"It’s incredible how much my Krinils have changed recently, truly incredible. Physically too, but more so mentally. Last week they barely knew their way around their pen, but now it’s suddenly as if they had spent months in there. I have a suspicion that they are capable of storing their own memories, much like we do with our Krinil gems. It’s possible that they are using those memories to navigate the room with much more familiarity than they ought to have."

— Notes from Prof. Sylven’s desk, stolen by Shoes at his twin brother’s behest

Lynn was going on an adventure!

Once the yucky liquid inside the incubator had been drained off, she could wiggle herself free easily. Hopefully she hadn’t broken anything this time—Proffie always got mad when she did.

Lynn found the room silent and dark and empty. Well, not completely, but almost! It wasn’t entirely silent; faint clicking sounds could be heard from multiple strange mana-infused devices in the room. It wasn’t entirely dark; the incubator was still powering down, some components on its top providing a soft glow. It wasn’t entirely empty either; Lynn was in it, after all.

But Lynn couldn’t sense Bezzel or Harpy or any of the others nearby, so she decided to go find them. She ran to the door, but found it closed. When it didn’t open even after some punching and kicking, Lynn closed her eyes and reached back to the Astral Plane to access her memory bank. She had seen Bezzel open and close this thing multiple times, so—of course, that was how he did it!

Following her memories, Lynn opened the door quickly and stepped outside. She stopped there however, looking down at herself. She was completely nekkid. That just wouldn’t do! Mortals always covered their body with clothes, so they would find her strange if she didn’t wear anything. She scampered back to the room, climbing up to Bezzel’s boxes to look for something to wear.

She managed to find—even without her memory bank—a large fabric that Bezzel usually wore over his chest. She pulled it over her head, but it had too large holes in it! The fabric slipped past her shoulders and fell down onto the floor. Lynn then tried again, pulling at the fabric so that the hole became smaller, but sadly didn’t remain that way. No matter how much she tried, it always reverted to its bigger state. In the end, all Lynn managed to achieve was accidentally tear it, making the hole even wider.

Lynn sat down and began to think. She dwelt in her stored memories, concentrating hard. Was there anything she could do in this case? In the Astral Plane, she would have just thought that she was wearing clothes, and she would be wearing clothes. But this world was different—this world was much harder! She still tried it though. Maybe it would work this time, now that she had spent some more time in the incubator. Growling a little as she focused intensely on her body, Lynn willed some clothes to appear.

"Gwah!"

Nothing happened.

Lynn needed a better solution. Bezzel’s clothes didn’t fit, and she hadn’t seen where her previous clothes disappeared to, but—aha! Harpy had clothes too. Harpy was smaller than Bezzel, so her clothes would fit Lynn better! Excitedly, Lynn hurried to Harpy’s side of the room.

A bunch of time later, Lynn was out in the dark corridor, wearing a pink fabric that was long enough to reach down to her ankles. At least, she thought it was pink-colored. No one had explained this color to her, but from her observations she had made before she had a body—peeking at this strange world through the Veil—she could infer what this color was called.

"Oh!"

Lynn had an interesting idea. She lifted her clothes a bit and licked at the fabric curiously—but sadly pink had the same taste as Bezel’s clothes. Strange. Was it because she could only see black at the moment? The corridor was really dark…

Lynn traversed the black corridor without seeing anything, reassured in a memory that told her this corridor had an entrance. Unlike in the Astral Plane, things in this world rarely changed. No, no, that was not true. Things changed a lot, but they changed with time. Very curious. It was easy to understand why so many of Lynn’s kin was drawn to this strange, alien world—even if it meant being bound to an object. All these feelings, all these emotions, all the new experiences; they were all wondrous. And Lynn was even luckier than the most, bound not to a simple gemstone, but to a living body. She had her own emotions!

And her own emotions told her now that she was excited. She could see light! Lynn ran, eager to reach the entrance. Or was it the exit? Good question. It was one of those things that kept changing all the time, even in this world. Distracted by her own thoughts, Lynn stumbled and tumbled and fell down as she left the dark behind. She fell right into something flowy—no, not the incubator again! Oh, just water. Cold water. Brrr!

Lynn stood up quickly, but the cold clung to her skin. Annoying. And then she felt excited again, as she realized she felt annoyed. Such wonderful variety of emotions! But the water was still annoying. Lynn kicked at the cold fluid that flowed around her legs, but it just wouldn’t leave her alone.

"Stop!"

Lynn kicked and punched, but in the end it was she who gave up first, climbing onto a dry patch of stones. She huffed, but turned her mind to more productive things. Like finding Bezzel or Harpy. They told her that they would help her, so where were they? Nowhere nearby, apparently. All Lynn could see were trees and trees and trees. And water. Annoying water!

Well, she just needed to pick a direction to start walking and hopefully she would find someone. But there were so many directions! Closing her eyes, Lynn concentrated on sensing the mana density in the air. This was a good plan; higher density usually meant more people around. She couldn’t sense much in her vicinity, but she had a hunch that far away in a certain direction there might be more. When she opened her eyes, she realized that the water was flowing in the same direction.

"Lynn not give up!" she yelled as she jumped back into the water. Cold was a sensation too, and even if it wasn’t the best sensation, Lynn was beginning to like it. She wasn’t even annoyed anymore; splashing around in the flowy liquid was fun. She tried to lick it, then drink it all up, but the water didn’t stop flowing, not even once.

Eventually she reached some stone structure arching above the water and she climbed up. Her hands were very, very deft compared to the last time she tried to climb. Good! Her body was growing. Come to think of it, running and walking were easier too, weren’t they? Lynn had barely fallen—alright, she had fallen a lot, but only because she was kicking at the water.

Once she climbed up, she found a road and buildings in the distance. And light! In the last bunch of time the air around her had steadily darkened, so fresh light was very welcome. Lynn felt around with her mana-sense, noting with satisfaction that there was indeed more mana to be found where the light came from. With a wide smile on her face, she started running.

By the time she reached the closest building, she was certain that there were people inside. She could hear them talking, as well as making strange and beautiful and tantalizing noises—music! The sky above Lynn got very dark, but there were plenty of light coming from the buildings, drawing Lynn closer. She scampered closer to a hole in the wall—to a window—and pulled herself up to peek inside.

"Woah," Lynn whispered. She had never seen so many humans at one place! They wore colorful clothes, and did lots of kinds of things. Some were eating from a long table, some were standing and talking with each other, and others were moving around in pairs at the center of the room, clutching at each other. A mating ritual, perhaps? Lynn was eager to observe—but first, she needed to find a proper entrance. Or exit. People didn’t climb through windows, so she shouldn’t either.

She lowered herself back to the ground, then sat down to think. Dwelling into her memories didn’t reveal anything, sadly; she knew how to get in and out of Proffie’s house, but this building here looked different. Ah, well—she just had to explore it by herself. And if she didn’t find any exits, she could just climb through a window very secretly.

Lynn walked alongside the building, one hand trailing the wall beside her. She walked and walked and walked, until she found something that was undoubtedly a door—and someone was opening it to go inside! Lynn hurried after the human. It was a male human, tall like every human, carrying a tray of food. When he turned around to close the door and saw Lynn, he froze.

"Hello!" Lynn greeted the male as per human custom, approaching him. The human trembled, his eyes widening as he backed off slowly, dropping his tray. Lynn winced as it hit the floor with a sharp clang, bits off food scattering in the doorway.

"Oh my God," the human sputtered, then turned around and ran. "M-Monster! Monster!"

Lynn whirled around quickly to look behind herself—but she didn’t see any monster. It was really-really dark though, and Lynn’s eyes couldn’t see what lay in the distance. Maybe the human saw something scary lurking there? Lynn didn’t know the dangers of these lands, so she decided not to risk her new and beautiful fleshy body. She hurried inside too, but then stopped and grabbed the edge of the door, carefully pulling it shut. No monsters were coming in now!

"Hello?" Lynn tried again, but the human was nowhere to be seen. The small room was empty. Well, not entirely empty, because Lynn was standing in it, but—oh! There was food lying everywhere under her feet. Curiously, Lynn squatted down to pick up a small squishy thing, sniffed at it, then popped it into her mouth.

"Mmm!"

It was delicious! Yummy! Tasty! Nothing that Lynn had ever tasted before! She quickly picked up another piece, biting into it. Then another. And another. There were different flavors! This was incredible. By the time Lynn finished, sitting against the wall and sighing contently, the floor was mostly clear of food. She looked down and poked at her belly, knowing that it was the place where all those delicious yummies disappeared to. She then smiled happily, realizing this was exactly why she came to this world. To experience strange new sensations! To feel exciting emotions! To eat tasty food! Lynn stood up then, a new idea forming in her very own brain.

She was going to eat some more food.

She set off walking, moving along a long corridor. Humans really liked their corridors. Lynn observed the framed pictures alongside the walls—there were lots of them, though most were too high for Lynn to see—and she decided that she liked them. Pictures were tasty for her eyes. They had beautiful colors, and just by looking at them they filled Lynn by different thoughts and sensations. Some of the pictures depicted scenes of this world, similar to what Lynn had observed through the Veil. Other pictures had interesting humans on them, different from Bezzel and Proffie and Harpy, yet similar so much.

There were people on the corridor too, not just on pictures. They were all very polite—or perhaps shy? Lynn saw them making way for her everywhere she went, some of them whispering among each other when they saw her. Most of the humans were too busy however, doing things that humans usually did. Humany things. Going this way and going that way. None of it was terribly interesting, until Lynn realized that they were carrying trays. Trays similar that the human male had dropped earlier, trays full of delicious yummies!

A human—this time a female human—who was coming from the opposite direction froze when she saw Lynn looking at her tray with predatory eyes. It was a good thing too, because Lynn would need her help to reach the food—she was carrying it so high up!

"Hello," Lynn greeted the female as per human custom. She even waved her hands a little.

The human, however, said nothing—just started to back away as Lynn approached.

"Lynn eat!" Lynn declared, pointing at the food.

The human, much to Lynn’s frustration, turned around and ran. Lynn already knew what frustration felt like, and she decided that she still didn’t like to feel it. With a cry of indignation, she ran after the female.

"Help!" the human cried as she burst into a large room at the end of the corridor. "Somebody help me!"

"Lynn help!" Lynn offered, hoping that it would finally make the human stop running away. Her shorter legs couldn’t carry her so fast! She stumbled into the room after the human, lost her balance, and sprawled on the floor. Picking herself up quickly, she then sniffed at the air. She could smell lots of tasty smells!

There were lots of humans in this room too, though they were dressed differently than the ones Lynn had seen through the window. These ones were dressed very similarly to each other. Lynn looked at them curiously and they looked at Lynn funnily, and then everyone started to shout and run up and down, doing humany things.

"Warbeast! There’s a warbeast here!"

"No, it has to be one of the nobles’—"

"It tried to eat me!"

"Someone call the guards!"

"Give me the knife!"

"Don’t get close, it might be venomous!"

Lynn kept turning her head left and right, trying to understand what was going on. The strange humans kept shouting and scrambling and looking at her, even more so when she slunk forward and snatched a tasty-looking fleshy thing—meat, Lynn remembered—from the table. She munched on it, though it was a bit tough to chew and made her hands and mouth sticky, and wasn’t even that tasty anyways.

Lynn put the half-eaten meat back where she found it, then licked her lips as she looked around the room to find something else. The humans were still being shy, ducking out of sight and shouting over each other.

"Enough!" someone yelled near Lynn, and she saw a wrinkled human male—an old human male—approach her. Remarkably, all the other humans fell silent to listen.

"Get back to your work, everyone," the old human said with a firm voice. "Our noble guests want to eat, and we’re already behind schedule. I’ll welcome the little miss here."

The old human moved closer to Lynn with hobbly steps, and Lynn waved to greet him.

"Hello!"

The human stopped, watching her with his one open eye.

"Hello, little one. Can you understand our speech?"

Yes! Someone greeted Lynn back! Lynn bobbed her head vigorously at the old human’s question, remembering that sometimes people communicated with head movements too.

"Lynn unstan—understand!" Lynn said, her tongue stumbling a bit on the long word. "Lynn speak too!"

It wasn’t entirely true, perhaps, because Lynn didn’t understand every word and neither could she speak too well . . . but she was much better than she had been before, and she was proud of it! Her head felt less fuzzy and slow; it was easier to concentrate and draw upon her memories. It helped her speaking, a little.

"Your name is Lynn?" the old human asked. "Mine is Oldcook."

"Oldcook," Lynn repeated after him, feeling out the word.

Oldcook smiled, nodding at her. "Welcome to our kitchen."

"Kitchen?"

"This place is the kitchen," Oldcook said. "The meals are prepared here."

"Prip—?"

"Prepared. Cooked and baked. We make food here."

Lynn’s eyes went huge. Food was made?

"Niiice!" she exclaimed, laughing in delight. The kitchen was nice, just like the flowers. One of the nicest wonders of this world. She looked around to see exactly how the food was made, but she couldn’t see much. She’d have to climb up to a table to see better.

"Lynn want to see," Lynn said. "Make food! Then Lynn eat food!"

If she could see how food was made, if she could learn how food was made, she could make tasties for herself whenever she wanted to eat! This was definitely the best plan she had ever thought up yet.

Even Oldcook seemed to be thinking so, nodding at her in approval.

"Alright, Lynn. Follow me, and I’ll cook something for you."

"Food?" Lynn asked.

"Yes, food. Something quick and simple, if you don’t mind. What do you think about pancakes?"

"Food! Tasty food!" She didn’t know what pancakes were, but they sounded tasty.

Oldcook chuckled, then turned around and gestured for her to follow. Lynn ran after him, catching up easily, because Oldcook was walking really slow. It seemed like it was difficult for him to use his legs. Lynn wondered why he didn’t draw some mana from the Astral Plane to heal his leg. Perhaps old humans couldn’t do it?

Lynn was getting impatient, though. She could smell the delicious smells, which made her mouth water. When she spotted someone placing a huge tasty food down to the table, similar to the food she had eaten but bigger, she ran towards it to snatch a bite. The human jumped back quickly with a startled cry, and Lynn was about to reach up to the table when she heard Oldcook’s voice.

"Don’t!"

Lynn’s hand stopped halfway towards the tasty food, and she looked back curiously.

"Don’t?"

"You shouldn’t eat that, Lynn," Oldcook said, hurrying towards her. "The lords and ladies are holding a banquet, and that cake was made for them."

"For them?" Lynn asked, lowering her hand. There were tasties that only specific people could eat?

"For the guests," Oldcook said, then nodded towards the other human. "Go find another table, for the time being."

"Okie!" Lynn said, turning around.

"Not you, Lynn," Oldcook said with a chuckle. "I was talking to Stover."

"Oh."

Lynn turned back just to see the human—apparently named Stover—hurry away with the cake. She looked after him longingly, until Oldcook patted the table to get her attention.

"You know, Lynn," he said, picking up some tools from the table, "I don’t think you should simply take any piece of food you want to eat."

"Why not?" Lynn asked, pulling herself up to the table. "Lynn want to eat tasty, Lynn take tasty."

She wiggled a little, kneeling down to the spot where the cake had been, and watched Oldcook put some powdery white thing from one container to the other. It was so fascinating that she almost missed his answer.

"Because . . . there’s a secret," Oldcook said. "It’s not something many people know about. Say, have you heard about the tale of the Dragon’s Feast?"

"Dragon…?"

"Ah. Dragons are mighty creatures from the Warring Ages," Oldcook said. "They look like enormous winged beasts, though they can take on a human-shape as well. They live in their own, magical world, but often came to visit these lands—especially in times of war."

Lynn scrunched up her face, thinking. Was Oldcook talking about the shades? Lynn knew that shades would sometimes possess the bodies of big creatures, as well as the humans of these lands. Ugh! It was really difficult for her to think about what Oldcook had said, and pay attention to what he was doing too! It was good exercise, though—similar to what Proffie always had her to do. Lynn concentrated hard. Oldcook was doing lots of interesting things, like opening a small round object and pouring its yellow-white contents into a bowl.

"Lynn know of dragons," Lynn commented when Oldcook started to mix things around in his bowl. "Lynn meet dragons!"

"Oh? You must be really fortunate then, Lynn. Not many who meet a dragon live long enough to tell the tale."

"Oldcook can meet dragon too," Lynn countered. "Bezzel has one inside! But it can not talk…"

"Ah, I see," Oldcook said, looking at Lynn strangely.

"It can not!" Lynn confirmed. "It is trapped."

"Ahem," Oldcook turned back to his bowls, his voice falling silent. He seemed to become uncomfortable . . . or was he just concentrating hard? He fumbled with something—and then the middle of the table caught fire! Oldcook covered it quickly with a black bowl-like thing, though. He smeared something on the bottom of the bowl, then poured the sticky-liquid from the other bowl into it.

But as captivating as making food was, Lynn still wanted to hear what Oldcook had begun to say about the shades.

"Dragon’s Feet?" she prompted him.

"Oh!" Oldcook looked up, his mouth smiling once again. "The Dragon’s Feast! It’s a story about a dragon who wanted to eat the tastiest food on the world."

Lynn perked up upon hearing that. "What did dragon do?"

"The dragon announced a contest," Oldcook said. "She would offer half of her hoard to the man or woman who cooked the most delicious meal for her. For a single bite of the tastiest food, she would give enough gold and riches to buy a whole kingdom!"

Lynn nodded her understanding. She didn’t know what buy was and how exactly a hoard looked like, but she guessed they were very important for humans. Oh, and she knew how the shade felt too! Experiencing new sensations was one of the most precious things in this world. Lynn could completely understand why the shade wanted to eat the tastiest food.

"What happen then?" Lynn asked.

Oldcook didn’t reply immediately, flipping the flat squishy thingie on his bowl before putting it aside to pour more sticky-liquid.

"Then, little Lynn, happened the greatest feast that mankind has ever seen. People came from all across the world to make food, to create the most exotic and special meals that ever existed. From the lowest cooks to the most renown chefs, everyone tried their luck for the dragon’s hoard. Some brought with them the most exotic ingredients that ever existed, others tried the most ridiculous recipes, just to prepare the most special dish. All this, for a single dragon who wanted to know what tasted the best."

"And? What was tastiest?" Lynn eagerly asked.

"The dragon took a bite from every meal, one after the other—and she found them all lacking. You see, while they were all very tasty, she didn’t truly like any of them. Something was missing. Neither the most expensive meals, nor the strangest recipes have truly caught her fancy. No matter how many wondrous dishes she tasted, the dragon couldn’t find the tastiest meal—not until she took a bite from the food made by a little girl."

"A little girl?"

"Yes," Oldcook said. "A young girl from a poor family, barely able to afford the simplest of ingredients. Still, she gathered what she could, not because she thought about winning the contest, but because she liked the dragon. She wanted to make something lovely for this dragon, something that she herself liked to eat. So she made pancakes."

"Pancakes?" Lynn asked. She looked down at the stack of flat white-brown thingies that Oldcook was producing one by one.

"Yes, pancakes. There wasn’t any special ingredient in them—it was the most ordinary food one could ever make. Yet, when the dragon took a bite, she immediately knew that it was the tastiest food she had ever eaten. Do you know why?"

Lynn shook her head, her eyes wide, trying to comprehend what Oldcook had said.

"See, Lynn, this is the secret so many don’t know about. Food tastes better if it’s given with love."

"Love?" Lynn thought about this strange concept.

"Go on, try one of these," Oldcook said with a smile, pushing the plate with the stack of pancakes toward her. "I’ve made them just for you, Lynn."

Lynn licked her lips, then reached out with one hand to grab the topmost pancake—

"There you are!"

The voice cut through the air sharply, and Lynn saw Oldcook fall onto his knees, bowing down to the ground. Lynn looked back then and saw Harpy storming her way, all the other humans bowing in her direction.

"What is happening here?" Harpy asked.

"M-Mistress—" Oldcook began to speak, his voice shaking.

"Oldcook make Lynn pancakes!" Lynn finished for him.

With something that Lynn recognized as a frown, Harpy looked at her, then at Oldcook, then at the pancakes.

"Alright," Harpy said after a brief silence. "Grab the pancakes and let’s go. The brute has already worried himself sick over your disappearance, and I still need to strangle my brother for arranging a banquet behind my back."

Lynn blinked, taking a moment to consider what Harpy had said, then turned around and dropped herself down to the ground. She then reached back up to the table, grabbing as many warm pancakes as her little hands could hold, and ran to Harpy’s side.

"Harpy want tasty too?" Lynn asked as they got going.

"Harpy?" Harpy asked as if she didn’t know who Lynn was talking about.

"Harpy!" Lynn pointed at Harpy with a fist full of pancakes.

"Who are you calling—" Harpy began angrily, but then shook her head and sighed. "I’m going to strangle Bezel, right after I finished strangling my brother for arranging a banquet behind my back."

"Stan—strangle?" Lynn asked, looking up at Harpy.

"Never mind that," Harpy said. "Listen, Lynn, what you need to remember is that my name isn’t Harpy. My name is Miranda Alexia Dawngrove, and you may refer to me as Lady Dawngrove, or Mistress Miranda if you must."

Lynn looked up at Harpy, pursing her lips. Harpy met her gaze for a long moment, then sighed again.

"Or," she added quietly, turning her head away, "You can call me Mira."

"Mira!" Lynn repeated it with a smile. Now that was something she could easily pronounce!

"Just don’t tell Bezel I’ve said so," Mira grumbled.

"Okie!"

"And please tell me that dirty thing on you isn’t my camisole."

"Isn’t my camisole!"

Mira groaned, and didn’t say anything else. She must have been tired. As the two of them walked down the corridor, Lynn eyed the pancakes in her hands. She took a bite from the ones she held in her right fist, and squealed in joy. They were indeed very tasty!

"Mira?" she asked once she swallowed properly.

"Yes?"

"Want some tasty pancakes?" Lynn said, holding out the food in her left fist. "It’s given with love."

The emotions flickering over Mira’s face were incomprehensible for Lynn. Slowly, very slowly, Mira reached out and plucked a piece of pancake from Lynn’s grasp.

"Thank you, Lynn."

Lynn nodded happily, then took another bite from the pancakes. Truly, they were very yummy. She would definitely need to learn how to make more of them.