Endrian and his sisters walked into the forest that was alight with different colors. It was beautiful and amazing. Endrian stared at the glowing colors on the leaves and bushes but he was not sure what spectrum the light was shining in. Based on his experience so far, probably somewhere outside the normal human range.

He also noted that the night appeared to be much brighter on this world. On his old world at night when a full moon was out it was still very easy to see but it was nothing compared to what he was seeing now. However, this did make it much easier to see and this lined up better with his needs currently. It was also possible his eyes had improved to a much greater degree than he had realized after the awakening. This was his first chance that he has had to put them to the test outside so he did not have sufficient data to make a comparison.

As he drank in his surroundings, the sounds of the forest started to permeate his ears. The smell of the lush wilderness wafted into his nose reminding him of times when he would go camping for a week or more on his previous world. There he would live off the land and surviving on his own. Those memories brought a smile to his face. However, although it was familiar there were also stark differences that contrasted with his memories. He could pick up the acrid smell of fear slightly coming from his siblings. The sounds were also unlike anything he had ever heard before. There could hear what sounded like different animals calling out to each other. Every now and then the sounds of crashing, like a limb falling off a tree, could be heard. It was often followed by some animal roaring.

Deep thrumming rumbles and high pitched screeches crashed on his hearing, and the visuals. Violets and purples with some dark blues glowing and matte black or grey provided a contrast which allowed them a detailed view of the trees and shrubbery around them. Every now and again he could see movement and when he would look he could see some type of small life form. Many had the ability to bioluminesce, and the patterns that showed would allow them to blend into the surroundings. He had seen many things in his previous life and some crazy things in his new life, but this was the first time he could understand what the phrase ‘awe inspiring’ really meant.

Unfortunately this experience for him was also a life and death situation and he wouldn’t be able to take the time to study everything in detail. Sighing to himself at the dire nature of their current situation he focused back on the girls moving ahead of him. He tried to whistle at them, an old habit he had developed with his previous life’s father. He was going to whistle to get the attention of his sisters but being in his fighting form meant he literally had lizard lips. Which made it hard to control and the sound that came out of his mouth was like the sound you would make when blowing out candles. The girls stopped and looked back at him incredulously. While he was slightly embarrassed at his inability to whistle it still got the job done. Shrugging to himself internally, he whispered to the girls “Let’s keep within 500 paces of the crash. I think that will keep us far away enough so that we have time to react to any situations that may come up but close enough that we can keep an eye out for our parents. If we can find shelter with water even better.”

“Why are you giving the orders? Elva’s the one in charge.” Lisyth asked no keeping her voice quiet.

“Quietly” Elva whispered harshly to Lisyth. Then she turned and looked at Endrian again waiting for his answer.

“I’m just stating what I think is in the best interest of everyone so that we can all survive. If anyone has a better idea I would be happy to hear it.” Endrian whispered back.

Elva nodded and started moving again, this time angling so as to keep the crash site at a constant distance. She was the most clear on not being overly proud of her position. There were many times when she was out with her mothers and Shyael or Ratrece, even Allyce had taken command of the group. She had asked her mother about this when it happened and was told it was because they had a better understanding of the situation. Working in concert with the other women to support the group as a whole. Even though she had a lot of questions for little Ender she was still aware that now was not the time for it.

It wasn’t much longer after they adjusted their course that they came across a ravine that looked to be about three or four meters tall. The other side was at least five meters away and the sides were covered in a damp looking moss. There appeared to be no safe way for them to all get to the bottom, at least with the need for someone to carry Ethese. Standing close to the edge Endrian and Elva could hear the sounds of a creek flowing and both of them looked happy. Zakoya had an idea of what she was hearing, but it hadn’t clicked yet. Ratrece’s daughters on the other hand didn’t have a clue.

“We are going to have to be more vigilant for the next portion of the trip.” Elva said this quietly cautioning the others. “Let’s head up the hill. There should be an area ahead where we can get down. Then we will be able to see about finding a place to make camp.”

After a short hike and a few scares they were able to find an area that looked like they would be able to get down. It was an area that looked like the rain water from the hill they were on collected and ran off here. This had caused erosion of the soil creating a kind of steep, poorly planned, ramp. There were also large boulders strewn from the hill down the path of the water run off. Making their way down this ramp they were able to see a decent sized stream when they got to the bottom. It was clear and shallow and all of them took a short moment to get a quick drink. Elva kept things disciplined and had everyone take turns to get a drink while the others watched over them. This was also a much needed break from Endrian as he had been carrying Ethese for the past, what he guessed was, 30 minutes of hiking. While also having his nerves taut as the moved through unknown areas.

Moving up the ravine they followed the stream back to it’s source. Where they eventually came to a cave. The cave mouth was at least 10 meters tall but despite that was not easily visible. The way the stream meandered and cut back on itself coupled the amount of trees and bushes growing nearby made it impossible to be seen if they didn’t follow the stream all the way to the entrance.

When they saw the cave they all revealed happy expressions. Thinking they had found the end of their current journey. After entering the cave they could see the floor was covered by the flowing water that filled the stream. There was a semi-dry patch on either side of the stream inside the cave. The dry area was like a moist and wet clay making it difficult to walk easily. Before they walked very deep into the cave they could see a natural land bridge above them. It was about 2 to 3 meters off the ground. Seeing that it was dry and out of the way Elva decided that this area was going to be their place to rest and set up camp.

After struggling to get Ethese up from the ground they were all exhausted. Taking a moment while everyone was laying out their bedrolls Evla spoke up “We will need to have at least one person to keep watch, so we will go in shifts. Normally we would use the moons to tell when it was time to change shifts, but since we can’t do that here then we two options. First option is to stay awake until you can’t take it anymore and then wake up the next person. Second we can collect firewood and build a small fire to help keep us warm. We will switch every time the fire burns down.”

It had been a long and exhausting as well as emotional night, so the girls overwhelmingly opted for the first choice. They just wanted to go to sleep. Endrian could sympathize with them but when he thought about the many times he had been camping and the few times that he had put off what needed to be done because he was exhausted or lazy and how much he hated it the next day he spoke up saying “As bad as this sounds we should probably go collect firewood and build a fire. Putting off what needs to be done for later only leads to more troubles. We will need it in the morning to cook some food or at the very least boil some water.”

“While you may be right and we should go collect wood. I think all of us just want to sleep and deal with everything in the morning.” Elva said this to Endrian making her position clear. Endrian might be right but he was overruled by everyone else. “We need to set the order so that the person on guard knows who to wake.” After some quick discussion the order was decided. Endrian took first watch, then Zakoya, next was Evla, then Etopha and finally Lisyth. With the watch order decided the girls settled in for the night. Fortunately Elva still had her sister’s sleep roll so the issue of where Ethese would be sleeping never came up.

Endrian pondered everything that happened in such a short amount of time. He hoped that his parents were able to survive the crash. Deciding that thinking about things he had no control over was a waste of time he started to cultivate. He kept a part of his awareness focused on sounds so as not to be neglectful in his duties. Visualizing the mana in the air he felt that there was a much larger portion of the mana that was earth based as well as water and air. Not too surprising considering where they were but it did answer one of the questions he had. Though it wasn’t a true validation it did lend itself to his hypothesis that mana affinities tend to exist in areas that match said affinities. After an indeterminate amount of time Endrian was getting ready to finish up and go wake Zakoya when in his mana sense he found something moving. He looked at it and tried to visualize it stopping but that apparently had no effect on it. It was like an empty hole in the mana. Wondering what would have this effect on the ambient mana like that he opened his eyes and got up to go see if there was something moving in the direction he had sensed.

At first he couldn’t see anything. After he watched quietly for a few moments he noticed a shadow moving over the stone. Standing up he took a light stone from his pack in his shield hand and grabbed his spear while moving towards the area where he saw the shadow. When he got closer the shadow shifted and turned towards Endrian. Moving cautiously he held the light stone higher so that he would be able to see what it was. He found something he had never seen before. Even with all of the reading of the different animals that existed in the forest, at least close to his village, he hadn’t even read about anything like this.

It was small maybe the size of a freshly weaned kitten. From what he could see in the light it had grey fur with violet spots on it in various places. It had six legs four legs were at the front and the other two were at the rear. It’s ears were shaped like a candle flame and swiveled back and forth listening to the sounds around it. On it’s back were two wings that were folded up but were the length of it’s entire back. While Endrian was observing this baby beast it squeak meowed at him.

Endrian’s heart melted he thought this was possibly the cutest thing he had seen on this planet. Endrian loved most animals especially of the furry variety. He thought to himself ‘Now if it doesn’t try to eat my face I am so keeping it. It’s always amusing how reason goes out the window in the face of beauty and cuteness.’ Endrian squatted down and held out his hand to it to try and coax it closer and to see how it would react.

When he squatted down it seemed to perk up. However, about a second later it laid its ears back and hissed. Then turned and ran away while periodically stopping and looking back. Endrian stood up feeling disappointed that he couldn’t indulge in the cuteness he found but if he ever got the chance he would look for something like this again. He definitely wanted to know more about this animal and see if it was possible to domesticate it.

As he started to turn around to head back to his sleep role and continue his watch a heavy weight hit his back and knocked him off his feet. It felt like a small boulder had hit him. As he was struck he shouted out in surprise. Unsure what was going on he was initially somewhat stunned until he felt some pressure on his neck area. Without thinking he flared his wings to push whatever was on him away. At the same time shouting “WAKE!!” in case there were other things like this stalking the sleeping girls.

He had been knocked to his hands and knees during the initial impact. Moving his head around he could see a long hairy and thin leg wrapped over his arm, and then he completely freaked out. Without any thought to the consequences he started trying to shake what he assumed was a ridiculously large spider off his back. After about a single second when it didn’t come off he turned, ran, and jumped off the land bridge towards the stream. As he jumped off it had let go of him, but it was too late the momentum carried both Endrian and his attacker over the edge of the natural land bridge.

They hit the water it was shockingly cold, it also wasn’t very deep and it did very little to slow their momentum before they hit the bottom and bounced up. Endrian’s head was briefly submerged and when he broke the surface again he turned to find where his attacker was. Unfortunately he had lost the light stone when he hit the bottom and couldn’t see very well. Flexing his wings quickly there was a slight twinge in his right wing that felt like a bad bruise but other than that everything was fine. There was no resistance when he did that so it was safe to assume it wasn’t on his back any more. Standing up in the thigh deep water he still had his shield and spear so he got into a defensive stance. Creeping his way out of the stream and looking around he moved back to the location they had climbed up before.

At the same time he heard some of the girls shriek. Not seeing any threats where he was he quickly held his spear in his shield hand and one handedly climbed back up. When he got up there he found the girls had surrounded something up there as well. He couldn’t get a good look at it until he got closer. What he saw was a spider like beast. It’s body structure was remarkably similar to the brown recluse spider from his previous world except for the fact that it was a meter long from fangs to the end of it’s abdomen. The girls had done well, one side of the legs and been hacked off. There were a couple of arrows that had pierced the upper part of the abdomen more than likely hitting it’s heart.

Endrian was thoroughly creeped out. He didn’t have a phobia of spiders per say, but his feelings towards them was probably only a step or two away from full blown phobia. The girls seeing him come over asked what had happened. After explaining everything Elva went over and examined his neck but she couldn’t find any puncture wounds so she felt relieved. Endrian knew from his reading that this beast was called a Parrena. These spiders were usually solitary and would only mate once a year for about a month at a time. So they just happened to have the bad luck to run into a Parrena nest during their mating season. Most animals knew to stay clear of these areas because the female would often live in a single location permanently with males coming and going as they would.

Elva was slightly disappointed because the poison glands of these creatures could be sold for a good price. Unfortunately they didn’t have anything to store the venom sacs with. The Parrena itself wasn’t particularly dangerous but they were hard to find. They were also very crafty and would never show themselves when more dangerous groups came around their territory. These reasons were why the venom sacs were worth a good amount of money. Still they could sell the location to some hunter groups later and possibly make a few coins for the family.

Other than this incident the rest of the night went by smoothly. Endrian, however, had a hard time sleeping and as soon as he would start to drop off he would wake up with a start. After a few times of just getting to sleep and then waking up, because he thought he felt a spider on him, made him give up on sleeping. So he decided to see if he could find that cat creature again. However, he never found the cat like creature again and couldn’t even find any traces of it either, which was disappointing as well. Overall he had a crappy night. So the next morning he was grumpy and irritable. This also left the girls at a loss for how to deal with him. If they said something that was against what he wanted to do he would automatically twist it around on them asking if he was too inferior to do whatever task he was going to do. Etopha had said to him that it was a given that he was inferior. She said that one time and when she said this because of his irritable mood he snapped. Moving quickly he shoulder checked her while his tail wrapping around her ankle. Before she knew what hit her she was looking up at him from the flat of her back with a spear pressed against her throat. These were the same moves that Endrian had used in practice with the others. Etopha, though, had never seen him use it before because of she had been training with her mother for the past two years. She had rarely seen him during this time except when eating. While these moves weren’t anything new to Elva or Zakoya it was the first time they had seen that level of ferocity.

After that incident all the girls just left him alone. Endrian was also rather upset with himself for letting the situation and the taunting of a child goad him like this. This made him realize that there was a serious problem with his mentality right now. This made him decide to just stay in the cave and watch over Ethese while he figured things out.

He decided to meditate and try to calm his surging emotions. As he started his meditation he was examining his responses and actions. Through this examination he realized that his emotions felt much more pronounced for some reason. Thinking to here he thought this was the first time he had stayed in the form for such a long time, and the last time he was in this form for any length of time he had freaked out then too. So that means that either his emotions run stronger or his higher brain functions don’t work as well while in his fighting form. More instinct and emotion than thought and control. This then lead him to his next question which was: is it like this because he was young, male, or were there other factors. Unfortunately for him he didn’t have enough information to even make a guess right now.

When he had finally calmed himself down he went and apologized to the girls and specifically Etopha for letting his emotions get the better of him. The girls were just happy that he was back to his old self or at least closer to his old self. So they accepted his apology with little anger.

After that they spent the day scouting the crash site. Setting some traps and collecting food, both foraged fruits and vegetables as well as some animals that they had hunted. Endrian and one of the girls had to always stay at the site to watch over Ethese. When they brought back things they would often show them to Endrian to make sure that they got something edible. If he didn’t know what it was they discarded it. They had also successfully hunted a aplefrean. This was a deer like creature that had a coat that could change colors to blend in with the surroundings. It was a highly prized catch. When they brought it back Endrian helped them field dress it so that they could cook and store the meat.

After lunch they finished cleaning the hide as best they could and then the girls set out once again to go scout the ship. They hadn’t looked for any survivors yet but this trip they were going to go take a look in the ship and see if there was anyone they could save. They had food, shelter and a relatively secure location. It was time to help others if they could. Endrian and Zakoya stayed at camp this time while the rest went out.

Elva and the other girls had made this trip multiple times just today as they scouted the area for dangerous or predatory animals. As well as to hunt for food and see if there was any movement at the ship. They hadn’t seen any movement earlier and it had been eerily quiet every time they had come by. Coming to the edge of the treeline Elva signaled everyone to halt. They took a moment to look and listen. This was to make sure everything was safe before stepping out into the open. Elva couldn’t hear anything so she looked at Lisyth and Etopha who both shook their heads no as well.

Double checking her weapons, she made sure the others were ready as well and then started to move out. Trusting her sisters to watch over her. As they moved forward towards the wreck Elva realized that she actually preferred it when Ender was with them. He would make decisions that he had put thought and consideration into, it also made him responsible for the results and it was honestly easier to just follow along when someone made decisions which had so far turned out to be very helpful. Getting rid of the stray thoughts Elva focused as they picked up the pace and started jogging closer. There was still no sounds or movements that could be seen or heard. The arched doorway that Zakoya had made was still there. It was left because Endrian had said it would let others get out if they wished and couldn’t manipulate wood.

Drawing closer they slowed their pace and listened. There was still no sounds coming from inside. However, the stench that was in the air was enough for them to gag. Panting and then taking a deep breath Elva looked inside the hold. There were dead bodies that she didn’t look at and there was gore splattered on the inside but there were no people that she could see. She did see that there were new hand and foot holds on the slanted floor other than the ones that were put there when they escaped. So she could assume that there were some people that got out. Realizing she was at the end of her breath she rushed out and started to pant heavily again. She was both happy and very worried. While she didn’t feel like she had the ability to dig through the corpses to see if anyone had survived there and to perform a count of the dead she was pretty sure that every living person that was able to, had left.

Unsure of what this meant she looked at the other two girls with her. They both had a worried expression on their face as well. Did they miss being rescued by running from the ship? Were they going to have to live out here on their own? Before they had a chance to really let their worries get the best of them Elva said “Let’s go back and talk with the others about this and see what they have to say.”

They quickly made their way back to the others and told them what had happened. Endrian looked down and was thinking. Going through the different scenarios but there was too many options and not enough information to give a clear picture. So he asked if any of the girls were skilled in tracking. Zakoya said she was and Elva said that she had some training in it as well. Endrian was pretty good at it as well though he hadn’t practiced it for a few years even before he came to this new life. Still he felt it best to go along to see, after all three sets of trained eyes are better than two or untrained eyes damaging what you’re looking for. So the three of them made a trip back to the wrecked ship to have a look and see if there was anything that would let them know where the others had gone.