Common Text
Xanthean Text
Kashehino Text
Zida 22 717
Qit'ria's aye-aye mouse nose twitched as she continued to explore the river's edge in her new form. She still wasn't quite used to being so small. It was certainly an interesting experience. Much of the plant life was dead, for it was winter. The river still flowed beneath a thick layer of ice, with a few thin spots that creatures could get water from. She had at least gotten the walking down, moving on diagonally opposite feet instead of the hopping she'd tried previously. Looking around Qit'ria did figure out one thing.
Aye-aye mice have terrible vision. It wasn't just because she was smaller, and thus farther away from things. She could only see in detail things that were really close. Anything beyond an immediate proximity was just blurred. She took a deep breath, calming her rapid mouse heart a bit more, and decided to try a trick she'd learned while in her Sev'ryn form. She tapped into her self totem, stored safely within her body. Her soul's touched the power brimming within it. She felt her spark get prickly, as it wasn't ready to go back to her normal, boring form. She wished she could tell it that it would be okay, and tried to convey a feeling of calming. But it didn't seem to be heard.
Once her soul's tendril was within the totem, she rooted around in the strange mix of parts and details that was Qit'ria proper. She found her eyes there, dark, large, but most importantly, sharp. She didn't want the entire eyes of course, they wouldn't fit the mouse's body, but she took the "essence" of them, and dragged the essence out of the totem. She pulled it through her mouse form, and split it, depositing the essence into her eyes. Instantly the world cleared up. She could see just as far as she could when she was in her normal form.
And fortunately, or unfortunately perhaps, she could see an animal sprinting full bore at her. It was a Gasping Skitterer, though Qit didn't know it was called that. It was covered in spikes, and was clearly charging her. Qit'ria didn't waste a moment. She immediately darted to her right, toward the river known as Ol' Tuck's Run. She perked up her ears as she ran, able to hear each time the pursuer scraped at the ground in its excessively fast sprint. How was a turtle so fast?! Qit'ria had never experienced such a thing. She ran to the bank's edge, and leapt down the slope. She was able to keep her balance and so, lost no speed as she half leapt, half slid down the embankment, and jumped to a rock.
She looked back and up in time to see the turtle stop at the edge, and spot her. She didn't wait, she immediately jumped from her rock to the thicker ice over the river. Her gripped paws took to the ice just fine, as she continued her sprinting, feeling the aye-aye mouse survival panic trying to take over. Her spark though, had other plans. Qit'ria was overwhelmed for desire to be that which hunted her. Each stride that carried her away from it, her spark through a bigger and bigger tantrum, to the point she could feel it threatening to revoke her form. And with her slow transformation speed, the turtle would eat her before then.
Qit'ria turned on the ice, facing the creature that was coming much more slowly now. Her Echoed eyes studied it, realizing that it was slipping on the ice. An advantage. It was nearly three times her size, with that thick, spiked shell. But its head stuck out, its legs stuck out, and she knew that an aye-aye mouse's teeth were able to chew through most naturally occurring things. Those pests could eat practically anything. So as the turtle slowly made its way toward her, she began sprinting at it, to appease both her pride and her demanding spark, which was much happier seeming now that she no longer turned away.
As she closed in on it, she veered off to the side, to get around it. As she did, she cast an eye on it, watching it struggle to turn to match her speed. With a squeak of celebration, she circled around it to the other side, staying ahead of its turning. It detected her somehow, but she'd already leapt at it as it's head turned her way. She landed on its head, though one of her back paws punctured itself on a spike there. She ignored the pain, and bit down at the creature's eyes. Her long teeth closed around one, and with a shkk bit right through it. She jumped off the turtle, and stumbled on the landing a bit from her injured foot.
The creature sized her up now with its head turned, to get a better look with its one good eye. Qit'ria once more raced toward it, first off to its left, with the good eye, making sure it was following her motion. She had a risky maneuver but knew only of one way to kill it in her current form. As she got close, she quickly veered right, going straight across its field of vision. She expected it to bite at her, like a snapping turtle did. And it did such, and just as she was prepared for it, she jumped.
But she forgot a crucial feature of her aye-aye mouse form. Her long tail. The skitterer bit clean through half of it on the back end. And she was lucky it was such a clean, quick cut, for that meant her forward momentum was not stalled. She landed hard on the side, her body in pain, both in paw and tail. She quickly turned, and leapt once more at the creature, this time toward the exposed neck between its skull and shell. Her teeth bit clean through the side of it and the creature flinched. It seemed it wasn't able to fully retract its neck into the shell. Qit'ria got her good paw against the shell to support her as a she continued to bite into the neck, clawing at it too once the skin was taken away. The turtle bucked and threw her off, but the damage was done, and Qit'ria knew that.
She put some distance between them and waited, watching the turtle try to just walk away. But each step was slower than the last, until it slumped down, loss of blood taking its life. Qit'ria moved toward it when she coughed. Then coughed again, hacking. It was getting hard to breathe now, to the point Qit'ria stopped moving. She continued to cough, sputter, gasp for air, and panic set in. On instinct alone, whether it was hers, or her sparks, she reached her soul out toward her self totem, fading in and out of blackness as she did so. And she ripped the entirety of her form from her totem and spread it through her like an instant blaze.
Qit'ria's self form was Unleashed, and there she lay, coughing and sputtering, naked against the ice. She was able to get her breath back now, but wasn't sure what had caused it in the first place. She looked at her foot, felt at her bottom, everything was whole there. Injuries didn't seem to translate across forms. That was good to know. It made sense, considering totems were made from dead or injured creatures. She laid there, tits down against the ice for a moment, grateful to have survived this on her own skill. The instant transformation was new to her, and she made sure to thank her spark for helping her with it. Neither of them wanted to die after all.
She stood up on the ice, wobbly from the massive drain of energy it took. She reached out with her soul to the aye-aye bracelet that was now on her wrist, being back in her standard form. But there was nothing there. Or rather, she couldn't access it. She panicked, her soul scrambling to find a way in, but it was impenetrable. Her spark was panicking alongside her, both not wanting to be cut off from any of their forms. It was like losing a new friend she was just getting to know.
A chill rampaged through Qit'ria, and she knew she needed to get back to camp. Naked as a jaybird she walked over to the dead creature that had caused all this headache. She wanted to kick it, but those spikes warded her off. She crouched down and picked it up, noticing a drop of some substance leaking out of one of the spines. And she knew what caused her choking. Poison. She picked it up by the head, and made her way back to camp.
She cleaned the the corpse, tossing the meat into her stew pot, keeping the blood that was left in a small bowl, that basically continuously cooked, and she just added more vegetables, meat, water, whatever was needed as she acquired them. She found the skin to be quite stretchy, yet thick, and set it on the smoking rack to dry a bit. She cleaned out the inside of the shell, and looked it over in her hands. It was a devilish looking thing. And she had an idea for a totem now. Grabbing her chisels, she hammered two small holes in the top of the shell, one either side of the central spines. She held it up to her face, and widened the holes just a bit. Once more she checked it, and was pleased. Using a small chisel, she put a hole on either side of the shell.
Using her smallest tool, she began etching images on the inside of the shell. Shapes that made her think of ice, spikes, venom, pain, drowning. Once her story of images was carved into it, she grabbed the bowl and dribbled the blood into the runes, and set it aside to dry. She rested, ate, and recovered her strength for a while. She checked on the skin and found it satisfyingly dried. She cut it into one long strip, and ran it through one of the tiny side holes, then looped it over to the other. She tied off both sides. She then slipped it over her head, the straps resting above her ears. She made several small adjustments to the strap until she was satisfied.
She layed back, closing her eyes, being warmed by her fire. She began to pour her soul, her spark into this new totem of theirs. Their new friend. Their new selves. As she did so, she ran through the fight over and over, taking in every detail of the turtle, including the poison and choking she'd felt from it. Several breaks later, the totem no longer accepted any more of her energy, for it was alive in its own right. Another form, another friend. She smiled. But still, she reached out to her aye-aye mouse totem and found nothing but silence. And a single tear was shed.
Xanthean Text
Kashehino Text
Zida 22 717
Qit'ria's aye-aye mouse nose twitched as she continued to explore the river's edge in her new form. She still wasn't quite used to being so small. It was certainly an interesting experience. Much of the plant life was dead, for it was winter. The river still flowed beneath a thick layer of ice, with a few thin spots that creatures could get water from. She had at least gotten the walking down, moving on diagonally opposite feet instead of the hopping she'd tried previously. Looking around Qit'ria did figure out one thing.
Aye-aye mice have terrible vision. It wasn't just because she was smaller, and thus farther away from things. She could only see in detail things that were really close. Anything beyond an immediate proximity was just blurred. She took a deep breath, calming her rapid mouse heart a bit more, and decided to try a trick she'd learned while in her Sev'ryn form. She tapped into her self totem, stored safely within her body. Her soul's touched the power brimming within it. She felt her spark get prickly, as it wasn't ready to go back to her normal, boring form. She wished she could tell it that it would be okay, and tried to convey a feeling of calming. But it didn't seem to be heard.
Once her soul's tendril was within the totem, she rooted around in the strange mix of parts and details that was Qit'ria proper. She found her eyes there, dark, large, but most importantly, sharp. She didn't want the entire eyes of course, they wouldn't fit the mouse's body, but she took the "essence" of them, and dragged the essence out of the totem. She pulled it through her mouse form, and split it, depositing the essence into her eyes. Instantly the world cleared up. She could see just as far as she could when she was in her normal form.
And fortunately, or unfortunately perhaps, she could see an animal sprinting full bore at her. It was a Gasping Skitterer, though Qit didn't know it was called that. It was covered in spikes, and was clearly charging her. Qit'ria didn't waste a moment. She immediately darted to her right, toward the river known as Ol' Tuck's Run. She perked up her ears as she ran, able to hear each time the pursuer scraped at the ground in its excessively fast sprint. How was a turtle so fast?! Qit'ria had never experienced such a thing. She ran to the bank's edge, and leapt down the slope. She was able to keep her balance and so, lost no speed as she half leapt, half slid down the embankment, and jumped to a rock.
She looked back and up in time to see the turtle stop at the edge, and spot her. She didn't wait, she immediately jumped from her rock to the thicker ice over the river. Her gripped paws took to the ice just fine, as she continued her sprinting, feeling the aye-aye mouse survival panic trying to take over. Her spark though, had other plans. Qit'ria was overwhelmed for desire to be that which hunted her. Each stride that carried her away from it, her spark through a bigger and bigger tantrum, to the point she could feel it threatening to revoke her form. And with her slow transformation speed, the turtle would eat her before then.
Qit'ria turned on the ice, facing the creature that was coming much more slowly now. Her Echoed eyes studied it, realizing that it was slipping on the ice. An advantage. It was nearly three times her size, with that thick, spiked shell. But its head stuck out, its legs stuck out, and she knew that an aye-aye mouse's teeth were able to chew through most naturally occurring things. Those pests could eat practically anything. So as the turtle slowly made its way toward her, she began sprinting at it, to appease both her pride and her demanding spark, which was much happier seeming now that she no longer turned away.
As she closed in on it, she veered off to the side, to get around it. As she did, she cast an eye on it, watching it struggle to turn to match her speed. With a squeak of celebration, she circled around it to the other side, staying ahead of its turning. It detected her somehow, but she'd already leapt at it as it's head turned her way. She landed on its head, though one of her back paws punctured itself on a spike there. She ignored the pain, and bit down at the creature's eyes. Her long teeth closed around one, and with a shkk bit right through it. She jumped off the turtle, and stumbled on the landing a bit from her injured foot.
The creature sized her up now with its head turned, to get a better look with its one good eye. Qit'ria once more raced toward it, first off to its left, with the good eye, making sure it was following her motion. She had a risky maneuver but knew only of one way to kill it in her current form. As she got close, she quickly veered right, going straight across its field of vision. She expected it to bite at her, like a snapping turtle did. And it did such, and just as she was prepared for it, she jumped.
But she forgot a crucial feature of her aye-aye mouse form. Her long tail. The skitterer bit clean through half of it on the back end. And she was lucky it was such a clean, quick cut, for that meant her forward momentum was not stalled. She landed hard on the side, her body in pain, both in paw and tail. She quickly turned, and leapt once more at the creature, this time toward the exposed neck between its skull and shell. Her teeth bit clean through the side of it and the creature flinched. It seemed it wasn't able to fully retract its neck into the shell. Qit'ria got her good paw against the shell to support her as a she continued to bite into the neck, clawing at it too once the skin was taken away. The turtle bucked and threw her off, but the damage was done, and Qit'ria knew that.
She put some distance between them and waited, watching the turtle try to just walk away. But each step was slower than the last, until it slumped down, loss of blood taking its life. Qit'ria moved toward it when she coughed. Then coughed again, hacking. It was getting hard to breathe now, to the point Qit'ria stopped moving. She continued to cough, sputter, gasp for air, and panic set in. On instinct alone, whether it was hers, or her sparks, she reached her soul out toward her self totem, fading in and out of blackness as she did so. And she ripped the entirety of her form from her totem and spread it through her like an instant blaze.
Qit'ria's self form was Unleashed, and there she lay, coughing and sputtering, naked against the ice. She was able to get her breath back now, but wasn't sure what had caused it in the first place. She looked at her foot, felt at her bottom, everything was whole there. Injuries didn't seem to translate across forms. That was good to know. It made sense, considering totems were made from dead or injured creatures. She laid there, tits down against the ice for a moment, grateful to have survived this on her own skill. The instant transformation was new to her, and she made sure to thank her spark for helping her with it. Neither of them wanted to die after all.
She stood up on the ice, wobbly from the massive drain of energy it took. She reached out with her soul to the aye-aye bracelet that was now on her wrist, being back in her standard form. But there was nothing there. Or rather, she couldn't access it. She panicked, her soul scrambling to find a way in, but it was impenetrable. Her spark was panicking alongside her, both not wanting to be cut off from any of their forms. It was like losing a new friend she was just getting to know.
A chill rampaged through Qit'ria, and she knew she needed to get back to camp. Naked as a jaybird she walked over to the dead creature that had caused all this headache. She wanted to kick it, but those spikes warded her off. She crouched down and picked it up, noticing a drop of some substance leaking out of one of the spines. And she knew what caused her choking. Poison. She picked it up by the head, and made her way back to camp.
She cleaned the the corpse, tossing the meat into her stew pot, keeping the blood that was left in a small bowl, that basically continuously cooked, and she just added more vegetables, meat, water, whatever was needed as she acquired them. She found the skin to be quite stretchy, yet thick, and set it on the smoking rack to dry a bit. She cleaned out the inside of the shell, and looked it over in her hands. It was a devilish looking thing. And she had an idea for a totem now. Grabbing her chisels, she hammered two small holes in the top of the shell, one either side of the central spines. She held it up to her face, and widened the holes just a bit. Once more she checked it, and was pleased. Using a small chisel, she put a hole on either side of the shell.
Using her smallest tool, she began etching images on the inside of the shell. Shapes that made her think of ice, spikes, venom, pain, drowning. Once her story of images was carved into it, she grabbed the bowl and dribbled the blood into the runes, and set it aside to dry. She rested, ate, and recovered her strength for a while. She checked on the skin and found it satisfyingly dried. She cut it into one long strip, and ran it through one of the tiny side holes, then looped it over to the other. She tied off both sides. She then slipped it over her head, the straps resting above her ears. She made several small adjustments to the strap until she was satisfied.
She layed back, closing her eyes, being warmed by her fire. She began to pour her soul, her spark into this new totem of theirs. Their new friend. Their new selves. As she did so, she ran through the fight over and over, taking in every detail of the turtle, including the poison and choking she'd felt from it. Several breaks later, the totem no longer accepted any more of her energy, for it was alive in its own right. Another form, another friend. She smiled. But still, she reached out to her aye-aye mouse totem and found nothing but silence. And a single tear was shed.
