The First Hellhound

I spot my game – another guinea pig – not far from the water. And while it cannot see me – I now know it can sense me. I decide to test my spear-throwing, since the strategy of cavies until now has always been to wait until the last moment; it seems that predators in the area lack ranged attacks. Or the ones that have it are too strong for the poor beasts and there is no sense in fighting them. Anyway, I continue stalking closer to my prey as I think about local ecosystem. Finally, I move to a good position and throw my weapon; it cuts through the air silently – and deadly. Very deadly.

I then summon my spear back – and it flies to me, slightly slower than before, leaving a mutilated corpse of the rodent behind it. To my surprise, there are no traces of offal, brain or any other organs on it. Not even a smell remains. I find it eerie, but also convenient; I won’t have to clean it much, I think, as I walk up to the mauled mess on the ground with mixed feelings. The body lies there in pieces, including the left side, the right side, remnants of internal organs that fell out, and what used to be the head, but now makes me feel a bit nauseous to watch; it was definitely a massive overkill. I swiftly pick up the crystal that somehow survived, in addition to both some edibles; I then turn back and walk away. Swiftly.

It gets darker with every step I take. I should find a place to rest soon, but the knowledge that I scare off neighboring monsters puts me at ease; I have time. Still, I am tired and hungry. In the end I decide to camp by the stream, near the clearing. There are no seemingly extraordinary plants, rocks, nor mushrooms. A great place to relax after all the crazy dreams I’ve had since my rebirth.

I drink some water and prepare meat. I don’t want to waste time, so I just quickly roast it with my claws and eat it with no seasoning. It tastes better than expected, despite being partially raw; it seems my sense of taste changed along with my body. On one hand there is something unsettling about it, but on the other… is it really a problem if I like it? There were dishes made from raw meat in my previous life, so I believe I’ll be okay. I think. My every prey here smelled very healthy, free from sickness and parasites – I am not sure if it is magical influence, but I certainly hope so.

When I finish – astonished by my appetite – I take some time to make some sort of a very primitive ‘sacks’ out of leftover skin that somehow survived heat. It will probably go bad sooner than later, but will do for now; I don’t want to carry acorns and crystals by hand all the time, after all. Lastly, I prepare some straws and grass for my bedding. As I lie down, tired, I look up at the Moon. It isn’t as bright as yesterday – it started waning. Finally, the exhaustion takes over, as my mind and body submit to the exhaustion.

---

To my surprise, I wake up after sleeping normally. No weird nightmares, no communication from magical creatures – just a full night rest. I really like it – my muscles aren’t sore, there is no existential crisis, nor any confusing feelings and memories. And my bed isn't burning! It’s truly refreshing and I would feel full of energy, if not for hunger I feel. So, after a quickly completing my morning routine, I go out to hunt. For a bigger game, this time.

I use this chance to try learning how to control my internal heat. Turns out it is more difficult than I expected. For once, I do

have some knowledge, or instinct, how to regulate it. However, I cannot really tell if I am successful myself, since I cannot perceive my own aura from the outside. I sense a few birds and small animals escaping from me; it is hard to tell how they sensed me – by smell, hearing, sight, or temperature. Or magically. Anyway, my quarry is something that smells like a pig; a boar, most likely. It is big enough to last me for more than a day and its hide may be useful in my next attempt at making clothes. This time – just from raw hide.

As I come closer, I once again try hiding my presence, this time long before I see my game. I focus on my internal heat the most, in an attempt to subdue it. When I finally see the monster I'm stalking, I know I partially succeeded – while it didn’t notice me immediately, the boar is clearly agitated and angry – clearly searching for me. I try to creep slightly closer to get in range. In vain. The wild hog snaps its head in my direction and charges. I wanted to throw Nyx at it, but I have to roll out of the way; just in time, as its attack pulverizes the tree that was behind me.

As we stand up I carefully measure my opponent. The boar is big – maybe even bigger than the deer, excluding its head and neck – and clearly heavier and more muscular. Its fur is brownish red and seems thick and hard. Its tusks are deep crimson red and appear to be crystallized. The exude a sinister aura; I have a feeling I cannot allow myself to be as much as scratched by them. The monster looks at me with fury in its bloodshot eyes. In fact, I cannot discern where its iris ends and sclera begins. It snorts and charges at me once more. I dodge and counter with my spear, but all I achieve is a shallow cut to its side; it seems its hide is even tougher than it initially appeared. Looks like this fight will not be quick, but rather quite a long one. Moreover, the wound seems to infuriate the hog even more – so it charges again. And I counterattack again. And again.

As our destructive dance continues, I notice that I am slowly losing ground. Every wound I inflict seem to make my opponent faster, stronger, more agile. I also notice that its blood is not dropping to the ground, but rather gathers on its fur and tusks, elongating them. I get a feeling that I am going to lose if I don’t finish the fight quickly.

Thinking that, I focus on my flame and bring it to life; to my surprise, my weapon also answers. My supernatural heat assaults the boar, making it pause for a moment. We stand there, in silence, before our final confrontation. I hold Nyx in both my arms and prepare to leap forward. My opponent appears to shift more blood to its tusks, making the red aura longer. We both know the fight will be over in a few heartbeats.

Finally, a distant call of some bird makes us snap back to the battle. As if it was a signal we were waiting for, both of us lunge at each other. In a split second we are in the strike zone – and my spear penetrates the skull of my prey through its eye, near immediately setting the whole head aflame. Yet, it is still pushing through, trying to impale me, as I stand my ground. And I feel o sting of pain when aura of one of the tusks briefly touches my stomach, just before the boar collapses.

I pull Nyx out and sit down, to soothe my nerves; adrenaline still rushing through my veins as I check my wound. It is bleeding more than I feel it should – then again, my opponent this time was using what looks like some sort of blood magic. I clean my injury to see it being a little more than a scratch; it should still heal quickly, but I try to meditate on my internal flame for a bit, hoping that I can speed up my recovery that way. It worked after cavies blinded me – and after a few moments it turns out I was right and the laceration slowly closes. However, I am ravenous. It seems that using my magic powers uses a lot of energy; I wonder how that works.

As I start satisfying my hunger with conveniently roasted head of the boar, I also begin preparing the rest of it. I take out its tusks; they will serve as good knives, I think, and working with them should not be as difficult as it would be with horns. I consider adding them to Nyx for a second, to make her into a trident, but decide against the idea. Tridents are, in my opinion, more unwieldy than spears; besides it just feels wrong. Maybe if I had them yesterday, during crafting – alas, that was not to be. Meanwhile, I begin removing the skin. It turns out that there is a surprisingly thick layer of fat and other tissue under it; seems that striking the head was the correct course of action. As I slowly expose the meat of the beast, I also start cutting out the best parts. I then cut them and put them on a flat stone stone I put by the carcass. Then I stop to collect some herbs I can smell nearby that could help the flavour; while the head wasn’t bad, it was severely lacking in the taste departament.

As my meal is getting cooked, the hide is finally free. I inspect it closely – the fur is surprisingly soft to touch. I put it on my skin for a measure and it feels really nice. I decide to use it to make a sort of loincloth, screw the grass skirt; It may smell but it feels comfy. There is no way I won’t be taken for a savage when I finally find civilization anyway, but smelly barbarian is still better than naked barbarian. Truth be told – this world probably is much more primitive than my previous one, judging by the lack of vocabulary for many modern subjects (such as computers, phones, or even guns) in dialects that had been installed into my brain. Or maybe I am in a particularly backwards part of the world? I guess there is no sense in planning every detail with that many unknowns; I will just go with the flow when those things finally happen.

Dealing with all of that boar takes me most of the morning and early afternoon, but I am finally ready. My belongings expanded exponentially. To begin with, I am nude no more! I had enough hide to make not only the most important part – the loincloth – but also for some rudimentary bra! Each piece is made of two pieces of hide, fur turned inside, connected with bones from the boar. That way my tail isn’t in the way of clothing. I only hope that they will stay together when I move; luckily, there seems to be no issue as I am testing my creation.

Another piece of equipment I made is a knife, made from one of the tusks. It is very crude, but functional. Unfortunately, during my first attempt I tried to enhance it with magic, similarly to when I made Nyx. I failed however, and ruined the tusk; luckily it just burned and crumbled. So I just sharpened the other one and put it on the shaft; a wooden one didn’t work very well, but when I used some bone, it sat surprisingly well. I wondered for a moment if I also needed a primitive bow or a sling, but my spear can serve as a javelin AND it returns to my hand when I will it, so I in the end I judged them as unnecessary.

Finally, I made a sheath for my secondary weapon out of another bone. Carrying a knife – especially inherently magical one, with blood magic no less – unprotected is dangerous, but wood does not fit in aesthetically with the rest of the weapon. It fits quite well in the hole where a leg used to be, so bringing it out will be easy.

I take one last look at the corpse of the felled beast – or rather what is left from it. Then I take all of my belongings, including crystals from deer and cavy, together with some meat and, at last, venture forward the lake. I have a quest to fulfill.