A Transformative Journey (Ori/Ghost/Slugcat TF story)

Chapter 1: Wanderers in the Pipes

Aiden's POV

I was still in shock at the situation. I mean, we were quite literally in a video game world! And we were video game characters now! But we had to press onward. This world was extremely dangerous, and we had to be careful proceeding through it. With things like Lizards, Vultures, Scavengers and the like, we had to move forward with caution.

But the others were still recovering from their shock. "Guys, we have to get moving!" I said. "What's the rush? We seem to be safe here, nothing's in the area," Ava said. "I know, but we're kinda on a timer," I said. "Or at least, I am." Archer tilted his head at me, and even without words, I could tell what he was asking: why was I on a timer? "You see, we have a certain amount of time before it starts raining. That may not sound bad, but it rains so heavily that it'll kill me," I said. This convinced them enough, and we started moving through the Outskirts with the hope of finding a shelter.

I did know a route, one that would get us to the second shelter instead of the first. We still had enough time. The one time we struggled was when we came across two odd platform-looking things that were in the way. I knew I could go under them and that Ava could probably wall-jump on top of them with Archer in her arms. That plan worked, and we proceeded onward.

As we kept going, we saw some blue fruits hanging from the ceiling. I tried jumping for them, but these new small paws of mine couldn't reach them. It was going to take some time adapting to my new short height.

"So, how does it feel?" Ava smulgy asked, watching my struggle from ahead. "Being short sucks, but I'm not gonna stop making fun of you for it once we get back home," I said jokingly, still trying to reach for the fruits. "Could you lend me a hand? Or paw, I guess? There's one for each of us." Archer crossed his arms, and I remembered his predicament. "Oh... Sorry, Archer," I said guiltily as they approached me. Archer shook his head and patted my shoulder, trying to signal to me that it wasn't a big deal.

I was suddenly hoisted up from the ground and into the air. "Hey!" I squeaked in protest, and Ava laughed. "Aww, you sound so adorable with that cute little voice of yours~" she said. I crossed my arms. "Stop making fun of me," I mumbled. "Nope!" she said cheerfully. "Karma is my favorite god, and he's always got my back~."

I sighed. "Just let me know next time, please. I thought you were a lizard or something," I said. She tilted her head in confusion as she lifted me up to the fruits. "What's so bad about lizards?" she asked. "They're predatory creatures, and will kill us if given the chance," I said, picking the fruits. I put one in my mouth in order to grab the other two and then Ava let me back down. I handed her one of the fruits I had in my paw and began eating the other two.

"Hey! How come you get two?" Ava complained. "I can split it in half, and either way, we share the hunger bar," I said. Ava and Archer looked at me confused again. "Oh, sorry, let me explain," I said. "We need to have eaten a certain amount of food in order to sleep and hibernate in a shelter. We could force hibernation, but that's more of a last resort. In order to hibernate, we need to have 4 pips, or basically, we need to eat 4 times. Those fruits work to fill that up, but I can also eat some of the little bats flying around certain places. We can also store up a max of 7 pips, with the remaining pips staying with us to the next cycle."

This seemed to leave them both even more confused than before. I sighed. "Basically, we need 4 things to eat, but we can store a max of 7 for the next day, but we can force ourselves to sleep if it's an emergency," I said simply. "You could've led with that," Ava said.

We continued on until I saw something and stopped the others. "This is the only way forward, through this pipe," I said. "That thing? That may be big enough for you to fit through, but not us!" Ava said, panic setting into her voice. I sat there, thinking for a second. She was right, they were both too big to fit in there, and I knew there wasn't another way around. But then I got an idea.