Fortunately, no line had formed at the outhouse. The Ongocks had their chamber pots in the house while the hunters and their families were well accustomed to doing their business outdoors in the fresh air.

Who would want to trap themselves in a small box over a hole of human waste when they could do it naturally out in the open air?

Renalia, though, had used it whenever she could.

Now that she hunted with Lexi and Donaldson, it represented her only way to get some private time. The only place she could practice materializing the images of ten Cards of her choosing.

She could display ten in a row by now, lined up squarely next to each other. But any lapse in concentration would cause the later Cards to shift to their true position. Not knowing how long they would need to read and record her Cards, she continued practicing.

Likely shorter than others, since six of her Cards were a repeat of the first one. But she had two uncommons, which was, well, very uncommon. If the baron and the representative from the Order of Cards engaged in a discussion about it, it could take much longer than usual.

So she kept visiting the outhouse, no matter how unpleasant the experience.

As soon as she closed the door, she activated [Bogling Echo]. A chittering emitted unbidden from her throat. Suddenly, she could sense her surroundings. She could “see” the box she stood in. Not restricted to in front of her but all around. Top, bottom, even to the back.

She gasped in surprise and started coughing as she had snorted in some of the disgusting air. Focusing on breathing through her mouth, she recalled what had happened.

It only lasted a second and did not show as much detail as her eyes currently did. Nothing about the roughness of the planks or the gaps between them. And the perspective–the seeing all around at the same time–had made her dizzy. It had taken some time to make sense of the “image” that she “saw”.

But it was so cool!

That settled it. She quickly [Delete]d [Bogling Nose]. She didn’t even want to use her regular human nose now. That Card vanished and the four to the right of it shifted over.

And on her Core Card, which she had mostly ignored up to now, a “1” appeared on the bottom of the card, centered. Some cards track the seconds of activation stored on the bottom left, while others track the number of remaining activations on the bottom right.

She had never heard of a number appearing in the middle of any Cards though. And certainly never about activations increasing these numbers instead of decreasing them.

But she smiled, for it certainly tracked something. It meant her Core wasn’t broken, just different.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

She quickly added [Bogling Strength] to her Deck, feeling her muscles swell for a second with an activation. She used [Delete] on [Bogling Chew]. Somehow, with the release of the worries about her Core Card, deleting a Card and seeing the “2” brought her a lot of satisfaction. Even more than adding the strength ability she always wished for.

She followed up by adding [Bogling Dodge] to make her Deck full again. But she refrained from activating it, though, not trusting a new movement ability in a confined space. Especially not one with a big hole of poop in the middle.

She didn’t mind the delay in exploration. This had been such a good day. And she could meet her parents for dinner too! Now that the shame of a broken Deck had disappeared, she couldn’t wait to share with them the details.

She rushed out of the outhouse and stopped short, surprised at the presence of Shim, Lexi, and Boogie, apparently waiting for her.

“Well, it looks like someone made a big deposit.”

She and Lexi groaned at the same time. Then they laughed as they had the same reaction at Shim’s gross attempt at a joke. Shim looked disappointed at the turn of events, which made it even better.

Ha, thought Renalia, I have friends now too!

“Um,” Shim muttered as he petted Boogie. “I was thinking you could take Boogie with you when you go to the other side of the village. He so rarely gets to explore the other side. And he could walk with you.”

Oh! Oh, now I feel bad for laughing at you.

“Yeah, sure. Thanks.”

“No, thank you. For taking Boogie.”

“Right. Er, welcome.”

Lexi coughed beside them. “Well, speaking of awkward conversations. Renalia, could I walk with you a bit?”

Shim left them and they walked a couple of seconds in silence before Lexi said, “So about the birds and the bees…”

“Huh?” Renalia looked at Lexi quizzically.

“Ah, Donaldson mentioned you had a question about where babies come from?”

“Oh, I already know about that from Myfanwy.”

“Ah, yes! Of course! The midwife’s the perfect person to ask. She works with them all the time. I mean, not ‘work with them’ but you know what I mean.” Lexi rambled but seemed very happy she could avoid talking about sex.

“So, uh, no other questions?”

“No. I think Donaldson was playing a prank on you.”

“Argh! I knew it! That bastard!” Lexi stomped off while muttering under her breath.

From what Renalia could hear, it sounded like Lexi was testing out various curses to inflict on her brother.

Looking at Boogie, she asked, “Run?” Dinner time had already started, and she wanted to spend as much time with her parents as she could. The wolfhound looked eager at the prospect. Or perhaps he got excited whenever someone talked to him. She supposed it didn’t matter.

They ran. She couldn’t wait to tell Mama and Papa everything. About Boogie and Penny. About the bouncing bog. About Lexi’s shield and Donaldson’s lance. About her Cards and boglings. Maybe not the almost dying part, though. She didn’t want to worry her parents.