Norrus sounds hoarse, but he doesn’t sound awful at all. His voice is subdued, mature; I like it.
I asked him as we continued to walk toward Harron Ronvaldt’s apartment, “Hey wolf! I’m glad you are finally conscious. What is the last thing you remember?”
“Hello Forrest. I was searching for berries in a ravine. There was a rumble, and a low melody, that sounded like bird calls. A colorful energy field or something started appearing around me, and I could hardly move. I called for help, and I think I screamed when I realized my legs wouldn’t move at all. Then I was here, wherever this is. I can’t move and I feel really weird. But I heard Ferret speaking normally, and that calmed me.”
“Hello, Norrus. This is cleric Ronvaldt. I know you can’t turn your head to see us. You will be able to move in a moment, once Asiel Windgarden brings you to a mat in my apartment. He is using telekinesis to move you. You were unconscious and this was the most expedient way to get you there.”
Asiel told him, “We’re almost there. I am continuing to carry you because it might be painful if you tried to walk right now. We expect you to recover your full health.”
“But what happened to me?”
“I think you will want to be able to move before we tell you everything,” said Ferret. “Forrest ran through that field to push you out of it. Then you needed water, which we dribbled on your very dry eyes, and let slowly dribble down your throat. You needed some blood, too, which Onre gave you with one of his skills. Then gods showed up and made sure you would be okay.”
“Minor gods! I missed gods?! That sucks. And shoot, I don’t even feel the Bless Blood effect.”
“Norrus, you taught me something a while ago – I summarize it as ‘Don’t Bitch.’ I’m not saying you are doing it now, but today might be a day to remember it. But if you do, you have every right.”
“Well that sounds less than great. But when did I teach you that?”
“It doesn’t matter – you were just being very positive in a situation that, if I were you, would have made me feel bad.”
“Remaining positive is something Dad taught me, before leaving for his long adventure, I was feeling bad that he would be gone so long. He asked me if I liked feeling unhappy. I said of course not, but that I didn’t want him to go. He said that I should look at the full picture. His friends needed him more right now than Mom and me. Instead of feeling sad now, imagine how happy I would be when he got back. As he left the next day, I tried to focus on that full picture. It helped, and I try to think that way all the time now.”
I didn’t know what he meant about his Dad. “That’s a really great attitude! But what is a long adventure, and how long will your Dad be gone?”
“He’s been gone about a year now. Some adventures require many months to complete. So we say ‘long adventure’ to mean one that will take more than five months, and I’ve heard of one that lasted three years.”
There is so much I never think to ask.
Ignorance is unavoidable. Strive to learn as you are able
“Wow, thanks coach. No ‘dumbass’ this time?”
It would lose its meaning if I used it more than once per Tuesday. And compared to Norrus, who is not a dumbass?
“I sure hope he can find the ‘full picture’ after losing ten years.”
As we approached Harron’s apartment, Ferret moved to the lead to open his door. He told Harron, “I’ll get this so you can get Norrus settled quicker.” Even though the staff apartments were built for families, Harron had one to himself for now. Part of the reason was for this very purpose, to give him room where patients could convalesce.
“In planning the campus, did the subject of an infirmary ever come up?”
Not in our presence. Would you have it staffed?
“I haven’t thought that far, but obviously there are conditions which healing skills and potions cannot immediately handle.”
Just as I noticed that Mom had dropped from the party, Carrie shared:
CS: Norrus’ Mom Vosrin is back from Capital City. She was just inside the town gate conversing with Master Trillet and Belenay Sholut. She is about to leave for Harron’s apartment. That’s where you are, right?
HR: Yes. Have her come right in. And thank you for getting her.
CS: You are welcome. All she knows right now is that Norrus was hurt, but he will fully recover. Tell Norrus I love him when he wakes up. Mom’s here and I’m going to stay in town the rest of the evening.
NL: Hi Carrie. I am awake now and love you, too.
CS: That's great! I'll catch you tomorrow. Take care of yourself.
She dropped out of the party. With Ferret holding the door open, we went inside, – Harron, Norrus, Asiel, I, and then finally our doorman. Harron led us to a bedroom with two mats, two chests, a clothes horse, and a desk. There were some clean towels hanging from the horse and to one side a water basin, porcelain water pitcher, and a couple of glasses. The cleric had obviously prepared to handle special health situations.
Asiel told Norrus, “I’m going to lay you down on a mat and release my telekinetic hold. You have suffered from starvation and other ill effects, but I will again remind you that you will return to full health. I’ll be open with you – your appearance will likely shock you. Harron, do you have a mirror?”
“Not a physical one, but I can form one or two temporary mirrors with one of my Physician skills. I’ll bring them up when Norrus asks to look at himself.”
The previous boy said, “You guys sure are making a big deal out of this. If I’m going to be fine, what’s the problem? I like Harron and I won’t mind staying here for a few days. I’ve never been sickly before, so this will be a new experience.”
Keep that full picture, kid. Man.
Sort of like I had done, Norrus lifted his right arm to look at it. His pullover shirt was short-sleeved and loose on his skinny arms. The torso portion was stretched and tight, though, and no longer fully covered his belly. His pants are very tight around his hips, but they were not tight at his waist at all. They were too loose there.
“Minor gods, that’s a skinny arm! Is it longer than it used to be? It hurts some when I move it, like I’m stretching hard, and it feels weak.” He formed and released a fist a couple of times. “My hand and fingers are definitely bigger. I somehow grew, didn’t I?” He looked at his other arm and hand in the same manner, Then he lifted a leg and noticed it was definitely longer also. His sandal, built for a pup, looked absurd on his much larger foot, with its single toe thong holding it in place.
“Harron, can you show me me in a mirror now? I have an idea of what I might see, but I want to see it.” Two floating mirrored surfaces appeared. One was directly in front of Norrus’ face, and the other was positioned as a sort of side mirror to his right. He stared at it straight on for a few seconds, then turned his head slightly to the left and right. His facial and head fur had thickened, but it was obvious he was not seeing an 11-year old boy any more. He didn’t cry, but tears slowly began to run down from his eyes. Ferret kneeled down to hug and comfort him. He hugged back tightly.
Just then someone else entered the apartment. Harron stated loudly, “In here.” I could hear empathetic sorrow in his voice.
I’m sure I’ll sound the same when I speak.
His Mom entered and saw her son. Without hesitation she kneeled at the other side of him from Norrus and added her hug. Ferret pulled away. Norrus arms switched to hug her even more tightly. “Momma.”
That did it. My own tears started to flow; I wasn’t the only one. Through teary eyes I saw that Harron and Ferret were the same. Asiel's face showed strong empathy and concern, but perhaps wraiths cannot actually cry.
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We allowed the moment to continue. Eventually Norrus released the hug and his Mom knelt upright. “Ferret, you told me Forrest pushed me out. I want to know everything. And, thank you, Forrest.”
Just as Ferret started to speak, we had two more guests. Ronkel and Tiyana Yon came into the room and greeted Norrus and the rest of us. I wasn’t sure why Tiyana was here at this moment, but any wisdom a 2000+year old Skolturi wraith might share would likely be very welcome.
Ferret started to speak again, and yet another guest appeared. He was over a foot-tall Trichyan plushie that walked right up to Norrus’ shoulder. He was wearing the same casual attire Sun does. “Skawa?”
Solid brown serape and a dark reddish and green tartan kilt, with criss-crossing lines? Do they have Scotsmen here??
“No. I picked this pattern up on the Earth wiki on galaxy-net. This is the Clan McGilvra tartan. Do you like it?”
“Yes. however I did not expect it.”
“It’s my job to keep you lot guessing.”
“Yes, this is me, Son. I heard you were disappointed in not seeing gods earlier, so here I am. Your clothes don’t look comfortable at all.” He was suddenly undressed, with his shirt and pants draped over an empty bar of the clothes horse and his sandals on the floor below them. “Are you going to pick me up and hug me, or what?”
With a bit of awe, “Can I, sir?”
“Just ‘Skawa’ is fine. What good is it to be a fine-looking doll like me if I can’t get an occasional hug?” Both he and his Mom wore big smiles. Norrus quickly picked Skawa up and laid him on his chest, cuddling him. Skawa’s head was for a moment hugged also between Norrus’ chin and chest. I got the impression the god was enjoying it as much as the young mortal.
“Ferret,” Asiel asked, “with so many people here who have not heard what happened, would you like to tell us under the influence of Revelation?” He agreed. “Ferret Drewson, what did you observe this afternoon concerning the experience of your friend Norrus?” || Reveal
He started with most of us foraging for wild berries in an isolated wooded area. We had scattered to find as many as we could. Then there was the loud rumble, and Norrus shouting for help and his scream. He accurately relayed the things I had said to the party interface. As everyone realized Norrus had not answered my call, they all headed to his dot on the map. He was there to see me dodge into the dark reddish rotating vortex about four yards in diameter. For him, it was only a few seconds from the time I went in, grabbed Norrus, and started making it out the other side, with the help of Rhetta and Sun. He covered the ministrations they had applied to Norrus and eventually me. And finally he included what the gods had informed us, then everyone’s trip back to campus.
“That’s all I remember.” During the retelling, Norrus had released Skawa from the hug, and Skawa had seated himself, three-legged chair style, on the bare chest.
After a second, Norrus started giggling. He asked, “Forrest, did you really say you weren’t going to just stand there with your thumb up your ass?”
Uh, yeah.
“Yes. It is an expression from my former life, referring to intentionally wasting your time when you know there is something important that needs to be done right away.”
Everyone had a little laugh at that, including Skawa. I smiled, I’m sure stupidly. Then I thought to ask, “Asiel, that vortex time thing was messing with my mind when I was in there. I don’t remember very clearly what happened, just mainly the intent of what I wanted to accomplish. Would you help me reveal my memories from within the vortex?”
“Yes, that sounds like a useful question. Forrest Rhodes, what happened while you were helping Norrus?” || Reveal
I felt a higher mental clarity than I ever had before. Then I realized both my intelligence and wisdom attributes had passed their first threshold, and Asiel’s skill was adding to that. It was almost a transcendent feeling. “I did not make a decision to help Norrus. Jacques’ emergency training had kicked in. That I would do whatever I could to help him was not a question. I told everyone my plan via the party interface. Not that it was much of a plan. Rush in with my Dodge skill active, using it opposite to its normal function, dodging toward Norrus and grabbing him. I had done that once before, so I knew it was possible. I knew my various resistances from jewelry, armor, and Boost Armor would probably not be very helpful, so I was depending on momentum to push me and Norrus through the other side. I smelled ozone and felt static electricity all over my skin as I went through the vortex. From that point, my mind and perceptions were no longer normal. It felt like I was moving both very fast and very slow. My Dodge skill kept stopping so I kept restarting it. From the time I activated outside the vortex, I expected it to hold until Norrus and I were out. At Rank D, it is supposed to be active for 5.5 seconds out of 8. Without the temporal anomaly, I should have had him out in 5.”
This is part of what we will discuss later. Even with your mind in disarray, your will was managing to recast Dodge about once every five minutes, body time. Ten times an hour, twenty hours in a day, for seventy-five days. You restarted Dodge over 15,000 times. Your Dodge intent was to reach Norrus, grab him, and bring him out. You succeeded, even against the temporal effects hindering you.
“Holy crap! 15,000 times! Does that mean -”
We’ll talk.
“Interface just informed me that due to my pre-existent goal outside the vortex, I managed to restart Dodge over 15,000 times during the two months my body experienced in the Vortex. And it was because of Dodge I was able to grab him, even with the temporal effects. It is not something I wish to repeat, but I am very glad it worked.”
“I knew I was approaching unconsciousness as we started through the far wall. Ferret already told you the rest.”
Tiyana asked, “That is an incredible experience, and you demonstrated true heroism. There is one thing I did not follow , though. Does your interface speak with you?”
Norrus quickly informed her about my sapient Interface. My entire team was still in the party, and I noticed Swagger had given me party leadership. I invited the others in the room.
I: Hello, Tiyana. I am Forrest’s interface. It is good to meet you.
TY: Yes, the same. We certainly have some unique students.
R.I: Thank you for inviting me, Forrest. Norrus, I am Ronkel’s interface, Rint. I’m so glad you made it back here safely.
NL: Hi everyone. I am sort of okay. Everyone has been really great in helping me accept this change, and if you don’t know, I’m going to be fully okay over time with more food, water, and exercise. And family and friends!
Everyone returned his greeting, happy that he seemed at least communicative and not morose.
Asiel said the room was pretty crowded, and there was no longer a reason for him to be there. He left. I still didn’t know why Tiyana was here. Ronkel asked Norrus if he knew what classes he wanted. He started to say that it was years away, but then, “I just checked. My interface will let me choose classes now! And well, I know of one I wanted for a while. I would like to be a Ki Healer like Forrest and Onre. For the other one, no. Just something that would help me adventure if I wanted to.”
----------------------------------------
Ronkel continued, “You are not the first young person to lose out on years of their life. An accident occasionally occurs which will lead to someone venturing on a soul journey, with their body and brain in a coma, sometimes for many years. In many aspects, that is quite similar to what has happened to you. Yours was just much quicker, but still ten years gone.” Norrus nodded his head in understanding.
“Now, young wolf, can you think of a class which might be particularly useful to you right now, and for the rest of your life? I do not wish to unduly influence you, so please take your time and think.”
There was silence for about a minute. “No sir. All I really know is that I don’t want to be a craftsman or a townie. If there is something you want me to think of, can you at least give me a hint?”
I need a hint also.
Tiyana suggested he look around the room. He did so, carefully examining everything in the room, and every person. After he eyed Harron’s mirrors, they disappeared.
With his eyes back on Tiyana, he declared, with a little excitement, “That’s it! You and Ronkel came into the room together. You are both shapeshifters! As a shapeshifter, I could look young again, right? And it's good for adventuring, right?!”
Ronkel answered him, “Yes to both. It is certainly not an option you have to choose, but we feel it would be useful to consider it, without us sounding like it was the necessary choice. It is not.”
“But I think I’d like it. I really would. What should I know about it? I really don’t know much except it lets me change shape and the class itself is the skill.”
Tiyana informed him, “It is a great adventuring skill, but it does not have to be. It can be very useful in daily life, as it helped me for years working in a lumber mill. For example, I can morph into a giantess and carry full trees. I can also become a horse and travel quickly carrying a friend or family member, or a hawk and travel even quicker in flight.”
“Tiyana has chosen to focus on self-morphing, “ Ronkel added, “perfecting the few forms she knows over learning hundreds of forms total. While there is only one skill to the class, that skill has three aspects. Shapeshifting itself is the obvious one. But you also need to acquire a significant understanding of what you wish to morph into. So learning up close and personal about other beings and objects is the second aspect. You cannot morph into something you barely understand. The third aspect is you will eventually be able to modify your persona, the information people see when they Analyze you. It will be believable, so long as what they sense is what Analyze says. And you can always show yourself as a shapeshifter, no matter what you look like.
Norrus thought for a moment, then shared, “Right now I really only know myself, but I’m not even sure I know that any more.”
Both shapeshifters laughed. Tiyana informed him, “You have yourself covered. And anyway, at Rank F, various forms of yourself is all you could accomplish anyway. Bigger, smaller, older. Younger.”
He got a big smile when he heard her last word. “I want my other class to be a shapeshifter. That’s okay with you, right, Mom?”
“Of course it would be alright, Son. Your Dad would be proud of both your choices, as am I.”
Ronkel said, “Before you make a final decision, you should know there is a downside to Shapeshifter and other single-skill classes. Basically, you will have a lot less skills total than most people, and this can slow down the rate at which you level. Instead of a dozen skills giving you RP and XP, you will only be getting them from Shapeshifting.”
Norrus thought for a moment and replied, “I see. But it sounds like Shapeshifting is very powerful and flexible. Right?” Both Ronkel and Tiyana assured him it was. “Okay. Thank you for making sure I knew about the slower leveling. But I still want it.”
I fitted together some pieces. “That’s why Osiel left while we were still outside. He knew shapeshifting would be a very useful option for Norrus, and he left to get you two to help him understand it.”
Skawa said, “Yes. As I informed you in the ravine, Norrus did not need fixing, he was only changed. That was a hint.”
It hit me. “And the possibility would be open to him to change back!”
Ronkel shared, “More than that. At Rank C he begins acquiring significant traits of the being he morphs into. As a skunk, he could easily clear a room. As an Earth Elemental, he can gain some mastery over stone and earth. And as a Skolturi-Human hybrid, he could significantly extend his lifespan during the hours he is so transformed.”
I realized, “Norrus can get his ten years back!”
Skawa responded, “And more.”
“Skawa, I apologize for being such an ungrateful whiner in the ravine.”
He responded, “I understood you had admirable concern for your friend. You simply were failing to see the full picture. It is a common mortal trait”
It is funny how the absence of a word can say so much. I could feel the additional meaning, ‘but you are an immortal and should learn to fully see’.
“What did you whine about?” asked Norrus.
“Well, the gods took care that none of the damage to you would lead to a permanent disabling. But I kind of demanded that they fix you, make you 11 again.”
“But they didn’t need to.”
“I know that now. My mouth spoke before my brain engaged.”
“Thank you, everyone, for caring about me.”