Two predators stared at each other. One, a relative to the mighty king of the jungle, a sneaky and much smaller version but just as savage a hunter. The other, a queen of the night skies, unmatched in stealth and perception by any other raptors. Still, she sat on a branch looking at her competitor, another nocturnal killer. In turn, the feline matched her gaze. My gaze. Normally, wild animals, especially predators, would consider meeting their eyes as a challenge for territory, prey or superiority. The two of us, we were just curious. This was the first time for us to find someone alike. An animal with sapience. Conscious and understanding normally unseen in our kind.

I was still in my metal form and with [Sneak] turned off my feathers were clanging together. The unfamiliar sounds ringing through the forest intrigued my company and the ocelot moved forwards. It was careful, possibly scared how I might react. I had shown part of my hand, or talon, to guarantee my safety when she was watching my evolution. My shadows still floated around me but I made sure not to appear threatening. The cat sniffed me and retreated one step. There was confusion in her eyes. My smell did not match what she remembered. I looked around and, finding no other threat, took a gambit. I shifted back. This was a move of some trust since I was unable to move and unaware for most of the transformation. But it paid off. My body returned to normal and the ocelot still sat there, watching me. Her head had taken a tilted position, even more confused than before and her ears were flicking.

With a hoot, I spread my wings a little and beckoned her closer. The cat hesitated shortly and then obliged. She sniffed once more, her eyes widening in surprise. Then understanding made itself known in her expression. A soft purr answered and this time it was her turn to beckon me. Not for smelling or anything but to follow. The ocelot slipped to a lower branch and through the leaves before stopping a few metres away and looking back. A meow called me and I followed through the air. We sped through the forest and I quickly realized where we were going.

The pond came into view after only a few minutes. I had trouble keeping up with my guide. She was slipping from tree to tree much faster than I could dodge the branches, vines and trunks flying beneath the canopy. If I had gone higher I could have kept up easily. Probably.

We stood up in the trees once again, this time the cat was pointing at her node. I half expected her to just jump into the water and make fun of me for being unable to follow but instead, she sat down and focused. Soon, I felt mana move through the air and into her. Not much, and most of it was dissipating quickly thereafter, but she was absorbing energy. Then she excitedly pointed at the node and looked at me with a question on her face. I nodded. I had absorbed mana as well. I was pretty sure she would be maxed out with how much she could gain from here and confirmed my suspicion when I felt a bit of flux trickle out of her body. With this, all the energy she had taken was accounted for.

The ocelot jumped right in front of me, making me step back in panic. But rather than an attack, she was just driven by excitement. And curiosity. A claw extended and drove something into the bark. At first, it looked impossible to understand but soon the meaning was clear. Beast Core. The entry from my Status she had identified. She looked at me with a question burning in her eyes. I sighed a sorry hoot. I drew three circles onto the bark, increasing in size. I pointed at the middle one and her node, then at the big one and the carving of ‘Beast Core’. The ocelot froze in thought. She was most likely considering what I wanted to say. Then she sat down, slightly dejected. I hooted and held a wing to her side. A few careful pats would hopefully help console her.

When the ocelot looked up again, I caught her attention. Once again, I pointed at the big circle. Then, my wing traced the river exiting the pond. It showed the direction of the large lake. I still remembered the major node in its middle. I nodded at my company. ‘This is where you need to go.’

But I did not manage to lift her spirits. The ocelot shook her head and pointed at the node over the pond. Then she hissed at me and mimed an attack. I tilted my head. What was she saying? More markings joined the branch. These, I could not understand. Was that one of her Skills? Did it have something to do with the node?

I wanted to talk. It would be so much easier. But telepathy was not something easy. Or rather, I had not heard or seen anything about it except for the eldritch monster. Someone far older and more knowledgeable than me. But I could do the same thing the ocelot was doing. Write down my Skill on the branch. Just carving [Eldritch Shift] would not work, that much was clear to me as I set my talon to the bark. So I focused on my soul, more specifically, my status, and started to copy it. The wood formed beneath my foot to create the letters. Even though they looked just the same to me as in my status menu, there was a fundamental difference. There was actual meaning to the writing and I even felt a trickle of mana flow into it. Most importantly, I was able to [Identify] it. And I knew the ocelot was not. Because this Skill was something she did not have, just like what she had carved a moment earlier.

The cat eyed my carving and deflated. It was apparently not just me who wanted a better way to communicate. But it was not possible with our current selves. Or was it? There was one more thing I could try. Normal writing. My company was most likely at medium mana enrichment which meant warp was not too much of a concern for her. At least she should be able to ‘read’ the Thaumonomicon. So I pulled it out of my storage and promptly sent the ocelot running. My [Owl Stomach] upgrade seemed to be more terrifying than I thought.

As the book dropped onto the branch, I realized it would be difficult to read up here, so I carefully held it with my shadows and lowered it as far as possible before dropping the tome to the forest floor. The ocelot was warily eyeing me from two trees away, just now coming back into vision. I had, without noticing, lost her. That had to be a good stealth Skill. Probably not [Sneak] because she did not move away silently but simply disappeared from my vision. Now, there was a cautious feline moving slowly towards me and the book between the bushes.

I encouraged her with a few nods and beckoning with my wing. At the same time, my shadows flipped open the book. I had a thought and tried to look for something on telepathy but was only led to a section about artificing. This told me there had to be some enchanted object deeper into the theory that let someone communicate with their mind. Was there a communication aspect? No, I was pretty sure there was not. But soul, knowledge and maybe order seemed to fit what I wanted to do. Movement as well, or travel. Maybe void, to skip the distance? That might make movement obsolete. Sensus made a lot of sense as well. Ha. There was something to consider.

For now, my company distracted me with a questioning meow. I looked up into the cat’s eyes. Yup, I had totally gotten distracted. I closed the book and opened it again, showing the animal how to use it. The ocelot seemed curious, so I closed it once more and stepped aside. I really hoped this would work.

The Thaumonomicon was handled carefully. Its newest reader showed clear interest in the unfamiliar object. The cover flipped open and the cat looked at scribbles that should never make sense when one saw them for the first time. I watched from the sidelines. Symbols rapidly swapped their shape and position and with a painful mewl, the cat retreated. It rubbed a paw on its forehead before admonishing me with its eyes. I looked at the book myself and found nothing wrong with it. In fact, the writing was just normal English, what I was used to. I focused on keeping it like that and beckoned my company over once more.

Maybe the lack of painful reaction on my end convinced her, maybe she simply moved out of spite. What mattered was that the cat was once more sitting in front of the writing. This time it stayed stable. I made sure to hold my eyes on the introduction I had read almost a month ago for the first time and focus on English. As soon as my concentration wavered, the cat’s lack of knowledge about writing would instantly scramble multiple languages and writings onto the page, rapidly swapping back and forth. But I held it steady.

Still, the experience did not seem very pleasant for my new friend. She was still rubbing her forehead and mewling under her breath. After a few minutes, she finally turned away with heaving breaths. I closed the Thaumonomicon and stepped up to her. The cat eyed me carefully, watching my every move. I took a talon and dragged it through the dirt, forming the word ‘Hello’.

The cat eyed it warily for a moment before realizing it did not hurt her head without looking at the magic book. She stared at it for a moment. Then she took a glance at the Thaumonomicon. I could almost see the cogs turning in her head. She was pretty smart for a wild animal that gained sapience. That idea was confirmed when she dragged her paw in a reversed S shape through the dirt. A question mark. She had understood that symbol, at least. I followed it with an exclamation mark of my own and bobbed my head excitedly, pointing at the book once more. The ocelot sighed in mock pain before moving back to it. She opened it once more and instantly recoiled in pain. The letters were scrambling. I covered her eyes with a wing and focused once more on getting English to be the written letters. Then I looked at her with a questioning head tilt. She nodded. And such, I had started to teach an ocelot how to read.