White Flower, Black Feather

Skill

A furnace is in front of me, and its… nostalgic heat…? Bathes my body even with the doors close…

It’s a bit too high for me to reach the doors… but I don’t want to touch them… not like this…

This room… I can’t remember how I got here, but I like this place. It’s illuminated, but I can’t see the source of that light, none of the metallic pillars around the room, point to where any light source is… and…

There is the anvil, the hammer… and the snake holding both… I move towards her, going around and then climbing, to reach the hammer…

It doesn’t weight at all on my scale covered hands… moving further up, I get into position with the anvil between the furnace and me…

Clank!

The doors open… and I’m disgusted…

Right there, in the middle of the fire… there is this dark, misshaped, thing… I move my fingers and it’s flung from the furnace-

Clank!

And got stuck to the anvil with a metallic sound… I… know, what I’m supposed to do… but not how to do it…

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Hitting it with the hammer, makes the whole room shake a little… but the… thing… it’s hard to give shape… it doesn’t wants to take shape…

Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!

I don’t stop, I can’t stop yet… this will need time, but I must do it…

Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!

I don’t need to heat this thing again… not yet…

Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!

The hammer moves effortlessly, and I feel like talking to an old friend with every hit… but we are talking about an unpleasant topic… neither of us is sure… about what we can do about this…

Thing…

Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank…!

I finally stop, the last hit ringing in the room for a long time… and with a wave of my hand the doors open, sucking back the thing-

Clank!

And they close… trapping it inside the fire… that is all I can do today, so my friend returns to her mouth

She looks proud about what we did. No matter how little it was, we had progress… and her happiness is my happiness. What I did, is needed… it…

‘Will take a lot of… time…’

But… it’s…

‘Ugh…!’

I don’t like this… I don’t like this… I don’t like this… I don’t. Like… This… Voice…

Voice… Voice… Voice… Hate! Voice… Hate! Voice! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate-!!!

/////

Miriam woke up, doing her best to suppress a hiss. Her whole body was shaking, on the branches of the tree that was helping her that night…

‘Cold…’ a tree that was still hiding her ‘Ugh…’ she tried to get comfortable again… but couldn't understand why… ‘Cold…’ why the voice of her thoughts, was now making her dysphoric…

Sunny was motionless on a nearby branch… and while unable to go back to sleep, Miriam looked at her… waiting for the sun to appear…

…

Thankfully she didn’t needed to wait for much time. The tree stopped to hide her, at the same moment that Sunny started to move, she flew and landed on her head, buzzing as a good morning call

‘Good… morning…’ the temperature was still too cold for Miriam’s body, but she tried to look at the main body of the gigantic tree, and nodded to that part of Sunny too. She still had to wait until her body warmed up, but at least now she had a distraction, in the shape of a ladybug exploring the scars of her body

Buzz

-Bad food…-

‘Still… there…?’ Sunny buzzed again, sounding happy to her ‘Soon…’

While playing the day before they didn’t moved too far from the spot with the remains, just far enough for her to not be too bothered by the smell

‘Status…’ but it was still too cold for her to move

‘No… level…? Good…’

‘Ugh…’

‘Ah…’ that message made her move, trying to ignore the cold ‘Can… do…’

The cold she was feeling help her realize that she had lost the Heating Stone at some point, Miriam couldn't feel anything pulling her in any direction either

‘Destroyed…?’ leaving her with a possible answer to its state

/////

It took her a while, mostly due to the smell worsening overnight, but Miriam managed to eat about half of what remained and look at her Status again

‘Forty-one levels… not happening today… hmm… Traits…’ she glanced at the list and focused on the core on her chest ‘Evolve Magic Regeneration Boost, going to need it to fill this thing before winter… Absorb-?!’

‘Get rid of that!’ nothing changed for a moment ‘Get rid of the extra head!’ with that, Absorb did what Miriam wanted ‘Bad! Bad! Bad! An extra head doesn’t means that I control it, or that it has a mind similar-!’

HISS!!!

A sudden chill shook her whole body-

‘Or that!’

Hiss!

She needed some time to relax after seeing that, Sunny helped by buzzing softly on top of her head, but she was feeling restless… and pushing for later what The Triad told her, Miriam made a blade, starting to swing it in front of her…

Trying to figure out how did the trick of the adventurer worked

Buzz!

Sunny stopped her with that sound and flew to a spot between the trees

‘…?’ Miriam moved towards her

-Mark the spot…-

Receiving that message once she did so. She marked the ground with an X while Sunny moved to the branch of a tree, at quite some distance from Miriam

On the spot where Sunny landed looking at Miriam, a small leaf appeared, the ladybug opened her shell and as if waiting for that, the leaf dropped from the tree

‘…!’ making Miriam dash forwards to hit it with her blade-

Buzz!

‘Eh…?’ but the false leaf vanished before she got close

-Wait for the signal…-

‘What signal…?’

Buzz…

Sunny closed her shell and waited for Miriam to return to the X. Once there, she opened her shell again, making the same leaf to appear and fall slowly… until it had traveled more than half the distance to the ground-

Click

‘…!’ once Sunny closed her shell, Miriam understood the signal, and pushed every fiber of her body forwards, trying to get to the leaf before- ‘Gah!’

Once it touched the ground it vanished, and Miriam had barely moved two thirds of the distance to it

‘How…?’ she had moved as quickly as she could, but it wasn't enough

She moved back to the mark on the ground, preparing her whole body before holding her sword with both hands

Click

Trying it again

‘Damn…’ with the same result… ‘I can’t move that fast… yet…’

Buzz

-Not that…-

‘What…?’ she looked at Sunny ‘I need to move to hit it…’ Miriam tried to remember what happened… visualizing it on her mind…

In a moment he moved…

‘Moving…? No… not quite…’ she returned to the spot ‘I started to block before… then, he was there… and I… didn’t saw him moving…’ she looked at the sword on her hands ‘I need to do the movement and the attack at the same time…? No… I move while fighting already…’

His body was making steam afterwards…

‘Wait… the other swordsman… didn’t make steam…’ it was at that moment, that she remembered the other swordsman doing the same thing against the Destroyer… ‘He was moving after stabbing Porkus’s neck… It’s not about doing an attack…? It’s… about making your body go beyond what it can do normally…?’

Miriam looked back at Sunny and she opened her shell, letting the girl get in position. This time she jumped forwards, trying to move using her whole body through the distance with the attack, she couldn't reach the leaf, but this time she was more focused in how her body felt…

In what she could push further…

/////

She lost count above her fifty attempt, her body already close to overheating from her training, now was shivering and about to make her go berserk, but Miriam kept pushing it back

‘AAAHHH!!!’ focusing on the sound of her heart growing louder, and the memory of the attacks repeating over and over again… until Sunny let another leaf fall…

And while looking at it, as she exhaled… Miriam managed to push it all away from her mind… becoming calm…

[Boundary Break]

Letting her body move to, and cut, the leaf-

Pop

CRACK!!!

Almost overshooting it, destroying her weapon against the ground after her swing was done. Collapsing on the ground, while coughing blood between hisses that were expelling steam from inside her body…

‘AAAHHH…!!! UGH…!!!’ leaving her in considerable pain, as her whole body suffered the consequences of what she had done… ‘HA-! UGH…!!! HAHA-!!! AAAHHH!!!’ at least the pain stopped her Berserker from activating…

Ding

…

Sunny was unhappy about seeing Miriam in pain… but she knew that the survival of the girl was important… and that without help, Miriam was bound to hurt herself more than she already did…

She waited until her body stopped thrashing, before flying close. Sunny was aware that if Miriam hit her by accident, she wasn't going to forgive herself

…

‘Ugh…’ the tree that had been part of the training shook, and moved slightly to provide a better shade for the overheating girl, the training had taken a surprisingly long time ‘Hungry…’ and finally doing it, caused her hunger to spike ‘Hi… Sunny…’

The ladybug in front of Miriam buzzed happily towards her

‘Yes… ugh… I heard it…’ she tried to move, but Sunny buzzed again

-Rest… the bad food isn't moving…-

‘Ah… all right… Status…’

‘Are… the other… white spaces…’

‘Oh… ow… ok… thanks… ow…’ focusing on the new thing, just gave her a list with the skill, but even while focusing on it, Miriam didn’t got a description, or more information about it ‘Skills… yeah… makes sense… maybe I… should have played more… video games…? Who…?’

Miriam couldn't remember with who she had that conversation with…

‘But… I needed… to work… for Max, Jess… and… and…?’ a wave of sadness filled her pained body ‘And…’ she just didn’t knew why…

/////

It took her a while until her regeneration let her move, giving some magic to tree before moving, almost forgetting to do that because she was extremely hungry by then, at least she didn’t needed much to ignore the taste of what remained…

‘Ugh… Status… Absorb… at least… this price seems constant…’ she looked around, but saw nothing near the enormous root ‘After this… I’ll look for a place to stay on winter…’

Buzz

-Can help…-

‘Oh…? Thanks both of you… all right…’ she moved away from the root, just in case ‘Absorb give me the wings-!’

The pain that came every time she got something like that, didn’t felt like a pain that she would ever get used to…

‘Ow…’ once it was done she looked at her body, Sunny was already exploring them ‘Kinda cute…’ the wings were further back on her torso, closer to the ground in comparison to her shoulders while her head was up. They had the same size that her hands, and were covered with white, soft looking baby feathers

Sunny tried to get under them, and when Miriam realized that, she used her hands to lift both of them

‘Weird…’ trying to get used to the new sensation on her body… ‘Weirder…’ managing to move her wings by thought after a few seconds ‘It’s… as if I have something hanging on… my hips…? That is what this, feels to me…’

That was all what the memories of her previous body, helped with

‘I don’t dislike them…’ her mental voice was the only thing she was disliking at the moment. Seeing nothing appearing after the purchase, and after flattening them against her torso, she moved to the next thing ‘Absorb give me… the Hood-!’

This pain felt more intense, she didn’t knew if it was due to the location… but instead of moving along everything she considered her neck, the heat was focusing up to her head…

‘Aaahhh!!!’ making her worry about what was happening when the heat and pain moved down towards her wings

Hiss…

Unable to stop herself from hissing once it was over

‘Ugh…’

‘W-what…? Ow…’ Miriam turned to look at the wings- ‘Ah?!’ but something purple on the edge of her sight scared her, due to how close it was ‘Earth Blade!’

And she swung her weapon around, unable to get a proper line of sight with the thing…

Buzz~!

Making Sunny happy with the ride…

‘What is it?!’

-Part of you…-

‘Ah…?’

She stopped… and touched around her head, noticing something new there, and pulling it forwards she saw some feathers similar to the ones on her wings, this time with a purplish tint

‘W-why do I have wings on my head…?’

-Calculating…-

‘Ah…’ she looked to the wings on her back, they looked a bit bigger, not enough for give her the ability to fly, but bigger than her hands ‘What… are these…?’ she twisted, looking upwards from her wings and saw that there was a line of protofeathers coming from her head…

Miriam felt…

‘I HAVE HAIR~?!!!’ euphoric

-Feathers…-

‘I not going to be bald~!!!’ so euphoric, that Sunny was buzzing with second hand excitement

‘Ah…? Does that applies to the horns too…?’ she didn’t thought further on that topic because she figured out how to move them

Miriam couldn't cover her eyes with them, but she had no trouble figuring the range of movement they had. Flapping with them was uncomfortable, so she figured that they were used like the tail of a bird…

‘Am I going to get these on my tail too…?’ even with that idea, she didn’t wanted to get the stinger that was on the list ‘Hmm… probably not, it’s more likely that if I ever fly, it’s due to magic or something… oh! Right!’ she gestured at the exploring ladybug ‘Sunny get over here, I’ll give you some magic-’

But that thought made Sunny immediately fly out of her reach

Buzz!

-Bad idea…-

‘Eh…?’ confusing Miriam ‘Then land on the ground and-’

Buzz!

-Update required… bad idea, for both bodies…-

She looked at the main body of Sunny, then back to the small one

‘Fine… but I didn’t knew you were that strong…’ once Sunny was back on her head, she briefly considered doing it anyways, but the memory of what happened the first time she tried to give magic to a tree, stopped her ‘So, where to…?’

A couple of trees shook when Sunny buzzed

-That way…-

‘Time to find a place to live~’

Miriam was happy by how things were developing, giving Sunny’s root a hug, and some magic to the trees that shook, before moving away from that place

/////

One hour later, Miriam reached a small cliff with a river at its base, moving in Sunny’s general direction, to her the water was moving faster than it should, but she had no idea if it was because what happened with the bat, or if this was the normal speed of the river…

‘He hasn't screamed today…’ she realized that while looking around and climbing towards the water

The guidance that Sunny gave, led her towards a place that looked a bit more rocky with a clearing with a weird rock formation nearby. The trees didn’t seemed to mind, they were everywhere around her, growing there while pushing or breaking anything that got in the way of their roots

‘Oh!’ seeing something that interested her ‘Sunny are we close?’ Miriam nodded to a particularly gray spot next to the water ‘I’m interested in that clay’ she got a buzz as an answer

And Sunny took flight towards the other side of the river-

Splash!

Making a fish jump up towards Sunny

HISS!!!

Crunch!

That got intercepted by Miriam, the impact killed the fish immediately, and the sheer force of the jump made her clear the distance to the other side of the river. She didn’t care about the hit she took

‘Sunny?!’ even if one of her wings got twisted oddly by her landing ‘Are you ok!?’ she didn’t broke a bone, so her whole attention was on the flying ladybug

Buzz!

-Sunny can make more…-

The message she got made her angry, and Miriam grabbed Sunny with her hands, looking at the little thing between her fingers

‘Don't say that!’ her tail waved angrily and the feathers on her head and wings were bristling, while the fins were aiming up ‘I don’t care if you can make more! Both of you are important to me! If anything is stupid enough to aim for you, tell me, and I’ll have food for that day…!’ Sunny buzzed ‘Just don’t try to get yourself on danger on purpose, ok?’

Sunny buzzed again, rubbing against her fingers

‘Shush! I’ll punch you…! Ah…’ she released Sunny and…

Miriam felt torn by that message… on one hand she remembered a few happy moments with her siblings… and on the other… she got some the memories of how that woman had interacted with her… making her shiver…

Trying to not go berserk…

Sunny helped by buzzing on the base of her fins, letting her calm down and lower them

‘Ah…’ she removed her claws from the ground, she had been gripping it, before looking at the brown fish ‘For dinner…?’ Sunny buzzed again, and took flight again deeper into the forest. Making her carry the fish along

Not for long, because they reached the clearing that Miriam saw before. Becoming obvious that it was the place Sunny was guiding her

It was as if a slab of stone had broke nearly in half from below, both sides were resting against each other, forming a roof with two openings looking northwest and southeast, that she could use to enter the structure. She had no idea of how that place was made, but she didn’t care at the time

‘This place is great…!’ Miriam already was making plans of closing the southern opening (It was smaller), to turn the thing into a house looking refuge ‘It’s here?!’

Buzz!

-Yes…-

‘Oh~!’

She could detect some smells, but nothing recent enough to worry her. Leaving the fish inside the roofed area, she and Sunny started to look around

The roof had a few gaps between the places where the slabs touched…

‘I can cover those from the outside with clay tiles, or just seal them… maybe turn them into ventilation…?’

The material of the roof looked solid, but there wasn't anything that hinted at how it got like that… nor if the place could go away easily…

‘Three arches… one in each entrance, and in the middle…’ Miriam placed her head on the ground, and hit it ‘Solid… no openings… ah! I can make an opening inside for the material of the arcs, so, if the roof falls, I can just use Secret Tunnel to get out!’

With the alterations she was planing to do, the uneven ground underneath might become flat, but the amount of space available would depend of the size of the arches…

‘I don’t need much… food storage is optional with me. I want to try boiling stuff, but if it gets too cold, then I’ll keep a few fishes and… maybe even snow, in a fridge underground… over there’ she looked towards the southeast opening ‘Water would be used to cook if the river doesn’t freeze, and if it does then…’ she looked at the other entrance ‘I can keep a few jars on that side… and melt them with Heating Stones if required…’

Her survival required a heavy use of Heating Stones…

‘I can make hundreds per day…’ Miriam got out, looking towards the river ‘I need… to confirm the range of the heat… but if it’s a meter… twenty? Should be enough to the river, so I need forty. One side charging while the other is heating and making a path… maybe another forty for the inside… and if I manage to store enough water, I don’t need to use the path every day, and they’ll become a backup’

She stopped for a moment, looking at the ground on the way to the river

‘Pillars of dirt to hold the stones, so I know where they should be in case snow here falls heavily…’ not having experienced a winter in the forest, was her greatest weakness at the moment ‘Can’t be too tall, they need to heat the ground… nor have a roof, by how the engraving works…’

Buzz?

-Fights…-

‘Oh? Don’t worry, I can make Eye… Terror Stones…’ Miriam shook her head ‘I don’t like that name… anyways… once my Trait finishes evolving, those should become doable every few days… I hope…’

Buzz?

-Destroyer…-

‘Porkus is… not too troubling…’ she was surprisingly confident about that ‘I’m pretty sure that the mage Imbued the Terror Stone to stop him, that and a Scream of Terror, should be enough to make him flee, even with one of my small stones… and…’ Miriam shrugged her shoulders ‘I’m the Fourth Ruler of Death. That has to help with scaring him’

Sunny landed on her head, not moving…

‘If that doesn’t works, then I’ll use Boundary Break to escape…’ her Instinct, was against that idea… ‘Better yet: remind me tomorrow about making the Sleep Venom invisible… not in a dart, but with Toxic Breath, then fleeing while he sleeps…’

Buzz

‘Something that big might hibernate too’

Buzz

-Upgrade required…-

Buzz!

-Upgrade required…-

‘It’s ok Sunny, don’t fight… if he appears on winter, then I’ll make him regret it…’ Sunny moved to her hand ‘Imagine this: he trying to chase me, but with water magic and a Heating Stone, I keep making Ice and he doesn’t stops sliding on it’ Sunny Buzzed happily ‘Hey~ I can led him to the lake, and if it freezes then I can break it under him. The cold might not kill him, but the lack of air will!’

To Miriam, that comment seemed to cheer Sunny, making her fly around, and it also was lifting her mood. Even if the Destroyer was a serious danger, having a plan to deal with him, was making her hopeful…

…

Completely unaware that if the Fell Destroyer came close to Sunny, she was going to disintegrate it, regardless of Miriam’s chance of victory against it… unlike the other trees, Sunny was allowed to do that…

Once…

But even so, she didn’t wanted to use her only chance to do that, on something so small… that was the only reason, she wasn't unhappy with Porkus staying out of her range

…

Miriam moved back to the clay next to the river, and using Vessel, she took some of it with her to the future shelter

‘Ia Stop…’ poking and pressing the clay to test it ‘Yes, this is clay… I can… dig a hole, place four Heating Stones inside, cover it and see if the temperature is enough to act like an oven… or are those called… kilns? Not sure, but I can still use that idea to dry stones, so they don’t explode when I make a sword…’

She looked around, mentally counting everything she was going to do…

‘Do I even need to dry stones…? I can use the Heating Stones in spring to make the swords… I’ll need to destroy them when winter is over anyways… can’t risk causing a fire, or that a creature causes one by stealing them…’

Buzz?

-Bait…-

‘That feels mean to do…’ Miriam thought about that for a moment ‘I’ll try to stay here with just fishing, but… it depends on the river… a shame that I was gone for so long before fall…’ she shook her head ‘I’ll go grab rocks now, tomorrow I’ll start building stuff…’

/////

Some time later, after praying and swallowing the fish, Miriam was organizing the stones before moving to a tree

Ding

‘Oh? It took a while…’ she got distracted by the speed in which she started regaining her magic… ‘Faster… not instantaneous, but the upgrade is noticeable… Status’

‘Breathing…? Why is called that…?’ Sunny buzzed

-Unknown…-

But couldn't answer

…

And after that day, Miriam’s preparations for winter started. The first snow fell and covered the forest a couple of weeks later, she had enough time to prepare enough stones to keep her warm, and she didn’t had to worry about the nearby river freezing

The pot she made to boil what she hunted, worked marvelously well. Obtaining some EP when eating cooked food thanks to it

But the thing that gave her the most happiness, was that she wasn't alone. Sunny managed to keep her sane during the cold months that followed…

No matter how hurt she got…

No matter who she fought…