Hands folded at the small of my back, I stood in front of the stone cage, gaze locked on the golden light that revealed the Shimosaru’s location in the snow plum tree. I’d been standing here for almost twenty minutes, eyes following the movements of the creature as it darted through the branches. Every time it came to a stop, I conjured a ball of fire above its head. Not attacking, but simply letting it know that I knew where it was.

The sound of soft fearful panting reached my ears, as the creature once more came to a stop, clinging to the tree's trunk. A flicker of fire appeared over its head, but this time, it did not immediately leap away. For the first time since we’d begun this game of cat and mouse, the Shimosaru remained in place, not fleeing from the flames.

“That’s right,” I murmured, eyes locked on a pair of wide blue ones. “I see you.”

To my surprise, as I finished speaking a round head appeared behind the eyes, as the creature's body became visible. A long-tail curled around the branch it clung to, and I counted not four limbs, but six protruding from its body.

The Shimosaru appeared to possess all the features of a small primate, with the exception of its additional limbs, and the fascinating iridescent fur which covered its body. The monkey stayed visible for only a brief moment, before it let out a low chittering cry, and disappeared from sight once more.

“Well done.” I praised, stooping to pick up the bowl I’d placed on the ground when I’d first entered the courtyard.

After Meissa left my office to join her disciples in further exploring the temple, I returned to the courtyard to collect my bag of snow plums. While doing so, I had burned away the plums still hanging from the trees branches.

It was now an hour past noon, and I was sure the Shimosaru would have grown hungry by that time. Which was why I’d brought the bowl with a single snow plum, along with a handful of dried fruits from my personal rations.

I knew the small amount of food wasn’t enough for such a high energy creature, but it would serve the purpose of teaching it that obedience was rewarded.

If Meissa was correct, this Shimosaru would be an adult male who’d be ousted from his polygynous family group, and I knew that forming a mutual bond with an adult creature, would be a lot more difficult than creating my bond with Leo.

When I’d bonded with Leonidas, he’d only been a cub, and was easily persuaded to my side after the incident with the Komodo dragon. I suspected this creature would not be so easily swayed. It already showed at the very least a modicum of intelligence, which was beyond that of the Leosaur cub. This also meant I wouldn’t be able to force it into a domination bond, as I had with the Scorchers.

Hand pressed to the bars, I created an opening in the cage just large enough to push the bowl through at chest height, and manipulated the earth to form a short ledge, where I placed the bowl. There was a branch close to the ledge the bowl sat on, so the Shimosaru could easily access it without leaving the tree. From what I could remember about the primates that lived in the sanctuaries, most did not leave the trees to travel over ground for fear of predators.

As I withdrew my hand, I closed the opening in the cage, and retreated back half a dozen steps. Eyes fixed on the golden light, I waited to see how it would respond to the food. It didn’t move a single inch, and after several minutes I decided to leave the courtyard. The air was growing chilly, and while the Shimosaru was naturally acclimatized to living in the snow, I was not.

“Blessed be she, High Priestess Kadia!” A chorus of voices called out as I walked across the hall of origin, and I inclined my head in the direction of the astrology disciples gathered around the orrery in the center of the hall.

“Blessed be you all this day,” I responded, continuing towards the stairs and into my office without saying anything further.

I’d spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to go about interacting with the temple's disciples. In the end, I decided that maintaining an aloof demeanor would best suit my goals.

In many religions, and even some guilds, it was rare for the general populace to interact with those of a higher ranking. Which was why I planned to restrict my interactions to the clergy, and direct disciples. Leaving the priests, or priestesses to tend to the general populace.

The books within the high priestess office contained a lot of helpful information regarding how the former high priestess arranged the temple's hierarchy, something I would be reintroducing. It would take time, but eventually I hoped that with the systems in place, the temple would be able to operate smoothly with little input needed.

Previously, the temple's hierarchy was split over three branches: the disciples, the clergy and the scholars. At the bottom of the temple hierarchy were the outer disciples. These were followers of the path who were granted access to the temple, and the publicly available resources. This included the libraries in each of the halls, but did not include access to the workspaces, or resources to be used in those workspaces. Outer disciples also could not reside in the temple.

Inner disciples were the next step in the hierarchy, who were allowed to use the temple's workspaces and resources. Inner disciples were also invited to participate in weekly lessons held in each of the three halls. The third rank a disciple could achieve was the rank of direct disciple. These were the personal disciples of the clergy or master scholars, and were the only disciples who were given permission to reside within the temple.

Once a disciple became a disciple, there were two paths they could take. They could either follow the path of the clergy, rising through the ranks as an acolyte, curate, and eventually becoming a priest, or an archpriest. With the archpriest being the highest rank achievable, and below that of a high priest. Archpriests were charged with the care of a single temple, whereas the high priest, or in my case priestess oversaw all.

The second option was to join the ranks of the scholars, who not only engaged in the study of natural philosophy, but would be sent on various quests. From Hemera II’s notes, these quests were related to seeking out resources for the temple they served. Depending on the scholar's rank, who began as an apprentice, the scholars could take on these quests to gain access to rewards offered by the temple.

I still wasn’t sure how I was going to fill the clergy roles. The more I thought on the matter, I didn’t feel that those I’d been planning to appoint into the priesthood were ready for such a role. I also didn’t feel it was fair of me to push them into taking up a position they didn’t want.

Chewing on my bottom lip, I stared out of the window which overlooked the courtyard I’d contained the Shimosaru in.

There was so much to be done, but I relished in the work as it kept my mind busy enough that I wasn’t left to dwell on things I’d rather not think about. Though, I couldn’t help a feeling of resentment towards the god who’d placed me into this situation. There were so many other options. Ways he could have resolved the issue of the former high priestess, without causing any of the emotional torment I’d suffered while thinking about a false incarnation of my mother.

As though the god could sense my ire, a golden light filled the room. I turned around to find a wooden box sitting innocently on the desk. Approaching the desk, I saw the number three hundred written on the boxes lid in golden letters.

“There better be something good in here,” I grumbled, as I flipped open the lid of the loot box to find a glass jar.

Lifting the jar out of the box, I held it up at eye level as the now empty box disappeared.

There was a small amount of clear liquid inside the jar, and floating on top of it was a thick layer of what I first thought were bubbles. But on closer examination, little dark spots could be seen in the center of the clear spheres, which I concluded must be eggs of an amphibious creature.

“If you’re a benevolent god, these will be the eggs of a Glacis Bufo.” I called to the empty room, getting no response, not that I expected any.

The jar was chilled to the touch, and looking at it I contemplated what to do with the eggs. If they were Glacis Bufo eggs, then they would need a pond in a cold environment to hatch in, as that was where the toad spawned. However, if the god sent me the eggs of a different amphibious creature, placing them in a pond inside one of the courtyards might kill them.

With a huff of annoyance, I left the library, carrying the jar up to my laboratory where I separated the eggs into three separate large jars. The first I placed on the shelf near the furnace, where the heat Pyr generated would keep the water at a warm temperature.

Next I carried the remaining two jars out of my private quarters, and into the courtyard where I’d caged the Shimosaru. Crouching down in a sheltered section of the courtyard, I partially buried one of the jars in the snow, making note of the location so I’d be able to find it later.

The last jar, I brought to a spot near the snow blossom tree, and its caged occupant. Hand pressed to the earth under the snow, I sent a pulse of mana through the transmutation amulet to create a shallow pond. After filling the pond with water by melting some of the snow, I emptied the jar into the newly formed pond.

Satisfied I’d done enough to ensure at least one lot of eggs would hatch into whatever creature they would be. I turned my attention to the stone cage, where a pair of blue eyes watched me with interest. Seeing the bowl overturned, and the snow plum pits discarded on the ground, I guessed the Shimosaru had eaten the offered food.

“Show yourself,” I ordered, staring into the blue eyes which blinked once, before disappearing from sight.

Clicking my tongue in annoyance as the Shimosaru leapt onto a branch high in the tree. I conjured a flame above its head, sending it flying around after the small primate as it moved quickly through the tree. This time, the Shimosaru conceded defeat a lot faster, its six limbs trembling with a mixture of fatigue, and hunger as it made its appearance, clinging to a branch.

With a pleased smile, I walked closer to the bars of the cage, and after retrieving the bowl, added a single plum. This time I did not move away after closing the opening in the cage, and stared at the Shimosaru, who gazed back at me with fear filled eyes.

Cautiously, the monkey-like creature moved closer, stopping every few inches as it made its way to the bowl. When it was only a few meters away, the Shimosaru disappeared from sight as it leaped towards the bowl, and snatched the plum before retreating back to the tree. Watching the snow plum be eaten by an invisible mouth, I pondered if I should force the Shimosaru to reveal itself again, or leave it for now to return later.

The primate answered the question for me, by reappearing on its own as it tossed the plum pit aside. With a soft chitter, the Shimosaru began moving across the branches, its eyes never leaving me as it maneuvered through the tree towards where I stood.

It was easy to see why the creatures were hunted for their iridescent fur, the shifting of the colors was a beautiful sight to see, and I could see why people would desire clothing made of such fur. The issue was that the Shimosaru were not large creatures, with the adults growing no taller than a human toddler, according to Meissa.

This Shimosaru in particular wasn’t that much bigger than some human babies I’d seen, so it likely wasn’t an adult male as I’d previously suspected. Though it was certainly a male, the genitalia which could be glimpsed as it jumped across branches made that more than clear, but it was either a smaller specimen, or a younger one. Though considering this was the only member of its species I’d encountered, I wasn’t exactly in a position to determine if either of those theories were true.

Opening a hole in the cage, I held out a snow plum, careful not to put my hand through the cage. Instead, I held the plum on the outside of the cage, indicating that the Shimosaru would need to reach out to retrieve the fruit. Eyeing the fruit, the Shimosaru carefully moved its front four limbs off the branch it sat on. Moving partially onto the ledge, whilst keeping its tail and hind legs firmly attached to the tree branch, the primate lowered its head to peer out the hole I’d made.

I remained frozen in place, not moving an inch, while keeping the fruit held in front of the hand sized gap in the stone cage. Blue eyes locked onto mine, and the Shimosaru made a low squeaking noise, before it stretched out a hand to cautiously take the fruit.

The second it pulled its hand back, the six limbed monkey sprang away from the side of the cage, moving high into the tree to eat its plum. Unlike the previous time, the Shimosaru did not conceal its form as it ate, allowing me the opportunity to better examine the way its fur changed colors in the sunlight.

As a reward, I added another two plums to the bowl which sat on the ledge, and dug through my bag for the remainder of the dried fruit mix. As I looked at the enchanted bag's inventory screen, I saw a jar of thick amber liquid.

I wonder if it likes honey? I mused, glancing up at the Shimosaru who was descending rapidly from the tree, eyes locked on the replenished bowl. The primates in the documentaries we watched in biology class used sticks, and other tools to harvest honey.

Tapping a finger on the lid of the jar I’d pulled out of the bag, I thought back on what I’d learnt in school about the different species of primates.

Many species of primates had been declared extinct towards the end of the twenty first century, but there were still a few which populated sanctuaries around the globe. In the documentaries, there’d been various different experiments shown, demonstrating the intelligence of the animals, and I wondered if I could recreate those here. Would this Shimosaru possess a similar level of intellect to real primates?

Meissa did say the Shimosaru were highly intelligent creatures, which were skilled at avoiding hunters. So, surely it could work out how to use a stick to scoop honey out of a tube.

“I don’t think using a glass test tube is a good idea.” I mused, searching through my bags for something to put the honey in. “Aha! I’ve got some empty clay tubes left over from making smoke bombs, those will be perfect. There are little holes in the sides, so if I seal the top after pouring the honey in, it will need to use the stick to retrieve the honey out of the holes.”

After pouring some of the honey into the tube, I placed one of the wax caps on the end, heating my fingers with my inner fire, to melt the wax enough to adhere it to the clay. Now the Shimosaru would either need to retrieve the honey from the holes in the sides or remove the wax top. Of the two, I suspected the monkey would go for the easier method of removing the wax. But I wanted to start with a simpler task, before increasing the difficulty of retrieving the treat. Just as I did when testing the mimics and Pyr in the maze.

The Shimosaru watched my actions closely as I prepared the test, a half eaten snow plum held in one paw, while it stuffed handfuls of the cubed dry fruit mix into its mouth.

When I placed the tube of honey onto the ledge next to the bowl, it froze, hand halfway to its mouth as it eyed the new addition to its prison. Using a third hand, the Shimosaru reached out to pick up the tube, while bringing the hand holding the fruit mix to its mouth to continue eating as it examined the wax seal with its fourth hand.

Watching the monkey use all four of its upper limbs simultaneously, I wondered if both pairs of limbs had a similar range of motion. As the second pair, lower on its torso, didn't appear to possess a full shoulder joint. In less than a minute, the Shimosaru peeled off the wax seal, and after sniffing the contents of the tube, tossed it onto the ground in a gesture that showed it had no interest in the honey.

Blue eyes met mine for a brief moment, then disappeared from sight. Only my alchemic sight, and the half eaten snow plum hovering in midair showed the Shimosaru remained perched on the branch. Clearly the monkey wasn’t impressed with my little test. Smiling, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Pyr’s displays of contempt when I gave the wisp tests that it deemed beneath its intelligence.

“I’ll bring something harder next time,” I informed the Shimosaru, who gave a soft chitter in response. Pleased with the small amount of progress I’d made, I left the courtyard, tails swishing behind me, despite my attempts to force them to remain still.