“Keep an eye and ear out. I heard some singing earlier so we probably aren’t the only people hunting in these woods right now.” Russell warned me as we switched watch duty. “I also heard something moving in the trees about an hour ago. It seems to have left, but be careful anyway, some of the large cats like to circle back to ambush prey when they have let their guard down.” I nod my agreement as he yawns and crawls into his pile of furs and quickly falls asleep. I did not hear the singing again that night, but there was a rustling noise in the trees in the dark around our campsite. It must be the creature that visited us earlier while Russell was on watch. I let out the best snarl I could, I am getting good at those in my human form. It is a useful skill for scaring off the beasties in the dark at night. The rusting noise let out a snarl of their own and then vanished off in the trees. Nothing else of real note happened during my shift and when the light began to filter through the trees, chasing away the absolute dark that had hung heavy on us. It is still not bright but you can see. Russell woke up soon after the sun was up. He cooked the rest of the Rhabbit meat for breakfast on the embers of the fire. We rolled up our furs and tied them to our packs and Russell grabbed mine and held it while I walked behind a tree and shifted into my German Shepard Form. Bounding out from the tree with my clothes in my mouth Russell took the clothes and stowed them in a side pocket on my pack. He showed me how to organize my furs into a much better pack than the ramshackle fur pack that I had been using before we met. It takes more time to set up than my old one, but this one holds a lot more and is much more organized. This way I can easily access my clothes while in my canine form, and the shape makes it easy for me to carry even while in my German Shepard shape. Not so much in my Kitsune shape, but with how small I am in my Kitsune form carrying anything larger than a coin purse is difficult since it will drag on the ground. Being small has its own set of problems.
As always in my German Shepard form my hearing and sense of smell is crazy good. I can smell the creature that had been circling our campsite last night. My nose told me that it is a large feline, just like Russell had thought. I don’t know what kind of feline, I have not run across this particular feline before. It is a little creepy that the higher my level the better my sense of smell became, and now I can tell from smell that the feline that was stalking us last night was a male. I could probably track him if I wanted to. I looked to Russell and let out a snort and circled the camp to let him know what I was smelling. It is harder to communicate in my canine form, but I am willing to take the time rather than let anyone see me naked. Russell seemed to understand what I was getting at. He thought for a minute then shook his head. “No, it could be more dangerous than we can take on right now. Better not to risk it.” He knows better than I do, so I defer to his judgement. He knows these woods better than I. He better not just be chickening out though. “We might be better off looking for the other people in the forest that we heard last night.” The ones with the great singing voice. Yeah I could go and see about talking to them. I have prepared myself mentally to meet people other than Russell. He is just the first person that I have come across. It was just my luck that he is someone who was willing to travel with me. It might be good to meet more people, so far I just have Russell’s information on the other races to go on, and there is still so much of the world that I know nothing about. Last night’s conversation about the entertainment industry and slavery comes to mind. There is a lot that I need to know before I get into trouble in a city or town. I nod my head to show Russell that I agree with him. This is not a plan without danger, they could be hostile, or it could be a trap to capture wayward travelers. We would be on guard until we know more about the singer and whoever they may be with. We do have to find them first. Russell frowned and sat down where fire used to be and closed his eyes in thought. He moved his hands about and mouthed silently to himself for a few minutes before nodding to himself and standing up. He pointed in a direction off in the trees. “It came from that way.” I let out a soft bark and waited for him to heft up his pack, mine in my mouth, we headed off in the direction he pointed. I keep my enhanced hearing trained on the sounds around me. As soon as sounds that could be other people enter my range of hearing I will be able to pinpoint their location.
It was a few hours of trekking through the thick trees before I heard the first sounds of battle. Voices of what sound like a man and women echo in the trees with the growls and yips of some kind of canine. I pick up speed and motion with my head the direction of the noise to Russell who is running to keep up with me. They might not need our help, but those animal sounds sound like they are coming from a canine and I do not want to miss out on seeing them. I need to collect all of the canine forms and this could be a good chance for me to unlock another one. The battle masked the sound of my arrival and led me right to them. In a small clearing there are two people fighting with long handled weapons, I can’t tell if they are both spears or not, but they are striking out at a small group of foxes. They had darker fur with shockingly white tails and moved swiftly around the feet of the two fighters. It was hard for them to hit the small canines who were biting their feet and ankles leaving small bleeding gashes and impeding their movements. I ran flat out and grabbed one of the foxes with my teeth and crushed the small head as Guardian kicked in and my stats increased. There was a ding in my head, but I ignored it and focused on taking down the other three foxes still attacking the man and woman. From this close I noticed that the woman was attacking with a thick staff while the man was fighting with a spear. He dug his spear tip into the neck of one of the foxes and she crushed the skull of another. The last fox fell under my teeth as I grabbed it and threw it into a tree. The couple were staring at me with their weapons raised. I must be a bit scared, a large German Shepherd, which is not native to this world, with blood on its face ran into the middle of a fight and started to take down the small prey. I would be scared and wondering if it was going to attack me. I lift up my ears and start to wag to tail in an attempt to set them at ease. I am very aware of how strong and dangerous those weapons in their hands are. I do not want to have to attack them. Maybe I should change back to human? But then I would be naked in front of them and one of them is a man that I do not know. I might have done it anyway but that was when a very tired and panicked Russell broke through the trees. “Elise! Don’t go off on your own!” He wheezed. He froze when he saw the man and woman pointing their weapons at me. “Don’t attack!” He yelled, “That’s Elise she is a Shapeshifter, she is not going to harm you unless you provoke her.”
At Russell’s words the pair lowered their weapons slowly and I used this time to dart over to Russell and grab my pack that he had been carrying for me. I hid behind one of the large trees just out of sight to change back to human while Russell was talking quietly to the pair in the clearing. Once I was dressed, and man that would have been awkward I am glad that Russell showed up when he did, I grabbed my pack and entered the clearing again. It is the first real look that I got at the man and woman. I had been too busy first attacking the foxes, then trying to not be attacked to really pay attention to them. My sight in German Shepherd Form is black and white and lots and lots of shades of grey. I just had an idea that the man was taller than the woman and that both were wearing some kind coat. Other than that I was more focused on the spear and staff in their hands. Now I see that the man is not just tall, he has coffee dark skin, a stray beam of light makes something shine on his arm. It was then that I realized that he had scattered batches of dark brown scales on his exposed skin. His hair is mostly covered by the hood of the coat he is wearing, but stray strands of black hair peek out of the hood. The woman was shorter than the man, closer to my own height, just a little shorter than me. Her hood had fallen off sometime between me leaving to change and coming back. Her skin is more of a mocha color and she has wild tight black curly hair pulled back into a bun on her head. I decide to take a peek at their statuses. My Analyze has gone up in level in the last few days, thank you herbology, and I might be able to figure out something about them. I decided to focus on the man first, he seems to be the most hostile and for some reason Russell seems to be trying to stay away from him. Russell is a very friendly guy, it is a little worrisome that he seems to be so wary about this guy.
Name: Pettran
Age: 26
Mind: ???
Str ??? Spd ??? Int ??? Res ??? Def ???
Race: Halfling (Dark Elf and Scalekin)
Sex: Male
Gender: Male
Level: 21
Gift: ???
Titles: 3
Abilities: ???
Skills ???
Not too bad, I got more information on him than I thought. He is a higher level than me so I would have gotten a lot less if my Analyze had not leveled up. He is part Dark Elf, Russell said that Wood Elves and Dark Elves do not like each other. I have to wonder if that is why Russell is so wary about this guy. I don’t know if that is better or worse than Pettran being dangerous or not. On one hand it means that he was not getting ready to kill us, on the other hand it means that Russell, poor sweet, blushing Russell is a bit racist. One would think that being a Halfling himself that he would be more open to other races. I focus on the woman, definitely not feeling a bit of anger and disappointment at Russell’s possible bigotry.
Name: Anise
Age: 38
Mind:???
Str ??? Spd ??? Int ??? Res ??? Def ???
Race: Halfling (Dark Elf and Human)
Sex: Female
Gender: Female
Level: 19
Gift: ???
Titles: 3
Gift of the Elves (Dark), Songstress, Soul Singer
Abilities: 5
???, ???, ???, ???, ???
Skills: 10
???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???
I can see some of her titles, I wonder what they mean? I stare hard at the first one. I only just managed not to make a sound when the words popped in front of my face. Gift of the Elves (Dark): Given to those who possess the blood of the Dark Elves. Grants the ability Alchemy.
No wonder Dark Elves are the best at Alchemy, they are born with the skill! They must grow up with great insights to the craft before they even start learning how to make anything. I mentally try to swipe the words away, how does one get rid of mental screens? To my relief it goes back to the list of titles and I decide to look at the next title in the list. Russell is still talking to them so I have some time before I look like a total creep. Songstress: One who uses their voice to tell stories and lift spirits. They have devoted their time to perfecting their art. Grants greater ability to learn and recall songs and stories. I take a quick peek and yep Russell and the girl are speaking still so I check on the last title. Soul Singer: One who has focused on their singing enough to be able to imbue magic into their words and affect the listener on a much greater level. Grants the ability to alter moods, boost str, Int, or Res with their songs.
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