Ugh, my head hurts...
I blearily open my eyes, the world is doubled and swaying slightly. I must have banged it pretty good, huh.
*It is highly suggested you refrain from making any sudden movements.*
Why? Oh.
My eyes finally focus enough to make out that the weird stick pointed at my neck is, indeed, Germunds' lance, ready to strike.
"I think it's coming to." I hear Germund call out to the two others. I can't currently see them, but I guess they're around here somewhere. I try speaking to him, but all that comes out is a groggy whine.
Oh right, I revert to my true form if I'm unconscious... No wonder he's pointing his lance at me like that then. I would too if my hunting companion got knocked out and turned into a monster. Trying to reach out with Telepathy just makes my headache worse, so I'm rendered mute.
Ugh, why did I do that?
*Judging by the damage you took from that Earthen Stomp, if Germund had been hit by that attack...*
I'm guessing he'd be reduced to a sack of meat and broken bones. Good thing I'm nearly indestructible.
"Is she okay?" Merkiv asks from beyond my field of view. "Heck if I know. It- she took that kick and then-" Germund momentarily retracts his lance from my neck to shrug. "U-uhoo~" I try my best to make a calming noise as I slowly lift my head from the ground. This was a mistake, because now everything is spinning.
*Current conditions: Dazed (Normal), Concussed (Great) and Broken Bone - Wings (Normal)*
Thanks for that update. How on earth did I manage to break my wings though?
*You landed on them after reverting form. Your weight caused them to break. Luckily they did not dislocate. In the time you were unconscious, the humanoids managed to maneuver you onto your side.*
Oh man.
"She seems well out of it." Seagrass makes a remark, peeking out from behind one of the dead Maremoths. Actually, what happened to the others?
*They ran off after you resumed your true form. The recoil from the kick the male gave you killed it instantly.*
That's good. Seems my unconscious form is good for something at least...
"I hope she's still in there." Merkiv walks up to in front of me and makes a motion as if to touch me. "Hey! Be careful! Who knows what she'll do if you spook her!" Germund warns, once again pointing his lance to my neck.
"Guroo~" I try cooing to Merkiv. He reaches out and places his hand under my chin. "She seems friendly for now. But to think that Millibelle was this all along..." Merkiv tilts his head at me as he gently brushes the fluffy side of my neck. "Think it's a curse?" Seagrass once again peeks out from behind the Maremoth. I guess he's gathering materials from it.
"I doubt it. Why would a curse do this?" Merkiv replies. "An enchantment then? I mean, those Photians did some pretty messed up stuff last war." Germund suggests. "Maybe. Triggers when the person gets low on HP? Still, why this form. It's so..." "Disjointed?" "Yeah." Oh if only my head wasn't spinning, I'd tell them.
"So, what do we do with her?" Seagrass asks as he moves from behind the remains of the Maremoth, wiping a dagger on the arm of his shirt. "I don't even know if she's able to walk with how wobbly she's being with her head." Merkiv replies. I'm being wobbly? I try to stop the wobble, and my sight immediately destabilizes. Oh okay, I'm just one hundred percent fucked in the ole brain, aren't I?
*It will pass once your Regeneration: HP Skill recovers the neurological damage. Estimated time for recovery: 1 day, 13 hours.*
Uuuuugh. I lay my head back down with an annoyed huff. "I guess she's as bothered by this as we are." Germund puts away his lance, seemingly convinced that I'm not an immediate threat. Hell, I'm fairly convinced I'm not an immediate threat. Oh if only I could- wait, I can!
I slowly raise my head back up, and holding it as steady as I can to not make myself dizzy, start to uncover the soil in front of me. "What's she doing?" Seagrass now peaks out from behind the other Maremoth. "Uh, pulling up the heather?" Merkiv shrugs to him. Once a good bit of soil has been revealed, I shakily point one claw forward.
Merkiv moves to my side, to better see what I'm doing. Shakily, and with barely legible grammar, I write out in Common: "am hurt hed 1 day 13 hors" Merkiv mouths the message as he deciphers my chicken-scratch. "Her head is hurt, one day and 13 hours" He relays to the others. "What's that supposed to mean? I mean, other than the obvious." Germund has taken off his helmet, and has a confused look on his face.
I erase the first part of the message and rewrite: "Hed fix in 1 day 13 hors" Merkiv once again relays. "Oh, so she'll be fine again when the one day and thirteen hours has passed." They look at me. I nod, before regretting my decision. "I'm guessing we won't be able to get you anywhere though, other than I guess rolling you down the mountain-side." "no" I write. I'm not gonna be my head anytime soon.
"Well, we didn't bring anything to camp out with, and even if you scare off Maremoths, there's worse things out and about on this mountain." Merkiv puts a hand to his chin as he thinks. "It's still time, one of us could go down and get supplies?" Seagrass suggests. Can't I try to use Great Heal or Recover on myself to speed things up?
*Chance of miss-casting too high in current conditions. All Spells have been temporarily disabled for your safety.*
Oh yeah, I really don't want to fuck up and make it worse, huh. And I guess bringing a healer to me would be troublesome. Seems like camping it is. "We could try having a cleric come look at her?" Germund suggests. "What would they be able to do? I think we're stuck with guarding her until she's well enough to get back to the village." Merkiv shakes his head.
"Well, I'm done with the Maremoths, all that's left is the junk parts." Seagrass comes out from behind the second Maremoth, which has been reduced to a pile of chitin and innards. "So, what do we do? Run down to the village, grab some gear and get back?" He looks from one to the other. "You're the fastest of us, so if you could..." Germund says as he rubs a bump on his head, probably from where the bull Maremoth hit him in the face.
"I'll be back with as much as I can. What do I tell the Guild if they ask?" Merkiv and Germund look at each other, both looking equally as clueless. "Okay, I'll just tell them we didn't find any Maremoths and decided to go further, but we needed camping gear." Seagrass nods to himself, surely that is an acceptable story, he thinks. He then wanders off, down the mountain.
Ugh. I just want to sleep... But I remember reading somewhere that doing that is a real bad idea when you're concussed... I lay my head back down at least, makes it not hurt as much. I should try getting onto my belly, too, my left side is starting to hurt.
With slow, calculated movements I slowly maneuver myself to the point where one final move would get me onto my belly. "Hey now, be careful! Don't go moving around too much!" Merkiv warns me just as I tip over. Pain surges through my wings as the broken bones are carelessly moved about.
I give a yelp of pain, but endure it. One more move, and... I accidentally lay my right wing over Merkiv, knocking him to the ground. "Uph-" His cry is muffled by the membrane covering him. But! I'm now infinitely more comfortable! And my wings are splayed out in a way that should make the bones find together easier.
Merkivs head pops out from under my right wings elbow. I look at him with a decidedly bastardly contented look (~imagine her giving the >:3 look~). "You're lucky you're that much bigger than me or I'd kick your ass." He half-jokingly says as he crawls out. "You good?" Germund smiles, seemingly caught in the schadenfreude.
"Never been better. Seems she's much more happy with that position." He dusts himself of heather before moving over to where Germund is sitting on a rock. Before long, Seagrass returns. Wait, we used several hours getting up here?
*Loss of sense of time is a common symptom of neurological damage. In fact, it's been roughly six hours since Seagrass left to fetch supplies.*
O-oh. I guess it's strange that the sun suddenly began setting.
I give my status a quick check.
*Status: Dazed (Lesser) Concussed (Great)*
Oh, my wings are fixed! I somehow manage to get to my feet, stiff and sore for laying in the same position for so long. "Hey, she's moving. Should we try to stop her before she hurts herself more, or?" Seagrass points out. "I'll keep an eye on her." Germund says as he finishes pitching his tent before getting up and walking over to me.
I get into a low and wide stance as to not fall over when I stretch out my wings. My sense of balance is off still, but if I'm slow and careful in my movements I hope I won't get too dizzy. "Seems your wing's all fine now, how about your head?" Germund asks. I guess I answered that question, as when I try turning around to face the camp I just keep going in circles.
"What's she doing?" Germund nervously asks Merkiv. "I've seen this sometimes when monster's gotten hit in the head, they start circling when they try to turn." Merkiv abandons his half-pitched tent to try to make me stop. "Help me here, Germund." Together, they halt my circling by pushing against the direction I'm going. Luckily I managed to stop facing the camp.
I lay back down, my head spinning from circling. "Okay, Millibelle, try not moving anymore until you're better, if you were to wander off or something we won't be able to help you." Germund tells me before helping Merkiv with his tent. I get as comfortable as I can, and before I know it, I'm fast asleep.
I dream.
I am in my grandfathers home. I sit beside him as he reads from a book of traditional fairy-tales. The Jotne, the trolls, the Huldr, the nokk, the draug, the gast, all monsters from my homeland. As my grandfather tells the stories about them, I visualize them.
One by one, they appear in the room beside us. They then all leave out the door. Except the Huldr, she stays behind. Snuggling up beside me, as I doze, listening to my grandfathers' stories.
I'm startled awake from my dream by shouts of slight panic. I blearily open my eyes. No double vision this time though, that's good. I look in the direction of the shouting, Seagrass is rousing the others and fervently pointing to orbs of light floating up and away from the camp. What's going on?
*The first of your Children have left for home. Your damaged head ended up Dreaming. In that Dream, you brought Monsters from your old World into this one. They aren't yet fully formed, but in time they will populate this World. It seems though, that one of your Children has decided to stay behind with you.*
I- I have done what? I can Dream up new monsters, just like that???
*This isn't the first time it has happened to this World. Otherworlders can sometimes cause their host world to take on lifeforms from their original world. One such example would be the Eastern Spirit type of monster, born from the feverish Dream of a summoned Hero that fell ill with Ignant Fever.*
So it is somewhat of an accident, I guess? The system gets confused, and makes monsters from the memories of the Dreamer?
*Something like that. It has never been successfully done on purpose at least.*
Hm...
I feel something move about beneath my wing. I carefully lift it to reveal a nude woman with... lynx ears? They look like lynx ears to me at least. Long, thick blonde hair reaches to just below her breasts. Her back is covered in bark-like scales, the texture reminiscent of a pine tree. She also has a cow tail.
She looks like a Huldr. A monster that appears before shepherds and male travelers to try to lure them to dangerous places or just outright kidnap them so they can father her children. I don't know how that last part is going to work in this World though.
She shivers as the mountain air replaces the heated air that was trapped beneath my wings. I lay my wing back down upon her for now. "Millibelle! What was those lights? Did you do something?" Merkiv comes up to me, his flame-shimmering hair all a-mess from his sudden awakening.
I tilt my head at him. "Right, you can't speak like that..." He scratches his head. The Huldr pops her head out from underneath my wing. Merkiv performs the humanoid equivalent to a cat springing into the air from surprise as she appears.
"Whe- who is this???" He asks as he gestures to the Huldr. I tempt fate with an attempt at Telepathy. It hurts a bit, but not as bad as earlier. "I might have... made her?" I tell him.
He looks at me in disbelief. That look reminds me of Valena, and the looks she'd give me sometimes. "You what. Also you speak?" "It hurt too much yesterday, still does." I try to answer in simple sentences, but even that is too much. My neck cramps up as a jolt of pain shoots through my head.
"Whoah, whoah, okay, we'll leave the questions for later." Merkiv rushes over to me to make sure I don't hit my head any more as I lay back down. The Huldr creeps closer to my body, still covered by my wing. I should probably get her dressed in something, but at the moment I can't concentrate enough to use the Hidden Space Skill.
"What's going on?" Seagrass and Germund come to check on us. "Apparently Millibelle caused those lights. And she, uh..." He points to the bulge on my right wing that's giving away the Huldrs position. "There's something there?" Seagrass cranes his neck as if to see better.
The Huldr pokes her head out again, before retreating back in with a squeak upon seeing the men. Is she shy? Or just intimidated by three bedheaded men? I slowly move my head over to her, an attempt at reassuring her.
I see her eyes glow a dazzling yellow in the dark. She looks from me to the others, before snuggling closer to me. Seems she doesn't want to come out. That's fine. "Could, uh, could you show her to us? See if she needs anything?" Merkiv asks me. I give a slight shake, sending just two words to him. "She nakey"
Merkiv turns just about as red as his hair. I can almost see the air distort from the heat. "Okay, we'll leave this to you then. Try to not make any more of those lights, okay?" He tells me before stomping off to his tent. "I guess we'll leave this for sunrise..." Seagrass shrugs and saunters back to the tent, closely followed by a very confused Germund.
I suppose I have until sunrise to get fit enough to give you some clothes, huh. I think as I curl up around the Huldr, falling once again into a, this time dreamless, sleep.