Spending the night at a witch's house wasn't particularly scary. There were plenty of blankets and comforters to build a 'nest' out of for Axel and Kalvin to sleep in, and Isolde brought them tea and muffins at sunrise.

Axel stares at his muffin as if he'd never seen one before. "Food is funny," he tells the antlered boy beside him. "So is eating, and breathing. I never noticed before, but it really is."

Kalvin gives Axel an odd look, and finally asks, "How is it funny?"

"Because … " the feathered man gives the muffin a peculiar look, then shrugs and takes a bite before replying, "it's solid." He grins, chews a bit, and adds, "Everything is solid. You take it for granted, because that's how it is, but now I see it's not all that way. When you're solid you have to eat and breath and walk, and that's strange."

"Milk isn't solid," Kalvin replies. "But it's also food. Did you not breath and walk and eat before though? How else could you have gotten so big?"

"Um, well." The bird man scratches his head, and a few downy feathers flutter down from his arm as it moves. Also, his hands look a little yellow and flaky, as if they had been dyed and left out to dry in the sun. "I was and I wasn't? Oh, it's getting harder and harder to remember what was and wasn't, but that doesn't help you does it? It's confusing isn't it? When I talk like one person and two?"

"It sounds more confusing for you than it does to me," Kalvin says, and shrugs before eating his muffin. "I'm used to talking to Rughrats, and they hardly ever talk back."

"That sounds very nice. I used to talk to people like me, two different ways. One way they talked without speaking, and I heard them all. Another and they talked, but I could only hear a little part of them." Axel frowns momentarily. "I should explain, I feel more connected to the outside world now and it's getting clearer every day: I am possessed, so I am me and … me. I think I used to think being possessed would be like being you, then there'd be someone else too. It's not. I can't tell where I end or begin anymore."

The young Lapi points to Axel's fingers. "Right there. And at your toes too. And all over where your skin is. That's what skin is for, you know. Separating you from everything else."

Axel nods solemnly. "I used to be more a part of everything else too. Now I feel so much … smaller than I was before, but a lot more awake. It's like waking up from a dream where you could go anywhere." The bird-man looks at his fingers, then rubs them causing skin to flake off. He gives this a somewhat put upon look, as if he were not really surprised his hands had yellowed. "When I talk to people it's me, and me, talking to them. I don't think many people understand I'm two, so I sound … what's the word … "

"Crazy?" Kalvin offers.

Axel points at Kalvin. "Crazy! That's the word. If you travel with me you may hear that a lot, that I'm crazy, but I'm not." The bird-man smiles in what he hopes is comforting big smile. "I'm not a monster either, do you know what I am? I'm a spirit, well, sort of. Half of one?"

"So you're only half crazy?" Kalvin asks, looking confused. "However many of you there are, you have one body, so… uh… you're just one person. Maybe you shouldn't think about being two people so much."

The bird-man seems to ponder that a moment, then he nods decidedly. "You're right." He pops the rest of his muffin in his mouth and stands up. "Why doown whee go get whedy? Whots to dwoo," he suggests over a mouthful of muffin.

Kalvin finishes his own breakfast, and puts on his coat (which is his only real piece of clothing anyway), then asks, "What do you need to do? I have to pick up my flock from the fleecing pen."

Axel is in the process of putting on his boots when the young man asks his questions, a process that seems to have turned in to a multi-step endeavor as Axel tries to put his shoes back together. The harsh wear of Axel's week-long wandering in the forest followed by recent events appear to have finally killed his footwear. "We need travel gear. I thought about it, and I've decided I have no idea what that would be, so we should find out. We may be wandering a long time," he answers.

After answering, Axel tries one more time to make some use out of the rags of his boots before just giving up and pushing the remains in a corner. "I think I'll just go barefoot," he says as if it were simply a pleasant alternative, rather than a bothersome necessity.

"I'm always barefoot," Kalvin notes. "You just have to remember to wash them every so often and not walk directly behind the Rughrats."

"Sage advice, you should be my witch," Axel says. He looks down at his bare feet and, much like his hands, they've taken on a dried out yellowing look. Then he blinks. "Oh, that reminds me, do people still live in that old castle we saw yesterday? The one you pointed to over the trees."

"There is a mad lady living there, and Igor the surgeon," Kalvin says. "Igor is nice. He collects things."

"A mad lady? Like me mad, or actually mad," the bird-man inquires as he starts for the door.

The Lapi goes silent as he ponders this question. "Crazy mad. She is a bat person, and she has big eyes she wears over her regular eyes. She is a doctor."

"Oh," Axel says in a slightly intimidated way. "She sounds a little scary. Do you think she'd know anything that could help us?"

"I think she studies monsters," Kalvin replies, following Axel through the maze of rooms that make up the witch's abode. "You're sort of like a monster, so she might know something you don't."

"You're the first person to say that that didn't make me feel like a monster," the older man admits before reaching over and trying to rumple the boy's head hair.

Kalvin scoots back a ways, not wanting Axel's hand to get caught in his antlers. "Be careful, my prongs are sharp," he warns.

"So they are," Axel says amusedly. "Do you think we should let the witches know we're leaving or do witches just know anyway?"

"If they didn't know, they wouldn't admit to not knowing," Kalvin reasons. "So I suppose it doesn't matter."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense, so we can go. I think. Oh, I bet they're watching me anyway." Axel walks towards the door and opens it for the boy. "Oh, and thanks for coming along. I was feeling very lonely without anyone to help out."

"How can you be lonely if there are two of you though?" Kalvin quips, and actually grins at his joke.

Axel blinks at that, then grins too. "It's not the same, it's kind of like talking to yourself," he protests. "It's still me!"

"I suppose," the Lapi boy agrees, and starts leading Axel back towards the town. "What kind of footwear do you need?" he asks along the way, glancing at Axel's yellowing but relatively large feet.

"You know what? I think I like going barefoot. My boots were feeling cramped," answers the man. He nods to the boy's feet. "Maybe if I do it long enough I won't have to worry about boots."

"You'll grow pads maybe," Kalvin suggests. "My feet have fur on them instead."

Axel looks at his own feet then. "I think I'll grow talons," he says in a voice that suggests it's more plan than wonder.

"Like… uh… a big lizard?" Kalvin asks, as they cross the bridge over the Mint River into the industrial part of town. The smell of the tannery and the swamp are particularly thick here.

"Like a Korv," Axel answers without a second thought. He sniffs the air and wrinkles his nose. "This town doesn't smell like my town."

"What did yours smell like?" Kalvin asks, then adds, "Before it was ruined."

"It's strange now that I think about it again – I haven't wanted to, but I guess it's good that I do – but it smelled … the same? The same after it was ruined. It smelled like … fire." The frown on Axel's face makes it clear he'd really rather not talk about the subject now either, but he goes on anyway, apparently trying to make the effort anyway. "It always smelled like fire, and something else I don't smell here at all."

"We don't burn much here in spring," Kalvin explains. "Or maybe we just use less stinky stuff." The town square is beginning to look like it normally does, as booths are taken down and cobbles swept clean. A group of adult Lapis man the shearing pen, keeping an eye on the Rughrats there.

"I don't know, I'm not sure what it was. I know that must sound unusual, but my memories only became easy to relate to, um, non-what-I-am's, after I arrived here. Before that it was like I was dreaming," Axel explains. He watches the various people work on the booths, then suddenly admits, "Poodles are scary."

Kalvin waits at the gate of the pen, shepherds crook in hand, while the men round up his shorn flock. "Scary?" he asks Axel. "I've only ever seen the ones in town. They're sorta tall, but not… scary. Kadies are scary."

"Oh, yes, Kadies are scary. Witches are scarier. Kadie witches are scariest." Axel looks around, just in case, before peering in to the Rughrat enclosure. "But you know, I think I've met Kadies before, and poodles, and Lapi, and humans. I think I've been somewhere with a lot of people."

"You're a human," Kalvin says. "Humans live in the big cities. Everyone knows that. You must have come from a big city with lots of other people in it."

Axel's eyebrows raise. "That's a smart insight, you might just be right. Maybe if we we get a chance we can visit a big city and look for ourselves," he suggests.

While he talks Axel leans over the rail and, curiously, tries to pet a Rughrat.

Shorn of their winter wool, the six-legged ruminants look… well, like shaved six-legged ruminants. Except for their heads, which still have some wool left on them. Luckily, they aren't 'poodle-cut' though.

The Rughrat doesn't shy away from Axel at all, and the short fuzz left on its hide is pleasantly soft.

Axel grins as he pets the Rughrat, a bit like a big kid. "Will you need help taking care of them? Or, maybe not mind if I help," he asks.

Kalvin is already gathering the Rughrats being led out of the pen. "I can do it by myself… I have for over a year now. But I guess I can show you what to do."

"That'd be great. I should help you, after all," says Axel as he follows after Kalvin. "They'll be a big help in wandering I'm sure, don't they produce milk?"

"Some of the ewes do," Kalvin says. "But none have given birth recently." He prods a few of the lost looking ones (and nothing can ever have a more lost-looking expression than a Rughrat) back into line and starts the flock moving along the road. "Can you sleep outside alright?" the boy asks Axel.

"I can sleep outside, I'm not sure I do it alright," Axel answers after considering it. "I did it before I joined the caravan and came here, but that was mostly because I was having a hard time with lucidity." He shrugs, then grins. "I'll learn."

"You should probably stop eating lucidities then," Kalvin suggests. "Sometimes turnips give me nightmares."

"What's a … oh." The man laughs. "I'll keep that in mind, Kalvin."

Kalvin leads the flock (and Axel) across the Milk Run bridge, then turns north into the pastures near where the Gypsies are camped. "I usually keep the flock up near the woods by the old castle," the Lapi explains.

Axel nods to this. "I guess they have a lot to eat up this way," he considers aloud. When they near the gypsy camp he glances at the wagons and admits, "It's a little funny, but I was worried about the gypsies. I guess even monsters listen to rumors, but they're not so bad at all. Their dancers make me feel funny."

"Feel funny?" Kalvin asks, looking confused again. "Do they tickle you or something?"

"They remind me I'm solid," Axel explains.

"Is that something you forget often?" Kalvin asks, as they trudge through the morning-dew covered pastures. "I could throw rocks at you or poke you every so often if you think it would help you remember."

"I just don't think about it, but it's a little surprising when I remember," explains Axel as they walk along. "It's like pinching yourself and seeing you're really awake after sleeping a long time."

"Do you hibernate during the winter then?" Kalvin asks, it being the closest thing he can think of for sleeping-a-long-time.

Axel thinks on that a moment as he walks. "I don't think so, before I just don't … I didn't think … oh it's vague I … I don't think I had a body," he hazards at length.

"Oh, why didn't you say so?" Kalvin says. "That's easier to understand."

Axel blinks at the question, explaining, "Well it feels more like being asleep than not having a body. Because I didn't have a body I … Oh! This should make sense: I didn't know what having a body felt like."

"I guess you're like a Rughrat then," Kalvin conjectures. "They seem to always be sorta dreaming. I think all animals think like that – like they're dreaming."

Axel peers at a Rughrat, which in turn peers at him back in that sleepy look. "Like an animal? Alright, I think so. Being possessed is a little like being partly an animal, maybe, thinking differently than the sentient races," he theorizes.

"I'll be sure to keep you away from ponds and the river during the rutting season then, so you don't attack your own reflection," Kalvin offers, nodding sagely.

Axel laughs at that, stopping short of tousling Kalvin's well-defended head hair. "Alright."

By mid-morning, Kalvin has gotten the flock situated in their usual grazing area, which seems to calm them down. Just across a small bridge over the river is the castle of Dr. Pike and Igor, and a winged figure can be seen flying around the remaining tower.

Kalvin points out the flying figure, saying, "That's the crazy bat doctor lady."

Axel veils his eyes from the dim sun as he looks up. "Do you think I should fly up there and say hello? I wouldn't want her to think she was being invaded, apparently I'm a little strange looking," the man asks the boy.

"You can fly?" Kalvin asks, looking at the odd wings Axel has.

The bird-man also looks at his wings. "Potentially," he answers vaguely, and with not a little embarrassment. His cheeks color, which actually matches his feathering nicely.

"Maybe you should ask for flying lessons then," Kalvin suggests. "She'll see you if you wait near the castle though, I'm sure."

"Okay," says Axel as he begins forward. Just to be extra-obvious he spreads his wings out. Being he's a little on the gaudy side he stands out well against the bleakness of a Sylvanian morning.

The flying bat must notice Axel crossing the bridge, because she changes course to land near it, in front of the castle wall. "Good morning, Stranger," the Eeee calls out, and begins to fumble with the thick-lensed glasses that hang on a strap around her neck.

"Good morning craz-, er, ah … ," it's about now Axel realizes he forgot to ask Kalvin what the lady's name was, " … hello up there, doctor!"

With her glasses on, Pike finally gets a clear look at Axel, and is struck momentarily speechless. She finally manages, "Oh my, I didn't think Vartans could breed with humans. This is remarkable!"

"That is remarkable," agrees Axel, himself at a loss of how to reply to that and just going with the first thing that comes to mind.

"Oh! I am Dr. Pike, but of course you probably already know that, if you've come to seek me out," the Eeee says, regaining some composure. She's smaller, thinner and overall less 'robust' seeming than Liliana, and all-over a dullish brown. She also wears more clothing; a pair of trousers and a tunic, although they seem too big on her frame. "And who might you be, colorful traveler?" she asks.

"I am … " Axel pauses as he tries to work out how exactly to answer that, and wonders a moment why people are so fixated on names. He stands there with his mouth open as he goes through an internal conversation, then answers, "I am Axel Nadyenka, or Nadyenka Axel."

"You aren't certain?" the Eeee asks, with a bit of concern.

After having spoken Axel studies Dr. Pike a moment, returning her earlier curiosity. She definitely doesn't make him feel funny like Liliana. Right now Axel decides that's a good thing. It's hard to talk when you feel funny. Distracted as he is he almost seems to miss the question until he finally answers, "I'm possessed, it's hard to agree on a name. I can never remember which one is mine."

"Oh, well that… uh… hold on," Pike says, adjusting her glasses again. "You say you're possessed? But possessing spirits never admit to possessing someone. Are you sure you just didn't hit your head or something?"

"Well that's possible," Axel admits. He touches his head as if looking for a bump. "But, I don't think that's it. Um, I don't know how to answer that. Being possessed doesn't give answers, and you think it would, wouldn't you. Does it help any a witch said so?"

"Oh, well, I suppose that does make a difference," Pike reasons, rubbing her chin. "Except that you're still possessed. The witch didn't do an exorcism?"

"No, but I did talk to a giant shadow that told me I should find my own place in the world," Axel answers, the adds in a quieter voice, "he was very vague."

"Well, I can't say that offers much illumination on the situation," Pike notes. "What is it you sought me out for? To get rid of the spirit, or treat your liver condition?" At the mention of the latter, the Eeee points to Axel's yellowing hands and feet.

Like a little kid Axel follows the pointing to his feet. "They're supposed to do that," he says with certainty. Without a word as to why he looks up again, and asks, "The greater spirit and the witches couldn't tell me what I should do, and I still don't understand what I am. Oh, and I would like flying lessons."

"Flying lessons?" Pike remarks, looking shocked. "You're a grown… uh… boy. Surely you've learned to fly before now?"

"I grew my wings, ummmm, about thirty days ago? Maybe less or more, it's a little foggy," the winged man admits. "I'm a little surprised at myself. I'm supposed to be a bird, but I have no idea how birds fly."

Dr. Pike's magnified eyes get even bigger behind her glasses. "Really now? Well… I might be able to help you answer some of your questions, if you let me examine you a bit? I'll only need a feather, some cells from your inner cheek, a bit of saliva and blood and… well, that should be enough to get started, really."

"You're not going to use me for reagents are you?" Axel asks a little suspiciously, adding, "I don't think my cheek has cells anyway. I don't think I can hold prisoners in them, but you never know. Or, rather, I never know. Because I don't."

The Eeee blinks. "Oh, no I won't use you for… reagents," she promises. "And by cells I meant… really, I just need to scrape the inside of your cheek with a flattened stick. It'll only take a few moments, and then… uh… you can go about whatever you were doing. You do have someplace to stay, yes? Hopefully close by?"

"Oh, you know I stay close by? That's good." Axel steps to the side to let Pike see the boy down by his flock, whom he waves to.

"I see, you're with the shepherd boy?" Pike asks, just to be sure. "I see him out there all the time, come to think of it."

"Yes, Kalvin will be joining me. It has been agreed upon," the bird-man confirms. After turning back to Pike he asks, "You needed a feather then? Here you go." With a wince he plucks one of his feathers and offers it to the doctor.

The Eeee takes the feather and gives it a critical look before tucking it away into a pocket. "Well then, if you'll just follow me to my lab, I can take those other samples. And at some point in the future I'll probably need to give you a thorough… physical… exam… " The doctor begins to blush as she talks, then stops and says, "Perhaps it would be best to have Igor do that part."

"If you think it's best," Axel says, then he peers at the doctor curiously, suddenly and uncharacteristically fast to catch on – probably because he had the same reaction earlier when discussing Liliana. "Oh, I understand. The physicals of people make me feel odd, too."

"Well, that is a proper, healthy reaction I think," Pike says to cover her own discomfort as she leads the way to the castle.

"Do you ever dress like Liliana? That causes a lot of proper healthy reaction," Axel asks conversationally as he follows along, and again his blush matches his feathers.