28 Forested road and Starfall hills

Emp left the town of Red-water and went north towards Starfall village. He walked swiftly and managed to get out of the wide range of fields before night hit and forced him to stop.

The next morning, without going down the tree he was hiding in, he had to waste a lot of time to manage to put on his armor correctly. It was the first time he was putting it on outside of when the shop owner helped him try it out. There were so many different bits, clasps and belts attached to it, he felt surprised he was able to remember where each of them were supposed to go.

He shook his arms and legs to make sure everything was solidly kept in place and jumped down the tree. There was a bunch of clanking noises but not even his helmet fell off. Satisfied with his own work, he summoned the other him and took the road again.

It was the first time he was really travelling with the other him. It felt really odd feeling there was another person beside him while knowing that it was actually himself. Also, he often had the urge to speak to the second him before realising that since he was him, he had the same mind and thus, the same thoughts and ideas. There was simply nothing to talk about.

Instead, he observed the surroundings like he usually did. The trees here were taller and thicker than in the mountain and almost none of them had needles instead of leaves. The ground wasn't as swampy as it was before he had reached the area around the lake, the sun was out but clouded by a cover of leaves and the fog did not reach here. There was not much to look at. No flowers, no strange bushes, no mushrooms, no carved faces on rocks, nothing. The good thing was that there were a lot of birds around, he could not see them but they loudly claiming their existence. At least it gave him something to listen to.

Was he uninterested because this was too similar to the surroundings of Chinui's house? He had seen some strange new sights every day since he had left after all, this one may just have been too ordinary compared to what he already knew. Or maybe it was really just an uninteresting forest? He wasn't sure of which was the truth.

After half a day of peaceful travelling, he came across something new. In the underbrush on the side of the road two small creatures where crawling around.

At first, Emp thought they were big insects because of how they looked and crawled but they both had small, furry and chubby legs. They were not turtles either even if they had what looked like a shell. They were too long and said shell was separated into many articulate parts.

That shell covered their whole back up to their small tail and extended on their sides like a box. They had a big hairy nose and small rounded teeth they used to nibble at the grass and the low leaves. They were shorter than his leg and walked so low on the ground that even if one got on top of the other, they would still not reach his knee. They were not threatening at all.

They were just shuffling their bodies along the underbrush, eating the green they could reach, the small insects that got in their way and sometimes even tiny rocks. Often, one of them would climb on top of the other to reach something a little too high for him. Emp felt they were very interesting to look at, endearing even.

Was this part of why Galana told him to go together with at least one other person? It sure looked nice to go around with a friend like that, helping each other out to reach their meal and trotting along together. Maybe he should find some sort of friend that wasn't himself. That way he would be able to talk about things while he walked.

How did one make a friend? He had thought before it was as simple as knowing someone but Galana seemed to think this was wrong. Did it require a lot of efforts or time? If it needed time, it would have to wait for after he reached the school because he did not want to miss his chance.

After a while, He resumed his travel, leaving the two small creatures behind. Maybe that whole forest wasn't so boring after all, he liked to see new things.

That day, he stopped walking early to have some time trying to figure out how that other language worked. He had a hard time figuring out which way was the most effective to learn it. He tried reading the book of stories in both languages in turn, then both at the same time using his second self and then only the one in the poor tongue, stopping at every word to ask the book of answer what they meant.

His conclusion was that it was really hard however he went at it. He closed all the books for the night since the darkness forced him to stop anyway and decided to continue doing his best in the following days.

On the second day since he left town, he managed to put on the armor a little faster but the clouds came back to threaten him with their bellies full of water.

He hoped it would not rain, it wasn't that annoying on the moment it happened but it was much harder to find a good sleeping spot when everything was wet and slippery. That, he had already learned the last time it rained.

That day, in the afternoon, it did not rain, but he met another twin headed beetle. The book had been right, they truly were common.

This time, he was ready to fight it. He had an armor and many weapons to choose from. He felt that if this thing was truly as weak as what the book of answer made it out to be, he would have no problems defeating it.

The beetle sized him up from a distance, rising and lowering its twin-heads in discord. It seemed more hesitant to attack him than his two previous experiences with them, was it because of the armor he wore? Was the bug smart enough to understand that the armor meant his opponent might be too hard to deal with?

Apparently not, it made a bunch of excited clicks with his two pairs of mandibles and charge towards Emp. He decided to get his new hammer out of the bag. His plan was simple, once the beetle was in range, he would smash the hammer on top of one of its heads. Which one should he hit though? He thought while the beetle was approaching as quickly as it could. The two heads were exactly identical with one another, it did not matter which one he hit. This was exactly why it was so hard to choose.

Should he just smash the first one to reach or choose one and stick to it? He wondered while raising his weapon. If he tried to hit the first one coming and they came at the same time what would he do? He felt more and more distressed as the monster got nearer. In the end, as the twin heads were plunging to his sides, he chose the right and brought the hammer down on it.

The head could not stand its weight and after a sick squelching crunch, it was splattered across the ground and his boots. What a displeasing sound, Emp thought. The rest of the beetle's body shook twice, the second head screeched, was taken by spasms and then, stopped moving altogether. It had died. It ended up much easier than he thought it would be, it didn't even scratch him.

He raised the hammer back up from the ground and watched disgusting bits fall off of it. Looking at it, he had changed his mind about the rain, he hoped it would come soon so he could wash his hammer. Thinking about it, he had also forgotten to wash off the blood from the sword and the spear.

He had no idea what to do with it for now so he just smeared what was sticking to the hammer on the nearby shrubberies and put it back in the bag.

He turned back towards the bug and looking at it closely, he did not feel as upset as he had felt when he had fought the bearded men. That beetle he could understand easily, it just wanted to eat him. It was simple, either he killed the bug or the beetle ate him. This was what he had to do and it made sense to him. Was it really because of that that he didn't feel too upset or was it because it did not have a human face? Anyway he took it, he was happy the hammer could do the job. It wasn't that satisfying since it had been so easy but victory still felt great.

Now, what did the book say again about the valuable parts of that beetle, what was he supposed to take? Since it was dead, could he just push it whole into the bag and think about it later? It would not dirty the rest of his things right? He walked to it and placed the bag against it to bring the bug inside. Unsurprisingly, it worked. Those treasure the god gave were so useful.

Wait, thinking about treasures, he could have just summoned the other him to hit the two heads at once instead of hesitating like that until the very last second! Why did he always forget to bring him out when he actually needed him?

He summoned him to walk for the rest of the day, just in case, but nothing else happened, not even the rain.

The day after, he arrived at Starfall village, he chose to enter alone because he did not know how to answer people if they asked him why there was two of him. Well, maybe he could have answered but, not in that language.

Here no one spoke a word of the noble tongue. He tried his best to answer their greetings but wasn't sure if he said the right things at all. Also, he had forgotten to remove the armor before going in so everyone he walked past stared at him with a mix of fear, confusion and suspicion.

Starfall really was a small village. Aside from some small houses lost in the few surrounding fields, all the buildings of the village stood on the sides of the same road. There were no streets, only a straight line from one entrance to the other. In the center of it all, there was some sort of small stone keep protected by guards on one side and a large wooden barn filled with large blocks of cut stone on the other. The stones where raised by a strange mechanism one by one and lowered on carts while dozens of children ran around and over all the stones that had yet to be moved.

Emp found it funny that there were more children here than the number of adults he had seen since the village came into his view. The swarm of kids saw him from the building and all screamed together before they hid behind the stacks of stones. Emp Chuckled and moved along.

Not much further, a large group of serious looking men wielding weapons where sat around a couple of tables in what Emp assumed to be a inn. He felt like they were probably there to escort the stone to Red-water so he did not bother them and moved on again.

This place was simple and peaceful, it did not seem like those who lived here saw much action. This was probably a good thing. What Emp was curious about was why. Why was this the case and how were they safe without walls and only a few guards to protect them. Maybe all the inhabitants of this place where secretly super strong? Or maybe there was just not that many monsters around here but then, why not make the town bigger? If it was safe here, more people should come no?

Unable to find answers to his questions since he could not ask them to anyone, he refilled his water using the well and he left the village.

In the following days, he met with trouble many times. It seemed that the area wasn't as safe as it seemed.

When the landscape started to show taller hills and snakier roads, he happened upon some sort of wolf covered in spines. It had the shape of a wolf, the size of a wolf and the growl of a wolf but instead of fur, it had the spines of a porcupine. The beast was hurt, it was limping.

Emp was unsure of what to do with it. The thing was growling at him but clearly in no shape to attack him, it probably just wanted him to go away. The problem was that it was standing at the side of the road and Emp would have to pass it in order to continue. Could he just make a long step to dodge it? It did not seem able to run after him right now.

On the other hand, he could also just kill it now to stop it from harming someone else at a later date. It would be one less beast to worry about. He had no idea what it was able to do though, what if it was surprisingly strong? Should he ask the book?

He finally chose to just space walk past it, after he got to the other side, he kept an eye behind him to be sure it would not follow him and felt relieved only after a bend in the road hid it from him.

The day after, it rained for a long time and Emp remembered to wash his weapons. It went as well as it could with the spear and the hammer but since the sword was burning, the raindrops weren't that useful. He would need to find some river or the likes to wash away the coat of burn blood on it.

That same day, we was walking between two hills with sides covered in rocks instead of trees when he heard some laughter. It wasn't a warm friendly laugh nor a sinister laugh. It was more like some sort of shrill sounding cackle. The sound came from the right but when he looked at that hill, it came from the left instead. Soon, cackling could be heard from everywhere around him, mixing with the sound of the rain into a constant noise.

Then, Emp saw what was making that noise. It was some sort of mix between a rodent and a chicken. It had a beak lined with sharp fangs, a creepy rodent head crowned with feathers, a flabby red neck like that of a chicken, the body of a rat or a squirrel if you believed its tail and its front paws ended into the claws of a bird. It should not have been scary at all considering it was merely the size of his palm, but, it wasn't alone. From between the rocks and cracks of the hills came forth hundreds of those tiny creatures.

They swarmed the place, covering every inch of the hills with their impossible numbers and rushed towards him from both sides of the road. They instantly drowned the sound of the rain with their manic cackling and the frantic scratching of their small claws on the rocks.

There was no way he could win against so many! Once more, he was forced to run. They should have been much faster than him but with the help of the space walk, he managed to keep some distance between them and him. He had no clue on how to escape them though, he couldn't gain any ground on them. How were people dealing with those things? Magic?

He tried space walking on top of the rocks, then up the hills and down again but those pesky things were so quick and agile they could follow easily. He ran for a long time with their insane giggling drilling into his head while the rain intensified into drops so large they felt like small rocks.

He was finally saved when lightning struck nearby. It didn't hit any of them but the thunder was so loud it send them all scurrying away in fear. Even after all that running, none of them felt that Emp was worth braving the lightning it seemed. Emp almost gave them a laugh of his own because of how dumbstruck he felt about this nonsensical conclusion.

Now that he was out of danger, he wanted really badly to lie down and take his time to regain his breath but, like the swarm, he needed to find shelter from the storm first. He ended up drenched but safe bellow a huge tilted boulder and slept badly that night, afraid the swarm would come back and disturbed by the water.

Then, the day after, he found a lone ordinary straight sword laying in the middle of the road. There were no sign of whoever it belonged to, no prints on the ground, no clothes, no blood, nothing but the sword. He stored it in his bag in case he found who the sword belonged to and moved on.

This also made him wonder why he had not seen anyone since he left Starfall. It should have been an important road between the kingdom of Artefine and Windblow. Why was it so empty, where were everyone? Before he had reached Starfall, he had crossed other travelers regularly but right now, the path seemed oddly empty. Did something bad happen to the rest of the travelers or were there just none to begin with? The answer to those new questions did not present themselves to him as it usually went with his questioning and the road remained peaceful.

The hills had seemed particularly tall and jagged that day but after the crossroad he passed in the afternoon, they started to soften again. The density of trees increased as well and by the time he stopped for the day, he was back in the usual forest.

In the three following day, he had three more ridiculous fights. The first one happened when a small rock suddenly smashed against the back of his head. It made a sharp ding against his helmet but he was uninjured.

He turned around to see that it was apparently a monkey hidden in the branches of a tree that was the culprit. He had no idea that monkeys lived nearby, he had never seen one before. Of course, it would have been much interesting for him if the monkey wasn't throwing rocks at him.

He picked up the projectile and threw it back at it. He missed but the animal gave up anyway and escaped by jumping further into the trees.

The next day, he met with an entire pack of those strange spiked wolves. He wasn't really paying attention because he was trying to remember the words of the common language he had learned until then so he did not notice them following him before they attacked. One of them bit his leg but failed to pierce his armor and another one was ready to jump at him to make him fall over.

Suprised by the sudden danger, he thought it would be a arduous fight against so many of them. He got his shield and Flame out of his bag and summoned his copy but when they saw all that, the wolves decided it was too risky to fight him, gave up and ran back into the woods. He only managed to slash off a fistful of long needles from the back of the one that was biting down at his leg before it disappeared in the wild. Because they were interesting to look at, he kept the needles in his bag and left again.

Then, the next day, he came across the first human he had seen since the last village. That one was a woman, tall, blond, muscled, wearing a tunic and armed with a longbow pointed at him with an arrow ready to fire. She called out to him from a distance with a menacing tone.

Emp, unable to understand what she meant decided to react the same way he had done with the wolves. He got his weapon and shield out, summoned the other him and waited for her reaction. She made an angry shout and shot her arrow. It passed just beside his shield and hit him in the shoulder.

The arrow bounced off of his shoulder plate without harm but it's power still almost threw him to the ground. Noticing her arrow could not pierce his armor easily, she spat on the ground and ran expertly into the woods on the left.

He stared puzzled at the wood for a while before moving again, curious of what this was about. He did not understand what she had wanted from him. He also could not understand why every creatures around here gave up so easily against him. Aside from the swarm of course who ran after him for a long time.

Emp had thought he was a perfect prey for mostly anything in these woods but apparently, even if he was weak, the armor and magic sword were enough to scare them all away. The armor in particular was really useful, thanks to it, he had not been pierced by an arrow, not bitten by a wolf, nor knocked out by a monkey.

After he had met with the woodland horror, he had thought that the trip to the school would be really hard but now, he felt that he had probably been worried over nothing.

If he did not encounter anything too dangerous, he would probably be fine.

***

Forest spiked wolves are a common breed of wolves situated rather low in the food chain of our empire. They are not much smarter than ordinary wolves nor are they stronger. Like their furred cousins, they tend to hunt in packs and are unafraid of creatures larger than them as long as they show some weakness.

Their fangs and claws can easily bring down a deer but unfortunately for them, there are things far more dangerous than them roaming in our forests.

Unable to take down those more powerful animals, they would have ended up as prey instead. They had to adapt and so, in order to protect themselves grew a coat of spines or quills like that of a porcupine.

Some believe that the spiked wolves can launch those quills as a form of attack but after a considerable amount of observation we can now safely assume that this is untrue. Those quills have for only purpose the protection of the wolf and are used to deter larger predators from consuming them.

Since eating such a wolf would result in a very uncomfortable and possibly deadly experience, most of the larger predators living here tends to ignore them. There is however one creature that still prey on them, the rumbling Windbow lizard. Their skin is so though that the spines are simply too weak to harm it. Upon catching a spiked wolf, the lizard will kill it by only using its claws and proceed to rip off every single quill before consuming it.

Aside from those characteristics, the forest spiked wolves are just like any other wolves and should be treated as such. They will flee from fights they cannot win, stay away from fire and steal corpses if you leave them the chance to do so.

Baron Freigis Sorenthal was able to raise and train an entire pack of them as hunting dogs but refused to disclose how he accomplished such a feat. Although this proves that domestication is indeed possible, I would advise against it as not only do they not have any offensive advantage but their telltale characteristic makes them hard to handle.

I would even go as far as to say that an affectionate spiked wolf might be more dangerous than a wild one if they would ever wish to be petted.

-- Common Steelwood Bestiary entry on the Forest spiked Wolf.

***

Many creatures living in our lands are considered more like a natural disaster than a living thing and the cackling swarm is one of them. No one knows where or when they appeared first but one things is for certain, the world became a worse place because of them.

Due to the individuals composing such a swarm never being seen alone, very few people know of their name and instead refer to the entire group as the cackling swarm and the individuals as cacklers. Their true name is Eclucrey but cackler is indeed a fitting name for the creature.

It is said that those diminutive critters, no larger than a human palm, are able to chew through anything and aren't afraid of anything either. They move as a large swarm often containing more than two thousands individuals and consume all fauna they encounter.

Unlike most rodents, because they are indeed rodents despite the avian traits they also posses, they have a terrible sense of smell and rely instead on their very sensitive hearing to find prey. Almost nothing can escape their senses, even a squirrel running up a tree will get their attention.

Once the swarm finds a living being, nothing can stop it from devouring it entirely, including the bones. They first start by signalling their swarm with their signature cackling. Once the first chittering laughter is heard, it is already too late to escape, the swarm is upon you. Even hiding will be of no use since they will hear you breath even through their obnoxious ruckus.

They have been known to devour entire villages and even some small town that were unprepared to their threat. Only by burning the fields in their way or gaining the help of powerful mages would a town hope to survive the disaster known as the cackling swarm.

They do have a natural enemy however, the thunderchew, known for slamming its teeth so hard against each others that it makes the sound of thunder even from kilometers away. A sound so powerful in fact that individuals part of the cackling swarm that find themselves too close to a thunderchew as it does this, all die instantly from the sound alone.

It is commonly believed that to hear things so well, they possess a way to amplify the sounds they hear on top of their hearing already being very acute. This same mechanism would be responsible for their reaction to the thunderchew, making them amplify this sound into something so powerful that it could shatter their feeble minds instantly.

Many tried to reproduce such an effect to ward off cackling swarms but no one succeeded as of yet, nothing can compare to the loudness and power of a thunderchew.

As for their own cackling, many believe it to be some sort of way to communicate with each other while many more believe that it is only a demented laughter they express as they overwhelm their prey. No one knows which is the truth but the latter will probably be the one you believe the most if you ever come across a cackling swarm.

-- Common Steelwood Bestiary entry on the Cackling swarm. (1)

(1) I think those bestiary entries are better than what I did before with the book of answers. Let me know if you believe otherwise.