Bioshifter

Kagiso carefully cradles me in two hands, idly brushing the top of my carapace with a third as she carries me up to what will be our shared room. I, of course, am holding onto her with a death grip, wary of being dropped—or worse, thrown. I admit, I don't actually know if I'll be hurt if I fall, but I've heard that tarantulas can get seriously injured from being dropped and that's about the closest equivalent I have to my current leggy body. I don't intend to test it.

I can 'see' the two rooms long before we reach them, and I have to admit they look nicer than I expected for a fantasy world. The way the whole building is carved out from the inside of the tree is incredibly cool, and I can't even imagine how most of it could have been done without magic. The walls are beautifully smooth, most of the furniture is artistically crafted out of the wood, and there are even small tunnels snaking between the rooms for what I assume are ventilation purposes. Not even I could fit inside those, so what sort of tool would they even use to carve something like that? I mean… I guess there probably is a tool of some sort that would work, but magic seems likely considering that it's largely ubiquitous. Not to mention… no way. Some of the little pipe-tunnels aren't ventilation, they're full of water! They lead to a bath! That's so awesome!

I do note with annoyance that Kasigo and I only have a single-bed room, while the boys get two beds. I get why. I am nowhere near large enough to justify giving me a bed to myself. But also, where am I supposed to sleep!? Do they expect me to just curl up on the foot of the bed like a cat? Or do I just slip under the covers with this four-breasted fuzzball and act like it would be physically possible for me to get any sleep that way? I just—ah, woah woah woah woah woah!

My thoughts are interrupted by a sudden increase in altitude, Kagiso lifting me up, placing me on her head, and then extracting her hands from my grasp, leaving me to cling in terror to her skull.

You are a hat, she declares.

Wh-what?

Good hat. Pat pat.

And then she just… pats me. I am absolutely stunned speechless. Her brother seems to be holding back a laugh, and even Sindri is smiling.

What just happened? I ask helplessly.

I think she likes you, Teboho says. Are you getting along with Hannah, Kagiso?

Angles, bad. But! She is small.

I get the feeling that this is somehow overall an assessment in my favor.

I suppose that's good! I hope you're not too uncomfortable, Hannah? Teboho asks.

I hesitate. Unprompted physical contact is not normally 'my thing,' and I don't really want to encourage it.

It's fine, I say anyway. I'd be blushing with embarrassment right now if I could, and I don't even know why. I just can't bring myself to call this a problem. Even if she's not all that much like him, Kagiso's weird charm reminds me of Brendan so I just can't be mad at her. …Hmm. Now I'm thinking about getting picked up and carried around by Brendan and yep I think I know why I'm embarrassed now let's think about something else yep yep yep. God I need to get over the squish I have on my best friend.

It's okay, I say. It's kind of a fun perch up here, to be honest. I get to feel like one of you big people.

Teboho laughs at that, giving me a grateful nod before we part ways, he and Sindri entering their room while Kagiso brings us to ours. Kagiso carefully removes her bow and quiver, setting them by the bed before much more haphazardly peeling off and dropping her backpack on the floor. I watch Teboho and Sindri much more carefully unpack their things, since of course having a solid wall between us does nothing to prevent me from seeing them.

I'm going to work on the sensory-sharing spell, Sindri announces. But while I do so, I'll have to deactivate our current communication spell. It takes too much focus.

Oh, I respond. So I'm not going to be able to talk to anyone?

Hats don't talk, Kagiso points out.

Well this hat does! I counter.

Hmm, Kagiso considers. Fancy hat. Hungry?

I suppose I could eat, I admit.

Okay. More food for Hannah. Goodbye.

She reaches up with two hands and peels me off her head, putting me back down on the bed and giving my carapace another pat before slinging her weapons back over her shoulders.

Wait, are you just leaving me here alone? I ask hesitantly.

There shouldn't be any problems with that, Sindri notes. But if there are, hiss as loudly as you can and we'll come help you.

Kagiso, for her part, ignores our conversation and just leaves, wandering off alone to presumably murder some more unfortunate fantasy chipmunks.

Can't I just hang out in your room until she comes back? I whine. There's no way I'm gonna be comfortable alone in a town full of cultists! One of which tried to buy me!

I assure you, they are annoying evangelists but otherwise harmless, Sindri responds with a mental sigh. Besides, Teboho and I are going to be bathing.

Gah. If I were still human that'd be enough to drive me off. I'm way too gay for that crap. Unfortunately for spider-Hannah…

Look, I appreciate you treating me as a woman instead of as a weird monster, but I can see through objects, guys. I've been looking at your gross dicks the entire journey, not to mention all your internal organs. Taking your clothes off—or for that matter, even having this wall between us—doesn't affect my perception in the slightest. But it does affect your ability to protect me from cultists, so I'd really feel a lot more comfortable in your room.

I watch the two men glance awkwardly at each other before Teboho shrugs.

It seems like a compelling argument to me, he admits. I say we let her in.

Fine, Sindri sighs. I'll come get you.

Thanks, I… hmm. I stop. Wait a moment.

I wondered for a moment if I could just walk through a barren zone and ignore the wall between our rooms entirely, but now that I'm looking for one I'm seeing something strange. There aren't really barren zones here. Or… no. There are barren zones everywhere, but they're not empty. They're all full of wood. Whatever carved out these rooms only carved out the three dimensions normal people have access to, which… I mean, duh, of course they did that. But the wood extends beyond the third dimension. It's a completely solid wall in every direction that moves along the w-axis. Of course, a bunch of wood in my way is pretty much the opposite of an obstacle. Like… I could just burrow a hole in the wall, I've been burrowing through wood for years. Except that it wouldn't be a hole in the wall, not to anyone else. It'd be a… a fourth-dimensional hole. A little spider-burrow between locations.

I scuttle up to the wall, align my perceptions so I'm looking at the part of the wall that exists only for me, and then I rear up on my 'back' legs, readying myself to dig. Something… clicks, and warmth enters the legs I've lifted. When I pierce into the flesh of the world tree, they cut through it like butter.

I don't need to make a large hole. Just a hole that leads from one side of the wall to the other. I easily twist my legs into a simple circle, carving through the space I need, then push the fourth-dimensional chunk of wood out into the normal world, walking through the wall after it. From Sindri and Teboho's perspective, a one-foot diameter disc of wood just manifested out of their still-solid, fully intact wall… and then I did the same. They stare at me in shock.

Hey guys, I send as casually as I'm able, trying not to let my full-bodied excitement take over. I just walked through a wall! And I got to claw shit to do it! I'm magic and I'm awesome and I'm magic and I'm magiiiic! It's only when Teboho walks over and leans down to pick up the disc of world tree wood with a blank expression that I realize I might have just seriously messed up. His people revere the tree, don't they…? Aw poop aw beans aw lard.

This is Deep Wood, Teboho notes, twirling the disc between his fingers. Thankfully, he doesn't sound mad. I suppose there's no doubt you hail from the Mother Tree now. That is reassuring.

Yeah, that's quite interesting, Sindri agrees, rubbing his chin. She's like a tunnel worm.

I don't know what that is but the comparison does not sound flattering! I grumble in protest.

Sindri chuckles.

Tunnel worms. They dig the tunnels we'll be using to head to a higher branch. Traveling to other branches would be absurdly impractical on foot otherwise. Even if you had an easy path to climb on the outside of the tree, it would take months to get to the next highest branch. But the holes dug by tunnel worms somehow just… ignore that. They're Space-aligned, like you, and their tunnels are somehow far, far shorter than the distance between their entrance and exits.

Huh. That's neat. They're like wormh… oh gosh frigging darn it. They're literally wormholes. Uuuuugh, I hate that, why does this world have a pun monster.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can bring anyone else into my space, I say. I'm kinda surprised I could push that out of it. I wasn't able to do so with a rock unless I put it in my mouth.

Is that what you were doing with that rock? Sindri asks. Hmm. Well, the Tree of Souls has long been documented to interact differently with spatial magic. The tunnel worms can't replicate their transport abilities back on Pillar. Although part of that could just be how they had to be modified to work with rock.

Can we not speak of your kind's perversions of nature? Teboho grumbles. You are a decent man, Sindri, but I cannot simply forget all that humans have done. The only creatures more destructive than you are the Steel Ones, which you created!

I most certainly did not, Sindri grumbles. Moronic humans from hundreds of years ago did that. Trust me, we're no more thrilled by those things than you are.

And yet you still dabble in that which is beyond you.

Woah, woah! I say, mentally butting in. Let's stow the casual racism, you two. We're all friends here, aren't we? Common purpose and stuff? There's no point in getting mad at people for something they haven't personally done.

Of course, Teboho sighs. I am tired, so I forgot myself. Please accept my apologies, Sindri. Would you mind if I bathe first?

Go ahead, Sindri confirms. I'm going to cut the connection now and work on the improved spell. Goodbye for now, Hannah.

Uh, bye? I allow, and then that clawing feeling at the back of my mind vanishes, thrusting me into muteness once more. Oh well, I guess. I crawl up onto the empty bed and curl into what I have decided is morph ball form, tucking my legs up under my body so I can roll around a bit. Hmm. It's kind of fun to roll around, actually. And I don't get dizzy! Hehe. Rolly rolly rolly. I keep circling around the bed until I catch Sindri staring at me with amusement, at which point I quickly burrow under the covers in shame.

Dang it. Why is being a freaky hyperspider so fun? I should be having a panic attack but it mostly just feels neat. It's just… I don't know. Exciting? New, yet weirdly natural? Like sure, okay, the first day wasn't so hot, what with the fleeing for my life and nearly dying of exhaustion and all. But now I'm just hanging out with nice people, learning magic, and not transforming into a horrifying monster. I'm already a monster, sure, but everyone is super cool about it so it's not really a problem?

I guess I don't really care about being a monster so much as I care about being treated like one?

I contemplate this in silence as the boys get naked and clean themselves off, one after the other. As predicted, the process doesn't really bother me any more than my spatial sense already does. I'm just looking at an extra-detailed anatomy diagram of everybody all the time and slowly learning to ignore it. I stay under the covers in silent contemplation until Teboho sits down on the bed, prompting me to scuttle on out in case he wants to use it. He doesn't seem interested yet, but he does nod in thanks. I don't actually have any idea how close it is to nighttime, and I suppose I can no longer ask.

Teboho looks contemplative for a moment before motioning me over to where he's sitting. I crawl on over and curl up by his lap, where he proceeds to summon a stone tablet out of thin air. Holy geez. Etched on the stone talent is a familiar alphabet, the same one he drew out when learning my name. He clears his throat, points to the first letter, and starts to sing.

Oh my goodness. Teboho is a terrible singer. Like, I'm not sure a dying raccoon could sound worse than this. But that doesn't matter, because he's teaching me his culture's alphabet song! He's gonna teach me to read! I straighten up a bit to show that I'm interested, and we go through the song together a few times before he starts to quiz me. I wiggle with delight, drumming my legs in a circle around me whenever I get one of the letters right. By the time I see Kagiso return with a bag full of bloody animal corpses I'm getting about eight of the letters consistently (including 'ha' and 'na,' naturally) which I feel is pretty darn good for a first day.

I don't really have any way to tell him Kagiso is back with food, of course, so I carve another coaster-sized circle of what he called 'deep wood' out of the air, reaching into the w-axis with magically empowered legs to make the circle cut and then reaching in from a few other directions to chop it out of the solid mass of wood that exists in the barren zone realm. I carve a crude smiley face on it, sign my name with what I can only assume is absolutely atrocious handwriting, and gift it to him before jumping through the tunnel I made between the rooms right after Kagiso gets back with my dinner.

I'm starting to get a handle on how all this stuff works! It's just fourth-dimensional thinking; in the same way a two-dimensional image only exists in a single 'slice' of 3D space, 3D objects only exist in a single 'slice' of 4D space. Every single 3D object seems to exist in the same point on the w-axis (let's assume it's zero), so when I move across that axis, 3D objects can't interact with me anymore. Well I mean, they could interact with me if they also move along the w-axis, but they can't do that unless they take a ride inside my mouth.

The tree, however, is four-dimensional somehow. When I'm standing on top of a branch, I see 4D space as a series of barren areas with wood floors because the tree is beneath me and only the tree exists in that space. When I'm inside the trunk like I am now, every point on the 4D axis except the one dug out in 3D (i.e., w=0) is just solid wood. But I can still dig through that wood to make myself tunnels to hide in. It's… well, it's a lot! Complicated and somewhat brain-bursting. I don't seem to have perfect control over 4D movement, either, since if I did I could just waltz into w=1 space and then walk as far as I want before reemerging. But I can't do that when I'm out on the branches; the barren zones aren't infinite. I wonder why. Maybe it has something to do with how I can use them as shortcuts. Hopefully I'll get better at it the more I practice.

Kagiso doesn't seem the least bit surprised when I walk out of a solid wall and wave a leg to greet her. She just waves back and dumps a bunch of corpses on the floor, looking as proud as a cat. I have to admit, they do smell like delicious corpses, so I happily skitter over and start shoving them in my maw. I manage to swallow four magic chipmunks before I realize I shouldn't physically be able to hold this much food. My stomach looks pretty normal, though? Are my organs bigger on the inside?

Hmm. Well, more food for me I guess. I gleefully finish a fifth critter. Kagiso makes a weird noise that I think is a laugh and squats down to pat my carapace some more, which I stoically allow because she was kind enough to get me so much tasty animal flesh. I suppose I should probably be cooking it, but it's just so delicious like this! Surely that means my body is designed to handle it, right? It's not like I can cook it without hands anyway. Or, for that matter, a stove. This isn't exactly a hotel, there's no kitchen in the room. Just somewhere to clean up, somewhere to sleep, and somewhere to take a dump.

Kagiso herself apparently found some berries and leaves to munch on while she was out hunting. She eats them alongside one of the thick, dense-looking bread rations from her pack, which looks like enough food for two human-sized Hannahs. Either my guess about a higher metabolism was correct, or Kagiso just has the munchies tonight. Once she's done eating, she hops face-first onto the bed, spreading out over the whole thing without bothering to take off her clothes or get under the covers. She raises her lower right arm and pats the bed next to her, as if inviting me to join her.

I hesitate like the gay little mess that I am. It's obviously not any sort of proposition, since we're completely different species, but that is a shirtless woman that would probably be quite attractive (in a weird mutant fursona sort of way) were I not currently staring at her internal organs. I'm not sure how comfortable I am getting on a bed with her.

"Hana," Kagiso grumbles loudly into the pillow, slapping the bed again.

Ah. Hmm. Well I guess a little influx of social anxiety helps. Driven by her apparent insistence, I crawl over to the side of the bed and, on a whim, leap up like a cat. Ha! Oh gosh, I didn't expect that to work! I have hops. Wow, that was kind of fun. Anyway, I curl up on the spot Kagiso indicated. She places a hand on top of me and then shoves her face deep into the pillows.

Hmm. I wonder what her deal is. Does she just enjoy physical contact? Hesitantly, I scoot up next to her side, brushing my legs against her fuzzy ribcage. She makes a happy noise. It's kinda cute, but in more of a cuddly dog kind of way than an attractive girl sort of way. I give in and snuggle up, letting Kagiso hold me like some sort of arachnid teddy bear.

Despite my worries, sharing a bed with a shirtless woman is turning out to not be the least bit sexy. Now that I think about it, I haven't been even slightly horny at any point during my time as a spider-beast. I initially thought that's because of my weird perception, but now I'm starting to wonder if it's physiological. I haven't gone to the bathroom as a spider creature yet either, which I'm thankful for because I'm pretty sure I don't have any orifices other than my mouth. If my mouth actually functions as a cloaca and therefore does, shall we say, double duty? I'll be less than enthused. But I'm not an entirely comprehensible creature in terms of pure biology, am I? I'm a motherflippin' magical beast, maybe I take a dump via teleportation or something. How crazy would that be? Incomprehensible arcane might, all used to take fourth-dimensional poops. Regardless, the point I'm making is that I don't think I have genitals. Either that or this body is only sexually attracted to other hyperspiders, which… well! I don't want to think about that so I'm not going to. I'm just glad I don't have to be a creepy voyeur animal like Morgana from Persona 5.

…Though I guess it's possible I'll have a different interpretation of this particular memory back when I'm in a humanoid body. Gah! Just add that to the 'don't think about it' pile, Hannah.

Hmm.

Crap, I can't stop thinking about it. I'm probably not going to be able to sleep like this. I'm pretty sure Kagiso is zonked out, so I'm hesitant to extract myself from her grasp and wake her. Honestly, I'm hesitant to sleep at all. I… well, I don't really want to go back to Earth. I suppose it's Sunday tomorrow, so that won't be too bad as long as I can survive the agony of church service. Heh, I guess my weekends are twice as long now, kind of. …Though I guess by that logic, my weekdays are too. Oof.

Mentally grimacing, I make an effort to busy my mind elsewhere. My impromptu fantasy adventure party is all sleeping peacefully, but the same can't be said for the entire inn. Many merchants are still awake in their rooms, and the inn proprietor still yawns behind the front desk. He has, I note, one of the centipede necklaces marking him as one of the supposedly harmless cultists, but naturally I don't trust that one bit. Sure enough, my suspicions start to rise when three other cultists, including the one that tried to buy me earlier today, all get together and start chatting with him, the conversation getting increasingly quick and secretive.

Obviously I can't hear a word they're saying and even if I could I wouldn't understand it (I'll put 'learn to lip read' on my to-do list) but I can't help but get more and more anxious as they seem to assemble and start to enact some sort of plan. I watch one of them break off from the others, heading upstairs to where our rooms are, and I start to panic, nudging Kagiso awake. She blinks blearily at me, seeming rather grumpy to be roused, but I just point at the door and let out a soft hiss.

Immediately, her exhaustion seems to vanish. She wordlessly grabs her bow, knocks an arrow, and draws it, pointing to the door. I stay still, waiting in terror… as the cultist passes us by and uses a key to enter the room next to ours. He begins to unload his stuff.

Gah! False alarm? No, wait! The other three are heading upstairs as well. I'm not really sure what they're doing. It looks like they're… stuffing their ears with something? Why? Wait, what's the guy next door doing? Is that an instrument? It must be! He pulls a small, harp-like object out of a fancy wooden case. A lyre, I guess? Or maybe some fantasy equivalent, I don't really know much about instruments.

He starts to play, and the world tilts.

Barely five notes have come out of the song and I feel my limbs getting heavy, my tense body slacking. Wh-what? Oh, crap! The music is carrying through the air vents, and the three other men put in ear plugs! Kagiso inhales deeply and starts to scream, her voice drowning out the sound for a moment and snapping some vitality back into my mind. Art! Art is a kind of magic! This is a sleep spell! I start hissing with five pairs of legs, rubbing them together to create an even more horrid cacophony. In response, the mage in the other room starts playing even louder. None of it seems to be noticed by any other patrons, our own friends included.

Out in the hallway, the three men are using the innkeeper's master key to unlock our door, presumably oblivious to the racket we're making. I spare a pair of legs to point at the door with more urgency, and Kagiso nods. She swings her aim to the side, pointing at a seemingly unrelated wall. Her scream starts to peter out, so I do everything I can to be as loud as I can, scraping and tearing at the bed during my hiss, and giving Kagiso the time she needs to take a breath. The next thing out of her mouth isn't a scream, though.

"Ricochet," something beyond either of us growls, and Kagiso's arrow flies. Bouncing off the floor, the ceiling, and three different walls, her dinky arrow eventually punches straight through the solid wooden door, stabbing one of the men behind it through the arm. Blood splatters as the arrow passes through him and out the other end, and though the man grimaces he does not cry out. I, however, jump in surprise, which means for a brief and terrible moment, my stupid, moronic self let the room fall into silence. Except, of course, for the lullaby.

Kagiso's bow clatters to the ground. She's unconscious before she finishes collapsing onto the bed. Shit, shit, shit! I'm so exhausted I nearly do the same the moment I land from my terror-induced leap, but I start hissing again just in time to be awake when the door flies open. In a panic, I lift up a leg and slash Kagiso, drawing blood from her arm. She doesn't even twitch.

I do the only thing I can think to do. I run. Three grown men stomp into the room, each nearly six times my height and two of them lanky, four-armed dentron. They make a grab for me, but I barely manage to rush over to the wall, leaping through the extradimensional tunnel I dug for myself.

I suppose I shouldn't have bothered, because the music is playing here, too. I hiss and shriek as loud as I can, clawing away at the beds beside me. It's already too late, though. With all the running I had to do, I couldn't hiss at the same time. And without Kagiso's screaming to help drown out the music, I can't think straight anymore. I'm dimly aware of one of the men staying behind with Kagiso as two more rush over into the boys’ room. That's… bad, I think. I left her. I left her to die. But… it doesn't really matter… anymore. All… I can do… is…

"Sleep."

I wake up and scream.