Kari's Tale

[Kamira]

I honestly have no idea if anyone is going to read this, but if you do, then fair enough! It's a story that I plan to add to whenever I have free time to write, and ideas to fill it. Partly it is to help me fulfill an idea I never had much luck writing in an RP format, but this will also act as a writing sample of sorts.

All I would ask is that if you have any comments / questions / suggestions / feedback.... anything like that; please do not post anything here. Message it to me. The reason for this is that I don't want other people's messages appearing in the middle of my story.

Also, fair warning, this story is going to very furry / non-human character heavy. If that's not your thing, don't read it. Other than that I'm not really into anything too extreme, so it should be a fairly safe read. If there are any potential trigger-warning-worthy posts though, I will mark them as such.

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Kari's Tale.
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Trying to sleep through noise was nothing new to Kari. Being able to ignore strange sounds in a tower full of people who never seemed to sleep at the same time as each other was an essential skill. Only the sound jarring sound of the morning bell usually woke her. Listening, the young woman didn’t hear that dreaded sound. So what had woken her?

In a moment she disregarded the question. If it wasn’t time to wake up yet, then she intended to make the most of it. In recent months, the schedule her tutors had assigned her was brutal, every moment of sleep she could steal was a gift indeed. And that was when it dawned on her.

For the first time in what seemed like ages, Kari didn’t feel tired. She was still groggy from having only just woken, but there was no pressure in her head, no ache behind her eyes. In a moment of worry, she bolted upright and attempted to throw her blanket off herself. She must have overslept. Oh no, this was bad. Sister Utilda was going to be furious.

Eyes blinking to adjust to the bright light, she found that her blanket was nowhere to be found. For matter… light? Kari’s small novice room was on the interior of the tower and held no windows. Even in the middle of the day with her door wide open, it was never anything other than gloomy.

That was when it all came rushing back. Kari wasn’t in her tower bedroom. Admittedly the stone floor that she had been laying on was about equal to her bed in terms of softness, but no. Now that she was awake it was quite obvious. This was not home.

Kari was in a stone building of some sort, or rather, she was in what remained of it. The larger stone blocks that made up the walls seemed mostly intact, but there was a large gaping hole in the roof. The hole must have been there for quite some time, as the debris underneath the opening was covered in a carpet of moss.

The damage seemed strangely confined, and as she pondered it, Kari realised why. The amount of fallen debris and rubble seemed too small, compared to the wide hole in the ceiling. Someone must have started to clear away the damage, but never finished the job.

It was then that she heard a clattering sound deeper in the long corridor-like room, in the darker recesses where the light struggled to reach. Someone, or something, was moving back there. Squinting, Kari tried to make out what it was. It wasn’t until the figure moved again, with another clatter, that the young woman recognised what she was seeing.

A hunched over robed figure, the green material of the garment acting almost like camouflage when in front of a similarly coloured fresco wall.

Memories of the night before flooded back into Kari’s mind, and a icy feeling of dread suffused her. A basement room, robed and hooded figures gathered around her, chanting, and herself placed in the centre of an arcane symbol drawn on the floor.

Reflexively, Kari looked down at the stone floor where she sat. With a horrified gasp, she saw that she was still was in a centre of a symbol! Two concentric rings of a chalky white marking, with unfamiliar symbols and markings between the two lines. In the middle of the inner circle, right under her body, was a starburst shape, the points of which just touched the inner circle’s rim.

It wasn’t the same as the one she had seen last night, but Kari reacted on instinct. She scrambled backwards, not even wasting the time to stand up, just trying to get herself out. Her gasp and movement attracted the attention of the robed figured, who called something, but as preoccupied as she was, Kari paid no attention.

With a last burst of desperate effort, Kari threw herself free of the boundary of the symbol… and immediately collapsed to the floor. She tried to get up, but her muscles pointedly refused to even move an inch.

Even breathing seemed to become difficult, the muscles that worked the young woman’s lungs feeling too weak to draw in much of a breath. As she gasped for air, Kari felt a dizzy sensation, and her vision once again started to blur. She was going to pass out. Worse, if she didn’t regain consciousness before she recovered enough to breathe…

With mounting fear, Kari felt a pair of hands take hold of her ankles. She wanted to kick and break free, but her legs still refused to obey. She was dragged against her will back towards the circle. As soon as her foot passed back into it, she felt life return to her body, and with a sucked in breath, she kicked her right foot free of the hand on her.

“Hey!” the robed figure protested, snatching hold of Kari again, with ease, as she had once again gone limp as her foot fell outside the symbol. “I’m trying to help you, will you stop struggling so much?”

Help? Kari had been tricked only the night before by women wearing robes, and she was quite understandably wary of both that as well as magical symbols. For now though she realised there was simply no choice. She couldn’t even breathe outside the circle, she had to stay inside it for now.

It was a relief and a surprise how quickly she started to feel better after being wholly dragged back into the design marked on the floor. Only a second or two after her legs were let go of, Kari felt well enough to sit upright again and take a proper look at the person who had been manhandling her.

She should have been shocked.

She wasn’t.

Common sense told her that she should be scared.

She wasn’t.

The woman standing in front of Kari wasn’t human. The word ‘mouse’ was what came immediately to mind.

Short fur of a light grey colour covered her face, and indeed everywhere on her body that wasn’t hidden by the loose-fitting robe. The only place that had no fur was the woman’s head, which had a neck-length bob of straight brown hair. Even the large round ears atop her head had furred backs. Further, the face had a slight muzzle-like shape to it. A pink and slightly flat nose held at the end, surrounded by delicate whiskers.

The way that nose twitched slightly in anxiety and made the whiskers shake a little was, quite adorable, and utterly disarming. With big and expressive brown eyes, the woman looked down at Kari. It was surprisingly easy to tell, she seemed to be about the same age as Kari, a young adult.

“This is going to sound really strange…” Kari faltered a little, but pressed on. “…I had a dream about you”.

With a shaky smile, the mousey woman nodded her head. “Yeah, not as strange as you might think. I had something like that too, but I don’t think it was a dream”.

Clearing her throat and gesturing at the circles drawn on the floor, Kari asked “So are we going to talk about why you’re keeping me captive here?”

With a horrified look on her face, the mousey woman brought her hand up to her mouth as if to stifle a gasp. “No, no, that’s not it at all” she blurted out in a rush. Gesturing at the pattern on the ground she insisted “That’s a healing circle, surely you’ve seen one before?”

Kari shook her head “Can’t say that I have” she countered, then probed further. “If you say this is a healing spell of some kind, why does it make me collapse and stop breathing if I leave the circle?”

This time it was the furred woman shook her head. “That’s not right at all. For one thing this isn’t a spell. And quite besides that, you’re making a basic causation reversal fallacy. Just because…”

The human groaned and waved a hand to stop the other woman. She had worked alongside sisters in the tower library back home who talked this way. Jump to a conclusion and rather than tell you the correct answer, they would lecture you on how your logic was wrong.

“Let’s keep it really simple here” she insisted. “What do you mean about me being wrong. I can leave?”

From the way the mouse talked very carefully, it was clear that it took a deal of effort for her to stick to the strictly relevant points. “The circle isn’t making you collapse” she explained. “It’s the opposite. The circle is stopping you from collapsing, but only works when you’re inside it”.

Kari was fairly certain she knew the answer, but wanted to see just how much this woman seemed to know about her. “And why would I be collapsing in the first place?”

With a shrug, the furry creature sat down on the floor, directly in front of Kari. The mousey woman’s short stature meant that she hadn’t been exactly looming, but she had obviously decided that if there was going to be a conversation, it would be face-to-face.

“You were nearly dead when I found you” she continued. “You were out in the forest, in a heap on the ground. I have no idea how you got there. I dragged you back here to where it’s dry and sheltered, then drew the healing circle to put you in”.

Forest… there were no forests near the tower. If talking to a strange semi-human creature wasn’t proof enough, that was all Kari needed to start believing the rest of her dream. However, the longer she stayed awake, the fuzzier the details became.

“Where am I? What is this place called?” the human asked.

“Weilin Forest” was the reply.

“No, that’s not what I meant” Kari insisted. She tried to think of how to explain herself better. Making an expansive gesture with her hands, she reiterated “What’s everything called. The whole word”.

Raising an eyebrow, obviously wondering why the human didn’t know such as basic thing, the mouse responded “Teranathi”. In turn, she asked “Where exactly is it that you come from?”

“That’s a long story” Kari offered, but could immediately see that her dismissive answer had not deterred further questions.

Sure enough, the mouse said right back “Well you’re not going to be able to leave that circle for at least the next few hours…”

 

[Kamira]

Answering questions or telling stories wasn’t exactly what Kari had on her mind right now. She had more than her own fair share of questions that needed to be addressed. However, there was something important she needed to consider. “So, you pretty much saved my life then?” she mused aloud, rather than really asking a question.

It was in the human’s nature to take the other woman at her words, she always had been a trusting person. But only last night, trusting someone blindly had resulted in a great deal of trouble. There was a quiet moment as she pondered this. There was no proof that the woman had saved her. There was no proof that this circle was healing her rather than trapping her.

But was that it? From now on was Kari going to be distrustful and refuse to take anything people said at face value?

“Thank you” she offered, sincerely. She refused to let one bad experience, no matter how harrowing, change her as a person. Holding out a hand, she added “I’m Kari, what’s your name?”

The mouse gave a smile, but more than anything she looked relieved as she reached out and took hold of Kari’s hand. “I’m Himiya, or just Miya if you like. And you’re welcome. I did have some help with you, after all”.

Kari shook the hand, holding on perhaps just a little longer than she needed to. Curiosity made her want to get a good feel for what Miya’s fur was like. As it turned out, it was both surprisingly soft, and slightly ticklish in a not unpleasant way. She did manage to resist the urge to give it a little stroke before letting go.

“What do you mean by help?” She asked “Do you have friends or family around here somewhere”.

Himiya shook her head. “No, I don’t mean help healing you as such. It was more to do with being in the right place at the right time in order to find you. it’s uh… well kinda like your dream I guess. You could call it outside help. You could even call it a premonition of sorts”.

“So you do have magic then” Kari asserted.

Again, there was a shake of Miya’s mousey head. “No, this is a first for me. I’m a devotee of the Lady Nathira, a priestess in training, if you will. Some of the priestesses do study magic, but it’s not a prerequisite. I… gods but this is going to sound silly. I know everyone says that the gods don’t intervene in the worlds directly, but… well I’m pretty certain it was a message from the Lady Nathira”.

“It doesn’t sound silly at all” Kari reassured her, only telling a small white lie. She didn’t believe in gods, and found it hard to credit that part of the story. However, her own experience the previous day had led her to believe that some higher being had intervened in her life in some way. More accurately, it had prevented her death. “I think I had the a similar experience”.

Sitting up a little straighter, presumably eager to hear her faith being confirmed, Himiya nodded and gestured towards the human. “Yes, that’s right, you were going to tell me about it”.

Kari wasn’t entirely sure that she had agreed to any such thing… but figured that if Miya really had saved her life, then it probably was only the least she could do in return. Starting up, she explained “Well the first thing I guess you need to know is that I am, or was, a student at The Tower. I…”

“What’s the tower?” Himiya interrupted, and for a moment Kari looked at her blankly. Everyone knew that. It was The Tower. But then it dawned on her all over again. This wasn’t her home world, as far as the people here were concerned, no such tower existed.

Trying not to get bogged down in the minor details, Kari answered “The split tower, it’s a place where people go to learn. It’s a strictly members only college that houses the world’s largest library. Oh, well I guess my world’s largest, anyway. It’s called the split tower because there are two distinct sections, one for mundane subjects, and one for magical studies”.

“And which part of the tower did you study in?” Miya asked, offering her second interruption in short succession. Kari could hardly blame her, she was doing her best to understand a story which relied on a great deal of background knowledge.

Letting out a sigh of resignation, the human suggested “How about I just start right from the beginning? Absolutely everything that led up to what happened?” It would take a fair amount of time, but if she had to sit here for hours anyway, she might as well.

And so, with Himiya’s nod, she started.

By her own estimation, it had all started about two years ago. Back at the age of seventeen, Kari had been living with her parents in her small and quite isolated hometown by the name of Herensford. Her family had owned the local inn, a modest establishment that mostly catered to those locals looking for a drink and good company.

The inn did of course have a handful of guest rooms, and every now and again, travellers passing through the area would rent beds for a night or two. It was one such traveller that had changed Kari’s life; Sister Utilda.

Utilda was, like most, simply passing through Herensford on her way elsewhere. She had stayed in the inn, and that was how her eye had fallen on Kari. It had been an uncomfortable two days, and it seemed as though every time she turned around, Kari found the woman observing her.

Just before leaving, Sister Utilda explained why. At first she had not been sure, but after a few small tests, she was adamant. Kari possessed the innate ability to practice magic, but had somehow locked the talent away from herself. A mental block was what she had called it.

Apparently it was the body’s way of preventing damage. If a person lacked the control to use their magical gift without harming themselves, their mind would seal the power away. She was told that with help it would be possible, albeit difficult, to reawaken that dormant ability.

That day, Sister Utilda left to see to the business she had been travelling for. It was three months before she returned. By then, daydreams and imagination had done their job. When the sister offered to take Kari with her, the teen had jumped at the chance.

Life had settled into a sort of routine, with most days being largely the same; a combination of chores, studying, a small amount of free time. From there It had taken a few months, but finally her classes taught her how to reach into herself and access her magic. At first, Kari had been elated.

More months passed, and students who had started their studies at the same time as Kari started to surpass her. While she still struggled to maintain enough control to even take hold of her power for more than a brief moment, the others were learning how to apply it and affect the world around them.

It took almost eighteen months of training for Kari to by able to reliably take hold of her power, and even then, she could seize control of a small trickle of it. When it came to actually applying her gift, the only results Kari actually achieved were to summon coloured patterns of lights, and produce simple sounds ,like the noise a log popping in a fire would make.

By this point she had learned something else important. The social structure of the magic users in the tower was talent based. The more power you had, the more respect you were given. As the runt of the little, so to speak, Kari was treated as an outcast by many. Even some of the sisters deemed her a waste of time, and barely put any effort into teaching her.

More often than not by now, Kari skipped classes. Some sisters reprimanded her, others considered it a wise choice, and let her be. It seemed as though her magical journey was over, before truly beginning.

This was what prompted Kari to ask to leave the tower, to simply return home. Sister Utilda had been deeply disappointed, and had outlined her possible options. Kari could leave if she really wanted to, but there was a price. As she had learned to access her magic, but not how to control it, she was considered a danger.

To be allowed to leave, Kari would have to consent to having her memories erased by sisters wielding magic. Unfortunately, the spell was not selective. Not only the relevant memories would be scoured from her mind, but all of her memories.

Naturally, Kari had declined, but things didn’t end there. Seeing how close they were to losing a student, Utilda decided it was time to step up efforts. Convinced that it was Kari’s mental block still affecting her, the sister explained that stress could be used to break down a block.

The form of stress that Utilda decided on was simple exhaustion.

At dawn every day Kari was woken. From there, she would spend the hours until the morning bell doing chores in the kitchens. Scrubbing pots, cleaning soot from the hearth, and mopping floors. All before being allowed breakfast.

She would then be sent to Utilda’s quarters for a private lesson, if no progress was made, she would be sent to more chores. Afternoon chores were usually in the gardens. Raking leaves, weeding flowerbeds, skimming ponds and the like.

Lunch, then another private lesson. Of course when Kari showed no improvement, she was sent right back to work, this time aiding the cleaning staff. She would scrub, polish, sweep and do laundry until well after sunset.

After so many hours of hard work broken up mentally taxing lessons, she was more or less ready to collapse into bed… only to receive what felt like far too little sleep before starting all over again.

Kari hadn’t explained all of this to her new companion for the sake of garnering any sort of sympathy. It was only really now that she explained it aloud in her own words that she truly appreciated how awful it sounded.

What she was really trying to do was get Himiya to a point where she could understand exactly why she had made the mistake she was about to reveal. Kari herself still struggled to believe that she had been so foolish. She was sure that Miya would agree with that sentiment too. But feeling as though she owed the mousey woman the truth in exchange for her help, she started to explain.

 

[Kamira]

“And that pretty much brings to me what happened last night” Kari sighed, not at all looking forward to what she was about to describe. Feeling inclined to defend herself a little, she preceded by pointing out “By this point I was so tired most of the time that I could barely think straight. The sisters told me that this was the whole point. That by changing the way I thought, I might bypass the block”.

Content that she was getting a full picture of events, Miya’s numerous interruptions had stopped. She did however give a shake of her head and a small frown now. From the way she had followed the mouse’s facial expression throughout the story, Kari knew that the disparaging look was not directed at her. Himiya clearly had a dim view of the people who used such harsh methods to get results.

“I was woken up in the middle of the night by a sister, I didn’t know who it was, since she was wearing the ceremonial hooded robes that the sisters use for formal occasions”. Kari sighed, and admitted “That should have been my first clue, there was no reason for her to be wearing it, other than to hide her face”.

Trying to get through this part of the story as quickly as possible, the human continued “When she told me that she knew about my problem, I never even questioned how. She acted sympathetic, and told me that there was a way to escape the tower without having to have all of my memory purged. I wanted it so badly to be true that I never stopped to consider whether actually was”.

Looking down at her hands folded in her lap, Kari continued without meeting her new companion’s eyes. “I followed her out of my room, and we took the side corridors that are mostly used by servants trying to keep out of the way of the sisters. I could tell that we were going down, but other than that I had completely lost my bearings before long.

Any time I tried to ask a question, the sister hushed me and simply said we needed to stay quiet. I just assumed that we were heading towards one of the tower’s many exits, but… well it took me far too long to realise that we had headed into the basement levels. When I stopped walking and refused to move any further unless she told me where we were going, the woman turned round and cast a spell at me. I was out cold before I even hit the floor”.

With a disgusted shake of her head, Kari sighed “It wasn’t until I regained consciousness that I fully realised how much trouble I was in. You see, sisters take a vow of peace, they don’t use magic against anyone, unless doing so will save a life. Whoever this person was… well, if it was a sister she had broken her vows. If it wasn’t a sister it all, that just begs to question as to how she got into the tower”.

Realising she was side-tracking herself, the human carried on with the relevant parts. “When I woke up, I was staked out, held in place with ropes, all spread-eagle. From what I could see I was in one of the basement rooms, and there were six other people in robes there too. It was hard to tell, but I think some of them were men”.

The mere memory of that made Kari blush. She had been wearing only her thin nightdress at the time, and the loose material was the least she had ever worn in front of a man. Partly because female students were kept well away from men, but moreso… well, that wasn’t part of the story.

“They had me laid in the middle of a symbol drawn on the floor in some sort of black sand, a circle with a star shape underneath me” Kari described, then gesturing at the floor she added “That’s why I panicked and tried to get away when I saw this under me here too. They’re not the same, but kind of similar”.

Himiya reached into the circle, and took hold of the human’s hand to give it a reassuring squeeze. Kari returned it, but felt no inclination to let go, and continued to hold the warm and fuzzy grip as she finished her story.

“I didn’t understand exactly what was going on, it’s not like they stopped to explain to me, but from what I overheard I was going to be used as some sort of sacrifice to summon a creature from another realm into this world. Something about needing to consume my life in order to preserve it’s life.

The people around me formed a circle and started chanting in a language I didn’t understand, making gestures with their hands towards the back wall of the room. Part of the wall seemed to start glowing purple, and then an arch, or a doorway of some sort formed out of purple light.

Black haze started to pour out of it, and form into a shape over me. It was sort of transparent and hard to make out, but I got the impression of four legs, claws, and more teeth than I could count. Every second it was getting more solid, and I knew that I had to do something to interrupt the spell, or it was going to… eat me, or suck out my soul.

My hands and legs were tied, so I did the only thing I could think of. I turned my head to the side, and blew as hard as I could on the sand. I figured the symbol was important to the ritual, and breaking it might disrupt things.

It turns out I was right. The creature over me started howling like it was in pain”. Kari stopped talking and shuddered, the guttural and otherworldly sound had instilled a bone chilling fear in her. Even thinking about it now still brought back a shiver of dread.

Reassuring herself she wasn’t in that situation any more, she idly stroked something tangible. What happened to be most immediately to hand, quite literally, was Miya’s hand. Her fingers worked into the soft grey fur, letting the silky sensation calm her down.

“I don’t want to talk about what I saw after that, I closed my eyes after it started anyway” Kari insisted.

“You don’t have to” the mouse reassured, but curiosity and desire to understand prompted her to ask “But you got away. What happened to you after that?”

Nodding, Kari picked up again. “Even with my eyes closed, the light from the portal was bright enough that I could still make it out. The purple colour shifted, it turned…” she had to pause to think how to put it into words. Simply saying ‘yellow’ or ‘orange’ didn’t really convey it.

“It was like a sunrise, though clouds” she offered. “I could feel warmth and comfort radiating from it, it was like being embraced. That’s the last thing I remember while awake”. Kari felt warmth all over again now. What she left unsaid was that the image brough to mind was not a familial embrace, it was very much a lover’s embrace.

With a knowing smile, Himiya reached into the neck of her robe and drew something out. It was a finely worked metal chain, with a pendent suspended from it. A disc of some gemstone like material hung, about the size of a large coin. The striations and swirls of warms hues immediately brought the second aspect of the portal back to mind.

“Yes! Like that!” Kari eagerly agreed. It lacked the living glow, the swirls of movement, but it was a close representation.

“This is the symbol of Lady Nathira” Miya explained, her face taking on a look of delighted reverence. “She must have seen your struggle, and used the magic of the portal to bring you to safety. She granted what you wanted, a way to leave the tower with your mind intact. You must be a very devout follower, I have never heard of one of the gods saving someone’s life so directly. And then she event spoke to you in a dream?”.

It was quite obvious that the mouse’s interpretation of events was that this a clear and direct confirmation of her faith. Kari hated to be the one to potentially ruin that, but felt that she needed to be honest to someone had showed her so much kindness.

Feeling sheepish, the human admitted “Actually, I’d never even heard of her before you mentioned her”. She decided to leave it unsaid that she didn’t really believe in gods or goddesses at all. She knew that something or someone had interceded on her behalf, but there was no proof it was some sort of deity.

Just because something was more powerful than herself and she didn’t understand it well, that didn’t mean it was a god. Under that logic, Sister Utilda would have been a candidate for godhood. The thought of pudgy, stern Utilda being worshiped as a goddess was enough to make Kari have to stifle a laugh.

She distracted herself the only way she could think of. “I’m not sure you can really call what I experienced a dream, or a meeting with your goddess, anyway. I don’t remember words, or a face, or even a body. It was more like a series of impressions. Like I was being prepared for what to expect when I arrived here”.

It was a difficult thing to put into words, but Kari tried. “It’s like I have fragments memories that haven’t happened yet. Things that are different to my world and should confuse me, or scare me, just don’t. It’s like my mind is prepared to accept things more easily, without understanding them”.

Trying to give an example without bluntly referring to the obvious physical differences between them, Kari pointed out “Take the fact that I’m talking to you. People in my world don’t even speak the same language in different countries. We’re from two different worlds, there’s no way that we should be speaking the same language”.

On the subject of talking, Kari cleared her throat. She had been talking for well over an hour by this point, as best she could tell. Her throat was starting to feel a little dry. Right now, she was still operating under the belief that she couldn’t safely leave the circle under her, and so relied completely on her companion.

“Do you have anything to drink, Miya?”

 

[Kamira]

With a slight grimace, Miya shook her head. “Sorry Kari, but I gave you all my water earlier. I didn’t know what was wrong with you when I found you, so I trickle the water into your mouth just in case you needed it”.

Biting her lip to stop herself laughing at the other woman’s response, Kari assured her “You don’t have to apologise for helping me, Miya. Her amusement did die off a little as she realised that it could well be a problem. “Is there anywhere nearby where we can get more?”

“Oh, yeah” the mouse reassured quickly. “There’s a stream maybe a two minute walk from here. It’s not very deep, but the water is nice and clean. I’ll go and get…” before finishing the offer, Miya trailed off and pursed her lips in a way that made her whiskers twitch.

When Kari raised a questioning eyebrow Himiya explained “The forest here isn’t dangerous, but there are animals and a few other things that live here. Leaving you on your own might not be the most sensible thing to do right now. But, I guess you could come with me, if you’re feeling up to it? You’ve probably been in the circle long enough that you’ll be able to breathe and stand up by now”.

Not relishing the thought of staying trapped in a circle while a wolf or something along those lines came sniffing about, Kari readily agreed. Just to be safe, Miya stood behind her and got ready to support the human’s weight if needed. Thankfully, it turned out not to be needed.

Kari hadn’t realised from her seated position, but Miya was a small woman. Even through the cover of her robe it was clear that she wasn’t broadly built by any description, but it wasn’t until they both stood up that Kari noticed her new friend was maybe only four and half feet tall.

It was questionable as to whether she would have been able to help, or if it simply would have meant both of them falling over.

Once they were sure Kari was steady on her feet, Miya asked “How are you feeling without the circle?”

Rolling her shoulders, tensing her arms, and shaking her legs to test her body, Kari confirmed “I don’t feel injured or anything, just… weak. I can walk if we take it slow, but I don’t think I’m much good for anything more than that”.

She was right as it turned out, and Kari didn’t have too much trouble walking towards the exit of the building with Miya. Her main problem was that she was barefoot, and having to pay a great deal of attention to make sure that she didn’t step on anything sharp. She knew her feet must be getting filthy, but there was nothing she could do about it.

The thought did make her consider the rest of her body, and sure enough there were grass stains on her white shift, and a gritty feeling like dried mud on most of her exposed skin. When she mentioned it to Miya, the mouse quickly came up with a solution.

“I guess the water is pretty cold, but you could always have a bath if you wanted to?”

It didn’t take much convincing at all. Kari figured that cold and clean was better than warm and dirty. Miya quickly jogged back to where she had left her pack, and fished out a cloth for Kari to try herself with when she was done. Together, the pair stepped out of their shelter.

Kari stopped walking for a second, to glance around at her new world. She was indeed in a forest as Himiya had explained, but it didn’t quite look like home. The trees were slimmer, with a canopy that didn’t seem as dense. Enough light was getting through for Kari to see it was later in the day than she had thought.

“I did a lot of drawing back at the tower” Kari mused “Some of the sisters who maintain the libraries got me to draw sketches of things for them. I got asked to help illustrate a manual of different types of plant and tree… but I don’t recognise any of these. The leaves, the bark, they’re all different shapes and textures”.

Miya seemed just as curious as she looked around too, and admitted “I know nearly nothing about that kind of thing. I grew up and lived in Bellefort my whole life”. Seeing the blank look on Kari’s face, she added “It’s the biggest city in Teranathi, south of here. Some people have private gardens and there are a few communal parks, but there’s not much nature around”.

Understanding, the human nodded. Having lived in both a city and a small village, she knew exactly what Miya meant. It also made her realise just how little she knew about her mousey companion. Wanting to rectify that, Kari asked “So what’s it like? Being a devotee of, of Nat… uhm”

“Nathira” Miya supplied. “The world is Teranathi, and our goddess is the Lady Nathira. It translates as the land of Nathi, which is an older name for her”.

“Right” Kari confirmed, running both names through her head a few times in an effort to memorise them. Teranathi, Nathira, she was in Weilin forest, and Bellefort was the city that Miya came from. With so many new names, it was no wonder she was losing track. Kari longed for her old journal, somewhere to write all this down and add to her sketches, but it was still back in her tower bedroom.

Himiya looked over to make sure her companion was ready, and then slowly started to walk, taking a slightly winding path to avoid as much of the underbrush as possible. It really was a slow pace, allowing both for Kari’s weakness, and her need to watch carefully where she placed her feet.

“So being a devotee” Kari prompted again “What kinds of thing do you do?”

“Oh, lots of prayer, lots of reading old texts, helping the priestesses prepare sermons, we spend most of our time indoors.” the mouse responded, giving an incredibly barebones account of her existence.

Kari was waiting for more, but realised it wasn’t coming. She picked up the distinct impression that Miya didn’t want to talk about it, which was a surprise. In her experience, theists of all kinds would gladly talk about their faith until blue in the face. Not wanting to cause discomfort, she changed topic. After all, there were a huge number of subjects she wanted to ask about.

“So… what about the people here?” She quizzed “I don’t mean to be blunt, but the two of us don’t exactly look alike. Is everyone here like you?”

Luckily Miya seemed to understand, and gave an understanding chuckle. “No, there isn’t really a dominant race in Teranathi. Most towns and cities are multi-racial, but there are a few enclaves of certain types of people who prefer not to mix, or live in areas others aren’t physically suited to survive”.

“What race are you?” Kari asked, curious to put a name to her mousey companion.

Himiya seemed a little surprised by the question, but not at all offended. “I’m an anthro-morph” she answered. Mentally Kari translated it. Anthro-morph, or human-shape. In a way it made sense, Miya was a human shaped animal, in a way. Her mind and general physiology seemed human enough anyway.

Continuing, Miya offered “That’s sort of a broad catch-all term really. More specifically, I’m an anthro-mouse. But there are as many different types of anthro as there are animals. It occurs to lots of different extents too. Some of us have fur, some don’t. Some have tails, some don’t…” Miya trailed off, blowing out her cheeks a little with a slight overwhelmed look on her face. She was obviously having difficulty conveying the extent of the variety.

“I get it” Kari nodded, figuring it was a subject that was far too broad to try and fit into a compact conversation. Her curiosity was well and truly piqued though, and she found herself with an urge to try and meet as many different races as possible.

“What about humans?” she asked next, and then seeing the blank look on Miya’s face, added “Like me”.

The devotee shook her head. “Not that I know of. Humans don’t seem like a race I’ve heard of before. Honestly? I assumed you were some sort of faeling at first. I did wonder why your ears weren’t pointy, but I figured that it might be rude to ask. So, you’re a humans then?”

“Human, singular” Kari correctly absently, distracted as she let that nugget of information permeate her mind. She might well be the only human in this entire world. Again, she thought that an idea like that should worry her, but whatever that dream-like visitation had done to her mind, it seemed that she had been pre-prepared for the revelation.

“Okay we’re nearly there.” Miya offered as she pointed a short ways off. Sure enough, there was a small valley-like dip in the forest floor, with a short but moderately steep bank leading down to the stream on both sides. The water seemed clear and was flowing fast enough to fill the air with a burbling trickle, even though it wasn’t particularly wide or deep.

“I’ll help you get down, just in case you slip” Miya offered, taking the human’s arm and walking carefully down the slope with her. As they reached the bottom, Kari stepped into the knee deep water, which only just came short of reaching the bottom of her clothing.

As warned, the water was cool enough to immediately bring a little tingle skin as it came up in goosebumps. Luckily it didn’t seem too cold for her intended purposes.

There was a tree just close enough with a low hanging branch, an ideal place for Kari to hang her clothing after she stripped out of it. Thinking of that, she waited for a moment, and then another moment, before realising something.

“Um, thanks Miya, but could I have a little privacy? I’m not used to bathing in front of other people”.

“Oh” came the slightly surprised reply, but quickly the mousey woman scrambled back up the bank of the stream to where the difference in the height of the ground took her mostly out of sight, even standing up. “I’ll just walk a little way over there and find somewhere to sit. Just, call if you need anything?”

“Yeah, thanks” Kari assured her, and again was forced to wait as the other woman seemed to pause for a few moments before going off and doing as she said. With a little shake of her head, the human dismissed the idea that the other woman had fully expected to stand there and continue the conversation as she washed herself.

 

[Kamira]

Taking off her clothing outdoors was a new experience for Kari, but she figured she was as alone as she was going to get. Besides, the slight chill in the water meant that there was no reason in wasting any time. With one final glance around, Kari assured herself there were no prying eyes, and then disrobed herself.

There was just enough sunlight coming through the canopy overhead to allow streamers of sunlight to reach and slightly warm Kari’s fair skin. After hanging up her shift on the nearby branch, she did allow herself a brief moment just to bask in the sunlight.

Her time working outdoors in the tower gardens had only given her the faintest hint of a tan, for which she was grateful. Kari had always like the way her light skin tone looked, coupled with her auburn hair. However, she did suffer from the redhead curse. That same time in the sun had been enough to revitalise the formerly-faded sprinkling of freckles that dotted her shoulders, and the bridge of her nose.

Thinking about that made Kari ponder all the other changes her body had gone through since she first came to the tower. It wasn’t just that she had filled out as she reached adulthood in full, although that certainly had played in large part in her changed aesthetic.

At nineteen years old, Kari’s figure was as full and lusciously curvy as it had ever been. However, back when she’d left home, Kari’s days were mostly spent helping her mother prepare the inn’s meals. Being around good food all day, and needing to sample a little of this and that to make sure the seasoning was just right… well as a teen, she had been bordering on becoming a little plump.

Now, after a two year period of more physical work, and especially the last few months of hard labour, Kari had to admit that she thought she had best of both worlds. Her wide hips and full, heavy bust remained, but were now accompanied by a narrower waist that accentuated her feminine shape.

Her arms and back, and shoulders had firmed up too, having a more defined shape. A similar yet more noticeable change had happened and her thighs and backside, and both had a much more toned shape than they had ever done before.

Oh yes, she no longer really looked like sweet little Kari Al Morah the innkeeper’s daughter, now she looked like the woman that every single man at the spring dance would be eager to take a turn waltzing, and some of the women might have been so inclined too.

With a jarring thought, Kari snapped her eyes back open. This was no time for daydreaming, she was standing naked in the middle of nowhere! Anyone who came along and happened to see her bare as the day she was born may well have more than a dance spring to mind.

Crouching down and finding a more comfortable space to stand on the riverbed, Kari started to scoop up the cool water and massage her body. The lingering sweat caused by her fear from the night before was washed away, along with the dirt her body had picked up while lying on the forest floor before Miya found her.

Finishing with her body, Kari scooped up several handfuls of water and allowed them to sluice over her face and hair. She gave her fingers a good comb through her hair, trying not to think too much about what might have crawled into it while she was taking her dirt nap.

While doing this, she noticed that the colour of her hair had started to fade just a little. While naturally a little red, her particular shade of aurburn tended more towards brown than true red. Having a fondness for brighter colours, she often liked to use a mixture of carrot and beet juice to add both a little more shine as well as deepen the red hue. Idly she wondered if she’d ever be able to do that again. If humans didn’t exist in this world, maybe carrots and beets didn’t either?

The reminder of how far from home she was sent a little shiver through Kari, which in turn served to draw her attention back to the chill from the water. She had been in it for maybe ten minutes or so by now, and between that and the light breeze, she was definitely feeling ready to put some clothes back on.

Straightening up, Kari realised the problem. She had only her thin sleeping shift, and if she put it back on now, it would be damp and uncomfortably clingy for hours to come. Miya had brought a cloth for her to dry herself with, but the human wasn’t sure where she had left it. For that matter, maybe Himiya still had it?

With a slight shake of her head Kari smiled at the idea that maybe her new companion had held onto it intentionally, knowing she’d need to bring it over and potentially sneak a peek at the bathing human in the process. In truth, she wouldn’t really have minded that. It was mostly propriety for its own sake that had made her sent Miya away. Perhaps she could call…

The sound of a twig snapping on the other side of the stream made the redhead spin around, looking for what had caused the noise. With a shocked and scandalised gasp, she locked eyes on the cause of the sound.

Standing on the opposite bank of the stream, stood a short green-skinned figure. She was trying (and failing) to hide behind a tree while still seeing as much as possible. Maybe three feet tall, the creature was wearing a crude fur loincloth and top, which did almost nothing to hide or support the expansive bosom, which almost seemed oversized on such a small body.

At least, the human was mostly certain it was a she. A feminine if somewhat pinched face with hungry brown eyes stared at her, and wide child-bearing hips seemed to further corroborate the idea. But there was certainly reason to doubt.

The little green woman had tugged her loincloth to one side, and had one hand rubbing and stroking stroking and squeezing herself between the legs while she watched Kari. Seeing that she had been spotted, rather than running away, she stepped out into the open and brazenly displayed herself. Now in the open, there was no doubt. Her hand was wrapped around a green-tinted dick, almost disproportionately large for her small body.

Kari hunched over, trying to do her best to cover her nudity with her arms. “Go away!” she hissed at the creature, feeling her face turning red from both anger and embarrassment at the invasion of privacy.

The green woman laughed a tittering giggle, and teased “I have a better idea, you come here and we have some fun”. Stopping her stroking, she held her meaty cock by the base and waggled it in Kari’s direction. A bead of something sticky dripped from the wide tip and onto the ground “come have a taste” she offered with a devious grin.

The voice was definitely a female voice too… but… but… women weren’t supposed to have cocks!

This time the human shouted, ““Get lost, pervert! Leave me alone!”

A rustling came from behind Kari now too, and she glanced around in time to see Miya charging towards the stream. The anthro’s eyes locked on the little creature, and with a scowl she stooped to pick up a fist-sized stone. “Beat it!” she growled, hurling the rock at the creature.

The shot missed, sailing harmlessly between the bare green thighs. Still, the tiny woman’s eyes went wide at the near miss to such delicate areas. Letting her loincloth fall back into place, she turned around and scrambled away, back into the forrest. Her third leg was quite obviously affecting her gait.

Turning attention on Kari, Miya looked at the human standing there, shivering a little, and still with her arms rather ineffectually clutched over herself. Seeing that the human was shaken but not hurt, she simply couldn’t help herself. The mouse’s amusement bubbled over, and she let out a raucous laugh.

“It’s not fu…” Kari started to say, but felt her own lips twitch upwards. She tried to supress it, but it was no good. The laugh was infectious. A moment later she too was laughing at the sheer absurdity of the situation. “Wha… what the hell was that?” she forced out between giggles.

“Goblin” Miya snickered, doing her best to stifle herself. “Looks like you didn’t need to worry about privacy after all”.

Kari gave a little involuntary snort, then cupped a hand over her mouth. It felt like it had been ages since she laughed so hard she had snorted. “Will you please go… get me that cloth so I can dry off and get dressed?” she managed to say.