Katria and I were walking through a forest, on a dirt side path that we like to walk down together and chat.
I sighed. "I wish you weren't a ghost," I said out loud, meaning for it to be in my head, catching her interest and causing her to look over.
"Why is that?" She asked, tilting her head in curiosity.
"N-no reason," I replied, blushing profusely and cursing myself for saying that out loud.
"Well, there has to be a reason," Katria continued in a playful tone.
"Well, there's not," I snapped, looking away in guilt, regretting my decision right away.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to do that," I apologized, looking at Katria, who was also looking away.
"It's okay. I admit, I was crossing a line there," She replied.
Then suddenly, I lost my balance, quickly grabbing Katrina's arm before I fell.
Katria stopped and looked down at me in concern. "What's wrong?" She asked.
"N-nothing, I just --" I stopped as a wave of immense pain filled my head, making me scream in pain.
Katria grabbed my other hand and stepped in front of me, facing me, while I unconsiously squeezed her arm with all my strength.
"Jane, look at me," Katria ordered, my head slowly and shakily raising to meet her eyes, barely able to stand, only being held up by Katria.
"You're going to be okay, I promise," She stated as my vision started to narrow while a tear ran down my cheek.
"Jane? Jane!" I heard Katria exclaim before I blacked out.
"Jane, Jane! WAKE UP!!"
I shot up, eyes flying open, breathing heavily. I started to search for Katria, panicking when I couldn't find her.
"W-what's going on?! Where are you?!" I exclaimed in fear.
"I'm right here!" I heard her say behind me. I looked behind me but saw no one.
I started sobbing quietly. "Stop playing around! You're scaring me!" I croaked out.
"I'm not playing around! I'm in your head!" She said, making me sob even louder.
"N-no you're not! S-stop lying!" I yelled, shutting my eyes.
Then, in the pitch black, I saw Katria.
"Now do you believe me?" She asked.
I quieted down. "Katria? Y-you're... In my..." I trailed off, scared of what would happen if she can never get out.
"Now don't think like that, I'll get out!" She assured me.
"W-wait..." I said. "Y-you can hear my t-thoughts?" I asked.
"Yeah. Why does it matter?" She asked, confused.
I stayed quiet for a few moments.
"Jane? Are you --" She started before my screaming startled her.
"No no no! Get out! Get out of my head!" I screamed, falling back, sobbing even louder than before, trying to shake her out.
'Before you discover my feelings for you!' I thought, before realizing what I just thought.
"You... have feelings for me?" She said, causing me to blush profusely again.
I whimpered, unsure of what I should say. "Umm... N-no?" I said in an embarrassed tone.
"There's no need to lie. Just tell me the truth," Katria told me, placing her hands on her hips.
I whimpered again, really not wanting to say anything. "C-can we not talk about it, please?" I asked.
"We have time," She answered.
I started shaking, opening my eyes,
whimpering a third time. "P-please, I'm not ready to talk about this, not yet," I begged, trying to convince her to drop it.
After not hearing an answer, I whimpered again, shaking even more.
"Please..." I said quietly. "Not now..."
After a moment of silence, I heard her sigh in defeat. "Fine, but we'll talk about this later!" She said.
I smiled in happiness. "Deal!" I exclaimed, shutting my eyes to see her again.
I imagined my human self in front of her and hugged her. "You're the best!" I said, making her smile.
Then I opened my eyes, causing my imagined self to disappear.
But what I saw was the exact opposite of what I wanted to see.
"I-It's dark already?" I shakily asked, looking around in fear.
"It's okay, just lay down and sleep, you'll be fine," Katria said.
"O-okay..." I said, reluctantly laying down and shutting my eyes.
Not realizing how tired I was, I fell asleep within moments.
My human self and Katria were standing in pitch black nothingness, a few feet apart.
"So, now we have time," Katria said, causing me to look down in embarrassment again.
"Can you not do that? It makes me feel worse," Katria asked.
"D-do what?" I asked, looking up to her, making her look away.
"That face," She started. "It makes me feel like I did something wrong."
"Um, o-okay. What do you wanna do now?" I asked, a questioning look in my eyes.
"I guess you can tell me what that thought about feelings for me was all about," She said, getting straight to the point.
"Oh, w-well... Umm..." I trailed off, not sure how to explain it.
"Well, are --" She got out before I rushed forward and kissed her right on the lips, surprising her.
For a few moments, they stood there, Katria's eyes wide open, before she started kissing back, closing her eyes.
After a minute, I broke away, stepping back a few feet, eyes on her face, hoping for a good reaction.
"Um... I didn't quite get that... can you do that again?" Katria asked, making me smile.
I hugged her again, head on her chest, too short to reach my head over her shoulder.
She hugged me back, holding me at her height, about a foot off the ground.
"Hey, wake up," I heard a soft female voice echo through my empty mind.
Katria put me down, breaking the hug at the same time.
"Well, looks like I gotta go," I said, waving goodbye. "See ya," I finished, before I vanished, leaving Katria alone in my mind.
I slowly opened my eyes, noticing right away that I wasn't in that forest.
I studied my new surroundings, seeing that I was in an animal caretaker's home, if the wide variety of animal food in bowls was any indication.
I saw that I was on a green couch in what looked like a living room, with a blue blanket covering me.
I sat up, this position feeling weird to me, not used to this unusual body, the blanket sliding off, making a soft thud on the hardwood floor.
A yellow pony with pink hair and cyan eyes peeled into the room, obviously hearing the barely audible thud.
'She must have ears like a... What's an animal with very sharp hearing?' Katria asked.
"Oh, you're awake," She said, walking next to me, revealing a pair of wings and three pink butterfly wings on her flank.
"What's that on your flank?" I asked, studying it for a few moments.
"Do you not know what a cutie mark is?" She asked, asking in a shy kind of way.
"Not where I'm from," I explained, looking at my flank to see if I had one.
"Well, whaddya know," I said under my breath, seeing my cutie mark.
'Why is your cutie mark the --' Katria started, confusion in her voice.
"Aetherium crest?" I said aloud, confusing the pony in front of me. "I don't know," I finished.
"Who are you talking to?" The yellow pony asked, making me look over.
"Hmm? Oh, nopony," I distantly answered, wondering why the aetherium crest is my cutie mark.
"Well, I found a saddlebag with your cutie mark on it, so I put it on the floor next to the couch for when you woke up," She explained.
I looked on the ground, and sure enough, there was a saddlebag with my cutie mark on it.
I grabbed it and opened one of the pouches.
I saw Katria's bow when she was alive, Zephyr, and my sword, Cancelled Out.
I also spotted my jeweled necklace. "Good! Her bow is still here," I said, relieved.
My caretaker had confusion painted on her face. "Excuse me for asking, but who exactly is her?" She asked.
"Just the love of my life, Katria," I replied, putting the items back in my saddlebags.
"Well, I think it's about time that I leave," I said, slinging my saddlebags over my back.
"Wait, I think we should check to see if you're okay first!" She exclaimed as I hopped off the couch.
But as I landed, pain jolted up my right foreleg, causing me to scream in pain and trip, landing with a loud crash as my caretaker looked on in horror.
"Oh my goodness!" She exclaimed as she rushed to my side.
"Yep, I think that's a good idea," I croaked out as she helped me up.
I kept my foreleg off the ground while the yellow pony supported me.
"We should get you to the hospital," She told me, while I was in no position to object.
'Well, that just happened,' Katria said.
But the pain didn't stop there. An old wound from the forgemaster at the forge resurfaced, bringing back bad memories.
Mzulft
The Forge
Katria and I were standing in front of The Forge, fighting The Forgemaster, me holding Cancelled Out and my Electrifying War Axe, and Katria holding her bow, arrow nocked, fully drawn, aiming right at The Forgemaster's head.
The three of them stood still for a few seconds. Then as soon as Katria launched her arrow, which bounced off him, did the fight start.
He attempted squashing me with his hammer, me easily rolling to the side, dodging the potentially fatal blow.
Katria launched a flurry of arrows, which all bounced off, while I struck him with my war axe, striking him with blunt force and electricity.
Katria placed her bow on her back as she unsheathe two daggers, dual-wielding them.
I ducked under a strike from his blade, and struck him with Cancelled out, causing him to temporarily freeze and catch fire at the same time.
But I got cocky and thought I could block one of his blade strikes, forming an X with my sword and war axe.
As he hit my weapons, I thought I could actually manage this block, but he blew through it like it was water and struck me across my left eye, knocking me down.
"Jane!" Katrina screamed, anger clear on her face, as she ran over and blocked the his path to me.
The stopped for a moment, the Centurion frozen in place, Katrina in a defensive stance, breathing heavily, and me, writhing on the ground, groaning in pain, trying in vain to get up and get payback.
Before I fainted from exhaustion, I saw Katrina leaping at The Forge master, yelling wildly, as the Dwemer Centurion brought back his blade to strike her.
