Morning came. The sun, so eager to depart on the previous day, tentatively crested the horizon. The Dread Thicket, as it was known, began to awaken. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that some of the denizens of the forest were waking from their slumber. Others, far darker and more predatory, were just now finding quiet resting spots in which to rest their weary limbs for the day. Regardless, the sun brought with it change to the dread thicket. Where at night, the trees twisted in a foreboding manner, casting nightmare inducing shadows from the moonlight. The daylight changed all of this. The day brought with it sunlight. Which passed through the leaves and banished the ever present darkness. The green light filtered through the wide autumn colored leaves, painting the underbrush in vivid reds, oranges, and browns. 

Even the sounds of the Dread Thicket changed. No more where the raucous cries of crows. Instead, bird song happily twinkled among the boughs. 

Ril awoke hungry. His stomach clenched unpleasantly as he stretched his stiff spine which had contorted painfully overnight on the forest floor. Looking around, Ril smiled. The memories of the previous night coming back to him. How he had asked the bishop for a chance to become like the others. How he was refused, and yet despite this, he prevailed managing to snag a divine sphere from the hateful Godric Glotsk. And now, he had escaped. Gone was the city that he had spent so long struggling to survive in. Gone were the judgemental crowds. Replacing them was a verdant forest full of creatures. None of which cared that Ril was different than regular humans.

The orb embedded in the center of Ril’s chest felt warm. As if it was happy to be there, bonded to Ril rather than Godric. Reaching to it, Ril was about to bring up his character sheet when he noticed a black shadow interrupting the colorful panorama. 

Ril froze. A thread of fear rose up in him as the black shadow began to move. The cheerful forest suddenly lost some of its luster. Moments later the black shadow resolved itself as a massive black panther. It’s shoulders stood nearly at eye level. Its head, large and imposing, stared derisively down on the trembling boy. It’s mouth looked large enough to engulf Ril’s small skull in one bite. On its back, two prehensile appendages tipped in silver spikes swayed hypnotically above the cat’s massive frame. 

“Good ki-kitty” stuttered Ril, taking an involuntary step back, fully aware that there is no way that he could outrun such a beast, much less fight it. Ril raised his right arm defensively in front of himself, ready to either pet the beast, or in the worst case, sacrifice the arm so that he could live. 

The panther let loose a low growl. The sound was so deep that it felt as if it came from behind Ril. Ril once again stood frozen, scared that even the smallest movement would provoke the beast.

For several moments the panther stood in front of Ril, unmoving and perfectly silent. It’s growl from earlier fading into the wind. Without warning, the cat moved. Opening it’s tooth filled maw, Ril saw a flash of silver, before the panther’s jaws closed around Ril’s entire forearm.

With a yelp, Ril fell backwards, pulling his arm out of the panthers jaws, and turtle-crawled backwards through the underbrush. The cat pulled back its head, and sat demurely. Only then did Ril notice that the panther had an extra set of legs set right behind it’s forelegs. 

The fact that the cat had not followed him, made Ril pause. Also, his arm did not hurt nearly as bad as he would have expected from having it eaten by a large cat. Looking down, the boy saw that his right hand remained attached to his body. The only evidence of the cats actions being four small puncture wounds on the top and bottom of his forearm, that leaked a thick silver liquid. 

Ril looked at the cat, confusion evident on his face, when silver text on a transparent black background faded into view between himself and the panther. 

You have learned the ability: Mirror Image

Create an illusionary clone of yourself that mimics your actions

This ability was acquired from: Powder Beast (Panther Variant)

Warp increased: 1.5%

A satisfied chuff brought Ril’s attention back to the cat. Without another sound the powder beast got up, and bounded back into the forest.

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“Wait!” called Ril, a little belatedly. 

Finally, taking a proper look around, Ril noticed that he stood in a circle of destruction. Surrounding his sleeping spot lay the headless corpses of eight separate denizens of the forest. Some of the creatures were recognizable, such as the leopard that lay underneath a fern. Others less so. One, a goose like creatures whose jet black wings flared behind itself in death, was surrounded by what looked like eight separate heads, all cleanly decapitated. The base of the goose’s neck contained 8 stumps, which looked remarkably similar to how a mushroom patch looks after it is harvested.

The more foreign creatures all seemed to share some characteristics. For example, all of the stranger creatures had jet black powdery skin. Roughly half of which sported thin orange colored veins breaking up the monotony of darkness on their skin. Most strikingly, while the leopard with a tawny coat bled red, each of the dark creatures, leaked a thick silver liquid that seemed to reflect the colors of the forest back towards Ril.

The monster's blood reminded Ril of the state of his arm. The bite hurt. But looked like it was scabbing over. The only strangeness was that the blood looked silver. Exactly the same as the blood that the monster’s surrounding him bled. 

Warily, Ril touched the bite, and brought his blood soaked fingers to his nose. His blood still smelled like blood, if with a slightly more metallic scent. 

With a frown, and unsure as to how to proceed, Ril decided to table the issue and reached under his tunic to bring up his character sheet.

Character name:

Ril Renar

Statistics:

Strength

8

Intelligence

17

Constitution

10

Wisdom

11

Dexterity

13

Charisma

10

Warp

6.86%

Abilities:

Blood of the Chromagnum

Mirror Image

There it was. Underneath the Blood of the Chromagnum was the new ability that Ril had somehow acquired from the powder beast. 

Remembering the conversation that he had overheard prior to his assault on Godric and his henchmen, Ril tried to activate Mirror Image. Immediately he felt a tightening in his chest, right where he had absorbed the divine orb. Despite this, at first Ril thought that it had not worked. Other than that strange tightness, he felt no different. Then Ril noticed that off to his right, and slightly behind him stood another person. 

“Gahh!” cried Ril, falling on his butt for the second time that morning. Looking closer, Ril noticed that the person standing there was not in fact a different person, but rather a perfect likeness of himself, down to his grubby, mud-encrusted fingernails. 

Even more curious, as Ril had fallen backwards in surprise, the Mirror Image had replicated the action. It too fell back on its butt, causing a puff of dust to rise as it caused the leaves underneath it to shift. 

An incredulous laugh escaped Ril as he realized the situation. Getting up he started to play around with his new found power. Moving this way, and that, watching enamored as the Mirror Image followed his every move. Quickly, Ril realized that he could make the Mirror Image behave differently then himself by applying a mental push towards the tightness he felt in his chest. When he did this, the pressure in Ril’s chest intensified, but the reward of watching his double move independently around the clearing was more than worth it. 

Ril learned that the Mirror Image started to fade away when it got farther than 10 feet away from Ril, which he thought was rather disappointing. He also learned that the Mirror Image could push light objects like leaves around, but it could not lift them. And when touched, the body double felt warm, yet when Ril pushed, his hand went right through it and scattered the illusion.

Exhausted, Ril decided not to resummon the Mirror Image as the tightness in his chest had become painful after all of his experimentation. Suddenly, Ril’s stomach complained loudly. Chagrinned, Ril realized that he had skipped dinner last night. Knowing that the only consumable item in his pack was just a bag of water, Ril gave the dead corpses around himself a look. Well why not. The panther creature had slaughtered all of these predators. Regardless of whether it was protecting Ril or whether it was just bloodthirsty, the result was fresh meat. 

So after grabbing the body of one of the more recently deceased creatures. Ril dug a pit in the ground and started a small fire. Then he began the long process of liberating the meat from the bones. Rapidly, with the speed of a lifetime bachelor, the mystery meat was glistening and dripping fat into the fire. 

The moment the meat had finished cooking, Ril picked it up and wrapped most with some spare cloth that he found in his pack. What remained disappeared in his mouth. Then without further ado, Ril found the mark he had made in the forest floor the previous night, and resumed his journey. Travelling beyond the ring of broken bodies, Ril walked deeper into the forest.