Blood tasted sublime.

It was sweet and addictive to the point of redundancy.

Every sip only left her wanting more.

The iron within it didn't feel tangy or bitter like she first expected but instead, it added a certain amount of creamy-saltiness to the overall taste.

A stark contrast to the sweetness, yes, but this only further improved it by giving the blood a sticky after taste.

In her voracious mind, drinking blood was like eating diabetes inducing pudding.

It was soft yet not so much that it was practically water, there was some resistance to eating it but it also flowed down her throat like it was liquid- and- and it was just so-

Thariel let out a soft whine of pleasure as her mouth left the now dry flesh. This section of the large worm had ran out of blood but she wanted more-

She tossed the corpse to the side and moved on to the next part.

Thariel dove into a frenzy where she bit down on and sucked at various parts of the corpse. She didn't stop even when the body turned cold and the blood flow slowed to a crawl, she only stopped gorging herself when there was no blood left for her to drink.

Thariel wiped her mouth, she never knew that her body could stand to drink so much blood. Where did it all go?

Well, she knew for a fact that at least a few buckets of it went and stained her body.

She looked down at herself and... Yeah, she looked messy. So much red has never been part of her fashion but this development wasn't so shocking given the way she ravenously fed on the blood just now.

What was that about anyways?

She went into a such a deep frenzy that she couldn't think of anything but drinking blood. And when she thought she would be disturbed by something like that remembering just felt... Right? Strange.

It wasn't all bad however, since she could feel herself getting stronger with every pound of blood she drank.

And after drinking every droplet of the worm's blood, Thariel now sported considerably sharper senses than before and maybe enhancements to her vampiric abilities beyond that.

She could feel the air molecules on her skin, how it intermingled with her sweat and cooled her epidermis. Her nose inhaled everything in this enclosed space, down to the smallest details in dirt. And her ears? They could now sense vibrations from the ground.

That last one was the most prominent out of everything so Thariel decided to focus on it. There was a lot and she knew instinctively that they came from other creatures.

Her instincts gave her information about what and where these things could possibly be while the knowledge she had in her brain added further details about the weight, speed, and state of the animals causing them.

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She got all of that from listening to vibrations on the ground. This new ability of hers was quite insane.

She still couldn't differentiate the vibrations from each other or figure out which direction they came from but the information that she got from listening to the loudest of them was more than enough to let her know that giants?

Giants roamed this place.

From Thariel's own estimate some of these vibrations came from creatures with a weight of over ten thousand pound and yet despite that, they moved with a consistent speed which betrayed their supposed heaviness.

Or in other words; they were strong as all heck.

Dragons were the only organisms that Thariel can rationally assume such vibrations would come from but what would those prideful bastards even do here? They lived in hard to reach places like the deep ocean. Not some random forest.

Drakes..? Or a variant maybe?

Mountain Drake's would realistically be able to produce something like this but those thick lugs are heavy and the magma they carry in their bellies wouldn't allow them to produce this kind of vibration with the sort of consistency Thariel is hearing.

Whatever they were, she'd meet them soon enough.

It was kind of hard for her not to, what with all the blood staining her they'd have to get attracted to her scent.

Looks like she needed to prioritize the hot spring trip sooner than she expected. Thankfully she brought an extra set of clothes.

But before any of that, she first needed to sleep.

Thariel yawned and slowly went into a lying position, she rested her head on the patch of bloodless flesh next to her and before long, she lost consciousness.

Thariel came to and immediately realized that something was wrong.

There was a creature trying to scratch away at the dirt near the entrance to widen the hole and said something is a 2 fingered, scaley hand armed with claws twice the size of her legs.

She knew this because said legs were directly facing the entrance, thus allowing her to make an apt comparison. Were. Her legs were next to the entrance.

Thariel crawled away at the first chance she got.

With her back quite literally pressed against the wall, the panicking Damphir began to think up ideas to escape the grasp of the titanic creature on the other side of the tree.

Thariel wanted to ask why it didn't just uproot the damn thing but she didn't feel like complaining about good things right now.

She looked around, searching for anything that might help her but besides her satchel there was nothing here.

Thariel grabbed her bag and took out her dagger.

You know what they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.

She pointed the tip of the dagger at the dirt and struck it.

Thariel found tree roots the first time she did this, then the second time, and the third.

It was in the forth strike when she finally found a layer of pure dirt which can be dug through without issue.

Thariel began digging, striking at the earth to loosen its otherwise hardened surface.

She moved with fervor and was relentless with her constant stabbing. She pushed aside roots, cut down stray plants, and threw away rocks just to continue digging.

And all the while the creature behind her didn't stop trying to pry her out of this goddamn hell!

Shit!

Thariel dug even faster when a loud thud echoed across the entire tree. She didn't just feel the vibrations in the ground, but also the ones which reverberated through the wood above her.

It was just her luck that she encountered a drake on her second night here wasn't it?

At least the monster was familiar to her, she knew how to deal with drake variants. Mountain Drakes were slow and lumpy and this weakness gets worse the larger they get.

The one trying to kill her is an oversized drake to be sure, the thought of it gave Thariel some sense of safety as she noticeably calmed down and began digging with clarity.

Soon, the light at the end of the tunnel came to greet her and as Thariel spotted the first vestiges of snow fall into her tunnel, she activated [Strong Arm] and used her boosted strength to break out of the ground and reach the surface.

With its sense of smell, the drake would be here soon so she should...

That isn't a drake.

Thariel stood frozen at the sight of the gigantic creature that circled the tree.

It had a body covered in blue, white-tipped feathers, a long, winding tail which ended in a colorful bush of plumage as well as a thick mane around its neck.

Two legs carried the titan's weight while its feeble arms sat idle in front of its chest. A chiseled jawline packed with muscles began dripping with saliva as the creature growled, baring its teeth in a display of primal hunger.

... Why is there a T-Rex here?

Also, isn't this place covered in snow?! Dinosaurs wouldn't survive in this place-

Thariel's legs moved on their own when the aptly named king of tyrants let out a ferocious roar that shook snow off of branches and made the earth itself tremble in fear.

And her ears? Bleeding. Great.

She had gone deaf just from hearing the damn thing scream!

Thariel could sense it running behind her, the sharp senses she had been so excited to explore last night gave her information on the organism.

From the heat of its breath to the vibrations it makes with its thundering footsteps, down to the extreme heat its titanic body emanated... Wait, is it losing heat?

Thariel wasn't sure-

She turned left, jumping past a tree to dodge a charge. Where did it even get the energy to do that?! Is eating her worth it?!

Thariel ran as fast as she could, putting distance between her and the dinosaur.

When she thought it was safe to do so, Thariel focused on the heat coming off of the T-Rex's body and sure enough, she noticed that it was steadily decreasing with each passing second.

So it wasn't warm blooded. That explains the thick feathers.

But where does it get the heat it needs from? Isn't it too cold around here?

Thariel screamed in fear when the darn thing roared again.

Okay stray musings are not important right now! She needed to focus on doing loops around it until it runs out of gas and hopefully it'll leave her alone to refuel on heat. Wherever it gets that from.