With some more physical evidence that there was something out there that had fairly large claws and the boldness to approach the tower that close, I had to tell them about it. My warning was heeded and the two went out back with me to check things out. Ruvyn looked perfectly calm when he saw the marks.

“Wyverns are known to nest around these higher areas. It is a bit peculiar that I see no other tracks around these. Looks like we will have to be a bit more mindful while cooking outdoors.”

Laura spoke up next.

“Yeah, we should. But there are some more tracks around there though,” she pointed to a large indent in the earth that lead back into the forest, ”It looks very big, I can’t tell much from this, but it has smaller grooves in it so it might be a large gathering of snakes, but that just doesn’t add up.”

Laura scratched her head in confusion but soon turned back to the claw marks.

“The wyvern is definitely trouble, but a few scent decoys should work well enough as deterrents. This is a bit weirder so just stay close to the tower if you are going around Brandon.”

I quickly add the detail about my encounter yesterday, seeing as this was quickly getting wrapped up with just some cautionary words.

“I also saw a luminous blue orb that looked a lot like an eye looking at the tower yesterday. Could it belong to whatever made this?”

“I don’t believe so. Those characteristics are typical of forest wisps. They tend to be non-entities in the natural world and poses no threat,” answered Ruvyn.

“But since I will be leaving very soon. I could work on some more security enchantments for the house. The barrier that teleported attacks away might not be enough. Maybe one to teleport the attacker could be good.”

Laura looked bewildered at the declaration before opening her eyes wide and grabbing Ruvyn into a tight embrace.

“Oh. Good luck honey. Just make it back here safe. Ok?”

“I will. And we are finally going to have a healthy baby.”

I was too temporarily perplexed until I realised that they had to guarantee their baby’s continued survival after birth.

Laura actually went out to hunt a wild ther that day to have a farewell party for Ruvyn. I tried to help and was actually able to with the absence of a counter that was too high.

The dinner was very nice with an amazing stew, but the couple’s own after party was not too cool for me. My sleep guardian was left back at the house and, even with thicker walls in the tower and me being in the fourth floor and they the third, the sounds were back.

So it was with mixed feelings that I bid Ruvyn farewell. I would miss the possible lessons that I might have. I would also enjoy the much calmer nights from now on.

The following month had me entering a routine. Mornings would be spent helping Laura with breakfast and getting whatever camping tips that she felt like teaching about that morning.

Time before lunch would be devoted to either reading the basics on different spell classes or practicing spells within said basics outside. I would help Laura again with lunch and get more lessons on the world as a whole.

Afternoons were Laura’s, confirmed by her, attempt to one-up Ruvyn’s magic lessons later. We would basically walk around in the forest and Laura would give me survival guides based on what we ran into out there.

Nights were just book fests with Laura sitting down with a book too.

After a month of this, I got general gist of most magic schools and their foundation.

The four elements had the basic of generating and shaping said elements and further advances in the field will allow you to improve the intensity and quantity that is generated.

The more advanced element of lightning already had great power in its initial stage so fine tune control was its development goal.

The illusion line had the basic being making a feeling in each of the five senses and layering them together. Competence in it will allow for more intricate imagery to be generated and more cohesion between layers.

Healing and nature magic was the one that needed the most inborn talent and could not be trained. Your mana signature was supposed to be agreeable to others or plants to make them grow like you want to and I found out sadly after some trials that I was not an agreeable person.

Aether was there too, but the whole subject and all of the space manipulation revolved around turning mana into an even purer form, a process that was far too complicated for me to even fathom.

I naturally settled for its much easier sibling with bare casting, the weaponization of mana that relied mostly on your imagination and focus.

Self enhancement, or empower, as the name implied worked mostly on enhancing your own physical abilities and senses. This was also a magic that was done most naturally by humans and beastkins with their innate mana veins so Laura helped me quite a bit with this and made it my most competent area.

Ruvyn came back after the first month and the couple proceeded to ignore me entirely besides providing the bare necessities needed for my survival.

The two would just spend most of their days idly discussing this and that about the new baby, such as what they would name it if it was a boy or if it was a girl.

Without anyone around to teach me and actually accompany me in reading, I spent my time mostly just wandering around the tower and keeping up with the survival training Laura has managed to give me.

My increased visitations to the forest unfortunately led to more encounters with the glowing eye. Ruvyn might have said that it was just a wisp, a harmless spirit, but the shadow that moved along with the orb hinted at something much more dangerous to me.

It kept its distance though, only stopped to look at me a few times I saw it and walked off back into the distance.

Things looked set to continue like this for the eight months that would lead up to the delivery.

I spent more and more time outside in the forest as the months wound on.

My activities within it also escalated, simple revisions of survival knowledge as I walked turned into spell casting and experimenting out in the woods. Spell practice was not all too enjoyable though as I soon found my affinity was with lightning and fire, two things that do not mix well with plants.

There was some use of them of course, but only around a very empty clearing without any plant life in it.

Today I, emboldened by my own mastery of magic and the apparent absence of anything truly dangerous over the months, decided to go and hunt something.

I wandered just a little deeper than usual that day and kept myself alert for the tracks of anything that was in my weight class.

I did not hold great hope for the endeavour and was pleasantly surprised to find tracks of something that I could kill safely, a child-sized walking mushroom called a myconoid. The tracking was fairly easy and I could already see its possible path towards a watering hole Laura has taken me to for hunting on the first month here.

The mentioned area soon came up and I saw my quarry waddling towards the shore. I prepped a spell in advance and held it together before sneaking over towards the unsuspecting prey.

I fired off the [fireball] once in range and miscalculated how far my range actually was.

The myconoid caught on immediately after the flaming ball of its death landed in the body of water and turned around in alarm, spores already puffing out of its mouth.

I let out an exasperated breath while preparing for another [fireball] that would hopefully hit the second time around.

The tension was at its peak when the spell completed and I held in my hand the glowing doom of the myconoid.

As I got ready to throw it, something popped up in my peripheral vision, something glowing blue, something that was closer to me than ever before.

The shock distracted me for a bit and the myconoid made its last valiant charge. I was ready to shove the [fireball] into its path when, straight out of the forest, a gargantuan black shape barreled out.

I could only see its back from my vantage point, but the thing towering over me at my old house’s height just screamed danger and death.

Humanoid skeletons hung from its upper body, stuck in a viscous black mud that smelled of concentrated rot.

I also got the answer for the weird marks around the back of the tower the first time I encountered this thing. Its lower body was made up of countless cords of the same thick black substance and shaped like the body of a giant snake that was as thick as a car.

Up on its left side was an entire half of a wyvern with the head draped over its shoulder and the wing extending from its back to function as its left arm.

The same wyvern’s leg was twisted and dislocated to act like its right arm. Said arm’s hand was now holding the futilely struggling myconoid.

Some of the black substance began flow over onto my previous prey and cemented my belief that this thing was just plain wrong.

Life began to visibly leave the small mushroom and its flesh began to shrivel up and lose color. I was glued to my feet as the process took place over the next few minutes and turned the once living myconoid into a black approximation of its corpse.

The thing placed the blackened corpse against its body and, with a wet quelch, absorbed it.

As it turned around, I finally got to the face that held the mysterious blue eye and immediately regretted it.

Its face was a distorted and vampiric skull with razor sharp fangs dripping bile. Its left eye socket was filled with more of the black rotting flesh and a snake’s corpse was writhing in it.

The identifying blue eye once up close looked glassy and glowed with a little more intensity than when I usually saw it from afar.

Its face was not the only place with a skull though. From its sternum down was an amalgamation of skulls that numbered at least half a dozen with there being hints of even more behind the black goo.

Skulls was not the only bones on its person.

There were at least two different spinal columns that wrapped around its neck and broken ribs were poking out at intermittent places on its body.

As anyone would after such a sight graced them, I threw the completed [fireball] into its face, hoping to distract it enough for me to make a getaway.

Against all of my expectations, it actually worked and the monster flinched back. It did nothing beyond that though and I started to run the second its head turned back in my direction.

Another fun fact came to mind as I ran, a four or five year old boy is incapable of outrunning whatever that thing was. I still tried though and got about ten steps in before a huge wing blocked my way.

Touching the black ooze that made up the membrane was an obviously bad idea so I fell down on my butt to lessen my momentum and, notwithstanding the sore bottom, succeeded.

Success also meant I now faced down the thing with its wing blocking my escape path.

My heart was already out of my chest when the thing leaned closer, its breath upon my face, as rancid as I had imagined, and a lifeless eye stared at me.

The bit of gallows humor left in me pointed out how I came here being looked at just like this and now I was just as likely going to leave being inspected too.

I was resigned to death, but not resigned to hearing english spoken through mud.

“‘Afe. ood.”

What I approximated as “safe” and “good” came out of the thing’s mouth and it slowly backed off. Now more perplexed than scared for my life, I tentatively tried to communicate back.

“Yes. I’m safe. Did you try help me back then?”

An action that I immediate thought was very dumb. The things I heard could just be the call of whatever horrid animal this thing was.

My second thoughts were immediately proven wrong by the double take that the thing did. Seeing such a humanlike response bolstered my own confidence in the initial idiotic theory that the monster was using my native language. I did not have anymore time to think to myself when the undead slowly crept closer and growled out another line.

“Oo. Oh. Ing. Ish.”

It was too much of a stretch for me to connect that one and I just stared uncomprehendingly at it.

It noticed my apparent confusion and its abysmal ability to talk though, and entered a contemplative silence complete with a hand, wyvern foot, on its chin.

An idea came to it and suddenly it emitted a shrill sound that was half screech, half roar. It turned its head to the forest and waited for whatever it called. There was a small rustling in the canopy and a newcomer joined this little get together. What came out of the forest was again surprising to me.

I expected another one of the monsters to come charging through after the first one’s, assumed, signal for help and was not prepared to see a staff floating out of the trees to hover before the monster.

The staff’s shaft was styled to look like a human spine with its characteristic curve and was topped with a human skull.

From behind the skull were ribs splayed about in an imitation of a mane.

Between all of the bonelike components was a dark red material that looked a lot like crusted dried blood.

There was a recurring theme between the beast and the tool, embedded within its left eye was a single deep blue jewel.

While I was busy eyeing the ominous staff, the two other presence within this clearing has finished their silent discussion and the staff turned towards me. Without any visible movement of its jaw, the staff spoke with a hollow feminine voice.

“Hello there. I apologize if my companion frightened you with his previous action. His outward appearance has the tendency to garner such reactions. But do not worry, it was only an attempt from him to protect you from that myconoid. And now that he found his communication skills lacking, I was called here to assist.”

A lot more assured that the thing was not mindless or intent on killing me, I replied.

“Ok. Tell him I said thank you. But can I ask why he decided to help me?”

“Oh. He behaves like that whenever he encounters anything that looks, as he put it, ‘too fragile to be fighting for their life’. You fell within the boundaries of that definition and he tried to help.”

Now certain that the two did not mean any harm, I was ready to disengage from this conversation and leave the very disgusting duo.

“Alright. Thank you guys again for helping me out. But I must be going now. Bye.”

“Wait. There was something else I was tasked to convey. Are you a ‘traveler’ from somewhere very far away?”

That her very obvious round about way of addressing my origins ironically described our move was very amusing in my eyes and led to a much more relaxed reply.

“Yes. Why was he interested though?”

The question was for courtesy only as I could already guess where the big guy was from and why he wanted to ask me this.

“Oh. So his assumption was right. I believed it to be another case of those random thoughts he has and acts on. And could I have you name, he stressed that we have them in communication with anything sentient,” the staff spoke with an apparent shrug without any shoulders.

“Right. My name’s Brandon. And I guess I will see you guys around,” I surely hoped not, their looks were bad, but the smell was really driving the point home that being around them was not pleasant.

The staff returned to the enormous mound of rot and they seemed to hold a silent discussion again. There seemed to be some sort of discussion that involved me in some way as the big guy turned in my direction and kept the stare for a duration that bothered me.

No rotting wing came to block my way back though and I eventually made it back to the tower unobstructed.

Away from the weirdness that was my backyard forest, I got ready for a very bland lunch that has become the norm once Laura entered the later stages of her pregnancy.

After a mouthful of bland potatoes and hearing Laura talk excitedly about the clothes she has already made for the daughter that they would name Layla, my biological sister, I told them about what I saw today.

“So. I went into the woods today and found whatever that made the marks all those months ago.”

Ruvyn looked at me like I was just making this up and asked.

“How did you exactly escape from a wyvern?”

“It wasn’t a wyvern though. It was something else that had a wyvern’s body attached to it, and a lot of other rotting bodies too. It-”

I did not get to finish when Ruvyn spoke in a much more panicked tone.

“How did an abomination get so close without any of my wards detecting anything? And why have we not been attacked”

Out of the loop, I tried to get back in.

“Um. Ruvyn, what is an abomination?”

He snapped out of the small panic and addressed my question.

“Abominations are collectives of hateful souls condensed into physical form, a core, and attach themselves to dead bodies of any kind to make endlessly growing monstrosities. They are very ravenous and aggressive so extensive devastation should be present and trigger any one of my security measures. It must have a very developed consciousness to actually show restraint and that is not a good combination. We need to get out of here again. And I have not been able to set up a new teleportation diagram so we will have to make the trip on foot. But Laura is-”

Before Laura can calm him down, I reminded him of an important detail.

“But I am still alive. That abomination as you call it, is not a regular one and seemed peaceful in my opinion. So our lives are not in danger and you don’t have to worry too much about it.”

“That is definitely weird, why did it not kill you and intergrated your body within its mass.”

“Uh. You know the things you told me about how records of people like me having really bright blue eyes if they get nonhuman bodies. And I was telling you two about a glowing blue orb in the forest months ago. I think that is the same thing.”

With the pieces together now, Ruvyn took a moment to assemble them all and relaxed visibly.

“Hey. if they are friendly, do you think we can meet sometimes. I was always told stories of how scary it is facing an abomination and not knowing how much it has grown and now I want to see one for myself,” chipped in Laura.

“Um. Dear, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Even if it does not mean any harm, the smell alone is not good for your health and Layla’s.”

I had to nod along with that one while Laura awkwardly laughed it off. The day went on normally after that with me trying to go out and hunt something again in the afternoon.

I got one myconoid and volunteered it as ingredient for dinner so Ruvyn could stop slowly killing me with potatoes.

A few more days later without seeing or hearing anything from the abomination and I thought that his curiosity for us has wane.

The existence of the abomination seemed to be completely gone from our lives. That is, until I took a look behind the house again and found a brand new set of claw marks. They were actually legible this time and spelled out:

Yo, Brandon. Blond really suits you.

Tim.