The wolves are patient, despite having the strength to probably overwhelm the deer. It takes a few minutes to form a large, loose circle around them, since they move around, but the wolves are becoming increasingly proficient at this.

Which reminds me, I should try the spell to see Tåke’s classes and stats after the upcoming battle. She should have learned quite a few things by now, and the spell might translate from humans to other creatures.

Tåke gives the order to prepare, and I feel the aspects change nearby, as the wolves attune to various aspects before the battle. I’m proud of them for understanding the utility of having multiple roles in combat, and I little bit of myself for teaching them.

In this calm before the storm I sense Earth in three locations, forming a rough triangle. There are two sources of Fire, which is also the aspect I have attuned to, in a similar formation, filling the gaps. Then there’s five sources of Mist. And there’s Tåke by my side, taking on Air.

I feel my wolf heart quicken, blood and mana both coursing through my blood vessels, through which the flow of blood and mana both improved since just a few days ago. I have formed a minor core for storing mana in each limb, but have yet to form a proper mana core, learning from the minor ones that it is no easy task.

I feel anticipation, a growing hunger as well as a sort of glee at the upcoming battle, not only from myself, but from the rest of the pack. And from one of the Mist sources, worry, curiosity and reluctance. Another human?

I send a mental image of a smiling human doing the thumbs up pose. I get confusion in return, but also note that the worry and reluctance lessens. ‘Afterwards.’ I try to convey, not used to communicating abstract things through the bond.

However, when Tåke orders us to tighten the circle, I turn my attention to the prey and task at hand. Slowly, we inch closer to the prey, still hiding behind mist, illusory as well as physical.

One of the bucks snaps its’ head upright. The pack collectively freezes in place, lowering their profiles. Do we charge earlier than planned, or do we hope the deer lower do not raise their guard? As a doe raise her head, Tåke takes the decision: Go!

Ten wolves howls as they charge towards the deer, one more lagging behind slightly.

The beacons of Fire blaze up like beacons. The fires are kept tightly in check, used only to scare the deer, roaring together with their bearers. Despite the seeming intensity of the flames, the forest is safe thanks to the magical nature of the flames as much as the illusions that make them seem bigger than they are.

The herd of prey break up, instinctual panic telling them to run away from the charging blazes. Only to run straight into Earthen walls, made of illusions, earth and wolves.

I note that the largest group of prey run straight away from me. As does Tåke, whooshing past on wings of Air. The scent of blood fills the air, prey fallen both left and right to the awaiting hunters. I note that some of the hunters in question start moving away from the encirclement, no doubt following some prey that got past them.

As I dash past the middle of the now broken encirclement, I note the confusion and mild fear felt by one pack member. There! A female Wolfkin. No full transformation? I can teach her later. ‘Come!’ I order her, a concept simple enough to convey through telepathy.

She hesitates for a moment, but as I pass her, she turns to follow. I attune to Electromagnetism, charging my fur. With [Aerokinesis] I give the two of us a tailwind, catching up to the prey, Tåke and two other wolves.

I start ionizing a channel of air towards the two standing bucks, ordering all wolves out of the way. With a tinge of fear, they go to the size, knowing what comes next.

Kra-kow!

A sound not unlike a gun being fired sounds through the area, one buck collapsing with a twitch, soon ended by a well placed air spike, the other only falling over as it’s leg jerks from the current. It is ended by a familiar spell, one {Mana Spike} to the chest, not hitting anything vital, while a second {Mana Spike} shatters the skull.

It seems the rest of the pack are also done with their prey, and through the increasing strength of the wolves and magic both, we have soon gathered the six fallen deer in the area we found them.

I start [Dismantling] the corpses to retrieve the mana stones, quickly cleaning them with magic and putting them in the bag. Without hands and the ability not equipped, it’s a bit challenging, but with all my abilities improving, it does not take too long.

The meat in the way I simply toss to the side, the hungrier wolves instantly setting upon it, but the organs, especially hearts, lungs and what I’m pretty sure is the liver is given to those who have contributed, as is becoming a tradition of sorts in the pack. As the leader, Tåke makes those decisions.

When the top contributors have gotten their rewards (the presumed livers are pretty tasty, but the heart has, while a bit stringy, an oddly enticing crunch to it), she shares the remaining organs pretty evenly.

Before that, however, she offers a lung to the Wolfkin, who very reluctantly accepts it, but only holds it in her hands. Of course, this causes all the wolves to look at her with a mix of expectant, encouraging and hungry feelings and looks.

I let out a barking laugh of sorts. ‘Eat.’ I tell her. ‘Safe.’ I then transmit the image of a humanoid figure handing something away, trying to convey that the two are options. ‘or’ is a surprisingly hard concept to transmit without the words we are so used to.

She licks it. She takes a small nibble. She chews. She then makes a weird face. And takes a proper bite. Good on you. With her seemingly enjoying the offering, Tåke urges me to cut out more chunks of meat.

As much as the wolves are able to eat it off the bone, so to speak, they seem to enjoy the convenience of not needing to cut through the skin and having it in smaller chunks. I make short work of the carcasses, cutting of slabs left and right, and soon I am surrounded by the sounds of the pack eating.

I make sure to give myself a few bites, heating them with magic. A few of the wolves have learned to do so, but with their somewhat loose control and aspects being their only option, they generally just lightly roast the meat to a level that I would hesitate to even call ‘Rare’.

Miss Wolfkin sits next to me accepting with much less apprehension the cooked, bite-sized meat I give her every now and then. “What are you doing?”

I can hear from her voice that she’s not used to talking in that form. I’m not exactly used to this telepathy either, so I transmit the image of a deer, followed by an image of a knife and clawed paw, and finally the hide of a deer.

“You’re skinning it?” She asks.

I nod as Tåke nuzzles my left flank, transmitting the delicious taste of cooked meat, the feeling as the fibers are torn apart by your teeth and the smell of the juices filling the air. Yeah, yeah, I get your point. I fling one of the pieces I am currently cooking towards her, causing her to do a magnificent backflip in order to catch it.

Pretty sure I heard a snort from the Wolfkin in response to that, so I throw one to her as well, which she boringly catches with magic and then eats.

I look over the skinned hides. There’s some damage here and there, but overall I did pretty good. Besides, most damage was not done by me. By this point I have eaten about half my bodyweight in mass. I sense inwards, to my [Shapechanger] subspace.

There’s quite a bit of mass there now, about two-to-three times my normal body mass? I have a vague idea of how I can use it. For one, I should be able to draw it out to take on forms that would otherwise require too much mass. I might need more food while in such a form, though.

I can also form another body in the space and shapeshift into it. That would not only let me take on form larger, but also smaller than my usual body. As long as it is in the space, the way I shape it is different, so I think I could make a body using multiple aspects.

For now though, I take off mass roughly equivalent to the wolves, as opposed to my Direwolf form, which is at least twice the size of the smallest wolves, probably more if you count by mass.

Like the first times I took on most forms, I form the body awkwardly and slowly. However, whereas I have so far just changed my human body, I am now making one from scratch, which obviously takes longer. At least I have a lot of mass to use.

Tåke keeps nuzzling me. She’s a bit clingy today, but it’s not unpleasant, so I allow it, doing the same to her when I’m not preoccupied. Hmm, let’s try to make the body a copy of her. It’s almost formed now, so I just tweak bits here and there.

As for the female parts… I can make them. I wondered if I could two days ago, and well. I found out I can do it, but only as part of a transformation to an animal. And so, partially for curiosity, partially for… science, I experimented a bit.

Spoiler alert: It’s not particularly exciting. I looked it up, and only humans and rabbits are capable of reproduction all the time. I could of course work with that, but I’m not sure I want to experience what it’s like being a female in heat.

As for the [Aspect of the Rabbit]… I have it, but the affinity is pitiful. Given the proverb about rabbits, I’m not sure what to feel about becoming a literal ‘bunny girl’ for that purpose. That said, knowing myself I’ll try it at some point when I get into the mood. Probably sooner rather than later.

Enough about that, the new wolf form is ready. The Wolfkin girl is off to the side, petting what I assume is her companion, a female who has learned the [Aspect of Earth]. She looks over here with a smile, though. At least, I think it’s a smile. Which means I probably look scarier than I thought when doing my evil wolf smile. Heh, nice.

Were it not for her, I would’ve turned back to human form before I shapeshift to the Tåke copy. That said, the somewhat vague magical knowledge I get from the [Shapechanger] class and meta ability tells me it should be fine, since this is my actual body, just transformed.

Since I worry about how the spatial enchantment on the bag would interact with being put in a subspace, I do the safe thing and loosen the straps, taking it off my body. [Spatial Magic] tells me it should be fine, though. I push Tåke away and tell her to wait.

So when I shapeshift, I have so far just kinda forced my body to become something else. What I want to do here, though, is to swap my physical body with the one I currently have in the subspace.

Should I… Ahh, screw it. This magic seems to work best on instinct, anyway. I close my eyes, concentrate, and will my body and the one in subspace to switch places. The ground disappears from underneath my paws, only to hit it a moment later.

Woah! I open my eyes, and magically sense around my body. This feels so strange. I feel so light! I can’t sense very much, it’s like trying to move in some slow-moving liquid. Wait. There’s a giant glob of something here. Ahh, I’m just sensing the subspace.

Growling? Uhh, Tåke seems a bit angry. I roll over to my back. Wait, why am I submitting to her, I should just release the shapeshift! Eugh, my body feels so heavy in comparison. I roll over and get up on my paws. It’s not like it’s more sluggish. Well, it is heavier.

Why are you still growling! I roll my eyes and go over to nuzzle her. That should alm her down. Yeah, yeah, I can see your tail between your legs, you’re not scaring me. I touch my nose to the side of her-

Owww! I swat her with my paw. Don’t bite my snout! She lets go, but is still on guard. Okay, so maybe taking on her form in front of her was not the best idea.