Viktor stood on a narrow woodland path his body stained with blood. It was muddy here he thought, the ground made soft by rain long past. Viktor didn't move his head as he didn't need to, but he still looked at the bodies at his feet.

One was a man in tattered peasants clothes, he currently had a gaping hole in the back of his head and was seeping blood into the soil.

The other male was more peculiar, not in appearance, however. No, he was quite average looking apart from being on the tall side. With brown hair and doe eyes, he had a very generic Hogenbachian appearance. No, it was in the man's manner that Viktor found the peculiarity. And yet, something about him had made Viktor break his stride for the first time in several days.

Viktor had been moving ever since his escape, never stopping, ever forward. He had been eating any animal that crossed his path, gaining mana from the consumption and his passive feeding off of that which was ambient, as such he soon found himself with enough mana to perform certain changes with his form.

He now stood at about six feet in height and each of his tentacles was now covered in a series of clear ceratin scales for added protection. They were also now barbed with a pointed tip of bone at the end of each and every one.

However, something about that man had made Viktor stop for the first time in days. He had been travelling in one direction, waiting until he found a road, his memory telling him that roads usually led somewhere. Except, when he had found one 3 days back and begun following it he had expected to find a city within hours or a day at most. Three days in and he was still walking, he didn't like roads they were long, boring and didn't seem to lead anywhere. It was frustrating.

Then just as he began to contemplate going back the way he had came and trying a different direction he heard it.

It had started out slow and methodical from ahead of him on the road, then it began to reach a crescendo of sound. The song evoked memories in Viktor that he didn't know existed. Memories of warmth, memories of safety.

Viktor had walked toward the voice in a sort of trance, not registering his surroundings and only barely being able to stop himself from rushing into the path and confronting the singer. The other man was tall with broad shoulders and seemed to be walking without a care in the world. Viktor just watched him, mesmerised by the familiar tune.

It was then that he heard movement from the woods in front of the singing boy and then sat and watched the fight that followed. Viktor was conflicted, part of him wanted to help the boy. Another wanted not to reveal his presence. He chose to wait and see.

It was the production of a weapon by the aggressors that finally made Viktor act, he wanted the boy alive. He needed to know about the mysterious song. And ask for directions.

It was then that Viktor came barreling out of the tree line in a blur of flesh and bone. Then, before anyone could even breathe he had stuck a barbed tentacle through the head of the leader. Ending his miserable life. Several more seconds then passed of tense staring before the other boys thought better of the situation and ran back the way they came. Viktor grinned internally, smiling at his own triumph. He looked down at the boy he had saved and found him half-naked and unconscious in the mud. Viktor sighed before looking around for somewhere to wait.

He scooped the boy up and began to scramble over to a clearing he remembered passing through some hours before. Soon after they arrived in the place of soft meadow grass and yellow flowers of Viktor's memory, it still held the trample marks of his passing.

Viktor lay the man on the ground and began to wait, experiencing a distinct amount of deja vu as he slapped the man into consciousness.

"Wh-where am I?" Sputtered Gregor as he rubbed his eyes, trying to get them to focus.

Viktor stopped himself for a second. Damnit all, I forgot I couldn't talk. Viktor let out a short stream of expletives at his own idiocy before taking action. Sure he could just send out emotions like he had before but that was inexact and many complex thoughts were often lost in translation. The plan he had thought of was much easier, plus Viktor had found that humans were more amicable when they weren't being borderline mind raped. It turned out his other 'plan' disturbed people even more.

"You are safe my friend, I got to you just in time." Gregor heard a many voices say, it sounded strange. Talking with an echoey tone as if many voices were all speaking at once. Gregor finally managed to get his eyes to focus and realised why.

Sitting in front of him was a truly terrifying beast. It was comprised entirely of fleshy, scaled tentacles that writhed and pulsated across its form, they were not however in an amorphous form. No, the tentacles had entwined together into humanoid limbs, these sprouted from an oval structure of tentacles that Gregor assumed was a fusion of head and torso. This was what Viktor referred to as his travelling form, he found it much easier to climb and vault rough terrain as a biped.

This, however, was not the part that horrified Gregor the most though. It was the fact that the beast was covered, all over its legs, arms and head/torso with toothed, salivating mouths. They all gnashed at once, some moaning and the others just laughing quietly. Viktor didn't notice the movement of his mouths, it was not something intentional. Instead, it was the manifestation of the conflicting personalities that had been thrust into his psyche, it seemed that when he was not in direct control of his non-essential functions they took a sort of creative license with his form.

Gregor gulped, he was terrified but he had read someplace that if you showed one of the monsters of the wild your fear they would exploit it. It also helped that he wasn't scared, Gregor Meintz scared... Never?

"What is it that you want?" Gregor asked, not noticing how much his voice was shaking until he had spoken. He scolded himself for not taking his own advice. All the mouths on Viktor smiled at once and Gregor knew he was fucked, they then spoke in a many-voiced manner that Gregor was sure would haunt his nightmares.

"I want you to sing for me. You have a beautiful voice." Gregor stared at the beast in disbelief before shaking his head and fainting once more. This was all a dream, he thought. I'll wake up tomorrow, next to the elder's wife and laugh at my overactive imagination. That's right, all a dream. He smiled as he slept. He wouldn't be smiling for long, however. This was not a dream.