Outside the forest

After grueling hours of wandering through the vastness of Fandragoth, we were finally able to leave the forest behind. Once the trees became scattered, a colorful meadow cleared of obstacles spread out in front of us. If I started to calculate how much time we had spent in that place, it would not reach a month. Still, I felt quite nostalgic just after the first step outside the forest.

We knew that sooner or later we would have to leave that village, but it was hard to know that we left behind the one who rescued us with a strong emotional wound. Even though most of the villagers never liked us, it was impossible not to look back and think about those people, or cats.

"Do you think Mirthia will be okay?" Raidha broke the silence that had lasted a long time.

"She will recover. She is even stronger than she looks."

"I hope she doesn't hate us. I was beginning to consider her a good friend."

"And me... Although I highly doubt that she won't. Anyway, I'm not going to apologize for what happened."

"I do not blame you."

"I do not blame you, but I don't like it at all," this is what she meant by her depressed expression, but she couldn't reproach my actions even if she wanted to. Kill or die, we both understood a long time that there would be situations when we would have to choose between those two options.

'I have killed many animals for the simple purpose of obtaining strength. If the words of that cat are true... is that the cause why that tiger attacked us? Because I broke the balance of the forest? Now that I think about it, they never hunted more than they needed to live...'

If really that was the case, the direct cause of the disaster was me. That doubt was corroding me inside long before we left the forest. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

'But it firstly attacked Raidha, who did absolutely nothing. Unless... Had it attacked her simply for being with me? For looking like me? I'm probably overthinking it...'

And that wasn't all that gnawed at my insides. Coldly thinking about it, I had just killed someone. However, it didn't feel very different from killing a simple animal. Maybe it was because I never came to consider that cat as a real person... or my humanity was being lost.'

'Right now I don't even know whether to consider myself a person...'

I looked again at the fur that covered my body, the claws, the long fangs. At the time, I was not very different from those cats. Could I still consider myself human? The girl next to me, who was not human from the first moment, seemed much more human than me.

"Raidha, have you ever killed a person?"

"Of... of course not!"

"What do you consider a person?"

"What? This is a strange question. Well... a person is... a person. This... Ehm... Ah... Ehhhh... Seriously, what do you mean?"

"I mean if you think a different species or race could be considered a person. For example, is a katryde a person for you? After all, the only difference is the color of the wings, eyes, and hair. At least it is easier for me to think about you and them as people than those cats."

She opened her mouth without saying anything. Her entire expression tightened as her head seemed to enter a genuine internal conflict. In the end, she looked away and spoke almost in a whisper.

"I don't... I don't know."

"I imagined it... And you, what do you think?"

—I do not care.

"Yes, I also imagined it..."

In the end, I could not find a resolution to my doubts. Probably, there wasn't an exact answer from the beginning.

"You've been talking to yourself for a long time... Wait a minute, don't tell me you're talking with that?!"

"At a good time you realize it... Yes, lately he has been talking a lot. Once you understand him he's a good guy... Well... it depends on how you look at it..."

She jumped away from me. Her expression was extremely tense and she was sweating a bit. Apparently, she was quite afraid of my traveling companion. I really didn't need to ask why. I hadn't seen this guy's actions in person, but somehow I could sense quite well the impression he made around him.

"Uhm... Ah! ... Well... Uhm... Hello?!"

"Don't do stupid things."

"I don't do stupid things! This thing is dangerous, you shouldn't be friends with it!"

'It would be troublesome not to get along with "myself " ... At least it's easier to bear if I somehow maintain a decent relationship.'

A short time later we found a dirt road and decided to follow it, thinking that we would probably find a town or city nearby.

Finally, it got dark without us getting anywhere, so we decided to camp and continue in the morning. I built a small makeshift house with earth and plants for the night. Needless to say, as I thought, my arm was growing again, and at a considerable rate. Probably it would be as new by the next day.

***

"Look, a town!"

"Don't get so excited, we don't even know if they'll let us in... We don't have any money or anything else."

We arrived at a town around noon. It was not a relatively large place, but it was not a village with few inhabitants like the one with the cats. With the naked eye, I could see at least three hundred houses. All of them were simple constructions made of wood. The windows didn't even have glass and the walls were not painted, thus showing the time-worn wood in certain older houses. They were of different sizes, but they were all single-story.

We did a bit of sightseeing in the center of town. It was lucky to get to that place since different races lived in it. In the middle of that place, we did not stand out so much, although from time to time we received a suspicious look, probably caused by our clothes or simply because we were not from there. Still, no one said anything bad to us nor we had problems.

There were some small shops, fruit vendors, some clothing stores, and as many basic stores. One could hear a good atmosphere from inside what appeared to be a bar or restaurant, but we didn't have the money to join. We didn't know how long we would be in that world, so it would be a good idea to get some money. The real problem was how to do it.

After visiting the center of town we decided to take a look at the outsides, full of fields of crops and some farms with all kinds of animals. Large tracts of land were used as plantations. The animals on the farms weren't that different from those in my world, even though I saw a pink cow with three horns. Nothing too weird... At least better than a pink horse with a horn and rainbow hair.

Despite being the time when the sun was at its highest and hits the hardest with its light, the farmers did not leave their fields. That had to be a very hard life, especially when there were no tractors or other machines to help them.

"Look at that field over there," Raidha caught my eye.

"Life is unforgiving... It seems that there is no concept of retirement here."

In a corner away from the others, we saw a man with the ears and tail of a dog, who appeared to be over eighty years old, since his hair was unnaturally whitish-gray. The poor old man was working as he could, but his weak body couldn't follow the pace. For someone his age, he was doing something that many couldn't even dream of, especially in a world that looked as if the life expectancy should be close to sixty. I don't know if one could apply the saying that beastmen are stronger than humans, but no matter how one looks at it, age doesn't even forgive them. Where the other fields were already green, his didn't even have a single plant.

"Do you think we should help him? Who knows, he could be from your family."

"Your sense of humor overwhelms me..."

In the end, I agreed with Raidha to help the poor man, dog, or wolf, or whatever. At first, he hesitated a bit, especially when he saw me, but finally accepted the offer gratefully.

'Older people are usually good people... They tend... I guess.'

"You're not from the town, right? What brings you here?"

"Nothing in particular... We are simple travelers, we will not stay long."

"I see. You have come a long way. It is not common to see one of yours in these lands."

"One of mine? Oh yeah, of course... We come from far away. Yes... very, very far."

I didn't know what he took me for, but I really don't care so much. It was better than looking suspicious.

"You live in the high mountains of the north, don't you? But you are a little different from the others, right? I never saw any of yours with green eyes."

"Yeah, well, I'm a little... special... You could probably say that I'm unique," I chuckled trying to hide it.

"And you, young lady, what are you? I don't remember ever seeing anyone like you."

"I am a silphen. Don't worry, my kind are quite rare."

"I see... Silver hair and red eyes... You have an appearance that reminds me of old legends… "he murmured. "Thank you for offering to help me. It's true that I can't handle this alone, but being the time that it is, I don't think I can cultivate anything. Soon the cold will come and nothing will grow anyway. The truth is that I only kept with this hoping for a miracle."

'Certainly, compared with the other fields, this is very backward. Why doesn't anyone help this old man?'

"No one ever helps you?" Raidha asked as if she were reading my mind.

"My children died long ago, and you know, our race is rarely liked by anyone."

"That's true..." I said, laughing wryly.

'Why doesn't anyone like wolves? It's not like they are going to eat them... Here he is, cultivating a field. I do not think that meat grows like potatoes. Regardless of how one looks at this, whether they were herbivores or carnivores kind of beast-like, they all seem to be omnivores. Do they have a bad reputation for any reason?'

After giving a loud sigh, I walked to the border of the field.

"Well, don't worry about the time. Just leave the tools and wait, I will take care of this."

"What do you intend to do?" The old man asked me.

"The miracle," I smiled confidently.

'I'm still not good at using my power to fight, but a field is not going to be a challenge.'

Smoothing the ground, removing weeds, removing the stones, one job after another seemed to be doing by itself. After transforming into a wolf, controlling my power had become much easier. At that very moment, it could really be said that I was one with the earth. The old man was looking at his field in amazement.

"In... incredible! What tremendous power young man."

"And that's not all, prepare the seeds."

We then spent time planting the seeds of the crops by hand. Despite being able to grow branches, vines, and that kind of stuff from my body, I didn't think they could be considered real plants at all. I couldn't create fruit or vegetables, or if I did, they would probably taste horrible and be devoid of any nutrients. A very useful power, no doubt, but I still couldn't break the laws of physics, or at least couldn't completely break them. What I could do was control the plant's growth speed.

"And with this…"

The seeds germinated and the plants grew. In a matter of minutes, the field was even better than the others... and I was completely exhausted... It was not as easy as I thought it would be at the beginning.

"Wow, I didn't think it would be so exhausting..."

I sat in one corner while trying to get my sweat off.

"I've seen so many things in my life, but I've never seen a power like this. I know how to recognize magic when I see it, and this doesn't seem to be magic."

"Just take it as a strange variant of magic... I've already said that I'm a bit special..."

After finishing work, the old man invited us to stay at his house. Besides, he seemed to want some company even for a day. Good luck, since we did not know where we would spend the night. What I did was not something common, so I ended up explaining to the old man how my power worked after incessant questions from him.

"So you directly use the power of nature itself instead of mana. I never believed that I would see anyone using such power."

"He's probably the only one capable of doing this," Raidha said, scowling at me.

"Depending on how they see you, you can perfectly be called a monster, boy."

"Yes, I have already been called that sometimes..."

"Now I understand, these green eyes are proof of the power you possess."

"And you young lady, do you also have some special power?"

"Ehhhh?" No, no, I don't have anything weird. I am completely normal"

"Why are you so nervous?" I asked.

She outright denied. Maybe not in the sense that the old man says, but this girl was anything but normal... In many ways...

"We are under attack!!!"

And just when we finally were having a peaceful time, an alarm went off.