From Up River

The sounds of life were everywhere now. Birds were chirping in the bare Malus trees that surround the river. Mice and voles rustled beneath last years' soggy leaves. Even the hum and buzz of insects coming alive after a long winter. Over all those sounds was the constant rushing and crash of water from the Chorus river. The largest river in Allegri, the Chorus river crosses the entire continent and would lead him home. Eventually. Hopefully.

It was incredible to finally feel the warmth of the sun on his face after months of cold wind, snow, and darkness. Maybe it was the recent physical changes but the sunlight felt like it was soaking right through him, energizing his soul and bringing something back to life that had forgotten it was ever alive.

After months' of walking across the northern snowpack it gave him hope to see signs of life. Spring will also bring more sunlight which gave Ickekoof more time each day to walk and soon food would be more plentiful. Even after all this time walking, he wasn't sure if he should keep calling himself by that name. Ickekoof. Supposedly it was a word from some divine language that meant 'hard work' and 'persistence' but how would some illiterate clerk at an orphanage know that? It probably meant 'boring chump'. Regardless, when he awoke in the darkness; freezing and naked, he was no longer himself. He was no longer just himself. He was altered; added to, inside and out.

Before this he'd considered himself fairly average. He was nothing special among the orphans and once he left the work house, he'd found work as a houseboy or servant in various taverns and flophouses. Sometimes it got rough but he had a few good friends and knew how to get the most from his lean skillset. Now, his skin was tough and the color of ripe cherries. Even though he woke up naked, it was hours before he realized he had a tail!

"... Stupid body." He absently muttered out loud as he trudged along the riverbank.

He'd started talking to himself several months ago when he realized it was likely he'd be alone for this entire journey. Trying to save his sanity, he decided it would be better to talk out loud than to keep all his thoughts trapped in his head. Glancing over at the river he noticed it was much lower than usual for this early in the spring. It felt like a very strange thought to have since he had never seen this section of the river before. Ever since he woke up naked and starving in that frigid snowbank that he had somehow also gained fragments of someone else's' life.

Bundled in the thick furs he'd collected during his months-long trek from the northern reaches of the continent, he could tell the next few weeks of travel would be much warmer. Tracking so many consecutive days without light had been difficult but he was certain it had been nearly a year since he awoke 'remade' in the snow. Letting his thoughts follow that thread for a moment, he contemplated the vast distance he'd traveled. How long had he been unconscious? It was going to take him another full season to reach Etude, if he hadn't misread the stars.

That was yet another mysterious skill he now apparently possessed. He somehow knew more about wilderness survival and geography than he could ever learn. At first the knowledge only seemed to bubble up when needed, but over time the memories, not just the information, would also come. He didn't know where they came from and although they'd been instrumental in surviving this whole event, part of him thought he'd probably lost his mind. Spending so long alone must have consequences. Despite voicing his thoughts aloud, somehow none of it made him feel any better.