The flustered vampire looked down below the cliff. She tried to turn her head towards the wyvern but seeing the face of the girl was enough to send her heart aflutter. Elanore turned back towards the city down below the craggy rocks. There was still some distance to traverse and some forest between them.
I can't believe she kissed me! And I liked it...Wait, did she like it too?
Elanore wanted desperately to pose the question. Instead, she sighed and closed her eyes. "Naela...Perhaps we should get moving."
The wyvern answered with a chuckle, and the sneaky vixen wrapped hear arms around Ella from behind. "I will go wherever you go, mistress."
She was the one who told me about personal space before!
"A-aren't you hungry or something? Maybe you should go hunting in these woods, and I should do the same…"
Naela pulled away. "You're right, mistress."
"Thank you," Elanore said.
The wyvern smiled and headed to the edge of the cliff. "But you should prepare yourself, mistress. I want to talk about what happened."
Elanore swallowed and watched Naela flap her wings, taking off into the trees beneath them. Once the wyvern was far enough away, Ella breathed a sigh of relief, the tension in her shoulders relaxing a bit.
She summoned Pot right away.
"Good evening, your majesty!"
Ella laughed. "It's good to see that your demeanor hasn't changed at all." The vampire's cheeks reddened. "Were you able to see all of that?"
Pot flapped his wings. "Not at all, your majesty. While I am not blinded to the outside world in there, I closed my eye at the appropriate time."
"That's hardly different at all!"
Elanore grumbled, feeling a sudden urge to roll around on the ground and kick her feet around. As a virgin with no romantic experience to speak of, the uncertainty of this situation gnawed at her. It's not like she should be any different!
The vampire smacked her cheeks. "Alright, Pot, enough of this for now."
The cauldron nodded up and down. "What do you propose, your majesty?"
Propose...The vampire suddenly had a vision in her head. She imagined herself standing there and her wyvern on one knee. Then she pictured herself in a wedding dress at an altar. Ah!
Once again, she smacked her cheeks. "For now, please don't use that 'p' word. As for what I want to do, we are thoroughly lacking in mana orbs. I would like to do some exploring."
"As you wish, your majesty."
The vampire thought of summoning that floating eye again, but remembering how trippy it was, she decided against it. The vampire walked forwards and leapt from the cliff, twirling in the air, and finishing at the bottom with a super hero landing.
I wonder if I looked as cool as in those movies? Maybe by doing this I am contributing to the bloat of the movie industry?
Somehow, the random thoughts she had gave her footing and took her away from other embarrassing thoughts. The vampire looked around the dark woodlands, noticing that the distance between trees was thinner here. There was less foliage to get in the way, and one could see further off in the distance.
Elanore started walking and tuned her ears to the sounds playing out around her. Towards the city, she heard the yapping of people and the continued flowing of the river she'd followed from before. Away from the city, she heard the distant howling of wolves. Perhaps those would be considered the first normal creatures I've heard?
The vampire chose to turn in their direction and began her march. If the wolves are hunting something, I might be able to steal their kill? Or I could kill the wolves myself…
Though, once again, the thought of killing wolves reminded her of that dog, and it further reminded her of the wyvern. The vampire clicked her tongue and continued.
Eventually, she reached a small stream where she saw a large deer yet again, only this one didn't seem quite as colorful as its friends from the forest. It was equally large yet more earthy colored. [Inspect].
Race: [Great Deer]
Age: 7
Sex: Male
Level: 12
Health: 5,720
Stamina: 3,259
Mana: 3,592
Now this is more of what I expected…A much younger animal as well. The buck was still larger than any of its Earth variants and had bigger antlers, yet it was still mostly normal.
What was abnormal was the wolves that leapt from the bushes on the unsuspecting prey. The pack lunged towards the target, and the deer hollered, taking off across the stream.
Elanore observed the wolves from her spot, noting the third eye on their head. In the center of each of their foreheads, there was another eye that opened the opposite way as their regular eyes. The vampire activated her [Vampire Sight] and saw mana radiating from their third eye.
Finally, the deer betrayed a distinctly unearthly action. After leaping over a fallen tree, it turned invisible.
Ooh, so that's what separates this guy, but…
Elanore's sight allowed her to still see the outline of the buck as if it was a colorful deer cloud. She turned her attention to the wolves and watched their third eye channel magic and lock onto the deer.
Race: [Three-Eyed Wolf]
Age: 6
Sex: Male
Level: 11
Health: 2,359
Stamina: 3,114
Mana: 8,769
Its mana is depleting! I guess this is some kind of skill?
Either way, it became clear that the wolves would catch the deer soon, yet before it could happen a roar interrupted their pursuit. The wolves struggled to stop themselves, sliding to a halt as a new intruder entered their hunting domain.
It was a large brown, humanoid beast with a singular eye on its head, and it wielded a gigantic club. It had scars all along its body and wore a thick leather cloth around its waist.
Elanore noted the creature's tusks poking from the bottom of its mouth. [Inspect]!
Race: [Ogre]
Age: 24
Sex: Male
Level: 31
Health: 100,498
Stamina: 65,782
Mana: 1,852
An Ogre? The vampire turned her attention back to the fleeing deer. Ah, they let it get away!
"Your Majesty, what do you plan to do now?"
"Maybe we should watch and see what happens?"
"What about that deer, your majesty?"
"Ah, well, I guess there is no harm in letting him get away. I am more interested to see what happens here."
The wolves already started to circle around the large humanoid, and his one eye followed their leader, a much larger wolf than the rest.
Elanore compared the three eyes of the wolves to the single eye of the ogre. If this is a battle of depth perception, that guy might be cooked. Why did he not simply ambush them?
With a growl, one of the wolves sprang into action. It lunged forwards and snapped at the back of the ogre's foot, digging its teeth into his heel, and drawing blood.
The ogre slammed his club down with a roar of his own and smashed the wolf's head.
Elanore heard a loud crack of the wolf's skull, and blood poured out of his head. She grit her teeth together, watching as the wolf fell over limply. I guess that's why he didn't ambush…
The strength of the ogre was enough to shatter the poor creature's skull in one hit, yet another wolf lunged into battle.
This one came from the side and jumped at the ogre's waist. It clamped its jaws on the large beast's stomach and ripped off a piece of the brown creature's flesh.
A surprisingly high-pitched squeal came from the ogre's throat, and its singular eye teared up. He turned his head towards the fleeing wolf and lunged with his entire body, but the wolf was swift.
It dodged to the side, watching the ogre fly past it, slamming into a tree. The tree groaned and splintered. Cracking down the middle, it was unable to support the ogre's weight.
The tree fell over, and wood splintered into the ogre's gut, stabbing where he'd already been bitten.
Elanore watched as two of the three remaining wolves took this as their opportunity. After channeling a bit of magic into their legs, they dashed forwards swiftly, cutting the air in front of them.
The fallen ogre did not have the expected reaction. Instead of panicking, a smile formed on his bloodied lip. He grabbed the fallen tree and spun it around, whipping it straight towards the remaining wolves.
Whimpers followed as the tree smashed into their bodies. The two wolves were sent spiraling through the air and crashed into the ground, their blood splattering onto tree branches.
The ogre turned to the last wolf, the alpha, giving it a smug smile. He stood back up and clutched the tree, cackling at his success.
Dammit...Don't tell me I am going to have to save more animals! At this rate, I will become a veterinarian!
Though, a sound echoed into Elanore's mind, playing a ragged voice.
"Don't. Our fight."