She appears at the top of a hill, as the sun starts dipping below the horizon and painting the sky red.

Around her, more rolling hills and plains in the distance. The slopes are covered in vineyards, with the occasional copse of olive trees. The plains are filled with ripe wheat fields, waving in the breeze like a vast ocean of grass.

She can see the first stars timidly appear in the East, and the grass below her feet. Approximately five meters below her feet.

Yipe!

She falls and lands hard with a whuf and a thump. Her ears droop and she yips in surprise. That was sure something.

...She is now very lost. Mission accomplished? This should be interesting, right? New places to explore! Currently it looks a little familiar- Farmland and vineyards.

Hmm... An enormous, big-wolf-sized fox is probably pretty alarming. A wolf sized wolf would be, too. That's the downside to such a physically powerful form, she's a lot less sneaky- And active illusions are draining, you can't keep them up forever, even if full invisibility is much more draining. She always seems to miss something in her disguises, though, and today it's a distinct reddish sheen to her mane. Still, she will muddle her outline until she looks more like a small pony, taking care to muddle her scent as well, and wander.

She walks steadily down the path, listening and watching the fields and the village. What do the people here do? What are they like? They're not speaking anything she's familiar with. They're humans... Just, humans. They're farming, and doing laundry, and gossiping, and the little boys are playing with sticks.

There's not a single drop of magic around... Except... A faint whiff over that way? Yes, a subtle glimmer of it, coming from somewhere inside a farmhouse. That must be the local witch! Very good.

She trots right up to the little house, trying her best to act very horse-like, and sees if any of the windows are open.

There is a flickering light coming out of one of the windows, barely visible in the last light of the setting sun.

"Dear Luna, protect our village as your light shine upon it, grants us rest so our harvest tomorrow is plentiful, and bless the children who are conceived under your embrace."
"So mote it be."

There is a glimmer of magic, and light goes off as the candles are extinguished by a brief flick of wind.

Nice. Harvest magic. Protection magic. It's one of those shamanistic things, not so much a single powerful spell as a vague blessing... But this one's a good egg. She feels good intentions here.

It bothers Weiss, sometimes, not always being able to help people except by destroying their enemies. She doesn't have any really directly useful magic, you know? It's illusions and fighting and her Spirit World trick. Maybe she could hunt something there and deliver it if she feels really guilty or grateful... Ehhh... If anything happens to threaten this place while she's still sticking around, she'll protect it, but she probably would have done that anyway...

She doesn't know human magic, but she can mess with this witch a bit, perhaps...? Let her know it's actually working? In a good way!

She creates an illusion of a pale white moon among the candles, softly glowing and translucent and shimmering in the air, and lets it fade after about ten seconds.

This... had never happened before. Selena knows that her prayers are doing something, it would be quite hard to explain how she was became a girl otherwise, but the effect are usually... subtle, gradual.

It took her months to realize that her chest was growing, and even then she stayed away from the village for years before she was confident her face and body were different enough that people would not associate her with that poor boy who just disappeared into the forest one day.

But this sign... what is her Goddess telling her? Is she doing good? Is she making a mistake? Why now?

She sets the remnants of her fake moonlight shooting off towards the village in a sparkly wave and nods firmly to herself for a job well done.

Going towards the village? Now? But everyone is sleeping?

Well, she won't doubt Her sign.

She makes sure all the candles are safely out, then grabs her coat and gets outside.

She notices a pony just outside her window, without any leash or saddle.

"Hi there sweetie! Are you lost, you poor thing? Let me grab an apple for you, we can become friends and I can help you get home."

Well, this explains what she's supposed to do. It's just weird that it was so... overt.

She goes to grab a red apple from the pantry and then goes looking for the small lost friend, is it still there next to her window?

...Hehehe. Oops? She meant to illustrate that her magic was working, but she took it as instructions. That's the trouble with visual metaphor.

Ooh, apple! She will totally eat an apple. She loves apples. Delicious and juicy~! So she's still there, wondering what would be most amusing...

Keeping up the horse disguise... Changing in little ways over time... Dropping it suddenly to reveal her fox form... Maybe saying something very solemn and praiseful while otherwise still appearing to be a mostly-normal horse...

(Her tail, illusory and non, is wagging and making a quiet swooshy noise.)

She starts petting the horse, slowly drifting from the ears to the neck, letting it get confident with her touch and proximity.
(Is the horse a boy or a girl? She bends over to check. A girl!)

"Your tail is very beautiful, did you know that? I know everyone thinks it's silly to talk to animals, but sometimes I feel like you could understand me..."

...Oi. She wants to whap this stranger with her tail for that. But it'd ruin the trick. But she's annoyed.

...Yeah, she will go ahead and lightly whap! The horse tail is now a big fluffy fox tail, white tip and all. For a moment or two. While it bats at her side firmly. Then it looks like a horse tail again.

"Some animals aren't really animals, you know?"

"What, no, who are you? Did Luna sent you?"

She takes a step back, puts her hand on her chest and bows slightly, without really breaking eye contact.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, great spirit."

She didn't notice the tail changing.

She lets the illusion of a pony fall away, laughing quietly. She shakes her suddenly-fanged head.

There's a giant, toothy fox, right next to her.

"That's what I get for pretending to be an ordinary animal. I cannot blame you for my own trick falling back on me! Well, I can, but it wouldn't be very fair. So it's fine."

That is a big fox. She didn't know they could get that big! But it's speaking, and talking about tricks, so it's probably someone that can be talked to?

Well, and it hasn't attacked yet, so there's that.

"Would you like another apple?"

"I would definitely like more apples! -You know, that moon was me. I thought maybe you weren't really sure what you were doing was working. But I can see magic, and it definitely is."

"Oh. I thought it was... but of course not, why would She spend efforts on me."

She cautiously rolls the apple towards the scary fox.

"I... already knew my magic works. At least on myself." She hugs herself and looks at the ground.

"Just... I can never be sure if any one spell works. I always ask myself if the results are something that would have happened anyway, or only because of my magic. I guess it must be nice to see magic!"

Apple! Nom! (It seems she doesn't need her mouth free to speak.)

"A goddess? They're usually pretty quiet. I don't think they think the same way people down here do. I don't think I've ever seen a god send a clear message. Or well, not in words. It's all, who can channel their miracles. That's how they talk. That's how they act. You must be doing something right. And it's pretty nice to see magic, yes. I'm quite lucky. Hmm... Are you the only witch here?"

"Yeah, and barely tolerated at that. The Church really doesn't look favorably upon people that move beyond their view of the world." And if they knew that she has... well, good thing they don't.

"They pretend that their god is the only one that exist. I survive by being small and quiet, and because Father Franz is a good bean."

"I've met the type. They're probably 'civilizing' everything as they go, right? Drag the kids into their schools, make you sell to their merchants at their prices, barge into people's homes to 'investigate criminals'... The thing is, the people who are most interested in being the boss are usually the least worthy of it. And individual people are rarely the ones driving it, but the whole mess has weight like a runaway cart. It's how things work almost everywhere. But there's good beans too."

"I mean, they don't do any 'investigation' or price fixing in Tereo, but that's mostly because Father Franz would not stand for it. They definitely encourage parents to send children to their classes and helpfully advise the local leaders on how to be pious men though. Would not want kids to get strange ideas, you know? The boys need to grow strong to help their families in the fields, the girls should prepare for a life as housewives - and obey their husbands. It's the good thing to do."

"Eugh."

"Eugh, indeed. They probably even mean it, bumbling around sure they have the answers and no care to what they're breaking. The problems, I think, are made that much worse by harsh lives. There's little enough room to strike forth and try something else."

"Shall we go inside? I'm starting to get cold.... I'm sure with your magnificent fur you're perfectly comfortable but I'm just human..."