With half of the night already gone, I decided to waste no more time. I shifted to my metal and glass form and left the little crevice that was my hiding place. Catori moved on as well, deeper into the trees. We spent the night slowly progressing across the branches. I hopped from shadow to shadow while trying to avoid any potential predators. By the time the sun started to rise, I had almost caught up to the monkey. She was getting some real distance.

Now came the important part: finding a safe place to rest. I was no longer used to roosting most of the day half-awake after living in civilization for so long. My body would simply fall asleep at some point. I was hoping to find a place where Catori and I could spend the day together. With two people paying attention we could set up guard shifts.

I quickly found a large tree that had a little nook in between branches covered on most sides. It was large enough to comfortably hold both of us as we rested.

Luckily, nothing happened on the first day in the forest. I took the time to shift back once night had fallen and eat a quick bite from my storage before going back to metal and glass. Catori again started to scout ahead. It was a bit difficult to keep direction but I could guide her with my sensory abilities from [Sleep Talk], at least for a bit. It also helped spot a replacement for the meal I had earlier. A small bunny that had just left its burrow. It went straight to my storage.

The second night was calm as well. I started following Catori’s path around midnight and caught up to her shortly before dawn again. Maybe we were being a bit too cautious. At least we were safe. It would also be very annoying to find a new body every night to use as a lookout for the day.

I tried to pay a little more attention to the forest itself on the second day. The noises and general feeling all around us was mostly normal. There was some tension here or there when two birds were fighting over a fruit or some monkeys had a scuffle. It seemed… almost pleasant. There was a feeling starting to settle in my chest that I could only describe as nostalgia. The forest was not very different to what I had experienced from the early months of my life.

Of course, the third night completely ruined that image. And it reinforced our plan of having Catori scout ahead with a disposable body. About two hours after she had left our hiding place, she suddenly screamed into my mind. It was painful, a wail that would not be off on a banshee. And then I felt shuddering cries as she was back in our soulspace.

“Fuck!”, she managed to say, “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

“Deep breaths”, I said, “I’m here. Get your cuddles.”

Another wail, much more subdued this time, accompanied her getting up from the couch. I only got flashes of what she was doing since she had not closed herself off at all. My soul-body was standing still next to the couch and she was leaning into it, her hands digging into the feathers.

“That was fucking scary”, she said after a few more minutes.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. I just… felt something hit me. I got knocked out for a moment. When I could feel something again…”

The shuddering got worse.

“You don’t have to describe it. I know how horrible it can feel.”

She sniffed.

“Right. Anyway, that monkey is dead. Was a nice run but… I don’t think I’m up for another.”

“Did you see anything of the attacker?”

“Some kind of cat. Or wolf. I don’t know. Big.”

“Good enough. I’ll move towards it and see if I can find tracks.”

“No!”, Catori near-shouted, “I mean. Sorry. Be careful.”

I sent a wave of reassurance.

“Of course. Next time, I’m gonna be the scout.”

That made her smile.

“Thanks.”

I gave her another mental hug before refocusing on reality. Two hours for the monkey was one hour for me so I would be safe to travel for a bit. Still, I made sure to utilize [Sneak] as much as I could to keep out of sight. I also ran my senses on overdrive to look ahead for any threat.

Half an hour later, I got a first idea of what had gotten to Catori. There was a node not too far behind where she was taken out. It was tenebrae, aer, and ordo. It felt like it was a major node, as well. That made it likely the [Node Guardian] would be sapient, if not used to communication.

Ten minutes later my [Sleep Talk] found what I was looking for. A sapient soul. And it was wide awake, strafing the nightly forest. Catori’s arrival had probably made it more attentive. I observed for half an hour as the animal circled its node. It was moving slowly and stopping regularly, probably to look for traces of any more intruders. I made use of that just a little later by moving into the scouting area when it was on the other side of the node. I quickly found a hidden branch as high up as possible and settled in to watch. Not five minutes later, I saw it.

The animal was definitely evolved. There was no other way a panther could be four metres long. Without its tail, that is. It was pure black and had pointed ears rather than the slightly round ones one would expect. Darkness seeped out of its pelt similar to what I did with my feathers. I immediately felt a sort of kinship. The only spots of light were the yellow eyes reflecting the tiny bit of moonlight that seeped through the leaves.

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Despite its size, the panther moved without making a single noise. Well, almost. It appeared whatever Skill it used to sneak around was not as good as mine. I could still only barely hear the occasional crunch of dirt or grass underneath its paws even with my incredible hearing.

I observed it for a second pass, not finding anything new. The panther did not seem to be focused on will Attributes so I decided to try for a [Hidden Identify] just as it was about to leave my sight.

[Identify]

[Identify]

Species: Giant Night Stalker (adult)

Age: 22

Name: -

Gender: male

Status: healthy, sapient, Beast Core (unique)

Level: 96

Class: [Spirit Hunter], -

That was a high level. I quickly checked to see if I was caught but the night stalker showed no reaction. [Spirit Hunter] did indicate some investment in will Attributes so there was a definite risk. It was a good thing I had invested so much into my own. I would also avoid using [Hidden Identify] deeper into the forest.

“This is who killed you”, I sent to Catori.

I felt her take a half-hearted look before shuddering and sinking into my soul-body once again.

“Do you think I should try to communicate with him?”

“… do what you want”, she mumbled.

I froze for a moment. That was not helpful. Still, it would be good to have a powerful ally. Maybe…

Giant Night Stalker: This evolved panther is filled with darkness and a desire for the hunt. It stalks its prey over days, sometimes weeks, only to get the perfect kill. Its steps are silent as the night, its fangs deadly as a blade. Do not draw its interest if you value your life.

Okay, he did not seem like a good candidate for our thaumaturgical alliance. This animal was someone we should consider asking for help if we proceeded with the taint project but other than that, there was no reason to communicate right now. The chance that [Spirit Hunter] would allow him to help us with our research on souls and nodes was too small to risk the time investment to teach him about civilization and Ordugh.

I decided to wait for another pass before retreating the way I came and taking a wide berth around the Giant Night Stalker’s turf. Maybe I could come back one day and get him to help us but right now, it was too little reward for too much effort.

After passing him, I relaxed a little and went back to looking for a new scout body. It was not too hard to find a lonely squirrel which had a spacious enough home for me to slip in using [Eldritch Shift]. This time, Catori was not helping me with keeping my body afloat because I told her to get some rest. I realized she had left our soul after I had taken over the squirrel's body and looked to where she was. She had not broken the telepathic connection but was keeping it away from her. It felt like she wanted to have some alone time, even though she was likely with Nymph. The starling was our only other body, after all.

I had to spend the next night switching back and forth between our bodies and found myself quite successful. The squirrel might not be nocturnal but it had some good instincts for finding hiding spots which I utilized as much as I could. By taking only small leaps of twenty to fifty metres, I could quickly follow up with my main body. Thus, I almost made as much distance as I had together with Catori before.

The following nights I started to notice more and more nodes all over the place. Most of them were small, or medium at most, but every once in a while I spotted a large node in the distance. This was also much easier thanks to my main body and its sensory Skills being available to protect my scout body.

The most important part, though, was that [Distant Dreaming] was proper sleep for the other body. I had never really thought about it since I always used it together with Catori but I could spend a full day awake by just using two separate bodies. My soul did not tire, apparently. At least not that I noticed. I still made sure to get some ‘full’ rest by staying in the body that was sleeping, just in case.

When I told Catori, she got miffed again, mumbling something about “I had to die for that?”. I apologized and she waved me off. She was still willing to help but after leading to me dying once as the squirrel even though she was in range and should have noticed the node I was walking up to, I decided to take on this mission myself. Maybe she was shaken from those first few nights, maybe she was just not as skilled as me using our main body’s Skills. Whatever it was, I was working much better on my own, even with two bodies.