THE KEEPERS RISE

Chapter 6 - Common Ground - Part 3

*Remember to click the play button to listen to the soundtrack as you read!*

The inside of the ship was huge, even compared with Will'ym, and had the same iridescent color as the outside of the ship on the ceiling, between two silvery sheet-metal walls. The hallway was a few mep heights taller than Will'ym, even taller than the halls in the mep castle made for humans. They headed to the right, away from the bridge.

Velda had to jog to keep up with Will'ym's natural walking speed. After a while, Will'ym glanced down and saw that Velda was having a hard time keeping up, so he slowed down to match her walking pace. As they walked, Velda kept noticing Will'ym's aura in her mind. It never faded. Since her Powerstone glowed all the time too, she guessed that she looked the same to him.

The hallway was blank for a while, and then doors started gathering along the edges of the passage. Each one was similarly-shaped to the gangplank door and nearly blended into the walls. All of them were closed.

At least until Will'ym stopped, and a relatively inconspicuous door slid open beside them. He gestured inside and said, "That's your room. I'm headed to the bridge, come and find me when you're done settling in."

Velda nodded and stepped inside tentatively, and the door slid shut. The room was remarkably spacious, and the ceiling was just as tall as the hallway had been. Everything in it was colored white, black, or green, and looked like it had been custom made, fitting into every nook and cranny perfectly. On her right, a bed with an actual mattress loomed against one wall, followed by a corner desk. Empty shelves and a closet reaching up the wall covered the back of the room, and to the left, there was empty space, presumably for anything else Velda would have brought with her.

The only problem was that everything was sized for a human. Velda felt like she had shrunk down and entered another world. "How am I supposed to live in a room made for a giant?" she asked.

"I believe this is a suggestion for you to transform into a human," Cha said. "They are rather basic creatures, and you have seen a female human before, in the market near Alpha's statue. Finding your own form shouldn't be too difficult if you use that as a model."

Velda winced. "What if I mess it up?"

"I will help you. The actual shapeshifting will rely on my skill. Try to remember what that human looked like."

Velda thought for a while, then tentatively reached out a stream of magic from her stone and surrounded herself with it. The energy was slightly warm, but it reminded her of the pain that had come from her binding with the Powerstone. Cha nodded in approval and said, "Go on."

Velda focused all her energy on the human she had once seen, but just as she felt the magic fall into place and begin to change her, her fear of the magic took over and the magical stream dissipated. "Cha, I'm too scared to do it! I could kill myself by accident if I forget something!"

Cha smiled. "You forget that you are already immortal through your binding to me and the Powerstone, Velda. Besides, transformation does not involve much conscious action on your part. I know what I am doing."

Velda nodded but made no move to try again. Even so, green light began to surround her again. She looked at Cha and saw that it was moving its spirit strand. Velda was startled enough to back away from the vaya, trying to escape from the glow, but it stuck to her like glue. Cha crossed its arms and said, "I will not free you until you attempt the magic again. This is important."

Velda sighed. Cha did not back down. She had no choice but to close her eyes and try again. She focused on the human she had seen and again started to feel the magic changing her form. It was surely much easier with Cha guiding her, but she was too worried to watch the magic work. It took about a minute for the feeling to go away.

As soon as Velda opened her eyes, she knew something was different. For one thing, the floor was way too far down. Velda hesitated, then looked down at herself. Thankfully, she could see green, but it was in the form of a shirt and pants. Her legs were much longer, and Velda felt like her arms weren't in quite the right place.

She twisted around to get a better look at herself and saw a black cloak on her back. She now had long wavy blonde hair, very different from the fur she was used to. The green streak was also still there, as a lock of hair behind her right ear, but the hair was much thinner than she was used to and much too wispy to be useful like a mep's prickles were.

From behind Velda, Cha came to look at her. They were the same height now. "You did fine," it said. "You must remember to tell Will'ym that you transformed, though, he may be startled by the change."

Velda took a deep breath in and was surprised to find something else different. "I didn't breathe in through my mouth," she said slowly, "but I didn't breathe through my fur either."

Cha was taken aback. "Through your fur? What are you talking about?"

Velda wiggled her new nose experimentally. "Oh, did nobody ever tell you? Most life on Myusaria breathes through its fur. I think it's possible because we don't use cells in our blood or something." She took another breath. "Interesting."

"Indeed." Cha returned to the Powerstone with more questions than answers, and Velda adjusted the ring on her finger, which had changed the size of its band with her. Then she turned around and headed for the door. It opened when she got close to it.