Approaching the creature, I notice that it is different from the original one I saw. This one has 4 slits instead of the normal 3 and is my size instead of just half. The colouring is also a shade darker but barely noticeable when with the rest of them however the skin looks more rugged, reminding me kind of like rock armor.

The most interesting part is as I get closer, its face starts pointing towards the ground instead of facing me. Once I get within a meter of it, I am able to get a better look and make a fascinating observation.

Are you... Scared of me?

Its body is nearly touching the ground and it almost seems to be shaking, but only slightly. On instinct I reach out with my hand to pat its head. However I am only able to touch it for a split second before an electric shock makes me quickly bring my hand back.

"What the-"

I only get half way before my mind gets assaulted by foreign thoughts and feelings. My eyes go shut as I drop my glaive, my hands rush to my head and I stumble backwards, nearly falling over before I catch myself. The jumbled mess of thoughts slowly starts correcting itself as I feel a separate connection grow inside my core.

Slowly opening my eyes, I bring my hands down and look back at the creature only to find it isn't there anymore. My eyes widen as my heart drops before noticing it is somehow behind me, and I am laying on it.

Apparently I didn't catch myself, the creature did.

Jumping up I turn as fast as humanly possible to once again look at the creature. It no longer looks scared of me, instead somehow, it is looking at me with concern with its head slightly tilted to the right. It almost looks like a puppy, just massive and intimidating though I no longer feel as scared anymore.

Again I reached out to touch it, the creature this time did not look scared but instead happy, just like a puppy. When my hand finally reaches its head my mind is again intruded with foreign thoughts, but this time much calmer and are instead happy thoughts. The rock-like skin of the creature is much harder than it looks like on the outside, being slightly slimy as well as surprisingly cold.

The longer my hand stays there the more I realise it is taking some of my mana as well as heat, it pushes itself more onto my hand along with more thoughts of happiness, warmth and comfort. I put my other hand further up on its head, scratching and pushing mana into it like I thought a dog would like.

I know I succeeded when it drops like a ton of bricks and my mind is hit with a feeling of pleasure, so I continue to scratch and feed it mana for about half a minute before I turn back to the rest of the creatures. "What am I supposed to do with you lot." I mumble while rolling my eyes at the creature still laying down, immobilized from the scratching. I pick back up my glaive and go great my new companions as today just got much more interesting.

At the bottom of the hill I started approaching the creatures with much more confidence than before, especially since my new companion joined me half way down. If it had a tail I was sure it would be wagging with the way it walked next to me.

Standing about 10 meters away I look over at the now much less scary swarm. They all look in my direction with the same expectant look as my companion, glacing to my right, my new friend starts opening their mouth and stands in an assertive way.

Within moments a loud and threatening, hiss-like distorted screech comes from deep within my friend as all the creatures in front all freeze and go into a pounce-like position which I now interpret as a sort of bow. Some even start shaking a little, when I hear a new thought in my head. Submit is all I feel come through the connection when I give my friend a small smirk.

"I supposed I should probably name you." I whisper as I put my hand on his side with a knowing nod.

Definitely not a normal puppy.

I close my eyes and focus on the connection while picturing the name. Eden, I send towards the connection before I get a response back nearly instantly. Agree is all I get, along with feelings of happiness.

Opening my eyes, I take my hands away and look back over to my new swarm when I spot something within the crowd. I can't make it out with all the 3 mouths in the way so I use Eden to send them a message. Move, I sent through the connection before I started walking towards the now perked up swarm.

As I start reaching the first of the creatures, they take long and exaggerated moves out of the way, still in complete silence, before they again go into the bowing position. I can get used to this, I think with a slightly evil grin while walking towards the odd shaped mound of suspiciousness.

Guess there are more creatures out there.

Those are my thoughts as I look at the very much dead corpse in front of me. It has been trampled, eaten and shredded beyond recognition but is obviously not one of these creatures. It is humanoid and wearing some sort of clothing but has been torn to shreds by either the sharp teeth of my companions or the equally sharp claws on their feet.

Taking in the crime scene I notice that he or she has a short sword with them but doesn't seem to have done much with it as there are no dead 3 mouths in the vicinity. The scene is gruesome and doesn't offer much in terms of info.

Whatever it was, it is torn apart, missing a whole arm with the legs broken in unhealthy ways offering only the fact that there are other humanoid creatures out there. That may or may not be sentient, as long as the short sword isn't just a fluke.

Picking up the short sword I look for the sheath which happens to luckily be one of the few undamaged things in this mess of organs and blood. Putting the sword in the sheath I add it to my belt and try to see where the unfortunate being came from. Finding some evidence when I start looking in the direction of the mountain, the path there has obvious signs of battle as small craters and disturbed ground start showing up.

"Might as well see if anyone is home." I say to Eden as I look at them for a moment before turning back to the mountain in the distance.

Guess that wasn't your home in the first place, huh. Suppose that guy that went there in the beginning is probably dead then.

I start reassessing what I know of this world. If the mountain is where this guy came from and you obviously don't like each other, then did that creature from the ravine go there to attack them?

"Well whatever is going on over there, I obviously can't bring hundreds of you there." I look at Eden and walk over. Tell them to stay here, you can come with me. I send through the connection as I start heading towards and past the scorched battlefield.

Ed goes still as they send their message to the rest of the swarm before promptly moving back over to me. I stop to give them a slight pat before continuing through the battlefield where two more mangled corpses lay in equal condition to the first one, ignoring them I continue forward towards the mountain in the distance.

God, this is going to take a while.

Through the small battlefield I look at the mountain and sigh as I climb up to a small elevated flatland of empty rock and boring ash, getting to the top I shake my head in annoyance before continuing, with my glaive as my walking stick, towards civilization.