We spaced ourselves out, perhaps a dozen feet between us as we entered the Mists and as soon as we did, we couldn’t see each other or the world anymore. Occasionally, a thick tree trunk would appear, the Mists so thick you wouldn’t see it until it was right next to you. Even then it seemed ephemeral. I tried touching one and had the oddest experience.
“I can reach into the tree,” I whispered. This realm seemed made for whispers.
That’s because it’s not really there. You can see it in your world still, but you’re in my world now and it’s more… a shadow of reality. You can walk right through it if you like.
I tried. It was unnerving, feeling it around me, but not stopping me. I didn’t do that again.
“What did Lady Kitsune mean about The Mistlands being dangerous to humans? I thought all the spirits here were… friendly, like you.”
Auwei sighed.None of the beings here will hurt you… on purpose. But some of them are so anathema to physical life that they may… drain your essence. There are beings here, so foreign to your mind — and you so foreign to theirs — that they might feast on your life force and kill you, but think it nothing more than… as if you came upon a stream for a refreshing drink of water.
“Oh.” That was just a little terrifying.
But I’m with you, so I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.
“Good.” Slightly less terrified now.
What do you feel here? Auwei asked.
“Scared now,” I said as a bit of a joke, though that was more truthful than I wanted to admit.
I mean physically.
“Oh… ah…” I stopped my wandering and closed my eyes to focus on my senses. It was very odd. I could see the thick fog, but to my skin it felt just like still air, very cool air, but unmoving. It didn’t feel wet, like normal mists did. “It feels cold but strangely dry.” It only occurred to me then — and I couldn’t help but blurt it out — that, “This isn’t really mist!”
No.
“What is it?”
That defies explanation. It simply is. This is what my world is like. We never had a name for it until we met humans. You named it The Mists or The Mistlands, but we just think of it as home. This is our sky and earth, our water and plants. It is everything.Auwei giggled.Want to know something truly astounding? You’re not standing on anything.
I opened my eyes and looked down. I could barely see my feet, so thick were the Mists. And below my feet, there were the faint hints of a forest floor, a few leaves, on which I was standing.
Just like that tree, the ground here isn’t real. Your mind is assuming you need to be on this level because you always have been. But you can sink into the ground and be fine… or even fly.
“Fly?” That sounded fun. “I think I’d like that.”
Auwei sighed.Then do it. Though for most of your kind, you find it hard to comprehend not being earthbound and are unable to fly. I can’t tell you what to do or how to do it, as I’ve never had to.
I closed my eyes again and lifted my leg as if I was walking up a set of stairs. It was the easiest thing I could think of. It took a couple of tries before my foot stopped where I expected it to. Then I simply mounted that set of stairs, higher and higher and… it felt no different.
Well done, Auwei said with genuine praise in her voice.You did that far quicker than any of my hosts before.
I tried then to picture a light and fluffy bed before me. I reached out, making sure I could feel it there, sort-of, then fell forward onto it and… floated. I caused the made-up bed to float around, here and there, back and forth, as I lay upon it.
You have a vivid imagination, Birch. No one I’ve known has ever done that before.
“Now, if only I could do the mystical thing that would Bond us. I’m even in a mystical land, literallyTheMist-icalland, and yet… oh…” I’d flown through something cold that had sent a shiver down my spine. “What was that?”
You flew through a sprite. They were very confused. Luckily, they’re not the dangerous ones.
Still, it had felt so very uncomfortable and awkward.
“I think I’m done flying for now.” But then I wondered… “Where’s the ground?”
There is no ground here, remember?
The image of falling forever flashed into my head and suddenly my “bed of clouds” dissipated and I was falling. “Auwei!” I called, as I tumbled head over heels through the Mists.
