"Why am I like this?" Alesha asked miserably, curled up in her Chaos Nest while in dragon form. Her scales protected her from any discomfort. Her eyes were dry, although she felt like crying.
She remembered the night of the Chaos Moon, when she'd evolved for the first time.
She'd felt somewhat restless then, to a tolerable degree, as if merely energized by the mark of Toltura which glowed scarlet over the moon.
She'd overfilled on Chaos Energy, nearly died, then been forced to evolve in order to save herself from dying via Chaos Energy.
How had she gone from that to an addict so dependent on Chaos that she couldn't bear to be away from its influence for just a few hours?
[Hehe,] Rogork giggled, almost too quietly to hear.
"You're laughing at me?" She asked numbly. "Really?"
[Yep! It's so satisfying to see you, who were so against me and Chaos in general, in such a state. Ah, how sweet the karma! How beautiful! How vindicating!]
"You vicious, horrible creature," Alesha murmured. "I hate you."
[Hmm, I can see that. Well, how about I give you a hand then?]
*****
[Ding! New Quest Available!]
[Quest: Hunting
Goal: Find food!
Quest Conditions: Hunt, kill and eat at least one animal
Reward: Answers about why your chaos cravings are so strong
Penalty: Rogork takes over your body for 12 hours
Failure Condition(s): Fail to hunt, kill and eat at least one animal before 12 hours have passed]
*****
Alesha gasped and shot upright when she saw the penalty. "That's too steep!" She protested.
[It's not like we're near anyone. What could I even do?] It asked innocently.
"…"
Come to think of it, what was a penalty of 12 hours out of control, when compared to the penalties she'd faced in Zorhellian's Storytelling Games? Suddenly, she felt like her reluctance here was a small and petty thing. Particularly because, like the System pointed out, it wasn't like there was anyone around to notice (or be tricked into something nefarious by) Rogork.
She sighed, opening her eyes. "Fine. It's not like I have quest refusal rights anyway."
[Actually, you do,] Rogork pointed out. [You still have one Quest Refusal Ticket left over from a successful quest before. Just thought I'd mention it.]
Alesha narrowed her eyes. "You want me to use it now, don't you? You want me to waste it. Not a chance."
With that, she got up and left, determined to hunt something successfully this time.
Of course, this attempt ended in failure as well, in a similar manner to the first.
As did the next.
Until she failed the quest.
"Let me show you how it's done," Rogork said, using her mouth.
[Wait, why is a dragon mouth able to speak in the first place?] Alesha suddenly wondered. [Anatomically speaking, doesn't it make no sense?
Rogork didn't respond. Instead, it activated her Polymorph skill, transforming into a falcon.
I feel so stupid, Alesha thought. This is so obvious!! Of course finding prey would be easier in a smaller body!
[Exactly!] Rogork thought back at her. [Well done, my pupil!]
I'm not your pupil, she grumpily replied.
Rogork flew through the trees, falcon eyes scanning the forest floor. Old leaves in late stages of decay mingled with fallen branches on the top soil, broken intermittently by exposed roots of aged trees, mushrooms, and underbrush.
It wasn't even ten minutes before Rogork made a move. Seeing something she didn't, Rogork suddenly dove, then swooped at a patch of grass. A blur of motion tried to escape, only to be snatched up by the talons of Alesha's polymorphed body.
It wiggled in her grip.
The sensation was strange -- she was but a passenger in her own body, so although she could feel the tension in her feet, the prey's motion and the slight strain in her muscles as her wings beat steadily, she had no say in what she did.
If she had to put the experience into words, she'd have said it was, "the opposite of those dreams where you run and you run and you run, but no matter what you try, your body just won't move." Her body was moving despite the fact that she gave it no commands. It was very similar to how it had felt to be a parasite during the fourth Story of the Storytelling Games.
She could even still feel the discomfort that was a side effect of Polymorph; a chronic, itchy feeling that almost made one want to tear off their own skin.
As always, it was near-maddening.
Could she hunt effectively while trying to ignore such a feeling later? Was Rogork's strategy something she could replicate?
She didn't know.
Rogork flew over to a branch, landed, and began tearing pieces of meaty flesh from what it had caught -- a mouse, apparently. With nothing else to do, Alesha found herself paying attention to and relishing in the sensations of eating. The raw meat was slick and furry as it went down her avian throat in chunks, warm and oozing with blood. Even the bits of bone that made it past Rogork's unpracticed de-boning of the mouse were somehow pleasant.
There wasn't much on it, so it didn't take long to eat. It barely whetted her appetite despite her current size.
Did that mean that polymorphing didn't reduce the amount of food she needed to eat?
Or was one mouse simply not enough, even for a carnivore as small as a falcon?
With an uncharacteristic quietness, and a lack of any response to Alesha's inner thoughts, Rogork flew off to continue the hunt.