Mischiefs of wererats are not nearly as benign as the name implies. Wererats are greedy and selfish creatures even those who have not fallen to the corruption of the demons. They are known to be thieves and murderers and while hateful of outsiders they are protective of their group as a whole. Some of the mischiefs have more recently begun to exhibit a form of hive mind and psionic abilities. They are led by the strongest individual and move often to flee retribution of their actions.

Lykou

I enter the hut behind Analais, Alana is sitting at the table where she immediately turns to us.

“I was worried where were you all afternoon?” she asks.

“Sitting in a tree” I answer as she begins to serve and place bowls of soup on the table.

“Why?”

“Going through what I was granted at the shrine.”

That shouldn’t cause any suspicion. Though I don’t really need to hide that I am trying to take the first steps to being a spellcaster. Until I actually succeed however, I think it will be better for me to avoid advertising it based on how Holia acted when she heard me mention it.

“You could have done that here.”

“I didn’t want to be bothered during it.”

“Do you plan on doing the same thing tomorrow?” she asks guessing that I could not have spent all of my time on what I said.

I nod and the only question that is asked is done by Analais, “is what you are doing a danger to the pack?”

It seems that most of those in the village as a great amount of devotion to this pack.

“No.”

“Then do you need help?” he asks with sincerity.

“If you want to teach me something I am happy to learn.”

Analais smiles at that and turns to Alana, “what was Naliya’s evaluation of him?”

“She gifted him one of her den sister’s bows” Alana answers.

“Can you let Naliya know that I am bringing him with me hunting.”

“Are you sure? Ragnor won’t like it.”

“Any hunter can bring a trainee on a hunt to teach them the skills not taught within the village itself.”

“He’ll claim you’re not competent enough. You are the weakest hunter and he does not like you.”

“I’m more skilled and you know it.”

“Skill is only a part of strength.”

“Why are you arguing? It is skill that matters in teaching” I interrupt.

“I don’t have the best standing in the pack” Analais answers.

“Why?”

“I’m a runt.”

Runt? Like that smallest weakest dog or wolf that tends to be left behind and mistreated?

“You don’t look shorter or weaker than anyone else here.”

He smiles before responding, “do you know what we are?”

“Apparently not human.”

“No, we are just more than human, the pack is blessed by the Black Wolf as his children.”

There has got to be something I am missing. Lots of canine terms used by all of the village and they keep telling me I’ll notice something here in two weeks. . .

Everything suddenly clicks when I notice a waxing crescent moon out of the open doorway. In two weeks that’ll be a full moon. . .

I’m in a village of a pack of werewolves. I’m not a werewolf and they are only friendly because I am covered in the smell of one. Will they still be friendly when the scent leaves? Can I even keep myself from getting mauled if and when something goes wrong?

I need to figure out if they will be hostile or not and if I need to leave before they change.

“Do any of the pack lose themselves under the moon?” I ask. It may not be the exact question I want answered but it should give me a good idea of the answer.

“We know you don’t have the gift of the moon but you are a member of the pack. Our wolves may try to give you the Gift but your life will be in no danger” Alana answers.

So, I may get infected with lycanthropy. How is that not a danger to my life?

“There’s no point in worrying about it now. The alphas will choose who gives you the gift of the moon and when but it shouldn’t be anytime soon.

Anyways you should rest, we’ll be leaving to hunt three hours before dawn.”

It is risky to stay around the village but I need them. I’ll have to hide on the night of the full moon and maybe the nights close to it for now.

“Where will I sleep?” I ask, I need to learn as much as fast as I can and to do that I will follow him hunting I’m the morning. That means going to sleep early.

“The blankets in the corner, we don’t have anything better to offer you.”

I finish the last bite of my soup before going to the small pile of blankets. There are two, neither are really clean but it is better than sleeping directly on the dirt floor.

It doesn’t take me to long to go to sleep. I need to find more clothes and a stream if I can tomorrow. Sanitation seems to be a problem even though I haven’t seen any sick individuals.

Asleep I find myself accessing the Architect's system. I should see if there is a different name for it. This must be the default method, dreams. Since this is something most people will do consistently it seems like a good method.

Gain: +30 XP Meditation, + 15 XP Hide, +15 XP Stealth, +5 XP Climbing

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

So, my meditation did bear fruit, just not enough to be what I was trying to do. Perhaps there is a better way? A visualization technique or an outward meditation to look at the energy around the body?

I dismiss the screens as there truly is nothing I can do with them at the moment and surrender to my real dream.

I find myself walking down an abandoned hallway, the walls seem bare and I can see many things used to hang on the stone walls. Simple stonework aside from the engravings of a dragon every so often.

I wander around the empty halls. There has to be someone or something here. At least a window to help me figure out where I am.

After some time I see a woman turn a corner and I shout out to her, “hello!”

There is no answer and regardless of me thinking that it may have been a hallucination I start running. I turn the corner to see the woman doing the same on another corner. She is dressed in some high quality blue pants and a white shirt and black hair.

I push myself to go faster as I repeat my earlier greeting in multiple languages. None of them are responded to. Then I turn a fifth or sixth corner to see a change in the hallways.

There are mirrors, dozens of them hanging on the walls. The woman has also stopped and while she doesn’t speak she points at me before touching one of the mirrors and vanishing.

I walk up to the mirror while looking at each one I pass. They don’t match each other; different patterns exist on each frame and they only reflect my face and nothing else in the room.

I touch the mirror that made the woman disappear. If I want to learn where this is I have to follow her.

Everything changes in an instant and I am sitting cross-legged on a bed in some hotel room. Across from me is a young woman with sun kissed skin and scarlet red hair. I don’t have control of my body but can watch and hear as I am being taught something by the young woman.

“. . . inwards and relax the mind. When your thoughts drift grab onto one of them and you will be pulled into a memory. At first you won’t be able to choose what memory to relive but in time with practice you learn to.

In the-daily-rest you are not stuck noticing only the details you did when the memory was made. Because of this the-daily-rest can be used to relive a single moment many times and eventually you start noticing the Mana within your own body. . .”

The world shifts back to the mirrored hallway and I pull my hand back from the mirror that has turned into a painting of impossible detail. What is this place?

More importantly who are these two women I’ve seen here? And why do I find myself smiling at this image?

The world shakes slightly interrupting my thoughts and I hear a loud but distorted voice. I can only make out the words wake and hunt. This world vanishes as I open my eyes in the waking world.

I’m on the dirt floor of Alana's hut. Analais is shaking my lightly but stops when I look right at him.

“Bring your bow and follow me” he whispers probably not wanting to wake his wife at this ungodly hour of the morning.

I stand up and pick up my bow, I’m going to have to ask for some arrows. Leaving the blankets in the corner I follow him outside where he passes me half a quiver of arrows.

“You can use these until I teach you to make your own. Come I know a spot for us to start.”

With that I follow him into the woods with the quiver worn to allow me to draw an arrow from over my right shoulder. We spend roughly half an hour walking before Analais stops.

“What can you see?” he asks.

“Trees, grass that looks like people walk through it a lot and I can hear a stream” I answer not sure what he is asking for.

“Which would mean?”

“We’re on a trail near the village towards that goes to a source of water. People come through here to get water.”

“Close but no, there is a closer source of water for the pack. We are standing in a game trail.

With this there are two options for how we can hunt. Either searching for a recent trail or waiting while hiding.”

“Waiting and ambushing sounds easier and reliable.”

“It is but stalking gets food faster. Since we still have meat from the rabbits I brought back yesterday I’ll show you where something past through and you can try finding it.”

He takes a few steps before stopping and points at a few tracks that cross the trail, prints showing up in the soft dirt.

“A deer came through here and went east. See if you can follow and find it. I’ll help our if anything dangerous shows up.”

“Dangerous?”

“Bears and dire animals. I don’t think anything else would be this close to the village.”

Dire animals? Like a dire wolf? I’d like to see one of those but it’s probably out of my reach for now.

I kneel down next to the tracks and look in the direction they lead. There should be disturbances on the ground where it walked. Prints in the dirt maybe grass that hasn’t quite returned to it’s previous state.

I think I notice some and I move to that location, there I find tracks but not the same as the deer I was shown. Larger and clawed instead of the hood of a deer. But it is easier to see which direction it went in.

“You lost the deer.”

“And found something bigger.”

“Looks like a young bear but there isn’t any sign of an accompanying adult.”

“Will it taste good?”

He nods and I start following this trail instead. I’m not good enough to track that deer but this bear is larger and leaves a lot of evidence to it’s passing.

Not ten minutes later I lead the two of us to a cave, while the entrance is large I can’t see too far into it. Something smells awful in there and there are a lot of scattered bones around the entrance but I do not see the bear cub.

“Do you know this cave?” I ask.

“No but a bear cub could not have been the source of all these bones.”

“The parent then?”

“Perhaps Ragnor did run into an abnormally large dire bear last week. It killed a few hunters before managing to flee while heavily wounded.”

“The scent might be from the festered wounds.”

“Even injured it is too dangerous to for us to. . .”

“Can you start a fire?” I interrupt.

“Why?”

“Smoke, we can drive it into a trap or even suffocate them with the smoke without a single risk to us.”

Analais looks at me for a moment before smiling, “I can. Set up this smoke trap.”

I quickly gather dead wood from the forest floor and make a several inch-thick line of tinder before looking back to Analais.

He steps forwards and begins to speak words that I cannot understand, a cadence and an unnatural echo ring in my ear. They are in the same language we were talking in before but the meaning escapes me. After a minute, a small ball of fire forms between the palms of his hands and stays only long enough for him to light the center of the tinder.

His magic was very weak but that was magic. I wonder if he can help me with the first steps in learning myself, actually he may not be a good idea to learn that from. Either his power is weak or he has a poor grasp on the fundamentals I need to learn and can’t harness the needed power.

We help the fire slowly spread across the entrance and help it grow before I start to dump the partially decomposed leaves from the previous fall onto the fire. As soon as a noise is made from within the cave I move away from the entrance and ready my bow, an arrow cocked but not drawn.

A minute passes as the noises grow louder and seemingly desperate, before an abnormally large bear cub runs out of the entrance, its fur is discolored and there are bits of bone sticking out of its shoulders. I release an arrow in a panic as I retreat further away from this unnatural creature.

My arrow of course misses but Analais’s does not, it wasn’t a killing blow either but it was a hit. A loud noise is still being produced in the cave but only the cub has come out.