Morning came and peace returned to the village. The earth surrounding the bonfire was stained with blood, bits of flesh and organs decorated the place of the feast. Orou saw beastmen walking around the village like nothing had happened, they seemed to not be bothered by the lack of sleep, in fact, they looked invigorated and stronger than before. He overheard a conversation next to him, the beastmen talking about common affairs, not bringing up anything relating to what happened last night.

Orou stealthily moved behind buildings, darting between empty spaces when he could, trying his best not to get noticed. When a beastman turned his back to Orou, he used his fastest speed to move behind cover. As usual, the waves inside of his body erupted and helped Orou cross the distance faster, and that was when he noticed something had changed. Previously, the waves were like a torrent, rushing to every spot of his body, violently pushing his body forward. This time, the waves resembled a tsunami, rampaging inside of his body and battering it in the process. He launched forwards like an arrow and not able to stop himself, he rushed past several buildings, desperately trying stop before he gets noticed.

The waves retreated and Orou’s body stopped in place. He heaved a sigh of relief and looked around, hoping that no one saw him. Orou’s head poked around the building and saw that not only did they not notice, they had stopped what they were doing, all of them were facing east, staring at something. Most of them had conflicted expressions on their faces, some having pitying expressions, others, excitement on their faces. Deciding to figure out the reason behind this sudden change later, he started to slither toward the spot where they were staring, wanting to get a closer look at what they were looking at.

“No, no, please, don’t leave me here. Someone must be trying to frame me, let me go and I’ll ensure you have bright futures in front of you. I swear, I’m not feral, really, I’m not.” A frantic voice was shouting, the volume of the shouts gradually increasing, the panic in his voice evident. Slithering a bit closer, Orou saw a beastman resembling an ape held by two more beastmen, also of the ape descent. The two ape beastmen were clad in plate mail, their metal gauntlets tightly clasping the unarmored ape’s hand, preventing him from escaping.

The beastman continued to scream and shout in terror, but the hands holding him didn’t budge. They threw the beastman through the gate and into the village, his body stumbling and falling face first into the dirt. He scrambled to get up and wanted to rush out of the village, but his already battered face encountered a gray barrier, preventing him from passing through the gate. His fists thudded heavily against the barrier, but his fists couldn’t affect the barrier.

The two beastman clad in heavy armor turned around to leave, not sparing the ape beastman a single glance. His teary eyes followed their footsteps, all the way until they could no longer be seen. A large hand clapped him on the shoulder and the ape turned around, face to face with the imposing lion beastman from the night before.

“It’s going to be alright. What’s your name child?” The once imposing voice had a warmth to it that was difficult to describe, almost like looking at his past self.

“My name is Grizz, old man,” Grizz replied with defiance in his voice, his eyes showing a mixture of respect and disgust for this beastman.

“You may call me Vaar. I shall pay your disrespect no mind, for I was once in the same situation myself. Even if you deny it now, you will soon learn to accept your feral side and break free of the chains that bind you.” Vaar spoke with authority in his voice, his hand once more clasping his shoulder and looking him straight in the eye.

“You’re wrong old man, I’ve never been feral and will never become feral. I’ll return back and prove them wrong, somehow.” Grizz shied away from Vaar’s gaze. Moving a bit back, he said his piece with determination, fully confident in upholding what he said. Many of the beastman laughed and started returning back to their usual tasks.

“All of us were like you at the beginning, Aria, show him to his lodgings and show him around until he learns where what is.” Vaar laughed and beckoned over the white-furred beastman, Tjord’s wife. Aria happily obliged, dropping whatever she was doing and approached Grizz. He seemed a bit wary of her, but under Vaar’s heavy gaze he had no choice but to comply. Mumbling something to himself in dissatisfaction, he started to head deeper into the village

“This here is the village centre, we usually gather here at night to sing songs and drink wine, relaxing after a hard day of work.” Aria motioned over to the bloody campsite, cheerfully skipping forward and pointing out various buildings.

“Why is there so much blood there?” Grizz interrupted Aria introducing Vaar’s house and pointed toward the spot where the pile of corpses used to be. His face was a bit pale, most likely thinking about the various possibilities of what happened here.

“Don’t worry, it’s just the leftovers from yesterday’s sacrifice though I’m not sure why it’s named that. We like to call it the feast.” Aria’s expression didn’t change as she continued talking about this as if it was an everyday occurrence. Grizz’s silence prompted her to continued introducing various important buildings, but he was deep into his own thoughts, clearly not listening to what she was saying.

“This is where you will be staying, likely for the rest of your life.” Aria’s tone was remorse as she guided him to a wooden house near the wall. Maybe it was out of compassion or something else, but when Aria saw his expression of fear and bewilderment, she said a few more comforting words before leaving his to his own thoughts, reminding to look for her if he has any questions later.

As Grizz absentmindedly entered his new house, Orou looped to the back of his house, wanting to find out more about the new arrival. The house looked a bit older than the rest of the houses he had seen and it showed signs of previous inhibition. Orou saw two window slits to the sides of the building and after thinking about it for a solid few seconds, he stealthily stuck the side of the house and slowly started raising his head higher, cautiously listening for any noise coming from the house.

He felt vibrations coming from the house and he could make out that Grizz was walking in circles, most likely angrily stomping his feet. Orou slowly and carefully raised his head up to the window slit and peered in the house, only to find a pair of eyes staring back at him. A few seconds of awkward silence of both parties just staring at each other passed. Orou was confused on what to do, he couldn’t kill him fast enough to not raise an alarm, but he simply wasn’t reacting to Orou’s presence.

Instead of slowly backing away like Orou expected him to do, Grizz started approaching Orou, one of his hands raised to Orou’s eye level. He didn’t feel any hostile intent from Grizz, so he simply stood still, letting Grizz approach him. His footsteps became more confident the closer he approached Orou until eventually, he was standing right next to Orou. Grizz placed his hand outside of the window and on Orou’s head, softly stroking his head.

Orou was beyond confused at this point so he simply let Grizz stroke his head, wondering why he was doing this. At first, he thought that Grizz might be casting some sort of spell on him, but once he saw his actions in spirit sight, he was even more confused. No formation appeared in the air or on his hands and no spirits flew over to his position, Grizz was simply stroking his head.

After Grizz finished stroking Orou’s head, he placed his hands on Orou’s neck and started to lift Orou up with surprising strength. Strangely, Orou felt no need to resist him, after all, he meant Orou no ill intent. After exclaiming something about how huge Orou was, he finished placing Orou in the room and started to examine him.

“You poor thing, did the humans on the other side of the border to this to you?” Grizz looked at Orou’s neck, carefully inspecting the collar on his neck. The collar didn’t bother him on a day to day basis, so Orou had almost forgotten about it until this moment. Orou still harbored ill will towards this collar for making him experience so much pain, but he was out of human territory, so it didn’t matter as much to him.

Perhaps it was due to the pleasant smell the ape beastman had, but Orou decided to test something on a beastman that didn’t attack him on sight. Orou started casting the spell to heal Grizz’s bruised shoulder from when he was thrown into the village. Grizz didn’t notice anything until the soft light covered his shoulder and Grizz winced in pain, retreating a bit back from Orou. It was soon over and Orou tried to make himself look as non-threatening as possible by flickering his forked tongue, hoping Grizz wouldn’t attack him like the previous beastmen.

“I can see why they would want to collar you,” Grizz said to Orou as he looked at his miraculously cured shoulder. He ran his hand along Orou’s shiny scales as he continued examining his body for something. His hand soon reached Orou’s tail and Grizz seemed a bit disappointed by something, but soon after, he lifted his head and looked at Orou.

“You can stay with me big snake, at least I’ll have some decent company while looking for how to escape this cursed place,” Grizz stopped petting Orou, sat down on his bed and started swinging his legs back and forth, wondering about something or other. Orou was excited, his healing had actually worked, maybe he could use this beastman in order to gain access into the land of beastmen.

Since Grizz didn’t seem to mind his presence, Orou started to examine to the room around him. It wasn’t anything special nor did it have any fanciful decorations, just the bare necessities for a beastman to survive. Comparing this building to Dirk’s and Dawn’s houses, it seemed a bit cramped. Evidently, Grizz thought the same as Orou, he looked at the bed below him and the walls in front of him with scorn and displeasure.

Keeping a close eye on Grizz, Orou started to resume his practice of magic. Although the ball of light spell was simple, he never forgot to practice is a few times. He conjured up a ball of light in the air, but he forgot one thing, that is, Grizz. The sudden appearance of the blinding light surprised Grizz and he shouted in surprise while covering his eyes with his hands.

“No more bright light,” after calming down, he opened his eyes with difficulty and shouted at Orou. Frankly, Orou didn’t see the reason of panic. The ball of light brought him no discomfort and even when he cast it in Dawn’s presence, she didn’t seem to mind. Even if Grizz wanted it gone, Orou had no way of dispelling it, the magic was already in effect.

Grizz grumbled something and made peace with the ball of light floating in the air, looking more dissatisfied than he was before. Orou continued his display by healing himself a few times. He wasn’t injured in any way so there was no pain and the more he practiced forming the formation, the quicker he could assemble it in time of need.

As usual, the beam of light was too difficult for him. After making a hollow shape of a pillar, he tried his best to fill it up but the number of spirits he required was still beyond him. He tried making the outer shape smaller, but once the spirits were in place, it simply didn’t activate. He could fill it two-thirds of the way there, but it was still a long way before he could complete the formation.

Finally, his mind drifted over to the red ribbon Vaar had conjured in the air the night before. Excited about finally being able to try out a new spell, he started to will the spirits to move into position. The formation of the ribbon wasn’t anything special, it almost resembled a snake slithering through the air. He had to form a ribbon-like shape in the air, the spirits having to be connected all the way through the ribbon.

At first, it was quite difficult. He tried forming just the outline of the ribbon and then fill the middle with spirits, just like the beam of light spell, but it simply didn’t work. Then, he started to place the spirits one by one in their positions, but it would take him a long time before he could actually form the entire length of the ribbon. Finally, he got the idea of controlling three spirits of once and placing them horizontally, not having to worry about constructing the vertical layer one by one. It placed significantly more stress on his mind, but it was way faster and he didn’t have to split his attention as much.

Because it was his first time doing this, it still took him a considerable amount of time, but eventually, he completely finished the formation. Holding the entire thing in place for a few seconds, a red ribbon appeared in the air above Orou’s head. The red wasn’t as prominent as in Vaar’s ribbon, nor did it resemble blood in color, but it was something. The true issue came from the fact that it didn’t complete itself like the rest of the formations. When he cast the ball of light spell, the second he was done forming the three rings around a spirit, he didn’t have to hold it in place anymore and it materialized outside of his spirit vision, but this time he was still struggling to keep the spirits in place even after he had completed the formation.

He had seen the ribbon moving in the air and darting around beastmen, so how had Vaar done it? Instead of stopping the spirits in place, he willed them to move to his right. This was considerably harder than simply holding them in place, and when he finally succeeded in making it move, the entire formation went and collapsed, the spirits dispersing in various directions.

Grizz was watching Orou struggle with amusement, though his brow was a bit furrowed at the sight of the ribbon. Grizz started laughing at the sight of Orou’s spell collapsing and Orou shot him a deadly glare, still angry at his failure.

“That reminds me of my younger brother trying to cast spells. I never had the talent for magic and I could never sense mana, but all of us used to laugh and tease him about him being unable to conjure a single flame in the air. Despite that, he was still the most talented ape in our family in terms of magic.” Grizz started reminiscing about his past, his mood drastically taking a dip. Orou’s ears perked up when he mentioned something about magic and Orou would have loved to ask him what the formation for the flame spell was, but unfortunately, he couldn’t communicate with Grizz.

Looking out the window, he noticed that the sun was setting, and he realized that he was quite hungry. He had spent the entire night observing the feast and today, he spent his time practicing spells. His thoughts wandered over to Aria’s previous introduction and he recalled that she had mentioned something about a warehouse with food. He would have gone out hunting himself but when he was approaching the village, he noticed that the closer he approached, the fewer animals he could find. Likely, he would have to travel out several days out of the village, and if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to observe Grizz and the rest of the beastmen.

Figuring that this might be a good time to go and visit the warehouse, Orou started to slowly lower himself out of the window. Grizz didn’t say anything to Orou as he did and after looking to the right and making sure there was no one there, he got out of the building. He had circled the entire town both from the inside and the outside and he knew where the warehouse was, so getting there was no problem. The beastmen were as active as they were during the day, it almost seemed to Orou like they didn’t tire. Orou wondered if that was the result of the feast or something else as he slowly made his way over to the warehouse.

The unfortunate thing about the warehouse was that it had a single entrance by the front, and the front was exposed for everyone to see. From what Orou saw, the door was closed opening it would be quite a difficulty for Orou, seeing that he had no hands. Thinking about it for a moment, Orou decided to simply wait there and wait for someone to enter the warehouse and use the cover of darkness to sneak into the warehouse.

He had to wait a surprising amount of time before someone arrived next to the warehouse. He heard a clicking sound and some groaning which signalled him it was time for action. The sun had completely set and there wasn’t any magical lighting so Orou wasn’t worried about being noticed, though he still wasn’t sure if beastmen could see in the dark.

Slithering over to the front, he saw a large beastman with brown fur push the doors open. The beastman finally opened the door and stepped inside and that was when Orou acted. He slithered inside and went directly to the right in order to avoid being spotted by the beastman. Orou wasn’t sure what he expected, but it was a huge storage area housing food and numerous crates with different labels. Hiding behind one of the crates, he started to flicker his tongue and look around for any food to be found.

As the beastman continued walking forwards, Orou spotted a preserved carcass of a deer next to the beastman. He started to slowly slither behind the various boxes, slowly approaching the carcass. The thought of eating the beastman crossed his mind, they were completely alone and no one would know that Orou killed him, but he tossed the thought out of his mind. It was too risky and he wanted to remain in this village for a few more days, who knew if he had to kill a few beastmen towards the end of his stay, just to know what they tasted like.

The beastman was looking back and forth as he approached a crate, Orou could clearly tell the beastman was nervous about something, but he was unsure about what. After a few more seconds of checking his surroundings, the beastman started to slowly and carefully open the crate, and that’s when Orou decided to snatch the carcass. He dragged it behind some crates and fully opened his mouth, devouring it in less than a minute. He hated to do this, but Orou didn’t want to be spotted and if the beastman went out and locked the door, he would be stuck here for quite a while.

As Orou prepared to exit, he heard a clinking noise. Orou’s curiosity got the better of him as he turned around and started heading back towards the beastman. Hiding behind another pair of boxes, he saw the beastman taking out a bottle of some sorts. The bottle was housing some sort of red liquid and the beastman looked very paranoid about taking this bottle. He carefully placed it down and started taking out another, and then another. When he was placing down his 4th bottle, Orou decided to approach him closer and inspect the liquid. Besides that it was red and the bottle was corked, he couldn’t tell much more.

Maybe it was a foolish action, but Orou was determined to take a bottle and examine it closer, after all, learning new things was the entire reason he was in this village. The beastman was taking out another bottle when Orou decided to move. He quickly rushed to the spot where the beastman had placed down the bottles and he placed the entire bottle horizontally inside of his mouth, using his fangs to keep it from falling out. He didn’t stick around to see the beastman’s reaction, darting behind several crates and disappearing out of view.

Still holding the bottle in his mouth, he quickly escaped from the warehouse and started to head back to Grizz’s house. He didn’t see any more beastmen wandering the streets so he didn’t make much of an effort to hide, excitedly making his way back in order to experiment with the new thing he found.

Arriving back at Grizz’s house, he didn’t enter through the window slit but instead prompted to coil upon the ground and think about what to do with this bottle. He didn’t have to think much, he wanted to examine the liquid and the only way for Orou to get the liquid out of the bottle was to smash it. Without much hesitation, he raised himself up and simply dropped the bottle he was holding in his mouth. The glass shattered and the red liquid spilled everywhere, releasing an intoxicating smell. It smelled of sweet fruits and sugar, and although Orou primarily ate meat, his mouth salivated at the thought of tasting this.

He slowly lowered his head next to the puddle of liquid and he did what any reasonable snake would do, that is, taste the liquid. It was sweet beyond wildest imaginations, but Orou enjoyed it in its entirety. The rest of what happened was a haze, the only thing Orou remembered was a dream of colors, honey and nectar sweet beyond belief, a field filled with multicolored flowers. The dream was hazy and hard to remember, but it was as sweet as the liquid itself...