Mystic Heart Odyssey

Part 4: Quality Time

Chapter 6

Astral shenanigans time? Astral shenanigans time.

-Llox

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Eventually, as the moon was starting on its ascent into the sky, Kuna was starting to get quite tired and decided to call it a night a bit early. The combination of his exertion during the day’s events and his lack of decent sleep the previous night were taking their toll on him. Lykou wasn’t quite as tired, of course. But as the sereva blocked off the entrance with some roots, the konuul shifted over to their bed-mat anyway and leaned back against one of the rocky protrusions behind it.

Kuna arched a brow as he turned around and moved over next to him. “Whatcha doin’? I thought you were-” he began to ask, then was interrupted by another big yawn. “...gonna stay up a bit longer?”

“Yeah, doesn’t mean I can’t keep you company while you doze off, though,” Lykou replied with a grin, then gently pulled the sereva into his lap and began cuddling him. “Figured it might help you ward off any more nightmares.”

Kuna giggled lightly and happily snuggled up to him in response. “Well alright then, ya big softy,” he said, then suddenly sat back up after a moment. “Oh, wait, I just remembered-”

“Oh yeah, you were going to use that charm tonight, right?”

“Yeah! Let’s see, where did I put that thing…” He searched around through his bag nearby, then checked his robe. He started getting nervous that he’d lost it, but then it dropped out of a robe pocket, bounced off the ground at an odd angle, and landed in his lap. “Oh. Er, there it is.”

“...that didn’t look quite natural,” Lykou noted, quirking an eyebrow.

“Hey, it’s magical, right? And they did say these things couldn’t get lost. Maybe they just naturally get pulled towards us.”

The canid shrugged. “Makes sense I guess. You remember how to use it?”

Kuna thought for a minute, then nodded and snuggled back into Lykou’s arms, smiling up at him. “Well… goodnight I guess.”

“’night Ku. Tell them hello for me.”

“Will do,” the sereva replied, then yawned yet again. After rolling onto his side, he whispered something to the glassy object. It suddenly began to glow brightly and float out of his hand, then drift towards him, catching both of them off guard. Before they could react, it suddenly shot towards his chest and vanished when it made contact. The same glowing light briefly flicked over his entire being, then vanished. Moments later, the object reappeared in his hand. “...well that was… odd…”

“Yeah… you feel alright?”

Kuna thought for a moment, checking himself over, then shrugged. “I guess. Still as tired as ever though, so-” He yawned again.

Lykou snickered. “Get some rest already, sleepyhead.”

“Mhmm,” the sereva said, his eyes already fluttering shut as he quickly started dozing off before he could reply.

The konuul watched him drift off to sleep in peaceful contentment, then sighed and smirked to himself, blushing faintly. You are way too freakin’ cute, Kuna, he thought to himself as he gently stroked his friend’s head. Even when you’re sleeping, dammit.

*****

It seemed like only moments after Kuna’s eyes shut, when suddenly he was opening them again. Only instead of feeling the cozy warmth of his friend’s presence behind him, he felt himself floating in the air, and everything felt slightly chilly. After blinking for a few moments, he tried sitting up. Almost immediately, he fell from his floating position- right onto his feet. Once the momentary panic brought on by the abrupt change subsided, he started to take in his surroundings.

It looked somewhat like the landscape from his magical initiation- mostly an empty void, with a vague light-path extending off in front of him. Only now any time he focused in a particular direction, the path seemed to shift and follow his gaze. And eventually small shimmering discs of light appeared floating in the air in various places. He felt incredibly awake, as well- no longer subject to the groggy sleepiness he’d felt when he first drifted off. In fact, while he knew it was technically a dream, he could tell from how real it felt that this was no ordinary slumber experience.

“This… must be the astral realm,” he mumbled to himself as he looked around. Eventually, he decided to hazard calling out, “Hello?? Daisy?? Lana??”

His voice echoed around the void in a strange way, but there was no response. After a couple more tries, he instead approached one of the discs of light floating in the air to get a better look. When he hesitantly reached out to touch one, it rippled for a moment like a pool of water, before an image began to display on its surface that made him recoil in surprise. The eyes of the giant that he and Lykou had faced down were staring back at him. Except after a moment, the vision panned away and he saw trees blurring past, and a brief glimpse of Lykou running nearby. It was then he realized he was looking at one of his own memories.

“Well that’s… something.”

He turned to examine another one, which turned out to be much older- he was sitting with his grandmother as she told him the story of a young spirit-weaver that had gotten separated from his tribe and was taught by his ancestor’s echo how to use star-magic to find his way back to them. He lingered on that memory for a moment with a somewhat sad smile before moving on to another one.

The next one made him realize the discs weren’t just memories- he facepalmed as he saw the fantasy he’d once had as a kid of himself becoming the head path-seeker for the village and leading them to a land where everything was edible, from the rocks to the trees. And Niric was being made to set up an especially fancy tent for him and his family, while heaping praise on his great path-seeking abilities. Kuna sighed and quickly stepped away from the vision. “Eesh, kid me, really?”

Next he saw a more recent dream he’d pretty much forgotten about- one where he and Lykou were walking through the forest and randomly found a river made of gourd juice. He remembered his friend deciding to bathe in it like it was regular water despite his protests. And instead of becoming drunk, the canid had changed into a rima, except for his head. He quickly pulled away before viewing any more of the dream- it might not exactly have been a nightmare, but that’d definitely been a weird one. And he didn’t want to give it a chance to inspire any new nightmares, either, now that he was looking at it with more conscious eyes.

The moment he happened upon the next vision, he immediately blushed intensely with an awkward grin. In the shimmering disc was one of his more intimate fantasies- and a recent one, at that. And it was one thing to fantasize while in the midst of a much-needed self-love session; seeing it unexpectedly from his current perspective was another matter entirely. He quickly stepped back and covered his eyes, though he couldn’t help but peek again after a moment. “Riiiight… I don’t think I wanna know what happens if I get too horny in here,” he mumbled to himself. He quickly shook his head after a moment and turned away with a sigh, albeit not without some subconscious hesitance. He even felt the like the image was tugging at him lightly as he began walking away. “Spirits, why am I such a head case. Lusting after your friend like that can’t be normal... right? Good grief, what is wrong with me.”

He paused after a few steps and furrowed his brow. “...and why do I keep talking to myself?” He glanced around warily. Something felt off. “Wait, I’m not-” he began, then stopped himself in mid-sentence when he realized what was happening. His mouth hadn’t moved at all. “...what the fuck?” his voice said from all directions at once. His most surface-level thoughts were being vocalized around him without him actually having to say them out loud. “Oh that is fucking weird. I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that it’s happening, or the fact it took me this long to realize it,” he said, this time the usual way- although he could hear the words echo around him as well.

After taking a deep breath, he continued onward, trying to keep his thoughts collected and his mind from wandering too much. It seemed that, with a little effort, he could keep the external voice’s commentary to a minimum. But every time something spurred a specific, clear thought, it suddenly became external regardless. Eventually he gave in and started to adjust to it, at least somewhat. Suddenly, as he was walking along, he came across a patch of the astral path that had a bunch of dark cracks int it. “What the… why is it cracked?”

He sighed and looked up at the void around him. “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” he asked vocally, hearing the exact same words echoed back to him almost, but not quite in sync with his mouth. It was even more unsettling when he noticed the external words were just slightly ahead of the one’s he actually vocalized, rather than the other way around. He shivered a bit and eyed the cracks, then knelt down to peer through them. He could swear he could see faint colors and movement on the other side, but they were too thin to make anything out. After a few moments, he got back up and hesitantly continued onward across them, being careful not to step directly on them. As he passed over them, he could feel a distinctly unsettling sensation he couldn’t quite describe radiating from them.

The way he was going, they seemed to be gradually getting larger, and he was hoping to get a better look at what might lay on the other side. But he started slowing down when he noticed the ambient light that’d he’d gotten used to was fading. Fewer and fewer of the shimmering discs were lingering around. He was starting to reconsider his choice to explore further when suddenly he noticed a single shimmering disc in the distance glowing slightly brighter than the others. It seemed to be right in the middle of a whole bunch of the dark cracks- floating right above the apparent cause of them- a jagged red spike of some kind, buried in whatever the floor was made from.

“...whatever that is, it must be important. Not sure important is good or bad, though,” he said, then gulped. After a moment he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, thanks for the feedback, me.” He quickly shook his head and started oh-so-slowly making his way across the increasingly unstable-looking cracked floor. “I wonder if this is how Lana and Daisy’s split started,” he mused aloud, accompanied by his other external voice. “Speaking of which, where are those two? Maybe they weren’t able to come tonight afterall.”

About halfway to the isolated disc, he paused as he realized it was getting nearly impossible to take another step without stepping on the many jagged cracks radiating from the spike. “...sure would be nice to have their company right now.” He sighed and looked up at the disc for a moment, then briefly glanced back the way he’d come from, wondering if it was worth all the trouble. “Not like I have any other ideas, I guess. Not like I know how to wake myself, either.”

After stalling for a minute, he hesitantly reached out and stepped on the cracks. He felt a strange, almost pain-like jolt shoot through his body, making him recoil a bit. “This is going to suck…”

He took a few minutes, to steel himself, then quickly bolted, hoping to run the rest of the way across the cracked, dark floor. Varying jolts of that uncomfortable sensation wracked his mind and body, and after a moment he noticed the world around him occasionally flashing red in sync with them. But finally he arrived at the disc and stopped to catch his breath. There were still cracks under his feet, but as long as he didn’t move too much, they didn’t seem to cause him any further discomfort.

After catching his breath, he eyed the disc curiously. It wasn’t showing any particular image, so he slowly reached out towards it, warily shooting glances down at the red spike. He figured if there were something off about it, he’d feel it- but if anything, being near the thing seemed to give off an almost numbing sensation- which, after that short but painful burst across the spikes, was somewhat welcome. As soon as he touched the disc though, he immediately realized his mistake. The disc’s light vanished and was replaced with an insidious red glow as the rest of the world around him darkened further. On the disc’s surface, a terrifyingly familiar scene played out in front of him.

“N-n-no… NO! I defeated y-!” he blurted out as he started stumbling backwards when a grinning, wicked beast turned to face him. Suddenly the sensation from stepping on more cracks threw him off and he stumbled. He tried to to right himself, but ended up overcompensating and being further thrown off by more pain-like sensations. Paired with the psychological shock of the oh-so-familiar nightmare glaring back at him, he quickly became disoriented enough that he didn’t see a pair of large, muscular, and clawed hands burst out of the disc until they grabbed hold of him and dragged him in. Just as he opened his mouth to scream, everything went dark.

*****

“Kunaaa….. Kunaaaa….”

The young sereva blinked a few times and shook his head as he became aware of someone calling his name. He’d been staring off into space for some reason, but already forgot what he was thinking about. He turned and looked up to see his mother giving him an amused look, and returned a sheepish smile in response. “Sorry Mom, I uh…”

The older sereva chuckled and knelt down next to him, tussling his hair lightly. “It’s alright sweetie. Just be careful you don’t get so lost in your head that you forget where your body is,” she teased. “How’s it going with the berries?”

Kuna looked down at the basket that was sitting next to him. It was mostly full of berries already, but there were still plenty on the bush in front of him. “Oh, it’s um… good! It’s going good.”

“Well, Kuna. It’s going well,” his mother reminded him, rubbing his back gently. “And I’m glad to hear it. Just don’t overfill your basket to the point you can’t carry it, alright?”

“Moooom, I’m stronger now!” Kuna said, then stood up, lifting the basket to demonstrate as much. He put on a good poker face, for a ten year old, but his arms were subtly shaking a bit. “See?”

She chuckled and gently took the basket from him and handed him an empty one she’d had hanging from her other arm. “Tell you what, I’ll take this back for you so you can get started on this next one, alright?”

“I can do it though!”

“I know you can, sweetie. But it’ll be faster this way, and I know you like actually picking them. Don’t think I didn’t notice you sneaking a few snacks while you work,” she said, winking at him.

He grinned sheepishly. “They’re good though…”

She used the end of her sleeve to lightly wipe a small bit of berry juice off of his chin before standing back up. “Just don’t spoil your appetite for dinner, alright?”

“I won’t!”

“Good boy. I’ll be back in a minute.” The older sereva walked away with the basket full of berries while he began plucking more to fill the new one.

Several minutes went by in peaceful silence as Kuna sat and continued harvesting berries. Gradually, he slowed to a stop as something was nagging at the back of his mind. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something felt… off. He looked up and glanced around his surroundings, but everything seemed normal. There were a few other members of his tribe working not far away in a few spots, gathering more berries or other things. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, or perhaps about to go wrong. For a brief moment, he suddenly saw mushrooms in place of the berries. But After a moment shook it off as his eyes playing tricks on him.

Just when he started to push those thoughts away, he was startled by a hand reaching down and yanking the basket away from him. “Thanks for the help, Kuna! Now I won’t have to pick as many myself.”

“Hey!” Kuna protested as he looked up with annoyance to see his usual tormentor standing over him. “Give ‘em back!”

“Or what? Gonna tattle?” the bully retorted, pushing him over. “Or gonna get your curse on me? Come to think of it,” he said, looking down at the basket with a wicked grin. “Maybe I should just get rid of these, since you probably got your curse on them already.”

“I’m not cursed!” Kuna insisted, tears stinging the corners of his eyes as he picked himself up and rubbed his arm. “Just leave me alone, Niric!”

Just as Niric was about to reply, a large hand plucked him up from behind by the collar of his shirt. He turned to see Kuna’s father glaring back at him. “How many times do I have to tell you to leave my son alone?!”

Niric suddenly began fidgeting and tugging at his captor’s hand, his cocky attitude replaced with fear. “H-hey! Let me go! I’ll tell D-”

“Good, then I’ll whoop both your asses,” the adult sereva said, then dropped the boy roughly back to the ground. “Don’t let me catch you harassing Kuna again, you little shit.”

“DAAAAAD!” Niric cried out as he quickly scrambled to his feet and began running off.

The older sereva watched him run off for a moment, frowning, then turned his attention back to Kuna. He bent down and pulled the boy into a gentle hug. “You alright, Kuna? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“I’m f-fine,” Kuna said, sniffling and rubbing his eyes, trying to put on a strong face. “Niric’s j-just a jerk.”

“Yeah. Yeah he is,” the older sereva agreed, then patted his back gently. “Don’t let him get to you, kiddo.”

Kuna was just about to say something else, when suddenly a scream was heard in the distance. They both looked up as several others rang out, and saw Kuna’s mother running back towards them, clearly panicked. “RAVAGER!” she called out as she approached them. “Arden, there’s a ravager! We have to get out of here!”

Arden, clearly alarmed, turned and picked Kuna up. When the young boy started to question the situation, he gently shushed him and placed him on his back, wrapping his son’s arms around his neck. “Just hang on tight, Kuna. We’ve got to move fast,” he said as he and his mate began bolting through the woods as fast as possible.

“We’re cut off from the sentinels, we’ll have to find a place to hide until they deal with it!”

Arden looked around as they ran, then gestured with his head towards some large boulders a couple dozen yards away. “Over there, the standing stones!”

They quickly made their way to the rocks, where Arden set Kuna down and gestured to a small gap between several of the rocks that were propped up against one another. “Hide in here, Kuna.”

“But D-”

Arden firmly, but gently pushed Kuna towards the hole. “No time to explain, Kuna. Just get in.”

Kuna folded his ears down and did as he was told, then looked back out questioningly at his father. “W-what’s going on??”

“I’ll explain later, kiddo. For now, just be brave and as quiet as you can,” his father said, looking around behind them briefly. When he turned back, he gently tussled Kuna’s hair, trying to look as confident and reassuring as possible. “It’ll be alright, okay? We’ll be just around the corner and come get you as soon as-”

A loud roar from behind him made him spin around, just in time for him to get smacked to the side by a massive clawed hand, showering the surroundings in blood. Kuna let out a terrified scream as he instinctively scrambled back as much as he could into the little hidey-hole he was tucked into. But the beast saw him and immediately began probing around after him with its claws, grinning malevolently. Suddenly, the rocks seemed to start melting away around him, exposing him more to his assailant.

He clenched his eyes shut and curled up, bracing himself for his demise with tears in his eyes as the creature got closer and closer, laughing and snarling all the while. Suddenly, though, the sound faded and he hesitantly opened his eyes, only to realize everything had changed. The stones were gone, and the trees of the forest had grown larger and darker, blotting out the sun and leaving him in a single lit up patch of grass as the faces of other members of the tribe peered out from the shadows, glaring at him in judgement. When he looked down, he saw his parents’ barely-recognizable bodies laying on the ground, and the tears started flowing anew. “N-no… no, d-don’t-”

“The curse strikes again!” one voice called out.

“Look what you brought upon the tribe, Kuna!”

“If it wasn’t for you, they’d still be alive!”

“N-no, stop!” Kuna cried out, clutching his head. “I… I didn’t-”

“Don’t make excuses, boy! You should have been harvesting on your own by now!”

“Why’d they sacrifice themselves for a weakling like him?”

“Poor decisions must run in the family!”

“He should just-”

“Tha’s quite enoof outta th’ lot o’ ye!” a new voice suddenly called out as all the faces’ mouths were suddenly covered up and choked by vines violently wrapping around their heads, startling and alarming all of them. Kuna looked up in surprise as a certain lepne with an other-worldly lineage stalked out of the shadows, her eyes glowing with sparkling white light, scowling and glaring at each of the ambiguous sereva standing in the darkness. “Shame tae all o’ ye, treatin’ him tha’ way!”

The faces strained against the magic keeping them from talking, until one finally managed to break free. It glared back at her with glowing red eyes as they began to loom larger, with jagged teeth as they spoke, “Begone, interloper! This does not concern-”

“Ach, that does it,” Aelana interrupted and snapped her fingers with a smirk. The looming sereva suddenly burst into a cloud of sparkling, multi-colored dust as a brilliant white light began to flow over the lepne’s body and glowing butterflies began appearing around her. The shimmering outline of antlers formed on her head, crackling with another energy of their own. She glared around at the others, who suddenly seemed a lot less inclined to try and break their bonds and speak up. She slowly walked over to Kuna and gently placed a hand on the bewildered young sereva’s head, still glaring at the others. “If ye don’t want tae end up like yer friend, ye best all git tae. NOW.”

Suddenly, the world rippled as the faces faded away, except for their eyes, which all began glowing red and conglomerating into a single massive pair floating in the darkness. She arched a brow and crossed her arms as the massive, distorted looking ursaran shifted into view with its wicked grin. Even as it stalked closer and loomed over them, the lepne seemed unphased.

“Thennnn join himmm in painnn and sssufferinggg,” the creature snarled out in a deep, demonic-sounding voice as it leered down at the pair.

“Pfft. Tha’ th’ best ye got? We eat nightmares lik’ you fer breakfast.”

“Yourrr smug attitude won’t ssssave you!” it said as it lunged at the pair of them, making Kuna cry out in fear and instinctively cling to Aelana. But just before its claws reached them, an even larger figure landed on top of the beast, crushing it into a cartoonishly flat disc on the ground before bounding away again in a blur.

Kuna looked up with a perplexed expression. The warped ursaran slowly pulled itself up and returned to its normal shape as it looked around in confusion. After a moment, it shrugged it off and returned its attention to Aelana and Kuna. Just as it was about to take another swing at them, the other massive figure slowly faded into view behind it. The monster froze on the spot, seemingly sensing the new presence. It turned around just in time to be smacked off to the side- where it began ricocheting around between the trees with strangely unfamiliar sounds that made the whole thing seem surreal and oddly amusing. Every place it hit lit up with color as the darkness gradually began fading from the trees and their surroundings, being replaced with a bright and cheerful, if somewhat unnatural atmosphere. The ravager eventually landed comically with its head lodged in the ground nearby. Behind where it once stood, the other figure came into view- a large wolpertinger with a mischievous grin, eyeing the monster with her forelegs crossed for a moment before turning to check on Kuna. “Ye doin’ a’right lad?”

The wide-eyed young boy slowly nodded, not sure what to make of the bizarre, and clearly very powerful strangers.

Once the ravager began moving again, it started frantically tugging and clawing at the ground until it finally pulled its head out. It stumbled around dizzily, with an exaggerated cross-eyed expression that Kuna couldn’t help but giggle at. Suddenly the monster seemed a lot less intimidating than before, even as it lurched towards Kuna and Aelana again to try another, more disoriented attack. Daisy blocked it with one forepaw on its forehead. “Where ye think yer goin’, ye wee shite?” she said. Suddenly, she plucked off its head- in a vary unrealistic manner, with no blood or gore visible. The former connecting bits were completely smooth, as if the creature were a mere toy. The now headless creature seemed to panic and scramble around while its head snarled and grunted in frustration in her paw. Her other paw reached out and plucked off its arms, then torso. Suddenly, she began juggling the monster’s various bits around in the air, then winked down at the young sereva watching in fascination. After some fancy juggling tricks, she let the bits all land back together- albeit in the wrong order, and notably his head was nowhere in sight. “Ach, lookit tha’. ‘e went and lost ‘is head.”

He sniffed and grinned a little in response. Next to him, Aelana just shook her head with a bemused expression. “Wee bit morbid fer ‘im, don’t ye think?”

“Oy, made ‘im grin, didnae? ‘sides, thir’s nae blood,” Daisy said, then poked the stumbling beast as it bumbled around awkwardly, trying to make sense of its new body arrangement. When it turned around, Kuna fell over giggling when its head was revealed to be lodged in its rear. “Ah there it is! Guess if ‘es blowin’ all tha’ hot air, ‘e might as weel look th’ part.”

Aelana just brought her hand to her face and snickered.

“Here lad, ‘bout time we sent this wee eedjit off,” Daisy said, suddenly plucking the awkwardly shuffling monster up and shrinking it down to a tiny pocket-sized thing in her paws. She then offered it to Kuna, who slightly recoiled for a moment. “Goan give it a guid toss fer us.”

Kuna looked up at her uncertainly for a moment, then hesitantly reached out towards the tiny beast. The ravager’s angry roars and snarls of indignation had turned into tiny little squeaks of surprise and fear. He hesitantly grabbed it up, carefully holding it at a distance. Its claws were now tiny and it clearly was having difficulty swinging them in any given direction that it wanted, but he still didn’t want to take any chances. “I’m… not a very good thrower,” the young sereva said, looking a bit uncertain. He frowned after a moment and folded his ears back as he looked back up at the wolpertinger. “I’m not strong.”

“Sure ye are. Jest give the lil’ bastart yer best toss, trust me,” Daisy said, gesturing out towards the shadows at the edge of the field they were now sitting in.

Kuna looked down at the creature in his hand, then up at Aelana briefly.

Aelana smirked and glanced down at Kuna, rubbing his head lightly. “Go ahead, lad.”

He took a deep breath, then hurled the monster at the woods with all his meager might. Initially, it started to fall to the ground just a few feet away, but then a bright flash of light surrounded it and it flew far out of sight into the darkness.

“Good toss, lad!” Aelana said, rubbing his shoulder.

“Aye, ye wis holdin’ out on us!” Daisy playfully accused. “Ah bet ye could beat ‘im up all oan yer own even when ‘e wis full size!”

Kuna giggled. “Nooo… you used your magic!”

“Magic, whit magic?” Daisy asked with faux-innocence. “Ah dinnae ‘av enny magic, dae you Lana?”

“Crivvens no, where’d ye get such a silly idea?” Aelana played along, then manifested a flower up out of thin air and sniffed it theatrically. “Ah dinnae see any magic aroond here, dae you Daisy?”

The wolpertinger waved her paw, conjuring up a whole cloud of bubbles that danced around them and took on the forms of various animals as they started running around and frolicking in the air as they floated up and away. “Certainly not,” she said, then gasped and turned back to Kuna and lightly booped his nose. “Why, yer prolly the one hidin’ magic here aren’t ye?”

Kuna giggled as the two continued entertaining him with shenanigans for a minute. But then his smile started fading as he started looking around. “W-wait, where’s Mom and Dad?”

He turned to look back the way his parents’ corpses were scattered, but before he saw them, the wolpertinger zipped over to block his field of vision with an extended wing with such a quick blur of motion that it startled him and made him fall back onto his butt. “Oh, dinnae fash yersel’, thir just, ehhh…”

Aelana subtly waved her hands around with a faint glow for a moment. “Sleepin’. Efter all th’ excitement, they decided tae take a nap, lad, thas all,” she said quietly, giving a subtle nod to her other half.

Daisy slowly retracted her wing, revealing Kuna’s parents laying on a bedroll together, slumbering peacefully. Kuna started to rush towards them, but Daisy quickly caught him and shushed him. “Shh, best let them rest, lad.”

Kuna seemed a bit hesitant, worriedly eyeing his parents. He could have sworn he’d seen them in much worse shape just a short time previously, but already the memory was getting hazy. He turned back to looked at Aelana, who in turn waved him over. “Come on then. Ye can check in oan ‘em when thir awake again, a’right?”

He slowly nodded and walked back over towards her with the wolpertinger following along behind him. “Who are you two anyway?” he asked curiously. “Are… are you spirits?”

Daisy briefly looked a bit insulted, but Aelana just snickered and waved her off before she could object. “Nae, we’re jest a couple o’ friends. I’m Aelana, bit ye kin call me Lana. ‘n’ thaes is Daisy.” She conjured up a silvery-blue glow around her hand and summoned up a shimmering disc in the air in front of them. “C’mon, lets give yer folks some peace ‘n’ quiet fer a bit.”

“Where are we going?” Kuna asked, staring at the glowing disc in fascination as the lepne gently took his hand.

“See fer yerself. Shiny, innit? Goan give it a touch,” she replied, slowly leading him up to the disc. As soon as he touched it, they were sucked in and for the third time that night, everything went dark.

*****

Kuna quickly bolted back up and shook his head, then grasped it in one hand as he looked around. He was back in the strange place with the cracks on the floor- only he was sitting above it on some kind of cloud floating above them now. At first, all he could remember were the run across the cracks and the accompanying discomfort, the red spike in the middle of them, and the familiar dark image that showed in the disc hovering above it- and then he remembered being pulled into it. Slowly, the other memories started coming back as well- he’d started to have another variation of The Nightmare again, only this time it was... interrupted and thankfully thrown wildly off course.

He slowly turned around, rubbing his head some more as he collected himself. He started trying to stand up, only to yelp in surprise and fall back over when was startled by the large creature sitting immediately behind him on the cloud. His panic quickly faded when he recognized it, though. “D.. Daisy?”

“’ello lad,” the wolpertinger cheerfully greeted him.

Aelana walked around from beside her and leaned up against the large ball of fluff, crossing her arms and smiling. “You a’right Kuna?”

Kuna slowly nodded. “Y… yeah, I think so,” he said, rubbing his eyes, then started to get up. “First time in the… astral… plane…” he trailed off when he realized something was amiss. Aelana was taller than other lepne, even in her mundane guise, but he still remembered her not being any taller than him- and yet now that was definitely not the case. And it suddenly occurred to him that his voice still sounded off somehow.

“Aye, ah figured,” Aelana said with mild amusement, watching the sereva’s realization dawn on him.

“...am I still ten?” Kuna asked, his eye twitching slightly.

“Weel, yer in tha’ body anyway. Dinnae worry tae much aboot it though. Lingerin’ dream impressions. Tis tae be expected with nae experience in dream-shapin’.”

“Which is fine fer me,” Daisy said with a grin. She suddenly scooped him up into an oversized, extra-fluffy hug, causing him to yelp in surprise. “Yer extra friggin’ adorable, ye are.”

Kuna groaned and blushed, but couldn’t help but grin a bit as he returned the embrace as best he could.

“Careful Daisy! Dinnae smother th’ lad!”

The wolpertinger giggled a bit and released him. “Right, sorreh.”

The sereva smiled, then looked around, scratching his head. “So… this is the astral plane, huh?”

“Yep. Yer corner o’ it anyway,” Daisy said, looking around as well. She glanced down at the floor they were floating over, then frowned and shared a concerned look with Aelana.

“Thanks for um… helping me back there,” Kuna said as he turned back to them, rubbing his arm with a somewhat shy look. “Guess that’s what I get for poking around without knowing what I’m doing…”

“Nae worries, lad! Tis normal tae be so curious when yer new. We’re jest sorry we took sae lang gettin’ here.”

“We’d hae come sooner if we’d ken ye were caught up in such a dreich dream.”

Kuna shuddered a bit. “I don’t suppose there’s any way to… you know, get rid of it, is there?” he asked, eyeing the ominous disc floating a short distance away. “Really damn tired of that one haunting me…”

“Weel, ye cannae really get rid o’ it,” Daisy explained, gently laying a paw on his back. “Its etched intae yer soul pretty deep.” She frowned, looking deeply concerned. “Which only begs some questions…”

Kuna sighed and shrugged, mis mood notably fallen again. “I can guess what they are. And yeah, it’s… pretty much what happened. All… nightmare-ified, of course, but... based on the real thing.”

“Oh ye poor sweet bairn,” Daisy said, suddenly engulfing him in another big, near-suffocating hug for a moment.

“Aye, ‘n’ tis prolly more to it than ye even ken,” Aelana murmured half to herself as she stared down at the dark, cracked floor beneath them, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

After Kuna managed to pull back from the smothering hug and catch his breath, he glanced over at the lepne curiously. “What was that?”

“Oh, she means yer s-”

Aelana quickly turned and gave her a look. “Daisy!”

“Oh come oan then, he deserves tae ken that!”

“He’s had enoof trauma fer one night, don’t ye think?”

Kuna glanced back and forth between them in confusion. “What are you two talking about?” he asked, then glanced down at the floor. “It’s got something to do with all, er… that, doesn’t it?” He gestured to the cracks and the spike in the middle of them, underneath the floating nightmare-disc.

The two shared a look. Aelana sighed. “Ach, fine, ah suppose ye do deserve tae hear it,” she said as she walked over and gently wrapped an arm around him. “Tis nae easy way to say this Kuna…”

“Don’t like the sound of that,” Kuna replied warily, eyeing the cracks. He took a deep breath and sighed. “Let me guess. I really am cursed.”

“No! Nothin’ lik’ tha’ lad!” Aelana quickly reassured him.

“Weel… nae lit’rally anyway,” Daisy chimed in, earning a small glare from the lepne. She rolled her eyes. “Tis nae lik’ yer thinkin’ tho, so nae worries aboot that.”

“Aye, tis jest that… weel….”

“’nuff beatin’ roond the bush,” the wolpertinger lightly chided the lepne, then turned to Kuna. “Yer soul’s cracked, Kuna.”

“...what?” Kuna asked, looking stunned. “M-my… my soul? Is… cracked??”

Aelana quickly bent down and gently laid a hand on his chest, giving him a gentle squeeze with her other arm. “Dinnae panic, noo. Tis nae unheard of, ‘n’ honestly nae surprise, given yer past.”

Kuna tried to keep the panic at bay as he stared at the cracks with renewed unease. “W-what… what does that mean?”

“Fer the most part, nae too much,” Daisy assured him. “Does mibbie make ye more vulnerable tae demonic influence ‘n’ corruption if yer nae careful, bit ye gen’rally ‘av tae a’ready be in a dreich place fer that tae be a big concern.” She suddenly grinned. “Thir’s an upside tho, believe it or na.”

Kuna looked up at her incredulously. “An upside to having a cracked soul??”

“Aye. Helps wi’ magic, ye see.”

The sereva stared at her, then turned to Aelana for confirmation. “R… really?”

Aelana smiled and nodded. “Aye, tis true.”

“So… that’s why I’ve been getting better at magic so quickly?”

“A fair part o’ it, aye. It makes ye more sensitive tae mystical energies and helps ye pull ‘em in easier,” she replied, then rubbed his head gently. “Bit it also helps tha’ yer a clever lad, too.”

He blushed a bit and folded his ears down, a ghost of a smile appearing on his face for a moment before he looked back down at the ground. “So… I guess the floor is my soul?”

“This whole place represents the inside o’ it, technic’ly,” Daisy said, gesturing around them.

“That might explain why it felt so bad stepping on those cracks earlier…”

Aelana and Daisy both winced. “Aye, it definitely wouldnae feel good ah imagine.”

“...shit, I wasn’t making it worse, was I??”

“Goodness no, lad. Ye’d ‘av to actually be tryin’ tae make it worse fer that tae be a worry, ‘n’ it takes real knowledge ‘n’ power wi’ soul magic tae do tha’ anyway,” Aelana assured him, softly stroking his back.

“’n’ only th’ most power-hungry loons are liable tae even try,” Daisy added, then shuddered. “Imagine bein’ sae far gone ye try an’ break yer ain soul fer th’ sake o’ power.”

“Jeeze… I hope I never meet someone that fucked up,” Kuna replied with a shudder of his own, then looked back down at the cracks again. “So… how do you think it, um… happened?”

“Thirs three main ways some folks’ souls get cracked. Either they’re attacked by a demon when thir vulnerable, targeted with really rare ‘n’ forbidden magic tha’ most folk ken better than tae use, or they go through some terrible dreich shit lik’… weel-”

“Lik’ whit inspired tha’ dream,” Daisy finished for her, gently laying a large paw on Kuna’s head. “S’bad luck ye got both demon and trauma. But hey, yer still standin’ lad.”

Kuna stared wide-eyed the spike under the nightmare-disc. “Oh, r-right… ravagers are…” He trailed off, then raised a shaky hand to gesture to the red spike. “Is… is that…?”

“Aye, bloody thing left a wee tooth in ye, looks like,” Aelana confirmed, glaring at the spiky object.

“But it didn’t… I never got bit! How-?”

“Maybe not physically, bit demons kin attack separate frae any host thir bound tae. They’ll go fer the soul while the host goes fer the body, ye see.”

Kuna shivered. “S-so that thing’s been in me this whole time? No wonder I keep having that damn dream all these years…”

“Aye, ye got a wee bit o’ demon stuck in ye.”

“C-can we get it out?”

Aelana somewhat warily glanced back and forth between him and the tooth. “...tis possible, aye. Bit nae wise till yer better protected. Cracks are bad enoof, leavin’ a hole kin be extra risky.”

“Oh,” Kuna said, deflating a bit. He eyed the tooth and frowned. “So I’m just stuck with a demon tooth in me?”

“Fer noo. Bit once yer better wi’ yer magic ‘n’ yer soul starts healin’ up, it kin be removed.”

“Healing? How do you heal a soul?”

“Various ways. Jest takes time.”

“And love ‘n’ support ‘n’ other sappy shite lik’ tha’,” Daisy chimed in with a smirk. “Basic’ly, jest surround yerself wi’ th’ opposite kind o’ circumstances tha’ kin cause it in th’ first place.”

Kuna rubbed his arm thoughtfully and slowly smiled. “Well… I guess I’ve finally got a taste of that again now.”

“Aye, ye got Lykou, doncha?” the wolpertinger said, winking to Aelana, who just smirked and nodded in response. “e’s prolly helpin’ a guid bit, even if he doesnae ken it. ‘n’ then ye got tha’ village tae look forward to.”

“Y-yeah…” he replied, then smiled up at them. “And people like you two, too. Thanks again for helping me out back there.”

“Of course, we’re happy to!” Aelana replied, hugging him tightly. “Ah wis so happy ye used th’ charm!”

“Oh yeah! About that- Lykou and I were wondering if it’d be possible for all four of us to, y’know… meet up like this some night?”

“Nae till yer a lot more experienced wi’ astral magic, lad,” Daisy answered with an apologetic smile.

“Dang.” Kuna sighed. “I was afraid that was the case.”

“Aye, sorreh to disappoint ye,” Aelana said.

“S’alright, he was thinking that’d be the case too.” He paused to take one last look at the demon tooth, then shuddered again and turned away. “Um, can we… move away from it? I think I’ve had enough looking at that thing.”

“’course, lad! Hang on tight,” Daisy said as she reared up and unfurled her wings.

“Ach, Daisy-!” Aelana blurted out, then quickly grabbed Kuna and ducked down as the wolpertinger flapped her wings hard a few time, sending the cloud they were on flying rapidly across the astral plane at a breakneck pace.

Once they were past the cracks on the gorund, she sat back down and folded her wings back up, looking pleased with herself. “There ye go. Dreich garbage oot o’ sight.”

The lepne sat back up, letting the somewhat frazzled sereva up in the process. “Dammit, Daisy, ah could ‘av jest teleported us!”

“Where’s tae fun in tha’?”

“Ugh, you ‘n’ yer showin’ off,” Aelana lightly chided, rolling her eyes as she hopped off the cloud, then helped Kuna down. “Ye a’right?”

“Y-yeah,” Kuna assured her. “Just… still not used to moving around that fast.” He took a quick look around. “So I guess everything here is some kind of, er… memory or dream, that kind of thing?”

“Pretty much.”

“Fantasies as weel,” Daisy said, looking around as well with a mischievous and curious expression.

“Oh, r-right, heh,” Kuna said, then suddenly his eyes shot wide open and his face flushed when he noticed a familiar one right near the wolpertinger. He quickly rushed over to try and hide it. “R-right! Yeah. I uh. Yeah. Fantasies. Like daydreams when I was a kid. Sure,” he said with a cheesy, nervous grin as he struggled to block their line of sight at his reduced height.

Aelana just smiled and arched a brow. “Yer fine, lad. We ken better than tae pry-”

“Ooo, wis that Lykou?” Daisy asked, trying to peer around the sereva with a big grin. “Whatcha got hidin’ in that yin?”

“DAISY!”

“N-n-nothing!”

“Ah’m jest messin’ with ye lad, ah’m nae tha’ nosy,” Daisy said, rolling her eyes at Aelana’s outburst. “Ye got me curious, bit ah willnae look without yer permission.” She arched a brow at the sereva. “Careful nae ta get too close tho, ye might fall in. ‘n’ if tis anythin’ lik’ ah’m suspectin’, that’d be mighty awkward tae pull ye back oot.”

Kuna yelped as he felt the static touch of the disc as his fur just started brushing against it the moment she said that. For a moment, he could feel the fantasy’s pull and almost got sucked in. Luckily, the wolpertinger quickly extended a wing, which he grabbed to anchor himself and keep from falling in. “Ehehe… thanks…”

“Yer welcome,” she cheerfully said, then pulled him over, conveniently unblocking the view of the disc. Much to his pleasant surprise, she kept her promise and didn’t look. “Ach, ye really need tae learn ta use yer astral magic in ‘ere lad.”

“Aye, could save ye some, er,” Aelana said, blushing as she inadvertently caught a quick glimpse before quickly using her magic to mask the disc. “...embarrassment in moments like this.”

“...’n’ pardon me a minnit,” Daisy said, then conjured up a familiar glow around her antlers, which then cascaded down around Kuna for a moment. When it dissipated, he was back to his regular adult self. “There. Given th’ nature o’ tha’ one, felt a bit off ye bein’ in tha’ form, even if it wis jest oan th’ outside.”

“Uhhh, r-right… thanks,” he said, folded his ears down. “...guess I made it pretty obvious with my stupid panic,” he added sheepishly, then hazarded a nervous glance at Aelana. “H-how much did you see?”

Aelana chuckled and walked over, then tussled his hair. “A bit. Ah’m nae goan tae judge tho,” she replied, then gave him a playful nudge. “Dinnae worry. Everyone ‘as plenty they’d rather nobody ken aboot. Frae whit ah saw, tis pretty tame, even.”

“Th-thanks, heh,” Kuna replied, then sighed. “Something tells me it’s not exactly normal to lust after your best friend like that, though,” his external voice sounded from all around them. His eyes widened and his blush intensified. “FUCK. Not that damn thing again!” he groaned and clutched his head, clenching his eyes shut as he tried to focus on silencing those thoughts before they got any worse.

Daisy snickered and Aelana smirked, patting him on the back gently. “Relax, Kuna. Ye’ll get th’ hang o’ controllin’ this place eventually.”

“Yeah in the meantime I’ll just be spilling all my most embarrassing inner thoughts. Great,” Kuna grumbled. “...it is kinda fucked up though, isn’t it?” he asked after a moment.

“Na, tis nae unheard of. Uncommon, but it happens. Cannae help who ye find appealin’, ye ken.”

“’n’ yer mind goes queer places when yer in certain moods anyway,” Daisy said with a shrug, then shot Aelana a devious look. “She wid know.”

Aelana flushed and glared daggers at the wolpertinger. “DON’T YE DARE-”

“Ach, fair is fair, innit?”

“Ah swear, Daisy, if ye dinnae shut yer weesht…!”

“Er, h-how about we just, uh… change the subject?” Kuna interjected, still blushing. “Trust me, I’m more than embarrassed enough for the three of us, no need to add more embarrassing secrets to the conversation just to balance things out.”

“Fair enoof lad,” Daisy said, snickering a bit. “Yer too nice sometimes tho. Jest tell me if ye change yer mind.”

Kuna sighed and glanced around the world around him warily. “No thanks, I’d rather avoid these kinds of subjects right now to limit the chances of my head accidentally spilling more of my own just because I’m not good at controlling it.” There was a brief pause, quickly followed by the external voice chiming in again, “Like how the other day I experimentLALALA NOPE NO THOUGHTS HERE AHAHA-” The sereva quickly clutched his head and tried to force those thoughts away before they could finish telling themselves aloud.

Daisy rolled over in a giggling fit. Aelana just rolled her eyes, then gently hugged Kuna again. “Right. Why don’t we catch up a bit? How’s yer trip goin’? Ah’m curious tae ken whit ye been up to.”

Kuna fidgeted nervously. “Err… well, it’s been… pretty good I guess, overall,” he said, his eyes darting around warily. He had a feeling it was going to be tricky getting through the conversation without his unspoken surface-level thoughts announcing themselves- and that could get quite embarrassing in a few situations. “Although it started out kind of terrifying after we went through the portal. We ended up inside some kind of giant bee’s nest.”

“A… giant… bee’s nest?” Aelana asked incredulously.

“Damn. Guess all kinds o’ shite builds up when ye leave stoof aroond unattended fer centuries,” Daisy replied with a mildly bemused look.

“Yep. Pretty terrifying. Ended up getting chased around by a bunch of angry nest guards,” Kuna said, rubbing his arm and shivering at the thought. “And when we finally managed to get out, we realized the whole nest was hanging over a huge ravine, with no way to climb up the cliff it was attached to.”

“Crivvens, how frightenin’! Yer magic dinae help?”

“Well, it did help us get out of the nest… once I remembered it,” Kuna said with a sheepish grin. “Still kind of kicking myself for taking so long think of it.”

Daisy chuckled. “Oi, ye got there in th’ end, s’what matters.”

“Right… anyway, once we were out though, there wasn’t really much I could use that was within reach. And it would have been too slow to escape once the guards got out into the air anyway. Luckily it turns out the bees could talk. The guards were… kind of dumb and single-minded, so we couldn’t reason with them, but one of the harvesters flew us out of danger.”

“Giant AND they kin talk?” Aelana noted, rubbing her chin. “...wonder if they ‘av Sylthean ties. Does soond a wee bit familiar.”

“D’ye s’pose they wis leftovers fra th’ auld wyld-wars?”

“Mibbie. Doubt thir’s much Sylthean left in ‘em tho.”

“Aye, prolly jest some lingerin’-”

“Uhhh, what are you two talking about? ‘wyld wars’?”

The lepne and wolpertinger smiled a bit sheepishly. “Weel… remember how ah said Syltheans wis kicked oot o’ the mortal world ‘cus o’ oor tendancy tae be a wee bit… chaotic?”

“Nae tha’ ah ken whatcha mean by tha’,” Daisy added with a faux innocent look.

“Uh… huh…?”

“...let’s jest say our kin ‘n’ ancestors left some mighty big… impacts oan this world afore bein’ blocked off. Sometimes mair than others.”

“Aye, impressive as they were terrible! Syltheans squabble ‘n’ fight each other jest like mortals do- only sometimes it gets way worse, especially when the… Courts get involved.”

“Courts? What are courts?”

“Errr, nevermind that right noo,” Aelana said, waving it off. “Kind o’ complicated ta explain. Bit to sum it up, in this case it means thirs big groups o’ Syltheans that fierce enemies o’ one anether.”

“Only Syltheans dinnae fight normal when they really get intae it. When th’ courts go tae war, tis nae aboot hurtin’ or even killin’. Tis… erm,” Daisy said, gesturing with a forepaw as she struggled to explain.

Aelana sighed. “Tis like Sylthean magic. More aboot connections, ideas, sentiment, ‘n’ so oan. Ye get streenge contests, lik’ transformin’ an entire forest in ways tha’ supposedly represent yer court, then tryin’ tae be the first tae convince th’ mortals tha’ live there t’was alwis tha’ way. ‘n’ then th’ loser hurts worse tha’ if they’d been run through the chest wi’ a spear- then cooks up a whole new scheme tae get revenge.”

“...okayyyy…” Kuna replied uncertainly with a dumbfounded look. “...do all these, er… ‘wars’ involve tricking mortals?”

“Nae all… bit tha’ does play a big part,” Daisy said. Even she had the decency to look a bit sheepish about it, albeit less so than Aelana. “Thir’s plenty o’ real auld fashion fightin’ too, bit usually only in service o’ some other scheme.”

“Tis all aboot who kin leave th’ biggest impression oan everyone else. ‘n’ ye kin still see the remnants o’ them wars lingerin’ sometimes. Nae jest ruins- sometimes creatures, too. Not true Sylthean, not even halfies like us, bit nae quite entirely mortal either.”

“...and you think those bees…?”

“Could be. Makin’ wee things is a popular move fer some Syltheans.”

“Eesh… er, did you ever-?”

“Ach, nae lad. Th’ last Wyld War wis well afore even oor time. ‘n’ luckily they wis fairly rare. Smaller spats a’ more common,” Daisy assured him.

“Lucky fer the mortal world,” Aelana added.

“I’ll say…”

“Anyway, sorreh tae go off topic! Sae one o’ ‘em gave ye a lift?”

Kuna nodded, then shot Daisy a faint smirk. “Guess I wasn’t quite done flying after all. Was a lot less terrifying with you though at least.”

The wolpertinger snickered. “Thanks, lad.”

“So did ye talk tae th’ bee efter ye got away?”

The sereva fidgeted and looked away nervously. “Err, yeah… her name was… something I can’t even begin to pronounce, but she ended up saying we could call her Zig.”

“Interesting name. Ye have a nice conversation?”

Kuna’s eye twitched. “Yeplovelybriefchatnotmuchtosay,” he lied. Almost immediately the external voice followed up, “...other than insinuating that I was a breeding queen and Lyk- LALALANOTHOUGHTSNOTHOUGHTSFUCK!” He quickly buried his face in his hands, blushing again. “Fuuuuuuck…”

Aelana and Daisy snickered a bit, then the former gently rubbed his back. “Oi, relax Kuna. We’re nae gonnae judge or tease ye fer anythin’ we hear or see in here.” She shot the wolpertinger a pointed look. “Right?”

“Aye, nae worries. Nae judgin’ here,” Daisy assured him.

“...OR teasin’, Daisy!”

“...ah make no promises~”

“DAISY!”

“Ach, fine,” the wolpertinger said, rolling her eyes, then sighed and smiled at the sereva. “Ah’ll hold off on teasin’ too, on account o’ ye bein’ new tae this place. Dinnae let it get tae ye lad, yer gonnae embarrass yerself a few times. S’jest how it goes.”

“Tis lik’ tha’ fer everyone tha’ starts astral magic wi’ guests. Ye’ll learn tae control tha’ voice, bit it’ll take time. In the meantime, jest remember we’re nae here ta gie ye a hard time, ye ken?”

Kuna looked up, face still flushed, then sighed and shook his head, rolling his eyes up. “Doesn’t make it any less embarrassing. But… thanks.”

“Ah suppose na,” Aelana replied, hugging him gently. “Bit it’ll help ye learn.”

“AND help ye be a bit more confident in yersel’, incidentally. So goan ‘n’ continue yer story, lad.”

The sereva rubbed his arm and bit his lip uncertainly. “...my head’s just going to keep letting things slip though as long as I start focusing on certain things, isn’t it?”

“Aye, most likely. Tell ye whit, efter yer done catchin’ us up, we’ll tell ye aboot oor end, ‘n’ ah’ll even let ye in oan one o’ oor secrets,” Daisy said, shooting Aelana a mischievous grin. “And afore ye go ‘n’ object, missy, ah think ‘tis only fair under th’ circumstances, ‘n’ tis nae lik’ we have tae go intae gushy intimate details.”

Aelana glared at her, but eventually withered a bit and sighed. “Ugh. Fine. Ye ‘av a point ah suppose.”

Kuna had to admit to a certain amount of curiosity. “Well… alright, I guess…” He took a deep breath. “So, er… yeah, we chatted with Zig a bit. Mostly talking about differences in… I don’t know, world view and stuff. And she, well…” he trailed off and groaned. “Made some embarrassing mistaken assumptions about Lykou and especially me.”

He continued gradually catching them up on everything he and Lykou had experienced since they’d left Clovaria, occasionally stumbling over the more embarrassing or awkward bits. He managed to at least keep the details of his ‘personal time’ to himself with some very careful mental navigation and concentration, but otherwise most of the details of their last few days were covered pretty thoroughly.