In anticipation of heading to a more spiritual town I read up on the native people of the Menagerie coast, the Ki’nau. Long ago during the Calamity the entire coast was sunk underwater and most of the people that lived here drowned with it. It was the people that lived on the higher jungles of the Swavian islands that survived and would go on to repopulate much of the coast. At some point in the first 300 years they began to hear the call of Uk’otoa. He offered great power in exchange for protection and power. They accepted his offer and their society grew with the leviathan as the protector of the entire coast. It was when settlers from Marquet arrived and offered a hand at friendship and trade that things got rough for Uk’otoa. Zehir the cloaked serpent, his lord and creator, was jealous of his worship and had his servants imprison Uk’otoa. Eventually the settlers from Marquet wished to be free of their home country and asked for independence. Surprisingly, or rather not since it was J’mon Sa Ord that gave it, the settlers asked the Ki’nau to join them in brotherhood and together these two people founded the Clovis Concord. A colonization story with a happy ending for everyone. Well except Uk’otoa but he doesn’t count.

I fly over the Plumgrooves and enjoy its beauty. Trees with white bark and flowers of purple. I see families moving along forest pathways and workers with baskets of fruits. Outside of the farms, this is where Feolinn gets its fruits for wine. I don't blame them, every fruit I have had from this forest is delicious. If I decide to hunt here I need to be careful as poaching is illegal. I might have some luck because of the recent arrests but I don’t need to fight a guard right now.

My peaceful trip gets interrupted when I am about 3/4ths of the way through the forest. I hear a scream. Immediately I land and shift to my dog form for the enhanced hearing and smell. Blood is in the air and I can hear the sound of metal clanking. A wolf's cry cuts through the forest. I change again and rush forwards as a horse.

I arrive at a clearing where a battle is taking place. There are 4 Zho fighting about 6 wolves. On the other end I see two workers in a tree trying to not be eaten by a very large wolf. Probably a Dire variant. There is a pause where I am the center of attention as a dozen things happen at once. I rush towards the wolves attacking the Zho and charge through them. At that time the dire wolf leaves the tree and rushes toward me but he won't reach me in time. I charge into 2 wolves knocking one over with a hoof and stepping on another. Two of Zho take advantage of the opportunity and stab the prone wolf. The other two Zho try to hold back the other four wolves. The dire wolf is about ten feet away leaping for a bite. I spin and clock the wolf with a back hoof to the jaw. Two of the Zho finish off another wolf. 4 Zho against 4 wolves while the dire wolf gets back up to face me. He charges again but I drop my form and shrink about 5 feet. Now he is flying well over me. I duck to my left and slide out of my backpacks straps. I throw the bag at the wolf. It does almost no damage to it but I just need it for the distraction as my quarterstaff swings at the beast's front leg. I think I broke something but the wolf doesn't show it. He responds by jumping on by trying to bite me. I push back against his chest with my staff but I am knocked to the ground in the struggle. I changed to cat form and brought all of myself under his belly.

I scramble and dash away. The wolf gives chase but that's good as I bring him away from his underlings. The Zho seem to be dealing with the normal wolves easily. Only 3 are left and they are backing off now that they are on their own. I can’t focus too much attention on them as I need to dodge trees and teeth. While the dire wolf has good speed it can’t move in this forest as well as he could and I turn behind a group of trees to give myself another moment to shift. This time I am human but I have morphed my entire right arm using the muscles of the draft horse. I haven’t figured out how to give myself a full range of motion but I got a mean swing.

The dire wolf isn't stupid and stares at me. I stop playing the prey and move towards him swinging. He tries to lean back but my added reach gives my quarterstaff enough room to bring the newly added metal ball head right into his skull. I hear a crack and the wolf falls over dead.

Holy shit. A month of practicing and swinging a stick and I won my first battle with barely a damn scratch. Granted I ran away for most of it but hey if it works. And now I have a dire wolf. This thing is huge. Nearly as big as my draft horse. Once I figure out how to make a humanoid version of these large forms I am gonna be incredible. Well maybe I should keep the wolf man to a minimum. Don't need to be mistaken for a werewolf.

I head back to the clearing to check on the Zho. I only see the corpses of 4 wolves so the other two must have run off. “Hey you guys alright?” I yell out.

“Yea we are fine. Are you Edsom?” One of the Zho asked.

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“Yea that's me. I heard someone scream and ran over as fast as I could.” I said.

“Good thing you did. Patrols have been lacking in the forest lately on the count of you getting most of the guards arrested.” Said another. He was half taking a jab at me and half grateful.

“Not entirely my fault. Blame Harris for keeping track of it all.” I said.

“Yea well it doesn't matter. Ya saved us and for that we are grateful. Jack, Frank, take these people towards Feolinn. Colin and I will deal with the wolf bodies. Edsom, glad to have to around. We know you aren't a Zho no more but I appreciates you taking the time to help. As far as I am concerned you're still a Zho.” Said the leader.

“Any time. I am going to head out after taking a piece of the dire variant. See you around.” I said. I went back to the dire wolf and cut off the tail. As far as others know I need to eat a piece of an animal to gain that form. I am taking a piece of most of the things I kill just so I can maintain that facade.

A lovely little diversion. Saved some lives and got a new form. And the most important thing. I won my first real fight solo. All that worry and fear about surviving contact with the enemy and I beat a damn direwolf. That's probably just as deadly as a bear. With this win I know I can head to more dangerous areas. Get in a few surprise kills and I might be able to snowball into a dozen new forms at least. Onto the Othemoor. I wonder what I will find in this swamp.

……….

Rubert

"The boss seems happy today." Rubert said. Looking at the boss wasn’t hard. All one had to do was focus on him. It was like a feeling in the back of his head. Pay attention to it and you can see what he sees and hear what he hears. “Rubert spends some days doing nothing but that. Others he simply checked the new memories. Today though he was teaching the newbies. All of them came from a species that was somewhat intelligent but now they were more than that. They had entered the big leagues so to speak.

“So. Have you all picked out your names yet?” Rubert asked.

“Lightning!” Said the dog. He has changed his answer every five minutes so we shall see.

“Atlas.” Said the horse. He wanted something strong.

“Gatsby.” Said the crow. He seemed to be interested in all the old novels the boss had read.

“You can call me tiny.” said the rat with childlike enthusiasm. He seemed young still or maybe that's just how he was.

“I am Clarion, the lord of claws and blood. My reign shall be eternal.” Said the cat. He was what the boss would describe as cringe.

“Well if that's what you have all chosen then good. People don't change their names often so you need to stick with them. They will become a part of you. I had the name Rubert before the boss killed me but I didn't mind so it stuck. Now the boss isn't a bad person. You all will come to terms with your death one way or another but I know you will find life here to be enjoyable. For one, you don’t need to eat.” Rubert said.

“We can’t eat food!” Lightning asked.

“No. You can eat and taste like normal. You don’t need to though. Same with drinking or even breathing. The bodies you possess now are simply a construct that was created to give your souls a form to interact with the world around you.” Rubert said.

“Yes. This furry prison has prevented Clarion from reaching his true destiny for too long. Is there a way to be free of it here?” Clarion asked.

“Not sure. The boss has tried to change me. He might have the ability or it might be up to you.” Rubert said. Clarion looked happy. He is going to be troubling to deal with.

“Can we continue to look at the memories?” Asked Atlas.

“Yes. The boss has let me do that since I got here. He was worried about what happens if you all got these memories and was busy dealing with the Zho incident but with bringing you here Atlas he decided to change that. Most people that come here will be given the same opportunity to grow. To the people that don’t deserve it the boss has been testing some prison designs.” Rubert said.

“The boss is going to bring bad people here?” Tiny said.

“He might. He is an adventurer. Meaning he will go to places and fix problems for people or he will find bad people that hurt others. He might have to kill some of them. Which means they get brought here. We will deal with that together when that happens.” Rubert said.

“What is the master like?” Gatsby asked.

“Anxious as hell. He is usually always worried about what people think of him. He has a lot of negative thoughts he tries to not let bother him but they still do. He is doing better lately. Helping people and getting stronger are doing good for him. He is worried about the moral implications of this world but I will tell you all my opinion. In this world, he is a demigod. He controls the very land beneath our feet. He could be doing a lot more than he is but doesn’t. He is balancing both this world and the other all while trying to not let his previous one drag him down too much. He has a lot of trauma there. Something happened to him about a year or so ago. I am not sure but it is bad. That memory orb exists but the boss has hidden it. Don't try to find it. It won’t have a good outcome.” Rubert said.

The other 5 looked a little worried but that's okay. This is going to go well. I will do my best to make sure the Boss is happy and moving forward in this life because he damn well deserved it.