Cheep!? 47 (Patreon)

Reese sat on the edge of the bed in the small but cozy room provided to her by their host, the Guildmaster of Greenleaf. She thanked the benevolent woman that had escorted her to her room,  all the while decidedly ignoring the fact that Camille’s essence control was so far above hers that she was almost certainly at a tier that Reese herself might never reach. She then began to pry her armor from her body with drunken fingers.

‘Yes,’ Reese thought to herself, ‘everything is entirely fine.’ She wasn’t thoroughly exhausted from being around people for so long. She also certainly wasn’t cursing her luck, and she certainly wasn’t angry at her dumb duties as an Advarican paladin.

…She amended her frustrated thoughts by choosing to focus on merely being cross with her Advarican duties as they conflicted with her other allegiance. The Phorus was almost certainly a Chosen, if his aura control had anything to say about it, though she could have been wrong about who he was a Chosen of. That was why she’d spoken as she had at their parting the first time, hoping against hope that he was not a chosen of the Fell God of Monsters. When he’d apparently tracked them down to their campsite, she’d initially resolved herself to having to fight in the hopes of at least trading her own life for his.

After all, a Venrisian Chosen would most certainly have hunted them down out of spite. They were violent, belligerent creatures that grew in might rapidly, especially whilst hunting the humanoids blessed by the Pantheon. So, it had, at first, seemed par for the course that he’d come to finish the job. In those first moments of combat, she’d thought that Skye would surely have been torn apart by the Phorus and the tier two Sabretooth that was clearly in league with Venris’ ilk.

Reese, luckily, had been so, so far off the mark that she was thoroughly glad her reaction to attack had been just a half second slower than usual due to fatigue. It may have had something to do with Ronald’s near-naked form, but she would never admit to such an inane and rookie mistake - not even to herself.

When the Phorus had not only seemed to communicate and negotiate a cessation of violence with the Sabretooth, but then had also turned to the group without any violence, Reese had been beside herself with joy and relief. While it was odd that her true deific patron had deigned to make a Chosen of a beast like the Fell God normally did, it was far from her place to question that decision. Reese was low clergy in the first place, after all.

That said, it did mean she wasn’t one hundred percent positive that the Phorus– ‘Niko,’ She corrected herself, ‘They named him Niko… and he agreed… So it’s not blasphemy either way, right?’ – was not actually a Venrisian Chosen. It simply didn't seem that likely given how he hadn't actually tried to murder any of them, or so much as look hungrily at any of them. The worst that he did was poke Dachna with a smoldering stick, and the man honestly had deserved it.

Reese wanted to continue to try and figure things out, but the way her thoughts were becoming more and more muddled from the ingestion of that strange beverage, the ‘Stardust Sepulcher’, made it increasingly difficult. With far more care than she’d thought she was capable of in that moment, she put her armor down on the small table set against the wall, along with her weapons. There was damage to her armor that would need to be taken care of, but she was in no condition to perform any repairs herself at the moment. Plus, the gash from the bird’s kick would need more than a minor patch job.

‘Tomorrow I’ll get that repaired, then I’ll need to leave.’ She thought to herself, ‘I’ll have to visit the nearest enclave… Ugh, why the Daurghast?’ Reese shivered in spite of herself. The wooden talisman that looked like little more than a good luck charm sat comfortably beneath her shirt, hidden from view, unlike the Advarican symbol above.

Before sleep could claim her, Reese held the Advarican icon in her closed hands, uttering an unhurried, honest prayer to Advarica. Small curls of essence flowed away from her fingertips and into the holy symbol were the only indication of anything actually happening before she removed the amulet entirely. Reese did her best to confirm that there was indeed no one else in the room before she removed the amulet and gently placed it on her nightstand. Then, with an equal reverence, she took out the simple wooden carving.

She clenched the carving in her hands, uttering a simple prayer to the Great Mother, performing the same action as with the amulet before it. The essence, however, didn’t flow into the carving as it had with the Advarican symbol, instead it seemed to go everywhere else. A ripple of essence, so minute that it was barely a faint wisp, by the time it reached the walls of the room, moved out into the world at large.

And that was the difference, she thought with no small sense of wonder every time she felt it. The difference between the Pantheon and the Great Mother, no matter how much they tried to discourage pagan beliefs. The Great Mother was everywhere already, whereas the gods were elsewhere, a distant, untouchable existence that she couldn’t help but regard as something almost alien.

An invisible touch of essence skimmed across her skin afterwards, like a quiet acknowledgement, and Reese knew that the Great Mother had noticed her in turn. It was unlike anything that had ever happened with Advarica, in spite of being a low tier paladin in Her service for nearly six years now.

She quietly put the symbol back under her shirt before replacing the Advarican one. Out of the more commonly accepted Pantheon, nowadays, Reese liked Advarica the most, but disdained most of the rest. In a passing thought, she wondered what The Great Mother thought of the Pantheon? Maybe someday Reese would find that out, but for now she was barely proven enough to have earned the Great Mother’s blessing of beast-passage.

Ironically, if it weren’t for that, she would never have gotten close to a drugged Phorus. If the bird was just an ordinary beast, no matter what kind of mental effect on it, it would never have attacked her.

It was a powerful blessing, able to let her walk unhindered by most any beast, so long as she did not intend them undue harm. The result was that Reese had discovered Niko in the worst way possible, but still, she had found him.

‘Tomorrow… I’ll start trying to figure all of this out tomorrow…’ Exhaustion finally toppled the last bastion of her resistance as she sank into the silent bliss of sleep.

—---------------------------------------------

“Suffer for your transgressions!” Niko howled playfully as he plucked his sibling off of the table and yeeted her into the air.

“Yeeeeeaaaah!” Cried Pecky as she arced fifteen feet upwards before a quick flap and slight twist reoriented her to land on the back of Dane’s chair.

“Ungh,” Grunted Dane, “Can you take that elsewh–” he started to say before Pecky and Gabby wrapped their wings around his head.

“Come get thrown with us! It’s fun! Come!” Gabby crooned, “Brother will get you to the top branch!”

Dane paled as he heard his companions' words in his head, and turned slowly to look at Niko who only fluffed his wings up eagerly, “Oh, yessss! We can d–Wait, no, wait. That’s… wrong? Why?” He paused, and Dane took the look of sudden apprehension as a chance to save himself.

“They forget, but I can’t fly, so please don’t throw me.” He phrased it mildly, in spite of how his feet now curled around the legs of his chair, as though that might save him.

Ronald broke in as well, “Seriously, don’t, I’ve been drinking andsh-” he slurred, “–that still soundsh like a bad idea.”

Niko turned his gaze to Ronald and then back to Dane, his brain struggling waaaay too hard to compute why not being able to fly would be an issue. Until, finally, two brain cells managed to rub together in just such a way as to make the connection.

“Alright, I’m gonna just gonna… yeah.” Niko nodded to himself, stumbling away from the gathering at the table and nearly tripping over himself several times. It had been hours of this, and he’d finally finished off his shiny drink and eaten a lot of shiny food. ‘Not, like, visually shiny, though,’ Niko's mind swirled like his vision did, ‘Like, wavy essence-y shiny, yeah.’

In his professional opinion as a long time food and essence-laden booze connoisseur of roughly three hours, these had been the best meals of his lives. It had nothing to do with how hard it was to think past ‘comfy’ and ‘not comfy’, but more to do with how he’d only stopped eating when he felt like his body was so pumped full of essence that he’d then felt like he had with the snake, but somehow more of it. Much more. It was so much more that the less-than-pleasant memory, blessedly, had been crushed beneath the torrential desire of being the fattest bird he could be.

He knew the memory wasn’t really, fully gone; but the beer-bravery helped him along enough that it was probably fine.

“Nikooo, where are you going?” He slowed a beat in confusion as he heard a familiar voice in a very unfamiliar cadence.

“Oh, she’s plastered.” Another voice, this one with the same cocky and constantly amused tone as Dachna– ‘That’s because it is Dachna, birdbrain.’ Niko chortled to himself at the realization–said, “Skye, you good? Can you even walk straight?”

“Can you even look straight?” She shot back, “Bet you look upside down and… whatever.” Niko saw the look of hard concentration on her face as she genuinely did her best to come up with an insult.

Niko shook his head pityingly, and Dachna lost his pecking mind with laughter at the sight.

“Alright, everyone, I’m heading off,” Orson stood with a mild hitch in his rise. He’d had four Starlight Sepulchers from Crowe before he’d hit the point where Skye had been at half of one. “Rooms are that way, pick one that isn’t locked or doesn’t have a red sign on the outside. If you need anything, Crowe and his people will get you situated.”

“Thanks, Orson,” Ronald stood unsteadily, and then walked the man to the door out of respect with a great deal more familiarity than earlier. Niko didn’t bother watching the rest of that interaction, because his feathered arse had suddenly found a very nice and warm patch of grass next to the rock in the indoor green area. Moments later, he felt mild winds gust at him as his siblings landed, or rather careened, into him and his spot. He barely noticed the thuds of their bodies against his as they all began to chitter.

“I’m sleepy,” Talon confessed first, “Niko, I’m sleeping here. Dane wants to go back to his room for some kind of bed.”

“Dane’s being laaaame~!” Called Gabby, still more drunk than not, but Dane only smiled at her while shaking his head and laughing. Niko couldn’t blame him, if he’d been forced to sleep in a wagon as a human, he’d definitely prefer a bed over anything else, too.

Skye then walked over and stumbled down next to him, still holding onto two plates of food and somehow not dropping them. She put one down in front of Niko, which he realized was food he’d left partially eaten. That was a cardinal – he snorted at his bad mental pun – sin!

Niko finished the food off and barely noticed as Skye’s lean to put the dish on the ground transformed into her body just giving up and sitting down in the nice grass. She picked at the rest of her meal, forcing down another bite, before languidly following it with another. He heard her say, “Ugh… It’s so good, but I can’t eat the rest.”

Niko finished swallowing down his food, before he eyed Skye’s dish. With a warble, he tapped his own dish with his beak, gesturing at the plate. She struggled far more than she should have, but then nodded with comprehension. With an awkward stretch, she put her dish on top of his, before, again, her body just gave up and she laid down where she landed barely a hand's breadth away from him.

“I’m–” Skye started, and spoke a great deal more in some kind of drunk-tongue that Niko had no idea how to even begin to decode, no gift from Alterra was enough for that drunken babble. He looked up, noting that Mithel, Dachna, and Ronald were up now and on their way to the doors opposite of the bar. Mithel was supporting and being supported by Dachna, whereas Ronald was doggedly marching himself to the distant guest rooms, intent on finding a bed to crash into.

Ronal paused for a moment and glanced back at Skye, then shook his head and muttered something like ‘gonna feel that in the morning,’ before he passed through the doors leading to the guest rooms.

The Oath Sworn pair rose as well shortly after. Dane walked over to Niko and his siblings, stepping carefully around Skye and patting the five birds who warbled at him expectantly for scritches. Niko felt oddly jealous for a moment, but he couldn’t tell if it was because his siblings were getting head scritches by someone else, or if he wanted some too.

And then Niko realized his expression must have been plenty transparent, because Dane gave him scritches shortly after. ‘Man, I should find that degrading, but I just can’t seem to care!’

Dane left after that and Niko finished eating yet another dish, this time well and truly full to the brim. The pile of feathers fluffed themselves up, sorting themselves into something resembling proper sleep posture.

“Settled in yet?” Niko asked his siblings, before Yak’s feathered behind somehow still landed on his face, “Oi! Really!?”

Yak warbled low, but barely noticed as Niko navigated him down his side. That motion soon failed because Pecky then half laid across his head and torso, and all of a sudden Niko had most of his body locked down. He could, of course, just pick them up or force them off but… Niko found himself watching as their eyes began to droop, and one by one they all fell asleep on him. Resigned to his fate, he positioned himself as comfortably as he could and spread himself out via a single free leg and wing.

Niko’s dreams were filled with a strange half-awake state, where he realized he was, again, at a crossroads. He could become greater than he was now with how much essence was in his body, and march onwards to becoming something more. A kind of awareness filled him, and a memory of a time that now felt so long ago, came to him. It was from when he’d been a Red Hawk chick and was narrowly successful in a desperate life or death battle against a snake far his superior at the time. He’d not really been in charge of his faculties then, only instinctively choosing to become something that had taken more effort to earn.

This time, though, he was more cognizant, and also felt strangely unburdened by much of the stresses and condition of his body. He trotted to the crossing, seeing two options before him. Curious, Niko first looked behind him, trying to see where he’d come from; what he saw was an option to remain as he was, but he somehow knew inherently that it would be the worst choice. Stagnation, stunted growth, and degradation lay in that direction. He couldn’t afford it, and with a clinical calmness, he looked back to the crossing in front of him, starting at the right.

What he saw was interesting, a strange sense of chaos, a shifting kaleidoscopic path of energy that was awash with the varying things that he’d felt. Essence from hundreds of meals,  and from his many conquests, lay in that direction, and Niko focused his senses as he peered through the veil.

What he saw down the path broke through his preternatural calm state with a wave of revulsion and wrongness. He saw a bird with snake scales and fangs, with the fur of an ironback badger and equipped with claws to dig and rend the earth. It lacked any elegance, but took on useful traits from everything it had consumed. ‘It’ because Niko couldn’t see any trace of himself in that vague form, and that was merely an initial glance from afar. Whatever this creature was, he wanted nothing to do with it. Even without his recent trauma, he felt it was anathema to his instincts, and even his human side felt a wave of wariness from seeing the thing.

He pulled back from that path, and began to look down the left path while still reeling from what he’d seen. He hoped another horror didn’t await him there, and felt more than saw a well trod but no less powerful path. It caught his attention in a way that the other path didn’t, and he began to let his senses wander, touching upon the essence there and learning what it might entail. It was triumphant, in a way, celebratory even, and he felt his instincts sing in tune with the sensation, like a battle in the making, all but won. It took all of his instincts, Human and Phorus, and deepened them, bringing them closer to being one cohesive whole.

This evolution–for it felt like– would be qualitative in what it did. If what he’d been before were disparate strings, this would be closer to a woven tapestry in the making.

It was a decision that he took his time contemplating.

In that dream space, though, Niko could feel something else happening. A ripple of essence so light and delicate that he thought he shouldn’t have noticed it at all. Yet, as it passed through this space, it also passed through every fiber of his being. The ripple was an awareness, and it was a comfort, a whispered voice that carried intent and echoes of thought.

Niko felt Alterra’s awareness drift over him, and knew that here, in this world, he wasn’t yet strong enough to truly hear her. For all his misgivings about her, for all that he knew that he’d signed up for a dirty job, he still found he didn’t truly dislike her. She was fighting for her continued existence, after all, and he could sympathize with that on levels most people perhaps couldn’t. But what truly warmed him was that the sensation carried no sense of rush, no push of purpose.

What he felt was a balm of calmness and assurance as well as a steady mooring line. There in case something happened, but otherwise happy with his choices so long as he made them for himself. It was odd, considering how much rode on his shoulders, but Niko almost felt like Alterra was saying, ‘Take your time, grow well and right. What happens will happen.’

He nodded to himself, realizing then that a Will of a full on world would almost definitely think of this time frame of his as less than a blink of an eye. Or perhaps she wasn’t troubling him, since things had clearly been so mixed up.

The moment passed and the structure of the space stilled once more. He knew he could take all the time he wanted here, decide what he wanted to do, but really, there was no other option.

‘Right?’ Niko paused, before he turned off the path, trying to force it to his whim.

It didn’t budge, but not in the sense that it was impossible. He pressed more, feeling the essence in his body roil in response. Then he stopped, sensing that his will and the sheer amount of essence he wielded was not yet enough to bring this place to heel with his wishes.

‘Shame, I would have liked to be able to fly.’ Niko turned his attention to the pedestal before him, ‘Still, this is good. I can live with this. I’ll look very pecking pretty, too, and that’s also important… Err, right?’ Niko paused, frowning as he realized he really had just put appearances first. With a shrug, he commented, ‘Well, looking attractive and being effective are not mutually exclusive, so that’s fine.’

With his will firm, he stepped into the image on the pedestal, essence flooding through his body as the near-adult Phorus underwent the final changes to become a true adult and a pinnacle specimen of his species.

And then he felt his skin grow tight and incredibly itchy, and all of the prior good feelings were drowned under his paralyzed body and his need to scratch himself.

‘Oh feathering hell! It itches soooo bad! Ahhhh!!! I can’t moo–’ he started to think before true unconsciousness mercifully claimed from his half-awake state, and pulled him fully into the quiet of a disconnected dream.