Mister Green showed some concern. "I'm glad you're okay. Do you understand what happened?"

Sedna felt a bit annoyed at herself. She said, "I used the Spanish Moss to get oxygen from carbon dioxide, but I neglected the importance of water in the photosynthesis process."

A light went on for Newt. "Your hair gets its lush green look and new growth from the high humidity in here. It could release oxygen to you only as long as it had enough moisture to process the carbon dioxide!"

"You're right," she said. "Once I stepped outside, there was no more water available to keep the process going. Air out there isn't really uncomfortable, but it's below freezing. Whatever water might once have been in the Martian air froze out long ago." 

"Or turned the iron to rust and lost its oxygen that way," added Newt. 

She nodded. "So when the water stored in my hair ran out, the process stopped. There was no new oxygenated air for me to breathe. I might as well have been locked in a closet. I would have suffocated."

Mister Green said, "This is exactly why I gave up having a human body long ago. Too much trouble keeping it alive. But I understand why you still want to have one."

Newt grinned at him. Mister Green said, "Yes, that, and all the other ways it makes you real in the world. Even in this new world. With all the wonders of QAR, I'm still quite unreal to most people."

Sedna wasn't happy. To help clear her mind, she returned to the task of guiding the new growth of plants. Now that the hair problem had been so forcefully brought to her attention, she was more aware of her breathing. She thought about Newt. The air in their little dome now had enough oxygen that he wasn't uncomfortable. But he still loved to smell her hair. She did too. She knew that unconsciously she still used the Q to guide the oxygen from her hair into her lungs all the time. 

Suddenly she brightened up. Newt noticed and said, "What?"

She said, "The solution is simple! The shaman magic, Q magic, that guides the oxygen released by the moss into my lungs. It could guide my exhaled carbon dioxide and moisture back into the moss for another round of photosynthesis. And my warm breath would even help keep the moss from freezing!"

Newt was tracking. "It would be a nearly perfect closed system. All you'll have to do is feed yourself enough carbohydrates to keep it going." 

It was a simple matter for Sedna to guide her exhaled air into the moss. It immediately began flowing happiness back to her along with the fresh air. She wondered for a moment if she could eat the new growth to make the system completely self-sustaining, like a miniature farm bottle. I'd have to be pretty desperate, she decided.

This solution to her outdoor breathing problem led Sedna to contemplate the bear hair question. She already knew she wanted to make it a separate shift.

She told Newt what she was thinking. "The fur coat would be too warm to wear all the time." 

He nodded. "Nothing worse than an overheated polar bear."

"And I'd want to be sure my clothing was suitable for shifting." 

Newt grinned. "You mean you wouldn't want to be naked when you shift out of the bearskin?"

"And I don't want to learn that the hard way."

She gave him a look to forestall his next comment.

"I'll work on this after I do my normal shift in the morning," she said.

So the next morning, after she did her Mars shift, she sent a thought to Bear.

I'm ready for that fur coat you promised me. 

He was immediately there for her. Great! Xayna's with me and wants to join us.

Sedna opened to her. Hi Xayna!  Newt's here with me and wants to join us too.

Perfect! How are you doing, Newt?

Great! I've already mastered the first part of the shift. But Sedna keeps pushing the boundaries. She gave us a bit of a scare yesterday.

I felt that, said Bear. Do you want to tell us about it, Sedna?

Spanish moss does well in Louisiana, not so much in Alaska. Or here.

I can tell you've solved the problem.

It's genius! said Newt. Now she exhales back into the moss. Gives it back the carbon dioxide, and keeps it warm and moist too. The moss is a really good insulator.

So now I'm ready for the fur coat. How should I do this, Bear?

Just go for it. I'll let you know if you miss anything.

So she did. Since this would be a temporary shift, she pulled the extra mass she needed directly out of the air. She used Bear's links to get it to transform into the outer and inner coats of bear hair and anchor itself in her hair follicles. She got her naturally tan skin to generate more melanin to darken it up.

Bear agreed it would probably be okay to leave her face looking normal, since that would be quite well protected by her warm cloud of moss. 

She turned to Newt and said, "How do I look?"

"Voluminous," he replied. He Made it sound like the best possible compliment. Bear and Xayna agreed. 

"Now for the test," she said.

She and Newt walked to the airlock that opened from the farm tube into the lava tube. When they were there, she did the shift that gave her the bearskin coat. Then she went through the lock.

She carried a small sun bottle with her. She needed the light to see where she was going. And her moss hair needed the light energy to keep her breathing. Normally when people were travelling through a lava tube they were either flying a drone or wearing a space suit. Both had built in lights. She smiled at the thought. She was definitely not being normal.

She didn't go very far. She just walked around a bit, keeping track of how her hair was doing. That part of her enhanced shift seemed fine. Even the air she was breathing in stayed pleasantly cool, not cold at all. 

She turned her attention to the polar bear fur. The fact that she had felt no discomfort at all told her a lot. When she tuned her attention to the long guard hairs, she made another pleasant discovery. They were all laying quite flat. The tiny muscles on the hair follicles that could make these hairs stand almost straight up seemed to be completely relaxed. Minimum insulation.

The air in the lava tube was quite cold. Not nearly as cold as it could get on the surface, but certainly nothing an animal not adapted for the arctic would find comfortable. Yet that was exactly how she felt.

Sedna was elated. The friends who accompanied her in the Q were elated with her.

Time to update my QAR recording, she thought.