Dan and company were among the many that were sitting around the huge campfire. A man was walking around pushing a trolley handing out food.
He gave everyone their food except for Dan who refused. "Why aren't you eating? That food cost us good money?"
Dan stood up and stretched. He heard the cracking in his back telling him that he got his stretch in.
"I'm going hunting, I have been cooped up all day, I prefer to eat fresh food than stored food,"
Dan turned to Charlie and Adam, "Make sure that you two get proper sleep because I will take you hunting tommorow at the crack of dawn."
Dan walked of with Kan following him into the forest.
The forest was eerily silent, or that was what Dan expected it to be. Insects were buzzing, Crickets were chirping, owls were hooting and frogs were yelping. He would occasionally hear a shaking sound.
It felt like home to Dan. He was used to a place like this. As a child Kliran would throw him in the forest and leave and he would spend weeks in the forest trying to escape. Looking back Dan didn't really mind. He didn't consider himself to be a grudge full person but that couldn't be further from the truth.
If anything he was more cynical than dragons and more spiteful than demons. Just like dragons had a long standing hate relationship with demons the same could be said about Dan and elfs.
Dan could not explain why he hated elf's. It wasn't because they were so arrogant that they considered themselves to be the most noble race to ever exist. Nor was it the fact that they talked big and could not back up their words. Dan just couldn't explain it in words. Anytime he saw an elf he felt the urge to kill but he resisted during the 2 years in school.
He had even worked as a butcher just to get over his killing urge and the only time he felt at peace was when he was killing elves. Among all the livestock that they were slaughtering he only used to kill elf's.
He even used to cause trouble and rob the elf's in the academy. Dan chuckled to himself as he walked down memory lane. The looks on the elf's faces would fill him euphoria and slightly satisfy his urge to beat up elf's.
Dan was moving stealthily in the forest without making a noise. Kan was also the same. He was a hunting dog and a canine over and over.
Dan crouched on the ground in the mud. There were tracks. 'Boar tracks! These tracks aren't that fresh, a couple of hours ago, I should follow them to see where they lead me. I need to keep an eye on my back just in case this is a trap and they sneak up on me from behind.'
Dan's eyes were like a cats shining in the dark and dilated to their full extent. He could see clearly but that didn't mean that Kan could see as well as Dan. He was staying next to Dan not making a sound because he was used to hunting at night. He could see the Dan's movement so he followed.
Dan moved so quietly that it felt like he wasn't even there. He kept his eyes on his environment and the floor because he had no intention of stepping on a branch on the floor. He had read several books in which the character was careless and caught because he did not pay attention to his surroundings and stepped on a branch or knocked over a vase.
If Dan was in the modern world then he would be considered a real life ninja since he was so stealthy. Dan followed the tracks for quite a while but it ended when he reached a giant patch of grass.
Dan felt goosebumps all over his skin. His sixth sense was warning him of danger but he never listened to it. Nothing had changed since he was young. Even as a child if a lion was standing in front of him he wouldn't pay any attention since he had no interest in it.
Dan looked up to see the imminent danger. There was a giant spider the size of which Dan had never seen in his life before. It was resting in the middle of giant thick web. The spiders eight giant beady eyes stared at him as if piercing through his soul but he didn't feel no fear. Not because he was arrogant but because he actually liked spiders.
'An Acrocrus, I read books about them but I never thought that I would see one. Good thing I left home."
Dan felt Kan hide behind his legs. He paid no mind to it. The giant spider tilted its head to the side as if trying to get a better look at Dan and he followed suit.
He tilted his head to the side. The spider slowly moved down the web and when it got to the edge of the web, it stuck a web to the tree and lowered it self down.
The spider was so close to Dan. Dan reached into his inventory and grabbed one of the corpses that were in there. He held the preserved corpse high in the air and the spider snatched it. It roped itself back up and dug in.
Dan watched as the spider wrapped the dead Clobi wolf in a web. It then crushed the corpse and sank its teeth into it.
Tsshhh!
Dan felt blood hit his cheeks. It was from the corpse. Dan watched as the spider sucked out the blood and the insides of the creature.
Dan watched for at least 10 minutes in fascination without taking a single eye of this spectacular sight he was seeing.
Dan smiled as he watched. "I guess you were pretty hungry, weren't you?" Dan said.
Dan wasn't expecting an answer but he actually did get one. "Thank you."
Dan looked around to see who was talking but he couldn't see anyone.
The only person who was hear was him,Kan and the spider. Dan was capable of speech but Kan wasn't. So that left only the spider.
'No, I must be hearing things, Because there is no way that spider is talking. It's not capable of sentience.' he thought.
But he decided to ask the spider anyways.
"Did you just talk?" Dan asked in a loud voice to the spider.
"Yes, that was I. I thanked you for the meal." The voice was monotonous and lacked warmth.
"Your capable of speech?" Dan asked.
"Yes I am, I am capable of logical thinking and reasoning. I know that it is surprising and unusual to see a creature like me talk."
The monotonous voice of the spider seemed to be coming from a different direction every time as if it was ventriloquism.
"Are you a ventriloquist?" Dan asked.
"Yes, I am. I use my ability to make prey fall into a trap. May I ask you a question?" The spider replied.
"Sure ask away."
"When people see me they are scared of me and run away, sometimes they chase me with torches and weapons and they send some really strong people to kill me. All of those people had one thing in common. In their eyes was the look of terror and disgust, but there was none of that, I thought you came here to kill me but I did not sense any killing intent or fear,"
"Wait, wait, wait... Can you sense fear?" Dan asked.
"Yes I can sense a person's fear, I can smell it, even after I tried to intimidate you into leaving me alone I did not sense anything, in fact you showed me kindness, Why is that? Why is it that you show me kindness? I am not accustomed to it and find it very strange, unusual and weird."
Dan shrugged his shoulders. "I showed kindness because that I don't hate you, I just met you. You asked why I am not scared of you, its because I do not find beauty intimidating. Unlike normal people I am used to seeing things that are considered strange."
Dan explained as best as he could. He wasn't scared of the spider because there was nothing to be afraid of. He loved spiders a lot. They weren't dangerous. They were only dangerous to small insects and Dan was definitely not that.
A silent wind blew in the air hitting Dan's face.
"You find me...beautiful?" unlike the other times the voice came from the spiders direction.
Dan put up two of his thumbs, "Yep, I'm all for spiders, I like spiders, I consider them fascinating and beautiful. Hey, do you want to travel with me?"
There was silence as the wind billowed in the air.
"Sure, I have nothing better to do but do you think that it is wise to travel around with a giant spider? Surely that would cause problems, would it not?"
"Don't worry about that? Pedro will figure something out?" Dan said. He was actually pretty excited for some reason.
"Very well then." As soon as the spider spoke a bright blue light emanated from it. It was so sudden and so blinding that Dan could not help but swear. He slowly opened his eyes to see to help him get accustomed to the dark once again. The bright light died down and by the time Dan could properly see a small naked child with long blue hair and eight eyes was in the middle of the web.
She jumped of the web and landed on her feet perfectly balanced in front of Dan.
Dan's smile was similar to Pedro's from earlier, it was so wide that it threatened to destroy his mouth.
He clapped in glee as he jumped up and down.
"YOU CAN SHAPESHIFT AS WELL, THAT IS AMAZING?"
_________
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