The problem with writing a letter in Aestrux was that it was pen and ink. No autocorrect. No changing your mind. You just… wrote and hoped it was coherent.

Or you started a new page and tried again.

Stella –

I was taught how to write letters as a child but I've only had to do it once as an adult, so this won't be very good. I barely remember how to write an address in my old world's postal system so I'm basically putting your name on this paper and hoping Tyrus is the Mail Carrier and not the Wandering Scholar.

Don't tell him I said that. I already feel bad enough making him deliver mail, cause it's not his job. I'm sure he has more important things to do. I don't know what, but… like books to read? He probably has a really long to-be-read list.

I'm stalling, sorry. I don't know where to start.

As Tyrus will tell you, I'm in Brigavalé. I'll stay here for another week then circle the Staargraven to home.

I'm thinking of this like a little vacation or a holiday. I've been told that it's weird for foreigners to enjoy being in Brigavalé. But the way I see it, I've had a rough few months and I get to stop and stay in one place with minimal responsibilities for a while.

That's what I wanted, at least. I had an option to pick a title, and there was one called The Guild's Hero, so I picked it. It sounded, I don't know, stylish and important.

The Brigavalé Guildmaster took the choice to mean that I am some kind of volunteer for difficult adventuring tasks. I show up without shoes in a blizzard and suddenly I'm put on a quest that involves being out in the cold all day.

It's fine, I like it. It's different. The sage skill kicked in that lets me– no that gives my brain a bit of the Valien language so I can survive better. It's been useful but it's pretty minimal.

Honestly, it feels like my first few months here. I'm mostly coping via charades and drawings. If Oma (the Guildmaster) is anyone to judge off of, the locals are blunt but entirely honest. Honest like incapable of masking their distaste. I think if they didn't like me, I would be able to tell.

As far as forms go, I've added the kjerrborn and the qittakākom.

You were right that the qitta is a good choice, but all the books make it look like a large cat. It's not. I don't know how to explain it to you what it is, because I don't know if you have similar beasts here.

But it's NOT a large cat. Maybe some traits, but the instinctual behavior is like a permanent kitten. Playful and energetic and mischievous. I'm sure you'll see it soon.

I do have two new beast companions.

There's Queenie, or Q, who started this entire mess. She's a teenage kjerrborn, starting to become a little more self-sufficient. Still bitey and needy, but that's kids. I'm her dad, I think, or I became her dad. Parent. Whatever the word should be.

That's probably odd to hear, that I left and now I have a beast-child.

Good news, you do too. Kind of.

One of the quests that Oma sent me on was to guide a caravan to isolated Valien villages so they could get more supplies during winter. It was pretty boring. Scared off some wolves, sat around with the Adventurers, learned how to play a card game which was difficult without language.

Tyrus did end up going along, despite saying he wouldn't. He found a lead for a ruin near one of the villages, so I went with him for protection. Or to make sure he survived the cold.

Anyways, one of those villages has their own special pet that the entire village owns. They live by a river and a high-elevation lake, so there's lots of insects that bother them. The name of the beast sounds like augozur, but don't quote me on it.

It's cat-sized, bigger that Pipkin, with webbing extending between its feet so it can glide around trees. His name is Kamin which Tyrus tells me is the word for fireplace. He's black with some white patches.

The augozur hunt insects by spitting at them to knock them out of the air. They have one big eye that takes over their entire face and two little pointy ears. I know that's weird but trust me, Kamin is very cute.

He just followed us in the caravan until I picked him up and then wouldn't leave. While I don't intend to be gone this long ever again, I though Kamin might be a nice companion for you. Plus, keeps the bugs away.

He really is cuddly. Just an oddly shaped cat. I hope you like him.

What else happened? A lot happened, don't get me wrong, but I don't know how to frame the, uh, obvious. I guess I'll try.

Tyrus said that Guillaume left to hunt the red kjerrborn. I don't know if ze has family to contact but Viktor should probably do that.

I did lose an eye. I know that's not something you just casually tell someone but I don't know how else to write it.

I guess this holiday away in Brigavalé is to help me figure out that, a bit. I'm already the one-eyed mountain spirit here (they genuinely thought I was a spirit of legend when I first arrived) so it's not like anyone is shocked I'm missing an eye.

It's been difficult to adjust to. Easier when Pipkin is around. When I'm a kjerrborn, she sits on my shoulder or tusk and tells me when I'm going to run into something. Or gives me a warning for approaching danger.

She does that a little when I'm human, but it's so cold that she has to stay bundled up a lot. I've just been following other people with them on my bad side barely in view. If they stop, I stop. That sort of thing.

Stairs are the worst, especially outdoors ones that are uneven. I can use a skill to augment my hearing so that I can tell if someone is approaching or get a good idea of where a noise-source is, but I can't magically learn how to sense which stairs are shorter or taller than the others.

It's a good thing I'm so durable because I would have had a lot of bruises and scrapes by now. I run into things all the time, hit my shins on chairs and tables. More embarrassing than painful.

I'm sure Viktor is going to be thrilled. He gets to reteach me a fighting style to cope. Or Anton could.

There's been a lot of physical changes. I was almost used to the talons when more came along. I hope your type isn't exactly me as I was when I left, because I do not look like that guy anymore.

Describing myself feels so awkward and weird. I think categorizing it will make me feel better. I'd rather be some biological observation than to earnestly describe myself while looking in a mirror.

Kjerrborn change – hairier. So much more hairier. Just general body hair, on top of my head hair growing a ridiculous amount. And a beard.

I think it's the over-winter coat, cause the kjerrborn form got a thicker coat too. I can't wait to learn if my hair will just magically grow 6-10 inches over a month when the cold sets in next winter.

The barber refused to cut it short again, so I'm guessing it's an attractive look on me. You'll have to let me know.

Kjerrborn change – Do you know when boars and animals like goats have this bristly ridge along their spine? Kjerrborn have that. I do too. I can't tell how far it goes down, but it's definitely there. It's like… an inch in height.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It's weird to touch with my fingers but it's fantastic to scratch. So itchy, so satisfying. I guess you don't have the my-world beast here for comparisons, so I guess I've done the kjerrborn standing to scratch against a tree thing. Like a lot. Door frames are really good for it.

Qitta change – fangs. Just fangs. It moved the spacing of my teeth which is very strange to feel with my tongue. I don't think it changed how my speech sounds but I'm also in an area with no Sínisch speakers, so what do I know? I'm attaching a few drawings. I'll try and illustrate this for you.

I think the kjerrborn form gave me thicker skin, literally, so although I nip the inside of my mouth some, it's not as frequent as I think it would be otherwise. My own talons don't scratch my skin anymore unless I apply pressure.

I keep forgetting things to mention.

So, I'm pretty sure each form localizes itself to a different organ set of my body? That's such a weird thing to write. I'm going to be really "scholarly" for a bit so bear with me.

The travel form is comparatively insignificant to combat, so there were minimal changes. Only talons and the hand-wing markings. Localized to my hands.

The qitta, I think, is my mouth and throat. I can growl and vocalize beast-like sounds. The qitta itself isn't very vocal; it's a solitary beast and doesn't make a lot of noises to other beasts, but since Queenie is my cub/kit/child, I vocalize to her. The qitta squeaks and chirps, but it can growl and purr too. As a human, I can make growling and purring noises. It's a fun party trick until I do it accidentally.

Also so uh – the qitta is the offense form, it's important to my beastchanger functions, so there seems to be a lot of changes incurred by choosing the qitta. Like I said, the mouth/throat is the main place.

All of this to awkwardly tell you that I accidentally learned that my tongue is way longer than normal.

I don't know where it goes when I retract it. You don't have… there's no word for it. On my world we have these little birds that hover and stick their tiny but long tongues into flowers to eat the nectar. Their tongues retract and circle their eye socket when not in use. Does this altered tongue length retract into somewhere weird? Do I have like a sinus pocket that's been erased in favor of tongue retraction?

I've written the word tongue too much and I hate it.

I gave in and measured. It's at least 2 inches longer than I remember but it's not like I went around measuring my tongue. I could kind of touch the tip of my nose before (it's a thing kids used to do in my old world, as a silly game, and I remember doing it out of boredom at some point) but now it's way past my nose.

I'm NOT fucking illustrating this.

Anyways. Changes are localized to organ sets.

Defense form via kjerrborn is based on skin, I think? Or whatever your word here would be for skin and body fat composition.

I definitely bulked up. It might also be a winter thing? I'm not sure. But my old clothes did not fit me and were a little uncomfortable to wear. I've gotten more body fat. I need to work on my strength attribute so that the look matches the capability.

So, hey, you get to meet a whole new person. I'm trying not to be anxious about it. I feel more comfortable in myself than before, if that makes sense, but I still want YOU to like me.

These changes are overt penalties for choosing beast forms; I don't have to choose any of the forms, I could just go with one and nothing else. But I like having options. I hope it ends up okay with you.

There was one really big event that I haven't mentioned yet.

On the caravan tour, a dragon flew overhead. I went to check it out as a fish hawk because although I'm a bit cold, I can get in and out of situations quickly. I doubted that a dragon would have any interest in a bird.

It was a scene, absolutely hard to miss from the air or from the ground.

The dragon I saw was Rodu. He was unmistakable unless there's another undead dragon flying around Aestrux. Massive, skeletal head and some other skeletal parts. Covered in patchwork hides that are so large I assumed (correctly) that they were from other dragons. The membranes of his wings seemed to be rotted but a magic barrier served to allow him to fly.

All very fascinating. I'll have to ask him to let me see it again sometime.

There was another living dragon. It, maybe she? was much smaller than Rodu, maybe half of his size. Shorter than his shoulder. She was a pale yellow with iridescence. Some of her scales and armor were translucent, like the gemstones we mined at Claylake Post.

She was really shiny in the sunlight against the white snow.

There was a third dragon but this one was dead. Almost as large as Rodu with curved horns. Dark in color. I think it lived in Brigavalé, because we were by this big cave opening in the ice-rock of the Staargraven.

I think they communicated with their minds, because they were definitely talking. The yellow dragon made most of the noise. I don't think Rodu has – well, he didn't have a throat to make sounds with, so no vocal cords.

Rodu was trying to rip the dark dragon's head off.

I don't think it was with ill intention. He didn't exactly explain it to me. But like I said, Rodu was wearing skin and bones of other dragons or beasts. It was probably something to do with that.

They couldn't get it off. The yellow dragon left, flying west.

That's when Rodu looked right at me. I guess his mark means he can see me easier. It was an eerie feeling to be ignored for thirty or so minutes then to have a massive predator like a dragon stare directly at you.

I landed as a fish hawk and changed to the qitta so I could approach. I'm sure I looked like a spooked housecat because I was feeling like a spooked housecat. That's Rubert but it was still a fucking dragon.

He did the mind connection thing with me and started talking, calling me his grandchild and some other niceties. I dunno, I stopped letting the human-mind run the show in the face of such a big predator and so the qitta took over.

Since Rodu is family to me – maybe even in the system? I will have to check – the qitta-mind had no problems with being curious and nosy.

Rodu let me climb him like a tree and clamber all over him to investigate. He smelled weird to the qitta, but not unpalatable.

The qitta is about the same length as the kjerrborn, not including the long tail, which means that Rodu's skull is a little larger than the kjerrborn (and qitta). He was very understanding about the curiosity.

I don't remember much of what was said, the predator-prey feeling overwhelmed the mind a bit. The qitta is still a very new form. But I do know it was a lot of discussing me as part of Rodu's family. The kind of affectionate coo-ing one does at a toddler or small child.

When the yellow dragon returned, she had yet another dragon with her. This one was large and white and furry. It seemed cranky but helped the others with the dark dragon corpse.

I… just… clung to Rodu's shoulders the entire time. He has this green snakeskin (dragonskin?) as a mantle, so I was perched near it like a fur collar. I don't think the other dragons noticed me until Rodu pointed me out. They did rip off the dragon head eventually.

The three dragons included me in a cryptic and terrifying conversation, mostly because Rodu insisted that I change back to human form for this introduction. I remember more of what was said, but the feeling of terror was very present.

Do you get the feeling that like a… you don't have the word for this either… a korekun is watching you from just barely under the surface of the water, observing you to see if you're the next meal? That's how I feel sometimes when Rodu / Rubert looks directly at me.

Imagine three of them looking at you.

I don't know the exact context but apparently, I "show promise" for something the dragons were discussing. The white one left pretty quickly, but the yellow one stayed to talk.

She asked me about classes and subclasses and she was curious about me being a hero. Oh, her name was Ilyna. I don't know if I'm spelling that right. She had a similar personality to Kiran, if I'm being honest. A bit thorny, not overly rude.

I couldn't shake the feeling of being the literal grandchild of a grandfather who was holding my shoulders and presenting me to his friends. Talking about how well I'm doing in school and how I learned how to play an instrument recently.

I was asked about any system-initiated quests that I'd received lately, which I confess I did get one while I've been gone. They were very interested in it. I didn't have any reason not to explain the parameters to them.

I don't know what they know.

I don't know if I'll ever know. But they know something.

I left right before Rodu excavated the uh… This is gross, sorry. He used a claw to scrape out the hole in the bottom of the black dragon's skull, the hole that the spine attaches too, and he blew fire into it.

I could smell burned brain matter from a mile away as the fish hawk.

So, yeah, that was eventful and terrifying but I have no idea what any of it means besides that Rodu really likes me.

I'm sure you want to know about the system quest.

Sorry I wrote that before I remembered – Tyrus was flabbergasted by how casually I mentioned Rodu and Ilyna and the white dragon. I think I've broken his brain a few times since I've been in Brigavalé.

System quest. I'll just copy what it says because you know better than me.

System Quest: Unique Draconic Event Access

To Complete: - Attribute: Strength 18 - Attribute: Agility 15 - Magic Capacity Increase - Subclass Mastery: Beastchanger (Magic Form) - Gain Draconic Acknowledgment (3/4) - Gain Unicorn Acknowledgment (Primary Glade of Amnasín) - Introductions (Determined by Quality not Quantity) - Travel (1/6)

Completed: - Attribute: Awareness 15 - Attribute: Endurance 20 - Attribute: Luck 2 - Gain Draconic Mark (1/4) - Rodu the Wisen (Rubert of BeHǎi) - Introductions - Queen Voisava Janiesae of Amnasín - Introductions - Her Lordship "Oma Guildenmeister" of "Alvgarten"; Hermine of Djúrskógrheim (obsolete) - Travel (5/6) - Amnasín, Qhai Republic, Staareaux, Drac Dumon, Brigavalé

I don't know what to make of any of the quest. I can work on building strength and agility. Those are tangible enough. I'll have to ask Rodu about the dragons. Who knows how to access the unicorns?

Why is there so much happening to me all the time?

I miss you. If I didn't have Pipkin, Q, and Kamin with me, I would fly over the Staargraven to you. As it is, you'll have to wait until I can circle the mountains before I come back.

– Hallvar

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.