I did not drift off quickly, in fact I did not drift off at all instead I stayed awake tossing and turning all night long unable to get a wink of sleep despite trying until the light of dawn came, at which point I gave up, got up and got moving.
I was very irritable that morning and having to lug around two dog thingy carcasses wasn’t helping my mood, luckily it seemed to be winter wherever I was and there were few flying annoyances around I think if flies had started swarming around my snacks, I would have had to find somewhere to store them or abandon them simply to avoid the pesky buggers.
Stomping along through the forest upright as I was and with two lumps of dead weight carried on my shoulders I was not the stealthiest being around especially with the fact that standing upright meant I had to walk in the more open areas of the forest and as such I saw few creatures that day though I often heard the faint sounds of them running off in the distance as soon as they either saw me, heard me or smelt me and the bloody carcasses I was carrying.
The day continued and saw me wondering aimlessly through the forest appreciating its beauty, the patchy snow cover, the moss and detritus covered rocks and ground often visible under the largest trees along with the occasional patch of hardy bushes, but eventually bodily need caught up with me, wandering under the sun is thirsty work, especially so when you haven’t drunk in over a day, – The bloody meal I had ate yesterday not really counting though it had somewhat quenched my thirst – and so I began listening to the world around me more hoping to catch the sound of a stream, river, water fall or well anything watery.
It took me quite a while to find a small stream, even though my senses are now far beyond that of my old body, that helped little when the only water around was a tiny babbling brook easily drowned out by bird calls and not some large raging river or crashing water fall, but a stream was found and greedily drank from not with cupped hands like I’d once seen a human do but like a cat down on all fours eyes, ears and nose scanning for threats – though I doubted anything but humans could threaten me in this form, - my burdens temporarily placed down behind me.
After slaking my thirst I decided to follow the brook downstream, after all it’d be a pain to find it again and it was slightly better than simply wandering around aimlessly.
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Two days and nights passed with me following the stream before it merged into a river and during that two days I’d:
Ate my two ready meals.
Drank constantly from the stream.
Managed to get [Dodge] and [Leap] up to level one from dodging obstacles while running with last second leaps.
Managed to get [Sneak] up to level two by trying to hide my presence doing so by, making as little sound as possible, staying low to the ground and trying to use my largely white coat to blend in, I also washed the blood out of my fur both to help with the camouflage and to get rid of its scent, I couldn’t hide my own scent of course but most animals didn’t seem to know what my scent was and thus didn’t react much more than being slightly more wary of their surroundings, they did however know what blood smelt like and avoided it or sought it out.
And finally, I didn’t sleep. Not a bloody wink of it, and I’d eventually realised why, it was that bloody Geas! I called the message back up.
“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”
Yup there it was, the second condition of the Geas looks like I wouldn’t be sleeping until I had killed this San Marus, this was incredibly annoying, and I’d thought it a near impossible task, after all I knew nothing about this new land, had no idea where I was, and also had no idea where San Marus was nor what they looked like! And yet when I focused on their name, I felt a faint sense of something downriver, I couldn’t tell what it was, but I was hoping it was this Inquisitor General, after all those “Witches” wouldn’t have left me without any way of finding this man they want dead would they?
And so that’s why I was now loping along parrel to the river on my left with the setting sun to my right, I could already feel tiredness slowing me, – though it wasn’t nearly as much as I was expecting for not having slept in four, nearly five days, – and I didn’t want to find San Marus only to drop dead from exhaustion at their feet.
The undergrowth and trees occasionally forced me away from the rivers banks sometimes off into the forest and sometimes into shallow parts of the river, but I continued my loping forwards on all fours, I could of left the river but loping for hours was thirsty work and besides that it was taking me almost directly towards the vague feeling I got from focusing on my target.
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My fifth day on this new world came and with it hunger reared its ugly head luckily, I didn’t have to go out of my way to find food, after all I was traveling along what was probably the main source of water for most of the animals out here and so all I had to do was simply slow down to a fast walk, tread more quietly and try to blend in with my surroundings. It took a couple of hours but eventually I found a lone deer drinking from the river, my steps quietened, my heartbeat and movements slowed as I circled around it to come from downwind and slowly, ever so slowly crept up keeping as many trees and bushes between us as I could, until I got within a few meters of my prey.
Then I pounced powerful hind legs launching me through the air near silently, and front limbs extended out in front of me ready to latch on and shred my target, still even with my near silent approach the deer spooked at the last moment and began to run, fortunately though it couldn’t move fast enough to completely avoid me and I latched on to its rear, my weight and strength easily dragging it down to the ground, where I quickly consumed it before continuing my journey.
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It was amazing how much ground I could cover while loping along and I covered what must have been miles and miles before I came across signs of humans at the dawn of the sixth day, the tree stumps, trampled undergrowth and cultivated trees I found were often marked with their scent, and so my approached slowed I didn’t want my presence known, after all who knows how they’d react.
Slinking through what cover I could find and often relying on my fur to camouflage me and the river close by to cover up any small sounds I made, I snuck closer to where I assumed their homes to be, passing by the occasional house and their occupants and going unnoticed by the occasional human moving about outside, before coming up against a wooden wall, I knew I could easily leap or climb over it, I mean the thing wouldn’t even come halfway up my chest if I stood to my full height and even on all fours I was well over halfway up it! But I knew I’d be spotted even just me getting here and hiding was a risk with my huge form, luckily there hadn’t been many humans out and about as I was sneaking in but it was past midday now and everyone was up and awake so I simply sought out the densest patch of undergrowth near the walls and settled down to wait, checking as I did so the vague direction I got from the Geas and finding that I could feel it moving far more than before, perhaps my target was in this village? I would hopefully find out tonight, I also checked my [Skills] I had a feeling Sneak had levelled up a bit in my journey.
[Bite] – Lvl 1
[Claw Mastery] – Lvl 2
[Danger Sense] – Lvl 1
[Dodge] – Lvl 1
[Flee] – Lvl 0
[Leap] – Lvl 1
[Shred] – Lvl 3
[Sneak] – Lvl 6
Yup 4 entire levels! it seemed skills levelled faster when there was risk involved after all [Bite], [Claw Mastery], [Danger Sense], and [Shred] had levelled up, reaching as high level three in just that one quick fight, whereas [Dodge], [Leap] and [Sneak] had only gone up by one or two levels while traveling along the river and now that I was sneaking through human territory I had gained levels stupidly quickly!
Skills check done I settled down in my bush to wait.
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The wait for nightfall was tedious especially since couldn’t sleep or get any rest, whenever I tried I simply get a shock of energy as my own body forces me to stay awake, I also had to stay quiet and still as possible due to all the humans. Eventually though night fell, the humans retreated into their homes, and while I wanted to begin searching the village immediately, I instead waited, knowing it would be best to bide my time until the humans were asleep.
I was not waiting too long before lights began to go out in the humans’ homes and though there were still some stubborn humans awake my boredom and impatience won out over my caution as I began to prowl around the outskirts of the little village, I’d found all the while keeping track of where my vague sense for what I assumed was San Marus pointed which was straight towards the centre of the village.
It was small, tiny in fact with only a perhaps twenty houses total inside the walls along with a couple outside in the fields and forest surrounding it, and it was also far less civilized than what I had come to expect from humans, they usually lived in grand homes made of stone and full of water and food, yet these homes had little of that they were small, made of wood, grasses, dirt and mud. Though I couldn’t tell if they had water or food inside, but these strange conditions didn’t faze me instead I focused on my target.
Sneaking inside the walls was trivial, I’d found that there were three gates while stalking around the town’s walls, one far larger than the other two, they were closed but a tiny wall like this wouldn’t have stopped me in my old body let alone this far larger one, they were cleared easily in a single leap and I landed with a dull thud and crunch of snow between two homes on the outer edge of the town, there was light and laughter still emanating from some homes but for most darkness and silence ruled as I slipped silently towards the centre of the village where my target lay.
Slipping unnoticed through the night was easy especially without any humans wandering around, and soon I came to where my target was, a large house in the very centre of the village it was easily two or three times the size of all the others it was made of wood coated in a white substance, it had multiple levels and thankfully no light peeked out from its walls nor did the sound of any voices carry through. I circled it several times feeling out where my target was located before climbing up the walls towards it, my claws digging easily into the wood and its crumbly coating, I stopped on the second story, my sense telling my target was directly in front of me, I had hoped to find a window even a small one through which to glimpse what it was my sense targeted but alas there were none on this side of the building, and so I got to making myself a hole through which to peak, it took a while, though neither the wood nor its coating was particularly hard for my claws to cut or for my strength to break, the need to make the hole quietly slowed me down and the moon was high in the sky when I finished.
Peering inside the hole I found a bedroom, it was dark but that was no problem for my eyes and before me I could see the rooms occupants, a large older human lay on a bed across from me clutching a large hammer to their chest, at the foot of their bed lay a door and on the floor between my eyehole and the bed lay a smaller younger human. I knew the older man was what my sense pointed towards though how I knew I couldn’t tell you there was just an instinctive sense, an awareness that this was my target, this was who I needed to kill.