Shapeless Hero

11 - Another Deal

I don't quite understand, why my explanation of the game Skat has softened the commander's attitude towards me, but I'm glad it did. What I didn't expect either, was the reaction I got from everyone, when I confessed my past life as a human. They apparently vanished from this world.

What are the common species of this realm then? Considering the magic spells and status screens I've seen so far, this really feels like a fantasy RPG already, so I wouldn't be surprised, if I end up meeting dwarves, elves or other talking birds.

I might get my answers now, actually. The commander takes her helmet off.

Illuminated by the warm colors of the fireplace, her vibrant, dark bronze complexion reveals itself. Hard shadows cast by the small light source of the campsite make the chiselled features of her oblong face easy to read. Despite the very military character of the commander, her blue-ish silver hair is kept long enough to form one braided ponytail at the back. The braids hug her neck along the left side, before ending at the front, slightly above the height of her collar bones. A simple metal clip holds the hair together at its end. She looks back at me with her light blue eyes.

Combined with her long, pointy ears, one specific species comes to my mind. "A dark elf!"

"Right you are. Though, not everyone seems as excited as you about it."

"Oh... Is your kind considered evil or something?"

"Mostly a lot of history that paints my kin as the villains of other humanoids."

"Other humanoids like...?"

"Dwarves, forest elves, halflings and many more. This excludes humans in this day and age, of course. The best place to find a human now, would be perhaps in a glacier."

I'm a bit hesitant to ask, but my mind will fantasize something horrible into reality for days to come, if nobody tells me. "What happened to them? The humans, I mean."

"Isn't that a question for you?", the commander asks back. "You're the one claiming to be a former human. All we know is, that humans started to disappear around the time when the other humanoids emerged. Perhaps a power struggle?"

"I know it sounds weird, but I'm from a completely different—"

The gurgle of her stomach declares the end of the conversation.

The commander attaches her helmet to something around her hips and goes back to the campfire with hurried steps. She takes a wooden bowl and serves herself a portion of the stew that has been bubbling on the fireplace for some time.

Meanwhile Karl hops over to me. "...I'm not quite convinced that you were specifically a human before you changed, but you don't strike me as someone, who grew up in the wilderness either..."

"I was a human, I'm sure...but I have no way to prove it, have I? For now, let's just say I was some other species? Does that work for you?"

"Sounds reasonable enough..." Karl slightly tilts his head. "Can I say, you seem rather well for somebody, who just very recently has transformed and asked us to kill you because of it. Did something happen in the banishment teleportation?"

"Nothing I would have noticed. Not sure how it's connected to that, but..." I look down at my humanoid legs and feet of a uniform light gray. As strange as that complexion is, they feel like my legs now, without the prior unease of years past. "I was stuck even before this. I could explore the world now. Maybe. A world completely unknown to me, filled with magic. It's kind of exciting."

The commander chimes in from over the campfire a handful of yards away. "I hope, eating people is not part of your travel plans. You're quite the curious one though."

I look at the ocean waves. It's a scenery, I've only known from 4K drone footage on the internet. "When you spend all your life in the same town, with the same people and with a condition, that doesn't allow you to walk for more than thirty minutes before collapsing, seeing the world in all its wonder is just a dream. Imagine, what would happen, if such a bad condition was healed and all the places you only know from stories are suddenly within reach!"

"A dreamer, are we? But I think I understand. I didn't join the military to watch the same city gate for the rest of my life." The commander gets back to eating. Despite the time that has passed, I haven't grown hungry yet. The appetite is there, yes, but not the hunger.

Karl hops a bit closer and addresses me in a lowered voice. "You know, I travel around a lot. If you are interested in seeing the world and I am interested in your circumstances... I can think of a way, we could help each other out here."

I nod slowly. "I think I catch your drift, but..." My look wanders down to the sword still keeping me in place. "...how?"

"Do you think, I will just let the shapeshifter run around freely, if you ask nicely?" The commander eyes us with a stern look.

Clearing his throat, the scholar turns to her. "No, but I want to study our friend's condition in practice."

"You don't need to travel for that, though. A well guarded training area in a containment complex will surely do, right?"

"If this was a normal examination, maybe, but Fylka is an ascended shapeshifter. I want to assess the extends of their abilities on the field! Wouldn't you want to know what a shapeshifter of that caliber can do, let's say, to a dragon? Or how they socialize?"

"You say that like it's just a walk in the garden. As intriguing as it is, such a fight could devastate a city. And socializing might raise awareness about shifters that'll lead to trouble down the line, if you make a single mistake. Doesn't seem worth the risk."

"Hmm." Karl rubs his beak and what felt like a smile formed on his face. "Would you reconsider it, if I told you, that what happened to Fylka's mana circuitry could be applied to the imperial defenses as an upgrade? Albeit in a modified state, I did use the same arcane sigils on Fylka that I implemented in your capital, no?"

"...that..."

"At some point your enemies will figure out, how to breach the current constellation. Surely, you wouldn't want to be the cause of the imperium's downfall, just because you didn't allow the right research to happen, no?"

The commander massages her temples with an annoyed expression. "Damn crow..."

"Also, aren't you forgetting something? You cast banishment on us, right?" The crow looks around the place in an exaggerated manner. "Does all this look like a hell to you?"

"Right... it's teleportation target is chosen by the gods. And we're in Tyllat, a country known for its coasts and meals."

"I don't know about you, but Tyllat doesn't strike me as hell-ish or horrible, which means..." Karl looks expectantly to the commander.

She closes her eyes and sighs. "...nobody was deemed evil enough in the eyes of the gods for an actual punishment. Even Fylka, a shapeshifter." 

"Exactly! The gods themselves have judged and we ended up in a bloody camping spot, perfect for a vacation! And I'm sure that a commander of the Imperium, a nation with deep connections to one specific god, will understand the weight of a god-chosen location, right?"

"Fine! Fine. Have it your way!" The commander raises her hands in defeat. "But!" She points her spoon at the crow. "I have a condition. You said this was for improvements on the imperial defense systems, right?"

"Y-yes. I did."

"And Fylka seems firendly right now, right? It's possible that they might be tricked or manipulated into doing evil later."

"I hate to admit it, but I have nothing to prove you wrong."

"In that case, we need a safety measure—which I can provide." The commander finishes her bowl of stew and stands up. "If you both want to travel around the world and you both plan to do so for the benefit of the Imperium, then I demand that Fylka swears the imperial oath."

"What!?" Karls wings expand in shock.

The wind is rising.