White Flower, Black Feather

Cold Farewell

While more time passed, Brenna became happier with the growth of her body, the moment she could the Helper and the brothers started to guide her with learning to fly. It happened a bit too soon in her opinion, but the Helper told her it was because she was a crow

She still had to strengthen the muscles of her body, something she had done by flapping her wings, and jumping from a branch to another, while practicing her magic daily…

After seeing one move, she was smart enough to not damage the trees, not needing the Helper to repeat the warning about fire either, so, her first proper spell was one that pushed wind with her wings, and she used it to remove some of the snow from the remaining spots she was going to jump at

‘Ah…? Didn't you said that it wasn't going to do anything…?’

-Yet! You must have gotten that trait, due to me teaching you magic and your own affinities for magic. Now the Fountain is going to give you extra EP per Level, and retroactively give you some back, for the Levels you already got!-

‘Oh~’

She still fell to the ground a few times, with the magic of the brothers breaking the fall on those occasions… but the younger one still let her sink in the snow around the tree a few times…

Those weren’t the only things she did, but she didn’t thought that things like her singing breaks, were making her strong… no matter how much she enjoyed them… even after her singing got her a new Trait, and her Seduction Boost improved at the same time she got it…

There wasn't too much snow on the branches around the nest anymore, it took another visit from Sunny for her to discover that the stones that the younger raven played with, were heating tools made by Miriam. She almost got angry at him, but Sunny convinced her that it was fine after telling her, that Miriam had made over two hundred of them

While all that was happening, Brenna figured out how to fly. Not perfectly, since the older bird had to use magic to teach her how to use her tail to turn, but she quickly became better at it

Just like the younger brother, she also liked to stomp on the snow, much to the annoyance of the elder, that still was keeping her warm at night, and had to use magic to dry her

She became less aware of Sunny’s visits, as she started to sleep the whole night, instead of waking up due to her hunger, but the ladybug was sure that coming spring, they could talk more

Brenna was still being fed, even after she made her first combat spell, it made her leveling slower, but the brothers didn’t want her to be alone in the middle of winter…

/////

Not long after she reached level nine, the two brothers took her to fly west around the forest. They were invisible, but she didn’t knew about that

She also didn’t knew that spring was going to arrive soon, even if the days were feeling a bit less cold by then

‘Oh!’ the first place the brothers took her, was towards the edge of the forest, where Brenna could see a wide oval shaped city, whose walls were surrounded by snow, far below them. A tall tower was visible to the north outside the city

If it wasn't for her knowing, that the green trees below, were covered and surrounded by snow, she would have believed that someone was showing her a poorly edited picture, of two different seasons combined

The brothers guided her down and then towards the south, without leaving the forest

‘Ah! Right! They don’t like birds!’

-Correct!-

They didn’t need too much time to reach the next place they wanted to show her

‘Oh!’ it was the part of The Line that was resting on top the cliff ‘Big rocks!’

Caw!

‘Hi Sunny!’ where the giant tree was very visible on the distance ‘How far away is she?’

-Not sure. The trees have an illusion that covers the forest from above, it hides the creatures and features of the forest, unless they are massive, or you fly low enough. It doesn’t works in the opposite direction! Humans and creatures from the ground can see and shoot at you!-

‘Noted!’ with that message, she took the flight a bit more seriously, noticing the design on the big stones along the cliff. The same that she had seen on the small rock on her nest

The brothers and Brenna were making circles around them, something that would have terrified any adventurer if they could have been seen…

Until all three of them started to play on the snow on top of one of the roof covering them

‘Hahaha~!’ causing it to slide with them on top, and drop from the structures to the ground ‘This is fun~!’ with them flying again before falling for too long

Brenna and the brothers played with the snow of three roofs, before the two ravens started to “Joust” in the air. Charging at each other, just to twist at the last moment, to avoid colliding

-Time to train!-

‘Eh?!’ surprising her ‘Ah!’ when one of them did that with her

Neither of the brothers hit her, but both used magic to push (Without hurting) her out of the way, on the occasions were she wasn't fast enough to dodge. She was slowly learning what they were teaching her-

‘Ah!’

Puff!

Caw! Caw~!

‘Hey!’ but not before they made her crash softly on a pile of snow ‘Oh it’s on!’ after she took flight again she started to charge at them

Playing for a while until Brenna started to get hungry

But instead of flying back to the nest, she was guided north again while flying low between the trees. With the brothers speeding up after a while

-Prepare your offensive spell!-

‘W-what?!’ she didn’t noticed when the brothers dropped the invisibility-

Caw!

Squeak!!!

To scare a hiding rat, into jumping away from them, letting Brenna know it was there

-Quick!-

She managed to push her unease away…

‘Ia Imbue Wings…!’ even if she didn’t wanted to… ‘Ia! Gather! Pressurize! Vortex! Mark! Shoot!’ her wings and feathers glowed a bit as she tried to not lose the jumping rat… ‘Wind Bullet-! AH!!!’

Squeak-!

Puff!!!

To cast her spell Brenna used her wings, pushing them together in front of her, this time while on the air, instead of holding to a branch, the spell pushed her backwards. Making her lose control and crash against the snow, and unlike before she actually felt the impact

Ding

‘Ah! Ow…’ and the notification made her shiver, even more than the snow… ‘What happened-?! Ah…’

Once she got up, she saw the two brothers landing to the sides of the rat… that now had a bleeding wound to its side, painting the snow red…

‘I…’ she didn’t liked it…

-I’m sorry… but please remember, that no creature is going to avoid killing you, if they have the chance…-

Brenna couldn't think anything about that, she could just stare at the creature before getting close to it…

-Do you want to try eating…? You will need to do it once spring arrives-

‘Sorry for… being so weak…’ she couldn't start doing what the Helper suggested

-This is not being weak. If they want to become humanoid, most creatures have to deal with what you are feeling now. Those that I consider weak, are those that choose to avoid becoming humanoids, to not feel like you do-

She looked at the message, then to the creature. Feeling how her tears threatened to freeze on her eyes, while she tried to eat something

/////

She couldn't do it, but didn’t leave the place

‘Ugh…’ Brenna flew to a branch overlooking the body and the brothers were to each side of her… she had been trying to do that for a while, still hungry, but unable to eat… like that… ‘I have… eaten… stuff on this state…’ annoyed by that fact

-If you prefer to do something else, you got notifications to see-

‘I heard the sound… did I level up…?’

-Not yet-

After that she just waited for a bit longer…

‘Status…’ slowly moving forwards pass her uneasiness

‘Traits…’

‘How… did I got those two Traits, before… killing… the Gnawer…?’ the one related with water, was a Trait she got by playing with the younger brother, by throwing snow at each other

-I hid the sound, it was during the jousting-

‘Ah…’ she looked at the list again ‘Is the Flying Boost going to level, every time the Knowledge does…?’ Brenna got those two at the same time, so she felt like her question was valid

-I don’t think so…? There is something unusual about your Fountain, but I don’t think it will do something like that-

The day after she started to fill the Fountain, the Helper mentioned how different it felt, from the one other creatures had gotten before Brenna…

‘Any luck with that mystery…?’

-Not yet!-

‘Oh…’ she looked back to the body of the creature…

And flew down to it…

‘Is… Strength Boost a thing…?’ delaying things again…

-Yes, if you want it now, you might need to do extra exercises to get it ahead of time. At your size and weight, it isn't absolutely necessary, but don’t worry, you’ll get it eventually-

She nodded again, moving her beak close to the exposed…

‘Ugh!’

Brenna went back to the same branch and covered her head with a wing… feeling her body protest due to the hunger… and ignoring the other two as they tried to comfort her

-Take your time, remember that you don’t need to eat everything, and that nothing gets wasted in this place-

‘All right…’

She would need to prepare for another half an hour, to eat

/////

Once that ordeal was over, the brothers took her to the river that was on the way to the nest, where she drank water after cleaning her beak the best she could

Caw

And the older raven did two things, first he raised water from the river under him, until it formed a sheet of ice in front of Brenna, making it wave and darken while he was sitting on it, until the ice acted like a mirror

‘Oh…?’ reflecting her body, the mirror had a spot shaped like a branch where she could fly and land, letting her be closer to her reflection, away from the snow ‘That… is a nice trick…’

Her pink beak was slowly becoming darker with time, her black feathers weren't surprising, but like this, she had a better grasp on her smaller size compared to the brothers. Her eyes were an electric blue…

‘Oh…’ and it was such a difference from her previous body that… ‘I really like the color…’ she was left wondering how they would look as a humanoid

-Your beak should turn completely black once you evolve, but I think your eyes will remain blue for the rest of your life-

‘Really!?’

-There is a possibility an evolution, or an Item, can change that. A low one-

Brenna nodded and the older bird pointed at the river with a wing-

Splash!

‘Ah?!’ making a fish shoot up from the water ‘What?!’ and disappearing once it got back in the river. She got so surprised, that she flew up to the mirror next to the older brother ‘Where is it?!’ unable to see the creature… or any other fish…

At most she could see some… distortions and shadows in the water, but not the fish that should be making them…

-That, is something fish can do! There is an Item for fish that let them distort light around them. It’s mostly for defense against land-bound predators, it doesn’t work too well against underwater ones, so it isn't an alternative fish that rely on ambushes use-

‘How does that works with their breeding season…?’

-Some can disable it, others make chemical trails and make so many eggs, that there are always survivors, even if a predator evolves to detect those trails-

The older brother got Brenna’s attention and moved to a nearby branch. When she landed on it-

Caw!

The other bird came down in a nosedive towards the mirror, the wind on his wings glowed like Brenna’s spell as he moved towards it. He changed direction before he got too close, but the glowing wind keep moving in the same direction-

Crack!

‘Ah!’ destroying the ice, sending all the fragments floating downstream, and showing her a different way of doing her spell, without losing control of her flight ‘Thanks!’

With that, the two brothers flew up and Brenna rushed to follow them

‘Ah… back to topic… water is dangerous…?’ that wasn't really a question

-Very!-

But she still was glad that she got an answer…

/////

Some time passed after that, but before she was done adjusting to flying, hunting, practicing magic, and singing

Ding

‘AH?!!!’ Brenna woke up before sunrise to the weirdest feeling she ever had. As if every side of her body was laying on a bed made of nails ‘Aaahhh?!!!’ it didn’t hurt, but she didn’t saw herself going back to sleep after that

She needed some time to realize the message in front of her

-Oh, sorry! I should have told you about what happens when you reach the Level Cap-

‘Ugh… it’s… fine…’ she shook her head and noticed that the brothers were looking at her ‘They aren't going to… leave now… right…?’

-No, you still have time until spring, evolving now would make them leave, but you can look at your evolutions without making them do that!-

‘All right… I’ll do that, Status…’

‘How many points the Fountain gave me so far…?’ she wasn't keeping track of that

-60! It will give you many more in the future!-

‘Sounds good… Species…?’

Brenna opened that section with some fear… but after seeing the screen for a few seconds…

‘That’s all…?’ she felt a bit disappointed…

-Not taking into account Automatic Evolutions, there should be another one, but your title “Singer” blocks it. Shrieker is an evolution that most birds get, and those are fully specialized to make painful sound attacks. Evolving into one, would have impede you from ever singing again-

‘Ugh! Nothing of value was lost then… kill me if that happens… ugh!’ she shivered and closed the evolution screen, preferring to preen her feathers rather than think about a future without music

After a few seconds of that, she read the message again

‘Wait… what do you mean by automatic ones…?’

-Like the name says, they are evolutions that happen when a condition is met, they are unable to be canceled, and might lead to wasted EP. As I’m right now I can tell you if you are about to trigger one, but you should still ask if you think something might trigger one-

-That way I can check, and make sure it isn't a dead end!- this message was in a different screen, likely because the Helper wanted Brenna to pay attention to the contents of it

‘That would be good to know… currently, what causes one for me…?’

-The Wingless Adaptation, and upgrading your Muscle and Bone Qualities 15 times in the EP Shop, or rather, doing that outside of the List (L) options-

Brenna opened the store and looked at the three options that the Helper was pointing at, she hadn't bought anything other than the Fountain, so that was the first time she realized that the list, separated her body into: head, torso, wings, and legs…

‘Can… can you tell me why the general options does that…?’ she assumed that her tail was part of her torso, but didn’t asked for confirmation

-The general options affect your whole body at once, buying both of those 15 times triggers a Giant evolution. A lot of birds get temporally landlocked by it, because their sudden weight increase is often too much, for any Trait that increases their strength-

-And the Wingless Adaptation shifts your whole body, from flying to running. Not all species that get that Item lose their wings completely (Some are left with vestigial wings), but for those that do: becoming humanoid is suddenly very difficult to achieve-

With that last bit of information, and ignoring the interruption, Brenna got worried about something obvious

‘How I’m going to get hands…?’ she couldn't believe that thought didn’t occurred to her before

-Remember that you can evolve seven times. Most of your possible evolutions for your sixth one, have a direct humanoid evolution, that give you separate arms and hands, or, will make you flightless in exchange for you having smaller wings with dexterous claws, capable of working like normal hands-

‘Ugh…! I don’t like the last one… I don’t want to need special tools, for my daily life…’

-It’s not set in stone! Your actions can, and will, change what you’ll become!-

She tried to relax about what happened, but eventually she opened the Species section again

‘But my evolutions are essentially the same thing… right?’

-Not quite, Lesser indicates size, while Insignificant indicates power. Both have the same convergent Species, but each also can evolve into a different bird. But! If you stay “In line” as an Uvply Cidia, you’ll complete a Deed!-

‘Oh… interesting…’ Brenna looked at the screen with her two options for a moment more, before closing it ‘I might just pick the first one… I can’t risk being weak…’

Her thought caused a screen to appear

‘Who…?’ it took her a moment to remember that name ‘Ah! Sorry! And thanks for the Boon!’ and she finally read the message when she did… ‘But you are wrong… ignoring all the teasing, Miriam is waiting for me, right…?’

‘Ugh…’ she didn’t thought about that deity before giving her answer… ‘You got a problem with that…?’ but didn’t back down

Caw!

The younger raven took flight after cawing, to Brenna he sounded amused

-Now that you are Level 10, the brothers are going to go back to feed you. More often than not, you don’t want to break the Level Cap, that is why you shouldn’t be hunting for now-

‘What…?’ that message distracted her from talking more with the gods ‘I can do what…?’

-If you don’t stop fighting after you reach the limit, you'll eventually level up again. But doing that takes so much time and effort… that I see it as a waste of lifespan… and after they evolve, the next Level Cap the creatures that break it end up with… is enormous-

‘Let me guess… afterwards it affect every evolution too…?’ she got a positive answer ‘Ugh… is there an automatic evolution involved with that…?’

-Yes! Not worth it! You need to break the cap by 100 levels! You need to try to get it in your first three evolutions! Any passive leveling is stopped when you reach the cap too! Also! there is a huge chance of getting another Automatic one, by accident! Before you even reach that level!-

‘So… “Don't fight that guy” got it’ Brenna nodded to the message, before clearing her throat ‘I’m going to sing for a while then…’

Closing her eyes she sang, missing when a blank message from the Trickster appeared (With glow-sticks to the sides), it danced to the tune she was remembering. Her Traits and practice meant that she could sing as if she was some kind of melodious bird

It wasn't enough to mimic human speech… but she had that hope for the future… in the meantime, Brenna was already pleasant to listen to

Once the younger brother came back, this time carrying meat on his beak, she stopped and found a message in front of her

And instead of feeding her directly, he just placed the chunk of meat in the nest, for her to eat by herself

‘Ugh…’

/////

Not many days passed after that, and she eventually got the Strength Boost after a flying session

Afterwards, while the brothers were moving from a branch to another around the nest, she had started to make a spell that would allow her to sing without worries… but Brenna wasn't sure if it would be useful… she had no way of testing it to see if it worked, and due to how little magic she had, she wasn't sure if it would last for even half a song…

-Are you ready to buy things?- when it started…

‘Why…?’ that question confused her until the next message appeared

-You should evolve now-

The dreaded moment arrived, and even with snow thawing while the sun was setting, Brenna shivered…

‘I… guess I should buy things first… Status… EP Shop… can you get the adaptation away from this screen…?’

-Sure- her request happened, before the message changed -A thing about buying: buying at least one of each Item from the section with your Species’s name (Not including the Adaptation), completes a Deed. So I suggest you do that- another message appeared

-And if you are the first one to evolve into a specific Species, your body at the time becomes “The Basics” for that evolution. Anything that tries to evolve into that species after you, needs to be a close match to your body. If the match is exact, then they complete a Deed-

‘Can I complete a Deed n… when I evolve…?’ the Helper had been very insistent about doing those, so Brenna was interested in doing that too

-Sadly no. The first crow that evolved into the one you are interested, broke the Level Cap twice, before evolving, and used all the points it got, to upgrade its talons. It didn’t even complete the Deed I mentioned…-

Brenna knew that doing that would be a waste in her state… specially considering that her affinities were for magic, and what she just read seemed to imply a physical fighter…

‘Ah… I don’t have enough… I can’t buy every Spell Focus’

-You don’t need to buy all of them now, may I give you a suggestion?-

‘Sure?’

-A Focus of your preference + The three visible upgrades of your current species + 3 upgrades for Everything on the Lists for bones and Muscles = 230 EP- it split into another message -In that order-

That extra bit of information made her suspicious… but she didn’t “Voiced” that feeling

‘Ah… sure… sounds good, but… Wings, lets go with that Focus… ah… Buy Magic Wings…’

Brenna felt her temperature raising, it started in her head moving quickly to her chest, where it split to her wings-

‘Ah!!!’ where it turned into pain ‘Aaahhh!!!’

CAW!!!

It didn’t lasted long, but she wasn't used to any kind of pain and this experience was… harrowing… and while the pain was lessening, an immense cold started to fill her bones… getting closer and closer to her torso…

-Imbue them, that will fix the sensations-

‘Ia! Imbue Wings!’ she did that the moment she noticed the message, leaving her wings twitching, but the cold left her body with that ‘Aaahhh!!! This is awful!!!’

-Sorry, I wasn't allowed to warn you about that. But the rest of the things I suggested to buy shouldn’t cause any discomfort-

‘That was more than a discomfort!’ she moved her wings slowly ‘Can I stop Imbuing them…?’

-Yes, you can. Imbuing them is just needed to get rid of the feeling…-

Brenna shock her head and looked at the shop again, but a sudden hunger made her close it, and eat one of the small fish the younger brother placed on the nest. He got a lot of them a few hours ago and she had gotten an early dinner as sunset approached

‘No problem… Ia Stop…’ her wings didn’t got cold again, but now she felt… aware… of something similar to her blood flow, moving on her wings…

There wasn't anything visually different about her wings, except for a minimal dark blue hue, near the tip of some of her feathers…

/////

The rest of the purchases didn’t took much time, and she got some announcements that explained why the Helper mentioned the order of the purchases

‘You couldn’t tell me about this Deed…?’ Brenna ignored the messages that mentioned Improvements on her body parts, they just seemed to exist to hint at the Deed she got

-I gave that suggestion, not for the Deed, but for you to see, how some of the them might be acquired. Besides it’s your body, I might give suggestions, but you are the one that needs to feel comfortable living with them-

‘Thanks…’ she stretched her body and moved a bit on the nest ‘They were good suggestions! Thanks for that too!’

She looked at the shop again, noticing the increase in prizes, but not mentioning it. She was left with zero EP…

-Now you are ready to evolve!-

‘Ah… right now…? Can it wait until tomorrow…?’ she had hoped to delay that

Caw Caw

The reaction of the brothers as the sky started to darken, was answer enough. They still looked restless, and couldn't stay still moving from a branch to another

-Evolving will take time, and will left you hungry after it happens- there were two fish remaining in the nest -You already have some food, but it’s better to sleep off the Evolution Nausea. Moving while dealing with it, is awful!-

‘But the fourth Ruler is rampaging, right? Isn't better to wait until that stops happening…?’

Buzz!

‘Ah!’ at that moment she noticed the wooden ladybug flying towards her from the south ‘Hi Sunny!’

-Hello!- Sunny landed near the fish and buzzed again -Sunny says that the rampage might take a while, and the Ruler is moving to the south/southeast from Sunny’s main body. She can tell you if that changes-

Instead of feeling relief, Brenna felt dread growing inside her

‘I… know…’ she didn’t wanted to admit it ‘I just don’t want to be alone…’

Buzz?

-Ugh…-

‘What…?’

-Ah… I need to… soften what she just said…-

The message closed, and the two of them started to… “Converse” with blank screens, and buzzes that she didn’t understood. Until a blank message from the Lady of the Forest appeared, making Sunny buzz while looking away…

-Sunny said: the faster you evolve, the less time you are going to be alone. And unlike you, Sunny has no way of knowing if she’ll be able to move in a bigger circumference, around her main body-

‘Oh…’ seeing that message Brenna got closer to Sunny, and covered her with a wing ‘I’ll come visit, I promise’

Buzz

After another blank message from the same goddess, and another buzz-

‘…’ Brenna looked at the brothers, but they looked away from her ‘Do I want to know…?’

‘Thanks you…’ she nodded to the last message, before sighing internally ‘Status… Species…’ she stopped and closed the screens

Sunny was walking on her body, so she had no trouble flying towards the two brothers, and give them the closest thing to a hug her body allowed, before going back to the nest

‘Status, Species… evolving to Lesser Black Uvply Cidia…’ Brenna waited… ‘Did I…? Eh…?’ and just as she started to get drowsy…

(Good luck little one…)

(Have a long life Brenna!)

She felt her heart break a little… before she fell asleep…

/////

Her body felt stiff as she stirred, the cold morning air wasn't helping her with that…

‘Ah…’ but opening her eyes, confirmed what the cold was already telling her ‘Why…?’ the brothers were gone ‘Why they didn’t spoke to me before…?’

-They might have thought that saying goodbye would hurt more…?-

‘You knew…?’

-I talked with them while you slept, but I didn’t pried into that topic-

Sunny wasn't moving, but was looking at her from the edge of the nest. The light of the sun was slowly making the forest brighter…

Caw…

And Brenna was really hungry, not having any problem with eating the two fish remaining and stretching her body afterwards

‘I…’ she wasn't happy, but tried to not dwell on that… ‘How do I look…?’

Buzz

-Sunny!-

‘What did she said?’

-Small…-

‘Oh… I meant compared to before’

Buzz

-Still small…-

Brenna covered her face with a wing and sighed. Trying to visualize the ladybug as a small child helped, and she realized that Sunny was a tree that appeared suddenly, she was basically a child

‘Sunny, sometimes when we say something, we unknowingly hurt people with the way we say that thing. Thinking about what you say, helps avoiding that, but if you aren't sure if saying something will be hurtful, you can ask me, then we can talk about that’

She got a buzz as an answer, then Sunny moved to walk on her back, still tickling a bit

-You have a notification to read!-

‘Ah… sure…’ she wasn't sure how either of them reacted to what she said, but moved on ‘Status?’

‘…’ seeing those screens made her feel… ‘EP Shop…’

Overwhelmed…

‘Oh…’

-What’s wrong?-

‘I’m just realizing… what kind of ordeal, I’m getting into…’

Sunny made a sound she started to identify, by its tone, as a happy one

-We are here to help! And in the worst case scenario we can ask Miriam for help…! Just, not right now. She is busy-

‘She is on the other side of the Line, right…?’

Buzz!

-Yes, Sunny confirmed to me that she did something with her metabolism, so the prey on this side are too small for her-

‘Really…?’ that comforted her a bit ‘What does she needs? Crocodiles?’ to the point were she made a joke

‘EEEEEHHHHH?????!!!!!’

Getting a chilling bit of information for it, that made all of her feathers stand up…