'I have less than ten minutes before [Corporeal Illusion] runs my mana dry. Before, it took me about five hours to refill my mana, but with [Mana Absorption] constantly feeding it into my body, it should only take about two hours to fully recover. So I need a reason to leave for two hours. Raya brought provisions for the both of us, and it's a one day journey to the town, so we don't need to find more food; I can't use hunting as an excuse. Come on, Zulu, think! What's a valid excuse to get away from this woman? Wait… woman?'
Zulu formed a subtle smile as he opened his mouth to speak, "Hey um- Raya?"
"Yeah? What's up?" Raya asked.
'This is gonna be harder than I thought. You got this, Zulu, act natural. Act like a woman,' Zulu thought.
"Can we stop for a little bit?" Zulu asked.
"Huh, why? It hasn't even been an hour since we left, and you're already tired?" Raya asked incredulously.
"No, it's not that. It's uh- that time of the month?" Zulu said with a red face, lowering his head.
Of course, Zulu wasn't embarrassed about revealing the menstrual cycle of his body, but rather pretending that he had one to begin with. It was really emasculating for him, considering his mental alignment with that of a man.
"Oh! I understand. We'll stop for a bit," Raya said, revealing an understanding smile, "Do you need me to get you anything?"
"Uh- no, I'm fine. Thanks, though. If you don't mind, I'd rather be alone. I'll be back in a little bit," Zulu said, turning to leave.
"Oh, okay? Are you sure you'll be alright out in the woods while you're in the thick of it?" Raya asked, worried.
"I'll be okay. You know how strong I am, right?"
"Right, right. Well, be safe then."
"I will."
Zulu quickly turned to leave, unwilling to remain in that awkward environment for a moment longer. He deviated from the dirt trail and walked straight into the forest.
After a few hundred meters, Zulu's mana bottomed out and he was returned to his fox form. His clothes hung loosely all over his smaller body.
'I really to need to find a solution for this,' Zulu thought as he found a safe place to stash his clothes. After that was dealt with, he chose a random direction and carried on.
'I've got two hours to kill; Might as well find some of that sweet, sweet Essence in the meantime.'
After twenty minutes of blind wandering, the sound of rushing water caught Zulu's attention. Running in its direction, he came across a raging eight meter wide river with countless protruding rocks surrounded by white foam. The river was a crystal blue and quite shallow at only two feet deep.
'Pretty,' Zulu thought, 'I wonder if I can find any fish-type beasts here.'
Zulu stepped into the river, determining whether or not it was powerful enough to sweep him down stream. Once he concluded that it was safe to enter, he steadily walked into it. After reaching the middle of the river, he lowered his body until the water reached the bottom of his chin.
'So refreshing. I really needed a bath too,' Zulu thought, feeling a week of accumulated dirt and muck being washed away by the powerful brushing of the river.
However, Zulu's much-needed bath was suddenly interrupted by a strange movement in the flow of water. The rushing water near the edge of the river began to be diverted towards the middle as though a rock were rising upward.
Zulu took notice of the obvious change and watched with interest.
'A beast?' Zulu thought.
Zulu's guess was soon proven correct as the hulking body of a brown crustacean surfaced.
'A mudcrab? No, it's a bit different than one of those. Similar, though,' Zulu thought as he examined the shelled beast.
The crab was three and half feet tall and four feet wide with two massive pincers. It had a brown exoskeleton with white stripes, eight legs, and two tiny black eyes.
'Crab for lunch? Count me in.'
At that inward decision, Zulu leaped out of the water and onto the dry land beside the crab.
'I can't use magic this time. I need to recover my mana as soon as possible in order to avoid making Raya suspicious. My body will have to suffice.'
The crab lunged at Zulu with its massive pincers, trying to clamp them around his fuzzy neck.
'Slow. Painfully slow. Or am I just too fast?'
Zulu casually dodged under the pincers before dashing forward and triggering [Bite]. His teeth sunk into the crab's shell near its eyes before halting after a couple inches. He managed to crack the shell, but not completely penetrate it.
'Oh? Its defense is actually quite good. Not on the same level as the crystal snake, but certainly commendable, nonetheless.'
The crab emitted a strange guttural sound before bringing its pincers backward to retaliate. Zulu didn't stick around, however, jumping up and onto the crab's back.
The crab was confused and began to reach blindly for its back, hoping to ensnare its enemy with its claws, but it couldn't locate the orange creature at all. It could only squirm and hope the creature fell from its back.
After landing on the crab's shell, Zulu utilized [Creep] to sneak off its back and behind it. After silently falling to the ground, he crept under the blissfully unaware creature before stopping under its white belly.
'Hehe, stupid crab. Why expose your softer underbelly when you could have easily hidden it under the water? You willingly gave up the terrain advantage by coming onto land. I guess you're just a mindless beast at the end of the day,' Zulu thought as he began ripping into the crab's weaker white shell.
Zulu's Rank 2 [Bite] and Rank 2 [Razor Teeth] made short work of the crab's lesser defense, easily reaching the soft white meat beneath. Even his [Sharp Claws] aided in pulling away the softer shell, quickly ripping into its underside with fervor.
The crab released a pained cry as it realized that its opponent had discovered its weak point. It writhed in place desperately, trying to uncover the enemy from out under it, but to no avail. The orange creature was simply too quick and always managed to reposition itself to remain hidden beneath its body. It tried to bring its pincers below itself; However, its fixed eyesight prevented it from actually snatching anything as it couldn't see where its enemy was.
After a few moments of Zulu's frantic shredding, the crab released one final death writhe before collapsing onto its mutilated belly. Zulu hastily dashed out from under the creature before he could be caught under its falling corpse.
'Easy victory for fox kind. I bet you taste fantastic too.'
However, before Zulu could devour his seafood, the sound of scuttling reached his ears. He turned around and discovered four tiny crabs approaching his position.
'Baby crabs? Are they this one's children? Whoops, kinda killed your mom, guys.'
The four crabs walked past Zulu and up to the mother crab.
'Aww, they're mourning their mother. How adora-'
Before Zulu could complete his thought, the four baby crabs began ripping into the deceased crab's body.
'What the hell? I guess there's no love among the beast kind. Truly, these creatures are uncivilized,' Zulu thought as he pounced on the baby crabs from behind, quickly dispatching them with only four uses of [Bite].
'Sorry, little ones, but I can't allow you to take my food.'
Zulu spent the next hour slowly consuming the mother crab and her four children. After his meal was over, he returned to the river to wash the crab guts from his fur.
'So nice. You know what? I need to find some sort of cleaning spell. I'm sure that exists, right? Maybe I'll check a library or something when I reach the town.'
At that thought, Zulu finished his rinse and exited the river.
'Okay, I only need another half hour or so before my mana tops off. I can start making my way back now.'
Zulu departed from the river and slowly returned in the direction from which he left Raya. Though as he walked, the sound of crunching leaves made his ears perk up.
'Somebody's there?' Zulu thought as he hastily hid behind a tree.
"Zulu? Where are you?" A familiar voice called out.
'Raya? Did she get worried? Yeah, that makes sense. I've been gone for awhile after all.'
After confirming the identity of the person, Zulu transformed back into his human form behind the cover of a wide tree.
'My mana isn't entirely refilled, but this will have to do. I'll have just under four hours of [Corporeal Illusion]. I'll need to come up with a few more excuses to leave during the trip. Well, I'll cross those bridges when I come to them.'
Then Zulu remembered something as his illusion reached completion.
'MY CLOTHES!'
Zulu could only grit his teeth and poke his head out from behind the tree.
"Hey- Raya," Zulu said.
"You're wet," Raya said, seeing Zulu's still-damp orange hair.
"I uh- took a bath in a river, and uh- left my clothes behind."
"…Pft, hahahaha!" Raya began cackling like a madman when she understood Zulu was hiding behind a tree because he was naked, "Don't worry. We're both women, right? I don't care if you're naked."
'Haha, yeah, about that,' Zulu thought.
"Um- okay, but please don't look. I'm embarrassed about this sort of thing," Zulu said.
Raya only laughed more at that comment before sighing, "Fine, fine. I won't look your way. Just tell me the direction you left your clothes, but why'd you leave them so far to begin with?"
"I uh- am… a masochist?" Zulu said, failing to come up with any other reasonable explanation.
"Oh…" Raya said, "Okay, then. To each their own, I suppose. I won't judge you too much, little sister, as strange as it is."
"I'd appreciate that. No wait… humiliate me more."
"Sheesh, you really are a masochist," Raya said, suppressing another laugh.
'If I'm gonna pretend to be a masochist, I might as well go all in to make it somewhat believable.'
After a few minutes, Raya and Zulu reached the spot where Zulu stashed his clothes. He'd hidden them in a hollowed out hole of a tree.
Zulu redressed and the two returned to the dirt path to continue their journey.
After another three and half hours had passed, Zulu made up another excuse to slip away for awhile. His grand plan involved him purposely tripping into a pile of mud and claiming he needed a bath in the river. This more or less convinced Raya, who laughed her ass off at his "misfortune" as he disappeared into the forest.
Later in the day when the sun began to fade away behind the horizon, Raya and Zulu halted their journey for the night.
Raya pulled two thick brown cloths — which acted as pads on which to sleep — from her backpack. In the meantime, she tasked Zulu with bringing felled branches and sticks to act as firewood. She dug a little pit in the ground and poured a small amount of thick red fluid from a small glass vial into it.
"What's that for?" Zulu asked.
"You don't know what this is? It's pretty common," Raya asked, surprised.
"Nope. We never had whatever that is in my village."
"It's liquid fire mana. People use it to start fires."
"Whoa, really? How does it work?" Zulu asked, interested in the otherworldly substance.
"Like this," Raya said, snapping her fingers.
After her finger's clicked, the liquid fire mana ignited into a dazzling red flame.
Raya hurriedly spoke, "Quick, the wood. We don't want it to go to waste."
"Right," Zulu said, throwing the bundle of wood he collected into the flaming pit.
After that was done, Raya laid on her cloth beside the fire before speaking, "Goodnight, Zulu."
"Goodnight," Zulu said in turn.
Like that, Raya drifted off to sleep. This was great news for Zulu, who's [Corporeal Illusion] was nearing its end.
'I really need to upgrade this damn spell, or just reach Rank 3 so I have more mana. This is getting incredibly obnoxious,' Zulu thought as he departed from the resting Raya.
After Zulu vanished into the darkness below the wide branches of the oak trees, Raya's eyelids slowly broke apart.
'I thought something was strange,' Raya thought to herself, 'This only confirms it.'