Right before my eyes, Lily grew slightly bigger. It was subtle enough that if I hadn't watched her do it, I may not have even noticed at first. But no, she wasn't just bigger; she was thicker. Not only that, but also the purple of her eyes became slightly more vivid.
She should be stage 3 now, as was I, and if it were only her size that changed, I would think that's all that happened. But she likely ascended to a new Path as well. If that were the case, she should have learned at least one new skill. I wondered what it could be.
I sat on my haunches, examining her, and then let out an encouraging bark. Her tongue was hanging out of the side of her mouth, panting happily, and she turned her head as if asking what I wanted.
How could I communicate this to her? But she seemed to figure it out on her own.
She grinned and backed off a step, then hunkered forward with her tail wagging like she wanted to play. She then yipped and made a move as if she were going to try to bite me.
Oh, okay, so you want to play, do you? Well, don't get ahead of yourself. I'm still the big sister!
I matched her stance, and we both pivoted back and forth, growling and making moves towards each other. She dove low, going for my leg, but I side-stepped and counterattacked—
She suddenly whizzed past me as if she had gotten a push on ice, completely dodging my bite, and the next thing I knew, she pounced onto my back.
Not expecting this, I lost my footing and scrambled as she grabbed my scruff, growling.
Oh! Okay, okay, I see how it is!
I spun to throw her off me, then dove on her again. She slipped past me with that same sliding motion, but this time I was more prepared and spun around with a follow-up attack.
This time, I went right through her, completely shocked that I basically attacked thin air. Before I could recover, the real Lily appeared and pounced on my side. This time, we both rolled off the rock together and into the greenery below us.
We both scrambled and growled excitedly as we took turns biting and releasing each other.
If I were being serious, I easily could have subdued her once I had a good hold, but I wanted her to have fun too! I wasn't like Luke, who would show no mercy once he had the upper hand. Although I had to admit she definitely seemed much stronger than before. No doubt she gained multiple levels from our last kill.
She dodged another attack with her slide move and then used another clone to get another good attack off on me.
After several more minutes of play, we were both lying on our backs amidst the underground greenery, heads next to each other, and each panting, tongues hanging from our mouths.
Basic Fighting level up!
Basic Fighting is now level 4!
+6 Strength
+6 Dexterity
Hey! Leveling a skill from playing with a pack mate! That hadn't happened in a while. It was a tad bittersweet, considering how many were missing from our pack, but at the same time, it renewed my hope that one day we could all be together again.
Since it seemed our play was over for now, I decided now was a good time to take a look at my stats. It has been a while, after all.
Name: ???
Race: Hell Hound
Level: 9
Path: Veinseer Nightstalker
Stage: 3
Body Development: 62%
Vitals
Health: 185 / 225
Mana: 45 / 220
Stamina: 105 / 220
Attributes
Strength: 48 (+12)
Dexterity: 57 (+14)
Vigor: 45 (+12)
Sense: 81 (+21)
Attunement: 51 (+14)
Active Skills
Pulse Sense LVL 3
Sense the heartbeats of surrounding creatures.
Crippling Bite LVL 2
Target limbs and snap bone to weaken your target and affect their mobility.
Veil of Shadows LVL 1
Conceal yourself in darkness, muffling your footsteps and obscuring your outline. Breaking the veil with an attack moderately increases damage based on Strength and Dexterity.
Marrow Sense LVL 1
Short-range detection that reveals the density of an enemy's skeleton, allowing you to target weak points more efficiently.
Passive Skills
Enhanced Smell LVL 3
Basic Fighting LVL 4
Poison Resist LVL 1
Night Vision LVL 1
Traits
Predator’s Focus LVL 2
Bonus damage when attacking from stealth or targeting unaware enemies.
Camouflage LVL 3
Stolen story; please report.
Bonus to stealth when not moving.
Night Hunter LVL 1
Improved camouflage in addition to improved strength and dexterity scaling at night.
Pack Bond LVL 2
You gain experience from anything killed by a member of your pack during a hunt in which you are involved.
You and your packmates regenerate mana and health 5% faster while resting together, the bonus stacking for every nearby pack member other than yourself.
Oh yeah! That recent level up gave me some mana. That would certainly come in handy tonight, though I would have to use it sparingly until I’ve rested.
Night Hunter, Night Vision, Veil of Shadows, and Marrow Sense were still at level 1, but I had a feeling they should all be close. A little successful hunting tonight could have me seeing some very nice gains.
Actually, I’d have to be careful with activating Veil of Shadows tonight, as I didn’t know how much mana it required, and I did not like not having at least 10 mana for a Pulse Sense at all times. That kind of seemed like critical information; it would have been nice if it were listed next to the skills! I had half a mind to file a complaint to the system about this.
[Request denied!]
That feature is either currently unavailable, or you do not have sufficient privileges!
Hey! Get out of my head!
Looking over at Lily, I recalled how Genzo had been able to look at my skills and seemed to know other information that I previously thought only I could have access to. I wonder if it was a skill he had? I wish I had such a skill so I could see precisely what Lily’s stats and abilities looked like and maybe get some ideas of how to help her level more.
As I continued looking over my stats and considering my future Paths, Lily rolled over and licked my face.
I dismissed my stat screen and closed one eye as she continued grooming me, getting a little more invasive and assertive with her licking when she realized I wasn’t stopping her.
Letting my gaze rise towards the opening on the roof of the cavern, I saw how much darker the sky was becoming. I figured we should find better shelter for the night. If we found somewhere that I thought she'd be safe, I'd go explore this cavern solo for a bit and maybe fit in a quick hunt. Our last kill hadn’t quite filled my stomach, and I want to take a shot at leveling up a couple of those skills.
I shook Lily off of me, rolled back onto my legs, and motioned for her to follow.
I was tempted to follow the river and see how far back it went but also thought against it for now. Right now, we seemed to be in a relatively safe area, and I'd much rather not risk the unknown in the dark when Lily wouldn't be able to see. So we started exploring the cavern, sticking close to the wall, sniffing around as we went.
I thought again of the rest of our family. This was a big world. The vale alone felt impossibly large, as did this cave system, but these two places were likely just the smallest slivers of the world as a whole.
I hadn't known much of my old world either, but I knew it was big. Bigger than one person could ever see all of. This world, I had no reason to believe, wasn't exactly the same.
Eventually, we spotted an opening in the wall that looked like it could be a suitable place to sleep for the night. I used {Pulse Sense} to be sure I wasn’t about to lead my sister into a den of snakes, and found that it was unoccupied.
Inside was everything I had hoped for. Its opening was just slightly larger than we are, so if any larger predators came along, they would struggle to get at us. Not only that, it opened into a wider area that gave us plenty of room to get comfortable.
Lily curled up against the back wall, then looked at me expectantly. When she got the idea I planned to leave her behind for a while, she let out a soft whine.
I padded over to her and licked her head.
Sorry Lily, but I won’t go far! This cavern doesn’t even have those glowing mushrooms, so it’s about to be pitch black pretty soon, and it would be dangerous for you to try to hunt with me when you can’t even see!
I really wished I could communicate that to her, but she was a smart pup and probably understood my logic.
When I walked back out of the cave and looked back, she had her muzzle resting over her paws, looking slightly dejected but accepting.
I gave her a small gruff, assuring her that I would be back soon.
***
Far away, outside of the vale, and past the Blood Peaks, there was a strange flat mountain that, once Luke was closer, he realized was made of many rectangular stones.
Luke lay inside the small cage where he had been stuck as this strange creature carried him for an entire day. He was carried further into the unusually square caves of this mountain, deeper and deeper, until he was set down on the ground while more similar strange creatures stared at him with their glowing purple eyes.
They were not like the red-faced creatures—the ones that could actually take off those red faces to show another face underneath. These ones had black faces, and Luke wondered if they had a second face underneath as well.
He was scared of them, although, unlike the Red Faces, the Black Faces had not tried to hurt him yet. But he didn’t want to be taken away from his brothers and sisters! He needed to be with them and know if they were okay!
He whined, hiding his muzzle under his paws as the creatures made odd noises at each other.
The one who had carried him here, the short Black Face, suddenly raised his voice, gesturing toward Luke, and Luke couldn't help whining more, wondering if they were going to hurt him now. Did they want to eat him? Maybe they were arguing over who gets to eat what portion?
Luke didn’t want to be food.
But, considering the one who had carried him here, it made no sense if eating him was the goal. After all, they had stopped a couple times on the way here, and Luke was fed strips of dry salty meat through the bars of the cage. You don’t share food with prey—that would make no sense! So surely, that was a sign that at least this one didn’t want to eat him?
Perhaps the short Black Face was explaining to the other Black Faces that Luke was not food? Luke hoped that was the case.
With a few final barks of argument, the short Black Face picked up the cage, and Luke was being carried once again.
They moved through the square caves once again, which occasionally had things of fire on the walls, until eventually, the short Black Face opened a wall. No, but that portion of the wall was not made of stone; it was made of wood. He then closed the wood thing behind himself and set Luke down on the floor once again as he took a seat himself on something that looked soft.
Luke’s eyes drifted around. There were no other Black Faces in here, so he supposed he was safe from being eaten for now.
His gaze fell onto another one of those things of fire that kept the room lit, and he thought of his two brothers. He hoped his white-eyed sister was still with them and that they escaped the Red Faces. As for his other two sisters—he did not know what happened to them. One was taken by a big bird before the Red Faces attacked, and the other had disappeared at some point during the attack.
Luke’s eyes shot over to the short Black Face as he stood from the soft-looking thing, then crouched in front of Luke. He made more noises at him, some kind of communication, but Luke did not understand.
One hand disappeared into the Black Face’s uh… well, these odd two-legged creatures all seemed to wear soft, flowy things over themselves, like a very loose extra skin. The hand disappeared into the extra skin and took out another strip of that dry meat. Then, his other hand reached forward and opened the cage.
The Black Face whistled and clicked his tongue as he held the meat out, offering it.
Luke was hungry, and though he would have preferred a fresh rabbit, he could smell the meat that was being offered and slowly came out of the cage.
He was still suspicious that this was a trick, but hunger won, and he took the meat and then tried to turn away to find somewhere to hide with it. However, the Black Face grabbed him and forced him to sit, though there was a softness to it. He was careful not to hurt him. He continued making soft noises, and his hand started rubbing Luke’s head.
Luke was confused, but the way he rubbed his head and neck and scratched behind his ears felt kind of good. Still, he wanted the Black Face to know that he didn’t trust him, so growled, and surprisingly, the Black Face stopped and went back to sit on his soft-looking thing. It was like he actually listened to Luke?
This was all too strange, but it was clear the short Black Face did not intend to hurt him, so Luke instead focused on the meat. It was hard to chew through, but food was food, and soon it sat comfortably in his stomach.
He watched suspiciously as the Black Face walked over to the fire-holding thing and did something to make the fire become smaller, so the light in the room dimmed. Then he walked over to Luke and picked him up.
Luke growled, unhappy about being in his arms, but a few more reassuring noising came along with some scratches behind his ears. Luke truly could not deny that those scratches felt good.
Next thing Luke knew, he was on the soft-looking thing, lying beside the short Black Face.
Once released, Luke froze at first, tail tucked tight, ready to bolt. But instead of holding him down, the strange creature just lay back and rested one hand lightly on Luke’s back. The soft thing beneath him was warm and strangely comfortable.
He didn’t like it—he didn’t trust it—but his body betrayed him. He was tired. His stomach was no longer aching with hunger.
The Black Face made one last series of soft noises, then closed his eyes. He didn’t bind Luke, didn’t shove him back in the cage, didn’t even try to touch him again. He just… slept.
Luke blinked. He had half a mind to bite him and run, but where would he go? He was far from his siblings, in a maze of stone and wood he couldn’t navigate, with creatures he didn’t understand. And besides, after everything he had been through, he was tired. He did not have the energy to fight one way or another.
So instead, he curled up on the soft thing, nose pressed into his paws and slowly drifted off to sleep.
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