Thoughts and Exploration

The sun comes up drearily and the autumn mist keeps the ground cool for a few hours afterward. I remained near that same little grove all night. Jumping on the weasels scared away a lot of potential prey. I spent a lot of the night… “chewing” my food.

In the early morning I feel thoughtful, doubtful and a little excited. It was an odd combination of feelings. I didn’t want to say this was the first time I felt like this, but Carnachias and Melanoche have said some things to make me think about my feelings. As I sit here in the forest I pace a little. I suppose I have kept some habits, even if the pacing is more like me rolling my own mass around.

My excitement bothers me the most. When I first met the two Dark Goddesses, they said they had judged my deepest fantasies. For the life of me, I cannot remember what those fantasies were. I guess those fantasies allowed me to be reincarnated, at least. Not that I know how reincarnation works. Apparently these fantasies qualified me for a job of **** and plunder. Though specific details of my last life were hazy or absent, it was obvious that those were the actions of villains.

Then again, who was I to say what was just or good in this world? Obviously monsters had some degree of sentience, and the fact that I was thinking about this meant that being a monster didn’t automatically make me a dirtbag. Did I really want to carry out the will of some rapacious goddesses for the sake of ****? Did I have a choice? I was created by those two, who is to say they couldn’t destroy me if I displeased them. Did I care? Did I actually want to follow through with their will?

There was a definitive part of me that wanted to do just that. I had felt it in the way I had played with my food a few hours ago. It would be easy to say that the physical changes Carnachias hit me with were responsible. I still have my doubts. Either way, I needed to know more. Whether it was about the world, my enemies, my creators or myself, I needed to find something to ground myself. I guess I feel lost, but I’m also glad to be choosing where I’m going.

I stop sloshing through the leaves. I can tell already, the slime form is noisy. It is also slow, and I do not want to be moving around like that when I don't know what I might find. Last night, I had learned that rolling myself up I could enter a humanoid form. I stand up with a faceless and sculpted form. The digits at my extremities are talonlike and flexible, and I have more than the human default. As I consider this, I feel what must be a tail moving behind me. My form seems like a raptor or a hound, something for jumping and chasing.

I leap into a tree in order to get off of the ground. The autumn leaves are noisy, and likely conceal more noisemakers and maybe some dangers. I open my hearing to the forest around me. After a moment of quiet meditation I find what I am looking for. There is birdsong, but soft and distant. I have been making noise here for quite some time, so it is natural for there to be distance. There is something curious about the birdsong, but I do not want to investigate. Instead I turn away from where most of the birdsong comes from. In that direction, there is something the birds don’t want to bother with. It might be a predator's den or a town. Either way, there’s likely something there I can talk to or, if a problem arises, fight.

I move at a leisurely pace. I wish to remain undetected, so I move deliberately from tree to stone to tree, trying to circumvent noisy paths. I make good time, but I am on the lookout for anything else to eat. While I am not feeling any increases or decreases in hunger, I always have this little desire to pick up something to eat. I suppose you could say I always have the munchies.

I eventually notice the trees and groves spacing out. Surveying the surroundings through smell and hearing, I pick up the scents of stale air, abundant moss and stone. There might be some sort of cave around here. It is especially quiet. If I had to guess, the most abundant lifeforms seemed to be insects. I expect rodents, but I detect no signs of their presence. I would assume it to be a predator's lair, but I detect no recent animal traces, nor corpses of gathered prey. Feeling wary, I channel the power of the assassin.

I feel a black smoke pour from my body. Evidently, this black mist lasts for an hour and masks my sounds. Should this area prove to be some strange hunter’s lair I do not wish to be caught while investigating. If I find the place abandoned I can use this mist to reconnoiter the surrounding area quickly before returning. Relaxing my body, I melt until my entire form hugs the ground closely. I move forward trying to stay beneath and behind anything that may form a horizon.

I feel the moss beneath the leaves as I cross the ground that I had smelled. The stone must be all around. Approaching what I believe to be the cave entrance, I realize why these scents feature prominently. Pushing myself against a stone, I realize it takes the shape of a block. This is an old building block that has been left to be reclaimed by nature. This must be some sort of ruin. So why do I smell stale air?

Moving into an open space, I feel more worked stones forming a path. This must be some path that leads around the building. Mabe to another location as well? A lot of the stone here is cracked, but what really catches my interest is the stunted and varied growth of the grass between the stones. It may not be frequent, but sometimes, someone visits here. That said, I still don’t detect any other animals, monsters or people.

I follow my “nose” to trace down the stale air. It takes me up a few more worked stone steps before coming to what I believe is an archway. This is why I thought I was near a cave. The threshold connects directly to stairs that go down into the earth. It is a cave, just an artificial one. Whoever lives here is either gone or doesn’t care to keep it clean. Either way, I should be safe in my shroud for the next hour. Even if there is some danger, this is a chance to learn a little about the world. I listen and smell for anything alive one more time. Satisfied that I’m alone for now, I descend the stairs.

The stairs go down in a narrow hallway until opening into a small antechamber. It is unfurnished but for six pillars in two rows of three. The far wall opens up with three arches connecting a single set of wide stairs that continue down. I slide down them, my gelatinous form naturally following the downward flow. The steps here are tilted downward oddly and rounded. Between that and the moss growth this is a dangerous staircase to traverse for the average person. It goes down almost two stories as well. If someone fell down this, they could definitely break something.

At the bottom of the stairs a corridor leads to a pair of large doors before splitting in a T. The halls lay silent, but I catch a dusty scent coming from the left. The right side smells like a stagnant pool of water. The doors are shut too tightly to pick up any scents. I have plenty of time left in my concealing shroud.