MC, day 1

My consciousness returns with a snap. I am lying in tall grass and can feel the telltale burning of a nettle sting on my right leg. I push myself up with four fingered hands and take in my surroundings. I am in a vast prairie, grass stretching, tall and lush, far as the eye can see. Trees are scattered across the unending plain, small, but with wide canopies offering shelter to prey animals beneath. A large swarm of birds, a flock numbering in the hundreds, dances to my west. Tracing complex geometric shapes in the air. A river arcs to the south, flowing away from distant mountains and completing the scene.

I stay there for a while transfixed by the view, satisfied. My thinking is slow and childlike, yet I cannot bring myself to care when I seem to have stumbled across one of the few peaceful places in an otherwise hostile galaxy. Thus, I remain seated where I appeared, feeling at home in a form that is utterly alien to all I have ever known. My tail, thick and powerful, swishing lazily back and forth with simple pleasure.

I stay there for a while, a long while. I arrived when the sun was at its zenith and now the sky is growing orange with the setting of the local star. The first stars then begin to emerge when the entity......the system I thought myself done with returned. The now familiar weight settles onto my soul yet it feels more distant. A feeling that I hope continues in future meetings as the pain of my crossing dimensions is not something I ever want to relive.

Progenitor detected. Title (Founder) granted.

Updating Bio. Granting rewards.

Stat change: +5 wisdom and intelligence

Pariah gene potency: Omega Minus

Rewards (can be summoned when needed): Saxon egg clutch, Halberd (standard)

I feel my thoughts speed up and mature as the brain capacity of my corporeal form catches up to that of my former body. Instincts I have never felt also emerge as my wisdom stat increases to 20, double that of a normal human. I find myself disliking the openness of my surroundings despite my earlier appreciation of the scenery. That I can see smoke in the distance does not aid my unease, no doubt a fire lit to combat the cold of the oncoming night.

Once more I scan my surroundings for some form of shelter or concealment, my efforts rewarded by spotting a forest under 2 kilometres from my position. Instincts voicing their approval, I prepare myself mentally for the short journey. Before I begin my hike however, I want to try something. Channeling my focus I will the Halberd into existence. My soul feels a brief pressure before the deadly object literally pops into existence, a carry harness I can swing across included. "Neat", I say to myself as I examine the steel implement.

I pull on the harness and strap the weapon to my back before beginning to walk. As I move grass swishes around my feat and the calls of night creatures scream out in the distance. I find myself once more basking in the beauty of it all as my pace begins to pick up. I walk for a short while before breaking into a jog, then a sprint. I am already moving faster than the malnourished masses of the Imperium could ever dream of yet instincts, both alien and familiar, demand I go faster. I drop to all fours and run even faster, breathing harsh through my long fanged mouth. I keep that pace for a long time. I reach the forest quickly enough and shoot past it's borders and into the treeline. I don't slow down except to dodge the occasional tree I cannot avoid while moving as fast as my claws can carry me.

There is something exhilarating about the experience of giving into instinct and acting as nature intended. Thus, I let go of the reigns entirely. "Don't think, just do", I chuckle to myself as I let intuition guide my movements. I don't even realise when I begin to angle my path towards the distant sound of rushing water. Nor do I notice I have stopped until a few minutes after the fact. Panting I lay down beside the bank of a small river, a thundering waterfall in view just a couple of dozen metres from my chosen resting spot.

Rallying, I roll off my back and stand up to approach the stream. Slowly I kneel beside the cold water, plunging my cupped hands into the current and drinking deeply from what water I gather. I make sure to savour it, realising how lucky I am to inhabit such an accommodating world. Once I have had my fill I scout a small ways away from the river searching for somewhere to shelter for the night or for something to use to the same effect. I search for a while, growing ever more frustrated by the lack of easy shelter. Hours pass by and with only hours more until the dawn I settle for hoisting myself into a tree and nestle amongst the canopy in order to catch what little sleep I can before sunrise.

----------------------------------------

Mc, day 2

I awaken with a start, eyes bleary with tiredness. Slowly, I blink the tiredness from my eyes and scan my surroundings, making sure that nothing dangerous had snuck up to my tree during my short rest. Seeing nothing I climb down from my sanctuary amongst the branches and make my way back to the river to soothe the dryness of my throat. As I walk I try to plan my next moves. I definitely need to find somewhere secure to shelter in the future and to secure some food.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I also need to make further use of my rewards, especially the egg clutch. There is no one in this galaxy that can claim to be a one man army and those who do quickly find themselves dead. Greater daemons have their lesser kin, the primarchs had their marines, even the Emperor had his custodes and Malcador to aid him. I doubt I am any exception to this rule so it is imperative that I grow my forces and equip them as best I can. Being the equivalent of a culexus assassin can only help my chances of survival too.

I reach the waters and quench my thirst before setting off once more to find shelter. Using the sun as a guide I make my way deeper into the forest, traversing shrubbery and thick root in search of a place to call my home. The journey is simple enough, though I detour a few times when I notice territory markers. ‘Large markers’ I think to myself as I regard some claw marks on a tree that I fully grown bear would have struggled to imitate.

I detour once more and march towards the gurgling of a creek, looking for something to soothe my renewed thirst.

I reach it and drink deeply, enjoying the clearness of the water. It has a slightly sweet taste to it so I reach down for more. I pause there is something moving in the water. The stream isn’t deep, maybe a metre at most and thrice as wide. It is small, barely the size of my hand, yet it is almost certainly a fish. At least what counts for one on this world. My stomach rumbles reminding me of my increasing hunger.

I unstrap my halberd and glare at the water dweller, preparing to skewer it with the point of my weapon. Yet I am interrupted when a familiar presence returns, warm and inviting, text appearing before my eyes.

Question info updated:

Hunter Gatherer: satiate your hunger. Live to fight another day.

Quest rewards: +1/10 levels Saxon worker, Skill (survivor).

Accept? Y/N

I accept without hesitation and continue to track my nemesis. I wait. I wait some more, then quick as lightning I strike forward, only to have misjudged the depth. My prey darts upstream.

I resist the urge to yell, if only to not attract attention from predators in the area. And move upstream. I find my prey once more and attempt to strike it again. I fail again. This process repeats again and again and once more. Then on the 6th attempt I hit it cleanly in the centre of mass.

I withdraw my weapon from the stream. A meal struggling weakly on the tip. Without hesitation I slide the fish off the tip of the weapon and throw it live into my jaws. My teeth snap shut and I feel a satisfying crunch before swallowing. It was delicious.

I wait for my quest awards eagerly yet they do not come. Instead I am visited by the rumbling of my stomach.

Now frustrated beyond belief I mumble a curse and resume my hunt for food. Throughout the afternoon I come across two more fish and still do not receive any reward. At one stage I find a clump of berries and eat them after only a quick sniff, trusting my enhanced senses and constitution to protect me.

It’s not until I kill a large lizard like creature, similar to a Komodo Dragon, and devour it whole that I get my rewards. Glee replacing frustration as the now familiar text appears before me.

Quest completed! Granting rewards.

+ 1/10 Lv (Saxon Worker).

{+1 to all attributes}

Skill (survivor) granted.

Description: Attune yourself to both your surroundings and your instincts. This skill makes all things survival related more effective as it improves.

I feel my body grow stronger, more energetic, instincts sharpen, thoughts speed up. All these things happen, the change is small, yet noticeable. However nothing compares to the knowledge being injected into my skull. Tracking, poisons, hunting technique, constructs and much more fill my mind's eye. Placed there for one simple purpose, to help me survive. Yet there is something missing, I know in my hearts (I have 2 btw but they are both weaker than a human one) that the knowledge I possess is but the basics and can be improved upon.

My task completed, with helpful new information to boot, I set out about my other purpose. Finding a permanent shelter.

Later that evening I find a shallow cliff face with a great boulder at its base. It's a kilometre from the nearest water source so that is both an advantage and disadvantage. I smile to myself in satisfaction and begin to search the stone for a crevice to shelter in. This continues for hours andi I curse to myself half heartedly. "Why can't anything ever be easy?" I say to myself despite knowing that this is as easy as it gets in 40k.

Then I see it. A crevice, half hidden by the boulder and about a metre off the ground, preventing anything from getting into it easily. It's just about big enough for me to fit through when crawling, leaving just a few centimetres to spare. My intuition is proven correct as after 10 metres it opens up into a small cave system that I can at least stand in. Albeit with a hunched posture. I explore the system, it is small with only seven room sized chambers and is uninhabited apart from the moss growing on the dirt floor and up the walls.

"Perfect", I say. Setting my weapon down I move towards the farthest chamber from the entrance. Here the darkness present in the rest of the cave is broken. Bioluminescent lichen shining like stars on the roof. I kneel the soil soft and loamy against my scales, and begin to dig. The moss goes first and a clear circle is made on the floor. Next the soil is dug up, dirt sifting through my fingers as I work. Guided by instincts I do not understand, a bowl forms in the ground. I call on the presence and feel its weight settle upon my soul before leaving just as quickly. 10 mottled grey eggs, bigger than a human fist appear in the bowl, popping into existence in much the same way as my halberd. "The egg clutch", I whisper as soft, protective urges emerge. I quickly cover them once more in soil, though I am careful as I do so. A lump is formed on the ground as quickly covered with moss to absorb any moisture.

"The eggs don't like moisture", I whisper to myself, not knowing or caring how I knew. Then a message appears above the lump, a timer accompanying it.

Saxon Hatchery Pit: 25 days remaining

"Hello world", I say, voice scarcely above a whisper.