Vivian had woken just before the sun appeared in the sky. In the cool morning air she went for a drink from the pond. She marvelled at how the temperature of the water was always the same when she drank it, cool and refreshing. She looked down and took in the state of her clothes; unkempt, torn and muddy, little better than beggars garments at this point. Thinking about that, her thoughts drifted to the state her of her body.

  She took a quick glance at her map and her immediate surroundings. Without a second thought she removed her tattered shirt, pants and undergarments. Standing before the pond in her birthday suit, she jumped into the water a moment later. She was expecting a cool shock from the water when her body entered the pond. Instead the water that greeted her was just slightly warmer than her own body temperature.

  "Ahhh I needed this," she moaned unconsciously as the warm water cleansed her body of grime and sweat. The pool of water glowed faintly in the dim morning light. All at once fatigue, stress, aches, pains, scars... anything and everything ailing her body was quite simply washed away. Vivian looked down at the clear water in utter disbelief.

  Vivian dismissed the information without finishing it. She moved to the deepest part of the pond, the center. She opened her mouth, taking in as much water as she could and dove under the surface, swallowing the pond water as she went. All of her senses were at the water's mercy. Sight, she opened her eyes while underwater seeing only the clear water around her. Hearing, the water had entered her ears muffling all sound. Smell and taste, her nose filled with water and she parted her lips, allowing the water to fill her mouth once more. Touch, needless to say as she was underwater, she felt the water from the tips of her toes to the ends of her shoulder-length black hair. The water dominated her senses completely.

  Vivian sat with her back leaned against a tree. Her left leg straight, while she bent her right and she had her hands folded around her knee. She looked up at the sun as its overwhelming presense filled the clear sky. Isa stirred lightly on her shoulder breaking into her thoughts.

  "Good morning, Isa." Vivian turned her head to the right to watch the cute antics Isa made while she was waking.

  "You're awfully cheerful," complained Isa as she puffed her feathers out.

  "Yeah, you're right. I should be more considerate of the fact you ate an entire maupia, who's only diet is dragon leaf, by yourself. It's only natural you'd feel some after effects of the sleeping toxin." Vivian chuckled lightly.

  "I what?" Isa asked blinking her eyes in confusion.

  "It seems in high doses, the dragon leaf can mess with your memory too, if it doesn't outright kill you." Vivian noted.

  Isa took a long hard look at Vivian. Her pure white eyes seemed to be glistening in the sunlight, her face had regained its proper color. Her skin was literally glowing. And there's a problem here... there's too much skin.

  "Vivian, where are your clothes?" Isa asked.

  "About that..." Vivian frowned, "I took a dip in the pond to clean myself, I wasn't about to put my dirty clothes back on so I went to wash them in the pond and they... disintegrated is the best way to describe how they just fell apart and vanished without a trace into the water."

  Isa's cheerful laughter rang clear to the sky. "It's not that funny." Vivian shrugged.

  "Maybe not where you're sitting," Isa commented, "but at least you still have your undergarments."

  "..." Vivian looked away.

  "You didn't wash them?" Isa chuckled.

  "I was scared to." Vivian shook her head.

  "We can't have you running around looking like that." Isa rubbed her chin.

  "I'd rather not," Vivian agreed with a relieved sigh.

  Isa flew off, leaving Vivian alone with her thoughts as a system box entered her vision.

  "Sasha, show me my status again." Vivian said into the air.

  "Well, I've long known that stats increasing aren't related to level... so what does level mean then?" Vivian drew in a sharp breath when she read the last line. "Late stage?"

  "No no no no no... I read that wrong, right?" Vivian tried to calm herself as she read the status window again. "That's not possible, I've only been carrying this child a couple weeks! I should have had a few months to prepare!"

  "Hey Vivian, try this on." Isa flew back carrying some skins she had managed to salvage from when she butchered the maupia. "Vivian? You look pale, are you okay?"

  "No. I'm not." Vivian locked her white eyes on Isa, "I'll be giving birth in a few days at most."

  "That's wond... wait," Isa looked hard at Vivian's body, "Your body doesn't match what you're saying."

  "Exactly, I was unaware my pregnancy was progressing so fast! I need to prepare a safe place among..." Vivian fell incoherent as she started babbling about all the things she would need to do, growing paler as the list grew longer until her mind shutdown; fortunately before full on panic mode set in.

  "Calm down!" Isa lashed Vivian's face with the soft feathers on her wing. "Put these on."

  In Vivian's current mental state she was trying to put the shirt on her legs, which Isa rebuked. "Honestly, what happened to that calm and collected Vivian?"

  Vivian's body went limp and she fell to the ground. Several minutes later she slowly opened her eyes and looked at the garment she was holding. "What is this?"

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "A shirt made out of maupia skin." Isa stated proudly, "Made it myself. I just hope I got the size right."

  "What's with this design on it?" Vivian asked as she picked herself up into a sitting position.

  "There's no design, the maupia is a furless beast with black skin covered in yellow dots." Isa explained, "You wouldn't think so, but they blend in with the forest amazingly well... and now you will too."

  "Isa." Vivian handed the shirt back to her, "If you think I'm going to dress up to look like every carnivore's favorite meal..."

  "Yeah, that was pretty dumb of me." Isa said a little dejectedly, "I thought you'd look cute in it and that thought trumped logical reasoning."

  "I appreciate the effort you went through to make it, it does look cute. If the appearance could be changed, I'd have no problem wearing it." Vivian said offhandedly.

  "Really?" Isa asked while injecting her mana into the shirt and pants. She closed her eyes and channeled the mana flowing through the maupia skin. When she was done, she held them out for Vivian to see. She simply removed the yellow dots, leaving the shirt and pants solid black.

  "You made that look easy," Vivian stated as she looked over the changed garments she retrieved from Isa.

  "I have a pretty deep mana pool so changes like this are easy enough." Isa replied as she watched Vivian slip into the shirt and pants. "I think I like that look even better."

  "Okay, time to make some hasty preparations." Vivian said stretching her arms over her head. "Sasha, find me a tight-knit section of sturdy trees."

  "I can work with any trees, but if they're a bit younger that will be slightly better for me."

  "You're a real gem, Sasha. You just helped me find the ideal spot in a few minutes as opposed to the couple weeks I've been here exploring. I didn't want to bother you with this since I thought I had more time."

  "You're more than a tool, and I do rely on you more than we both realize." Vivian stated as she started walking, "Isa, could I bother you to gather all the skin that's left from the maupia?"

  "I don't particularly mind, but how am I going to find you when I have it all?" Isa asked.

  Vivian gave her a knowing look, "You found me after you dealt with that beldereaver didn't you?"

  "Ah yeah, I did..." Isa laughed nervously, "I'll be going then."

  Vivian shrugged as she watched Isa fly off, "It's easier to drop a facade if there's enough doubt concerning it. In this case, it's overwhelmingly obvious I just played along. Everything she's brought back for us to eat, it's been delivered to her. There's a pack of beldereavers keeping this section of the forest off-limits to everything else in the forest."

  Vivian kicked off the ground vaulting herself towards a tree. Despite the speed and power behind her movement, she gracefully planted her feet on the side of the tree trunk without even scuffing the bark. She kicked off the tree with enough force to topple it, but she channeled all that explosive force into propelling herself forward instead of against the tree. She vaulted forward with the tree unphased behind her. She smirked at this newfound control her increased dexterity afforded her. She continued leaping from tree to tree increasing her speed until she was fully utilizing her agility. She angled her next leap slightly up into the air. She reached for a tree branch overhead, grabbing hold of it she swung around it several times due to her momentum before stopping with her body crouched on top of the branch. She released her grip and stood up to take stock of her new location.

  "Well...if only I could have moved like that before." Vivian commented as she observed the huge distance she just crossed with ease, and without tiring herself out, "It's hard to believe I'm pregnant and ready to pop after I just did that."

  "That's true. Isa's stats are still about double mine." Vivian commented with a shiver as she considered what she might be able to do with twice the agility.

  "Meaning?"

  "That's a bit..." Vivian felt sweat forming on her forehead. What would be the purpose behind that?

  "Wait, there are still more of us? I had thought I was the last." Vivian felt some relief.

  "Why aren't they on my map?" Vivian asked.

  "How do you know they are my people if you can't display them?" Vivian asked.

  "Magic..." Vivian whispered, "powered by their life no doubt."

  "Sasha, change of plans. Drop the tree search and I want you to sense where they are and put a beacon on my map. If you can't do that, just point me in their direction."

  "Who do you think you're talking to?" Vivian asked as she leaped from the tree branch. She touched the ground and turned into a blur when she kicked off the ground launching herself into a run. She felt her mana pool start draining as her agility increased. Unable to fully stop the recoil, her footsteps created indentations and sent dirt exploding behind her as she propelled herself forward.

  "I'm not running like this on purpose, I don't know how to control it." Vivian responded as she ran, a vacuum forming behind her as she dragged the air itself with her.

  Isa perked her head in the direction Vivian had started running. "Someone sure is in a hurry to be making that much noise. I hope there's no trouble, but at that pace... she should be fine, right?"

  In the end, Isa discarded her task of gathering what she could of the maupia's skin and flew off in the direction of Vivian's thunderous footfalls.