A week passed since the encounter with that pack of wolves. We were about halfway to the Limestone Village, and the diagrams began showing some promise. I went through many possibilities and postures, until only a few things were left to figure out. 'Going by my estimates, this will take me another few days at most. With this diagram completed, I will be able to test it out properly', I thought. This was good news. The bad news was lack of improvement in my Art of Stealth training. The use of speed was really difficult when paired up with being stealthy. I could be quiet and hidden when moving slowly, but not when moving fast. This didn't make me give up yet, but I was starting to believe it was impossible.
Hunting on the other hand, became a bit more annoying. Since I wanted to improve my close combat skills, my Art of Hidden Weapons was off limits to me. A pack of wolves which usually didn't pose much of a threat, became much more difficult to deal with. Fortunately, Shelly was there to help me out. Though I got injured a few times, the ability to make medicine made those injuries trivial.
During one of our hunts, I came up with another idea. Shelly learned how to communicate with me thanks to drawing, so I wondered what else it could learn. I wasn't sure whether a turtle could improve its senses, but it was worth a try. Shelly wasn't happy about that training though. In order to train one's senses, other senses had to be sealed or restricted. With a thick cloth tied over Shelly's eyes, it couldn't see anything. This reminded me of how lost I must've looked during my own training. "Shelly, I'm trying to improve your senses. I'm not going to actually place obstacles in your way. Just move around slowly and adapt. With better hearing, you'd be able to react better to the noises around you. Later, we can work on your sight... somehow", I said.
Neither of the masks wouldn't fit over Shelly's head. I couldn't modify them either, since that could destroy the effects they carried. Blocking Shelly's vision was easy, but it's nose and ears... That was a different story. 'I might get some fluff or something like that... Perhaps wet clay would work as well. We will see when Shelly improves its hearing and smell. Otherwise, there will be no need to try with vision', I thought. Although Shelly was reluctant, it did what I asked. To make Shelly feel better, I would sometimes practice with my mask, just to encourage it a bit more.
After that week, we encountered some activity in the forest during the night. My first thought was that the ruckus came from a pack or group of animals, but I was wrong. The noise was due to Humans, and they seemed to be chasing something or maybe even someone. 'Well, that's not my problem', I thought while staying inside our shelter. Even if they were chasing after someone, that didn't concern me. I had my own problems, and didn't need someone else's. Fortunately, the Humans chasing after something never spotted us. I could go back to sleep, after making sure they left.
'Seems to me that they went in this direction', I thought while looking at the broken twigs and prints during the morning. The tracks indicated north-west, hence we headed north-east. 'This will perhaps add another day to our original travel time, but I don't need to find out what they were chasing', I thought. Moreover, there were no villages close by. Hunters would usually travel a day or maybe two away from the village to hunt. We were about a week worth of travel, away from the closest village. "Whatever, let's go, Shelly. We have a few days of travelling in front of us still", I said.
There was one more problem. I, as a Human, could enter any village without much of a suspicion, but a turtle would surely look weird. 'Turtles are considered slow, but Shelly is the complete opposite. If someone sees Shelly running, they will surely be surprised. That is something I don't need...', I thought. There were two solutions as far as I could tell. Convince Shelly to stay inside the forest for the duration of my stay. Or carry it around everywhere. 'I'm not even going to go there. Shelly doesn't like it when I leave it alone... I just have to carry it around my back or something', I thought. Although weird, what could the villagers tell me? They'd either assume Shelly was my supper, or a weird pet for a weird owner. As far as I was concerned, I wouldn't give a damn if they thought like that.
On the third day since the event of Humans chasing something, we encountered something amazing and frightening at the same time. Fortunately, I was able to stop that from a large distance, otherwise we could've been screwed badly. A huge hornet nest was wrapped around one of the trees. The nest was at least four metres long, and perhaps two metres in diameter. The hornets it housed were not normal either. These things were huge, comparable to my own hand in size. 'These bastards are huge... I'm glad we didn't get too close. I hate hornets...', I thought.
We had to go around them, but that wasn't so easy either. We found a few more of those nests along the way. We had to go dead west, in order to clear that part of the forest. Luckily, only one more day got added to our travel time, but I feared this would be impossible. The amount of nests we saw was at least twenty. Who knew how many more of them were there in reality.
With all those diversions, I managed to complete the first diagram before we arrived at the Limestone Village. The pose itself changed quite a bit. My improved diagram depicted a Human with both hands touching the back of his neck, while being crouched in a specific position. The position of the crouch was such that one leg would stay on the ground and the other would be lifted up in front. The height of the crouch was important too. Moreover, the human figure's back was straightened.
The difficulty of making and maintaining that pose, was many times greater than the standard one, but it felt much more natural to me. I could only maintain it for about five minutes, but this was not much. In my estimates, I had to stay in that pose for fifteen minutes, in order to train my hidden muscles to a really good degree. Of course, doing it for a longer period of time would be possible with time, but I had no clue how that would affect the muscles. Whether they would improve or not, was something I could only try to find out.
'Moreover, I can't practice this too often. This places a huge stress on my hidden muscles. I shall do it once a day, not to overdo that. Better safe than sorry', I thought. I knew that my ability to maintain that pose would increase with time. I wasn't sure how long it would take, but I had time. The new and improved pose would last me a while, therefore there was no rush to modify the second one too. I could take a break and rest during the night, instead of worrying about diagrams and stuff.
"We are about two days away from the Limestone Village. Now, I would ask you to stay in the forest, but I will take you with me", I announced. Shelly of course wouldn't complain about that, but there was a catch. "I will take you, but under one condition", I added. Shelly nodded and awaited the condition. "I will carry you around everywhere, and you are not allowed to run. In a sense, act like a nice and slow turtle pet, because we don't need unnecessary attention. Now, if someone were to attack you, then you can disregard that rule. Running away is allowed, but you will travel on my back and sit there quietly. Do you agree to that?", I asked. Shelly gave it some thought, then nodded. "Alright, I will make something to carry you around. We are about two days away from the village, so let's go", I said.