I craned my head around and sure enough, bird. I had rich, black feathers that were tinged with orange embers, just like the one I had found back in my own world. I thought,

  Huh. That peep was out loud, too! Looking around at the people bowing at me, I tried to communicate with them, but everything I said came out as bird noises. Not peeps, mind you, but other noises.

  I thought.

  Wait. Serious?

  Yup.

  The peep noise was a censor. If I so much as thought about a swear word, a loud *peep* came out of my birdy face bits. Somehow, the will of this new environment was actually censoring me. In bird-ese!

  I mean, classy in its own way, and it’d be pretty amusing if it wasn’t me in this predicament. I attempted to put a hand on my chin to think and wound up slapping myself in the face with my own wing.

  Luckily, everyone was still bowing. At the peeps, though, they started straightening up. All together. They were staring at me and I could see a look of wonderment crossing their faces. Were they actually not expecting anything to come out of their little summoning ritual?

  “Go, quick, fetch the Elder! Something truly tremendous has happened!” One of them, someone clearly with a position above the others, shouted. Apparently, they had not.

  “Yes, right away, Brother Chao,” another one said, before hurrying off. They all had these kind of Taoist robes on. Long and flowing, the man who had left kept his hands tucked inside the opposite sleeves even as he moved quickly.

  The other people seemed to be at a bit of a loss for what to do. They just milled about, most of them keeping their eyes locked on me. All the staring was making me feel really self-conscious.

  Trying to distract myself, I stared back. After a while, I realized that each of them seemed to have a bit of a shimmer around them. For most, it was barely perceptible, but for some it was strong enough I could easily detect it without focusing.

  Looking back at myself, I realized I had a very strong shimmer as well. It was colorless, like the mote I had seen before, not fiery, like I would expect given my plumage.

  The strongest ‘aura’ aside from my own belonged to one called ‘Brother Chao’. He was looking at me with something between zeal and worship, which made me incredibly nervous and I refused to lock eyes with him.

  I hopped around in the center of the area I was in a little, trying to get a vibe for exactly how to move in this new body of mine. I wasn’t sure when I was going to need a quick getaway - in case someone decided I looked good enough to eat.

  I opened my wings, surprised at how wide they felt. Looking at them, it turns out I had quite the span. This action apparently alarmed Brother Chao, as he immediately prostrated himself in front of me. action alarmed me, so I used a flap of my wings to hop back, unintentionally kicking up a bunch of dust directly into his face.

  “Wait! Exalted Spirit!” He banged his head into the ground so hard I was worried for him, his hands flat on the stone. “I promise your needs will be met by our Circle. Please do not fear, we shall make sure of it!” He looked up from me, expectant.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  I definitely didn’t mind the sound of this, and closed my wings slowly, preening a feather on my chest out of some sort of weird avian reflex that compelled me to do so. This seemed to mollify the Brother, as I could see visible relief on his face.

  “We did not expect your arrival. I will make arrangements as soon as we are able.” He kept his genuflecting pose.

  I didn’t expect my arrival either. So that makes two of us. I bobbed my head in my best approximation of a nod. He didn’t seem that surprised that I was communicating with him, oddly enough. Maybe this sort of thing had precedence.

  There was more commotion, and a line of people proceeded over the crest of the ritual… depression. Whatever it was where they were doing the thing. This new procession had some important-looking people leading it up.

  By important, I mean old. Like really old. They had ornate robes and the most important looking one had an annoyed look on his face.

  “What is the meaning of this, Chao Chen? A disciple came up to me spouting some nonsense about an Exalted Spirit and…”

  His words suddenly cut off, having seen me sitting at the center of the circle. I stuck my nose up in the air.

  “By the Venerable herself,” he said, and I took the moment’s pause to walk - well, hop gracefully - over to Brother Chao’s kneeling form. I’d have flown, but quite honestly I wasn’t sure how well I could do so - my little back hop maneuver worked okay, but that was a far cry from flying. Quite honestly, my current form seemed to have a lot of ornateness to the feathers and features, which seemed like they’d make the whole endeavor cumbersome. Last thing I wanted was to shatter the illusion these people were under by piling into the ground like some sort of fancy, extra spicy roadkill.

  With every eye on me, I made a little flap and managed to land on my bro’s shoulder without embarrassing myself. I drew myself up to my full diminutive height. I thought at maximum brain volume. Of course, my bird body only rendered the last word in the language of my people, but it blasted out quite the noise-splosion, along with what felt like an almost tangible wind. I narrowed what I imagined to be beady eyes at this old man, as if daring him to 'come get some, punk'.

  He seemed rather shocked at this outburst and promptly bowed down, just like Brother Chao had. “My apologies, Exalted One.” He said in what felt like a sincere tone, slamming his head down as well. What was up with these people and head trauma? No wonder he seemed so slow on the uptake, he’d beaten his neurons crooked.

  Beside me, I could almost feel Brother Chao’s neck muscles creak as he tried to look at me without disturbing my footing on his shoulder. It was a little annoying, so I fluffed my right wing at his face a little and the quivering stopped. He went still as a stone.

  “Hmph,” I said out loud, and my beak translated it into some kind of chuffing noise. I turned around, feeling the weight of my tail hanging down, and almost losing my grip at one point. I felt a little bad when I saw the beads of obvious sweat running down Brother Chao’s face and realize that I probably dug my talons into his shoulder when I did that, while he was trying to keep as still as possible. Sorry, Bro. I’ll make it up, I promise. I tapped him lightly on the head and said, “We’re good to go.”

  This, of course, came out as a bunch of melodious bird nonsense, but somehow, he seemed to get the idea. He slowly got to his feet, somehow managing to do so entirely without his upper body moving so much as a muscle. Damn, that’s some crazy coordination. He slowly rotated to face the Elder, who had gotten off the ground himself. I looked down at him from my new perch, happy to be back at something resembling normal height.

  “Perhaps I should take the Exalted one from here,” the Elder said, reaching out towards me with his hands.

  Nope, not happening. I straight up him, then turned my head away in the haughtiest manner I could manage.

  To his credit, the Elder recovered quickly. “Brother Chao, if you’d kindly escort our esteemed guest to the Main Pavilion?”

  “Of course Elder.” He brought his hands together in front of him, something I’d seen the other people present do when the new group was approaching. He was smart enough not to bow as I’d also seen them do, or I may have had to find a new mode of transportation. That’d be a pecking for sure.

  The rest of the group with the Elder, who had remained silent, turned around and Brother Chao followed them, walking carefully to ensure the shoulder I rode on wasn't disturbed.

  I might have imagined it, but I think I saw a hint of amusement cross his face once the Elder was facing the other way.