The forest expanded in all directions as far as my eyes could see. The warped darkness of withered branches betrayed the beauty of the golden hues held by the abundant tree leaves. The sight was picturesque, a light haunting feeling as if caught in a dream lingered but I wasn't going to be fooled. I couldn't sense magic, but I could feel the forest, alive and deceptive.
My stomach rumbled, and a feeling of hunger rose, and a simultaneous feeling of repulsion washed through me. The hunger reminded me of the deeper more violent feeling I had felt while under the influence of Anabelle.
I feared that I would lose control again, but after taking a moment to calm down, I realized it may just be normal hunger; I couldn't remember the last time I actually ate after all.
The leaf covered forest made it difficult to traverse without making noise. The fallen leaves were crisp and covered the ground so fully it was hard to move without drawing attention. Even still the forest remained silent; save for me wandering my way though.
The longer I wandered the less i could tell my surroundings apart; the sky was a solid black with no objects to reference for direction, and with the densely packed trees navigation quickly became a nightmare. The feeling of hunger began to worsen as my journey stretched on but there was nothing here. There were no animals, no people, not even other plants just the dead tree's and crunchy leaves.
At some point I had picked up some of the leaves and tried to eat them to see if I could take the edge off, but the leaves turned to a fine powder in my mouth and it tasted like trying to eat ash. I spit out what I could but parts of the leaves still coated my mouth and I didn't have anything to wash it out with. I considered eating some of the tree bark too, but after taking a piece off a tree, I could already begin to imagine the splinters in my mouth and didn't follow through. The thought of having to eat leaves or tree bark for food made me almost start crying, so with new motivation I pushed forward with my aimless wandering now more determined to find anything that may serve as food.
Sadly motivation does not help one find their way any faster. After reaching the point of seriously considering eating more leaves to at least have something in my stomach, I decide to stop for a break. If moving forward wasn't working I could at least rest my legs a bit before trying something else. As things stood I didn't have many other options than keep walking which has long past become a monotonous chore. Cynthia still wasn't responding and I couldn't feel my mana have recovered at all since I had awaken. I couldn't cast spells and my skills seemed to be all sorts of messed up.
I could still use a few of them, my claw and stealth skills were still usable, alongside my sensory skills. Mimicry was acting a but unusual and was far more difficult to control, but i could still, at the vary least, change things like the color and texture of my hair and skin. the biggest loss though was I couldn't access my inventory, which would have saved me from this nightmare of hunger.
"Cynthia~, please come back to me." I wined to no one in particular.
Then I caught the smell of something that caused my mouth to start watering. Blood, it was still fresh by the smell, and most importantly that meant it was something I could eat. At first I was a little reluctant to go after the smell, the battle that had occurred in Elysium reeked of blood and death, which caused more than a few unpleasant memories to resurface, but the taste of the ashen leaves still hadn't left my mouth and was working wonders on motivating my body to keep moving forward.
I began to slow as the sound of rustling leaves began to grow louder. Something had been approaching from far off before, but now the sound stopped moving. The faint bleating of what I assumed was some form of deer was abruptly cut off, causing me to slow even further. Whatever was chasing it finally caught it.
I wasn't looking forward to fighting whatever was gutsy enough to be hunting deer but I needed food badly, so I was willing to at least take a peak. Keeping myself covered by the trees I continued approaching until I finally got close enough to see whatever the beast was, and upon seeing it I immediately froze.
A massive lion shaped body with a scorpion tail, it looked like it also had a pair of wings but the webbing had been torn off. Immediately regretting my decisions I turn to abandon my only chance of a meal when-
~gurgle~
Betrayed by my own stomach, a loud sound resounded through the forest, even worse; immediately following, the sound of the beast eating halted. Nervously looking back over, an instinct overtook me as I leaped away from the withered tree as it was turned to splinters.
"You wouldn't happen to be willing to talk this out right?" I squeaked
Getting a better look at this creatures face it looked like one of it's eyes had been gouged out and it was covered in cuts and scars. It let out a roar from it's bloodstained mouth and immediately lunged at me.
Swiping a paw my way I wasn't able to get out of the way in time, and my body flew crashing into a tree. The force of the paw felt like a truck and my ears began ringing as my head connected with the tree trunk.
"So we're fighting then." I mutter as i get back up to my feet.
I was shaky but the beast didn't pursue, it simply stared me down, it's face contorting into something reminiscent of a smile. It seemed to derive pleasure from seeing a weak helpless opponent struggle to get up.
Taking in a deep breath, I collected myself and got ready for a fight. This thing looked scary but if this was all it was capable of, I may actually be able to have a decent meal soon. The thought of food fired me up to the point where my ringing ears weren't bothering me any more. With the scent of blood still heavy in the air something from deep within me stirred, driving me forward, and giving me strength.
"Your going to get in my belly now, ok?" I told the beast, getting into a low stance. Seeing that it's prey was still fighting back the smug expression on the beast changed to one of anger. As if offended something would try to fight back.
Almost at once we both shot towards each other, the beast swiped a paw at me but I slipped past, having been moving far faster than the beast had anticipated, getting up close and striking forward with my sharpened claws. The beast tried to bite me after it's initial attack failed, but my claws connected first striking it's remaining functional eye, my hand now buried up to my wrist. It's skin was tough but the momentum of it rushing forward sunk my claws deep into its eye socket, eliciting a pained roar.
The beasts tail shot forward attempting to crush anything near its face, but I was small and agile enough to stand clear, and grab it's tail as it retracted readying for another strike. My hand tore free from the creatures skull and I was now in freefall. The creature unable to see began thrashing wildly flailing it's massive paws and tail, crushing everything in the vicinity. If I wanted to I could have called it quits and escaped, but I wasn't sure how much of the deer was left and this thing had pissed me off.
Landing behind the beast, it noticed the sound and immediately turned to attack. Rushing forward trying to slip past it's paws before they became a nuisance, I struck at it's face again, but it's hide was thick and little more than scratches were left behind. Once again it's tail shot forward attempting to clear whatever was standing in front of its face. So I moved to clear it, when the beast abruptly charged forward knocking me off my feet.
With claws now aimed at my head, I struggled to retreat rolling out of the way, but I wasn't fast enough, and a claw tore across my back. Letting out a hiss I jump back to my feet and attempt to fall back, but with the wound on my back i was slower, and the beast seemed more confident on tracking down where I was.
Suddenly an idea popped into my head, it was risky but may just work. Stopping my retreat attempts I run right at the beast again, just as both times before it greets me with a paw swipe, but I notice his face was grinning once again. Too bad he couldn't see mine.
Knowing I'd slip past, his tail was already coming to crush me, unfortunately for him I didn't strike, I jumped. Flipping forward I slammed my foot as hard as I could into the descending stinger, forcing it just off course, changing the destination from the spot I would have been, to the back of the Beasts head.
The beasts stinger struck true, and after a moment of stumbling the beast fell unmoving. My stomach rumbled again reminding me that I was starving and need food. Like, right now. That's when I noticed another problem. How was I going to cook this?
I couldn't use magic and there wasn't anything to really start a fire with. Not to mention with how dry this whole forest seemed, starting one may just catch the whole forest on fire. So, with hunger leading the way, I shaved away part of the manticores hide and hesitantly bit into it.
Minutes later the entire beast was gone save for the claws, stinger, and miscellaneous scraps of hide that had gotten in the way of eating. The thought of sinking my teeth into a raw animal disgusted me at first but after the first bite I was hooked. It's flesh was juicy and the blood somehow tasted sweet, it was a peculiar flavor but it was also addicting and before I knew it I was pealing back more layers of hide from the beast putting forth my all into trying to consume as much of the creature as possible.
Despite being may times smaller than the beast I found myself disappointed once it was completely gone, like I still could eat more, but thankfully my stomach was no longer rumbling and I felt more satisfied than I had for a long time.
In my frenzy for food I hadn't considered how messy tearing an animal apart with your hands would be, so now my face, hair, and even the small scraps of clothing that still hung on me were covered in blood. It was sticky and felt a little uncomfortable but all things considered I was feeling a lot better.
Looking over what was left of the beast I decided to take a few of the claws, and the stinger with me. The claws fit in my hands like small knives, they were nearly the size of my hand, and even sharper then my own claws, so I figured I could use them for now, they may have some monetary value too if I ever run into another person.
The stinger was bigger, and seemed less practical to keep on hand, but something told me I should keep it so I did. It was probably many times more valuable than the claws I imagine too. I wasn't too sure if the stinger was venomous or not so I wrapped in scraps of leftover hide. Despite the fact the Beast was stabbed by it's own tail I didn't notice anything too off about the flavor of it's brain. I was initially against the idea of eating it but I caved quickly after everything else was gone. I don't feel sick so it's probably fine ... probably.
Heading back over to where the beast had managed to kill its prey, I find myself relieved that I had decided to kill the beast. Most of the poor creature was gone, it looked as though the beast was even willing to eat bone since so little remained of it's chest. The creatures head was crushed and I couldn't tell what it initially looked like, but parts of its back half remained, torn to ribbons by the beasts claws, but the only scraps left to peace together.
A rustle of leaves caught my attention, and I was immediately put on alert. If there was another of those beasts, maybe one not so horribly maimed then I likely wouldn't fair as well as I didn't against it. What also concerned me was how quiet the sound was. It didn't seem to come from far away, but it was like a whisper compared to the noise the beast made when hunting.
Closing my eyes I tried to pinpoint where the sound was coming, or where it had moved. Something seemed off about the creature, but I was lonely and a small part of me hoped that I would find a person as the source of the sound, though I wasn't going to bet on anything.
I could hear faint breathing nearby as if something was desperately trying to hold their breath but wasn't doing a very good job. Discretely approaching their hiding place I tried my best to not scare it off.
"Um, excuse me?"
"AHH!! D-d-don't eat me, I don't taste very good." The figure then curled int a ball and slammed her eyes shut.
Yes, girl. A taller girl or rather her curled up form suggested such. She had long curly brown hair and what appeared to be ram horns poking out of either side of her head. She seemed lost in her own little world.
"I should have listened, they said there was a big scary beast that hunts around here and that it was going to kill me. But how was I supposed to know they were telling the truth, I just wanted a nice quiet place to take a nap." The girl was mumbling to herself half in tears. Her body was braced almost like flinching, but when the pain of dying didn't come she finally decided to open her eyes.
"Hello?" I tried to get her attention again
The girl once again startled fell backwards scrambling to get away, "B-Big scary, m-monster?" However upon looking at me closely she began to faulter. Her face now read with a hint of confusion.
"Y-y-you're not gonna e-eat me right?" I couldn't help but roll my eyes, why the hell would I eat another person. Then again, I am currently covered in blood, maybe that's why?
"No, I'm not going to eat you." I grumbled. Part of me was hurt that i looked like such a monster to this girl.
"A-are you sure, n-not even a nibble?" The girl seemed to have calmed down a little but I couldn't understand why she was so caught up on me eating her.
"Do you want me to change my mind?" I couldn't help but tease her a little, even after all that's happened it was almost instinctual to mess with people. The girl however didn't find it funny and instead turned a ghostly pale.
"P-please don't eat me."
Moving closer the girl flinched back again, but I just ignored it and extended a hand to help her off the ground.
"I was joking."
The girl gave a look crossed between fear and puzzlement, before slowly taking my hand and getting up off the ground. She looked like she was still puzzling something out in her head. Once she was on her feet, something seemed to have clicked, and she retreated.
" I figured you out, you must work with the beast. You guide people, looking all innocent and cute, right into the beasts den where you happily watch them get torn apart by the monsters massive claws and brutal stinger and then eat them." The girl took a step back her confidence waning, "I-I won't fall for it. You won't eat me today"
"I already told you, I'm not going to eat you!" I practically screamed at the girl, whatever was wrong with this girl was starting to give me a headache. I wanted to just ditch her and be done, but with how long it took to find her I couldn't abandon my only hope of finding my way out.
The girl didn't look overly convinced with what I was saying, but there doesn't seem to be much I could do to convince her, then I remembered the stinger I had saved.
"Here." I tossed the beasts stinger over to the girl who just flinched out of the way, causing it to bounce into the leaves. " I've already killed your 'monster'. You're safe."
The girls face shifted from fear to awe in a split second.
"Really?" the girls eyes began to swell with tears "Am I really safe?"
The complete change in temperament unnerved me a bit, but that issue was quickly differed once my body was quickly scooped up, imprisoned off the ground in the girls arms.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" the girl cried between sobs "You saved me!"
Wiggling to get out of her grasp i returned to earth, "I didn't do it for you." I huffed
The girl wiped her tears and let out a little giggle "My name is Soma, What is the name of my little hero."
"I'm not your- whatever. I'm Alice."
"Aw~ what an adorable name." I could see her approach, and almost like an instinct , I knew she was trying to pick me up again.
" Back off." I snipped, what happened to the distressed goat girl who thought I was going to eat her.
"Boo~ Alice is no fun." Soma gave a little pout, and I could feel my brain dying while trying to figure this girl out. All I knew was she was going to be a headache.