We shared the sensations of anyone that we sacrificed our souls to. And there was something else. Something new. I didn’t know what to call it at first. The best way to describe it was like the map on my phone. My poor, broken phone. It told me where I was in relation to everything else, like buildings, roads, and so on. Except, instead of places, I could feel the short distance between us, Irene, and the chimera girl. A strange, steady awareness blooming in the back of my mind, not tied to anything physical, and yet undeniably real.

  “You feel this, right?” I asked Samsara.

  “Yep,” She said.

  “This means we can track where they are at any moment,” I said. “If we use this on one of the Monster Purifiers, then we could track them back to wherever they are keeping Aisling.”

  “And that means we can also keep track of where Irene, Nilo, Agto, and Kanes are,” Samsara said, her eyes lighting up. “If they ever get captured again, we can find them!”

  Nilo yawned, followed by Agto, and then Kanes. This chain reaction also caused Irene to yawn. Their bodies still felt tired even after they had just woken up.

  “Should I give them more mana?” Samsara asked, a feeling of guilt blooming within her.

  “Maybe it’s just a side effect of [Sacrificial Soul Transfer],” I suggested. “Otherwise, why isn’t Nara yawning?”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Samsara replied. “Hopefully, they feel energized tomorrow!”

  “You two should get some rest,” Eivor said, looking at the yawning girls. “It’s already dark out. Actually, before I forget to ask, what are your names?” Eivor turned her head towards the chimera.

  “Nilo,” the lion head sighed.

  “My name’s Atgo,” the goat head said.

  “And I am Kanes”, the snake girl said, bowing. And then she yawned again.

  “Irene,” Eivor said, turning to look at the falcon girl. “Can you be a dear and take Nilo, Atgo, and Kanes to your home to sleep in?”

  “Sure thing,” Irene yawned again.

  “And make sure not to break curfew again,” Eivor sighed.

  “Yes, I’m sorry about that,” Irene said, looking down towards the ground. “I thought I would find the others. But I didn’t. And now Aisling is gone.”

  “Indeed,” Eivor said, walking up to Irene and putting a hand on her feathery shoulder. “I won’t give you a punishment this time, but our rules exist for a reason.”

  “It’s a good thing Irene isn’t getting punished,” Samsara said. “It wasn’t their fault the Monster Purifiers captured her. And I’m glad Eivor is changing her tune about punishments.”

  “Probably because they are still scared of us,” I said.

  “When does curfew even begin anyway?” Samsara asked out loud.

  A bell rang deep down the valley. I couldn’t make out where it was coming from. The bell rang again twice.

  “It begins now,” Nara said. “I’ll head back home. Good night, Irene.” She said goodnight to everyone else, including us.

  Nara, Irene, Atgo, Nilo, and Kanes left. Nara went to a home on the right side, while Irene and the chimera girl went to the left.

  That just left us with Eivor and Halinka.

  “Umm… I wish you the best of luck in finding Aisling,” Eivor said, stuttering at first but getting more composed as she spoke. “And thank you for returning Irene to us. You don’t need to abide by our curfew.” Not that they could make us do so anyway.

  “Thank you for being kind to us,” Samsara said. “I’m not sure how a curfew would work, because we are too big for your homes.”

  “You are free to sleep anywhere in the valley,” Eivor said. She turned around. “We don’t have a bed for you, but if you have been living out in the Wild Lands for this long, then I imagine you don’t need one.”

  Well, I wouldn’t mind a bed. Or at least a blanket.

  “Thanks!” Samsara cheered. We both waved goodbye as Eivor and Halinka departed to the far side of the valley. Their gas lamps eventually dissipated, and we could no longer see them.

  “See, now that we helped them get Irene, they’re letting us stay here!” Samsara thought enthusiastically.

  “Yes, and that also means we have a safe place to sleep,” I said. Since the village was invisible to the outside, we wouldn’t have to worry about mechs or the Monster Purifiers. Kaijus could maybe sniff us out, but we already went through our second Kaiju evolution, so we were way stronger too.

  Technically, we didn’t need to save Irene to live here. We could have just decided to use this place as our home. And it wasn’t like Eivor or Halinka could stop us.

  “But doesn’t this way feel better?” Samsara asked.

  “I guess you do feel happier,” I said as she smiled. “And I can feel your emotions, so yes, this does feel better.”

  “At least you didn’t say no,” Samsara mentally giggled.

  The moment Irene and the chimera girl stepped into their separate homes, Samsara and I experienced everything with them. The sight, sound, and faint itch of their tired limbs were all shared with us.

  And honestly? It was weird as heck.

  Through Irene’s eyes, the wooden front door creaked open into a dimly lit stone chamber. The walls bore scratch marks, as if a wild animal had cut the stone rather than a professional with mechanical tools. Actually, that sounds pretty offensive. At least I didn’t say it out loud. Samsara looked at me with a frown.

  Every piece of furniture looked like very determined cavemen with bad tempers had built it. Beds were bundles of stitched-together fur rags on wooden frames. The fur rags were all patchy and mismatched. I could see brown, gray, red, black, orange, and a suspiciously purple color. Probably the remains of feral monster girls they’d hunted long before we arrived. The air smelled strongly of smoke and something earthy, along with traces of dried meat.

  Yep, their sense of smell was being telepathically broadcast to Samsara and me.

  “Wow,” Samsara muttered mentally, her voice brushing through my mind. “This is… uh… cozy?”

  “It’s better than anything we’ll have,” I said. A feeling of jealousy arose inside Samsara. Personally, I didn’t really care about what other people had. But I guess Samsara did miss our apartment.

  “I kind of still do,” She said.

  “Maybe we could ask Lateo to build one for us,” I suggested. “Surely, they could make something for a 150-meter-tall Kaiju.”

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  “I think it would be quicker if we made it ourselves,” Samsara said. “Actually, wait, if we keep evolving, then we would keep needing to build a bigger house.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think we can ever have a home again,” I agreed. Samsara sighed, her disappointment flooding into me.

  I hugged her. “At least we still have each other.”

  She hugged me back.

  Flickering oil lamps shaped from polished bones lined the room. A feather-woven tapestry dangled from the wall, with four bones acting as nails to keep it in place. The stitching looked like talons and claws were used instead of needles. Which, to be fair, they most likely did.

  Irene guided the chimera girl out of the entrance room and down a hallway with many open doors. Technically, the entrance room is also a bedroom since there are beds there. Nilo, Atgo, and Kanes each took turns peaking through the doorways. Each room had two pairs of stone bunk beds and two stone dressers. A single glassless window allowed moonlight to seep into the room.

  The hallway continued, with more doorways even after a couple of turns. And at the end of the hallway were stone stairs. Both Irene and the chimera girl climbed the stairs to another hallway. Irene showed them to a room on their left.

  “This is my room,” she said, pointing with one of her feathery hands. “I’m the only one here, but you can take the other bed.” She yawned again. This caused Nilo, Agto, and Kanes to yawn too as they traveled towards the bed. The bed sat firmly against the stone wall.

  A pillow made up of rolled-up feathers sat on one side, while a patchwork of pelts and fur made up the blanket.

  Atgo muttered, “I call sleeping on the inside. I can’t bear the sun interrupting my sleep anymore.”

  “No, I need to sleep on the inside,” Nilo argued.

  “Please, just get in the bed,” Kanes hissed tiredly.

  Their body slumped down, with Atgo’s head on the side closer to the wall. Each of their heads huddled together to share the pillow. They were lucky it was large enough to fit three heads. Probably could fit five.

  “That’s kind of cute,” Samsara mused. “Watching them all cuddle to go to sleep.”

  A thought formed at the back of my mind. If I could share their senses, could I also control them? I decided to try it out.

  Both Irene and the chimera girl sat up at the same time.

  “Huh?!” all four of them panicked.

  “What are you doing?” Samsara asked, anxiety rising inside of her.

  “Just testing stuff out,” I told her.

  I had both Irene and the chimera girl get off the bed and kneel. Their bodies spasmed as they were forced to follow my commands.

  “I worship Ramona and Samsara,” they each said in perfect unison. It was as if they were each in a choir, with their voices harmonizing.

  Warmth sprouted throughout our Cores and spread through the rest of our body. I let out a contented hum.

  Samsara’s panic flashed bright in my skull, drowning out any pleasure I got from the worship. “Ramona! This isn’t okay!”

  I blinked innocently. “What? Getting worshiped isn’t okay?”

  “No, controlling them isn’t okay,” Samsara pointed out.

  “I was just making them make up for the fact that we gave them our souls,” I explained. “They should at least pay us back with worship. I’m not going to micromanage their every action.”

  “You shouldn’t micromanage any of their actions!” Samsara said. “You could have just asked them to worship us. And look, they are all panicking now!”

  “What was that?!” Irene said, putting her feathery hands on her feathered head.

  “This is fucked up,” Nilo said, standing back up. “Did Ramona and Samsara control our bodies? Fuck that.”

  “It seems to have stopped,” Atgo said. “But I agree that I never want to experience that ever again.”

  “Is this going to keep happening to us every night?” Kanes asked. “Are we going to be turned into slaves when we try to go to sleep? This is insane.”

  “I still don’t see what the issue is,” I said. “Besides, I liked the feeling of being worshiped. Who cares what they feel?”

  “Do you like the way I feel right now?” Samsara asked. Her mouth had turned into a deep frown.

  “No.”

  “Then please never do this again,” she said with exasperation.

  “Alright, alright,” I said. “I won’t do this to any of our worshipers. And I’ll make sure to ask them for their worship instead of controlling their bodies.”

  “And we’ll apologize to them tomorrow,” Samsara said. “I would have said right now, but we already interrupted their sleep.”

  I didn’t respond.

  By the time the girls drifted off to sleep, the valley was quiet. Most of the homes had turned off their lamps, leaving the moon as the only source of light. Two of the homes still had lights on, the ones closest to us and thus on the outside edge of the village. These must be where the guards were stationed. Aisling went there to check on where Irene had left. I could make out the figure of cat girls keeping watch near the windows. They glanced at us, but then peered towards the outside of the village.

  “Do you want to go to sleep now?” I asked. I could no longer feel any sensations from Irene or the chimera girl, but my mental map still pointed to where they were.

  “Sure,” Samsara said as she yawned. I yawned too.

  We decided to sleep against the hard rock of the valley floor next to the flowing river. We shivered against the cold stone floor. The wind hitting our backs didn’t help either. Unfortunately, unlike humans, we were both cold-blooded, which just made the problem worse.

  “It’s like it’s freezing,” Samsara said, hugging herself.

  I wrapped my arms around myself and sighed. “I’m going to get the Kaiju cat girl’s fur. It should work as a blanket.”

  “You’re leaving now?” Samsara asked. “While it’s dark out?”

  “Well, I don’t want to sleep cold,” I said. “And I know you don’t either.”

  Samsara sighed and got up with me. She slithered to follow me as we left the village behind.

  The Wild Lands outside the valley were eerily silent. Too silent. No sound of any monster girls. No distinct roars. No chirping sounds. No growling.

  “This is pretty creepy,” Samsara said, still hugging herself.

  “I think it’s just the fact that it’s nighttime,” I said, also hugging myself. “Besides, if there were other monster girls out here, we could have them as a snack.”

  “Isn’t it weird there aren’t any of them here?” Samsara asked.

  “The Monster Purifiers probably cleared them all out,” I said. “That’s why we didn’t see anything until we saw the smoke from the juggernaut.”

  The scent of dried blood reached my nostrils as we got closer to the forest. I let my nose guide us as we entered, retracing some of the footsteps we made in the forest floor to get our new fur blanket.

  Thankfully, it was still here. I picked up the fur with my hair tentacles.

  “Do you want to wear it on the way back?” I asked Samsara, holding it out for her.

  “Thanks,” she said, wrapping it around herself like a jacket.

  While I was still cold, at least Samsara got to be warm.

  We reached the valley edge, and Lateo reappeared before us. Lying down, Samsara kept her fur blanket. I was a few dozen meters away from her, giving her space.

  “Ugh,” Samsara groaned. “I still feel you being cold. This isn’t going to work out.”

  “Maybe I could go hunting for another Kaiju,” I said. “We might spend all night hunting for it, though.”

  “Why isn’t this blanket big enough?” Samsara asked. She tried stretching it, but it only expanded by about half its size.

  “We can make this work,” I said. “We’ll have to sleep right next to each other.”

  “Right next to each other?” Samsara asked, her cheeks turning red.

  “Yes,” I said. “How else will we fit under our blanket?”

  “Oh,” she simply said. “Okay.”

  I walked up to Samsara and laid down right behind her. I hugged her. Her heartbeat started to increase. But she wrapped the blanket around us. My hair tentacles made sure that the blanket covered my back.

  “This is much better,” I told her.

  “Yeah…” Her cheeks continued to blush, and her heart beat faster.

  “Just focus on the fact that we’re warm now,” I said, pulling on our fur blanket harder.

  “Warm,” she said.

  “Warm.”

  “Warm.”

  After a few more repetitions, she fell asleep and snored.

  I smiled and dozed off.

  https://discord.gg/yJMtfvTDuB