Helene may not have been the fastest in the pack, but her body certainly has its stamina. I traveled for hours with only the necessary breaks - until I simply could not bring myself to try so hard anymore.
After a longer but still too quick rest to recover my will, I woke and got back on the move again. Until finally, I crested a hill at around dawn and saw it spread out before me.
A grand enough metropolis by both world's standards. The 'concrete' and glass structures that stood tall fit images sitting in Helene's head. With smaller buildings clustered around them like courtiers around royalty.
From a personal standpoint, buildings jutting into the air like that seemed higher than necessary. Especially that white one. Looking at it just reminds me that I always hated the stairways in parts of the palace.
> Would you not spend just as much time going up as you might running across the ground? <
My wolf had learned to ignore reacting to my sudden musings. Probably because I informed it... that I did not like the continued feeling of it appeasing me. Like a mere servant instead of someone I invoked a partnership contract with.
If it had nothing genuine to say or feel, it was best to just be silent!
Regardless, after days in the wilderness, the glittering skyline might as well have been the definition of 'civilization' compared to the few scattered houses I steered clear from.
The many loudly yipping 'dogs' at the first of those only needed to be seen in person once. To be sure that they really were just some kind of altered lineage of wolves like Helene understood and not fox-kind.
Domestication might have been a different matter if this world had proper shifters. The most powerful of a species tends to get testy at the thought of their kindred being enslaved to the whims of another.
Shaking my head, I shift into the very sort of form that has proven more dominant in this world than mine. The human side, original to this body. And finally, I get dressed.
Wrinkled shirt, pants, and socks with no shoes.
Someday soon I may truly, hopefully... not look like a total mess.
⧖ ☾ ❄ ☽ ⧖
I walked for hours. Avoiding the noisy 'honks' of motor vehicles all around. Watching the growing morning light reflect off distant windows. The shift in angles of shadows cast on the sidewalk by distant billboards.
There was also that big mural of the city skyline a while back. With the phrase [Welcome To: Vossden] along the top. The name of the city tickled something in her memories, but it was too vague.
My nose had long ago stopped wrinkling. The barrage of scents carried on the wind included exhaust fumes, breakfast foods cooking, rotting garbage, and the thousands upon thousands of humans in the direction I was headed.
Beneath it all, fainter but unmistakable, were the scents of other beasts. Other werewolves.
The system map's glyph blinked and a very late warning greeted me.
| Chosen Has Entered The Rimecoat Pack's Territory! |
It was updated to show the lines just like I'd seen for Helene's pack. The size of it covered the whole city and more, making it clear that the place I had chosen to come to was theirs. A very large area that I'd been traveling at least a day through from the direction I came from.
> I don't know for sure, but I doubt every human city in this world has werewolves, right? And the Rimecoat... now I know why Vossden was familiar. Is this me being lucky or unlucky? <
The growl-bark-talk my wolf tried to give me was well meaning enough. This time assuring me that it didn't know about any of that either. Which is still as unhelpful as usual, but at least it's not as touchy about admitting to it.
The backpack of supplies I'd taken - and snacked liberally from - hung heavy on my shoulders. Even though it was physically lighter
If I can smell them, they'll be able to smell me. They might even be better at it, as they are more accustomed to all these other human stinks around them than I am.
Worse, there was something called scent blockers for our kind.
So I may not even notice when someone approaching me is a large threat.
All of this is hitting me while I'm tired and kind of hungry again. My muscles ache from the night's journey. I've pushed myself harder than I might have to get here in the deadline after receiving the system's task.
"Why even play along with it? For all I know it's part of the reason why I'm in this world in the first place."
As if it was listening and chose to respond to my annoyance, the check mark starts to make itself known. I stop walking and focus on it.
| TASK COMPLETION ✓ |
| REWARD IMMINENT ⚝ |
I blinked at the blue text when it started to swirl into an indistinct lump at the end. Before I could wonder what exactly any of that meant, I had to dodge out of the way of a 'bicycle'. I stare after the relatively fast moving vehicle and its reckless and unapologetic rider.
"This place is more dangerous than I thought. Do the people here not have any concerns for their own safety?"
"I like to think those jerks get what's coming to them sooner or later, miss."
An old man spoke, sitting on the 'bus' bench not far ahead. Immediately, I was wary... as I hadn't noticed anyone paying attention to me.
He scattered a handful more breadcrumbs from the bag at his side and the flock of grey birds that had moved out of the way like me landed back around him.
> You didn't warn me, but I didn't feel him looking my way either... <
In this strange city filled with potential enemies, a situation like this wasn't welcome. Was he just a human or a threat? A werewolf using those scent blockers, waiting near the edges for rogues like me to pass by?
I tried to catch any sign of beast pheromones
As I hesitated to answer and stop looking like an uncertain child who had done something wrong... the blue lump from earlier swirled back into focus and formed text.
| MOTHER'S INTUITION |
A strange sensation rippled through me upon reading it. The small hairs on my human form rose up like the moment before a lightning strike. When the natural magic in the air tingles against your fur.
For a few heartbeats, the awareness of my surroundings sharpened.
Somehow I knew this man held no supernatural threat. Completely human. I also noticed details I'd missed in my initial wariness.
The dark covering over his eyes that looked a little too different from normal 'sunglasses'. The metal cane propped against the bench beside him. The way he tilted his head slightly to track sounds.
He was blind - just like the ancient one that managed the palace gardens. Just like that old fox, he was completely untroubled by my long silence.
"I can always hear them coming. Those cyclists. They think they own the sidewalk and pedestrians are the ones in the way."
Even without 'sight', people like this sometimes seemed to know you were there. I'd always found that interesting.
Though the gardener did not appreciate my experiments to see if he was just speaking to himself and hoping to get lucky that I was around when he spoke.
"I see. I'll watch out for them better from now on."
"You sound like you're new around here. Not used to the traffic in a city?"
"Is it that obvious?"
Now that I felt he wasn't a threat, I approached cautiously. The only actual people I'd talked to here were Chad and Jace. I can't even count that Kyle, because he never spoke to me directly!
I shuffled closer and he chuckled. A warm sound that reminded me more of one of the royal cooks. A man that would look the other way when I snuck back in through the servant entrance.
"When you've lived in one place as long as I have, you get a sense for tourists. The way footsteps hesitate at intersections. The way they say 'the people here'."
While frowning at my own unintended slip, his palm struck twice on the bench beside him.
"You sound tired. Rest your feet a minute. I don't bite."