Back at the Crater/Encounter!

I was unsure if I should go back to my crater or continue moving forward. I’ve never been super adventurous so I chose to go back to my home base.

It was a little nerve wracking going back by myself but for some reason or another monster and animals alike seemed to keep their distance from me, so the way back was uneventful.

When the waterfall was back in sight I leapt straight off the edge of the fishbowl. I was sure that I could have made the jump normally, as a cow I mean, yet I wasn’t able to get all the way into the water. I slid on some rocks and skinned my legs a bit.

Dropping into the lake, I was awash with warmth. It was almost like I suddenly threw a blanket on. Not just a blanket but a heated blanket when compared to the chill inducing air. The water felt so natural. Perhaps the eel was actually not a natural sky fish but was just in the air temporarily.

There were so many things I wanted to test and test them I would. It was important to know all my new capabilities before continuing. I started with diving under the water. It took some courage but once my lungs were about to burst I inhaled the water and…was able to breath it in.

I continued swimming around for a bit. Eventually I did start to get dizzy and had to resurface. I concluded that I could stay submerged under water for about 12 minutes before I needed fresh air. My swimming speed had also improved somewhat.

I finally forced myself to get out of the water to run some tests on land.

I punched and kicked some trees and ran around the edges of the crater. My strength was at about half of what it was as a cow, so probably closer to that of a human and my stamina was lower. I then took some branches into the water with me to see if there was an increase in my strength. There was not.

After some more durability and strength testing I finally settled down in front of a campfire. My skin felt itchy from the heat. This would get annoying after a while. I remembered how when I focused hard enough I’d managed to become human-ish again.

Cow. I want to be a cow again. Cow. Cow. Ears, horns, tough skin. Moo? I closed my eyes and willed out my inner cow. There was a prickling sensation and my hearing suddenly went back to normal. I was relieved at the sight of my pale skin and large hands, I’d gotten really used to it.

I’d need to practice going back and forth. The next thing would be to figure out what the requirements for assimilation were. The first one was probably that the thing had to be dead. I’d need to figure out the rest tomorrow. It had been a really long day and I was ready to rest.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The actual first thing I needed was to figure out how to hunt down animal before they could run away. Up till now they’d been able to sense me coming and been able to keep out of sprinting range, luckily my new eel form offered a convenient-ish solution.

I willed myself to become an eel and slowly lifted off the ground. I thought I heard an animal about 20 meters out so I turned my body in their general direction and sped forward into the sky. My eyes were a little askew in this form so it was hard to see directly in front of me. I kept having to turn my head to check if I was still on course and tilt my head down to watch for my prey.

I spotted a Poison Deer galloping through the wood and dove to meet it. Moment of truth. I willed myself back to cow and came crashing down on top of the Deer. I felt it’s back break and organs rupture under the force of my feet.

I checked to make sure it was dead. Yep. I took a look at the dead deer to discover it was a bit different than the previous one. This one’s fur was closer to grey, it’s coat was long and shaggy, it had gold teeth and and massive golden antlers. It was also twice the size of the Poison Deer. It has only looked small because I’d been in the air, but up close this thing was even bigger than Barry (who was roughly 1.2 meters tall), this thing was probably over twice his size (around 2.6 meters tall and about as long from snout to tail). This one also reminded me of a Buck crossed with a Komondor. I was very dog brained despite being a cow and not liking dogs.

This clearly wasn’t a Poison Deer. It may have been a related species, but this was clearly not the same. I placed my hand over the carcass and a golden light enveloped it’s crushed figure.

I was now standing a bit taller than I had been, I also no longer felt the cold at all. I also noted that my vision was much fuzzier than it had been yet the forest somehow seemed more vibrant. I looked around, a leaf fell, a bird flew over head, a small snake slithered across the ground. I was suddenly picking up on every movement. A breeze tickled my fur.

I let out a yell that sounded like a brass instrument and kicked off the grounds. I went a little too fast and tripped over my back feet bringing me to the ground.

It took a little while before I figured out how to get up again. This body was not quite as big as the eel but it was much much heavier.

It took some time and a lot of coordination but I finally managed to trot around at a decent pace. I slowed down and reverted back to my cow form.

This confirmed that the animal had to be dead, the other factors were still unclear. I needed to sample more monster and animals. The assimilation had worked on the Buckomondor and Flying Eel but not the Poison Deer.

Over the next few hours I went around the perimeter of my home-sweet-crater killing various animals. I, unfortunately, wasn’t lucky enough to run into what I would categorize as a monster again. I found Flying Squirrels, small and medium snakes, some four winged birds, and a big spider. Nothing large or strange enough to qualify as a “monster.” And none of them assimilated. That led me to conclude that the life form had to be a “monster” in order to be assimilated. That still didn’t explain why the Poison Deer didn’t count. Perhaps it was a normal animal, native to this planet.

I called it a day and returned to Crater.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Was today the 7th or 8th day of my new life, I hadn’t really been counting. Some things don’t change. I rarely knew what day it was in my old life either. Once I was done with school I didn’t feel the need to keep track anymore. My job was transient to say the least. You could say I was a gig worker of sorts. It was fun but I would work really inconsistent, strange hours. Because of my inheritance I only needed to enough to pay my student loans, everything outside of that was taken care of. Basically, the day didn’t matter so much, I was either working or not working and that was the only thing I needed to keep track of. And then I got old and you know the rest.

Today, I was going to try to find some monsters like the Poison Deer or Flying Eel. I’d been really lucky with my encounter rate thus far, so It was fairly likely I’d run into one.

I morphed into Eel and took to the sky. It was a cloudy day, it looked like it might storm so I was going to make this a quick trip. The plan was to fly to the Charred Forest and back. The trip had taken about 4 hours on foot but I could now get there in a little under 1.

Things were progressing at leisurely pace when suddenly it happened.

I suddenly felt a sharp wave of pain in my stomach. I stopped in mid-air and looked around. Rain began to pour from a black cloud up ahead. It sounded like I was back under my waterfall. Looking around, the path head above and below seemed clear of enemies aside from the ominous black cloud.

I decided it would be best to go as far around it as possible. I swam right. There were some mountains that way. I could set myself down, morph into Buckomondor and gallop for the last 15 kilometers. It would add another 30-40 minutes onto my journey but I felt danger coming from up ahead. I wanted to protect this life and this body and exposing it needless danger was the exact opposite.

I kept flying toward the mountains yet I could still feel my stomach tightening. A crash of thunder startled me. I looked back to find the cloud somehow following behind me. This was not a natural phenomenon. Could it be a monster? Was the monster the cloud itself or was it hiding inside it?

It was time to square up. First I needed to figure out what I was facing. It wasn’t a smart choice to antagonize it but if it could attack without leaving the cloud then it would do so. I needed to draw it out or find a way to distract it and fly in close. There was no obvious place to hide and It most likely wouldn’t let me land without a fight. Plus I really wanted to know what kind of monster I was facing.

I hard pivoted and accelerated toward the looming cloud. A blast of light narrowly missed clipping my starboard side.

I dropped below the close and shot up, fighting against the rain which only seemed to be coming down harder as I approached. I broke into the clouds, “Hello, boys, I’m baaaaack!” I wanted to yell without any warning which would have been a huge non sequitur.

I launched a bolt of lightning which clashed with an opposing golden beam and exploded, blasting me backward. As a I spun out of control, I launched another lightning blast. At the same time something dove at me. I felt a burning pain across my left side then a blast of wind knocked my out of the cloud. During this entire encounter all I could make out was a blur of light.

I tumbled into the pouring rain unable to right myself. Black spots took over my visions and I began to lose consciousness. Perhaps, I overestimated my abilities and bit off more than I could chew. I let my curiosity overshadow my common sense and this was the consequence. I reflected while my wings flapped uselessly and I fell like Icarus to the unforgiving ground.