It turned out that I could feel pain while in my dream. I was in his study again, and this time I was looking at his back as he worked. I could hear the stupid clack of the clock going Click… Click… Click…, but I heard something else as well. I listened to the crackling of the fire behind me. I could also feel my backside heating up. I never caught fire, but I hurt as I was too close to the fire. That jerk must have placed me no more than a foot from the fire. I wasn't too worried about going crazy with the clicking of the clock or via the boredom of waiting. No, it was the heat, and the feeling like I was burning that would do that to me. I didn't know how long I waited since I couldn't count the seconds like I usually did. I'd have moved or cried out in pain, but I could do either. I noticed that there was no sweat running down my back, which meant that I wasn't here. This wasn't me; it was a dream, a horrible dream but a dream nonetheless. It was that thought that kept me from going crazy, or at least I think I didn't. It let me calm down and mentally lean into the pain. By the time Sam spoke, I felt both the pain and heard every click of that dumb clock.

Sam didn't even turn around as he started to speak, "Since your visual interface is now active to see your Attributes all you must do is think 'View and the name of the attribute that you want to see.'"

He then sighed, and as he sighed, I felt myself shifting towards the fire. That last foot into the fire felt like it took a year, if it was a second. I must have started to shrink as I saw him getting bigger. Then I saw the flames in my peripheral vision as I got hotter. Finally, I felt that I was going down, and the fire appeared to be a ring around me, and the flames rose higher.

With that, I woke up in the tree. My back felt sore, but I thought it was only because of the bark on the tree since I didn’t see my health bar lower, nor did I see any status symbols. I hated that man. I seethed with hatred and more hatred for him. I know that he didn’t cause me damage, but that didn’t mean that what he did was okay. I’d use him until I got what I needed from him, and then I’d find a way to end that man!

“Great and Mighty is more like horrid and petty,” I grumbled.

I pulled my brain away from the ticking of the clock and lingering feelings of the searing that my backside felt as I untied myself from the tree. I then jumped down and looked around. Nothing had changed around the tree. There were no footprints or paw prints. My equipment was all there. The only thing missing was Blink. She was gone!

I took the next thirty minutes hunting around the tree for her looking for any sign of a track. I was starting to panic! I knew that I’d only had her for a few days, but I did feel attached to her and didn’t want to lose her.

I was making my way back up the tree to see if maybe she had climbed higher when my foot stepped on a warm tail. I heard Blink hiss and uncurl from where she had been sleeping all night. I also saw that the colors on her scales turned from looking just like the bark to her standard black and gray pattern that she kept when around me.

I reached down and picked her up and started petting her.

“I’m so sorry Blink I didn’t mean to step on you. I was worried and looking for you and started to climb the tree higher,” I cooed to her.

I kept scratching under her chin like I’d a cat, and she started to purr for me. Then she climbed up my left shoulder and around my neck and sat on my right and began to nibble on my ear.

Still standing in the tree, I reached up to pet her again. She jumped right off my shoulder. I saw her land on a horned squirrel that was running across a branch not five feet away. I watched as she clamped her jaws to its neck as they both fell out of the tree. The squirrel was trying to spin around to claw at her, and she turned so that the squirrel would hit the ground first. As soon as they were down, she arched her back, and I saw the neck come out. She then started in on her breakfast.

I hopped down and started to look for something to eat myself. I knew where the nuts were, so I went over to the tree and made a meal of squirrel food while Blink enjoyed her meal of squirrel. If I’d her back on earth, most of my garden would have made it to my plate and not to the bellies of those little thieves.

Since animals liked to get water early in the morning, I hoped that the herd would be in place. If they weren’t, then I’d need to wait before the next part of my plan. The unnts would always come down the same path. I wanted to block it off with a rope, nothing too much but something that would make them slow down just enough that some would turn the other way and run up to where my pit was.

I edged up to the river and looked and didn’t see the herd as of yet. Since the unnts weren’t there yet, I started to get grass. When I learned rope making, I picked up how to make grass rope which was super easy. All I had to do was twist clumps of it together, and it would slowly start to change into rope. Then, as I would start to run out, I’d grab another batch and twist some more. When I turned on the skill, it took about five or six minutes a yard to make. When I was trying it without the skill on just following the skill urges, it was 5 minutes afoot. So with it on, I got my rope made in just under an hour, and the unnts still hadn’t shown up.

Of course, that only mattered if I wasn’t getting interrupted by Blink attacking the rope as I made it. She had a great time pouncing on the unsuspecting rope monster over and over again. She also didn’t mind defending her “Kill” from my hands that were still working on making the rope longer.

“Okay girl, we are going to wait here until the herd moves, then we’re going to set things up.” I told the playful lizard

I ended up waiting two hours for the Unnts. As I waited, I kept doing training. I didn’t want to do anything too big, so I just sat there making rope by the urge and not skill as I wanted to be able to drop it when I needed to. Finally, the unnts came in with a slow, leisurely walk and looked around and started to drink and graze by the river. They were so at ease with where they were and looked like they owned this whole place. That would change.

“Let’s go.” I said to Blink.

I reached down and scooped up Blink. “You need to stay up in the big tree, I don’t want you to get hurt with they run.”

She looked at me with what could only be a lizard’s way of telling me that I was dumb to think she would be anywhere near my mess.

I took my rope and skirted around them until I was back at their primary path. I then went and tied the rope across the trail and then leaned some branches on it to make it look bigger. I figured that they could likely jump the four-foot-high rope. I hoped that with the branches, it would make it look bigger, so they would slow to turn around, and that would cause the back of the herd to split and go upstream. What I didn’t want was for them to turn toward me and not spook. If they stood their ground, then I’d lose, and I knew it.

I went back to the river and got ready. I didn’t want them to see me but to hear me when I came, as I wanted to make sure that they were scared and would bolt. So I went into the brush line and waited for another half hour or so.

I saw that the herd was looking relaxed, and most of them were with their heads down. I charged out yelling; I had taken my tunic off and was waving it in my left hand and had my spear in my right hand. I wanted to be as big and loud as I could be.