“Attention! A Witches Geas has been placed upon you; the conditions are thus:”

“1. You shall do no harm to any member of the Moldheel, Breaker, Marlee, Dryden or Invida Clans nor any inhabitants of Penbrook Valley”

“2. You shall not rest till San Marus, Inquisitor General lies dead by your claws”

“3. You shall return to Arda Invidia’s side once the deed is done”

I sat there for a moment the words not really sinking before my surprise disappeared replaced with a burning anger. These damned humans hadn’t been praising me they’d been collaring me! Well this just would not do! I’ll show them what I think of their Geas!

And with that I shot off straight towards the nearest of these “Witches” my claws slashing, slicing and savaging her. Well at least that’s what they should have done especially given how sharp they were and how much more power I could put behind them now, but instead every attack of mind veered off, not by some invisible force or barrier but instead as if I just couldn’t bring myself to hurt her as if some deep unconscious part of me screamed no!

I of course kept trying even switching targets at some points snarling and growling all the while, but it was no use, the witches simply stood there unmoving, some sported grins, most had blank faces and some had looks of fear that quickly turned to relief.

It was a few minutes into my attempted savaging that I realised it was simply pointless, this damned Geas was stopping me from laying so much as a finger on my foes and I had no idea what else if anything they had planned or prepared for me and so letting lose my frustration in a piercing yowl I left, sprinting off through the clearing the ritual had occurred in and out into the snowy forest that surrounded it.

Running in my new form took a bit of getting used to, at first I ran as I always have using four legs to quickly escape the clearing but curiosity soon seized me and I tried running on two as humans do, it was different certainly and I would like to experiment with it but I soon ran quite literally into a problem, a problem that ended with me flat on my back, chest stinging gazing into the dense canopy above as a pesky branch wobbled away above me both from the impact and the sudden dumping of its snowy burden.

After catching my breath and shaking off the snow that fallen on me I noted that running on two legs was a bad idea in this forest before beginning to move again, now at a more sedate pace which allowed me take in more than just a vague white, green or brown blur.

Snow covers everything around me, here on the forest floor it’s just a light covering, only a couple of centimetres deep at most not enough to hide everything and, rocks, roots, moss and more pokes up through the snow cover here and there but it was enough that I should probably be more careful I didn’t want to get a broken paw out here, the trees were themselves mostly brown and white with their green leaves being covered by copious amounts of snow.

I walked with no destination in mind, how could I? I had no idea where I was! And so I simply wandered to and from whatever odd stone, fallen tree or mossy patch caught my interest. Gradually getting more and more used to my new body occasionally testing out my claws on unfortunate pieces of scenery, they were quite impressive scoring deep gouges on the various trees and rocks I used for testing and the one tree I had tried to use as a scratching post… well let’s just say that that crashing noise was totally unrelated to me.

Eventually the forest began to get lighter as dawn began to break, and with that light the forest became more active, I heard the calls of various birds and the scampering of various small mammals and occasionally saw deer and other large beasts I didn’t recognise through the trees, though all of them fled as soon as they caught my scent or saw me.

With the rise of the sun I decided that it was time for a little nap, it took me awhile to find a nice warm and sunny spot, with most of the ground being covered in cold snow and the trees blocking most of the light but eventually I found a large rocky outcrop in a well lit clearing and settled atop it, it was strange though even comfortable as I was, fur keeping me warm sun making me warmer I couldn’t get to sleep, oh well I thought ill just bask here in the warmth.

Hours past as I lay there lounging in the sun, but as the light began to dim and day turned to dusk I began to hear something – no a group of something’s approaching from behind me, they were being quite incredibly quite, but my new body was far more perceptive than before, I could hear the occasional twig snapping, and I got a vague feeling of danger from behind me.

I turned staying low on my outcrop now facing the back of the outcrop where the stone sloped down into a small wall of bushes, the small but steep drop now behind me that would serve to delay any attackers and then I began scanning the bushes I could see now hints of movement, flashes of white and grey fur through the undergrowth the occasional rustle of leaves also giving away some of them, I spotted five making their way to me through the bushes and I was sure I could hear a couple more further off.

They emerged slowly five of them in a semi-circle, each of them emitting low growls, they were dog like but far more wilder and savage looking than any dogs I had seen before. If I’d had my old body I would of backed off slowly growling all the while before darting off to escape up a tree, but I didn’t have my old body I had a new body that one with far sharper claws, far larger muscles and far more mass, a body that I was eager to test out.

I shot forward giving no growl or warning, pouncing on the first one to the right, it was obviously surprised freezing in a moment of shock which I took full advantage of, knocking it to the ground and flipping it onto its back before biting and ripping out its throat in a spray of blood.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

And from there the fight devolved into a frenzy, the four other wolves sprang at me, my claws caught one immediately not killing it instantly but wounding it mortally before I threw it away, the remaining three were joined by three more making use of their dead to get at me, two going for my legs, two jumped up for my arms and the other two circled nipping and biting where they could as the others attempted to drag me down. It did not work out well for them though their teeth were sharp my new fur was more than capable of absorbing their attacks, their bites and claws scoring only minor cuts on me, and though I struggled slightly as they tried to drag me down pulling at my feet and arms, but they simply didn’t have the strength or weight, and so one by one I cut them down.

The fight finished and I walked over to the last wolf, the one that I had wounded and thrown away it lay there too drained to make a sound, eyes wide with fear or pain. It was ended it quickly.

“Congratulations you have levelled up! Level 21 reached”

The notification surprised me, I hadn’t paid much attention to the system since I had run away from the witches perhaps it was time to change that, I had all those perks and skills to test out after all.

[Status]

[Name: Whisper Paws]

[Race: Abomination (Beast), (Daemonic)]

[Age: 19 (hours)]

[Level: 21]

[Class]

[Traits]

[Perks]

[Skills]

Just as the system said my level had gone up, I wondered what it meant if anything but there was no one to answer me and so I moved on.

My [Traits], [Perks] and [Class] tabs were unchanged but my [Skills] had changed slightly.

[Bite] – Lvl 1

[Claw Mastery] – Lvl 2

[Danger Sense] – Lvl 1

[Dodge] – Lvl 0

[Flee] – Lvl 0

[Leap] – Lvl 0

[Shred] – Lvl 3

[Sneak] – Lvl 0

[Dodge], [Flee], [Leap] and [Sneak] were all still level 0 which made some sense I hadn’t done any dodging in that last fight, though I probably should have even if their teeth and claws couldn’t harm me, I also hadn’t done any fleeing or sneaking either, I had done one leap, but it seemed that wasn’t enough for it to level up. [Bite] and [Danger Sense] were now level 1 which kind of made sense I had bitten those savage dogs a few times, I didn’t think I had used [Danger Sense] much but I must have. Finally [Claw Mastery] and [Shred] were level 2 and 3 respectively which made sense giving the mess I had made of my foes.

I had thought that I would perhaps need to activate my skills in some way, but it appeared not with the skill simply levelling as I did whatever action it represented, it made me wonder what difference there was between having a skill for an action and not having one, I hadn’t noticed much difference between level 0 and level 3, but there must be a reason to have skills, perhaps it was more noticeable at higher levels?

Moving on from my wanderings, my stomach decided to voice its displeasure at not having eaten in nearly a day and so I indulged it after all I had all this freshly killed meat.

It took four whole dog thingies to fill me up. Four! That’s half the damned pack! That amount of meat would of probably fed me for a year back in my old body! Oh I wasn’t complaining it was amazing! I could eat so much more food now, of course I’d actually have to catch my other meals since I doubted I’d get lucky enough to have snacks throw themselves at me twice.

It was night now after my feast and I decided id check out my [Traits] and [Perks].

[Abominations Adaptability] “No matter what foes you tackle, what environments you encounter, what challenges you face, you will adapt for there is nothing you cannot overcome given time”

This one seemed like it would be good but I had no idea how to know if it was doing anything, I checked all over my body and I didn’t find anything different, my fur was still white with black spots along with occasional grey patches and blood I had cleaned off yet and I didn’t feel stronger. Perhaps the dogs were simply too weak to trigger any change?

I had no idea, however I did notice during my inspection that all the little cuts and wounds they had managed to inflict on me were gone, there was not a trace of the fight not even scabs or scars just smooth skin, this must be the result of [Daemonic Regeneration], finally something that had a noticeable affect!

Unfortunately while I believed all my other [Traits] would have a noticeable effect I couldn’t be sure, [Beastly Senses] seemed like it would but I couldn’t tell if my much better senses were the result of my new body or the trait, [Unshakeable Hunter] seemed like it would but the only blood I had tasted was that of the wolves and they were all dead, and finally [Universal Language] seemed like something that would be useful and noticeable but the only humans I had met were those witches and I hadn’t paid enough attention to their chanting to know if I understood it or not.

Finally, I checked [Perks] and realised I had completely neglected to use [Identify] on anything! I quickly set about correcting this, using it first on the bones left over from my meal.

“The bones ones of a low-level “Dog Thingy” consumed by you”

Next up the still intact dog thingies.

“The Corpse of a level 14 “Dog Thingy” its chest has been shredded by your claws”

The other corpses read much the same and ranged in level from 10 to 18, Next up my surroundings.

“A tall snow-covered spruce tree”

“Green Moss”

“Grey rocky outcrop”

Well, it was slightly more informative than it had been against the witches, but it seemed to operate only on what I knew and while I had learned far more than most cats during my time with my former owners that knowledge was not helping me much here.

With my [Status] inspection complete I buried two of the carcases a little ways away from the battle site so long as I didn’t wonder too far away I would probably be able to find them again if I needed food, and with that done I hauled my other two newly made ready meals up onto my shoulders and wandered for a little while, I would of taken all four with me but while I could handle the weight it was simply too awkward hauling four bodies around, eventually I stumbled across a reasonable sized cave and decided that this would be a good time to try and catch a little sleep and so I piled my catch into the back and laid down hoping to drift off quickly.