I woke up...

Putting my hand over the fresh wound on my chest. I flinched, immediately reminding myself of the pain due to the gash created in my left hand after gripping that bastard’s sword.

Remaining prone on the ground in pain, I stayed in that position for quite some time.

When I had regained control of my body, I slowly sat up. A wave of dizziness hit me, and I held my right hand to my head, my left lying uselessly on the ground.

It looked like I was experiencing the effects of extreme blood loss. I would probably stay weak for a couple of days, assuming I ate enough. Then I remembered in order to eat it would have to be something strong, and I seriously doubt I had the strength to kill anything near my own level.

Looks like it'll take longer than a couple days for the weakness to wear off.

I painfully made my way to my feet, hissing in pain while doing so, and could finally take a couple of steps.

When I had made it out of the cave, something strange greeted me.

It was a vine, that had grown all the way up the mountain, and was grown in such a way that it indicated letters.

I tilted my head, and could finally make it out. It was English, not whatever language I had been speaking in this world, so I knew it was either Jordan or another god. It could also be a trap. Which would probably end with my death, seeing how weak I was at the moment.

It was brief and to the point.

Go south east. Wait at the first road you find. Don't kill anything that isn't an animal while you're waiting.

It seemed to be some pretty explicit instructions, and since I had little I could do in this forest, I decided to follow them.

Even if it was a trap, the worst that could happen is me dying again.

As my master had said, "Life is carrying a mountain. Death is holding a feather."

Only after my own death could I fully appreciate his saying.

I walked along the forest floor, not enjoying the sun as I used to. Feeling only hard ground where the grass was. I thought about my master's sayings, and his teachings. In the end, I think he knew I would kill him. He was always aloof from me, but somehow, I felt he actually cared about me sometimes. Maybe that was why he didn't refuse the poisoned tea I gave him.

On my way I spotted arrows in the form of strange vine growth that consistently pointed south-east. While I was walking Egain joined me. He didn't say anything, but I did find his presence comforting. Perhaps it was because even after my friends had left me, I still had a companion. Egain and I hunted in silence, catching whatever prey we could on the way. I did it for fun, however Egain took it seriously.

The sun soon past its zenith, and I assumed it must be around one to two o'clock, after some time the undergrowth suddenly thinned. Looking around for the cause I found a well-paved road in front of me. It was made from rock and mortar, and had draining ditches on either side, so the road wouldn't flood when it rained. I looked around but saw nothing, and decided to follow the vines instructions, and wait.

While we were waiting, Egain and I continued to hunt.

I kept an ear out to make sure I wouldn't miss anything that came down the road, while turning the rest of my attention to our activity.

I would throw a rock, either scaring a beast of prey in Egain’s direction, or luring a so-called 'predator' to him, so he could kill it. He wasn't used to this kind of hunting, as he was a wolf, and used to working with his pack to bring down prey. I, however, was perfectly comfortable with this kind of hunting. My instincts as a cat family demi-human told me to wait in silence for an unfortunate individual to walk past me, and then to strike.

I was, unfortunately, too weak from blood loss to chase down any prey.

Egain and I hunted like this for several minutes. About half-an hour passed by my estimate, when I heard something coming down the road.

He and I went to the edge of the treeline, hiding in the shadows, seeing what the strange vines had in store for me.

I breathed slowly, my old instincts as an assassin waking up. I could hear Egain breathing quickly beside me, and knew he was excited. We had never really gotten to know each other, but I think I can understand his excitement.

I had breathed a little quicker before my first kill too.

This wouldn't be Egain’s first kill, but it was stepping into the unknown. The unknown scares people. I admired his courage for facing it with his head up, and ears pricked. I swished my tail slowly behind me, the motion barely registered in my mind, I was so used to doing it for so long.

I heard the rumbling of wheels on stone, and around the bend I saw a wagon, uncovered and filled with people.

All of a sudden, a vine sprouted in front of me, and told me some very troubling things.

Jordan you bastard. I'll get you for this!

Jordan's POV

I grinned.

Shadowpelt might not like it, but it was for the best.

Plus, it was hilarious as shit.

I kept chuckling as I carefully manipulated the world, changing it to a state more like I wanted.

I wasn't doing something grand like moving continents, but to me it was grand.

I guess being weak had it's advantages. When I had been little more than a ghost, I'd had to keep the other gods attention away from me, and the best way to do that was to stay underneath their radar, and not do something stupid, like sending up a flare and telling them I was weak and wanted to die.

So, I had been circumspect. I'd used my small amount of power carefully, only using as much as I needed. Nothing more. I had learned things that most gods never even thought about. Like how to mask someone's presence, and how to change a person's mind without other gods noticing what you did.

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I used less power than other gods, and accomplished more.

Yes, I had to admit that being a weakling for five thousand years eventually paid of.

I sent the last message, using my power to activate the mana in the vine, guiding it's enhanced growth. Later, it would look like a passing wizard had messed around with the plants, injecting mana into them randomly. I also erased the letters after shadowpelt was done reading them, so even the other gods who can read any language will think it was just randomly injected mana.

I chuckled a little more, then burst out laughing.

I hadn't felt like this since I'd been mortal.

Yes, I told myself.

I truly am a fool.

A fool for choosing immortality over my friends.

Shadowpelt’s POV

I looked through my ability list once again, and swore.

Egain asked me what it was.

"That bastard Jordan told me to do something, and I thought maybe it was impossible. Hoping it was impossible, would be more like it."

He looked confused. "What did you hope was impossible?"

I sighed. "You'll see."

Kat's POV

I looked around. Not really interested in talking with my fellow passengers on our way to the human kingdoms' magic academy. It wasn't as good as the one on the Dark Peninsula, but it was a lot safer.

I was going there to perfect my magic, as I had advanced as far as I could without a teacher.

Though, I had some misgivings, and thought about everything that could go wrong, while making sure my shoulder length red hair covered my ears.

I did not want anyone to see them.

I played around with the ball of fire in my hand, and I could tell my casual handling of such a dangerous substance was making the other passengers uncomfortable, but they would have to deal with it.

I only threw fireballs if I was mad.

The wagon bumped again, and I turned to the driver, to see if I could get him to stop driving over every single bump between the southern sea and the magic academy. When I saw something further along the road.

"Stop."

The driver turned to me, looking confused.

"Scuse me miss?"

I showed him my scary face, and he stopped.

I hopped of of the wagon, not caring that a piece of my skirt got caught on the wood, but just tearing it off.

As I approached the creature, I knelt down, and took a good look.

It was a black cat, about as tall as my knee, with glossy black fur. For a second, I thought I saw something like resignation on its face, but I quickly discarded the thought.

I put my hand out, and ignored the driver yelling that it was a wild cat that would probably bite me.

Instead of rubbing my hand, or even biting me, it just strolled past me.

I was left squatting there, while the cat hopped into the wagon, and casually lay down in my seat.

This f*****,

I turned toward it, trying to keep the kind smile on my face, but every now and then I twitched. So it looked more like I was someone who had escaped a crazy house.

I got back into the wagon, then stood in front of the cat, hands on my hips.

"Now listen here bastard,"

Was I imagining things?

"If you don't get off of my seat right now, I'll fry you until you're nothing more than ashes. Got that, bitch?"

Or was the cat smiling?

It didn't move, but after a second it got up, stretched leisurely. Almost like it had all the time in the world, and got on to the side of the wagon, balancing on the side.

I huffed, and sat in my seat. I just knew that bastard was smiling at me from behind it's paws.

As the wagon continued on, I kept practicing my fire magic, but this time, I was throwing the fire.

F***!

Shadowpelt"s POV

I grinned. It may have been immature to be so rude to the girl, but it was hilarious. I shook my paw a little, still not sure what I thought about this Beast Form. In the description, it had said I could revert to any of my previous beast evolution's. Though my stats would take a penalty depending on the forms strength. Since I had taken my first form, I was now pretty much as strong as three men. I had also used shadow manipulation, on Jordan's advice to cover my red irises, making them appear like regular black.

Even though it was daytime, my mana seemed to recharge faster than it took to create the shadow to cover my irises. I only had to cover a couple centimeters in shadow, after all.

I would still get Jordan back for this, it just wasn't as bad as I first assumed.

Jordan told me in his message that if I wanted to get more powerful, I needed to make use of my magic. In my previous world, I had fought using everything at my disposal. Not learning how to use magic would be like not using guns.

I would die in a second, if my opponent did use them.

And so, my dignity was a necessary sacrifice.

(Plus, this Kat girl is cute.)

Author's note: hooray! a new chapter! But seriously, I noticed that people are commenting more, and I love it. I love reading your comments, so much. I love talking with you, and hearing your feedback. even the one's that say, 'you suck' still make my day. thanks for your continued support, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you didn't, I'll just go and cry myself to sleep...

Bye Bye!