Chapter 246: Balking at Baldness

“So, everyone had dreams?”

Ann was sitting cross-legged, munching on bread and a mild soup for breakfast. It had potatoes and some hearty vegetables she didn’t recognise, but the seasoning they’d gotten Cook had upped her game. It wasn’t great, but it was awesome for what they had. Alruna sure looked happy. Her vertical eyes were closed, and a smile was on her pale lips.

“Except me. Honestly, I can live wit’ tha’,” Kat sighed. “Don’t need Dearc takin’ up more o’ me mind than it already is.”

“Waheela trained you?” Rosalyn asked for like the fifth time. Bren was staring at her with just as much curiosity.

“Trained is a word, sure,” Ann nodded. “We spent time with me trying to sense other presences, and then playing a very aggressive game of tag. You ever get hunted by a pure black wolf that’s seven feet tall and doesn’t make sounds? It’s fucking horrifying!”

“Get better,” Lucia shrugged.

“Did… did you just tell me to get good? Holy shit some things do last through time,” Ann groaned.

“I found a Warped tree in my dream.”

All eyes turned to Rosalyn.

“You found what?” Bren sputtered.

“A warped tree,” the druid shrugged. “It’s a weird thing covered in skin and full of guts and bones. I blew it up.”

“Wha… explain,” Kat demanded.

“Exactly what it sounded like. Xirali had found it, we went to go see it, Xirali was being really excited and getting a bit ahead of herself, and yeah, we were testing things and I shot it with lightning, the thing blew up, and then it got better. That was the weird part, honestly. It all came back together instead of growing new bits. Even the blood, and there was a lot of that, got sucked back.”

“As in it fully reversed everything that was done to it?” Bren tried to clarify.

“I dunno. I guess it did heal the gash Xirali kicked in it, but watching a spinal column reassemble was a bit more interesting than skin healing. You do that all the time, Bren. Also it’s in my soul dream thing. Who knows what makes sense there? You jumped off a cliff, Kat, and you were fine.”

“Lucky. Don’t think have same,” Lucia grumbled. She hadn’t been the most forthcoming with her dream. They knew the phoenix had changed, and that Lucia had killed it, but that was pretty much it.

“Or a creature that never actually answers your questions, but just continues to ask you more,” Bren sighed, taking a bite of bread soaked in soup.

“Yeah, but for a sphinx that makes sense, even though it does manticore type stuff, too. Weird that they keep swapping genders, too. Oh shit,” Ann gasped, putting her bowl down and looking at Lucia intently. “Lucia, are you bi? That might be an important question.”

“Bi?”

“Do ye like both girls an’ guys,” Kat explained with a wave of her spoon, pointing to Bren and Rosalyn. “Ann’s thinkin’ Bren might get the gender swappin’ thing. I can tell.”

Lucia’s cheeks turned dark green as she fumbled with her spoon. “Uh. Don’t know?”

“If I offered to make out with you right now, or Alruna did.”

Alruna stopped eating, spoon halfway to her lips. “What?”

“Reference,” Ann waved off her concern.

Alruna resumed her meal.

“If something like that would happen, would it be alright?”

“Uh…” Lucia’s red eyes were darting left and right. She was trying to think and had clearly not considered the possibility.

Bren let out a sigh, and something happened between the two of them. Something in the back of Ann’s head tickled in the moment of silence between them.

“Oh. Yes. Fine,” Lucia nodded, then kept eating.

Hey, was that what you were trying to get me to do?

Not particularly, but a part of it. Keep your senses open. Even ones you don’t know you have.

Real helpful.

“Well, then I hope you like her eating you out, Bren.”

Bren spat soup over the stone floor, hacking and coughing as Lucia slammed his back with a fist. “Annita! I am eating!”

Kat and Rosalyn were laughing wildly as Bren wiped the mess from his chin and the front of his robes. Alruna already had a rag out and was cleaning up the floor.

“Yeah, but come on! You and I get to know both experiences! That’s apparently rare, and you get the full deal of both! I’ve still got a lady’s body.”

“Fer now.”

“I… what?”

“Fer now! What? Ye don’t think ye’re gonna get more tae start changin’ even bigger things? Shite, ye could get somethin’ tae make ye shorter,” Kat said, taking a bite mid chuckle.

Ann stuck out her tongue as her ears folded back. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Get to be the tallest again?”

“It’d be nostalgic, an’ gettin’ tae tower o’er both ye an’ Rosalyn does sound kinda hot.”

“Back to the conversation at hand, have these developments caused any further alterations to your forms?” Alruna interjected. She wasn’t even blushing. Everyone else was at this point; even Rosalyn was fidgeting with her hands. “You said your changes have been gradual and marked by further interactions with your inner Warped earlier. Would it not stand to reason this marks the beginning of another transformation?”

“Lucia and I’s firsts. I believe it may. Rosalyn’s started fairly quickly, and so did Katlyn’s. Actually, no, Katlyn’s took quite a while to complete, but it started quickly. So we might have a good chance of it not taking…”

A lock of Lucia’s hair drifted to the floor.

“Or not.”

Lucia’s crimson eyes went wide as she flung her bowl to the side.

Alruna sighed at the mess, but quickly returned her attention to Lucia.

“What?” was the single panicked word the woman said as she grabbed at her head. All of her hair was coming loose. Ann had heard of horror stories about sudden alopecia, but seeing it happen was crazy. Lucia’s hands kept coming away with clumps of hair as more and more loosened in their follicles and fell. Her long, straight, black hair was collecting around her like an inky shadow. She stood there, clutching strands in her fists, looking at Bren for help.

“I don’t know,” Bren cried, grabbing onto her by the forearms. “I’m here, though. Focus on me. Lucia, think, calmly.”

Orders. He was giving her orders! Ann gasped as she realised. She couldn’t help it. Bren was so careful normally.

“Slowly steady your breathing. I am trying to help with the panic. Can you listen to my voice?”

“Can,” Lucia nodded. She looked a little steadier, but her skin was a distinctly lighter shade of green. “Is… all gone?”

Bren craned his head from left to right. “Yes.”

Lucia groaned. “Liked hair. Anything else?”

“Not yet. May I touch it?”

“Yes.”

Bren gently rubbed her head from front to back, then back to front. “Hm, something is coming in, but it may be slow. It is prickly. You may just be getting more hair, Lucia. Perhaps a different kind of hair?”

“Hope black.”

“We both know that’s unlikely with your Warped,” Bren sighed. “Do you want to sit, or would you like to go for a walk and clear your head?”

“Walk.”

“Excuse us,” Bren said as he guided Lucia out of the tent.

“Is it always so drastic?” Alruna asked, casting the tent flap a curious gaze before returning to her food.

Ann’s heart was pounding. They’d met their Warped days ago. She supposed Rosalyn got her eyes literally as she met Xirali and Eas, so they were behind schedule, but that was fast. Kat’s rash had been well before her scales had shown up, and she met Illdall a couple of days after when Rowena had looked into her soul. It was all over the place, and Ann herself was a terrible reference. She became more Warped the more she interacted with the corruption or with the fluids of corrupted creatures. She desperately tried not to make the connection that it was two very different fluids.

“Annita?”

“Huh, oh, sorry.” Ann realised she was panting. Her skin felt clammy, and her body way too warm. Her heart was still pounding in her throat. She needed to move.

Calm yourself pup. Do not let fear control you.

Ann tried. She really did, but she was definitely having a sympathetic panic attack. Was it sympathetic? She was doing this to all of them. Each time something happened, it seemed to take a piece that the person liked and replace it with something new. Well, besides Kat. Kat was always the weird one.

“Oi, ye’re breathin’ real hard there.”

Ann felt a hand on her shoulder and reflexively grabbed it. Yanking hard and twisting her hips, she threw Kat over her shoulder, sending the mountain of a woman tumbling.

“I’m, oh gods, I’m sorry!”

Ann was looking for a way out. Looking for somewhere to run.

Annita. Calm.

Waheela was NOT helping. She felt trapped. Claustrophobic. She needed to move and run and not be here.

“Alruna, we’re gettin’ outta ‘ere. Ann, I love ye, come on.”

Kat gently held out her hand and guided her out of the tent and across the village. It didn’t take long, but a lot of people started looking at them after a bit. Rosalyn was standing right next to her, keeping as close as she could without touching.

“I’m sorry!” Ann mumbled. Her head felt fuzzy, clogged with too much in it. She was Warping her friends. She was the corruption. Was she really in Orenous’ domain, or was this other awful Goddess taking more of her now? How much of what Waheela was telling her was the truth? Could she actually trust her?

Waheela snarled back at that thought. I am your pack! Do not denigrate me like that.

Sorry!

It felt like all she could say. To anyone, really.

The cold wind hit her face, blowing her ears back.

A brilliant blue sky that you could only see in the dead of winter was above her head.

“Run.”

She followed Kat’s order without thinking. Ann took off as fast as she could and didn’t stop. Paws slammed into the snow as she sprinted as hard as she could. Ice packed under the snow cracked against her claws. Wind whistled in her fur. She ran with everything she had, then turned around and ran back.

Her lungs burned, her back fur was soaked in sweat, and she stumbled at the end, but she made it back.

Rosalyn caught her. Well, she caught her shoulders. Ann was a tall woman.

She lay there staring up at the sun.

“Ye better?” Kat loomed over her, squatting with her forearms on her knees.

“Maybe. I dunno,” Ann whined. “It just hit me again. Feeling guilty for all of this happening to you all of you! I couldn’t stop it. I’m so sorry I threw you.”

Kat laughed. Not a scornful laugh, but kinda dismissive. “Ann, ye’ve hit me harder when we’ve been sparrin’. Don’t beat yerself up about tha’.”

“You’re worried about doing all of this?” Rosalyn asked. She’d moved Ann’s head to her lap and was tidying her wild mane. It was a nice, soft place to rest.

“I am. Damnit. The Warping and all of this is a horrific mutation that all of these people have gone through, and we’re doing it in slow motion. I get to have the Goddess watching me. Orenous couldn’t properly seal it up, so now all of you get affected. Who knows if the other Gods did a better job for everyone else, so they might spread it further! We’re all walking radioactive nightmares. Who knows whether it stops when we leave, too? Your mom, Illana, Junia, little Jonathan and Kierran? We might have put them on a path worse than death and I just hit the wall again seeing Lucia just lose all of her hair like that. God DAMNIT!”

Ann slammed a fist into the snow, using a smite without thinking about it. Purple light sizzled in the snow as it exploded in a small puff. “I feel like it’s all my fault, too, because it is! It’s my fault you all are having these mutations.”

“Ann.” Kat’s voice was quiet.

“Now we’ve got a crazy stalker Warped on our asses that is probably watching us right now that wants to kill us!”

“Ann,” Kat said again, a bit more insistent.

“The thing might be attacking Godrin’s Cliff for all we know! What if it just does that while we run away? Just starts killing whatever’s behind us?”

“Ann!” Kat’s open hand slapped Ann’s cheek hard. The sharp crack made Rosalyn jump, but she stayed seated. “Who the feck is talkin’ right now?”

“Me damnit! Waheela’s trying to calm me down, but it’s not fucking helping!” Ann shouted back.

Kat went a step further, and their skulls cracked as she slammed into her. Only Rosalyn’s soft thighs cushioned the blow.

“Then quit actin’ like a blasted maorach! Coward! Did we feckin’ sign up fer all o’ this? Aye! Is it still disturbin’ tae have shite happenin’ tae us? Aye! Get o’er yer self persecutin’ tail. It’s only hurtin’ yerself an’ scarin’ me an’ Rosalyn.”

Ann clutched her forehead. Kat’s headbutts had gotten worse with the scales. She was pretty sure she was bleeding. All she could do was groan and lay there.

“Ye are the core o’ all o’ this. Big important Chosen, right? Bullshite, ye’re just a woman. I’m never gonna blame ye that I’ve got scales now. I was the first o’ us tae start changin’, an’ that because I was havin’ the best sex o’ me life! Hells, I fell in love wit’ this stupidly hot wolf lady I found in a ruin. Don’t ye start insultin’ her, blamin’ her fer everythin’ that’s goin’ wrong or I’ll beat me sense intae yer skull until I get me point through.”

“Kat,” Rosalyn said softly.

Kat blinked, and she pulled back. She was breathing heavily, her muscles strained.

Rosalyn sighed, then went back to stroking Ann’s hair. “She’s right. I don’t like you beating yourself up either. I got new eyes, and I’m still terrified about what else I’m going to lose, but if anything that’s this bad Goddess’s fault. Not yours. Ok, maybe a little bit of Orenous’ fault because she messed up and didn’t get all of the corruption warded right, but it’s crazy she managed to do that since she can’t even sense it and how do you plug a leak that you can’t even feel see smell or hear? Point is, we’ve gotta deal with horrors beyond our understanding and that is kinda a normalish thing for us. Look where we’ve been living. That stuff happens to normal folk all the time. It’s awful. It’s not your fault.”

Ann groaned, pulling her hands away from her forehead. She was definitely bleeding. Red. That was still good. “I get you, and I get you, Kat. I just have a hard time making my brain accept that, if that makes sense? If I were just a lone warrior type, then it’d just be me having to deal with Waheela. Not you dealing with Dearc, or you dealing with Xirali, or Bren having Vokvi and Lucia with her phoenix. Honestly, I think Lucia’s the luckiest of all of us. At least hers doesn’t talk yet.”

“Aye, like Orenous would let ye be alone fer this.”

“Coulda been Nylir,” Ann grumbled.

“Coulda. Or Illdall. Still, think there’s a reason it was Orenous. She’s pretty much the only one sentimental enough tae keep ye goin’ fer that long. Goddess put an insane amount o’ power intae keepin’ ye mostly uncorrupted even while ye were in a Seed. In Her Seed she couldn’t even see. Ann, ye’re a gorram miracle. I’m not gonna let ye see it any other way.”

“Neither are we.” Bren’s boots crunched as he approached with a very bald Lucia clutching at his arm.

“Not fault. Warped. Hair worry, liked, not end of world.”

“But you freaked out so bad,” Ann mumbled.

“Hair suddenly fall out, you freak out too.”

“Kinda happens more to me than most,” Ann chuckled.

“Still. Scary. Were eyes easy?”

“Ugh, no, that one was fucking awful.”

“Same, then. Scary. Then adjust, then can go forward. Time heal. Maybe black hair again? Maybe not. Bryltia proverb. Hunt unpredictable. Overcome at all costs. Be victor.”

Ann lay there, surrounded by her lovers and friends. These people who threw their lots in with her and struggled willingly for her. The emotions overwhelmed her and tears streamed from her eyes. She tried to rub them away, but they wouldn’t be stopped. Her nose clogged up, and hiccups started. “Thanks,” she croaked.

“Stupid mutt,” Lucia flicked her ear. “Am fine. Worry too much. Make us worry. Bren biggest worrier. Trust.”

“I am not.”

Lucia just tapped her head and glared at him.

“Cheating,” Bren grunted back.

“Come on, sit up,” Rosalyn said, pushing Ann up into a sitting position. She hadn’t noticed it, but her tail had been trapped awkwardly and had lost circulation. It was on pins and needles. “Deeeeep breaths. Need a hankie?”

“I’m fine,” Ann sniffled. She didn’t really feel fine right now, but she knew it would get there eventually.