Chapter 128: Chapter 116: Twins

I looked at the pair with [Soul Perception], and they were... strange. I might even be prepared to say that their souls were abnormal. The way the patterns flowed beneath the surface was odd, the patterns themselves were coarser and more angular, and the System's core didn't fit in quite so neatly. Lots of minor differences that added up to give them a distinct feeling of otherness compared to any previous souls I'd seen. Unlike me, they didn't lack the chains of the Law, but it was obvious the chains were failing to bind them, unable to penetrate the surface of their soul and hanging loosely around them.

I'd never seen my own soul prior to Erryn's tampering or before being exempted from the Law, so I'd made a couple of incorrect assumptions, but it was still true that I'd be able to instantly recognise a reincarnate using [Soul Perception].

ding
Skill [Soul Perception] advanced to level 14

"What? What do you know about them?" snapped the harpy, suddenly sounding impatient and desperate. I was reminded of my own mother when she realised there was something different about me... It wasn't just the children who needed our help here, but the parents, too.

"I assume they've been behaving strangely since being born?"

"Yes, ever since hatching, they've been too quiet. Too intelligent. I swear they communicate with each other!"

"They probably do," I said. "They've been born with at least some memories of a previous life."

"What? What's that supposed to mean? You mean like that human boy over in the east who was... responsible for... That's you, isn't it?"

"Yes," I agreed.

"Thank goodness," said the mother, almost collapsing with relief. "I thought they were... No, I didn't know what to think."

"It's okay. My mum thought I was some sort of shapeshifting monster. I spent a season thinking I was successfully fooling her into thinking I was a normal baby. That was the last time I ever underestimated magical mum senses."

The harpy mother smiled briefly before tensing up again. "Then... am I really their mother?"

A complicated question. Without Erryn's memory manipulation, it was hard to say what they would think, and they couldn't yet talk. It was a pity I couldn't use telepathy, although even if I could, I'd presumably have the same problem as Erryn in that I wouldn't actually be able to use it on them. Could they write? Point at letters?

"I can't tell you what they're thinking, but I can tell you that I love my family very much, mother, father and brother alike."

Tirrani, Harpy, Cloud Skimmer (15/25)
Tennacti, Harpy, Commoner (1/1)
Dirrana, Harpy, Commoner (1/1)

Tennacti was female and Dirrana male. They had tiny talons sticking out of their feet, a far cry from what I'd seen on any other harpy, and cute little beaks. The skin on their legs was leathery and taut, but not yet the yellowy almost-scales of the adults. Similarly, their wings weren't yet feathered, but were covered in a grey fluff that extended over their shoulders and up the backs of their heads. Their arms and the rest of their bodies looked like a regular human baby.

Cluma, with her usual lack of tact, approached the children and their eyes focused on her ears. I could see basically nothing but light and darkness for weeks after being born, so these kids obviously had better eyesight than I did, or else had been born well before the System dinged at me. Then again, they weren't human, and I had no idea what harpy biology was like. They'd recognised when I spoke English, so they were presumably from Earth, which meant they were human before. How were they supposed to get used to wings and talons? Although, I'd got used to extra senses and abilities, so it should be possible.

First thing, we needed some method of communication. "You said that you think they're communicating. Could I ask how? Maybe they could communicate with me the same way."

"They point and make strange noises, and wave their arms around. Nothing that looks suspicious on its own, but the way they take it in turns..."

Nothing simple then. Something they came up with between themselves, maybe? Perhaps they knew each other well back on Earth. I suppose even if they can't speak or write, it shouldn't be hard for them to answer yes or no.

I watched Tennacti trying to reach for Cluma's ears, giving me flashbacks of my own first interaction with Clana. "(Careful)," I said to them. "(You'll pick up the [Xenophilia] trait if you do that sort of thing)." I bet that trait will grow to be quite common among us Earth natives.

Tennacti immediately stopped and stared at me again. Dirrana joined her. Perhaps they didn't spend so much time playing games as me, and hadn't interacted with the System yet? "(If you haven't noticed yet, think 'status' really hard.)"

The pair of babies started staring off into space, obviously reading their status. Apparently they hadn't realised it. Or perhaps I was the weird one, for realising it so quickly. "(It's all run from a big magical computer south of here, so there is some logic behind it. Do you both have the [Abnormal Soul] trait? Give me a little wave for yes.)"

Both babies gave me a wave, so that confirmed that. "(Well then, let me welcome you to this world, fellow earthlings. I went through some stressful times when I was reborn here, so I figured I'd come here and save you two from needing to go through the same things. I can't do anything about the milk problem or diapers though, so... good luck with that.)" Actually, Tirrani was completely flat chested... All other harpies I'd seen had been the same. How did harpies feed their young? "(Or maybe that's not a problem for harpies... In which case, lucky you.)"

Both babies burst into giggles, which was reassuring, hopefully? But I was going to be majorly jealous if they didn't need to suffer through feeding time.

"Umm... Excuse me?" asked Tirrani. "Can you teach me to talk to them like that?"

"We'd be better off teaching them this world's language. They need to learn to speak at some point, and the sooner the better."

"Well yes, but..." Tirrani was pulling some very strange faces, and again I needed to remember it wasn't just the children in a difficult position here. This poor young lady had given birth to twins, and then it had turned out that they had memories of another life, a stranger had turned up and started talking to them in their old language, and she was being left completely out of the loop. They may not be shapeshifting monsters, but the whole situation must still be very distressing for her. Actually, she'd said hatched earlier. She laid twins? How did that work? Harpy biology was raising questions that I wasn't sure I wanted answered.

"There's no reason we can't do both," I said with a smile. "Particularly since they can't speak themselves yet, so trying to teach them to talk would be difficult."

"Well then, I'm completely forgetting my manners. Why are we standing around out here in the cold? Come on in!"

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I hadn't thought it was particularly cold; the temperature in this recess seemed far higher than outside, and there was no wind. But then, I had warm clothes and a ring of ice resistance. She had two babies which weren't wearing any thick clothes.

A short distance into the cave was a brick wall with a circular door set into it, and through that was the harpy house. "How long can you stay?" she asked.

"We're staying at the delvers guild inn, which is a fair distance, but going down will be a lot quicker than up. Or if there's an inn up here somewhere, I guess we could move."

"Oh, there's no need for that! We have a spare room ready for the children. You can stay here!"

"In that case, for a week," I answered. "But I can teleport to anywhere I leave a beacon, so I can come back again any time. I should have plenty of free time until winter. Actually, speaking of teleport beacons, I'll pop back to the inn and let them know we're not staying."

Laying down on the floor and activating [Redistribute], I called to the children, "(If you haven't had a chance to see magic yet, here's the slowest and weirdest teleportation spell in existence.)"

I began my shift back to my bed back at the inn. We hadn't left any luggage behind here, so there was nothing I needed to collect, just to head downstairs and settle the bill. A few levels had made some difference to my teleportation speed, but it was still slow. I watched the transfer move down my legs and cross over my knees, before I suddenly felt someone tickle-attack my foot. Argg... My ankle was the only bit left I could flex, and everything else was on this side already! I was forced to tolerate it for long seconds until the transfer completed.

ding
Skill [Redistribute] advanced to level 5

So not only have I not had any hugs this trip, but now Cluma was taking advantage of my immobility to tickle me? Had I done something to make her hate me?

It didn't take long to sort out my business at the inn and return to the harpy cave, where I glared at Cluma, who was looking overly pleased with herself.

"If you could do that, why did it matter where you're staying?" asked Tirrani.

"I can only teleport myself, and not others," I answered.

"Ah, obviously. Sorry."

I suppose I could stay in the inn while Cluma stayed here, but there didn't seem to be much advantage. Wait... I hadn't asked how many spare beds they had! Was I going to end up sleeping in a bathroom again?

Of course, I was failing to take into account that these people were harpies. Their idea of a bed was somewhat different from mine. I didn't fancy sleeping in what was effectively a woven wicker bowl covered in fluff, so I piled up thick clothes on the floor next to it instead. Cluma, ever the adventurous sort, decided to use the nest.

And so began an unusual week, staying in a harpy cave, explaining things to a pair of two-week-old hatchlings, and then translating everything I said for Tirrani. Also for Cluma, who decided she very much wanted to learn English too. Tirrani's husband, a [Gatherer] by the name of Dennacta, turned up later in the evening, leading to another round of explanations.

From what I was able to extract from the hatchlings, they not only knew each other back on Earth, but were an adult, married couple. That added another layer of strangeness to the whole situation; they'd not only gone from human to harpy, but from married-with-children to blood siblings. Unfortunately, proper communication proved impossible. They lacked the dexterity required for writing, or even for accurate letter-pointing, and I didn't want to use [Dexterity]; I knew it was disconcerting enough when a buff doubled a stat, but in their case, it would boost them by more than an order of magnitude. I was worried the effect would be harmful. And while their eyesight exceeded mine at their age, it would be a long time before they would be able to speak. That was largely the fault of their beaks, which needed to grow and harden before they'd be able to make intelligible noises, and it was apparently normal for a harpy not to learn to talk until the age of three or four.

A few days in, I got some sort of weird feedback from my [Basic Crafting] skill, which seemed completely unrelated to anything I'd done. It felt almost like a level-up, but with no change to my status and no System notifications. I poked at the skill for a bit, but without doing any actual crafting, I couldn't tell what, if anything, had changed.

Of course, a week wasn't enough to learn a whole new language, on either side of the divide. Nor was it enough for the babies to make themselves comprehensible. Frankly, it was impressive enough that they'd managed to share the information they had. I still had no idea of their Earth names, or where they lived. I looked forward to the children growing up a bit, so we could have a proper conversation.

I'd succeeded in assuaging a lot of their fears, as well as those of the parents, so the trip was still successful, and I left a chunk of toe outside their front door ready to return, while Cluma ran around hugging everyone goodbye. She even let Tennacti pet her ears one last time. That girl was definitely going to end up with [Xenophilia]...

...And there was a bit of information I'd forgotten to give them. As Tennacti reached for Cluma's tail, Cluma jumped back with a yelp, successfully avoiding the overly grabby hatchling. In our settlement, not touching beastkin tails was common sense, but of course, there were no beastkin here. Plus, they're three week old babies. That's not an age at which you normally worry about teaching common sense.

"(Ears are okay, but not the tails)," I called from the front door. "(Or a fairy's wings)," I added, having only learnt that one myself recently. They hadn't been surprised when I'd listed off all the races I knew about, but then, they'd been reborn as harpies. It would have been obvious to them that humans didn't own this planet.

ding
Skill [Detach] advanced to level 6

On top of being successful, this trip had been great for skill levels.

"Bye-bye," called Cluma, walking out of the front door, playing with the rings on her fingers and crouching slightly. Huh? Isn't that her I'm-about-to-start-running pose?

She started running. "Whu?! Wait!" I called, but was comprehensively ignored, and she went flying straight out of the cave and into the air.

"Hey?! Is she going to be okay?! She can't fly!" exclaimed Tirrani.

"She'll be fine," I answered with a sigh. "Enchanted ring. Suppose I should follow her..."

Adventuring with Cluma was many things, but boring was not one of them. Forcing aside the substantial bit of my brain that insisted that jumping off mountaintops was not a great choice if I valued my continued survival, I did a flying jump out of the cave entrance and fell to the forest below.

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