Skills and Abilities

We ran through the forest for the rest of the day and only stopped when I needed to eat something. In the evening, we finally arrived at a Laly's cave. I asked "So, where do I sleep?". She said "In the same room you did last time". I was a bit confused and asked "Then where will you sleep?". She answered "In the other room?".

'Right, there was this other room. Why would she need 2 bedrooms though? She lives alone' I thought and decided to ask "Why do you need 2 bedrooms?" to which she said "Are you asking about the room I was in? It's not a bedroom". I was even more confused and asked "Then what is in there?". She laughed a bit and said "You don't need to know". 'Now I want to know even more' I thought and tried probing one more time "Just tell me, is it something very bad?".

She laughed and said "No, of course not but you don't need to know what is in there". I was lost at that point and decided to drop it. 'If she doesn't want to say, that's fine. Who knows, maybe I will find out in the future anyway' I thought and entered "my" room. She followed me in and sat down on the chair. I said "Do you need something?" to which she replied "Duh? I'm waiting for you to go to sleep". 'Right, I forgot about that. Still couldn't she come after I fall asleep? I don't have to be watched like this' I thought and laid down on "my" new bed.

It wasn't uncomfortable and surely much better than sleeping on some animal skins. I asked "Did you make all of this?" to which she said "Of course, who else would have done it?". I thought about it and said "Maybe your partner or something?". She replied nonchalantly "I have nothing of that sort. Besides, I was still very young when I left my hometown. I have only couple of friends and never had a partner". I asked "Why not? Shouldn't your people strive to reproduce?".

She said "I told you, it's not simple for us to do so. I do have a few ingredients needed to create a body but I still lack many of them. I won't choose any random male either. We are just like you humans. We also have our own likes and dislikes. That is why our parents strive to create the best bodies for us, so that we can find a partner".

'Heh, if only humans could have that kind of possibility. If our parents could choose a look for us, no one would be ugly. Although, if everyone was handsome or pretty, wouldn't that create more problems? How do you choose from a perfect looking species, by character? That can be faked, I know something about that first hand' I thought. I asked her "If every parent strives to make the best looking body, don't you all look handsome or beautiful?".

She said "Of course not. Our parents can't choose the specific look of our bodies. They can only experiment with features such as tall, thin, fat or heavy and light. No one knows the outcome when the body is created so there are some rather interesting guys and girls walking around. I tell you, if you saw them, you would laugh to your death!" and she laughed for a while.

'Oh, so they can't choose how their kids look like. This would be too broken' I thought and said "Stealth is not the only skill you know, right? I already figured out how to achieve what you are doing. Tell me something about your other skills". She thought for a while and said "You will not be able to copy anything else, those are the traits that came with my body. I don't need to use my ability in order to use them. I can of course add my ability to those skills to make them stronger".

I was confused and said "Can we clarify some things first. What do you mean ability?". She responded "Oh, right. It is the power I showed you, I call that ability, you call it power". I said "Does it have like an official name? Did you call it something or a name that was given to it when you recieved your body? Stuff like that". She thought for a while and said "No, I just call it ability". 'Heeeh… I mean, whenever I learn something or discover something, I always give it a name. This way, I can memorize stuff better by using distinctive names. That is how humans do stuff. If every book was called "The book" then who would recognise which one is which?' I thought.

I said "Why don't you name it then?". She looked at me and said "I don't know how". 'This is hopeless… I… I can't help her' I thought and said "Alright, let's just agree to call it an ability and refer to it only when you mean the stuff that allows you to hide well or create that smoky ball in the palm of your hand". She nodded her head and said "I can do that". 'Good, at least there will be less confusion when she explains things' I thought and said "So we have that thing figured out. Now, you said you don't have skills but to me they are skills even if you were born with them. Can we use that word instead of traits or whatever you call that? It will be much easier for me to understand and for you to convey your meaning". She nodded her head in agreement.

'Good, now we have some common language' I thought then asked "Can you tell me about your other skills? Even if I can't copy them, I may get some ideas on how to create my own". She didn't seem to mind and said "That is alright, I don't mind telling them to you but promise me that you will never speak about any of those things with others!". I said "I wouldn't anyway, I can promise you that no problem".

She nodded and said "Which skill would you like to know about?". I thought about it and said "How about the one you changed into other people? Did you use your ability to supplement it back then?". She responded immediately "Oh this one? It is an illusion type skill that I was sort of born with. The body provides that effect and I don't have to use it. It is active at all times. You can see through it right now because I don't use my ability to go with it and your mind is not weak. In the forest back then, I used my ability together with that skill".

I thought about it and said "I know you said previously that you have no control over who the person looking at you sees. So it's due to the viewer and what he or she wants to see. I get that but why did I see 3 different people or rather 2 people and 1 animal?". She answered "I don't know. I don't really use that skill. It's active at all times and those who can't see through it will not see my true body but what they see, I do not know. My guess would be that you wanted to see all those 3 people or as you put it, 2 people and 1 animal. Those were the people or creatures that you thought about the most, that is why you saw them".

'It makes sense but even she doesn't know why I saw 3 different images. Dina was there as well. I didn't know her a lot but she was a good girl. Naive but still nice. It probably is because I killed her with my own hands. I still remember that very clearly. It must've been in the back of my mind when I thought about Shelly and Nick' I thought and then said "I have a skill that can copy an aura of people but it isn't the same as what you can do". She looked at me in disbelief and said "You can copy auras of other humans?". 'Right, I forgot. To me an aura is just the intent and everyone has one. Whenever it is a miner or a very strong hunter. All of them have some sort of air about them. That is what I call aura. She probably mistook it for the stuff like Domineering Aura. I can't copy stuff like this' I though and explained that to her.

After a while, she finally understood what I meant and said "Oh! So you can copy something like a mood of a person and use that to blend in. You can't copy auras". I said to her "At that time, I called it an aura and still think of it as such. Not every aura is strong and used for fighting. Common people have auras as well or mood as you called it. In the future, I will call it Mood Copy instead of Aura Copy skills. This will prevent further confusion". She nodded and said "Do you want to know anything else about that skill?".

I looked at her and said "Is there anything else you could tell me? I mean, it's thanks to the body you have so I can't really see a way to change my shape into another one". She responded "Yep, I can't really tell you much more about it. I told you, I will not be able to teach you anything else besides the stealth skill, as you like to call it".

I said "No, there is one more thing". She seemed surprised and asked "What is it?" to which I said "Bow". She was confused and responded "Why should I bow?". I said "Archery. Teach me archery. You must be much better than I'm at it". She seemed to realise now and said "Oooh! Right, you did mention that you learned how to use a bow. I think I can teach you something about that. I've been using it for a long time now".

She then stretched a bit and said "But I will do that tomorrow. It's late, go to sleep". I was already laying in my bed and I was tired as well. I said "You are just going to look at me like this? Until I fall asleep?" to which she responded "Yep. Why do you ask? Is this wrong?". 'Well... Ahhh whatever' I thought and said "Suit yourself". I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep.