Chapter 48
Sharing Forms
The moment I opened my eyes to the bright, eternally sunny meadow that existed as Belua's realm, I felt arms wrap around my tiny cub body, and lift me into an embrace.
I let out a surprised squeak, and squirmed a little bit, but the influence of the goddesses Concepts soon had me relaxed and purring. She carried me to her place on the boulder overlooking the meadow, petting me and cooing at me like I was actually the kitten I looked like. It should have felt demeaning, but coming from Belua, and in this place, it was anything but.
She held me for a while before she spoke, letting me enjoy the feeling, all the questions I had for her fled my mind in her presence.
"I have a request for you, little one, and an offer." She moved me so that I could observe the fact that we were not alone on her rocky seat.
There was a young human boy sleeping curled up in a fetal position with his thumb in his mouth. He had a miniature set of the forest green robes with gold trim that I had barely been in the state of mind to notice the keeper at the temple wearing.
The other being on the rock took the form of an exceedingly fluffy gray and white young feline with large black spots, who was sitting with his long black tipped bottle brush tail wrapped over his gigantic fur padded paws. His icy blue eyes looked on with intelligence as he took in my interaction with the goddess with extreme interest. I recognized his status as a fellow spirit beast instinctively.
"Hello'" I sent to him, hesitantly.
"Your mind speech is muddy, are you as young as you look in this place?" His mental voice was clear, and powerful, with no emotional spillover.
"Sort of? But not really, it's hard to explain, I just don't have much practice." I felt inadequate, I was sure he felt that too.
"It is fine, you will learn in time. Now listen to, and accept the mother's offer. I wish to achieve a new form tonight, and there is hardly enough time to learn it properly." This time he intentionally allowed some impatience through with his words, along with a slight amusement at my ineptitude.
I looked at Belua, and she seemed to realize I was ready to hear her. She could probably overhear the mind speech, if I was to have a guess.
"This human child is the keeper that misbehaved at the temple tonight. I wish to allow him to see through the eyes of a beast, and live as one for the night. Since he seems to have such disregard for them. It is not much as punishment goes, but I am not a punishing sort, I would prefer to teach."
She paused and lifted me up so she could whisper quietly into my ear.
"By the way, the answer to one of your questions is, I am more than fine with you calling me by name. The more they insist I not be named, the lighter my name sits in my Concepts. I do not want to become the nameless mother, and I fear that is a path that has started. If it continues thusly, it will become fact. Remember, always, our Concepts form who we are when we lack a physical existence. This is as true for contractors as it is for gods. Mind the impressions your lives leave behind, if you are careless, you may find yourself remade in an image that reflects your Legend instead of who you really are. Never take a contract that does not match your attitudes. Threaten to find a different agent if you must, it is an option you can ask the System for now that it has its hooks in you."
She lowered me back to her lap, and spoke in a more normal voice.
"The request is this, I want to place the keeper's consciousness into the form you have taken in my realm. It is easily done, and is not even something that requires consent. But I will ask you anyway, as it is my preference. I think it is best if his taste of animal nature comes in the form of the one he used my power to suppress. I will have words with him during this time, don't you worry. I will give use of his form to our friend here, who desires use of a form with hands. You, I will put in our fine friend's form, so you may acquire it for yourself. He is what is known as a snowy mountain prowler. His form should work wonderfully with your air or water cores. It is in his kind's nature to control the snow, ice, or cold wind around them, depending on the mana types that caused the development of their core."
She smiled brightly, she definitely had observed what had been going on with me, so it was of no surprise to either of us when I nodded eagerly at the offer before she even described its usefulness.
She gently tapped me on the forehead, and I was suddenly the one seated looking at my youthful body as it squirmed in her arms, looking exceptionally frightened and confused.
The human boy stirred, and clumsily pushed himself into a sitting position, while looking over his body with keen interest.
I felt… not terribly different from my Mana Beast self. There were slight differences, like how warm I felt, and how my eyes worked to adjust to the light. But otherwise it was so similar, I might as well not have changed. Belua seemed to have her hands full with the keeper, who she appeared to be having problems calming, even with her Concepts working on him.
So I hopped off the boulder, flicking my long tail after an easy landing. I supposed I would go play like usual, no better way to experience any differences that may exist than by using the body.
"A little help, child?" I heard as I was about to wander off.
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I looked up, to see the cat-in-a-boy's-body trying to lower himself, his feet were dangling a foot off the ground, and he seemed hesitant to let go.
I walked under him, so his bare feet touched my thickly furred back. I knew somehow that I would be strong enough to take his weight. He let himself drop, and ended up riding my back like a horse.
"Thank you, twice, once for your needs allowing me this opportunity, and once for the help."
I laid down to make it easier for him to remove himself from me. Being ridden was somewhat amusing as a ram, but utterly undignified as a cat. The difference in my own emotional reaction came as a slight shock. I knew my body influenced my reactions to some things, but this laid bare how different it could be.
My tail twitched in irritation as he slowly, clumsily dismounted. I was sorely tempted to swat him.
"I suppose I should thank you a third time for your patience. This body is so very strange. The goddess said you were a shifter by class, have you a form like this?"
I nodded. "Demihuman" I sent, along with a picture of my form in the mirror.
"That is an interesting place, tell me, do you live in a city?" When he said city, he sent me a picture of Brightwood itself.
"Do you live near there?" I asked, referencing the image he sent.
"I have seen it grow from a small outpost to a thriving city, though now it seems so empty. I look in on it from time to time when I feel like venturing out of my territory for a while. I live deep in the mountains. Is that where you are?"
"Yes, be careful, if you head close, there is apparently a wendigo around." With the word wendigo, I sent everything I knew about the creature.
"Ahh, one of the starving dead made its way out of the mountains? Do not worry for me, I have dealt with much bigger threats of late. I find the starving dead to be horribly wasted meat at worst when they make the mistake of heedlessly straying into my territory." He sounded a little smug as he sent images of all sorts of undead horrors, and one fiery wolf that made the one I had fought look like a newly weaned puppy. Along with the horribly rotten taste, and stringy texture he associated with the starving dead.
I gulped.
"It is always so in the deep mountains, do not visit until you are much stronger if the starving dead intimidate you, cub. Though I might save you as thanks for your help if you do. Oh! Perhaps I will visit you, with this new form I could blend in well. It would be interesting to see the inside of the place where the humans live." He hummed to himself, the first vocalization he'd made.
"The guards will know what you are. It may cause a stir." I sent, with a memory of my introduction to Brightwood.
"Oh my, that sounds dreadful. I would ask that you introduce me, since you seem to have found a place for yourself there, if I did not already owe you." He didn't sound like he dreaded meeting the guards, it felt like he would be highly amused if they attempted to stop him.
"Perhaps you can help me." I ventured, if this creature was going to insist that he owed me, I was not about to decline . "My mind speech isn't the only thing I lack experience with, it would have to wait until after the end of the month. We could set a place to meet, closer to the town. I would appreciate any lessons someone like you could grant me. Then afterwards, I could introduce you to the guards… it would save you some trouble." I offered, it would be good for my contract if I could introduce someone like him to human society peacefully.
"That sounds agreeable, though, do not think me the type to stay among those weaklings. I am not a guardian beast, meant to defend the territory of my lessers for paltry tithes. I was a cub when this world was young. Aquiring a human form is a passing fancy for me, nothing more. Now, go cub, play in my form as you intended. Learn it well, it will strengthen you to possess it, of that I am sure. When you wish to meet, ask the goddess, I am certain she will invite me here again on your request. You do bear the mark of her interest on your very soul."
That was a dismissal if I ever heard one, so I eagerly trotted off to go find targets to play with.
As I moved, I noticed a change in how the mana responded to me. It had been still in the presence of the goddess, but as I moved away, it began to come alive around me. I was so used to how the air would dance and spiral through my fur that I barely noted it anymore. It still danced and played, but its tone had changed, when it flowed through my fur, it seemed to be making playful attempts to nip at me. The water mana seemed slower, and more jagged, when it reached me, it clung to me and the things around me stiffly, it completely lacked its usual flow.
As I walked, I realized that I was having a slight effect on the world around me. The grass crunched under my paws, and almost all of the children in the meadow seemed to veer off when they came close.
It was actually quite some time before I encountered anyone willing to come near me. It was a white bear cub, his breath came out in huge gouts of steam as we wrestled. When we parted, the poor cub was shivering slightly. Perhaps, I was forced to consider, I was having more than a slight effect.
The snowy mountain prowler form seemed to carry winter along with it. I felt just as toasty as could be, but if I stood still long enough, everything within five feet of me became covered in a thin layer of frost. I wasn't even channeling mana, the form appeared to be elemental by nature. I supposed that was true of my elemental squirrel, and stormhorn ram forms as well. Maybe that was what I needed to really want to learn a form. That did make me wonder about that tree that I had never felt the need to try shifting to.
Eventually I got the message that the others mostly found my presence to be uncomfortable, and trotted off to play alone.
Since real targets were unavailable I stalked, chased, and pounced on imaginary ones. I took the opportunity to leap, and catch a stray leaf that I saw carried on the breeze. Eventually Belua must have noticed my activity, and decided to help because an oversized ball of yarn appeared out of thin air near me. I smirked at the choice of targets, then proceeded to try to kill my new foe.
Any thoughts about how silly the activity was were overwhelmed by my instincts. I lost myself in the pure joy of playing. I wrestled with that ball of yarn for hours. I took great joy in pouncing on it, and rolling with it, then tossing it into the air and chasing it as it tried to flee.
At one point in my mindless wrestling the goddess herself had to step in and save me from getting tangled in the dastardly yarn as it unraveled. She giggled at me and scratched me behind the ears before creating a new target for me. I huffed at her amusement and jumped right back into the fray.
While I was playing I still did my best to make note of the mild differences in anatomy that this feline form had to my normal one. I instinctively knew this form would grow to be more like an extremely fluffy, and large snow leopard than my mana beast's male lion-like anatomy.
By the time I woke up, I knew I had the form committed to memory far more firmly than the others, which I had picked up randomly. The goddess really seemed to have done me a favor.