FSE

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"Speaking of food, where's my stuff, I need to get something from it?" I speak up, taking my time walking back towards where the gear was likely stored.

"Oh, for your stone?" Rophan asks.

"I'll show you," Hashal nods as he starts leading the way. I'm guessing as a result of having nothing else to do and wanting to stay next to the only person that has thus far shown him sympathy Fiin stays close to me, hopping along the ground right next to me.

"Will you need to put it next to the pot again?" Rophan shouts over in my direction.

"No, it'll be more accurate if I keep it on me this time."

Hashal shows me where what little gear I had was being stored and I quickly go into it, finding it actually somewhat nice to see that everything in the pack is exactly as I had left it, meaning none of them had tried going into my stuff. But I find the one necklace easily enough. And then biting the cord carefully I lift it out of the bag and then put it on. Of course with the language necklace, the necklace that Anaelin is being stored and now the food necklace I feel almost a bit gaudy with how much jewelry I am currently wearing. But they all serve a vital purpose.

"What does that one do?" Gregory asks.

"It's something my Siira gave me. I don't need to have an absolute knowledge about all the foods in the world. This thing will tell me if it's safe for me to eat. By wearing it I can tell if something would be too much for me in my current state."

"Interesting. May I see it?" Gregory asks, walking over to me.

I don't really have any reason not to let him see it and I don't think I would be able to even stop him if he was determined enough. But I don't particularly have any means to lift it up for him since I want to limit my own magic use for a little while at least. So instead when he gets close I sit down and lift my head up to make it easier for him to grab it. He kneels down and inspects it closely, feeling along the grooves.

"It's a very complex piece of work. Any idea how it was made?" he asks.

"Not particularly," I half lie. I lack the finesse and the exact instructions that were used in making such an artifact, meaning that I know full well that if it were stolen I'd be out of luck. Thankfully food poisoning isn't the way that I'm going to die. However, I do know that it somehow involved wrapping runes around each other in some of our blood so that it congealed in the way it does on that stone. How this is accomplished I don't know, nor do I know how they had attuned it to my own body. But saying it requires our blood is a bit risky. "That kind of thing was way beyond my capabilities. With my Siira's assistance I was able to create the runes necessary to be able to bind my Anaelin into a necklace when it's not in use, but that's the limit of what I can do. Only thing I've ever made by myself was copying the elf's language rune."

"I noticed," Rophan says from the cooking fire with an odd hint of pride at me having stolen the concept of something he had with him.

"I was wondering why you both had the same amulet. So then if you removed it you wouldn't be able to understand us anymore?"

"Might as well show to prove a point," I say before starting to use a bit of magic to remove it when I feel something tapping at my leg insistently. I turn around and see Fiin shaking his little squirrel head at me.

"No magic from you for now. You need to let more come back first," he says as he floats up into the air and gently grabs the language amulet and lifts it off my head.

I consider using this opportunity to say something extremely personal, but I know Rophan would still understand me, and quite possibly Fiin. "Best way to keep some information a secret, make it so that absolutely no one can ever understand the words coming out of your mouth. If they can't hear you, they can't do anything," I half turn to Rophan, "So how annoyed do you think the human would get if I just started saying everything I knew about magic that I'm sure he doesn't know?" Rophan smirks as Fiin apparently figures that that is a good enough example and puts the amulet back on.

"What do you have him going on about now?" Gregory asks.

"Nothing important," I shrug.

I walk over and sit down by the fire and just sit and try to will my head to stop spinning. To try and stop it from doing so I even go so far as to lie down and half nap while waiting for the food.

"Is meat going to be okay with you? Or do I need to set some aside so that you have something to eat," Rophan asks out of a casual concern.

I raise myself up and feel the dizziness return when it had been abating a bit. I reach down to the pendent that holds the food rune and gingerly bite the cord with my teeth so that I can lift it up. I then hover it over the meat for a few seconds and then let it drop out of my mouth and go back to half napping with my head not complaining at me nearly as much anymore. Rophan apparently has put a bowl of water in front of where I was napping and I take my fill for the time being and then close my eyes, barely noting that I didn't even really think to check what reaction it gave me. I'm nudged slightly when the food is done cooking and I sit up slightly to eat in a more dignified manner. A bowl is put in front of me and I look down at the pendent and don't see any reaction. I start the process of gingerly eating at the broth and notice that there is indeed some meat in there.

"So I've been thinking," Simon says. "I think moving forward we're going to need to change your cover story."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well saying that you're a familiar isn't going to fly," Gregory responds. "Anyone who knows what they're doing will ask what mage you are the familiar to. And if they don't recognize that one or demand to see your paperwork it falls flat. Not only that but there really aren't that many laws protecting a familiar, let alone inviting another incident of that parasite over there."

Suddenly realizing that I had dozed off I turn and see the squirrel actually seeming to have a conversation with Ceirla's bat.

"While you've been asleep we've been talking about that very thing," Gregory continues. "Well the Elf thinks that you're a fey and just won't admit to it because of a promise. Which I do take as a half-truth. You perhaps have made a promise and won't tell us what you are. But that doesn't change the fact that you clearly are a magical species, there is no denying that. Only a magical species would have that result from a parasite draining all their magic away. And though I am curious, I'm not going to pry and force you to break your promise."

"For now," Simon adds. "If I decide that that secret becomes a detriment to the success of the mission, I will force you to tell me and I have my ways to do so."

"At any rate, we need something to tell people since we can't tell people what you really are. And Hashal came up with the idea of you being under a curse."

"A curse?" I ask, my head still swimming a bit, making it hard to focus on both them and the food.

"Well yes. If you say that you were human but someone put you under a curse for some reason or another. Though you do look similar to that of a fox, your size alone would tip people off to something being off about you. And your clothing, mannerisms and the fact you can talk would strongly lead people to believe that you are not just some dumb animal. So if you just tell them you were affected by a curse and are currently looking for a cure, most people would simply accept that. Many would put some distance between you to try and not catch the curse, but you would find absolutely no one having any fault with you looking like you are and interacting in civil society."

"What do you think?" I ask Hashal, since my mind isn't necessarily working all that well at the moment and he'd probably have the best idea of what would work best since he knows what it's like to have a curse as well as knowing my secret.

"Honestly, I think it should work. Generally people are lazy and just want the world to make sense. Give them an easy enough explanation and they'll accept it and move on, content with their world still working well for them. I had thought that the familiar angle would be the one people would most easily accept, but given the issues as they said I think this may just have to be the best course of action, at least for the time being. Eventually we may be able to come up with a much better explanation or possibly people won't even care. That's also quite likely all things considered."

"I suppose," I shrug. "Though I'm going to insist that this thing is going to be something I accidentally did to myself. I'm not going to give someone else credit for making me what I am. If I'm going to be me by force or accident, I'm going to be me because I made me me by mistake."

"That actually probably would be for the best," Gregory says after thinking on it for a moment. "Would explain why someone with magic and wearing magical jewelry would be cursed into such a form. You'll probably need to think of why it was that you were experimenting with something that cursed you into such a form, though. Especially a curse that you wouldn't be able to immediately lift."

"So what do we do about Fiin, then," Ceirla asks, staring off in the distance though I can't see where her bat is currently. Probably could find him if I used magic but don't consider it all that important an issue. "I doubt we'd be able to pull off explaining why we had two people accidentally turn themselves into animals."

"Well, you see," Fiin responds, his entire form starting to shift around and grow extremely fast. His voice also starts changing tone. "The thing about being a shapeshifter is that I can look like anyone," he adopts the appearance of Ceirla and even sounds just like her. Simon responds by drawing his blade just in case. His form begins to change again towards that of a somewhat old man that Gregory seems to recognize. "There's no reason I have to ever be something small beyond personal preference. Big things just feel extremely gangly to me. All limbs, no grace." His form begins to shrink a bit. "I suppose this one should do the trick," he says as he adopts the appearance of a much younger looking human. His voice is unsteady in this form, frequently cracking and looking as if he hadn't grown into his own body, implying some recent growth spurt or something. "With this I could simply play the part of your loyal squire, my lords." He bows and then returns to his squirrel like form. "I'll switch back to it when we get close to town. But like I said, I prefer this one far more."

"Then I guess that's settled then," I say as I go about trying to finish my meal. I can't exactly tell whether it's closer to dawn or dusk right now with my mind all muddled up and everything else that's been going on. Hopefully I'll be able to take another nap to help recover a bit more before we leave. Thankfully none of them seem all that intent on packing things up so I must have woken up after they had stopped for the night, which is good. I'd hate to have to spend all day walking with my head still in such a state.

I don't really remember much of anything for the rest of that night. I remember being woken up with the morning, Fiin having chosen to sleep curled up under my tail, much to the extreme displeasure to half the people traveling with me at the moment but I don't particularly care so long as he isn't making my own situation any worse. I spend the next week traveling trying to get better. We don't so much as take a lot of stops as Rophan insisting when I'm starting to slow down from fatigue that I get into their little makeshift cart for me and take a nap. I think he also might be dosing my water with something since it usually tastes a bit different than normal water, but my amulet doesn't seem to have any objections so I let it slide. Doesn't mean I have to trust the elf any more than I already do. And then after that week, when the sun is just about to set we arrive at our next destination.