With a flash of will, the pair stepped outside of reality, dipping into Realmspace. With their combined power, the two of them managed to take a whole five steps through the enigmatic space before it kicked them back out into the forest. Five steps did not seem like a lot to Addie. Squishy could already do almost that much even before they bonded. Their magic should have increased with their combined capacity, so Addie suspected they just needed more practice to reach their full potential. Next time, she resolved to pay attention to the way Realmspace ejected her from its domain and to attempt to counter it.
Addie and Squishy immediately pulled on their power again, quickly re-entering Realmspace. Now that Addie had a bit more experience with it, they managed seven full steps to their name. Addie could even feel the membrane of the alternate dimension pushing against her this time, now that she was looking for it. The first step to increasing their capacity was understanding what exactly caused the limitation on their powers in the first place.
“Squishy, you felt that too, right?” Still holding him, Addie angled her chin down as she asked.
“Indeed. Prior to our bond, my limited intelligence never grasped what caused the ejection.” Looking into Squishy’s eyes, Addie could tell he was deep in thought, “Back then, only pure instinct guided my powers.”
Addie quickly wanted to get back into Realmspace and avoid the rain, but then a thought came to her: what if she reappeared in reality directly inside a tree? The idea of being mixed into a tree like that made her cringe. Squishy sensed her unease through their bond and quickly reassured Addie, “Worry not. I have been traveling through Realmspace for many seasons, and I have never materialized inside an obstacle. Some quirk of Realmspace, perhaps.” That made Addie feel better, but it also made her confused more than anything. It made little sense to Addie that Realmspace somehow cared enough to protect her by ejecting her away from objects in reality. There must be a better explanation than that, Addie thought to herself. Something to think about later.
At least for now, she wasn’t worried about becoming one with a tree. The pair quickly jumped back into Realmspace, Addie was happy to get out of the rain, even for just a few moments. Again after seven steps, Realmspace started to push them outside of its membrane, but this time Addie and Squishy were ready. The pair tugged on the now familiar part of their essence that facilitated traversal of Realmspace, and then they leveraged it against the force trying to eject them. The pair made it an additional three full steps before Realmspace inevitably won, forcing them back out into reality.
The next fifteen or so minutes consisted of Addie and her companion alternating between Realmspace and reality, each time managing only about ten total steps while in Realmspace. Regardless, it still gave Addie some needed respite from the icy rain.
Though Realmspace lacked even a sliver of light, Addie quickly realized that Squishy’s powers came in a matching pair. His ability to sense the space around him allowed him to traverse Realmspace’s terrain even without any light. That solved one mystery for Addie, who at first had no idea how his seemingly random powers were connected.
Having figured that out, Addie also tried practicing with her spatial sense while in Realmspace. In the beginning, Addie had a difficult time interpreting the information her spatial sense gave her. In physical tangible reality, Addie had the advantage of comparing her spatial sense against her vision. She could look at a tree with her eyes, and then compare that with what she saw with her spatial sense. This allowed her to effectively ‘focus’ her spatial sense on her visual targets. In a land without light or vision, she lacked a reference point, making the information from her spatial sense hard to focus on. The images she saw with it were both confusing and nearly uninterpretable.
If there were any objects other than just the ground somewhere, Addie certainly didn’t sense any. It also didn’t help that the terrain seemed so uniform. It made it even harder to interpret the signals from her spatial sense. At least if the terrain changed frequently she could use the landmarks to help orient her new sense. Instead, she felt like she stood in the middle of a giant lake of glass, while also not knowing where on that lake she stood. She could be on the spot here or over there, it didn’t matter, she couldn’t tell either way.
Addie decided to observe the master. She reached out through their soul connection, and Squishy responded in turn. He let her in so she could observe the way he used his senses. Addie quickly realized that Squishy never used his sight to focus his spatial sense; instead, he focused his spatial sense around sensation alone. He could feel the ground underneath his feet with his paws easily enough, and by using that as an orientation point, he could channel his spatial sense at the ground around his feet, quickly interpreting the terrain far around him. Addie felt how he used his sense of touch to find a reference point on the ground underneath using his paws, then expanded his spatial sense in an impressively large radius to accurately view swathes of terrain immediately surrounding him.
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She watched Squishy and observed the way he channeled his magic. By mimicking him, Addie quickly got the hang of it. She spent their short bursts in Realmspace trying to understand the terrain with her spatial sense. Best she could tell, they were on a completely flat plane of solid stone. There were grooves and small holes, sure, but best Addie could tell no incline or hills existed at all. She thought they might as well be walking on some kind of giant stone pancake. Slightly better than a lake of glass, since a pancake at least had pockmarks.
Sensing Realmspace around her was made somewhat easier by the fact that the past few hours in the forest were such an ordeal. The cloud cover from the rain, the canopy of trees over her head, and just the simple fact that it was currently nighttime meant that, to some extent, Addie already had some practice using her spatial sense in vision-poor environments.
Though she currently felt no soul pain, Addie began to worry about overusing their powers again. Exhaustion from the journey crept on her, though she couldn’t tell if it was due to walking through the icy rain in the dark, or if it was because they kept jumping into Realmspace. Upon their next arrival in Reality, she voiced her concerns to Squishy, “I think we should take a break from magic for a bit. Even without a shoe, I can make it through the forest for at least a little while.” Addie tried to smile at Squishy, but due to the circumstances, she just hoped it didn’t look like a grimace.
“Agreed,” Squishy began, “Though, I do have good news. I believe you will not have to walk for long. I can see the village. We made it.” Squishy finished his thought and pushed feelings of warmth and pride at Addie through their bond.
Addie looked where Squishy’s snout pointed, and sure enough, she saw light just a few meters past the bushes in front of her. Addie had indeed made it, despite the circumstances. It was all she could do to keep from collapsing right then and there. She may have made it to the village, but she wasn’t safe yet. She hadn’t really thought this far ahead. Up until now, she had just been completely focused on getting out of the forest. Now that she had reached town, she obviously couldn’t stay out here in the dark and rain, but it’s not like she could go home either.
Well, it had worked out this far, so Addie continued what she had been doing. She kept walking forward and prayed that she would find a solution.
Addie continued walking past various buildings along the road. She found herself near the south side of the village, closer to where people lived. This area of the simple hamlet was a bit of a distance from the market.
Suddenly, crackling disrupted the air, and echoing branches snapped above her. Twigs tumbled near her feet and Addie’s gaze shot skyward to behold a tree in motion. Its twisting branches and leaning trunk created a makeshift rain shelter directly above her.
She stayed still, dumbfounded by this tree's intentional dance. Addie had never seen a tree move like that before. Sway in the wind, sure, but moving itself like it had a mind and purpose? Definitely not.
Still staring up at the unusual tree, Addie quickly turned her head in response to someone’s hurried footsteps squelching through the mud. Just behind the tree and to Addie’s right, a figure emerged from a nearby house, the doorway backlit, outlining the approaching person.
At first, she felt fear—the fear of something unknown approaching you from the darkest corners of the night. The sudden terror passed almost as quickly as it started when Addie’s eyes adjusted to the bright light of the house.
Approaching her was no shadowy demon. It was an old grandma, hurriedly coming to help a little girl stranded in a night of rainstorms. The portly woman bore a familiar stern expression, one that Addie dreaded — the harbinger of a forthcoming scolding. Besides the harsh frown, the woman had slightly above shoulder length gray hair and wore a humble linen dress normal for a villager. The strong lines in her face indicated a long life of hard village work.
“Young Lady!” Addie's nobility did little to stave off the woman's reprimand, “You're drenched! Come over here, out of the rain.” Despite her size, the woman, shorter than Addie, firmly grabbed her arm, guiding her toward the house.
Addie heard more creaking overhead and dumbly looked up as the tree’s limbs seemed to follow her, the protective canopy following Addie even as the woman dragged her onwards.“And you!” The woman suddenly angled her head down to Squishy. “You ought to know better than to let your human out in such harsh conditions! Why, I expect better.” Squishy seemed to shrink at the woman’s criticism.
“Little lady, we are going to get you dried off and then it’s right to bed with you! I’ll hear no arguments. If you so much as give me a single ‘but,’ then help me Binary, I’ll find something for you to complain about.” The woman's use of proper titles and addresses juxtaposed her stern words and tone.
“O-okay,” Addie hesitantly agreed. The promise of shelter reminded her of the bone-cold rain as she suppressed a shiver.
The doorway creaked as Addie walked inside, Squishy right behind her. The woman ushered them inside, then shut the door behind her on the way in. She brushed at her skirt with a few pats, then looked up and focused her attention on the bonded pair.
“Well, you will just have to tell me everything,” said the woman, “But that can wait until tomorrow. Second door, on your left. I don’t want you to come out of that bathroom until you are completely thawed!” Addie moved to obey her but turned her head back again when the woman added. “And don’t think I just mean the Lady here, you too, mister!” Though Squishy didn’t completely tuck his tail between his legs, it was a close thing as he hurried forward. The pair successfully made it into the bathroom, albeit trailing water and mud through the simple house. Steam already wafted from the tub, clearly waiting for them.