'I am being watched!' That was my first thought as I woke up. I felt the warmth of Amy's leg, which was now across mine, and knew she was still next to me. Was there somebody else in the room? I cracked open one of my eyes, slowly, trying to spot whoever or whatever was staring hard enough at me to make me feel their presence. I couldn't see much without moving my head but the room wasn't that big and nothing popped out at me. I slowly moved my head to face the door. It was the only other place I could think of that a person might look in on us from. It had an old fashioned, to me anyway, skeleton key lock. Most locks in this world seem to be that type, so it didn't set off creepy vibes when we came in. Still, somebody could look through it if they wanted to.
My hair must have tickled Amy's face, as I turned my head, because she moved her hand to bat it away and I felt her stir next to me. When she let out a yawn, I thought I heard somebody move down the hallway. Her hot breath against my ear and the sound of her waking up distracted me enough, that I couldn't be sure. She cuddled into my warmth for a second and then I felt her stiffen as she realized what she was doing. She quickly untangled herself and shifted as much as she could, away from me.
I could see the tops of her ears, that were poking out between her messy hair, were still a rosy pink when I got out of bed. I couldn't blame her. If I woke up cuddling a man, in my last life, I would have be mortified. Now? I had no idea. After all I had been through in the last year my view on who I was and how I defined myself had become blurry. I guess, in the end, I just wanted to find somebody that loved me. I missed that feeling. The fact that people kept trying to rape or kill me didn't help. 'Still, I shouldn't push my desire for affection on somebody that saved my life,' I thought as I stealthily looked at Amy.
I changed us into our bunny forms and we quickly got dressed. My plan was to work all day on raising my 'Spell Crafting' skill after grabbing breakfast. Amy said trouble was going to find us and I wanted to try and avoid it if I could. Not showing our faces in a town full of dungeon explorers and guards was the first step of my plan.
"Alice, when did your tattoo change?" Amy's question broke me out of my reverie. When did it change? I hadn't noticed it until the fourth day on the boat. It wasn't like we could take baths or showers on it, so I was clothed most of the time. When I did change, it was quick since there wasn't a lock on the door to the room we had used.
"I am not too sure but I think it was on the night of the castle fight. It's the only thing that makes sense." I traced my fingers along the darker fur that outlined it. The trees of the tattoo now didn't show the two lush crowns. Now it more looked like the "artist" wanted to show the four seasons. The tree on my right started off barren of foliage while the other side was full of budding life, like it went from winter to spring. There were even leaves in mid-fall showing autumn.
Amy missed the changes to my crystal and I pointed it out to her. Maybe she had a better idea about it. She was smarter than me in certain areas and I trusted her. The crystal now had two distinct sides. One side was a bright gold and shined like the sun while the other was so black that it seemed to eat the light around it. If you looked really close there were two slivers separating them. All the green and amber had been compressed and now looked like thin strips that circled the crystal. My fur did nothing to hide the crystal at all and it looked more like a decoration. The fact that she notice the tattoo and not the crystal meant she saw it before we shifted forms.
"Any ideas?" I asked after she was silent for too long. She was staring at it and would occasionally poke me. Considering where it was located, I figured I would stop her before I got too excited. The feeling of her finger ruffling my fur was nice though. I was lightly tapping my foot as her finger moved back and forth trying to see all the details. I suddenly thought of something and dropped my spells. As I turned back, the desires that had begun to take over my thoughts faded away. It was like I had stepped into a cold shower. I cursed my stupidity for not remembering that rabbits were always in heat. Were Foxes? I had no idea. I barely knew about rabbits and that was only because some students had made a big deal out of it in class. There was a girl with buck teeth and some of the boys used that to make fun of her until a few of us put a stop to it.
"Nothing that makes sense. If the colors represent magical classes, which would make sense, considering what I have seen you cast, then the gold would be your life magic, the green is druidic, and the amber would be your summoning. It is this black one that is the problem. If I am not mistaken, that is corruption magic. It is also called wild magic because it can be used to boost every other magic with unknown consequences. There have been studies on it but they were deemed to be too dangerous to continue. There has never been a documented case of somebody containing it like this. It normally mixes with the person's magic and then distorts it and them. I suppose, it could also be really strong shadow magic. It's hard to be certain without a lab and equipment to test with." She didn't seem concerned. If anything, she looked at me like an interesting experimental subject.
I coughed to break her out of her thoughts and said, "Well, so far I seem normal. Let's go get breakfast before we are too late for it." I recast Masquerade on us before we went up. There weren't many people around. It was close to ten so I expected the people had either moved on, gone to work or shop to kill the time as they waited for the next boat. I found that both Amy and I had pushed any meat to one side of our plate. The vegetables tasted better. The meat left a weird taste in my mouth to the point I soon just found myself avoiding it. Since we were pretty isolated I filled her in on my idea of staying in the room all day.
She was ok with it. I think she wanted to observe me. I was like a new interesting puzzle that she hadn't figured out yet. I ignored her quirky nature. It wasn't like I was normal either. We finished eating and I went to talk with the lady that had given us the rooms to set up lunch and dinner deliveries. It cost us a bit extra but she promised to personally bring it to us. She wouldn't meet my eyes as if she was guilty of something and I figured her creepy man was the peeping tom from this morning. I would remember to stuff a rag into the lock once we got back.
***
"Where are you going, Gideon?"
"Lucas, she saved my life. You heard the report. She might have been spotted and I am going to return the favor. Cover for me with father. It isn't like I ever wanted the throne if you cannot. Some people are worth protecting and I feel Alice is one such person."
"I understand. Here take this," Lucas finish before tossing Gideon a heavy pouch of coins. "You might need it if you plan on getting her over the border. I already removed her wanted status in the Adventurers' Guild, so they should not be a problem and you might be able to get her a higher status as a member there and use that to get her over the border instead of bribes."
I spent all of yesterday trying to level up my skill. Only pausing to cast a spell before answering the door to get our food deliveries. It took me until well into the night to actually accomplish it though. Amy for her part would crouch down, with her eyes glowing purple, and observe me until her magic ran out. I had to tell her multiple times to not touch me and probably could have shaved off an hour in my training if she had listened. I collapsed into the bed with Amy a little before two A.M.
I dreamed of hundreds of different places and people flashed through my mind: men, women, and children all asking me for something.
I found myself surrounded by a huge ongoing battle. A kid in robes had his head bowed. "Please smite those that would do me harm." I saw a woman riding a wolf coming at him but didn't move to help. I didn't know what was going on and wasn't going to aid in killing someone who might be the innocent.
A merchant prayed for a successful business deal.
I stood next to a weeping mother. Her cries as she held a child, echoed in the room. Her words kept repeating while a man beside her was shouting at another man next to some animal with a bloody mouth. I wanted to help and her tears turned golden, as she wept over her unmoving child.
I blinked and was now standing with another woman as we watched a family praying over dinner. She smiled at them and then me. I felt her goodwill, in that smile, but before I could figure out was going on I was off to the next place.
A kid sitting in a classroom praying for good grades on an upcoming test. I watched as the teacher began to hand out the papers for it and shook my head. As if praying could replace studying.
Then a warrior praying for strength to crush his enemies. I thought of helping but a burly giant that stood near him, glared at me as I stepped closer and I thought better of it.
A guy was praying for inspiration for his book while a curvy lady was whispering in his ear.
Then I was next to a demon. Its harsh language made my ears hurt. A bigger demon stood near an altar, knife in hand. The demon I was next to barked and snarled before the one by the alter plunged the knife down into a smaller demon that was tied to it.
A man asking for help getting the girl he likes into bed. I snorted at his prayer as if I could help with that.
I was in a forest. A teenage boy knelt on the ground surrounded by the dead. Some were beasts but most were his party members. Tears streamed down his face as he prayed. "Please save them. I'll give..." I laid my hand on his shoulder as he continued and the last thing I saw before I found myself on a in the raging sea was him looking up at me. His eyes glowing golden.
I stood on a boat as it was tossed about on the sea. I saw men struggling to hold onto anything close before the shipped bucked and I fell off.
I found myself standing in a thieves den. They were praying over a table of sand and stones. They asked for riches and offered a share of their haul for any aid given. Humph, as if.
As I opened my eyes to greet the day, I could remember a bit more of last night's dreams but even so, most faded away and only fragments remained.
*Goddess of Life: Selected*
I pulled up my character sheet and saw it now said 'Goddess of Life, ?, ?' leaving me to believe that I would be able to "select" up to two more titles or areas of power. The other things I noticed was some of my skills and spells were greyed out with timers next to them as if they were on cooldown and the number of believers had increased to a hundred and three. I closed my display trying to understand what happened. My dreams seem to deem what type of goddess I would be. My actions on who I helped were deciding what type. I felt lucky that I didn't go to bed hungry and end up with some weird title like God of chickens or something similar.
I refocused because today would be the day people would come after us, if Amy was correct. There was no guarantee she was. The further out a prediction goes the more things could change what was seen. In two days, in such a small town, that was unlikely so I had two options for changing our fate. The first was to keep it as similar as I could to what she had predicted and just change small factors. Examples of that would be if I put traps in the area we were going to run in or sent 'Shifters' to pretend to be us. The other option would be to simply go against it. Fight instead of fleeing or simply leaving the area before it happened. This option tended to take more strength than the first one. Anything could happen and things tended to crop up to delay your departure or if you decided to fight, something bigger might show up explaining why you were running in the vision. In the end, while fate could be changed you needed to know how to. There was a whole class on the intricacies of how to, with the least effort.
Oddly, I wasn't worried at all. Since that night in the capital, I have not been afraid of fighting. While the feeling of being able to crush a small town under my heel diminished it had not vanished. It was stupid, I know, but the overconfidence in that area seemed to have become part of me. Too bad I didn't seem to have any more confidence with anything else. I still felt flustered as I woke up next to Amy. I was wrapped in her arms as I woke up, as if I was her teddy bear that helped her to sleep. I was stronger and if I wanted I could simply break loose but I simply laid there. I wondered if I would be alone forever. Did Gods even date? If they were eternal would I have to watch all my friends age and die? I shoved away my doubts as I enjoyed her soft touch as she slept. Should I try and return her to her family before leaving? While I wanted her to stay, she was not cut out for a life on the run. I will think on it but first things first, we needed to deal with anyone foolish enough to try and stop us from leaving.
I did not get to enjoy Amy's warmth for long. A hurried knock on our door woke her up and like yesterday, she scuttled away as if scalded. I got out of bed and used my spell to transform us before opening the door. It was the same lady that brought us food yesterday. This time there was no food. Instead she was sporting two black eyes and bruises on her arm where somebody had gripped her arms, hard! I didn't get out any greeting before she yelled, "You have to run! Hurry, they are coming!"
I nodded.
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