As twilight faded into night, I crept out of the forest and towards the fort where the humans that hunted in my forest holed up each night. I kept my aura tightly suppressed. The place had grown since I last peeked at it from the southern edge of the forest. While the fortress walls remained unchanged, a second ring of rough wooden walls were being constructed, and there were many half finished buildings in the area which would be enclosed. The fortress was growing into a small town. Several large fires were built near the edges of construction for the outer walls, and the humans were continuing to work by the light of the fire.

I watched the fires for a few minutes, mesmerized. I’d never actually seen one before. The way the flames danced and twisted was oddly mesmerizing…

I snapped out of my reverie and focused on the task at hand.

I crept around, well away from the light of the fires, and headed towards the inner wall. As I reached the rough wooden walls, made of thick shaven trunks sunk into the ground and snugly fitted together, I leapt up nearly halfway to the top and dug my claws in. I climbed up and peeked over the edge. There were watchmen at each corner with braziers giving off a bit of flame, but they seemed barely awake. I slipped over the top of the wall and onto the rampart, then quietly dropped to the ground.

I felt a small shiver of thrill. It was kind of exciting to sneak into a place that I wasn’t supposed to be.

The inside of the fortress was packed with buildings, with pathways of varying width leading between them. The space was rather crowded. I could hear a hubbub of activity coming from deeper within, so I wended my way through the buildings until I got closer, then climbed up a wall and onto a roof. I inched toward the edge and watched the humans and listened. Most of them were congregating in and around one building in particular. They held containers of various liquids which I could not identify, but my other memories suggested was alcohol, some kind of mild toxin that made humans act weird.

I sat there and listened and watched the humans for hours. Their antics amused me. Eventually, the activity wound down and the lights went out. There were still a few humans here and there, but I’d had my fill of watching them for the night. I shifted to my flying form and took off into the sky, and practiced my flying skills for a while before dawn, before catching a bit of sleep back in my new cave.

I settled into this new routine of watching the humans and practicing my flying. When I wanted to eat, I’d either track down one of the few remaining trolls in the forest, or I’d fly into the mountains. During the days I’d watch the furred human’s group, and let them feel my gaze. I enjoyed watching them squirm and try to ignore my presence. Many days passed in this manner.

While I was observing and learning, I felt like something was missing. Even though I was making progress towards what I deemed to be the next step I needed to get stronger, I also felt like I wasn’t really progressing as quickly as I should be. I kept remembering those great beasts up on the mountain. Since there were no strong beasts here I could hunt, I wasn’t growing stronger.

It was aggravating, so I distracted myself, focusing on the humans.

The humans from the fort had begun hunting my kin.I watched my group defeat a young chimera that looked like a feathered wildcat with six insectile legs, and take its body back to the fort. The odd part of my mind tried to insist it was sad to see it happen, but I couldn't really understand why, nor did I try to.

I’d never actually paid much attention to dead chimera before, so I watched their return journey. The magic aura in its flesh decayed far slower than other beasts. The potency had only decreased by a small amount by the time they entered the town which now surrounded the fort, even though several hours had passed. I didn’t feel like trying to sneak in during broad daylight, so I did not get to see what they did with the corpse.

The humans from the camp that smelled of blood were preying upon other hunters. I watched from a distance, but largely ignored them. They were competent at hunting their own, striking when their target was worn down or unaware, but they buried their prey, wasting it. That odd corner of my mind found them distasteful as well, although probably not for the same reasons. I didn’t give it enough thought to examine why.

I was finally beginning to understand their speaking a little. It was odd, learning a language, and I had to lean heavily on the knowledge in the memories that weren’t my own. I disliked doing this, as the ways of thinking in those memories was so… different. Different and weak. The memories were incomplete, but I could tell that they belonged to a being weaker even than the hunters I watched.

Wherever it came from was strange. The dangers were few. The humans were soft. Their daily actions meaningless.

Dwelling on these memories irritated me, and added to my impatience.

Grix dropped the chimera corpse on the worktable with all his usual grace and delicacy. The alchemical researcher who’d posted the bounty flinched at the thud of flesh on wood.

“Yes, yes, thank you. Oh, this is quite marvelous!” The researcher muttered as he poked and prodded at the corpse, examining it. “When I heard of these strange beasts, I just knew I had to come out here and see for myself. My expectations have already been greatly exceeded! It’s presenting traits from no less than four different beast families! Bird, feline, some sort of insect for its overall body makeup, and these fangs look very much like a snake's. Did you take it in the wild or at its lair?”

“We tracked it back to its lair,” Vee answered. She glanced at Grix who was shifting back and forth, clearly bored.

“Good, good. You should write down what you saw. I have a colleague who is on his way who is eager to study these chimera as well. He will certainly be grateful for any information you can provide. Until then, I will gladly pay you the same amount for any further chimera you bring to me. I will even provide a small bonus if you can bring me some with wider variety, as I’ll be doing a comparative study on the level of alchemical potency compared to the relative expressed features of…”

The researcher rambled on enthusiastically for several minutes before realizing it was lost on his present audience. He quickly paid them and saw them out of his rented workshop, before turning to the corpse, excitement gleaming in his eyes.

Flush with cash, Vee, Trella and the others decided to spend some time shopping and upgrading their equipment. Vee spent most of her money on a new bow with a stronger draw, then spent the rest on getting her leather armor patched up. Trella purchased a spell compilation book detailing a handful of minor evocations, intending to learn some new spells for directly dealing damage. Although the others would disagree and insist her illusion and sensory spells were quite useful, she still felt like she wasn’t pulling her weight in combat. The brothers pooled their money and dipped into their savings to buy a high end storage bag which would allow them to carry considerably more than it should be able to hold. Meanwhile Grix bought a pair of steel gauntlets, then paid off his gambling debts, and went and racked up some more.

Despite the return of the presence that stalked them after it had been absent for several weeks, they’d been doing well and steadily growing in strength. Grix boasted that they could even take on a troll now. Supposing they could find one. The trolls had all but disappeared from Slime Forest.

The Hunter’s Guild was investigating, and adventurers were whispering that it was the work of the Devil of Slime Forest. Although sightings of it had all but come to a stop, that only further fueled the speculation around the mysterious beast. There had also been sightings of some kind of large beast flying about in the early morning hours before sunrise, though the guild had yet to issue any kind of bounty on it.

Although Vee and Trella strongly suspected that the Devil of Slime Forest was the same presence that watched them every time they were in the forest, they were hesitant to bring the information to the guild as they had no actual proof.

There were also rumors of bandits and more hunting parties failing to return.

As was their evening routine, all five met back at the only alehouse inside the fort to plan out their next day. A new tavern had opened out in the town that was spreading around the fort walls, and most of the nonmilitary and non-hunting customer base had migrated to it, but since the rowdiest groups had remained behind it was just as lively and noisy as usual.

“So, should we hunt another one tomorrow?” Vee asked.

Trella nodded without taking her head out of the new spellbook, and Sil and Sul gave noncommittal shrugs.

“Yes, but let us find a bigger one. The puny one today was no challenge,” Grix grumbled.

“We can try. I’ve heard that sightings are more numerous in the northwestern part of the forest. I’ll see if I can track a bigger one, but if I can’t we’ll settle for any we can find. The pay is too good to pass up on a small one just because you’re pouting over it not being a challenge to fight,” Vee said.

“Maybe two?” Sil asked.

“New storage bag, can carry more,” Sul added.

“If time permits. We don’t want to spend the night out there if we can avoid it.”