Our Second World book three: Personal Truth

Chapter 9: Nephinae

I nearly fell off my bed in surprise. I didn't, but if it was any smaller, I would've.

I rubbed my eyes and blinked a few times to see if I was just seeing wrong. Nope. Still there.

"What is going on?" I tried to slide away, but the bulge under my blanket started moving and I froze.

Whatever this is, it's big.

After a few moments, and a lot more wiggling, the blanket slipped and I got a good look at the large creature on my bed.

It looked like a mix between a wolf and a fox. The body and head were like a wolfs, but the nose was slightly smaller, and the ears were longer and pointed. The feet were slightly thinner than a wolfs, and the tail was so long it almost wrapped around the whole body twice!

The back of the feet, the tips of the ears and tail, and a few streaks around the body were all a light blue color. The majority of the fur was as white as fresh snow, though. With one look, I could safely say the creature was the same size as Rala, if not bigger.

It yawned and turned to look at me with piercingly pale blue eyes. Those eyes... they look so familiar.

"L-Luna?!" Hardly able to believe what I was seeing, I pinched myself to see if I was dreaming. It hurt, which meant that all of this is real.

"Yes?" The very, very big fox tilted her head.

"W-what happened to you?" she looked confused," Luna... you're huge."

"I don't know."

"How can you be so calm about this?" I screamed in my mind.

"Wait... if you're like this...then... where's Emiko?" I looked, but the black fox wasn't sleeping at my feet anymore.

I sprung off the bed and walked over to the end of it. There, I spotted a tuft of black.

Walking around to the other side of the bed, I found my other familiar sleeping peacefully on the floor.

Like Luna, she'd grown a lot bigger, and had deep purple streaks of fur on her feet, tail, ears, and body. I sat down on the floor as the black fox stirred from her sleep.

With a yawn, she stretched and looked at me with black eyes that now had streaks of purples in them.

"Good morning, master."

"Yeah... I'm thinking I'm going to go find Rin. Like, right now." I stood up and the two foxes followed me," Stay here you two."

Cracking the door open, I checked to see if anyone else was up yet. The hall was empty. I slipped out quietly.

As I approached the stairs that led up to Riniya's room in the attic, I spotted her on her way down.

Her hair was in two tight braids, and she was wearing a simple tomato red dress in the same style as the blue one from yesterday.

"Oh, good morning, Nephinae," Riniya yawned," I didn't think I'd see you up this early."

"Rin, I need your help. See, I woke up this morning and both Luna and Emiko were really big and I was really confused. I don't know what's going on and I'm really confused." I was rambling so fast, I was surprised the other woman understood a word of what I had said.

"I think I know what's going on." Riniya interrupted my waterfall of words," the others are still sleeping. Let's talk in your room."

"S-sure." My head was spinning with questions as I led Riniya back to my room.

When I opened the door, Luna and Emiko ran over. I sat down on my bed and the two of them jumped up next to me while Riniya pulled up the chair from the desk.

"Alright. Tell me again what happened."

Riniya listened intently as I recounted my morning to her.

"... I didn't know what was happening so I decided to ask you." I concluded my retelling.

"I see," Riniya nodded," Well, congratulations."

"Huh?"

"Sorry. I guess I should explain," She cleared her throat before continuing," you see, what's happened to your familiars is something called 'tier break'. It's when a familiar becomes more powerful. Basically, their power level moves up a tier, and in some extremely rare cases, two. It's common for their appearance to change as well, but with such a drastic change, I'd say yours have gone up at least two ranks."

"Ok. So, what's so great about it?" I asked.

"Their masters power also increases." Riniya grinned," It's so cool that you were able to accomplish this, Nephi! I mean, there are mages that train for the majority of their lives to do this, and you did it."

"Yeah, but I don't know how. It happened when I was asleep." I said.

"It's different for everyone, but you know, if the six of you are able to tier break your familiar, your team would be a lot stronger. I'd bet you could take down some high tier monsters."

"Really?"

"You'd have to train super hard, and the others would have to accomplish a tier break, but with their skills I'm sure it's possible."

"Hey, Rin..."

"Yeah?"

"You didn't look away from me at all while we were talking," I grinned and her cheeks went slightly pink.

"S-so?"

"It's a good thing." I giggled.

Riniya's face went a deeper shade of red," d-does that... mean we're... f-fr-friends?" She stuttered, looking at the floor in an attempt to hide her blushing face.

My smile widened," You bet it does!"

Riniya looked up," that makes me happy. I've never had a friend before."

"So I'm the first, which makes me your best friend." I declared.

"Yeah." there was a sparkle in her eyes. The woman sitting in front of me seemed like a young child, now. I'd never seen her smile before, but I was glad to now," By the way, Nephinae, do you want to help me make breakfast?"

"I'd love to," I nodded.

"Get dressed and meet me in the kitchen," Riniya stood up and waved before leaving the room.

I couldn't stop smiling as I changed from my night clothes to a pair of brown pants and a frilly white blouse. After fixing my hair, I happily made my way down to the kitchen.