By the time that we reach the edge of the trees my head is swimming with all the information that has been forced into my mind. That is all good information to have. I am glad that I asked Russell. I am glad that he focused his studies on the other races. It is almost as if he was created to be the perfect first companion for a new arrival to the world. I was still holding the armful of long stemmed flowers when the sight of small huts came into view. None of the buildings were taller than my knees. Russell wrapped his bundle of flowers in one of the skins we use to sleep in and hides it from sight. The small homes were formed from stumps and the same kind of flowers that I am holding in my hands. Somehow each home is different, even though they are all made from the same materials. One home is made from the hollow of a tree stump, dipping into the ground and the walls are made from the dried stems woven together in and the brown and green stems are woven with the dark petals making a very beautiful and enchanting pattern all around the home. The roof is made from dark blue and purple flowers and small windows are cut artistically in the walls. The house next to it is mostly made from a stump, only part of the house is made from the flowers, mostly it is wood. So it goes, all of the houses scattered about a large clearing in the beginning of the woods. Since the flowers in this clearing are Pixie’s Bane, this makes this a Sprite’s village. I will follow Russell’s lead here. I know very little about the Sprites. Russell motions for me to lift up the flowers and I do. A small creature that can fit in the palm of my hand flitters up in front of my face. It takes a few moments for my vision to focus on the details of the creature in front of me. It was a female with short tangles of green and red hair. Her skin is a dark brown and gold and her eyes, the size of mere pinpricks, glow with what looks like magic. Small wings beat so quickly that I could not see them. Her clothes seemed to be made of the fibers of the same flowers that I am holding. Russell was right, they really do use these flowers for everything. My Analyze skill told me that her name is Ivybell, that she is indeed a Sprite and that I was not privy to her level or anything else about her. My danger sense was not yelling at me, so I was not going to freak out too much. “We bring these flowers as tribute for safe passage.” He motions for me to put the flowers on the ground. I do so slowly. A small swarm of small creatures come from everywhere in the clearing and examine the flowers. A small hum of voices filled the air around us. It is too low for me to really hear what they are saying. I catch the occasional word of “Good” and “Not too wilted”. It seems that the flowers are accepted. The first woman was still flying next to our faces, she flew closer to us and nodded. Russell grabbed my arm and led the way out of clearing.

Once we are out of sight from the village he pulls out the other pile of flowers. He held these flowers and we walked for another ten minutes until we reached another clearing. This one looked very different from the other village. The houses are still tiny, but there were less individual houses on the ground, and the trees around the clearing were full of homes, almost like apartment buildings. This clearing is bright and cheery. The large bright petals are used for curtains in the windows in the trees. The small houses on the ground are built mostly from the petals, some petals are twisted and braided together and others are used as they are, big and layered to keep the inside of the homes dry. They seem to use less of the stems then the Sprites do. A Pixie, it must be a Pixie, flies up in front of my face. Like the Sprite the Pixie is small and could fit in the palm of my hand. This one is a male, short spiky pink hair, and pale, pale skin. His eyes were dark, no magical glow like the Sprite’s eyes. The two species looked nothing alike. The only similarity is their size and that they can fly and how their wings are invisible when in use. My Analyze skill told me that his name is Rythorn and he is indeed a Pixie and that his level is something that I did not have enough skill to see. My danger sense told me that he could be a real threat to me, but that he was not in the mood to attack at the moment. I have no doubt that he could get dangerous very quickly if he needed to. Russell holds up the arm full of flowers to show them off. “We bring these flowers as tribute for safe passage.” Russell puts the flowers on the ground for inspection by the swarm of Pixies coming from the trees. These Pixies and Sprites are adorable and beautiful. So very beautiful. After a few moments of chatter too low for me to hear The Pixie in our face nods and us and Russell leads me out of the clearing. This time we head deeper into the woods and Russell moves with a confidence that he did not have earlier. Without the fear of pissing off the Pixies and Sprites he seems to float. I felt lighter as well, I had been feeling his tension as we had gotten closer to the woods. I am lucky that the first woods I had entered had not had a group of avenging Fae, or they had not noticed me. Had he not warned me of how dangerous they could be I would probably be dead by the hands of these Pixies and Sprites later that day. Now we could go wolf hunting. I need some new forms in my arsenal.

Birds were the first creatures that we came across. I used the Analyze skill on each one in the hopes of leveling it up. I need more information on my targets. I am beginning to think that the more powerful the creature, the higher level my skill needs to be to see their stats. After the birds came the Rhabbits, larger than the ones that I was used to and a different color, a pale yellow rather than the ruddy red color the ones from the other forest were. They were stronger as well. I got almost twice as much experience as I had from the other Rhabbits. It made the canine in me salivate. More than once I jumped to chase the creatures in my canine form. It almost led me to run off a steep hill, the crafty Rhabbit leading me into a trap. After that Russell began to stop me from lunging after everything that moves. It seems like the more time that I spend in this world the more I am beginning to act like a canine. It is getting more and more difficult to stay the rational human. I think that I am becoming more and more of a human-canine hybrid. The inconvenient impulses have been creeping up on me and taking me by surprise. Had I any warning when they would hit, I could suppress them before they became actions. Or at least vett them, the whole chasing everything that moved is very annoying. Amazingly Russell does not seem to mind my increasingly erratic behavior. “How are you okay with my behavior, I hate it. How can you stand it?” I had been spending most of my time in my German shepherd form. It is fast and I do not need the power of my flame magic of my Kitsune form to fight the Rhabbits here. It was one getting late and I had changed back to my human form. I am getting surprisingly comfortable changing forms in front of Russell. He looks away and blushes each time I do it. He does not complain though. He shrugged at my questions. “You are having trouble with the instincts and impulses of your other forms right?” I nodded, how did he know “Shapeshifting is not an uncommon gift for among some of the Druid lines. They cannot turn into multiple forms like you do, but many have trouble balancing their forms when they first start shifting. I have helped others through their troubled transitions. Ola can transform into a large wolf and Penny can turn into a Tree Runner.” Tree Runners are this world’s equivalent to squirrels. I can not even begin to think about how crazy it would be to have squirrel impulses and to be that small when I changed form. Being as small as I am in my Kitsune form is hard enough. His answer did give me hope though. “This battle will pass?” I asked, trying not to sound too eager. He nodded “In my experience it does get better once you get used to it.” It better pass, right now it is getting really hard not to run off and rip out the throats of creatures that really don’t deserve it. I still think that tearing out Darvin’s throat will be a good idea. He threw me in this world without any real explanation. He did not even tell me that I was dead. I had to come up with that conclusion on my own. Then he gave me my gift without telling me anything. He just vaguely mentioned something about how I died saving a dog and how that was going to be my gift. He did not tell me that he was turning me into a shapeshifter or where he was sending me. I came into this world all kinds of confused and disoriented. I had to figure out everything by myself. At least until I met Russell who does a great job of explaining what is going on and about the world. Yeah, if I met Darvin anytime soon I would definitely go for his throat. I focus on human thoughts as I eat my food.

The next day we decided to move forward in my Kitsune form. I would be riding on Russell’s shoulders. I switch between sitting on his shoulders and on his head. He takes on the majority of fights today. His Illusions are getting better by the day. He uses them to confuse the birds into coming close enough for him to cut off their heads and causes the Rhabbits to run in fear right into the traps he prepares. I only let out a few fireballs. This is Russell’s day to shine, and man he is good. I realize that so far I have just been using brute force, my teeth and my magic, but Russell, he actually plans things. He makes the enemies fall into his traps, move at his pace. Yeah, I can’t do that. I want to though, maybe. It also seems kind of hard. I would just be easier to throw some magic in, but then again his magic isn’t like my Kitsune magic. No his is harder to kill with. It makes me glad that I don’t have Illusion magic as my gift. Way too much thinking and thought and planning have to go into using it. If Russell decided to join the entertainment industry though, he would make a killing. The special effects he could make… Why is he out here training by fighting? He could totally make a good living by using his illusions to entertain people. Man why wasn’t he figuring this out for himself? Useless boys. When I change back to human I am going to let him know that.