Looking at yet another dead body, I felt nothing. 

 

I wasn't disgusted by it. I wasn't confused, or scared, or shocked, or even moved. I certainly wasn’t pleased, either. It was almost like my mind finally gave up on trying to process all the stimuli those two short, yet incredibly violent, days had given me, and instead of the plethora of varying emotions I experienced many times before, my brain settled on dull nothingness as the only response.

 

I had been surprised, or perhaps even annoyed, when Tama informed me that our human prisoners killed one of their own, but even that sensation had entirely faded away by now. At that moment, I couldn’t bring myself to care about the death, though a nagging conscience, pulsing somewhere at the back of my brain, suggested I should. 

 

“What happened?” I asked.

 

The boy’s corpse looked badly battered, covered with welts and bruises from far too many hits everywhere, on his face, on his limbs and torso. His neck was also bent in an odd direction, obviously broken, which probably was what had ended his life after all the suffering he endured from the heavy beating.

 

It wasn’t pretty.

 

However, it still didn’t spark the reaction I rationally expected it to trigger. If anything, my treacherous thoughts suggested he deserved that for kicking my beautiful ‘Purifier’ in the teeth. 

 

“Other humans kicked him to death after we left them with only their hands tied.” Narita informed me. 

 

I nodded. 

 

It made sense. At least his wounds matched the description. The motive, however, wasn't that easy to guess. Honestly, I couldn’t fathom what could be a reason for such a violent attack. The locals had been hostile to us without exception, and I doubted they would flip and suddenly punish said behaviour by death. 

 

What's worse, I didn’t have any motivation to investigate, to get on the top of this at all, at least not at this very moment. I doubted I could, considering the language barrier.

 

In fact, I wasn't in the mood for interacting with natives at all, let alone attempting to learn their native tongue, then try to figure out the cultural pressures that led them to murder. 

 

I was more exhausted than anything. Mentally, not physically, as Narita’s life transference left me with some energy to spare. 

 

It was strange how I felt more at ease with the horde of furry monsters at this very minute than with even the prospect of human interaction. It was as strange as it was scary. I scratched the little ‘Purifier’ that was still clinging to me - one of my dedicated protectors - and told her: “You did nothing wrong.” 

 

Then I looked around at my assembled monsters, a large and ever present crowd, with the four, larger ‘Alphas’ standing closest.

 

“Miwah, Tama, we are releasing the prisoners.” I said, “We keep only that one better dressed guy who looks like a merchant. Rest will go. We couldn’t take care of them.”

 

“Yes, Master.” They confirmed, and their respective smaller variants burst into action, dragging the captured caravaneers out of the hut I had them locked in. Or rather stashed, as a barely standing abode with the dilapidated thatched roof wasn’t really a prison. It would barely be a shelter in the bad weather, and served as the practical reminder of how poorly equipped we were for keeping prisoners.

 

Humans struggled, some tried to scream at me through the gags, but it was to no avail. There were more of my monsters than there were of them. At least, for the time being. 

 

I didn’t doubt that at least Tama would like to burn the humans down along with the house, but despite everything, I still didn’t wish for any killing if I could help it. 

 

“Keep their hands tied. If they can kick, they can walk.” I waved my hand dismissively. “Don’t kill them, just hush them away.” 

 

At the edge of our current camp, my monsters were pushing the now released captives away on the road. This, without a doubt, confused the humans.

 

“Get out of my sight, humans.” I boomed, though they likely didn’t understand a word. 

 

It took a fire blast from one of the ‘Purifiers’, but humans took the hint and scuffled away, with their hands still tied, and into the forest.

 

“Humans make my skin crawl,” Mai shuddered. She adjusted her improvised clothing scavenged from the caravan contents, or what spares the human travellers had possessed. Her being the most outspoken about their misanthropy had yet to show any signs of change.

 

It sounded fairly strange from the anthropomorphic reptile, but I felt I was getting used to it, though there was this lingering question about why my monsters didn’t seem to acknowledge my own humanity. It almost made me look for the mirror, which I didn’t have.

 

“They will hopefully leave us alone now.” I answered. 

 

Which was true. I wished they would leave us alone, at least for the time being, at least until I would be able to truly figure out the communication angle, but I found that unlikely. Once the released prisoners reached their peers back in civilization, it was bound to spark a reaction, and I doubted it would be in our favour. 

 

“Could you get rid of the body?” I pointed out at the dead boy’s corpse, a reminder of this prisoner fiasco. 

 

“Yes, Master.” She answered, and monsters got into work on that as well. There wasn’t any need to burn, or attempt to sterilise it further with the ‘Defilers’ powers. The new lizard-like followers were equipped with abilities almost as extreme, albeit working somewhat in reverse, causing the chaotic and spontaneous growth in plants. 

 

I had seen the plants swallowing bodies, driving the surrounding greenery far beyond natural limits, to the point they quickly dissolved the dead to find the amount of nutrients. 

 

They touched only a couple of trees at the edge of this massive forest, but the influence they had on the vegetation was already noticeable, birthing even more outlandish changes in it. Odd shapes, the traits of gigantism, or entirely different alien mutations were a far from rare sight in the nearby plants. 

 

I watched it in silence while the four of my ‘Alphas’ stood at my side, along with my token ‘Purifier’ still enjoying the closeness under my arm. Overlooking the frantic activity of their smaller kin as they once again tried to set us in, doing various tasks required to make this a viable living spot. 

 

Boosted the ‘Defilers’ powers, they were all like little bundles of energy, dead animals were brought in, fires were lit. I even noticed them trying to chip stones to create stone axes that could help them fell the trees we would likely need as material to make shelters.

 

There were so many of us now. 

 

My goal, however, remained out of my reach, as I still didn’t have the slightest idea how to return home or stop the inevitable cycle of violence, as more humans would find out about our presence and possibly attack us. There simply wasn’t any charm in staying here.

 

Time wasn’t on our side in this.

 

Longer we lingered, the more helpless the situation would become. 

 

Tama and Miwah stepped even closer to me, my werewolf hugging me protectively from behind. I welcomed the warmth she provided. I was no longer scared of her deadly claws, or strength; in fact I was getting so comfortable with my monsters it terrified me.   

 

They didn’t mind me going silent, either. 

 

A bunch of ‘Eviscerators’ dragging in downed deer interrupted my wordless contemplation.

 

“Should we keep hunting?” I asked. 

 

I assumed my monsters preferred to eat actual food over simply having their bodies continuously infused with the energy through abuse of life-drain.

 

“We should be fine for a few days either way.” Miwah answered, most qualified in that regard as her ‘Eviscerators’ were natural hunters, “We can make some meat last. The humans had a few baskets of salt there.”

 

“Won’t excess salt make you feel sick?” I asked, touching Miwah's snout affectionately, as she had her head nearly at my shoulder. 

 

“I can eat the same things you can, Master.” She confirmed. 

 

“Even chocolate?” 

 

“I prefer meat, Master.” She purred. Even if they weren’t predominantly carnivores, it made sense that their teeth fared better with that diet.

 

As impressive as the interaction between the growth and drain power was, I didn’t consider it a truly permanent solution to our food problems. I was determined that my monsters wouldn’t go hungry. 

 

I didn’t spend that much time in this accursed world, but my protectors, and only companions, were important to me.

 

Death was ever close in these lands.

 

Without thinking, I turned towards Miwah, caressed her soft fur, and looked up into her light blue eyes. She didn't mind, and if anything, she welcomed it almost expectantly. I leaned forward…

 

…realised what I was doing, and pulled back. Miwah was, despite being undeniably feminine in both shape and features, still a large, furry monster looming over me, which was something I never actually imagined I would ever get close to, let alone want to kiss. 

 

Miwah was my werewolf. They were all my monsters. We were tied together. Be it though partially formed by experiences of this accursed world, or by nebulous powers that called them to me, we were connected. 

 

There was just a direct contradiction between the rapidly growing sympathy towards my monstrous followers and my desire to return home, leaving this all behind. There couldn’t be both, one of those had to be wrong. Problem was, I didn’t know which. 

 

I tried to push it aside, in favour of the more practical problems, at least for the time being.

 

“Sorry!” I stepped back and freed myself from the entanglement of my affectionate monsters. 

 

“I am always there for you, Master.” Miwah said patiently, while Tama simply smirked in her typical vulpine grin, acting in the teasing way as always. “I wasn’t that jealous, Master.” 

 

“No humans were looking, Master.” Mai remarked, looking rather confused, or even disappointed. She was rather expressive, especially considering she was essentially a humanoid lizard, a species considered cold and emotionless. 

 

Only Narita said nothing, though not even she looked like she would mind. As far as they were concerned, acting affectionately towards each other was normal behaviour, as I found out many times before. 

 

Even the crowd of their smaller variants looked at me expectedly, taking a brief pause from whatever they were doing at the moment. 

 

“I’ll leave that for later.” I answered, in at least a semi-truthful matter. I would indeed leave it for the time when I figured out how to deal with my precarious situation involving being trapped in another world. I just didn’t have a clue when, or if, that would be.

 

“Could you please make sure we are not jumped by random humans in the middle of the night?” I asked.

 

“For Master!” The crown of lesser monsters answered and went after their previous business.

 

To bring myself to different thoughts that didn’t involve my personal feelings towards my furry companions, I headed towards the overturned merchant’s wagon, still left in the middle of the road after the axle broke and the drag animal died.

 

It was strange. 

 

While this hut on wheels was odd‌ alone in itself, at least appearance wise, I found it quite a fitting vehicle for the lone peddler travelling the land in what would essentially be a historical equivalent of the mobile home. 

 

Except, they were too big of a group for that. It was a fairly random collection of people to be a frequented caravan, not to mention having this extremely dangerous individual to guard them. Though salt used to be very expensive in ancient times, and a person capable of mowing down dozens of my precious monsters was likely worth his salt in quite a literal way, it just didn’t fit. Between the merchant's wagon and two hand-pulled carts, they couldn’t carry that many of the valuable items on them.

 

“Something doesn’t add up here.” I mumbled to myself, “Did you check what this caravan really carried?”

 

“Yes, there was some food, clothes, pots, and other general use items.” Tama took her turn to answer.

 

“So, what was expensive about their cargo?” I had to ask aloud. 

 

I walked around it, inspecting it. My monsters picked through a lot of its contents, haphazardly rearranging them once I decided for us to stay around, but nothing I saw provided any meaningful answers. And perhaps there were none to be found - perhaps, I realised, they were pilgrims, heading towards a place of worship. There was a shrine nearby, after all. Which, sadly, also meant that they wouldn’t stop trying to drive us away. 

 

I sighed. 

 

“Bring me the prisoner.” I commanded. Although it was a very thing I didn’t want to deal with just a mere minute ago, it was better than trying to work out my own complicated feelings about liking my anthropomorphic hordes a little too much . 

 

“Yes, Master.” 

 

They didn’t hesitate to carry out my command and merely moments after the merchant was brought in front of me. He was a chubby man with Asian features, complete with this almost straight moustache extending from under the nose past the corners of his mouth, completing the image of an almost stereotypical villain from B-grade movies. He, however, didn’t have the attitude of one, as far I could tell.

 

He was terrified, his gaze nervously jumping from monster to monster as they brought him to heel. 

 

My overprotective monsters weren’t giving anything to chance this time, leaving his hands tied behind his back, with Miwah and Tama ready to attack immediately at the slightest provocation, while Narita pointed her polearm to the man’s neck and Mai used her power to squeeze the vines used as bindings even tighter. 

 

I took no pleasure in this. 

 

This man, unlike the many, many before him, didn’t look as hostile as the others had been so far, giving me a certain hope that I would be ‌ able to, finally, get somewhere with my thus far futile attempts at communication.

 

Making sure I have the man’s attention, I put my palm on my chest. 

 

It was my first step, my introduction, my attempt at peace, and it would begin with stating my name. 

 

I was still surprised by my own words, as after all those failed attempts to speak with the easy to provoke natives, it wasn’t my name that came out: 

 

“I am the Master.”