Wow. That is pretty cool. Thinking back on what Russell had said about Entertainment Troupes and how you did not want to attract their attention makes these titles seem a lot more ominous. Maybe the reason they are wearing their coats with their hoods up is because they are running? What if Pettran is a slaver and is trying to take Anise into custody? Wait, if that was true then she would not be standing so relaxed beside him. Woop, my imagination almost got the better of me there for a second. Still it couldn’t hurt too much to be a bit wary. I walk fully into the clearing and step beside Russell who is looking intently at Anise. There is a lot of tension in the air, it is not very comfortable. “Thanks for holding my pack Russell.” I said breaking the tension and attracting everyone’s full attention. Russell looked relieved as he flushed slightly and took another step back placing a little more space between him and the strangers. I turned to Anise and Pettran and held up my pendant. “Hello my name is Elise, I am fairly new in this world. I was given this pendant by a very inconsiderate god who called himself Darvin. He didn’t tell me anything before sending me here, including bothering to tell me that I had died. So if there is something going on here that is obvious please forgive me for not knowing what it is.” The suspicious glare that Pettran had been giving us changed to a startled stare before recovering and becoming just a resting scowl. Anise’s face lit into a bright smile when she looked at the pendant that I was still holding. “Hello there Elise, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Anise and this is my paramoure Pettran, he is a bit cranky but means well. We are grateful for your assistance. Those White Tailed Foxes caught us by surprise. You did not miss anything, Russell here was just trying to offer us some first aid supplies since the foxes destroyed most of ours before we noticed. Pettran was being cautious, but in his scary and intimidating way.” Ah, that is why there was so much tension between them. Good to know, I never doubted Russell at all. Of course he was not being racist, I would never think that about him. Ever. “Feel free to use some of our first aid supplies, you guys are bleeding pretty badly.” Anise took the small bundle that I just noticed Russell holding this time. “Thank you.” She said. Her voice is pure and clear and is very pleasant to listen. The urge to snarl at Pettran, who is still scowling, that had been building, stupid canine urges, eased away. Sneaky woman. I like the feeling though so I will let it go, for now. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time. For now I listen to her soothing voice as she speaks to the scowling man beside her and Russell moves back and walks out of the clearing. I looked at where he had just walked out, shocked. That does not seem like Russell, he is just leaving them to deal with their wounds. He left me alone to deal with two strangers that we are still not entirely sure are not trying to attack us. Mentally I revise the questions about whether or not Russell is a bit racist or not. Before I could really start to get made he came back, the cooking pan filled with fresh water. Nope, never doubted Russell at all. He looked at me “Can you make a fire so we can heat up the water? We need hot water to wash the wounds to prevent the wounds from going bad.” I drop and start clearing the ground where the fire will go. I pulled out the sticks and sorted them and leaves into different piles. I built the foundation for the fire and took out the Strike and Spark that Russell carries and coaxed a fire into a hot small fire. Once I moved back, Russell moved forward and placed the pan over the fire and waited for it to get hot. He pulled the pain out before it began to boil. While we worked to heat up the water Anise had convinced Pettran to sit down and clear off their shoes and pull up their pant legs to bare the bleeding bites. She was taking stips of cloth out of her own pack. Once Russell placed the hot water by her she dipped the cloth strips into the water and handed them to Pettran. Once he began to clean his wounds she dipped her own strips into the water and worked to clean her wounds.
“That looks very painful.” Anise gave a pained grin “It is, but it needs to be done.” She is in her thirties, but she looks like she is only just out of her teens. How is that possible? “You know that I am one of the Reborn, so I have the skill Analyze.” It wasn’t really a question but Anise nodded anyway. Pettran moved his glare from his feet to me and waited. “I used Analyze on both of you before I came into the clearing.”
“Oh is that why you were standing there staring for a few minutes?” Oh she saw that, not embarrassing, not at all. No shame here, none. “Yes, I did not see everything, but I did notice that you are in your thirties. It is rude to ask a woman her age where I came from, but you look much younger than thirty. I can believe that Pettran and Russell are in their twenties and look so young, but not the thirties. Is it something to do with your race, or do people just age slower, or better in this world?” Anise blinked at me. “Wow, that is not a question that I get asked very often. Darvin really didn’t tell you anything about the world? Well it is not that big of deal. Age is a bit fluid in this world. Race and level affect how long a person’s life will be. Some races live longer than others naturally. Elves are the longest lived races, they live from four to five hundred years on average. Druids, Dwarves and Gnomes have the next longest lifespan. They can live from seventy to one hundred years on average. Humans, Wolfkin, Scalekin, Felis, Vulpin, Rattus, Ursus and Leporidae are the next longest lived people. They can live between sixty to eighty years on average. Goblins can live on average for thirty to fifty years. Sprites and Pixies have the lowest life spans. They live 10-30 years on average. I don’t know the average lifespans of the Evnri, Fynora or the S’leni. They just don’t socialize with other races enough. Higher levels will decrease the rate that you age. The younger you are when you reach a higher level the longer you will live. Halflings like Pettran and I can take on the traits of both of our parent’s races. Most Halflings who are born from species that have different lifespans, they live usually longer than the lower lifespan parent by half difference between the lifespans of the parents. Based on my parents I will most likely live to be two hundred and ninety years old. Then again, this world is a dangerous place so you might die tomorrow, but for the most part that is how aging works here.” Dang. Well then the age gap between Anise and Pettran and even Anise and Russell is not that large. They could be a couple. The mystery deepens. By this time Anise and Pettran had finished cleaning their wounds and were rubbing some kind of ointment that Russell kept in his pack on them. They had both sniffed the ointment first and then nodded in approval. They both have Alchemy skills so they probably knew what was in the ointment, it might have been made by Dark Elves. That thought made me a little embarrassed about my, ahem, possible questioning of Russell’s racial bias. At least this time I did not say it outloud. “Say what out loud?” Anise asked. Crap. I did it again. “Nothing, just thinking.”
“Elise has a tendency to speak without meaning to. Some of what she says makes no sense since it is part of a longer thought in her head.” Russell shot us a shy smile as he washed out the pan. It had only held water, but they had dipped their dirty rags into it. “Do you want to share a meal?” He asked still looking at the pan in his hands. “We can cook up the White tailed Foxes. The meat cooks well with some of the herbs that I have seen growing around here. The skins can go to who killed them.” Anise smiled before she responded “We would appreciate that.” Pettran gave her a sharp look from where he was bandaging his feet and she sighed. “No matter what the grump over there says, we would appreciate a meal. Pettran doesn’t complain, but neither of us are very good at cooking and the charred Rhabbit we ate last night just did not hit the spot.”
“Oh, do Dark Elves eat meat, or is it because you are Halflings? Russell says that Wood Elves do not eat meat, but that since he is only half he took after his Non-Elven parent and eats meat.” Russell hissed at me, it was such an unexpected action from him that I couldn’t help but jump. Anise laughed and patted me on the arm. Pettran’s glare faded for a brief moment and he looked reluctantly amused. “It is rude to tell others what race a Halfling’s parents are without their permission. To tell a group of strangers that you just met your friend’s secrets is not done. Very rude Elise, very rude. You also told Russell that we were part Dark Elf. Spreading a lot of personal information, you might want to watch out for that. The next pair of strangers might not be so understanding, or harmless.” Again Pettran made a sound of disapproval. “Maybe not harmless, but we don’t mean you any harm.” Anise amended. My bad. Thinking back on my words, I can see how they might not be the wisest thing I have ever said. Dark Elves and Wood Elves don’t like each other. Russell might seem okay with them, but maybe he did not know that they were part Dark Elf, and maybe they did not know that he was part Wood Elf. I really hope that I did not just start a fight. A fight would not be good right now, nope, not cool at all. “To answer your question though Dark Elves do eat meat. It is part of why Wood Elves dislike them so much. There are other reasons that the two races don’t typically get along, but that is one of the stated reasons. Wood Elves disapprove of eating the flesh of animals, while Dark Elves call Wood Elves wasteful for not eating the flesh of animals and claim that they are too weak to deal with dead bodies. The insult of being called wasteful makes the Wood Elves particularly mad and any hope of a calm conversation is usually gone by that point. So we do eat meat, but it is not like Russell, in spite of half of our heritage.” She turned to Russell, “I am glad that you can appreciate the benefits of eating meat. It makes travel much easier and honors the creatures that we kill.” Russell blushed again and looked at his pan where he was melting some of his fat cubes. “There is no philosophical reason for it. My Mother is a Druid and their take is a much more practical one, you eat what you can get your hands on.” Anise shrugged “No matter the reason, it makes me like you a little more.”
I tuned them out and decided to take a look at my status. That little ding in my head meant that something happened. I don’t think that those foxes were worth enough experience to level me up. That most likely means that I might have gotten another Canine Form! I pulled up my status. I noticed that as I level up that I do not control my stat increases. At first I thought that it was random, but then I began to notice that the stats that I use the most are the ones that are raised with each level. I never get more than four points increase with each level.
Name: Elise
Age: 25
Mind: 70/90
Str: 22 Spd: 12 Int: 29 Res: 9 Def: 9
Race:Human
Sex: Female
Gender: Female
Level: 19
Gift: Shapeshifter
Titles: 6
Reborn, Touched by Darvin, Shapeshifter, Trial participant, Usurper (Wooly Claw), Hunter (Red Ear Territory)
Abilities: 2
Analyze: Rare. Level 3. Exp (2/150) points to next level 60
Transform (canine): Level 4. Cost 20 Mind. Rare. Exp (15/100) points to next level 80
Skills: 7
Analyze: Rare. Level 3. Exp (2/150) points to next level 60
Determination: Difficult tasks become easier when one never gives up. Boost to Str, Spd, Int, or Res depending on what one is trying to do. Unusual: Level 2 (50/200) Points to next level 100
Herbology: Enhances knowledge of and collection skills of plant life. Common: Level 2. (30/90) Points to next level 40
Hunting: Enhances tracking skills, supplements knife skills, supplements bow skills and gives the user heighted danger sense. Unusual: Level 3 (60/150) Points to next level 90
Transform (canine):Level 4 Cost 20 Mind. Rare. Exp (15/100) points to next level 80
Scavenger: Allows one to use items, objects and corpses around them to greater advantage. Unusual: Level 4. (12/150) Points to next level 60
Zoology: Enhances one’s knowledge of creatures, ability to communicate with creatures and more success with raising creatures. Rare: Level 3 (10/ 200) Points to next level 150
Skills not yet obtained:
Cooking: Enhances one’s ability to cook. Common: Points to obtain 10
Woodcraft: Enhances one’s ability to work and shape wood. Common: Points to obtain 20
Metalworking: Enhances one’s ability to work and shape metal. Common: Points to obtain 20
Mineralogy: Enhances knowledge of and collection skills of minerals. Common: Points to obtain 15
Farming: Enhances ability to grow crops and raise animals. Common: Points to obtain 15
Crafting: Enhances one’s skills in creating weapons, armor, cookware, flasks, and other objects. Common: Points to obtain 40
Alchemy: Enhances one’s understanding of poisons, magic, illnesses, wounds, and the creations of potions, antidotes and other tonics. Unusual: Points to obtain 25
First Aid: Enhances one’s knowledge of injuries, assessment of injuries and ability to treat them. Unusual: Points to obtain 30
Magic Support: Increase speed of spell casting. Unusual: Points to obtain 10
Mental Enhancement: Increases the power of magic and mental skills by 5 percent. Unusual. Points to obtain 30
Skill points:
10
Comments (0)
See all