Before
Fortunately, before I even see her, I sense my Bound close by. Waiting impatiently, it’s probably not that objectively long before I see her sleek form slinking through the bushes. A quick glance over her has me breathing a quiet sigh of relief. It’s good to see that she’s uninjured and, from the lack of noises, not being followed either.
“How did it go?” I ask quietly. “Do we need to move?” Her first response is that of reassuring negation – she doesn’t think she was detected either which, considering her powerful senses, probably means she wasn’t. She then sends a rapid stream of images. I close my eyes to improve my ability to focus on them. Fortunately, my significantly improved Intelligence seems to have an effect on both my speed of processing and my memory. Even when Bastet’s finished sending me the images, I can still hold them in my head for evaluation.
As I look through her memories, I try to block out for the most part the extraneous sensory data, focusing on sight since that’s the easiest for me to make sense of. Through her images, I almost relive her experiences, though it’s mostly a series of still images with emotion and other senses sometimes attached rather than a continuous video.
She had started off by heading through fairly thick forest, searching for a trail or some other indication of exactly which direction to head in. There were a number of promising trails she came across but none of them went anywhere useful, in the end. Still, every dead end helped to highlight which scents to avoid. When she came across a thick scent of reptiles along with a number of prints in the soil, she followed it. Eventually, she ended up reaching an area of greater and greater density of that smell and the occasional footprint became less occasional and more frequent. I take a moment to pore over the footprint. Although there were some differences between the prints, they were invariably long with four claw marks at the front, and another at the back. It’s hard to work out how long, considering I’m seeing them through the eyes of a creature significantly lower to the ground than me, but I estimate them to be between twice and four times my foot length.
As the footprints started to become dense enough to actually overlay each other, she realised that she was getting close to the main gathering point of the lizard-folk. The images at this point gain a heavy sense of caution even as she continued moving forwards. It wasn’t long before she encountered her first lizard-folk – a small group of three walking along the trail. At least, that’s what I assume they are – they look similar to the images Kalanthia fed me, though seeing them ‘in person’ makes it a somewhat different experience. Here I actually see a sort of ‘video’. In the moving image, the lizard-folk are wary, but they move with a confidence in their environment that I’ve only seen from the raptorcats before now. That alone would make me cautious, never mind all the other warning signs I see.
Just like with the footprints earlier, it’s hard to get a proper size estimate. They look big to Bastet, but it’s hard to know exactly how big they are. Still, I can see that she would probably reach between mid-thigh and waist-level on them. That’s pretty big – almost my height, probably. They’re pretty tough-looking, too – corded muscle visible even underneath their scaled skin. The lizard-folk are bipedal with tails that sweep behind them and large clawed feet. Their hips must be a lot more like mine than a normal lizard’s though, as they walk in the same way I reckon I would if I had a third limb on my lower half. Well, a tail, that is.
Adding to the danger they individually pose are their jaws. Kalanthia’s memories were right – they look rather crocodilian with reasonably long jaws and teeth that fit together. They don’t seem to have lips that seal so even when their jaws are closed their teeth are completely visible. Their skull is a bit taller than a crocodile’s, though – perhaps indicating a larger brain. Certainly, a larger brain might explain some of the other things I’m seeing which Kalanthia hadn’t given me any indication of there being.
For a place which is supposed not to have any civilised races, I’m surprised by the amount of civilisation visible here. The lizard-folk not only walk upright, but their forepaws - or perhaps we should say hands - look rather dexterous. The fact that they’re capable of craft is obvious by the adornments that they’re wearing. I can’t exactly call it clothing, but each is wearing at least one woven necklace around its neck. The necklaces are more or less decorated with what look to be bones, stones, or other items they no-doubt find in their environment. Some are wearing woven strands around their arms or legs too. Although they don’t have loincloths, I guess they don’t need to: their lack of obvious genitals is very much a nod towards their reptilian heritage, I guess.
Once the three lizard-folk moved on, my Bound continued her stealthy approach. Eventually, she found the centre of their activity, hiding in a bush and looking out in order to stay concealed. Lizard-folk are everywhere. As Bastet in the memories slowly makes her way around the area, peering through the undergrowth, I notice even more signs of civilisation. Or relative civilisation, that is.
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They have houses. Huts, really. Not much more than carefully balanced pieces of wood and leaf and mud, but more sturdy than my temporary branch and leaf shelters for sure. I don’t see much of the inner workings of the place, Bastet was clearly too cautious to get too close – and rightly so – but I would hazard a guess that there would be further signs of a community in the encampment itself. There are even hints that the lizard-folk might be using weapons – a couple of branches leaning up against some of the huts look more like spears than supports for the building.
After Bastet had done a full circle of the place, she slunk back through the bushes, making a straighter line on the way in than she had on the way out. Clearly she could work out where I was in the forest and therefore didn’t need to retrace her steps.
Having finished going through the images Bastet sent me, I lean back against a tree, a sigh leaving my lips. Bastet looks at me expectantly even while the cubs climb her like a tree. The fact that the cubs are playing a game of ‘king of the rock’ where she’s the rock rather does detract from her dangerous and mysterious aura, but I know she’s still a badass.
“It won’t be easy,” I tell her frankly. “An enemy with numbers is bad; an intelligent enemy is worse. Put the two together…” I trail off. I don’t even know how many lizard-folk there are: all Bastet’s memories told me was ‘a lot’. “Do you know if Lathani’s even there?”
She looks thoughtful for a moment and then sends me a sense memory. This time it’s much less of an image and more of a smell. I feel like sneezing even though my nose isn’t actually involved in this at all. After sending me the first memory which is a strong musky scent, she sends me a second. Even I can tell that they’re the same smell, but that the second one is a lot fainter. After a short pause, she then sends me a complicated mix of emotions, images, and more esoteric senses.
It’s at times like this that I wish she could talk. I think she’s telling me that the first scent was from Kalanthia’s cave, and that the second was from near the lizard-folk village. It also feels like she’s trying to say that she detected Lathani’s scent near the village but that it was faint, old. Much easier to say in words than the crazy mix of things she sent me, but beggars can’t be choosers. Still, at least I got a point in Animal Empathy out of it.
“So Lathani was there at some point,” I check with her. She replies with a clear wave of agreement. “But do you know if she’s still there? Do you know if she’s even alive?” Having to actually ask that gives me a swooping feeling in my gut, but I need to know: I’m not taking Bastet and the cubs into that mess unless I’m at least fairly convinced that Lathani’s alive.
The raptorcat’s reponse isn’t entirely reassuring. She sends me the feeling of uncertainty, but offers me another sense memory as well. This one is a different sense, one that I don’t have any name for. It’s the same one that somehow feels the hint of Energy in the world, one that I’m not sure if I actually have myself, or if I’m just getting it purely from her memory. Like being able to see in the dark with an infra-red camera.
This memory makes me shiver. It feels like hopelessness, like grief, like depression and giving up on the world. In short, it feels far too like I did before arriving here. I reject the feeling violently, actually standing up abruptly and starting to pace to get rid of the lingering emotions. My attempt to rid myself of them is helped by Bastet sending a wave of warm concern which washes away the lingering coldness.
“What was that?” I ask her almost accusingly, even though I know she wouldn’t have done that on purpose. In return, she sends me a flurry of other emotions and images which I once again have to parse through.
If I’ve interpreted things correctly, she’s telling me that this was something she felt when she was on one side of the village. It’s not clear-cut, not at all, but it could be an indication that Lathani is still there. Certainly, the emotions would fit how she would be feeling at being ripped away from her mother. That said, Bastet cautions me that these imprints can last for a while, so it might not be her current feelings. Additionally, it might not be from Lathani – some other poor creature might have been taken like Lathani was.
“In short,” I summarise, “We need more information.” In fact, we need a scout who could get further into the village without being detected than Bastet. Or perhaps...a mole.
*****
To put my plan into action, I need more of an idea of the movements of the lizard-folk. I need to know if there are areas they frequent which offer a good ambush spot or where I can set a trap. Sure, I could go in guns blazing – figuratively – into the camp, but I reckon that that would be tantamount to suicide. I wouldn’t be willing to risk taking on that many creatures with the power they display if they didn’t show signs of significant intelligence; that they build and probably use weapons makes me give a hard ‘no’ to that idea.
No, it’s time for me to leverage my Class. I’m a Tamer; that’s going to be my way in. Sure, I could try to tame a smaller animal which would be unnoticeable to go and scout for me, but finding information is only half the job. If Lathani is still alive, I need to get her out of there; that will take a lot more than a small scout could offer.
All things being equal, I think my best chance for success is to successfully Dominate one of the lizard-folk. All I can hope is that my Willpower will be up to the job. And that somehow I’m able to convince them to give into me. If not...my resolution to not Dominate another creature without their consent may be put to the test sooner than I’d thought.