Mystic Heart Odyssey

Part 7: Downtime

Chapter 14

More coziness and chatting. Looks like squirrel girl might be warming up to the idea of magic- mostly, anyway.

-Llox

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Kuna woke up later in the night, feeling a bit thirsty. As he sat up to fetch Lykou’s waterskin, he paused when he realized he wasn’t the only one awake. He blinked a bit as his eyes focused on the dark figure on the other sleeping mat, curled up against the wall and shaking. He frowned as he heard her faint whimpering, paired with the occasional yelp or squeak every time another flash from outside was paired with a sudden thunderclap. Careful not to make any jarring sudden movements or sounds, he got up and crawled over next to her.

Gleam’s head jerked up when she heard the faint movement. Initially, she panicked and started to scrabble away. Fortunately, she was still exhausted, and so were her animalistic impulses, so when he paused to light up his hand with magic, she recognized who it was and calmed down a bit. “O-oh, K... Kuna…”

“Hey Gleam,” the sereva said with a soft, sympathetic smile. “Trouble sleeping?”

The squirrel nodded and sighed, then yelped when another burst of thunder struck. “Y-yeah…”

Kuna continued over to her, then sat down next to her, wrapping his arm around her gently. “Bad dreams? Or did the thunder spook ya?”

Gleam’s ears folded down in embarrassment. “Uh… d-dreams are the… the things you see when you’re s-sleeping, right?”

Kuna nodded. “Mhmm. Bad ones are called nightmares,” he said, then frowned and shuddered a bit. “Or… night terrors, if they’re especially bad.”

“And… thunder’s the-” Gleam began, then yelped when, as if the natural world had been waiting for its cue, she was interrupted by another thunderclap. “...th-that, right?”

The sereva nodded and held her close. “Yeah.”

“Mm… then both,” Gleam responded, curling back up again.

“Oh, Gleam… come here,” Kuna cooed, pulling her into a full hug and stroking her back softly. “Don’t worry, you’re safe here.”

Gleam gratefully snuggled up to him, hugging her tail as she nuzzled into his arms. “Tell my stupid head that,” she mumbled softly. “So tired, but can’t sleep…”

Kuna squeezed her gently. “Believe me, I know the feeling. Our minds can be real jerks sometimes.”

Across from them, Lykou began to stir. He rolled over and rubbed his eye, then furrowed his brow when he noticed the lack of a sereva laying next to him. Growing slightly concerned, he sat up and looked around until he spotted the two of them sitting by the wall. Kuna had let the magic dissipate once he’d settled next to Gleam, but the canid could still just barely make out their silhouettes in the dark. “Hey you two,” he said sleepily, then stretched a little. “Everything alright?”

“Gleam’s having trouble sleeping. Bad dreams-” Kuna replied, then winced when a particularly loud burst of thunder shook the building. “-and that.”

Lykou frowned and crawled over to join them, sitting next to Kuna so that Gleam was curled up between them. “I’m sorry to hear that. Wanna talk about it, Gleam? The bad dream, I mean. Sometimes it helps to talk it out.”

“I… I don’t think I can. Just… s-strange shapes and colors and… ugh. I can’t really r-remember,” Gleam said. “Just… that i-it scared the fuck out of me.”

“Yeah, some dreams are like that. Probably kind of hard to describe even if you can remember it,” Kuna said, rubbing her arm gently. “I’d say try to remember that dreams can’t hurt you, but I know all too well how that doesn’t help sometimes.”

Gleam jerked again as another flash of lightning outside was paired with an aggressive bit of thunder. “Th-that… thunder stuff isn’t helping, either.” She sighed. “For fucksakes, even sleeping is a damn challenge for me now...”

“Aw, Gleam,” Lykou said, giving her a big tight hug. He thought for a moment, then perked up. “Hey, tell you what. Why don’t we pull our beds together, and you can cuddle up with Ku and I? Think that might help?”

Kuna glanced over at their bed, then smiled. “Honestly, not sure why we didn’t do that to begin with,” he said, then turned back to the squirrel huddled up between them. “What do ya say? Wanna join us?”

Gleam glanced back and forth between them, then hid the lower part of her face in her tail slightly. “That… does sound kind of… nice,” she admitted. “You guys wouldn’t mind? I feel kind of silly, like a helpless kit...”

“Of course not,” Lykou assured her. “And in a way, you kind of are.”

Kuna shot him a surprised and mildly offended look on her behalf. “Kou, that’s-”

“Hang on, hear me out, I’m not trying to be mean here,” Lykou assured them both, then gently rubbed Gleam’s head. “But like I said before, you’re basically having to catch up on a lot of things you’d have already experienced growing up under normal circumstances. I know you’re probably about as grown as us technically, but there’s no shame in struggling with some things still.”

“...I guess that’s a fair point,” Kuna conceded, then smiled at the somewhat flustered squirrel between them. “I don’t know that I’d go all the way to calling you a, um… ‘kit’, but we’re happy to help you however we can, Gleam. Don’t let your pride get in the way if you’re feeling uncertain or vulnerable. We’re here for you.”

Again, Gleam glanced back and forth between them, then nibbled on the tip of her tail a bit as she thought. “...’kay,” she said quietly with a sheepish ghost of a smile. “Then… y-yeah I’d… I’d like to sleep with you guys. At least for tonight. If that’s okay.”

“Sure thing, Gleam,” Lykou said, then got up to help Kuna move the squirrel’s sleeping arrangements over by their own.

Once everything was settled in place, they all cuddled up under a combination of Lykou’s blanket and the old cloak, with Gleam tucked between Lykou and Kuna. Some more thunder made Gleam jerk slightly, but she at least felt a bit safer between the two of them. Not to mention a good bit cozier. “Thank you, guys… still gonna be hard to sleep, but at least this feels nicer…”

“Too awake now?” Lykou asked.

Gleam nodded a little. “S-still kind of messed up from that dream,” she said, then winced at another loud boom. “A-and then there’s that.”

The konuul scratched his head thoughtfully, then sat back up a bit and smiled. “Hey, I know. Stories sometimes help people go to sleep. I could continue telling you about some of the things we’ve seen, if you want.”

“I dunno Kou,” Kuna warned, propping himself up on his arm. “A lot of that stuff’s exciting, and sometimes scary. Not sure that’d be the best idea right now.”

“Damn, you’re right,” Lykou conceded with a frown. “Hmm…”

“Sorry guys, I don’t mean to keep you awake,” Gleam said with a guilty look. “You can just get some sleep, I’ll be alright…”

“Not until you do, missy,” Lykou said, tussling her hair lightly with a smile. “You need it the most, after all.”

Kuna thought for a moment, then smiled bashfully and sighed. “Well… I guess there’s one thing I could try,” he murmured quietly, glancing up at the konuul. “I think the world’s conspiring against me on your behalf though, Kou.”

Lykou blinked in confusion, then grinned as he realized the implication. “Oh, you know. The world and I are just partners in mischief that way. Always scheming.”

“What are you talking about?” Gleam asked in confusion.

Kuna just rolled his eyes, blushing a bit, then snuggled the squirrel close. “Don’t worry about it. Point is, would you like me to sing for you again?”

Gleam looked up at him in surprise, then grinned faintly and nodded. “That… that’d be nice, yeah. If you want to.”

“Alright. Just make yourself comfortable and close your eyes,” the sereva said, then shifted around a little along with Lykou so that she was nestled up comfortably between them as they embraced one another, resting partly on each of them.

She clung to her tail and nuzzled each of them lightly before yawning and closing her eyes. “M’kay…”

After shooting one more bashful, but content look to the konuul, Kuna let out a soft sigh and collected himself, then began singing softly. Lykou’s eyes flicked between him and their new companion, enjoying the cozy comfort of it all. After a minute or so, he closed his eyes as well, enjoying Kuna’s singing over the backdrop of the storm raging outside.

Despite the oddity of the situation and the occasional bursts of thunder, not to mention the slightly awkward positioning, the konuul felt absolutely tranquil. But a few minutes later, his eyes shot back open suddenly when noticed something. He glanced around, first at the still-singing sereva, then at Gleam, then all around them. His brow furrowed. For just a moment, he thought he’d caught a glimpse of those strange lines that seemingly connected everything when he’d been under the effects of Algrytha’s potion… but he soon chalked it up to his imagination when he couldn’t seem to get them to come back.

Had Kuna been paying attention to him, he might’ve noticed a faint, brief glimmer along the edges of the canid’s features. Regardless, all three individuals felt a sense of profound peace fall over them. The cool breeze blowing in through the narrow windows near the ceiling cooled the room, but their closeness under their coverings kept them comfortably warm.

Lykou couldn’t help but feel there was something else in the air, even if he was inclined to dismiss it as just the strangeness of the previous few days, the mysteriousness of the ruins they were in, and general sleepiness paired with a calming atmosphere, amplified by Kuna’s singing. With a soft sigh, he closed his eyes again and settled into the warm, cozy feelings that were flooding his heart and mind. He didn’t open them again until the sereva had stopped singing.

They both looked Gleam, then each other with soft smiles. The singing had worked like a charm. “Have I mentioned how amazingly talented you are, Ku?” the canid whispered.

Kuna blushed and rolled his eyes. “Oh hush.”

“I’m serious. Take the compliment, brat,” Lykou teased.

“Never,” Kuna retorted. He stuck his tongue out at Lykou after the canid tweaked his nose playfully, then smiled as he looked down at the sleeping squirrel. “I hope her dreams are better now.”

“I’m sure they will be,” Lykou assured him. “And if they aren’t, at least she won’t wake up alone.”

Kuna nodded a little. “True,” he said, then yawned a bit. “Well, let’s follow her example.”

“Sounds good,” Lykou agreed as he carefully adjusted his position a little before closing his eyes. “G’night Ku.”

“G’night Kou,” Kuna replied. Before long, they were both sound asleep as well.

*****

Fortunately, the rain had cleared away by sunrise. Gleam awoke to the sound of water trickling through the pipes and troughs that flowed through the building, the sounds of birdsong outside, and a gentle breeze still blowing through the thin windows up near the ceiling, rustling some tree branches outside on the way in. Light was shining in from some of them, as well as through the building’s entrance, where the door had been left partly open. Given how bright it was, it wasn’t particularly early, either. The morning light gave the old ruins a strangely tranquil, calming feeling. She also realized she was curled up in both the blanket and the old cloak. She was very reluctant to leave the cozy warmth, but at the same time she felt the growing need to get up and greet the day- and grab something to eat.

She yawned and stretched quietly, then rubbed her eyes. Then she blinked a few times. The previous day felt so surreal, she’d wondered if it had all been a bizarre dream. But then, of course, she realized that the fact that she could even process those thoughts meant it had been all too real. And that was further reinforced as she looked herself over. While she’d managed to adapt well enough to her new body, it still felt weird when she wasn’t distracted by other things.

When she realized she was alone in the building, she momentarily started to panic, fearing she’d been abandoned. And that in itself was strange to contemplate- it wasn’t as if she was used to being a particularly social creature. When she was a feral animal, she’d been living alone just fine. But now the thought of being totally alone felt considerably worse. Fortunately, her nerves settled when her ears finally picked up on some quiet chatting outside a moment later.

After taking a few more minutes to collect herself, she got up to head outside. Initially, she tried skittering on all fours, but quickly remembered how much more awkward that was now. With a reluctant sigh, she got to her feet, a little unsteady at first from grogginess, then continued to the door. When she peeked outside, she saw Lykou and Kuna sitting by the firepit, cuddled up with each other and chatting idly, though she hadn’t picked up on what they were saying before Kuna spotted her and smiled.

“Well look who’s awake. ‘morning, Gleam,” the sereva said cheerfully.

“Oh hey, Gleam,” Lykou added, patting the ground next to him. Kuna had apparently brought back the floral supports to lean back on, and they’d left a spot for her as well. “Come join us.”

“And just let me know what you want for breakfast,” Kuna said, pulling his bag over. “I’ve still got some nuts left, and various kinds of fruit, some more carrots…”

Gleam yawned as she walked over, then flopped down unceremoniously and furrowed her brow in confusion. “I assume ‘breck-fest’ is something about food? Uh, anything’s fine…”

“Oh, yeah, that’s just the word for the meal you eat in the morning after waking up,” Kuna explained as he plucked out a couple apples and the bag of nuts, then handed them to her, via Lykou.

“Oh, okay,” Gleam replied and started looking over the apples. “And thanks. Um. Again.”

“No problem,” Kuna replied. “Just let me know if you need any more.”

Gleam snorted in amusement. “I hope not. I know I’m bigger now but I can’t help feeling like this is still a lot. Though I guess I’ll find out…”

Lykou chuckled and rubbed her back softly. “Honestly, after everything you went through yesterday, I’m sure you’ll be ready for twice as much once you start eating.”

The squirrel looked at him uncertainly, then shrugged and started munching on the apple with zeal. Whether it was simple unrealized hunger or her instincts were kicking in and making her eat like her old feral self, she began devouring the fruit rapidly and somewhat frantically, much to Lykou and Kuna’s mild surprise and amusement. She had done it to some extent the previous evening as well, but her growing fatigue probably slowed her down a bit at the time.

“Careful now, don’t upset your stomach,” Lykou cautioned her.

“Huh?” she asked, taking a sudden pause. “That’s… that’s what I’m avoiding? By eating?”

“He means don’t eat too fast,” Kuna said. “Or it’ll make it hurt.”

“Eat… too… fast?” Gleam replied with genuine puzzlement, then looked herself over. “Why would…?”

Lykou glanced back at Kuna for a moment. “Maybe she’s just different? She is still a different species.”

“Still, why take chances?” the sereva replied, then turned back to their new companion. “You don’t have to rush like that. Slow down and enjoy it. We’re not in a hurry here.” He smirked. “I promise it isn’t gonna get stolen or something.”

Gleam licked her lips a bit and glanced down at the fruit in her hand. “Well I know that, but… er… hmm.” She blinked a few times and pondered the thought, then smiled sheepishly back at them. “More dumb old habits I guess…”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Lykou said reassuringly. “By the way, did you sleep alright?”

“Mm, yeah,” the squirrel said after quickly taking another bite, forcing herself to slow down, then eventually swallowing. “After you guys, y’know… helped.” She blushed and smiled shyly. “Thanks again for singing for me, Kuna. And just… both of you, for letting me join you guys.”

Kuna blushed slightly himself and chuckled. “You’re welcome...”

“We’re glad to help you, Gleam,” Lykou reminded her. “And you’re more than welcome to join us again tonight if you need to.”

“I’ll try to work on a better blanket and pillow for you though,” Kuna said, then rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Although I guess we should probably make you your own bag next before anything else.”

Gleam swallowed another mouthful and tilted her head. “Bag? That’s… those things, right?” she asked, pointing to Lykou’s pack. “For carrying things, right?”

“Exactly. I don’t mind sharing for the moment, but we’ll need to make sure you have a food bag of your own,” Kuna pointed out. “As well as a bag for anything else you need to carry. Extra clothing, pillow, blanket, mat…”

“Plus anything interesting you might collect or make along the way,” Lykou said, eagerly pulling his pack around to rummage through it. “Knives, a water container for yourself…” He grinned as he pulled out a certain shiny crystal. “And magical stuff.”

Gleam stared at the object and shied away from it with wide eyes. “M-magical? W-what is it?”

“A gift from a very powerful spirit,” Lykou said, then held it up and focused for a moment. The crystal suddenly lit up brightly, though the effect was slightly diminished since the sun itself was already well up in the sky.

Still, Gleam gawked at it, fearfully at first, but ultimately she couldn’t help but feel a deep fascination with the bright, shiny object. “W-wow…”

“Easy Kou,” Kuna warned lightly with a faint smile. “You know how she is with magic stuff.”

“I… I-I’ll be alright,” Gleam said, straightening back up a bit as Lykou put the crystal away again. “It is pretty interesting, and I still wanna know more about that stuff,” she said, then added with a sheepish grin, “Just… hopefully with less startling surprises.”

“It certainly can be startling at times. But otherwise it’s pretty amazing,” Lykou said, then gestured to the bracer on his wrist. “These things are magic, too. Wanna see?”

“Kou, don’t freak her out,” Kuna warned again.

“Hey, I’m warning her up front so it won’t!” Lykou insisted, then turned back to the squirrel. “It’s really neat, it makes you all woody, like a tree! Which is helpful because trees are generally tougher than fur and skin. Plus, it makes you heal a lot quicker.”

Gleam stared at him wide-eyed. “Really??” she asked incredulously, then gradually grinned. “Yeah, show me!”

Lykou beamed and activated the bracers. The squirrel gawked at him as his fur was replaced with bark. “Tada! Here, feel,” the konuul said, holding his arm up for her. Kuna couldn’t help but chuckle at the canid excitedly showing off the things they’ve found along the journey, as he took a bite out of an apple himself.

Gleam hesitantly reached up, struggling to believe what she was seeing. When she felt the woody surface under her finger, she gasped. “That’s crazy! And this is all because of that… energy stuff you mentioned, Kuna?”

“Wellll… yes and no,” Kuna replied. “I can’t really explain those too well. They do use some of your life energy, which is why you don’t want to use them all the time. It’ll make you feel tired and drained eventually. But it’s also got Sylthean magic, which is a whole other, very different thing from the kind of magic I can do. Most mortals can’t use it directly.”

“Sylthean…?” Gleam asked, tilting her head curiously. “Magic sounds pretty complicated…”

“It is. There are all kinds, and it seems like we’re finding out more about it all the time,” Kuna said. “I can use life energy and soul energy, but that’s it. There’s also other energies, as well as magic that doesn’t have anything to do with those energies from the spirit world. Lykou actually has some kind of weird magic of his own we don’t really understand yet.”

“You do?” Gleam asked the konuul. Clearly, her fascination and curiosity were finally overriding her misgivings about the subject. “Can you show me?”

Lykou smiled sheepishly as he deactivated his bracers. “Wish I could. The thing he’s talking about is something I do without thinking about it usually. It isn’t until afterwards that I realize I even did it. It’s hard to explain…”

“He goes into this weird hyper-focused state where he’s really fast, really strong, and seems like he can see things that are about to happen, right before they do,” Kuna explained, grinning and occasionally glancing with admiration at the canid. “It’s really amazing and hard to describe. He’s definitely channeling… something, we just don’t know what. But he’s got a really faint, almost impossible to see glow when he does it.”

“Yeahhh I just wish I could control it,” the canid said, rubbing his neck bashfully. “It just seems to kind of… happen on its own, usually when we’re in some terrible danger. All of the sudden things just seem to slow down for me and I feel this weird… I don’t know, calm yet exciting feeling come over me. Only, like I said, I don’t usually realize until afterwards that I was doing something unusual.”

“He’s saved our butts several times with that ability,” Kuna said, rubbing the konuul’s shoulder, then chuckled. “On the one hand, I hope we don’t end up in any more situations where it’s necessary, but at the same time I kind of hope you get to see it in action. It’s… exciting. And I’m not normally the kind of person to care for that kind of ‘excitement’, believe me.”

“I… yeah, I kind of feel the same way,” Gleam commented. “I definitely don’t need any more ‘excitement’ right now, but I really wanna see it.”

“Hey, there is the trick you just learned with the axe, too,” Kuna pointed out, poking the konuul lightly. “You could show her that.”

“Oh yeah,” Lykou said, then leaned over and grabbed the axe. “We just got this recently from-”

“You mean you got it,” Kuna interrupted with a smirk. “It’s yours. You earned it in that ridiculous challenge and everything.”

“Well, I mean-”

“Take the damn credit, goofball,” the sereva insisted, nudging him playfully. “You own this one. Fully.”

Lykou just chuckled and rolled his eyes a bit. “Alright alright, fine. I got this after beating a powerful undead guy in a fighting challenge thing in probably the scariest place we’ve been.”

“Wow!” Gleam said, then stared blankly at it, before smiling sheepishly. “Uh, what is it?”

“It’s a magic axe!” Lykou explained.

“Uh-huh,” Gleam said slowly, shooting him a flat look. “And an axe is…?”

Lykou blinked, then grinned sheepishly. “Right. Sorry. It’s uh. A tool and a weapon. You use it to cut things, particularly wood, and, especially in this case, anything dangerous that might be trying to hurt you,” he said, then pointed to the blade. “This part’s the blade. It’s really sharp.”

“Oh so like… killing things?” Gleam said with a narrow-eyed, inquisitive look. “Like… hun-?”

“Like protecting us from all kinds of dangerous monsters. We’ve faced quite a few,” Kuna quickly interjected, trying to steer away from a certain subject, much to Lykou’s relief. “There were a bunch of them in that place. Including things you can’t normally hurt with normal weapons or anything. But this one’s magical and can even cut ghosts, spirits, and so on.”

“Huh,” Gleam replied, eyeing the weapon. “So… what’s this special thing you learned to do with it?”

“Oh yeah, hehe,” Lykou said and started getting to his feet. He rolled his shoulders and stretched, then braced himself and picked a good clear spot to aim. He took a deep breath and focused, then slipped the axe into one hand and gripped it tightly. He glanced down at Gleam, grinning. “Watch this.” Without further warning, he hauled back and flung the axe into the woods. Focusing as hard as he could, he tried feeling for the tugging sensation he remembered from the other day. The axe reached the end of its arc and wedged itself into the ground. For a moment, he was afraid he was going to embarrass himself. But then the weapon started shaking, and suddenly flew back towards him. He quickly reached up and grabbed its handle as it soared back through the air towards him, making him stumble back a bit when it landed in his hand again. Relieved that he wouldn’t have to go walk out to retrieve it, he grinned again and held it up triumphantly.

Gleam stared at the axe in wide-eyed fascination. “So… it just… comes back to you? By itself? Like… like it’s alive or something?” she asked incredulously. “Wow…”

“Well there’s this… I don’t know feeling I get, and it’s kind of like I’m pulling on it, but with like… my mind or something?” Lykou tried to explain, then shrugged as he sat back down. “I dunno, it’s hard to explain.”

“Weird… how can you pull on something with your mind?” Gleam pondered, scratching her head. “That doesn’t make sense…”

“Actually, it sounds a lot like how I use my magic,” Kuna said. “I know it sounds strange and nonsensical, but that’s basically how you manipulate those mystical energies I mentioned. You first gotta learn to feel them, then sort of… mess with them, using your mind. It’s hard to explain exactly, but that’s the rough idea. You can’t really understand without feeling it for yourself though.”

“Hey I wonder if she could learn magic?” Lykou pondered aloud. “Maybe you could teach her.”

“Err… as much as I’d like to,” Kuna replied, glancing back and forth between them with an awkward smile. “You know it’s not that simple, Kou.”

“I mean, her circumstances are pretty unique. She might have an advantage of her own, for all we know,” Lykou pointed out.

Kuna blinked, then rubbed his chin. “Huh… you might have a point there…”

“As exciting as that sounds, I think I’ve got enough else to learn about right now,” Gleam replied with a bashful grin. “What with the whole ‘being new at people-ing’ thing.”

Lykou chuckled and tussled her hair lightly. “Fair point, but don’t underestimate yourself.”

“He’s right, you know,” Kuna added. “You may have a lot to learn, but you seem to be adapting pretty well so far.”

As if the world took that as a challenge, a small branch in the nearby trees that’d snapped in the previous night’s storm finally lost its battle against gravity and fell to the ground. The noise immediately made Gleam jump and drop the food she’d been holding. She let out a sigh that turned into a groan as she started gathering it back up. “Other than that, you mean.”

Lykou and Kuna both winced in sympathy. The canid rubbed her back gently. “Well, sure… but that’ll come in time. I know it sucks, though. Wish we could help with that more.”

“Well, just putting up with it and helping me feel safe is already a lot,” Gleam said, leaning up against the konuul affectionately for a moment. She then took a bite out of a carrot and quickly munched it up. “So… any other magical thingies you wanna show off?”

“Well, not that it’s really showy, but there are these medallions,” Lykou said as he started fishing his out from under his shirt. “They’re the only reason we… can...” He paused as he held the inscribed disc up in the air. It wasn’t glowing at all. He shot Kuna a look, who was just as surprised.

The sereva quickly pulled his out to examine as well. It, too, had run out of magical charge. They both shared a wide-eyed look, then turned their attention back to Gleam, who was a bit thrown off by their expressions.

“Uh… guys?” Gleam said, leaning back slightly. “W-what’s wrong? You’re uh… making me nervous.”

Lykou quickly snapped out of it and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, just… the fact that these aren’t glowing is kind of surprising.”

“Yeahhh, that’s putting it mildly,” Kuna added, looking over the medallion thoughtfully. After a moment, he turned back to the squirrel with a puzzled expression. “Apparently, somehow, against all odds… you speak the same language as us.”

Gleam blinked a few times, then sighed, shooting him a flat look. “…I’ll wait.”

Lykou snickered and nudged the sereva. “I think she’s competing with you for sass.”

Kuna smirked and rolled his eyes a bit. “Right, sorry. Language is like… all the words we use. Different people from different places use different sets of words for things. The reasons… well, aren’t worth going into right now. Point is, these magical medallions let us talk to people even without knowing their language, and let them talk to us as well.”

“And the fact that we can understand you,” Lykou explained. “And you can understand us-”

“Kinda,” Gleam snarked with a wry grin. “But go on.”

“Right,” Lykou continued. “The fact we can talk and make any sense to each other is very surprising.”

“Weird thing is I just recharged them a day or two ago,” Kuna commented, rubbing his chin. “They should still be good for a while…”

Lykou scratched his head. “I wonder if they might’ve been affected by the altar?”

Kuna pondered the idea for a moment. “You might be onto something there. The knowledge she started off with had to have some from somewhere. I’d assumed she’d have gotten it from whoever built the thing, but maybe they came from us through the medallions.”

Gleam just sat there with a somewhat perplexed and mildly bewildered look. “So… all this stuff in my head came from you two?” She furrowed her brow after a moment. “Then why am I still so du-”

Lykou cleared his throat and shot her a look.

The squirrel rolled her eyes. “-right, that other word I keep forgetting. How come I don’t know everything you guys know?”

“Good question. I wish we had an answer,” Kuna replied, then sighed and shrugged. “Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll find one.”

“Ugh. Weird people from a long time ago and their weird magic,” Gleam grumbled. After a moment, she perked back up again though. “Hey wait a minute. How come you two have the same words?”

Lykou smirked and glanced at Kuna, then shrugged. “That’s actually kind of a mystery to us, too. I guess I forgot to mention it, but we kind of had that weird realization around the time we met the shakonu. In fact, they’re the ones that gave us these things.”

“Thank fuck they did, too,” Kuna remarked. “Or some parts of our journey would have been way more awkward, if not outright impossible.”

“Hate to think if we’d never been able to talk to anyone in Clovaria. Or the islands,” Lykou said with a slight frown.

“What about that Zyn guy?” Gleam asked. “How can we talk to him?”

“Oh, that,” Lykou remarked flatly. “Just jarzin nonsense. They can basically do what the medallions do on their own.”

“To be fair, I get the impression a lot of powerful beings can, not just them,” Kuna pointed out. “Aelana and Daisy, gods, probably each of the powerful freaks we met in Kryckwood…”

“I’m really curious about a lot of that,” Gleam commented, then sighed and held up the rest of the carrot she’d been munching on between comments, examining it thoughtfully. “But I think that’s enough learning until I wake up a bit more.”

“Fair enough,” Lykou said, chuckling. “There’ll be plenty more time to teach you things later. We still have the rest of our story to tell, after all. Where’d we leave off again?”

“Pretty sure it was after the shakonu,” Kuna said, then reached over for Lykou’s medallion, his hand glowing with a pale blue aura. “Let me recharge these real quick though. And all that language talk made me realize something.” He glanced up at the konuul after reigniting the medallion. “We’ll have to translate for her with any other people we meet.”

“Oh. Right,” Lykou replied. “Shame we can’t make another one of these things.”

“I assume that means you’ll have to talk to strangers for me?” Gleam commented after swallowing another mouthful. “Honestly that’s fine by me. Means there’ll be less ways for me to embarrass myself.”

“Hmm,” Kuna said, examining his medallion thoughtfully. “I wonder if-”

“Shh!” Lykou suddenly hushed him, squinting into the distance, in the woods beyond the old stone buildings.

Kuna and Gleam tensed up and searched the woods as well. Then, they spotted it. Some faint movement in the distance- something large, maybe person-sized, was moving through the brush, spooking various woodland critters in its path. “...whatever it is, it’s not being very sneaky,” Kuna said in a hushed tone, as Gleam huddled up to Lykou, shivering slightly.

Lykou stroked her back slightly to calm her, while he slowly pulled his axe back into his other hand. “Just stay alert. If it’s a predator, it’s obviously not stalking us, making all that racket. It’s prob-”

“Wait, hang on,” Kuna said, standing up and stepping a few yards closer to the woodline.

“Ku, careful!” Lykou warned, starting to get up as well, along with a very nervous squirrel girl. “Can you sense-”

The sereva suddenly smirked and snorted. “Well, well, well,” he said, then turned back to the other two with a smirk. “He finally reigned himself in.”

Lykou blinked, then grinned. “Wait, that’s...?” he started to ask as he stepped closer, squinting into the distance some more. Sure enough, a dark figure stumbled out from some of the bushes some way off. They could just barely make out some distant cussing. Lykou immediately broke into a snickering fit. “I guess he finally did what we asked him to do. He certainly isn’t gonna sneak up on us like that.”

“Oh, is… that’s Zyn, isn’t it?” Gleam said, peering at the approaching figure.

“Yup,” Lykou said, then set his axe down and cupped his hands to his muzzle before calling out to the approaching jarzin, “ITS OKAY ZYN, WE CAN SEE YOU! YOU CAN MAGIC YOURSELF OVER HERE NOW!”

The figure paused, seemed to let out what appeared to be a heavy, relieved sigh, then vanished in a puff of dark mist. A faint blur whipped through the woods, then manifested back into the jarzin in another burst of dark mist next to the trio. Gleam still yelped and jumped into Lykou in surprise- fortunately, he was able to catch her without falling over.

“Morning Zyn,” Kuna said in an amused tone. “Thanks for being considerate.”

“Traveling. Without. Magic. Fucking. SUCKS,” the jarzin grumbled, looking a bit disgruntled. He then collected himself and smirked. “But you’re welcome.” He glanced at Gleam, who was sheepishly standing back up on her own feet after apologizing to the konuul. The canid reassured her it wasn’t necessary. “Everyone sleep alright?”

“Yeah, was pretty peaceful despite the thunder,” Lykou said. “Even in a storm, this place has a real beauty to it.”

“It’s definitely a great place to meditate,” Kuna pointed out.

“It sure is. I need to remember to pop back here more often myself,” Zyn said, then turned back to Gleam again with a slightly concerned look. “And… you, miss Gleam? Sleep okay?”

“Eventually,” Gleam said with a shy smile. “Thanks to them.”

“She had a bad dream and the thunder wasn’t helping,” Lykou explained. “So we let her cuddle up with us and Kuna sang to her.”

“You didn’t have to mention that last bit,” Kuna said with a bashful grin, blushing a bit.

“Thanks again for that, by the way, guys,” Gleam said, rubbing her arm self-consciously. “It… definitely helped. A lot.”

“These two are just big-hearted softies that way,” Zyn pointed out. “Trust me, you’re in good hands with them.” He glanced over at Kuna and arched a brow. “I don’t know why you’re so self-conscious about the fact that you’re a great singer, Kuna. Some people would kill to be able to sing like that.

“Something tells me he’s just worried more people will want to hear it as they find out about it,” Lykou teased, poking the sereva lightly.

“Uh-huh. You’re not wrong,” Kuna admitted sheepishly.

“Well either way, I really like it,” Gleam said, walking over to hug the sereva. “I hope you’ll still do it for us, at least.”

“I’ll second that,” Lykou said, smiling and tussling Kuna’s hair lightly.

Kuna blushed and rolled his eyes a bit, smiling. “Mmm, fine. Occasionally.”

“Hope I can be there for at least some of those occasions,” Zyn said, then straightened up and rubbed his hands a bit. “Anyway, on another subject… would you guys be willing go back to that altar with me and walk me through what happened? I’d like to see if we can figure out a bit more about it before you guys continue on your journey, if you don’t mind.”

Gleam tensed up and took a step back with an anxious grin. “Ehehe IIIII’d rather stay away from that place for now. In case that magic decides to do anything else weird to me,” she said, then shivered. Her eye twitched a bit. “Like uh… t-turn me back or something.”

“I very much doubt it,” Zyn said. “From what I understand, it took a very specific set of circumstances for anything to happen in the first place. Which I don’t intend to fully recreate.”

“That said, we won’t force you,” Kuna said. “I’ll take him, since it involves magic stuff anyway. You two just relax here until we get back.”

Gleam frowned and shifted around a bit. “Sorry for being a problem. I-”

“You’re not, so don’t start that,” Lykou said, wrapping an arm around her gently. “C’mon, I’ll just continue Ku and I’s story while they’re away.”

“That works,” Zyn said, then turned to Kuna and gestured towards the ruins. “Lead the way, Kuna.”

“Sure thing,” the sereva said, grabbing up his walking stick before heading towards the altar. “Be back in a bit, you two.”

“Don’t use your magic around the altar itself,” Lykou warned, shooting him a wary look. “At all. Just to be safe.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Kuna assured him. “Don’t worry.”

“I’ll be there anyway,” Zyn added. “If anything starts to look questionable, I’ll protect us and get us out of there.”

As the jarzin and sereva walked off, Lykou and Gleam plopped back down by the firepit, then stretched out. “So, after we left the shakonu-”

Gleam suddenly let out a yelp and jumped over into the canid’s lap when, ironically, a feral squirrel in a nearby tree caused another branch to become dislodged and fall a few feet away from her. “D-dammit!”

“Heh, guess those storms really loosened some things up there,” Lykou commented, then smiled and tussled her hair lightly as she started sliding back out of his lap with an embarrassed expression. “Hey, come on. I’m not holding it against you, you know that.”

“I knowww,” she whined, then sighed. “I never realized how much of a pain instincts could be.”

“To be fair, that used to be all you had,” Lykou pointed out. “But hey, I’m just glad you got over your fear of me so quick.”

“Helps that you’re so nice,” Gleam replied with a bashful smile. She giggled a bit. “And… like Kuna said, fluffy and soft.” Suddenly, she crossed her arms. “Although, on that note… now that we’re finally alone, there’s something else you and I need to talk about. Before you continue your story.”

Lykou blinked and arched a brow, a bit taken off guard. “O-oh? There is?”

“Mhmm,” the squirrel continued, narrowing her eyes at him with a faint smirk. “Mister predator.”