*Rustle  rustle*

Sam awoke to the sounds of something moving putside of his log. It might have also been the ground shaking that dragged him from his slumber. Quickly shaking the remaining drowsiness from his mind, Sam checked to make sure his scent was still being nullified, and upon seeing that it was still at work he very slowly made his made to a hole in the side of his home. Looking out from the hole, he saw a strange looking creature. It was what could be described as a bear sized beaver with a rabbit tail. It was sniffing around the small clearing, seemingly scavenging for berries and such, or maybe even creatures if it was carnivorous.

Watching it sniff around, Sam was very glad he had the forsight to get the scent control skill, without it, he may have never woken up in the first place.

'Speaking of snifing...' Sam seemed to recall that snakes usually saw through their sense of smell 'So why can't I?'

Pushing the thought to the back of his mind, Sam continued to observe the Bearver for a lttle while more. It continued to sniff around the clearing for a bit, before finding a scent trail and wandering off. Making sure it wouldn't come back, Sam slid back from his observing hole, and looked around to make sure there werent any easy meals around.

After seeing that there were no bugs in the log with him, He settled down and thought about his plan for the day. First on the list was finding food. After that he would need to find someplace safe; his log would only be good for as long as it takes some other animal to seek refuge inside of it. Once safe, he would rethink his current situation.

Happy with his plan for the day. simple though it may be, he slithered out into the clearing. Looking around, he remembered his thoughts earlier about how he should be able to smell the air. Thinking that it might be helpful in finding prey, and avoiding predators, he tried to remember all he knew about snakes (which is not a lot). He knew that they can go for a while without eating, which he supposed was why he was only slightly hungry despite having just been birthed and only having eaten a beetle. Sam also knew that when snakes smell they use their tongues to taste the air. He supposed he should start with that.

Sam first tried the simplest thing, he used his nose to sniff (just to make sure) and found that all it accomplished was replenishing his lungs; no smell could be percied from his nostrils. Next, he flicked out his tounge, like he knew snakes typically do.

Immediately, Sams senses were flooded with information. A multitude of different sounds came to his attention, along with knowledge on what these smells came from. It wasn't a wholly accurate thing, just things like "food" from some caterpillars, or perhaps the lingering scent of the Bearver had sent him a message meaning "danger." It was not much different from his nose as a human, as far as he could tell; just a bit more detailed.

*ding*

{Due to finding a new way to percieve the world around you, your perception has increased by 5! Congratulations!}

{Due to percieving scents through the taste of the air, you have unlocked the racial skill:}

{Scent Perception}

{Passive}

{Using your sense of scent, you can get a vague map of certain things in your surroundings. At later levels you can get a detailed image of your surroundings. At its highest level, you will be able to differentiate between the different elements present in magic. If you are familiar with the magics being detected, you will be able to identify the specific spell being used.}

Sam stared at the screens in front of him.

'Racial skills are locked until I use them?' The thought seemed strange to him. If he was born with these things, then shouldn't he already have the skills? He supposed this meant he had infrared vision, which would be immensely helpful in his survival. It seems he would have to very much work hard on finding out all the racial skills he had yet to unlock.

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Sam quickly shook his head, he already had his plan for the day, first and foremost was food. Putting his newly aquired skill to use, he flicked out his tongue. Finding a scent telling him of prey, he made sure it wasn't in the direction that the the Bearver before he went on his way. every few seconds he would flick his tongue out to keep on the trail.

~~~

This same pattern of moving a bit, flicking out his tongue, and checking for predators continued for a large majority of the day. Sam was feeling a bit frustrated, because it seemed that whenever he was about to find something, the trace would dissapear, and he would have to pick up a different scent trail. It seemed as if the bugs he was searching for flew off whenever he came close.

Sam stopped.

"No way. Nonono. Oh fuck I'm so stupid." Sam berated himself for his stupidity. He completely forgot that, like any living thing in existence, bugs would run or hide when a dangerous thing came near them. He was a dangerous thing, so when he came near them they would run or hide. He was so stupid.

He stopped his sniffing and searching for a while, feeling frustrated with himself. Sure, he wasn't really the next Einstein, but how could it have taken him an entire day to figure out such a simple problem? More than this, it had happened many times over the course of the past few hours and he had only just gotten it. After fuming for a while, Sam took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

Having spent a few minutes sitting there, calming down and trying to come up with a solution to his problem, Sam felt he was ready to try again. And so, he went on sniffing, and quickly found a scent. He was so excited about the prospect of finally finding food that he didn't notice the faint smell of danger that flowed through the tree branches. Nor did he notice that this scent was only about an hour old; not long at all to any average hunter, it wouldn't be strange if the creature that left this scent wasn't far off at all...

~~~

An hour and a half flew by as Sam stalked the scent trail of what he thought may have been a small animal like a squirrel. he had caught glimpse of a small poofy tail race away from him on a few occasions, as he wasn't good enough at remaining silent to get get close enough to kill. One thing he was very happy about, though, was that he was getting much better. It had taken the squirrel actually seeing him before it had ran off.

One thing he had learned in his quest for food, was that slower was better. At least, up until he was close enough that going fast was better. That usually meant less than a foot away, which was a challenge to reach in it's own right.

Again, Sam caught sight of the small creature he had been stalking for just under 2 hours. He quickly slowed down his slithering, and ducked his head low to the ground, while subconciously sticking to the darker shadows casted by the underbrush. As Sam slowly go closer, he saw that the creature seemed to be cleaning itself, which to his understanding meant the thing felt safe enough here to groom, which also meant that he would have a bit of easier time getting near it. Happy at his good luck, Sam didnt notice when he brushed up against a small twig leaning against a tree he was sliding by, and so the stick fell.

*kachik*

His prey heard the noise and immediately ran off, not sparing a single glance as to the origin of the noise. Sam sat stunned, feeling himself fill with grief at the prospect of another long hunt. He decided to rest for a bit, before setting out again, not looking forward to the extended hunt before him. It had been almost ten hours since he set out from his home in the morning, and the sky was showing slight signs of dusk. After thinking a bit more, Sam decided that rather than continue the hunt, he would go home to his log and get some rest, so that he could be better prepared to put his new experience to use tomorrow.

Turning around, he started slithering home, no longer caring about stealth. He had make sure to lick random things on his hunt, as well as rub on as many things as posible, so as to mark a trail he could follow home. Now that he was no longer moving slowly, nor sticking to the shadows, the return trip was much faster than the initial exploration. He wqas about halfway home before he heard a dull sound, though he couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from.

Pausing to listen to the thumping, he was trying to find out where it was coming from. As he was listening, he noticed it was coming closer, which made him tense up slightly, but he relaxed once he realized it was too muffled to be very near him. It almost seemed as if it would pass above him...

Sam's eyes widened as he processed the passing thought, and he quickly whipped around, staring up at the trees all around him. Almost at the exact same time he turned, a medium sized, darkly colored cat like being jumped down in front of him. A strange thing, Sam noticed, was that evn though the creature landed right in frony of him, the sound still seemed as if it was meters away, muffled.

Sam's eyes met with the creatures, a gloating expression visible in its cold brown eyes.