Animal People

The ride over to the Stained slopes was uneventful, however the view was stunning the whole way. Even though it wasn't night you could see what seemed to be rivers of colorful stars flowing through the sky. There were more floating islands than one could count, and the various creatures that you could occasionally see shifting in the clouds were just as beautiful as they were terrifying. What seemed to be our destination soon came into view. The island was chalk full of large crimson pillars seemingly stained with blood, and there appeared to be some forests full of light red and brown trees on the lower parts of the island.

We pulled into a similar dock to the one we had left and were all told to get off. "The mana here seems to be a bit more dense than the last island," Winter said. "Does it now" I replied uninterestedly, I didn't really know what to do with mana anyway. All of a sudden a new system window popped up with text reading "Congratulations, you have met the requirements to unlock quests and secondary stats" What are quests I asked. The brotherhood dishes out quests so I was wondering if it would be like that. "When you meet certain conditions, a quest will be activated and you will receive specified rewards upon completion" So kind of like the guild I guess I thought. And what are the secondary stats? "Secondary stats include speed and crit rate/damage along with a couple of other things" I read. "Kevin, what is crit rate?" Winter asked. Asking now of all times? Does Winter have a similar system? I wondered "Why do you ask?" "Just wondering" I'm not buying it but I guess it's not that important "It means critical and it should multiply your attack power by however much crit damage you have, that's what I understand it to be at least" I said. "Sounds fun". "Should we head off then" I asked "good idea" Winter replied.

There was a trail that led into the forest that we started to walk towards. The trees were spread out, but the underbrush was dense so going off of the trail would be difficult. As I noticed from the boat, all of the plants were either some shade of red or light brown, and all of them had strange shapes to them. Some plants had their leaves bent away from the sky, others had leaves shaped like crescent moons, and some plants seemed to be moving of their own volition. But that's impossible right? I thought Well this place does have magic so maybe not. The forest was eerily silent. The only sounds were the occasional branch snapping or some leaves rustling, but most sounds seemed to be eaten up by the forest.

After what seemed like forever we finally came across something, or more like the remains of something. After turning a corner we noticed a broken down wagon a bit further down the trail. The wagon had been violently ripped apart, and there were multiple bodies lying around. The bodies were not human however. While they seemed to be humanoid to an extent and they were all wearing clothes, all of them were animal-like. One was a lion, another a crocodile. The wagon had also been carrying some containers from the looks of it and each one had been opened and all of their contents strewn about. Could the attackers have been looking for something? I wondered. "Hey Kevin, why do you think that body got hidden in the bushes?" Winter asked, pointing at a faint but distinctly body shaped shadow hidden in the leaves. Why the hell would I know that? I said internally. "Probably just got tossed there. Do you want to check it out?" I asked. Winter shrugged and coated his hands with some dirt using magic then pulled the body out of the leaves. It had the head of a lizard, was covered in scales, and had a piece of paper clutched in its hands. Seeing this Winter gently took it out of their fingers and opened it up to see if it said anything. Damn he really just did that I thought, I'm surprised at how calm he is considering we just came across a bunch of bodies. I wasn't exactly showing it but I was a little freaked out with this encounter. "Hmm… It seems to be gibberish" Winter said. After turning it around a few times he passed it to me. The letter read "Aqt ah ukt npbt jtqtydxf rpxx mt bawpqj zq ukt qtvu hoxx waaq, fuypzt uktq." After pondering it for a few seconds I also agreed that it was in fact gibberish, and handed it back to Winter. I started to walk again, trying not to think about what I had just seen too much.

Soon after we resumed walking, we heard much more noise than usual coming from one of the bushes, and soon after multiple small creatures jumped out. "Oh I know these, these are Unihorn rabbits" Winter said. "What?!" "Unihorn rabbits, they are rabbits with a horn and glowing purple eyes… they are pretty common in some places where I come from" "Where do you come from?" "It is a bit far from here." All of them suddenly attacked at the same time and two came after me. I managed to stab and kill one of them somehow when it jumped at me, but the other was firmly attached to my leg with its teeth. "Gahhhh that hurts damn it!!" I yelled as I stabbed it with my dagger until it let go. Winter had somehow managed to block three at once with a paintbrush then proceeded to kill all of them in a couple of seconds with a thin strip of ink that he had turned into a makeshift blade. "Are you okay?" Winter said as he came over to me. "Yeah I'm fine" I said through gritted teeth. "But I do think I should probably wrap it up or something." blood was slowly draining out of my leg and I could see a red bar in the corner of my vision slowly getting lower. I guess that's my health bar. I thought, but it was still at around 95% red I would say so I was not in any danger. Winter cut some of my shirt off and wrapped it around my leg and the bleeding stopped shortly after.

After taking a couple of minutes to recuperate I gave the okay and we started to walk again. We shortly came to what appeared to be our destination. It appeared to be a large and loud city. Most of the buildings were made of a deep red stone giving it an ominous feeling. There were no walls but there were guards patrolling the perimeter. And just like the people in the carriage they were all animal types. But these all seemed to be mice or rabbits and stuff. As we walked near the city no guards bothered to stop us. I guess they are just there to keep monsters out. I thought as we walked into the street. Just like before most people were animal-esk but there were some humans and similar races too. I had only seen humans before this island, but I guess it makes sense for there to be many races given that this world seems straight out of a fantasy book. It was not that surprising really. "Should we see if the brotherhood has a place here?" Winter asked. "Good Idea."

There was in fact a brotherhood guild here. This one was much more grandiose than the one back at the heartwood forest island. It was also made of red stone, but there were black highlights running through it all. It seemed to be the red equivalent to marble. It had gray pillars on each side and a large domed roof. The inside was lit from a chandelier that had floating yellow stones hanging from it instead of candles or light bulbs. There also seemed to be a diner off to the side. Looks expensive, we'll probably have to eat somewhere else I noticed. Looking around I finally noticed the request board and Winter and I walked over. Like the Heartwoods guild, there were also quests that were always open, one was to kill the unihorn rabbits and the others were material collection tasks. "It's a shame that we just left the unicorn rabbits to rot" I said, to which Winter nodded. "Do you think we should tell the guild about what we saw on the trial?" I asked. "Probably" Winter said "who knows we might get a reward" he said off handedly. He then proceeded to walk over to what seemed to be the reception area and told them about the shattered wagon. "Oh my! That's horrible!" The staff member exclaimed after he was done telling the tale. "You said that it seemed to have been ripped apart, and that the individuals were all of the vicious kind, yes?" they said, but this time with what seemed to be a touch of disinterest. "Your report has been noted, you can leave now." Upon finishing this the turned away and walked into a back room. Winter shrugged and walked back my way.

The light had started to dim outside so we decided to find a place to eat and stay for the night. Upon asking around we found a cheapish inn not too far from the guild, so we decided to head over there.