《The Damaged Druid》


 Prologue

    His hair fluttered in the breeze, he stood there with his hands in his pockets he stood there waiting for the bus. It was cold outside, barely above the freezing point, that didn¡¯t bother him however. He was quite used to the cold and preferred it over hot sweltering summer weather. He was wearing light brown fur-lined leather boots, torn jeans, with a woollen lumberers jacket beneath a black leather coat. He wore a beanie over his shoulder-length hair, covering his ears was his Skull-crusher headphone.


    Two other people waited for the bus at the same station as he was. One, a teenage girl about his age wore those typical uggs girls often wore in the winter. Her other clothing marked her as what he liked to call a Starbucks-girl. She had the long straight blond hair and everything. The other, a man, in his late twenties, appeared a bit rougher, but the guitar on his back marked him as a musician.


    After a few minutes in the cold the bus finally arrived, the three showed the bus-driver their Tickets and got on. The driver looked like he came straight out of prison, with his powerful build, shaven head and the tattoos covering his body. The tattoos were visible beneath the rolled up sleeves of his jacket The year or two he had been driving the same bus however and the people around here knew him to be kind. His rough exterior covering his soft insides. He gave the bus-driver a nod and grinned at him, the man returning the grin.


    He sat down as far back as he could, and a quick look around marked the same people in the bus as he always saw on a Tuesday morning. Only one unfamiliar man sat near the front. The bus took off moving/driving carefully through the snow covered streets, leaving the small town and heading through the mountains with what would be an hour drive to the nearest city, and most importantly his school. He just sat back closing his eyes, taking a nap and listening to the guitar-riff he had downloaded from a certain youtuber a few days ago. Man could that guy strum his guitar, he doze off relishing the electric sounds buzzing through his ears.


    His head smacked against the window startling him awake, the bus slid through the snow. People screamed with fear painted their faces. He gripped the bars in front of him with a white-knuckled grasp as he looked around confused. Through the window, He saw the bus careening down the road towards the mountain road¡¯s edge. A split second of fear sent shock waves through his body as the bus tipped over the edge. Then calm realisation hit him, the corners of his mouth turned up as he smiled sadly.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    And I was finally getting my life back together, he thought.


    Suddenly he smacked down onto a floor, looking around with white eyes he saw himself and the other people in the bus lying face down on the whitest marble floor he had ever seen. He quickly jumped up looking around him only to see nothing but more of the same in every direction. Around him the rest looked around just as confused as he was, a few of them sighed in relief however as they ran their hands along their bodies. Probably checking if they were still whole, he guessed. It seemed a stupid thing to do, but he had the urge to do the same strangely enough.


    Suddenly a deep rumbling voice sounded out to them from every direction. The voice made his very cells tingle. The raw power in the voice¡¯s acoustics straightened his hair and gave him goose-bumps. A quick scan of the area told him nothing; whoever the voice belonged to he had not deigned to make himself visible. Somehow he was sure that the owner of the voice could do so if willing.


    ¡°As yourbus slipped over the edge of the mountain, I decided to intercept you. As it turns out, the number of the people in the bus coincides with the amount of people I am in need of. I hope that you all take my offer at a new and different life. Should you refuse, as is your right, then I will simply put you back where you were. You might survive, you might not. Any choice you make is yours and yours alone.¡±


    The voice dissipated, leaving the group looking at each other confused.


    Panicking, the Starbucks girl asked, ¡°What should we do?!¡±.


    ¡°Well I for one accept the offer,¡± the musician said. As soon as the words left his mouth, the man vanished. No poof or sparkle or blip of sound. He was simply there one moment then gone the next.


    Everyone stared at where the man was with surprise. The bus-driver looked at them grimly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry guys, its my fault we are all either here or dead. But I''m positive that I''m dead if I choose to remain. I will take my chances.¡± Just like that, he disappeared as well. The others started voicing their acceptance and disappeared one by one. When only he and Starbuck remained, he smiled at her and nodded.


    ¡° I accept,¡± he said, vanishing like the others.

 Chapter 1

    The room he appeared in was similar to the last one. The biggest difference was that he didn¡¯t have a physical body. Instead he had an overview over what at first glance looked like an elf, it reminded him of a character creation screen in a game. On inspection it turned out it really was an elf. This was starting to seem like a light novel. No van involved this time though, and he wasn¡¯t alone either. The most important things that he noticed about the character creation was that he did not have the option to change the starting race. He was a wood-elf and the button he should have been able to use to change that was greyed out. He could alter his appearance however. He looked at the elf and noticed that it resembled him. The features might be a bit more refined than his own, but he could still recognise himself.


    He looked at the other starting options, his class was greyed out as well. It said he was a druid, and after some fruitless clicking he discovered he couldn¡¯t change his class either. Not that it really bothered him that much, he was rather pleased to be stuck with druid. The class fit him rather well, he thought about if he should change his appearance, he decided to make a slight change in his hair, growing it out till it reached his waist and then he braided it. Looking rather pleased about his new character he moved on. Surprisingly there was even a moral alignment option.


    The options were good,evil and neutral. This in itself wasn''t all that spectacular. What was unusual however was that each had 3 separate options as well. You could choose to be lawful good, neutral good or chaotic good. There was a short description behind each of the three. In summary lawful meant you held yourself to a code, either of your own making or the laws of a specific group or culture. Chaotic meant that you did whatever you pleased without holding yourself to any specific rules or laws. Neutral was in between the two. After giving it a thought he decided to go with Chaotic Neutral. He felt the choice fit him the best as he wasn¡¯t a big fan of holding himself to laws, and he didn''t have any particular code he held himself to. He was however old fashioned in a sense that honour was important to him, but he decided that he could still act honourable even if he picked chaotic. He was unsure what kind of ramifications it would have on the game but he he would find out eventually.


    Next he had to choose his name. He went with a name similar to his own, with a few changes so it fit an elf. He choose the name, Sahja¨ªl pronounced as Sah-ja-il, with the ja being pronounced like the french would say Je. He was rather happy with the name when he clicked next, surprisingly enough he couldn¡¯t choose a surname. After he chose his name he was sent into an attribute distribution screen where he could alter his attributes. His attributes started with 10 in everything except in Dexterity and Constitution. His Dexterity was at 12 and his Constitution was at 8, the other available attributes were, Strength, Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma. Each had a short description, none of it was anything unexpected. Not that different in explanation from any other game. The exception was that there was an extra note with the wisdom attribute, notifying him that his spells were pulled from the wisdom attribute because he was a Druid and not an Intelligence based spellcaster class.


    After thinking it over he put spent his attributes, the result being:


    Strength : 10


    Dexterity : 17


    Constitution :8


    Wisdom : 20


    Intelligence : 18


    Charisma : 14


    He clicked next on the stats and saw his body change slightly, the muscles on his body became slightly more defined, the body had taken on a leaner build. Next there was a list of Skills he could put points into, some of them were greyed out, not available to his specific class. Turns out because he had put a good amount of available stats into intelligence he had more skill points to play with. He put his points into Intimidate, Diplomacy, Survival, Tracking, Hiding, Searching, Concentration and Crafting. The system informed him that he would get 1 extra skill point put into each of the skills every time he leveled up. With an additional point if his intelligence got a bump in the raw attribute number.


    Next up there was another list with feats that he could chose, there was a huge list of different things he could choose from. Again he was notified that he could now choose two feats and would get a feat every other level. In the end he choose for the feats, Extra Companion, he was glad to hear he would get one so he wouldn¡¯t end up alone. But having an extra one really spoke to him. The second feat he choose was Lightning reflexes, for the obvious reason as to raise his survivability.


    Next he could choose from the list of companions. He was surprised to not only find a large list of animals available but also one of each of the four elementals. After a quick read, he saw that the elemental would grow in strength every four levels, and that an animal companion would ¡®evolve¡¯ only once at level twelve. But it also told him that there were other possible ways to evolve said animal, both before and after the first evolution.


    In the end he decided to pick one of both, he choose the earth elemental. It fit him the best as a druid after all. The earth elemental looked like a mix between a Treant and a Golem. It turned out the elemental was a head smaller than his character was. It was at least half as broad however. It looked badass if he was honest. The animal he picked was the Panther, the golem was more of a frontline soldier, strong at taking blows and dealing them right back, the panther, the description told him, focused on agility and sneak attacks. This way he figured he was pretty balanced, he had a tank, an agility type and he himself was an agility based mage. He named the golem Gorat and the panther Ziri.


    Last but not least he could choose an outfit, he choose to go for a lighter armour set, made of leather and different cured hides. The colours were automatically chosen and harmonised with the forest in the back ground. Then he had to pick two weapons. After some thinking he decided to go with a hunting knife and a longbow with a quiver of 24 arrows. He figured he could use the knife to fashion himself a crude spear as well, he would need the knife for skinning creatures. He expected to be ¡®spawned¡¯ in a wild setting.


    The minute he finished choosing his weapons and armour he found himself in a forest, the trees were humongous at least three to four times larger than the ones back home. Most of the trees he saw were either oak or ash. He also recognised a tree called Arborvitae, his grandma was a botanist and had liked teaching him about trees and plants. The Arborvitae was normally found closer to swamps however. There were no apparent signs that a swamp was close however. He looked back at the tree and remembered his grandma explaining where the name had come from. It had meant Tree of life, and was often used by locals in their fence making because of its reddish/yellow colour and its sturdy wood. He smiled at the memory of his grandmother and looked down at his body.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    He had completely zoned out and forgotten he wasn¡¯t human anymore, he led his hands up the side of his head and felt his ears. Yup they were the traditionally pointed elven ears, he had to admit he felt a bit anxious, times like this he was glad about his mental issues, his lack of these emotions really helped out. He thought about the companions he could summon.


    ¡°Summon Companion.¡± Nothing happened, he thought a moment in confusion and tried it a bit different. He imagined the golem and summoned the image he had seen in his mind. He then thought about the name he had given the golem and tried forming the creature in front of him. To his surprise the earth started moving, the grass in front of him ripped itself apart as the golem rose from the earth, stepping out of it like some kind of lord of the earth. Once the golem stood up and stood in front of him he realised just how large the creature actually was. It somehow seemed bigger than its actual length, roots and moss covering the dark grey rocks with grass-moss like hair shortly cut on its hair, and eyes that were, he had no idea. He couldn''t actually see the eyes, shadows covered the spot where the eyes should be. All in all the golem looked rather impressive, he wondered what it would like from behind.


    Before he had even finished the thought the golem turned around and showed him its back. Sahja¨ªl¡¯s eyebrows rose in surprise as he noticed how the creature had reacted to his thought before he had even finished it.


    That is going to be usefull, especially if it can anticipate what I want it to do, especially since I wont always have the time to tell it what to do. I might actually survive my first battle.


    He did the same thing with Ziri as he had done with Gorat, but the panther didn¡¯t come from the earth the same way the golem had. Instead it walked out from the shadows, almost as if it came stalking through a thick black liquid. The panther was slightly larger than the ones he had seen back home, he could also ¡®feel¡¯ its intelligence, he was sure that the creature would be able to understand him if he spoke.


    He nodded to the two and decided to figure other things out later. First he opened his spell list, the three spells he had chosen for the first level where, light, cure minor wounds and nature¡¯s energy. One other thing the system had told him is that he had limited amount of spells per day, there was no such thing as mana for him. He could use each of his spells 3 times per day at level one. Light and cure minor wounds kind of explained themselves with their names, nature¡¯s energy was a missile based attack where a forest green kind of football shaped energy exploded from his hand and shot towards the nearest creature he designated as an enemy.


    Taking a breath he took the bow from his back and nocked an arrow, Ziri walked in the direction where he wanted to go and scouted the area ahead. Just as he had wanted to tell her to, he blinked in surprise when he realised he had referred to the panther as her. He wasn¡¯t even sure how he knew it but he was sure of it. He followed about twenty meters behind the stealthy animal, the golem took up its position behind him covering from any attacks that would be pointed at his back.


    With this formation the three of them slowly and softly made their way through the forest, keeping an eye open for any sign of creatures or monsters that might attack. He wasn''t to worried now that it was still day, but when night fell he wondered what kind of things might be creeping around.


    Soon enough they came across a small pond, surrounding the pond where one of the weirdest and freakiest monsters he had ever heard of. The body was about the same size and shape as large dog would have been but the head was like alligator jaws, but instead of opening up and down they opened on the left and right, it had eyes on on the side of its head, if you could even call that a head,the thing was scaled along its entire body, and it even had an alligator tail of sorts. He just froze for a second as he stared at the creature, there were two of them.


    One of the creatures hissed and darted forward surprisingly quickly on its little legs, Ziri jumped to the side avoiding the weird creature with a hiss of its own. Sahja¨ªl ordered the golem to charge the creature, it was already running past him using its heavy mass to tackle the strange thing to the ground. They hit the ground with a heavy smack that reverberated throughout the forest, even managing to slightly rustle the leave. The golem started pounding the side of the creature with brutal efficiency. It looked like one of the things was taken care of the other one was now charging towards him however with nothing to stand in its way.


    Sahja¨ªl hurriedly grabbed the bowstring almost dropping the arrow in the process as he fumbled with his fingers. He snatched back the string aimed and shot, the arrow only left a minor scratch on the scales of its side, he had been aiming for its head, he had completely missed his target. The creature pounced towards him and in a frantic gesture he sent a slap towards the creature. Forest green energy bubbling from his hand and intercepting the creature sending it knocked onto its back. Breathing loudly Sahja¨ªl stared at a creature and a fraction of a second later Ziri pounced on the soft underbelly cutting open its stomach with her claws and at the same time burying her teeth in the what he thought was the creatures neck.


    The creature thrashed for a bit but eventually the loss of blood spelled the end for it. Gorat had also finished pummelling the other creature into paste. There wouldn¡¯t be a lot left to scavenge from the creature, it was truly a mess, mostly blood and innards were spread around with a scale here and there. Grimacing he moved towards the creature Ziri had killed and grabbed his hunting knife, he started work on the skinning figuring he could use the scales to pad up his armour some or maybe they had some other use. That was when he discovered he didn¡¯t have an inventory to stuff all the parts in. He cursed, he had to admit he had fully expected to have an inventory.


    Thinking he decided to turn the scaled hide into a backpack of sorts, he looked around and grabbed some of the super thin grass he had seen, he used multiple of the long stalks to braid them together into something that resembled thread, next he used one of the bones to make a needle of sorts. He smiled, happy to have spent all those weeks outside with his nature loving family teaching how to make things from the leftovers of hunted creatures, or his grandma who had loved to talk to him about plants. His father that had taught him hunting and crafted his own stuff from the hides and bones of the creatures. His mother who taught him about animal behaviour and patterns.


    The smile turned sad as he remembered their fate, he shook his head and got back to work, the golem sat down behind him guarding his back, Ziri stared at him with interest, watching him work. It took about two hours to finish something that resembled a back-pack. The skin was really tough so it had been a pain in the ass to get the needle through so he could sow something properly. He was rather pleased with the result however, it looked better than he thought it would look. Maybe the crafting skill helped a bit in the design, he wasn¡¯t about it however.


    He slung his new backpack over his shoulder and followed Ziri further into the forest. They ran into another of the Hyenadiles, as he had started to call them, they reminded him of hyena¡¯s and crocodiles so he had decided to just smash the names together and call them that. Not the most refined name but it would have to do. He made sure to take care of the creatures one at a time however. Gorat knocked them over on their backs and held them down so he and Ziri could quickly finish the creatures. He skinned them just like the others and put their scaly skin into his backpack, he also painstakingly pulled out their larger tooths thinking he could use them later. It wasn¡¯t until they ran into three of them that the real problems started.


    It dashed from the forest, one of the Hyenadiles running past him and charging at Gorat, another was in a hissing match with Ziri. The third made a jump further than he had thought possible and tackled him to the ground. He flexed his legs to launch the creature over him but it was to heavy and refused to budge. It snapped at his head, with a quick twist he managed to avoid deaths but the creature got a chunk of his ear. He screamed grabbed the weird snout and did his best to hold the creatures mouth closed. He remembered watching a documentary about crocodiles and how their biting strength was immense but with a bit of strength the mouths could be held closed. He really hoped that the show hadn¡¯t been bullshitting. He struggled with the monstrous creature, being rolled around in the dirt, relief came when Gorat grabbed the thing by its tail and swung it around in an impressive show of strength and smashed it into a tree.


    He cursed as he felt the pain in his ear, he focused on the cure minor wounds spell as he put his hand near his ear. He could feel his skin stitching itself back together. He put his hand on his ear and felt the tender skin, still sensitive because of the healing. It hadn¡¯t completely healed however, the skin that had been bitten off was still missing leaving two minor gashes in his left ear near the tip.


    So I guess I will still get scars regardless of healing.


    He sighed, worried about nightfall. First he had another three Hyenadiles to skin though.

 Chapter 2

    The slivers of wood drifted to the ground, Sahja¨ªl was fashioning a makeshift spear from a nearby branch. The last fight had taught him how important it was to have a melee weapon with a little range. When that hyenadile pounced on him, he had really wished he had a spear to shove down its throat.


    Sighing, he tested the tip, not sharp enough. He gave the wooden point a few more licks with his blade until it up to expectations. It was sharp enough for the job at hand, at least that is what he hoped. Ziri had been skulking around the area, checking for any noises or disturbances. Gorat, as usual, seemed to make it his duty to watch his back. He had to admit it felt a good deal safer having a 500 pound golem watching your back.


    Looking at the sun he thought he would have a couple more hours till dark. That was assuming the sun here moved as fast across the sky as back home.


    I also really need to figure out where to go.


    He spotted a tree that was a good deal larger than any of the others. He jumped up to the lower branch but couldn¡¯t quite reach. Before he could even start to ponder the problem, Gorat grabbed him by the hips and just tossed him up to the branch. In a mad scramble for a hold he managed to swing a leg and arm across a branch. Cursing he looked at the golem standing below him, he could almost picture a look of wide-eyed innocence on the emotionless golem. Shaking his head he climbed further up the tree. Meanwhile muttering below his breath about golems and idiocy.


    After carefully making his way up he finally reached the top, the view that spread out before him filled him with awe. Nature, untouched and left to grow, stretched out as far as the eye could see. There was forest, forest and even more forest in every direction. A few mountains popped up here and there. As far as he could see, even with his enhanced elven vision, there was no sign at all of civilisation. He saw a ring of mountains a reasonable distance from where he was. Perhaps a couple of weeks travel. Not having any better place to go he decided to head to the mountains.


    Might be a mountain civilisation holed up there, dwarves or something similar.


    He deftly climbed back down, his new dexterity making it a lot easier than it would have been in his old body. Hanging from the last branch he dropped softly back down on the grass covered ground. First things first, he had to make a camp for night, he had seen a small gap in the trees a half hours walk or so from his position. He really wanted to have some distance between himself and the treeline at night. Especially on the first night, who even knew what skulked around here during the darkest hours of the day. If the Hyenadiles were any indication of the inhabitants of this forest, night time would not be fun.


    It took them longer to get to the clearing than he had expected. The dense wood made it rather difficult to move through ,it would take him a while to get used to all the over sized plant growth. Once they reached the clearing he commanded Gorat to get as much firewood as he could, he made sure to mention only to pick up wood instead of breaking it off. Even before he had become an elven druid he had abhorred cutting down trees. Nature had always been his refuge, both as a child and later in his life when his mental issues started to manifest.


    Thinking about it, I¡¯m already a full blown wood loving elf on the inside, maybe that is what the class was based on. I wonder what the others have gotten and where they are.


    Shaking the thoughts, he focused on his preparations. He wanted to have a fire that would burn throughout the night. Which meant he needed wood, he had the light spell but each cast would only last an hour per level. As he was level one they only lasted an hour. He wanted to hold those in reserve for when it was necessary. The best idea he had was making a few caltrops to spread around the area. Limiting the directions where he could get attacked from. Ziri was surprisingly useful in the creation. She actually managed to tie the three sticks together with the braided grass he made. How she managed to do it without opposable thumbs was a mystery to him. That was until he saw her use her fangs to hold the rope in place and the claws to hook the grass.


    My companion is smarter than a lot of people, more useful to. He thought, the edges of his mouth twitching in amusement.


    He only had about an hour to make his preparations, they had managed to finish eight caltrops which he spread around the fire he had just brought to life. It wasn¡¯t long until he started seeing things move from the corners of his eyes. Cursing he watched Ziri, as expected she wasnt reacting to the movement in the slightest.


    These bloody hallucinations will be the death of me yet, I¡¯ll just have to trust on Ziri¡¯s senses, mine aren''t nearly as trustworthy.


    At 17 years of age he had a girlfriend, he had felt connected to her on a level he hadn¡¯t thought possible. All is his life he couldn¡¯t connect to people, he just didn¡¯t feel anything for them at all, not even his parents who tried so hard to improve his life. They were outstanding parental figures, no one could wish for better, yet he was incapable of making an emotional bond even with his direct family. He had thought it was just the way he was until he met her. The girl had been weird just like him, not something that was noticeable in everyday life. Just something that people started to feel was of.


    She had been of italian descent, Dalida her name was. She was extremely smart, and not just clever as in she does well in school, she was borderline genius, maybe even just plain genius. She had started Uni, her mental capacity brought with it its issues. She got into fights with her parents, eventually separating from them to live in the dorms. She was surrounded by people at least three years her senior. Even the youngest student in her class was two years older. In the end she had snapped, blown her head of with her dad¡¯s hunting rifle, he hadn¡¯t even known until one of her friends had told him about it a week later.


    That was when his Schizophrenia had started to manifest, that and according to his therapist he had borderline as well. Over the years the symptoms had increased, he had cut of contact with most people in his life. He was under strict therapeutic supervision, he had gotten to the point where reality was hard to distinguish from the hallucinations. Life was chaotic for him, sometimes entire days that he thought he had lived through turned out to be an hallucination. Eventually he had¡­This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    He was ripped from his reminiscence when Ziri started growling at his surroundings. He saw shadows moving from the corners of his eyes. This time Ziri¡¯s eyes were following them as well. Tensing he prepared himself for battle. One of the creatures walked into the light, the shadows framing a head not unlike a panthers, the body was thicker and more muscular than Ziri¡¯s. It had a slick hide, reminding him of shark¡¯s skin. Six legs, two at the front portion of the torso and and four at the back. What surprised him was that the creature had no tail to speak of.


    Knocking an arrow on his bow, he stretched his arm and pulled back the string, he could feel the hunger from these creatures, and he would make it abundantly clear that he was no easy prey. Aim, exhale, release. The arrow whistled through the air, planting itself in the creatures neck, it howled in agony. Then all hell broke lose, more of the monsters rushed in from the shadows charging at him, Gorat rushed forward, grabbing one by the head and smashing it into the ground. Ziri zipped past clawing, one of the monsters, then darting back into the shadows. Knock, draw, exhale, release, another arrow shot from his right through the mouth of one of the creatures pouncing him. Knock, draw, exhale, release, the next arrow hit a creature chasing Ziri.


    Gorat was wrestling a creature to the ground with one arm, tossing another of them onto an caltrop, sticks pierced its flesh as it howled in pain. Sahja¨ªl kept calmly repeating the pattern of knock, draw, exhale, release. Now that he wasn¡¯t shocked by the sudden pounce as he had been by the hyenadiles, he was reacting a lot better. Arrows hitting their mark, with calmly placed shots. The caltrops were doing their job, funnelling the creatures to Gorat, leaving only a few other spots where they were free to rush him. It made shooting all the easier when you knew were the enemies were coming from. As fast as it had started it ended, the creatures fleeing into the night. Ziri and Gorat went around the clearing finishing of any creatures not yet dead.


    Sahja¨ªl got a notification that he had levelled up. The only option he had was to pick spell list, the level One spells now available to him. The previous spells had only been level zero. In the end he picked the upgraded cure minor wounds, which was still named the same but had a plus added to the end showing its increased potency. The other spell was one he was really happy with, the spell was called entangle, for the duration of thirty seconds roots would burst from the ground and entangle anyone in a 15 meter radius around him. He only had three uses of the spell, so he would have to use them carefully. The other spells he had gained an extra use, he could also pick another zero level spell to add to his list, he chose flare. It wasn¡¯t nearly as powerful as it sounded. It just shot a handful of sparks from his hand, but it was convenient for starting fires.


    He ordered Gorat to drag the bodies closer, using them just like the caltrops as an improvised barricade. He went to work on skinning the creatures, although he would like to use all the meat the amount of kills he had made in the last few hours made that impossible. His fathers motto of leave nothing unused was just plain unreachable. He did take what he could use, he cut of the tenderest pieces of meat, and skinned the creatures rolling up the hides and adding them to his backpack. In the end they had managed to kill seven of the things. He still had to come up with a name for them as well. He decided to call them Pitt Panthers, there muscular bodies reminded him of pitbulls and head was extremely similar to Ziri¡¯s.


    Ziri gave him a look as if she resented these creatures being compared to her.


    Well sorry yer majesty, but you can¡¯t deny the similarities!


    Ziri¡¯s stalked away, tail swishing behind her. Arrogance drooping around her as she walked amongst the corpses of the creatures she considered wildly inferior. She melted back into the shadows climbing up a tree and laying down on a branch. Keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings. Despite her princess attitude Sahja¨ªl knew she would protect him with everything she had if push came to shove. Smiling at the uncompromising feeling of loyalty he layed himself down next to the fire, telling them to wake him up if anything approached.


    The rest of the night went blissfully uninterrupted. Not having anything you needed to do in the morning felt strange, he just got up, grabbed his backpack and headed further into the forest. Ziri needed sleep like him, and had curled up next to him when slept. Gorat on the other hand had no need for rest, he had kept watch the entire night. Giving the other two time to rest.


    Sahja¨ªl really wanted a diary or something similar to write in, there were all these plants and tree species that he didn¡¯t even recognise. Maybe some of them had healing qualities, or they were poisonous. There were a multitude of ways to test that to minimise risks, he really wanted to list what was useful and what was dangerous. Even the dangerous plants could become useful when utilised properly.


    Since he had nothing to write down his findings with he had to settle for just noting the characteristics of everything he saw in his head. Gorat and Ziri were patient with him whenever he excitedly walked over to a plant or tree that he had never seen before and started studying it. He may never have been one for people, but plants and animals had always fascinated him. Being able to make your way through your lifetime by just sitting in one place and soaking in the sunlight. The mere concept of sunlight and water being enough to sustain an existence was incredible to him.


    Surprisingly he found himself quite enjoying the new life, his emotional issues may be unchecked, but this freedom was a balm on his troubled soul. He started humming, which then blew into soft singing, until he wasn¡¯t singing that softly anymore.


    ¡° Somebody once told me, the woooorld was gonna roll me! I ain¡¯t the sharpest tool in the shed.¡±


    Even Ziri and Gorat got caught in on the song and started swinging a bit to the beat, the golem stomping a bit harder on the ground to emphasise the beat. Ziri was growling in tune with him, probably creating the weirdest mini band to ever walk the earth. Or whatever the planet they were one called itself.


    They were so caught up in the song that they didn¡¯t even notice the gleaming red eyes that were following them. The eyes did not emit any hostility, rather they just followed the weird trio with curiosity. A small frame blending itself with nature, near invisible it followed.


    After a while Sahja¨ªl came across a stream where they rested to take a drink and he started a fire to cook some of the meat, Ziri having gotten a taste of the cooked meat now wouldn¡¯t settle for just raw meat if there was the option of having it cooked. Some of the plants he had come across he had recognised, he had picked the herbs because they would be great to accentuate the cooking with.


    Then he realised a problem, NO POT! Cursing he thought about how he could cook properly without a pot, he looked around the river bed and saw a slab of stone about forty centimeters in length and twenty-five in width. It was thick, about eight centimeters. He glanced at Gorat.


    ¡°Hey big guy could you hollow this out a bit so it can hold liguids?¡±


    Gorat stepped forward and grabbed the slab then started rubbing his finger on it, he kept rubbing at it slowly removing thin layers of stone. Whatever the stone was Gorat was made of sturdier stuff as he started seeing the dent the rubbing was making. Leaving Gorat to his work Sahja¨ªl headed to the river to see if he could spot any fish, he took of his fur lined boots and waded into the water. Spearfishing was nothing new to him as he patiently waited for one of the scaly to swim in range.


    Eyes following the erratic movements of the fish he arched his arm backwards ready to pierce, he stood in the position for a few minutes till he saw his chance. In a burst of movement the spear pierced the fish and he pulled it out of the water. Smiling as he removed the prize from his spear he quickly ended its suffering with a quick cut from the hunting knife. He was glad to see Gorat had finished turning the slab into something that could be used for cooking. He dug the firepit into the side of small mound and lighted a fire in the gap. He put the slab on top and put in a thin layer of water. He put the meat in the slab and started deboning the fish, checking on the meat every few seconds he added some of the herbs and once the fish was deboned he added it to the pot.


    A few minutes later the thick aroma of meat,herbs and fish floated around the river clearing. He gave some of the meat to Ziri as she ravenously bit into the meat tearing it apart. Sahja¨ªl took his time to eat some of the meat and the fish. Wiping his mouth once he finished eating he put the slab together with the hides in his backpack, he thought about drying some meat so it wouldn¡¯t expire but going at the rate of encounters he had so far, he deemed it unnecessary.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Red ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    They crossed the shallow river and headed further into the forest. Behind him Red Eyes walked over to the fireplace, gently poking at the heat while cocking its head. It grabbed a branch about the size of the spear Sahja¨ªl had used and sharpened it with a nearby rock. It then stood in the river and attempted to copy the spearfishing, after many failed attempts and a good hour of work Red Eyes was able to catch a fish, it happily pranced around the clearing with the fish, stabbing the spear in the air proclaiming its victory. It started eating the fish raw as it followed the tracks Sahja¨ªl had left behind. Curiosity ever-growing.

 Chapter 3

    ¡°Walkin¡¯ through the forest every day n¡¯ night.¡± Sahjail sang.


    ¡°Walkin¡¯ through the brush the day feels alrigh¡¯¡±


    ¡°Feet on the grass, the sun shines so bright¡±


    ¡°So another singsong I will write¡±


    ¡°Together in battle we will show our might.¡±


    ¡°Yea I think the day will be alright.¡±


    He continued humming to his new made-up song as he walked through the forest, he felt elated for some reason. The sun shimmering through the trees, his trusty companions with him. He skipped a bit then twirled and sang some more. He grabbed a chunk of wood from the ground and started an attempt at carving, humming happily away while the slivers of wood fluttered to the ground. It was completely unpractical to carve while walking but he didn¡¯t really care. The day was good and he had the hunkering to create something.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The image slowly started to emerge from the wood, the shape of a jungle predator, Ziri had been his ¡®Model¡¯. Ziri noticed that the wood was shaped after her and started energetically waving her tail while glancing at the wood every now and then. She to was in a good mood, she had no idea where she came from, nor any idea of why she felt so connected to the odd jovial elf. What she did know was that she had enjoyed their time together so far, even the fighting had been exhilarating. She may have been a Panthera Royalus, but she enjoyed the time here far more than the time she spent in their so called kingdom.


    Sahja¨ªl had no idea of the thoughts roaming his companions head, the mind reading gimmick only worked one way. They reached a clearing where he took the time to sit down to make the finishing touches on his new crafting project. The details were the hardest to carve, that was if you managed to make the shape without breaking any of the limbs. It took him a few more minutes to complete it, the result was in all honesty better than he had expected. He was actually able to see the resemblance between the statue and Ziri, not just that it was a panther but the small distinguishable marks that made Ziri unique. He had been a decent carver but never this good, probably the crafting skill had some influence in his work.


    He set his work down in front of Ziri and smiled at her proudly.


    He winked ¡°It¡¯s almost as elegantly beautiful as you are.¡±


    Ziri walked closer to the little carving, then looked at him and rubbed her head against his leg. A low purr causing her fur to tremble, the reaction caused his heart to inflate a bit. He smiled at her and tied the carving carefully to the bag, he didn¡¯t want to put it in because he was afraid the bones and other materials might break the fragile wood.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ªRed¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Watching the elf carve the statue had filled it with curiosity once more. Seeing the finished sculpture had filled its heart with a sense of awe and unexplainable warmth. Grabbing a piece of wood it started its own attempt at carving. Pieces of wood removed from the whole without any tool what so ever. Humming a tune eerily similar to Sahja¨ªl¡¯s song it followed them from a distance, absorbed in the carving.

 Chapter 3+

    The days started to become routine, they would wake up in the morning head out singing. Meat a few new creatures on the way, make camp and get attacked once in a while at night. Luckily not every night, some of the creatures he came across were herbivores and not aggressive. Some of the creatures were even friendly like the Cottonfuzzle, ridiculous name, but it fit completely. They were like balls of cotton with eyes and this whip like tail they used to propel themselves with. Their favourite thing to do? Well cuddling of course, the creatures loved getting close to anything that they deemed was friendly and snuggled against it.


    He was sure the creatures had some sort of magic sight that let them see the disposition of the creature before them, he had seen them easily avoiding groups of predators that would have surely attacked them. The same creatures were often seen among groups of herbivores, either riding along on the herbivores bodies or just propelling themselves along next to them. Truly an interesting species, he was amazed a creature like that could survive in this environment.


    After a week of travelling through the ever mysterious forest, after another night raid by Pitt Panthers, which seemed to be the most common of predators, he reached level three. Which meant he could choose a new feat and get access to another level of spells! The feat he choose was Snake Blood, it would further improve his reflexes and he would be immune to poisons and venoms. Just the sheer amount of gain this feat gave him had left him speechless. Now he could eat any of the herbs or creatures without having to worry about it poisoning him.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    He gained another first level spell, camouflage, which does pretty much as advertised and camouflage him or any other person or creature he targeted. At level three the spell lasted three hours just like the light spell. The two second level spells he choose where barkskin, and briarsweb. Barkskin turned his skin into the tough texture of a tree¡¯s bark. Together with camouflage he would be extremely hard to see when standing still or moving carefully. But briarsweb was a truly nasty spell, especially when used together with entangle. The spell grew a multitude of thorns on every nearby plant for thirty seconds. Making it hard for creatures to get close to him as even the underbrush would harm them, used in combination with entangle however, the vines and roots that entangled his enemies would grow thorns and tear up their skin.


    Sahja¨ªl sighed when he thought about the effect the spell would have on anything he used it on. In the end whoever attacked him was fair game, survival of the fittest was the only law in this forest so far. Looking at the remains of the pitt panthers that attacked them he didn¡¯t even skin them anymore. His backpack had already been filled near to bursting. He moved the creatures away from their camp and went to sleep, Ziri cuddling up to him like usual.

 Chapter 4

    Jumping to his feet he scanned the area around the clearing, next to him Ziri arched her back and hissed at the shadows. He activated barkskin and his skin cracked and hardened as it turned to bark. A roar shook the leaves, the mere power of it raising dust, The trees cracked as a monstrous form rushed them. Horns like a bull, mouth filled with jagged teeth, a huge body supported by four powerful limbs. A strong tail with four spikes at the end, and a spiky fin running from the top of its head to the bottom of its tail. The monstrous thing had to be at least nine meters tall.


    ¡°ENTANGLE, BRIARSWEB!¡± Sahjail roared, aiming his spells at the monster. Thorny vines and roots ripped from the earth, dirt flying in every direction as they snaked around the creature trying to pull it down to the ground. The monster roared in anger and just ripped itself free charging at them, Gorat charged forward and tackled its legs, the creature smacked into the ground, It roared and clawed uprooting a tree in its struggle, Gorat refused to let go, Sahja¨ªl instinctively understood. They had to run, they could not yet face this monstrous being.


    ¡°Flee and hide!¡± He ordered, activating camouflage on himself, his hides and skin harmonising with the forest, He sprinted away as fast he could, hearing the bone-shaking roars behind him. He heard a crash and then the heavy footsteps of the creature chasing after him, he cursed, eyes scanning the area for anything he could use to up his chance of survival. Seeing a pool of mud he dashed towards it before taking a dive and a quick roll through it his long braid getting stuck on a tree¡¯s branch, with a curse he grabbed his knife and with a savage pull cut of his hair, scrambling back to his feet then sprinted away, just as he was starting to despair he saw a hill, he heard the creature smashing through the underbrush behind him, getting closer by the second.


    Not daring to look behind him he dove over the small hill before finding a small gap where he dove into, pulling nearby leaves and branches over him quickly before freezing. The monster crashed over the hill, stopping just behind it, nostrils flaring as it was trying to find his scent. He really hoped the mud hid his scent well enough, sitting there praying that whatever god was out there could turn him into a log. He watched as the creatures head turned back around, its head hovered barely a meter over where he was hiding. Breath caught in his throat as he tried his best, to stay utterly still, blood and spit dripped down from the monsters fearsome teeth, splashing next to him.


    The monsters ragged breath shook the leaves he was hiding, his now unkempt hair ruffled in the air air it released with each breath. After an agonising minute of the creature sniffing around the hill it roared in anger, claw reaching out and smashing a tree, which crashed on Sahja¨ªl. He muffled his voice as one of the shattered branches pierced his shoulder. His body sustaining a series of cuts to his face and chest as the branches crashed past him. The monster to his relief, stalked away from his hiding place. After he could no longer here the monsters retreating footsteps he sighed in relief, his face quickly shifting from relief to pain as he scrunched his brows. He tried to get out from underneath the tree but the thing was massive, the only reason he wasn¡¯t squashed was the little dimple in the earth he had taken cover in.


    A soft squeek made him turn his head. Red eyes socketed into what at first glance seemed to be an elven child glanced back at him. His first guess of an elf was immediately rejected upon closer inspection. It, or rather she, did indeed have elven features, the long pointed ears and the slightly refined cheekbones. Her skin was pale however, a near snowy white, and covering her snowy white skin were tufts of brown fur. Her teeth sharpened, more fang than any humanoid dentature. The ¡®child¡¯ looked at him with her head cocked before disappearing.


    ¡°Wait!¡± Sahja¨ªl said, hoping he could get the young child to help him. The child did not show itself again, he cursed as, he tried to get the branch piercing his shoulder out. He had very little wiggle room so he was not making much progress. After a few minutes of futile attempts he sat back, racking his brain on how he would get out. If he didn¡¯t hurry he might pass out from bloodloss. Before he could come up with a solution he felt the earth beneath him start to shift, he screamed in pain as the earthen bed he was laying on suddenly collapsed down into the earth, The branch ripped from his shoulder tearing at the skin on its way out.


    He smacked onto soft dirt below, he looked around and red eyes stared back at him. The child was smiling at him, he looked around and to his astonishment saw a rather large tunnel had been dug from the other side of the hill to where he was. He stared at the child ¡°You did this?¡±


    The child cocked her head ¡°Sasa?¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    She obviously didn¡¯t understand him, he tried to get up but child sat down on his stomach and shook her head. ¡°Sasi lulok asa!¡± Waggling her finger at him, she told him.


    Blue energy swirled around her fingers, suddenly mixing with the dark forest red of the forests energy, she placed her hand on his shoulder and started humming. The tune was unlike anything he had ever heard, the earth itself seemed to him with her, he felt the slight vibrations in the air as nature itself tuned itself with the child. Eyes growing ever wider he stared at his shoulder as the flesh started to crawl together. A chill ran through him as the energy spread itself through his skin, he gasped, body turning rigid as the energy formed bands, tying him down to the earth, dirt rushed to his wounds, fusing itself with his skin, healing his wounds. With a soft hum she finished her work dropping him back to the ground, she sat on his chest and smiled at the now completely healed Sahja¨ªl.


    Gazing at the child with mild confusion he said ¡°Thanks?.¡±


    ¡°Sasa!¡± She said happily bouncing up and stepping back to give him some room. He got up and and stretched his body a bit, to his surprise he felt completely fine, his leathers were a complete mess though. The chest was pierced and cut open on multiple spots, there were rips in his trousers, his boots had remarkably survived rather intact. His bow had snapped when the tree had fallen, same with his spear, his knife was unharmed. Looking over his rather meager gear he left the tunnel with the child in tow. He remembered there being a stream not to far from the clearing where they had made camp, his backpack was still there. He headed back to the camp, the child humming what he was pretty sure was the tune to Allstar from smashmouth.


    So she¡¯s been following me for a while


    He looked back at the little one and got a dazzling smile in return, she just seemed extremely happy and he had no idea why. He smiled back though, he may not be good with adults and other teens, but kids on the other hand were easy. Give them food, let them play, or play with them and they liked you. Way easier than adults. It took him a good fifteen minutes to reach the camp he had run further than he expected. The way back was easy to find, he just had to follow the trail of destruction the¡­


    What the hell am I going to name the thing that almost killed me. Behemoth? Kinda clich¨¦, Bullfinsaurus! Yeaaa, now that is a name for a creature like that. He nodded at himself in satisfaction.


    The camp was completely wrecked, good thing he didn¡¯t have a tent or anything that the Bullfinsaurus could destroy the caltrops they had taken to carrying with them, usually Gorat carried them all, were smashed. With a shock he thought about Gorat, he remembered feeling a snap, he guessed it was his connection with Gorat. Indeed he found a rocky limb near a tree, the rest of his body was nowhere to be found. He frowned, it was decidedly unpleasant to have a companion die on you. He know that the elemental wouldn¡¯t have actually died as its spirit was not easily destroyed, it had just created a body from the earth and trees after all. He was sure Ziri had made it out, he felt her as a vague presence somewhere in the distance. She was already making her way back to them.


    His backpack had miraculously survived the event, he picked it up and headed to the river. He walked at his normal pace, realising in surprise that the child was easily keeping pace, even running around him in circles or bouncing of a fallen log every now and then. She was an epitome of energy, always smiling and laughing and picking things up and pointing at them, it did wonders for his dampened mood. He pointed at himself. ¡°Sahja¨ªl.¡±


    The girl looked at him with her head cocked ¡°Sahel?¡±


    ¡°No, no¡± he pointed at himself again ¡°Sahja¨ªl¡±


    ¡°Sasa!¡± She said pointing at him excitedly.


    ¡°No its-¡±


    ¡°SASA!¡± She yelled even more excited while running around him.


    He sighed, well as far as names went Sasa wasn¡¯t to bad he supposed. He pointed at her. ¡°You?¡±


    She pointed at herself, ¡°Immi!¡±


    ¡°Nice to meet you Immi.¡± He said sticking out his hand.


    She walked to his hand and licked it, eyes glimmering. ¡°Nice you Sasa!¡±


    She retorted, continuing further down the path, grinning he followed her.


    A lick instead of a handshake huh, she must have grown up around here.


    Reaching the small stream he checked how deep it was, further downstream he saw a pond, he put his stuff down next to the pond. He took of his clothes and looked at his body, the barkskin was still active and it was covered with dirt and blood. What he noticed the most was when he looked downtown towards his private area¡¯s.


    He laughed, ¡°Now that is what I call having wood!¡±


    Ziri chose just that exact moment to walk in the clearing. She looked at him with judging eyes and he swore she was shaking her head. Immi however saw the panther and ran up to her excitedly, the panther just stood there as Immi buried her little head in the fur, rubbing the panther happily. Ziri purred a little at the treatment as nudged the child.


    ¡°Sasa!¡± She yelled at him, then pointed at Ziri. ¡°Fuwfuwi!¡±


    Smiling and guessing at her words he said, ¡°Yea, she is very soft¡±


    ¡°Sof?¡± she said cocking her head then pointed at Ziri. ¡°Sof?¡±


    Sahja¨ªl nodded ¡°Yes Ziri is very soft.¡±


    ¡°Zili sof!¡± She exclaimed and buried her face in the panthers fur.


    Chuckling at the girls behaviour, he saw that Ziri despite her attitude liked the treatment, he could actually feel her contentment. He cleaned himself, carefully removing the dirt and blood from himself. Even though he was completely healed he still felt a little tender, he made sure to properly clean himself however. After he left the pond he cast a minor healing on himself for good measure, in case of infections or something similar.


    Then he looked at his ruined leathers and wondered what he should do about them. They really were rather thoroughly destroyed, sighing he looked at his boots. At least they were still in wearable condition. He would probably have to make something from the skins and hides he had in his backpack.


    Sighing he started working.

 Chapter 5

    He looked at the resources he had available, and struggled to create a an image in his mind of what it should become. The previous leathers had been nice and he could use them to base the design on, but they had been loose-fitting, which caused them to tear up or get caught on branches and the like. Sow he would have to tighten it up, but not to much because he really didn¡¯t want to look like he was walking around in spandex. For now he started working on the chest piece, he used some of the pitt panther hide, he hadn¡¯t removed the fur because he wanted it on the inside, wearing just the leather really chafed. It sucked that he didn¡¯t have access to any proper resources to make clothing from like cotton or wool so he had some proper undergarments.


    With the sounds of Immi playing with Ziri in the back ground he started cutting the pieces into the appropriate size. The stitching was going to be the hardest part, he wasn¡¯t sure if the braided grass he had used would work on clothes, the friction might cause the whole thing to come apart. In the end he used on of the leathers to cut into the thinnest strips he could manage, he braided three of them together, it was by no means an elegant fix but it did its job. The braided leather bands where thick, a bit to much, so that he had to change his design. He stitched two of the pieces together on both sides, now it looked like a tube, he stitched part of the top together, leaving some space so he would have room for his head.


    He looked at his creation and clicked his tongue, this was horrendous, and nowhere near usable. Immi walked up next to him and looked at the leather tube like monstrosity, she giggled and crawled in. Poking her head out she stood up and looked like a, he couldn¡¯t even describe what she looked like. It reminded him of a jack-in-the-box. She started waddling around with the clothes laughing, he grinned as he watched her have fun with his failed creation. She then tripped over one of the edges and fell, crawling back up with teary eyes she glared at the leather. With a sniff she started wiggling and he could see the nature¡¯s energy spin around her once more, the leather started shrinking, stitches popping open as grass, dirt and moss was sucked into the tiny vortex of energy that was Immi.


    ¡°Holy shhhh¡­.izzlecracker¡±


    With a whoosh the energy dispersed in a shock wave, before him stood Immi now wearing a perfectly fashionable gown made of grass, moss and leather. He could see the black leather poking from under the dress here and there but it was all hidden under long thick stalks of grass that flowed down from her shoulders. She looked like a tiny dryad, or some other woodland spirit.


    I still don¡¯t understand how her magic works at all, it feels completely different from what I do. My spells feel preprogrammed, I can almost feel her coming up with what she wants to do on the spot.


    ¡°Wow, that was some magic¡± Sahja¨ªl said feeling like an idiot.


    "Maji stronk!¡±


    ¡°Yup¡­¡±


    He looked at the rest of the materials and went back to work, his heart wasn¡¯t even remotely in it this time however, experimenting with the stuff was fun. Yet when someone used some hocuspocus to turn your failed creation into a masterpiece in a manner of seconds. It kind of ruins the creative mood. Deciding to patch up his clothes instead of creating new ones, he got to work. He padded the leather with the scales from the hyenadiles though, toughening the armour.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    Having patched his gear, they started travelling again, after six hours the cooldown on his summon was down and he resummoned Gorat. Immi was delighted to have him back, she might not have met him but had observed him from a distance. She climbed up the golem and took a place on its broad head, Sahja¨ªl frowned as he was sure the head was flatter than it used to be, had the golem really adjusted its head to make it more comfortable for her. Glaring at the golem in suspicion he was thoroughly ignored.


    The mountain was only three days away, the rest of the days went without any mayor events. The mountains loomed over him as he walked beneath their shadows. The tops were snowcapped, the range was larger than he had expected, the valley sitting like a bowl in the middle of the mountains, the curves of the mountain range slightly more extended than the shape of a crescent moon, making the entrance to the valley only a couple of hundred meters in length. He was ripped from his thoughts as he heard screams, human-like screams.


    Sahja¨ªl rushed towards the sound only to stumble upon an ongoing battle. A few dozen beastman-like creatures clothed in rags using crude weapons were fighting with all their might to what seemed to be an undead horde. Over two hundred of the undead pushed against their ranks, a few brave warriors holding them while the rest of their tribe mostly consisting of women and children were dragging their wounded back with them desperately trying to save their people.


    Sahja¨ªl didn¡¯t even hesitate, as soon as he saw the tribe struggle and the look of determination and fear in the eyes of the warriors he acted.


    ¡°ENTANGLE! BRIARSWEB!¡± He roared grabbing his spear and rushing at the horde, Vines ripped from the ground as undead were dragged back down to where they belonged. The warriors jumped back in surprise, but as soon as they saw that the vines only targeted the undead they snapped back into motion, slamming their crude wooden spears into the undead piercing their skulls. The women, froze for a split second in surprise as suddenly helped appeared from the forest, Gorat had rushed ahead of Sahja¨ªl its animated body far outclassing his performance, crashing into the undead line it sowed destruction amongst their ranks. Its fists crushing undead left and right with each blow, Immi was still sitting on his head but surprisingly she wasn''t even flinching, instead she gathered natures energy around her and starting shooting bolts at a steady pace at those coming from the golems blind side.


    Ziri reached the line soon after the golem did, also faster than Sahja¨ªl was, it leaped on undead using attacks of opportunity to claw down or pounce on enemies that were about to strike one of their new found allies. Sahja¨ªl followed Immi¡¯s example and flung bolts as fast as he could, using up all six of his available uses. He used entangle and briarsweb again pulling down another group of undead, he took position next to one of the tribe¡¯s warriors. The female warrior hissed in anger at the undead as she pierced the skull of the undead in front of her with a swift thrust. The zombies were armoured, with rusty chainmail and torn leathers. The weapons they used chipped and rusted but still dangerous.


    Sahja¨ªl dodged a swing from the creature in front of him, the warrior next to him put the zombie down with a swift lunge. He pierced the one coming from his right, aiming for its skull. The stab glanced off, he pulled back and kicked the monster on its chest driving it back. A yelp next to him drew his attention as a zombie cut of the warriors arm, she had left her self vulnerable in the stab she used to help him out. In an impressive display of ferocity she slammed her claws into the zombies eyesocket, muscles tensed as she ripped the zombies head clean off. She stumbled trying to stop the blood loss.


    He pointed his free hand in her direction and sent a healing spell to her, the wound closing she glanced at him, but grabbed the spear in her other hand and fought on. The battle lasted another ten minutes despite the reinforcements the tribe had received, when the last zombie fell down to the earth dead once more a collective sigh of relief filled the air. Sahja¨ªl panted as he stared at the corpses of the enemies in front of him, a soft cling notifying him of a level up.


    First I need to heal those that can be healed. He thought looking around at the tired and exhausted warriors.

 Chapter 6

    Sahja¨ªl swept his gaze over the exhausted and wounded tribe members, he walked over to the one that had the heaviest injuries. The female warrior he had fought with followed him closely, keeping a wary eye on his movements. He couldn¡¯t fault her for that, she was worried about her people and they knew nothing about it. He quickly leveled up so he could get a new healing spell, the cure moderate wounds spell was now available and he chose it, along with foundation of stone, for a second level spell he added animalistic power to his arsenal. He cast the cure moderate wounds spell on the warrior who had a large gash in his stomache, the guts visible but held together by the shaking tribal warrior.


    On close inspection he noticed that they weren¡¯t beast men as he had thought at first. They did indeed have beast qualities, like their thick fur and their sharp fangs, their ears however were pointed similar to an elfs. Their skin was a dark green, so definitely not beast-men, more like a mix between beast, human or elf, and goblin. The eyes on the wounded warrior were brown, the female watching over him had green eyes, while the female warrior¡¯s were an icy blue.


    A species as individualistic in their appearance as our own. Or humans own I guess, since I''m no longer one of them.


    The spell slowly did it work, the moderate spell lasting longer than the minor ones, it healed more damage but took its time in doing so. Seeing the warrior grown in pain put him on edge, he wondered what had happened to these people and where the undead had come from. He doubted the undead were natural inhabitants of this forest, all the creatures he had seen so far had been primal in nature, this tribe included. Yet these undead wore armour and bore weapons, of poor quality yes but this means they have or had access to smithing and iron.


    After an seemingly endless minute the warrior was nearly fully healed, there was still a sharp red line on his stomach and it would be tender for a few days. The warrior said something to him, he could tell from the way he said it that it was gratitude. Sahja¨ªl nodded at the man and moved to the next victim, within fifteen minutes he had run out of healing spells but all the seriously wounded people were now in stable condition, with a few of them back on their feet. The female warrior bowed her head slightly to him and thanked him. He bowed slightly in return and gave her a smile.


    She pointed towards herself. ¡°Zi¡¯enna.¡±


    Sahja¨ªl tapped his chest. ¡°Sahja¨ªl¡±


    They gave each other a nod before Zi¡¯enna started urging her people up, she started moving them towards a nearby river. He understood her idea to get them settled somewhere easily defensible. Gorat carried one of the warriors who could not stand, Sahja¨ªl used the hides left in his backpack to make some make shift litters that the tribe could use so they could carry the wounded to the new campsite. He picked up the end of a litter that a young child, that couldn¡¯t have been much older than fourteen picked up the front of the litter and carried the wounded warrior to the campsite with a determined look in his eyes.


    He admired the mindset of this tribal people, there was no moaning, no complaining, only the determined look in their eyes telling him they would do anything they had to do to ensure their tribes survival. A close-knit group like this reminded him of the way some poorer families bonded together to ensure their mutual survival. It took them thirty minutes of struggling with the litters to find the campsite, the tribe carefully put their wounded members on the floor, propping them up against some furs, they fetched some water from the river in crude leather flasks and tenderly fed their wounded.


    Sahja¨ªl swept his gaze among the tribe and realised that none of the members could be more than thirty years old, he saw a young couple that couldn¡¯t have been more than his own twenty-two years of age caring for a child that was about eight years old. Then it dawned on him, their elders had probably died protecting the tribe, the way these people looked and thought it was clear to him that the younger generation was the most important to them. Lost in thought he started to help out, grabbing the pelts from the Pitt Panthers from his backpack he put them over the wounded, getting a nod in thanks in return.


    Zi¡¯enna walked over to him and started gesturing, he looked at her in confusion. She moved her arms slowly in the air then pointed to the wounds of those still bedridden.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    So shes wondering if I can heal those still wounded.


    Sahja¨ªl shook his head then pointed at the sun, he pointed to the horizon indicating the sun going down, then pointed to the other side where it would return to the sky. He then made the same gesture in the air that she had done thinking it indicated magic. Although it was a rough form of communication she understood what he meant. She walked over to another of her people groaning in pain and grabbed the tribes-womans hand in her remaining one. She started softly whispering words of comfort to the woman, a warrior like herself.


    Tearing his eyes from the sight he looked for Immi, finding her sitting on Gorat. As he walked closer he had to stretch his neck back, the golem had grown at least a meter, it was now easily two heads taller than he was. He remembered reading that the golem would grown in strength every fourth level but had forgotten about it. It showed how much he had gotten used to this place that it didn¡¯t even surprise him anymore.


    ¡°Immi can you heal them like you healed me?¡± He asked


    She cocked her head, looking at him for a moment then shook her head.


    ¡°Sasa majic.¡± She pointed to the tribesmen shaking her head. ¡°Sini majic.¡±


    So she used the magic inside me somehow to heal me, and can''t do the same for the tribesmen.


    He sighed as he realised he really wouldn¡¯t be able to heal them until come morning. It bothered him that he could be of no help, it always bothered him when he couldn¡¯t help others as much as he wanted to. He had to make do with what he could, he helped the tribe bring water to the wounded, helped them create some minor defenses. He showed the tribe how he had used the branches to create a caltrop and how they could use it slow down their enemies and how they would function as a funnel or barricade if used properly. The tribe seemed to like the caltrops and got to work on them immediately, In return they taught him how to braid the thin grass they called Waza, in a way that it would be stronger.


    They set up a good many of the caltrops around the camp barricading almost all of the clearing but leaving two entrances, the tribe had no food to speak of so after they had created a safe haven, he went out hunting. Two of the warriors understood his intentions and went with him, they moved swiftly and silently through the brush, Sahja¨ªl was pretty good at stalking a prey but these people had turned it into an art form. He really had to strain to even hear the rustle of the brush beneath their padded feet. Soon enough they came across a small pack of Pitt Panthers, they readied their spears, the two warriors glanced over at him. He nodded and whispered ¡°Entangle.¡±


    This time however the vines did not rip from the ground with a huge amount of force, they snaked from the ground coiling themselves like a snake would and shot swiftly and silently from the ground and dragged their prey to the ground. Sahja¨ªl and his group rushed forward, frantic eyes of a creature trying to claw its way to freedom stared at him, teeth bared in a snarl. With a swift stab to the heart he ended its life. The warriors with him did the same, the two warriors made short work of the last two. He sling one of the creatures over his back. Gorat who had been following them from a distance stepped forward and picked a pitt panther up in each hand. The two warriors grabbed the remaining pitt panthers and they carried their haul back to camp.


    Others in the tribe quickly started to skin the animals and carve the meat. He put his kill on the ground waiting for one of the tribes people to do the same but none of them took the meat. He looked at Zi¡¯enna confused. He pointed to the animal and made a pushing motion in the direction of the tribe with his palms forward, indicating he wanted to give them the meat. She nodded and said something to one of the girls near here who grabbed the animal, the girl avoided his gaze and carefully went to work. He shrugged and started setting up a fire, he dug another cooking pit and lit the fire and put his cooking slab on.


    He took as much of the meat as would fit in the slab and started cooking the meat, he added some herbs, soon enough the aroma started to spill around the fire. He noticed that the tribe was looking at him strangely, he realised that none of their members was cooking, or making a fire.


    Shit, what if its disrespectful to cook meat you hunted. Maybe they have some sacred ritual I should have followed.


    Zi¡¯enna walked up to him and pointed at the meat and then gave him the same confused look he had given her. He took one of the pieces of meat and put it on a plate he had carved from wood, he gave the meat to her. She carefully took a bite, her eyes went wide as her teeth sank into the meat, ravenously she tore at the meal, within seconds she had devoured it. She smacked her lips and her eyes glinted as she eyed another piece of meat. Laughing Sahja¨ªl gave her another slab of meat, soon enough he was surrounded by others who wanted some of his meat.


    Instead he stepped back dug another fire pit and asked Gorat to make him another slab, once the slab was finished he made another pit and pointed to one of the girls and motioned for her to come closer. It was the same girl who had skinned and carved the meat for his kill. He put the meat in the slab and motioned her to do the same, he then added a little water, again gesturing her to repeat his actions. He then pointed at the herbs and carefully spiced up his food, the girl now was paying serious attention and made sure to mimic his every move, she even went so far as to sit in the position and cock her head the same way. He hummed a little when he made the food, he couldn¡¯t help himself not humming or singing while he was cooking just felt off.


    Humming Bohemian rhapsody he went about cooking, the girl even started humming the song with him, a split second behind but she was copying the sound pretty well. He smiled at the thought that maybe the whole tribe would be humming Bohemian Rhapsody every time they cooked a meal. He was amazed how fast the girl understood what she was doing, after finishing her first meal she already started teaching others how to do it, and yes she actually did include the Bohemian Rhapsody, maybe they thought it was a magical song that made the food taste better. The thought of it made him chuckle.

 Chapter 7

    As night fell, anxiety took over their makeshift camp. The tribal people known as the Batiri were preparing for another battle, spears were being sharpened, Sahja¨ªl was showing them how to make a makeshift shield, they quickly picked up on the creation process, the younger ones started making more. The people were exhausted, yet they prepared for another battle, Sahja¨ªl had gathered that they were expecting another attack from the undead tonight, it was surprising how much you could get done with sign language and pointing. He took the opportunity to check his character sheet, he had been in a rush when levelling up and had not selected a feat yet.


    He had gained a free feat upon reaching level four, Animal transformation. It would allow him to turn into one of four animals, bear,boar,panther and wolf. The transformation would last five minutes and he could use the skill 3 times a day at his current level. His attributes also changed if she shifted into animal form. Bear would greatly increase his strength, Boar his constitution, Panther his agility, and wolf was a slight increase in all three attributes. He looked over his feat list pondering what his decision should be, he chose a feat called Path of the Healer. The feat would allow him to change any spell he had into a healing spell of the same level. For example if he casted entangle on someone he designated an ally it would turn into the spell heal minor wounds+.


    He thought about how he could heal the remaining bedridden Batiri, but his spells would reset at midnight, he might need the spells he had now to help the tribe survive the oncoming undead. If they lost here the wounded, or any other Batiri for that matter would not survive the night. It was a grim choice, he truly wanted to heal those still wounded but knew it would lower their survival chance should he decide to do so. He grabbed one of the branches from the large pile of wood the tribe had gathered and started sharpening another spear, the thirteen remaining warriors and himself took up position between the caltrops they had set up. The warriors squatted down and inspected and prepared their weapons, bags under their eyes but determination burning up any of the exhaustion they felt.


    Then it came, the raspy breathing of the undead audible through the night, their shuffling feet dragging along the forest floor. An army unhindered by any exhaustion or emotion. Zi¡¯enna took up position to his right, her one good arm holding a spear as she growled at the oncoming horde, their were even more of them then there were last time, they were barely visible in the dark, the sounds they made however were unmistakable. Sahja¨ªl cast a light spell, a ball of pure light rising above his head hovering their, casting the world in its white glowing light. Sahja¨ªl cursed, before them stood a horde larger than the last one, their had to be at least two and a half hundred of the creatures. This time he didn¡¯t have any of his spells left to use, he cursed his stupidity at using entangle while hunting. At the time he hadn¡¯t known there would be another attack at night and now it was to late to do anything about it.


    He breathed out heavily, rolling his shoulder and tightening his grip around his makeshift spear. He looked over to Zi¡¯enna, she looked at him like she was trying to figure out a difficult question, or solving a math equation. She nodded her head, even bowed a little, showing her respect and gratitude for standing with her people. He returned the bow with a savage smile, how could he run away from a fight like this, not to mention all that free experience! The thump of heavy footfalls suddenly cut through the silence, Gorat with Immi on his back was already charging the enemy line. Although surprised he agreed it was a good idea, the golem was strong and its stony build was nearly indestructible when fighting the badly armed and armoured undead. Immi may have seemed a child but he knew her magic far outclassed him. Secretly he still worried about her, he had grown attached.


    Gorat smashed into the enemy line, tearing a hole right through the middle of their ranks. His newfound size and strength only helping him as he smashed undead skulls, grabbing one of the zombies every now and then and throwing him back into the undead horde. It did nothing to impede their march, the shuffle of undead feat continued as they now came in range of the Batiri warriors. Zi¡¯enna growled a command, the warriors roared in return and formed a line, Sahja¨ªl formed up right in the middle of the formation. Zi¡¯enna had taken up position on the far left. The warriors put their new shields between them and the enemy and readied their spears, the snarling undead were greeted by fire hardened wood as the blackened tips of their spears pierced through the rotten flesh, cracking undead skulls.


    The warriors kept their shields between them and the undead, being forced back a pace every few seconds from the sheer press of rotten bodies. A zombie managed to claw around the shield, tearing a gash through his leather leaving shallow wounds upon his left arm, his arm arched back, he rammed his spear through its eyesocket, killing the creature. He roared his defiance at the enemy, soon enough he lost himself to the trance of battle. The snarl of undead and the pressure upon his shield barely registered in his mind, now and then he would see a Batiri collapse from their wounds, he would rush to their position cast the strongest healing spell he had available and return to the line of battle. Regardless of their valiant attempts two of the Batiri had still fallen to the grasp of cold fingers. They were being pushed back further, now at the inner most row of caltrops, A rock smashed into the head of an undead to his right.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    The young and the wounded Batiri had gathered rocks and were doing their best to throw their ammunition at the undead horde, a few would go down when a rock caved in their skull. Sahja¨ªls breathing had long since become ragged, his arms sluggish his reactions slower, his body, like the others he fought with, riddled with wounds. The pressure upon the line of warriors was lessening, the undead had fallen to more manageable numbers, a bare fifty of the creatures still stood upright, Gorat was now behind the enemy lines, smashing the undead down into the ground wherever he could reach. Then silence returned to the clearing, only ragged breathing of himself and the other warriors filling the air around them. Zi¡¯enna raised her blood covered head to the sky and howled in victory, The others joined in her howling. Sahja¨ªl himself felt their joy of victory and howled with them. He looked around at the wounded warriors and started stabilising those that were badly wounded. When he tried to heal Zi¡¯enna from her many minor injuries, his field of vision shrank, darkness fell over his eyes as he collapsed.


    Sahja¨ªl groaned as he got up, muscles knotted and stiff. He cast a light healing spell on himself and immediately felt a lot better. He looked at his body and noticed that his wounds had been tended to, large soft leaves with a poultice. They did their work though, he removed the bandages and took a look at his wounds, the poultice with the help of the healing spell had done their work. His wounds were not completely healed, leaving him with some red lines of fresh skin, the scars would remain however, some of the missing pieces of flesh not regrowing. He looked around and saw that most of the camp was already up and about. He stood up carefully stretching his limbs, muscles despite the healing still groaning in protest.


    He walked over to the river and took his clothes off, looking in the reflection he barely recognised himself. He had changed a good bit over the last few weeks, his hair was short and unkempt sticking up in places, his delicate elven features turned rugged by a scar on his temple where a claw had managed to get him, his left ear also missing chips at the end. His chest had a multitude of scars. His stomach had made it through mostly intact. His left arm also had claw marks on it. He sighed, he had been through a lot but was still standing. Honestly he even liked his new rugged appearance.


    He cleaned his body in the running water, the mountain stream was cold but clean. He made sure to do it a bit further downstream so as not to dirty the water the tribe used for drinking. Soon enough a few of the other warriors he had fought with joined him in his bath, they gave him a short respectful nod which he returned in kind. He felt a bond with his brothers in arms that he had never felt before, not being a people person this was new to him. Pondering his new emotions he rid himself of the dirt and dried blood that covered his body. Finishing up his cleanse he headed back to the camp. They were erecting tipee-like structures.


    He saw a Zi¡¯enna talking with a few of the tribes members, as far as he could tell she was the leader of the current tribe, the members following her directives. Walking over to her, she said something to the people she was talking to, they gave him a curt bow and went about their business. He returned their bow and faced Zi¡¯enna. He pointed to the wounded and made the wiggling motion with his hands which had become the sign for his healing. She understood and walked him to the worst of the injured. Surprisingly only three of the warriors from yesterday had any serious wounds, he used a heal moderate wounds spell on each of them. The warriors sighed in relief as the pain left their bodies, Sahja¨ªl turned back to Zi¡¯enna and gestured if anyone else needed healing.


    She shook her head, pointing at the sun and indicating night. She wanted him to save the spells he had for tonight. He nodded, he agreed with her, when the undead came again tonight they would need all the edges they had. A yelp from the other side of the camp drew his attention, Zi¡¯enna looked alarmed and grabbed her spear and rushed over, Sahja¨ªl cursed and followed her.


    We really can¡¯t handle it if we also get attacked during the day!


    The Batiri gathered on the waters edge, any able bodied tribesmen with a spear and shield in hand. On the other side of the stream a few hundred meters away from them about fifty creatures had gathered. White scales, leather armour, hide covered shields and spears with a chipped stone spearhead. Only a two dozen of the creatures were armed however, some of them obviously not used to holding weapons. Most of the group were to young to see battle, like the Batiri they were tired, signs of battle and injuries covering the ivory scales of the lizardmen with the crimson red of blood.


    Zi¡¯enna crossed the stream, one of the warriors flanking her. Sahja¨ªl moved to flank her other side as they headed towards the lizardmen. The lizards did the same and sent out a warrior a head taller than the rest, also flanked by two of the other warriors. They met in the middle Zi¡¯enna stared at the warrior who stared back at her. Both standing still and glaring at each other not saying anything. It was obvious that the two had some bad blood between them, he waited for the two leaders to make the first move. It wasn¡¯t his job to intervene, it would only work counterproductive. Not to mention that he respected Zi¡¯enna to much, she knew what she was doing.