The sky is brightening at a rapid pace as the surroundings slowly come alive. Birds, insects and rodents make themselves known, intentionally or not. Flowers peal back their petals and curled up leaves unfold under the sun. Snatching up a likely looking bug as a snack, I head further into the shrubbery. The trees are stunted, small and bent over, but they are trees. Grabbing a low hanging branch doesn't allow me to climb it though, my claws cleanly slice through the brittle wood. No way to get up a bit higher and have a look, I'll have to pass through here to see what's on the other side.

Dead branches covered by needles crack under me as I pass under the low hanging branches. There are no plants, bushes or ferns here. Traces of more rodent types are abundant. It would be nice to come back here to run around a bit and see what I can chase down. There are few scratch marks and scent marks made by predators here. I don't recognize all of them, but the place is starting to feel more familiar already. Soon the scent of rotting pine needles overpowers all but the strongest territory mark.

There are no signs of anything but animals here, perhaps a few beasts, but no monsters nor anything intelligent. With intelligence, I mean anything that uses tools. If they use fire, that would be something I can understand too. Speech or some way to communicate. Building things. I realize I have no clue what I'm really looking for. Considering the lack of anything interesting here, it hardly matters.

I don't know how far I walked. The thought makes me pause. While I don't know how far I walked here, I know how far I walked in the dungeon last time. Behind me is a mountain, but it is much too close to be above the dungeon itself. Is it underneath the next one? Is there another valley in-between? Those are things I can look for another time.

I don't know how far I walked, but the stunted forest is at an end. A slightly more lush meadow than the one where the dungeon is, separates it from a denser forest which is again further below. Cautious I cross the open ground, my eyes trained at the sky. I have seen no trace of anything dangerous on the ground, but the sky has an enemy I know about.

Even with most of my attention on the sky, I don't fail to notice the deer-like creatures fleeing somewhere ahead of me. From the way they look at my direction, they're running from me or from something right in front or behind me. I'm certain I would have noticed something, so it's most likely me. What makes me curious is if they are fleeing because they think I am dangerous or because they always run from something unknown. If they always flee the unknown, there would have been cases where the unknown proved itself dangerous to them. Something worth keeping in mind.

It's when I reach the actual forest that I find myself encountering the first signs of some kind of intelligent creature. With my eyes mostly on the sky, I fail to see the trap until it's too late. A sudden jank and one of my front limbs is pulled off to the side and up by a springy branch bent over the trail I have been following. The noose is made from plant fibers. It is probably intended to snare rabbits, ermines or something of a similar size. Other than startling me and pulling me slightly off-balance and putting me in an awkward position, it doesn't hinder or threaten me. For me, all that matters is that this is not natural but something made. If it is something made, there must be a maker!

The trap was set near an intersection with a bigger trail, which I decide to follow. Anything setting such a trap is probably bigger than the intended prey, so this will be my best bet. It's not far until I am proven right. Another trap is set slightly off the path, near a bush that would make a good hiding place for anything smaller crossing the bigger path. The next trap I find has been sprung, with an almost pure white rabbit-like creature in it. It makes for a good snack.

Continuing along the trail I find more traces that something uses it, but I'm still to find out what exactly. I feel like I will find out soon, though. For a while now I have been unable to shake the feeling that something is watching me. I haven't seen anything or heard anything unusual. I don't even smell anything strange. Yet I know I'm being watched and my instinct is telling me to run. Tense and alert I stalk along the trail. To keep calm I remind myself that this isn't real, it's only a summon, but I don't seem to listen to me very well. A break in the bushes ahead looks like the perfect place to turn off the path and make a run for it.

When the end comes it still manages to take me by surprise. I rush off the trail and clear the bushes that have been impeding my vision of my surroundings, but that have also been screening me. The snap of a bowstring is all the warning I get before an arrow slams into me, piercing one of my hearts. It's a wound I can survive, given time, but time is a luxury I don't have. I have to slow down to accommodate my suddenly sluggish body and an enemy is near. A second arrow pierces my neck and pins me to the ground. Above me? I wait for the attacker to show itself, but it's smarter than that. I can and will still attack whoever this is, but I am without a target. I twitch a little and hold still, hoping to bait the bowman into showing itself. Ultimately it's fruitless and the world turns white without me seeing my attacker.

I fully expect to be back in the cell when the white clears. Instead, the sensation of moving and being pulled I've come to associate with this is interrupted by a force pulling me in a different direction. For the barest fraction of a second, the two forces pull me in different directions and it hurts. It hurts like nothing I've felt before. It's not a wound I'm familiar with as it feels like every piece of me, from my skin to my internals, is being torn apart. Then one pull dissipates and I find myself in a dimming rune circle, back in the dungeon.

I let the familiar sense of its presence comfort me a little. I'm not going to complain about not really dying, but why does everything have to hurt? Regardless, I'm back at the dungeon. The walk to the chasm and the climb up wait for me. Hold on, didn't I already fulfill my task? Maybe not on purpose, but I did find something intelligent. A bow sounds intelligent enough. Then I had to lure them back here. Well, it's a hunter, right? I'm sure it will be able to track my scent back to where the bird dropped me and figure it out from there.

That leaves me free to do what I want which is kind of the same thing, explore the outside, but without having to worry about doing anything someone told me to do. Taking the shortest path, I quickly reach the chasm again. Up or down? This time I decide to go down. I'm mildly curious what kind of debris has collected at the bottom, even though climbing down is more troublesome than going up. Wise to the tricks of this place, the whistling and moaning fails to distract me and I arrive safely, if a bit tired.

It's a mess of rotting vegetation and rocky debris. Trekking along the length of it I study the chasm floor, if I can call it that. It is uneven and ready to cut the unwary and careless who make a wrong step. I need to be especially careful around the sharp-edged glassy rock pieces. Scattered around are the bones of creatures, mostly rodents but a few bigger bones are here too. None of them look like they died here. Most likely the bones rolled in here from above, carried by the wind or rain. After about an hour I've had enough of it. The going is slow and drains my stamina. From here I can climb out on the valley side, which is much more appealing.

It's a harder climb, going up all the way in one go, but nothing I can't handle. It's a good exercise for me, climbing with this larger, heavier body. Slowly but steadily I pull myself up until I reach the top. Instead of looking around, I look at the sky, but no birds of prey are near. There is no time to waste. I take off at a run down the slope towards the nearest bushes. In this fashion, I go from hiding place to hiding place until I reach the stunted forest. In this place I can relax a bit more, but it's not my destination. Crossing the wide meadow I make my way to the actual forest.

This time I don't follow the trail along the edge of the forest but make my way inside. Under the canopy is an almost permanent twilight. The tree-line where it borders the meadow bustles with life, but the inner forest is quiet. Few insects, fewer birds. The forest floor is covered in broken branches and layers of leaves in various stages of rot. It smells musty and earthy, with a hint of deer. The most prevalent tracks I encounter are different species of deer, boar, bear and wolf. And a two-legged creature, most likely humanoid, but it does not smell like human. The deeper I go, the fewer tracks I find of the two-legged creature. It probably means its home isn't through here, which is fine with me.

The forest goes on for hours. Occasionally a fallen tree causes a break in the canopy, letting through enough light to create blotches of green plants to break up the monotony. This is getting me nowhere. All the wildlife is staying away from me as soon as they smell me or hear me. If I could, I would move against the wind. That is not an option right now and I'm already making as little noise as I can. It's boring. Looking around I spot a likely looking tree. Climbing it will hopefully bring me high enough for a nice view.

It's a rough climb and I don't quite get as high as I want to. The trees here are so flimsy! My claws can barely grasp the upper branches without damaging them. The higher I get the harder it is to stop them from snapping. When I'm as high as I'll get without taking stupid risks, I have a decent view of the valley below. I'm on the higher part of the mountainside still, the ground steadily sloping down. Somewhere in the distance is a rather sharp drop-off. Beyond there the forest changes from predominantly pine to broadleaf. A strange sort of 'line' is probably a river causing a break in the trees. Far off to one side the trees become sparser. It's in the same direction I was going when the hunter shot me, so that is most likely where I find intelligent things. I make up my mind to head in the other direction.

The way I want to go I can only see trees all the way. Traveling along the river, if it's there, is probably the most interesting. It's going to take most of a day to reach it and I'm not sure if I have that much time. Worrying about that won't get anything done, so off I go. The way down is faster. Jumping down from branch to branch, I don't care much about the claw marks I leave behind. Safely back on the ground, I orient myself and start to move at a quick jog. Being here makes me miss my real home more, where the trees and rocks are tougher. Dungeon rock is tough too, I'll admit, but the rest here is rather weak.

I don't make it to the river. At the drop-off between the coniferous forest and the broadleaf forest I find a great collection of caves and start exploring. There are mutated bear creatures, rather aggressive bats and loads of other interesting creatures. Most of the time I just have a stare-off with the opponent, sometimes I have to run. I'm not too interested in fighting at the moment, so I try to stay out of trouble. Being able to scale the cliff walls easily, helps to take me out of reach, except for the bats who chase me for a few hundred meters before flying back to their own cave.

There are also tasty minerals. They won't help me grow since nothing, or almost nothing if I believe Tarvinder, I eat here stays with me, but I can taste-test for the things I like now already. One day I will travel my own world to look for the things my body tells me I need to grow strong. As I'm nibbling on a bit of rock with streaks of some mineral through it, the world starts to turn white again. Time is up. I brace myself mentally and yes, the two forces try to tear me apart again. The pulling goes on a bit longer, but doesn't hurt quite as much. When I can see again I'm back in the dungeon. This returning thing isn't as fun as I initially thought it would be.