Chapter 28

A Small Problem

I felt strange, I started clawing at the mass of cloth that held me in place. I felt it press down on me.

I let out a highly undignified high pitched squeal.

"Will you stop?" I heard a booming voice say from above me. The warm surface I was being pressed against moved and vibrated with the words.

I recognized that voice, and the scent that surrounded me, but my brain wasn't quite working right. The voice belonged to someone I didn't know well, but he was part of… I lost it. I thought I trusted him. But I was scared, I didn't like being held captive, I needed to get free. I squirmed around under the force pressing on me. I tore at whatever my claws could reach.

The place I was being held rocked suddenly.

"Stop that!" The voice boomed. "Your master is fine, here I'll let him out, you don't need to hit me."

I felt something attached to my mind questioning me, it seemed agitated, it was worried about me. I didn't know how to respond, I was bewildered. I just wanted out of whatever was holding me.

The cloth around me pulled back. I saw tall trees around me, everything looked giant. I was being held by a huge green man with long ears.

I knew him, I knew… he was… the owner of that voice. I didn't think he was supposed to be big though. A picture snapped in my head of him, and he seemed a lot smaller than me.

I was so confused.

I made a chittering sound that confused me even more.

It wasn't right, I shouldn't sound like that. I didn't remember what I should sound like, but it wasn't that.

I shook my head. Why couldn't I think? It was like everything was there, I knew things, but I couldn't quite access them. When I tried to reach for the things I should know, they seemed to become even more tangled and distant.

The man's large hands reached for me, he tried to remove me from what I was gripping. I bit him, drawing blood with my sharp fangs. I squealed and chattered at him, no touching!

"Angel, behave yourself, you are tearing my robes." The giant sighed at me."I'm glad you seem to have plenty of energy though. I was worried when you passed out after shifting to that little form."

Shifting? I shifted, yes! That's why things were weird. I shifted… because… a memory of pain wracked my mind.

Something large and wood, but not a tree and very familiar, floated up close to me. It was definitely a friend. I could feel it in my head, it wanted to help me. It didn't understand what was going on any better than I did, but it wanted to comfort me. I felt an idea come from the wooden being, it felt like an echo of my own mind-voice, but I didn't remember it. My staff could carry me home, that was the thought it echoed to me. The fact that it was what the thoughts referred to was clear. I jumped onto it, and climbed to the large knob on the top of it. There was one problem, I didn't remember where home was.

My memories served up a lot of places when I thought of home. None of them were right, none of them existed in this world. I felt a pang of sadness as I realized that the memories were all of homes long gone. The memories shattered into fragments, they, and the pain they carried were swept away out of my reach. It felt like they took other things with them.

I could feel my wooden friend wanting to know what was going on, and what I wanted it to do.

I didn't know.

I needed to think. Thinking was hard.

The long eared giant spoke again. "Ahh that works, I suppose. But why don't you shift back now? We do have things to discuss about the mission, and it would be best if you were yourself before we got to Brightwood."

Shift… back, I felt like I would very much like that. But how? I thought hard, I knew it was something I could do. But everything was a jumble, I tried to remember.

My stomach rumbled, and I forgot what I was thinking about so urgently. Food, I sniffed the air, I needed food. I looked around, the world was so large, why was the world so large?

I was hungry, maybe the green man knew where I could find some food. The world was too big, and I wasn't sure where to look.

I thought at him, I thought hungry thoughts. I knew how to make him hear them… somehow.

"Ah, my dear boy, I'm sorry, I didn't take any rations with me. What do you need to eat in that form? It seems like an odd kind of squirrel? But your teeth and claws are rather sharp."

Food, I was hungry, if the big man was going to help me, he needed to know what I would be able to eat. That should be easy to answer.

I didn't know.

Memories filled my head of past meals. All of them seemed good, even the strange ones from the life-before. Maybe any food was good?

I sent hunger-thoughts again. This time stronger, with taste-memories attached. I heard the giant green man's stomach join mine in rumbling.

"Ahh." He ran a hand down one of his long ears."Perhaps a brief stop for lunch is called for? I'm no hunter, but how hard could it be to find some game?"

The man sighed, looking around. "Will your staff allow me to hold it? I can cast a spell on you and I, to hide our presence, but we won't be able to see each other. We will need to be touching, so we can stay together. Unless you want to stay here while I procure some food."

I had a hard time following the big man's words, my mind was clouding more by the second. But I understood he was talking about food, and that he wanted to be touching, or he'd leave me behind.

I chittered, and shivered, the world was big and scary. I didn't want to be alone.

I jumped from my not-tree friend, I knew it would always find me, I could feel my connection to it.

I landed on my giant friend's arm, and scurried up to his shoulder. I grabbed tight, and sent excited-hungry-food thoughts. My green friend made a funny face.

"Be careful with those claws, I think you broke my skin." He turned his head to try and look at me, I ducked under his ear, holding tighter, so I wouldn't fall.

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"Loosen your grip, what is the matter with you? That hurts." He said, he sounded mad. I lowered my head, I didn't mean to hurt him. But I was scared of being so high up. I shook my head in confusion, everything was high up, why was I scared?

I sent him scared-confused-hungry feelings.

His eyes softened. "I bet that is a scary form to be in, are you having trouble changing back? Is there some limitation on your ability?"

Changing back, I thought feeling confused again. There was something in those words. Something important, I tried really hard to connect them to the important-thing. I closed my eyes.

I wasn't supposed to be this small. I did something, because I got hurt real bad, I did it wrong. Some other-self in my head that I knew wasn't supposed to talk, said I started doing something, and stopped part-way, and part way was bad. That something finished on its own because… I wasn't sure.

Whatever it was, it made me small, and when I thought about it, my head hurt, and I was hungry. I didn't want to deal with head hurting. I wanted food.

I sent more hungry-feelings to the giant man.

"Is it that you need food to change then? Well, spending calories to do something like that would make sense." The green man nodded. "I'm going to cast my cloaking spells now, they cover sight, sound, and odor, but we can still touch things and interact with mana. Some people find it disconcerting to not be able to see or hear themselves." The green man said a whole lot of words.

I understood he would do something with magic, but all the words made my head spin. I remembered that I trusted him. So I decided that I'd just hold on, and go with him.

The giant man moved his arms around, and I felt all tingly. I let out a squeal, but didn't hear it. I squealed as loud as I could, still no sound. I looked down, and couldn't see myself.

Then the green man disappeared under me, but I could still feel him there. I realized this was his magic, it would be so good for sneaking!

I felt him move under me, and we were off into the woods. We went much faster than I expected.

I smelled prey scent to our right, but the invisible green man just kept going forward. I thought about how to get his attention. I gently bit his ear, it was easy to locate, since it had been hanging right in front of me. I was careful not to hurt him. It worked, he stopped.

I repeatedly tugged the cloth under me to the right.

The man turned, I bounced up and down, excitedly.

He walked forward, I felt him vibrating under me like when he talked, but I couldn't hear him.

Through a long series of bites and tugs, I kept him on track for the prey smell.

When we finally found where the smell was coming from, it was an enormous buck. It made my giant friend look tiny.

I felt the man move under me, and I felt a small breeze, and suddenly the buck's head simply disappeared.

I could see myself and my friend again. I stared at the headless deer wide eyed.

"That's rather a lot for the two of us for lunch, but I do have a storage ring, and I'm sure our guildmates will enjoy the venison. I don't suppose you know how to skin a deer do you? It's not in my skill set, I'm afraid. I'm quite certain what I am about to do will have a few of our more worldly members quite cross with me."

He gestured again and was suddenly holding a sword made of white light. I didn't remember why it should, but seeing it made me very happy. I also thought it should be green for some reason.

He used his very-cool light sword to cut off one of the buck's legs, and made the rest disappear.

I watched him use magic a few more times, once to clear a spot, another to flatten it, then again to make wood appear and set it on fire. I found it all very fun to watch. I squeaked with excitement each time. Something about the fire made me feel very frightened, I wasn't sure why. Then he caused a sheet of cloth to appear out of nowhere and sat on top of it.

Then I saw him use magic to make the leg float in midair, and he used more magic to remove its skin. When he set the skin aside, I lept for it. He caught me with a hand that moved faster than I thought he was capable.

"Ah ah ah, wait to eat with me, it's only courtesy." He set me on the ground next to himself.

I chittered angrily, and sent hungry-angry-don't-grab-me thoughts at him.

He held up his hands. "I'm sorry Angel, that was a reflex really. Here I was, speaking of courtesy. Of course it's not alright to grab a person. You have my apologies. You are your own person, and if you wish to risk whatever parasites might be on that skin, it is your choice."

I didn't catch a word of that, but he obviously didn't want me to touch the skin. I thought it must be special to him. So I settled down far away from the fire. Watched the meat spin in the air and drooled a little.

I just watched the food slowly cook, completely dedicated to waiting for the green man to give me some. My mind was empty of anything else.

I heard the green man talk some, but I didn't try to listen. Words were difficult, and confusing, I didn't want to be more confused. If I didn't think about how everything seemed so wrong, everything was fine.

Eventually the meat moved, and the green man produced some plates, he put a piece as big as my belly on one, and set it in front of me. While he cut some larger pieces off for himself.

I ate it in a few bites, and looked at him for more, it felt like the food just disappeared as soon as I ate it.

He looked surprised, but gave me a big piece, the size of my whole body!

I heard him saying words the whole time, but my ability to understand them seemed to have gone away. I didn't worry about it.

I ate that too, and licked the plate. After I finished, I felt very full. I yawned wide.

I found a nice soft spot and curled up into a warm-happy-full ball.

The man made more noises, I recognized annoyed sounds. I looked at him and sent him full-happy-tired-sleep.

He raised his voice a little bit, but his eyes were soft.

I felt something tugging at my mind, demanding my attention before I fell asleep. I couldn't help but pay attention to it.

Error Detected

Analyzing…

System logs show interrupted use of Assume Form.

System Failsafe was initiated.

System Failsafe could not find prior records of form being assumed.

System Failsafe incorrectly used base creature schematics to finish transformation, resulting in impaired cognitive function, inferior statistical load out, and misapplied traits and abilities.

Analyzing Potential Fixes…

System will revert entity to preferred default form (demihuman).

System will delay banked level ups and rewards until the next rest cycle, temporarily removing the leveling cap, and engaging mental protection subroutines.

System will apply (5) compensatory level ups.

System will analyze past distribution, and most recent combat choices for free stats distribution.

System will distribute compensatory bonus of +10 to all attributes

System will deploy temporary mood enhancing subroutines.

System will obfuscate the entity's memory of applied fixes.

System will extend class incentive subroutines to encourage experimentation with Assume Form to prevent future repeat errors.

System will enable entities assistant control of the entity's Assume Form ability, for use in emergencies only.

System will pause entity cognition until changes are applied.

Everything went black.