Addie began building up her spatial magic as much as she could, with Squishy helping of course. Together they tightly packed the magic up into their soul shells, building it and condensing it as much as possible.
The walk to get past the Furrians’ village would take at least an hour, assuming they didn’t run. And, Addie was also sending Nettal and Lotty into Realmspace, so they would need a lot of magic built up.
The familiar spatial distortions that occurred when Addie started building up this kind of magic began to appear in the air around them. Parts of the cave looked farther or closer than she knew they were based on her spatial sense, and in some places, it almost seemed like Addie was looking at the cave system through a water lens— The world distorted from her building magic, just like the time she was ‘saving’ her dad.
“Addie!” Nettal shouted right in Addie’s ear, making her flinch a bit, but luckily she didn’t drop the building magic.
“Don’t shout! They’ll hear us!” Addie tried to scold her cousin.
“It doesn’t matter, they’re already coming! Hurry up!” Nettal gently shook her by the shoulder, forcing Addie to redouble her focus on the building magic lest she release it earlier than intended.
“Don’t do that, either! Let me focus.”
She tried to pull the magic in, like breathing, to focus it and lay each layer down as tightly packed as possible.
Furrian footsteps started slapping down the cavern’s bend. Addie heard distant shouting ‘whoops’ as they ran through the slight spatial distortions Addie’s magic created as a side effect.
“Ten seconds!” Nettal blurted out.
Addie just tried to ignore her cousin, so she could simply focus on what she was doing with her magic. She didn’t know if she would finish on time. The worry rippled across her bond with Squishy, but her partner held strong against it. Pure confidence came rippling back from him to Addie. She let out a quick breath, reached out to squeeze Nettal’s hand, and then finished the last few layers of magic they would need to stay in Realmspace for at least an hour.
“They’re here!”
“And we’re not.” Addie opened her eyes with a smile.
She released her magic, waving at the Furrians with a smile as they disappeared from the cave system.
“Did you see their faces? One of them even stretched his arm out to try and grab us! But! I’m too good to get caught by them!” Addie bragged with a huge grin.
Nettal just sagged in relief. “That was close.”
“Pfft, they wouldn’t be able to catch us.”
“Yes, my lady, we have impressive magic. Now let us focus on walking forward, so as not to waste all of the magic we just used.” Squishy lightly scolded Addie.
“Did you learn how to be sarcastic?” Addie couldn’t help but ask aloud to her silly cat.
“Me? Sarcastic? Of course not. Now, let us hurry along.”
Addie stared at her partner with suspicion as he began trodding forward, leading the way.
“Fine. Let—”
Addie turned to Nettal, but her cousin was also already walking forward.
“Hmph!” Addie grumbled but still followed along anyway.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
The magic Addie had built up did last about an hour, though it was hard to tell without any true way to tell the time. Once that ‘about an hour’ was all used up, as was normal, Realmspace kicked the intruders out of its domain, punting Addie and everyone back into the cave system.
She held a deep breath during the transition, slightly worried they might pop out right in the Furrian village.
Luckily, or perhaps due to proper planning, they appeared back in the cave system further toward the entrance than the Furrian village. It was so far back, that Addie had to light up the area by palming some soul flames again since the giant blue glowy mushrooms weren’t as common closer to the entrance.
They kept walking, but like before, Addie didn’t have a great way to tell how much time had passed. The girls stayed quiet throughout the walk, both of them focused on keeping an eye out for any Furrians. Addie also scanned behind her frequently using her spatial sense.
Soon they came across their old cooking fire, nothing more than a few coals and mostly ash. Addie kicked it, just for fun, sending some ashes flying up into the air. She regretted it immediately since it both made her sneeze and also got ashes all over her bare feet.
She paused for a moment to stand on one leg and pull her foot up to examine it. The bottom of her foot had gotten some calluses from all this running around barefoot, and she had stopped noticing any soreness, so that was good. Nettal’s occasional healing probably helped a lot, too.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“Why are you staring at your foot? Let’s go,” Nettal urged Addie on.
“Just thinking, if your magic can heal people, do you think it also helps make calluses faster?” Addie asked. “I never had calluses before, but after walking barefoot like this for just a few days my feet don’t hurt anymore.”
“Hmm, maybe my magic does help with that. It’s helped me gain more muscle when we trained with Christena.” Nettal pointed out. “Maybe it’s like that?”
“Yeah. I wish it could clean my foot off, too. It’s really dirty, even before I kicked the ashes.”
Nettal just smiled smugly. “At least I remembered to put on my shoes before leaving Christena’s tent.
“Yeah.” Addie looked down and to the side as she heard Squishy chortling at her. “Silly cat,” she mumbled under her breath, too quiet for Nettal to hear.
Then, Squishy raised his snout in the air and took a few breaths. He focused on something far away, and after a moment he reported, “I think I found out where the other half of the male Furrians went.” He must have checked with his spatial sense, Addie realized.
Addie grabbed onto and squeezed Nettal’s hand, getting her cousin to stop walking. Mimicking Squishy, Addie cast her spatial sense away from her and as far down the cave as she could make it go. Sure enough, there was another group of Furrians— this group even had both the Mushroom and Warrior Furrian standing at the front of the group guarding the exit of the cave.
Nettal looked at Addie questioningly.
“More Furrians are guarding the end of the cave.” Addie groaned, “Why can’t they just let us go home?” She shook her head, “it’s fine, Squishy and I can just put us in Realmspace again.”
Nettal furrowed her eyebrows in thought.
“What is it?” Addie probed.
“Well, I don’t know.”
“Just tell me.” Addie hated it when people didn’t say what they were thinking. ‘Never mind’ was her absolute least favorite word combination. “What are you thinking?”
“I kind of want to try talking to them,” Nettal admitted.
“What? That’s an awful idea!” Addie complained. “Let’s just teleport right past them and go find the fog demon.”
“What if someone’s hurt and they need my help?”
“You already healed, like, the entire village,” Addie stressed.
“Yeah, but, I’d feel bad if someone was dying or something and I didn’t help them.”
Addie sighed. “Alright, we can try talking to them, but if they attack us we’re going straight to Realmspace. And! You have to hold my hand.” She commanded.
“Alright!” Nettal agreed with a smile, both girls already holding hands. “Thanks, Addie.”
“Tell Nettal that I shall guard her from the front."
“Oh, and Squishy is going to walk in front of you as a guard.”
Nettal shrugged, “Sure. Thanks, Squishy!” She let go of Addie’s hand and knelt down to scratch behind his triangular ears, causing him to lean into her touch.
“Fierce warriors do not need ear scritches, but I shall accept them, this time.”
Addie giggled. “He likes being scratched.”
Nettal stood back up tall, grabbing onto Addie’s hand again as she determinedly looked ahead.
All that being said, they still had to walk forward quite a few paces before the Furrians actually came into view.
The second they saw Addie’s glowing soul flames, the front line of warriors stood taller and whooped a few times— not too loud, just enough to draw the rest of the Furrians’ attention. Unlike the last group the girls had bypassed, this group of Furrians didn’t try to chase them down. They stood at attention, holding their mushroom fiber spears tip facing the ceiling.
“Maybe they want to talk, too,” Addie whispered to Nettal as both girls paused their steps for a moment.
After the front line of male Furrians let out their whoops, the cave quickly descended back into silence. No one moved for a beat, and then the Warrior and Mushroom Furrians walked out from the back line, standing at the front of the procession.
The Mushroom Furrian smiled, revealing sharper canines than what Addie would expect from a human. He lifted his hand up and waved, just in the way Addie had taught him.
For a second, Addie felt bad about leaving the village. For just that second, an unbidden thought pushed itself to the front of Addie’s mind, the thought that maybe they could still get along with all of the Furrians, that there was no reason to get into conflict with them.
But, Addie easily dismissed those kinds of thoughts. The Furrians had tried to keep the girls in the village against their will. They had prevented them from going home. And the Warrior Furrian had tried to keep Nettal as some kind of training resource. Addie didn’t like that at all.
Nettal squeezed Addie’s hand tight for a moment, then relaxed her grip again. Still holding hands, Nettal started to lead Addie forward, one step at a time, slowly. Squishy quickly circled to the front.
A few of the spear-wielding Furrians subtly adjusted their footing, but the Warrior Furrian immediately turned around and barked something at them, causing the rest to go back to standing without moving.
The Mushroom Furrian waved again. Addie hesitantly returned the wave, but she didn’t smile back. She just watched them carefully as the girls slowly got closer.
Once they were about twenty paces away from the leader Furrians, Addie stopped walking, forcing Nettal to also come to a standstill. Squishy plopped down into a sitting position in front of the girls, but Addie could see all of his muscles still tensed up like a spring, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Lotty, on the other hand, just stood on Nettal’s other side in solidarity.
After both groups stopped moving, the Mushroom Furrian walked back behind the line of spear-wielders, causing the girls to tense up and get ready to move. The spear-wielders easily parted as the Mushroom Furrian walked past them, only to return a short moment later with something in his hands. Addie and Nettal relaxed as they realized he wasn’t moving to safety so the warrior could attack.
The Mushroom Furrian held the item up in the air, two oval-like objects apparently made out of some kind of leather. Addie stared at it for a moment, before she realized those were shoes. Made to mimic the shape of Nettal’s boots, but much less professionally made, and more in Addie’s size.
Addie just stood there in shock for a moment, staring at the proffered object. On one hand, she didn’t want to get closer to more than a dozen spear-wielders. On the other hand, the Furrians had made her shoes! It was almost worth getting poked over.
Nettal gently squeezed Addie’s hand, drawing her attention. Nettal shook her head, then whispered to the side, “Do you think your magic book can translate for us?”
Addie whispered back, “They made me shoes Nettal!” she exclaimed, excited.
Nettal huffed, “They just want to bribe you,” then, quieter, almost so Addie couldn’t hear, “and I can’t believe it’s almost working.” Then, louder again and more directed at Addie, “Can you please use your magic book to translate?”
Addie frowned, not sure if it could do that. “I’ll try.”