Walking through the forest, the atmosphere appeared very dim and depressing compared to the forest on the South end of Moraz town. Even the sunlit sky became rather bleak with as grey clouds passed through the sky every now and then. After making good headway into the forest, Lumian was beginning to lose his breath from nonstop walking in one direction and decided it would be best to rest then find something nearby to consume.
Spending a half hours rest, Lumian finally picked himself up and found some squirrels eating some nuts nearby. Stomach growling in hunger, he called upon Aethon to attack them due to not being able to reach, thus bringing them down Aethon then perched upon Lumians shoulder before being called back into his shadow.
Preparing a makeshift fire, Lumian places the squirrels over them to roast, watching the flames to make sure that they don't die out. Once consuming his meal, he ruins the fireplace to ensure animals won’t track him on his continued journey through the forest.
After a long period of time, night started to set in, making the forest appear rather spooky inside with little light making its way through the dense canopy. Already accustomed to this, Lumian finds a suitable tree to rest within there, its thick branches ensuring no forest creatures on the ground will be able to get back up to him. Meanwhile, Lumians' eyes drifted downwards before slow, rhythmic breathing came out from him assuring others were asleep.
The night was chilling as the breeze of wind ruffled his robe every now and again, Lumian's brow started furrowing and murmurs were whispered from his lips.
"No.......Don't go..........Please."
"Don't leave me, Please."
"I'm sorry!"
Gasping as Lumian wakes up, he realises that is barely reaching dawn of the next day. Staring groggily, Lumian slowly rubs his temple realising he has just had a nightmare and woken up a little earlier than usual. "Ugh." Groaning, he makes his way down the tree before setting of again continuing his journey North.
Upon walking, Lumian discovered some wild bison laying around, so slowing down to a crawling pace he prepared to take advantage of their obliviousness only to witness palm sized spiders jump at the bison and bite them.
Grunt
The bison were making sounds trying to get up but were unable to, even the strongest amongst them was struggling on its legs before collapsing onto the ground. They then started to shiver uncontrollably as the spiders started to crawl on them taking bites. Huh, these spiders could come in handy against bigger and tougher enemies and are actually suitable to use as scouts as well, I must have them! Lumian upon thinking this jubilantly in his heart ignored his bodies aversive behaviour towards the spiders remembering them that appeared in the trial and summoned the two rats and Aethon. "Kill."
Sending this order to his summons, Lumian kept a clear gaze in other directions to ensure that the spiders were only there and hiding nowhere near him just in case. After a minute of squeaks and cries from his summons, they eventually kill the spiders in the vicinity therefore ensuring no other danger could come to their master.
Activating his ability, he sees the shadowy wisps coming from the spiders but was unable to witness them coming from the bison, thus came to a new conclusion. I seem to only be able to see the shadows of life from those I either directly kill or what the summons kill, must take note of that as well.
"Transcend." After saying this command, Aethon flies up to his shoulder and perches up it keeping a lookout in the other directions whilst the rats hide back into his shadow. Meanwhile, the spiders became black shadows however, Lumian noticed one of the spiders had some purple markings develop onto its back. Though intrigued by this, Lumian decided that it was not worth paying attention to right now and could figure it out later. Counting them, he realised that he had five spiders and ordered them to return to his shadow for now.
After looking back at the bison, he didn't want to risk eating them just in case whatever happened to them would happen to him too, thus walked away from the tempting meal for a good couple of hours before coming across a few rabbits.
Throwing his dagger at one and getting Aethon to kill another, the rest of the rabbits darted away in panic, it seems my hunting speed has increased with more gains, this is good. Lumian contemplated to himself as he prepared a fire to roast these rabbits for a quick meal. The rabbit meat was tender yet rather gamey, thus concluded the meal before walking through the forest for another extended period of time.
However, as Lumian continued his walk he noticed that the clouds above started to get thicker and darker over time, leading him to believe that an imminent outpour of rain will happen. Just as Lumian thought this, a quick drop splattered against his forehead. That drop became a small pattering, then a thunderous outpour. Not wanting to develop an illness whilst in the cold rain, Lumian ran across the grass that was starting to make him slip before he noticed amongst the outcrop of trees, looked to be a small cave dug into the side of a raised hill. Fuck it, if there's danger I'll fight it for this cave.
Running into the cave, it appeared dark, blinding Lumian making him grab at the charcoal in his bag and using some dry branches to spark a flame within. After lighting a fire, he starts to relax before hearing ruffling, fluttering sounds above him. Craning his neck upwards, Lumian saw using the light from the flame what appeared to be a swarm of bats clinging to the ceiling of the cave moving about trying to avoid the flame.
Lumian, widening his eyes at this sight, lied down flat against the cave floor wrapping his robe around him as he ordered Aethon to attack the bats on the ceiling. Hearing high pitch screeching, Lumian covered his ears to dampen the sound until the sounds could no longer be heard. Looking back up, he sees that there are no longer any bats while a couple of bat corpses lay silently on the ground.
"Transcend."
After commanding, the shadows of two furry bats appeared with purply webbed wings appeared before being ordered to return to his shadow.
Feeling tired, Lumian went to sleep feeling content that he has finished his first roster of shadows and listening to the sounds of rain falling outside the cave.