Yuki stared at Bee, and the girl stared right back. Crusted snot trailed from the girl’s nose to her cheek. Her eyes were puffy and still red from crying. There were graze wounds on the girl’s hands, knee, and forehead. Bee looked skinnier than Yuki remembered; back then, the girl was already too skinny.
“I need your help,” Yuki said for the third time. Whisker was between Yuki and Bee. The gray rabbit’s occasional thump and purr did things to Yuki’s heart. Yuki’s human side was aghast, even more so after she had to spit clumps of matted fur, but her rabbit side was content and happy.
Bee shuddered but didn’t start crying again like the last two times. But still, there was no answer.
Was it her pronunciation? Something similar had happened with Jenny. It took a while until the blonde started answering back, and before they switched to the new language, Yuki sometimes had to repeat the same thing a lot of times. “Status,” Yuki called out, checking how many magic points she still had. The goblet had little less than half. This reminded Yuki of when she played that survivor horror game with zombies — the second one, the best of the franchise. Yuki had hoarded all the good ammo the entire game, evading, running away, or, when not possible, killing the zombies with weaker weapons. Then, she had an inventory full of powerful weapons and ammo at the endgame boss, but the boss died on the fourth shot. This made her think of the same situation. Because magic points were hard to restore, her hoarder mode had activated, and she hadn’t noticed it.
Yuki draped herself over Whisker; it wouldn’t do to let the rabbit flee again, afraid of the magic. Under Bee’s ever-widening eyes, Yuki chanted and waved. [Shapechange] took effect, and while the transformation was taking place, Yuki kept Whisker held down. The gray rabbit startled at the popping sound and strange movement of Yuki’s flesh, but when she tried to flee, Yuki had already grown big enough to pin the rabbit down.
Bee gasped and scurried away but didn’t flee and didn’t stop watching.
When the transformation was over, Yuki sat on the rough ground and plopped Whisker on her lap. Her sister resisted until Yuki’s fingers scratched Whisker’s cheeks and the base of her ears. A smile spread on Yuki’s face when she felt Whisker purring under her hands.
Bee’s mouth hung open; the girl opened and closed it but did not say a thing.
“Hi!” Yuki waved. “I’m Yuki, and I need your help finding Jenny.”
The other girl didn’t answer. Instead, she scurried closer, mouth still open. With one wavering finger, she poked Yuki’s cheek, “eep’ing” a few paces back when her finger touched Yuki’s skin. Yuki didn’t mind. She kept a smile on her face and let Bee come to terms with the situation. It hackled a bit that Bee was still bigger than Yuki’s even after the transformation.
A hand touched Yuki’s cheek, and another touched her white hair. “What? But a rabbit? Who? How?” Bee babbled.
Oh, that Yuki understood. The answer was a good old one. She fixed her gaze on Bee and dropped the smile. The other girl stiffened. “Magic,” Yuki said with all the gravitas she could put in her voice. Bee’s eyes were wide as saucers, and her mouth hung open again. Yuki burst out laughing. Bee’s reaction had been even more funny than Jenny’s.
Bee pouted, arms crossed over her chest, looking away from Yuki. It only made Yuki giggle harder. Soon after, Bee started giggling too, which only fueled Yuki’s giggling fit further.
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“Can you help? Find Jenny in a sleeping place.” Yuki asked when she managed to get her giggling under control. It occurred to Yuki that now that she had discarded the hoarder mindset, she still had one experience stack point left, and she could try to learn the local language via an advanced skill. She didn’t remember seeing one on the list but hadn’t explored the full list of available skills.
Bee looked confused. She tilted her head. “Help? Jenny?”
“Tall, yellow hair, blue eyes, pretty,” Yuki said, thinking of her pet. “Magicked to look different. Called Larissa, sleeping place.”
Bee scrunched her nose and scratched her head, then she gasped. “She’s hiding with magic?”
Yuki nodded. That was a reasonable interpretation.
Bee smiled. “Where?”
“Sleeping place, old mean lady boss.” While Bee puzzled that one out, Yuki took a handful of leaves and grass from around and fed them to Whisker. This was so annoying. Why couldn’t they understand each other?
“Sleeping… old lady…” Bee repeated back, still scratching her head. After a while, she shrugged. “Can you take me there?”
Yuki’s cheek burned, and she looked away. “No clothes.” She mumbled.
Bee gasped. “Oh!” Soon after, she added. “Wait here.” After that, the girl got up and ran.
Yuki watched the girl run towards the town. She was sure the girl misunderstood the situation, but Yuki knew the girl would help. She had no idea how she knew that and where that trust came from. Yuki willed the system to display her log messages, but there were no new entries. She looked over the Advanced Skills, but no skill matched her feelings. Yuki looked at the Skills tab. After a brief read, she willed the system to bring the description of one of the entries there.
[Insight](INT+POW): 40
Insight: The ability to read or intuitively understand another’s verbal and non-verbal behavior to determine their motive and state of mind.
That was interesting. Yuki was never good at reading people. She remembered that time in high school when she was crushing on one of her classmates. Yuki had met her boy crush in the library during break and remembered wanting to kiss him but didn’t know if he wanted it back. When the crush tried to steal a kiss, she startled and turned her head away, which killed any future chances. Or that other time, a few years later, when the girl she walked home after school had to slap Yuki’s face with innuendo, so Yuki noticed the girl was interested.
This kind of subtle manipulation of her mind by the system should have freaked Yuki out, but it made her happy instead. Was she on the path to becoming an average human, perhaps? Or maybe an ordinary rabbit.
She was still thinking about it when Bee returned running and panting, holding a shirt and skirt. “Here, wear these,” the girl said between gasps for breath.
Yuki held Whisker to the other girl. “Hold her, please?” With her hands-free, Yuki took the clothes and wore them. They were made for someone bigger; she had to tie a part of the skirt so it wouldn’t fall, and the shirt kept sliding down on her shoulder, but that was fine. Even if Yuki preferred her rabbit body now, transforming into a human again was always a novel experience, even if sometimes uncomfortable. Her hearing was wrong; she couldn’t smell things the same way, and her vision was limited to forward facing view.
Once dressed, she picked Whisker up again and nuzzled her sister. The fur still felt fantastic, if not better, when she was a human. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Bee smiling at the scene.
“We—” Yuki started, then stopped. She closed her eyes and sniffed the air. She took several deep breaths, her heartbeat rising with each one. Amid the now dulled smells of the wild area, she smelled the dirt, the leaves, and manure carried on the wind. Yuki sensed another one. A familiar lemony scent drifted through the undergrowth, chilling her more than the morning breeze. She shot up, looking around. The smell grew more substantial, a predator’s tang. Panic clawed at her throat. She slapped her own face, panic flooding her mind.
“Snakepards!” Yuki grabbed Bee’s hand, ignoring the girl’s confusion. “Run!” She yelled. She had to pull on Bee’s arm, but the bigger girl did not understand their danger. They had taken a dozen hasty steps when a growl sent all the hairs on Yuki’s arm and neck standing. Yuki didn’t look back, and thankfully, Bee had stopped resisting.
They bolted toward the town, something big moving amidst the branches behind them.