Turi sat on the edge of a table, only somewhat listening to the humans as they bickered. The loudest one, Aaron, wanted to go search for more crystallized second realm essence, which was going to become more and more common over the coming days, but nobody could agree on how to do it, and Aaron’s constant shouting of ‘just go and get it’ wasn’t helping very much.
Frankly, Turi was only here because it was the only place where he could sleep safely, now that only a few one-story buildings were still intact. The rest of the city was rubble, and it was so bad that even the areas with the least amount of rubble were buried beneath three feet or rock and steel.
The humans were slowly coming to a consensus that the second realm humans were the only ones allowed to leave Anoptera right now, but there were only five of them in the camp, and they didn’t think it was safe to leave the first realm humans on their own, or even with only a single or two second realm humans, but it wouldn’t be safe for the second realm humans to go out in a group of only two or three.
Turi was willing to help them out in exchange for information and shelter, as well as food and water, but they didn’t think he was strong enough to entrust their lives to.
“What if I bring you a few second realm crystals? You can use them to ascend a few first realm humans, and your camp will be safe enough for you to hunt.” Turi suggested.
“…What would you want in exchange for them?” Leo asked, and Turi sighed. The humans were always questioning him; the only one that seemed to trust him even slightly was Jeremiah.
“Knowledge, shelter, food, water, safety, and the right to the essence cores of any beasts I kill,” Turi said, annoyed that he had to add the last bit. The humans split the essence cores, for some reason, instead of just taking those of the animals they had killed. It made a tiny bit of sense, because someone like, say, Jeremiah, while very useful, rarely ever killed any beasts, as his variant species wasn’t meant for direct combat. It still bugged him, though.
“Do not think us as fools, crow. Those things were a given; if we’re to accept your help, you will want something more.” One of the overly-dramatic second-realm humans said. He hadn’t bothered to learn the man’s name.
“Ascenturi, not crow,” Turi corrected the human, “I have little interest in your possessions. I cannot use your firearms, or your spears or your swords. You refuse to share the few things that you have that are useful to me. What I have listed are the only things that I want from you, as they are the only things you have.”
Aaron was not happy with this, but Turi tuned out his angry yapping. He truly had little interest in the possessions of Anoptera beyond curiosity, and only offered to help them because it didn’t inconvenience him. He already intended to go hunting, with or without the consent or assistance of the humans, and bringing an essence crystal or two back wasn’t difficult.
If they could provide some sort of benefit to him, he would probably keep them to himself, but they didn’t. Consuming them would only serve to help him regenerate essence, and, while that was quite useful, the humans would make significantly better gains by ascending more of their people to the second realm, thereby increasing his safety.
The humans argued for a minute about his suggestion, until Turi was finally fed up with it.
“I’m going hunting.”
As Turi hopped towards the tent’s flap, Leo finally gave an answer to his suggestion.
“If you’re willing to help us out in any way, you’re welcome to.”
A grunt of acknowledgement was Turi’s only response.
***
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Turi dug through the body of a stone-clad squirrel, which was becoming increasingly common, for obvious reasons. This one had been incredibly weak; weaker than even the very first stone-clad squirrel that he had killed. It must have ascended to the second realm only recently.
He ate the essence core and prepared to take flight once more, but the sound of shifting rubble to his left caught his attention.
Turi’s eyes darted to the left, but he saw nothing. Turi could feel his thoughts faintly increasing, warning him of danger, although not imminent.
Turi spread his wings and flew into the air, unwilling to be ambushed. Just as he took off, his thoughts accelerated to an absurd extent, and the entire world seemed to slow.
It only took Turi a moment to figure out what was going on. The trail of paw prints in the dust leading up to him told him that it had some sort of concealment ability, and with how drastically his thoughts had sped up, it was likely aiming for his vitals- his throat or heart, or that it was powerful enough to kill him in a single blow without striking his vitals.
Based on the size of its paw prints, though, it wasn’t nearly large enough to do something like that, unless it had some sort of magical ability, but he wasn’t sure why it would approach him if it didn’t need to get close.
All of this, Turi had analyzed in a fraction of a second. Unfortunately, being able to think fast didn’t make his essence move faster, or else he would have used his eyes to find where the air wasn’t and dodge. Instead, Turi twisted to the right, away from where he had heard the rubble shift a moment earlier, infusing his feathers, flesh and bones with essence as he did so.
He heard jaws snap closed right where his throat had been a moment prior, and Turi propelled himself backwards with a flap of his wings.
With distance between them now and some time on his hands, Turi sent essence into his eyes, and quickly pinpointed his invisible assailant using the wind.
The outline of a fox roughly twice his size was clear as day to him, and Turi gripped the water in the air around the fox and condensed it before punching it into the fox’s eyes.
A sharp yelp resounded through the air, and Turi shot forward, looking to end the fox quickly. Having his eyes constantly look for where the air wasn’t was very draining.
Turi slammed his beak into where he roughly guessed the fox’s throat to be, but missed entirely as the fox leapt backwards with surprising agility. As it landed on the ground, its invisibility dropped, likely because such a powerful ability had to be incredibly expensive to maintain.
The fox now visible, Turi cut the flow to his eyes off and glared at the fox for a second as he thought of what to do.
‘Foxes are known to be quite clever, aren’t they?’ Turi realized, ‘Are communications possible? An invisible fox would be quite the useful ally.’
“Stop fight, speak instead,” Turi said, deliberately speaking simpler for the fox, assuming it wasn’t as intelligent as Turi was.
The fox’s eyes widened and it froze, but no response came. Turi realized that, in all likelihood, the fox didn’t have any ability to speak.
“Shake head up down, yes. Shake head left right, no. Get?” Turi asked, and the fox hesitated before nodding.
“Friend?”
The fox looked at him with confusion, and Turi tried again.
“No fight, be friend?”
It was silent. As the seconds crawled by, Turi wondered if it was just thinking or if it hadn’t understood him again. Luckily, it seemed to have understood, and nodded.
“Will kill if you attack.” Turi told it, and the fox snarled at him.
'I probably shouldn’t have threatened it.’ Turi thought. He wasn’t afraid of the fox whatsoever; it had only been dangerous because it was an ambush predator, and an extremely good one at that, but now that Turi was prepared, it didn’t pose much of a threat. Still, having an invisible fox as an ally or friend would be very valuable, and he didn’t want the fox to flee, or worse, attack him. If it tried the latter, Turi would kill it without hesitation.
“Work together?” Turi offered, and the fox seemed conflicted. It probably didn’t want to, but was afraid that he would kill it if it refused. At least it was aware that it wasn’t strong enough to beat many things in a head-on fight.
Turi manually accelerated his thoughts, as the next few seconds of the negotiations would be important. He had several options on the table; he could threaten it, but it didn’t seem to react well to being threatened. He could show off his strength, thereby making the fox even more reluctant to refuse, and it may even think of him as strong enough to protect it, but it might interpret it as a threat. He could say nothing and let the fox make the decision on its own, or he could let it leave, but make sure that it understood that he would kill it if it were to attack him or ignore a demand.
Ultimately, Turi said nothing. No matter what the fox chose, Turi would be the winner. If it refused, Turi would let it leave, but under the understanding that it would help him if he ever demanded it, and if it tried to attack him or flee, Turi would kill it and absorb its core. If it agreed, he would bring it back to Anoptera, and would gain a hunting partner, which he wasn’t even sure if he wanted; it meant that he would need to split the loot.