I had a simple awareness of the world around me as I rested, unlike during usual sleep. Usual sleep, I thought, what an oxymoron. Though I could feel my mind shuffling around memories, and sometimes I found myself indulging in lines of thought that were quite dream-like, I was still aware that I was laying in a tree and waiting for an opportune moment to scout. Occasionally my eyes would flutter open automatically to check the sky, unsure of how much time had passed because of the dissociating nature of my rest. Finally, they opened to see not only stars, but a fully dark sky. I readied myself and descended from the tree.

On the ground, I strained my eyes to see through the darkness and into the village. The cloud cover was minimal but the moon had momentarily vanished behind the single large cloud in the sky, which meant less light than I would have liked illuminated the buildings and dirt roads. Within a minute or so I managed to adjust my eyes so that I could see, and I saw no humans walking around outside. Perfect, I thought, just have to be quiet and everything will go well. I emerged from my bushy hideout and began making a half-pace jog towards the town, keeping my body crouched low to limit my profile.

The fields around the town were filled with farming monocultures that grew stalks nearly my own height, so as I got closer to the town it became easier to conceal myself. Stopping for a moment because of my stomach, I checked the plants to find that they looked to be growing some kind of corn-like pods. Curious about the flavor and more hungry than rational, I picked one of the pods and took a bite of it. Instead of what I was expecting, it appeared that the pods were very starchy inside and hard to swallow due to their dryness. Still, once I had begun to eat I found it hard to stop and ended up consuming several pods before moving on towards the actual village itself.

The first building I passed was one of the wooden ones. I approached it and examined it closer, trying to determine how it was constructed. It appeared as though the main walls of the building were simply logs that had been flattened on two sides and stacked atop each other, making simple vertical barriers. The roof was straw and fiber, just as I had expected, and looked to be held up by some kind of animal leather judging by the bits of animal hide I could see peeking out between the layers. That must be to keep the water out, I thought. Warbreed in my previous area of operation usually lived in semi-permanent tents for the same reason. I wonder what the straw is for, I thought as I walked on.

Walking on nearer to the village I passed by another wooden building, this one with windows on the outside. I crouched down as low as possible and approached cautiously, checking to see if there was any glass in use at an open window. Nothing, I thought as my hand passed through, either it's too expensive or they can't create sufficiently transparent glass to make it worth using. I pulled my hand back quickly so that nobody inside the house would see it, then pressed myself against the outside wall and stood up.

Peering into the room, I could see two humans sleeping on a simple wooden bed which looked to be stuffed with straw, covered by a woven blanket of some sort. Across the room on the other side of the bed was an equally simple cabinet, and some mats covered parts of the wooden floor inside the house. Metal hinges, I thought as I looked at the cabinet, large but still well-made. They aren't complete barbarians. One of the humans in the bed rolled over and I ducked away from the window, not wanting to take the risk of being seen if it was awake.

I made haste further into the town, passing by other houses without checking them. Most of the inhabitants kept their windows partially boarded up from the inside, using a four-piece system that closed off the window using four equally-sized squares. The average home had one of the upper squares still open with all of the others shut. Some cultural meaning to that? I wondered, I suppose it might buy some privacy if the average height here is similar to that prisoner's height. I stood around ten centimeters taller than my ex-prisoner, making peering into those upper parts of the windows easy.

Finally, I reached one of the stone buildings I had wanted to take a look at. After making a wide circle around it to see if there were any people guarding it, I closed in and examined the stonework. It appeared that none of the stones were hewn at all, having been stacked together with a generous amount of mortar and left to dry. I tapped my knuckles against the rocks and had to admit that the building was very solid. Looking up to the straw roof, I could see that in order to flatten the upper part of the building planks of wood had been laid atop each wall and also pasted into place with mortar. The building had no windows, but it did have a simple wooden door, built with two cross-pieces to make it exceptionally sturdy.

I hesitantly approached the door and pushed on it, feeling it give way and open up. In a flash, my knife was in my hand and I was ready to fight, but the darkness inside the building did not birth any angry villagers, nor did it make a sound. I walked inside slowly, keeping my knife at the ready, and strained my eyes to see through the fog-like blackness which hung in the air. I could see vague outlines of tall shapes, and flatter shapes, but not much else.

What is that smell? I wondered as I inhaled through my nose. It was smoke-like, but also had something else mixed in with it. I reached out and touched one of the tall shapes in the room with my off hand, finding it to be a wooden post. Curiously, I touched one of the flat shapes and realized that it was hanging on something, presumably a piece of cord strung between two of the posts. I stopped the motion of the flat object and gently removed it from the cord, holding it up to my nose. Dried meat? I thought voraciously. Before I could think better of my actions, I took a bite.

My mouth assaulted me with positive signals so strong that I almost recoiled from the shock. Just in this single piece of meat, I could taste so many different things and all of them agreed with my body. Meat, smoke, salt, some kind of sugar? Capsaicin as well, and maybe monosodium glutamate? I guessed as I ate more of the meat, It's hard to tell with a tongue that works like this. For the first time since I had acquired my new body I felt as though my sense of taste was not sufficient to truly analyze something I was eating. Or perhaps I just didn't try to analyze anything before, I countered to myself.

My stomach was full, but I grabbed two more pieces of meat and stashed them under my cloak for later consumption. They'll probably know someone took something, I reasoned, but they shouldn't have any reason to suspect me so long as I don't get caught. I exited the smokehouse and the night felt quite bright compared to the complete darkness I had just been subjected to. An insect lazily drifted towards me and made for the smokehouse, but I caught it and crushed it between my fingers before closing the door.

The next stone building was larger than the smokehouse and did have a window on it. Unfortunately the window used only a dual shutter and was closed from the inside, but I found the locking mechanism that had been used on the door to be woefully inadequate for keeping me out. It used a simple hole inside of which some kind of lever was clearly intended to be placed, which would slide an iron rod to unbar the door from the outside. Instead of doing that, I just put the blade of my knife between the door and the door frame and wiggled the bar until it had slid far enough to allow the door to open.

The building was unmistakably a smithy. An anvil of sorts sat near a forge, which itself had tools sitting on a table across from it. I opened the window shutters to allow in some of the moonlight and saw that the building's interior was divided by a single wall, splitting the building into two distinct rooms. In the other room was a pile of metal ingots and a pile of wood. Supply room, I thought as I examined the ingots, looks like iron certainly isn't in short supply around here at all. Though I can't tell the quality just from looking at it.

Back in the main smithy room I found some spears sitting nestled in between a cabinet and the wall which appeared identical to my own. I opened the cabinet and saw more tools inside, ranging from a sort of thin-bladed machete to basic survival axes. I was tempted to take one of the axes for myself, but restrained the urge since I knew that such goods were much more likely be counted and inventoried. They would also attract attention if someone from the village saw me with them. I might be able to trade for one though, I thought, I just have to figure out what kinds of valuables these people use.

After re-shuttering the window I left the smithy, carefully re-locking the door by doing the reverse of what I had done to unlock it. There was one more stone building I wanted to look at near the center of the village, and it was growing more interesting the closer I got to it. It was large, much larger than the other two stone buildings, and had two entrances. One entrance had double doors that were locked with something that appeared to be a primitive padlock, and the other was a single trapdoor that led into a basement. I found the trapdoor unlocked and opened it up, seeing deep darkness in front of me. After a quick check to see if I was being watched, I descended into the basement and closed the door behind me.

The advantage of having such an over-tuned sense of touch was that I could almost picture the exact texture of things my hands and feet crossed over. Though my feet were in boots, my hands were still uncovered, and that's how I found out that the basement was hewn from stone rather than constructed of stone and mortar like the other buildings. Not a single fleck of the rough and porous mortar graced my fingertips, which instead slid along bumpy but mostly smooth rock. I stepped down the stairs slowly to maintain my balance, then rounded a corner, then felt bars blocking my way.

A jail cell? I thought as I holstered my knife and felt out the shape in front of me. The metal bars formed a door of some sort which had a large rectangular locking mechanism forged or perhaps welded into it. I could feel a keyhole, but the entrance was too small for me to determine what kind of lock it was. Only one cell, I thought, they must not get a lot of use out of it. Perhaps they have no enemies in the area. Carefully I turned around and worked my way back to the stairs, then climbed them up to the trapdoor and lifted it out of my way.

Again the night felt bright to me, and the fresh air reminded my nose of just how musty the basement had been. Okay, time to get back to a hiding spot, I thought, maybe I should just follow the other road out of town for a bit then head back at sunrise. I looked towards the north and froze, seeing a man staring back at me. A small pain prickled my back, followed by five more across my back and neck. I tried to turn around to see what had poked me, but the entire world seemed to spin out from under me and I collapsed onto the ground. Information Warfare strike? was the first thing my rattled brain came up with, They managed to get past my countermeasures? I saw the face of a man in my rapidly shrinking visual field, along with a hand that was holding a tube of some kind. Then I saw nothing and thought nothing.