"Beeek."
Stirred from my sleep, I felt something poking my back. I also felt dirt on my face as I was lying face down on the ground.
Pushing myself up and wiping the dirt off my face, I saw that many sheep were gathered around me and the unconscious sheep.
Looking at the unconscious sheep, I noticed it looked the same as before, with horns and wool covering it, except that it appeared a little thinner than before.
"...Wait a minute." Realizing something was different, I crawled closer to the sheep and moved the wool, only to discover that it was actually hair made of long, fluffy wool covering a woman with short white wool growing on her forearms and calves. She also had horns that were much shorter than before and a cute short fluffy white tail. Her face was absolutely stunning, and her torso was not covered in wool. The most glaring fact was that she... was naked.
[The sheep actually turned into a human? I thought even if the tame were to turn human, it would be when they've reached a certain level of power. Then what was the cost of turning her human? Was the energy I ejected enough to transform the anatomy of a sheep into a human? Or— Argh, it's hard to think with a naked woman in front of me. But now is not the time to start feeling aroused. I have to assess the current situation. I can think about other things later. I need to give her some clothes.]
With most of the blood in my body rushing towards my lower body, I gave her the only clothes I had, which were what I was currently wearing. Leaving myself in only underwear, I used the fur cloth to cover my body and tried my best not to think of anything unnecessary while putting my clearly oversized clothes on the woman.
Laying the woman properly on the ground, I looked around and saw that even though the other sheep were curious, with some even looking wary, they weren't doing anything. Seeing that I was not in a dangerous situation, I closed my eyes to look at what was happening inside me.
Looking at the heart where the core was, I saw that there was an extremely tiny dot of purplish-pink energy there. There was also a gas-like core with purplish-pink lights that felt different from the energy I have and was encased with light blue lights.
[Wasn't the energy all used up? Is it slowly replenishing itself? From what, the energy in the surroundings? And is that the sheep's soul? Or maybe just a part of her soul? Is that her wind element? Can I control it? Oh my god, I need to think slower. First, let's see if I can control the wind energy.]
Trying to will the energy to move, it felt like I was trying to move literal wind with my hand. It wouldn't flow to the place I willed it to. I felt like I could control it, but at the same time, it wouldn't listen to me.
[Ugh, this is frustrating. It feels like they're slipping through my fingers. I think I can control this energy, but I'm going at it the wrong way. I'll just ask the woman when she wakes up. Now, should I try touching the purplish-pink thing? Since it's most likely a part of her soul, I might damage it.]
"Hnn."
While I was contemplating whether to touch it, the woman lying beside me suddenly made a cute noise and opened her eyes, which instantly locked onto me.
"Hello." Giving the most genuine smile my usually stiff face could, I greeted her softly.
"Can you understand me?" Seeing as she had only turned human, I doubted she understood me as humans don't have a universal language. She might not even know how to talk.
And seeing that she was cutely tilting her head, I knew that my guess was correct.
[She's so fucking cute. Oh my god, is it because everything about her fits my type? Did the transformation take into consideration my preferences? Are my preferences engraved into my soul? And what is this? Are these her feelings? Her thoughts? It feels the same as when I touch the animals, but this one feels closer to me... so she's feeling confused right now? How do I transfer my thoughts to her?]
Looking at myself internally, I could see that the core containing a part of her soul was emitting some kind of signal to the core at my heart.
Seeing that the connection was between the core at my heart and her soul core, I tried to do the same and sent a small amount of soul energy from my core that had only a tiny amount of energy replenished.
[How to put my thoughts into the energy? Do I just send it like this, and it'll just tell her what I'm thinking?]
As soon as the energy reached her soul core, she tilted her head further and released a signal of her being even more confused.
[It didn't work? No, it looks like she got something but didn't understand it. Maybe the thought was too vague since I didn't specify anything.]
Trying again, I sent a thought asking her to nod her head if she understood me. Seeing it enter her soul core, I saw that nothing happened, and she continued staring at me, blinking confusedly.
[Did she not get it? Shouldn't it be the same concept as like how pure information flows into me when I touch an animal even if I don't understand it, the soul should have interpreted it, right? Or did I make a conclusion on how it worked too quickly... Is there a way I can let her learn a language? Maybe just understand it even if she doesn't know how to talk yet? Ugh, I don't know. Let's think about this later.]
Looking at the woman, I thought of giving her a name until we could communicate properly and she could tell me her name, if she even had a name from when she was a sheep.
"I'll name you... Kareena, pure and clean. A fitting name I think. Do you know how to move in that body?" I asked as I gently pushed her to sit up. After leaning her on a nearby tree, I tried to have her move her limbs.
Even though she did not understand me, she soon followed my movements as I constantly flailed my arms in front of her.
The first attempts were clumsy. She watched my flailing arms with wide eyes, mirroring the movement but with less coordination. Her arms moved jerkily. Gradually, her motions smoothed out, and she began to mimic me more accurately. With almost literal flame glowing in her eyes, I could see that she was trying hard to mirror me. Frustration being emitted from her soul core everytime she failed to mimick me.
"Calm down Kareena, we can do this all day." Thinking how she looked cute even while looking brows furrowed, I said smilingly while rubbing her head. She looked to have enjoyed the head pat which helped to cool her down a little.
After around two hours, she finally got the hang of moving her arms, even though her movements were a little rigid. Seeing that she could use her arms now, I helped her into a standing position and tried to help her learn to stand on both legs as her legs shook like a toddler's first time standing with both her hands grabbing onto my shoulder.
Thankfully, as she had the soul maturity of nearly two years older than me, she quickly got the hang of it enough to at least stand on her own.
Which then led to me teaching her how to take her first steps forward as a human.
We spent the next several hours this way, her leaning heavily on me for support as we moved. She was unsteady, but persistent. Her feet stumbled over the grass, but as I was there to hold her, she didn't fall and became steadier after, with each of her steps becoming more and more fluid. I could see that even though she was struggling, she was determined to adapt to her new form. Her determination radiating to me from her soul core. Seeing how hard she was trying, it looks like I have picked the right soul to bond to.