It took me a moment to realize the thunderous boom had come from the humans. There was no magic in the air, no sweetness, only thick smoke and noxious fumes. 'How'd they do that?'

I stalked closer, keeping myself amidst the trees as I approached. Twice had thunder bellowed in the clearing, and yet only one of them had fallen. Blood filled the air, though I felt no predatory compulsion from the scent. The other human, upon whose hand was a smoking stick with a hole in the end, like a bamboo shoot, was bleeding from his left shoulder. The wound was small, but the blood that rushed out of it seemed to indicate otherwise. The third human stood up, walked towards the dead human, poked the corpse with a thin stick, and began clapping its hands together.

What? Even Nyx was confused. These creatures are weird...

Yeah. I agreed. Humans do strange things, but it's best not to underestimate them; they can be very dangerous at times.

The two remaining humans shook hands, whilst the wounded one removed his artificial layer of fur. The other remaining human then began taking strips of... something and tied it around the bleeding human's shoulder.

'What are they doing?' I shook my head, but kept my eyes on them. Whatever had caused the thunderous booms were... dangerous; my instincts harried me to flee and hide, but I ignored them. After all, I was no mere beast, who fled from the slightest danger - even if that was the smart thing to do. I looked closer. 'Ah, I think they're trying to stop the bleeding.'

I glanced at the strange sticks on their hands, from where the acrid smoke seemed to emanate from. It was rather clear that those things were definitely weapons of a sort; how they functioned, however, I couldn't even begin to imagine. Already, I had an inkling that those very same hollowed sticks were the sources of the twin booms of thunder. The skies lacked clouds, blue and clear. There couldn't have been any thunder from the sky and so I could conclude only one thing; and yet I couldn't figure out how.

I smelled no sweetness from the thunder sticks, which meant they weren't magical in nature. So, how were they capable of projecting thunder? And where'd all the smoke come from and how did these weapons kill? Obviously, they were deadly; one of the humans died - its head now sporting a large hole - from a single thunderous boom. Nyx stood up and leapt off my back, stalking underneath a veil of shrubs and long grasses as she went further into the clearing. My eyes widened for a moment, before I recalled the simple fact that Nyx could likely just turn the humans into rocks if they ever threatened her - that or just ignore them completely.

Figuring they couldn't detect my presence, anyway, I followed Nyx, though I didn't bother trying to hide.

I stopped at the very edge of the clearing, but Nyx went even further and walked right up to the humans. Startled, they both turned towards her, but relaxed quickly enough when they very wrongfully underestimated her power - then again, she was in the form of a harmless kitten. At this point, nearly every single creature was likely to underestimate her. The humans turned away, ignoring Nyx's presence. 'Which means they can't sense the pressure of her power.'

She walked right up to the dead human's form, passing the other two, who were content to leave her be. Nyx stopped by the human's right arm, the appendage still grasped firmly over the boom stick thing. She leaned over and sniffed, tail swaying left and right - kind of how a cat would act, really. Her right forearm flashed forward, swiping the hollow stick right out of the dead human's hand. The other two took notice, but did nothing - one of them even chuckled at the sight. Nyx turned towards me. It's a weapon... I've seen other weapons like this in other worlds. This is far less advanced, but I think it works the same way.

There are other worlds?

Many; I've never been to any of them, but I do like to sneak a peak once in a while.

Are the weapons dangerous?

To me? Hardly. To you, however, considering your mortal predicament, yes. Though, these are not nearly as powerful as those I've seen in that other world. It's weaker by far, likely a less advanced design. Regardless, you must be careful around these weapons, little one.

How does it work?

I'm honestly not sure, but what I recall is that it shoots out bits of metal that flies faster than mortal eyes could possibly follow. It'll pierce through skin and bone with little effort.

Ah, the weapon was a more advanced form of that stick that shot out smaller pieces of sticks - more dangerous. Also, what's metal? It sounded like another human-made thing that's very dangerous; considering Nyx's worry, it probably was. Okay, I'll stay away from humans with weapons like that. But, I should be fine, anyway, since they're likely unable to perceive my presence. My guess is that it shoots the metal thing out of the hollow tube, which means it can only hurt me from one end.

The humans appeared to be speaking to each other with how their mouths moved, but I was too far away to listen. Should I kill them? I wasn't particularly hungry and these ones didn't smell sweet - not like that one human with a pointy stick. They didn't appear to be threats, either, since they obviously haven't noticed me at all. Despite the boom sticks, they were still humans and I good bite to the neck is all it'd take to kill them outright; it'll be even easier now, since they'll never have time to react. But then... what's the point?

'Oh well, I'm not hungry, anyway.'

Nyx turned away from the corpse and walked towards the humans. Both of them glanced at her, but paid no more heed as they stood - one holding the other by the side - and walked away to the opposite side of the clearing. I sniffed the air; there were horses near here - humans often rode those, didn't they? At least, I'm quite sure I've seen a few of them on the backs of horses. Nyx leapt high into the air and landed in front of me. Let's go; the humans no longer interest me.

Okay

We followed a dirt path on our side of the clearing, moving farther and farther away from the two humans. Behind us, carrion birds swooped in from the sky and fell upon the lone human corpse. Their shrill caws filled the forest air, right before a howling wind sweapt through the trees. We pushed onwards, Nyx lazily lounging on my back, somehow staying on there without ever falling off once, despite all the times she should've slid off. We crossed a raging rapid, though I simply chose to Shadow Step over to the other side, instead of braving the waters as I normally would've.

Farther and farther away from the Grey Mountains we journeyed on. The forest itself seemed... dead - quiet and still. My old home was so much more vibrant, even in the winter, where the air very air itself held a strange warmth to it, even as it chilled the bones. Here, everything felt... dead and lifeless. There were no strange creatures, upon whose blood the sweetness flowed. The wind was cold and biting, but lacked any true depth; there was no power in the wind.

I... didn't like it; it was akin to breathing very thin air - not debilitating or dangerous, but quite uncomfortable.

The sun soon fell over the blue sky and dipped somewhere over the distance. I would've begun searching for shelter, a cave or anything of the sort, if not for an epiphany. Lesser beasts sought shelter because they were weak, because staying out in the open made them vulnerable to the predations of higher beasts. Shelter was a means of escape and protection; it was a means of retreat. But I knew my power - at least, some of it - and I knew that I was stronger than anything in this forest, especially now that we'd crossed the Grey Mountains and the air held no sweetness to it, where strange beasts no longer roamed the woods. I was the most powerful creature here; there was no reason to seek shelter.

And so, I didn't. Nyx and I continued forth even in the dead of night. It hardly mattered, however, as I could see rather well in the darkness. Lesser beasts and predators dare not approach; wolf packs stayed clear off our path and even fellow bears would scurry off into the night, whenever we passed them. We - I - walked until the sun arose once more from the east of the woods and the trees themselves began to thin out.

I walked right through the treeline and into a verdant field of seemingly endless grass. In the far distance was another vast mountain range. Closeby, however, was an odd collection of strange shapes; most of them appeared to be made of wood and stone and dried straw, and the air was filled with the scent of humans. Was this the sort of place they dwelt in? There was certainly a large population of them - more humans in one place than I've ever seen in my enter life.

Nyx stirred and walked right up to stand at the top of my head. It's called a village - I think. Humans like to live together in places such as these. It's safer for them here than it is for them in the wilds.

Should we go there? I am curious about these humans. They smell odd; there's not sweetness to them - no power in their blood. Not like those I've encountered in the forests from whence we came.

You should keep your distance. A lot of them will be carrying around the boom sticks... and... there's something strange in the air - it's... familiar, almost.