The jungle finally grew quiet, the mist curling low over the roots like smoke from a sleeping fire.
I sat beside the embers, the blue shimmer of my system screen floating before me like a private ghost.
I focused on the bone-fang dagger resting on my palm. The weapon vanished into the air with a faint ring that shivered in my chest.
Lira's step halted behind me, boots sinking into moss.
"Where did that blade go?"
Lira asked towards me, my ears flicking toward the sound as though hunting invisible prey.
I turned my hand over and called it back. The dagger reappeared in a streak of blue light."Storage space, I think…." I said with a doubt, because I don't even know whats with this system.
Storage space…...!!!!, she exclaimed with the serious look on her face
"It's like a pocket that never fills up."
She came closer, eyes wide. "Void-magic? Only the oldest shamans could hold the world inside their hands."Her tail stiffened behind her, and I could feel her doubt pressing at my back.
"I didn't chant, and I don't have any markings," I said, trying to sound calm.She circled me slowly, the firelight catching the curve of her blade at her hip.
"You don't have a tail either," she muttered. "Turn around. I need to see properly."Her tone left no space for argument, so I faced the flames.
Her fingers brushed the base of my spine, testing for hidden fur.The touch was brief but left goosebumps trailing after it.
"No tail," she said softly. "Then you're one of the ape-folk, the extinct beast line, who vanished before the packs learned speech." Her eyes lifted to mine, equal parts wonder and suspicion.
"If that's true, I don't remember it," I told her. "Everything before this jungle is just fog in my memory lira, can you help me adjust to this place."The words tasted strange; saying them aloud made the loss real.
She studied me for a long breath, "Then you are carrying one of the ancient blood without knowing what it means. That kind of ignorance can kill you easily."
"Or help," I offered, forcing a half-smile. "Depends who teaches me first."Her lips twitched, uncertain between scorn and laughter.
"You talk too easily for a stranger," she said, crouching to the fire to sort herbs from her pouch."Maybe you'll prove you're worth the breath."
I knelt beside her and pointed at a few leaves near her knee."These heal wounds. And that red moss dulls pain."
She raised an eyebrow. "Our healers study moons for that lore. You learned it by looking?""Something like that," I said. "It just… maybe I am a healer in the past, ha..aha…haha…..."
A soft tone blinked behind my eyes.[Skill Unlocked: Herb Sense I +8 LP]
She didn't see the screen, but she noticed my sudden grin."You find this funny?" she asked.
"Not funny," I said. "Just useful."She gave a low hum that might have been approval.
"If you can read the forest that way, you'll be valuable, Silverclaw scouts stalk my borders, a healer who sees what others miss could tip the hunt."
"You mean you're offering a job for me, lira?"
She corrected my line with "I'm offering survival, now follow me, and you can breathe under my mark."
"Fair trade, You guard my neck, I help you with my skills…."Her tail flicked once, the gesture sharp enough to count as a warning.
"Don't think victory earns freedom, Shadowfang owes nothing easily."She tied the herb bundles tight, movements neat and strong.
I watched the fire catch on the edge of her dagger, sparks sliding down the steel."What's your village like?" I asked with more curiosity than strategy.
"Stone dens along the ridge," she said after a huge pause.
"Smoke from the forges by day, drums by night. The pack fights to keep its claim; the hunger never ended no matter whatever the season."
"Sounds lively and horrible too, Do they welcome outsiders?"
Her laugh was short and rough. "Only if the outsider bleeds for them first."
"That a warning?"
"Foreshadowing," she replied with the smiling smirk just enough to unsettle me.
We broke camp before the moon climbed high.She handed me a bundle of meat and slung the boar hide across her shoulder.
"Keep that void-trick hidden, If word spreads, every rival will hunt the magic inside you.""Good to know, I'd rather not be dissected before dinner."
But I can't say this lira, this is what I am expecting from you, I purposefully show you my skills, because no matter what world we live in if anyone is useless than he or she is bound to be helpless.
Now you said to me to hide my skills, that's what I expected from you….
"I'm not much of a follower," I admitted directly to her.
"Then learn quickly," she said, turning toward the trail. "The jungle eats leaders too slow to run."Her silhouette moved ahead, tail swaying with quiet rhythm.
I followed her, but the branches whispering over us, the ground damp beneath each step.The air smelled of rain and iron—like the world was holding its breath before a storm.She spoke again without looking back. "You talk like a trader, not a fighter."
"I used to trade words, deals, contracts, numbers but not claws."
"Numbers don't save you here," she said. "Only instinct can keep you alive, that is the rule of the forest.""Then it's simple I will try to learn yours, and also you can learn mine"
She gave a low chuckle. "Be careful what you ask to learn. Shadow fang lessons cut deep."The tone made my skin prickle.
A pulse of blue flickered at the corner of my vision:[Quest Updated: Join the Shadowfang Pack – Survive the Initiation][Hidden Objective: Earn Lira's Trust Mark]
I sighed. "Survive and earn trust. That's a full schedule.""What did you say?"
"Nothing. Just talking to myself,"
"Then talk quieter. The woods listen all day and night, I forgot that actually what's you name tailless beast"
"Saul, saul wetnerian"
"Not a name to forget so I will call you saul"
Then we climbed a slope where the trees thinned, stars bleeding through the canopy.Below, faint orange lights blinked in the distance—her village, maybe.
She stopped on the ridge, looking down at them with a shadowed face."See that glow? That's Shadowfang's heart. If we reach it by dawn, you might still be whole."
'Might' didn't sound reassuring.
Lira only glanced back, the moon cutting silver across her face is so calm, certain.
"The best promise the wild gives."
Wind rushed through the branches, a low roar that carried the cry of something hunting far off. She lifted her dagger, eyes flicking through the dark, every line of her body ready to strike.
Then she gave a small nod forward.
"Keep close, Saul of no-tail."
The words echoed in my head as I moved beside her, steps matching hers until our rhythms merged our two shadows stitched together by heartbeat and caution.
Mist closed around us again. Cold on my skin, but where our shoulders brushed, warmth sparked through the chill.
The night hummed with the music of crickets, leaves, the faint pulse of drums in the distance steady, ancient, like a heartbeat buried beneath the earth.
I wanted to ask why she was taking this risk, dragging a stranger into her pack's territory. Trouble was the only thing I'd brought since falling into this world.
Her voice answered before I spoke, quiet but certain in the fog of breath between us: "Everything worth having is trouble."
The weight of that settled heavy, like a door swinging open on things she hadn't said yet. I didn't press.
Some truths reveal themselves only when you survive long enough to deserve them.
We moved through the drifting haze until the outline of tall wooden spires cut through the fog, their tips catching the moonlight like the fangs of some sleeping giant.
A village, hers. Maybe salvation. Maybe the start of another kind of hunt.
The air changed as we neared it—thicker, heavier, humming with the sound of drums that weren't just rhythm but warning.
Shadows moved along the rough-hewn fences, shapes too large and too fast to be human. Eyes glinted between the logs and thornwines, reflecting firelight from somewhere deep inside.
Lira slowed, her tail stilled, every motion deliberate. The scent of smoke and wet earth wrapped around us like a promise and a threat.
"Welcome to Shadow Fang," she murmured.
We crossed the perimeter, a simple fence woven with thornwines, scratching at the ground as if warning intruders.
The drums grew louder. Figures appeared beyond the flickering light, their silhouettes crouched low, watching.
My grip tightened around the dagger; it trembled faintly, resonating with something in the air like the system itself was holding its breath.
Lira moved first. I followed, and the thornwines seemed to whisper against the earth behind us, like a subtle promise: intruders wouldn't leave unnoticed.
New world. New rules.
But as we stepped past the rough fence, I realized one thing with cold certainty, rules didn't matter when you were stepping into a den.
Because in this world only brain and brawns are important, I need to unlock my starter package quickly.