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CH 83.5

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Once again I stood before the mirror.

This was starting to become a worrisome habit.

Vim had been gone upon my returning to the house after this morning’s worship service. So I didn’t need to worry over him knowing I was being weird again, and so I was doing my best to take advantage of the moment.

Leaning forward, I glared at the weird way my eyebrows curled and moved. This was what I looked like when I frowned…?

Reaching up to touch them, I wondered if I should find a way to clean them up. They were actually not as bad as I had expected, at all. The other day, after meeting Hands, I had noticed his eyebrows had been very uncomely. They had been wild, and poking out every which way. It made me pay more attention, and since then I’d noticed that a lot of the women here in Telmik, even in the church, had very fine eyebrows. Most of them here had tiny little lines, almost half the size of my own. It wasn’t a natural thing, but something they did on purpose. They plucked them, supposedly.

So because of that I had panicked. I’d never done anything like pluck or clean my eyebrows. So I had worried that I’d have looked absolutely ridiculous all this time, but upon closer inspection…

“They seem fine,” I mumbled worriedly. Why did they look fine…? Surely they should be bad? I was hundreds of years old, why were they seemingly fine?

Was it because I wasn’t human…? Vim and others have mentioned that we rarely changed much. He had even commented once that he was surprised at how fast my hair grew, since for us it usually took a very long time for it to grow long.

Leaning back I studied myself again and turned around a little. I studied my whole body’s reflection in the mirror, and couldn’t help but grin at myself.

Vim had called me beautiful.

He found me pretty. Even if it had just been said to be nice, it still made me so happy.

He found me, this thing, pretty.

I myself didn’t think I was, so to hear him say so had been almost heart-stopping.

No one had ever called me such a thing before. Not genuinely. Even Nory and the kids had really never said anything about my appearance.

Lifting my arms, I studied the way my body changed and morphed depending on how I stood, or what I did. It was interesting to watch how my chest, waist, and other parts all shifted and became just a tad different as I stretched certain ways.

I was wearing the religious garb of this place. I didn’t have the hooded headpiece on, so my head and ears were revealed, but the rest of me was covered in the thicker black cloth. It hid a lot of my more delicate features and lines. I knew usually when stretching, my ribs would be readily visible yet I couldn’t see them thanks to the robe-like dress.

Slowly lowering my arms, I sighed at myself.

“What am I doing…?”

How silly I was. How silly this was.

Yet…

Leaning a little, I stood on one leg and watched the way my left leg hung in the air behind me. I repeated the motion with my other leg, and frowned.

Was my left leg shorter than my right…?

I continued to test it, and almost groaned as I realized the truth.

“It is…” I whimpered as I looked around for anything to use as a reference.

Maybe the floor was just slanted. It had to be. Surely.

Finding a broom, I spun it around so the rounded end could be placed against the floor. I returned to standing in front of the mirror, and placed the broom’s end on the floor and pushed it up against me as straightly as I could.

Using the mirror as a guide, I grabbed the broom’s handle with two fingers as a guide, right where my leg met my thigh. I then carefully turned around without moving the broom as to stand the other way. I made sure not to lose the spot I’d marked and…

“You’re kidding me,” I groaned as I found the spot on the broom ended just a little above the place on my other side.

My left leg was shorter! Not by much at all, maybe half a finger’s width, but…!

Panicking a little, I wondered if something was wrong with me. If it wasn’t the floor, since I hadn’t moved the broom and had stood in the same spot to check, and I wasn’t wearing socks or shoes… it meant that it had to be me myself.

I needed some other way to verify it. What if I made a mistake…? What if the broom grew longer all of a sudden? It was formed from a branch it felt like…

“Jeez,” I laughed at myself and my sudden panic. This was strangely daunting!

Glaring at the mirror, for making me realize the horrible reality that something was off about me, I wondered what else was wrong with me.

Were my arms different lengths? Fingers? What about my teeth?

Did I even want to check?

And most importantly…

Glaring at my reflection, I realized I had yet to check something very important.

I should get naked. Before Vim got back.

It was one thing to be caught staring at my reflection again. He’d smirk at me and tease me, but it’d be survivable. But if he walked in while I was naked, while staring at my own naked body, I’d never be able to look him in the face again.

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Tapping the mirror gently, I wondered if I could find a way to buy one of these mirrors for myself. I wasn’t sure where I’d put it, since I planned to stick with Vim, but…

Vim had mentioned he returned to Telmik often. And this should be here the whole time, right? Maybe I didn’t need to purchase one. It might be fun to come back every so often, to see how I changed over the years and during our travels.

Would I grow taller? Larger? Would my hairstyles change each visit? Would I gain scars? Would my smile morph or stay the same?

Giggling at the wondrous thoughts, I sighed at myself.

“Wish I could get Vim to stand here with me,” I mumbled.

I could look at him, of course, but…

Stepping backward, I stopped right before bumping into the bed.

Yes. This would be the distance.

If he stood here next to me, at this distance, I’d be able to see what it looked like when we were together. In totality in this mirror.

For a very long, strange moment, I stood there. Staring at myself… and imagined Vim as best I could.

Gulping softly, I wondered if he’d oblige me if I asked him. He teased me about my fascination with the mirror, but hadn’t seemed to actually be bothered by it. So he might just allow it. I mean… it wasn’t that big a deal, was it? I just wanted to see what I looked like next to him… and…

He was a kind man, after all. Willing to indulge others, when he could.

Shifting, I sighed at myself.

I really was being weird.

Stepping forward again, I went back up to the mirror and stared deep into it once again.

Staring into my own eye, I studied the golden circle intently. Within the gold circle was a black one. It was wide right now, almost looking just like a normal human’s. Yet I could still see the ever so slight angle to it. I’d seen it already in the mirror, but my pupil could become thin. Just like how a cat’s could.

It was a good thing most humans weren’t very observant. Though it might just be because I really never gave anyone the chance to study my eyes. It wasn’t like I spent a lot of time directly in front of people while staring into their eyes.

In fact… Vim was likely the first person I’d ever become so physically close to. Even Nory made us sleep in separate beds. And Lujic and Ginny had slept together when younger, and then separately shortly after. Once Ginny died the poor boy also made it his life’s goal to become a man. A knight. For a short time he had been almost insufferable, since he had requested we even live separately since it wasn’t right for a man to stay under the same roof of a woman he wasn’t married to.

“Rules,” I scoffed at the memories of him being a little brat about it. It wasn’t until I played off my non-human side, telling him such silly rules didn’t matter to someone like me, that he had gave in. Though it wasn’t long after that he had met his wife and I had ran away.

“I wonder how they’re all doing,” I whispered as I leaned away from the mirror. Was Lujic’s family still alive…? They had been last I checked. Still living in that house we had built, though they had changed it a little. That farm was bigger now, and had more buildings upon it.

I wonder if they even still remember me. Would his family know me if I knocked on their door…? And if they did… would they open the door with smiles, or weapons drawn?

Maybe if I visited again next time I should take Vim with me. Just in case.

Giggling at the idea of introducing Vim to the family I had basically helped raise, I stepped over to the bed. To begin taking my clothes off. I’d lay them on the bed in a way that would let me hurriedly put them back on if I heard Vim return.

Pausing a moment, I frowned as I realized that Vim has actually seen me naked several times.

I’ve changed in front of him often. And I’ve bathed in front of him. Plus during those couple days while traveling along the ocean, I had gone nude as my clothes had gotten soaked. He had found a long stick and hung them upon it, carrying it on his shoulder, as to dry them. I had taken the opportunity to enjoy the sea that whole day.

Why hadn’t I been embarrassed over that…?

Was it because of how indifferent Vim was? How he didn’t seem to even notice, or care?

Even with the kids and Nory I hadn’t done such a thing. I hadn’t hid my naked body from them, but I hadn’t just… outright shown it to them either.

Growing up with my family, being naked was also something normal. But… well…

That had been different…

“Do I see him as family…?” I wondered to myself.

It would explain it, somehow. It didn’t bother me at all. The fact it took me this long to realize it was rather telling, in fact.

Though…

Huffing as I got undressed, I realized I’d not seen him naked yet. It wasn’t fair.

Actually… has he even had a bath since I met him…?

Hesitating a moment, I held the robe I had been wearing above the bed for a moment and studied it.

He had been sleeping on that side.

Should I… try to smell it?

Before actually leaning down and taking a huff of the bed, I instead closed my eyes and took a few breaths.

I smelled the house. The robe I had just been wearing. My own scent. The smell of dust and blankets. There was a lingering scent of food and drink, too. It was likely the breakfast I had this morning, before running off to listen to the sermon.

I could also smell the small garden outside. The strange smell of stone and metal all around us, the Cathedral… and then, of course, there was the smell of strange incense permeating the air. From all the little candles all over the church.

Yet…

“No Vim,” I mumbled.

Not that I had a smell to attribute to him, but…

Why did he not smell…? Not even his clothes, or his bags…

His bag!

I dropped my robe onto the bed and hurried over to the large dresser in the corner. I opened it and stared down at his bag.

Surely… right?

Leaning down a little into the open dresser, I took a deep breath right above the bag. A bag that Vim carried on his back, and had been doing so for as long as I’d seen him do so.

And…

“Impossible,” I mumbled as I realized it really didn’t smell at all.

Not just of Vim, but anything.

I smelled the dresser. The wood it was made of. The clothes in it. Dust and dirt. But not the bag. A bag that should stink of leather, oils, and who knows what else… instead smelled of nothing.

As if it didn’t even exist…

“So strange…” I mumbled as I touched the bag.

It was obviously real. It felt a little worn, too. I gripped it tightly, and then after a moment raised my hand to smell my fingers.

Nope. No scent at all.

Just how was that possible…? Everything had a smell. Even rocks stunk, sometimes.

Stepping away from the dresser, I frowned and paused in front of the mirror… as I noticed I was naked.

Oh. Right.

Stop worrying about Vim’s lack of smell. Focus on the important stuff first…!

Yet right before I could lean closer and really take a look, I heard the sound of metal creaking.

The gate…!

Panicking, I quickly went to get dressed. I barely got it on and hurried downstairs… Right before reaching the door, I heard a woman’s voice. One I didn’t recognize.

Someone was with Vim. A woman. A new member.

A new friend.

Opening the door, I grinned happily and greeted her.

“Welcome!”