White Flower, Black Feather

Sneaking Around

‘I can’t just stay here moping all day… that would be insulting to both the lizard and the mouse…’

I lift my head from my warm spot near the… grave, I even placed a small rock on top of it… is not going to stop anything that can smell it and is hungry… but…

‘Is a small step to get peace of mind… what else I can do today…? Explore…?’

That is… probably my only choice, the sun is still low enough for me to have a sense for the directions

‘Oh… forgot to see the senses in the Shop… Status, EP Shop… just the standard five, and they have the same price… ok… maybe later, for now I am good… and I have a weakness to sounds… do the humans here… have smell based snake repellents? Ugh… mental map time, lets scout’

To the north is the city, I couldn't see the northern part, or rather, didn't care to look at it after I saw the forest, then are a few barns and a lot of cows…

‘They use them as meat shields…’ lets not go into a murder spree… I ate burgers before, we are the same… kinda…

Edge of the forest, then a brook moving east with a “road” that goes to the southwest, further east is first hole… quite a bit really, I should go north to see if the brook is still there, or it bends north, I know it doesn't go south, but I am not felling its noise… to the east of that is this grave…

‘Total of forest explored zero percent! You get nothing… north… I am not thirsty, yet, but yeah, lets go check until I hear it at least’

I look to the grave one last time before moving, counting every third tree I pass to laid down and feel the vibrations, I can still smell my venom, its tracking is good… wonder for how long it last, and if I am the only thing that can tell where is pointing, no other smell catch my interest, they feel older

‘I’m practicing that properly at least… um? What is that smell?’ I look around and then up, there is a tree with a light colored bark and what looks like small fruits hanging on it, not ripe yet ‘And… I don't think is going to be ripe for a while… the smell is very “go away” probably bitter as hell too… and that is not me being a snake talking…’

The idea of climbing a tree, drop some fruit and wait for prey to go after it reaches my mind, but…

‘Waste of food… even if I can’t eat it yet, is food, can’t waste it… the killing of birds must be awful for the trees, they are one of their main seed spreaders… mental note, help the trees… somehow’ still… climbing trees is something I must do

Checking for sound I do feel a small vibration to the north, so, moving a few snake lengths I listen again and confirm the brook is still moving east even this far and return to the tree…

‘Snakes don't stick to trees… so, is going to be like moving, pushing against the surface (bark), but against gravity, the final boss… why~? I only level two~’

-----

Training done… is beyond mid day now and I don't want to overheat from this… again…

‘Gravity IS the final boss… how many times did I fall… no… don't answer that…’ I started doing this to avoid going to the grave again, but this was awful… ‘Ugh, was trying to forget about that… my fangs feel a little loose now… lets move south, track the smells, see if I can remember the way to the hole…’ I look to my hands ‘Fire without thumbs… no, I already did stupid time with the tree’

While moving southwards I am thinking about using my small claws more, smaller chunks should digest faster and some of the things I can’t digest are things like… calcium… and… keratin? Why I can’t remember? No, I didn't had eidetic memory, but I am surprised by how much I forgot already

‘My claws are sharp, but too small to properly skin and debone something… maybe later, another mental note please!’ I reach the grave area ‘… nothing has been here… the tracking agent of my venom still works… could it envenom anything that eats the mouse…? Nah, maybe later ones, or just to something that is already weakened. Its venom, not poison after all’ sliding away

-----

Its about half an hour? Later and I still haven’t seen, or heard anything yet, I do smell something big again, and is fresher, but is hard to follow, there is another smell that’s… overpowering it

‘What is that? Reminds me of the flowers in the city main street, but I haven’t seen a- oh…’

As I clear a mound and go below a bush, under a small opening in the canopy, but bigger than my sunbathing spot by the grave, I see the source of the smell, a bunch of plants with yellow flowers

‘No doubt, these are the guilty party of this annoyance… really I can’t smell anything, but the flowers, good thing I didn't found them in the city or… wait…’ I place my tongue directly in the ground and pull back ‘…!’

I rip some leaves from the bush, with claw and fang and place my tongue in the cuts for a taste, but is useless, my nose is “blind” so I run east, against the wind and away

‘WHY?!’

-----

‘Ok I can smell again, ugh…’ I have gone east for a while and I am licking the moss I found in a split rock next to a tree, the bark too ‘Is that particular flower ability? Or is just a specific compound that sticks and blocks my nose…? My kind nose’s? Or I have allergies- AAAHHH!’ I fell

I had climbed on the rock when, I saw the moss and started licking, my claws are not good at climbing trees or rocks, noted. I even scraped some of the moss away

‘My arms are getting a bone and muscle upgrade after evolving, wherever they grow bigger or not, and that is even if the shop offers an upgrade- hello?’

After cleaning the moss from my claws on the ground I see that the rock has something carved on it under the moss, other than a shallow mark made by my idiocy

‘What are you?’ with care I try to clean the moss and slowly I reveal the drawing below ‘An eye? Is almost split in half because the rock is broken…’ the other side is next to it, so I begin the cleaning… ‘Yep, there is the missing part of the eye’ I try to find something else around the stone, but is either too weathered down, or it is just that… ‘A marker of some kind? It doesn't look religious… a danger ahead kind of warning?’

The wind pick up and I feel a smell, that I don't need to be a snake to tell what it is

‘Blood?’

I already did something stupid today… I have more spots to hide now, and I’m not weaponless anymore, three different smells, I haven't identified the local fauna, I should finish digesting tomorrow by midday, any scrap that I can find today should keep until then… further east… if I am in danger I can go west from this spot reach those flowers and see if a can use them to lose any chaser… this tree roots are slightly above ground…

I slide between them and find a smaller space than the hole I used yesterday, is going to be a tight fit, but I can use it tonight… and the “lizard” smell that I get from this place, means that I am not the only one that knows about it

‘Chasing the blood then’ I really want to sigh…

I move between trees, rocks, grass, herbs, I see some mushrooms but I avoid them, not going to find out why their smell gives my shivers, I am just moving east to the blood

-----

‘What?’

I found the blood… splatter… there are a few cracks in a tall stone with some blood on it, looking down I see a bigger spot with drying blood and a couple of red feathers, not stained red, but the same red that had the bird that gave me an unwanted lift out the walls

‘So… a raptor got… arrowed to the rock and… beheaded? Gutted?’ the three smells here are: fur, the bird’s(?) blood and a smell that I wasn't aware before, human ‘When I was born I… must have gotten used to that smell… or simply thought it was a city smell…? It was a bit like what PE classes or being in a train is like… is that why it didn't registered for me?’

I move next to the stain and focus…

‘The smell of the feathers is different to the blood, can’t see how I am suppose to tell if they are from the same creature, but for now I am calling this smell bird blood, the creature… is new… not small, but no big either… is… fresher… or at least “on top” of the others… blood and fur go north… did the human just got part of it and wasted the rest?’

Not wasted, something ate it already, but still!

‘Human and blood… south… lets have a meeting, shall we?’ I slide following their smell ‘Lets hope this is not my last stupid idea…’

Moving, I am seeing the trees and rocks looking for a land mark, or something recognizable enough to be used, night is not that far away and the split stone is not… the kind of land mark that you can see from afar

I can see that the trees are getting a bit farther away from each other, so for now I try to get a bit more of heat where I can… but I can detect the smell that I lost by the flowers… and is fresh

‘…’ this smell now is also mixed with blood ‘Reptile blood… great…’ I keep moving south

I see a few more of the white bark trees, but not all have fruits, and those who do are still unripe, but after a while…

‘More… makes sense’ I place my head in the ground ‘Not close, but… two others? Maybe three’ I have come too far already to run away now

The sky is already red, the cold is starting to get inside me

‘That practice was… necessary, but… it took longer that I thought’

-----

About fifteen minutes later, and more groups of three trees pass, I can hear them… I hear one of them at least

‘What are you… celebrating?’ he sounds happy to me at least

As they enter my land hearing range, I can see where they are from the top of a rock, I go down quickly, but still move towards them, they are in a small opening like the flowers from before, they have two tents pitched and a campfire in the middle

‘At least they know to place a ring of rock around the fire… I don't think I can steal fire from them though’ the celebrating guy is shirtless and doing a happy dance ‘Loud neighbors, I swear this place is not like it used to… another guy is looking away from him while embarrassed, a girl is trying to ignore him and another girl is giving him a stare of… amused disbelief?’

The other guy is of a bigger build, the armor I see next to one of the tents looks his size and he has a shield next to him, the girl ignoring him is blushing, while she reads a book and has a robe, the girl that is now talking at him (since he stopped his silly dance) has an arm guard on her right side and there is a bow next to her

‘You! With the bow a lot of meters north from here! You are the… hunter’ the cold is not letting me do much now, I am under a bush looking at them ‘If they go to their tents I might… get closer… the campfire should remain hot for a while’ stupid idea number… I forgot, of the day ‘They need to make watch I know… but if one of the guards falls sleep I might enjoy the heat…’

The archer ends her talk, and the “mage” girl says something too, but dancing guy just smirks and starts talking in a really smug tone, for the way archer and mage looks at him he just made a lewd joke or something… archer looks interested? And says something in a taunting tone

‘What are- UGH!’ idiot guy took out his dick ‘That is sexual harassment you-!’

“AAAHHH!!! IA! AVGICEQ!”

CLANK!

‘Magic!’ the mage just screamed while going red and shoot a fire bolt at his crotch, big guy blocked the attack, but that was magic! ‘Do it again teacher!’ big guy is fine, he just grabbed the shield on his side by the edge and swatted the attack, the magic dispersed, but the heat distributed around and reached me ‘The glowing ring in your hand is pretty cool too!’

Now the idiot looks offended and talking loudly, but he placed it back inside his pants (thankfully), archer girl is laughing, I mean he did squeaked when teacher attacked, but he kinda deserved that in my opinion, teacher is hiding her face behind her book and big guy is trying to calm things down

‘Let her do more magic! I wanna learn!’ idiot says something to big guy and gets inside one of the tents ‘Coward! Get out and accept you punishment!’

Archer girl makes an evil smile and whispers something to the mage, she looks oddly at her, but aims her hand at the tent

“IA!” her ring glows and he squeals from inside the tent, archer girl laughs again (yeah, good one) and teacher says the rest of her spell too softly for me to hear (No~!)

What looks like a sphere of air appears in front of her hand, moves to the tent and forms a dome around it, before turning invisible, archer girl smiles widely and removes what little armor she has on herself, is not much just her… bracers? Shoulder pads and her boots

‘What are you doing?’ I don't understand her actions and by the tone of big guy, neither does he, she answer him, making him and teacher blush, before entering the same tent as idiot… ‘What?’ the three of us just stare to the tent for a while, but no sound comes out of the- ‘Wait!’ I place my head to the ground ‘A silence spell?! I want that!’

In the air I can’t detect anything, but from the ground I do feel some vibrations coming from the tent, but they are… muted? As if further away than they really are

‘Gah! That spell! I want that…! Maybe? I mean… I am pretty quiet most of the time, so I don't need to hide my sounds, but for the raptor in the city that could… can I place it on creatures? Or just places? Does it blocks the outside noise as well? Or is unidirectional? Teacher! Cast it again!’

Big guy says something and my teacher snaps out of her trance and blushes, they make conversation for a bit, but before long she stands up and says something to the guy… he looks shocked and falls back while stuttering something leaving her confused

‘What did… oh, she accidentally innuendo “Lets sleep together”?’ she blushes and stammers her response, and he facepalms ‘Yeah, she did… wait… no one takes watch?’

He tells her something, she nods and gets in the other tent, he stays outside and fiddles with a bag doing something around the fire, before placing it next to another bag that is on the far side of the camp and after saying something to the mage from the outside the tent, he gets in too

‘What? Did she casted something to keep the animals away already and I missed it…? Does it keeps me away?’ that is worth of a check, with my head still in the ground I can tell that both of them are far away from each other and doing nothing, but waiting for sleep ‘If the rhythmic vibrations that I am hearing from the other tent are an indication, I should be able to spend a warm night…’

Still, I don't go directly to the fire, is dark and the cold is starting to get really annoying, but if I get closer and they are paying attention… but… the cold makes me move at least a bit closer

‘Lets see what is in those bags, I can smell blood from the one that was already there, but… is mixed, not a single source’ I slide towards it, but my wide course make me get closer to a rock with a familiar eye on it ‘Hello, nice to see you again’

The rock is flat, placed in the ground with the eye looking up, this time I see its not just the eye, there are five small lines pointing at it, placed around it as if someone where to make a star shape, but only marked where the points of the star are

‘I could make it, even with these hands… is this why they went to sleep? This symbol is a ward…?’ I look towards the bags and the tents, and slide directly towards the bags, making sure I make no sound, I pass above the rock, but… ‘Nothing…’ I reach the bags without a problem, there is the one that smells like bird blood, and the other… like chicken… ‘I will open them later, for now I will get closer to the fire’ a small prank starts to take shape in my mind ‘Hehehe’

I place my body close to the fire, but with it between the tents and me, they have some wood set close by to feed the fire, I suppose I will be doing it just to have a good night

‘Using their supplies? Yes, yes I will, yesterday was hell and they have no idea of how bad it was’ I stop thinking and just bask… or at least I try ‘Ok the vibrations, I can get used to, the smell? Nope, ugh… is this what life in a shitty apartment is like? I am having the whole college experience then…’ I look up ‘Wow… so many… stars…’ I have never seen so many, pictures of this, don't make the natural sky justice ‘Beautiful…’

…

A shame that this magnificent view, is only reachable by facing such a harsh cold

-----

‘Are you two going to stop?!’ it should be midnight or so, they are still going ‘Ok you guys have earned it! “May you two have many chances, but only wanted success!” I think that is how the saying goes. Congratulations you have me impressed! Go to sleep already!’

I am… not angry, not jealous… more like, annoyed, I don't think this body can feel lust, so I have no problem with them having a marathon, but them going and going, doesn't let me hear very well around the camp and I just got the smell, of the thing that I tracked to the flowers, again

‘If every time they pause is because of him, then his recovery time is impressive, if those pauses are for her, then ok, he may have some bragging rights, but there is something called a limit! You two are making porn stars blush!’ I start getting the vibrations that I recognize as a pause is incoming

They do pause again, I tense, I have no idea if in one of these pauses one of them is going to get out, and I will need to face the cold again… this pause is longer, than the others…

‘…?’ the dome becomes visible again and disappears, I get the feeling of a gust of air around me and the pair’s heavy breathing become audible, someone in the other tent stirs ‘Oh crap…’ I tense more, but don't move yet

It takes a while, but I finally relax when I can tell all of them are sleeping now. Its difficult, but one of them in the second tent, breaths heavily, and using them as a pattern, I can hear that all of them are more or less in the same state, I take one of the logs they have out and place it on the fire, I almost get burned, but I am not going to let this fire die tonight

‘Finally I can relax-!’ I get a vibration coming from the south ‘What now?!’ is… heavy… and I get the smell again

It comes to the edge of the camp and stops, its a boar… a tall boar, with sharp, blade like tusks and a drill like horn in its forehead, it has a lot of scars on its brown fur and a long black stripe of fur that starts above the horn and goes to the tail, and…

‘Blood…’ this thing can kill me by accident, there is no question it. Its sniffing around the edge of the clearing, but every time it takes a step forward it stops and takes two backwards ‘The ward seem to be working’

The boar makes an angry sound and looks around, but it doesn't feels like it can see me, someone in the tents shuffles

‘…!’ I look around and grab a pebble with my tail, I throw it above the boar and it falls behind it, I feel the vibrations of it falling and the boar turns in that direction, before snorting and charging away ‘… is gone’ the people in the tents remain sleeping ‘Ok… this is stressful, but the cold is worse… I should make my prank now, and rest’

-----

‘Good morning’ the first one of them to get out of the tents is archer girl, she looks satisfied as she stretches and sits by the fire ‘Good, you enjoyed it at least’ she doesn't notice my prank, instead she grabs something from a backpack and starts eating it, looks like… dry meat or a protein bar, no idea

I am a bit away from the camp now, they had four “Eye Stones” making a square around them, it was about ten times as I am long per side, I don't know if that is the maximum range of the things, or what, but I am keeping those measurements in mind for later and yes, they “had” those stones

Three stones are currently below me, inside a bush, no I am not being evil, I took them when the first rays of light started to appear, there is no vibrations nor smells nearby and if something happens, I will help… and they will kill me afterwards…

‘How important are this things for you guys?’ that, is one of my tests for today

The next one to appear is idiot, that is how I am calling him, no matter how skilled he might be, what he did is a big no no, for me. He looks smugly to his… one night stand and says something in a tone, that makes me glad that I don't know the language or I would have punched him. She looks equally smug has she answer him, the conversation carries for a bit, but leaves the both of them looking confused

‘…?’ I am also confused, did something happened? ‘Don't tell me they got a Title or Deed, because I was hearing them and they are trying to figure out where it came from…’ he also gets something to eat, ignoring my prank ‘One of them better falls for it!’

The next one out is teacher, she has been awake for a while, but moved very little, don't know why, wasn't going to check-

“AAAHHH!!!” there it is

‘Sorry teacher, I wanted to prank the others not you’ Big guy also gets out looking dazed and shirtless, dragged by the scream

My prank was taking all the heads from the bag, line them all looking at the tents and using the bird bones of the other bag (they smelled really good) I wrote the message “Stop hunt us” in front of them, it was going to be: stop hunting birds, but there wasn't enough bones of the proper shape for that, I was too scared of breaking the bones and waking them up

Is also in my language because I don't know local yet

To make the prank a bit less obvious I filled the bags with stones, maybe if I didn't do that I could have pranked the couple?

‘That was a bad call on my part… thankfully they haven't hunted a crow, but they did hunt a “raptorial bitch” that explains the red feathers…’ that was the main reason for me to open the bag, the prank was because, dangerous or not, you can’t kill ALL the birds, I don't know the name of the local varieties, but a few of those looked like ate bugs ‘I hope I don't have to do worse stuff to save the ecosystem of this world…’

Still… they seem to have some experience and adapted quickly, they surrounded the mage, with their weapons out, big guy has an ax together with his shield, while idiot has a two handed sword, the last girl is aiming and scanning the surroundings

They make a few calls aloud, but I can’t answer them back so… they start to look unnerved, and make a few hushed comments, before idiot separates from them and walks to one of the spots where the “Eye Stones” were, he screams something and calls louder to the forest, the rest looks worried now

Teacher recovers from her scare and runs to another empty spot, the others do the same, they make similar sounds to what idiot did before and all rejoin in the camp, they do look very worried, teacher look ready to faint, but archer tells her something and she makes a spell. A ball of light appears on her hands, it floats up and shoots directly to the bush I am in!

‘Crap!’ it does nothing but make a bunch of sparkly lights around it, but archer shoot an arrow towards me!

The arrow goes through the foliage above me and digs in the ground behind, just as idiot jumps forwards towards me, the last of the stones is in my tail, so I throw it towards him and start to move backwards-!

“HIIEEEE!!!” it was quick, he was about to hit the stone I threw with is sword, but he managed to lift his weapon up, to not damage the ward… and it hit him in the crotch, I slide away while shivering with shared pain

‘I just cursed myself, didn't I?’ when I’ll turn humanoid, I will be hit in the same place, and since I have got struck in that place as a human before, I will be able to confirm what hurts more… ‘Not looking forwards to that’

As I go away I do see that he managed to grab the stone and his pained face shows true relief for recovering it

‘Sorry!’

-----

‘They are going north…’ I moved away, but keep them in the edge of my hearing, they moved around for a bit but eventually went to the camp, I saw the mage doing something to the stones, likely testing to see that they were the same ones ‘They looked happy to have them at least’ except for the swordsman… ‘He probably swore revenge…’ the group leaves my range, but I don't move, they didn't cook anything, just ate that stuff and packed away

Before they leaved though… they and I heard the massive roar, that I had heard the day before… all of them counted to ten while looking southwards

‘And yes, they counted, they were raising a finger with every word they were saying… wonder what made that sound…? I know its big but…’

I learned a lot, so I will call this, time well spend… even if that hit in the genitals is going to haunt me for a while…

‘First: the Ia in my species name, probably means that I can do spells, they are not in the Shop and well, I can’t say the words she did, but perhaps I can think “Ia” and try to do magic… still, chantless magic from the get go… hopefully I can manage to do that, that boar had the smell of blood on it… a lot of blood’

Now that they are gone I move towards a sunny spot, and laid down, this feels better than the fire, I wonder why…

‘Second: that symbol, its simple, I must try to replicate it… even if it needs an enchantment, I could make a few of those, place them somewhere that I know well and if humans chase me, go there and have them get distracted by the stones, they (probably) will think they are more valuable than me… I hope. Third: the night sky is beautiful… I need thumbs’

There is the flat side of a stone coming out of the ground near me, I move next to it, lie my head on it and hit it with my claws, the “echo” of the vibrations tells me is a big one that is buried

‘A shame, need to find a small flat one and carry it around… but, lets practice that eye’ I lift my head and start using my claws to scratch the shape ‘Ugh… this sound is awful… wonder if I can do it in wood… do enchantments require a specific material? If they are placing them in the ground, maybe is because of that the reason they are made in stone? But why not just make the symbol in the dirt and have someone do the spell?’ besides the rain, obviously

The process is slow… I tap my fang in the stone and force a bit of venom out, to see if it helps

…

‘I don't really see a difference…’ I am getting in the zone as I work at least…

…

…

…

…

‘Nearly done… There! It looks just like the ones they have…’ I place my “Hand” in top of the carving ‘Ia-! UGH!’ there, is, something, pulling… me… to… ‘Eye…’

Everything… black…

Ding