This is boring.

There is nothing to do, like absolutely nothing!

Why does growing up take so long!

I need friends.

But, they're all fucking idiots!

The only one with something that resembles an itelect is Komutzu and he is being fought over by the two arachnids from last time, Mallia and Freya.

No women ever fought over me, hell what me and my lover were having was pretensios as fuck. It was love that drove me but, I'm genuinely afraid of her. She was a powerful necromancer and therefore had a aura of death which terrifyid me greatly.

We had a different understanding of 'love', hers was that of obsession. Never did I truly feel 'alone', I felt it under my skin in my bones sometimes I felt as if my body doesn't belong to me and I'm not sure if I was alive.

She could have just brought me back over and over again. Never did I sleep with peace, the only reason I could sleep was of the drugs I took. It was always the same nightmare, I can't remember it but I always had a feeling that it doesn't change.

I tried avoiding sleeping as much as possible, causing my mental health to drop. Her presence and my ever breaking mental health caused me to have a crooked mind.

She doesn't even remember how we first met.

I was gathering herbs, yes normal herbs not the stuff I now gather, it was back when I was just an alchemist. I came across an aura that I can only compare to the madness in the eyes of a starving dog. I wanted to get out of there for I know danger when it's infront of me but just when I turned to run I felt it. The fear of impending death, if I would have ran I would have died. Slowly turning with fear in my stomach I saw her, she was hurt and probably confused. Filled with fear I approached her, running is not an option anymore. Once in arms reach, I offered her an potion. I am alchemist so of course I have potions. Her eyes narrowed and with the voice of a crow she spoke.

"If this doesn't help, I'll kill you."

"I know."

She drank it without taking her eyes off me. Shortly after drinking it her wounds started healing, much to my horror. That was meant to kill her.

Her expression changed completely and she said something but I didn't listen I was completely lost in her eyes, eyes that refused to see the world as it is.

She lived in her own world, and I'm forced to be part of it.

And after a while I too had such a crooked mind, she infected me.

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She was what drove me insane, she created the monster that is now me and I created her. She should have drunk the god potion by now and be completely unstoppable.

It isn't complete but that doesn't matter.

Knowing her my old body should still be intact, she wouldn't let her obsession rot.

I'll return to her, but not like this, not weak, not afraid. I will return to her and then I will marry her.

There was always something stopping me till now something within me, I thought it was caution.

It was fear.

Pointless fear.

Why was I trying to run from her love?

No, I wasn't running from it, I was hiding.

Like a coward!

"Kekekekekekekekekekekeke!"

From this moment on forward Dimitriv is truly reborn.

My back starts to tear and out of the husk of a coward unworthy of love came the mad scholar.

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Meanwhile

I was resting on a rather big twig on a tree, oh wait, this a branch.

Foolish me

I look over to my right and see the strider who spent the most time with the leader shed for the first time. I still have my husk it's a reminder of where I came from.

Huh

He doesn't seem to care about the husk at all, weird. But I guess since we're all different we have different thoughts about it. An Arachnid once told me that her husk is her old weaknesses and therefore abandons them.

Ah, foolish me

I raise my head to enjoy the view. But my gaze was meet with another one.

Ah

An arachnid was looking him in the eyes from an opposite tree. We looked at each other for a while and then she leaped from her tree to mine. She landed a bit above me but after a bit of skittering she was on eye height with me until she steped on the branch I'm sitting.

She's actually quite small and only two of her arms are covered in chitting. Actually, her upper body is missing quite a bit of chitting and her hair is longer than that of the other arachnids.

Wouldn't that be a problem?

"Hello"

I greeted her quite blandly, what am I supposed to say?

"You're my friend now!"

Before I could answer she sat down besides me and had a hopeful face.

Ah

She's lonely for she is different from them, so they shunned her, and now she's looking for a friend.

"This place isn't big enough for two."

I say in my coldest voice, her expression changing to one of panic. A smile formed on my face and place her on my carapace.

"So let's look for one that is."

I say in our language of hisses and clicks.

For a moment she was shocked but soon a cheerful face took its place. And we set of.

"I want a sunny place."

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Meanwhile

I was sitting between the two arachnids, Mallia and Freya. They're both trying to feed me the eyes of their latest kills.

Ever since Thinker told me what they're doing it's been just them competing on who can feed me the most eyes.

I sigh and lay back on my carapace.

To the side I see a rather small sized arachnid riding on a quite well built strider, both having cheerful faces.

'I should train, claw and teeth will only help so much without strength'

I wanted to train my anima control with Thinker but he seems to doing his own stuff for now. I hear Thinkers gremlin like laugh from behind.

I look to my right and can see Mallia also laying on her carapace, copying me. Then I feel something on my neck and when I touch it...

Ah

Another one of their 'presents', Freya has been working on something ever since Mallia gave me a coat made of pelt held together by fangs. This time it's a necklace made of the hair and fangs of pretty much anything you can find in a forest.

"Thank you Freya"

My voice is rough and weak, I need Water.

Freya nods in response, she doesn't talk much.

I got up, so did Mallia.

I walked into the direction I remember seeing the stream, she follows.

Freya doesn't follow me everywhere I go, thankfully.

After silently walking for a bit we reach the small stream, I sit down and bend down to get a drink.

After I'm done I watch a few of the small fish just swimming against the stream.

But I'm pulled out of my trance by a noise and I know the origin of it.

"Sentient ones..."