After two long days and nights of travelling, arguing, and running, they had finally hit the next town, a small settlement surrounded by forest. Cináed, partway through the trip, had been completely exhausted, and as a result had let his magic fade from his appearance, reverting back to Aella’s form. The only difference (other than the enormous attitude jump) to tell it was really him was the shiny metallic color replacing Aella’s blue-grey irises.573Please respect copyright.PENANA2YilTVRqW3
He’d noticed Luna watching him every so often, and she finally said, “Your eyes are strange. Almost like a human’s, only you know, silver… well, I guess it makes sense.” 573Please respect copyright.PENANAZfBH3WPSVI
“Eh? What makes you say that?” The eyes in question flickered to her as he turned to face her in his saddle.573Please respect copyright.PENANAlp4fDWHi3V
“Weeeeeell, you’re a shapeshifter, so you have to take the thing’s form, right? … Do shifters even have their own form? I mean, why humans…?” She trailed off, looking a bit dazed.573Please respect copyright.PENANAELdLfzBxsU
He was kind of at a loss at her question, but answered anyway. “Uh, yeah. Shifters do have their own forms, in a way… it’s a bitch to explain. They just learn how to look like humans, because most spend the majority of their lives on Earth with humans, y’know?” He shrugged. “And the color, that’s easy. It matches our magic. There’s a lot concentrated there - we rely on sight a lot. Bright light changes whatever eye color we chose to that, ‘cause it’s reflecting off the magic instead. And it usually glows.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAWg5fAPCyOd
“Ohhhh…” Luna paused, crossing her arms. “I guess it’s kinda like our world. Everyone is like a human, but Fia says that’s because humans accidentally cross the portals and, you know, breeding happens! So unlike this world, and I guess your world, almost everyone has magic, but they don’t have a choice for human form. Oh! But if you don’t have magic, technically some species can transfer parts of their magic! Like witches… and …and some elementals?” She rambled on about the subject, then finally stopped to breathe. 573Please respect copyright.PENANA8bC1Y1IJ32
“Huh.” Seeing as he had no experience with their world, he was pretty curious. “Don’t get me wrong, though. The shifter’s dimension is completely made of magic. Everything. Even shifters can’t put up with it for long.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAxE6x2XMFQn
"Everything?!" she gasped. "That’s so… uh…" She seemed stuck on the word to use, then just gave up and grinned.573Please respect copyright.PENANAE7wn3ip79A
He nodded. “I know.” Redirecting the conversation, he asked, “What’s your world like?”573Please respect copyright.PENANAEJR9Xdk7qo
She looked up, eyes glazed in thought. “Well, I guess it depends on where you go! My island was more…” She narrowed her eyes, getting stuck on the word again, then shrugged and gave up. Then she smiled again. “But there was a ton of trees and vines and birds and prey! Neoma’s land is pretty neat too, like, it’s in the middle of all the climates, and it’s huge! Not as huge as Fia’s… but it’s in the center of a ton of climates! So their land is full of elements and elementals!”573Please respect copyright.PENANAs77mXLnLhZ
”So does their element depend on where they live, or is it random?”573Please respect copyright.PENANAhwmYhG2YPD
“Mmhmm!! On the island, anyway!” She paused again. “On Fia’s land its more witches, and fairies, and other things like that… well, fairies are kinda elementals too… Oh!” She continued. “But there’s bigger kinds of creatures, and a few smaller ones!” 573Please respect copyright.PENANAIvSHOUzvhP
”So who’s Fia?” 573Please respect copyright.PENANA32solAci4D
“”She’s our friend and the keeper of portals on our island! She sets up portals and where and when they go places - she’s a witch!”573Please respect copyright.PENANAK4HF9zjuDJ
”Huh. You guys need to go see her to get back to your world, then?” he asked, wondering if this witch was at the destination Neoma had been so vague about.573Please respect copyright.PENANAoySJwShfzL
“No, we know the destination to go to! Neoma’s sister, Ee, was messing with the portals and sent us through…”573Please respect copyright.PENANAI3wlLsOJAv
He grinned a bit. “Bet a certain bitch wasn’t so happy about that.”573Please respect copyright.PENANADVaHL4FefL
”Heard that!” Neoma growled.573Please respect copyright.PENANAOpyJBQ3KmZ
“Good.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAdIdS5BwYvx
She giggled. “She’s going to killlllll her!”573Please respect copyright.PENANA2WJgw9Qyvc
”Hah, sounds fun.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAn5gCxw1GCD
”I like Ee, though…” Luna pouted a bit. “Her lap is reeeally warm…”573Please respect copyright.PENANA6pywu9xrs8
He was quiet for a few moments, then abruptly changed the subject. “What about you? You’re a familiar, right?”573Please respect copyright.PENANA4nqeKx43Jn
She thought for a second, then nodded excitedly. “Yeah! Well, technically, not everyone in my village is a familiar, but almost anything can be a familiar, so…”573Please respect copyright.PENANAZWDQFs0Vzk
”What’s your village like?”573Please respect copyright.PENANAeh9wIgdSUy
Luna kicked her legs off the horse, accidentally hitting it once, and patted its shoulder with a mumbled apology. “Well… it was different than this! I mean, there was conflict between the other clan and us, and a little conflict inside it, but they weren’t really accepting of outsiders… no, that’s a lie. As long as you could hunt, you were good…” She gave a short hum, conflicted in her thoughts. “We had a different ranking system!”573Please respect copyright.PENANAnwXPFcpgPx
”How?”573Please respect copyright.PENANA0vPbts6OP4
”Well, there was the head family, but I guess that’s everywhere… There really wasn’t anything under that, though. The normal population, then the prisoners.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAiexO4Cl2UE
”Sounds pretty simple.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAbIDrDFPdy0
She nodded. “And the prisoners could become part of our village if they worked it off, or they could choose to go home after they worked enough.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAFpmeSzK6fH
Huh, that was surprising. “You guys would just let them go?”573Please respect copyright.PENANAa2s5Pm0S4Z
”Well, the village didn’t like each other, but we weren’t total jackasses - the prisoner could have a family! The amount of work they had to do depended on the crime against the other tribe. If it was something like murder or stealing another tribe’s children, then they probably would be dead when they got back home. Bad leaders were kicked out, too. If they did evil things, then they were evil people, and obviously couldn’t lead correctly. And a corrupted leader makes a corrupted clan.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAvIKjIdDoZQ
Truest statement he’d heard all day. He nodded. “Doesn’t sound like that bad of a way to live.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAvh8uRVKIvV
Neoma shifted uncomfortably, glancing over at the two. Luna only nodded happily. “It was!”573Please respect copyright.PENANARW6nuQc0o0
”Was?” The shifter looked over at her.573Please respect copyright.PENANAZFO6bwv4Qg
She bit her lip and nodded. “Was. What’s your home like?!”573Please respect copyright.PENANA9tgS5iK8tG
He blinked at the switched topic, then hesitated. “Eh… like I said earlier, shapeshifters pretty much just live here on Earth, so..” He half-shrugged.573Please respect copyright.PENANAw1okVpcj6T
“There’s a pretty much to that, though,” she prodded, smiling.573Please respect copyright.PENANA6Vl7MYdrD2
”Not all shifters do. I do.” He gave her a flat look, much preferring for her to drop it.573Please respect copyright.PENANAbtNU0eZvsK
”Oh.” She pouted. “But Earth’s boring!”573Please respect copyright.PENANAX2M7svqYOQ
”In your opinion.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAGus8W8Y4Vk
”In a lot of people’s opinions!”573Please respect copyright.PENANAcwiPxp5y4f
”Not in mine.” Better than quite a few places he’d seen. (Including the ones by accidental force, but some of those were cool, too.)573Please respect copyright.PENANAjUL4lkWiU1
She pouted again, glaring. “Well, your opinion’s stupid.”573Please respect copyright.PENANA5wzTU9gck0
He raised an eyebrow at her. “I can say the same for yours.”573Please respect copyright.PENANASrECj4DBVG
”Oh really? If you shapeshifted in front of a lot of people in this world, they’d burn you at the stake! In our world, it’s totally normal and accepted!”573Please respect copyright.PENANACnQqnf8UuR
He started to smirk. “Shapeshifters don’t usually have that problem, though,” he pointed out. “First, we’re practically impossible to corner, and if we are, we can still escape. Second, you can’t burn one of us to death - most wouldn’t burn, period. Hell, I’ve shifted in front of people just for fun. It’s hilarious, they freak out. Sometimes, they pass out.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAvZQKtkeLQg
She had a blank face, then stuck her tongue out and crossed her arms in defeat. He grinned, and she started to giggle.573Please respect copyright.PENANAe6gvGsTxAm
573Please respect copyright.PENANAJg0frwOX9c
* * * * *573Please respect copyright.PENANAuPD3tbSAPM
573Please respect copyright.PENANAtcqTUGxXB2
Just before they’d entered the town, Cináed had shifted back out of Aella’s appearance. Now he was back to his reddish-haired form, although tired-looking.573Please respect copyright.PENANAdzKiRNuWWW
Neoma had changed her shadow horse to look more normal, which had caused a lot of bucking and protest and had taken a few minutes and calming gestures.573Please respect copyright.PENANACsqwIrl6Eq
He looked over at the elemental. “So. What’re we even doing here?”573Please respect copyright.PENANAXQgxWHlya4
“Well, we’re heading up to a small town. It’s where one of our portals are located.” She looked down, glaring at the ground.573Please respect copyright.PENANAdpPpqkWKXn
”We spending any time in this town?” he sighed.573Please respect copyright.PENANANWk9R7fyoC
“Besides getting more food, no.” She looked down at Luna, who was walking around the horse’s feet, nimble enough to not get stepped on. 573Please respect copyright.PENANAqrh4TuXdH8
“Good.” Luna paused her playing to look behind them, then darted under the horse again. He glanced at her distractedly, then went back to looking around.573Please respect copyright.PENANAig6EDc5fuq
Neoma rolled her eyes, pointing to a store “Stay here okay?”573Please respect copyright.PENANAm4atf04P5B
“Why?”573Please respect copyright.PENANAKT8KCpS2M7
“I’m not talking to you, asshat. I’m talking to Luna.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAHz6YaWhs2f
“Yeah, I know that,” he grumbled, annoyed. “Why’re you leaving her there though?”573Please respect copyright.PENANAqWuWAG3DdY
“Because we’re going into the store to get food.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAMPtIBZZRq3
He huffed. “Took her last time. Whatever, let’s just hurry.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAtfvcGzNfZN
“Yeah, yeah.” She jumped off the horse and tied it to the pole, leaving Luna to curl up next to it. He did the same, muttering something under his breath.573Please respect copyright.PENANAdnCN6MkLVv
Neoma walked quietly into the store, looking at all the foods they had set out. Cináed followed a few steps behind, looking a lot less interested and mostly just glaring at either the floor or Neoma’s head. She didn’t seem to notice, as she was looking over the food. “Pick whatever the fuck looks good.” 573Please respect copyright.PENANAjPJOwQIC4p
He gave her an irritated look. “Can’t you pick yourself?”573Please respect copyright.PENANAclvpgCeR1V
“‘Course, but you have to eat sometime.”573Please respect copyright.PENANATVN8mnreEj
“I don’t CARE what I eat,” he complained. “Unlike some people, I’m not picky.”573Please respect copyright.PENANAeDDPlh52b2
She scoffed as she began to pick up a few fruits. “Riiiight.”573Please respect copyright.PENANALOjRZUnAEI
A short while later, the two had managed to get a decent amount of supply and approached the counter. After showing it all to the shopkeeper, Neoma pushed some shadow money toward him - it was something she had been working on for awhile, and it was finally to her standards. The man didn’t see any difference, at least.573Please respect copyright.PENANAZEJpIhPMiR
Outside, Luna was completely immersed in her thoughts until Neoma spoke. “You okay there?”573Please respect copyright.PENANAGplgyNqpWo
The familiar jolted up, purring in response, as Cináed quickly untied his horse. Neoma followed suit, and they rode out of the town with Luna trotting ahead.573Please respect copyright.PENANAARUnvIBrwB
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BigRedLittleWolf
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