“I have fur,” Stace repeated her thought out loud before fixing her gaze back on Ken. “I could try touching him with the back of my hand. I mean it's covered in fur and we did find the body if you’re worried about the police. Though, given the changes...” Stace reasoned while holding up her hand. Paw?

“Okay,” Ken said slowly then nodded and stepped back from the body. "It's worth a shot, we shouldn’t tarry here longer than we need, as it is. The fact that someone killed this man is concerning in itself,” he said, tugging at his beard.

Despite offering, Stace hesitated to touch the dead man. Stopping with her hand only inches away. She’d never touched a dead person before, and the thought of doing it gave her an involuntary shudder.

"Go on. He won't bite," Ken reassured her with an encouraging smile, before laying a heavy hand on her upper back in a supportive gesture.

"I know,” she sighed. “It’s just, I've never touched a dead body before,” she explained and swallowed.

“Nothing much different from a living one. Just a little cooler when they're this fresh. It's the decomposing ones that are...difficult,” Ken reassured her, moving his hand up and down her back twice.

“Did you just pet me?” Stace asked, looking back at the man incredulously, dwarf?

“Sorry I... I didn’t think. It’s mighty soft fur though,” he said removing his hand like she’d burnt him before using it to tug at his beard.

“Just keep your hands to yourself, old man.” Stace rolled her eyes at him and crouched down to lay the back of her hand on the corpse's forehead.

“Noted,” he said with a firm nod. “Sorry.”

A surge of green light and a thrilling force assailed her, locking her in place for a minute before it passed in a wink.

Then something truly bizarre happened. A blue window popped into her vision.

Inheritance Received

“Huh, I just got a notice that I received an inheritance,” Stace said.

“Notice?” Ken asked, bending down beside her.

“Yeah, a blue window that filled my vision until I read it,” she explained.

“Interesting,” Ken said.

“Just interesting?” Stace prompted. “It’s like a bloody video game window.”

“That sounds like a dangerous assumption,” Ken pointed out. To demonstrate he held up his arm and pinched it.

“It hurts like this is real,” he said.

Stace followed suit, but in her case, she flexed a claw out and pressed it into the palm of her paw, and winced when a small drop of blood welled up. She shook her hand out. Not that I thought it was fake in the first place. Everything is just too vivid. I wish I had my sketchbook or tablet. She itched to do a quick sketch of Ken’s new look.

"Well, we can probably rule out a ren fair accident. It could still be an elaborate hallucination though," Ken observed dryly.

"My turn,” he added then reached forward to lay his hand on the man's brow.

Nothing happened.

"Huh, it appears we need to find four bodies each, today," he said, glancing about the clearing.

Stace took a deep shuddering breath and stood hugging her chest.

"This is all a little overwhelming. Some sort of portal, a dead body, these trees.” She gestured to encompass the forest about them. “And look at me! I'm a bloody cat... I think," Stace said looking down at herself.

Ken nodded. "You look a lot like a big Lynx. I had an uncle who used to trap them when I was a kid," he said then added, “It was your choice though.”

"What do you mean my choice?" Stace asked, focusing back on him.

"Another thing that Devil said. That you were easy to bargain with, all you cared about was your sister,” he explained. “He gave me a choice of the descendant of a son of Ivaldi or to remain an old human. Figured I might get a few more years like this. The cost seemed cheap, though I couldn’t tell you what I gave up for it now,” he added.

“That’s another thing! Why can’t I remember talking to him?” Stace lamented.

“I can only speculate. Maybe you sacrificed the memory? Pretty much everything was on the table, even the memories of my Claire,” Ken reasoned with a grimace then shrugged. “It’s no longer important. We are likely stuck like this, and all we can do is move forwards. We need to think of our survival if we are to find and help our loved ones.”

“Help me with this,” he said, grabbing the leg of the dead man’s pants.

Ken froze, his gaze going distant.

“By Loki,” he muttered then knelt by the dead man's waist.

“What is it?” Stace asked, taking a furtive look at their surroundings.

“I can loot something called Pyth from him if I present appropriate containers,” he explained shaking his head before digging through the pouches he’d removed with the man's belt earlier. He found a handful of small flat bags and gripped the corpse's leg again.

“By Loki,” he repeated startled when the bags in his hands suddenly ballooned. “Look,” he said, handing her one of the bags.

She looked inside prompting another of the game-like windows.

13 doses of Dash Pyth

“Wait. 'By Loki'?” Stace drew her head back sharply at the misnomer.

“What?” Ken asked her with a frown.

“You said ‘by Loki’,” Stace explained.

“No... I said by Loki,” Ken said, his thick brows drawing together.

“Again Loki,” Stace said.

Ken bent and snatched the broken sword from the forest floor and used the broken end to write out ‘I said by God’ with sharp movements.

“When you say it, it comes out Loki,” Stace said and shrugged.

"Loki help me?" Ken muttered, then. "Loki?"

“Still Loki,” Stace said, shaking her head.

“Another of the Devil's games,” he said through gritted teeth. Stace could see the fury turning his face red. In fact, she swore she could taste–smell?—Its bitter tang on the air.

It only took him a few deep breaths before he regained his temper and the tang largely left the air.

He took in a final short shuddering breath then said carefully, "Freya, curse him?”

“Freya?” Stace asked, confused.

“Yeah, Chester, that fool boy, is always cursing in her name,” Ken said, then paced back and forth a few times.

“Okay…” Stace said. Not something I ever noticed him do.

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“If anything will stop you from using the Lord's name in vain, Ken, it will be this silly curse." The old man came to a stop and pressed his lips together before nodding to himself.

“Lord works still,” Stace observed.

“Lord be praised for that much,” he said with a wide smile. "I don't suppose you're suffering under the same affliction?" he asked.

"God knows?" Stace shrugged. It didn't seem like something they should worry about to her. Clothes seemed more pressing for her. Then she looked down at herself again. A shiver of disquiet overtook her for a moment as she took in her new condition again. This is messed up.

“You too,” he nodded confirmation with a scowl.

Stace shook her head and returned her gaze to the bag in her hand.

“What do you think this is?” She asked Ken, giving the bag a small shake.

“No idea but it’s likely important,” he said, not looking up from pulling the man's pants off. Thankfully the body had underwear underneath that looked clean despise, you know, death.

The pants were more medieval pantaloon than modern pants. They had a large billowy top that narrowed into ties well below the knees but not enough to cover the full leg. They were meant to cover the top of the man’s boots for a few fingerbreadths.

None of this bothered Ken who slipped the slightly blood-stained pants on and did up the ties before finding Stace staring at him with a scowl, her arms crossed.

“Sorry but you have fur that covers you, and well, I didn’t want to be left hanging in the breeze. If you take his belt and pouches you can hang one in front of your...hmm. Truthfully, it's not noticeable through all of that long fur,” Ken said while tugging hard on his new beard. It was becoming a habit for the new dwarf.

“You could wear his underwear and give me the pants,” Stace observed.

“I’m not wearing another man's drawers,” Ken said flatly.

Stace got the pleasure of seeing him break out into a full-blown blush. She let him suffer for a bit before nodding. “Fine but I get the next one,” she gave him a full smile that sent him back on his heels a bit.

“You know. Your smiles are a touch scary now,” he observed.

“How about this?” Stace asked and, keeping her grin, let her mouth fall open.

“Better. More like a happy dog like that,” Ken conceded after a half pause to consider.

Stace bent and did as Ken suggested picking up the belt and slinging it around her waist before sorting through the half-dozen pouches tied to it. There was very little of value to be found. The lightest and smallest one held a half-dozen green-tinged copper coins, with a man’s head on one side and a strange rune on the reverse, which she showed to Ken.

“Don’t recognize the face,” he noted with a shrug before passing them back to Stace.

Next, she found the bag with even more of the small empty Pyth bags in it. Another with small twigs and moss with a piece of black stone and a small bar of metal on top. Then one with nuts and dried berries and another with dried strips of meat. The final one had a pair of the Pyth bags but these had some of the powders in them. One called Power Attack and the other Cleaning. Unable to discern what they were for, Stace added what they’d gotten from the body to the large bag that now rested in the small of her back and removed it from her mind for now. She used the medium-sized bag of bags to give herself a modicum of privacy by tying it in front.

Stace tapped the empty sheath at her side, and with one more look at her now nonexistent breasts, she sighed and shrugged then turned back to face Ken squarely. “Now what?” she asked before giving the relatively quiet forest a 360-degree look.

"I don’t think anyone else is coming through now. It’s been some time, and the young constable told me to come right back if I could. When I no-show they will likely cordon the area off and make sure no one enters," Ken explained while bending to retrieve the strange broken blade using the end and his foot to do a more thorough search around the corpse.

“How did you manage that anyway?” Stace asked.

“I didn’t give them a choice,” Ken said flatly. “I told them I’m an old man with only a few years left anyway.”

“This guy has given up what secrets we can glean. As much as it bugs me to say. I think we need to find more bodies. I get the feeling it will be crucial to our futures,” Ken said matching Stace’s look around.

“Should we do something for him?” Stace said, waving at the dead man.

“Like bury him?” Ken asked and Stace nodded. “No, we don’t have anything to dig with. The forest will dispose of him.”

“Which way then?” Stace asked with a shrug.

“His tracks lead back that way,” Ken said pointing towards the gradually sinking sun.

“Well, that’s a better plan than I would’ve come up with,” Stace said, gesturing for him to lead. “Can you show me how you know that?” she asked after trying to find what he saw.

“Of course, but this one is easy… Look at these dark drops?” Ken said, pointing to a small group of round droplets on the leaf of a vibrant fern.

Stace nodded.

“Blood. He couldn’t have made it far with that wound in his belly,” he said with a grin and got up, dusting off his hands, and led the way around one of the massive trees.

It didn’t take them long, maybe a few minutes, to find where the short trail began and yet another body.

This one appeared to be female from what Stace could tell of the face-down corpse. Men didn’t typically have curves like these and she wore a dress with frilly cuffs and collar.

“I don’t like this,” Ken said, once again using a stick and the broken sword to flip the body. Revealing that the woman’s arm was no longer attached at the elbow and... Her face, Stace’s gorge rose and she heaved to the side at the sight but only managed to bring up some bile. The face had been bashed into a mealy pulp.

“Oh God,” Stace grimaced and wiped at her mouth with the back of her paw and tried her best not to look at the head.

“The movies never get it quite right,” Ken said levelly, turning with her and raising a hand as though he was going to rest it on her shoulder but dropping it instead.

“I will deal with this one if you want to keep a lookout. I fear the killers may still be around here somewhere. This is turning out too easy for my tastes. I’m starting to fear what the Devil didn’t say,” Ken reasoned.

Stace nodded gratefully and kept her back turned to the woman’s body opting to do a wide circle around it to watch the amazing forest about them. Something seemed off about it to her but she couldn’t quite place what.

It seemed peaceful to her, only the bodies spoke of the danger. But people are a different type of danger than what a forest usually presents, she thought. A brief flash of her father's face crossed her mind, and she grimaced.

She decided to distract herself by exploring how her new body moved. She felt, graceful was the best word she could think of. Maybe lithe?

Stopping to do a few stretches she found that she was inhumanly flexible; her spine allowed her to bend backward and sideways to an unnerving degree. And the splits, both types, were nothing to her. She could also put her head in her... um yeah.

When she returned to watching the forest and doing a few circuits. She found it was easy to walk quietly if she placed her long feet down slowly. The wide pads at the end of her feet distributed her weight well and the fur muted the crackle of dried leaves.

After some hesitation, she got down on all fours out of sheer curiosity and was rewarded when she found she could move exactly like a cat and it didn’t feel awkward in any way. Instead, it felt as natural as walking on two feet. She looked at one of the trees and up then turned one of her hand paws up flexing her claws out. I wonder how well I can climb.

“You can quit stalking about; I’m done with her,” Ken said with a tightness to his voice.

“This is crazy,” Stace said, standing back up and turning to him. “I think I may be faster on all fours.”

“That’s likely. Large four-legged animals are generally faster than people. At least in a sprint. Humans have better endurance though. If we find you’re truly stuck like that permanently, we’ll have to spend some time finding your limits and mine I suppose. But when we are safe. Here,” Ken said, handing her another few powder bags, which she added to the others then a pair of the same type of pants the other body had.

“Thanks,” Stace said, then noticed he was wearing a sleeveless chain shirt that was open at the front. It wasn’t large enough to close on the dwarf’s wide torso making it look more like a long vest on him. “Where?”

“Under her dress, same as the pants,” Ken explained before handing her a small sheathed knife then his broken sword. “I almost suggested you take it but I figured it may play hell with your fur. The undergarment was ruined by her blood,” he reasoned.

Stace nodded her agreement. That sounds terrible.

He’d replaced his sword with a short sword that looked a lot like the roman ones she’d seen in movies.

Stace tied the knife to her belt and put the broken blade in the scabbard she’d kept.

“Did you get an inheritance from her?” she asked.

“Yes. Let's go,” Ken said with a slight smile before heading off in a new direction.

Ken spent some time showing her what sign he found and was looking for as they traveled. “It’s been nearly forty years since I tracked a man last. I forgot how easy it is compared to elk or whitetails. People are sloppy,” he said while pointing out a stretch of easily visible bootprints in the soft soil between two giants.

Ahead one of the giant trees had fallen across their intended path. It was wedged at a steep angle between dozens of its brethren. Stace gaped at the demonstration of how massive it was. For some reason seeing the side profile of one was more impactful than them towering straight up into the heavens.

“Wow, how tall do you think these trees are?” Stace asked, looking at the huge root ball that towered a few stories tall on one side. The trunk disappeared into the bulks of its cousins in the other direction. The only real sign it was dead was its lack of foliage. The massive trunk still matched the other giants.

“That one is at least twice the width of these others and taller to boot. But these others? Maybe two or three hundred feet,” Ken said, nodding to the ones holding it up.

“Wow,” Stace said with even more appreciation.

“Careful girl, keep your eyes open,” Ken said softly, gesturing at Stace to follow him as they approached the giant. “We still don’t know who killed those two back there and this is a good place for an ambush.”

“They might’ve killed each other,” Stace reasoned, matching his soft voice. Stace felt intimidated by the bulk of the tree when they drew close. All it would take is a shift in one of the other trees then splat.

“Maybe,” Ken allowed and gave her the zip-your-mouth motion. “The Devil made it sound like finding bodies would be easy,” he said under his breath, but Stace caught it easily.

Stace nodded and pressed her lips together.

The dwarf passed below the monster taking slow steps, looking everywhere, and Stace matched him a steps dozen behind. Stace could see his shoulders relax when he didn’t find any danger on the other side.

“How much wood do you think is here,” Stace said, drawing his attention back to the tree while reaching up to lay a hand on the massive trunk in awe.

Inheritance Received

“What the hell!?” She exclaimed.

“What?” Ken asked, turning around quickly sword raised.

“I just got an Inheritance from the tree!” Stace said, scrunching her face up in confusion.