<~> CHAPTER 50

I was dashing along the side of the lake at a fairly high speed. I was still getting used to the way my legs moved, each step while I was running was like a small bounding leap, one after another. While this meant that my top running speed had gone up quite considerably, it became a lot more of a challenge to control my momentum since my altered legs had me almost falling forward after each bounding step.

Still, it was becoming easier to judge how long it would take me to stop from my top speed so I gradually eased myself to a stop right next to Luna who had been waiting for me in the shade of one of the trees near our camping spot. She looked a lot more refreshed after getting some sleep, everyone did. Yesterday had been gruelingly long going through the fire cave floor. We didn't even get to sleep right away after that since I insisted on taking a bath first. I hadn't even been able to relax properly under the circumstances either...

("How are your legs?") Luna asked.

I eased myself to the ground next to the stump she was sitting on. ("Better in some ways, worse in others. This is probably the first time that eating a heart changed me in a way that I didn't like. My old legs felt a lot more stable, even if they were slower. I felt more in control of myself.")

("Do you think you'll get used to them or are they just worse?")

I raised a foot and stretched it in front of me while wiggling my toes. ("I wouldn't say they're worse exactly. I hope I'll get used to them but I still have to work at it. Being in my wolf form feels more different from my human one now though. I don't just feel like I'm a bigger me, I have to walk differently now too.")

Lowering my foot I leaned forward and looked at my legs. I thought back to when they changed and wondered how it would feel if the transformation reverted. I even visualized my legs changing back but unfortunately for me, it didn't seem to affect anything. I sighed. It would have been nice if I could control this form of mine like that, but if I can, I don't know how.

Luna stood up and sat in the grass next to me before taking one of my legs into her arms.

I tilted my head. ("What are you doing?")

She smiled. ("You seem a little stiff. I thought that I could give your legs a bit of a massage. Maybe when your legs changed it affected your range of motion.")

I didn't know if it would help but the leg massage did really did feel damn good. I groaned out when she ran her strong fingers along a particularly sore muscle. ("Ah, damn, that feels really good, Luna.")

Smiling, she kept at it. She glanced behind me and following her line of sight, I realized that my tail was wagging. I blushed a little but I couldn't stop it. It was moving completely on its own, I hadn't even noticed it.

("Your tail is certainly being honest. I'm glad that it's helping.") She giggled a little before switching legs and focusing on the other one. I leaned back and practically drooled as Luna's magic fingers found all of the knots and loosened the tight muscles in my legs. I'd never gotten a leg massage before but it felt amazing. ...It made me wonder what other parts of my body are tense. Maybe I could convince her to give me a back massage sometime too. Hopefully I can return the favor.

Piper walked over and sat on the stump that Luna had abandoned. "So, how are your legs?" she asked out loud.

"Goooood," I groaned out.

She snickered. "I mean after your ...." I wasn't sure what she said but I got the gist.

I frowned and answered with the rings. ("They still feel odd. It's easier to build up speed but it's harder to stop my momentum. It's like they want to keep going. I feel faster but it's harder to stop on a dime,") I replied.

She shrugged. ("I don't know what a dime is, but that sounds good overall. A lot of speed for a little bit of control. You should try and answer me more without the rings though. I still have slime cores but you need to practice speaking more if you want to learn our language.")

I sighed. "I know. It is hard to speak when I do not know enough words yet," I replied.

"That's why you need to practice more," Piper said with a grin.

At least it didn't feel all that different to speak in my wolf form. Somehow making the noises I wanted to make came naturally. Using my legs used to feel natural too.

Luna put my other leg on the ground and I stretched. They really did feel better now, maybe there was something to the idea that they were stiff after they changed. I stood up and bounced on the balls of my feet a bit. I think I was starting to get used to it but it still felt a bit like wearing high heels. My weight was a bit more focused on a smaller area rather than being supported by my whole foot. I didn't exactly hate high heels but I rarely wore them. I lifted my leg and balanced on one foot while I grabbed the other one and stretched out my thigh. When I finished I switched to the other one and stretched out that thigh too.

It still felt awkward to walk but it wasn't as bad. Funnily enough, I need more practice walking slowly rather than running. Going fast and arresting my momentum will take some getting used to but that didn't feel as strange. Walking with such deliberate steps did. I just hoped that I'll get used to it as we moved on.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Luna and I followed Piper back to the other two who were finishing packing up the tents. Everyone gave me a bit of time to work out the new kinks on my new legs while they took a break but it was about time to get moving. Most of the remaining floors shouldn't take that long to get through, but we were still on a time limit. Maxwell was in charge of the time though and he didn't seem all that worried about it yet.

I am a little anxious about eating more of the monster hearts that we came across now. While none of them have been strictly detrimental to me yet, this last change came close. Until now I was operating under the impression that eating the hearts would have no downsides but now I wasn't as sure. I pondered the idea while we got the last of our stuff loaded up and we walked back to the road to get moving.

There was something I wanted to check out though. ("Hey Luna, can I have my blindfold? I want to see what this floor looks like with it on.")

("Sure, but don't stay in your human form long. You still need to practice walking more since you're not used to your legs.") Luna bent over her pack and dug through it before pulling out the blindfold and handing it over to me. I hadn't washed it with the rest of my clothes but I also took it off pretty quickly before it got drenched in sweat. I tied it over my eyes again and acclimated to the change in sight I had.

The glowing rock I had tied to my belt still gave off the "magical light" for lack of a better term but because of the open nature of this floor, it faded off after a distance. Maybe six or seven yards. Like other floors of the dungeon, there was magical light coming from everything including the ground and trees, but only the things within the magical light of the rock on my belt were in focus if that made sense.

Satisfied with my observations I shifted back into my werewolf form and rested my axe on my shoulder. I walked along matching my pace to my friends and tried to get used to the new balance of my steps. We walked for a good thirty minutes before anything interesting happened.

One of those big hawks started trying to dive-bomb me. It swooped in and tried to scratch me with its talons. It had done three runs, luckily only targeting me, before I finally managed to snatch it out of the air by its neck. With a flick of my wrist, I broke the bird's neck and it lay limp in my hand. The bird was large but it wasn't huge or anything. Definitely on the larger end of what birds should be on earth but not so large it's unreasonable or even particularly monstrous.

"Well, are you going to eat it?" Piper asked.

I glanced at her and frowned before turning back and looking down at the bird in my hands. "What if it does something... like the rabbit did to me?" I didn't know the word for strange or weird so I just left it out.

I felt a bit of a thrum of my instincts to tear out its heart but it wasn't overwhelming since the fight hadn't been much of a challenge. Annoying more than anything else.

Piper just shrugged at my question.

"Nothing else you have eaten has been a problem yet," Maxwell said. Aria gave us a bit of a strange look as we casually discussed eating a monster's heart.

Luna touched my arm. ("I think you should eat it. Even if the changes the bloody rabbit gave you weren't all upside, I think it was still a positive change overall. None of the hearts you've eaten have been detrimental, so I think it's safe. Are your instincts still telling you to eat it?")

I looked at the bird and unconsciously licked my chops. ("Yes, my instincts want me to eat it.")

Luna nodded. ("I think you should trust them then. Go ahead.")

I gave her a bit of a sideways glance. It seemed odd that she was pushing this so much but I supposed being in support of making myself stronger wasn't that weird. I hope I wasn't triggering some weird desires in her though, that was the last thing I wanted to deal with.

Shaking my head, I sighed. ("Fine. I'll eat it. Hopefully this doesn't cause as many problems as the last one did.") I pushed my thumbs into the bird's chest and tore it open. The bird felt fragile to me, it wasn't a challenge at all to rip it open and find the heart. I plucked out the heart and ate it, taking a moment to bite into it before swallowing it down.

I wobbled for a moment before feeling slightly lighter on my toes. I bounced on the balls of my feet a couple times, but otherwise felt normal.

("Any changes?") Luna asked.

I shrugged. ("I feel... lighter? I don't feel that much different.") I reached over and pinched the bones in my wrist to see if they were more fragile or something but everything seemed normal. I just mysteriously felt lighter and that was the extent of the change.

I turned my attention back to the hawk and took a bite of some of the meat I had torn past to get to the heart. It tasted decent. I would say it tastes like chicken but I've never eaten magical raw chicken before so I had nothing to compare it to. I could tell there was magic in the meat though because it didn't taste gross the way that the raw deer did, these hawks were in fact monsters, not just big aggressive animals. Good to know I guess.

("At least I didn't grow wings or talons or something weird,") I said to Luna.

She cocked her head to the side and smiled. ("You wouldn't want to try flying with wings?")

Actually... ("The idea of that doesn't sound that bad. I don't know if hawk wings would lift me even if they were big enough though. Birds have specific anatomy that makes them able to fly.")

She shrugged. ("Well, you're like a magical creature. There are plenty of monsters that can fly even though they shouldn't be able to. I wouldn't put it past your wolf body to be among them.")

That's... another great point actually. Well, I don't think I'm ready to chalk everything up to magic bullshit yet but if I magically became able to fly I'd be willing to forgive some magic bullshit for that.