The moment Addie noticed the eyes, the pull she felt from the haunted house increased enough to make her stumble— a truly strange sensation since she was still floating in the air. Luckily, she caught herself, checking on Squishy to see if he was alright, too.
He seemed entirely fine, like nothing had happened at all. He looked at Addie with a questioning gaze reflecting from his eyes. “What happened?” he asked.
“You don’t feel that?” Addie returned, still obviously feeling the tugging sensation coming from the direction of the house.
“I do not. Perhaps we ought to back away, go back to camp?” Squishy stoically proposed.
Addie crossed her arms and hummed in thought, still staring at the house while trying to make out those eyes they’d seen. With another flash of reflected light, she spotted them again, and with it came another strong pull toward the haunted house.
Since Addie had been ready for it this time, she braced properly enough not to stumble. She glanced back at Squishy. “You really can’t feel that, can you?”
“That is what I have been reporting, yes.” He gave her a blank look.
Just for good measure, Addie floated back away from the house another good bit, Squishy easily following behind. She pointed back at the house.
“What are those eyes?” she asked.
“I do not know; I have never encountered disembodied eyes before— at least not that I remember. The time from before meeting you is buried in the depths of instinct, not easily recalled.” Something flashed for a moment in his twinkling eyes, then, his gaze turned blank as he stared past into something only he could see.
“That’s alright. I wonder if Book knows, or maybe Nettal? Maybe it’s best if we go back.”
Squishy easily nodded his head in reply, so Addie began drifting back the way they’d come. But, just as she started to move away, another strong tug came from the direction of the haunted house. Addie wasn’t prepared for it this time, and she practically went spinning, doing a few flips through the air before she got control of herself again.
From behind her, she could feel something hard, yet also strangely soft, poking into her back, stabilizing her from the spins. “I’ve got you, my lady,” Squishy said from behind.
Normally, Addie might have expected to feel fear or maybe nervousness from the close call, but within this strange etheric dream-like state, she just couldn’t feel those kinds of emotions very well. She knew the flips should have left her reeling, but instead, she just felt floaty and dreamy.
This time, when Addie made to get away from the house, Squishy helped by pushing her along from behind. His nose both dug into and didn’t dig into her back, feeling somewhere between a gentle blowing sensation and someone digging a finger into her.
They drifted all the way back to camp together, with new knowledge of their next ruin site. In the morning, Addie would tell Nettal and Book about it— see if they had any ideas.
Actually, come to think of it, couldn’t Book still appear even if Addie was ethereal? With that thought, she dug around in her soul, wondering why Book hadn’t come out on its own earlier. She found it immediately, sitting within the same space of her soul that it normally did. She gave Book a soul-poke, yet it refused to come out. Rather, it didn’t respond much at all. Maybe he was asleep?
In any case, Addie and Squishy decided to return to their bodies, once again falling into the gentle embrace of sleep.
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In the morning, Book was just as unresponsive as it had been last night. Addie gave it a good solid few pokes, each one a bit stronger than the last, but it still wouldn’t come out. She had to give up with a huff.
Nettal woke up just a few minutes after Addie did, Lotty and Squishy waking up at the same time as their respective bonded. Addie made sure to tell Nettal all about the spooky haunted house, with extra emphasis about the eyes that tried to pull her in.
“Obviously, it’s a monster house. It’ll gobble us up if we aren’t careful,” Nettal said seriously, trying to inject cautious wariness into her tone.
“Could be, I guess,” Addie replied as they walked through the grass, “but it’s the next ruin site, so we have to go anyway.”
Since Addie had already been there earlier, she led the way with Nettal and Lotty close behind. The Binary beat down on them from behind, though the air wasn’t warm enough for Addie to want to take off her poncho.
“My lady,” Squishy began, “Allow me to scout out the ruin site before you arrive. I can surveil it and return before you arrive to report what I see.”
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Of course, Addie easily agreed to Squishy’s request; even if he needed help suddenly, Addie could feel him wherever he went, or however far away he got. She’d go running through Realmspace to save him, if needed, but usually he had a better danger sense than her, anyway. But most of all, he could always flee to Realmspace if something truly outrageous happened.
Squishy returned soon after, his small, lithe body panting in exertion. Clearly, he must have run most of the way there and back. Because of his black scales, he also heated up from the binary light faster than the girls or Lotty did, and he didn’t sweat either. He had to pant to burn off all that extra heat, and Addie almost suggested he go cool off in Realmspace for a little while just so to feel better.
But he spoke quickly before Addie could suggest it. “The house is gone,” he said seriously. “The house we saw yesterday no longer appears to be there at all.”
“What?” Addie couldn’t help but question in surprise, “That doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t make sense?” Nettal chimed in, unable to hear what Squishy had said.
“Squishy said the house is gone,” Addie explained.
“Like, destroyed or vanished?”
“Vanished,” Addie clarified.
“Weird.” Nettal didn’t seem too worried about it, though.
Sure enough, once they had reached the correct spot, based on Addie’s memory of the surroundings, the house was completely gone. She wanted to double-check that it really was the correct spot with Book’s map, but it just wouldn’t come out of her soul. She and Ember probably could have tried to force Book out of her, but she was worried they’d burn Book up if it was too stubborn to leave.
She was frustrated. Book had always listened to her before, so why was it silent now? She couldn’t help but let out a huff of indignation— what were they supposed to do if the relic site was gone?
In the end, Addie sent out Ember to take a big looping circle, flying over the area to try and see if the house was in a different spot than what Addie remembered. No luck there, either, since Ember didn’t see anything but more grass.
Nettal and Lotty didn’t have any more ideas than Addie did. When she asked Squishy about his thoughts, he said he might have a few ideas, but he wanted to ‘contemplate’ them more before he shared anything, just in case.
So, the girls and their companions set up camp for the night, with Lotty being unusually affectionate to Addie. Normally, he licked to curl up next to Nettal, munching on bits of grass here and there, or he would sit by and stare at the fire. Today, though, as soon as they finished getting the fire ready, Lotty came right over and plopped his head right into Addie’s lap.
She had her legs straight out in front of her, her toes out of her boots, and warming up closest to the fire. Lotty’s green eyes were pretty but not nearly as amazing as Squishy’s constantly twinkling starry eyes were. Addie thought Squishy might be upset that Lotty was stealing his normal spot, but he was so focused on thinking deeply that Addie thought he might not have even noticed.
Addie couldn’t hear anything Lotty was saying, but she thought maybe he looked concerned for some reason that she couldn’t place. Reflecting on the last week or so, Addie realized she hadn’t really paid much attention to Lotty. He kind of just seemed like Nettal’s add-on more than anything, probably because he couldn’t talk. That thought made her wonder if Nettal felt similarly about Squishy or Ember.
Well, one thing was for certain: no one would ever be as close to a bonded creature as the human they were soul-bonded to. Maybe he had lots of fun conversations with Nettal that Addie never found out about? He certainly was very affectionate with Nettal, often preening under her pets.
Deciding to give that a try, Addie ran her fingers through the short hair on the top of his head. She couldn’t help but notice that his antlers had started to grow a bit longer— still not taller than her hand, but still double the size they had been when they met. His fur felt silky smooth to the touch when she petted down his head, but petting upward against the pattern of his fur felt surprisingly rough and scratchy. He didn’t like it when she did that, shaking his head at her and letting out a small huff.
For Addie, it was a different experience compared to Squishy— he liked it when she scratched in all directions around his head. But for Lotty, Addie made sure to only pet downward— the way he liked.
“Hey, Addie?” Nettal’s voice cut through the night, making Addie focus on her cousin instead of Lotty in her lap.
“Yeah?”
“I think Lotty is trying to heal you. He keeps sending me images of something, but, well, you know how he can’t speak in words?” Nettal paused to wait for Addie’s response.
“Yeah, he’s like Ember,” Addie easily agreed.
“Well, the images he’s sending me are kind of confusing, but he thinks you’re hurt. Do you feel hurt?” Nettal looked at her with concern.
Taking a moment to feel out her limbs and body, Addie didn’t notice anything wrong, so she replied, “I don’t think I’m hurt.”
“Hmm.” Nettal looked up into the night sky, staring at the stars overhead in thought. Still looking up, she started to say, “It kind of reminds me of when Christena was...” Then, her eyes lit up in understanding, a flash of green light coming from her for just a moment.
“Reminds you of what?” Addie suddenly felt uncomfortable.
“I’m coming over there,” Nettal demanded with a stern expression.
Well, Addie didn’t mind, but her scary face was making her feel a bit nervous. “Am I okay?” she asked.
Nettal ignored Addie, instead putting her hands on her back. Her and Lotty’s eyes both flashed bright green for a moment as they activated their magic together then Nettal pulled back a bit and sat down close by. Lotty kept his head in Addie’s lap.
“I think you hurt your soul a bit,” Nettal said, her face scrunched in thought.
“You mean the cracks? Those are getting better, though, right?” Addie tried to make her tone sound hopeful, but instead, her worry leaked through.
“No, not those. The cracks are healing; this is something else. I’m not surprised you haven’t noticed it— it’s really minor, actually.” Nettal shrugged. “Enough that it’ll all be healed in the morning, and I don’t need to do anything. It reminds me of when Christena would practice blocking our souls from producing magic.”
“I remember that,” Addie nodded along, “I’m hurt from someone trying to block me from using magic?” When Christena did that, it felt like an immovable wall, something she couldn’t overcome even if she wanted to. Whoever had tried this time must be really weak, since Addie hadn’t even noticed it. They obviously had to be less careful than Christena, too, since she was always careful not to hurt Addie or Nettal’s souls during practice.
Maybe there would be more answers in the morning.