Chapter 6 – An Unwelcome Surprise
White Fang by TomatoRoux
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Chapter 6
 
After Alex had driven Theo off with his expert deal-making skills, we returned to our inn room for the night. Part of me wanted to test just how important sleep actually was to my new self by staying up all night, but the idea of sharing a bed with my new younger sister caused me to delete that thought. The only problem was... I didn't have any sleep clothes to change into.
 
When we camped the first night, I slept in my normal clothes, they were comfortable enough given that we were basically laying on the ground anyway. Now that we had a bed to lay in, I wanted to change into something else, but it wasn't like pajamas were common attire found in games. Not to mention, even if I had such a thing in my inventory, at this point I only had access to the items the character had been actively wearing. Perhaps if there really was a system underpinning everything I could access my treasures, but for now I just had to assume they were all lost.
 
“Could I borrow one of your shirts Alex? To sleep in.”
 
“That's fine with me, though I'm sure you'd be more comfortable in one of Willow's nightgowns.”
 
I hadn't really thought about borrowing clothes from my new younger sister, though once Alex mentioned it, it seems feasible. After all, she was only about a head shorter than me, that would make the gown a little short, but not short enough to cause any wardrobe snafus. The issue now was finding a place to change, Willow had no issue redressing in front of Alex and me, but I couldn't help but feel a little hesitant.
 
Even if he's my Dad now, I've only known Alex for a couple of days! That level of familial comfort is just not possible for me, yet.
 
“I'll turn my head,” Alex chuckled, reading my expression like a book.
 
“Thank you,” I blushed before turning to Willow. “So, may I borrow a nightgown, Willow? Which one do you think would look best on me?”
 
“Hmm,” Willow looked down at her bag in contemplation before pulling out a blue gown with white trim. “This one.”
 
“Oh, that blue does pair well with my silver hair! You've got quite the eye!”
 
I changed clothes and then crawled into bed, informing Alex he could finally turn around. The moment he did, it became my turn to look away, as he needed to change into sleepwear as well, and I really didn't want to see my new dad in his underwear, ever.
 
“All done, Liz.”
 
“Hehe, sorry...” I turned around and grinned at Alex in his sleep clothes. Far from the pant and shirt combo I'd expected, he'd changed into something resembling a sleep dress as well, only his was far more plain looking.
 
“It's to be expected, if you adjusted to our way of life too quickly I'd have to question your sanity.”
 
“Given everything I've done so far, I'm surprised you're not already questioning my sanity.”
 
“You're still young, and from a world far different than our own. I'm trying to give you a bit of leeway to be yourself before I start judging you for your actions. Don't worry though Liz, if you do anything that's out of line, I'll do my best to support you so you don't get into too much trouble. We're family now, and family looks out for one another.”
 
“I'll look out for you too, Onee-chan!”
 
“Thanks, Willow,” I smiled and gave my younger sister a quick pat on the head as she climbed into bed beside me. “I'll look out for you both too. I'm really only good at fighting off monsters, but I promise to put those skills to use keeping you both safe.”
 
“Just don't go too far,” Alex chuckled after my declaration. “I know if you wanted you could unite the entire world under a single flag, but the life of a king would be too much for me.”
 
“Who said I'd make you king Alex? If I founded the country, I'd be its first Queen.”
 
“The life of the Queen's father sounds pretty difficult too. Noble life is full of tradition and egoism.”
 
“Speaking from experience?”
 
“Only from what I've seen as a merchant who's catered to the nobility before. What I saw made me glad I come from more humble stock.”
 
“I didn't take you for the kind of merchant the nobility would call upon.”
 
“I sold my former company after Willow was born. I wanted a smaller enterprise, something that would allow me to stay with her more often.”
 
“You're a great dad, Alex.”
 
“I'm sure your father was a great man as well.”
 
“Yeah. Guess I'm pretty blessed to have had two great fathers in my short life, and the cutest little sister too of course,” I hugged Willow tight as I finished speaking.
 
I fell asleep after that, only waking up once during the night to handle a bit of biology. Thankfully I was able to use my light spell to see inside the little closet as I went, without magic I assumed people just had to leave the door open. There were no lights inside, nor was there even a little shelf to set the lamp on if one wanted to. It really drove home how little privacy the people of this world actually expected to have around their family members and traveling companions. If you were going to share a room, you just had to live with the fact that the person staying with you was probably going to see you pee.
 
After shedding a few tears at the lack of toilet paper, I climbed back into bed and slept until the first rays of morning sunlight seeped in through the window. Alex and Willow were both asleep, my little sister wrapped so tightly around me it took a full fifteen minutes to untangle myself from her. I dressed while they slept and began debating whether I should sneak out or not. There were a few other abilities I wanted to test, though whether it was safe to do so in the inn's backyard was an issue.
 
Opening the window I lept out of the room, landing safely below thanks to Fall Suppression. So far I was certain that pretty much every spell in the game was available to me, but what about the abilities of other classes? The minstrel for instance had a rather unique ability, called Song of the Wild, which allowed them to speak with animals, according to the game's flavor text of course. In practice it just allowed them to recruit a single animal companion. The ability had been poorly implemented, as there were several dogs and big cats one could recruit in the early game, but by the time you reached the end of the base content, there wasn't an animal powerful enough to be worth the effort. This made it all extra silly as Song of the Wild was a rather high-level ability, by the time you could use it, it was worthless for anything other than recruiting a pet for fun.
 
Still, if I could use Song of the Wild to talk to Alex's horses, perhaps it would be of some use. At least I would be able to ask them if they felt unwell and advise Alex to take them to whatever this world's version of a vet was. That would keep him from having to retire them too early.
 
Walking over to the stables I found the place completely empty, with only Alex's horses present. Grinning to myself I couldn't help but feel excited at my luck, after all, it would probably look pretty weird if someone saw me talking to a horse.
 
“Alright then, Song of the Wild,” As I spoke the ability's name, I began to feel a bit feverish. Suddenly my vision blurred, and everything began to look a bit... shorter? Or rather I began to look a bit taller.
 
“The hell,” As I gazed down at myself I found that I was wearing way too many pendants, and armor decorated garishly with gold. My voice which had sounded like a bell's chime before, now had a more syrupy quality to it, a more mature sound. Turning to gaze behind me, I saw a rather long, excessively fluffy fox's tail growing out of the base of my spine, flicking back and forth in agitation.
 
“Margaret...” I'd become my first character, I'd literally changed bodies completely and now inhabited the kitsune I'd played back when I knew little of the game, long before the heaven-touched had even been added in the first expansion. “This isn't good.”
 
While the kitsune kept with the anime aesthetic of human people with animal ears and tails, Alex had already said that he'd never met a non-human before. As my heaven-touched character, I was at least passable as a human child, as Margaret there was no way my appearance wouldn't start a riot.
 
“Healing Aura,” Deciding to abandon my little experiment I hid in the corner of the stables and spoke the name of the Paladin's healing ability. The moment I did so I began to feel nauseous and uneasy, my vision warped, and I was back to my heaven-touched self, all of my equipment altering back to what I'd been wearing before.
 
“Ugh... I don't feel so great,” I mumbled, stumbling backward into a pile of hay. While the feverish feeling of becoming Margaret had faded once the transformation was over, this time the sickness my shapeshifting caused seemed to linger. My body felt heavy, my mana twisted and uneasy, and I really needed a nap.
 
What would've happened if I spoke the name of an ability to a class I never played?!
 
I needed to return to the room before Alex and Willow woke up and began to think something terrible, like perhaps that I'd run away or something, but I couldn't. I tried to stand but the whole world spun as I did so causing me to fall backward on my ass once again. Dizziness overcame reason and I closed my eyes, my consciousness drifting away.
 
 
 
 
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