Niphru awoke from his fitful sleep to another burning sensation, realizing he had forgotten to expel excess mana when he made it back.  He quickly focused again on being able to safely store more mana, feeling the burning fade as all excess mana shifted towards his mana stone he was carrying.  As the mana stone grew, he could feel his thoughts slow and memories become foggy again.

Clearly he couldn’t afford to forget again like this, but hopefully this would allow him much more leeway with where he went.  Before he could forget again, he created dozens of mana tendrils and broke them off at the base, draining his mana to almost nothing, though this left him feeling exhausted and sick.  Apparently draining all his mana was also a problem.

Regardless, Niphru now felt a bit better, and decided to try exploring further down the trail tonight, as it seemed all the animals avoided it as much as possible, so it ought to be relatively safe.  Exiting his burrow, he kept the illusion over himself and began down the barren path.  He could see more and more of the odd floating trees over the canopy the further he traveled.

At one point, he saw a tree hanging at an odd angle with only one vine holding it in place.  As he watched the vine went slack as something severed it, sending the tree sailing up into the sky.  He knew he ought to feel scared of whatever did it, but he could only feel curiosity for some reason, advancing faster in hopes of seeing what had happened.

A moment later, the forest shook as an immense boom echoed from ahead, the force throwing him off his feet.  He scrambled back to his feet and looked around, finding nothing out of the ordinary nearby—at least ordinary for the madness of the forest.  He continued his travel into the forest, feeling the mana becoming significantly denser as he did so.

Shortly afterward, he ran across what he thought had made the noise, an utterly massive shell blocking his path and a significant distance to either side as well.  Huge limbs stuck out at the edges, barely visible through the forest, laying limp beside the shell.  Looking closer, it appeared the shell had come down on several trees, judging by the huge amount of splintered wood scattered around it.

As he carefully circled around it, he saw one of the limbs twitch, showing that the creature was still alive, and heard a loud snap from the direction he was heading.  Looking more carefully through the woods, he saw an immense turtle head slowly stretching forward towards the remains of a vine on the ground.

He got closer to observe, seeing the gargantuan turtle snap up another chunk of vine.  As he did however, the turtle’s eye turned to stare straight at him.  Fortunately, it appeared to have no interest, as it merely blinked before turning back towards the vine.  Relieved at being ignored, he quickly left before it could potentially change its mind.

With his mana getting too full again, he expelled a significant chunk via cutting off mana tendrils as he had before.  This time he was careful not to do too many, avoiding ending up tired or feeling sick.

Deciding to stay in his den the rest of the night, he headed back down the trail.  Nothing bothered him along the way, though he did hear things moving around nearby.  He also spotted an odd deer with moss growing from its skin, and green liquid dripping from its antlers, though it stayed far away and ignored him.

Arriving back at the burrow, he curled up to sleep.  Considering what Amilya had told him, the Church of Conflict’s warriors would likely arrive tomorrow and spend the day in the village, then begin hunting in the forest, so he should have another day of safety from them.

Niphru awoke again in the morning and returned his illusion back into foxfire form as he left the den.  If the warriors were going to hunt in the forest, there was a good chance such a unique feature as the barren trail he was currently staying at would be followed.  Due to this reasoning, he decided to try to produce another den in the forest itself today.

Having learned his lesson from before, he made sure to expel most of his mana again before leaving.  While doing so, he tried forcing concepts into the mana to see if he could figure out casting spells, but that did not work.  Undeterred, he planned to try again next time.

He headed back down the trail a while before turning into the forest to the right.  Thinking back to before, the wolves had been able to track him by scent, so he rolled around on the forest floor for a few moments, trying to cover up his smell with that of the forest.  To help prevent ambushes even more, he also expanded his mana out into a large sphere again so he could feel life around himself.  As he did so, he noticed something alive on a tree nearby that he had not seen.

Tapping the being with a mana-link, he saw a blur fall off of the tree.  As he watched, the brown color shifted to match that of the forest floor and it vanished again.  By spinning his foxfire around it, he was able to make out that it was a lizard, going by the shape of the shadows.  Since he wasn’t hungry, he took back his foxfire and continued on, letting the lizard get back to its life.

A few times during his journey into the forest, he was startled by the odd birds, but none of them tried to attack him.  Aside from that, it was much more peaceful than yesterday.  After about an hour of travel, he found a place near a fallen tree and began digging his new den.  As he dug, he spread his illusion over himself and the burrow, hiding what he was doing in case anything happened to come by.

As he finished the chamber he would sleep in, he heard howling in the distance.  Fortunately, this time it sounded like it was far away.  Additionally, all the replying howls seemed as if they were a fair distance away as well.  He wondered for a moment what they were hunting, glad it wasn’t him this time.

Having completed his new den, he headed outside, keeping his illusion up, and began looking for something to eat.  Pausing, he noticed his mana was getting close to the limit, so he expelled some more, trying again to push concepts into the tendrils he was cutting off, though again he failed at making any effects occur.

After a while of searching, he came across a strange creature eating berries from a bush.  It seemed as if it may have started out as a rabbit, but now it barely resembled such a creature.  It stood on two legs, supported by half a dozen tentacles emerging from its back.  Viciously sharp teeth shredded the bush more than anything else, and a ring of eyes blinked in unison as they gazed in every direction at once.  It had stunted ears, and the nose seemed to have sealed over at some point, however.

Taking in the features of the beast, Niphru decided that perhaps it was best to just stay hidden in his illusion and wait for it to leave.  Fortunately, it seemed to have eaten a fair bit, as it only remained a few more moments before leaving with an odd wobbling gait.

He moved forward towards the remains of the berry bush after the creature had left, sniffing carefully.  The berries that remained had a nearly irresistible smell to them, and he quickly snatched one up, chewing on it for a second before the juices burst into his mouth.  Even Amilya’s meals were nothing compared to the taste of this berry.  He savored the taste, grabbing another single berry when he finished to try to make them last as long as possible.

After about an hour, and several handfuls of berries, he finally felt full, and regretfully left the bush behind, returning to his den.  Along the way, he saw a bird fall from the sky, slamming into the ground with enough force it embedded halfway into the forest floor.  Following behind it at a much more sedate pace was a smaller bird covered in spines, which landed nearby and began pecking at the body.

Arriving back at his den, he entered it only to be shocked to find a number of roots had grown through it and were squirming around like worms.  Shifting his illusion back into foxfire, he sent it in to burn the roots away, finding they actually pulled back into the soil as they ignited.

He was quite wary of the possibility of them returning, but he was too tired to try to dig another burrow and hope it wouldn’t happen again.  He curled up into a ball and set his foxfire spinning around himself with hopes it would burn anything that showed up while he was sleeping for the day.