The silver ears of a small cat twitch and for the fourth time this day, I must remind myself that this is actually my sister.

Lotus and Aislyn are scouting the land for the sixth consecutive day, but so far very little has happened. We're waiting on Vivian to come back with information on the natives before we head out. After all, even if we have all of our natural lifespans (and Aislyn may or may not be able to keep us practically immortal using a sophisticated form of the cloaking she uses to turn us into different species for our journeys) there's still no reason to waste time dawdling on a world where nothing is happening.

This is our third stop and on the first one, we found nothing, but the second one did have several Obsidians. We decided not to take them on- if the Obsidians find out that we're anywhere, they'll target our host planet. Instead, we've decided to stay silent. Teach the natives survival skills and move on. If there's already all out warfare, we might be willing to do something.

Aislyn, for our sake, is trying to find worlds that are far away from Dreamland as possible. Somehow, though, they always seem terribly familiar. A forest here. A face there. Perhaps a scent that my weary nostrils recall from only a few months ago.

Gash comes bounding up to me, tail waving in a way that probably indicates something hostile in cat language but only one of us has bothered to do any research into it. He's carrying a mouse in his mouth and his eyes are bright.

"I caught one! Are you guys proud of me?" Gash drops the mouse on the ground.

Aislyn looks up from ahead of us. "You did?"

"Yup! I say we split it down the middle. Nothing's delicious as fresh meat on a warm evening like this one, split between family and friends." Gash says happily.

"Speaking of family and friends, Vivian should be coming back tonight." Lotus sighs. "I hope she's alright. We don't know how friendly these natives are."

Aislyn takes a few small bites of the mouse before pushing it over to us. "Not hungry."

"More for us." Lotus takes her own bites, though her gaze is fixed on Aislyn's guilty face.

As we sit by our makeshift camp, my acute hearing catches the sound of clumsy footfall in the distance as Vivian, disgruntled and slightly battered, approaches the den.

"No one's recorded anything. We'll have to look elsewhere." Vivian mutters. "Let's get off this dingy planet and find somewhere with legitimate housing."

"What happened to you? You're all scarred up!" Lotus runs to Vivian, nuzzling her. Vivian loosens up a little at her touch.

"The natives are beginning to get suspicious. Apparently they have some form of the supernatural around here, even if they don't have magic or anything else even remotely useful."

"They hurt you?" Lotus asks, unsheathing her claws.

"Hold up there." Gash says. "Let's not get too hasty."

"Relax, they didn't hurt me. We were in the woods on some kind of... patrol? This huge black fox burst out of the woods. I tried to kill it because I thought it was an Obsidian. I didn't want to reveal myself, so I attacked it with pure brute strength. My claws went right through it. Apparently it's not an Obsidian and I learned a valuable lesson."
"Which was?" I ask.

"Don't piss off angry demons from other species' mythology." Vivian nods to Aislyn. "Well?"
Aislyn returns to her normal form, and the cat disguise falls from all of us as we return to our Canis forms. It feels nice to be in my own skin, even if it's only for transport. As the sun sets overhead, Aislyn closes her eyes and the portal opens wide. Vivian leaps through before anyone else has a chance, and the others shuffle along.

It's been a long day.

***

One of the equines say they've had visions.

"Oh yes. Every night, I close my eyes and dream about a prison of solid obsidian. I've always had quite the talent for detecting the unknown, however... my visions speak of events very far in the future. I do not think the attacks I have dreamed of will occur for many years." she tells us. Her mane is a bright color of red and her dark fur is a ginger brown that almost looks golden. Large wings protrude from her back, and she looks a lot less menacing than horses at home, with solemn eyes and a gentle voice.

"We're going to hedge our bets on that for now. If you hear anything else, tell us, won't you?" Aislyn asks.

"I don't know where you'd find me." she says plainly. "I live out in the woods alone for a reason. This land, for all it's emphasis on kindness, does not care much for fortunetellers, especially those who can only see things far beyond their lifetimes."

"I don't know where we would either." Aislyn sighs.

"At least give me a few more minutes, then." she says kindly. "I at least need to be a good host. There's tea over there. I get the herbs from the forest."

Aislyn, who is in the form of a very delicate unicorn, lifts her horn and begins into dip a expertly made ceramic cup a nice hot pot over a fire.

"Telekinesis. Almost like home." Aislyn whispers.

Several of us wince at the word 'home', but catching the aroma coming off of the tea, I realize something odd.

"Is that... grape flavored tea?" I ask, appalled.

"Is there something wrong with that?" our host asks, flustered.
I do not tell her that grapes are poisonous to the Canis, that fermented grapes were often used as a poison, wrecking the mind before killing the victim slowly. The fruit of lust, as they were known back at our planet. Quietly, Aislyn sips it, seemingly unflustered by this.

"It's not fermented." she says, as if guessing what I was going to say.

"Wait... do you know what I'm thinking, or was that a lucky guess?"

"We've been friends a thousand times, Natrina. I usually know exactly what you're talking about."

"Being friends with someone multiple times? Wherever you all did come from, it must be quite the peculiar place." speaks the horse, and I look around nervously.

Vivian is leering at us, as much as a horse can leer. We need to get out of here.

"It's Sakura." she whinnies softly. "It's a type of tree." she says when we stare at her in confusion.

"You seem a little familiar." Vivian says. "You remind me of a friend."
"Do I? I hear that a lot."

***

"Winglet 52-C, go for the necks!" yells Vivian over the rush of the battle, diving forwards with a sword in her beak like she had been a griffin her whole life. Her face is similar to that of a falcon's, though boasts a russet hide much like her old one. She's mastered flight and already has a small army, or winglet, under her control.

It only took us a week to forge identities as a part of a small town and join the Aviary's militia. The birdlike creatures were actually a cluster of several races that had grown apart over time, though the similarities were still quite prominent.

We all stuck with the griffins because they were the closest to our regular species and one of the deadliest, but in all honesty, all the species here are some of the most beautiful and frankly most terrifying we had experienced so far.

On her side, I fly feather to feather with her and pull out of position to contend with a large, dragonlike creature made of pure obsidian. I feel a rush of rage just thinking about the dragons of earlier and with one powerful upwards slice, my blade cleaves the Obsidian dragon's neck in two.

The rest of the winglet curves around to meet me, Gash a tawny blur of bird and supposedly lion (though he looks more of a puma) diving forwards with his spear. It's a long distance weapon and can be the most dangerous if you and your winglet aren't in sync, but we've been picking it up quickly. Gash drives a messy slice down the dragon's throat, but that heals quickly.

I see another winglet join us, several less flashy griffins with metal claws come in for a close melee. The dragon's two heads thrash wildly, providing ample challenge for both of us.

I swing sideways to dodge one head to slide into the other head, just in time for Gash to run his spear through one head, embedding it thoroughly.

The other head slams up and hits Lotus. Without a second's hesitation, Aislyn spreads her wings and soars upwards, a dangerous move that risks killing her momentum and slams Lotus's attacker out of the sky. The dragon head falls down and Vivian is ready with her sword, which cleaves it neatly.

The dragon stumbles, but as it begins to reform it's twin necks, the other winglet begins dicing away at it. In a spray of tiny shards, obsidian flies out at us, each projectile not hard enough to ground us but definitely hard enough to be painful and unbalance even the most powerful fliers.

Silently, we go in for a landing amongst the trees, but one griffin calls, "Coming?"

"Is it-" Aislyn remembers how concise griffins are, and stops herself. "Over?"

"Yes." it confirms.

"King wants you." cooes another.

"Coming up." Gash tells her.

In uneasy unison (my wings still tremble after long flights) we make our way to the nearby city, only to immediately collapse before the small but ornate Hall of the Falcon King.

Landing there, we find ourselves before the more than slightly terrifying Falcon King himself, the giant four-winged roc who rules a large swath of land- known for his civility but never his mercy. He's not technically in charge of griffin troops, as he's a roc, but he is in charge of The Aviary, the enormous city or 'nest' we were just defending.

He stands with a large court of avian beside him. Some are enormous, some are only Canis sized griffins like us, and some appear to be little more than normal birds. All of them are vibrant in color and all of them talk eagerly while the Falcon King stares over us with a weary expression.

"That one looks kind of like you." Lotus whispers, jerking her head towards a large swan griffin with feathers that are indeed almost slightly green.

I nudge her. "The only silly goose here is you, Lotus."

"Ahem." The room falls silent before the large four winged falcon.

"We can not thank you enough for your patronage. I hear you have killed the great dragon plaguing our town?"

"Helped." Lotus says, careful not to break our cover. Hopefully he didn't hear us chattering earlier.
"Oh yes. On occasions like these, we often dispense gifts to those who have assisted in the battle. All Avians deserve to share the shinies."

The falcon's breath is audible on the air, his eyes balls of gold plastered onto empty whiteness staring down at us like angry suns.

"You mentioned you were looking for information on how to defeat these creatures." he says after a long silence.

Aislyn nods shyly, then unsure if they understood, says, "Yes."

"We found their shinies from a raid while you distracted the creatures. Odd shinies, these are. Items of magic. Some of them are oddly specific. As you have given us much loot by gaining that ground from the Obsidians, we offer you one shiny. Pick one only, no takebacks."

Aislyn looks at all of us. I nod as she steps forwards quietly, wings quivering. None of the items are labelled and the Falcon King is giving no answers. This is a split second decision he's expecting. Something an Avian would do.

Go for a weapon.

To my disappointment, Aislyn instead places a talon on a small crystal that looks very ornately engraved. Despite it being clearly made from Obsidian, the item itself is actually a gem, some form of blue stone I do not recognize.

"What is it?" she asks.

"This is an item with the ability to transfer magic between two compatible and willing souls. Since few of our kind are born with magic, something like this could be very useful... or quite dangerous. However, we've already found quite a few, so don't think you could try anything with it."

Aislyn steps forwards and takes it quietly. "Thank you." she says, barely audible.

The large bird-king nods, his four wings and enormous feathers ruffling in the breeze from outside.

Aislyn runs and dives off a nearby cliff, opening her wings and taking flight. We follow her, landing in a vacant nearby cave. Aislyn removes our cloaking. "Think this will be useful?" She holds up our treasure.

"What would we possibly use it for? Canis die without magic. The Obsidians sure as hell aren't going to be willing and nor are we." I point out.
Aislyn looks at its glossy surface with a slight frown. "I... I think I can think of something. Just give me time. Should we go?"

"Wait a second!" Vivian says, stepping before Aislyn. "Stop!"

Aislyn sits back down, shocked.

"Alright. Alright." Vivian swipes a paw across the open air, and a portal is torn into existence. Drawing her paw away, she looks at us with a wry grin. "Shall we?"

"Vivian! That's so great!" Lotus cheers.

"How'd you do it?" asks Gash.

"I've been working on that." Vivian boasts. "My battle style used to revolve purely around portals, so I figured this couldn't be too much harder."
"It isn't?" Lotus asks.
"No, I was wrong. This is a thousand times harder." She laughs nervously. "Doesn't matter. It works." She steps closer. "You guys coming?"

I look for a second at Vivian's smile. "Sure am. Let's keep it up, guys. We're on our way to saving the world."

"To priceless artifcacts!" Lotus cheers.

"Here, here." Gash says, a cheeky but warm smile on his face.

Looking at the way Aislyn handles the stone, however... there's an idea brewing. What are you thinking about, Aislyn?

My body grows cold, knowing that I can't trust her. Not anymore. I might be able to work with her again, save the world with her, but there is no way we can be friends after what she's done. I think she knows that too.

Taking someone's powers.

Two willing hosts.

I... I think I can think of something.