Location

'Well, that was a reunion I will never forget'. That is the first coherent thought I had after getting back on my chair.

My little experiment took quite a while so it will not be long until the sun rises. The first thing I need to do in figure out where to make the trap, the easiest way is to find where the lumberjacks got attacked.

And I happen to have the perfect way of exploring without putting myself in danger.

With the tapping motion that I got used to, I create another bird and have it perch on the table. Time to try and replicate the vision trick. So I close my eyes and feel my connection to the bird.

For some reason it is much harder to do this now than before, this could either be because of the distance or because of the lifespan of the bird. Maybe an older summon is easier to connect with.

Still, I do it. the connection is present so I pull on it as hard as I can and the whole world changes once again. The gentle orange light of the fireplace is gone, exchanged with a purple shine that covers the room.

And I can see myself or better said my body sitting on the armchair, oddly enough it does not seem to be affected by the purple filter.

So i take a good look at my body, as one does, of course.

Here I am, sitting on my own in the only chair in a big room, the only light source is a flickering purple flame, my whole body covered by what looks like a dark red cape in the darkness, head adorned with a bloodied feathered cap, which I have yet to clean, both my hands placed on the armrests with the fists tightly closed due to concentration. My skin still as fair as always with a now thick uncombed beard, I am not quite sure if it adds or subtracts to my charm, but it surely helps to keep my face warm. What can I say, I changed quite a bit.

I also look oddly evil for some reason, maybe its the lighting.

This should be enough admiring, lets get going I'm burning nighttime here. I make the bird fly off the table and right through the closed window. It still seems odd how it is able to pass through glass for more reason.

I don't care for the lifespan of the bird so I push it as hard as possible, the whole world is a blur as the bird is heading to the workshop I previously acquired. It shortly comes into view but I do not stop and keep going past the workshop and then past the city gates.

The forest or what remains of it enters my vision, the area closest to the city is a field of stumps covered in snow. At the part where the stump field ends and the forest starts there is an assortment of wooden buildings, probably the camp used by the lumberjacks.

There are only 5 huts, all of them small and ragged, they seemed to just be sticks placed together to form a standing structure. No signs of any humans around so I advance further into the forest.

It does not take long for the bird to fly right above the scene of the accident and what I find there is peculiar at the very least.

I can say one thing with certainty, this world will never cease to amaze me. The bird lands on a tree and I admire the handiwork of the demonic hounds.

They painted a whole new scenery, literally, instead of white as snow the clearing is covered in another color, knowing of what took place here I can assume it to be red. Every single patch of snow be it on the trees or ground is red. It is even more obvious in the purple world, while the snow is a dull light colored purple the blood is a bright dark-colored violet.

It is as if I applied ultraviolet light to the whole clearing, every single drop of blood contrasts beautifully against the snow.

There is also an advantage to this, I can see the traces bloody prints heading deeper into the forest, 5 of them to be exact, so I can assume there are at the very least 5 Vulnogs running around.

They do not walk together but split off, the traces are extremely easy to differentiate from the other red footprints, those belonging to humans, mostly because of the different shape.

I will make the trap somewhere between this clearing and the forward camp, for now, let's follow one of the trails and see if I can find their lair.

After a short flight I find out the answer, no, I cannot. The traces disappear shortly after they left the clearing, the snow most likely cleaned their legs. Unlucky.

Still, it is almost time to leave so I activate the autopilot mode, which is just me giving an order to the bird and expecting it to do it, the order was very simple, fly around and pull on the connection if you find anything or anyone, simple as that.

With another pull, I wake up back into my body, the world back to the normal color pallet. Time to wake up the guards and head out. We have a hole to dig.

So I sit up form the chair and head to the only door to the third floor, open it with the key, and slam it closed as hard as I can. While I hate being rude this is the most effective way of waking them up.

And as expected it worked, both Vun and Ubam are scurrying around the second floor looking for their clothes.

Looking at them I say. ''I'm sorry for waking you up this early but we need to go, today will be a very busy day''. They both nod and continue dressing up. ''Also we are going to head outside the city, bring whatever you think is necessary''.

Ubam asks. ''Are we leaving the city right now Boss?''

''No, we are going to head to the workshop to bring some items first, after that we will look for some workers and head out.'' I turn around to leave before remembering something.

''While you are at it go grab the oil and herbs we purchased yesterday''. A grunt of approval comes my way.

It is great to have people to order around, I mean employees.

In but a few minutes we are all outside preparing to leave. Today will be a busy day, we have a very deep hole to dig.