Chapter 36: Chapter 27: Strain

Strain

Hours later and after the rain finally ended, Miriam wanted to sigh again, as she still tried to rest against the sharp rocks inside of the crack in the cliff. She had noticed that after her Berserker ended, she felt worse than how she felt at the time, but she didn’t needed extra reasons to dislike the Trait

‘Ow…’ the pain in her broken arms told her that her regeneration was working, but now she was painfully aware, of how much the Healing Boost had helped her with that in the past ‘Do I upgrade the Pain Resistance… awake, or asleep…?’ she was feeling very grateful for that Trait

Her magic recovered somewhat, but her hunger had increased rapidly

‘I’ll… wait until the Trait finish… jumping on the river and try to… ow… fish, or climbing and go looking for food…?’ she looked at the forest beyond the river ‘If they want me to distract the humans… I need to go further south… the stones, aren’t just for the screeching idiot… this side has more dangerous stuff…’ her Instinct made her feel confident on that ‘Helper, I’m omnivorous yet…?’

-No…-

‘Crap… Status…’

‘Absorb…’ the window appeared but she didn’t read it ‘Please, do me a favor…? Try to get something to make me omnivorous, that would be really- ow… really helpful…’

Miriam closed the windows and looked at her arms, she noticed how some of the bones under her scales, weren’t aligned

‘That must be making my healing take longer…’ she looked back at her waving tail ‘This will hurt…’

She moved her tail, in a way were she could grab both sides of a broken bone, with the intention of twisting them, in the position they should be. Taking hold of her left arm pained her, so she tested the movement she wanted to do, without gripping a few times before committing-

Crack!

HISS!!!

And realigning one of the bones…

‘Fuck…!’ she tried to calm down, before continuing with another bone, so she started to plan what she was going to do ‘I… ow… I need to… move south… by staying on this side… they can’t send everyone, and even… ow… even if they want to… if… Porkus? Is an indication, of what is living on this side, then I can be confident, that, they, eh-!’

Crack!

HISS!!!

She realigned another bone, her pain burning now both of her arms equally, and tried to resume her train of thought

‘Won’t… send… big… groups…?’ her memory went back to the group she fled from ‘They… called Porkus a… what?’

-Fell Destroyer…-

‘Thanks… and the stone was… a Terror Stone…? I don’t… like that name…’

A splashing sound, stopped Miriam from trying to fix another bone. In front of the crack and on the edge of the water, she could see an eyeless fish that kept trying to get out of the water

Its sharp fangs, and dull gray scales, gave her a bad feeling, but she was hungry

Miriam moved slowly towards the fish, praying as she did so, but still trying to look at her surroundings, just in case it was some kind of trap. She didn’t saw anything, and prepared for the best moment to strike

Crunch!

Her bite managed to avoid the fangs of the creature, crushing its head, before dragging it towards the crack

‘Ow…’ the exercise hurt her arms, but she did her best to ignore it, just as she was trying to ignore her trembling body ‘Just hold on until I get… my Trait back…’ she told herself, as she started to eat the meter long fish ‘Status?’

‘What…? Is everything on… this side… a “Fell” thing…?’

-No…-

‘Can you tell… me what…?’ the Helper didn’t waited for her to finish, the message just went away ‘Oh…’

The bad feeling didn’t went away, when she finished her meal. Due to this, she hid in the crack again

‘How do I get stronger…?’ Miriam started to repeat that question many times, one after the other

Her gaze moved to the stone that made the wall of the crack, then to the water in front of her, and lastly to the trees, that were being sporadically illuminated by the sunlight that peeked between the clouds

‘My swords… didn’t do much…’ her memory went back to the bipedal boar ‘Did nothing… I should… get a metal sword…? Or… do the Earth Magic Boost… works with stones too?’ she waited for an answer

That didn’t came

The only thing that happened, is that she started to shiver. Her body getting overwhelmed by emotions

‘I… I don’t like this… I don’t… want this… I…’ she started to breath loudly, getting angry with her body because- ‘I want to cry…! I don’t…! I don’t…!’

“Things will get better” she remembered herself saying that… oddly, she remembered her old face saying that

‘…? Did I said that in front of a mirror…?’ she asked herself ‘Wait… no, I… got asked…? “When…?” what did I answer…? Who asked…?’

“We just need to be free…”

She looked at the water, trying to sift through the fragments of her past life…

“It’s not going to be easy, but things will get better…”

‘Things are difficult… but I’m free… so… I can’t lose hope… hope… who did I say that to…? Who did I say that to…?’ the void in her memory made her angry ‘IA!’ and she acted

Miriam focused the magic she had on her arms, and used a spell to heal them. It hurt to do it, but she didn’t stop until she used almost all of it, again

Hiss!

‘Ia! Stop…!’ she shivered on her hideout for a minute, before she started to move her arms again ‘Not… perfect… still in pain… will need to finish this… later…’

She looked at the river

At the trees beyond it

‘Forwards…’ she lifted her head and got close to the water, her reflection stopped her for a moment ‘Don't stop… hope for a better future…’ she moved and swam to the other side of the river ‘Fight to get it…’ none of the fish on it, brave enough to get close to her

Once she was on land again, she shook her body to stop it from glimmering from the water on her, and moved under the shade of the trees

‘Shelter, food… power… repeat… shelter, food, power… repeat…’ feeling more at ease moving under the branches ‘Shelter, food, power… so she can hope too… repeat…’

Miriam moved to the south until she stopped hearing the river, and then east for hours, but didn’t strayed far from the river since it was her only source of water, trying to catalog the new smells she got. Most were similar to the ones she remembered, but she was always finding the tracks of the bipedal boar, both old and recent, and…

‘Need to find another river or a lake…’ she decided to rest for a moment to let her body cool ‘Porkus moves along this river, killing everything he finds…’ every time she found the Destroyer’s tracks, there was always the smell of old blood coming from somewhere

That is when she heard it

‘…?’ a small sound…

The sound of something landing on wood…

Miriam stopped and looked around, the trees and their false leaves were immobile, while a few bushes nearby did moved with a soft breeze, that she couldn’t help but feel cold, under the growing shade

‘There…’ until she saw three groups of compact “Foliage” breathing slowly ‘Need food…’

And she slowly moved to a gap next to that tree and another one, wondering how the fight was going to go…

She could hear whatever was following her, hoping along the branches, one after the other. Stopping when she slowed, and as she was about to move away from the shade of that tree

‘…!’ Miriam heard the three of them moving at the same time and-

Hiss!

At that moment she turned to look up, releasing her aura. Seeing three green flightless birds, with wickedly sharp talons, dropping on top of her, suddenly loosing control during the fall due to the fear

She sprung upwards, towards the bigger of the birds, and while she was about to bite it on the chest, the bird managed to get one of its legs between it, and Miriam’s fangs

Miriam still managed to inject some of her custom venom on its leg, but the flailing creature in her mouth, started to score scratches and swallow wounds, with its fanged beak and with the talons it had on the elbow of its wings

‘Ow!’ making her thrash on the wet ground, trying to crush the bird on her mouth. Incidentally swiping with her tail at the other two birds, the first one had landed badly and got hit, while the second jumped above the limb and other bird

While inhaling, and once in the ground, releasing-

HOWL!!!

‘AAAHHH!!!’ an ear splitting sound, that made her throw the bird on her mouth, at the source of the sound

She didn’t hit, but the bird had to move, stopping its attack. As the envenomed one started to stand, the bird that had been struck with the tail, jumped on top of Miriam, but the girl took the hit from its claws, and used it to coil around the bird

Squeak!

Crack!

Even if she killed it with that, her movements as she looked at the other two, made it look like the body of the bird was still moving. Stopping another sound based attack and making them charge at her

Squeak?!

But the bigger bird collapsed due to the painful venom, distracting the last bird

Hiss!

Crack!

Letting Miriam break its neck with a bite

Hiss!!!

Ding

‘Ow…’ she looked at the bigger bird warily, but it didn’t moved ‘Ow…’ she just tried to ignore the trembling of her body ‘Status-?!’

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‘AAAHHH!!!’ but what she saw, made it harder

HISS!!!

And a sudden pain jolted her whole body

‘AAAAHHHH!!!’ she lost the control of her body, and felt herself burning, twitching and thrashing against the ground

In too much pain to think, in too much pain to act…

Until it suddenly stopped, leaving her belly up, and saw the reason appear in front of her…

‘Fuck…! No… I…’ in that posture she did her best to breath, trying to not lose control of her shivering body ‘Why…?’ feeling dread…

Trying to not remember that horrible sinking feeling…

‘Not… ugh… what I wanted… ow… ow…’ then she noticed something else ‘It took the EP… damn…’ unlike with A Gift for Others, this time the evolution wasn't free

She turned upright again, prayed and started eating

‘Now I need to stay awake…? I still want the… Stamina Boost upgraded…’ she rested on the ground for a moment after swallowing the birds ‘Ugh…’

The trees rustled for a moment, but Miriam felt that it wasn't urgent. She just looked at the forest being dyed on shade and the sunset’s color

‘How do I get more EP…? Is there a different way of getting some…?’ but her mind couldn’t remain still ‘Wait…’ then, she remembered something ‘Food… cooked food… it’s easier to digest… letting the body have more… energy…? For thinking…? Right…?’

Miriam couldn't remember how she knew that, but she was sure that she had learned something like that…

‘Then… well… that idiot didn’t let me learn how to cook…’ she found an empty spot on the ground and drew a circle on it ‘But I can only taste a few things… so I maybe can just boil stuff to eat… and hope to get better at it, if I ever cook for Singer…’ she stopped at that thought, but just shook her head and tried to not think about that… ‘Me cooking for…’ unsuccessfully

She shook her head again and tried to focus on the circle

‘Ah…! So…! I want a stone that absorbs heat…! From one side, then releases it from the other, when flipped… maybe I can use a few to boil water on a pot…’ she stopped again and repeated what she thought one more time ‘Or… I can make a clay pot… that does that, by itself…’

Miriam drew the symbol of the Terror Stones next to the circle

‘I have no idea of what this means’ she pointed at the eye ‘But! If I make something, that I know what it’s supposed to mean…’ she drew three other smaller circles, around the first one that she did ‘This one in the top, will have an eye. Its meaning is: when this side is up…’

Hesitating for a moment after doing that eye, she made an arrow from it to another circle. In this circle she drew a sun, then after more hesitation she made the arrow to point at those two symbols at the same time

‘Correction! These two mean: when this side looks at the sky! I don’t want this thing freezing a house by accident!’ she drew two more arrows coming from those symbols to the last circle, were she drew a small flame ‘This one means: heat…’ from the flame she made a line that entered the big circle and ended it in the middle ‘Getting inside of the stone… and the big circle is the amount of heat that the stone can resist, without damaging itself… or the engraving…’

The line, just ending on the middle, felt wrong to her. So, she made a filled circle on it

‘This means that the heat gets stored…’ she stared at the drawing she ended making, before nodding satisfied ‘Looks good… now I need to make the other side’

Miriam erased the terror eye, before starting drawing again. She made the same encircled eye and sun inside a circle, with an arrow pointing at each other

‘Ok…’ she made a wider circle around it ‘I’m… going to make arrows going from the inside circle to the wider circle… but this means: with this side looking at the sky… eh… no… “Up” works better… hmm…’

She hesitated again, but didn’t tried to change it in the end

‘Doesn’t matters… I can’t make one without full magic… maybe? This feels more complicated, than a “Keeps creatures away” right…?’ she made yet another circle around the wider one ‘This one is the same as the big circle on the other side: making this work without destroying itself’ she finished that drawing, with a few arrows moving from the wider circle to the outside ‘And this is the heat being released…’

Miriam stared at the two drawings…

‘This could work… the second one need a bit more work… but-’ while she was thinking the sound of the trees became louder ‘Yes…?’

The same tree that had the birds she ate, shook more than the rest, and one of the branches pointed at her, before pointing up

‘Eh…? Ok?’

She moved to the tree and climbed as quickly as she could, trying to not let any part of her body remain on a low branch

And waited…

‘…?’ barely noticing the subtle movement of every leaf ‘A cocoon…?’ from the inside of the branches that is how the now transparent leaves, looked to her… ‘…?!’

But she stopped thinking about that

Snort…

Because she froze when she saw the Fell Destroyer, moving silently in her direction. Its dark fur doing a great job at hiding it… even with its crimson red tusk, glimmering with flesh blood…

The beast was looking around, even if she knew, it wasn't possible that she had gone unnoticed. Before any thought managed to be made by her brain, she saw a black dot on the corner of her sight, and turning to it, made the dot turn into a message

-Don’t react to the next notifications…-

She nodded, and without thinking anything, two screens appeared in front of her

Making her freeze, unable to move until the destroyer made noise again, while walking around the tree

‘Ah… no… a-another prank…? No… I’ll read this again in a-?’

The Destroyer suddenly turned to look at the south, scaring her. The bristles on its back standing up, and shivering with rage

‘What…?’ the reason she didn’t tried to flee, was because she trusted the message ‘What are you-?!’

At that moment the roar of the Ruler shook the forest, making the beast growl while glaring in that direction

‘…? Did… Porkus-?!’ at that moment the boar twitched violently, just before the Ruler roared again, and seconds later Miriam barely registered an explosion on the distance

SQUEAL!!!

The trembling brute, pounded the ground with its enlarged arms a few times

‘No… really…? Really?!’ but Miriam was focusing on other things ‘The screeching idiot has a tell?!’

SQUEAL!!!

After another wrathful bellow, the Destroyer moved back in the direction it had came from. Stomping for a few steps, before becoming silent again

‘Bye Porkus… I hope we don’t meet again…’ she rested her head against a branch, trying to ignore some part of her mind, saying that she needed to be strong enough to kill it… ‘Need to upgrade my senses… but sounds are a weakness for me too…’ reading the messages again made her dizzy and needed a few deep breaths, to relax

The cold wasn't helping

‘Thanks you…’ she ended nodding to the message ‘I’ll use it… just… not much. I don’t want to abuse… ah…’

Miriam became lost for words, and looked at where she had been drawing. It was on one of the places where the Destroyer had struck the ground…

‘Jerk…’ she tried to relax, now that the discomfort coming from the fish was gone, she tried to relax and to meditate… ‘Wait…? Status… EP Shop’

‘This… changed with the language too…’ she looked at the items for a few minutes, focusing on the ever changing one ‘Can you tell me what that one is…?’

She knew she wasn't going to get an answer, but still did it

‘Can I buy it yet…? Speaking of which… Senses?’

‘Oh! Yes…! Just… one hundred evolutions more…’

Having done that, she couldn't think about what else she could do… so she started to meditate, to recover her magic… and to not be alone with her thoughts

/////

I can’t remember this room… the only thing that I can see, must be right in front of me… if I look at the white ceiling, I can’t see the walls. If I look at a white wall, I can’t see the ceiling or the floor. The only thing I can see no matter what, is the bed

‘A bunk bed…?’ I can remember my tears… I can feel my tears… ‘Why I’m crying…?’ my small body is that of a snake… ‘How I’m crying…?’ I still have my hands… they get wet as I rub my eyes… how…?

“Yes…” that word escapes from my mouth “Fine…”

I move to the edge and let my arm drop…

‘…?’ there is a weight in my arm, and I pull…

The bed sink… someone…? Is in the bed with me…?

‘Why my chest hurt…?’

“I’m a girl… I think…” why did I say that…? Who did I shared this with?! “No… I know… that I’m a girl…”

…

…

I can’t see a reaction… I can’t remember who there are…

“Thanks you…!” but I can remember how happy I was “Thanks you bro…”

/////

Miriam woke up with a start and looked around, the cold was deep in her bones, and her brain wasn't thinking as fast as she usually could

‘Bro…? Who…? Friend…? Cold… male friend… bro…?’ and reached a conclusion… ‘Sorry… bro… forgot…’ that pained her… ‘Tomorrow…? Status…’ she didn’t read the screen that appeared

‘Traits… evolve… Stamina…’ she couldn't read it. Miriam was barely aware that it said something about a Trait finishing evolving, and managed to get the next one started ‘Cold…’

Before a restless sleep took her one more time…