The thought of shifting scared me. I'd be exposed to whatever or whoever had placed the waterskin by the fang and spear. What kind of devious power play was that in the first place? Was there a sociopath in the forest, someone who'd get a kick out of playing with me?
The more I thought about it, the worse the ideas that popped into my head became.
Unsure of what awaited me, my mind blanked. But there was no way back. If someone was already tailing me, they would have seen a human shift into a Blue Slime the night before. Whoever that was, they knew about my Power.
But where did that waterskin come from? How did I fail to notice anyone climbing the tree?
How? What? When? Where?
Those questions tormented my mind more than anything. Yet my inability to answer them didn't change a thing. I had to do something.
I triggered the Shift, and the Blue Slime expanded once more. A branch slapped into my human face. It stung a little, but that was all the pain I felt. With a quick glance down my body, I noticed that the scratches from the night before had healed. That was in tune with my first Shift experience. Although there were some differences.
The Blue Slime form healed my wounds somehow. The details eluded me, but a bit of testing would reveal everything in due time. Once I was out of danger.
I looked around, my hair standing on end, but there was nothing to see. A smell lingered in the air, familiar yet strange–a musk that hadn't been in the treetop before, potent and all around me.
Basking in the faint sunlight of the early morning, I retrieved the waterskin and took a big gulp. My instincts screamed at me to be careful, but if someone had wanted to kill me, they would have done so already. Poisoning the waterskin to get rid of me sounded like a waste of precious poison.
The water was refreshing. I took a second gulp, then a third. As much as I wanted to drink everything in one go, the waterskin had to last a little longer. Relying on a stranger was not on my list. I'd much rather survive this nether of a forest on my own. Trusting myself sounded easy enough.
Other than myself, though, I could only trust my family.
Father's disappointed face flashed before my eyes. He had a look in his eyes I had never seen before. Maybe… maybe I couldn't even trust my family. Not all of them. But even if I wanted to trust them, it wasn't like they could protect me from the earl's people.
Thinking about them, I couldn't help but wonder what they were doing.
"Do they even care?" I shook my head, a hollow laugh escaping my lips. "They'll visit a few more towns and make up for their losses. That's about it."
Nothing would change for them. They'd likely earn a small fortune for their effort as well.
The Choosing made me angry. There were so many things I wanted to change. So much I would have done differently… if I'd had the means to. Alas, there was nothing that could have been done differently. Everyone had to undergo the Choosing at some point to learn about their path, to understand where they belonged.
To awaken a Power was everyone's destiny. Getting kidnapped–not so much.
It wasn't my fault. Neither were all the deaths on the flying ship. I hadn't killed anyone, even if I sometimes thought I might have wanted to.
But did I really? Would I kill the soldiers if I had the chance? What about the Wizard, then? The earl? Was I ready to kill them all to take revenge?
No. Probably not.
They had to be punished, but revenge did not necessarily entail death.
Except… if they tried to kill me again, I would defend myself. And in doing so, a choice would have to be made. One that might change everything.
Sighing deeply, I sealed the waterskin and attached it to my pants. I retrieved the cooked serpent meat next and had a cold, chewy breakfast, until the same gaggling from the night before echoed in my ears.
I fell flat against the treetop and pressed myself firmly into the branches, my eyes searching the perimeter.
The gaggling drew nearer, quickly followed by rustling bushes far to the left. It took only a little while until a pained squeaking resounded and a monster came into view, in swift pursuit of a small group of… what even were those?
They had the heads of weird-looking dogs, with sharp teeth, torn ears, and long tongues hanging from their flat snouts. They were bipedal, humanoid monsters. Worse still, they wielded weapons. Not steel, but carved from something I couldn't quite wrap my head around. Even so, their weaponry was still better than mine. That much was painfully obvious as they caught up to their prey.
I watched them strike a…honestly, I had no idea what that creature was either. Some kind of quadruped, with long front legs and dark fur that hung low enough to brush the ground. It tried to flee, barging through the densely grown thorn bushes that had torn my skin apart like it was nothing. The humanoid monsters were slower, but that hardly mattered.
One of them hurled its javelin, piercing the creature's leg and slowing it just enough for the rest to catch up. And that they did. Sabers and axes drank deeply of the monster's blood.
The fight ended quickly, mercilessly, the brutality and efficiency on display scaring me shitless.
But there was something else, too.
My heartbeat accelerated, not only from fear, but from anticipation as well.
I was afraid to die, yet I wanted to fight these creatures. I wanted to defeat them, grow stronger, and maybe even shift into them.
But how was I supposed to do that? Attacking them without a plan was not an option.
Several plans formed within seconds, but one stood out. It certainly wasn't the best, but it rang true to me–and that was all that mattered.