The notion that his life depended on me getting distracted by the fun of combat appears to amuse Punchy as his booming laughter fills the forest. Sarah appears less amused as she lets out a sigh, muttering something about the muscle-brains taking over the world.
"Neither Dragon nor Giant can deny the fun of combat, yet both know when the battle is won and when a kill is unnecessary! As was my claim, Sarah, we are like brothers!"
I'm not sure what he means by that brother thing, but given my gender, I'm pretty sure there's a problem. Nudging him about it earns me a firm pat on the nose and an explanation!
"A cultural difference. Any can become brother to a Giant. It is a bond, a short expression meaning those who have fought and earned respect. Your strength is impressive and not slaughtering every foe garners respect. A victory need not be coated in blood."
I have made a bunch of victories bloody, but not as bloody as I could have. It doesn't earn me any bonus points, but it's something. Thinking back on the last handful of days, it's becoming kinda obvious that my aggressive tendencies are growing and I should keep an eye on that.
Okay! The next time I meet a dragon, I'm gonna protect Lauren and Raya from it and not go for the kill. Maybe it'll be willing to talk in a language I can understand. That's a good plan, I hope.
"Do not fret, Dragon. The Little Dragon has told us of your conquest, and in the service of protection, oftentimes spilling blood becomes a necessity. It is another way in which we are similar. Kinslayers."
His jovial tone turns serious as he mentions kinslayers, and there's a firmness to him as he stares ahead with a clenched jaw. I'm curious what that's about, but it sounds like a personal subject. For some reason, Raya steps up to him, and the difference in height looks quite funny, making for an excellent distraction.
"A green inner ring in her eyes means she's curious and a white outer ring means she's focused. So she probably wants to know why you're a kinslayer."
Dang it! That's my secret! We're not supposed to spill my secrets all over the place.
"Now that is useful information, little Dragon! It is a simple tale, one I will tell in exchange for more information on the expressions of our Dragon friend."
It turns out that's all the motivation Raya needs as she starts talking about my eyes. She even brings out a little wooden stick with carvings, explaining what each carving means and how it relates to my eyes. She has a freakin' cheat sheet?! Okay, that definitely earns her a puff of smoke.
"And smoke means she's a little annoyed with you. See her eyes? The outer ring is orange for upset, but the inner ring is golden because she's calm, together they mean annoyed."
"Excellent! Sarah, make sure you pay attention as well. This is valuable information and we must remember it. Though the position of the color appears to be important, what would the colors inverted mean?"
"Then she'd be more upset than calm, and you should probably apologize for whatever you did."
As their discussion of my secrets continues, even Sarah appears to be paying attention as she stares at one of my eyes with a frown. Rationally, I know that it's better to let people know how to read my moods, but it makes me feel vulnerable as everything is laid bare.
"Wise advice indeed, little Dragon. Even a fierce warrior must know when to lay down his weapon and offer words of remorse. Now, I do feel the turn has come for me to share the secrets of my past. My father was a ferocious warrior, a victor of many battles and renowned throughout my homeland. Though his honor was great on the battlefield, he could not leave battle behind. At his return, my siblings and my mother would cower, fearing his wrathful outbursts. On days watched by the Goddess Mairleark, his kindness would be boundless, but the wrath would take him and bring his violence upon those around him."
Oh... That sounds very familiar. Mental health isn't much of a priority in this world, I'm guessing. In fact, I know it isn't, given what I know those around me have been dealing with. Jeannie's nightmares are a testament to it. As my attention returns to Punchy, I find him staring at my face.
"The ring of rock meant worry, and that of earth meant compassion, no?"
Huh, he thinks of colors as materials, it seems. So worry was gray, which means rock is also gray, and earth is pretty obvious.
"Yeah, so she probably knows something about what you said and feels sorry for you."
"Your kindness is appreciated, Dragon! Though my tale does not stop there. As my father's wrath would grow, so would my own until the day on which we fought and I became kinslayer. This was the last day of my life in my home. I have inherited his fury, and I could not bear to bring it upon my siblings, so now I travel the world and use it to keep others safe!"
It's clear that he's unaware of certain parts of that whole story, but turning it into something good like that shows a strength of character that I can appreciate. I don't know a lot about traumatic responses, but I might have to look into sharing the parts that I do know.
Best I can do for now is offer my condolences, since I don't think it would be helpful right now to point out that, with appropriate care and steps, it's possible his father would have been able to manage his issues.
"A change of subject! I must commend you, Dragon. I am impressed by your ability to not catch your wings on the trees surrounding us. It is truly difficult for us larger ones to traverse this world built for smaller beings."
Finally! Someone who gets me! Build more dragon accessibility! Punchy deserves a nudge of appreciation.
Though, now that he mentions it, I haven't been snagging my wings, but I have bumped into several things, both with my belly and my horns. Do my horns function like whiskers? That sounds odd, but I haven't been hitting anything with my spine spikes either. And most of what I've hit with my belly has been by twisting my body.
As we walk a little further, it becomes apparent that I'm not able to claim credit for the grace at with which I move... The branches move out of the way as they did when I was landing, making this a feat performed by Fenja, not me. Dang it, I thought I was graceful for a moment...
The sounds of Lauren and Raya talking catch my attention. From what I hear, Raya appears to be suggesting that Lauren stay behind with Fenja to learn that new magic type.
"You know you want to, Lauren. You already know how to make the magic, but you can't use it for spells yet. It's fine to be a little greedy and look out for yourself sometimes. Kira and I do it all the time."
What did I do to get dragged into this? Nevertheless, Lauren appears reluctant to leave us, but it is a good idea to take as much time as possible to master this fancy wild magic. Of course, I inject my own opinion, since-
"Lauren, I would have to agree with the goblin. The opportunity to be blessed by a spirit and to learn their arts is not a gift bestowed upon any person wandering into the forests. Even among my elven kin, wild mages are rare and treasured."
Woo! Sarah's coming in with the assist!
Dear Merciferus, please tell Lauren to learn wild magic. We're peer-pressuring her to do what she wants to do instead of being responsible.
It doesn't take long before Lauren's expression changes from mild annoyance to a soft smile as she lets out a sigh.
"Really, Kira? You're bringing my Goddess into this?"
"Yep. And I have no regrets about it, so there."
"Fine. Fenja, Guardian of the Forest, I beseech you to unveil the secrets of Wild Magic to me, so that I may regain what I lost and grow stronger as I face my adversaries."
It sounds performative as Lauren asks Fenja for some lessons, but the little troll lady's face glows with excitement. She appears quite interested in taking on a student, jumping around the top of my muzzle. And just like that, something comes to mind that I should probably deal with as well.
I haven't washed myself since I touched the goop cat person or Sarah peed on me. It feels like I should look into finding some place to deal with that. We're still a while from the edge of the forest, and if I get some directions, I could fly to a nearby lake, wash up, and return by the time the shortlegs exit the forest.
Throwing the question of nearby lakes to the group brings a blush and a frown to Sarah's face. Lauren is quick to ask Fenja, making me curious how they're communicating so well. As I funnel magic into my eyes, the answer becomes clear as small waves of green magic flow between the two.
Watching waves representing shapeless ideas dance in the air is mesmerizing-
"You can find a lake east of here, Kira."
Right, that's what we were doing. With a location roughly in mind, I can step over these tiny people and get a move on. Fenja leaps to grab a waving branch as I crunch through the sticks and roots of the underbrush. It's pretty clear that the forest isn't used to something as big as me. The clump of crystallized goop isn't helping, but at least I'm faster now.
Reaching the edge of the woods takes barely any time at my own pace, and within moments, I'm in the sky soaring east. Try as I might, I cannot remain focused on the task at hand as the roads and fields below show signs of something very peculiar... Piles of goop that I did not cause.
Throughout the area, there are a few piles of goop spread, matching that of the one I melted. I don't see any particular pattern to it, but they're frequent enough to be noticeable.
"Lauren, something odd is going on. There are thirteen piles of goop scattered throughout the area and I don't know why. So please tell the others to stay in the forest until I return."
Aside from some worry and curiosity, I don't get much of a response, but that's okay. They're just heading out of the forest and I'm heading to a lake to wash away some grime.
As promised, the lake is there, surrounded by more trees and appearing kinda green. I hope that isn't algae. I am not getting in a lake of algae.
A flyover reveals it to be clusters of duckweed, but I'm not seeing any obvious places to land. Slowing my pace and settling into a stationary soar, I let the wind of my wings push away the plants, revealing a shallow and beautiful sandy lake bed below. That's promising! And bright lights of color roam the aquatic landscape, reminding me that I’m still using my magic sight.
With steady wings and my legs down, I splash into the water and it turns out that the dang lake is deeper than I thought. I barely have time to collect myself as water slams into my jaw, reminding me of the effect part of cause and effect. I just dropped a large weight into a body of water, of course it’s gonna cause a splash...
As the water calms down and stops harassing me, I get a moment to consider the depth, which is deeper than I thought. The water’s surface manages to reach my shoulder, making it clear that the dang water splashed up from my impact and was redirected toward my face by my wings...
Adding a little insult to injury, the soft sand makes it obvious that I am not very buoyant as my feet sink into it. Wait, does that mean I’m all muscle or something? Ooh, that would be neat.
I consider the depth and how the water’s surface reaches my shoulders, I’m sternly reminded of the effect part of 'cause and effect' as large waves of water slam into me. The water’s surface reaches my shoulders, giving me ample opportunity to dive. In fact, as I pull my legs up, my body sinks to the bottom of the lake, proving that I am not very buoyant.
With my head thoroughly underwater, my appreciation for nostrils capable of closing grows. And with my nictitating eyelids, I can see under here as well. This lake is teeming with fish and other critters. Though it appears that, aside from the duckweed, the vegetation is largely limited to the shores.
As the fish grow bolder, they swim closer, making it tempting to roast them. I shouldn't, though. Raising the lake’s temperature by several tens of degrees will wreak havoc on the wildlife, and that’s bad.
Holding my breath as I keep my head under water allows me to rub against the sand, grinding the debris and grime away, muddying the waters. In a delightful display of boldness, the fish around me are quick to rush in to eat chunks of old gore and what-have-you. They are showing very little interest in me as the feeding frenzy begins.
As I raise my head out of the water, a small pinch in my nose makes itself known. Opening and closing my nose doesn't do anything to make it go away, and neither does moving my head around. A small tugging sensation draws my attention to the trees, where a cat person is sitting with a stick and a hat.
He's just staring at me, making no effort to move at all.
That means I have a decision to make. Either I stay here and continue washing myself and getting all clean and whatnot. Or I wade through all that duckweed to find out whether it's one of those weird copy cats.
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Nobody will know if I leave it alone and avoid the duckweed. I will need to do something about this hook, though, so turning my nose toward the sky, I unleash a plume of flame through my nostrils. As the pinching sensation stops, so does my flame.
He still hasn't moved, which makes me think he might be one of the weird goop cats. Dang it, that means I should deal with him...
Trudging through the water helps create waves, which in turn helps keep the duckweed away! I may have worried for no reason!
Although I don't need to, I push more magic into my body, increasing my speed, yet the cat guy isn't moving at all. It's a little odd and starts feeling like a trap. I'm gonna stop before I land on him, just in case. The waves I've created aren't as considerate as they slam into him, knocking him over and covering him in the very impolite duckweed.
A curious thing about this guy is that he does have a smell, and not just lake smell. He actually smells afraid. Even as my magic permeates the area, he remains solid and I'm getting the impression that he isn't one of the goop people. Even with the water having knocked him over, his focus is entirely on me, even as I bring my head down to him.
Nudging him for a reaction doesn't help as he remains still. I hope I didn't scare him to death. Using the agility of my tongue, I pick him up and help him stand, which I'm sure he appreciates, even if he can't quite formulate the words right now.
Well, so far I've learned two things. First, cat people do have scents, and that should've been a clue, because of course they do. And second, duckweed is kinda tasty. I might have to fetch Raya so we can collect some. Now I'm curious what other interesting plants might be around here. We might have to make a trip of it when spring comes around.
I should return to the others, though. Relaxing my magic flow and returning to my normal state, the trek out of the forest begins and I'm heading west! In fact, there's a small trail heading west, and I can just follow it. Right now, it appears wide enough that I shouldn't get into trouble.
On second thought, screw narrow pathways. The lakeshore is shallow enough for me to not have trouble with the water at all. As I step into the water, the cat guy chooses to move for the first time since I've arrived. He gathers his courage and rushes off into the bushes, only to return with a large fish in hand.
And now he's holding it out for me, like some sort of offering to an animal. It's pretty clear that he's attempting to bribe me with food, and that means I have a decision to make. Do I accept the bribe and figure out what he wants, or leave and preserve my honor as an incorruptible dragon? I'm gonna need a snack to think that over, and the fish fits that description perfectly.
As I open my mouth and prepare to bite the fish, his scent of fear grows more intense as he draws his hand back in a rude fashion. Lucky for me, he stops for a moment and appears to realize that he's teasing me. After his moment of hesitation, he throws the fish for me, which is very easy to catch. And it's also very delicious. We should go fishing some time, I'm sure both Raya and Lauren would appreciate that. We could even bring everyone else.
Rather than leaving me to my planning, the cat guy begins building a diorama of wet sand, sticks, and drawings. His art consists of a bunch of stick people tied together with strands of grass and houses of wet sand and carvings. It's been a while since I've drawn anything, so I'm gonna join.
With him working on houses and whatnot, I turn my right side toward him and begin drawing trees and a few figures of my own. Whenever the shadow of my claw passes over him, he quivers and the scent of fear intensifies just a bit. But we're doing a pretty good job of creating a landscape, and it even matches this place. At the center of the village he created, there's a mass of wet sand and sticks, looking like a blob with either spikes or tentacles.
I haven't seen anything like it, but as he notices my trees, he begins carving squares and more houses. I'm guessing the squares represent fields, and by the distance, it looks like he understands that the forest I drew is the forest to the south of the main village.
It's a bit crude, but I think we've done a good job. It's pretty easy to see that this is a map of the region. As I admire our handiwork, he throws himself to the ground and starts prostrating.
"Onifir fersora enui jebera. [Please help my people.]"
All these languages are getting on my nerves, but Lauren still has a mind bridge potion, and this guy probably knows something. It's pretty guaranteed that he knows something, considering that he seems to know that some sort of blob of sticks is hiding somewhere in the village.
Grabbing him with my tongue yields a scream, but we don't have time for that. Turning to the lake, we step into it and with some distance from the trees, I spread my wings and with a jump, we're off. It takes some more magic than usual, but everything is within reason.
His screaming settles down as he passes out, but another problem becomes apparent and I should have seen it coming. The wind is drying out his clothes and with them, the duckweed stuck to his body and now it's flying into my face. I had done so well in avoiding them...
I can't worry about that, I can just hope that I won't get teased about my sprinkly decoration.
As we approach the obvious wreckage of my previous path, I prepare for landing, and as I do, Punchy steps out of the forest to greet us with a friendly wave. I quite like that guy.
With a thump, we set down onto the grassy area by the trees. I only see Sarah and Punchy around, and as I put down the cat guy, I ask where Raya is. I know we sent Lauren back to learn magic, but Raya should still be here.
Punchy launches into a rant about how keen her eyes are, describing her running off and collecting herbs along the way. I don't like the part where she reassured Punchy and Sarah that I would find some sort of trouble and take longer than planned... I didn't. So there, Raya. I do other things besides getting into trouble.
Wasting no time, Punchy picks up the cat guy by the collar of his shirt and holds the much shorter and only somewhat furrier guy above the ground.
"Is this one of the monsters? It appears so lifelike, as if it were one of the natives."
"It is- He is one of the natives. I picked him up by the lake, and he gave me a fish before throwing himself to the ground for some reason. He seems to know a thing or two."
With his free hand, Punchy pulls out a waterskin and squirts a bit of water into the face of the unconscious fisher. With some sputtering and what I assume is cursing, he wakes up and stares at Punchy before panicking again. Sarah interjects with a spell and a touch, calming the panicking man and talking to him in his odd language.
"Sae je cora orinawin. [Tell us what happened.]"
"Udu qorlin top du tonafidi curnu jebera tarfik henulubei. Jeb to urok ilan udu tiai curnu lorm urok vanyrel udu. [It came in the night and people began disappearing. We do not know what it was and could not fight it.]"
Nudging Punchy, I ask what they're talking about, but he just shrugs and tells me that he doesn't understand either. It turns out that Sarah is good at languages and, having lived for a long time, she has taken to learning a bunch of them.
They continue to talk as someone approaches, and we have the wind coming toward us, but it isn't carrying any outstanding scents, which I think indicates that this is one of the goop people.
Punchy appears to notice my attention being drawn elsewhere as he lets out a hearty laugh before shouting something about a new hammer as he runs off. It doesn't take him long to reach the stranger with a clenched fist ready to strike.
With a giant fist aimed right at it, the person-adjacent thing doesn't flinch as the big man's hand impacts its face. Goop splatters all over the place, making me confident that he empowered his hit with that weird flexing magic he has.
I don't know anything about fist fighting, but I'm confident that if he thought it was a real person, he would've stopped his strike. Punchy seems like the kind of person who has excellent control of himself. Although looking at him right now makes me want to retract that thought as he works to scoop up as much of the goop as he can.
With both his lower arms and hands coated in chromatic shimmering goop, he returns with a wide grin, but it doesn't look like it did when I turned it into crystal. As he reaches us, the entire armful of mess gets dumped on the ground, and he begins digging out a small trench in the obvious shape of a square. With the hole dug out, he scoops the goop into it and grunts.
"I need more. It does not fill the mold."
It's true, but we should probably figure out why it's so shiny this time around when it was unremarkable the first time. As I focus my eyes with magic, it appears as if the glob is still tethered to the source, and that's something I can fix. Holding my claw over it, I focus my magic, severing the tether and ending the shimmering properties of the goop.
Before I can remove my claw from the goopy mold entirely, Punchy has run off to find more of the weird critters, and before long, he returns with one flailing in his arms. The peace and quiet are replaced by wails and hissing as he brings her over. It feels odd that they're so reactive. With his massive hand, he covers the cat person's entire head, ready to squeeze and dump another mass into the mold.
Something isn't right about this, and before he squeezes, I tell him to wait.
"Why are you asking him to wait, Dragon? They should be ended as soon as possible to prevent the host from suffering further."
I'm not sure, but something is strange about this whole thing. This weird monster seems to just copy things and then behave like normal people for the most part. I sure didn't suspect anything the first time we were here.
Before I get a chance to air my thoughts, the cat person's wailing starts to become gurgles as the tether weakens. It doesn't take long before she disintegrates on her own.
"I did not do that."
Punchy is quick to defend himself, but he's right, none of us did anything. The tether just ended on its own, and to his luck, the mass of goop landed in his makeshift mold. It seems whatever happened to the thirteen globs has happened again. Well, fourteen now.
Sarah appears confused as well, staring at the expertly crafted mold of a hammerhead.
"They're freeing themselves."
So that's a pretty good sign, and it indicates that the felifolk are still alive. They just have to be found and rescued. Nudging Sarah, I ask if she knows where they might be.
"How would I have that information? Ours is a mission of finding knowledge, that means we don't have the knowledge yet. And you have so thoroughly derailed the mission that we can no longer follow the plan and must now deviate as we search for the cocoons."
Her tone implies that it's a negative thing, but rescuing people sooner sounds like a positive thing. Even Punchy looks at her with mild confusion as he places a goop-covered hand on her shoulder, not earning him any points.
"I know! It sprang to mind as I said it... I should not complain that we can save people from such a fate..."
She still sounds pretty complainy.
"Sarah, you should apologize for yelling. It was rude, and our friend has provided help without demands."
Crap. He's right, I didn't ask for money. I should get better at that. In fact, I might add it to Raya's to-do list, along with reminding me to bring my satchel. The sudden impact of a small rock against the sensitive spot on my nose alerts me to Raya's presence. No one throws small rocks quite like her.
"I can see your scheming eyes, Kira. You're thinking weird things again."
And there she is, standing atop one of those tall trees. As I raise my head to her, she jumps onto my nose and taps me a few times with her foot before moving to the spot between my horns.
Not one to sit idly by, she asks for a quick rundown of what's going on and I tell her. And I'm gonna ask if she found anything exciting! It turns out she did and now she's walking onto my nose again as she pulls out several pouches and opens them, holding one to my nostril to let me smell it.
Ooh! I can't quite place the scent, but it smells like it would be excellent for cooking. We should get the blacksmith to create some hooks for drying herbs. We could start our own spice business. According to my history lessons, spices should be extremely valuable, and my ability to fly would mean we can source them from all sorts of odd places.
Instead of letting me smell more herbs, Raya packs them away and focuses on the three bipedal folks below us. Judging by Sarah and Punchy's conversation, the topic appears to have changed to those captured by the blob. As she swaps between understandable and unintelligible, the cat guy waves his arms around while making odd gestures. He and Sarah appear to be discussing something in that odd language, but that doesn't help me at all.
"Raya, what do you think we should do?"
"Go find the felifolk. They have to be somewhere, right?"
It's true, they do have to be somewhere. Leaving the trio of non-Tuiran people behind, Raya and I head for the main village, where I saw the cluster of tethers merge.
With the sound of Raya enthusiastically talking about unfamiliar herbs and the clunky impact of my crystal claw striking rock, we're on a journey to find a bunch of cat people! The fields lie fruitful and untouched, making me wonder if the goop people intend to just let the crops rot. I hope not, since they have a lot of good stuff here.
"Dig over there!"
A sudden outburst from Raya interrupts her own ranting as she directs us toward a small mound covered in glass for me to dig up. And doing so is very easy, using my right claw to break up the dirt and my left claw as a shovel.
After a while of not finding anything, I ask Raya how deep what we're looking for is. So far, I've dug deep enough that I have to mind the position of my head so as not to break apart the dirt above with my horns.
"I don't think there's anything here after all, but how incredible would it have been if there were something here?"
Dang it, Raya! That would've been cool, but now it doesn't feel like the time for random digging. As we leave the new hole behind, I tell Raya about the tethers and what to look out for. It doesn't take her long to start keeping an eye out and looking around for people hiding, but we're not finding any.
We aren't finding any goop people and that's very weird...
"Raya, can you track where they've gone by following their footsteps?"
My little tracker jumps down and starts inspecting the dirt where we haven't walked yet, and within moments, she runs off toward the western side of the main village. Rather than standing around not doing anything, I follow her.
As we reach the town, Raya stands in front of a building with only a few windows. As I stand straight with my neck stretched, the building is still taller than me. If I had to guess, I would say it is some sort of office building, as it doesn't have much in the way of windows. The wooden structure does have two doors at ground level and on the side, with ropes leading to other buildings.
Without hesitation, Raya kicks down a door with questionable success. As her foot impacts the bottom of the door, it sort of just comes off the bottom hinge and now it's hanging by the top in an awkward position. At least it gave her access, but it doesn't look very heroic.
"Kira, break down this building. There's a hole in there, and we need to get down into it and see where it leads."
Oh! That's something I can do. As Raya gets out of the way, I ram my face into the wooden structure. With the impact, the building buckles, but even as my head creates a large hole in the side, the dang thing keeps standing. Dang building has more integrity than some people I've known.
Ramming things is fun, though, so with a few more impacts, the building collapses, leading us to the next task: clearing away debris. Raya is quick to get to work, but her enthusiasm is no match for my greater size! In barely any time, we've got the debris cleared and the street uncleared. The street is quite blocked by all the wood, but never mind that.
With the soil foundation clear, Raya inspects the area and, from the mild sounds of annoyance, it appears we've covered the hole. Rather than leaving it to her, I ask her about the angle and direction of descent. With her guidance, we dig again. I'm confident that wherever the underground area is, we can find it.
"Do you think we've accidentally buried anyone, Raya?"
"Nah. This isn't where they went, but there were a lot of footsteps going in here, so I wanted to know what was here."
As my digging continues, I notice my wings bumping against the dirt walls as a small amount of my magic leaves my body. It doesn't feel like it's being taken away, rather, some sort of instinctual thing on my part is happening. I think I might be reinforcing the tunnel.
Drawing my focus back to the digging at hand, the sensation of dirt changes and between clumps of soil, I find a sort of sticky, fibrous substance. I want to burn it away, but past experience suggests that it might be a bad idea. We're in a somewhat confined space and I'm not sure how it'll react.
By now, only my tail remains outside and the dirt in front of us gives way, opening up into a chamber of some sort. Dotted along the walls are cocoons of either fibrous vines or some sort of web. Twenty total. With a gentle change of my mind, I let Raya open up one of them, since my talons might be too big, even if I try my hardest. We're not here to impale or claw anyone to death.
As she gets to carving, a cat person spills out of the cocoon, coughing and sputtering as he gets his bearings. He appears completely naked with bald spots in his fur and not much in the way of meat on his bones, but he's alive. Wasting no time, Raya opens more cocoons, resulting in the same to varying degrees. None are as bad as the first, though.
They all appear remarkably fragile, making me hesitant to do anything to help. Even a small movement too rough could have me breaking them. As she gets to the second-to-last, the person falling out of the cocoon appears to be just like the others until she looks up at me and smiles at me.
With everyone free, Raya takes out her rations and starts carving some jerky into small pieces and handing them out. Without hesitation, each person she approaches accepts some food and starts eating. We don't have much in the way of water, though, so that will have to wait.
Judging by the general attitude of the recovering felifolk, they appear appreciative of having been freed, but I'm definitely finding myself in a lesser evil situation. Everyone but one keeps their distance, only trusting Raya to help. It does feel nice that at least one of them is willing to approach me as she hugs my arm.