"So what do you think? This is your first time outside of the village, right?" Dominic asked curiously as he stopped after running for about twenty minutes, walking off the main trail to undo his pants and casually relieved his bladder. The casualness implied strongly to Rou that certain things about this new world were just different. Not that he cared, it wasn't terribly uncommon even in his previous world in more rural areas.

"The trees never stop."

His father laughed at that, not disagreeing. Taking a cue from his father, Rou hopped off the pack after letting go of the rope and urinated as well.

When they were both finished, Rou was picked up by his father from the back of his clothes and he promptly jumped up to the top of the trees while using wind magic to push away the branches and leaves mostly. Which gave him and his son a chance to look back at the village where they came from.

"See? That's where we live. It's not much but it's home." It was Rou's first time seeing it from afar and it really did look fairly dingy now that he got the chance. But he held his tongue. Then he got to turn and there were trees literally as far as the eye could see in every other direction. "We'll be going for a while. Feel free to ask for a stop whenever you need. I brought a spare sprayer with us too." Rou nodded. Convenient. No need to pack tons of disposables when you could just clean up with a magic tool.

–

Their journey was fairly non-descript. No monsters, no bandits, no travelers or any such. There was really no one else around for almost forever it seemed. Though at one point in the third day, Dominic stopped and his fur raised slightly, but he would never tell Rou what he was nervous about and instead deviated a bit. When Rou asked Affection, she took a moment to respond and then said in his mind, "It would appear a couple of monsters got into a fight nearby and your father noticed. I cannot tell from how far away you are what they were, but chances are it was a couple of male Spinebears beating the snot out of each other."

'Spine bears?'

"Mm… I looked through the memories you have of animals a couple months ago and best I can describe is picture an oversized Grizzly bear covered in spines like a porcupine, and give it the personality of a Chihuahua. Two meet, one leaves. Sometimes neither of them leave. Luckily I believe your father is capable enough to handle one of them if he comes across one but if he ran across two he wouldn't come out unscathed unless you were out of the equation."

'...right. Thank you for letting me know.'

–

On the fourth day, however, Rou was sitting atop his fathers pack as usual when he started to get tired. "Mm… can we take a break?"

Dominic paused and looked up at Rou. "Ah, sure. Short or long?"

"Sorry dad, I'm feeling tired." it wasn't that late but he did have a childs body despite all the godly perks he was given. Naps were to be expected.

"Right, in that case, let me make sure…"

'Anything nearby, Affection?'

"No."

"We're safe dad, Affection says there's nothing nearby."

"...did you ask, or did she offer that answer?"

"Both."

"So you can freely talk to her?"

"Yes."

"...don't tell your mother. She's grateful to Affection of course, but she's also nervous about it."

"Okay."

–

Later that night, Rou woke up to a fire and Dominic preparing food. It smelled nice and all, but Rou had a strange feeling. Something in the area didn't feel right. It left him unsettled. Like someone was watching.

'Is something watching us?'

"...no? There's nothing within legs of you, let alone able to see you. Why?"

'I feel nervous. Like when I used to walk through the woods as a kid and felt like something was watching me. Or that I just shouldn't be here.'

"...well there's nothing terribly nearby from what I can tell. Nothing alive, certainly, besides general woodland creatures like rodents and birds."

'Okay, I trust you. I just wish I knew why I was feeling this.'

Rou stood up and stretched before walking over towards his father and asking, "Affection says there's nothing wrong, that we're safe, but something feels scary. Can we… go somewhere else dad?"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

That feeling was something he just could not shake. It scared the absolute fuck out of him and despite Affection's reassurances it was not going away. Never having seen Rou actually look scared before, Dominic picked him up and kicked some dirt onto the fire, leaving it to burn out. Didn't even question him further and promptly packed up in a few seconds and left with the kid in his arms on the way.

But despite being carried safely in his fathers arms, the more and more they traveled, the more Rou began to shiver until he was clinging onto his father and hiding his face under his neck.

'Something's wrong Affection, what is it? Something's going to kill us!'

"Rou, I told you, there's not another living creature bigger than your fathers foot within range of sight even if there were no trees. What's got you like this?"

–

An hour later, suddenly a notification popped up.

Notice:

Status resisted - [Noseblind.]

Rou was confused before about ten seconds after that…

Notice:

Status resisted - [Noseblind.]

'Affection, what is that status?'

"...I don't really know. Some strange plant in the area? I'll look into it."

'It smells like something is… rotting.'

"Hey, do you smell something strange?" Rou asked his father suddenly. Dominic stopped and breathed in but shook his head. "I don't, no."

"...pull food out and smell it. Can you smell it?" Rou asked in turn.

The older male seemed confused but did as his son asked, setting him down and pulling out a preserved bottle of berries only to realize, "No, no, I don't smell anything at all. That's strange, is there something in the area?" As Dominic tried to make sense of it, suddenly Affection's voice rang out in Rou's mind.

"Rou, have your father grab you and get to the tallest tree, then leap as high as he can and look around. Ask him if part of the forest seems unusually dark."

He told his father who listened, grabbing the kid and jumping to the trees, then leaped straight up and looked around only to find himself met with, in the distance, a large, fluffy black patch in the forest.

"It can't be…" Dominic muttered under his breath, eyes wide with timidity.

"FLEE, NOW!" Affection yelled through Rou's body, using her authority in an emergency capacity. Dominic didn't even pause to question his kids voice saying something like that, instead grabbing him and running along the treetops in the opposite direction, back towards the village.

"Rou there's no time, you have to convince him to go to the capital first and not back to the village. If you go to the village first, you won't be able to make it back around in time on a return trip! " Affection warned quickly, leaving Rou to try and pick up the pieces.

"Dad, no, Affection says you can't."

"You moms back there! Everyone in the village!"

"She says if you go back, you won't have enough time to get around whatever that is before it grows further. She says you have to get to the capital and warn them."

Dominic shook physically at that, his tail limp and his ears folding back before grabbing Rou and turning to do as he was told. But what surprised Rou was he saw his dad bite down on his own forearm, causing it to bleed while at the same time, a glowing tattoo in the shape of what looked like a fang glowed.

"Sound off, who is available?"

–

In the capital, outside of the castle at the far back of the city, a tall canine was wandering the perimeter and paused when he saw his own similar tattoo glow. "Who is this? I don't recognize your voice."

"Dominic Erial, on permanent leave, it's an emergency!"

"I'll be the judge of that. I don't know your name, but you couldn't contact this way unless you had permission. State your business."

"No time, damnit, get the King!" Dominic's voice sounded through the glowing fang rune.

"Not until you tell me what you need." the canine growled.

"There's a black spore breakout in the forest to the northeast of the capital city, in the direction of Carneltown."

"Lies. Begone, I will have your access removed by morning."

"Why would I possibly lie about this! Get the king, now!" Dominic once again yelled.

"Sir…" another voice nearby sounded off by the canine who answered Dominic. "...I know him. He isn't lying, he used to be a fang. He accidentally got a claw pregnant several years ago and the King gave them his blessing to leave and raise the kid. He wouldn't lie about this kind of thing, we need to…"

The canine fellow promptly smacked the fang across his nose and sharply responded, "Mind your station boy, there is no black spore breakout, let alone one dangerous enough to warrant this. He's after the reward, probably trying to impress the woman he ran off with."

The other fang who knew Dominic was shocked by the response, especially after his commander forcibly cut off the communication.

–

"Damnit… that idiot, where is Jarek? That wasn't him… sorry Rou, we can't stop for long. Eat on the run and…."

Rou patted his father, "I understand."

–

Several days later, a malnourished-looking Dominic showed up at the gates of the capital and rushed ahead of the line of travelers, barely able to stay upright as he had been burning his mana the whole while on wind magic and ignoring the drain on his stamina.

"Wait, who are you? Get back in line. Damn you look rough, what's the matter with you?" the soldier closest walked over as he saw he had a kid with him who hopped down, but before Rou could try and speak in his fathers defense, he stood up and shakily held out his arm, causing the fang rune to show. "Move… now." Dominic huffed out with what little breath he had.

The soldier tensed up and quickly opened the gate, before asking, "Should I be worried?"

Dominic shook his head, "No need to panic, yet. Wait on an announcement from the King, if it comes."

And then he grabbed Rou by his shirt like in the past and promptly leapt up onto a nearby building, running along the roofs towards the castle in the far back.

–

In the throne room, the King, Queen, a few concubines and various ministers were all present and doing their duties when a soldier opened the door, "Pardon, majesties, someone is trying to break into the castle, claiming to be a fang. We have it under control, but if you hear anything…"

The king, a middle-aged rabbit fellow, seemed confused, "What do you mean claiming to be a fang. Either they are or aren't."

"Well, sir…" the soldier began to answer before the fang Commander stepped out of a side hall. "Sorry, Your Majesty, I didn't think he would be so persistent about this. Someone a few days ago somehow gained access to the fang rune communications and tried to insist I let you speak with him. I didn't recognize his name and believed him to be a danger, so I cut it off and thought he would drop it. We have a few members out and about, so I could only assume one of them got caught and was forced to activate the rune."

The king looked at his commander and nodded. "What was his name, if you recall?"

The canine commander sneered slightly as if he hadn't wanted to say before recounting, "Dominic Erial was the name he gave."

The king seemed to think and tried to remember before his wife came up, "Dominic, that's the name of the one who managed to sire a child with my attendant claw Shiela, yes?"

"Ah! Let him through at once, I have no reason to doubt the fellow. If he's that desperate clearly it must be important."

The soldier saluted and promptly departed to sort it out. Meanwhile the commander tried to get a word in, "Majesty, it might be an imposter. Clearly he's lying, his claims were so outlandish it's not possible to believe without confirming it. I've already sent men out to…"

"Silence, commander. Begone, gather the fangs, and inform the claw commander to do the same. If it turns out to be nothing I will deal with it, but you had better hope you are correct."

–

By the time the King had cleared out the court and it was just he and the Queen in the room, the doors opened and the bedraggled Dominic limped in and half-heartedly tossed Rou to the side, trusting in his Cottonfluff to let him land safely before nearly collapsing. Seeing the man in the shape he was in, both the King and Queen ran towards Dominic. Though he wasn't really /injured/ in the most strict sense, every muscle in his body was cramping and spasming from overuse.

"Between Carneltown and… Lamelia village…" Dominic tried to speak before Rou walked over and spoke for him.

"He was trying to say there is a black spore infestation spreading in the woods between Carneltown and Lamelia village." The four year old speaking directly caught the rulers attention, at which point he looked at the queen and nodded at the collapsed Dominic before walking away, shouting orders. The last thing Dominic noticed was the Queen casting magic on him.