“That pecking hurts,” Charles’ groaned from dull pain as he felt the new wound on his chest. Now sitting back in his nest, he could carefully examine himself in the aftermath of his battle. After having awoken from unconsciousness, Charles had been reasonably alarmed by his condition. Luckily, he hadn’t seemed to have passed out from blood loss, though as he examined his newest chest injury, he couldn’t help but cluck in annoyance.

‘Helluva scar,’ he arched his neck and turned his head to the side to get a better look at the now criss-crossed pattern of claws there. Already feathers had begun to regrow from the old scarred area, but the new stuff was far too fresh. It was a clotted mess, and later he’d have to be sure to clean it properly.

He did, however, note that the previously cut region had inverted in color from the surrounding feathers. Most of his body was a deep blue sapphire coloration except for his chest, and legs which were predominantly burgundy. Some magenta feathers had begun to grow from the back of his head like a crown, trailing down his neck in a ridge.

The scars were growing sapphire feathers, rather than burgundy, though he wasn’t especially concerned about that. If anything, he thought it looked kind of nice.

That said he wasn’t in any hurry for this to be a trend for the future, pain and scars in general weren’t his cup of tea.

Scars weren’t his only reward for the battle, though. He looked at the corpse of the badger that he’d hauled to his nest, just outside of the clearing in the trees. Briefly he’d considered taking it into the nest proper, but he wasn’t quite ready to bring bodies into his inner abode just yet. Perhaps the secondary ring, though, considering how in the open his previous nemesis’ body would be to any other scavengers.

With surprising grace, Charles rose from the ground, his body positively thrumming with energy. He could feel that something had shifted in him, only he couldn’t quite pin down what. He could clearly remember the strange behavior of the essence from the badger - setting aside that it was even visible in the first place - as it formed a cloud around him before merging into his body. It had overwhelmed his senses as it surged down into him and, combined with the rush of the fight, had made him faint. While he wasn’t able to tell exactly what had happened, the aftereffects made him feel like his entire being was vibrating with energy. His muscles felt stronger, his bones sturdier, and though he didn’t have a way to measure his inner pool of essence, he knew that its capacity had increased and was overflowing. A hefty portion of that was moving through his form of its own accord, following his blood and suffusing his flesh.

What that meant beyond an increase in ability, Charles didn’t know, but he had some guesses. Becoming stronger was a given, though whether this happened for all creatures or because of Alterra’s blessing, he didn’t know. The thing he was most interested in was if there was some kind of invisible system in place for evolving, and beyond that, what he could become, and their requirements. Clearly he’d met some kind of prerequisite and had become a blade-beak, otherwise he’d have still been a red-hawk.

Though, that also assumed that everything that he was experiencing wasn’t somehow very outside of what should have been possible. After all, Alterra hadn’t intended on him becoming a bird of all things.

Those thoughts occupied his thoughts primarily, but he still paid attention to the environment. By now, his capabilities had grown enough that he was confident that he could detect most things in his environment without focusing too carefully. He wasn’t being overtly stealthy, but he made it a practice to try to move more efficiently, smoother, silent if possible. His efforts were beginning to show, he moved much more like a lithe, graceful predator now and less like a hob-legged, drunken bird.

He stepped into the shallows of the stream shortly, following instructions from his instincts once more on how to best clean himself. Already his wounds were far more healed than they ought to be, more like a wound several days old than mere hours ago. Steadily he marveled at his form, once again, only to catch himself with a shake of his head.

“Yikes, am I becoming obsessed with my appearance?” He cringed guiltily, “I didn’t even care that much about what I looked like as a human.”

Perhaps that was pride talking, but more likely some instinct shaped his newfound interest in his personal appearance. Beside that, cleanliness was more important now than ever before. If he didn’t take care of himself properly, he might get sick. Whether or not that was as much of a concern as before, he had no idea, but he knew he didn’t want to contract some kind of super magical disease from not cleaning himself at least.

He made much quicker progress back to his nest, once more standing over the body of the badger.

“Right, well, I guess there’s nothing for it.” He stretched, knowing that he was putting off this grisly work. But, he needed to eat, and beyond that, not eating him seemed… wasteful?

Charles’ tried to remember what he could about skinning animals, and knew enough to know that he was almost certain to ruin anything he tried to acquire. With a long breath, he began to cut into the creature, trying to peel the skin back with a combination of his three fingered grasping talons at the ends of his wings. They weren’t proper to really get a good grip, and the hooks should have risked damaging the hide more than would be considered efficient.

Except the hide was much sturdier than it damn well should have been.

“Hey, what in the hells?” He balked at the sheer toughness of the material, “I damn well pecking know that this wasn’t so sturdy when it wasn’t infused.” Charles’ gaze narrowed in thought as he examined the body again. He still couldn’t sense essence insofar as it’s particulars, but he could still tell that there was a hefty amount still in the body. Even so, even the fish of the stream contained essence. During their battle, Charles had been able to pierce through the badger's hide when it wasn’t infused, but this, for some reason, was very like an infused hide.

With patience honed over the years, he began the steady process of analyzing any possibilities. He remembered the essence storm, but that hadn’t gone back into the badger. He tapped his talons on the leafy ground as he pondered the issue, before coming to the realization that the essence had seemed to channel through the hide. Not in random locations, but seemingly equally across it’s entire body. While he wasn’t sure if that was normal - the fish certainly didn’t do that - he guessed that perhaps it was due to the badgers use of its essence and, maybe, dumb luck?

“Or it’s more normal than I think it is… if I died, would my talons be infused?” He shivered at the thought, quickly filing it away. The last thing he needed to think about right now was how much more valuable animal parts would be with essence marking them. People on Earth barely needed more reason than aesthetics, but the moment you told someone that an animal's body part was helpful in some way…

Well, there was a reason why several species were endangered.

Charles approached the issue again, striking at limbs farther out from the center of the torso. It’d lost most of its blood already through the many head strikes, but Charles wasn’t certain if that was even required. Beyond that, the steady wedging and slices that he performed with his sharp beak took up considerable focus. His neck grew sore in short order, and before he continued he dragged the body into his nest, abandoning his trepidations about bringing a corpse into his home in favor of benefiting from the aura while he worked.

Almost unbidden Charles began to hum a tune to himself, only to pause out of surprise at the sounds he could make. He gave it a few more experimental warbles and shifts, amusement clear on his face as he put the majority of his focus on the corpse.

“I can make some pretty nice noises… huh. Didn’t imagine the killer bird to be a bit of a song bird too.” He happily continued with his tunes, most of them from random songs he could remember. None of them were specific, and he let his subconscious carry the tune as he focused on his work. It was… nice, to be able to do something resembling normal. Considering the aura was almost certainly keeping him calm and not thinking about the fact that he was skinning a mammalian creature and then preparing to remove other bits and pieces, he was glad to have yet another thing to distract him.

The effort took him a considerable amount of time, but there were upsides to how tough the hide was. It was perfect to practice on, given that it wasn’t going to be damaged by his clumsy motions. With how much more time it took, he also got more into the rhythm and concept of how he was supposed to do this. He couldn’t even complain too much about a lack of tools since his beak and claws were actually much better at this than he’d initially thought.

By the time he’d removed the hide, he had a now mostly pink fleshed creature sitting against a slab of bark that he’d pulled over. Only ‘socks’ of fur remained on it, since he decided trying to peel that part was too difficult, and probably unnecessary.

‘Arguably, it’s all unnecessary. I can’t exactly use this…’ He snickered as he held the hide down, stretching it out a bit over another bit of bark. Slowly he carved his beak against the inner-side of the hide, taking remnant bits of fat and removing them. Some accidentally got into his mouth, and shocked him with how tasty it was. Certainly, it was… different, from cooked food, but it was delicious in a different way.

More of his barriers to eating the rest fell away. But he wasn’t ready to eat certain parts just yet. He’d heard that the brain of most animals was actually quite delicious and nutritious, but that felt… bizarre to him.

Still, while he could afford to be choosy now with where his meals came from, he could still distinctly remember when he was on the verge of starvation when this bastard had taken his hunt right out from under him. And, beside that, he’d won their duel fair and square. Had the tables been turned, he had no doubt that he’d have been devoured in turn.

Those thoughts were what drove him to drag the bark sled out away from his nest, dig a hole, and then carefully attempt to remove the digestive tract of the badger with careful cuts. He knew that, especially, he needed to be wary of the gallbladder and intestines. Perhaps he could make rope out of the intestines but… to be frank, he wasn’t good enough to do that. He lacked thumbs in the proper sense, and he doubted he’d be able to manage the finer movements necessary to braid any kind of fine rope.

The work went quickly this time, none of the organs giving him real issues. He’d refrained from taking out the ones that he knew he could eat, but he’d dumped the ones he wasn’t positive on. Luckily, he could instinctively tell somewhat what he could eat, but there was edible, then there was appetizing. Having been human and admittedly sheltered in his eating habits, he had no intention of pushing the envelope with some parts, namely the gonads.

Still, the haul after removing the digestive tract was a hefty amount of meat. He buried the rest of the remains in a shallow pit. It wouldn’t be enough to dissuade a dedicated scavenger, but hopefully it’d be enough that the scent wouldn’t travel too far and wide.

The next several hours were spent - slowly at first and then with much more gusto and vigor - eating the rich-in-nutrients meat. He cracked the skull, surprising himself with how delicious the brain actually was. Next, he set into the other organs, unsure if they’d last for as long without proper refrigeration. They were all different, both in texture and taste, and while he found he didn’t care as much for the liver - it was a distinctly gamey taste compared to the rest of the organs - he didn’t find it at all distasteful. When he finally began to set into the muscle and fat, he’d already begun to overstuff himself.

“Whoo, man… I’m not gonna finish this in one go.” He clucked to himself, seeing that the bulk of the meat was still untouched. With a full stomach, he lay down, staring thoughtfully at the hide that remained. He had no idea what he was doing with it, so he could only hope that leaving it out to dry in sunlight, as direct as he could find it, would have to be good enough. Charles forced himself to rise, dragging the hide out and laying the abnormally heavy material over a branch near his nest, close enough that the aura might dissuade most things from going near it. Considering there wasn’t any meat on it, he doubted anything larger would be interested though, and hopefully even the range-weakened aura could keep bugs away.

Honestly, this sanctuary was far too convenient. If he hadn’t found it, he knew that things would be much more annoying and potentially downright dangerous. Perhaps it was more dangerous than he gave it credit for, given that sentient races probably made it in the first place, but being able to keep any other creatures away was just too much of a boon to overlook.

When he returned, he dug a small trench in the outer ring of his nest, piling larger leaves and slabs of bark on the bottom and then dropping the carcass into it. He carefully covered it back up with more leaves and another slab of bark. He wasn’t certain at all if this was good enough to keep it safe from decay in the short term, but as he buried it he couldn’t help but mentally shrug. There wasn’t really anything else to be done for it.

Hopefully he wouldn’t get sick from it, but maybe he was more resilient to such things, given that he was an animal now.

Charles fought the urge to nap his meal off, torn between contentment and the surging waves of essence that spilled from his body. A little post-meal workout wouldn’t hurt. With a faster gait, he began a light jog towards the stream, trying to keep his steps as light as he could while maintaining speed. It was a rush, being able to move so swiftly and smoothly, and he hoped he would never quite get over it. He happily jumped from the base of one tree and up the next, using his momentum and talons to arc upwards onto a low hanging branch.

Twice he nearly missed a branch as he ran through the canopy, and once he’d entirely overshot, but was close enough to another tree to correct off of its trunk. He was not, he had to begrudgingly admit, anywhere near built for moving through the branches. His body was too heavy, his claws built for rending meat more than hooking into bark. Every single leap was accompanied by rustling trees and, more than once, he angered a family of squirrels or birds that had been enjoying a peaceful day before he stormed in on them.

As soon as he returned to the ground, though, he was silent and unseen beyond the flash of sapphire feathers in the green.

“Yup, I suck at trees.” Shrugging, he surveyed the area around the stream from the edge of the forest, keeping low before rising to his full height. Across from the stream he could see a six limbed creature, kind of like a lynx. It was smaller than he was, but he eyed it warily nonetheless.

It idly noted that the wind wasn’t blowing towards the cat, a good thing considering he was slightly covered in gore. Charles winced at that, and then considered his options. It didn’t know he was here, judging by the way it was drinking. Though it seemed to be keeping its attention on its surroundings, there wasn’t any tenseness in its posture. It was self-assured, a predator that likely wasn’t often challenged.

It was, also, smaller than Charles.

‘Option one, wait for it to leave to clean off.’ He pondered, guessing that it wouldn’t take long for it to move on. It would be overall safer, since he wasn’t sure what the cat might be capable of, or how aggressive it would be. Charles was quite well topped off, but a fight was still a risk he might be better off avoiding.

‘Option two, go clean myself anyways.’ His instincts liked this option, and Charles was inclined to agree. In spite of the reasons to be cautious, there were good reasons beyond being reckless for going forward anyways. It was another predator, and it was a unique opportunity to test how one might respond to him. This area was, after all, a part of his territory. Beyond the light scratching of the instincts in his bird-brain, he wanted to assert that he was in charge here. That, of course, didn’t mean that he needed to push others out if they weren’t bothering him.

His instincts seemed quiet enough with that, so he guessed he wasn’t out of line there.

Charles stepped forth from the tree line, carefully making himself as visible as possible without posturing at the animal across the water.

It froze instantly, ears swiveling in his direction followed swiftly by its head. It’s eyes narrowed as they locked onto him, and one ear swiveled back and around. The movement was nearly comically like a radar dish, but considering how some creatures hunted in packs, he couldn’t fault the cat from trying to focus on the area behind it as well.

Slowly Charles moved forward, not directly towards the cat, but downstream slightly instead. The cat’s posture was taught, ready to bolt into action, but after the first few relaxed steps that Charles took, it gradually settled once more. By the time Charles' nonchalant walk took him halfway to the stream away from it, the cat was once more drinking from the water, now watching him with a casual wariness that he found, oddly, respectful of the threat he could present.

‘Alright, that’s not bad. So, not bloodthirsty monsters, then.’ He confirmed to himself that, thankfully, predators in this world weren’t some abominable creatures, in spite of the six legged cat being beyond anything he’d ever seen before. It reminded him even more acutely that this wasn’t Earth at all anymore.

He shook the thought off, drinking some water before stepping into it and beginning the cleaning process once more. While fluffing up his feathers, he preened out any filth that he’d accrued during his previous cleaning routine of the corpse. After a minute or so of this, he glanced back up to where the cat was, only to find that it had left during his ministrations.

With a brief spike of concern, he swiveled his head looking for any trace of it, but found nothing. No sounds had been made, and while he could smell the musky scent that he now knew belonged to it, it was getting weaker.

“Alright, I’ll call that a win.” Charles internally smiled, glad that his neighbor seemed reasonable enough. He solidified a silent vow not to attack creatures at the stream that weren’t fish, maybe that was common, but it would be a good way to somewhat get to know his neighbors.

Well, the ones he wasn’t planning on eating, anyways.

“Damn I’m a pretty bird.” Humming noises happily warbled from his throat as he finished cleaning, continuing as he moved to the tree he’d marked previously for his height.

He notched it once more, noting that he was actually a few inches taller already than before. That might have shocked him before, but he was growing too used to the odd things that happened for it to ruffle his feathers as easily anymore.

The next few days were spent eagerly mapping out his territory more fully, examining every inch of the landscape so that he wasn’t overlooking any major predator that might be lurking around the corner. He’d already gotten a general lay of the land, but he was happy to report that few if any threats existed that he could find.

Though, he did note that the forest grew much, much thicker the further south he went. Perhaps that would be a good place to investigate later?

“For now, let's find some more food!” He eagerly began hunting up small meals, adding some vegetables in the form of tubers to his diet. At least, he was until he picked up on another, familiar scent that seemed to have freshly wandered into his territory. Charles frowned, his beak upturning in disdain.

“More badger stink.” He huffed with annoyance, “I’ll just take care of them later… Still, the nerve. You’d think they want to own the forest or something.”