Some time passed before the vilge had fully gathered, and Morris led the group to go speak to them. Niphru didn’t pay much attention, other than when he was introduced to them. In order to avoid fusioated that when he approached the town, he would put up an illusionary marker up in the air so they knew not to attack.

  O appeared the people would at least tolerate him, he went baostly ign the talks. Mostly, they simply went over what the group had talked about before, with a few extra details and tasks included by Morris.

  As the talks finished, Niphru informed Morris that he would try to find the missing group in the forest and, after he expressed his uanding, began to head toward the gate he wilderness. Meanwhile, he spoke with Dawheir link, letting her know he would be extremely careful.

  Part of his agreement with her was to tinually give her updates as to what was going on, so as soon as the guards at the gate let him out, he let her know he was leaving. The trip to reach the forest was pletely uful, and he ed himself in all the illusion he could before leaping up above the trees on a series of pnes of force magic.

  From his vantage point, he was able to spot numere birds in the distance, as well as a few clearings and less dense areas. While he couldn’t see much through the more densely covered areas, it did at least give him a basic idea of the y of the nd. After his look around, he desded back to the edge of the woods and began wandering around, trying to see if he could pick up the st of any humans.

  He did find a few, but it appeared that they were all from people he had noticed at the vilge, so he simply moved onward, senses alert. After traveling a short distao the woods, he decided that he wao try to make it harder to smell him, and sought out a pce with plenty of leaves and dirt. Once he found a good-looking pce, he used his limited water magic to pull some liquid from the air, spreading it around.

  After wetting the leaves and produg some mud, Niphru slipped out of his harness aedly rolled around in the muck to cover himself, hoping the st would mask his own. Upon finishing, he returo his prior efforts of advang into the wilderness while avoiding anything that might be dangerous. As he traveled, he regurly stopped to see if he could smell anything that might lead to humans, such as ash, smoke, burned flesh, or cooked food.

  He found quite a few animals as he traveled, but unfortunately, by the time he decided to stop for the evening, he had not located anything likely to lead to people. Instead of tinuing as night fell, he began digging into the dirt near a tree, f a small burrow for himself. After sharing with Dawn that he was settling in for the night and putting half his illusions over the entrance, he curled up and attempted to sleep.

  Some time before the sun rose, he was awakened by something rge snuffling nearby outside his little den. Moving carefully, even if he was sileng himself with illusion, he poked his head out and looked around. A short distance away, he spotted a somewhat ht bear stuffing itself with berries.

  No longer worried that something was looking for him, he rexed and padded away, resolving to find something to eat for himself befoing too much further. He had to admit that he wasn’t looking forward to going back to uncooked food, but he would live. Then again, he mused, he could cook things, just without spices and side dishes, which was what he had inally been thinking of.

  Uhe afternoon before, he actively sought out some of the sts of other animals, ign several of them as he spotted them. Eventually, he found a mutant lynx, though at least this cat wasn’t like the ohat had ambushed the group a ferior.

  Though the creature seemed to smell something, it didn’t seem terribly ed, just looking around and sniffing for a moment before wandering away. Some observation showed that it had oversized es, as well as much more heavily muscled front limbs than normal. Due to the ges to its limbs, it had an odd gait, though Niphru couldn’t see anything he could use to his advantage.

  Eventually, as he was deg to just attack it directly, it leapt at a tree and scurried upward, ing to rest on a rge branbsp; This somewhat ged his pns He moved three of his illusions toward it before f a strong pne of force beside it.

  Sihese things possessed no smell, sound, or appearahe cat remained rexed. Or at least, that was the case until he dehe illusions into an intense ball of fme over its head aedly smacked it bato the branch every time it attempted to escape.

  This ‘fight’ ended up being pathetically easy, the creature dying before it could even leave the tree. Since he had focused the fire on only burning it, the tree remained mostly unharmed, aside from some cw marks. Another push from his force magic toppled the body off the branch, and he approached it, bringing his foxfire down to cook some of the meat instead of immediately burning it pletely.

  Once he had eaten his fill, he stepped bad added in his fire magic, quickly destroying the corpse so nothing else would e the mana-enriched flesh. After putting the fire out, his ears twitched as he heard something odd in the distahough he couldn’t be sure as to what it was. Turning towards where he thought it came from, he began traveling again.

  A short while ter, he became quite a how dehe foliage was being, especially since he had o burn quite a few mutated pnts that had posed a threat to him. Tired with this, he took to the sky once again, rising above the opy with his magic.

  Oddly enough, he spotted a thin plume of smoke in the distance, and, curiosity aroused, he shifted his travel toward it instead. Some time ter, his ears twitched at the sound of shouts and the occasional roar. He sped up, eventually finding the source of the smoke.

  In a rge clearing, a dip in the grouo a cave. As smoke trickled out of the hole in the ground, two men in torn crimsoher were trying to hold off a heavily twisted bear with fming torches. Apparently, it had been threatened from behind quite a bit, given the spikes growing from its hindquarters, an unon sight on a rge predator. The other adaptations were more in lih what he expected.

  The skin of the beast drooped, showing that it was much looser than normal, likely to make it harder for prey that fought back to get a good grip. Additionally, its head was much rger than normal, with a shogly wide mouth full of nasty-lookih. The cws upon its limbs were also signifitly rger than normal, as were its muscles. It did, however, remain with only fs at least.

  A closer iion showed numerous cuts on one of the front legs, as well as the broken bde of some kind of on wedged into it. It also seemed to favor one side, a sign of less obvious injury. While Niphru initially thought maybe it lived in the cave and was trying to drive them out, the entrance was far too narrow for it to fit.

  There were, however, signs that it had attempted to dig into the ground to reaside. As he watched, one of the men was slightly too slow, and the bear swatted the torch from his hand before lunging forward. Seeing this, the man clumsily threw himself into a roll, barely avoiding the beast’s teeth.

  Since he had already identified the men as members of the group he had been seeking, he desded closer to the fight and peeled off three of his four illusions, turning them bato foxfire and sending them below to join the men in holding off the bear.

  As the creature pulled ba caution, he flickered one back to an illusion to state, “I’ve beeo find you. Do not attack me when I reveal myself; I am a fox rather than a human.”

  The meably seemed quite wary from hearing a message ing from thin air, but they could hardly do anything about it. As the unarmed one scrambled back to the cave and the other pulled baiphru pulled on his fire magiing a steltion of fme.

  As the beast decided to risk the fire around the remaining man, Niphru strubsp; Dozens of bolts of fme curved to impact the beast’s head, several smming into eyes and nose in an attempt to cripple its senses.

  The man flicked his gaze up into the sky as the bear recoiled in pain, seeking the source of the sudden streaks of fire. As Niphru was still hidden behind an illusion, this was a fruitless endeavor, especially in the very limited time he could take before returning his focus to his oppo.

  Since he had a moment, Niphru took a look around and, finding no birds that may attack, finally pulled away his st yer of illusion a it down as another ball of foxfire. The sean re-emerged from the cave carrying another fming brand paused for a moment, gaping as he looked upward at the fox standing calmly midair.

  A roar broke the man’s distracted gaze as he snapped back to awareness and rejoined his rade. Six soure darted to and fro, the bear swinging its head bad forth between them. Si seemed to still be able to see, Niphru once again began f a steltion of fme, aiming to try arike against its eyes from above.

  Before he could send the fire down, however, the beast swiped at its h e paw. While it was distracted, he set his orbs of foxfire to burn its throat, worried about the sheer size of its head possibly making it take too long to burn. He the his array of fireballs down as well, targeting its eyes again.

  The men were clearly startled by this but kept together, watg the sudden storm of fmes engulf the creature before them. An enraged roar ripped out from the bear as its eyes exploded from the heat driven into them, and it thrashed about wildly, falling to the ground as it tried to move its other front leg before setting down the first.

  Immediately after impag the earth, it began to toss about, the foxfire staying firmly over its throat and burning away. Horror was clearly visible on the faces of the two men as they backed away toward the cave opening.

  Seeing that the beast seemed to be crippled and dying, Niphru desded from above the trees, careful to still remain well above the reach of the beast when it stood, and pulled a foxfire away from the creature, turning it back to an illusion so he could unicate again.

  Shard