Chapter 2 - A New Life in a Strange World_Adventures on Patriam: Wolves and Men

Blackness surrounded me. A new kind of sensation enveloped my soul, sticky and course it tightened as time passed. I could feel my new body building itself, bones forming, muscles and tendons widening and strengthening, nerves growing. The course, grainy substance that surrounded me was slowly transitioning into my new organs. The pressure increased with every newly formed body part created. Just when I thought I would be crushed by the burden of the ever-closing walls of goop, my capsule ruptured.

I awoke with my eyes crusted shut by the now dried substance covering my body. I could feel grass brushing up against my chest as I laid on the ground wondering what I should do next. I could feel the wind cooling my body, its swirls and movements rustling the leaves overhead. Slowly moving my hands towards my face I was able to scrape some of the crust off of my eyes. When I was finally able to open them, what met my gaze was beautiful.

I found myself in the center of a small forest opening surrounded by trees. Flowers of all colors dotted the clearing, insects feasting on their nectar as they unknowingly transferred pollen from one flower to another. Behind me towered a cliff of white marble, contrasting the trees that lined its base and the thick black substance that oozed from a crack in its face. The substance flowed down the face of the cliff into a small depressed area where it pooled into a small pond. The distance from the black pond seemed to correlate with the types of plants that could grow, a forest filled with trees turned into a thin layer of shrubs, shrubs quickly died off to be replaced by grasses, and these grasses disappeared entirely within a few yards of the pool.

I noticed something in the upper left hand corner of my vision. Small but noticeable bars of different colors, one each of red, green, blue, and white. Below these bars was a small icon which when focused on, to my suprise, opened a large menu blocking most of my vision. The left hand side of the menu read:

Wrorine (Level 1)

0/100 Experience

40/40 Health ----

60/60 Stamina ------

20/20 Mana --

30/30 Spirit ---

‘0’ Stat Points Available

Racial Ability - Locked

Skills: (Rapid Experience) (Dagger G)

After figuring out how to close the menu I looked down to explore my new body. Rubbing away the grit left over from the black goo I found that instead of finding skin I found fur. Specifically, thick black fur tinted dark brown in random places. Not really focusing on it until now I noticed an elongated snout stretching out of my face. Touching it in various places confirmed my suspicion that it did indeed belong to me. Normal, albeit fur covered, hands explored my arms and chest and found that I was just about as strong as I had been in my last body which meant I wouldn’t have too much trouble adjusting to this new form. Standing up I looked at my legs, covered in what seemed like raggedy cloth pants stained black from the tar I must’ve crawled out of. My legs themselves were still plantigrade, another relief, and my feet looked like a cross between human feet and paws. The feet would take a bit of getting used to but other than that I had probably gotten off lucky.

I picked up a dagger thatI hadn’t noticed laying beside me and examined it. Taking it out of its sheath to get a better look at it i realized that it was pretty heavy and very sharp. Pressing the blade slightly against my thumb immediately drew a small drop of blood, my red bar ticked down and was now overlaid with 39/40. So the red bar was my health which meant the other bars likely coincided predictably with my other Stats; green for stamina, blue for mana, and white for spirit. That made life simple enough, I thought to myself as I slowly resheathed the dagger and tied it around my hip. In the midst of doing so I was surprised by another revelation; I had a tail! Still covered in tary grit, I had not felt the breeze flow over it so it had completely escaped my mind.

“Of course I have a stupid tail” I said to myself, “Great, that’s going to be a fantastic addition to be aware of. How in the world am I even going to be able to sit in a chair normally!” I hated the idea of a tail, arguments about this very topic had been fought over in college about the benefits and drawbacks of tails on characters in japanese anime. I was firmly cemented in my beliefs that they were more of a burden than they were worth, both giving away thoughts and vulnerable to attack. Of course fate would taunt me by putting me in a body with one. Finishing my self examination I found that I had acquired intensely sharp teeth and pointed dog-like ears as well. Wrorine were apparently very wolf-like in appearance.

Still frustrated and distracted about my acquisition of a tail I was surprised when I heard a squelching sound coming from the direction of the tar pool. Turning my attention toward the noise, my gaze was met with a writhing black mass slowly crawling out of the pond. Black tar dripped from its form as it slowly stood on all fours. Canine teeth barred as its red eyes locked onto my position, its body still slowed by the tar.

“Tardog” flashed across the top of my vision in red before quickly disappearing as the creature started meandering towards me. “That’s it? No level indicator or threat level?” I mumbled while unsheathing my dagger. This was risky, I didn’t know anything about what this thing was. For all I know it could be a high level monster, completely untouchable by my current weapon. The Tardog had started to quicken its pace, eyes fixed on the dagger I held between us.

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It was fast, close to the speed of a greyhound and had closed the distance between us in a matter of seconds. About 10 feet away from me, it lunged, canine teeth pointed at my throat. Instinctively, I dodged to the right and brought my dagger down across its side, the blade slicing through tar covered flesh. With a yelp of pain the creature managed to twist around and clamp down on my arm. Blood spewed from the wound in the canine’s side as I saw my own health drop by ten. Taking the dagger back upwards, I brought it down, embedding it in the Tardog’s neck. Another five points of health were subtracted as the creature clamped down hard on my arm. With a sickening gurgle the blood around the dagger bubbled and shock filled the canine’s eyes. Slowly, the Tardog’s grip weakened, it’s eyes staring into mine emitting pure hatred. Eventually the teeth released my arm and the Tardog’s head hit the grass, freeing my blade in the process and spilling a dark red river onto the ground.

My left arm had been torn up pretty bad, blood seeped from three deep puncture wounds painting my fur red. My health bar read 24 and ticked down to 23 shortly after looking at it as my stamina bar fell to 58. I needed to get the wound dressed or it would get infected. Jogging over to the edge of the forest my first aid training kicked in. Despite not knowing the local foliage I was able to piece together a makeshift bandage using an unfamiliar hanging moss and what seemed like a strong type of reed found in a nearby stream. After applying the bandage I checked my health expecting it to have dropped a few more points, to my shock my health had increased to 38. A name flashed in the top center of my vision as I looked at the bandage I’d made, “Healing Moss”. Checking my stats I had earned 20 exp and had learned a new skill as well, (Healing G).

Sitting down on the ground and looking at the clouds passing overhead, I reflected on my life so far. What a wild ride it had been for the first day. In just a few hours I’d been attacked, healed, explored, and acquired a new skill. Now I was left wondering how to go about surviving in this hostile world. What would I do? Who would I be? And most importantly, where exactly was I? All questions that would be answered in time hopefully.

First things first though, I needed to deal with the here and now. Taking inventory of the current situation was my best bet forward if I wanted to survive until tomorrow. The best thing to do at the moment would likely be to go and harvest more of that healing moss. I’d seen it everywhere and it would come in handy if I got into another fight. Secondly, I should move away from the black tar. Whatever it was, it had spawned an enemy that had taken out almost half my health with basically one attack. If I’d not gotten lucky with my first and second strikes that fight would have turned out very different.

Picking myself up off the ground I started to move towards the forest, stealing a glance over my shoulder at the corpse and swirling black pond I was leaving behind. With any luck I wouldn’t have to come back here anytime soon, I’d gained 20 exp from killing one monster if that is where all the exp had come from, but staying here was far too dangerous in my current state. Venturing under the canopy of the forest was peaceful, birds chirped, perched on the branches above and basking in the warmth of the slowly falling sun. Deeper into the forest it got slightly cooler as the canopy caused less and less sunlight to warm the ground below.

Ahead, hanging from the lower dead branches of still growing trees, was an abundance of healing moss. Thankfully, the ragged pants that I was wearing had pockets on either side so I was able to carry enough to make a few more bandages if I needed them. Next I walked back towards the steam where I had found the reeds. If I could also gather a few of those then I would have everything I needed to heal myself if the need arose.

The cool water flowed over my feet and sent a shiver up my spine. It had taken a large portion of the afternoon to locate more fasten reeds as I had learned they were called. During my search I had picked up the (Botany G) skill which had helped me identify the reeds I was looking for. With enough concentration I was now able to gain exp by learning the names of different kinds of plants. However, the process took too much time for very little exp return, so it wasn’t too useful. Having gathered enough to create a good stockpile of bandages I had continued following the river. It was taking me away from the tar and was easy to follow without losing my way. It also provided opportunities to obtain food as I observed all kinds of small mammals, fish, and amphibians that called the stream their home.

The sun was setting and as I walked I searched for a place to make camp. It would be a cold night without fire but given the temperature now and the fact that I now had fur, it didn’t seem like it was going to be too big of a deal. As I rounded a bend in the stream I noticed a large sand beach dotted with boulders half submerged in the wet ground. It was open with a few trees and good sightlines, perfect for a one night stay so long as it didn’t rain. As I approached the site I noticed something strange behind one of the boulders. A hand covered in black wet fur was sticking out from behind the rock.

I cautiously approached it and found what appeared to be another humanoid lying face down in the sand, torso and legs still in the water. Blood smeared the sand around where the creature had crawled out of the water. Whatever happened to it, it hadn’t been fun. The side of its orange furred head was smeared with crusted blood, its arm was twisted at a weird angle, and there was a large open wound stretching down the side of its chest. It was fully dressed but laying next to it was what looked like a fire striker and flint. Bending over I picked up the striker and silently mourned the deceased creature. As I turned to go find firewood I felt something grab me by the leg.

When I turned around in shock I was met with the pale stare of the fox man on the verge of death. The creature looked at me with pleading eyes.

Before me was a choice, I might be able to save it by using my healing bandages. I had no idea how rare healing moss was so I could be wasting something valuable on someone who could turn out to be hostile. Alternatively, I could leave this creature here to die and not take an unnecessary risk.

Its eyes locked with mine, the life slowly draining out of them as I pondered what to do…

Alyx