~ I ~ Tassa was in the yard by herself when it happened. She was 4 years old, in furfolk form, poking at an interesting beetle near the south fence. Lev was inside doing schoolwork. Jukrit was in the herb garden on the other side of the house. Noraxia was flying somewhere over the Pica. There was a sound. Not loud. More like the air deciding to do something different for a moment. Then another small squirrel furfolk was standing three feet away. She looked exactly like Tassa. Same grey-brown fur. Same round face. Same age. She was wearing different clothes — a small green tunic that Tassa didn't own. She was staring at Tassa with her mouth open. Tassa stared back. "Hi," Tassa said. "Hi," the other one said. They looked at each other for a few more seconds. "Are you me?" Tassa asked. "I think so," the other one said. "Sort of." She looked around at the yard, the house, the whisperwood. "This isn't my house." "No," Tassa said. "It's mine." The other Tassa looked down at her own hands. "It worked," she said, mostly to herself. "I actually did it." "Did what?" Tassa asked. "Visited another world," the other Tassa said. She looked up. "I'm a shaman. My power is visiting other universes. This is the first time I've tried it." Tassa thought about this. "I can shift between forms," she said. "What's your power besides that?" "Just the universe thing," the other Tassa said. "I can't shift as well as you, I think. I'm mostly stuck as furfolk." Tassa nodded. "You should meet my dad," she said. "He'll want to know about this." She turned and walked toward the house. The other Tassa followed.
~ II ~ Jukrit was washing his hands at the kitchen basin when Tassa came through the door. "Dad," she said, "I found someone in the yard." "Who?" he said, not looking up. "Me," Tassa said. He looked up. The other Tassa was standing in the doorway. She waved. Jukrit was quiet for a moment. He had spent a day at the Still Pool two years ago looking at an alternate version of himself. He had thought that would be the strangest thing he experienced for a while. He had been wrong. "Come in," he said to the other Tassa. "What's your name?" "Tassa," she said. "Right," he said. He looked at his Tassa. "We're going to need a system." "She's Other Tassa," Tassa said. "I'm me." "That works," Jukrit said. He turned to Other Tassa. "How did you get here?" "Shaman power," Other Tassa said. "I can visit other universes. I've been practicing for a few months and today I finally got through." She looked around the kitchen. "Your house smells different than ours." "Different how?" Jukrit said. "More animals," she said. "That's fair," he said. "How long can you stay?" "I don't know," she said. "I've never done this before. I'm not sure how to go back yet." Jukrit looked at her. She was 4 years old and she had traveled between universes and didn't know how to get home. He took a breath. "Okay," he said. "Let's sit down."
~ III ~ Noraxia landed in the yard twenty minutes later. She shifted to anthro before she reached the door, which meant she had registered two Tassas from the air and wanted hands available. She came inside and looked at the kitchen table. Both Tassas were seated, eating fruit. They had established a rapport in the time Jukrit had spent sending a message to Veverka. "Hello," Noraxia said to Other Tassa. Other Tassa looked up at her. Something moved in her expression. She was working through something. "You look different," Other Tassa said. "From what?" Noraxia said. "Our Noraxia doesn't shift," Other Tassa said. "She's always feral. She talks to my dad with her mind but not to anyone else." She studied Noraxia in anthro form. "You seem more... here." "I'm fully here," Noraxia said. "Our Noraxia is fully there too," Other Tassa said quickly. "Just differently." "I know," Noraxia said. She sat down at the table. "We saw your universe through the Still Pool two years ago. I met your version of me." Other Tassa's eyes went wide. "You did?" "She pressed her head to the ground," Noraxia said. "The old Cygnagon greeting." Other Tassa was quiet for a moment. "She told me about that," she said. "She said she felt something. She didn't know it was you seeing her back." Noraxia looked at Other Tassa for a long moment. "How is she?" "Good," Other Tassa said. "She and dad run together every morning. He uses his speed and she flies alongside. They have a route through the forest." Noraxia smiled. It was not a complicated smile.
~ IV ~ Lev came downstairs for lunch and found two Tassas at the kitchen table. He stopped on the bottom step. "Which one is mine?" he said. "I'm yours," Tassa said. "She's from the other universe." Lev came down the rest of the steps and sat across from Other Tassa. He looked at her carefully. "Do you have a Lev in your universe?" he said. Other Tassa shook her head. "No Lev. I asked my dad about that once." She paused. "He got quiet." "Because in that universe I was supposed to die," Lev said. He said it plainly, the way he had learned to say it in the two years since the Still Pool. "Our Tassa told me. The alternate version of me doesn't exist there." Other Tassa looked at him. "You're not dead here," she said. "No," he said. "I'm here." "Good," Other Tassa said. She went back to her fruit. Lev watched her for a moment. "Do you want to see the barn?" he said. "We have ghevals." Other Tassa looked up. "What's a gheval?" "They're big quadrupeds with clawed feet and manes," Lev said. "And one of them is very small. And one of them just had cubs." "Yes," Other Tassa said immediately. She got up from the table.
~ V ~ The barn was a significant experience for Other Tassa. She had grown up with Noraxia in feral form as the household's large animal presence. She had not grown up with ghevals, but they exist in her universe and are not as common. Kalina regarded her with serenity. Ashari was curious. Chenara assessed her and moved on. Kovi and Darek, who were seven months old and still at the stage of finding everything interesting, came to the stall opening and looked at her with focused attention. Kyren came out and sat in front of her. Other Tassa crouched down. They were the same eye level. "What are you?" she said. Kyren turned to his interface and typed. Other Tassa read it. "An awakened gheval," she said. "So you're intelligent." Kyren typed again. "He says yes, obviously," Tassa translated. "We have smart animals in our universe," Other Tassa said. "But not like this." She looked around the barn. "You have so many creatures here." "We get more and more," Tassa said. She said it like something she had heard before. Which she had. Varena appeared at the hayloft edge and looked down at the two Tassas. She spent a long moment looking between them. Then she withdrew back into the loft, apparently satisfied. "What was that?" Other Tassa said. "Varena," Tassa said. "She's a weasbear hybrid. She lives in the hayloft. She produces milk." "For who?" "The gheval cubs, originally. But we like it too. Our neighbors make cheese with it.” Other Tassa looked at the hayloft. "Our household is quieter," she said. "Is that good?" Tassa asked. Other Tassa thought about it. "It's just different," she said.
~ VI ~ Veverka crossed the Pica in the afternoon. She came through the gate, looked at both Tassas in the yard, and said: "Which world?" "The other one," Jukrit said. "She traveled here herself. Shaman power." Veverka looked at Other Tassa for a long moment. Other Tassa looked back. She was a cub who recognized an important adult and was paying attention. "How did you do it?" Veverka said. "I concentrated on the feeling of another place," Other Tassa said. "My dad described this universe to me after the Still Pool. I held that description in my mind and pushed." "And it worked." "Eventually," Other Tassa said. "I've been trying for three months." Veverka was quiet for a moment. "Your version of me," she said. "Is she well?" "She raised my dad," Other Tassa said. "She taught him his shamanism. He got his speed from her line." She paused. "She's well. She lives near us." Something shifted in Veverka's expression. She did not comment on it. "Can you get back?" she said. "I think so," Other Tassa said. "I have to concentrate on home. On how it feels and smells and sounds. And push the other way." "Practice the going-back while you still remember the details clearly," Veverka said. "Don't let this world fill up all the space in your head before you've secured the route home." Other Tassa looked at her. "That's smart," she said. "I've been a shaman for fifty years," Veverka said. "I know something about holding two things at once."
~ VII ~ Other Tassa spent the rest of the afternoon closing her eyes occasionally and practicing. She would go still, concentrate, and then open her eyes. Each time she said: "Still here." "Is that bad?" Tassa asked, the third time. "No," Other Tassa said. "I'm choosing to stay. I want to be sure I can choose to go." On the fifth attempt she said: "I can feel it." "Home?" Tassa said. "Yes. It's there. I can get back." She opened her eyes. "Are you going now?" Tassa asked. "Soon," Other Tassa said. "I want to see the river first." They walked to the Pica together. It was late afternoon. The river was loud with spring. The two Tassas stood on the bank and looked at the water. "Our river is smaller," Other Tassa said. "And it goes the other direction. And there’s a bridge." "That's strange," Tassa said. "Everything here is a little strange," Other Tassa said. "Your house. Your barn. Your Lev." She paused. "I like it." "Come back," Tassa said. Other Tassa looked at her. "Really?" "Yes," Tassa said. "We're the same person. You should visit." Other Tassa smiled. It was Tassa's smile, which was also Noraxia's smile, which apparently worked the same way across universes. "Okay," she said.
~ VIII ~ The whole household came out to watch her leave without fanfare. Other Tassa stood in the yard. She closed her eyes. "What does it look like when it happens?" Lev asked Tassa quietly. "I don't know," Tassa said. "I've never seen anyone do it before." They found out. There was no flash or dramatic effect. Other Tassa was there, and then she wasn't. The air made the small sound it had made when she arrived. Not loud. Just a brief change, the sound of two universes touching and agreeing to stay separate. Everyone was quiet for a moment. "She practiced for three months," Tassa said. She sounded impressed. "You practiced deliberate shifting for weeks," Noraxia said. "Mine is shorter distances," Tassa said. Jukrit looked at the spot where Other Tassa had been standing. Then he looked at his Tassa. "She'll come back," he said. "I told her to," Tassa said. "Good," Noraxia said. Lev went back inside. Veverka crossed to the Pica and her forest. The barn animals settled into the evening routine. Jukrit stood in the yard a moment longer, thinking about the Still Pool and the other world and what it meant that two versions of his daughter were, at this same moment, each going home. The spring evening came down over Riverside Market. The Pica ran loud. The two moons were rising. Everything was as it should be. In both worlds.
