I was in some sort of weird stand off.

The people in the woods refused to come out, but I wasn't making any moves either. I was just sitting there, still circulating my Streams. Around me lay everyone important to me, so it wasn't as though I was considering moving or doing anything other than sit and defend. That said, I wasn't about to do anything rash.

Everyone who was facing me had some sort of weapon. There were a lot of different kinds, but thankfully no guns. I figured I could probably handle arrows and such since I could still see them, but a bullet would be on an entirely different level from that. I had no confidence in defending from something that quick.

So, we were staring at each other. Both waiting for something to change.

I wasn't sure how they had found me. It was reasonable to expect that our entrance and the clearing it created were a source of significant disruption, but I assumed I had been out for quite some time. So why now?

I had a few theories but nothing concrete. They'd all have to wait for later though. A new party had intruded on the clearing. Steeve was standing out between me and the main force of the bulwark, sitting on her haunches with her head cocked sideways, like she was curious what idiots would intrude on what was clearly her clearing. She reinforced the impression with no fewer than a dozen tails out behind her, writhing slowly like they were underwater.

My original guests' collective eyes were bugged out of their heads, staring at Steeve like she was some sort of deity, which made sense. An animal with that many tails wasn't normal to start with, and the fact she'd just appeared out of thin air probably seemed pretty fantastical to them, since they weren't used to Steeve's teleportation antics.

Or maybe I was the weird one for just finding her behavior normal at this point.

Seeing that her point was made, Steeve disappeared and reappeared standing in my lap, before curling up and apparently falling asleep. I could see from my perspective, however, that she was keeping an eye on things — as in she had the eye facing away from our guests open to mind her surroundings.

Steeve was out here making me feel seen. What a sweetie. I gave her some good pets as compensation, mimicking the stroke I'd seen Celistar use.

I realized that Steeve had given me an opening to look mysterious along with her, so I went and pushed some Nebula onto the surface of my palm, seeking to essentially brush it into Steeve's fur. This caused gold-tinted mist to start rising from the point of contact after a fashion, making her look like she was some sort of freshly steamed bun to me, but apparently they found this enthralling.

Kiiiii kiiii, went Steeve, sounding like a cross between a sigh, and a meow, and a cat purring. It was an interesting noise for sure. I was glad she was enjoying herself, the poor thing had put in a lot of work lately.

A man had stepped forward out of the underbrush, and I found his style of dress familiar but I couldn't place it. It was only once he bowed that I recalled either seeing him or someone similar when I was briefly birded on my first trip to this world, as it was now clear that we'd been brought back to a very similar location as to that I visited before. Whether that was coincidence or intention on Celistar's part would have to wait for the Moon Spirit herself.

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Steeve's tail (tails?) twitched as the man started talking.

"Venerable One, may we enquire as to why you've disturbed the sanctity of our innermost regions?" He said, hands together inside his sleeves, but held out together towards me as he bowed behind them. There was clearly a bunch of etiquette at play that I vaguely remembered seeing as bird-Char, but I'd had more… feathery concerns at that point to really have a great recall. That and I could solve all my problems with pecks at that point.

What was clear, however, was that Steeve had handed me quite a bit of social power by association, as it was clear these people were under some sort of false impression as to my real level of prestige, which is to say, none.

I could try to play into it until Celistar showed up to help explain just what the hell was going on. I'd shouted internally for her a couple of times, but hadn't heard anything.

Oh well, guess I'm on my own for now, I thought, collecting my words. I tried to do so in a way that suggested that speaking to everyone was my least important concern, instead of that I was internally panicking at the thought of keeping everyone safe with my least competent skill: talking to people.

I took a deep breath as slowly as my thundering heart, circulating my Streams slowly as I often did to calm myself.

"I have rescued my people from a great cataclysm," I started, giving a small gesture to the people laid about me. "Time was of the essence, and the destination was not considered."

The man facing me bowed even deeper. "You have my apologies, Venerable, it appears we have greatly misunderstood your intentions." He looked at the other people, and they lowered their different armaments. "We were under the impression that you had invaded, and these people were injured victims of your attack. If I may be forgiven for my rudeness by saying that you have clearly come from elsewhere, based on your clothing."

"You are forgiven," I said, and he took a sigh of relief. "We have traversed what I can only assume are immense distances to arrive here. While it pains me to do so, may I ask for your assistance with my people? They were unable to handle the journey as well as I have." I took a small pause while making it clear I wasn't done talking. "You have the promise of my support as payment."

At that last statement, I saw many pleasantly surprised faces.

Everything I said was true, but talking like that felt so weird in my mouth and I had to think way too much about it. I had a general distaste for people who didn't say what they meant directly - 'talking like your farts don't smell' as Grandpa once put it… when Gran was firmly out of earshot.

If it meant saving my family, I'd find a way to make them smell like flowers, if that's what it took.

The man bowed again before going back to his fellows. They talked excited together, looking over their shoulder at me every once in a while. I did my part as the 'mysterious expert' by paying them no attention at all. I simply sat and focused on the issue I was having with my special vision.

Obviously I was unwilling to make a repeat of my previous face-plant in front of everyone, so I instead I pushed on my Nebula in different ways to try to figure out if there was a way to keep it from coming out of my skin and fogging up everything. The problem was that no amount of restraint seemed to keep it from leaking.

Finally, after getting increasingly frustrated, I thought about my Streams. They rotated in a circuit, losing no more at the end than had been expended and lost to my normal processes. I thought to take the escaping Nebula and circulated it back into the Stream itself at the inner edge of the skin.

This kind of worked, but I still had some escaping from the outside surface of the skin itself. It seemed that so long as there was a part of me, it would emit Nebula.

Fine then, I thought, I'll just do it the hard way.

I took the Nebula after it escaped the skin, just above the surface, and forcefully applied my will to it, jamming it back beneath in a short rotation down to the Stream, where it was circulated into the system.

With a 'pop', reality seemed to waver for a split-second before things equalized. My vision immediately cleared up. I opened my eyes, and was greeted by the sight of my guests staring at me warily.

Well that's just great, I thought, What have I done now?

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