We connected to the three sapient beings at the same time. I made sure to make them aware of the shared telepathy including all of them. There was a clear air of aggression coming from the two ‘outside’ beings, the one that had been roaming. The one I had invaded the dreams of was much calmer and primarily curious.
Catori was doing most of the initial conversation, sending calming feelings and peaceful sounds of birdsong. She was projecting curiosity and interest in the silverwood tree. That last bit destroyed all her efforts of reducing aggression. I was tempted to use words but remembered that hearing me speak in its dreams woke up the one I was trying to communicate with. And it was a panicked awakening.
Instead, I showed images of a new silverwood tree growing out in an open plain. I showed them I wanted to take a branch and plant it somewhere else. Derision was the answer. Contempt. Humour. They were calling me an idiot. So I turned my images into a question.
Barking laughter of three beasts sounded through the forest. I was pushed away by the one I had woken up. The other two tried but I barely registered their efforts. They were… weak. At least their will-Attributes. Which was surprising, considering the barrage of vines they had tried to stop me with. Maybe they were just exhausted and not weak?
I pictured myself landing and interacting with them in person which, despite my peaceful emotions, set them on edge again. It looked like we had already failed in our approach.
Catori blocked off a part of our mind to talk to me.
“Okay, I have no idea what to do about that”, she said.
“We could take over one of them… But a peaceful solution would take a few weeks of harmless persistence.”
“… can we remember this spot and come back?”
I looked around. The forest was… endless. The ravine was not too far away but I was not entirely confident.
“Maybe? It was hard to spot in the first place.”
“Then I say we take a closer look at what they are. Maybe we can take them on.”
“Once they’re asleep, yes?”
“Yes.”
I refocused on the three people and sent a thankful feeling with a tinge of disappointment. My answer was a derisive relief. Then I separated the connection. I made sure to fly away slowly in a straight line. An hour later, I was moving on the ground. Or rather, in the treetops. [Sneak] made me perfectly silent as I slowly made my way back to their home. My senses were primed to find not only the three targets but also anything else that could be an issue. It took almost another three hours before they came back into my range. I was slow without my flight.
The first thing I noticed was the one that had slept earlier was doing so again. Of the two patrolling, one was also resting with the other moving in a much tighter circle. It was getting close to midnight so they probably had gotten tired. I activated my [Owl Senses] to look for all the magic around me. Then I remembered [Mingling] had been altered and I would no longer be able to project essence around me to hide from magical senses. On the other hand, we could much easier stay with the group after taking over one of their own. Which… we did not really plan to do.
I stopped relying on [Sneak]’s automated functions and paid much more attention to where I was going. I made sure to hide my steps and wing flaps with the motions of the wind and other critters all around the area. My body was wreathed in a thin cloud of darkness to better blend into the shadows. Vacuos vis ate any sounds I made but I carefully stopped it from muting the natural rusting of the leaves.
Bit by bit, I was closing up on my targets. The last few hundred metres were even slower than before but eventually, I saw what I was stalking. It looked… weird. Like an armadillo and yet not. It was much sleeker with scales in browns and reds and the snout was much more canine and larger than it should be. The tail as well sat at a higher point. All of that rested on legs much longer than made sense.
“It’s a fox?”, Catori asked.
And suddenly it made sense. It looked exactly like a fox, just with scales instead of fur. A scaled fox? A careful [Hidden Identify] confirmed my proposed name.
[Identify]
Species: Scaled Fox (adult)
Age: 19
Name: -
Gender: male
Status: healthy, sapient, Beast Core (progenitor)
Level: 112
Class: [Wild Druid], [Guard], -
“That’s powerful”, Catori said, “At least it didn’t notice us yet.”
I hummed in agreement, mentally.
“Try to get a look at the others?”
They were not too far away and with my vantage point from near the treetops, I would be able to see them soon. I waited for the apparent [Guard] to move further away from me before closing in on the sleeping ones. They were the same species. But… only one more had a progenitor core.
[Identify]
Species: Scaled Fox (adult)
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Age: 22
Name: -
Gender: female
Status: healthy, sapient, Beast Core (progenitor), node guardian
Level: 130
Class: [Wild Druid], [Hunter], -
That was the other large one. She was maybe a few centimetres shorter than the Guard and sleeping halfway hidden beneath the roots. The third one had found a small hollow up the tree. She was probably their child. I could not explain how she had no Core otherwise.
[Identify]
Species: Scaled Fox (adult)
Age: 7
Name: -
Gender: female
Status: healthy, sapient, vis enriched (medium), node guardian
Level: 32
Class: [Sentry], -
“We’re not killing the kid”, Catori said immediately.
“So you want to eradicate a budding sapient species by taking out the progenitors instead?”
“Nah. Let’s take a look at the tree. I’ll show the memories to Nymph. Maybe she can point something out.”
I nodded.
The silverwood tree was… not very impressive. It looked almost like a birch with blue leaves. The crown was a little smaller in radius and extended most of the way to the bottom, almost like a fir tree. There were a few small plants near its foot that I identified as shimmerleaf. They looked like lilies though with large silver orbs in the centres of their bulbs. The orbs softly reflected the moonlight whenever it made it past the leaves. The most impressive part was certainly the node trapped inside its trunk. It almost seemed to feed the tree, explaining the extensive number of leaves even that far below the treetops. I… could see nothing by the way of seeds. That would have been too easy. Maybe you really had to cut off a branch and replant it?
“That should be enough”, Catori said and I started my retreat. Only to lock eyes with the first scaled fox. The [Guard]. I was much closer to his family so rather than attack me straight up, I saw him channel vis into the plants. He was slowly growing vines around the other two. I decided to play just a little and gave a soft hoot. With it, I disappeared into [Eldritch Shift] and rematerialized a few steps above him. Vacuos and Perditio pulsed through my feathers as shadows billowed around me.
The scaled fox growled and I saw a double-line of razor-sharp teeth. My body was still in my metal and glass form so I was not too worried. I slowly retracted my shadows as I pulled my wings closed. I made sure to stand upright, towering above him by a head, but not making any more threatening moves. Even the vis in my wings moved back to my core. His snarl stopped abruptly. Confusion spread on his face, the ears hesitantly standing back up. I pushed my will out and connected my mind to his again. There was a slight flinch but he barely made a noise. I once again tried to convey my interest in the silverwood tree and how it grew but only received annoyance and confusion in return.
Halfway through our ‘conversation’, something rustled in the tree behind me. The younger scaled fox was waking up. She barely moved and I ignored her for the most part until I felt the telltale pull of an [Identify] on my soul. I whipped my head around and clicked my tongue. A metallic snap exploded in the nightly forest, silencing every last critter within a hundred metres distance. The young fox broke off her Skill and flinched back into her hollow.
A hiss came from the roots. I eyed the mother for a second as vines crawled around her and dismissed the threat. Obviously, she was a threat. By showing I did not care about her plants, I made it seem like I was not worried about them. That in itself was my second-best defence right now.
I let out a sigh and lowered my head to the father. When I projected the shimmerleaf into his thoughts, he flicked his tail. We met eyes for a few seconds. Then, a few roots broke through the dirt and brought me the three closest of the flowers. I picked them up with my shadows and quickly threw them into my storage. That one made them flinch. It was my time to send mirth through the connection before bidding my farewell once again.
As we were flying back to the ravine to follow it towards the huge tree once again, Catori spoke up in my mind.
“It’s too sad they were sapient. I would’ve liked that form.”
“They were cute”, I agreed, “Disregarding the whole ‘vine tentacles’ thing.”
She chuckled.
“Sorry, again. I haven’t been very useful.”
“Keeping contact with Nymph is useful, though. Has she said something about the silverwood, by the way?”
“No. She’s sleeping.”
“Ah. Tomorrow, then.”
“Yes. Tomorrow…”