I threw a piece of meat at him and said "There is nothing wrong with it. Eat". He didn't seemed worried and undid the cloths that were covering his face. He then realised something and turned around. I said "Don't worry, I already saw those eyes. You don't have to be afraid of showing them to me".
The guy turned around and said "I heard that people think its creepy, so I wanted to turn around". When I looked at his face, I saw something, I didn't expect. I expected for the whole face to be covered in those eyes but no. He had two eyes just like any other human, the difference was that, only those eyes were visible. Of course they looked the same as the ones Gazers had.
I said "To be honest, I expected something else. I don't think you need to mask your face. You have two eyes only, so what is the problem?". He said "We all have two eyes. The Black Sludge have many of them when they are weak and young. The more we evolve the less eyes we have. I used to have loads of them as well".
'This is interesting, so they lose eyes when they get stronger. I wonder what form it has' I thought and decided to ask "So, what is your real form?". Before he responded, a gaping red mouth opened and swallowed the meat. He then said "This meat is great. I haven't had such a thing in years. As for your question. I can show you but don't do anything suspicious!". I shook my head and said "Just show me".
A black kind of shadow started to get detached from the human corpse and stood next to it. It was black humanoid creature, with only two elongated eyes that had red irises. "Interesting!" I exclaimed and asked "Can you stay in this form forever, or do you need a body?". He answered "I can stay like this, after all, I evolved to be that way. I use the body because I'm attached to it. I have it for many years already and other recognise me immediately".
I asked another question quite excitedly "What abilities do you have?". To which he responded "I'm not very strong, I'm quite low in the ranks of our race. I'm a scavenger, so I search for stuff and bring it back home. I'm good at hiding and stuff like this". He then returned back to his body.
I said after a while "So, your abilities in stealth must be quite good. Otherwise, you wouldn't stay there and wait for me to approach. What can you do, stealth wise?". He shook his head and said "I can't tell you what my abilities are. I'm sure you wouldn't tell me either". I responded "It was worth a try. Anyway, what can you tell me about the North?".
He said "As this is your first visit, I'm guessing that you know very little. The part we are currently in, is called Dense Wilderness. Besides the Black Sludge factory over there, there is not much here. There are some other scavengers like me, in this area but mostly, you will find the young Black Sludges and Corpse Dogs". I guessed that the Corpse Dogs referred to Rotting Hounds. 'Other humans have been here already and these creatures also have names for stuff. I guess I should stop calling things by my own names. This way, I can prevent some confusion in the future' I thought.
I asked another question "Where does the west lead to?". The creature responded "To another region of the North. It's called Vulture Cliffs but that place is much more dangerous. Us scavengers, don't really travel there. If you were to go east, you would encounter a place known as Obsidian Mountains. That is one of the most dangerous areas in the North. At least, one the few I know about".
I asked "Then how can I go north? Further inland, past that Black Sludge factory?". He said "You will have to walk around it, anything that is not from our race, will be immediately attacked. It's not that the factory will do it on purpose, it doesn't move and stays in one place. So it is harmless until you try to step on it". I asked another question, which was occupying my mind for a while "How did this factory you speak of, come to exist here?".
He said "I don't know that. It's very old to be honest. It is treated as a backbone of our race. There are some theories between us scavengers though". I asked "For example?". He said "Well my theory is that there were loads of Black Sludges in the past and they converged to this place for some reason and none of them wanted to leave. After some time passed, they merged and evolved. With time, more Black Sludges arrived and joined. I can't say that this is what happened but I think it is plausible".
'It does seem plausible. The creatures evolved into one big creature, through numbers and the help of time. If that was true, the question would be, why did they converge here and not someplace else?' I thought but decided to ask no more. It was his theory anyway and not a piece of history.
I asked about something else "You say that you are scavenger and low rank member of your race, is there a city or something here?". He looked at me as if I was an idiot and said "City? There are couple of them. At least, I know about couple of them but if I were you, I wouldn't get anywhere close to them. Humans are not very well received here. You are alright and seem to be an honest guy but the view of others is already set in stone. Some might even hunt you down, if they knew you were here".
'No surprise then. Humans have loads of enemies' I thought and asked "Where are those cities?". He was baffled and said "I just told you not to go there. Why do you still ask about them?". I said "Precisely for that reason. If I know where they are, I can avoid them". He realised something and said "You are right. Show me your map, I will draw the locations of the cities, I know about".
I passed him the map and heard him say "Your map is shit, to be honest. You have no Northern areas on it whatsoever. You don't even have details of this place. Whoever gave you that map and told you to come here, is an idiot. Let me add few things".
I didn't comment on that and simply waited for him to finish. After a while, he gave me the map back and said "Here. I marked some of the locations that will help you out on your travels. I had to add some stuff on reverse. This is because the North region on your map, is so small". I said "You are quite a nice guy as well. You shared the map info with me and even told me about this region". I took out a day's worth of meat and handed it to him. "Take it, you helped me out and it seems you like it as well. I have one more question". He took the meat and said "Sure, what is it?".
I asked "Why don't you cross that bordering line? Why is that line over there in the first place?". He thought about it for a while and said "I can't. When the beings of the North evolve to a specific point, they are confined to the north. So, creatures like Black Sludge, can cross that line but I can't anymore. As to why it is there. The answer is simple. I don't know, I have no idea how it came to be there but from what I know, many have tried to cross it but were unable to. Even very strong creatures couldn't do it. What's weirder, is that humans can cross that line no problem. Strong individuals or even strong beasts can come over here and cross the line as they like. It seems that North was meant to be separated and confine us".
I stood up and said "Thanks for everything. A word of advice as a goodbye. Never try to do this with another human. I myself never met one that would have the same line of thought as I do. They would try to attack you straight away or backstab you. Either way, watch out and don't believe humans". He got quite scared, probably at the thought that, I was about to do something but I never did.
He helped me out and I wasn't going to kill a creature, that meant no harm to me. What would be the point of making more enemies. I learned a lot through my travels and this was something I considered as last resort.
I started walking towards the western direction. That region was less dangerous than Obsidian Mountains, I decided to go there first. After a few steps, I heard "Hey! What is your name?". I said while walking forwards "I'm Nex". Couple of steps later, I head "It was nice meeting you Nex, I'm known as Crow. Let us meet again in the future!". I waved my hand and left.