Ash had been experimenting with her her spell list as of late, finding a whole bunch of new spells available to her now that she had started using magical tools to channel them. And she also felt that she had been getting stronger and more in control of her abilities over the past few weeks. So spells that she had tried out way back when she first started would also probably have a few additional tricks! One in particular that she had been looking at was her Animal Possession spell. She'd mostly been focused on trying out her plant-related tricks, but it was about time that she had gotten around to this. She'd first tried it out in Norforva, but she'd only barely been able to keep control of the wolf for a few seconds before getting ejected back to her own body. So, it was time to test it out again! And this time, she'd try it out on a target that wasn't quite as hellbent on tearing her limb from limb. Maybe that was her problem. Now sitting beneath a tree in Pormont, Ash clapped her hands and stared at Naixi. "Great! Let's try it out, then!" Naixi huffed and rested her head on her paws as she stretched out in the sun. Ash checked once more, just to make sure that there weren't any last minute protests, and brought up her spell menu. Scrolling through it, Ash picked out the spell and relaxed as the game took over, watching her hand trace the runes of the spell in the air- -and with a feeling that she thought wouldn't be dissimilar to going through a Portkey, Ash was no longer in her body. She struggled to her--Naixi's?--feet, looking in surprise at her limp body leaning against a tree trunk. Oohhh, it worked! Happily, she plodded over to her own body and nudged it. No response. And Naixi's instincts didn't seem to be overwhelming her, and she wasn't struggling to stay in control. Haha! It worked! It worked! A few more minutes proved that she had a pretty good grasp of this. Naixi's presence remained at the back of her (or their?) mind, still somewhat reacting to what was happening but not surging to take back control. All right, so that was that experiment over and done with. So- -Oh. Wait. How was she going to switch back? Good mood evaporating, Ash stared back at her human body, now tipped over and sprawled on the ground. She couldn't speak incantations, and she couldn't draw the runes of the spell with these paws. Ohhh no. Oh nooooo. Anyone familiar with Ashiore and Naixi would probably recognize the pair, if they happened to stumble upon this scene. But for everyone else, all they would see was a lion anxiously wandering in circles around an unconscious girl.
So, not good. After a bit of anxious pacing, Ash realized that there wasn't really anything she could do. She gave her human body some nudges, and eventually resorted to grabbing onto her own collar with Naixi's teeth to drag her body over to back below the tree. There. Now she at least didn't look like she had just fallen over and died or something. Although it did look like her body had her face on a rock. So ow, that looked like it would bruise. She wasn't looking forward to switching back and dealing with a large round bruise on the side of her face. But, she also wasn't looking forward to being stuck as a lion forever. No offense, she thought at vaguely leonine bundle of sentience that she thought was Naixi. In response, there was the suggestion of a grouchy grumble, which meant that it probably was Naixi. What now? Maybe she could just wait? She bundled herself into a sitting position beside her human body--and wasn't that going to get confusing?--and thought. Spells couldn't last very long, right? She would have to run out of energy eventually. She couldn't see her UI right now--in fact, she could see Naixi's health and energy bars, and those all looked unchanged--so she had no way of knowing exactly how much energy she had left. But she could probably hazard a guess or two. The first time she tried using her ring to channel a spell, she basically ran out of energy after... one and a half casts, or so? She'd been practicing, sure, but it was still... was still... There was something wiggling in the grass. Ooohhhh. Part of her mind--or actually, part of Naixi's mind, would probably be more accurate--latched onto this fact with frightening intensity. Forget focusing on trying to calculate energy drain, this was more important. Ooh, there was something rustling in the grass, what was it, what was it? She could see the parting of the tall grass, could hear some sort of animal emerging... It was a rabbit. A little tiny rabbit with long white fur that hopped out of the grass and twitched its ears, looking up at the lion looming over it. And then it bolted. Oh. Disappointed, Ash settled down and slumped forward onto her paws. It was just a rabbit. It wasn't like it was a big important animal like maybe a boar or a gazelle. Unfortunate. It wasn't until a few minutes of sun-basking passed that Ash realized that what had just happened was weird. Was she actually sort of absorbing Naixi's instincts, for lack of a better word? Oh, that was weird. And pretty uncomfortable, to be honest. No offense, she thought again. Just an exasperated sigh this time, or the mental suggestion of one. So, staying too long in animal form was not good. Ash would have to keep that in- If she were in her own body, she would've noted her energy meter depleting, totally drained after about a quarter of an hour spent in a lion body. She would think that this was very valuable information to know, make a mental note of it, and resolved to learn more about the spell the next time she tried it so she could avoid this. But, seeing as she was actually unconscious, she didn't know any of this. Oops. At least she would be back in her own body when she next woke up, whenever that would be.
