The path before him was narrow, twisting, and led deeper in the darkness of the Wilds. The terrain was uneven, and occasionally halting, but through experience and patience he was able to navigate forward, step by step. Demneh hadn’t yet been down this particular path yet, but he had traversed many like it.
His range of vision was consumed by the wide bases of trees. Each wide enough that dozens of people could hold hands and still not circle one completely. His senses were attuned to the variety of sounds around him, listening to a nearly deafening cacophony of calls from birds, insects, and small mammals. He marveled at just how much he could pick up on now. His senses were almost overloaded with it. He was most alert for the subtle yet unmistakable silence that can came with approaching predation. Doing his best to block out everything but the most important information, his mind ever so slightly slid away from his surroundings to consider which beast’s territory he was currently in.
He recalled this would likely still be the territory of a lesser beast, he wasn’t quite deep enough for a greater beast to call this home. The Wilds were really nothing more than a series of partially overlapping territories of increasingly more powerful predators. Nearest to human settlements, such predators were lesser beasts, capable of little more than the usage of their natural raw strength, inborn abilities, and the occasional cantrip. As you moved further away from human settlements, you encountered greater beasts, capable of taking on entire parties of adventurers through guile, command of lesser beasts, or through the use of powerful spells. He primary dealt with lesser beasts in his work as a hunter and forest scavenger, his encounters with greater beasts came when he got work as a guide for parties and stronger hunters looking for a windfall. Further away from the realm of humanity, you entered the True Wilds, and the territory of calamity beasts, but he had never considered going that far out. Dealing with greater beasts was already very dangerous for him despite his recent gains.
The prehensile tail of one such greater beast, nudged him gently as he walked, as if to remind him to keep his mind from wandering too much. He jumped with a slight surprise as the softness of her tail slid past him. She usually ranged further ahead of him, sometimes much further ahead, and always totally silent. She must have sensed his attention waiver over their bond. It had never occurred to him that one could actually feel safe enough in the wilds to let one’s mind wander, but then again, he had never felt what he felt right now. After sequences of difficulty, struggle, and work, he accomplished his goals, and for the first time in memory, he felt content.
***
Dem sat in a rare clearing, the area long since cleared out of anything really dangerous, not far from the hamlet where he had lived his whole life. Feeling his stomach protest, he considered the contents of the small wicker basket strapped to his back. It was full of plant cuttings and fruit, and there were some leaf-wrapped berries too. Without preparation though, most of it would taste horrible. The carcass of a thorn-hare hung from his back as well, the blood long since drained. His foraging this cycle hadn’t been particularly successful, and he found little that he could sell, but he would be able to feed himself and his parents tonight. His companion, however, had found herself a delicious meal of lesser vine ape. Despite their natural camouflage, the ape was easy prey for a greater many-tailed. He had to embarrassingly admit to himself that she had helped him catch the hare as well, but since he had trained her, he could take partial credit right?
He watched her eat, not asking any for himself, as vine ape tasted awful and was often poisonous due to the fruit they indiscriminately ate, but instead he simply watched her with pride. His sense of contentment stemmed, in part, from this greater beast, his greater beast, his bonded beast. The one he had raised from a kit, the one who had been his constant companion, the one who helped him find both his Class and his Path. She had been his purpose, and what set him apart from the other children of the hamlets. She had also been the cause of no small amount of ridicule, but he had never spared a thought to regret his decision to raise her.
As he watched her enjoy her meal, he couldn’t help but admire the changes her ascension to greater beast had brought. Her coat was dark, smoky, and seemed to occasionally shift in color depending on the light, allowing her to blend perfectly into the numerous shadows cast by overheard vegetation. Her body was a sleek like a fox, but with greater width at the shoulders and hips, giving her the overall size of a small wolf or a large dog. Her front and hind limbs were disproportionately large, reminding him of some of the drawings of greater cats he had seen. Such an amalgamation of traits was not uncommon in the beasts found in the wilds, cross-breeding became more possible as beasts became more powerful. Rather than being classified as a breed of mutts, what set many-tailed apart and put them into their own unique category, were their distinctive tails.
Other than the many-tailed's primary tail, which was bushy and thick, and helped them balance. Their secondary tails were prehensile, able to move and grasp objects, and were used to climb, traverse tree limbs, capture prey, and to confuse predators. Each secondary tail had a single, sharp retractable claw on the end. Greater many-tailed generally had five tails, though as they grew older and grew more powerful, it was possible further sets of tails would grow. They were truly terrifying predators, and easily the match of any solitary scavenger or hunter. What drew his attention most, wasn’t the the utterly deadly claws, or discomforting movement of her many tails, but rather the large luminescent eyes that always seemed to stop him mid-thought when he looked into them. Perhaps it was the normal reaction of prey, when looking looking into the eyes of a predator, to stop cold, or perhaps it was just that he marveled at the concentrically pupiled eyes. They could see just as well in the deepest black of a night cycle, as they could in the brightest light of a gap through the overhard canopy. Many-tailed were generally ambush predators, often waiting until their prey moved through a sunny spot and became temporarily blinded, before striking. Many-tailed eyes needed no time to adjust.
When she was a lesser beast, she was little larger than a housecat, and mostly hunted anything smaller than herself. Her ascension to greater beasthood had brought her enough size and strength to level of a human-killer. A greater many-tailed was as deadly as most of the big cat predators in the greater beast realm. With her ascension, she also gained more dexterity with her tails. They were be able extend and stretch themselves, giving her a devastating reach. Greater beasts often had more control of their bodies than lesser beasts, and sometimes were able to cast body transformation spells to increase their strength or size.
Most importantly to him, she had gained a distinct intelligence, something far beyond a mere animal, but still alien to his fairly average human mind. He could feel, what he assumed to be, her thoughts bubbling up from her instinct and experience-driven subconscious. These thoughts didn’t form words that he could understand in great detail, but instead he came to understand their underlying intent. He had to remind himself, their bond was still new, only a five or six rotations old, and it had expanded her mind. She was undoubtedly getting used to having new and interesting thoughts.
Correcting himself, it was wrong to attribute her rising intelligence to merely her ascension, greater beasts were smart but were still ultimately creatures of pure instinct. They understood territory, strength, and maybe a little guile learned over time. She was capable of more, as he found out on their hunts, when she seemed to create and execute plans, even getting him to coordinate with her at times. He could even feel something like sympathy, when they found the body of some poor unfortunate out in the Wilds, which was sadly a common occurrence. No greater beast he knew of would ever feel sympathy for prey or a fallen opponent. It was clear to him, she had gained just as much from her bond to his mind, as he had gained to his senses and physicality.
It would have taken him twenty or more sequences, most of his life, to develop a Wilderness Path to the point where he would have the heightened senses and endurance he currently held. To get to his current level, he might have even had to Class as a Ranger or a Scout, and apprentice to one of the stern, reserved, ghost-like men and women who passed through the settlement. Such a life would have been better than what he originally faced without the greater beast by his side. It would have been more coin anyway, but Rangers rarely lived to old age and were unlikely to a marry.
All of this assumed a Classed person would even have him as an apprentice. He was no peerless talent when it came to the Wilds and all the associated Wilderness Paths. His current abilities mostly stemmed from hard work, dedication, and a great deal of help from his many-tailed. Without borrowing heightened sense from the beast, there were young girls from the hamlets who could move so silently in the forest they could be right behind him and he wouldn’t know it. There were young boys who could so effortlessly blend into the forest he would walk right by them, without help from the many-tailed’s keen sense of smell. Children of the hamlets usually walked Paths that allowed them to adapt to the constant danger of living outside the settlement and to their work as scavengers, hunters, lumberers, and subsistence farmers. Children of the nearby human settlement were afforded the opportunity to follow more varied and abstract Paths, they then were able to apprentice into, or recieve, Classes appropriate to their respective Paths. The safety and security of their future lives assured by their Classes.
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This was the second source of his newly found sense of contentment, he had a Class. A class that matched his Path, a Class that allowed him his bond with his greater beast, and a Class that gave him the chance to eventually move his parents into the settlement. He even considered, in the future, moving his parents into to a larger settlement, perhaps even to a true human city outside the Wilds. His ambition flared further as his imagination expanded. He shamefully even spared a moment of thought to finding a true Beastmaster, and advancing his Class further. He was a Beast Tamer, but he could be more in the future, with luck. His revery was promptly interrupted by the prick of a small but very sharp claw in a very tender part of his backside. Ina, his many-tailed, was done eating.
***
“Ma.” He called into the into hovel he had called home for as long as he could remember.
His voice echoed into the wooden structure, set into a depression at the base of a particularly large granite-tree. It was deceptively large and cozy on the inside, as it’s back wall had been dug fairly deeply into root structure of the tree that sheltered it. His back ached at the very thought of having to dig further in, as he had to do every time Ma wanted a little more room.
“I’ve returned, and brought a hare!” he said again, as he ducked in through the doorway.
Without looking up, a stout figure, that could only be his mother, spoke, “Of course you have returned, because if you didn’t return, I would kill you.” Her voice stern, but holding no real edge. Her plain face, plain manner of speech, and threadbare dress, belied the strength of her motherly ire.
“Ma, If I did not return, I’d probably already be dead.” He returned.
“Then, I would find you and kill you again, boy.” She said, in a deadpan voice, still not bothering to look at her only child.
As much as he enjoyed engaging his mother in these morbid spirals into absurdity, he decided to change the subject. “Where is Da? Is he back yet?”
“Your Da, will be back soon. They were logging on the far-side of the settlement this work cycle.” my mother said, as she began to riffle through the basket he had set down in front of her.
“Did it go well? A lesser squall-bird that recently moved in over there. Was there any trouble with it?” His voice held little actual concern, it was unlikely that any beast would want a piece of Da, not because he was any great fighter, but because his hide would have been too tough, tasteless, and chewy to be worth eating. Like eating ten-rotation-old, mud-lizard jerky.
“If anything had happened to your Da, they would have sent a runner. He is the best lumberer they have.” His mother said without a hint of concern. Her hands already a blur of motion, fixing the rabbit for dinner.
Her Path had nothing to do with the Wilderness, but rather centered in on domestic tasks and managing the little space they kept clear for their garden. He had never asked specifically what it was, or if she had multiple Paths. Most people had a single important Path they followed, but sometimes following one Path led you through others. It was said, in scripture of the Divine Humanity, that having multiple Paths would balance an individual, but it was common knowledge that focusing mostly on a single Path was the way towards greater power.
His mother was an oddity. In most outer hamlet homes, both parents spent their cycles out in the Wilds, cutting down lumber, preparing lumber to be moved or used, hunting, or scavenging, yet she hardly left the area around their home. Da was perhaps the most single-minded lumberjack around, which made him effective, and able to provide more than most men in the hamlets, but it came at a cost. Like his Ma, Demneh had never asked his Da about his Path, but it was unlikely his Da ever studied any Path but one associated with cutting down trees. This meant that, while his Da was not the strongest lumberer, or the biggest lumberer, or even the one with the sharpest axe, his Da’s axe would bite deeper, with greater accuracy, and his stamina would be all but unending, but only while he was cutting down trees. The cost was that his father hardly ever spoke, had no other interests, was always fairly remote towards his family. To his memory, his Da had never laughed, and the only smile he could remember his Da had ever showing had been a time Dem had curiously gone to see his father at work. Holding an axe and cutting down a tree put a slight upturn at the corner of his Da’s mouth, that was something like a smile right? Studying a single Path over a long period of time gave you greater power in a singular way, but it was easier to lose yourself into that Path.
Dem had never begrudged his Da his lack of personality, or his wooden face, as he had figured out early on as a child that his Da worked hard for the sake of the family. Helpfully, his Da also never got really angry when the growing many-tailed ate everything it could find in the larder. Da simply went to go get more food, while Ma handled all the punishment. His parents showed their love in very different ways.
Dem sat down to eat a bit of fibrous bread that had been left out.
“Ma, I’m going into the settlement tomorrow to look for work further out, there isn’t much to hunt near here. With my Class, and Ina’s ascension, even greater beasts are..”
Her scowl stopped him dead, mid-sentence, food hanging from his mouth.
“Demneh! There isn’t a need to go that far out. Those people you work for are often more monsters than anything you will find out there. They wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice you for a little more gain.” His Ma had decided to go down a well worn road with her current tirade.
Weathering the storm, he spoke up. “Ma, this is the sort work I can do that will get us a home in the settlement. It is also the best work I can get for my Class.”
“Dem, we get along fine here, I have my garden, your father has his work. You don’t need to take such dangerous jobs. We don’t need the settlement, where would I even put a garden inside those walls?” Her response was unsurprising, but also unconvincing.
“It isn’t fine out here, how many of us die to accidents? Attacks? How many times have we replanted your garden after some lesser beast came through? We have no protection out here, and it isn’t safe. I need to know you two are safe when I’m out in the Wilds.” He tried to make his tone have some sense of finality, but of course she was unconvinced.
Thousands of people lived outside the settlement, grouped into small hamlets of three or four homes where space could be found or made between the largest of granite-trees. Living in purely open space in Wilds, without walls or protections spells, meant you were vulnerable to storm winds and were a sitting duck for anyone looking to take advantage. Hiding their homes among the tree roots at least meant raiders or bandits would have to stumble right onto a hamlet to find one. Of course, raiders and bandits were rare this far out into the Wilds, but still a possibility.
The settlement claimed there was no room for more people within it's walls and that it was too costly to expand the walls to keep everyone inside. The walls of the settlement were made of the tallest granite-trees that could be found, each stood up on their end, and planted into the ground with earth moving spells. They were then spelled against weather, beast, and all-manner of destruction. To live in the Wilds, safely, required such measures. The nearby settlement was one of many, sprinkled throughout the wilds. Each settlement gave adventurers and hunters a home-base to return to reprovision, during their trips outward, away from the realm of humanity, called the True Human Realm. There was even talk that the settlements were originally military fortifications, but he didn’t know for sure.
Changing tactics and tone, his Ma tried another line of argument, “Dem, why don’t you stick around and spend some time with the other young people? You’re more than old enough to be married. I want to be a grandmother! One of the girls from the far-side hamlets comes around some times, I think she is looking for you. You could have been married five rotations, an entire sequence, ago! Last rotation, two girls from..” his mother continued on for while, but he had tuned her out. These arguments were almost a play they put on for each other, they held no surprise. They shared a stubborn trait which often caused friction.
Finishing his meal, he went to his alcove to rest his head. He could feel Ina napping lazily in the tree above him. After her ascension, she didn’t much like confined spaces, so she slept in the tree's branches, rather than inside. Their home was not large, but it was cool and dark on the inside, despite the bright light outside. It would be another twenty work cycles until the next the time the Land-Above would move over the Wilds, giving them five night cycles. This was half a rotation. Each rotation was twenty work cycles of light, followed by five cycles of night, followed by twenty more cycles of light. Five rotations made a sequence.
He did not look forward to the coming night, as many beasts found greater freedom during night cycles. Beside than the most daring of adventurers, those in the settlement would hide inside the walls, while those left outside the walls in the hamlets would barricade their homes, rarely leaving but to pass messages, trade food, or seek assistance. Even he, a Classed Tamer, with a bonded greater beast, would find shelter and not leave it. Despite his earlier feeling of contentment, his thoughts were heavy as he drifted into a dreamless sleep.