Chapter Twenty Three
Howling
A wyvern, a gay zebra, a straight zebra, and a unicorn mare were going through a scary forest. Why does this feel like the setup to a bad joke? Hmm… Maybe because it is.
Vojo had simply agreed to come with us, and for no particular reason I was relieved. It scared me that I have the feeling I’ve known him for years. It scared me that I had agreed to let someone come with us I didn’t actually know. And it scared me that I had come up with the plan of adding him to our group. It was probably a Craft-thing, I simply had to deal with, like so many things before. I need to talk to her as soon as possible.
Kha was seriously pissed off for some reason. I could only assume it was because of Vojo, but it didn’t seem like they know each other. Opposing Kha’s bad mood was Clint who, for the first time since I met him, was carrying a smile on his face (not counting the situation where he was drugged).
“Aideen.” Half an hour has passed since anyone of us has spoken up, but I had known, whoever talks first, he would address me, unless they hear something. Kha looked at me with sharp eyes. “We cross the forest together, because it’s safer, but the moment we are out we will part ways, you understand?”
I had to lie, if I would say that this didn’t hurt me. Even though he said I wasn’t good in bed, we still shared that night together, and he risked his life saving me, so… “Why?”
“I have my reasons.” Way to go, being cryptic. He looked forward on the path again.
“You could have said it when we were outside,” I informed him. “why are you telling me now?”
“Yeah,” He sounded defeated. “I should have done that outside…”
“You wanted to give me time to build arguments against you leaving us.” That was more a leap of faith than anything else.
“Okay, I’ll tell you. Why do people travel together? Because it’s safer, or because they are friends, or because one hired the other. When we are out the first reason ceases to be, and the others were never there to begin with. We are not friends. I’m not even sure, if I can stand you.”
Those who didn’t like me usually made it clear in other ways or were subtle about it, but in my entire life nobody ever told me they didn’t like me when the feeling hadn’t been mutual or I assumed they do. I gulped and I felt my heart was racing. Why does it react that way? I… had felt safe with him, it felt comfortable, I … liked him. But he rejected me. “Okay…”
“Oh, come on now, don’t act hurt. You have never had feelings for me. All I was for you was a way to pass the time, and maybe to get someone to feel obligated to you.” He was clearly angry. “And I wasn’t even the only one.” He pointed ad Vojo. What? “Use your body to further your means…” It hasn’t been like that. “No, I’m pretty certain: I don’t like you.”
“How can you be so blind to a mare suffering?” Vojo walked between Kha and me in a protective stance. “It’s okay if you make yourself feel bad, I can’t stop you from that, but not an innocent.”
“Innocent? What do you think? How many beside us have there been?” For some reason Kha thinks I’ve slept with Vojo, and many others too…
“I don’t know what you are talking about, I see this mare for the first time. I came with you because you said it regarded Nar’yol and I could only assume it was his wish that we leave Black Oak. I was baffled how his magic is on her,” An uncertain gaze fell on me. “but after his death I just want to get out of here. Any reason would have done it for me… because with him gone…” His gaze fell to the forest floor. “I might just live for living’s sake… I accompany you because, as you said, it’s safer together. Aideen has done nothing to me, or for me.”
“His magic on me?” I tried to make sense out of it. Nar’yol I know that name… “Nar’yol fell into the tree sap with me… before me.” Pieces of information seem to just fall in place from here on out. “The tree sap’s enchanted to transfer blood relation to someone else for a bypass spell. It must have given me some of his memories, that’s why I feel like I’ve known you for ages…” Vojo’s life lost value without Nar’yol. “You two were together.” It makes sense.
“Very good.” We turned to Clint in front of us. “It did more than transfer some memories though.”
“He can take over my body for short durations, can’t he?” Just what I needed, one more person inside of me. “And you know that… because..?”
“We had a talk.” Clint stated, like it was the most usual thing to talk to ghosts who posses other people. “But he’s afraid the spell is going to wear off soon, and he’ll be dead, so he quickly had to get his lover out of Black Oak.”
“What? I’m not the only one confused by this, am I?” Kha looked around to check our expressions.
“Her emotional pattern towards me was a fake from Nar’yol’s, this just solves questions for me.” Vojo nodded.
“I assumed Aideen having been swapped out because of her behavior when she woke up, and I was the first to know about the truth, so I had time to adjust.” Clint had no problems with it either.
And me? “It’s been so much going on lately, having someone in my body as a temporary effect, with him being friendly isn’t that bad. I thought it was Craft who’d controlled me, so it’s a win for me.” I think I’m way too calm about this, but I’ve had worse.
“So… you never slept with anyone else, and I’m an asshole now?” That’s the conclusion Kha came to, and I have to say, it was quite accurate, though I couldn’t just tell him that.
In the distance we heard an unearthly howl. I’ve heard dogs howl before in Colt’s Well, but the creature that made this sound could only be a Canis Minor. It sounded so different… it gave my goose bumps.
“Who’s Craft?” Vojo asked, as if to specifically snap me out of my shiver from the howl we just heard.
Ah shit, might as well tell the truth. “The goddess you’ve been praying to your entire live.”
“You’re the god’s host?” Why does he seem so surprised?
“Yeah,” I narrowed my eyes. Something wasn’t quite right “can’t you feel my god-y magic on me?”
“No, I am not a zebra.” Wha-?
At first I was baffled, but then I remembered what he said earlier. ‘Her emotional pattern…’ That could only mean. “You’re a changeling!”
“Yes.” He nodded.
I looked around. Clint showed no reaction. Kha on the other hoof jumped up and began stuttered. “You… what… ‘yes’?”
“You didn’t know?” Kha’s surprise surprised Vojo. “I’m sorry, as Aideen is a pony, I should have disclosed that. I grew up around zebras, who SHOULD simply be able to tell the difference between other zebras and changelings. Why are you surprised?”
“Well… I knew there’s something up with you guys. But we were always told you had undergone some sort of magical augmentation. There are no young ones of you, so I thought you weren’t… your own species. And until today I didn’t even know the shape shifters Dahlia kills are called changelings, nor did I know you were intelligent.”
Again Vojo raised his eyebrows, unsure where to begin. “Well, Drones are hardly intelligent,” He began. “they can follow orders, and Dahlia gets some to kill if she can convince our queen it would be worth it.” Pausing to think about the situation he closed his eyes to concentrate better. “You didn’t know we were living among you… interesting.”
“What does that imply?” I asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Clint said. “That the population of Black Oak isn’t afraid to love another, and accidentally get a changeling. They weren’t told to feed them.”
“Our love was real, if that’s what you are implying!” Vojo defended.
“Yeah, but you approached him on your love.” How does Clint know that?
“Only after his love for me was big enough he would disregard the risks. Feeling our partners emotions make a relationship harder and not easier.” I thought it would be easier. “And people are naturally scared of changelings.” I can imagine.
“Okay, but let’s get back to Dahlia and the Changeling Queen. Why are they working together?”
“It’s not my place to question my queens orders, but I imagine it’s only a business relationship. Simply being around equines strengthens us. And if I know I wouldn’t feel comfortable to tell you.”
“Understandable… Next question: what are you? You’re obviously not a Drone, as you are capable of independent thought. And while I‘m at it, what types of changelings are there?”
“I’m an Infiltrator, the most intelligent type, besides our Queen and Princesses. There are also the a little less intelligent Workers and Warriors. Those who take the shape of a zebra in Black Oak are all Infiltrators.” Changeling 101, that can be useful.
“I don’t understand.” We looked at Kha. “I mean, I understand what you are saying, but not why you are telling us all this.” He does raise a valid point. “Up until today I didn’t even know there are a bunch of changelings in Black Oak, this has to have been some enormous secret. There has to have been some rules on how information is treated.”
“We were not supposed to talk about it, as it has been hard enough to simply get accepted.”
“But you were having a relationship with Nar’yol…” My relationships are not healthy, and I shouldn’t be the one to ever give advice or criticize someone, but this just seemed wrong. “Wasn’t there ever a talk: ‘Hey, are you okay with me feeding on your love?’ Because that’s what comes up when you are a creature that feeds on someone else’s love and try to convince somebody to commit in a relationship to you. So… did he know?”
Vojo closed his eyes; his expression was easy to read: he hadn’t done the right thing here.
“You never disclosed that do your partner? And you claim to-” Kha started, but I had to interrupt him.
“Stop it!” I shouted at Kha, before I turned to Vojo. “I’m sorry for having brought that up. No relationship is perfect, and I even envy you that you had one.” I couldn’t help but to look at Kha again. We made eye contact for a brief moment before we both quickly looked away again. “But the question, why you tell us, still remains.”
“Yes, it does…” He paused for a very long time while we continued to walk through the forest, but not pressuring him paid off, as he spoke up again. “I‘m no longer part of this hive, and not tied to the rules which were set up.”
“Are you dying?” Smooth move there, Aideen.
“Yes. I gave up the rest of the love I had stored inside me and gave my notice, afterwards I was free to go.” He smiled to me. “Don’t be sad, we changelings have a different life expectancy than you ponies, and we cope with death differently too. I’m actually lucky to have lived for 14 year.” He’s a teenager? “Nar’yol’s love has been powerful.” He sighed.
“I’m sorry for your loss.” I really haven’t said that before, have I?
“Nobody has said that to me before.” His was baffled. “Thank you.”
“But are you not even going to try and find love again?” that should give him the power to continue living, right? “Don’t you think he would have wanted you to continue to live?”
“It’s not so easy for changelings… once our loved one dies… Even if you don’t love them back and were the parasitic being pony kind thinks us to be, we die too.”
“I’ trying to respect your culture here, but… you all just die? Wouldn’t it be better to die fighting than simply giving up?”
“Aideen, I appreciate your concern, but the feelings you have for me aren’t yours. You… pity me. Not in a negative sense as an insult, but as a step to sympathy. This body is very old, and I don’t get many valuable nutrients. I’ll be dead by the end of the week, and I’m okay with it. You do not have to save me, this is not in your hooves, nor in anyone’s.”
“I don’t want you to die, and those are my feelings,” He can’t tell me the opposite. “and I will mourn your death when it will arrive.”
Vojo only nodded, but didn’t say anything else on that matter anymore.
After a few minutes Kha spoke up again. “Aideen? Even though my earlier argument was invalid, I still plan on going my own way after we leave the forest.” Just when I wanted to speak up he continued. “They will search for you. And in general, with what’s going on with and around you…” He sighed. “You are not necessarily a safe person to be around.”
“Can’t argue with that…” Or can I? “Not like they are going to be looking for you too, after all you know a bunch of their secrets and stuff. Dahlia seems like the type of person to not leave loose ends. And you know her, she might just do it for fun. You’re safer with me.” Nonononono… I need to rephrase that if I want him to-
“I take my chances.”
“Sorry, I meant… You are free to go of course. You sit in a similar boat as I, Dahlia will search for the both of us, I assume. It’s just…” What am I even trying to say?
“Why don’t you tell him?” Because that’s so easy… Wait, what? Damn changelings.
“What do you mean?” Playing oblivious certainly won’t work on Vojo, would it?
“That you don’t want him to leave. Is it so hard to say?” He tilted his head slightly. “One of the reasons why groups stick together is because of friendship. Just say it.”
My heart was racing again. Saying I don’t want Kha to go won’t change a thing, it’s his decision. My feelings have nothing to do with his, do they? Or… seriously, do they?
“I think it’s cute when your mouth is open and your lips are moving, although nothing comes out. You are thinking very loudly, almost audible.”
Dear god, I’m blushing now. What’s going on? I don’t actually lov- like the guy, do I? ‘The guy’… I’m objectifying! And objectifying is a clear indication that someone lying. Worse yet, I’m lying to myself. I consciously pressed my lips together to not show any sign of thinking intensely.
Fortunately (or unfortunately), I was spared having to answer by another Canis Minor howl, a very loud one at that… “That sounded clos-” I was interrupted by another howl on our other side, and another, and then more of them were howling near us. “We’re surrounded.”
We all stopped walking and talking, to not make any more sounds and be able to listen, yet, besides the howling, there were no sounds from the forest. No rustling leaves, no snapping branches, no nothing.
I gulped (way too loud). Why are they here..? And why do they announce themselves? And why are they even here? I thought the forest animals are scared of me or something… Oh shit. I didn’t like where my train of thought is going. “The other animals are scared of me.” I told my companions. “And the top predators of this forest need to regain their title.”
I’m dead.
The others looked at me with mixed expressions. Vojo’s and Kha’s expression indicated the thought my theory was plausible. Clint’s expression only read: ‘sucks to be you’.
We had just reached the middle of a small clearing when the howling had started, now we could see shadowy figures silently reaching the tree line, not more than a few meters away from each other. No room to escape, because their bodies were also a few meters big.
Oh, I’m so dead…
The Canis Minor’s shoulder height was about the size of a pony, and, although I only see each one from the front, I could assume they all were around seven meters long. They have the approximate shape of wolves I believe, I couldn’t tell their features properly by the way their coat is, and their coat was their most extraordinary feature. It’s like a window to the night sky, showing off the two stars making up the constellation ‘Canis Minor’. Yet their bodies still reflects light in the way every solid object does. It’s as if their bodies are made entirely of glass, hmm… no. There was no good way of describing it.
I noticed how I’m not dead (yet, at least). Why? What are they waiting for? For a sign of their… alpha? I don’t want to think of their alpha. That thing has to be much scarier than… There was more movement. Straight ahead in front of us. Nope, worse. Their alpha is much bigger and scarier than I expected.
It’s head alone was about my size, I imagined myself devoured in two, maybe three, bites. Besides being as massive as ten Canis Minor, it has another feature that differs it from them. The constellation in it’s body had eight stars; I take a guess and say it’s ‘Canis Major’. With one paw it snapped a tree in half and walked into the clearing. That was unnecessary, it could have simply went around that tree… Is it trying to show dominance? Yeah, well… That’s the reason it’s here, to proove its dominance in the forest. And all this… it’s just a challenge to me.
I gulped again. “Guys, back to the tree line with you. This is a duel, just me and the Canis Major, it’s none of your business. The Canis Minor won’t hurt you until this is decided… I assume.”
“Wait, are you going to try and fight that thing?” Kha is not the only one who has his doubts about the ending of this.
“BACK WITH YOU! What kind of message does it send if it sees I can’t even control my flock!” I stared him down, and he quickly obeyed. As expected the Canis Minor let him, and the others to the tree line without problems for a clear arena. “Okay, Craft. There’s someone to wants a piece of you.” I whispered.
The Alpha and I began to walk in circles around each other. I’m somewhat scared out of my wits, but the only thing I could think of right now is that I couldn’t think of the proper term for the walking in circles we do right now. And when Craft is helping me… because that’s somewhat her fault to begin with.
Craft didn’t show up. The Alpha leaped forward, swung it’s paw… I tried to dodg- Nope, to slow. I was sent flying. Pain coursed through my body, and I think it had it’s claws out when hitting me, but that train of thought got stopped as my flight was stopped by a tree. Bones… shattering… not good…
I fell down, not as hard as I had just smashed into the tree, but I didn’t comically slide down from the tree and painlessly as I wished it to be. Show no weakness, show no weakness… I used the small slope the tree’s roots are forming to roll over and use the momentum to jump up and faced wolf again.
It just growled and stared at me, while I tried to steady my stand again. Not like a steady stand would do me any good, as the Alpha just threw me across the clearing with one swing of it’s paw. What is it waiting for?
I might as well take the time to check my body for injuries. I certainly had most of my ribs broken on my right side from the impact with the tree, and some broken ribs and punctures from the Alpha’s claws. That’s… quite the amount of pain.
“Craft… anytime now… can’t do that alone.”
Nothing happened. I mean: Craft didn’t show up, the Alpha on the other hoof pressed his claws into me, and besides the roar it did right in my face I heard more snapping sounds out of my ribcage, and felt trails of blood running down from the freshly made puncture wounds. There was pain, of course. Lots and lots of pain. But I was managing it.
Why wasn’t it killing me?
“Aideen!” I believe I heard my name being shouted from somewhere, but I couldn’t orient myself, nor was it important right now.
“Come on, Craft… If I die you won’t have anymore fun.”
The Alpha scraped me over the floor, turning me multiple times to make sure I get grazed everywhere. When it stopped this act I was flat on my stomach. Most of the bones in my chest were obliterated, and with the pressure it applied I’m certain I will have tons of internal bleeding. I’ll just have to down our entire medical cabinet…
It’s going easy on me, because it wasn’t after me… It was after Craft, it tried to lure her out, just like Dahlia did.
I was held down by my neck… helpless… not defending myself… NO. I teleported out from underneath the paw, steadying my stand behind it as it spun around and tried to deliver another blow, but I had teleported again already. It took only a fraction of a second for the beast to find me again, but this time it didn’t lash out. Once again, it only growled at me. It wanted Craft… but she apparently didn’t want to fight.
“I’m your opponent!” Where’s my bow? Oh yeah, still strapped to my back. A fully charged beam should do the trick right? At least the injure it. It’s inhibitor was inactive now after all.
I drew the string of my bow, but this buildup of energy didn’t go unnoticed and I was forced to teleport once again, and again… and again. When I felt confident with how much energy had run into the arrow I released in the general direction of the wolf. The arrow… missed horribly; On part because I didn’t aim properly, three parts because the thing was too freaking fast. I need a strategy here, at least a fully charged arrow leaves a lot of devastation behind, one well placed shot, and I might slay the wolf.
Teleport, open saddlebags, teleport, search out energy cells, teleport, start reloading, teleport, finish reloading, teleport. I have never been good at whack-a-mole, I know how enraging it is if you miss the thing by, what feels like, a few milliseconds, and I have the foreboding that soon I’ll feel the rage I’ve ignited in the beasts spirit.
Bow fully loaded? Check. The alpha had to have also noticed the buildup of energy stopped and was now constant, as it had stopped trying to catch me, and only stared for now. Okay… that shot has to count. The beast snatched at me, I telepo-, it changed direction.
It was dark… and moist… I was in its maw, or at least my front body way, torso were and forehooves were between it’s teeth.
For the first time in a long time, I actually screamed out in pain. If it weren’t for my PipBuck stopping it’s bite, my forehooves would have gotten severed. My torso, however, was bigger than a standard issue PipBuck, and wasn’t as lucky. I think it’s still attached, but I couldn’t properly place all the fucking pain running through my body to certainly know.
I heard a growl coming out of the beasts gullet, it certainly wasn’t happy about the PipBucks structure being near indestructible. I’ve heard rumor/joke about these things being able to withstand a direct hit from a Megaspell.
My PipBucks screen cracked. What? How..? It slowly got crushed between the same teeth, that now sunk themselves further into me. There is no way something can have this power in it’s maw… is was not possible… then again, a Canis Major wasn’t exactly a normal creature.
In it’s rage of barely being able to crack this nut, the wolf shook his head violently, swinging my backside around. I heard a snap. Yep, yeah… that’s my spine, no, that had been my spine.
What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?
…
I still have a fully charged energy bow, and if I shoot it straight at myself I couldn’t miss the wolf, especially since it’s busy using me as a chew toy. If I’m not mistaken I have the bow floating around, I need to angle it so the arrow would go through the wolf’s brain… and release it. I closed my eyes to brace myself…
*** *** ***
I woke up because something was continuously poking me in my side. “Stop it, I want to sleep some more.” I’m not a morning pony, but I wake up pretty fast under normal conditions, but today something my whole body felt… unusual, so I did the unusual thing of telling, whoever is trying to wake me up right now, that I wanted to sleep some more, after all it’s been so long since I lay in a really comfy bed. That didn’t work out… While the poking stopped, the hoof now traced a line over my body, onto my flank, to my inner thigh… “Wha-! Stop!” My eyes shot open and I retreated from the culprit. “Craft!”
“Good morning, sunshine.” She greeted me. “Or starshine, or whatever.”
“Why are you wearing my… me?” Not that it bothered me, really. Seeing Craft looking like me wasn’t as disturbing as it had been the first time around, but the first time she has had an agenda in doing so.
“Your you?” Okay, she’s playing oblivious. Is it too much to ask one straight answer out of her? “Sorry, I wasn’t aware you trademarked it. By the way… that look is so.. ‘a week ago’. But you wouldn’t know that, would you?” I suppose I shouldn’t even try to make sense of what she said, it will be revealed sooner or later.
Where am I? There was no clear light source, but I had absolutely no trouble seeing. If I’m not mistaken I’m in midst of a giant flower with it’s petals closed. What kind of flower is the size of a building?
I walked up to one of the petals to see if I can squeeze through them to get outside just when Craft spoke up again. “Oh come on, don’t go. We’re alone and nobody will disturb us, we can do all kinds of naughty things!” She’s looking like me… “You’re not lesbian if you do it with a clone of yourself, you know, it’s more like…” Her eyes went away and her lips started moving; she was trying to find a proper phrasing for whatever it is she’s trying to say. Wait, is that lip movement what Kha meant earlier? The thing when I’m thinking hard? “It’s an advanced masturbation technique.”
“Hmm… Can’t argue with that logic.” I admitted. “Not now though.” I turned to the pedals again.
“Your loss.” She instantly appeared next to me and pushed herself against a petal, which gave way to the outside.
The giant flower turned out to be in the middle of an enormous cave with a big hole in the ceiling, where only a small stripe of light came through, so the light conditions were better than inside the flower, but still terrible (Nonetheless I could see perfectly.) I assume the flower only gets a few minutes of sunlight everyday, and I have to ask myself how it properly sustains itself, but then I thought ‘Well, magic, duh!’, because a flower that size is not normal.
Around the cave lay… the Canis Minor. Them being asleep doesn’t help the fact that I’m scared of them. Wait a minute, how did I get out of that fight? I had been severed in two pieces, haven’t I? And my PipBuck has been crushed! I lifted my left forehoof to examine the busted device. “No… noon…” I know where the PipBuck’s memory is stored, and that part seemed intact enough, my audiologs… I can’t lose them, they are the only thing in the world that were proof that I have existed like I did. That I am me…
“Are you seriously freaking about your PipBuck? Don’t you think you have a bigger worry, like you turning into a werewolf?”
“It’s not a full moon.” Whatever she’s onto, I’ll just go with it. Talking to her always leads to something bad, but I won’t ignore her either. Who knows what she might do when she’s upset with me?
“It wasn’t a full moon a week ago.” Okay, that got my attention.
“I was out a week?” I haven’t made an audiolog in a week, and even more if I count the unaccounted time I had spent passed out in tree sap. My neatly made system was ruined.
“Well, yeah, you were quite injured, and you underwent some change. Werewolfism, you know.”
“It’s lycanthropy, and…” I gulped…
“You’ve been staring at your leg for… how long now? And you only now notice the change in your coat?” She was wearing ‘my look from a week ago’, and was going on about werewolves, a creature that turns you with a bite, and my coat looks awfully like…
“I’m a star-spawn now?” I examined my body further, taking in every detail I could just to proof to myself it can’t be true, but… it was. My coat was like the Canis Minor's, like a window into the night sky, but... not quite. I still haven't found a proper description for it, even with enough time on my hooves to examine my altered coat. I'm no narcisist, but I have to say it's beautiful; it might be beautiful on the Canis too, but when I had seen them I was too worried about not being eaten.
“That shit’s contagious! Who would have known?” Craft poked her head into my field of vision, gliding over my body, disturbing the fur, so we could see how the dim light we are provided with catches it. “Fascinating.” And now she was quoting an old science fiction show.
No audiologs in a week… No possibility to listen to them or make sure they still exist… My body changed… My whole identity is gone. My heart started beating like crazy.
“Oh come on, don’t you think that’s fucking awesome too?” She tilted her head as she noticed my heavy breathing. “Are you…” I fell over, but she caught me. “Are you having a panic attack?” She gently lead me down into the flower and laid me down on the ground. “Close your eyes.” I obeyed. Vision was just a distraction at this point.
The only thing going through my mind right now was a series of “oh fuck”s, and “why”s. I huffed, my breathing got irregular, and I felt I was crying.
“Yeah, way to go! Your first thing to do, when you find out you have been turned into one of the most powerful things in, like, ever, you are having a panic attack.” Her gentle movements didn’t match her mocking words; she was caressing me. “I thought you were like Luna, but turns out you’re like good old Tia.”
Tia? It took me a while to figure out she was most likely using a nickname for Celestia. So Celestia has had a panic attack when she got to be an alicorn? Well, with all I know about how she get to be one it was somehow fitting, I guess. Only she woke up in a different world, and with her husband gone too. Wait, where’s Kha? He had be- I stopped crying. Where’s Clint, Vojo, and Kha? They had been at the fight, what happened to them?
“You want Kha’ref? Do you think he’s cuddlier than Ailill? Because this is getting embarrassing, if you continue here.” I opened my eyes to look at her. “Oh, you’re good already?”
“Do you know where the others are?”
“Dragon, shifty and lover-boy? Yeah, they followed the Canis after they picked you up when you passed out.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Because you pay one of them.” Not them… “The other one, the one who isn’t sure if he can stand you, I don’t know. And the Shifter feeds somewhat on your fake love for him.”
“I meant the Canis Minor.” And I’m pretty sure she knew what I meant. “Why would they carry me here?”
“Because the strongest thing in this forest is their leader, and you just showed them who that is.”
At first that statement didn’t make much sense, but then the switch in my head clicked “Wait, so they are… They think I’ll lead them now or something?”
“Plausible…” Craft slowly nodded. “I only lead you here because of the Alpha. I thought the way it can hide its scent would come in handy for you and me.” She thought that…
“What?” Has she planned on-
“Zebras can’t sense the alpha’s magic, it is hidden from them and from other things, that’s the way it can hunt without already scaring everything in a ten mile radius And I’m sick of you being sick of zebras shying away from you.”
“You planned this…everything?”
“Well, I know about it’s magic, and that it wouldn’t be able to resist if I showed up in the forest. I also had my money on you being able to defeat it. I figured 70-30, but it was worth the risk, don’t you think?”
“You changed my entire body just to further your own means! Do you know wha- It’s MY body!”
“Nanana! You own it, sure. But I own you, Aideen. I only let you run around, because I’m nice, a good employer, and because I like you. And by the way, it’s only a physical feature. You can turn it off, you still have your original look. Tell you what, next adventure: we go fix your PipBuck, okay?”
There is no use fighting against Craft, I should know it by now. “Where do you think anyone can fix a Pip Buck this messed up.” It’s not like I can go to Colt’s Well….
“Steel Ranger contingent, Crescent Moon Valley.” She said it as if it’s the most usual thing.
I can’t just waltz into a Steel Ranger contingent, they would… no, actually, they wouldn’t kill me for my PipBuck, not anymore… But still… something wasn’t right. “What do you get out of it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh come on, you always have some hidden agenda. It’s not like you just let me go somewhere to get my PipBuck fixed.” Would she? Now that I’ve said it out loud I had my doubts. “Why do you want me there? You couldn’t have predicted my PipBuck getting broken, but you would have come up with some other reason that I should go there.”
“And what if I had known exactly what was going to happen?” Okay, one of these times I should really find out if Craft’s face is solid, or if she would just make herself immaterial. “So, before you start throwing punches…” Yeah, I should really do that. “I’m gonna tell you. Thing is… you still need some more factions on your side, before you go start a civil war in Colt’s Well.”
“Wait, civil war?”
“Yeah, if you manage a silent coup there will be some who are not on your side.” She laughed. “Duh.”
“Then what do we need the… fac…tions… for..?” I finished the sentence although I began to realize her plan. “A full frontal assault would never work, and it will have too many casualties. We need a strike with surgical precision, and the factions on our side will help us in case Red Eye wants a slice or pie. Hufstein, and a Steel Ranger contingent. Still seems not enough, especially considering Hufstein doesn’t really an army…”
“You seem to forget you’re leader of a pack of Canis Minor.” Okay, she has a point, a pack of canis minor would be able to keep off Red Eye’s Army for a while.
“Okay… So practically pacifists, rabid star-beasts, and high-tech raiders, all of them lead by a unicorn-mare in an identity crisis who is under the orders from the most feared ancient evil. Yeah, what can possibly go wrong?”
“Everything will work out fine.” Why do I have trouble believing her? “Let’s go find lover-boy, pick up the rest of your flock and get going.” With this she ended the conversation by disappearing into thin air.
*** *** ***
New Perk: Ninja: +50% chance of silent execution when sneak-attacking a unsuspecting target.
Special Perk: Star-Spawn Top Predator: You killed the mightiest predator in the forest and took it’s position; it imbued your body with star-magic. You gain +5 Strength, +5 Endurance, +5 Agility (cap at 10), and +25 Sneak (cap at 100)
Skill Note: Magic has reached 75.
Skill Note: Sneak has reached 75.
Skill Note: Sneak has reached 100.
Quest: Blind Date:
[ ] Find out what Dahlia’s really planning.
[ ] Find out why Dahlia has an agreement with Changelings.
Quest: the new Boss
[ ]Optional: Gain allies of different factions in the area around Colt’s Well. (2)
[ ]Make a coup in the Crimson Company.
[ ]Optional: Avoid a Civil War in Colt’s Well.
[ ]Trigger a reform of the Enclave for it to have an representative ruler.
[ ]Manage to get Colonel Foehn elected as representative ruler of the Enclave.
new Quest: PipBuck Repair
[ ]Find a way to repair your PipBuck.
new Quest: the new Boss 3: Crescent Moon Valley
[ ]Reach the Steel Ranger contingent in Crescent Moon Valley.
[ ]Find a way to gain their trust and support.
Quest: No More Trees:
[ ] Leave the forest
[ ] avoid Dahlia and the Zebras from Black Oak
[ ] avoid getting shred to pieces by Canis Minor