Ch 9: The lone hunt.

I awake before the sun rises, I see that my parents had left to hunt early, they had left all of us back home.

This is a good opportunity to go and hunt for some essence.

I leave home as quietly as I can, I don't want any of them to get hurt in the hunt after all. I arrive at the surface, this was the first time I was out alone, I was usually accompanied by someone else so it made my heart flutter.

I go towards the river to have a drink before setting off, when I reach the river I see that there were three of these glowing horned moles there, I try to ignore them as I thought they were blind but they turn to me and get on guard, they weren't blind!

One of them arrogantly tries to pierce me with its horn, thinking I was just easy essence, I counter its charge by clawing at its eyes, the mole starts flailing as it was in pain, its friends start charging at me too so I back off as to not get overwhelmed, my body feels lighter and more powerful than ever before, because of all that training and the essence I had gotten before I presume, the two moles approach as they leave their friend behind, I climb up a tree that was nearby then I pounce on one of them, I use the body strengthening technique as I bite its neck, my strength combined with my speed cuts off its neck immediately, as I was absorbing the essence from it, I felt a pain in my right hind leg, the other one had countered by biting my hind leg, it thought I couldn't attack it, but I had started hitting it with my other hind leg to throw it off, I completely focused my strengthening on my tail and hind legs and I started kicking it.

Damn! This thing has one hell of a grip.

I started gritting my teeth from the pain, I continued struggling until...

Finally, you let me go, now I'll kill you!

I turn around and bite its neck, I kill it and absorb its essence, I feel exhausted from using the body strengthening and from the damage, I go to the final mole, it was struggling as it was blind it couldn't see me, it was flailing all round but I had finished it off, I felt a bit better after absorbing its essence.

My right hind leg was in a pretty bad state, so I decided to do something to heal it, I go back to the river and I see leaves like the ones that were at home when I was unconscious, I pick them and I place them on my wounds, I don't know if it would make me feel better but it certainly stung.

I walk down the river away from home, I memorize where I had come from to not get lost, I hide from the creatures that appear along the way.

As I continue following the river, I see something peculiar, it wasn't a monster like the other things I saw...

It was a human.

A human had appeared in front of me, I had felt excited that I had finally seen another human but I felt scared as I remembered that I was not human anymore, what if he tries to kill me after treating me like a monster.

He notices me, as I start feeling extremely scared suddenly words come into my mind.

Do not be afraid.

I didn't know where it came from, but it looks like he had told me that in my mind, I follow his commands and I hold still, he approaches me and inspects my right hand leg, he takes out a piece of cloth and wraps it around my leg, he then pets me but I felt uncomfortable, he had a certain aura behind him that made me scared, looking around him I see a huge muscular green monster behind him, it looks like the ogres I have read about in my previous life, but it looks weird its eyes had no color and its flesh was actually graying in parts.

The mysterious man leaves me and I rush back home, when I reach home it was already mid-day my siblings weren't home, I realize that they must have left in order to find me, in horror I try to leave immediately to find them, but they appear with my parents, when they see me they feel relieved, but then they scold me for leaving by myself.

"Are you crazy big brother?! Leaving by yourself?! You're lucky you didn't die!" My sister was shouting in my ears, it looks like I had worried all of them.

"Yeah, little brother I tried to immediately leave to find you after I saw that you weren't there but they said that they would come with me, so I had went with them." Big brother said.

My little brother nods to big brothers words.

"Hm? Son what is that wrapped around your leg." Dad had asked.

"Oh I had injured my leg but a human had wrapped this around it to help me."

"A human?! Son humans are dangerous, they treat us like monsters, they usually kill our evolved kind for our fur or essence."

"But that one healed me, he must be nice if he had healed me."

"He probably thought that you were a pitiful adorable little thing and had healed you on a whim, but once he sees any of us evolved, he would change his behavior immediately." My dad said.

"Son, your dad is right, humans are dangerous, after all humans have killed your dad's father."

My dad winces when he hears that last thing, he looks angry.

"When I was young I had met a human like you, the human had come into this forest looking for something, as I was still a cub I had approached it out of curiosity, the human had thought me amusing or adorable, so it had played with me, when I had left the human had followed me back home, when my father saw it he had gotten ready for combat, the human and father had fought and my father was killed, I had cried for father but he did not come back, the human had then taken fathers body and had left."

I was shocked by his story, I didn't know he had gone through something like that before.

"You see son, you cannot trust these humans, they are only kind to cubs but the instant they see an adult or an evolved one they start combat."

"But father wouldn't humans be diff-"

"Silence! You won't speak with any humans boy."

I get irritated and frustrated by him, my siblings get scared from humans because of that story, we return home and have meals we drink water from the river as always and go to sleep.

*POV ???*

I had found a little fox cub while I was looking for monsters to kill, the poor thing looked injured, so I had tried to help it, the thing was afraid of me so I had tried to let it know not to be afraid with telepathy, the thing had calmed down a bit, I had wrapped its leg in a cloth I had, I was able to pet it which raised my spirit although it winced slightly when I touched it.

I had went back to the camp I had set up, I had my undead ogre protect the camp as I rested, for tomorrow was the day I would find some more powerful monsters to turn into undead.