White Flower, Black Feather

Crack the Stone

Brenna woke up the next morning due to the cold wind, early enough to see the first rays of sunlight

‘Oh…’ and to see how the tree stopped hiding her ‘Ugh… it’s cold… Grimoire…’

Her book appeared in front of her, and she quickly turned the pages to her talking spell. She had added a variant to it before sleeping, now the bubble could be formed inside of her closed mouth, letting her pop it with her beak, without needing it to travel to an object

“Good morning!” she still could do it like before, but at that moment she didn’t had the need to do it that way

The trees around her rustled at her cheerful old voice, and Sunny landed on the branch she had been sleeping… Brenna was still sleepy, and didn’t asked where she had been

Buzz

-Good morning, you sang a lot yesterday- the trees around made some bubbles, saying “Hello” with them

‘I did… ugh, my throat is a bit sore…’ Brenna looked around, waving with her wings to the trees ‘The river is that way, right…?’ but a different tree shook, pointing to the correct way ‘Ah…?’

-Close, but is actually that way to the river- she didn’t understood what the shaking meant, but her Helper translated the action to her -Perhaps we should have gone to the nest…? You are a bit more familiar with that area-

‘I… I have no idea? With all the flying Sunny made me do, it would have taken me all night to get there’

Sunny buzzed, but Brenna didn’t got a translation, making her wonder what she said… even if she knew it might have been something nasty…

She shook her head, but before she could fly in that direction, a small fruit grew next to her

“Thanks you!” and she quickly made a bubble to talk with the tree, to happily eat the sweet fruit as soon as she did that

‘What was the mission again…?’

-You were asked to destroy an old weapon, that almost killed Miriam when she was younger- the ladybug said something again -At least, that is what the trees said, Sunny doesn’t believes them… for some reason-

‘All right…’ She looked at Sunny, wondering about her disbelief ‘Can you guide me there…?’

Buzz…

-Just outside of her range, but it looks like a pair of rocks in the middle of a clearing. She will guide you as close as she can-

‘Ah… rocks…?’ considering everything she had been told, the idea that Miriam almost died due to a rock, was a bit difficult to believe ‘Can we stop by the river…? I’m still thirsty’

With one last buzz, Sunny flew to the west… almost making Brenna crash by how slow she was flying in comparison to the day before…

‘Do you want to fly on my back…?’ it got to the point that she was flying in circles around Sunny, the buzz she got as an answer, felt familiar…

-Sunny…-

‘Oh? So I’m slow, eh…?’ it was a bit difficult to select the spell while flying, but she managed to do it ‘Then you better prove that! Or I’ll get lost on the way there!’

Brenna activated her spell and after two seconds of advantage-

Buzz~!!!

‘Ah!’ Sunny passed right next to her, like a bullet…

And while she struggled to not lose her from sight… she started to enjoy the contest…

It was similar to playing with the energetic children of the orphanage… all bundled into one

/////

She only had a small break to drink water before Sunny resumed the chase

Like before it was an extremely twisted path, but this time Brenna saw the why… in one of the sharp turns, out of the corner of her eye she saw a boar digging under a bush at some distance from her flight path

Letting her understand that Sunny was guiding her along a safe path to where she was supposed to go…

‘Ugh…’ this didn’t made her less cranky once both of them finally landed on a branch

-In a straight line ahead- getting that message after a short buzz

‘Q-question…’ her body felt tired, despite how early in the morning it was ‘Does… the daily fruit takes… into account these… ugh…’

-Eh… you might need to eat something else, if this kind of exercises become common… but that is something you still should try to do. Eventually you’ll need more that just one fruit per day-

She groaned at the idea, but it did made sense that the trees, weren't going to completely rid her life of combat… no matter how much that thought saddened her…

Ding

‘Ugh…’ the sudden notification made her worry ‘Status…?’

‘Hmm… this is… from yesterday’s singing session…? And today’s race…?’ she got a confirmation ‘Good… I was worried it was a bad thing…’

-Generally that sound is a good thing! Very few times it should mean something bad for you-

Buzz…

-Eh…? Really…?-

‘Miriam dislikes the sound…?’ the deep and low tone coming from Sunny gave her an idea of the meaning

-Yes…-

‘Why I’m not surprised…?’ Brenna shook her head again before looking at Sunny ‘Let me rest for a moment… and I’ll go see that rock…’ she got a familiar buzz at that ‘Just wait… until I practice the things I have on my book about flying… you’ll be biting the dust…’

Buzz~

‘Don't call me that…’

-You are getting better at talking with Sunny!-

‘I feel like, she is making it easy on purpose…’

/////

Miriam’s body started moving with the first rays of sunlight, what stopped her body at night, was the temperature, not anything related to tiredness… the need for food almost made the body keep hunting at night…

While her mind was still stuck. Always seeing and feeling what her body did, unable to think, move, scream…

Unable to rest…

Hiss…

Her body rubbed the dry blood staining her scales against the ground, it was making a trail towards her, and while the body didn’t disliked prey coming to be devoured. Something in the blood of the last creature her body had eaten, became an irritant that pierced her scales when dry…

Snap!

“Hello” her body also was very aggressive towards the bubbles that the trees made, trying to eat them, or cutting them with her claws or a sword, ever since they started to appear the previous afternoon

Looking around while hissing, trying to find the source of the sound…

Miriam had become eligible to eat fruits after her last evolution, but the only way her body actually ate them, was when the trees threw one at her, after making her body angry

Snap!

They weren't a perfect source of food, her body needed much more to be satiated, specially now that her mind wasn't pushing beyond hunger, trying to not eat as much…

Hiss…

But the trees had the hope that the fruit could make Miriam come back earlier… even if her body just kept moving to the south, eating everything that got on her way…

/////

Sunny told Brenna that there was a brook north of the weapon, so, after she found where the bloodied rocks were, she flew to drink some water, before looking at the weapon from one of the branches

‘It’s literally a pair of rocks…’ there was nothing else on the clearing, just those two things. Only the blood clinging to the bottom side of the bigger one, clued her that it actually was working as a weapon… ‘Tell me I don’t need to eat what is under them?’

-Sunny didn’t said anything about that… but maybe you should?-

‘Eww…’ she shook her head ‘I rather… Grimoire!’ but in the motion she saw a lizard getting extremely close to her, quietly moving on the same branch she had landed

Slam!

And while in panic Brenna fired a Wind Bullet towards it as it tried to bite her, the lizard bounced against the trunk of the tree and fell immobile to the ground

‘Ah! Sorry!’ leaving her a bit scared from the hit the tree took, looking between the tree and the reptile

-Don't worry, as long as the tree wasn't damaged they don’t get angry when that kind of things happen-

“Sorry, I’ll be more careful” even if the message calmed her, she still made that bubble and the tree rustled a bit

With that done, she focused on the lizard before closing her book, making her Status appear

‘Oh… playing dead doesn’t work…’

-Are you going to eat part of that one?- and her Helper changed the topic

‘I rather not…’ making her shiver, before looking back at her target ‘Do I try with a Wind Impact…? From above, my spell should get more speed and do more damage…?’ Brenna looked around for a moment ‘But with the illusion I need something to help me target it… Grimoire’

Opening her book, she moved to an empty page to make a spell to do that

‘Apply Mark’ the drawings on the page showed her doing the motions for a Wind Bullet, but on impact the projectile turned into an X ‘Coordinates, Awareness…’ the next drawings were of her on flight, with the X on different positions around her, with a floating eye looking at it ‘Seeking, Guidance’

From the next drawing, three arrows came from her body, the first pointing directly towards the X, the second appeared from her back, but curved to wards the mark, and the last one avoided a rock in the way to point at the X

Brenna hoped that adding that to the spell, would make the following ones more accurate

‘Magic Beacon!’ with the spell done, her Grimoire vanished and she executed it

Seeing her whitish magic hit the stone with a sound that reminded her of someone slapping a wall… more importantly, she started to feel a pull towards the stone

‘Hmm… that was…’ looking away didn’t stopped the pull she was feeling ‘More than a bullet… eh?’

The cost of the spell stopped bothering her when she saw, that the stone now had a glowing circuit-like pattern on it… and started to vibrate

‘Ok! Time to break that!’ before flying up, she used the her Flying Aid to help her do that quickly, feeling the distracting effect of the Beacon pulling her

She didn’t thought about how close to the city she was now, nor how visible she might be while flying up… or down…

As she flew towards her mark, now hidden by the illusion, Brenna was holding the spell on her wings with her will-

‘AH!!!’

When a high pitching sound reached her, hurting her ears instantly. Distracting her from holding her spell, launching it before the weapon became visible again

-The Screaming Ruler will attack!- terrified by the message that appeared -Land on a branch! Or the ground! Now!- she tried to do that as fast as she could-

HIIISSS!!!!

‘AH!’ but a distant sound almost made her crash against the branch she was moving towards ‘What…?! Eh…?’

But the painful sound had stopped…

‘Eh…?’ leaving her aware of how much her legs muscles ached, after the rough landing…

-What happened…?-

/////

The more her body moved south, the more annoyed it grew… and from the five horns on top of her head, without knowing the reason, sparks started to jump…

At first they were mostly static, but after a point-

Crackle

Hiss!!!

The arcs jumping between her black horns grew to become very painful. Making her body glare at the trees while releasing her aura, looking for the source of what her body interpreted as an attack…

Crackle

But as electricity started to become visible near the ground between the trees, without touching any plant. Miriam’s body became aware that something else was moving on her direction from the south…

Making the electricity grow in power, letting her see how lighting started to jump upwards, between the trees to the south

Where something hidden from her sight, was moving towards her…

Until the bat, that just noticed the same thing, tried to figure out with his sonar what the smallest of the Rulers was doing-

Triggering an innate response from Miriam’s body against him, making him recoil in fear, back inside his cave…

Still remembering the fear that he felt that day…

After that warning, only the diminishing sound of electricity could be heard around her body. The creature moving towards her had stopped, not out of fear…

Hiss…

But because the sound and the electricity had irritated her body enough, to make it move east and away from the edge of the territory of the Third Ruler…

So he didn’t chase her… Miriam’s body hadn't entered his territory, and he already ate that week. He had no reason to waste energy in a pointless fight

And he could tell that the weird snake had scared the bat. If she was the cause, he had stopped being as annoying… then the Ruler had a good reason to keep her alive

/////

‘How…?’

The Trickster laughed again when that message reached Brenna

‘So… I can move…?’

-Yes… he isn't aiming anymore…-

The way that her Helper’s message was shaking, worried her, but she choose to not mention it

Instead she hoped on the branches of the trees to go back to the clearing, following the pull of her spell…

‘Hmm…’ now the vibrating rock was buried deeper into the ground, some dirt had been pushed away around it, but she didn’t saw any noticeable damage on it ‘Didn't work… Ia Stop…’ she was feeling annoyed by that and canceled the Beacon… ‘Then… Status, let's find something else that works~’

But the opportunity of trying more of her magic, made her euphoria overcome it

‘Maybe I should buy a Focus for my Talons…? That way I can test if a “Touch” spell consumes less of my magic…’

-Since Grimoire is unique to you, testing that makes sense. Even if the touch/range consumption difference, is something that happens with most spells-

‘…? So, I shouldn’t do it…?’

-That is not what I meant. Please test it, I’m still trying to understand more, about how Grimoire works…-

Brenna was curious about her book too… but she felt that the Helper was…

‘Are you scared…?’

-That’s…- the message closed before opening again after a second -The three of us are something that nowadays is rarely acquired, and most of our Hosts either die, or get rid of us, before they get pass our second stage. Never before I have been on this kind of situation: I have access to all my allowed knowledge with most of my limitations gone… and…-

‘Grimoire is new too’

-Yes… I suppose that I’m afraid, but it’s a fear about what might happen to you. Since Grimoire isn't a Trait that I can “Touch…” I can’t see inside it to… then again… if it were a Trait, I might be too scared to “Touch” it anyways…-

She realized that the Helper might be scared of… whatever happened after a Host died too… but again, choose to not ask about that…

‘Don't worry, I’ll be careful…’ Brenna didn’t wanted to think about her own death, maybe one day… ‘For now let’s break that thing’ but at that moment she focused on breaking that weapon

And opened the shop to get her Magic Talons-

CAW!!!

Giving her the same pain, she got with her wings before. Now it was burning down her whole legs, almost making her drop from the branch she was desperately trying to hold on…

‘Ia! Imbue Talons!’ until she started to feel the cold, making her immediately use her magic to stop it… aware that her thighs, had the same feeling of something flowing as her wings did, it wasn't limited to just her talons… ‘Aaahhh!!!’ but her weakened legs felt more important at the time

So much more important, that she didn’t noticed that her claws turned red, until later

/////

Brenna purchased three Upgrades for the bones and muscles of her legs, but needed some time to rest after doing that, enough for the stones to stop glowing, even if she could heard some vibrations coming from it at times

‘All right… now I feel better… I need to do that with every Focus I get?’

-Sadly yes, do you want me to remind you of how it feels, before you get a new one?-

‘Ugh… no, I remembered… I just hoped that it wouldn't be as bad… Grimoire’ she moved to an empty page, but looked at the weapon while thinking about the spell ‘I don’t know how it resisted my spell… but I’m not letting that stop me… Erosion is too slow for this spell, do you agree?’

-Hmm… considering that its main material is stone, yes. That might be a slow word to use…-

They discussed a couple of other of words to use, like Crack and Shattering, but while doing that…

‘Then… what if instead of attacking the material… I attack the magic it has inside…?’ Brenna got inspired…

-I’m… interested by your proposal…-

With that encouragement, she turned her attention back to the empty page

‘The glow was like a circuit… so we Infect it…’ the drawing of her claws touching circuit-like tubes appeared. It showed ink flowing from the tips of her talons and into the pathways ‘Hmm… I might need a different way of doing this, for each and every thing, I want to do this with… but for now, let's try… Pooling Magic’

On a tube of a new drawing, arrows were indicating the movement of magic in a specific direction, before it reached the ink that was injected in the tube. The following drawings showed that bubble of ink growing, and on the other side of the bubble, the arrows moving away were of a smaller size

‘Weaken… Disrupt…’ two more drawings showed the ink bubble growing while the tube cracked around it ‘Induced Failure’ before the bubble exploded ‘Inner Magical Mishap’ giving that name to the spell… ‘What do you think…?’ but didn’t tried to use it yet

-It should work… Ugh…! But be careful with it. Don’t attempt to use it while touching a tree…-

Brenna shivered at the warning

‘Noted!’ and flew to the stone not daring to use it until she stepped on it, with just the four claws of a foot trying to scratch the surface ‘Ugh-!’

The contact was for just that moment, but it was as if there was sudden gap between her and the rock, making the spell use a lot of her magic, leaving her with a fourth remaining in her reserves. She had the feeling that it worked

Caw!

But couldn’t explain how she knew that, before flying back to a branch, closing her Grimoire to make sure she didn’t used a spell by accident, but instead of landing on a low branch, she moved further up

‘It’s safe to land?!’

-Yes-

Only that confirmation, made her relax enough to land near the top of a tree, before looking at the rock… while trying to not touch the bark with the tips of her talons

‘I know it worked…’ the rock looked like it did before ‘But it used far too much magic…’ Brenna opened her book and went back to the spell ‘Why…?’

-For creatures, there is something called Hostile Magic Resistance, maybe the weapon has something similar?-

‘Maybe… but that sounds like the “Gap” that I felt when I touched it… not like the usage of… oh…’ and she saw the “Mistake” in the spell… without noticing how the stone started to glow ‘Ugh, look the first one: Infect… the spell attacks from every claw… I made four bubbles in the circuit…’

-Oh, yes. That is another explanation too-

‘Ugh…’ she sighed ‘How should I fix-?!’

CRACK!!!

‘Aaahhh!!!’ a chunk of the rock burst up from the contact point in an arc, it flew up to a meter in height before crashing back to the ground, scaring Brenna almost to the point were she fell, due to her weak grip on the bark… she managed to stay there by flapping her wings

From the hole of the rock, and from the gap between it and the other rock, hundreds of sparks jumped up, but them and the glow of the golem…

Crack!

Vanished, when the biggest rock snapped in two…

Ding

‘Ah… Ia Stop… just in case…’

-I’m not sure that the command would have stopped your spell-

‘Even with the intent…?’

-When you close your Grimoire, it’s different to saying “Ia Stop” I need more time to figure out what those difference are… but don’t worry, you didn’t used I. M. M. on the trees-

‘Please tell me when you figure that out… and thanks you, I really meant that…’

-You are welcome! But… check your notifications please…-

‘All right…’ Brenna looked at the rock again before doing it, feeling some nerves about it… ‘Status’

‘Oh~ that sounds good!’ once she saw what she got, Brenna couldn’t help but feel relief ‘Well… I’m assuming that the Deed only counts things that might fight back…? Like the Rulers…’ she meant that last bit, as a joke… but it failed to be funny for herself…

-Yes. Otherwise you can clear the Deed by mining stones. Surprisingly… only the First Ruler counts as an Ancient, the rest are too recent for that moniker… by the way… while Affinities that are focused on magic, get that Trait earlier than the rest, you got it a bit earlier than the average…-

Brenna was unsure if she should be worried about that information or not…

‘Well… ah…’ but the smell coming from the broken stone finally made her feel like eating ‘Ugh…’ grudgingly, she flew to the tree overlooking the lizard and stared at it ‘Maybe is… because of my Grimoire…? So far, most of my spells from it, use very little magic. Could that confuse the system into thinking that I’m more advanced that normal…?’

-Unlikely… but I’m not complaining! This is going to help with making you the greatest Witch in the world!-

‘Yeah!’ she didn’t thought about how easily the Helper had gone from Archmage to Witch… ‘Ugh… can’t believe what I must eat to reach that, though…’

She got distracted by the reptile…

/////

Fortunately she didn’t need too much time to eat something in this occasion…

“Should be close to here…” for many reasons…

‘Ah?!’ the voice came from the west, and she needed all her self-control to not fly up immediately

Instead she hopped behind a tree before flying up to a branch

“You heard that…?” her heart going crazy at the second voice asking that, making her scared of trying to flee from that place…

“You have been asking the same thing since we got in! Man up already!”

‘Oh, fuck you!’

Her anger at that comment made her realize how young the voices sounded, and she overcome her fear to take a peek at them

They were two teens that looked barely any younger that she did before dying, each of them looked similar to the other. Only the different shades of brown hair, helped Brenna to distinguish them from each other…

‘Farmers…?’ they looked right out of some old paintings she had seen, both carrying pitchforks… and simple linen clothes…

-What are they doing here…? Do they want to die…?-

‘No idea…’ both of them looked so under-prepared, that she agreed immediately with her Helper…

The guy with darker hair moved closer to the stone and poked it with his pitchfork

“Did the bird broke this…?” he was the angry one from before, and she realized that he was talking about her, almost making her scream due to that…

“How I’m supposed to know…?” the other one was looking worriedly around them, shaking a bit “We should go”

Brenna almost screamed when that screen appeared

“It’s a bird!” hearing how loud he was, almost made her complain about being given an impossible task “This is our chance to become adventurers!”

“We are too young for that…!” the other had tried to whisper, but his voice got loud, as his body showed more and more anger by the second “I don’t want to die…!”

‘Ugh… make more noise, Miriam can’t heard… oh!’

She got an idea, and carefully flew between the trees around the clearing to be on the south side

The two guys were too focused discussing with each other to notice her, giving Brenna enough time to open her Grimoire, and copy most of her talking spell on another blank page

‘All right… hmm… From Memory…?’ the simple drawing of a hissing snake appeared on the page ‘Hmm… and Mimicry… it must sound like her’ the drawing got blurred, but increased in size ‘Yes, that’ll do. I just want them to think she is close… Terrifying too… but…’ she almost didn’t added that to the spell, but with a glance at them…

She saw how they looked ready to fight each other, and added the drawing of both of them looking scared to the spell

‘Now… Memory of Fear!’

Her spell glowed indicating that it worked, and the transparent bubble she made was launched to a tree a few meters away…

‘Ah?!’ but before it made contact with the tree, another bubble was made from the targeted tree, and combined with her bubble making it bigger-

““AAAAHHHH!!!!””

‘Ah!’

The resulting sound was even louder than what Brenna expected, and sent both of the guys running towards the city, unable to form coherent words… just screams of pure fear…

‘Wait!’ and she misunderstood the rustling of the trees as a bad thing. Launching herself to fly after them…

The trees had been laughing…

But she didn’t knew that, she just knew that she had to make sure they didn’t died on the way out

Thankfully, the bubble had made sure that no forest creature was near the place, letting the two boys get out of the forest…

‘Stop!!!’ and onto the path of the biggest bovine Brenna had seen. Due to her speed, even if she avoided crashing on the ground, landing on the grass still hurt her ‘Aaahhh!!!’

And trying to force her magic to stop them, made the pain worse

The grass under the running boys, tangled and tied to their ankles, tripping them and making their “Weapons” drop far in front of them…

“Betsy!!!” the muscular, angry cow had stopped from stomping the frozen boys when they fell… but still was glaring at them, even with the girl that had been chasing her started petting her “Why were you two idiots in the forest?!!!”

Specially when the girl started screaming at them

‘Ow… she is going to make the cow kill them…’ Brenna looked at the scene in front of her, between worried and amused, still feeling the grass in front of her pulling at her magic ‘Ia Stop!’ barely realizing how little magic she had left before she used it all ‘Ugh…’

Ding

-That is what happens when you force a spell. I know that this time you had no other choice, but this is something that should be avoided… let’s go back to Sunny?-

‘Ah… sure…’ to not draw attention to herself, she walked slowly to the forest, still looking at the humans

The two boys were still on the ground, even if the grass wasn't holding them anymore, once the girl started screaming at them, they had started to pull the grass in front of them, to offer it to the cow

“Please don’t tell dad-”

“I’M TELLING EVERYONE!!!” with that scream, the cow hit the ground making a gouge in it and making both of the boys whimper

Even after Brenna got behind a tree, she couldn't help it, and stayed looking at them. Worried about what might happen, at least until the girl realized how angry the cow was getting and resumed petting her

They stayed like that until Betsy looked a bit calmer, she still was glaring at the boys and the grass they were holding…

“You two get Betsy back to the pen” but that seemed to be enough for the still angry girl “I need to make sure no one else got out, after Betsy broke the fence after the Ruler screamed”

‘Ah…?’ despite the distance Brenna could still heard their whispers ‘Oh no… they are confusing Miriam with a Ruler…’ she saw the girl walking away, leaving the huge cow with the whimpering boys

-Let’s mention that to Sunny, perhaps the trees will make that a mission…?-

‘Ugh… that… really sounds impossible…’ she had other reasons to believe that she wouldn't get a mission like that ‘What is Betsy…?’ but choose to change the topic

-A War Cow, they are uncommon because it’s difficult to keep a cow alive, under all the stress required for them to evolve into one. Near this forest, it makes sense to see one or two, but even with that, it doesn’t happen all the time-

With that she looked around again, seeing the walls of the city on the distance, the empty space between them and the forest, and the place where the girl was going to…

‘Why they have cows here…?’

-Sadly, meat-shields. Every now and then a pack of creatures, or monsters, try to get out, and as result they fight the humans (In this case it would be the animals) that might be on the way-

‘Ugh…’ she didn’t liked that answer…

/////

Even with what her Helper suggested, she couldn't leave the edge of the forest yet. It took until the cow started to eat the offered grass, for her to fly away

Buzz!

‘Don't call me that…’ and it took some more time to land on the branch where Sunny was waiting for her ‘A lot of things happened’ she got another buzz

-She knows, the trees told her. Congratulations on the missions-

‘Thanks to both of you… how many more…?’

Buzz

-Before the Deed, at least one. After it, an infinity number of them might happen-

Brenna nodded and looked around

‘That’s good…’ still thinking about what might happen between the city and the forest ‘Is there a way of making the forest safer…?’

‘Ha… how funny…’ she sighed ‘Fine… I’ll try to figure that, on my own… Status’

‘Hmm? Empower? What I’m supposed… oh… oh~!’ she started to get ideas for the use of that word on her spells, and even Sunny buzzed happily by how her body trembled with excitement ‘I need to test this~!’

-Not yet please- but a message cut it a bit short -The usage of Empower is very delicate, so, you might want to declare a Level of intensity while using that word (Level 1, Level 2, etc…), to ensure that you don’t get a Magic Drain… and wait until your magic storage is back to normal-

‘So… it’s a strong spell component?’

-That’s a good way of calling it, yes!-

‘Interesting~’

Brenna cackled and was about to start singing with renowned happiness

Buzz

-Sunny wants to guide you to the nest- but Sunny had an idea

‘Eh… “Guide” or “Smacking down my pride in a race…”?’

Buzz~

‘Fine… oh, wait!’ Sunny hadn't started flying yet, but Brenna remembered something she wanted to say ‘People seem to be confusing Miriam’s hissing, for a Ruler’s… call? Noise?’ the ladybug was quiet for a moment and the trees around rustled

Making Brenna look around confused by them…

Buzz…

-There is nothing we can do about that-

‘Really…?’ she was crestfallen by that message, but Sunny buzzed again

-Right! It hadn't come up until now!- the message closed and opened again -Rumors work similarly to that Deed you completed- the message with that Deed was moved next to the message -Meaning that rumors can make you (Or Miriam) stronger. The humans know to not say them, but the more humans there are, it’s harder to avoid some of those from happening-

That message made her relax a bit…

‘Wait, does this means that I’m going to get “Ruler” rumors too?’

-Probably not. But if those two guys start talking about a bird breaking a stone, you might get something out of that-

‘Hmm…’

Buzz?

‘Ah… yes… eh, no more questions… ah, yeah…’ Brenna shook her head ‘I might ask more things at night, let’s go!’

She waited for a moment for Sunny to fly, before chasing her. The ladybug knew that she had little magic, so she just flew as fast as Brenna could…

In the same tortuous pattern of avoidance

/////

Miriam’s body heard the hiss… it was too loud for any creature to ignore it… and turned in the direction of Sunny…

The sound… affected both her body and her mind. That was her, that sound came from her…

Her body turned back and removed the last spike on the huge reptile corpse next to her, getting covered in more blood before eating it

The sound wasn't enough to make her body go all the way back to Sunny…

But after eating, her body started to move north…