"Aha!" I exclaimed triumphantly. "What was it you called me when we were packing? Over-cautious? Paranoid? Thanks to my preparedness we have clean dry clothes to wear!"
There was some mud and moisture inside our water-resistant backpack, but almost all our things were carefully folded up and sealed inside plastic bags. It was an extra precaution I'd picked up years ago when we first started camping. The bags would keep things dry no matter what happened to the pack, and also served as a way to keep clean clothes separate from dirty ones. And you could reuse the bags to store trash that you were carrying out with you.
Our food was safe too, some of it was sealed in plastic containers and the rest was stored in bags like our clothes. Same for our phone, wallet and keys, all that stuff was protected in a zip-lock bag in a side-pocket of the backpack. Even our map was in a zip-lock to keep it dry, incase we had to consult it in the rain.
"All right, I admit that actually worked," Yuki finally responded. She sounded a bit snarky as she continued, "I thought it was excessive when you were packing, but then I didn't account for the possibility of being half-drowned by a mystery flood caused by a new mountain sprouting up in the landscape."
A moment later she added, "Now will you please stop gloating and get us dressed?"
I nodded as I extracted our towel first and did my best to get myself dried off. There was a big smile on my face as I carefully dried my fuzzy fox ears then twisted around and did what I could with my big floofy tail. Then I pulled out some clothes, and ran into a new problem.
"This stuff's all too big for us now," I frowned. "And how am I supposed to get jeans on over my tail?"
After a brief discussion we ended up pulling out our pocket knife and making some rough adjustments to the jeans. It was a little painful cutting them up, knowing how much we paid for them. Then again, if I had to pick between my perfect new body and pair of pants it really wasn't much of a contest.
I carefully cut some length off the pant legs, then made a vertical slit at the back for my tail. Then I was able to pull the jeans up over a pair of loose boxer shorts, and our belt held the pants in place. A loose t-shirt went ontop, and our jacket went on over that. Like the pants, our jacket was way too big now and the sleeves kept slipping down over my hands. It made me feel small and cute though, so I wasn't in a hurry to fix that.
The only thing left to worry about was footwear, but after comparing my new smaller feet to our hiking boots I shook my head. "Wearing these is probably going to be worse than going barefoot."
That raven was still hanging around, perched on another fallen tree a couple meters away. She cawed and ruffled her feathers as she paced back and forth on the tree, and I could swear it was almost like she was making some comment about how she never had to worry about wearing shoes.
Meanwhile Yuki asked, "Can we hike barefoot? I guess you made it from the lake to here ok. Just be careful."
I nodded, "Don't worry, I will."
Now that we were in some clean dry clothes and the risk of hypothermia was averted I sat back down on one of the fallen tree trunks to try and take stock of our situation.
We still had our backpack and most of our gear, and enough food to last us two more full days. I was pretty sure we could salvage our hammock, but without our sleeping bag we'd have to sleep fully dressed and probably in layers. Even that would be risky, but fortunately we were near the end of our hike anyways. So we shouldn't need to spend another night camping regardless.
While I was checking through our pack I pulled out one of the water bottles, then had a couple gulps of it as I shifted my focus from our gear to the surroundings.
That strange impossibly tall narrow glowing mountain rose up into the air almost due south of us. It looked to have come up out of Cairn Lochan, which was one of the peaks in that range a little ways south-west of where Cairn Gorm once stood. As for the national park's namesake, that mountain appeared to have collapsed. As though it had been ground beneath the heel of some titanic boot.
The woods we'd camped in were almost completely destroyed by the flood that washed us into the lake. It looked like the water came down from the direction of Cairn Gorm, carving a path of destruction about a hundred and fifty meters wide. I wasn't sure where all the water came from, but honestly that was probably the least of our worries.
Loch Morlich was still recognizable, although the shoreline had definitely changed. I had a feeling the water level had come up a bit too, the lake looked closer to where we found our gear than it was in the evening when we made camp.
The clouds overhead were still glowing, and that glow seemed to be fed by the periodic arcs of lightning that would crawl up the impossible new mountain before dissipating into the air. To the north-west I could still make out a faint glow in the sky over the town of Aviemore, but that paled in comparison to the light show going on directly above us.
After a couple more gulps from my water bottle I asked, "So what should we do now? It feels like it's about midnight but we obviously aren't going to get any more sleep."
"I think the fastest way out from here is towards Aviemore," I added. "I'm pretty sure there's a road on the north side of Loch Morlich that'll take us out towards the A9. And once we're in town we can catch a bus back to Grantown-on-Spey. Then we can get our bike and head for home."
Yuki didn't answer right away, and while I waited for her I drained the last of the water then tucked the empty bottle back into our pack. Then I asked, "Or do you want to try and finish the hike?"
I looked to the north-east and frowned, "I don't know about hiking from here to the Nethy in bare feet? We'd have to do some climbing to get through that pass on the far side of Glenmore Lodge. And we're talking about another twenty kilometres, versus only ten or twelve to Aviemore."
My headmate was quiet for another half minute or so before she finally responded, "I want to go get a closer look at that magic mountain. I also want to get a better look at what's left of Cairn Gorm. I want to know where all that water came from, that nearly drowned us. I want to understand what's going on here."
"Are you serious?" I asked as my ears folded down and my tail twitched slightly. I turned to look south again as I questioned her, "You want me to go climbing up that? In bare feet?"
Yuki sounded very sure of herself as she replied, "Yes I'm serious. When are we ever going to get another chance like this? It's a once in a lifetime event Aster. And you know by morning the place is going to be crawling with news crews and scientists and police. There'll probably be search and rescue crews too, we can't be the only backpackers caught up in all this."
This time I stayed quiet rather than respond right away. I found myself staring at the impossible new mountain to our south, and the shattered remains of Cairn Gorm just to the left of that. My tail slowly swished back and forth as I tried to figure out if there was any reasonable way for us to get there.
"Come on Aster," Yuki prompted me a half minute later. "Aren't you curious? Don't you want to know what's going on? Wouldn't you rather see something impossible and possibly miraculous with our own eyes, instead of watching other people explore it on TV later?"
"Of course I'm curious," I finally replied. "But we have to be realistic Yuki. Aside from being barefoot, we don't have our sleeping bag anymore. It's probably at the bottom of the lake, or at best it's soaked and full of mud and buried somewhere under this fallen forest. And we've only got two day's worth of food."
I shook my head and sighed, "Now you're talking about climbing up towards a brand-new mountain and alongside what's left of Cairn Gorm, just hours after a huge earthquake shook that mountain to bits. And doing it without proper gear, when we've only had a few hours of sleep? We barely escaped death once already tonight Yuki. I'm not sure it's a good idea to tempt fate again so soon, you know?"
By that point Yuki was pouting, I was sure of it. Except there was no trace of a pout in her voice when she spoke up a couple seconds later.
She actually sounded eager and hopeful as she pointed out, "You know I'm right that this whole area's going to be crawling with authorities and news people by morning. They'll probably escort us and any other backpackers clear the moment they get here. So we hike up there now, and get a free ride out of the park later."
"And in the meantime we get to be the first ones to find out what's really going on here," she added with a mischievous tone in her voice. I could tell she was grinning, and all nine of her tails were swishing around in anticipation.
I knew it was a bad idea, I knew the smart safe choice was to take the quickest path back to civilization. But my headmate was making some very convincing arguments, and in truth I was probably just as curious about the whole situation as she was.
"If we get to higher ground that'll give us a better view of the landscape," I commented quietly while my tail started swishing around a little quicker. "So we'll know if it's safe to head north-east towards Nethy, or if our best bet is north-west to Aviemore."
"Those are excellent points Aster," Yuki said with a wide grin. "Thanks to those glowing clouds there's enough light to travel right now I think, so why don't we get started?"
I slowly turned around on the spot to take one more look around. I wanted to be sure I hadn't missed or overlooked anything, but other than all the flattened trees there was nothing much to be seen in the immediate area.
"Ok," I finally nodded. Then I reached out to grab our pack as I muttered to myself, "Let's see if I can still carry all our gear on my back."
To my surprise I didn't actually have any trouble picking up the backpack. I'd been prepared to struggle with it, I assumed now that our body was small and femme that we'd be weaker. On the other hand the pack was probably a bit lighter since the loss of our sleeping bag.
The biggest issue I had was getting the straps all adjusted to fit our smaller frame, and to get it comfy without accidentally squashing my bigger boobs or letting the backpack slump too low so it interfered with my tail.
Once I got it all adjusted so everything fit and it was moderately comfortable, the next challenge was navigating our way out of the flattened forest. And doing so barefoot, with only the light of the strangely-glowing clouds above us to see by.
Needless to say it was slow going at first, as I carefully moved around and through the mess of downed trees. I couldn't help worrying that every step might reveal a hidden splinter or some other sharp unforgiving object. Except that didn't happen, and the more I kept walking the more confident I felt.
Less than ten minutes after setting out I started to realize there was more going on than just me being lighter on my feet than I was used to. Beyond the sheer comfort and joy of being in my own body, beyond being more flexible and more nimble thanks to my tail, it almost felt as if I had another sense that was guiding my feet to step in the safest places.
Another five or six minutes later and I was positive I was making better time barefoot than I'd have done in hiking boots on our original AMAB body's feet.
"I'm not going to complain but this is kind of incredible," I commented as I casually hopped from one fallen tree to the next, then made a couple light footfalls over some mud before jumping up onto another tree trunk. My tail swished this way and that as it helped me with my balance, while I trusted my feet and whatever new sense kept finding the best places to step.
Before long we reached the end of the downed forest, where the ground sloped noticeably upwards towards the mountains. Originally that's where the trees gave way to grass and brush, but right now it was mostly just more mud and patches of bare rock.
I turned and looked back the way we'd come, and I couldn't help but comment once again. "We've covered about a kilometre already! I was sure it'd take us at least an hour to get through all those trees, but I swear it took less than half that time."
I expected Yuki to say something, but before she could speak up we were both distracted by a loud and rather smug sounding caw.
Turning, I realized our raven friend was already waiting for us. She watched us as she ruffled her feathers slightly, and I'd almost swear she was making a point about getting there even faster than I did.
"Well we can't all fly, you know?" I grumbled.
The raven just huffed then began to pace, as if she was impatient for us to start moving again.
I rolled my eyes but decided not to let the bird's antics get to me. Instead I looked around at the terrain ahead of us as I asked, "Yuki? Do you think we should try and head straight for that new mountain? Or do you want to get a closer look at what's left of Cairn Gorm first?"
Either way we had another couple kilometres of hiking ahead of us. And there was probably a good three to four hundred meters of elevation to climb if we wanted to reach the base of that glowing spire. The shattered mountain wasn't so high anymore, but even that would require some climbing to get close.
"Why don't we follow that stream?" she suggested. "It might help us figure out where all that water came from, that nearly drowned us?"
The stream Yuki pointed out was a dozen or so meters to our left. It looked like it was coming down from somewhere in between the impossible new mountain and where Cairn Gorm once stood, but we were too far away to say for sure.
"All right," I agreed as I started moving again. "I just hope there isn't another deluge, or we're going to have a very wet bumpy ride straight back down into the lake."
Yuki responded confidently, "Our new friend will warn us if she sees any danger coming our way. Right Cara?"
Considering the little arctic kitsune was talking from inside our headspace there was no way for the bird to actually hear her. And I was just about to point that out too, when I was interrupted again.
"Caw!" the raven agreed.
Then she took off into the air. And to my amazement and disbelief, she flew up ahead of us as if she was checking the stream for any hazards.
"That's not possible," I mumbled to myself. "She can't hear what we say in headspace. Even if she could, there's no way she could understand us. Is there?"