Inari’s Gift

Time after time, Cera repeatedly cursed as she became too distracted and dropped her foot painfully onto the dull blade she was using as an alarm.  After Falron verified that she wouldn’t actually injure herself, he asked her to remain inside, informing her that he was going to speak with the villagers nearby.

After confirming that she would follow his instructions, Cera resumed her practice, wincing again as she looked down at the dull knife before raising her other leg over it and beginning to brush her tail once more.  Eventually, her feet hurt too badly to continue, so she put the knife and firewood holding it in place atop the dresser in her room.

Once she had tidied up the makeshift alarm, she put her new comb back on the nightstand before lying down on her bed again and beginning to practice her defensive magic.  Without a second of hesitation, she discarded Falron’s simple method and resumed working on her own more complex one.

While she couldn’t, at least for now, alter the energy itself, intent did seem to work, so she tried making a simple plate using her earlier method.  Once that was stable, she reached out to the ambient mana around her and, keeping Falron’s warning in mind, kept it outside herself before trying to tie it into the shield.

Sadly, as expected, it resulted in her control being disrupted and the shield collapsing within seconds as the energy mixed together with her own.  Hours later, she heard the front door open and close, signifying that Falron had returned.  She still had not succeeded in her attempt at a self-sustained shield, however.

“I’m just practicing my shielding magic, Falron!” Cera called out to the man, ears twitching as she heard him walking toward the living room.

In response, she heard him say, “Alright, tomorrow you need to stay out of sight as well; the village is sending supplies up to me, and they come inside to help put them up for me.”

She smiled at how he was already used to her strong sense of hearing, as he hadn’t bothered raising his voice at all.  It was annoying that she was expected to hide from people, but she understood that this wasn’t her old world, and she was too weak to go against the norm here.

Sighing, Cera returned to her efforts, alternating between studying the energetic organs she had sensed and then going back to working on her shield.  She tried method after method to attempt to process ‘wild’ energy into her own so it wouldn’t corrupt her shielding, but it seemed nothing she tried would work.

She reminded herself that when she was starting out in her old life, she had run into similar issues for a long time before she had managed to figure things out, then decided to stop with that for the day.  Instead, she decided to try to work on her natural abilities again.

Or, if she was being honest with herself, simply trying to mend her soul.

After a while, she exited her room to speak to Falron more comfortably and sat before the fire with him before inquiring, “I saw some clothing in the dresser in my room; I’m assuming those belonged to Cera in the past?”

Falron nodded, replying, “Yes, I’m surprised they’re still intact for you to find.  It’s been decades since she was last here…  It’s so weird thinking about you and her as different people when you have the same face.”

Cera nodded before mentioning, “I can understand it could be a bit difficult, to put it lightly.  My apologies for making a difficult situation.  Anyway, perhaps the clothes are still intact because Cera used magic to preserve them?  I’d do that if I were in her place, I think.”

After a short pause, she continued, “I suppose I can use those instead of just constantly wearing what I woke up in.  I’ll have to ask you to show me how clothes are washed here.  Back where I came from, we had machines to do it; we just dumped dirty clothes in, waited, and got clean clothes out.  Clearly, that isn’t the case here.”

A moment later, she blinked and asked to herself, “Would the clothes even fit me since I’m smaller than she was?  But the ones I woke up in fit me…  I wonder how much Inari changed things…”

“I see… that sounds quite strange to me.  I suppose this world is quite different from that one.  I’ll show you how to wash them tomorrow, after everyone is gone,” Falron said as he nodded.

Cera smiled at the man before replying, “Thank you, I don’t want to be a burden, but I’m afraid there is a lot I don’t know.  Would it be possible to get something to eat?  I am also unable to cook, on top of everything else.  As with so many other things, we had pre-made food that we just had machines heat up.  Other than that, I mostly ate rice and pasta, which are easy to make, if, like I did, you have something you can just set a specific heat on.  Cooking with actual fire?  I’d likely burn something horribly.”

In response, Falron shook his head and laughed before saying, “I guess people in your old world lacked a great many skills.  Sure, I’ll make some food for us.  I don’t mind eating a little bit early today.”

“Alright, thank you, Falron; I’ll just get back to what I was doing as I wait,” she stated as she leaned back and closed her eyes, focusing back on her soul as her tail found its way back into her lap to be pet once again.

Eventually, her focus was broken, Falron calling out that the meal was ready.  Sadly, she had made little progress, only having found how to begin properly touching her soul in this realm, not even really interacting with it.

As Falron set the food down, he asked, “Is it normal for you to spend all this time so busy with magic?  It just seems somewhat insane.”

In response, Cera laughed before answering, “I’ve considered myself insane for quite some time!  But yes, when I have a challenge, I put a great deal of focus and effort into trying to solve it.  Currently, I have multiple at once that I can focus on.  If anything, it would be insane for me to not stay busy with all of this.”

While Falron considered her words, they finished eating, and then Cera went to clean their dishes.  After cleaning up, she returned to the fire and sat in silence with Falron for a time, simply relaxing in the shared quiet companionship.

She had to admit she was curious why he lived out here by the forest, and spent so much time just resting, but it seemed a bit too personal to ask about, at least for now, so she held her tongue.  Instead, she simply meditated, listening to the crackling of the fire.

In time, she stood and informed Falron, “I think I’m going to head back to bed.  It’s been a long and eventful day, and I could do with some rest.  I’ll probably brush my tail again in the morning, so you might need to get my attention again.”

After receiving his acknowledgment, she gave him a slight bow and headed back to her room.  With a deep sigh and stretch, she began to remove her clothing, setting them on a chair in the corner, keeping in mind that she needed to wash them soon.  After sliding into bed, she once again pulled her tail around to hug as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

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