The previous night, she carefully combed the forest  trying to find one of her first acquaintances with the help of her previously dormant hex crawlers who were very upset about her swishing and flicking her hair during training sessions. As she couldn’t do much to help, the only thing she could do was apologize and move on.

‘Am I their master or is it the other way around…?’

Reason to meet the spear wielding hunter was a simple one. They  actively hunt game. Meaning they had understanding of how to find and fight them if necessary. And most importantly they would be knowledgeable about the predators’ strengths and weaknesses. In short what she wanted was information, blindly hoping for the best out of any situation was foolhardy optimism. ‘Know yourself and your enemy and you need not to fear the outcome of hundred battles. Or something like that… actually was it thousands?’

The search had a width of over 250 meters. This was achieved through extensive use of Telepathy. While technically telepathy at its current rank could only allow communication over 24 meters Alicia found a simple work around to its limit. Yes, she could’ve used points to improve the maximum distance but her recent spendings made her a bit stingy with the budget.

By maintaining a distance of about 22-23 meters between any two hex crawlers, any findings made by a single crawler could then be conveyed to its neighbour, who would repeat the message to its neighbour and so on until it reached Alicia. By using this metaphorical courier network she could search over vast  areas with little investment of time. Due to the nature of Telepathy the problems of ‘lost in translation’ and ‘misinterpretation’ was not a problem.

Until she happened upon a net that had captured something. With how still the large creature was she thought the ashen gray furred beast had already departed from this world. Until she heard faint whimpering from the trap telling her that there’s life in it. Net that hold the lupine-like creature bore several bite marks and had loosened up in some places, even so it held onto it firmly.

‘I remember these nets, those ‘they’ were using them… Isn’t this that wolf who ran into one of my webs? Think I was testing out imbuing magic to them…’

Without provocation it thrashed and turned inside the net perhaps hoping to get free of the trap before running out of stamina, panting. Initially its actions made Alicia alert. Resting a little it continued to lash out at the net with no avail.

Doing this over and over again until eventually it stopped limp. Inactive lackadaisical spirit of it showed that it had already accepted its fate and given up, this along with some lines of the net had entangled around one of its hind legs so badly that the rubbing of its thrashing caused it to chafe against its fur and skin enough to cause a rope burn to the point of visible redness and at the brink of drawing blood. Loose strands of fur that fell in between holes in the net was left strewn on the ground. Feeling a little sympathetic:

• ‘You have terrible luck with nets and traps don’t you… How did you manage to get into this?’

While close enough to be in arm’s reach of it she was under the influence of Stealth, hidden. Being addressed mentally from out of nowhere it sniffed the air hoping to catch the whiff and through it the identity of the being that called out to it, unable to register anything in spite its sensitive smell and powerful nose caused confusion and fear. Revealing herself abruptly caused the wolf to flinch.

• ‘I do want to help you but… As it is right now you’re likely a food for someone and I don’t want to steal.’

Despite her sudden appearance the wolf wasn’t anxious in the slightest or perhaps it was too tired to do so.

• ‘So here’s my deal, I’ll help you out, in return you help me find something else that will substitute as a food.’

Although telepathy did allow for communication with even beings that are usually unable to do so, clarity of the transmitted intent isn’t great. At most it is mostly composed of generalized feelings and emotions, such as contentment, consent, worry and in this case agreement. Though her own crawlers seem to be an exception to this with them being able to send not just words and meanings but also images and conjectures imagined or recalled from memories through their mind.

‘There’s multiple layers of net… It’s like a yarn maze gone wrong… I don’t have anything sharp right now… My fangs are more suitable for puncturing, not cutting… Second best thing would be…’

⟨Flame⟩

Air just above Alicia’s index finger set aflame with size about that of a lighter’s. Now the wolf was more than apprehensive about letting fire close to it, knowing that it was with the intention to help, it managed to maintain composure somewhat. One by one the wires burnt away, until finally the large twisted mess of wires were completely undone. The moment it realized it was free the wolf bolted away out of sight though not out of Alicia’s field of perception as she could feel the vibrations further than she could see, most effective in this forest where foliage limits longer sightlines. Though behind cover it was this cautiously watching Alicia.Laying down some distance away from her it licked its leg. Already wounded from the rope burn, because of its intense movements it had started to bleed. 

• ‘That injured leg isn’t going to let you run very far, you know? Let me help you with that.’

Not knowing whether or not to run or stand it ground it laid where it was. Its tapetum behind the eyes reflected what little light there was making it stand out in the dark as dots. While in its internal conflict Alicia already caught up to it. Holding out her hand to let it sniff and get acquainted.

• ‘It hurts to move doesn’t it? Let me try something but I’ll have to bite you… It’ll only hurt a little at first. Brace yourself now… I’ll count to five.’

⟨Venom Fang⟩

Still in her elven form one of her canines elongated, enough not to fit in her mouth anymore.

• ‘One… two…-’

Suddenly the porcelain white teeth with needle-like slimness sunk into the flesh right above the bleeding injury. Wincing from the abrupt pain and intrusion upon its flesh brought about yowl from the creature.

• ‘It hurts more when you’re expecting it. Don’t worry it’ll pass soon.’

⟨Venom Fang⟩

↳ ‹ Neuro-Toxic ›

Injecting a small dose of the paralysing venom diluted with harmless saliva numbing the pain but not completely immobilizing the limb. The thought of using this method on the elves did cross her mind but she was anxious about the dose. It was her first attempt at using this procedure. Fortunately it seemed she was successful on her first try judging by how calm the ‘patient’ was.

⟨Weaver⟩

With plenty of preceding experience she quickly made a dressing and wrapped it up.

• ‘Try to stand up.’

Albeit doubtful it complied. Surprised by the stinging pain being replaced by cool numbness it was sniffing at the foreign substance stuck to its leg. Circling in place standing upright truly showed how big the wolf was by its height alone it was just barely a head shorter than Alicia’s elven form.¹ For reference Alicia’s elven form is about 168cms tall (5’5). Real life dire wolves were about a meter tall.

• ‘Now, that you’re free time to hold up your end of the bargain.’

• ‘……… ……!’

Starving from being stuck in a net for a long time it was eager to go out on a hunt. As she only burnt a few of the wires to free it, by reinforcing the remaining net with her own silk, repairing into serviceable state.

• ‘Bring whatever you can catch in this net…’

• ‘…… ….’

Led by whips of hunger and a weight of debt, it gladly went off. That was how the two met and parted.

The following morning after she received her new sword from the smith…

• “How did it come to this…”

Dead animals, more than half of which she can’t even name, piled on the net she designated soaked in blood every one of them with wounds on their neck with evidently crushed larynx. The main perpetrator proudly sitting next to it, its tail gently wagging side to side next to it. 

• ‘…… … …… …… ….’

• ‘That… makes sense… I should’ve thought about that.’

Simply put, the scent of stacked up bloody piles of corpses is sure to attract  hungry beasts looking for an easy meal. The wolf protecting this ‘stash’ of food from the scavengers invariably led to either the offender leaving or die trying to drive off the wolf. Those who died were added to the pile. After all why not add a perfectly good, fresh kill to the notch? In just over a night this led to a pile of fresh carcasses.

• ‘Are you hungry?’

• ‘… …….’

• ‘Peckish, then you can have some.’

• ‘……………….’

• ‘No, just leave that huge elk looking thing at the bottom and  few of those hares….’

• ‘… … …… … …?’

• ‘No thanks I’m not eating them raw.’

‘I don’t think some of them are even edible……by my standards anyway. Alice might try to eat it. No she definitely would try to eat it.’

…

..

.

..

…

‘Peckish… was that a joke or…’

In no time at all, all but the one she told not to eat was reduced to nothing but bones. While being exasperated at its penchant for eating she was alerted to the approach of something through ⟨ Pallesthesia ⟩ taking a quick glance at the sun:

‘Forenoon. It should be one of them coming to see if there’s something in their net.’

• ‘You can go now… 

• ‘…… ….’

• Don’t want to? Well, then, hide somewhere, people are coming!’

As per her instruction the wolf went away dragging a half eaten… something leaving an obvious trail on the ground. ‘These bones are definitely not good for presentation…’ Swiftly gathering all the remains on a separate net Alicia quickly enveloped it in a silken mesh and carried it out of sight. Returning to the where the net originally was she made it entangle the remains in the most natural way possible at least from her point of view. ‘Wait! Why would something dead be caught in a net? I forgot to tell them that I needed them alive! Those bite marks aren’t very convincing of them dying of natural causes either.’

• ‘I need something alive quick!’

• ‘…!’

However she forgot to share her plan with the one she was sending off. By placing a one alive animal in, she was hoping to fix the issue by making it seem like there was a fight and only one of them survived in a strange cage fight scenario, perhaps this plan would’ve worked if not for…-

Making a separate net just to restrain the newcomer. Growling and snarling wolf came back, harrying something back to her. Beating of wings and low pitched distinct vocalizations the wolf’s prey hinted at it being a bird of sorts.

‘A swan? That’s going to be a hard sell…’
When it came into sight:

-… the winner of the imagined cage fight; was a grouse.

The clamoring cries of it caught the attention of her guests. Their far off voices being heard.

• “This be the way, hurry now!”

Despite cringing at the results as she was hard pressed for time, Alicia simply closed her eyes and dumped it into the net. ‘Hares whatever… but elk?!’

• ‘Go hide!’

It was hard to convince someone that a common grouse could defeat a huge elk many multitude times its size in a fight.

Some ways off, hidden from the group of dubbed “blueskins”. Unfortunately one she wanted to meet with wasn’t among them. Understandable as he probably wasn’t the only one who operated in the area.

• ‘What kind of clown show did we just orchestrate…’

Alicia was sullenly watching them investigate their catch, her bestial companion next to her licking her fingers.

• ‘Are you trying to console me? Thanks I guess…

• ‘…… …….’

• It’ll turn out fine? I hope so…’

Strange oversized masks, long tusks and the signature spears of bone, there was no mistake about them even if they covered themselves in mud.

• “Look! Hultaya!”

‘That seems to be the elk…’

• “Call ulhamir!”
• “See, there be a Çerbanogs too.”

‘The hares…?’

• “Why there be a grassbird?”

‘And that would be the grouse…’

She was planning to follow them back to find their tribal village. So she could meet the one she wanted. Luckily this proved unnecessary as the anomalous ‘capture’ of chaotic gathering of ‘food’ warranted the need of a leader figure to sort through the situation… That person happened to be just the person she was looking for…

Auratic

I know I know, rather uneventful chapter compared to what's been happening lately. But this is better for me from a narrative perspective. Weeks ago I made a dumb hAIR joke. This week I present you:

Spoiler

The elemental shitters:

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Anyway as for this week's trivia, Lucidum tapetum referred in this chapter is a layer of tissue in the eyes of animals. This acts as a sort of reflector mirror that gathers and refracts light back into the retina allowing for a better nightvision by granting the light a second chance to be perceived by the photoreceptors. The reflected light is then visible in the dark which is why predators nocturnal hunters like wolves, cats and deep sea fish have them. Of course spiders included e.g Lycosidae, Salticidae and so on. Oh and since someone wanted to be scared by spider image here's one.

• Deinopidae (Ogre face spider/Net casting spider)