It's a pure white place
The ground was made of smooth white ceramic, it was polished, well maintained, not a single spot of dirt could be seen. The white wall was decorated with beautiful carving, one that I never saw before, but feel familiar for. Sculpture placed on both side of the wall, it stood magnificently, judging the worth of people passing by and goes. An eerie laughing voice from afar.
My vision shifted forward, my body walked on its own. I'm not in control of my body, or is it mine? My legs spring as I walked, moving forward, passing the same colored corridor, the same carving on the wall, the same sculpture looming over me, over and over again. So much time has passed, until I didn't know I was moving forward or backward. The eerie laughter persisted.
I stopped walking, in front of me was a grand lavish looking door. The door too, has the same color as everything in this pure white hall. Longing and happiness, then dread, stemmed from my heart, which emotion is mine truly? Caressing the door tenderly, as if my long lost lover, I opened it. The eerie laughter was getting louder.
The room was dark, world different than the hall outside, still, I stepped inside, the darkness crept in fully. Slowly, as I walk, small lantern appeared to light the darkness away with its pitiful small flame.
Squiish
My feet stepped into something, I looked down, it was a black fox doll, the doll forehead was brutally ruined, the cotton inside was flowing out, I picked it up and held it close to my body. The eerie laughter was near, as if beside me.
I continued my aimless walking, my surrounding slowly became narrow as time goes, then I arrived at a dead end. A large mirror with elaborate frame was hung across of me. I walked closer to the mirror, then everything became clear.
The one who was laughing was me.
The mirror cracked and shattered into hundreds of pieces. I closed my eyes and my vision went dark. The dream ended.
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I opened my eyes.
I pulled my body up and look around me, I was in the middle of the forest, with trees and grass surrounding me. A thug in my pants switched my gaze down and a pair of ruby eye meet mine. It was a pink rabbit with two pairs of ears, currently was gnawing my pants as if it was the most delicious thing in the world.
"Tch, Shoo! Go away!" I shooed the monster away, but the little critter didn't even budge, ignored me and continuing gnawing a hole out of my pants.
Annoyed, and the headache haunting my mind didn't help. I cast an earth spell and the ground beneath the critter trembled, before it managed to notice what was going to happen to him, an earth spike pierced the rabbit looking monster right on its abdomen. It squirmed helplessly, before it stopped moving as its short life ended.
The monster was hanging on the spike with its blood flowed out continuously. It was overkill, but it helped me on venting my frustration out. I tilted my head up, the suns was high up in the sky, it was noon, that's mean at least one night has passed before me. I sighed.
What's with me and being forcefully teleported away? And the hell with that strange dream?
So many questions were swirling in my mind and sadly, there was no answer in sight. I sniffed the air, there was no familiarity with it, meaning I was in a different forest from that town, forest that I had never been before. I looked at the dead monster in front of me, with my empty stomach rumbling, the monster looks extremely delicious.
"I can explore this place later.... for now, let's eat!" I exclaimed at myself.
With my short knife I always bring with me, I make a short work of the monster. Now the monster was sliced clean with its pelt on my right, its gut on my left, and its Mana crystal in my pocket, the meat was skewered with a branch and planted vertically on the ground in front of me. Using magic, I roasted the meat with fire until it was well done.
The smell was appetizing, and with no further ado, I grabbed the skewer and bite through the roast meat.
"...bitter." is what I immediately felt on my tongue.
Maybe it lacks seasoning? I'm not an expert in cooking, but this definitely needs to improve.
I continue eating the not so tasty meat until it was all gone into my stomach. I stood up and moved away from my previous spot, exploring this forest. Right now, I'm only equipped with a short knife, money I received from Gil before, a mana crystal from the rabbit monster, my adventurer card, the necklace I received from the elder before and my current clothes.
Looking at the current situation, at least I will fare better than my first time wandering in this world, when I know close to nothing and left with only my body to defend myself. First, I need to get out from this forest and find the nearest village or town around here. Then find out where the hell I have been teleported to. After that, I guess I will decide what I will do later when I find a civilization here.
As I continue to walk, hacking away the branch and vines obstructing me, I didn't find anything besides trees and the occasional weak monster. Two unknown rabbits monster which I didn't know their name and a pack of Earth wolves.
I killed them all and gratefully loot their body for Mana crystal, these things will earn me some money when I sell it. Although I have a vague inkling as for where I ended when I see the native monster and plants, my ears twitched and I was distracted from my thought. It was far away from my current location, but I was sure of what I heard.
A battle...., three or four humans and lots of monsters....
As I warily walk closer to the ongoing battle, the occasional shouts and screams didn't bode well with me. I hide in a nearby bush and peeked with leaves covering me. My eyes greeted with four humans cornered by seven Earth wolves and one human laying at the ground flat, dead probably, since a large pool of blood was accumulating beneath his body.
They seem to have trouble with dealing the monster, well, they are outnumbered after all. One of them seems to be a warrior, with a one-handed sword as a weapon, the other one is an archer, he was holding his bow while shaking from fear, a robe wearing woman was crouching on her knees with her leg bleeding profusely, and the corpse on the ground was wearing some sort of robe too, mage I think.
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My eyes latched on the third living person, this one has interested me, since compared to the other whom has injuries all around their body, this person doesn't have even a cut on his body. He was wearing a light grey shirt and a dark blue vest, on his waist was tied with a belt which was attached with lots of brown colored pouch, his black pants and black boots was smeared with blood.
He has a dark grey hair with long bang covered his eyes, and his long black scarf around his neck was making his facial feature harder to see. He was griping two knives on both of his hands and raised up to his chest levels. There were four corpses of wolves laying on the ground around the humans.
"Damn it, I have enough of this shit, it's all your fault, Stef!!" The sword-wielding man was shouting angrily while slashing down an attacking Earth Wolf.
" W, what! I'm not- ARRGGHHH!!!" The archer's arm was bitten by one of the Earth wolves because of his carelessness. The grey-headed man immediately slashed the wolf and saved his comrade. But the damage is done and the archer couldn't hold his bow for now, making him useless in this battle.
"Shit, shit, f*ck, I'm not going to die here!!" The sword-wielding man exclaimed and look around him, when his eyes gazed at the archer, he grabbed him by his collar and raised him high. The archer sported a confused expression then turned into fear and dread.
“Since you are useless, at least you can be my shield.” The swordsman smirked.
The swordsman ran, straight to the wolves. The archer was struggling in the swordsman strong grips. The man used the human shield to push forward and barely able to parry away the wolves behind his back with his sword, when he was in the edge of the wolf encirclement, he immediately throws his comrade to the wolf and ran away. With the wolf focusing on killing the screaming archer, the warrior managed to run to the forest, leaving all of his comrades to defend themselves.
"Nooo!!! Noo..., are we going to die here?" The only woman in the group sobbed and started to cry at their hopeless situation. The grey-headed man only silently watched their traitorous comrade running back.
Perfect timing
For the first time since I found them, I finally jumped out and joined the battle. I make my entrance with killing the nearest wolf around me, attracting the other wolf's attention. The humans are staring at me with shock, at least the woman expression is, I couldn't see the grey-headed man faces clearly.
Three wolves run straight at me while the other four decided to attack the humans. Using magic to strengthen my short knife, I dodged the first charging wolf and slashed at its body. Using magic, a spike spews out from the ground and stabbed at the second wolf behind the first one, stopping the wolf completely.
The wolf yelped in pain, using this chance, I doubled my speed and stabbed at the first wolf at its heart. I yanked my blade out from the dying wolf and turn my body to the side, evading the third wolf charging at me.
With a swing, I slashed deep at the third wolf neck, blood spurted out and the wolf falls to the ground, whimpering as its life faded away. I walked to the bleeding second wolf, its seem the wolf managed to barely able to evade the spike from puncturing it's vital.
I killed the wolf with a short jab at its heart. Raising my head, I found the grey-headed man killing the last wolf, ending this battle. I quirked my eyebrows, if that man was able to kill four Earth wolf in this short time, they shouldn’t have any trouble dealing with the group of wolf by themselves.
I walked to the human duo, when I look closer at them, the woman was staring at the grey-headed man with doubtful eyes, and when she noticed me, her eyes widened, then turned into disgust.
The grey-headed man was watching me quite warily. While I was mulling how should I approach them. Unsurprisingly, the woman was the first to open her mouth and speak.
“Why does a mere beastmen walk around without a collar? Who is your master?” said the woman with the most disdain she could muster. Her eyes were moist and red from her crying earlier.
…ugh, this is going to be annoying.
“… lady Marinl, I think we better get back to the city for now…” The grey-headed man stretched his hand toward the woman, Marinl, but she only glared at him and swiped his hand away.
“Shut up! Who do you think you are, peasant?! It’s all of you incompetent fools fault!! ” the woman was shouting spitefully and her beautiful face scrunched up into an ugly scowl.
“Mister, could you please tell me the nearest town from here?” I ignored the woman and asked the man for direction. Remaining here won’t do me any good. The man stared at me for some time.
“…Walk east from here and you will find a river, follow it downstream and you will arrive at the city of Clyde." The grey-headed man pointed his finger at the east. I bobbed my head and uttered a sort thank you. Then I turned my body and immediately walked away.
“Hey, stop ignoring me!! And who said you can walk away like that! I’m the second daughter of Clyde city lord, a noble!! Come back here you mutt!!” she was shaking her fist in anger, seeing that I didn’t stop walking from her outburst, she turned her head toward the man. “Go! Stop him Amb, bring him to me!!”
The grey-headed man, Amb, looked at her for a few seconds, then sighed. “…I’m afraid I couldn’t fulfill that wish." The woman frowned and opened her mouth, intent to shower him with insult, but stopped by what the man said next.
“The city lord told me to stop you when you are abusing your authority, lady Marinl.” The woman immediately shut her mouth and looked down. She was muttering something, but I was already too far away from them to hear clearly what she had just said.
Following the direction that man pointed before, I hurried and quicken my pace, I already regret helping them and I certainly didn’t want to meet them again.
Just my luck, the first people I met was the city lord daughter. But, the city of Clyde huh….
Just as he said, a clear river appeared and I stopped for a while to quench my thirst, then I resumed toward my destination. Not for long, I reached the end of the forest and found the city stood tall across of me.
“Aah, damn it, I was hoping I’m wrong…” I sighed at what I saw.
The brown city wall was well maintained, with soldiers standing on their post, watching for any suspicious activity or person in the vicinity. Two flags were planted on both sides of the city gate. It was brown in color with a black circle and golden bull head embroidery. The flag of the kingdom of Jordg.
It seems I was stranded in the neighborhood kingdom.
I can feel my headache is coming back to my head. In all of the countries and kingdoms in the world, I actually landed in the worst place possible for me. The kingdom of Jordg is a country that functions with slavery system, mostly they enslave other races than human. A human supremacist kingdom.
“Arggh… now what?” I scratched my head in frustration. A child beastmen without a slave collar would be too suspicious.
Should I stay in this forest? But I don’t want to stuck at here forever, I don’t have any map or direction I could go either. A human…Hiding my identity as a beastmen? How can I do that? I don’t know any magic spell to transform.
My mind was running in full throttle, I decided to head back into the forest before the guard noticed me. Walking back and forth, I sighed and sat down on the ground. I stared at the ground, wriggling my toes, stroking my tail, scratching my head, nothing came into my mind.
“Maybe I should break in when it’s night, but cities usually have their own barrier…., should I try?” I cocked my head to the side.
“I don’t think that is a good idea.”
I jumped and turned my body to behind me, a man with grey colored hair was standing two meters away from me. I maintained a calm facade, but my heart was shocked by how the man was able to sneak up behind without alerting me.
"…what do you want? I thought you decided to let me go?” I asked the man warily. The man sighed and throw something in my direction. It landed right at ground in front of me, a small transparent bottle with suspicious green liquid swishing inside.
I stared at the strange man, demanding an explanation. A breeze blew past us, and his overlong bang flowed briefly to the side, revealed his ash-colored eye, gazed at me unblinkingly. He had a tenderness hiding beneath that sharp and cold gaze.
He sighed once again, and raised his hand, he grabbed at his black scarf and throw it at me. The scarf landed on the ground softly, I stared at the two item in front of me, confused.
“That bottle is a transformation potion, it should be able last for one day, and that scarf is made of Titan Spider silk, it should be able to hide your smell from the ‘poacher’.” He explained to me, but that only made me even more confused than before.
“Why?” I voiced out loud of my current thought, he shouldn’t have any reason to help me, a stranger he just met, a beastmen which should be hated and look down for in this land. I watched him even more warily. He was silent for a while, then finally opened his mouth to speak.
“You helped us don’t you? I don’t like being in someone debt, so I will help you this time.” He said it coolly.
“…you are fine helping a beastmen?” I pointed at my animal ears. He nodded his head in confirmation. I keep staring at him with unbelievable expression plastered on my face.
We were staring at each other for a long time, birds chirping and unknown animal howling from afar, our eyes stared unblinkingly as if this is some sort of contest, neither of us moves, until the man run out of patience and broke the silence.
“Aargh!! Just take it already!!” He moved closer rapidly and take the two item on the ground, pushed it at me. “Stop being a hassle and drink it already! There are a group of party entering this forest now and I don’t want to be seen together with a beastmen child, it will be troublesome if people saw a collarless beastmen, got it?!” he was talking quickly and glaring at me, my previous image of him, which was a mysterious silent guy wavered.
I stared at the items I was holding in my hands. Truthfully, I actually did hear lots of footsteps nearing this spot. I could just run away from here and go to another place, but that won't solve my biggest problem, and that is my appearance and my race. I need to take care of this problem sooner or later. So I decided to take this gamble and do something unlike me.
I wear the scarf around my neck, the scarf was too long for me and I ended dragged it on the ground. I hold the bottle with one hand and popped the lid open with another one. I stared at the liquid one last time, exhaled a breath.
Then I drank the mysterious liquid with one gulp.