A sloth of werebears is an accurate description of what such groups look like. While they tend to be wise and physically powerful they are happy to do less rather than more. Generally, a sloth consists of no more than two or three families and are led by the oldest individual of the group. They are isolationists and tend to hide within their woods and mountains.

Lykou

Shortly after the sun reaches the center of the sky Naliya sends all of the children back to their mothers for the rest of the day. As I am not really sure where I would be expected to go I stay put until she comes over to me.

“Did you stay behind for the bow?” she asks.

“Along with that I am not sure where I am expected to be after this” I answer.

“Normally you would be free to do as you like but today you should meet with alpha Kylana. First however we will go and pick up one of my spare bows from my hut.”

We begin to walk and as her house is not far like any of the village's buildings we are soon inside her hut.

It is larger than Alana's, there are three rooms and twice as many chairs and the table is likewise larger. In a corner by the front door is a basket with unstrung bows sticking out of it.

“My den sister crafts most of the bows used by the pack. Since she gifts me one or two each season I’ve a habit of passing them on to the more promising hunters to be. The basket is full of them. Take the one you want.”

I smile as I quickly go through them looking for one with the right amount of stiffness. They are all decent and I make sure to grab a few of the strings at the bottom of the basket as I pull out my choice, a bow just a little longer than I am tall but it should not be long for me to grow back into the height I would need to easily carry it.

“A little large but a good choice. Come Kylana had hoped to be done with this before Ragnor return with some of the hunters.”

“Who is Ragnor?” I ask as I am guided to the central hut.

“He is the other alpha. Like Kylana he leads the pack but he is often rash and unforgiving. Remember not to upset him.”

So, there are two leaders, there must be a division of roles then. Or joint decisions after discussion?

Naliya stops in front of the cloth curtain that covers the doorway and motions me to go inside. When I do I see a rather large room with a central table, several papers scattered across it. Hides of various animals’ coat most of the walls and there is another room with a large pile of furs. This hut is luxurious compared to Alana’s.

A tall woman in leather robes looks up from the book she is reading and asks me a question.

“Do you know who brought you here to be found by the pack, Lykou?”

“No” I answer and even if I did know I would not tell her. Whoever it is a threat to her title as alpha.

She doesn’t seem upset or anything over me not telling her anything. She just nods and continues onto the next subject she wanted to talk about.

“Do you want to stay with the pack?”

I am being given a choice? Not much of one though, I doubt my ability to survive alone.

“I won’t last long alone so yes.”

“Analais and Alana’s hut is the least crowded, you can stay with them for now. I don’t know who brought you to us but I have high hopes for you. Do you have any questions?”

“A few, why does everyone keep referring to a pack? Why are you so readily accepting me as a part of this pack? And what is actually expected of me if I stay here?”

“We of the Bloodclaw are blessed to be children of the Black Wolf, you will understand what that means here in just over two weeks when you see just what that means. Did the woman who brought you to this forest not tell you what she is?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hopefully your memories will return in time. For your other questions, you are accepted because another member of the pack clearly decided on adopting you into the pack. You are covered in her scent and she would not have done that if it was not for the good of the pack.

All I expect you to do is learn and find a role that will benefit the pack. Most males become hunters and gather food while fighting off the enemies of the pack. If you learn a better role for yourself than that follow it.”

Partial answers, but there is a lot of freedom granted to me. I still do not know why they refer to themselves as a pack but will get to see it in a relatively short period of time.

“Is there anything I should be aware of?”

“The other children will probably provoke and fight with you. Don’t be offended, it is the way our hierarchy within roles is determined. They will want to know how they compare to you.”

So rank is determined by ability to bully? That sucks, I’ll need to make sure to grow in power quickly then. Or am I already powerful? My physical stats looked good but I don’t have a way to scale them aside from that a ten is average; though average for what? The people of this village do not seem like average individuals though, everyone is physically fit.

“Anything else?”

“Try not to get on Ragnor’s nerves, he will end up being in charge of you when you become a hunter and has a record for putting pack members at risk that he doesn’t like.”

“Then why is he leading?”

“He is my mate and the only way for that to change is either my or his death or a member of the pack to show that they are stronger than me.”

“Why you and not him?”

“I am the strongest of the pack until someone shows that they are more capable of protecting the pack I and my mate must lead.”

So, he has power by virtue of his personal connection to Kylana and abuses it. I thought this village was too good to be true. They are straight forwards about it with me though. The strong rule but at least with some of the people here it is in service to the group.

“Is there anything else I should know?”

“Nothing of immediate concern Alana will tell you anything you need to know as you stay in her home. If you don’t have any other questions, I need to prepare my daughter’s lessons for when she comes back from the hunt.”

“Hunt? I thought you said Ragnor was in charge and it seemed like it was a role assigned to men.”

“It is mostly men who choose that role but Kythia is a better warrior than she is at crafting and doesn’t have the patience to apply herself to my arts.”

I nod, and can only assume that ‘arts’ referred to magic as she separated it from crafting. I stand up and she guides me back to the door even though it is in clear sight.

Once outside I do not see Naliya or anyone else waiting to escort me. They said I was free to do as I wish for the day after the morning training so I should take advantage of it.

No doubt the other children will be playing games of some sort, ball or perhaps with sticks would be my guess. I look over towards the open field in the middle of the village to see that I had guessed wrong.

They seem to be wrestling and I don’t really want to get involved with that so I walk in the opposite direction towards Alana’s hut or more specifically the woods just past it.

I can climb one of those trees and avoid having to deal with under supervised children, at least for a while. I wonder if lunch is a thing here or if that is not a part of their culture.

I don’t smell any food being prepared and don’t personally feel hungry so I don’t go looking for a meal. No one stops me as I leave the boundaries of the village though a woman in leather armor holding a bow as she sits on the roof of her hut does look my way.

I go a little over an hundred yards into the woods before I start climbing a tree. The low branches give me an easy path to a decent height. I don’t think I’ll be found by the children wanting to show they’re top dog and the adults probably won’t care enough to get involved.

I find a comfortable spot to sit against the trunk and close my eyes as I start looking inwards. Unlike how I had hoped, I do not immediately see the energy that is mana within me in this shallow meditation. It is not fruitless as I do find the screens that are supposed to help me survive in this world.

Congratulations on figuring out how to access the System of the Architect while awake. More often interaction and the clarity of bring conscious will certainly be helpful in obtaining the most benefit.

I dismiss the notification, a happy accident and this will be helpful.

Gains: +2 XP Archery, +3 XP Ranged, +1 XP Perception, +1 XP Knowledge: Althrá, +50 XP Knowledge: Religion, +1 XP Melee, +1 XP Spear, + 1 XP European Sword, +2 XP Sense Motive, +4 XP Man-at-arms,

Knowledge: Althrá 0 -> 1+1 SP, Knowledge: Religion 0 -> 1 +1 SP,

So, watching others practice helped in learning to do the same. An effect of possibly already knowing some of it? It doesn’t matter, I’ll need to make sure to watch closely when I see anyone do something I don’t already know.

I also gained SP, I could cash that in and get bonus experience with something but I should probably sit in it for now. Two points is insignificant.

Lykou

Gender: Male

Race: Void Draconian?

Age: 10

Strength 14

Intelligence 15

Mana Potential 8

Skills

SP: 2

Dexterity 14

Wisdom 14

Mana Potency 7

Languages

Titles

Agility 16

Cunning 13

Luck 16

Traits

Options

Endurance 14

Willpower 17

??? 1

Magic

???

Vitality 14

Alertness 15

Perception 12

Classes

Racial Class

Appearance 15

Charisma 11

Health 12/12

Mana 8/8

I need to see how to maximize the effects of my use of time. My body is oddly strong for a child, I should make sure to improve on my already higher than normal attributes. Exercise and perhaps weights will take care of that.

I do however need a way to raise my magic stats. There is also an unknown attribute with a score of one. It should have something to do with an ability in my forgotten memories so I’ll not worry about it until I know what it is.

I open up the two class tabs, more out of curiosity than anything else.

Class

Experience

Man-at-arms 1/10

8/100

Student ?

???/???

Apprentice (Mage) 0

0/50

Racial Class

Experience

Dragon Knight 5

0/500

So, I have an unknown number of levels in student. I suppose that answers why my mental stats match my high physical ability. This racial class also answers why my race does not say human. Whatever a Dragon Knight is changed it. The alternate forms in my traits list must be from it.

I dismiss the windows and try to see if I know any magic. Nothing appears so I can only assume I do not and I am starting from scratch.

I open up the skill section and am grateful that it shows a summary rather than each and every skill individually.

Skills

Crafting

Carving 2

Drawing 2

Electronics 0

Leatherwork 1

Conditioning

Combat

Ranged 2

Archery 1

Crossbow 0

Firearms 1

Melee 2

Axe 1

Dagger 0

Hand-to-Hand 1

Spear 0

Sword 1

Tumble 0

Knowledge

Anatomy 1

Althrá 0

Arcana 1

Mathematics 2

Nature 1

Religion 1

Tactics 2

Senses

Perception 1

Social

Empathy 1

Bluff 0

Handle Animal 0

Persuade 0

Sense Motive 0

Supernatural

Mana Control 0

Meditation 0

Other

Climbing 1

Computers 0

Cooking 0

Driving 0

How many skills are affected by my Amnesia? The blanks must be something, no one would make something this disorganized while trying to implement an organizational scheme. It should be easy to relearn what I knew but there was another detail on the description of Amnesiac, that I can learn things my previous knowledge was keeping me from learning. Perhaps I forgot on purpose?

If so what would I have done so for? Not martial abilities, I have a variety of those. My Arcana is here but the associated skills of Spellcraft and Mana Control are not. Did I know a different form of magic that was impeding those skills?

It doesn’t matter, learning magic will be beneficial regardless of if I may recover a different form of magic later when I regain my memories.

As the two unknowns should just come to me when my memories return I leave them and the other screens behind as I empty my mind. If the information inserted into my mind by my interaction with that shrine to the Architect is accurate I need to completely cut myself off from the world and focus completely on the workings of my body.

As I try to ignore my surroundings the sounds of the wild continue to interrupt me. Time passes and my breathing slows and soon after the pulse of my heart begins to feel slower. My hunger grows as the afternoon begins to pass away. I vaguely notice the light shift and begin to dim before someone calling out my name from bellow breaks my focus completely.

I look down, frowning because I will have to start all over now that this attempt has been ruined. Below me is a man in leather, a bow and spear attached to his armor. I don’t recognize him but he is looking right at me and the clothes look similar to the ones in the village.

“What?” I ask, upset at the interruption.

“You are late for supper. Alana is waiting for us.”

He must be her mate then. Analais, I think that was his name. I suppose that I am cared about enough for someone to look for me. At least those that are hosting me anyways. I begin to climb down and once I reach one of the lowest branches jump to the ground.