Stabs to the heart are so effective. Her sword is getting kind of giddy.

She kind of hopes this stabbing hearts thing isn't a metaphor for something. Weapon magic seems to involve metaphors an uncomfortable amount.

Also the sword is weird, and she's steadily updating away from 'oh he's cute' to 'yeah I'm gonna be polite and suggest he find someone more compatible.'

As soon as there are no more bird women on the way, he sends a wordless burst of excitement and the desire to shift human again. The impression of what exactly he wants to do is a little vague, probably because he is two hours old and has very little idea what he's doing, but it definitely involves him having a body, and her also having a body, and the two of them interacting, with their bodies. It does not seem to have occurred to him that she might object to this suggestion.

...How does she explain the concepts of 'not the time,' 'people don't always do that spontaneously,' and 'you're cute but also creepy so uhhhhhh how about no' to a two hour old sword. Why did nobody ever teach her how to do this.

"Um. I mean I don't mind taking a break and you being human-shaped for a bit, but this is super not the time for body interaction stuff. Nowhere really appropriate - friction burns aren't fun - and also a bird-woman could wander by at any moment. Also I don't super know you well, a lot of girls in general prefer knowing someone better before doing body interaction stuff."

—and while she is saying all that, he's trying to shift, and it's not working. He can't do it without her - cooperation, permission, something - she's stopping him from being the shape he wants.

Light spills down his blade in a furious flash.

He's still too emotional to use words, but now that emotion is mostly rage. He wants to shift and she's not letting him—the confused impression of his desires has taken on a decidedly more violent tone—there's no sense that he might realize how self-sabotaging it is to accompany his demand to shift human with vivid imagery of several reasons why it is extremely advantageous for her that he doesn't currently have limbs. He's just VERY MAD and YELLING ABOUT IT.

She drops him.

Well now he's EVEN MADDER. Not much he can do about it like this, though.

She'll stare at him for a bit, contemplating 'asshole sword' versus 'non-magical dagger' in getting out of here.

She pokes him with her toe. "So. That's not happening. Either you can cooperate with me getting this dunj shut down, and I'll pass you on to someone else - with hella warnings - or I leave you here. In the dark. In a dunj nobody's entered in years."

He does not have even a tenth of the emotional maturity it would take to seriously consider this offer and respond in some sort of sensible way. Instead she gets MORE YELLING.

"Have fun rusting, asshole," she says, before stepping back, drawing her dagger, and walking into the next room.

He yells for a long time, although he's not sure if she can still hear him.

Nope. They don't know each other well enough for telepathic contact outside of touch, fortunately for her.

It's hard, and she gets a small collection of injuries doing it, but she gets the damn dunj shut down.

The place sort of pixelates, and then each little color block is replaced by the real world, slowly and then rapidly - and she's under a familiar sun in familiar hot weather she's never going to complain about again.

The sword, in fact, didn't follow her.

There's a loud sound-sensation within the dunj itself, a deep thrumming ringing of the world as it jerks and shudders. The reforming bird-women stop, melting into tiny color blocks. The ones off Kate's path all shriek, then cower and go silent.

This bizarre happenstance provides a welcome distraction from lying on the floor fuming.

He's really not clear on what just happened. Is the place about to explode? He hopes it is not about to explode.

It doesn't explode, but does eventually settle. The few remaining bird women slowly start to wander. Some of them are interested in him - he's strange and doesn't belong in the dunj - but their attention spans are short and they're not very intelligent.

One moderately clever and curious bird woman pokes him after a bit of eyeing him, approaching, backing away, and circling. She makes a trilling chirp.

... does being poked by a random monster count as getting wielded enough for him to shift if she lets him? He tries to do the thing.

She doesn't seem to really get what he's doing, but there's wielding-like interaction. She doesn't know how to do the other end of the shape-changing.

Oh come on - can he get her to try things??? He would really like to have limbs. Having limbs is very important.

He can with some prodding get her to repeat mental actions he takes.

He tries anything he can think of that seems like it might be the right thing.

This will work after a few iterations - the mental action's fairly obvious, at least. She chirps when she succeeds, tilting her head at the odd sensation.

He has a body again!!! It feels sensations!!! This is still the best thing!!! He bounces delightedly and then hugs the bird-woman.

She squawks, alarmed.

He lets go, giggling.

She hops away a bit, feathers ruffles and arm wings flapping some, then once she's a satisfactory distance she starts preening, trilling a bit as she does.