5 Days Later

So, now that I know I'm not just a useless rock, I've been managing to keep busy.

First things first, I did a bit of remodeling. And when I say a bit, I mean I did a lot of remodeling. The once dusty and abandoned-looking cave has now become a dome-shaped room that's 30ft wide and 8ft tall, with holes poked through the dome's roof once my bubble surpassed the original dome I carved out to let some more light in. The entrance has been filled in but also carved to appear like a distinct triangle, with a 4ft base that narrowed to a point about 5 ½ feet up, carefully shaped bricks making up the aesthetic.

There's also a lot more space in the cave. Sure I blew a considerable chunk of energy to get it done all at once, but now the cave I'm in has been carved out to be a half dome. The walls smoothed down, and the floors cleaned up of rock and pebbles, only to be replaced with a finely crushed powder from said rocks. Easy on the paws and scaly bodies.

As for the layout of the dome chamber, I've built an intricate-looking but straight brick walkway from the entrance through the soft rock sand, which leads up to a 4ft pedestal I've made for myself. Now I'm no longer just a pebble on the floor but a lovely gem on display! I'm reminded only vaguely of Indiana Jones and that one temple with the giant rolling boulder after it's all set up, at the very least without the dangerous path filled with traps.

What I did find out, however, is that I can't precisely move. I can move things around me that make me roll around, but not myself. So to get me on the pedestal, I had Oururu pick me up with his mouth and then had Basti sit by the pedestal for Oururu to slither up her back and set me down on it. My gem has grown nicely to that of a billiard ball from a mix of the ambient energies I've absorbed and from Basti and Oururu's hunting.

I've also made some living arrangements for Basti and her kids and Oururu whenever he's not out hunting. With some help from the two, I got a generous stack of dried grass from beyond my scope of view. I made a large bedding area for Basti and her cubs and even carved some nooks and alcoves, as well as a bunch of odd-looking shelves and rectangles for the cubs to mess around on and parkour off of.

Oururu, however, was much easier to build for, as he wanted a hollowed rock with a hole to slither into, which allowed him to coil up comfortably on the bedding inside.

Though with all that done, I still had a ton of materials in my storage space. A giant snakeskin, the bones, horns, and skins of a few white-furred deers, the feathers and bones of what kind of looked like a wildly colorful turkey, a ton of dirt and rocks, hell I think I even have a bunch of iron ore and even copper ores if I'm looking at them correctly. I wonder what I should do with all that since it's not like I need to make equipment for myself, right?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

In other news, I'm finally able to see outside! And… It's still all blurry… But I can make out some details! First off, I know I'm on a mountain for sure, and relatively high up, not close to the peak but nowhere near the bottom at all. Beyond that, I can see a reasonably large sea of green, so I'm most likely in a mountain that borders a forest. It makes me wonder if one day I'll have a bubble over all of it; after all, that voice said this territory was being assigned to me for whatever reason.

Regardless, I'm now just passing my time drawing on the walls, or instead, I'm carving murals of Basti and her cubs as well as Oururu, they're not quite complete yet, so I'm hesitant even to describe them so far.

The cubs are also growing up quite nicely, I've been giving them small doses of energy these last several days, and it affects them. Honestly, if I didn't know any better, I would say they were several weeks old already.

The biggest boy cub is the red-furred one, and he is as fiery and rowdy as his vibrant fur would suggest. The runty, gray-black-furred boy cub is quieter and reserved, preferring to watch his siblings from the shadows of the parkour boxes along the wall. The blue-furred girl cub is friendly and active and seems to maintain a healthy rivalry with the red-furred boy cub, pushing each other around the parkour boxes and wrestling more than the other cubs. Finally, the white-furred girl cub is the sweetest one around, gentle with all her siblings, and even outgoing enough to interact with Oururu whenever he's about. She often basks in the sunbeams that pour in from the holes in the ceiling, though when she's not doing that, she's cuddling with her black-furred brother, sitting right at the edge of the shadows as he does the same for her.

Basti has been more personable ever since I've given her a name. She's lounging on the steps up to my pedestal whenever she's not out hunting or doting on the cubs. She seems to regard me with great care and almost reverence, sometimes even polishing me with her tail. When I first saw her, I compared her features to that of a puma, but now that I'm looking at her, she's more of a lioness. Her build and stature cut a much more impressive figure than that emaciated scrap of fur that stumbled into my cave over a week ago.

Oururu on the other hand, is surprisingly charismatic for a snake, his scaly face being able to pull all sorts of expressions as he interacts with the cubs. Often an unwilling but cooperative playmate to them when Basti is out and about. It's almost like he wasn't planning to swallow them up when he first showed up. Oururu also rests on the steps to my pedestal when Basti isn't around, sitting in a loose coil while keeping his vigil. Sometimes he holds the end of his tail in his mouth whenever he's deep in thought. I wonder if it's a nervous tick of his since it's not like he does it all the time.

Today I've been tending to my murals when I get a feeling from Basti while she was out on the hunt. It seems she wants me to see something that's happening out there. I… I'm not sure how to respond to that. Does she want me to get Oururu to bring my gem out to her or something? Before I can ask her to clarify, I suddenly feel our bond getting stronger, almost as if she's reaching out to me from wherever she is. Intrigued by the sensation, I do my best to reach out and meet her halfway when suddenly I feel my consciousness ripped from my bubble.

I.. I can see! The best way I can describe it is that my bubble has moved to Basti. I can see as if her eyes were my eyes, which feels more limited than what I've gotten used to. But with some more effort, I can expand my awareness beyond her. Now it's more like a third-person over-the-shoulder view. Her forward-facing angle is clear and distinct, while the rest of the 360 views around her is opaque visually, though I can sense it in other ways via sound and smell.

Before I let my mind start running with the possibilities, Basti demands my focus which I eagerly give her. Looking at where she was looking, I saw why she wanted my attention; there were people! Wait.. never mind, those aren't people, they're bandits, and I know an ambush when I see it. Well, shit, a Bandit is always a Bandit, even in another world. Now then, what should I do about this…