I stumble to my bum and roll around on the floor while trying to block out the squiggles by burying my face under my wings... it doesn't work. Apparently this status isn't something you see with your eyes, but with your mind, how I wish I could close my mind like my eyes, there's simply too much to handle! more than ever before! And I thought that the amount of squigglies with level ups were bad! This is like an ocean compared to a pond!

I do recognize some of the squiggles here, but there are new ones too, lots of them actually, I can only understand about 20% of my status with what I know now. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of the squiggles too! It turns out I know nothing at all!

This is ok though. I'm like 100% sure that this is the status that Bartlon was talking about. This giant wall of squiggles is the display of my being, my soul, my skills and my capabilities.

I have no doubt, that locked within the great mysteries of these unknown squigglies my unknown talents lay, just waiting to be revealed! But what else is hiding in here? Anything could be hidden right? A bird can only dream of the possibilities, but to find out, I must become one with Mr. Squiggle, learn his cryptic ways and see as he sees! and... why do I feel nausea all of a sudden?

".... are you hurt? Sorry, this is my fault... Heal, I didn't think it'd be dangerous... Heal".

Its Bartlon making me feel sick!! Why is he pushing me back and forth and washing me with a strange white light?

The combination of obtrusive status squigglies and this bright light is fully blocking my vision! If this goes on any longer I might end up spilling my last meal! That wouldn't be very ladylike at all, but he's shaking me so hard I can't even get a squeak of a word out!

I flail my wings and barrel roll to stern of the boat, as far away from Bartlon's wrinkled hands of unexpected shaking power.

"I'M FINE" I shout out sternly before he can get any closer. I lay there on my back for a moment, waiting for my eyes to stop swirling and the white light coating my body to fade away while Bartlon voices his most sincere apologies from his seat.

"I'm fine" I repeat again as I sit up my tail feathers against the back of the boat. "I just didn't think my status would be so...squiggly... I thought it would be different" I explain while looking in Bartlon's general direction.

My status, while not visible to my eyes, demands the majority of my focus, leaving me half blind and the colors of the world muted and bleak. Bartlon, the boat, the blue tree and the surrounding trees are nothing but silhouettes, like I'm looking through muddy water. I hope this isn't permanent, I would very much like to be able to see colors again.

"So it worked then?! Well I'l be! Praise to Escal!" Bartlon exclaims, clapping his hands together in merry surprise. "Honestly, I had a gut feeling it wouldn't work! This is the first time I'm glad that my gut was wrong!"

Guessing from the crazy silhouette, Bartlon is making more crazy hand gestures.

"How did it go then? Is there anything about language on your status? A skill or trait?" The energetic silhouette asks, returning to the task of rowing.

Language? pfffft! I don't even understand half of this! let alone anything specific about speaking! I have a more pressing concern anyways.

"How do I make it go away? I can't see anything Bartlon!" I express with worry seeping into my voice.

Bartlon pauses mid-row for a split second as he considers his answer.

"Ahhhhhhhh, I just sort of ignore it and it goes away?" he responds with confusion.

I ruffle my feathers to his answer. Has he already forgotten this is my first time seeing my status?! I really wish he had shown a little more consideration! What if I'm stuck like this? I won't forgive him untill he falls into the lake a million times! How am I even suppose to ignore this thing? It's huge! I'm definitely going to be stuck like this.

Oh... never mind, it really did go away. I can see everything normally again, including the grinning old man rowing the boat. That was pretty easy. I guess I might have overreacted a little. still, I feel a bit angry about it.

I close my eyes and hone my focus back to the fire in my heart and call back the squiggles.

"Status" I whisper.

Name: -----, ------

Health: 81/81 Mana: 134/134 Level 4 (191/400) Strength: 12 Endurance: 19 Species: Pheonix Dexterity: 11 Intelligence: 38 Class: Pheonix, Level 2 Affinity: 24 Skills Traits Cinders, Level 2 Mythical Bellows, Level 1 Fire to Fire Profound Fire Affinity Dungeon Bound

ARH! Its so overwhelming when it appears! The squigglies kinda just get shoved into my head without mercy, I can't believe its this bad, even when I expect it!

"Your speaking is definitely a skill right?" Bartlon asks again, unable to hide his curiosity. "If you don't mind, I'd love to know what it is. I've got a tamed pet back at home. Not mine of course, my wife's you see".

I can see the glint of excitement in his eyes, it's overbearing even through my muddy vision.

"Umm, these squiggles are new to me, I haven't seen most of them before so I don't know what my skills are" I truthfully inform him. If I could understand what these meant, I would be happy to tell him! I guess learning about my status was a dead-end to begin with. Such a shame that all the important things are covered in a layer of indecipherable squiggles...

AHHHH MY GENIUS!!! I HAVE A GENIUS IDEA!!!

+ 1 Intelligence

"BARTLON" I bellow while jumping up and flapping to his feet.

He jerks his shoulders awkwardly at my sudden burst of energy and I swear I hear a *crack* noise from his back.

"What is it? You trying to scare me to death again?" he grimances, but still retains his amused grin.

I ignore every word past 'what' and press on with my idea. "You can understand what the status means right? Like, all of it, right? Right?" I eagerly ask, hopping foot to foot with unbridled excitement.

"Of course I can" he replies with a raised eyebrow, manipulating his wrinkles in a way I haven't seen before. "Would be very inconvenient if I couldn't"

A fleeting thought crosses my mind. 'I bet he could communicate with only his wrinkles'. Each line in his skin contains the worth of at least a hundred words... Argh! No! Forget about that!

"OK" I shout at the top of my birdy lungs.

I spin around and get to work.

Using my talons in the most delicate manner I can muster, I engrave the squigglies of my status into the hull of the boat. A few times Bartlon tries peeking over my shoulder to catch a glimpse at what I'm doing, each time I scoot over to block his sight. After all, I'm not going to shown him an unfinished stroke of genius! It would ruin the surprise! It takes a few minutes of intense concentration to copy over the difficult squiggles to the wood and there are some patches where it doesn't match up perfectly because I was rushing, but, for the most part it should be good enough!

+ 1 Dexterity

Time to show him.

"Ok!" I whistle out with pride, admiring my own masterpiece.

"Please explain this" I request in my politest melody as I hustle my way to Bartlon's feet so he can see it clearer.

"Clever little bird aren't you?" He praises with a warm smile. "Let's have a look then!" he cheers while taking his hands off the oars and leaning forward, putting his elbows on his knees.

"I see, I see, yup, no name after all... and quite a bit of health for a bird... and Holy Smokes! that's alot of mana! How did you get it so high? ah nevermind... so, you're level 4 huh? lower than I thought for having health and mana like that, very strange... and your spe..c..i..."

"..."

"..."

Bartlon goes silent as his gaze fixes on the 'species' squiggle. So he can't understand it either? All that confidence for nothing! Although its satisfying to know I'm not the only one who doesn't understand the strange lines.

"....*cough*.... I think you made a mistake here" Bartlon says while dragging his finger over the shallow engraving of 'pheonix'.

I open up my status and double check that each little squiggle on the wood is exactly how it is in my status and... Whoopies! I did make a mistake! I put down 'Pheomix' by accident, the 'n' and 'm' are almost the exact same!

"Sorry" I chirp in frustration as I quickly cut a line across the mistake and write the correct squiggles next to it. I even double check a third time to make super sure! So a triple check! There's no way its wrong now!

Bartlon's hand starts to tremble as he traces over each of the fresh squiggles in the hull with his finger. When his finger reaches the end of the 'x' he pulls his attention to the rest of the squigglies in a disbelieving silence.

"You're not joking are you?" He says with a whisper, eyes not leaving the squiggles, though the question is mostly directed to himself and not at me.

"Is it bad? I ask meekly.

He turns and gives me a sidelong look, his wrinkles showing how shocked, confused, scared, happy, curious, muddled and amused he his. I vividly remember seeing this wrinkle pattern before, when he pulled himself out of the lake and spoke with me for the first time. He has every emotion of the rainbow present on his face.

"Maybe?" he says after some time.

"Probably" he corrects hastily.