I moved my hand slightly and the panther on my back didn't react. I wiggled my fingers and slowly pulled the bandoleer through my hand to get to the right pocket. I definitely felt very stupid for what I was about to do as I popped the pocket open and plucked out a vial of the most powerful magical ingredient I had ever encountered.

The panther had my upper arms pinned near my body, so I still had some movement with my lower arms. I needed to be careful, though. If I moved too fast or made too much noise, I would be dead before I knew it. I very carefully bent my arm at the elbow and my hand with the filled vial reached my shoulder. Unfortunately, it was the same shoulder that the panther was happily lapping my blood from.

I didn't try to move again for several minutes, then very carefully lifted my head from the puddle and moved it to the lip of the vial. The panther didn't react, so I slowly pulled the cork with my teeth and then froze as the panther stopped mid-lick and all its muscles tensed up. My lungs were screaming for air by this point and I had to wait for the smell from the vial do its work before I acted. Rushing would only get me killed quicker.

I very carefully tipped a few sprinkles of refined fungus powder out onto the ground and replaced the cork. I moved both my face and my hand with the vial away from the spot and waited. The panther on my back let out a rumbling growl beside my ear and I stopped moving from the clear warning. It shifted its weight and stepped off my upper arms to lean down past my head to sniff at the ground.

I saw a visible shiver ripple across the white fur and then the panther's tongue darted out to touch the sprinkles. The purr it let out was so loud that I had to ignore the pain it caused in my ear. There must have been some magic to the panther's voice, because it shouldn't be able to do that.

Thankfully, with most of its weight off of my body, I took a very long and shallow breath to slowly draw air into my lungs. It was greatly needed and my mind and body stopped protesting the lack of air that I had subjected it to.

The white panther's tongue licked the ground again and it didn't get as big of rush and the purr lessened. It stopped with the third lick and it let out a low growl. I stayed still, even when it used a paw and swiped my hand with the vial tightly gripped in it. I hissed a little as the claws stuck out a little and it swiped at my hand again. I still didn't let go, despite the furrows it slashed in the back of my hand.

The white panther moved its muzzle towards my face and bared its teeth as it growled. I didn't react, so it nudged my head with its own. I remained passive and let it hit me a couple of times. Its growl increased and it snapped its teeth right in front of my eyes, a clear threat.

“You need to get off of me. I can't move.” I said and then felt a large paw on the side of my head and then felt the panther put most of its weight on my head as it growled again. It also pushed my face partially back into the puddle. I held in my groan of pain at the pressure it was exerting and then it eased off and disappeared.

It swiped at my hand again and I hissed at the repeated damage. The blood flowed out and the panther licked it, since it was right there. It didn't purr, which was a huge improvement in my eyes. Thanks to it tasting something so much better than my blood, I was sure that me being eaten was definitely off of the creature's mind now.

I lifted my head slightly, now that the paw wasn't holding my head down. “Back off.” I said and it growled. “I can't open it again with only one hand.” I lied and it didn't detect it, which was a huge relief.

It moved down to open its mouth, I assumed to take it, so I moved my hand to cover it completely. It growled and placed its mouth onto my hand and slowly closed it to put pressure on my fingers.

“If you take my hand, I can't give you any more. If you eat it and the bottle, you won't taste it at all and it'll be a complete waste.”

The panther growled and closed its jaws slightly to let me feel the sharp teeth. It did not like me denying it what it wanted. At all. I heard a finger snap and felt one of the bottom teeth dislodge one of the little bones in my wrist.

“That's not helping.” I said in a stern voice and the growl went louder. “Let. Me. Go.” I ordered and it growled a little more, then it opened its mouth and lifted its head to look at my face. “Move over.”

It glared at me, as if I was beneath it. I had seen similar looks on the people in the village when I was younger and also from the students in the academy, so I was used to it and didn't react. It huffed and then stepped off of my calves as it moved to stand right beside my body.

I groaned in relief before I could stop myself, because all of that weight was gone from holding me down. The creature growled at me and I rolled onto my side and held my good hand up in a clear surrender gesture.

“I know that's annoying. I couldn't help it.” I said and took a deep breath for the first time in a while. “Good god, that hurt.” I tenderly touched my very damaged and bleeding hand.

The white panther growled and lifted a paw.

“Yes, just a second.” I said, a bit angrily, then I sighed and looked around for something flat. I saw a nice rock near my bandoleer and pointed to it, then did my best to crawl and not make any sudden moves. If it thought I was leaving, I would be dead and that would be that. I wiped at the rock for a second with my good hand, reached for my bandoleer and tied it around my waist, and used the cleaning solution to pour a few drops onto the rock.

It was cleaned instantly and I used some number ten potion to raise the sides slightly and made a bowl. The creature growled at me and I did my best to not sigh or roll my eyes at it, because I was sure that would earn me a swat with its claws. It's magically charged claws, now that I got a good look at them.

“I'm making it better, all right?” I asked and it didn't react. I used some of the puddle water and added it to the rock bowl, then cleaned it with a drop of solution. I used the heating spell and the water warmed up significantly, so I popped the cork on the vial of fungus powder and sprinkled a little bit in. The white panther growled and I chuckled.

“I'm not wasting it, trust me.” I said and had a neat idea. I added a few drops of my catalyst to it, just for that extra kick, and added a touch of my magic. That got a lot of attention and I felt more than saw fifteen presences approach at a run. I wasn't the only one, because the white panther's hackles rose and it let out a low warning growl as its tail stiffened and puffed out. I somehow knew that it wasn't directed at me.

The black panthers appeared in front of us and a few of them were pacing back and forth. They knew something good was near them and now that they were close enough, they could smell my fresh blood. One of them let out a probing growl and the white panther turned to glare at them and counter-growled. The black panther huffed and paced a bit more.

The white panther turned to glare at me and I understood. I was running out of time and I better deliver something good. I wished I had some meat to add to my impromptu fungus broth and refrained from adding any of my own. I glanced around to see if there was anything, and saw a few tubers and tiny mushrooms at the base of one of the trees. I pointed and the panthers all looked over at it.

With them slightly distracted, I used the wound cleaning solution on my hand and felt a cool relief from the burning. I drank a healing potion and the bleeding stopped and the bones popped back into place. All of the claw and teeth wounds were still there, however. Magical wounds were very hard to heal.

I picked up the odd-shaped bowl and walked over to the tree, then prepped the ingredients and the mushrooms to add to the bowl that was simmering nicely.

It was kind of funny that I was making a vegetable stew in the middle of the marsh and surrounded by lethal predators. I didn't laugh, just in case the sound set them all off and made them ignore the white panther to chew on me instead. I heard a rustling sound nearby and turned to look at the very unfortunate near-rabbit that just so happened to hop into view.

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You have a choice to make. Will it be beneficial or a hindrance?

A) Wait. B) Attack the panthers. C) Run. D) Kill the rabbit. E) Yell. F) Climb the tree. G) Die.

Yeah, okay. I thought with a chuckle. I'm barely hurt right now, so I'm way ahead where I thought I could be. I looked at the options and smiled. I did say that I wished I had some meat for the broth, so I'll choose D.

_______________

I had my knife out cutting ingredients already, so I charged it instantly and threw it at the unsuspecting near-rabbit. It let out a squeal as it was pinned to the ground and I dashed over to it and quickly snapped its neck to kill it. None of the panthers reacted at all, which was surprising. None of them tried to steal the kill, either.

I brought the carcass back over to the tree and then gutted and skinned it expertly. As I did so, I inadvertently garnered a lot more attention. Well, the entrails and bloody near-rabbit did, actually. I looked at the white panther and motioned to the entrails and then the black panthers. It let out a huff, which was pretty much it saying it didn't care, so I gathered them up and tossed the entrails at the black panthers.

After a short tussle between a couple of them, one of the females had a bloody muzzle and was licking its chops. I nodded at her and used some more number ten potion to the bowl to make it deeper, then cut one of the vines around the tree to get more liquid. All of the panthers watched me, as if I was the most fascinating thing in the world, and I guessed that I was. They probably hadn't seen anyone like me before, not for long and still alive, anyway.

I'm their food cooking food for them. I thought with a chuckle. Yep, this is pretty much the stupidest thing I've ever done.

I quickly set up a little fire and put the rabbit on a spit, then lit the fire. Nearly all the panthers let out startled yelps and growls, which made me laugh. I clamped my mouth shut, in case my laugh did piss them off, and increased the heat of the fire and also the heat of the rabbit. It was thoroughly cooked a very short time later, so I stripped it down into nice chunks, treated it with a quick rub of fungus powder, and added the meat to the deep bowl made of rock.

I placed it on the fire and stirred the thick stew with a stick, cleaned of course, and let it simmer. The smell was making me hungry, and that was saying something, considering the situation I was in. I glanced around and saw that some of the panthers were literally drooling, especially the female that had eaten the entrails. I couldn't give it to them, because I was actually buying myself time with the big one that seemed to be in charge. The white panther stood nearby as if guarding me.

When the stew was done, I slowly stood and extinguished the flames, used the cooling charm on the deep rock bowl and not the stew, and picked it up. I walked over to the white panther and knelt as I placed the large bowl of specially prepared near-rabbit stew with fungus powder and magic infusion in front of it.

“Your highness.” I said, without traces of a sarcastic tone in my voice. I knew who was running the place and I wasn't going to call that into question, not when it could easily kill me. I slowly backed away and ducked my head in clear submission.

The white panther let out a little huff and slowly bent down to the edge of the bowl. Its eyes bored into mine and I didn't divert my gaze, because that would be a death sentence as well. You never, ever take your eyes off of a predator when its locked onto you, unless you are running for your life.

The creature's tongue darted out of its barely opened mouth and it lapped at the broth. Its body stiffened as soon as its tongue touched the liquid and then it purred very loudly when the broth entered its mouth. In the next second, its muzzle was buried into the deep rock bowl. Broth and ingredients splashed out of the sides as it desperately tried to eat as much of the meat as it could.

I refrained from telling it to take its time, mainly because I didn't want to get its attention while it was in a feeding frenzy. Its magic flared and all four sets of claws dug into the ground as it tried to somehow get deeper into the bowl, as if that could get the food into its mouth faster. I didn't laugh, though. I did not want its attention right now.

After a couple minutes, the white panther shivered and its fur rippled, then it lifted its head to look right at me. I didn't move, or breathe, or show any inclination to do either. It squinted its eyes at me for a few seconds, then it let out a huff and turned away.

The other panthers were suddenly there and a rolling fight broke out over the bits and pieces that had been splashed out of the bowl. A few had been smart and lapped at the spilled broth, which gave them a bit of an upper hand, then they fought for the extra chunks, too.

I was not going to miss this opportunity and carefully backed up away from the scuffle, reached the thick underbrush nearby, and then slunk away. Once I had crawled far enough away from the area, I ran.

I ran and ran and ran.