Pity, Ere and Gale watched with pity in their eyes as my mother slammed her paw on my bare behind. * smack * She kept lecturing me non-stop as to why hiding abilities from your family is bad. As the torture was finally over I started to drag my sorry beaten self into a corner of our primitive housing and slumped down.
Curling myself into a small fluffy ball I used
The night would have been like any other if not for the rest of my small “family” half asleep identifying the comfortable heat source nearby. And so my poor sulking self was crushed under close to a metric ton of sleeping family. And no sulk survives a good family cuddling, intentional or not.
The next day my father took us hunting again, this time it was our turn. Ere got herself a slightly damaged Malamö, after the stone she had killed it with ripped a hole clean through it, that earned her an astonished nod from my father. Gale went for a Rikas, a spotted bearlike thing, huge angry and not that dangerous with a pole of ice jammed in its brain.
“Kai this time show us how you would hunt to the best of your abilities. It stays in the family time to show off!” Beaming me a toothy smile my father gave me a thumbs-up, I may add that I am still amazed that this gesture is a thing on this world.
Well I thought may as well leave an impression, I dropped my equipment into my fathers waiting arms and proceeded to disrobe. It earned me a raised eyebrow from my father but he accepted the discarded items.
With no equipment I dropped onto all fours, readying my instincts I took a deep breath, my tongue slipped out as I identified a trail. All hiding skills became active and the crawling wolf-man disappeared from view. My father later told me, that even he had problems to keep focus on me.
It was soo good to finally hunt again, only the smell of my prey, the wet grass and the sounds of the forest. My instincts told me of a really nice prey practically demanding me to devour it. I may have gone a tad out of control there.
Because the last thing I remember of that night was me prowling, then a black-out, only to become aware again hissing at my father. Shaking my head I slowly regained my reason, the situation was weird, Ere and Gale were hiding behind my father who eyed me like a wild beast that may attack at any moment. Then my awareness flipped down to my body, I was massive apparently I had swallowed my prey whole which left me bloated beyond recognition unable to move in the small clearing. Everywhere were signs of battle, claw-marks on trees, uprooted plants and disturbed earth. What the hell had happened here?
POV Ignalis - occupation father of Kai
Today was the first time my little furball would be allowed to hunt alone, I was sooo proud.
I had to remain calm and composed though my wife had reinforced the importance of a good male role model for our cub. My feelings were conflicting between spoiling my child and following the instructions of my wife.
Reason won, I still feared the bundle of reeds, I really hoped it had gone up in smoke with the farm, then the loss of my property would have been a sacrifice that was worth it.
A cold shiver ran down my back recalling the dreaded device.
Snapping back to reality, my cute furball began handing me all her equipment, wouldn't she need it to hunt? Then she even began to disrobe, did she want to go for a smaller animal and catch it bare-handed? I was not sure but decided to allow her freedom of choice.
Then it started, she dropped onto all fours, taking a deep breath she literary licked the air with a tongue that was a tad too long for our race. Her eyes opened focusing on something in the distance, then she disappeared. I still felt her presence and KNEW she was there but my eyes played tricks on me and I was unable to properly locate her.
She began to move, crouching down so low on the ground her belly nearly scraped over the earth. It became easier to follow her when she started to move but only my paternal instinct and sense of smell could barely keep me on her heels. Ere and Gale were far worse off, they just tried to keep pace as we followed her roughly 50 yptis(meter) away.
Slowly I began to smell the thing she was after too, this was madness! This was the territory of a basilisk, a creature so poisonous hunters claim it can transform its victims to stone!
That strong is its paralytic poison not to mention the fumes it can emit. As we reached a clearing I lost contact with my daughter. I prayed to every god I could imagine that my daughter would be safe. My wife would kill me if our daughter came to harm, the situation with the snake back then was bad enough she beat me to a pulp for not properly guarding our offspring.
The basilisk was deep asleep, its massive frame sprawled on a big stone bathing in the heat the sun had charged the stone with. It deemed itself invincible, no predator was aiming for such a vicious meal. Very few would survive ingesting this thing, even the great beasts in the centre of the mountain area left the beast to its own devices.
I barely blinked but it was enough to miss the first strike, a row of bleeding holes had opened on the neck of the basilisk as it came roaring awake. But my daughter had already disappeared again. In fury the basilisk began lashing out into the clearing smashing rocks and flora alike.
Another row of holes opened on his side, this time the basilisk landed a counter but his assailant still did not reveal itself. In its fury it lashed out at everything, even shattering the big rock it had just used to sunbathe. But its movements became slower. A white foam slowly began to form around its mouth. Minutes passed as its breathing became ragged, blood oozing through the foam.
Closely after its eyes rolled back and it collapsed, wheezing, its last breath escaped the monster as it passed away. Moments later my daughter surfaced again, her camouflage peeling back like a glimmering liquid , the hit she had taken left one of her sides battered and slightly bloody.
As I wanted to go and congratulate her for the achievement Gale grabbed one of my arms shaking her head. Then it became creepy. With a sickening plop my daughters lower jaws came free, like a snake she began to swallow the humongous prey.
I still have no idea how it could fit but she managed to swallow it whole, bloated immensely she laid in the centre of the destruction. I got rid of Gales paws and stood up, my legs still a bit shaky from the bone-crushing nervousness I had to endure during the fight.
As I got closer to my daughter my instincts began to act up “danger” “danger” it kept yelling. It attributed it to the smell of the basilisk still lingering in the clearing and disregarded it. I nearly paid quite a hefty price for that, as I stretched my arm towards my daughter she hissed and tried to bite me. Only her hugely bloated form made her miss, if barely.
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As if awakening from a dream her eyes changed from the cold and unrelenting gaze of a cornered predator to that of a slightly confused and VERY afraid daughter of mine.
Shaking her head confusion was printed onto her face.
I had my baby back and I would make certain that she got those instincts under control, like all wolf-man had to.
POV Kai
We had to spend half a day in the clearing as my belly began to approach more manageable sizes. Still the way home was far from gracious, I wobbled down the track like an overstretched water-balloon. Without my father and Ere supporting me I would still not be able to move. Only my high strength barely allowed me to walk.
I was thankful that I had not encountered any form of picture system I would have had to go unimaginable length to destroy any kind of evidence of this shame.
We returned to find my mother highly agitated sitting behind a cold fireplace, her voice seethed with sweetness as she turned around “oh my look who came back!” But her face instantly changed upon seeing my bloated self. A quick private discussion between my father and mother followed, which earned my father a smack on the nose.
I tried to get away struggling with the entrance of our den, in the end I gave up and used magic to enlarge the opening temporarily until I could squeeze myself through.
Finally inside I began to check the pile of notifications I had received. Again dismissing the unimportant spam of daily activity I was left with some quite disturbing messages.
Target: Juvenile Basilisk,
Basilisk hit you with
Target: Juvenile Basilisk,
Juvenile Basilisk died
Activating
Ingestion in progress 80%.... counting complete
I had not gained any stats or level, but
My family gave me time to get done with my meal and left me alone. Losing to the instincts was apparently a big deal in wolf-man society.
A few hours later, a small fire was going roasting ribs from the Malamö my family sat around and skill timer reached its end.
Successfully consumed
Gained Level 14
Gained Stats Vit 54 Dex 40 Str 60
Derivating traits:
Derivating skills:
Just as the window appeared my body began to hurt, like really hurt. Sharp barbs began erupting along my whole spine, my tail began to enlarge and elongate. The unfamiliar weight was odd but weirdly fitting, as if it had always MEANT to be this way.
It felt really weird to get control of the new muscles, but I managed to get the barbs to lay flat against my back, hiding them in my fur. Only the Tail stood out, I still had the lush and long hair we wolf-man had on our tails but the supporting structure especially where it connected to my rump had become massive compared to before. The whole tail felt powerful, I could already imagine a blade strapped to the tip of my tail. It could prove very useful in combat.
The first one to greet me was my mother who gave me a very tight hug, pressing my face into her breasts. “I was really worried, don't make your old mother worried I may die to a heart attack.”
I could only mutter how sorry I was before she dragged me towards the fireplace where my whole family began to inspect the changes to my body. Ere was playing with a barb as my mother was inspecting my tail. Warning Ere that my barb may be poisonous stopped her idle play instantly.
But something was depressing my mother after she had inspected my tail and I could not really place what had caused her bad mood.
After eating my father took me to the side and told me why my mother had looked so down, apparently the tail of female wolf-man was a status symbol and mine had just become out of the norm and she may be afraid of me not finding a mate.
He nearly choked on his meal as I told him that I did not want a mate yet and that revenge against the Elves came first on my list. As I was discussing with my father Gale told something to my mother that cheered her up instantly, a shiver ran down my back and made my barbs stand out. It felt like a predator had just set sight on me but I dismissed the feeling as an illusion.
The following weeks were stock full of training, hunting and lessons with my mother on how to control my instincts. I had made full use of