As the skies began to lighten with the impending suns’ rise, I slipped back into town and made my way towards the building where my humans were staying. I had spent the night hunting down things from the forest I had previously eaten, and taking the time to consciously integrate their information. I felt like it left me with a better understanding of those creatures than I’d previously had.

Dendra had mentioned something about expanding her roots and gone blessedly quiet for the whole night, not saying anything as I snatched up snacks left and right before meditating on consuming their patterns. She perked back up again into her usual chatty self as soon as I left the forest.

I ignored her quiet babbling as I wound through the town to the building in which my humans were staying. Once we slipped inside, it was easy to spot my group, eating their breakfast at a large table in the corner of the room.

I sat down heavily next to them, at an open spot next to Grix.

“G’morning, Shaper,” the big human muttered. The rest of them barely gave nods of acknowledgement as they clutched containers of steaming black liquid before their faces. The liquid smelled bitter and earthy, but also refreshing. It was a near analogue to the coffee of James’ memories.

After a long silence, the fox-girl spoke up. “I… I am going to be… be… be teaching you today,” she said, shivering uncontrollably.

I shrugged. “Okay. Are the rest of you going to hunt? Or staying here?”

Vee looked around before matching my shrug. “Trella is an important part of our team. We’ll stay in town with her while she teaches you. Although, if you don’t mind helping us with a hunt here and there, that would make us a bit more even.”

After a few moment’s of contemplation, I spoke. “Agreed,” I said, as I extended out my unoccupied forelimb in an imitation of their greeting rituals. Vee reached out and grasped my limb with her hand and gave it a firm shake.

Humans are weird.

My first reading lesson was… less than useful. At first.

She tried showing me a book filled with abstract paint smears, and insisted that the paint smears represented things that they clearly were not. After two hours of argument, Trella was finally convinced that the red blob was not an apple.

“Fine! ‘A’ is the first letter in arm!” Trella shouted in exasperation. She pointed at her arm as she said this.

“Okay, that makes sense.” I paid closer attention as she finally started speaking sensically.

She growled and rolled her eyes. Her shyness and fear had gradually eroded over the last two hours and given way to irritation.

Three day passed since Trella began teaching me how to read. It turned out that I am a rather quick study, at least once the timid fox girl had given up on what she considered conventional teaching ideas. The written language was fairly simple. Each character corresponded with a specific sound. It was like the language from James’ memories, but less convoluted. Each symbol only represented one sound, and anything written out sounded exactly as it was written.

I didn’t mind the elapsed time, as I had reabsorbed nearly everything I had originally consumed in the forest during my nightly excursions. My understanding of the various creatures I had consumed had grown massively.

The only thing I was now curious about in the forest was an elusive beast. It had chewed on the bones of my first troll kill, something I had nearly forgotten about. It was strong enough to chew through a troll femur, yet subtle enough to evade my detection. It was a native to this forest probably well before I had been born.

I wanted to find it. I wanted to observe it. I wanted to kill it. I wanted to eat it.

I continued searching for the unknown creature during the nights as my lessons progressed from simple reading comprehension to learning vocabulary and information specific to spell-forms.

It was somewhat amusing, as my quick progress only seemed to reinforce Trella’s fear of me, even as she grew accustomed to my presence. The only thing that seemed to push it back was her irritation at my inability to learn through what she considered traditional methods.

With her help, I had finally been able to mostly comprehend the spell-form for the Lightning affinity spell, Arc. Even with her poor explanations, I was eventually able to understand that the spell-form described the texture, density and shape of the aura you needed to weave in order to copy the spell exactly.

The underlying logic still eluded me, but I could at least reproduce the spell with some concentration.

Although it was an achievement, it still felt rather drab. I could produce similar results by growing Thunder Drake cells, even if I had less control.

After four days of lessons and ‘relaxation,’ it was time to once more head out into the wilds. Dendra and I would be ranging out from the forest’s borders to check on the progress of the goblin hordes. Vee’s team would remain nearby to relay our messages to the Guilds.

After traveling a few miles from my human companions, I shifted to my flying form and headed East.

The first scouting trip was fortuitous, as I encountered another horned horse which I promptly killed and devoured. With its silvery-red blood still staining my muzzle, I flew further east until I spotted goblin patrols.

From on high, I estimated that there were roughly 50,000 goblins in the immediate area. Their numbers included a few hundred wolf riders, and a handful whose repulsive auras shone brighter than the rest to my senses.

Having located one element of the approaching enemy, I turned North.

I flew over column after column, camp after camp.

Half a day after setting out to scout, I returned to Vee’s group. I couldn’t hide my grin.

“Okay, Shaper, what have you got for us?” Vee asked, anxiety clear in her voice.

“Maybe 10 days of goblin marching speed out, from due East to a bit North, I counted a bit more than a million goblins. Maybe sixteen thousand wolf riders.”

After several minutes of consultation and map-marking, the humans sent off a message to their superiors. After which, their expressions turned gloomy.

“Why are you the only one here who is happy, Shaper?” Grix asked.

“I get to kill a lot of goblins.”

“We can’t possibly win against such a force. Counting non-combatants, there are only twelve thousand souls here. Only considering combatants, we number a meager nine hundred. If a single day’s worth of scouting turned up more than a million, then there must be fifteen to twenty times as many goblins involved. Probably more. If we had a few months to prepare, we could appeal to the Kingdom and other branches for assistance. As things stand, by the time the horde arrives, our allies would only just be receiving our pleas for help,” the Hunter’s Guild Master sighed as he briefed his contemporary in the Mercenary Guild.

“Yeah. This is a shitty situation. Even if we evacuate now… The horde would just catch up to us. How did you even get this much information?”

“The rumors about a new Emissary are completely true. She and her Envoy gathered the information personally. They were also the ones who gave us the preliminary warning. They are also supporting our scouts through independent observation.”

“Ugh. If it weren’t an Emissary, I’d probably just dismiss this shit outright.”

“I know, right?”

“So, what do you think? Contingency Bloom? It’d be a shame to lose such a wonderful training ground as this forest, but if it is to stop a massive goblin wave, I think we’d be posthumously forgiven.”

The Hunter’s Guild master hesitated.”I think we should reserve Bloom for the very last second. We may yet be surprised by the fortitude of these youngsters. And if the Bloom doesn’t kill the dryad, then I would not want to be on the list of those who approved its deployment.”

The Mercenary’s Guild master sighed in agreement. “No kidding. There’s been too much going on in that forest lately for us to just give up so easily. It truly is a magnificent training ground for the newly blooded, and the materials we’ve been able to harvest have been of superb quality. Still, the idea of an easy and quick solution sings its siren song. Especially if we won’t have to be around to deal with the cleanup…”

“If you want to die that badly, do it on your own time. I still have a few centuries left in me and don’t want them to go to waste.”

“Pfft, you elf bloods are all too timid. Too many years and too few thrills, I say.”

“And you dwarves only know how to hit things with hammers and die in battle.”

“Hah! As if anybody needs to know more than that?”

The Hunter’s Guild master poured some more liquor into his tumbler.

“Still, the Emissary and her Envoy give me an uneasy feeling. Even if we somehow manage to get through this crisis, I can’t help but feel that they will be even more troublesome.”