After she closed her eyes, the world around Addie lit up, all of her surroundings becoming ‘obvious’ at the same time. Instead of just seeing in front of herself, like with her eyes, she could see most of the forest around her for more than a meter. She easily detected the closest obstacle and expertly dodged around the chest-level branch poised to whack into her.
“I’m doing it, Squishy!” She shouted in hope.
“Do not slow down. The wolf is still in pursuit.”
No response was needed. Squishy knew Addie had no intent to slow down. He was just trying to encourage her. Addie focused more on paying attention to her surroundings.
A rock threatened to destabilize her running position, and Addie semi-unconsciously stepped ever so slightly to the right to avoid it. A moment later, a patch of pinecones attached to a hanging branch threatened to wack into her head. She weaved just enough to avoid it, trying not to waste any of her movements. A twig underneath a patch of dead leaves she never would have been able to see with her eyes became as obvious as something right in front of her face. She stepped over it and continued on.
“I’m really doing it!” Hope filled Addie up. Or maybe that was just the adrenaline.
The wolf, snarling, again pounced, this time aiming to finish things. She could almost feel how wrathful it was, and not just because of the claw marks marring its face. It was the beast’s stance, its outstretched claws. The way it looked at Addie as if she were an annoying piece of food that just wouldn’t give up. Mostly, it was the wolf’s raised hackles and bared teeth. The wolf seemed to be saying, ‘How dare my dinner fight back’.
Addie got ready to dodge, or in the worst case, jump into Realmspace to save herself.
Protective fury flared up through the bond, and Addie knew it wasn’t coming from her. Squishy abruptly skidded to a halt while turning his body around. Then with a powerful flexing of his muscles, he leapt into the air, past Addie’s head, and jumped directly into the wolf’s way. She sensed his jaw wrap around the wolf’s throat, and his teeth tore away chunks of red flesh and a splattering of blood.
He didn’t get a free hit in though, the wolf yelped and whimpered as it reflexively twisted its head around and used its paw to thunk right into Squishy. Squishy hit the ground hard and rolled. The force of the blow easily sent the much smaller Squishy flying into the earth.
“Squishy!” Addie cried, her voice cracking into a high-pitched scream. She stopped her mad dash and turned around to grab Squishy behind her. She tried to pick him up, only to drop him again right away as his body was slick with blood. Hopefully not his own blood.
In a final act of desperation, Addie hunched over Squishy, protecting him with her body. She curled around him right there in the dirt. She already lost too much family. She couldn’t lose the other half of her soul, too.
Addie braced herself, waiting for the final blow from the wolf as she tightly shut her eyes.
“It’s alright. I appear mostly unharmed, though I suspect I will sport a rather nasty bruise in the morning.”
Addie ignored him and continued to brace, how could he be joking about right now?
“You can let me go now, I can walk properly myself.”
Addie scrunched up her face in confusion, then relaxed her body in relief a moment later. The wolf lay unmoving behind her, its eyes revealing only the stagnancy of death.
“Oh, we won.” Addie acknowledged.
“Surely, you knew this? You just started using your spatial sense effectively, did you not?”
There was no stopping it. Addie laughed and rubbed the tears from her eyes. She hadn’t even realized she’d been crying, “I guess I still haven’t practiced enough.”
The chortling sound Squishy sometimes made joined her as the two bonded laughed.
Unfortunately, the night wasn’t over. They had survived this Aurwolf, and luckily they were solitary predators. But, if they didn’t hurry, another one could pop up at any moment. More than that, now that Addie was lying down in the dirt with Squishy, she didn’t think she could get back up.
The adrenaline crashed out of her system, only reminding Addie of how thirsty she was. All of a sudden, the dirt felt so comfortable, and Addie couldn’t even think about getting up.
“Bide your time, my lady. I shall acquire the location of a stream or river with my senses. I ought to find something quickly. Then I will guide you to it. Please wait for me here.”
“Okay,” Addie agreed easily. To be honest, she barely understood what her companion was even saying at this point. She had a brief urge to caution Squishy about using too much power in Realmspace, but the warning slipped away from her mind before she could even say it. She lay her head on the ground and tried not to fall unconscious. Lying in the dirt like this, she briefly contemplated drinking something revolting, and she quickly wished she hadn't thought of it.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It could have been five minutes or five hours; time morphing into a blur as Addie's mind was in no shape to track time. Eventually, Squishy returned. In a fugue, Addie stood up and followed Squishy as best she could. By the end of it, Addie could hardly stand, but, somehow, she had made it. If asked how far she needed to walk to reach this small stream, she would not have been able to come close to a semblance of an answer.
Addie practically fell on her face straight into the delectably cool stream. Vague recollections of her father telling her never to drink untreated water surfaced in Addie’s mind. She ignored those completely as she took gulp after gulp of water. Eventually, Addie stopped. She could feel the water sloshing around in her otherwise empty stomach.
Whipping her head out of the water, Addie paused to catch her breath. Addie had only a few moments before her stomach began to churn and the strong urge to vomit overwhelmed her. She retched up each mouthful she had just splurged on.
Thoroughly miserable, and once again thirsty, Addie took a few smaller gulps from the stream, but she could barely stomach more than a couple of handfuls. Now with watery eyes and the taste of bile in her throat, Addie regretted her impulsiveness.
“Ugg, maybe that’s why Dad said not to drink untreated water,” Addie grumbled aloud.
“I fear that you suffered from severe dehydration. Perhaps that is why you couldn’t keep down all of the water at once?” Squishy mused. “Your body may not have been ready to consume so much liquid after being totally dried out. Best keep it in moderation for now while you recover.” Addie winced slightly at Squishy’s lecturing tone, but she didn’t otherwise respond.
Instead, Addie decided to sprawl out in the stream. At first glance, she thought it would be deep enough to swim, but once she lay on her back directly in the frigid water, she realized it only came halfway up her sprawled body. For a moment, she shivered at the icy caress of the water, but she was far too tired to vocalize a complaint. She lay down, her back pressed against the water's surface, her limbs feeling unresponsive and limp, yet Addie knew she could move them if needed. After a few moments of adjusting to the temperature, she was able to relax even further and enjoy the stream’s current flowing along her body, starting at her head and ending near her feet.
Using her Spatial sense, she knew Squishy was walking into the stream, too. He waded over to Addie, and then climbed up onto her chest, lying down with his limbs sprawled out in the water.
Slowly, all the aches and pains plaguing her body from the last few days drifted away in the stream. Addie watched as Squishy’s deep purple bruises marring his black scales slowly started to fade. She saw as the scratches on his body closed, and healed before her very eyes.
Some of the water lapped at the sides of Addie's head, getting some water in her ears, but she didn’t mind. This felt better than any massage.
The relief of the situation finally caught up to Addie. With playfulness, Addie splashed some water on Squishy, causing him to shake his head, getting bits of water all over Addie’s face. Not that it mattered, she was soaked anyway. Her hair was going to take forever to dry, especially since it was night.
“Silly... Cat.”
“While I am certain that I am no cat, I am glad you are feeling better. Your state of mind and body had begun to concern me. Though I won’t be surprised if you complain about those wet clothes later.” Squishy remarked, his warm body comforting Addie.
With Squishy diligently monitoring the area, Addie took the opportunity to unwind in the gentle embrace of the stream. Allowing the cool water to cascade over her, she felt the soothing relief seeping into her body. Amidst the tranquil flow, with time stretching lazily before her, Addie's attention turned to the fluid dance around her. From head to feet, she became an observer of the liquid current, as if her very being merged with the stream's rhythm. Gradually, a realization washed over her—she wasn't just feeling the water's touch; she was using her newly granted bonded power to sense the movements of the stream itself. Delving into this connection, she ‘saw’ the water before it hit her head and again noted when the current had left her feet. Lost in this almost meditative state her perception expanded beyond her own body and sense of touch, ‘seeing’ the water in a radius around her. In the gentle embrace of the flowing waters, all distractions melted away, leaving only Addie and the graceful stream, entwined in an unspoken conversation.
By the time goose bumps had begun to pop up on her skin and her teeth started clattering, Addie decided to get out.
As Addie emerged from the stream, Squishy perked up his ears, and hopped off of Addie’s chest, back onto the forest loam. He did a full body stretch, solidifying in Addie's mind the idea that, in some ways, Squishy was truly reminiscent of a cat.
Feeling much better than earlier, Addie took another drink from the stream. Once she was out, her shivering got worse, the cool night air feeling even colder now that she was out of the water. Her wet hair bunched up uncomfortably against her back, and her sundress clung to her with extra water weight.
“You better not laugh at my wet clothes,” Addie commanded.
“Laugh at my lady? Never.” Squishy responded stoically.
Despite the misery brought on by her wetness, Addie found solace in the fact that without the river, they might not be alive. She reflected on her experience in the stream.
Her newly acquired spatial sense allowed her to actively sense everything around her: to an extent. She could ‘see’ her surroundings beyond the limits of her traditional senses. When centering the sense around herself, a sphere of insight unfolded about her, spanning a radius of perhaps one to two meters. She lost this ability if she tried to focus on any given object around her, though.
Focusing on a single object was weird, and she wasn’t sure exactly what she was seeing, yet. It was like a bunch of tiny little circles were all forced together to make up a whole leaf. Her skin was like that, too. In that sense, the water from the stream made more sense, as she could ‘see’ a bunch of tiny droplets making up the entire flow.
Addie shook her head, she was getting distracted.
“I need to sleep. My brain is all foggy. We need to make a camp for warmth. It might be hard with just the two of us.” Addie was hopeful they could get warm.
Squishy sent a feeling of agreement through their bond. “Good idea. In my admittedly simple past memories, I never once ‘made a camp’ as you say. How shall I help?”
“We need to make a fire,” Addie decided. “My dad always said it would help scare the animals off, and I don’t know how to build a roof over us or anything like that. Without fire, we might still die from the cold.” Addie didn’t want to survive the Aurwolf just to die of something silly like hypothermia.
“Can you collect some wood for us? I’ll start on a fire pit. I can find tinder, too! Dad always had me do those jobs when we camped in the woods together.” With a better plan in mind, Addie felt more confident about spending the night in the forest.