All I left of the troll was the hardest of its bones. I regretted being unable to finish eating the other, but it was now buried in the rubble of the collapsed lair, and would be worthless to me by the time I could dig it out.

As I continued to ascend higher into the mountains, I was made to realize that I was aiming too high too fast. Much like the trolls were far stronger than anything else in my forest, the beasts dwelling higher up the mountain slopes were far stronger than anything else I had encountered yet. Only, the gap in power between myself and them was more akin to the difference between a lesser slime and a troll. I watched them from afar, and I was filled with anxiety and fear at their displays of power.

I first came to these realizations when I spied on a clash between a great, shaggy bear with reddish fur, at least twice the size of a dire bear, and a gorilla that was about half its size and covered with white fur. They roared and postured at each other, and stamped the ground. I could feel the tremors even from over a hundred yards away. The way their magic auras flared up made me shiver at the thought of drawing the attention of either one.

As I watched, the air around the red bear began to shimmer, and the leaves and needles of the trees nearby began to curl and blacken. Meanwhile, around the ape, frost seemed to creep out across the ground and toward its opponent.

They charged at each other and exchanged several blows before breaking off. Each time they made contact, a flash of steam was emitted. My eyes could barely track their movements as they struck at each other. After the third such exchange, the ape backed off, with red crystals of frozen blood matting its singed fur, and loped away from the encounter while the bear roared in triumph.

Oh, how I would love to eat them both. However, even with every conceivable advantage, I was certain that I would die if I attempted it.

I stayed for a few days, and picked out other powerful beasts to spy on from afar, but I dared not tread further into their territory. Watching them reinforced my natural desires. I would grow stronger, then I would come back here and devour them all.

I retreated back down the mountain, and pondered how I could possibly attain such levels of power. The way their auras moved, it was like a crude version of what the furred human had done, but with vastly more power behind it.

Perhaps I could learn to do the same. Maybe I could coerce one of the humans to teach me how they do it.

One high note of my return trip was that I found another wyvern. I tracked it to its lair and ambushed it in the night while it slept. Its meat was every bit as delicious as the first one. My mind even became slightly sharper as a result, although my form didn’t change.

I continued to improve at flying, and I would practice hunting lesser prey by swooping down and snatching them up. I also practiced with my wyvern tail, striking carefully so no more than one or two quills would embed in the target. For most creatures, this was more than enough to completely paralyze them and in some cases kill them outright. The only exception was a unicorn I had come across.

I swooped down and lashed at it with my tail, embedding two quills in its flank as I passed by. To my surprise, it bolted away from me, seemingly unaffected by the fast acting toxin. I gave chase and tackled the creature to the ground, rapidly transforming back to my normal form as it struggled to get up. Curious about the seeming immunity to the wyvern venom, I broke its legs to immobilize it, then bit and pumped a sizable dose of the venom from my fangs before I stepped back to watch. Once more, I was surprised to find out it seemed completely unaffected. I deduced that it must have a high degree of innate resistance or possibly even immunity to toxins. Satisfied with this conclusion, I snapped its neck, ending its struggles, and consumed it. Such a trait could prove useful.

Upon my return to the forest, I took some time to find a suitable lair for myself. I found a nice cave near the top of a ridge at the northern end of the forest. Running off the previous tenant, a large chimera that looked like a cross between a bear and a giant spider, was a bit nostalgic for me.

Once I was comfortably settled in, I once more resumed my routine of watching the humans. It did not take me long to locate the group with the furred human. They were following a game trail deep into the forest, near a lesser chimera’s territory. Now that I thought about it as I quickly assessed them, applying some of the memories that weren’t really mine, their party seemed a bit unbalanced. They had three frontline fighters, a ranged damage dealer, and a mage whose specialization I couldn’t determine. I wondered if there was any type of healing specialized humans that they could recruit. That would certainly help round them out.

I saw the archer and the furred mage stiffen up as my gaze settled on them. Ah, they must be able to sense my presence. I reined my aura in a bit, but not all the way. It amused me to let them know I was watching. As they began to talk amongst each other, I listened closely to the sounds, trying to memorize the context in which each was used.

I’d had a lot of time to think about it as I returned from the mountains. If I wanted to learn from one of these creatures how to control my magic aura, then I would need to be able to communicate with them. So I’d just have to observe them until I was confident I could communicate sufficiently for the task.

The little group seemed unnerved by my presence, as they turned and headed back to the nest outside the forest. Once they had left the forest, I concealed my presence fully, and began to watch the other humans that were present in my forest, mostly paying attention to those that were with others. The other humans were not nearly as entertaining, except for one group I chanced upon. They had set up their own little nest, no, camp, within the forest. While they hunted the beasts, they also seemed to stalk the other humans and observe them. While they were away from their camp, I snuck in and investigated, sniffing around. There were maybe a dozen humans of various types that frequented this place. There were pelts and bones and preserved parts from various forest beasts. There was also significantly more equipment than they could use.

More sets of fake carapace… armor? Yes, that’s the word. More sets of armor than people, and those extra sets seemed damaged and smelled of human blood, and not from the members of the camp. They must be collecting it from the other hunters who fall in this forest.

My curiosity sated, I departed from the camp, and decided to try investigating the big nest outside the forest. Ah, fortress! That’s what it’s called, a fortress. I stalked various groups of humans and listened to their odd burbling language until dusk.

Once the sun had set and most of the humans had vacated the forest, I prepared to infiltrate the fort. I was curious to see what it was like on the inside.