Kyanoko's Travels Across the Paperverse: Helping and Growing Fond of an Audacious Human

Lyra Prompt 4- Leslie Everlake

Word Count: 1697

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Kyanoko had been underprepared in the past, but there was nothing quite like the oversight she just had. She’d been spending most of her time exploring the hot desert world of Pavia when she had heard other travelers mention a new unstable portal had made itself known. Not wanting to miss out on the new experience, she immediately set out to see the new world.  

And now the tanuki found herself standing in a windy and freezing snowscape without a coat or any other form of insulation. Kyanoko had always avoided the cold, even on her travels in her home world, so she had no need for heavy coats. The jacket that she did have was far more appropriate for Spring or Autumn weather and cold mornings, not for freezing temperatures.

Kyanoko dragged a sled she had made in Pavia behind her, showing off trinkets and wares she had hoped to sell to those in Lyra. So far, she had little luck in selling anything. The crystal landscape offered plenty of its own beautiful souvenirs that completely outshone Kyanoko’s offerings- both literally and metaphorically. 

She had managed to find a town built between large crystal structures that offered some shelter from the wind. There, the tanuki found a merchant selling fur coats and she immediately took to browsing through their selection. She was quickly overwhelmed trying to find something that fit and felt comfortable against her own fur. She did find something, a coat made of the hydrophobic fur of some Lyrian creature, but Kyanoko couldn’t afford the vendor’s price. And she had nothing of interest to cover the cost.

Kyanoko has felt nothing but regret and frustration since she stepped foot on Lyra. The inability to afford a coat, because no one wanted to buy from her, was too much of a blow. With a heavy heart, she made the decision to simply return to Pavia. She was comfortable there and with like-minded folk. 

But before she could leave she was stopped by a taller human woman wearing thick furs. An axe and a horn lay on her waist and swung over her shoulder was a bag filled halfway with something. She pointed down past Kyanoko and to her sled.

“Hey, could I use that?” she asked. 

Kyanoko felt appalled. What a bizarre thing to ask someone without even knowing them.

“Oh, uh-” the woman dropped the bag to the ground and Kyanoko heard a crystalline clattering. She pulled off her coat and offered it out to the tanuki- “I’ll let you use my coat while I borrow it.”

“Excuse me, but who are you?” Kyanoko asked.

“Oh, right. Hedda.” the woman explained, picking her bag up. “I’m collecting crystals for Everlake.”

Kyanoko made a face.

“Leslie Everlake? One of the best blacksmiths in the Paperverse?” Hedda gestured as if Kyanoko should know this.

“I’m new.”

“That would explain… a lot actually.” Hedda twirled a braid of hair awkwardly as her face flushed. “Well, I need to gather more crystals. I want a weapon from him and that’s going to take far more than I can carry in this-” she shakes her bag “-at a time. But that sled would be perfect.”

“I hope you understand why I don’t want to just give this stranger.” Kyanoko brought up, finding herself shifting to try and block Hedda’s view of her property.

“No, that’s fair. You don’t know me.” Hedda agreed. “Would you like to come along then? Again, my coat’s up for offers to keep you warm. I can store more crystals on your sled and you can keep track of it. And you’ll have a guide to help you around Lyra. It is beautiful and it would be a shame for you to miss out just because of some cold.”

 Kyanoko found herself almost impressed at the boldness of the human before her. It was charming, in an odd way. Besides, the merchant did want to see what Lyra had to offer and it looked like this was the best deal that she was going to get. Kyanoko offered her hand out for Hedda to shake on the deal, but instead, she got the human’s coat pressed into her hand. 

Good enough, she figures as she quickly pulled the coat over her. Surprisingly, it fits well on her. It was a little long around the arms, but they can be pinned back. Besides, Kyanoko didn’t have gloves, so the long sleeves would have to do for the time being. 

“What about you?” Kyanoko asked when the human didn’t procure another coat for herself.

“I’ll be fine. I have my ways.” Hedda winked. “Besides, it reminds me of home.”

Hedda moved to take the sled’s ropes and pull it, but Kyanoko defensively shooed the human away from her belongings. Hedda backed off immediately, throwing her hands up like she was dealing with an animal. The tanuki packed away the things in her sled, turning them into leaves and stuffing them neatly into her backpack. And then she grabbed her sled’s ropes and looked to Hedda to lead their way.

Hedda leads her over Lyra’s surface, taking the tanuki over a large frozen lake. Around the lake were large pillars breaching the ice and scattered about those pillars were crystals that had broken off over time. Kyanoko reached for a pile of these crystals but was stopped by Hedda.

“Don’t bother with those ones,” the human said, “they’re weak. We want the sturdy ones underground.”

Kyanoko pocketed one of them as a souvenir anyways and followed Hedda into a cave. They went deep underground and despite it being impossible for sunlight to have traveled this far, the cave was still well-lit. Kyanoko wasn’t sure if it was because the crystals that lined the cave were luminescent or if they reflected and carried the sun’s light down this far. Regardless, Hedda had passed by all of them without so much as a second glance, so Kyanoko continued to follow.

The tanuki would be lying if she said she understood what made the crystals that Hedda had deemed worthy over the other ones, but it wasn’t Kyanoko looking for the crystals anyways. For a while, Kyanoko sat in her sled near her backpack and brewing cask as she watched Hedda chip away at large crystal structures with an axe made of a material she didn’t recognize. She didn’t enjoy the silence between them with only the tinking and shattering of crystal keeping them company.

So Kyanoko managed to lower the guard of her possessions and joined Hedda. She didn’t have the special pick to help with breaking up the crystals, but she was able to speed up the process by gathering some of the crystals that dropped. Picking up a crystal from down here, she noted how much heavier it was than the piece in her pocket. Deciding to help Hedda out even further, hoping to bring a copious amount of crystals to possibly turn this into a single trip, Kyanoko began to turn some of the larger crystals into leaves. 

When the sled was halfway filled, Hedda stopped the gathering. “I don’t think you’d be able to pull your sled if it gets much heavier.”

“You’re probably right,” Kyanoko agreed and tried to pull what they had gathered. Honestly, it took a disproportionate amount of effort to budge it. This wouldn’t have been an issue if she still had access to some of her other forms, but unfortunately, they would have to unload. Unless…

“Can you pull it?” the tanuki asked Hedda.

“Oh, you’re trusting me with it?” Hedda’s face lit up brighter than the crystals around her. “Let’s see what I can do.”

Hedda had started tossing some of the loose accessories like her drinking horn and axe into the sled. Before Kyanoko could protest about the human adding even more weight, she dropped on all fours and viciously shook like a dog. From the head down, Hedda changed. Her hair turned white and spread down her body. Her face elongated, her hands and feet became bigger and clawed, and her mass generally increased. In a matter of moments, the human had turned into a polar bear. 

Hedda grabbed the ropes gently in her mouth and passed them onto Kyanoko, gesturing for the tanuki to tie her to the sled. Kyanoko was stunned and held the rope dumbly in her hand. There had been no indication to her that Hedda was also an animal. She seemed so boringly human. Not only that, but it was the first time Kyanoko had seen someone shape-shift since entering the Paperverse. She had almost forgotten that it was even possible.

Hedda tilted her head and made a low, questioning growl. Kyanoko shook her head and focused on the task at hand. She found a couple of loops in Hedda’s clothing on either shoulder and tied the rope through those. Kyanoko gave the rope a tug to make sure it was secure and loaded herself onto the sled. In less than an hour, Kyanoko and Hedda found themselves back in town with a sled of crystals in tow to give to Leslie Everlake.

“Do you want your coat back?” Kyanoko asked, finding herself clutching onto the warm furs.

“You can keep it while you’re in Lyra.” Hedda, who had shifted back into human form, offered with a gesture of her hand.

“What if I just leave without it?” Kyanoko inquired, wondering why this human-bear shifter was trusting her so much.

“Then you can give it to me when we meet somewhere else,” Hedda said in full confidence and added with a wink. “I get the feeling we’ll be crossing each other’s paths frequently.”

Hedda wasn’t the type of person Kyanoko would normally get along with. But something about this bizarre human made her feel comfortable. She smiled as she snuggled into Hedda’s coat and felt a little warmer on the inside.