After I’d left the specifics of the planning to Sybil, I stepped out of the den where I’d been talking to the assembled Alphas. I didn’t have much in the way of trust in their abilities, but if they were able to find out more about the movements and locations of the humans, then they would have done enough. It took me a moment to realize it, but I didn’t care if these packs were generally wiped out. If these weaklings had to die to give my pack a greater advantage in the inevitable conflict with the rest of these human hunters, then I would thank them for their sacrifice without mourning them.
I stopped by Joral’s brood to see what they were up to for now, and was surprised to realize exactly how much time they spent sleeping, as the entire brood was solidly asleep, their snores lightly echoing through the den. In retrospect, I had slept more than half the day, every day until I’d reached adulthood, and the time I’d spent awake, I’d been hungry almost the entire time. In fact, I was so continuously hungry that I only noticed when I wasn’t, whereas now I only needed to eat once a day.
The sleeping hatchlings were quite cute, all huddled together with the wolfstag pups scattered throughout their scaly companions. I wasn’t sure if it was at all notable, but the wolfstags’ growth almost seemed to be mirroring that of the keelish. Maybe they were in an explosive growth period, or maybe this was about the stage of life where all wolfstags grew rapidly, or maybe something else entirely. Whatever the case was, though, the wolfstags that had begun to be outclassed in size by the keelish hatchlings were catching up to the keelish, or at least growing enough so as not to continue to be outsized.
As I stepped into the crowded space, Arwa perked her head up and looked at me. The growls that had begun to bubble out of her throat immediately ceased, and instead she stood and stretched, an involuntary yawn pulled from her as she did so. Then, Arwa trotted towards me and nuzzled into my chest, her fur sparking in the darkness, though not with an aggressive attack so much as an involuntary static discharge. The zaps of static tickled me, and I gently scratched at the base of her antlers as Arwa happily groaned and leaned into my scratching.
The little ones remained sleeping, and after watching them for a moment, I used one of the first true commands we had taught Arwa and the pups. With a click of my tongue against the roof of my mouth, I signaled for Arwa to follow. Without hesitation, she did so, and before long we had exited the den. Both Arwa and I seemed to sigh in relief as we exited into the fresh air of the aboveground. While we both had reasons for dwelling beneath the ground, the longer I spent under the earth, the more I relished the opportunities to come out again.
As Arwa trotted to the side and began to relieve herself, I began to contemplate what exactly I wanted to do right now. It was in my best interest to stay relatively close to the den, since the Alphas that I’d given instructions to would ideally be returning relatively soon with scouting reports. Even so, I felt the need to do something beyond simply wait for others to do things. Eventually, I had decided to hunt something with Arwa, something new if I could find it.
I had been surprised by the lack of variety in the jungle as I had grown older and more thorough in my thinking. While I hadn’t paid any special attention to every little creature that existed and lived within my Martanimi Jungle, I did realize that the jungles of my previous life had changed drastically since then. Since it had been well over 200 years since my death, I couldn’t bring myself to be especially surprised by that, but the variety in the creatures to be found in the jungle had been thinned considerably. The caimans that had hunted the toothy bullfrogs, the spotted tigers that hunted the caimans, the carnivorous, massive locath fish that were big enough to swallow a caiman whole, but the creatures to disappear weren’t only the larger predators. I hadn’t seen a single stoneskin, tavara, or quokka… so many creatures had disappeared, and I had no idea if it was due to the ravages of time or simply because I was far from the places I had once called home..
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Even so, the Martanimi seemed to be thriving until we keelish had stripped everything we could eat from it. There had to be more creatures than what I had already seen in the surrounding jungle, and I wanted to take the opportunity to see what else I could hunt and add to my first [Quest]. I had long decided that I would soon rip Redael from his position of power, but any and all opportunities that I had to grow would be beneficial to me when the time came for our final confrontation. It was difficult for me to admit as much, but I had a certain level of… caution towards him after the thorough beatings he had inflicted upon me.
With another click of my tongue, I began to lead Arwa into the surrounding brush. While I had done some scouting in the area after we had come to the hatchlings’ territory, I was far from familiar with the area. Took and others had brought the pygmy deer in, and they had been the ones to have seen the quoll, so while I knew they were in the area, I had yet to see them in their habitat. I was unwilling to hunt the pygmy deer to progress towards my [Quest], but a quoll, while not much of a threat to me, was still a crafty and dangerous predator. Thus, I wondered if they would be a suitable creature to prey on, and, there might still be something else in the area that preyed on the quolls, which would be an even better creature for me to hunt.
Thus, Arwa and I stalked together through the brush, searching for signs of any new and potentially dangerous prey. I felt my scales begin to flare in excitement, and with conscious effort, I closed my eyes, breathed deep and calmed myself. Before I could open my eyes, though, Arwa let out a quiet whine. Not one of fear, as I’d come to recognize, but instead, one of curiosity. When I looked down at her, her eyes met mine and with a flick of my head, I gave her permission to go.
Without another moment’s hesitation, Arwa leapt through the brush, and I rushed to follow her. It wasn’t long before I could sense the same thing she had scented before me, as I could feel two heat signatures, two creatures locked in battle. As we stepped into a smaller clearing, I saw a quoll trying to subdue the strangest looking creature I’d ever laid eye on.
It was almost spherical, it was so round, and while its back and sides were covered in a black fur, its belly was coated in brown scaly plates of sorts. Its little arms and legs could barely reach the ground below it, and it had no tail, while its face was long and pointy, somewhat like a wolf’s mixed with a deer’s. Four sharp canines protruded from its lips and it continuously snapped them at the quoll, and its earless head seemed to occasionally stretch out of its body like a turtle’s.
When the two creatures laid eye on us, the quoll began to eye us with fear in its eyes, but the other… thing, did something that elevated it from strange to unbelievable. It opened its mouth wide, inhaled so much so fast that I could see its entire body expand, then, with a rush of wind, it shot backwards as a gale issued forth from its mouth.