Charles trotted out of the city gates, receiving twice as many stares as before.

‘You’d think they’d never seen a Phorus with a sabretooth cub on his back before,’ Charles snorted whimsically. His siblings would make an ever greater ruckus if he let all of them ride on his back, rather than the cat that was currently there.

Before he could let that thought get away from him, he reminded himself that they were far from what he would consider safe. That didn’t bother him nearly as much as he thought it might, though. Coming into the city the first time, he knew that things would change dramatically from what he was used to. Without knowing exactly what was going on, or the state of the city in general, Charles was wary of making any solid plans. However, one thing he did plan out were a few escape plans from their ‘safe house’ to the outskirts of the city, and beyond, if necessary.

They were rudimentary at best, but if push came to shove, he figured they might be able to lose a pursuer by sheer virtue of speed, if he only had his siblings to worry about. By virtue of how they met, Charles felt he could still bail out and save his own hide if necessary. That was going to get harder and harder to do though, as time went on, he realized. He wasn’t a sociopath, and he certainly felt that he lacked the will necessary to not grow attached to them. Charles had already known that the Greenhorns weren’t bad folk, but they were growing more likeable to him as well.

As he listened to the voices behind him, he broke out into a smirk at the ongoing banter.

“I’m telling you, I’m putting money down that he’s a bird prince, or something!” Mithel spoke, “He’s pretty, prideful, able to talk in ways that are unusual, strong for a bird, and pretty!”

“You said pretty twice,” Ronald said dryly, but by the light grin on his face he was just amused by her antics.

“She did,” Dachna frowned at her, “You’re sure you didn’t add anything questionable to your drink?”

“I barely drank anything,” she shot a scathing glare at the man, “Ante up, what’s your bet, then?”

Dachna’s frown didn’t move, but he did thoughtfully glance at Charles, who shook his head subtly at the man. “Ten gold that you’re full of it.”

Mithel snorted, “Too broad, narrow it down.”

“Twenty gold that he’s not a prince.” Dachna paused and then searched Charles, “I’m not thinking he’s a regular bird either, though.”

Charles grumbled, and flicked his tail feathers, not especially keen on being a part of the bet. His response was, apparently, enough encouragement for Dachna.

“Mohrgrum’s money! Alright, let's run through the list!” Dachna cheered, “Aberrant; yes, but we already knew that one. Haunted? Engineered? No? How about divi–”

Before he could say the word, Reese rushed to cut in, “Are you really cheating in the bet by trying to get a read on Niko?”

Dacnha looked at her in surprise, before shiftily glancing at the now very flinty Mithel. “Uhhh… No?”

“Bets off,” Mithel scoffed, “You’re fishing for answers from an intoxicated Phorus. Wow, Dachna. Just wow.”

Charles listened to them go back and forth and smiled to himself before he glanced over to Skye. She, for her part, was doing her best to not look back at the rest of her friends, because they might see her pale face as they guessed higher up the food chain. ‘Girl, you are so much worse with your poker face than you think you are.’

And then he also noticed the stark look of relief on Reese’s face from the corner of his eye. Charles' quizzical expression landed on her as she startled at his attention before offering a weak smile in his direction.

‘Okaaaay… What’s that about?’ He chirruped quietly to himself. Confused, he directed his attention back over to the elf, who now strode up to his side and gave the cat on his back a gentle pet. Surprisingly, the critter was entirely comfortable nestled between his shoulder blades and amidst the plumage there. It looked quite warm, now that he actually cared to check on him.

“He’s nearly passed out,” Skye chuckled before considering her next words. Charles gave her time to formulate her thoughts. His pace became something more casual, as he had the feeling she didn’t have what she wanted to say quite set straight as of yet.

“So… I don’t really like social stuff,” she started, before shaking her head slightly, “No, more like I’m kind of bad at it.”

Charles turned his attention to her, arching a feather-filled eyebrow at her statement.

“Well, I just wanted to say that I’m glad that you got to see your family. And that you’re still hanging around. I don’t really know what you want to do, but we’re going to be going on an adventure.” She smiled wistfully at that, “It’s going to be great. Filled with danger, fame, fortune, and if we can get to the end of it, we’ll be one of the most powerful adventuring teams on the continent.”

Her tone fell slightly, perhaps perturbed, “Ah, uhh, I probably sound a little too… Look, what I’m getting at is that I’m going to do my best to learn how to do this whole interpreter thing. So, if you need help, you can tell me,” She said while miming writing on the ground where no one could see her hands, “And I’ll help. We’ll get to see the Kingdom, while we’re at it. Though, I do have to say that while the pilgrimage is supposed to be… ridiculously difficult, I think you of all people can do it. It’ll be rewarding, fun, and maybe we can even see the rest of the continent. What do you think?”

Following along, Charles understood some more context of what she was saying now as compared to what she had said before. Before, it sounded something like a long training expedition, a proof of passage of some sort. Now Charles understood that it was something more, a way to push the truly gifted higher. At least, he assumed so; there was a great deal of context that he knew he was missing, but even so this much was acceptable.

Charles warbled a small noise of approval, tentative, but more of a ‘Sure’ than anything else. Skye lit up exuberantly before immediately pivoting on her heel and moving closer to the others.

He heard, “Niko agreed!” before he tuned out the confused and bewildered interaction behind him. The team was far from used to dealing with this version of Skye, it seemed. For Charles, or Niko, he supposed, this was potentially a great way to go about learning what this world considered powerful.

‘I hope that this isn’t going to be a waste of time, but at worst, maybe I can harvest plenty of essence and learn how to power up?’ Charles nodded to himself, feeling a strange kind of sixth sense that was telling him that he was growing ‘fuller’ by the day. The essence patterns he had in his body were full to the brim, with more besides in ethereal channels through his body.

But for now, he had one last task to complete here before he could close out a chapter in his life.

Ahead in the forest Charles saw a large saber tooth cat, a blue tint of fur breaking up the greenery around her. If she didn’t want to be seen, Charles believed that she wouldn’t have been, not this far away. If it weren’t for his semi-cheat of essence sight, he doubted he’d ever have noticed her in the woods. Behind him, the Greenhorns' footsteps stuttered momentarily before falling back in line with his own lengthy strides.

As he cast his vision out wider, though, he noticed some oddities. The first of which was the absolutely feathering massive essence form that lay nearby somehow obfuscated behind trees and grasses.

‘I really pecking hope that’s just insurance,’ Charles turned his now sharper eyes to the cat before him, who only gave him a small inclination of her head at his approach. Whether in greeting, or also in regard to his obvious concern of the beast behind her, he couldn’t say.

Her eyes panned the group searchingly, and only now did her hackles begin to rise. Charles guessed as to why before shuffling Tiku on his back, forcing the too comfortable kitten to rouse, raising his head in a tired yawn from the cradle on his back.

‘Good thing, too, my damn wings are getting sore from holding them up like this. Fat cat.’ Charles twisted his head and neck to the side to subtly show off the cub more, and at that the older cat calmed, a relief washing through her visibly.

“You make good on your word. In short time, no less.” She almost sagged with the pent-up energy that released from her body, “I had thought that you were walking into your own tragic demise.”

The growling yawps that she uttered didn’t sound aggressive at all to the Greenhorns, but it was still bizarre when Niko began to titter back at her, “I keep my word. Some just take longer. I’m glad to say this wasn’t one of them. Record time, I’d say.”

She nodded, and the Phorus wasted no time in moving a bit closer and carefully pulling Tiku from his back before placing him on the ground. The cub looked equal parts exhilarated and relieved to see her.

“Sister!” He slammed his head into her front leg, purring loudly, “I didn’t know when I’d see you again.”

Charles put out of mind how stereotypical the reply sounded for the situation up until the sister-cat’s eyes narrowed.

“What is that thing around your neck? And… and are you groomed? What is this, shampoo? Your–” her eyes widened almost imperceptibly, “–wait, were you… were you being pampered?”

‘Oh? Ohhhh, he’s so screwed,’ Charles quietly clucked in amusement “Well, it seems you two have catching up to do. I’ll leave you to it.”

The cat started, “Wait! Before you go, I realize I’ve been very improper in how this is normally supposed to go. My name is Sasha.” She nodded, whilst simultaneously propping a paw onto Tiku in a thinly veiled attempt to keep the kitten from fleeing. “I’m this one’s second big sister, belonging to the Blue-Claw Clan. May I know your name? We do not forget our debts, and you have helped us more than you know.”

Charles was about to brush off the debt talk when he stopped himself. For a second there, he’d almost fallen back on his old Earth habits, where he allowed things to go by him, merely because he hadn’t done something with expectations to get anything in return. He’d very often been taken advantage of, but the few times he wasn’t had made things equal to him.

‘I don’t believe that, anymore,’ realization of all of the things he’d done as a human percolated. He’d already been processing how he felt about his past life and his attachment to his human identity, and that last realization shook something loose.

“I am… Niko,” Niko felt the way it rolled off of his tongue, a touch of essence seeming to naturally flow with it, “Yes, I am Niko.”

Sasha seemed to know that something important had happened for Niko, but she didn’t know what. Still, she treated the statements with a poise and dignity that Niko wouldn’t have found out of place in a diplomat on a mission. “Niko. Thank you again, and if you’re ever in the mountains, or come across any of my kin, instruct them that in Sasha’s name, you and yours are named guests in our territory. That should be enough if you ever need to call in that debt.”

Niko nodded before turning and trotting back towards the people that had followed him out here.

Still, he couldn’t help but overhear the previously poised Sasha immediately turn to her sibling with exasperation, “Tiku! I was worried sick about you and combing the countryside, only to find that you’re being pampered? And what is this? You’re wearing a collar? You aren’t even tamed! And–no, you know what? We’re going to go see mom, she’ll whip you into shape.”

“No, wait! I can explain!? Nikooooo! Save meeee!” Niko pretended he heard nothing as Sasha started fussing over Tiku’s fur, cleaning him as abrasively as possible, if his complaints were anything to say about it.

“It’s so beautiful and cute,” Mithel’s expression of happily ignorant warmth was something that Niko had no plans on ruining at the moment. Then he realized it wasn’t just her, and instead the full group.

‘Really, guys?’ Niko shook his head, ‘Right, welp. Gotta whip this group into shape then. Considering I can probably turn any one of you, except apparently Reese, inside out with a good kick, we need to get to that training montage immediately. Actually, beating on you guys sounds great, we should definitely do that.’

“Who wants food?” Dachna broke in, “I don’t know about you guys, but booze without food is just sad.”

The others shot him disapproving looks for ruining their moment, but Niko chirped loudly, trotting near enough to Dachna as they led the way from the group.

“Hah! See? He gets it!” The man grinned.

‘We can train a little later. After all, doing anything on an empty stomach isn’t helpful! Right? Yeah, definitely.’ Niko felt better than he had in days, like things had finally managed to dial back down to something reasonable. He could do without being under lockdown by the guildmaster, but there there were drinks and potentially food that–

‘Oh, holy peck! I don’t have to hunt, do I!? Come on people, we gotta go!’ Niko let his musical warbling pick up a random tune, and found his own spirits lifting with the amusement his team showed in response.

He didn’t slow, even as he took one last good look at the Evergreen. ‘This is the end of the beginning, hmm?’ Niko let himself reminisce while falling back amidst the people he might eventually come to call friends and true companions. ‘Alterra, can you see me? I’m starting on the long road, send some good luck my way, eh?’