Changing World- The Beginning

by Sergei Katz

  — That’s where we have to go, — Alex pointed slightly diagonally over the plateau.

  — So why have we been walking in a straight line so far? — I was surprised.

  — I don’t know, — the boy was embarrassed. — The Fortune Teller taught me an ability that acts like a compass of sorts. It doesn’t show me the points of the compass as much as indicate which direction I should take. That’s what I use to navigate by, but it isn’t well developed within me, so often I don’t choose the right path.

  — I see, — I sighed. — Well, lead us on, Ivan Susanin.

  The boy and the returning from its journey Totem looked at me like I was an idiot.

  — Forget it, — I decided to let it go, thinking that it wasn’t the time to start giving a lecture on the life and times of Ivan Susanin. He was a historical character, a Russian peasant, who was famous for leading a part of Napoleon’s army into a swamp from which they would never return.

  If we were to take a landmark ahead of us in a straight line as being the north, then the direction indicated by Alex was approximately to the northeast. My Copper Wing scouted ahead, as the boy and I were following him cautiously.

  Suddenly, a huge creature rushed towards us from a nearby clump of trees. The monster resembled the wolves we were already used to, but it was much larger and covered with crust. My attempt to detain him with the help of the “Shining Grass” spell was ineffective - the monster just jumped over the site marked out by my magic spell. As soon as he was a meter away from me, he attacked all of us at the same time. The monster threw prickly thorns at my Copper Wing and Alex, and my left leg was already entangled up in a liana which had appeared from nowhere. The beast itself began a nonstop attack with its paws and teeth.

  The beast’s speed and endurance was amazing. If all of its attacks had been focused only upon me, then I couldn’t say which of us would have won. The wounds inflicted by its claws were poisonous, and the bites caused incredible pain. Alex and my Totem didn’t fare off any better than me. The monster had a huge number of tricks up its sleeve: sometimes it jumped back and threw a swarm of midges directly onto the Copper Wing, not allowing him to attack from the air. Alex was under constant attack from its thorns, and one time his leg got caught up in another liana, which restricted his movement.

  The turning point came when I was able to inflict a bleeding wound. This enraged the beast, and it concentrated most of its attacks on me, including the gnats. This allowed Alex to shoot at a faster rate, because he didn’t need to dodge around too much. My Copper Wing decided that the beast’s tail would make an excellent target, and he attacked the monster from behind. Realizing that it had made a tactical mistake, the monster tried to return to its initial tactics. It was too late: multiple wounds from Alex's arrows and the tattered tail brought down its levels of concentration and slowed the beast down considerably. Our victory was a foregone conclusion.

  — Lord, he was strong, — Alex's voice sounded full of respect.

  — Yeah, — I agreed. — I did not have a large enough repertoire of skills for the whole fight, just enough to allow me to avoid attacks that I had come across before. The monster constantly changed its attacking style.

  My Copper Wing was silently pecking away at his well-earned fruits.

  — Do you know what kind of monster that was? — I asked the boy.

  — I’m not sure, but I think it was a Luther. One of the hunters told me about them. These are tree wolves, and they mostly live solo. They are very territorial and jealously guard their range even from their own kind ... It usually takes five people to go against one of them, — the boy told us after a short pause.

  — Hey, the three of us handled it just fine, — I smiled at the boy. — Next time it will be easier. We will know what to expect. You just try to shoot it in the eyes or paws. Do you think you can you do that?

  — I think so, yes. Although, when I'm constantly dodging flying thorns, it isn’t easy to take a good aim.

  — Our feathered friend can take care of that. — My Totem looked at me as if he thought that I was crazy.

  — Did you think we were just here to spoil your fun? — I grinned at my Totem. — Think about how to anger this Luther so that all the thorns are aimed in your direction, and then Alex and I can kill it faster.

  My Totem nodded thoughtfully and soared up into the sky.

  After resting, we decided to examine the clump of trees that the monster had jumped out from, but unfortunately, we found nothing of interest. The way ahead lay through tall grass. Even with my Copper Wing scouting for us, there was no guarantee that we would be able to learn about an enemy before it attacked us. This territory belonged to the local predators, and we were simply a potential prey passing through.

  It took less than five minutes before we found ourselves under attack again. This time we were attacked by a group of armor-clad beetles. These were the insects the size of a soccer ball, all wrapped in chitinous armor and equipped with huge claws and mandibles. They turned out to be very dangerous opponents for the boy, but with the help of my Totem, we very quickly put an end to these slow-moving creatures.

  — If there are only similar such creatures around, then I'm not going to be of much use to you here, — the boy said sadly after the battle was over.

  — Don’t worry yourself, because I'm sure there are other monsters around here.

  Just at that moment, My Copper Wing landed neatly beside us and indicated that there was someone ahead. Then he quietly soared to his favorite attacking position. Alex and I started moving as quietly as possible in the grass towards the place he had indicated. If I understood what the bird was trying to say correctly, we were waiting for an enemy that we had never come across before, so we were as careful as possible. I even activated the “Wild Defense” spell ahead of us.

  Having made our way about five hundred meters, we reached a small clearing. There, surrounded by tall grass, a very strange creature was dining on some unrecognizable food. It was an ash-black colored bundle of wool nearly half a meter tall, with luminous amber eyes and a deep -yellow duck like beak filled with many small teeth. All this splendor was supplemented by large claws, like the Yeti Crab we had encountered before. On the one hand, the creature looked intimidating, but on the other, I could barely restrain myself from laughing out loud! Its scary looking demeanor didn’t match the way that it was nibbling on a fruit that looked like a carrot, the same way a puppy would have dealt with a fresh bone.

  Suddenly, the creature tensed: this friendly looking animal turned predator right before our eyes. A split second later the creature jumped, but not in our direction. Rather, it jumped a little to the side, and where we thought before there had been a half-eaten carrot looking vegetable, there was a meter-long worm whose huge mouth was filled with the same teeth as the creature we were watching.

  My intuition decided to remind me of its existence. I pushed Alex away to safety and I jumped off to the side myself. There, where our feet had been just a second ago, an even larger worm jumped out at us. It was good that we were prepared for a fight. The enemy turned out to be a serious opponent: its movements were unpredictable. It left behind a caustic mucus, which corroded the grass right in front of our eyes, and then evaporated. From time to time, it also spat out this mucus, and attacked in unexpected ways. So, we had to pay particular attention to its head and the tip of its tail. One time, it knocked Alex over, who hadn’t paid enough attention at the time. First it adopted a bow shape, and then, straightening up, it propelled itself forward as if letting an arrow go from its string.

  While we were fighting with the large worm, the smaller one was playing a game of cat and mouse with the black creature. It seemed that the latter, for all its frightening appearance, was not a fighter at all, so the outcome of the battle was clear to both participants from the very beginning. Deciding that this fight needed to be finished as soon as possible, I started attacking with penetrating blows one by one. On the fourth blo
w, the chance of striking one of my opponent’s vital organs was successful, and most of the worm’s life points were diminished.

  The whole battle was conducted in complete silence, but it seemed that on some unknown level our worm asked for help from its smaller partner that instantly stopped playing games, stunning the black furry creature with a single blow and joining the fight against us. Things went downhill past that point. I was bitten a couple of times, and my left leg was hit by the small worm’s tail as well.

  — Alex! Keep the small fish food busy, while Copper Wing and I sort out the overgrown worm out!

  I didn’t know which body organ I had managed to damage with my stroke, but thanks to that the big worm's movements became jerky, and some of its attacks were repeating more often. Either the worm had run out of ideas, or it was just in so much pain that it couldn’t think straight anymore. This allowed me to use my “Sliding Movements” ability more often. That decided the outcome of this particular battle: first we killed the large monster, and then quickly dealt with the smaller one.

  When we returned to the clearing, the strange black creature had already recovered and could move a little.

  — Alex, do you know anything about this creature?

  The boy shook his head, and flopped down on the grass. Then he took something out from his stock of fruit in his bag, and started chomping on it. His eyes were still focused on the black fluffy creature, and we both realized that it was completely harmless to us. Meanwhile, my Totem was flying circles over the creature, ready to attack at any moment.

  I took out a couple of gooseberries and ate them, replenishing my life points. We had been lucky, and in our week's journey we had found a couple of dozen bushes, so now I had a decent supply of these berries. We had also had replenished our supplies of the Chewing Fruit, and collected many more forest berries. By this moment, my bag was literally loaded up with greens and fruits. My Totem couldn’t miss out on his opportunity to try the Chewing Fruit. So, he flew another circle, just for effect, landed in the clearing and demanded his portion.

  The strange creature, who had previously tried to do everything to make himself invisible, made a ridiculous looking flicker of a pig like snout that had somehow replaced its duck beak. It tried to quietly get close to a handful of fruits which were lying in front of my Copper Wing. As it was moving through the clearing, its appearance was changing too: the claws disappeared, being replaced by something similar to cat’s paws. The color of its eyes remained unchanged, but they became more rounded and looked like lemur’s eyes. What was in front of us at this moment was a cute little animal. Apart from the color of its fur and eyes, the animal bore no resemblance to the monster that we had stumbled across at the very beginning.

  Alex and I exchanged a surprised look and continued to observe the changes taking place. My Totem, who realized that the creature posed zero threat, started enthusiastically swallowing a berry after berry, and was completely unaware of the thief’s approach. Meanwhile, the little animal stuck its tongue out like a frog and stole the first berry. The little creature seemed to be ravenously hungry: it swallowed the trophy down without delay, after which it licked its lips and looked at us apprehensively. Since we took no action, and the one being robbed remained in ignorance, the animal kept eating the berries.

  After a short while, we finally saw what we were expecting to happen. Alex and I couldn’t stop laughing, as both sweet toothed creatures went after the same juicy berry. The beak and tongue reached their goal simultaneously. I was fully aware that this would happen eventually, and I took a mental snapshot of this priceless moment. The picture showed the stunned look on the bird’s face, and the little animal’s look of being prepared to fight to the bitter end over the berry. All we could see was the berry being ripped apart by the beak and the creature’s long tongue. My Totem was so surprised that he opened his beak in disbelief, and the berry was ripped from its beak by the tongue, ending up in the winner’s mouth.

  My Copper Wing had already been full, and the last berries were eaten more out of attitude than necessity, working on the principle that what he had been given he had no intention of giving back. Although, at this moment he was in complete indignation: the bird was looming dangerously over the robber. The frightened animal, panicking, changed its appearance from one creature to another in quick succession, hoping to find a shape that would calm the bird down. It even turned into a Copper Wing once, but this angered my Totem even more. Deciding to change its tactics, the animal returned to the shape that we had encountered at the very beginning, after which it started roaring.

  Hearing this roar, Alex and I started rolling on the grass, laughing, and my Copper Wing was shocked to the depth of his bird-like soul. He had expected anything, but not such a talentless performance of a menacing roar. If somebody asked me to imitate the noise I heard, it sounded more like the sound of a child who couldn’t pronounce the letter “R”. To complete our entertainment, at the same time as roaring, the creature put on a vicious expression on its muzzle.

  My Copper Wing wasn’t impressed with our reaction, watching us crying with laughter. So, he decided that dealing with this creature would be beneath his feathered dignity, returning to his half-eaten pile of berries. The surprised creature was looking at us, then at the bird and back again.

  — Come on, take them. — I took some more berries out of my bag and put them next to me on the ground.

  My Totem looked disapprovingly in my direction, then at the strange creature who was awaiting his approval. Feigning disinterest, My Totem went back to his berries. The little monster, considering the bird’s reaction as a sign of approval, hurried over to the delicacies, before anybody changed their mind.

  While the creature was eating the berries, I sat down next to it and stroked it:

  — What are you?

  The creature didn’t show up on my information display. Deciding that this might be a great time to ask this question to the book that the Fairies had given to me, I summoned it. The book seemed to be so stupefied by boredom that I thought it was actually glad that I had summoned it.

  — Can you identify species of animals? — I asked the book a question.

  — Depends on the species, — the book replied.

  As always, never a straight answer, or perhaps it really couldn’t identify all of them, but that’s not answer that I was looking for.

  — Look at the creature next to me. Can you identify it?

  For a moment, it seemed to me that the book wasn’t sure whether to answer me or not, but then the scales leaned in my direction. The creature that had been chewing berries in the glade next me appeared on the display.

  — This monster is called a “Forest Phasm”. These creatures can take on the form of any object or creature they have seen. The Phasm can change completely or only partially, and they are a rare creature. Regardless of the species, all Phasms are a valuable prey for any predator. Even intelligent creatures hunt them down, because many of their organs are used as ingredients in magic and alchemy.

  — I see, — I thanked the book, and it disappeared. Apparently, the book had decided that it had given me enough information for another couple of weeks.

  The Forest Phasm had already finished the berries and started licking me to get some more.

  — Okay, hold on, I’ve got more berries. It looks like you're as much of a glutton as my Copper Wing.

  The tummy of the beast was puffed up, but he couldn’t miss such a rare opportunity, as he clearly didn’t know where his next meal was going to come from. I understood his attitude: apparently, he had never been able to eat in peace, so it was beyond his wildest dreams that somebody would feed him and stroke him at the same time.

  — What am I supposed to do with you? — I asked nobody in particular.

  The creature, having eaten the last fruit, looked at me thoughtfully, as if something was being decided. What happened next occurred in a split second. The animal did something, and a trickle o
f blood flowed from its mouth, then he quickly bit my finger and licked it with a bloody tongue.

  The Forest Phasm has recognized you as his master and has become your pet. The agreement has been sealed with blood, and the world recognizes it. Not everyone would consider taking a Forest Phasm as a pet, as this requires either courage or recklessness. The world respects your choice and will watch how you raise him. At this stage of your development, you can have only one pet. Give your pet a name.

  — BLEEP! Are you kidding me? You would have to be an idiot to take such a useless-in-combat stupid creature with you! You cunning little sod! — I grabbed the innocent looking creature by the scruff of its neck.

  Alex roared with laughter on the grass yet again: — That pet conned you nicely ...!

  My Copper Wing, realizing how serious the situation was, tried to solve it in the simplest way possible: by killing the Forest Phasm before it finished off all the stocks of its favorite delicacies.

  — Wait, — I beseeched it, — Of course, I really want to give it to you to tear it to bits. You see, the thing is that if you kill it I won’t be able to get another pet for some time.

  My Totem tried to get the message across that I didn’t need another pet because I had it. It was his way of trying to get rid of the competition.

  — Alex, — I said to the boy who had almost calmed down at this point. — What do you think I should do with this unexpected and unwelcome new arrival? Should I give it to my Copper Wing for breakfast?

  The little animal began to squirm around nervously in my hand, but I was holding the little rascal tightly.

  The boy thought for a moment:

  — You haven’t given him a name yet, which means he will definitely die. But, by the same token, few Newcomers like you are rewarded with a pet. So, if your first one dies so quickly, especially at the hands of your Totem, I'm afraid you'll never get a new one.