The Reprieve

Laying on the ground, pain wracking her body, she felt like she could just fall asleep. As she was drifting off, she was awoken by that annoying voice.

"Well done initiate. You have managed to overcome adversity, using your reflexes and intelligence to take down a powerful enemy. This, like the trial of balance is a taste of what may occur in life. There may be enemies stronger than yourself, larger in numbers, where your intelligence, reflexes and skills will be needed to defeat them. You may keep the weapons you have chosen, now make your way to the final chamber to complete the trails in this temple."

"Arrrgh, when will it be over."

Once again, a bright light shines in the area.

"Ahh, thank you, thank you." Her bruises and scrapes to her human half were healed, her tail un-flattened, and the scales practically grew back before her eyes. The pain was gone, but the memory of it would live with her forever. "I need to get stronger, so something like that never happens again.

After picking up the crossbow and placing it back over her backpack, she makes her way to the next room. Looking over her shoulder, all the weapons from before had disappeared.

"Magic again I guess."

Continuing forward, inside the next room, all that can be seen is a large book, open on a pedestal.

"Is this the written part of the test." She laughs to herself.

"Step forward and claim the first birth right of the Lamia."

Reaching the book, she looks down hoping to be able to read the text… but is unable to do so. As she looks at the symbols in the book, several of them start to glow brightly. While almost blinding, Octavia is transfixed and unable to look away from the sight. As fast as it started, it ends just the same, returning to that of just a normal book.

"The first birth right of the lamia. The vision of truth. This birth right lets you see what is hidden or hard to see, being able to see the light of the soul in a body. You have completed the first and second trails and may leave the temple. You will not be able to enter again once you have left. Go forth to the next Lamia village and continue your pilgrimage and complete the next trails."

*Blink* *Blink* "Vision of Truth? Is that like seeing lies or something, is it some sort of magic. Guess all I can do is try it out and see what happens."

Unsure on what she needs to do, she just tries to concentrate, willing the change of vision to occur.

Suddenly, everything goes dark.

"What, I cant see!"

As she looks around, she realises that's not true. Looking down at her hands, she sees a very bright yellow and orange colour.

"What is this?"

Looking down the rest of her body she sees the same thing. Her tail on the other hand isn't as bright as the rest of her body.

"Ahh, its infrared? Vision of truth is infrared vision. I guess it makes sense, being able to see people hiding by looking for their body heat, might also work on that invisible squirrel." She shakes her fist to the thought of her arch nemesis. "So, the bright light, they believe is the soul of the body. This will really come in handy."

Leaving the room, and likely the temple for the final time, she travels up a series of stairs. Reaching the top, she opens the door and somehow winds up in the main hall of the temple.

"Wait. How did I end up here?" Looking around, she has come through the door that she entered originally to go down to the trial. "Magic is so confusing."

Checking to make sure she has everything, she makes her way to the entrance, poleaxe in hand, and turns around for one final look. As she does, she notices that the snake statue is looking at the door that she just came through.

"Was it always looking that way?" Wracking her brain, she can't seem to recall if it was or wasn't. It not being that much of a big deal, she continues on her way and exits the temple back into the lamia village. Once she shut the door, she could no longer open it.

The last thing she does it collect the wolves she left, where when leaving the ruins, the temple had disappeared and would not show up again.

"Looks like I better be on my way. Time to head to the town and actually meet some people. I do need to complete this pilgrimage, but I need to figure out where another village is first. With enough digging I may learn something in the town."

Leaving the ruins of the village, she heads in the direction of the town, and starts the next part of her journey, supplies and weapon in hand, ready for almost anything.

…

"How much further is this stupid Town!"

Octavia's cries are only heard by the wildlife currently darting about, likely in search of food.

So far she had been travelling for a few hours and it felt like she had made no progress.

"I need to check where I am. I guess it's up a tree again."

Dropping the wolves, she makes her way to the nearest tree, where like at the river, she started to make her way up.

Hitting the top of the tree, annoyingly there were no fruits on this one, all she could do was check the view. Far off into the distance, in the direction she had been travelling, stood the stone towers of the town she was trying to reach.

"Well at least I'm still going the right way. But with how far I have travelled, I may only reach there in a day or two. Might need to find a place to set up camp.

Back down on the ground, picking up her prey, she continues on her journey.

…

As it darkens, she realises now is the time to think about settling down for the night and getting some sleep.

After some searching, she finds a nice flat area, surrounded by trees, like everywhere else, but so far, she had not seen any monsters or animals. So, this was as good a place as any.

"How should I go about doing this then."

Never having been much of a camper, let alone having ever been a camper without any equipment, she searched the surrounding area trying to find something or use. Several sticks and large leaves later, Octavia manages to put together a rudimentary lean to against a tree.

"I think that went well." She says smiling at her construction, proud at what she made.

*Whoosh"

That is until a slight breeze rolls in and knocks it to the ground.

"Well that's very disappointing."

Back to square one and realising her carpentry and construction skills are not up to snuff, she tries to figure out a plan B.

Looking around, she sees plenty of vines and an idea comes to mind.

"Yes, a hammock. That could work."

Machete out, she gets to chopping and ends up with a large bundle of vines.

"Now, I just need to start weaving it into a net. Shouldn't be too hard."

…

…

"Wow this is taking a long time." After what feels like four hours but was probably only one, Octavia had only made a small amount of progress on the hammock.

With the light almost gone for the day, she realises a hammock may not be the way to go. Possibly something to work on for the future, but right now another solution is needed.

"Ok, no tent, no hammock. What else can I do?" Again, looking around for more inspiration as the final light of the day vanishes, all that comes to mind is something simple.

"I think now is the time to just climb up a tree and sleep on the branch."

While not an elegant solution, it is simple and should get the job done for the night.

Wondering what to do with all that she has, and not wanting to lose any of it to the things that go bump in the night, she climbs up one tree and ties the wolves to it, dangling in mid-air.

Bringing the rest of her gear up, she stabs the pole axe into the side of the tree, laying it on the branch. She then wraps her tail all around the branch and lays down for the night.

"Time to get to sleep. I really hope nothing happens over the night."

…

…

Thankfully she was right. No problems, no attacks, quite a restful night as well, considering she spent it on a branch.

After all that she had been through so far, having a good night's sleep was definitely needed.

"Back on the road again."

On the ground, as she was leaving to go, she could smell something ripe and rotting. The only location it could come from were the wolves and a closer sniff confirmed it for her.

"Ewww, looks like I can't keep lugging these around. The meats gone bad, but the fur should still be fine."

Taking out her knife, she ponders how to go about skinning the wolf. Having never had to skin an animal before, considering she lived in the city, she was a complete novice in this area.

"No other way to go about this than to just try and see what happens."

Knife in hand, she stabs into the wolf's gut and start pulling. She realises her mistake though once the innards are exposed.

"Errk, gack. Oh that is horrible."

Quickly getting away from the mess, gagging sounds could be heard by all the wildlife.

"Errk, I was not expecting that."

Psyching herself up, she heads back over and has another go. This time, using a shallower cut, hoping not to break into the wolf, she manages to get under the pelt and starts cutting away.

After a good several minutes, she managed to relieve the wolf of its fur, albeit it messily. Knicks, tears and damage are seen across the fur, but as a first attempt it came out well.

Moving onto the second wolf, she does a much better job, getting an almost pristine bundle of fur off the wolf.

"Yes, it came out quite well." Looking down at the remains, she realises something.

"Not sure why I'm feeling so proud at doing such a disgusting thing."

Bodies tossed to the side, and the furs placed into her bag, she heads off in the direction of the town, hoping to reach it soon.

…

Several hours later and a few checks up trees, she takes a quick pit stop. She takes the time to have a quick drink, collect some more fruit, thankfully without squirrels turning up, and just generally takes some time to herself.

After her break she heads off again, where all of a sudden, she hears voices. Voices that she is able to understand, thankful for the magic of transmigration, which she decides to follow, happy that she may actually meet someone she can talk too.

"Finally. I'm not going to go insane and end up talking to plants."

As she nears the voices, what she hoped was a nice gathering of people she could chat with, ended up turning into sobs and loud voices. Pushing through some bushes, she is finally able to see the people talking and sees the reason for the sobs.

"Oh no." All she can do is look on in despair at the situation as she figures out how to deal with the problem she will soon need to face.