laugh to break the silence, *You are smart! Of course it was a spell to make the fish!*, I say in my old man voice. Connecting the dots as the child continued to talk of this ghost story to the massive magical construct at the base of the pond. *When I lived in the town all those years ago we never had fish, I really liked fish as you know! So I started learning a spell and cast it to create the fish for you to eat! It is really a shame that people think I was just some no good fisherman that deserved to be cursed though!*

"I know!", The child's exclamation cutting through the air.

*So can you do me a favor then?*

"Um, well I can try! I don't know if I'll be able to though!", Thier responses are full of energy but they seem unsure.

*Can you go back to the town and tell them I wasn't cursed?*, I send back to them trying to make it seem like is really important to me. *I don't want to be remembered poorly.*

"I think I can make it back before it gets dark!", The child starts moving back into the trees.

The area around the pond is relatively clear of vegetation. As they walk away I can tell that they must have injured their left leg recently. They only briefly put weight on the leg, giving them a noticeable limp. As they reach the bushes on the North side of the pond they stop and turn their head back towards the pond.

"I'll come back tomorrow to let you know how it goes!", They yell over their shoulder as they step into the thick vegetation and it closes behind them.

*Fuck. I didn't think that one through, of course they are going to want to come back and talk to their new ghost friend! fuck fuck fuck. Well I guess what's done is done.* I exhale a massive sigh at my ability to mess it up spectacularly. A small plume of breath is unintentionally released with the sigh, the purple smoke drifting down the cliff wall and dissipating after a short distance.

*Will they even be able to make it back?* The thought smashes into me, the realization that the child has a bad limp and it is already getting dark. Our conversation having taken more time then I realize. The shadows are growing long and the sun isn't even visible over the canopy anymore. I pick myself up and leap from the cave, snapping my wings out and down. The difference in my wings is immediately apparent, the difference is so much more than just what I noticed while swimming. My wings feel light, not weightless, but close compared to how they used to feel. It is as though three quarters of the mass is just gone.

*What makes it so much lighter? The membrane portion was the only visible change, that could be roughly that much weight. Nothing else seems to have changed. Is the new flesh... is it even flesh?*

My body takes over at a subconscious level, bringing me up into the canopy of the trees. I can't go nearly as fast, having to dodge branches, but it makes me feel much more concealed. I quickly catch up to the child as I think about my wing changes.

*It must be that the flesh of the membrane is no longer an actual substance but is some how made of Space mana. That would explain the similarity with the contraction and expansion feeling. I wonder if I could leverage that expansion and contraction in air like I did in water. That could allow me to glide indefinitely.* An image of me effortless gliding through the sky forms in my mind.

The child's pace has slowed down significantly, the darkness engulfing the forest has made them slow to being painfully slow, the limp has become worse as well. I notice the left steps each being followed by a grunt of pain. Trying to remember how far away the town was from my short flight above the trees I guess we are no more than half way there. I feel that estimation is being liberal with how far we have actually traveled. My thoughts center around trying to figure out how far we have to go, swirling around in a whirlpool of self doubt.

The darkness having fully swallowed the forest at this point I max out my Aura sight. The familiar sights meet me, the distant swarms of small auras being flown through by much larger Auras, the sleeping animals in the canopy as well as the ground, and the other nocturnal animals beginning to move around.

My vision is not bad during the day, but the clarity with which I see the world in Aura sight always gives me a sense of comfort. I can see an animal through even just leaves with normal vision, but with Aura sight I can seem them through solid rock. It has always been the most powerful tool in my arsenal allowing me to survive things that otherwise would have killed me.

*I really should spend more time out flying in the night. The night is so much more enjoyable than the day, the sounds of the forest are calm instead of cacophonous and the air is so much nicer. Aura sight letting me see everything just adds even more to that. I wonder if all celestial dragons enjoy the night as much as I do.*

We continue moving at a slow pace through the forest. The child doesn't seem to be that adept at moving through the forest, but that could just be that it is a dark night and clouds now cover most of the sky. I continue slowly flying behind the child, dropping down below the canopy to allow for easier flying. The darkness of the cloudy night allowing me to feel fully concealed.

I begin testing my wings, contracting and expanding different areas of the wings. Initially I contract the front edge and expand the trailing edge. I expect this to operate in the same way it does underwater, but find that the effect in air is almost non-existent. Wanting to test it fully I continue to fly with this configuration for a short while, what I notice is my wings gliding easier through the air. The lightened load coupled with the contraction and expansion of space makes it feel as though it only takes a fifth of the energy to bring my wings up.

I notice that when I bring them down, to gain altitude or speed, I seem to get a bit more for the same effort. Wanting to test if it's just my mind playing tricks, I release the contraction. Immediately it feels like I lightly applied the brakes and every movement through the air is just slightly more difficult. Realizing now that what I initially disregarded as almost non-existent, was a in fact noticeable difference. The speed increase as well as the efficiency increase begins to make me feel like I made the right choice.

I focus on condensing the contraction on each wing to a smaller area towards the center. Each wing feels like it has a bulge in the center when I do this. The wing doesn't appear to be any different visually. The point of contraction is mirrored by a point of expansion on the trailing edge of the wing. Making the assumption that the effect is therefore limited to only the center of each wing I begin to test the effect. I raise my wings up, the folding motion and upwards movement feels incredibly smooth.

It takes a moment for me to get the mental image correct and apply it, but I keep my left wing contracted in the center and contract the entire front edge of my right wing. I notice the difference instantly, I begin turning left slowly. My wings both extended to my sides the instant feedback letting me know that contracting the entire edge causes much more forward acceleration. The first flap of my wing shows me that the central contraction allows me to move the wing up with far less energy.

I begin testing how quickly I can change between the two I find I can do it quite quickly if I am trying to make both wings the same. I practice as I follow behind the child and after only a handful of minutes I find myself doing it with minimal intentional thought. After realizing how much I improved my flight with just a few minutes of testing I continue to test points of contraction. After a few more minutes I find that I am not limited to having my contraction and expansion points being mirrored, I can move either in physical relation to it's polar opposite.

This movement of the two points allows me to find an interesting reaction where both of them are next to each other on the top of my wing. This configuration causes my wings to rotate towards the point of contraction. This allows me to slowly pitch my body without changing the rotational angle of my wings. My experimentation gives me another surprise that makes me giddy with excitement.

System Message: Skill Flight Rank 1 -> 2

The act of flying is instantly easier, I felt before that I was proficient in flying but now I realize I was so wrong. It is the micro adjustment of different muscles during different parts of flying that stick out the most. Actions that previous were strenuous become much easier, the small adjustments causing my stamina drain for flapping my wings to half again. Each flap only taking roughly one percent of my stamina now. My increased constitution as well as the use of Space affinity has dropped my flying stamina drain already and the skill increase causing it to feel almost trivial. Gliding now allows me to slowly regain stamina as well and if I contract the entire front edge the altitude and speed loss are greatly diminished too.

*Well then. That was worth the trip by itself. My fears surrounding more giant interaction have certainly hindered my growth in this area. I'm surprised I don't feel worse about that though... I love flying but it just doesn't feel super relevant right now compared to my other abilities.*

Scanning the area close to the child as that thought rolls through my head brings me back to the present. Scanning even further out and not seeing anything I decide to fly up through the canopy to check our progress. Crashing through the thick canopy I find myself flying above a sea of trees. The air above is noticeably colder than the air below. In the distance I can see the lights of the town and behind us I can see the trees on top of the cliff. I quickly realize we are only a little more than half way to the town. My heart sinks as I realize how far we still have left to go. Then I hear a sound that makes my heart drop through my stomach, a loud and clear howl from the East.

Dropping through the canopy towards the child I can see they have picked up their pace, taking many more hits from branches in the process. I continually check to the east, hoping the wolves don't come this way. My hope is quickly shattered as two wolf shaped Auras appear within my Aura sight range. This attempt at quick movement goes on for a short while before the child's increased haste causes them to trip over an unseen log. I look to the East as the child picks themselves up off the ground. The wolves have covered easily half of my Aura sight range in that time and they seem to be heading directly towards us. I look between the wolves and the child a few times trying to decide what to do.

Leaving the child to their fate crosses my mind briefly, the thought causing shame to flood my body. Knowing I would have a difficult time forgiving myself for not trying I decide I have to do something.

I begin preparing as I glide behind the child, my space bag snaps open in front of me. The bag's opening faces up towards the stars and I push my head slightly into the bag before releasing a slow stream of liquid breath. The bag fills quickly and I snap it shut sealing the liquid breath inside. I begin crafting advanced missiles, using my forelegs to hide the slight glow of the missiles. When I complete the fourth missile, maxing my current capacity, I turn towards the wolves and begin beating my wings hard.

Gaining as much speed as I can as I hurtle towards the wolves I find myself traveling at speeds that begin to slightly scare me. The massive trees being spaced far apart feel close at this speed. I close the distance in what feels like only a minute but the rush of dodging trees at high speed gives the impression that my estimation of time could easily be wrong. I slow as I approach the wolves, watching to see if they seem to notice my approach.

Neither wolf looks up as I fly over them, being so high up that I am almost in the canopy of the trees seems to have allowed me to get here unnoticed. I slowly turn above them, matching their slow pace as I come around. I begin slowly dropping altitude as I close the gap between them and myself. I check on the child and see that the wolves have covered easily a third of the remaining distance to the child in my mad dash to them.

I move all four of the missiles so that they are between my shoulder blades hoping this keeps them hidden. I extend my space bag to the maximum range and continue dropping altitude. My slow and steady descent allows me to be unseen, but as I get close I am forced to used my wings to slow down. The wolf on the right hears this and immediately turns, my plans ruined by momentum, I react.

The wolves mouth is slightly ajar and I decide to leverage that by shoving my folded space bag into its' mouth and unfolding it. The liquid breath pours out, the dark purple liquid filled with small pinpricks of light spills from the wolf's mouth. The pain causing the wolf to jump back as more liquid breath pours from the bag. A cloud of dark purple explodes outwards from the liquid as it evaporates into its' gaseous state creating a smoke screen between me and the wolves.

I can see from the wolf's Aura that it is probably dead, darkness from the liquid breath filling the entire Aura of the wolf's head. Dark thick veins fill the body of the wolf's aura as its' cries of pain begin. It continues moving away from me and the Space bag but the damage is done. The second wolf only hesitates for a moment watching its' companion before it howls, loudly. The pure volume of the howl at this range causing my head to pound.

Taking the opening I launch two of the missiles at its' raised lower jaw. The missiles leap across the distance but not before the wolf begins to bring its' head back down. The first missile impacts its' upper jaw just below the nostril burying itself into the tissue and bone before imploding. This creates a hole in the wolf's snout that the second missile enters, slightly higher than the first. The second missile finishes what the first started, blasting into the jaw bone before it implodes as well. The core rod of mana being driven into the bone and blasting outwards, the right side of the wolf's upper jaw is obliterated by the second missile.

The wolf's tongue begins hanging out of the side of its snout as the container that was its mouth is catastrophically damaged. Even though the pain must be horrible the wolf still goes on the offensive. It leaps towards me, mostly clearing the growing cloud of breath as it lands in front of me. Its paws and lower legs go through the breath, the brief contact causing dark veins to appear in its legs. The veins are far to small to do real damage but do seem to sap some of the wolves speed and leg strength.

The wolf's ferocity surprises me for a moment before I let loose my last two missiles. They leap off my back straight at the wolves head. Even from the close range the wolf is able to throw itself to the left, the first missile manages to graze its right shoulder but the second goes wide. The realization that I won't be able to get out of its range by flying up hits me and it fills me with terror. Snapping my wings down hard I dive forwards, attempting to fly by the wolf as I aim for my cloud of breath. As I begin moving forwards my mouth opens and I allow breath to roll from it. The liquid covers my head and shoulders as I fly forwards. Even as it hangs to me it evaporates, causing a trail of gaseous breath to follow my flight.

My left wing explodes with pain as my forward flight quickly becomes sideways falling as the wolf crashes into me. The massive momentum of the wolf supersedes my forward momentum. As my body folds around the point of impact I see it's lower right canine puncturing my left wing. The only reason it didn't bite through my wing was its missing jaw above that canine. If I had been even a millisecond faster it would've bitten through me with the still complete portion of its jaw.

System message [-30] Health {Piercing}

Our movement continues as I, now moving backwards, ragdoll off the wolfs' lower jaw. The liquid breath sticking to its fur as it continues to spill out of my mouth. Thick veins of darkness begin shooting through its aura as it lands. I manage to get both of my legs pressed against its lower jaw, claws sinking easily into its skin and bone. Using this as leverage I push myself up and off the canine, without it holding me up in the air I begin to fall away from the wolf. As I fall beneath it I unleash the full power of my breath. The full exhale causing a solid stream of dark purple liquid to spray up and impact the bottom of the wolfs' head.

I slam into the ground, the base of my tail and hips impacting first. The force of the impact whips my head backwards. The fountain of liquid breath has begun falling, causing a small misting rain of liquid breath to fall around me. The last thing I see is dark rain falling around me as my head rebounds off the hard ground. The force impact causing my head to bounce as pain shoots through me.

System message [-10] Health {Blunt}

Is the last thing I see as the world is ripped from my vision.