"Oof!'

Feeling the breath get forced out of me my eyes shot open and i woke up in a panic. I try to get up thinking there was danger but i couldn’t budge an inch. Looking at my chest i find the cause of my immobile status was due to a big ball of fluff sitting on my chest looking at me with a satisfied expression on its face.

"Don’t do that girl. You'll break me!"

I laugh a bit seeing Luna's happy face and ruffle her fur playfully before i move her to the side off my chest. It's been a couple days since the event and we were making way towards a small village in hopes of getting in contact with other humans.

After walking for a couple of hours from the grave site in the direction the mother sent us we came across the adventurers party... or what was left of it that is. Luna found them first while she was scouting ahead and expending some of her pent up energy that she gained from her forced nap during the event.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2 Days Ago~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Come on girl don’t go too far ahead. I don’t want you to end up falling in a hole and disappearing."

I yell after the pup who disappeared completely in a patch of wild grass. Who in response pokes her head back out of the patch holding yet another dead snake in her mouth happily. After looking at me from the patch of grass, she jumps out and trots over to me with her 'trophy' dragging behind her. I can’t count the amount of small animals and reptiles that she's 'hunted' and killed in the short 2 hours since she's woken up. I was a little shocked when i noticed her physically growing while I was carrying her after the event and she continued to grow until she got to the size of a fully grown beagle. I was getting a little concerned that if she kept growing i wouldn’t be able to carry her anymore and would have to wait until she woke up. Then i noticed the mark from her mother was glowing and slowly shrinking in relation to her growth. In the end the mark faded completely, her growth stopped and she started to wake up.

"Good hunt again girl?"

I ruffle the fur on the top of her head as she drops the snake and gives a little happy yip. Looking closely I watch as she sits there by the snake, watching as a little blue mist goes from the snake corpse to the pup and get absorbed. Since she doesn’t respond to the mist i don’t do anything more than watch then i start to put the snake in a hole and bury it. Can’t just leave corpses everywhere we go or it might get some un-wanted attention from a creature bigger than the both of us.

Thinking it’s a game the pup kept taking the snake away as i was trying to bury it that then led to a game of tug-of-war for the dead snake. A bit morbid but it got a laugh out of me when i looked at her trying her best to keep it away with a serious playful look on her face. In the end i won the game, burying the snake and we moved on before she could dig it up like she did the last one.

We rinse and repeat this game for a few more minutes enjoying the peacefulness and not really thinking about too much. I go to throw a stick that the she brought me, but mid draw i stop causing the once happy wagging tail on the pup to stop and she tilted her head in confusion. In the distance I can faintly see a single thin pillar of smoke, it wasent big so the first thing that came to my mind, a campfire! After a second she sniffs the air and bolts in the direction of the smoke pillar, quickly leaving my sight.

"Wait! Don't get to far away from me!" Yalling i chase after her towards the smoke. My heart beat slowly increasing at the thought of finally being able to talk to and see another human.

It didnt take long to catch up to the pup and we slowed down as we came up to the campsite. It was just a standard camp, three small tents, a campfire with a cooking pot hanging over it and a couple logs around it for either firewood or seats. The fire was nothing but embers and smoke at this point and there wasent a soul in sight.

Did we miss them? But if they left why would they leave their tents and cooking pot?

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While in thought we start to walk forward slowly, the pup taking the lead.

"Stay close girl, and stay alert. We don’t want to get in a situation due to us being too carefree right now."

I give the pup a quick order while still keeping my eyes up and scanning the area around us. Getting to the center im able to look in one of the tents with its flap open, I move a little closer and peek in, seeing a pair of shoes right at the entrance my hard sped up a little more.

"Hey! Can you hear me? Sorry to bother you but I’m a little lost and could use some directions."

I wait a second but i get no response from the person, i start to move forward to shake the boot thinking he’s just asleep but then i hear the pup bark behind me.

"What's up girl? You got something?" I instantly pull away and turn towards her. Not sure what to expect i kept my guard up, trying to stay ready for anything. I guess those years of mandatory service did leave me with something good rather than just how to kill. Looking at the pup I notice she’s dropped something in front of her that looked like a large rock and was pawing at it like it was a toy. As I look closer at it I start to make out individual fingers and realize that’s no rock, it was a prettified hand broken off a body.

Shit! I rush back to the tent I was at and rip the blanket off the person hoping I was wrong, but I wasn’t that lucky. Under the blanket was another petrified corpse, looked to be a young female adventurer sleeping peacefully with no knowledge of anything wrong.

It didn’t take long to search the rest of the campsite and find two more corpses not too far apart. One was in the other tent, like the first asleep, but the last seemed like he realized something was wrong and attempted to run away. Petrifying in the process and shattering as he fell to the ground, and was missing what I assumed to be the hand the pup found. I take a couple of minutes to gather anything useful from the camp and erect a simple Shrine for the fallen, just the sword stuck in the ground tip down with a pair of shoes at Its base and a leather helm resting atop the handle. It’s similar to the ones I’ve made for my friends back home, not religious in meaning but still gives respect and condolences to the dead.

I'm sorry, I’ll be sure to let someone know where you all are. In one of the tents I find the adventurers registration, a map and compass, and some gear including a dagger and some field rations that I decide to take for my own protection and survival.

I know nothing about sword fighting fundamentals or archery so those are useless to me at the moment, but I still remember some of my training with the bayonet and my CQC so I’ll just have to rely on that for the time being.

I strap on a leather chest peace and arm guards along with the dagger to the small of my back and take a look at the compass and map. It's not a high quality map but it at least shows me general information.

“Taking what Titum said, it’s safe to assume I'm currently around here in the Farun Plains….” Taking a look around I locate the forest in the distance and look at the compass. “…Forest to the North North-East…Alright Girl, let’s go. We need to start going North-West if we want to get to this village.” After I finish my planning I gather the supplies take a bearing and start hiking it towards the village.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2 Days Later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Humming to myself and watching the grass piles shuffle ahead of me as Luna plays and chases small bugs, chomping at the air. She’s grown again to about the size of a young adult Labrador, with silver grey fur growing on her chest in the shape of a crescent moon, hence the name Luna. Since the campsite we haven’t come across anyone else but we have come across other larger creatures. Mostly just the usual wolves, foxes and small rodents, but the moment they looked at me and saw the crest on my wrist they lowered their head and turned away. I was confused at first but I remembered Titum’s words and didn’t give it much thought after a bit.

[I grant you the crest of the Black-Star, our strength and powers are yours, and I give our protection for these plains and forest of which I rule over. Do with these as you see fit, and teach the pup well.]

What did he mean by ‘our strength and powers’ though?

While walking I decided to experiment a bit. I did notice that I was faster than before and got tired slower, which explained why when I chased after Luna my breathing didn’t get heavy or burdened and my vision was clearly better then before. I picked up a rock and threw it towards the forest that was an easy 100 meters away. Not thinking much of it when I threw I decided to put all of my strength into it and lobbed it hard and a few seconds later I could hear, deep inside the forest not just at the start, a loud sound followed quickly by a mass of birds scattering from maybe another 200 meters inside the forest.

…….whoops, I’d better reel it in a bit and not hit someone seriously then.

Luna poked her head up above the grass and watched the birds flying away with wanting eyes.

”No girl, you’re not chasing them.” I laugh and scratch her head softly. “Let’s go, I can see a little smoke in the distance. Let’s hope it’s a better result than last time.”