My eyes snapped open as the radiance beat down on it, and I almost immediately rolled out of the way of a giant paw. I whipped around and hissed at the three eyed creatures who had moved over to their fallen comrades, which had just started to rise as well. I slowly backed away as all their eyes locked onto me, the largest five eyed one in the middle of the group turned as I did so. The creatures did not chase though and after getting a good distance away, I turned and fled back into the forest. After walking for a bit I looked at my front claws and noticed for the first time something I had completely skimmed over multiple times.
Two green rings hovered around it, and I looked at it curiously, noticing if I took my eyes off them and tried focusing on something else, they would vanish. I also noticed I was more maneuverable, and I wasn't stumbling every time I tried walking, as if something had changed. I also noticed I had noticed all of those tiny details which confused me even more. Before I had minimal thinking skills, I was mostly running off instinct, but now I was noticing a few things I hadn't before. I kept moving forward, ignoring the fact I was backtracking to where I had started.
I froze as I reached the area with the bush, and turned to the rustling bush once again. I could hear the lizard hissing and turned to go the opposite direction toward where I woke up originally, before dodging the massive lizard as it charged past me. I did not try to fight it, it was much to big for me to do so. It was slightly bigger than the five eyed creature, and around three times the height of the smaller three eyed ones. Its head and tail were covered in a green shell like substance while the rest of its green and black striped body was protected only by scales.
It hissed again and I attempted to slowly back away once again, to no avail as the lizard almost immediately charged at me once again. I tried to move out of the way but it managed to reach out and grab me by a few of my legs as it ran past, tearing them off. I immediately fell to the ground, with only five legs left, and only a single one on one side. The lizard spit them out back onto the ground before turning back to me and hissing once again, but froze suddenly as something landed in the grass in between us. Then another, and another, tiny droplets of water from the sky. The lizard's head whipped around as it hissed at the water and as the radiance started to disappear.
It then charged past me and into the bush which stopped moving after a few seconds, and I looked up confused, I attempted to move toward my missing legs but could barely make any ground at this point. Then a droplet hit my head and I immediately understood. The sudden stinging feeling hurt more than anything I'd felt yet, more than being smashed, dismembered, drowned, or even thrown. It was so cold, and as it hit me, I felt it solidify on my skin. Then more came, I was unable to move as my entire body was quickly enveloped by ice, and I understood why I was so cold the first few times I awoke.
Upon awakening again, I felt off, more off than before. The radiance shone its rays down on me, and I noticed my legs were attached to me once again. I turned to the bush to see the lizard's tail peaking out, but otherwise it was still. I turned and quietly continued forward, after a bit of walking, I stopped at it. The small crater I had landed at. The grass and dirt that had been pulled up, making a line to the tree where I had woken up, my eyes scanned the impact zone before turning toward the direction I had been thrown from.
After sitting there processing the information for a few minutes, I turned and walked across to the opposite side of the damage. Before I could get out of the small clearing though, a shiver ran down my back and I instinctively ran and hid behind a tree. I heard heavy footsteps, so I peaked my head out from behind my hiding place, and froze. Crouched over where I had been just moments before stood the thing that had thrown me, he was running one of his claws through the dirt where I had landed, he was easier to see with the light and I noticed more details about its body.
His back was covered almost entirely in dark-grey fur, but his front side had scales of the same color instead and the upper front half of his arms continued with the scales, his lower arms were instead covered in red fur, along with a patch of red fur around his neck. His lower jaw was covered with red scales, while the rest of his head was covered with dark-grey fur. From the sides of his head popped four large pointed ears, and his two massive tails were completely covered in gray fur. I couldn't exactly tell what he was doing, but I could see he only had his two larger eyes opened.
I noticed one of his ears twitch slightly, and he stood back up to his towering height, looking around himself. He looked right at me but acted like he didn't see me as he huffed out a plume of blue flames and continued walking in the direction he had been walking. I stayed frozen for a few moments before turning and also continuing on my way. I didn't know what to make of the small interaction but my mind eventually stopped thinking about it as I saw a small group of creatures barely twice my size grazing in front of me.
They were covered in black fluffy fur and were on all fours. They didn't seem to notice me yet, at least not until I charged at one of them, pounced on it, locked my fangs into its neck, and bit down. It let out a yelp and the rest of the group's heads popped up before they all fled. The one I was latched onto tried to run, but after a few feet, it stumbled and fell, and my instincts took hold as I started to feast. Or at least I would have had I not heard running footsteps and turned to see a group of people run into the small field.
They were around four times my height and were covered in light armor and all had pointed ears. As soon as they saw me, they started making loud sounds and I heard the sound of metal scrap on metal as one of them pulled out a long, sharp shiny stick. I didn't know what they were, but I immediately realized I was in trouble if I didn't get moving, so I turned and darted off into the forest, running as fast as my eight legs could take me. Then I felt a stinging feeling as something cold hit my back and I started to panic, not stopping until I came upon a cave.
I ran inside and kept moving blindly through the dark before bumping into something hard. The object started moving after a moment, scraping on the stony floor. I looked up as a light appeared above me and suddenly, the entire roof was covered in flames. I attempted to go back where I had come from but the object slammed down in front of me, covering my exit. I turned back around to look up at the red eyes staring down at me, as smoke puffed out of its scaly nose.
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The two demi-humans stayed in the cave for a couple weeks, the scaled being leaving to forage every other day, while the feathered being stayed back and waited for him. He had thought about bringing her with him a few times, but she seemed content staying there. He had brought back a few trinkets he had found while exploring around their area for her though. In particular, she seemed to enjoy a small piece of metal with engravings etched into it that she traced with her claws. He noticed small changes start to also happen to their body's over their stay.
When they had first arrived, their hair and skin was white, or very close to white, but over time, more color started coming to their body's. He had originally had snow white scales, but they had started turning darker, his hair also started gaining color as well, browning a bit. The feathered being on the other hand went through more drastic changes. Their arm-like appendages had started to change, before they were thin and short, but they were growing longer and thicker. The downy feathers had started to be replaced by larger feathers as well, and her hair started to gain a greenish color. She had four ears that had originally been small atop her head, but now we're growing larger as well.
When he had gotten back around the end of the second week, after being gone a couple hours to gather more resources, she ran up to him and beckoned him to come back to their shelf, he realized he had grown a bit since the start of their stay, as she seemed to be a lot smaller than him now. He noticed her excitement almost instantly and set the items he had gathered against the wall as he got onto the shelf before sitting in front of her. She smiled at him, pointing one of her arms up, her green eyes shining in the dim light before they flashed gold and a small green ball of light burst forth, floating just above her claws.
The small orb of light Illuminated the entire stretch of cave they were in, and the scaled being tilted his head at it curiously before reaching out toward it. The feathered being yelped, panicked and pushed his hand away, and as she did, for some unknown reason the orb suddenly thrashed violently, slamming into the ceiling and exploding into a burst of green flames. The sound was deafening in the caves tight corridors and seemed to echo infinite. Both of them covered their ears and crouched down as small flames fell down.
The feathered being was unaffected by them but the scaled being felt his back flare up in pain. After the flames stopped falling, he flipped over onto his back, dragging it through the dirt and stone, hoping for the agony to end, the flames would not go out though. The feathered being looked up, and tears started to fill her eyes as she realized what she did. She crawled over to him as she tried to figure out any way to help him, at the same time he felt the constant burning feeling stop, and flipped over back onto his hands and knees, his breathing raspy as he stared at the floor, waiting for the pulsing pain to dim a bit more.
The flames did remain though, and continued to lick his back and she yelped as she touched one. She didn't know what to do and was panicking but he looked at her and grabbed her by the arms and stared into her eyes, attempting to calm her down and show her he was fine. It helped and she stopped crying after a few minutes but she still felt extremely guilty. He sat her back down in front of him, gesturing for her to just calm down before pointing to the currently unlit pieces of wood stacked by the wall with a questioning expression. She looked to where he was pointing and turned back to him, shaking her head.
He didn't know if she was saying no to trying to light them on fire or if she already tried and it didn't work, he didn't worry about it though. He brought the wood to the middle and lit them a fire, which seemed to help her calm down more, as she stared into the flames like when he first lit one. They stayed like that for a bit before the rain started again outside, to which they turned to the watery curtain at the entrance and watched as the last rays of sunshine came through into the cave before night fell.
The scaled being pulled out a simple game made out of wood pieces he had found inside of a lost box in the woods a few days prior and gestured for her to come play with him, which she obliged to. They started playing and were around halfway through a game when the rain seemingly ceased and they turned toward the doorway. The feathered being tilted her head curiously, her sharper vision let her examine that the rain seemingly only stopped around them in the distance, she could see the rain still continuing.
She looked at the scaled being, concerned and then both of their heads suddenly Locked onto the entrance as they heard heavy footsteps approaching and the forest seemed to go completely silent. The scaled being pulled the sword he had taken from one of the humans who they ran away from out of a small crevice in the wall, pointing it toward the entrance as the feathered being hid behind him. He then growled as four glowing red eyes appeared in the darkness just beyond the cave entrance.
End of Chapter 2