.....This was bad. This was very very bad.

Long story short, we didn't make it back in time to our cave.

It was completely dark in the forest, and Greenie and I were stuck out here, surrounded by trees and bushes that had faded away into black splotches, then into nothingness as the night came upon us.

Although Greenie could see in the dark, he was useless at this point. The overwhelming fear rolling off of him in waves was starting to affect me, tinging my own emotions with a tint of fear.

I'd had to fly off him when his body started shaking too much from the fear and lingering cold of the cave for me, making me unable to keep a firm grip on his shoulder without hurting him.

Right now, I was leaning against his body, trying to get my bearings. If I didn't lean against him, I might lose him. Greenie crouched by the nearest tree, hunched over and rocking back and forth on his knees.

What should I do. Swishing my wings against his side didn't work, and the noises of strange creatures around us wasn't helping me keep my cool.

If I was by myself, it might have been a different story. I could just fly up as high as I could onto a tree branch and sleep there for the night.

But if a snake like the one we'd seen before was in the tree I roosted in....

Nevermind. Greenie's cave was the best place in the world for protection. At least there, though it was dark, there was only one place to exit and enter.

Here, anything could come at us from any angle. From above, below, around, anything could happen.

I need information. To get information, I needed to see!

Maybe Appraisal would work. I needed it to work. PLease work!

[Appraisal has failed]

『Appraisal』! I use it in the direction of what I think is a tree. If it works on the tree, I can use it on everything else around me and "see".

What! It worked in the ice cavern, why not now?

What about the ground? In the ice cavern, it had displayed {Cavern Ground} when I used appraisal on it.

『Appraisal』!

[Appraisal has failed]

Not even the ground!?

[Appraisal has failed]

Looking around in every direction possible, I used Appraisal, with no results.

What a faulty second life. How could Appraisal be glitchy??!

I could hear something in the distance.

Awooooooo!

The mournful sound was making me want to cry. If those sounds started drawing closer...

We can't stay on the ground like this.

A burning bear crashes into the clearing, growling in pain. The red blood it sheds from the large bite marks and cuts, down its back, to stream down in rivulets to stain the dark ground an even darker shade of black, shows that it's near death. Thanks to the bear becoming a living torch, I could see again, standing a good distance away from the bear while Greenie.....

....ran away. The darkness quickly swallows him up as he runs off like a scared animal, deeper into the woods, towards what I think was the general direction of our cave.

Seriously?

He could be running with no destination in mind. The fear was driving him to run, I knew, the ingrained goblin instinct trying to keep him alive.

Still.

Seriously??

What happened to our master-pet bond..

The bear started to show the whites of its eyes as it growled in pain, trying to get back up and move with its forelegs, but collapsing to the ground instead.

GROOOAAR!

It roars its anger into the night sky above, knowing it's about to reach the end of the line.

Now that bear was massive, larger and more muscular than any bear I'd seen in my past life. What could set it on fire like this? Was it humans? If it was, I wanted to talk to them!

No, that's not right.

I don't want to talk to them.

I want to follow them home and eat their food! Yep, that was it.

Awrooooo!

That's my cue to fly into a safer position. Greenie might have done me a service by running away. Now I could fly up into the tree and spectate what was about to happen.

『Fly』!

My trusty wings take me up into the air, onto a long branch that juts out of the nearest leafy tree, right above where the bear had collapsed.

It doesn't notice me. Since most of my body was black, it worked as a perfect camouflage in the night. I use one wing to cover the only exception, the ruffle of white around my neck.

The howls draw closer, and a wolf just as massive as the bear leaps into the clearing. It too, was on fire!

The battle between these two must have been a battle for the ages. Both huge, both monsters in their own right, bearing the criss cross of battle scars to prove it. The bear's thick neck and heavy bearing belied the power it had, even injured, as it dragged itself, (On fire at the same time!) across the forest floor, away from the wolf.

It was too late for the bear.

The victor was already decided. Circling around it once, the wolf howls its victory with a long, reverberating sound that makes the branch I sit on shake.

My eyes squinted at the clearing, where it's so much brighter now, making it hard to see while my eyes were adjusting.

The wolf. It wasn't in pain from the flames dancing on its back. There was no howl of pain from the fire it was being burned with.

While the sharp smells of singed fur and flesh, smoked from the bear, no thick, burning smoke arose from the wolf. If there was, it was harder to see under the bright flames that continue to flourish atop the wolf's silver fur. Crackling red and orange fire sparked off in waves off of its pelt, and it bared sharp white canines at the bear.

The massive wolf only had one eye, the other missing with only a deep white scar cutting through where his left eye had been.

That single eye glinted ferociously,in the flaming light it lit itself up with, a starving predator who'd found his prey.

『Appraisal』

{Elemental Fire Wolf King: A rare species of wolf.}

{Ironwood Bear King: Named after the Ironwood trees it subsists upon.}

I stare at the information panels popping up before me, resisting the urge to pluck out my feathers in disgust.

That was it? Only this for information?

My trust in the Appraisal skill was falling lower and lower. There wasn't much to go on here, no strengths and weaknesses, habitats, foods the animals liked to eat.

What was so special about this Appraisal skill?

It was trash.

Blood gushes everywhere as the wolf rips out the throat of the bear with strong jaws.

Now I know what burning blood smelled like. It's a harsh, sharp scent that sticks in your throat, making it hard to breathe.

With its throat ripped out, the bear was dead, leaving behind a pile of bloody, burned fur and meat.

I hope the wolf leaves some scraps for me. If Greenie survives this night, which I think he might with that luck skill, that bear could become our breakfast.

Other wolves with grey pelts, not flaming, leap into the clearing, smaller than the Wolf King but still bigger than Greenie. They rip and tear into the bear, making short work of it as they savagely take it apart, feeding. Watching over them, the Wolf King stands guard, muzzle dripping with blood.

Noooo! My breakfaast!

Why were there so many of them!!

If ravens could cry, I would be bawling in tears right now. All that precious food!

I wanted me some bear meat!

---

While the raven hops around on the branch above the proceedings, wings flapping in distress, it doesn't notice the Wolf King's sharp one-eyed glance up at it.