Arratoi sighed. "I suppose..."
"Hey, I just think it's not a good idea to stand out as we do."
She glared at Boi then, for a moment, looked wistfully at Zmaj with what seemed to be disappointment. "Get down, Zmaj," Arratoi ordered, raising her hands to perform the incantation.
In response, he started humming an upbeat tune, jigging to the left and right as he remained sitting on Boi.
"I meant get off of Boi!"
"Okay." He did as he was told.
Another sigh, then both Boi and Zmaj changed shape. Boi felt uncomfortable as her center of gravity shifted as her body grew vertically, her neck craned forward at an awkward angle, and strange appendages sprouted from her hooves. "Gah!" she cried, trying to parse her new form.
"Must be strange standing on two legs," Arratoi noted, briefly taking the shape of a mirror. "Looks funny, too."
Boi stared at her reflection. She seemed to be a large red reptile with a sleek body that looked painfully fragile, covered in a dress that only vaguely resembled her old coat. When she tried walking in the shoes and stockings now covering her hindlegs, she did so without any coordination, feeling at any moment that she would fall forward onto her forelegs again. That probably wouldn't be so bad, she supposed—
"OW!" As she fell forward, her forelegs buckled from the impact, stinging in pain despite her strength. "What did you do—"
"You lummox!" Arratoi chided, waggling her finger as she morphed back to the form of a native, a flattened-faced version of her prior self but with full body covering. "You aren't as thick in native form as you are naturally! They don't walk around on all fours like that!"
"You could have warned me!"
"Yes," she retorted, looking way, "I could have..."
Boi scowled, wincing as she tried to heave herself up again. "What did I ever do to YOU? And how do I get up?"
No cutting remark this time, instead a glower fading to a frown of – embarrassment, maybe?
"You! Zmaj! Help me up."
"Okay." Native-Zmaj, similarly flattened-faced and covered, took ahold of Boi's foreleg and helped her onto her hindlegs again, keeping ahold of her hand while she tried to keep her balance. She was determined to learn this time, rather than fall victim to the idiot whims of that immature brat again.
It was so foreign to her, however, that she couldn't make any sort of headway until she thought of Sjakal—and Vepar—and how their returning to their own plane depended on being able to navigate this one. She imagined being Sjakal, walking with the same gait, swinging her tail at the same tempo, pausing and turning to glare at the others with the same mannerisms. "Let's go," she snapped, getting into the role as though becoming Sjakal would be the key to finding her.
"Where?" asked Arratoi, the tone in her voice betraying more than a hint of skepticism about Boi's ability to find her way where they had been trapped for seven years.
"This point," she noted, indicating the spot where they entered, "is the nearest transfer point between our plane and this one. However, it's tied to location, so if we return through it, we will emerge at the same place but a later time. I'm NOT taking the shuttle again, so we need to find the point where it crosses at the retreat." AND they needed to find Sjakal.
"How do we find our transfer point, then?"
Boi didn't want to admit that she didn't quite know. Arratoi was already aggravating enough without being justified. "We go with the flow."
"What—"
Not the least bit interested in hearing Arratoi argue, Boi continued in the direction she was headed, scenting the ebb and flow of the cosmos. There were definitely multiple points where the planes intersected—six, in fact. She hoped that one of the six was still the point where Vepar emerged, and that it hadn't advanced TOO far. "This way," she ordered, walking as best she could over the grassy buffet she kept eyeing in greed. If the three of them got stuck here forever, at least Boi would die happy, eating her life away.
"How far?" Arratoi complained, crossing her arms.
So impatient! "Have to follow to see."
"If it's far, do you seriously expect us to walk the whole way?"
SO impatient. "YES."
"Hmph!" Native-Arratoi shifted, taking a different hue despite retaining her shape—at least that much was the same.
- ArratoiFI
Boi raised what passed for an eyebrow at her. "To your rampant disregard for a foreign land and dismissive use of mana? Maybe."
"This is faster!" she protested, turning to Zmaj. "Get on."
"Okay," he agreed in blind obedience. Didn't that moron think for himself at all?
"Hmph," Boi grumbled, starting to take the seat behind Zmaj.
"That's mine!" Arratoi fussed, rushing over and hefting herself onto it, grabbing Zmaj from behind. "You get the sidecar."
Was it worth arguing? Shaking her head, Boi clambered into the sidecar, feeling strange leaning back as she did. Once the three were seated, Zmaj revved the engine, ready to take off. "Lead the way!" he cheered.
Boi scented the flow again. "I will point in the direction you need to go," she explained, figuring the roar of the engine would drown out hers once they were in motion.
"Okay."
She pointed along a line of code that wavered through the valleys and hills. Zmaj followed obediently – until they arrived at an odd set of stone rivers, driving the bike onto one and following it instead of taking the direct path. "Where are you going?" she cried, distressed that he would disobey her direction so suddenly.
"Rules of this plane," Arratoi shouted over the rush of the wind. "We have to travel on these roads where they exist! We only drove over the grass because we had to do so in order to get here!"
It made sense, Boi supposed. Why tear up perfectly good food? "But we need to follow the flow, or we might emerge in a different time frame!"
"Then we'll follow it back until we find the one we want!"
"You don't understand the transfer protocol," Boi protested with a growl. "Crossings may be plentiful, but the chance of finding the ONE we want out of the infinite that exist is astronomically low. Furthermore, all planes travel in one direction, so if we pass our transfer point, it will stick and we can't go back—we'll be stuck ten, fifteen, maybe even a THOUSAND years in the future from what we know."
Arratoi was quiet for a moment. "...so?"
"So I prefer the devil I know to the devil I don't—even if this world has some truly gourmet nosh. Or, if we go back at all, I'd sooner go back to when the people I know are still around."
Arratoi had a look as though she didn't care, but there was still a twinge of what Boi hoped was guilt. "Just tell us where we need to go," she said in as emotionally-neutral a tone as possible.
"White light!" Zmaj shouted out of nowhere, staring into the mirror on his handlebars. Boi looked behind her and saw a vehicle with flashing blue and white lights.
"Pull over, then," Arratoi ordered. "See what they want."
"Alcohol, alcohol, alcohol, white light!" Zmaj blurted as he stopped the motorbike by the right side of the stone river.
"What's happening?" Boi asked, blinded by the light.
"Those are the bobbies of this plane," Arratoi explained, glowering yet again. "They make sure we drive at the correct speed on the road and obey all these other arbitrary rules – so let's see which one we broke now."
"Okay," Zmaj agreed on cue.
"Do you always do what everyone tells you?" Boi argued, becoming rather annoyed by his perpetual agreeableness.
He had a chagrined look. "...mostly."
Boi was tempted to say something, but by then the bobby arrived. "Good morning, y'all," she greeted, lifting her cap as she stood to the right of Boi's sidecar.
"'Allo, mum," Zmaj replied in his most polite voice.
"Y'all are aware of the helmet laws in Cross-Two, aren't ya?"
"Oh, is THAT all!" Arratoi exclaimed, starting to wave her hands.
"Arratoi," Boi warned under her breath. "Don't be stupid."
"Stupid?" the bobby asked, suspicious. "Y'all up to no good?"
"Nooo," Zmaj whined, clutching his head. "I don't break rules!"
"Well, that's not 'xactly true," the bobby noted. "As I mentioned, we got helmet laws here. Y'all are supposed to wear 'em for safety."
"I din't know!" he blurted again, to Boi's irritation.
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse, young 'un – and, if I do say so myself, ya do look kinda on the young side. Now, might I be able to see yer license and registration?"
"Zmaj," Arratoi prodded, "tell her we don't need to show those things while I – go get us some helmets."
Boi glanced over at Zmaj, startled to see a subtle shift in his hue—not the noticeable degree to which base shifting normally occurred. "We don't need to show those things," he said, seemingly oblivious to how odd this sounded, as Arratoi disembarked and skipped off the stone river and behind a tree.
The bobby blinked at him but seemed convinced. "Aight, y'all," she noted, "everything seems to be in order."
"Huh?" Boi blurted, glancing back the way Arratoi headed then back at Zmaj. Something had happened, but she wasn't sure what.
As if on cue, Arratoi returned with three sets of helmets. "I'm sorry about that, mum," she apologized in a totally fake tone. "We'll be sure to wear them at all times. We don't mean to cause any trouble. Tell her, Zmaj."
"Yeah," he echoed, "we don't mean to cause any trouble."
Boi frowned, flinching in reflex as Arratoi slapped one of the helmets on her head without warning. "Hey!"
"Well, I'll just let y'all off with a warning, then," the bobby replied, tipping her cap again. "I'm doing this for y'all's safety, ya know."
"Of course, mum," Arratoi cheered in a sickeningly sweet voice, plopping Zmaj's helmet on his head before slipping on hers and sliding back onto her seat.
With a wave, the bobby returned to her vehicle, allowing the trio to continue unhindered. Zmaj started the motorbike again and headed in the direction of the flow to the best of his ability.
"Just what was that?" Boi shouted over the engine's roar. "Did you shift? Because that didn't look like a shift."
"I don't need to shift all the way," Zmaj answered, somehow never losing his focus as he drove, kept an eye on Boi, and answered her all at the same time.
"So you know Base-MY, too?"
"I used Base-IN—but yes, I know Base-MY, too."
Boi had to admit she was impressed with his demonstration of skill. "...you've taken 'idiot savant' to a completely new level. I didn't think it was possible to self-teach so many bases."
"'Necessity is the mother of invention.'"
"Huh?"
"It's a saying here," Arratoi interrupted, seemingly annoyed that Zmaj was so open with Boi. "Desperate people have to learn quickly in order to survive."
"And Drache is the quickest!" Zmaj cheered, proud of his default.
"So why do you stay in Base-RS?" Boi asked, trying to understand.
"It's the fastest junction between bases. I can be fast in my default base, but it is faster to use the universal synch base hub to pull directly from another base."
So maybe it WAS possible for him to learn Base-DK if he could pull from the latent knowledge Boi had... "Stop here."
Zmaj looked for an opening, then pulled the motorbike to the side of the stone river again. "Are we there yet?"
She stared at him in earnest. "I'm serious this time—learn Base-DK from what you can pull from me."
"Okay," he answered without hesitation, staring back.
- ZmajMY
...burial song for no one...
"I change shapes just to hide in this place, but I'm still—"
Boi felt a wave of shock overcome her at the realization as her history flew before her eyes.
"—I'm still an animal."
"What was that?" Arratoi asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
She lowered her head in shame as the memories pieced together, forming a picture of herself she had never seen before. "I'm this thick, rampaging beast with no concept of how people interact with each other. That's why nobody likes me."
"And?"
Boi gave her an incensed look. "Have you never been treated as an outcast for who you are, not having a clue you were supposed to be someone else? Been sheltered from the truth by a well-intentioned prior who thought she was just keeping you from being discouraged by the slightest negative idea?"
Arratoi crossed her arms in dismissal, looking away. "Nope!"
She narrowed her eyes. "Disliked by someone you liked because you have such an abrasive personality that HE has to be ORDERED to help you?"
"...I don't know what you're talking about."
"In your eyes, I see the eyes of somebody who could be strong."
No response.
"Tell me if I'm wrong."
"Naga, are you done yet?" she snapped, trying to change the subject.
"I know kung-fu," he responded without thinking.
"Do you know Base-DK or not?"
- NagaDK
"I see our transfer point," he declared at last.
"It connects to the retreat site?"
"I don't want to go back there!" Arratoi protested.
"We have to go back!" Boi countered. "We don't belong here!"
"I don't care!"
"We're going back," Drage continued, an ominous look in his eye as his gaze met theirs in turn. "That is my order."
Arratoi pouted, stomping her foot in protest. "But I don't want to go back there! STAY HERE, I'm ordering you!"
"WE ARE GOING BACK, ARRATOI."
The shock of his seemingly going against a direct order stunned both Arratoi and Boi. "But..."
"My loyalty is to Hebi," Drage growled, expression turning dark. "What orders of yours I followed, I did so to fulfill hers—to go after you and bring you back."
It surprised Boi to see him mature so quickly, relatively speaking, but she could hardly protest the idea of going home at last. Maybe even... "Oh," she blurted, "can you see Sjakal's trail? Since you read my history, you know what she looks like—"
"Sjakal is defeated," Drage declared bluntly, the blood draining from his face. "Aghvesi brought down a network four thousand systems removed from here."
Boi couldn't understand his words. "Sjakal—"
"—was in the system crash."
She frowned at him. Was she just thick all around? "But she—"
"—IS GONE."
Boi stared at him, feeling a disconnect between her brain and her body. The words were cold and unfamiliar, though she knew them. She knew that she knew them. Her mind just didn't know how to process them.
Drage softened his expression, the gravity of his words emphasized in his manner. "I'm sorry."
The grief that welled in Boi's heart was crushed by the anger that swelled from her blood boiling. "AGHVESI!" she screeched, slamming her forelegs on the sidecar's rims. "WHERE IS HE?!"
"Trapped, but trying to find a way back to our plane."
"Find him, so I can KILL HIM."
"No."
"FIND HIM!"
Drage glared at her with the same stern disapproval he gave Arratoi earlier. "I have my orders," he barked, starting the motorbike again. "We are going back."
Boi slammed again, hefting herself up and clambering out of the sidecar. "I'm not going back there until I have Aghvesi's head on a silver platter!"
"Then stay here, but I am taking Arratoi back."
As much as she didn't care for these two, Boi still had to admit she was unprepared to strike off on her own. "Wait."
Twitching his ear, Drage gave her one last expectant look, as though to ascertain whether he would be able to carry out her order without further conflict of interest.
"Somehow, you pieced together the holes in my understanding." Boi crossed her arms in determination. "Teach me what I need to know in order to find him myself."
He stared at her as though she had turned into a one-winged angel. "You already know."
"Wha—hey!"
It was no use. Drage sped away without another word, focused on his mission. Boi choked back the impulse to cry – or throw up, she wasn't sure which, since they were both unfamiliar feelings.
Now what. At least—she hoped—if Drage was confident enough in his comprehension of Base-DK to leave without her, then he also understood the importance of not screwing up the transfer, so she wasn't too worried about returning too far into the future if she ever got back to her home plane, much less the retreat and its ongoings. However, she had still never planewalked before without Sjakal's guidance, much less alone, and she had no idea where to start.
No. There was one obvious place to start.
- BoiDK
Well, no point living in the past. Okse had to do what she could to undo as much as she could of the damage she'd accidentally created. She scented the ebb and flow, reading its code for the information she needed. It would take a greater understanding than she had to create her own ports the way Sjakal could, but at least she could divine the ones that already existed.
As she started to walk toward the next transfer point, Okse realized she was still in native form. It was awkward—she could tell her teeth were different, not suitable for eating the lush vegetation here, besides the whole walking-on-two-legs thing. What a pain!
...but learning Base-FR/B just to change back to her proper form would be more trouble than it was worth, at least for now. Sighing, Okse traipsed along the side of the stone river wondering what to do, other than not get hit by the other vehicles travelling on it.
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