#Voidsky Series

[maddilynmuse]

They’re NOT birds

When writing a book, sometimes you have to cut scenes you really like ;w;

Here’s one of them! Ngl it’s basically just showing off a cute creature I made and having characters argue about whether they’re a mammal or a bird. Edited a lil so y’all have a bit of context.

Her name was Asha Mae. She was born, went to Alabon's Adventuring Academy, fell off a waterfall into another world, and now was being led around the edges of the icy shore by a farmer--Charlie, a broad shouldered girl with a slight tan, though still practically milk-colored compared to Asha's rich black--to find the absolute fashion disaster goofball she had ended up living with: Glowworm.

The pair reached a tall metal fence. Children surrounded it, giggling mischievously as they tried to climb over it or squeeze through the tight bars. Yep, Glowworm was definitely here; the kids loved him.

Charlie shook her head and chuckled as she fished out a key from her coat pocket. The gate unlocked with a small click and children crowded against it. “C’mon ya’ll, we gotta catch the boy! And easy on the hens, yeah?” She looked over at Asha, "Ever seen a Wakkla before?"

"No?"

"Welp, prepare to get snuggled."

Onward they went into the pen, Charlie closing the gate behind her. Children rushed in; there was a sound similar to bike horns on helium coming from what looked like a rippling mound of oily iridescence. The kids rushed forward, grinning as they hugged these fat, fluffy, honking things. In turn, the strange mammals waddled towards them on small, clawed feet. Large whiskers protruded from small, blunt noses as they nestled the kids against them, roughly matching the kids in size at three feet tall.

Those of another world may have considered the creatures akin to an otter if it had the upright stature of a penguin, maybe with a bit of walrus around the nose and the teeth of the males, but Asha had no such comparison.

Children giggled as they were welcomed into the hoard with snuffles and nuzzles, unafraid even as the creatures swarmed around them alarmingly fast. Charlie just chuckled and walked into the mass, pulling out a young man with unnaturally bright red hair who had opted to wear a green t-shirt with a faded bear picture on top of a yellow sundress with glittery purple pants underneath--Asha was still trying to figure if there was any rhyme or reason whatsoever in what clothes he slapped on at any given time. 

"Found him," Charlie said.

Glowworm waved. "Hello there dearie! Looking for me?"

"Yeah, Kyra wanted to tell you she had some cake for you," Asha said offhandedly. She was more interested in the creatures! "What'd you say these were? Wok-nahs?"

“Wakklas!” Glowworm chirped. “Also known as precious little fluffy babies! C’mere girls!” He made a crude imitation of their noises, grinning as more come to him.

Charlie rolled her eyes, “Well, he’s right about the wakkla part. This is the hen pen. These little guys are great for eggs and meat. Easy ‘nuff to care for too. They like fish guts, we like the meat, it works out.”

Asha stared at the strange creatures for a while before saying, “That- that’s not a bird.” It had fur! And paws! Not a wing to be seen!

“Lays eggs, don’t it?” Charlie said. “Sounds like a bird to me.”

“No?” Asha said. “And do they? How! That’s not a bird!” What kind of mammal lays eggs?

Glowworm chuckled, “Well, yes! They lay eggs and don’t breathe water, so sounds like a bird to me! Right girls?” He picked one up despite that one in particular being almost four feet tall, giving it little kisses and devolving into incomprehensible baby talk. A child clung to his leg as he set the wakkla down, giving both a pat on the head.

“I refuse to believe that until I see one lay an egg,” Asha said.

“Aye, you’d want the nursery then. I’m not allowed there,” Glowworm said.

“Uh..."

“He ain’t allowed here either, not without one of us, and yet here you are,” Charlie said with a chuckle. “Well, ain't just him. It's supposed to be just us handlers and such, but he keeps sneaking in with the hens here. Anything to say for yourself this time boy?”

“Well, for one, the kyippers wanted to play with them, and two, me breaking into this place is basically tradition at this point,” he said, puffing out his chest out.

“I don’t know how you haven’t broken your neck yet,” Charlie said, shaking her head. “I swear, you’re the only person to hop that fence more than once.”

“And yet I keep getting in,” he said teasingly, poking her nose. Some of the kids laughed and one went “oooooooo!”

Charlie rolled her eyes, pushing him away. “Yeah yeah. I guess you do. Your hens would miss you otherwise. But why do you keep vaulting over it? And how are you not dead?”

Glowworm just shrugged, sticking his tongue out. “A good performer gives away no secrets, m’dear.” Nevermind that he was not actually a performer.

“They. Still. Aren’t. Birds,” Asha said, only half paying attention to everything else. One wakkla came up to her and abruptly let out the loudest, squeakiest honk she’d ever heard. Asha yelped back in shock and fell on her butt. Suddenly they swarmed, trapping her in a pit of fur and squeaks. “Guys!”

Glowworm threw his head back to laugh, being utterly unhelpful Something licked her face. Charlie eventually pulled her up by the armpits, but the wakklas just kept coming, surrounding them and honking.

“Aye, come now! They’re sweethearts! They just think ya look cold, don’t ya girls?” Glowworm said, petting one's head and getting his hand licked for it. “I don’t have any fish bits for you hens, sorry ‘bout that.”

“Glowworm,” Charlie said.

“Yes?”

“Get out of here.”

“Okay, first, can someone show me an actual ‘waka waka’ egg or something? I refuse to believe these things lay eggs,” Asha said.

“It’s wakkla. And I would, but we harvested the cooking eggs, and the cocks will bite your fingers off for those eggs. No,” Charlie said.

"I don't get what's so hard to understand about this?" Glowworm said. "It's a bird! Birds lay eggs!"

"Yeah, but it's not a bird! It's a mammal!"

"Mammals have live birth," Charlie said, "Kinda the definition of them."

"Okay, yes, but birds have feathers."

"I mean, most sure do! But not these guys," Glowworm said.

Asha made a noise of frustration, the kind of frustration you only get when you know you are right but everyone else is too stupid to believe you. "Guys. Please. It's a mammal. It has fur."

"So?"

"So it's a mammal! Not every single thing that lays eggs is a bird!"

"'Course not!" Glowworm said.

"Thank you!”

"Some are fish!"

Asha groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose, “What about fucking reptiles?”

Both Glowworm and Charlie were just staring at her oddly. The word apparently existed in this language, but they didn’t know what it meant.

“Reptiles! They’re like fish, but, uh, on land?” Oh god how could they be this dumb. Had these people never seen a snake before--oh wait, right, this place was fucking freezing.

“Dearie, you’re just describing a bird,” Glowworm said.

“NO I’M NOT! THEY HAVE FUCKING SCALES! It’s like Siren but only the bottom part!” Siren being a supposed sea monster with the bottom half of a snake and the top half of a woman but with wings instead of arms; Asha had yet to see her.

“Siren has wings! She’s a bird!” Glowworm said. “At least so I’ve heard?”

“Sea monsters are kind of their own things,” Charlie said with a shrug. “Don’t mess with ‘em.”

There was at least solace to be had in the warm, cuddly fur creatures as the circular argument went on and on between them, none losing ground. Unfortunately for all involved, none of them had a word for monotremes.

[maddilynmuse]

Figure I should introduce some of these guys! Meet Asha Mae. I got her from this Picrew which is honestly wonderful if you need to make a POC character. Seriously, check it out!

But yeeeee, her name’s Asha, roughly 19-20 and newly graduated from Alabon’s Adventuring Academy. She’s always dreamt of being the kind of person people tell stories about, seeing the world and treading new ground never before seen, following the footsteps of her adventurer grandfather, and maybe even falling in love with an exotic boy or girl, but seems like the height of those days might already be past. Or maybe not, who knows?

Not her, she gets her ass isekai’d off a waterfall while escorting a cart to a nearby town.

Landing in another world was not exactly how she expected this newbie apprentice quest to go, but hey, she’s not gonna pass it up! Especially as she finds out that the new world is rich with magic and it’s been generations since any of them had last seen a sun.

[maddilynmuse]

Is it Cold Outside?

Okay yes I have the Cold Island meme from My Singing Monsters stuck in my head, but figured I’d do something semi-useful with it ;laksdfj;lsfakj

Asha looks up at the dark sky, and she misses stars.

Look at for the stars in the big black ink

Asha missed the stars.

For the most part, she tried not to think about it too much, but sometimes her body was tired and her mind wasn't. And tonight--today? there was no difference anymore--was one of those nights. The stone roof of Glowworm's house was cold against her back. Her legs dangled off the edge, arms spread out. If she had any sense, she'd go inside and start a fire, but instead she was staring into the endless black.

Back in her hometown, a hometown worlds away now, the lights and trees blotted out much of the night sky, but not nearly to the extent the ever-present darkness here did. She wasn't sure how it did that, actually. For a while, she assumed she must be in a cave, but no matter how she waited, there were no showers of dirt, no dislodged rocks proving that she had simply fallen down. Sometimes the concept was exciting; a world entirely different from her own, all hers to explore. The fact that it was mostly freezing did complicate that some, but she would figure it out. Worst came to worst, well, she got here, there must've been a way back. Kyra had told her there was.

For the most part, she looked at the dark sky only briefly, focusing more on the lights in the distance and the dancing gold lanterns marking the square, the bits of silver smattered across the sea like fake stars of their own. Even when she did look up, it was usually with some sense of curiosity, with some vague feeling of a problem to fix and the excitement of being the one to finally do what all else failed to. It was exciting, most nights.

However, tonight was not one of those nights.

Footsteps came from below and paused for a moment before backing up and running forward. Glowworm vaulted up onto the house next to his own and shuffled over to lie down next to her. "Asha?"

"Yeah?"

"Got something on your mind dearie?"

Tell me what you feel and tell me what you think.

Asha let out a long sigh, watching her breath turn into a gold cloud in the lantern light. "No... Yeah. Yeah I do. Don't think you'd get it though."

"Well, try me anyways! Worst case scenario, I still don't understand, right? And I already don't understand, so can't really get worse."

Asha snorted, "Guess you're right there." She kept looking up. There was just nothing up there. It was like someone put a black blanket over the sky, blocking out everything else. "I miss the stars. I mean, fuck man, it probably sounds dumb, but I don't think you can understand it if you've never seen them. They're, like... They're a bunch of dots of light, I guess?"

"Like lanterns?"

"Kinda? But you can't touch them. Can't reach them."

"How do you keep them from going out then?"

"You don't have to," Asha said. "That's the thing. They're always there. Sure, they kinda move around, or we move? Not really sure, but when you look up at the sky, there are a few you can always see from almost anywhere on the planet. And you look up and know everyone else can see them too. And, well, they kinda got me started adventuring too. Too much lights makes them look dimmer, but my grandad took me out to the plains, and I..." She reached a hand up like she was reaching for them, like she could reach through time and take his hand again and have that moment back, that first moment when she really looked up and saw a sky full of galaxies. But, of course, she couldn't. Her hand fell and she sighed, "I miss him, I guess. And I miss the view. I wish I could show you."

Glowworm nodded. "They sound pretty."

"More than pretty, if you can get to the right place to view them. Takes a bit of looking, have to get away from people and out under an open sky, but they're gorgeous. Even without that though, like, sometimes I'd climb up trees as a kid-"

"Trees?"

"Big, woody plants. Like bushes, but taller than the buildings here. Sometimes taller than three stacked together."

"No way!"

"Yeah way! This place is fucking tiny dude!"

"Aye, suppose you have a point there."

"Yeah I do. Back to the actual point, well, we had these things called constellations. I couldn't ever memorize the 'real' ones, but they're all kinda made up anyways, heh. I would look up and draw my own pictures by connecting the dots. Sometimes some of my siblings would come up too. It was nice, y'know?" Her eyes burned, but it was hard to tell if her vision was actually blurry until she looked over at Glowworm and could only make out a shock of candy apple red against pale skin and whatever abomination he decided to wear today.

"I can only imagine," he said. "C'mere."

He brought her into a hug, but even his warmth couldn't pierce the layers of fabric and fur surrounding her. Gently, he pushed her up to sitting, "C'mon dearie, let's get you inside. I'll start a fire and some nice tea, warm you up. I know it doesn't fix it, but..."

"It's fine. Thanks. It's, uh..."

Is it cold outside?

Is it cold out?