DAY 40 Monday, 8:37, Forest

The bull had taken several hours to track down, Shepherding a beast four times my own size was a terrifying experience, but luckily the bull was fairly docile, if skittish.

"Hey, it's okay." I said softly as I eased towards it, reaching for the short rope dangling from its harness. Just as I was about to grab it the bull snorted and tossed his head. The curve of his horn caught me in the side and sent me stumbling back.

"Oh, come on."

Thankfully the bull didn't go far, it just had a very short attention span and didn't like me getting close to it. After a few more tries I gave up on the rope, I didn't want to risk lunging for it and spooking the bull. Either of his horns could impale me. He was big enough to squash me.

I changed tack and instead tried to steer it from behind, trying to get it to walk away from me in the right direction. The bull wasn't happy with that, and kept turning to keep an eye on me. The result was a very janky zigzag across the field that covered very little distance with an incredible amount of running back and forth.

Finally the bull stopped, and I hesitated. Had it finally tired out? Gracefully I eased closer, at an angle where it could keep an eye on me.

"Easy there, buddy. That's good."

One more step and the rope was almost in reach. Then the bull's tail lifted and it farted before walking away again.

"This is supposed to be easy!"

I stomped off a bit and wondered if it was even worth wasting any more time on this one. A lasso might work, but it could also enrage the thing. As one last effort before finding something else to do, I looked around. There wasn't much out here, just a normal bit of nondescript countryside.

"Yeah, screw it." I turned and started walking away, this wasn't worth wasting any more time on. It wasn't productive or even fun. I could smell some berry bushes not too far away, they'd make a good snack.

"Huh." I detoured towards the berries, looking at the bush for a few seconds. Then I reached down and uprooted the entire plant.

"Hey, dumbass, you hungry?" I waved the bush in front of the bull and it sniffed and walked towards me.

"Oh yeah, come on."

Whenever it looked like the bull was starting to lose interest or get agitated I'd let it take a bite, but otherwise tried to stay a step or two out of reach. Somehow this lasted all the way to the farm, to the bemusement of the farmer. Of course the bull listened to him when he whistled and walked it back into the pen.

I waited until he got the bull situated and then he looked around and then we stared at each other. Once it became awkwardly long he cleared his throat.

"Hello? Are you here, god?"

"It's just me."

"Oh. Okay."

"About the payment?" I made a vague motion with my hands. I hadn't considered that they may not want to pay. At what point did requesting payment turn into armed robbery when you were carrying around a bow?

"Oh, right, just let me grab it."

He went into the house and emerged with a handful of silver, which he counted out before handing over.

After doing some foraging for a snack I was now preparing to hunt down the coyotes. I was first doing another cycle of rage and meditation, and as I watched the skill tracker rolled over to Meditation rank 10. I would now regain 5 mana every 25 seconds, a whopping 5 second difference.

Refreshed, I hopped up and readied my bow. It was a fair distance to the chicken farm and rather than walking, I sneaked. Without the rush of imminent danger I quickly realized how tiring it was to try to walk silently, and how much focus it took to avoid stepping on twigs and loose rocks. Thankfully stamina was the easiest attribute to recover, and pausing occasionally to look and listen was enough to let it regenerate.

I received no shortage of odd looks on the road as I sneaked along beside it. The key to improvement is being willing to look silly.

Although it took twice as long, by the time I reached the farm I had gained a few extra ranks in Stealth. While it was nice that my skills improved with use, it also meant there were likely many skills I couldn’t even start training until someone taught me. Like spells, how did they work? I had tried focusing on my mana and making the same gestures I had seen others use, but nothing had happened.

I relaxed as I approached the farm. Several people were in the yard, standing around a bloody mess of feathers on the ground.

“Hello.” I called, waving. “I’m here for the coyote bounty.”

“It’s about time. Where's your god?"

"It's just me."

"Oh. Well the damn things have nearly emptied the coop. Clever too. Dug under the fence, avoided all the traps, killed our dog too.”

“Shouldn’t be too much trouble to track them down.” The trail was clear. The pack of coyotes had a grand time tearing the chickens apart, and then fled back into the tree line. However once I crossed from the soft dirt of the farm the tracks became a lot more scarce. The harder ground and tall grass hid many of the signs, so I was forced to rely on scent. Still, I kept an eye on the ground, trying to gain experience on my Tracking skill.

Given the state of the traps I saw, I wasn’t surprised. Anything with a nose and half a brain would avoid them, stinking of oil and rust and placed out in the open. Still, and this might just be my paranoia making me second guess everything, why would these people be using traps that had no chance of catching the coyotes? Was this just an easy questline specifically intended for players?

They certainly smelled like normal coyotes. A nagging suspicion had made me wonder what if something extraordinary had happened here, like the Barghest. I still hadn’t come up with an explanation for that, other than that it had appeared at roughly the same time I had.

I slowed to a stop, lost in thought. Same time the miners in southpoint had broken through into the cave system and Shrya had gotten trapped. Surely that wasn't just a coincidence, with strange events and dangerous creatures all appearing at the same times, in places they shouldn’t be. For that matter, why had Shrya been so civilized compared to the other one, Zhras? Why had the Barghest been seeking out humans rather than the abundant wildlife? Could we all be connected, tied together by something? I would need to go ask Shrya some more questions if she hadn’t left yet.

That thought lead me to one horrible idea. What if she were the same as me, trapped inside some monster’s body? What if the Barghest had been as well, except not even able to talk? I needed to catch these coyotes fast, get those books, and go check if I had walked away from someone in the exact same situation as me.

With more purpose I continued on. The trail quickly took me towards a section of fairly thick undergrowth, with many trails crossing it. They frequented this place, might be here right now. Readying an arrow, I crouched down and scanned the area with all my senses. They noticed me at the same time I noticed them. Four sets of eyes appeared in the bushes ahead, the shifting wind brought me the scent of two more creeping around behind me.

I activated [Beastial Rage] and drew my arrow, aiming at the group in front of me. My arrow caught them off guard, skewering one right through the chest. The others started yipping and barking, scattering. I nocked another arrow, but couldn’t get a clear shot. A rustle of brush behind me was all the warning I got, and I spun and shot again as one was lunging. It veered off, bleeding heavily from the broadhead through its lung.

The commotion was drawing more out from the surrounding areas, at least eight, or maybe ten. They had me surrounded, and would rush at me when my back was turned. One bit my leg and got an arrow right through the eye, another jumped for my throat but tore my pack instead before running back to the bushes. Three rushed me at the same time and my shot went wild, they were smaller than me, but they tripped me and dragged me to the ground. I let go of the bow and stabbed one in the neck with my knife, but lost my grip when it jerked away. Another clamped down on my arm, so I dragged it closer and bit into its neck to rip out a chunk of my own. The third was still gnawing on my bow, which broke with a sharp crack and whipped it in the face before I kicked it away from me.

I rolled to my feet, grabbing my knife from the dead one and spinning as the other four charged in. Crouched low, knife ready, I screamed at them in defiance and rage. I was not going to die today. The first got a slash across the snout as I pivoted to use my pack to block another. One clamped onto my leg so I slammed my fist down right on its skull, which ripped it off my leg but took a chunk of flesh with it. I fell and the last one, bigger than the others jumped onto my chest, teeth coming right for my neck. Tucking my chin I covered my head and kicked at it. Its teeth clamped on my hand, and one thought cut through the panic as I tried to jerk my hand out and something snagged. My ring was on that hand. Even though I wanted to get my hand out of its mouth, I couldn’t risk the chance that it might pull the ring off. Instead I grabbed its tongue with my claws and wrapped my legs around its neck. My knife was gone somewhere. With my free hand I grabbed its snout and tried to pull its jaws open. The coyote went into a desperate frenzy as I choked it with my legs, all the while its teeth were ripping at my left hand. Slowly, far too slowly, its struggles weakened and then stopped. When I was sure it was dead I flopped back.

The one that had bitten my leg was dead, my knife sticking out of its neck and I had no idea how that had happened. The one with the slashed snout must have fled. I was exhausted, trembling, my hand and leg bleeding freely. In the corner of my eye something was flashing red at me, I was below 10% health and falling fast from the bleeding. The rage was the only reason I was still alive. My mana was just as low, I wouldn’t be able to maintain the buff for much longer. Several bleeding debuff icons were counting down to my death.

Grabbing the closest body with my good hand I yanked it closer and started to eat. I needed something, anything, to keep me alive. The icon for [Well Fed] appeared, but it only slowed the bleeding. One bleeding icon flickered out, but the other was still there. I lunged for the rest of the bodies, shoving meat and fur into my mouth as fast as I could, something crunched and energy flooded into me. That large coyote had grown a core. A creeping cold sensation fought with the rush of warmth from my core. I was at 2% health remaining when the last bleeding icon vanished. My mana was about to run out and I had no idea if I would die if my extra health from rage disappeared. I flopped down desperately into the meditation pose. I hadn’t tried this before while trying to keep the buff active, but I was praying that it would work.

I watched as my dwindling mana and slowly cycling mediation raced against the gradual health recovery. In agony, my mana ran out and the rage faded. The pain intensified, I was at 1% health, I was alive. A new icon appeared [Near Death: -50% to maximum stamina. Rest to recover.]

Sobbing in relief, I sat there as the worst of my wounds slowly healed. By the time [Well Fed] ended I had healed up to 110 of 130 health. Quite a bit of the skin on my left hand was new and fresh, but thankfully I hadn’t lost any fingers. I stayed meditating until my mana was fully recovered. That fight had turned against me very fast.

Even though my stats had recovered, I was exhausted and sore. Slowly I stood up and looked around. My bow was trashed, my pack was falling apart, my clothes were torn and bloodied. I retrieved my knife and then started collecting coyote tails and recovering arrows. I ended up with nine tails, the last coyote having fled and I was too tired to chase it. I had to do some emergency repairs to put my pack back together.

My bow wasn’t worth salvaging so I just left it there. Slowly I walked back to the chicken farm.

The people all stopped what they were doing and stared at me as I emerged from the trees, covered in blood, clutching a bundle of tails. I dropped them on the ground and then sat down, breathing hard.

“What happened to you?”

“Killed nine. One got away.”

“Oh, well that’s good to hear. If you don’t mind me saying so, maybe you should get some armour if you plan to do more fighting.”

“That’s a good idea.” I laid my head down and covered my eyes. “Just leave the money right there, I’m going to lay here for a while.”