GLoG

[Earl of Purple]

Voices From the Past

"My father was the chancellor of Canterbury University. I have not gone into academics at all, but I'm happy so that's important." He was very important, and now he's very dead. Natalie's history as a political refugee isn't something she hides, but it might also not come up very often.

She nods as they head up the trail. "He does love those treasure hunts you set up. So do I, sometimes. Not that I take part exactly, but... sometimes I follow along as a robin." Shapeshifting has many useful abilities, and sometimes watching children without them realising they're being watched is one of them.

[Rebonack]

[Voices From the Past]

Khannie doesn't know what Canterbury University is. But she DOES know what a university is. "That's pretty cool. What kinda stuff does your dad do? As a chancellor I mean? Is he just in charge of administrative stuff or something? My dad mostly enchants magical items for people. And he's been trying to figure out the whole 'being a unicorn' thing 'cuz that happened."

Natalie will have definitely seen Khannie without her human disguise. Mostly because there are more than a few children that are pretty strongly in favor of unicorn rides. The reason why she usually sticks to human form is pretty obvious, though.

Hands.

Lifting things with levitation isn't hard but there's a level of fine manipulation with hands that's hard to replicate with magic.

"Hah. I'm glad they're fun to watch. Reelshka's kids are great. All the kids here are great. Even Gilda," Khannie laughs. It's pretty well known that Khannie is Gilda's absolute favorite pouncing target on account of the fact that her illusions make her tricky. "I never really got shape shifting. I know it sorta looks like I do, but actually I'm just strutting around like a doof on my hind hooves right now. My illusions have got enough substance to help hold me up. What's it like? Actually turning into a bird or whatever."

[Earl of Purple]

Voices From the Past

"I think it was mostly administration stuff, but... I don't know. I wasn't really old enough to understand, just that he invited a different professor over every weekend to talk about rather boring things over supper. Some were nice, some were gruff. Professor Brambletree I liked, he gave me my first crystals. I can't really ask him, though. He... was killed when I was eleven." About the time Natalie started living at GLoG full-time, incidentally.

"If I know Geneva's dropping her brood off, I avoid turning into a robin. She nearly caught me once, and birds are... quite fragile." She knows Gilda won't hurt her deliberately, it's just... the chance of an accident is pretty high. "Imagine... Imagine what it felt like when you were a fox. Now imagine there's a... box, almost, in your head, and you can reach into that box and pull the fox out to be the fox whenever you wanted. With the robin, I can't really afford to think too much. They do so much on instinct, and if I start thinking about it I don't know how to fly. It's less so with the otter and the monkey. The chameleon is just... weird, everything looks slower. And the loxodon's probably the most like my usual state, but I need to remember I'm not human when I'm in that shape even though I've got hands and can talk. If I forget, I knock my head on doorframes." So it's pretty hard to describe, especially as Khannie is only pretending to be human- their base states are quite different.

There is another shape she doesn't mention, but that one is useless for everything and is very uncomfortable.

[Rebonack]

[Voices From the Past]

Khannie nods along until the killed part, where her expression falls immediately. "Oh heck I didn't know, I'm sorry."

Her dad died when she was younger? Khannie doesn't want to even entertain the idea of how she would feel if her dad died. Having him come rescue her like something out of a legend? And then constantly having him as an anchor in her life? She can't imagine losing that. She might some day, she knows, but she really doesn't want to think about it.

Thankfully the subject moves on. "I've scolded Gilda a couple times about bugging the birds. I know her mom doesn't want her to harass them but I think her hunting instinct is pretty strong. Like... she's this big ball of predators and she's gotta pounce stuff. If I've gotta take some bruises to stop her from eating the lake geese then that seems fair."

Khannie continues on up the trail, brushing away a fallen autumn leaf that just decided to alight on her head. "Have you told Gilda that you're a robin sometimes? That might be enough to get her to leave the robins alone."

It could be worth a try, right?

But then!

Boxes of foxes.

Khannie considers that for a time. "I've still got the fox spirit, sorta. She's my shadow. But I think we share the same... mind...soul... thing? When I'm awake she's asleep. And when I'm asleep she's awake. I read a book that talked about it. Sometimes a spirit can possess someone's shadow and then instead of going to the Dreamlands when you dream you just sorta go into your shadow. That's how werewolves and things work in some worlds instead of having to do with the moon. Apparently that makes me a wiffox."

A fox-woman. Which is also a really funny sounding name.

"Remembering what the fox gets up to is like remembering dreams. It's all disjointed and symbolic. But she can do what you're talking about, sorta. She's got a collection of Masks and when she puts one on that's who she is. But she can sorta... dream the Masks out into the world, too. Like they're a character in her dream but in reality. This is gunna sound weird but remembering what they do when she's not wearing them is actually way easier."

Conclusion?

The fox is weird.

The pair soon come to a heap of light colored stones in the middle of the trail. At even this moderate elevation it looks out over the lake and the campsite beyond it in a stunning vista. "Okay this is where I found the stele fragment."

[Earl of Purple]

Voice of the Past

"You didn't know, it's fine. A long while ago, too." Nearly a decade, or possibly older. Natalie's age wasn't always as concrete as it now is. "No, I haven't. I like keeping it up my sleeve for the younger ones, so they can be supervised without realising it. Exploration and adventure's more fun that way, I think." If they think they're getting away with something but aren't, they won't try to get away with something and succeed. In theory, at least.

"That is... quite odd, yeah. I didn't know that. Is your sleep still restful?" Because if her mind's off having adventures, is she really sleeping?

Once they arrive at their destination, Natalie will look around for where that fragment might have come from. She's happy to leave the trail in the course of looking, though stops briefly to look out across the camp as a whole. It's a pretty good view; might be an idea to come back some time.

[Rebonack]

[Voices From the Past]

"I guess that makes sense. If they DO get into any trouble you can always pop up to help 'just by chance'," Khannie reasons. It's not a bad idea. "Yeah I sleep fine. I think the point of sleep is to let your brain recover. It's gotta repair and stuff. So if my meness is in my shadow instead of in my brain then I think it counts as just regular dreaming. I've been trying to figure out how to do lucid dream; I figured that might make it easier to remember what fox-me is doing. But I haven't had any success yet."

Which sucks.

But hey what are you gunna do?

Just keep trying, that's what.

Anyway!

There's no clear place the stone fragment could have come from, aside from down the hill. And the hill in questions is REALLY steep.

"Okay, I think Imma need to go four-wheel-drive to get up this thing," Khannie says as she just sort of topples forward, her illusionary human form draining away into darkness and revealing the unicorn as she drops her front hooves to the ground. She flexes her toes a bit, making sure she has good footing. Then? She begins climbing the hillside. After a few moments she glances back at Natalie. "So are you just gunna do the bird or monkey thing? Or do you want me to secure a rope up higher?"

The light filtering through the trees catches Khannie's coat, sending the metallic purple sheen scintillating.

[Halae]

[Playdate]

Braon gives a little nod, detaching her child from her chest and dutifully slinging her over her shoulder, in preparation for the inevitable burping. "They're all rather amiable in their own way." She points out, stroking Niamh's back as she starts fussing. "At least with one another. No sibling rivalry so far."

Meanwhile, on the ground, Janos is still being accosted by a muddy child, who seems to have taken a particular interest in his tail, particularly with apparent regard for how it tastes. Thankfully, she hasn't started teething yet.

Bertin receives a dumbfounded stare as he grabs the other boy's horn-stubs, before getting his own grabbed in return, with them being lightly tugged in a multitude of directions as the boy tries to examine them. Do they come off? Do they push in? Do they play music if he figures out what he's supposed to do with them? All salient questions.

[Playdate]

"Should we sit down somewhere we can keep an eye on them? I hope Bertin and Cain don't get too rough..."

Predictably enough, Sophie is a worrier.

[Playdate]

"They're fine, love," Trick says, kissing Sophie on the forehead, "As long as they don't start eating mud or something, they can be fine with exploring each other a little."

The little horn stubs don't do any of that, but Bertin does start swaying, laughing to himself as he pulls gently this way and that, and perhaps that's as fun as anything else would have been!

[Earl of Purple]

Voices of the Past

"I'm going to transform, but not a bird. Or a spider monkey; they're nearly entirely arboreal, the muscles and bones aren't adapted for hill climbing." Very good at hanging and swinging from branches, less good at scaling rocks and steep ground. And without thumbs, it'll be hard to carry anything up the slope. She'll start to shrink rapidly after that, brown fur erupting from her body- except down her front, where it's white instead. Her ears move, going rounder, and her face develops into a rather blunt snout as a thick, rudder-like tail emerges from her back. Her rucksack hits the floor behind her, and her slingshot doesn't transform, so she picks that up in her mouth and starts to bound up the slope.

She's a lot lighter like this, less vulnerable to random predators, and has the advantages of four-foot traction, whilst also not outpacing Khannie like the robin would. Also a lot quicker than the chameleon, as otters are very agile creatures even if they aren't totally adapted for climbing like this.

[Rebonack]

[Voices From the Past]

"Holy heck otters are cute," Khannie helpfully observers.

She's quite right.

They are definitely cute.

The unicorn doesn't want to use her levitation to grab the rucksack since she can only really manipulate two objects at a time with any real degree of skill. She wants to save her horn in case it's needed for something else. And so? Her shadow begins extending and growing, swelling up off the forest floor and into the shape of what might be at first mistaken for a werewolf. The creature's fox-like characteristics are quite notable, however. As are the mess of nine fox tails behind it. Little more than a shape of liquid darkness, Khannie's shadow scoops up the rucksack with one of its human-like fore-paws and will follow our heroes up the hill on its other three legs.

"She's basically just one of my illusions when I'm not asleep," Khannie comments in reference to her shadow. "It's got me wondering if it's possible to make my unicorn body sleep-walk when I'm snoozing. Not luck so far, though."

The ridge is quite high and there are several rather steep areas to navigate. But thanks to shape shifting and shadow illusions navigating the slope will be possible. After a grueling half an hour or so of climbing our heroes will find what they're looking for. On a narrow ledge stands the open mouth of a cave, the living limestone having once been carved with intent, though years of flowing water has half-disguised it with natural cave formations.

And standing in front of the cave?

Stands the rest of the stele.

Carved from soap stone and bearing more of the arcing script, it's a wonder to behind. A large boulder near the base of the stele is likely the culprit for the top portion of it being broken off. The dislodged stone probably rolled down the hill and crashed into it.

[Morty]

[Summer Water Balloon Party]
Woblins and Dryadeer

"They're working together?"

"Izzat allowed?"

The two woblins quickly scramble to cooperate as well, but Kissa and Malachi have a considerable head start by the time they manage to do it. The Frescots will most likely win.

[Earl of Purple]

Voices from the Past

Natalie squeaks in reply. Apparently she can't talk as an otter.

Khannie will find Natalie's rucksack is surprisingly easy to move using magic. Natalie usually teleports it to herself if she's incapable of carrying it, and has had it enchanted to make magically manipulating it easier. Khannie probably could levitate it without worrying about it, as a result.

Once they reach the top, Natalie shifts back, getting mass and the hair receding into her clothes as she stretches out and up into her human shape. "Thankyou for bringing my rucksack; I was going to just teleport it up here using my magic. I can't move things as an animal; I guess my brain isn't shaped properly to interact with the leylines. Except in loxodon form, but that would also struggle to get up this hill. Stubby fingers, more weight, and a posture that's... not really adept at all fours." Also the useless sloth-girl form, which is a minor advantage at the cost of being unable to balance upright, hold anything, talk, or due to the combined traits of human and sloth, even effortlessly hang from trees.

[Rebonack]

[Voices From the Past]

"It's no big deal," Khannie says as her shadow sets the sack down before going back to being... a regular shadow? Now that they've on a relatively level surface she rolls her shoulders and hips, hunkers down a bit, and then shoves with her front hooves, pitching herself upright. It's definitely interesting to watch, apparently equestrian hips are mobile in a fashion similar to human shoulder blades. Must be how they're so flexible. Once she's up on her hind hooves she layers her human illusion over herself again to make walking on her hind legs effortless rather than a chore.

"Okay. Let's see what this thing says," Khannie mutters as she places the broken stele fragment back in place and once more casts her translating spell. As before, it'll take some time before it starts getting results. "I'm pretty sure we're gunna have enough for the spirits to work with this time."

She trying her best to remain cool and not vibrate with excitement.

[Earl of Purple]

Voices from the Past

Natalie will help, by walking up to the stele and expanding. Her skin thickens and turns grey, her nose turns into a long trunk, and a pair of tusks emerge from her mouth. She's a lot bigger as a loxodon; not a great deal taller but considerably wider and thicker. It's also mostly muscle and bone, which she's going to use to try and shift the fallen boulder resting against the stele.

[Rebonack]

[Voices From the Past]

Turning into an elephant person.

That sure is a thing.

Either way, getting the boulder off the stele definitely helps! It was obscuring the bottom half of the inscription and moving it aside means our heroes can now see the whole thing. "Thanks. I dunno if I woulda been able to move that on my own."

Maybe she could as the fox if she were actually awake instead of just her shadow? Huldra are strong enough to bend an iron horse-shoe straight using their bare hands without much effort if the books Khannie read are true. She hasn't actually tried DOING that. Or... at least she's pretty sure she hasn't ever tried doing that. Given that she remembers what the fox gets up to in the form of dreams means getting all the details right is tricky.

So!

Now she's gunna sit down on a bit of limestone broken off the cave entrance. It happens to make a nice bench.

"My friend Mary can shape-shift too, but she can do pretty much whatever she can think of. I guess you've only got a couple specific things you can turn into? How'd you get 'em?"

[Murkus]

[Summer Water Balloon Party]

"Awwh, Khannie, no fair!" Malachi whines. Even he's old enough to know that it would have been easy to win with the others bickering! But he scutters off in the other direction following Kissa's orders anyways. They've gotta have a lead!

[Earl of Purple]

Voices of the Past

"This one? A vision quest from Isaac's grandfather. Iknika's boyfriend, y'know him?" Probably not, he's linked to Khannie's friends in an obscure enough way there's not much chance of meeting by accident. "In general, though, my best guess is one of my great-great-grandparents was a full natural shapeshifter of some kind. I'm not, I've only got half the ability. I can change shape, but I can't take new shapes. The monkey's from a cursed banana I ate in school, that was first. The chameleon, robin and otter are fae blessings from a talking tree I visited once." And the sloth-girl is from a red mist that rose off GLoG's lake a long time ago. Brinika was present for the banana event, though I don't think Brinika ate one. She's always managed to avoid the weirder things that happened to her friends.

[Rebonack]

[Summer Water Balloon Party]

"It wouldn't be nice to let your friends fight just so you've gotta better chance of winning," Khannie replies to the smol dryadeer lad. Her voice really isn't a chiding one, more a gentle reminder.

But!

The game continue apace! Lots of scurrying about. Lots of balloon gathering! And before long the area is cleaned of broken water balloons! With their bags fat with trash, Khannie puts her fingers in her mouth and gives a shrill whistle.

"Alright! That's time! As the official balloon picking up judge I rule that Kissa and Malachi have won the contest!" Khannie declares, stuffing her hand into her pocket. "And that means it's time for a MYSTERY PRIZE! Since you two worked together and shared your balloons that means you're gunna have to share you prize, too."

Khannie then withdraws her hand and presents the two little Frescots with-!

A crystal! A little white shard of a faceted stone that lights up with rainbow colors when sunlight touches it. "This is a secret treasure from a treasure chest I found on one of my adventures. I kept some of 'em just for prizes."

Incredible.

"Aaaaaand I've got a runners up prize for Balthuk and Maltrika, too, since you guys still did a great job of picking up water balloons even if you weren't the fastest," Khannie says as she withdraws... another rock! It's a round, smooth stone with a hole all the way through it. The twins might be able to sense that there's a tiny little ocean spirit living in the stone. "I don't think I'm as good as noticing spirits as you two are but this felt like a nice house for a spirit to live in and I thought you might like it!"

While the kids are busy admiring their prizes Khannie will gather up the bags to go chuck 'em.


[Voices From the Past]

Khannie wrinkles her nose. "I don't really hang out with Iknika that much, so no I don't think so?"

The trio of rambunctious girls has for many years now consisted of Khannie, Brinika, and Cheasadh.

"I'm pretty sure I would remember an elephant guy."

Seems like a safe bet.

But anyway! Talk of shape shifting.

"Huh. That's kinda different. That sorta reminds me of how shadow-me works when I'm awake. Or... asleep. Whatever," she says, waving one hand in a dismissive whatever sort of way. "All her Masks are me. Just... different mes. Since I've been through all sorts of crazy junk. Kangaskhan me, human me, dragon me, zoroark me. I had this... uh... run-in with a nasty demon that tried to turn me into a succubus slave. But it just gave fox-me another Mask to mess with. I'm kinda hoping that's how things'll work now. I'm okay with just being a unicorn and if more weirdos mess with me then fox-me just gets more Masks."

[Earl of Purple]

Voices from the Past

"I think it's a religious title, or at least a spiritual one. I don't think he's Isaac's biological grandfather. He's human... at least, most of the time." Like Natalie, Isaac can turn into an elephant chap.

"It's better than having the other half of the ability, independently changing shape without storing forms. At best that's... kind of elasticity of form, subtle stretching or flesh-manipulation without being able to change back exactly." It's not truly half the ability, just as Natalie doesn't actually have half the ability; she's got about two-thirds, and so would they. "That's... a useful extra defence against malicious transformation." Natalie is not, however, sure her ability would work as effectively in that situation.

After the boulder is moved, Natalie sets it carefully aside before turning back into her human shape. The loxodon is big and strong, but her eyes aren't quite as acute as a human's, and she wants to ensure this boulder is free of carvings and ornamentation.

[Rebonack]

[Voices From the Past]

Definitely best to set the boulder aside somewhere stable. It's pretty big and if it went rolling down the hill it could potentially hurt someone. There aren't any buildings in its path but still! Saftey is a concern.

With the boulder out of the way Khannie can focus on her translation spell. The spirits don't actually understand anything, but they're looking for patterns to build syntax rules. That's the first step. "Okay yeah this is definitely a phonetic alphabet. That's a good first step."

Hard to build syntax if you don't even know where to start.

"So I guess he's sorta a mentor? Kinda? I guess the closest person like that for me is Sophie or maybe Keiko. What about you? You got anyone cool you look up to?" Khannie inquires curiously. On the subject of defense she gives a nod. "I've been through so much weird stuff. But I guess unicorns all represent different sortsa purity. For me it's almost like purifying as an action. And fox me basically eats corruption and turns it into a Mask. I'm hoping that means this is the last species change I gotta worry about."

[Meowmai]

[Birds and Babs- Treasure Hunt]

Perhaps luckily, Kes won't be alone and idle for much longer. She will hear a pair of excited kids' voices and another, adult one.

"Mommy, is this a wolf?"

"Why is it so tiny?"

"He's still a cub, like you two. The wolves we saw in Underside were grown up."

The squeakier voices belong to two children, unusual ones. They look like wolf-folk, but their snouts and ears are elongated. Their eyes are also cat-like, all of it making them look oddly like cats or bats. One of the fuzzy children has blonde fur, while the other is brown. Behind them is a person Kes might have met briefly or seen around - Reelshka Trollfinger, the senior caretaker of GLoG.

"Oh, you must be Kestrel. Sakura mentioned you."

[Birds and Babs- Treasure Hunt]

Kestrel's mind is beginning to wander, before she's snapped out of any potential daydreams by the sounds of voices. She blinks, jerking upright, turning to look before her face brightens. "His name is Silver! Silver, come over and say hi." For once, Silver listens, evidently curious to sniff around at the newcomers.

With the most important introduction out of the way, she looks to their mother. "Hi! Mhm, that's me. Um, you're..?" The birdgirl racked her brains looking for a name- remembering these sorts of things was never her strong suit. This woman was definitely important! She was sure of that. "Well, um, it's nice to meet you!

[Earl of Purple]

Voices of the Past

"Yeah, something like that. He runs- or possibly ran- a monastery and Isaac is... somehow involved. It's been a while, honestly." Several years, maybe? Natalie genuinely isn't sure. Once, she, Koshal and Iknika were going to be an adventurer trio but... somehow that just fell apart with everyone's studies pulling them different places.

As for the boulder, when Natalie's convinced it's free of markings, she'll look down the slope and wave her hands- one in the direction of the boulder, and one at the bottom of the slope. Red symbols- hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs, with some wands, cups, swords and coins mixed in- appear around both the boulder and the destination, before there's a slight whump as the boulder disappears and reappears at the bottom of the hill. Natalie will then take a gulp of water from a bottle in her bag. "That... Not often I teleport something so big, so far."

[Rebonack]

[Voices from the Past]

"That sounds kinda cool. Maybe I'll get a chance to meet him some time," Khannie muses while she watches the boulder get popped over to somewhere else. "That's a pretty great trick."

Could she pull stuff through the shadows like that? She's done it with people and small objects for sure, but never anything that big. That's probably something she should experiment with to figure out what her limits are.

"Well, I think you did a pretty great job on it, big or not."

A little encouragement always helps.

It seems like of the trio Koshal is the one that really managed to get the adventure stuff going. But that's often how it is with childhood dreams. As a person grows up they find new things that catch their attention that they never even imagined would be important to them as a child.

"Is that how most of your magic works? Teleporting stuff? Aside from the shape shifting I guess, but it sounds like that's more of a natural thing," Khannie reasons. Sounds like her curiosity is getting the better of her again. Also she's burning time while waiting for results from her translation spell. It doesn't exactly go super fast.

[Earl of Purple]

Voices of the Past

"Not just teleportation, but that's the easiest bit of it. Mostly easy, anyway. It takes a lot of concentration. I manipulate leylines, pulling or pushing things through them. I can also summon a... reflection of a creature to do what I ask, which is a bit easier than actually teleporting a real example to me as I don't need to know exactly where to find it. And the copy is friendly as it's a construct of magic partly shaped by my. needs. If we get in trouble, I've got a few things I can summon to help." Birds and fish, with a few other things. Cheap blue creatures from Magic: the Gathering, and also a tiger.

[Morty]

[Birds and Babs- Treasure Hunt]

Perhaps surprisingly, the two woblins also sniff at Silver. Then they giggle.

"He smells so weird!"

"Like dad or us but not!"

They then try to give Silver pets and scratches, predictably enough. Reelshka beams at her children having fun before turning to Kes. She seems to pick up on the birdgirl's confusion.

"I'm Reelshka Trollfinger, the senior caretaker here. These two darlings are my twins, Balthuk and Maltrika." She points to the blond-furred child and then the brown one. "I've been looking for someone to keep an eye on them. I'm a bit busy and they insist on having a treasure hunt."

[Rebonack]

[Voices From the Past]

"Leylines? I haven't taken any classes about that sorta magic but I read a summary in one of my intro books," Khannie admits. It really isn't a subject that she is familiar with. "It sounds neat, though. Kinda like how I build my shadow illusions? Except I dredge up formless darkness from the Dreamheart to make stuff. What are your summons made of anyway? Like, they gotta be made outta something right?"

Khannie can't imagine how they would interact with the world if they weren't.

"I'm gunna be pretty shocked if there's anything dangerous here. Like... more dangerous than falling into a hole anyway. Glog is pretty safe. Even if there is trouble I've been through a buncha adventurey stuff. I was born a pokemon and pokemon need conflict to grow so I was sorta seeking it out."

[Earl of Purple]

Voices from the Past

"Well... it's not definitive, and there's other theories, but... I think more leylines. The world has them, so do people and animals. Everything does. So I think I take a copy of the leylines of a creature, bring it to me, and force the local leylines into the shape of that creature. Samples taken dissipate very quickly, and it's... usually a pretty generic copy. It has rote phrases it always responds with, so if I summoned a Fugitive Wizard it'd be the idea of a fugitive wizard more than an actual fugitive wizard, and not able to teach me anything save by example." They aren't always called leylines when it's people; the words 'arteries' and 'veins', 'meridians', or 'channels' are typically used instead, but all administer the flow of energy.

"Sure, GLoG isn't dangerous, but we're outside the campsite, aren't we? I mean, there might not be monsters or anything, but we're off the path in the woods. Might be animals around, and they can be dangerous if they're hostile- or scared, for that matter." And depending on if Rose ever mentioned her ambush by kyldren on her way to GLoG when she was a little bit possessed, there may be some of those within walking distance.

[Rebonack]

[Voices From the Past]

"Wait it's related to chakra magic or ki or chi or whatever?" Khannie asks, keying in on the idea of channels in people. "Soup has tried explaining that to me before, he's another student in a couple of my classes. He's a ki-tchen warrior. Says the fighting-type pokemon moves I know are totally ki stuff. I dunno much about the details, though, mostly just how it feels when I'm using 'em."

Then?

Khannie clenches her fist, feeling that familiar sensation of FIGHTING SPIRIT circulating through her as the air around her forearm wavers like faint azure fire. Then she gives her arm a shake, letting the pressure dissipate.

"Hah, so would you be able to summon a copy of me? Would you get illusion-ed up human me or regular old unicorn me?" Khannie asks with a laugh. "And don't worry so much. Former pokemon, remember? I'm use to dealing with unreasonably grumpy, aggressive wildlife."

[Earl of Purple]

Voices From the Past

"Yes, but... people's leylines are too narrow and fragile to push objects through, so I don't interact with them much." So Natalie can't really extrapolate qi from what she knows; they're different fields of magic. Meaning in Earl terms they're incompatible, most likely.

"No, because it's a generic copy not an individual. I could try to summon something like you, but it'd be at best a skin deep similarity. If I tried too hard, I could instead teleport you and that's risky. If I lost concentration, even for a moment, there's a risk you won't come back the same as you left. That's why I don't teleport myself. It's hard to concentrate when there's a fraction of a second there's nothing of you to concentrate." Which is what happened to that poor wizard in Trog's, that Zee still hasn't reacted to the death of.

[Rebonack]

[Voices From the Past]

"Okay not a copy of me but something sorta like me," Khannie says. She's curious about a form of magic she hasn't had much contact with AND she needs to burn time until her translation spell is done. Sounds like a great time to mess with nonsense, right? "So it sounds like we just gotta make sure you don't teleport me by accident. You just need to... I dunno... picking up the idea of me instead of actual me? I think I know a way to make the accidental teleport thing less likely hang on a sec."

And then?

She first dismisses her illusion again, dropping back to all four hooves. Even if she can walk on her hind hooves without THAT much trouble it's still way more comfortable to go four-wheel drive. Once that's done her whole body turns black and just sort of... melts into the shadows. Quite literally. All the shadows nearby grow deeper and more defined as they're filled with primordial darkness which also happens to be a unicorn.

"Okay! Now give it a shot," comes Khannie's voice from approximately where she was standing before. "I'm sorta... spread around. And I don't think I've technically got any parts right now. So even if you teleport me by accident I should be okay."

[Gullara]

[Summer Water Balloon Party]
Woblins and Dryadeer

"They're working together?"

"Izzat allowed?"

The two woblins quickly scramble to cooperate as well, but Kissa and Malachi have a considerable head start by the time they manage to do it. The Frescots will most likely win.

[Summer Water Balloon Party]

"Awwh, Khannie, no fair!" Malachi whines. Even he's old enough to know that it would have been easy to win with the others bickering! But he scutters off in the other direction following Kissa's orders anyways. They've gotta have a lead!

[Summer Water Balloon Party]

"It wouldn't be nice to let your friends fight just so you've gotta better chance of winning," Khannie replies to the smol dryadeer lad. Her voice really isn't a chiding one, more a gentle reminder.

But!

The game continue apace! Lots of scurrying about. Lots of balloon gathering! And before long the area is cleaned of broken water balloons! With their bags fat with trash, Khannie puts her fingers in her mouth and gives a shrill whistle.

"Alright! That's time! As the official balloon picking up judge I rule that Kissa and Malachi have won the contest!" Khannie declares, stuffing her hand into her pocket. "And that means it's time for a MYSTERY PRIZE! Since you two worked together and shared your balloons that means you're gunna have to share you prize, too."

Khannie then withdraws her hand and presents the two little Frescots with-!

A crystal! A little white shard of a faceted stone that lights up with rainbow colors when sunlight touches it. "This is a secret treasure from a treasure chest I found on one of my adventures. I kept some of 'em just for prizes."

Incredible.

"Aaaaaand I've got a runners up prize for Balthuk and Maltrika, too, since you guys still did a great job of picking up water balloons even if you weren't the fastest," Khannie says as she withdraws... another rock! It's a round, smooth stone with a hole all the way through it. The twins might be able to sense that there's a tiny little ocean spirit living in the stone. "I don't think I'm as good as noticing spirits as you two are but this felt like a nice house for a spirit to live in and I thought you might like it!"

While the kids are busy admiring their prizes Khannie will gather up the bags to go chuck 'em.

[Summer Water Balloon Party]
Woblins and Dryadeer

"Yay, Malachi we won!" Kissa grabs her brothers hand and pulls him over to Khannie. They get a prize! She waits eagerly for their prize, and then her eyes go wide. "Wooow, it's pretty." She holds out her hand to take their prize. She cups in in her hands and turns to Malacha can appreciate it too.