I do not know how long I sat exhausted in that shed. By the time I cried myself out, recovered from my stupor, and went out to the rooftop, Tanya was nowhere to be seen. The sun had moved toward the horizon. Terra’s undersized sun had adopted a familiar red glow, like the sun that floated ever-present over Abyss. The sky became a darker shade of blue, and its fluffy white objects I saw earlier now transformed with the most beautiful hues. ‘This world has so much color. I almost cannot believe it’s real... I never expected to see an actual sunset in my life.’

I sniffed again and wiped my nose. Terra may be every bit as treacherous as Abyss, but at least certain hateful demons were not here; food and warmth were plentiful; and I found the view quite tolerable.

I took a few moments to look around from this rooftop vantage. Clearly, I was in a city. In front of me, toward the setting sun, I saw a few structures, perhaps dwellings; beyond them lay extensive fields and well-ordered groups of small buildings. To my right sprawled simple, large, low buildings; open areas with many large containers; and different types of ships docked at piers. I could make out many figures bustling about in that area. Behind me and to my left, the nearby buildings were taller than mine, so there was little to see. While my sense for directions became shaken during our escape, I knew the military prison must be in that area, since I couldn’t see it now. ‘Then, that means I will go forward and away!’

My first order of business, healing my impaled and half-frozen leg and my bruised body. I could probably manage on my own if I could find enough to eat, especially if everything around here was as mana-rich as the small man and Katrina’s blood. As for my crippled meridians, I lacked confidence. ‘I can barely walk. Forget trying to clamber around on these rooftops. If I want to move, I’ll have to go down and mingle with those humans.’

I half-slid, half hopped, down a ladder leading from the roof to the building’s floor. I checked inside for something useful. I saw a lot of wood production stuff, I guess. I wasn’t very familiar with that trade. I found a twisted blade with a U-shaped handle and also a hammer. Neither fit in my pockets so I dried shoving both my new weapons into the waist of my pants.

I staggered outside into an alley and looked around. A woman was emptying a bucket into the alley, so I went toward her to ask to find a healer. When she saw me she spooked and vanished into a building. ‘Why though?’ I looked at myself, covered in multiple humans’ blood. ‘Ah, maybe that.’ I smiled slightly, thinking of my blood-stained figure shambling forward in an alley as darkness fell. ‘‘It’s a bad look’ as that guard said earlier, huh. I guess so.’

I continued to wander in the direction I thought was away from the prison, when I heard movement ahead. Determined not to scare off the next people I encountered, I crouched behind a pile of trash, but ended up sitting because my thigh hurt too much. Either way, I hoped myself well hidden.

Two, no three actually, humans came toward my hiding place. They carried the third. I could overhear their speech.

“What a pain, you know? Asked him nicely, you know?” remarked the leading man, holding the shoulders of a motionless human.

“Insensible fool struggling like that,” the following man said, shaking his head and adjusting his grip on the legs.

I wondered what they were up to. If I saw this in my home district I would know they were up to no good; humans seemed to have strange customs though, so I waited to see how things would turn out.

Unfortunately, one the humans stank of blood. While I’d fed more than usual today, my injuries sapped my strength, and my body demanded energy. I grew excited against my better judgement, my breath quickening and pulse pounding. However, even armed and amped up, I was afraid to attack two strong humans while injured. Biting my tongue to taste myself, I hoped to take the edge off my thirst. I used all my self control to settle with watching them and seeing what they did; I might have an opportunity to ambush.

The two men carried the body down the alley and tossed him into an overgrown ditch between a wall and yard. After they rummaged about with him, they looked around briefly and left. I didn’t think they noticed me. My luck was unbelievable right now! ‘Ah, the heavens took pity on me at last after this terrible day!’ 

When I figured the two other humans were gone, I crept over to the one they left behind. The ditch contained weeds, rubbish, and sewage, and the still-breathing person. Being injured and left in a dirty ditch seemed a humiliating treatment. Normally I might be curious why this happened and his relation with the other men, but more importantly, ‘Ali needs her blood.’

I ran the twisted metal tool into the man’s neck and rushed to slurp at the delicious wound. Feeding on fresh prey was the best! I closed my eyes in near ecstasy and continued to do my best to suck this man dry. Absorbing his mana allowed me to heal my physical wounds; the iciness in my leg thawed through, the deep cut knitted together, and my bruises became nothing but bad memories. I circulated my mana, pleased to feel the familiar stream. I tried to extend my awareness but suffered backlash again and coughed. I sighed, letting go of the high from my feast. ‘Still a cripple, then. Can’t manage to actually do anything useful. How did this happen? I wish I knew more than basic skills. I don’t really get how cultivation all works.’

Another mystery, ‘How the hell am I able to drink human blood and mana as a human? Are humans always like this, or does my presence in Katrina’s body change her somehow?’ I didn’t know, so I left the thoughts for later. There was no sense in pointless worrying that I could've solve.

After feeding, I searched the body for anything useful, like clothes and money! Examining at the gory corpse, I realized that perhaps I should have checked the man’s belongings before cutting him open and feeding. Regardless, I took an oversized simple black lace-up shirt that didn’t really fit, but would cover my arms, and I got a floppy leather hat. I also found his shoes, trousers and a quilted armor vest, but decided I didn’t need those, given the stains of human waste on them from being in the ditch. The people who dragged him here already plundered anything valuable like weapons, coins, and jewelry. I put on my new clothes. ‘Thank you strangers for hiding this guy for me.’ No need to draw attention to myself, after all.

What comes after a good meal? It was time to sleep.

Tanya had advised me to hide, so I avoided staying anywhere public. I ended up taking a small risk and slept hidden in a vacant space in a stable for unfamiliar creatures.

 

Fortunately, I woke without having been disturbed. I probably smelled wretched, but I couldn’t think how to fix that right now. Normally I could have just cleaned myself with magic, but not so easy right now. I knew better than to even consider a luxury like bathing.

I brushed myself off, re-dressed, and stretched. ‘I got weapons, a strong body, and full of energy! This girl is ready to take on whatever today can offer!’

Outside, I could see the sun was now low on the opposite side of the sky from last night; I adjusted my hat to look into the morning light. I noticed a fortress on a hill on the far side of the city. Its structure reminded me of the prison, which I still couldn’t see, but I guessed they were somehow related.

I should leave this city, yet I was tempted to see a healer first. I did my best to look down, blend in, and speak little while exploring. Talking to humans as a human had been always tiring and occasionally disastrous, so I didn’t want to take chances.

 

‘Ah, finally! I recognize that tool, a grindy bowl for medicine! And there’s a word on the sign:’ “Apo- Apo-the-car… whatever.”

While I failed to read the healer’s sign, a man’s shout attracted my attention, “Hey, listen up!” He had a scruffy face, wore purple robes, and stood on a crate in the street with a group of similarly robed men. I paid them no more heed. I had pressing concerns, like fixing myself! ‘No time, no time, let’s get this done.’

I entered the cozy building. “Not a lot of people know this, but...” the door closed behind me and cut those men off. A balding man turned toward me as I entered. The glasses pinched shifted as he sniffed and shuddered periodically.

“Good morning, Sir!” I needed something from this strange human so I made sure to be cheery and polite.

“Yes…… I suppose….” he answered, looking at me through the small frames pinched to his nose.

I didn’t know what to make of that, so I pushed on.

“You see, Sir, I uh, kind of hurt myself. Please heal me!”

“Hmmmmmm, look alright to me.”

“Uh, thank you!” Even if complements could be awkward sometimes, I tried to make him feel appreciated anyway.

“No.... your health, dear.”

“Oh.” I fidgeted. This human made me uncomfortable, “Ah! It’s my meridians, Sir.”

He finally showed interest. “Really now? Let’s take a look.”

He had me sit down and stared at me for several minutes. I became more nervous. I shuffled my feet and looked around the dim room to avoid his gaze. The healer displayed an array of tools in his dwelling: weights, scales, jars of black slugs, tonics, jars of pellets. I also peeked into an open bag and saw small sharp tools. 

The man coughed suddenly. I glanced at him again and started. He was staring at my chest through a contraption, a series of colored lenses. ‘What is wrong with him? Is he examining me? Is this treatment normal among human healers?’ My discomfort grew.

“Ah!” he flipped up his device and looked me in the face, “there we have it. There we have it indeed.”

“Huh?”

“You have quite the troublesome mismatch.”

I looked blankly at the healer, silently urging him to make sense.

‘Please stop being weird and get to telling me how to fix my meridians.’

“I’ve got just the thing, you see. Just the thing for you. Mind you, it won’t be cheap, and it might not work. I won’t guarantee it.”

Even with risk to fail, I couldn’t let myself stay crippled forever. I gave the healer Katrina’s coins, many copper and silver pieces, more than ten of each!

“No.” he shook his head, “Not up to scratch at all. You haven’t even a single pound here.”

I gaped at him. ‘A pound of what now?’

“Hmm, I like you. Remind me of my niece back in the home country, still a silly woman, and at your age too. Very fond of her. Still, I can’t be giving away medicines, you must know. Not the way to go about things at all.”

“Wait! Please, heal me, Sir! I can pay back. When I have enough I’ll come back with what you want! I swear, on my pride and committing to a contract-”

I froze, realizing my mistake. Trying to brush past it, I hurried, “I really need treatment, uh, you know. How many coins did you say again, Sir?”

He stepped back from me and narrowed his eyes. “Fascinating, a contract on the basis of pride. How… demonic.”

I knew I’d ruined my cover now. The healer’s body looked weak, but I could see that he cultivated, and that he was at a higher stage than me. Not to mention, I was in a city full of humans and wounded. I tensed up and prepared my claws- ‘Damn it I don’t have any!’ I stood and started breathing heavily, my mind refusing to come up with any good ideas. ‘Why can’t I think when I need to? What the hell is wrong with me?’

“Stop your hysterics! I don’t blame you for existing; besides, I already said I quite liked you.”

I forced myself to swallow and look at him, surprised.

“I rarely have a chance to speak to demons. I must make the most of this opportunity.”

“Oh,” I voiced.

‘He must think of me as a rare toy.’

“This revelation certainly clears up your situation with meridians. Indeed it must. Everything comes together, as it were.”

“Does it?”

“Your soul,” he drilled his finger into my chest, “does not fit your body. Not at all.”

“I guess so?” I mumbled and pushed his unwanted hand off my body, irritated.

“Exactly. Quite right. You’ve forcibly reshaped the meridians in that body to better match the pattern your soul is familiar with, perhaps even unconsciously so! Seen it once before, on a fresh summoned demon, too. Remarkable condition, most intriguing to study at the time.”

I was beyond worn out dealing with this man, so I just waited for him to continue.

“Your meridians are weak, and your soul is tired. Simple solution. Most simple of all.”

I nodded and waited again.

“Just give yourself some time. Absorb a mana-rich diet. I’m sure you’ll be right as rain before you know.”

I took a moment to process that.

“ARE YOU SERIOUS? I just had to wait and I’d get better on my own? Hah…  ha...”

I glared at him, while laughing at myself for worrying about this so much.

“Calm down now, calm down, no need to become so agitated,” he lectured me.

I took slow, deep breaths. This man would not drive me insane. I would survive him. No one needed to die. Not right now, anyway.

“Run along then. Yes. Don’t forget though. you did promise to repay me through a contract. Demon’s pride and all that.”

The terms he discussed next both further darkened my mood, and guaranteed I would be back to suffer in his presence again, helping him to study demons. If I could have set him on fire with my eyes I would have been sorely tempted. At least I got Katrina’s coins back.

"Remember to return, shortly. I'm eager to study your continued transformation." I thought I heard something worrying with his last remark, but I needed to get out of there before I exploded.

I left the healer’s place having traded one problem for another. I then heard the purple robed men yelling again.

“Terra herself is the true god!”

“There is no hell!”

At this they muttered to each other briefly before one shouted, “That’s right, no hell!”

‘I wonder where they think dead souls go if there’s no hell. Weird.’

As fun as discussing alternative human religion sounded, I was more intent to leave the city without exposing myself again. I looked at my feet and strode away while hearing a passerby argue with the strange robed men, calling them heretics.

 

I made my way to the edge of the city furthest from the ocean, where the main road left, according to a helpful boy who thought I was lost. The sun had already started going down to the horizon again. When I was leaving town, I ran across a handful of people returning, most carrying weapons or dragging covered carts. Alarmingly, I could sense that they practiced cultivation.

“Hey pretty lady, come join us!” one of their members, a young man with long blonde hair and sloppy clothes waved at me.

“What’s going on?” I questioned, wary. I assumed we were strangers but he spoke to me anyway.

“We’re stowing this stuff and then headed to Franklin’s tavern! We hunted down the ferocious, giant, three-pronged iron lizard of wind and rain! Celebrate our victory!”

“Is that, ah, a real creature?” I asked worriedly. It sounded made up, but I wouldn’t want to meet it if it wasn’t.

“Hey! Don’t mind this idiot,” a taller woman in loose martial artist clothing approached me and stuck her hand around my shoulder, dragging me along with them. She performed what I now knew was a human form of smiling, a friendly gesture, not at all threatening. “He’ll play up any prey to be the greatest sport of all time. Just an overgrown three-prong with a bit of magic. Ahh, sure worth a lot though! Those miners must have really wanted it dead, hahahahahahahaha, real good bounty, can’t wait to hear that clink clink clink when they pay me, yo.”

I showed her my fangs too. It felt weird to think of it as friendly.

I had a worrying thought, ‘outside the city, there are creatures dangerous enough for cultivators to group up to defeat them?’

“Cutie, come drink with us, come on, too late to go out there now, come on, I wanna hear fresh stories from that fresh face. Call me Mari, I wish everyone else would.”

I laughed nervously and agreed to go. She acted very insistent; running seemed difficult right now, so I felt safer just going along with them. Besides, she seemed nice enough.

“Beauty, please, come drink with us!” the long-haired man had started bothering another passing young woman already. She hurried away.

‘Come to think of it, people talk about my looks before but I never even saw my face yet! So embarrassing.’

“Okay, Mari! I’m Ali. But, tell me what it’s like out there, beyond the city?” I took the opportunity to press for information.

“What? Ali, I took you for a new hunter! Would not believe you’ve not been out yet.”

“Yeah, used to, I ran… errands for other people. I saved them time, I guess,” I managed to say.

“Urgh I guess that’s what we all do in the end, isn’t it? Just run errands for rich people, feels tiresome, you know? Not that I complain!” she proclaimed, having literally just complained, “I feel the wind and sun; I fight battles, improve my cultivation while I’m at it. Might be I’ll even find a lost treasure someday.”

“Mariana! You’re so selfish, keeping the pretty lady to yourself. I’m gonna cry over here!” the first man returned and started making “wu wu wu” noises, but he didn’t actually cry. I couldn’t help but laugh. I’d been so stressed every time I talked to someone the last couple days, but these humans were alright; I started to relax.

"Pretty lady, my name is Mattias, at your pleasure!" He seemed to strain himself with what even I could tell was an exaggerated bow, before smiling hugely.

"Ah, hello Mattias. I'm Ali then," I tried to be friendly too. I thought I should ask for more information from these cultivators.

“What's hunting like then. Is it a good deal?” I wondered aloud. They started chiming in and talking over one another.

“Of course! Each time I slaughter one of them fierce beasts I feel a little more alive,” started a bulky man who resembled a fat bear.

“I’m thinking it’s time to retire. All this slaving away, risking life, and does it even pay?” 

“Yea for sure it does!”

“That was rhetorical!”

“You’d have more money if you didn’t practically live at that brothel.”

“I got needs!”

“Hunting should pay better! Let’s strike.”

“Most important work in Avalon!”

“Haha, us hunters make this colony thrive!”

“Essential! That’s us. Rich pricks can’t even run their mines if the site is overrun by monsters.”

“But we hardly get paid!”

“Stuff and nonsense! We do get paid. You just say whatever you want.”

“Beside, many grasses and monster parts, free to grab as soon as found.”

“Haha, you hardly get paid because you’re trash.”

“I always trade those parts for coins yo! I’m gonna be a wealthy young miss one day. Hahaha, just watch me.”

“No, use them to get strong!”

“Har har, calling yourself young...”

“Mmm, but you get strong by fighting, not with lazy shortcuts like mana grass!”

“I’m still young enough to whip your ass old man!”

I giggled at these silly humans. I couldn’t keep up with what they were saying, but they sure got along, maybe?

‘Oh no, it looks like they started to battle, maybe I should go. Good luck against the big bear man, Mari!’

 

I slipped away before I could get hurt and made my way out of town. I eventually sat against a tree, taking in the view of the vivid countryside and enjoying the breeze.

‘I think Terra could become a pleasant home. But, I’m afraid. I really don’t understand how to go about things, so many people are stronger than me and push me around or take advantage of me, they aren’t loyal, and some people even disliked me right from the beginning. It’s not that I miss Abyss or want to go back there, but it was familiar. I knew my place in everything. Here is just… confusing, unsettling.’

I pondered my options for the future. Outside the city were fields, pastures, and the large farm villages called plantations; as well as mining and logging sites: they all had something in common. I now knew hunters protected them from monsters. I might be able to manage there, but I didn't really now how. I also had an uncomfortable feeling that said hunters might lump me in with their usual prey if they found me eating humans or livestock; I knew better than to expect to win a fight against those cultivators either. Beyond the countryside, lay a dangerous wilderness apparently full of murderous beasts. Not to mention, I rarely practiced living in the waste even in Abyss, so I didn’t think highly of my chances in Terra’s unfamiliar wilds. But, if I stayed in the city, the military police would probably hunt me down sooner or later, so that wasn’t a good route either.

‘There has to be a better idea.’

Then I remembered the ships I saw last night. Ships didn’t just live in a city, they went places. Maybe to places where I wouldn’t be hunted; the wilderness would sound less dangerous; or more people could be trusted.

‘I should check the ships out before it gets dark.’ Who even knew if I could get on one, or if I wanted to go where it was going, but I wanted to learn. I stood up, stretched, and made my way toward the port.

-End of part 1-