Master of the Hoard - Chapter 2 (Patreon)

When I closed the info window, I tried to force my jumbled thoughts in a useful direction. There was no doubt that I was suffering from all sorts of overload. Shock at what was going on and the threatening implications of just what happened with my 'real' body were a given. Even so, that was driven to the background by the daunting task before me of having to deal with learning how to handle this body and surviving in what I surmised to be a foreign world with a potential at a second life. Oh, and my stomach was butting into the conversation, grumbling with need.

I pushed down hard on all those emotions. Right now, I could still be in mortal danger and I needed to think and then act. Getting a grip on myself was paramount. I couldn’t afford giving in to my baser instincts at this point. At least thirty-odd years of working on construction sites had taught me a thing or two about handling huge tasks. Identify, Plan, Prioritize and Execute. It was the age-old task of breaking things down into smaller, more manageable chunks and not getting bogged down by the sheer size of the overall problem.

Identify my goal. What did I want? Well, imminent survival first and foremost. Then, I needed to ensure that I'd be able to survive on a longer basis. Following that? Capital a-Answers. What the hell was going on? Finally, depending on what answers I'd be able to come up with, some solution I could live with long-term - regardless of whether that meant getting back to Earth again, or going along with this reincarnation scheme or whatever the hell it was. It looked like, this time, Cait wouldn’t get the last word. Heh. She’d hate that.

Plan. Well, part of my plan would involve sustenance. And an answer lay right in front of me. If I wanted to avoid starving, I'd have to figure out if I could get used to the taste of mole steak. A hesitant look around confirmed that they had not magically become more appetizing to look at. Even so, my body disagreed with my mental distaste. While the look of their flappy cadavers liberally mixed with horrible wounds and death grimaces horrified my sensibilities, my stomach screamed, "dinner!" Also, with a full 12 cadavers before me, I wasn't going to starve any time soon. Though I definitely needed to have a long range plan for acquiring additional sustenance.  Taking in the gruesome view and deciding how exactly one went about gobbling down a mole-wolf-thing, I marvelled at the incredible senses a dragon was equipped with. We were undoubtedly underground, with no visible light source in sight, and I was still experiencing 20/20 sight. Better, even. I was able to see things clearly at distances that seemed improbable for a human. My sense of smell, as well, was amazing. Right this moment, that was not a positive, given that the dominating smells in the tunnel were blood and, well, loosed bowels.

Wait... did I say 12 cadavers? I stared at the macabre scene before me in mistrust. The pop-up had only mentioned 11. My vision crept over the spacious tunnel. The natural look of the tunnel did a bit to return some normalcy to the view as I took in the details. Weeds sprouted from the walls, battling for survival within crevices in the walls. I could identify at least some of the rocks inside the… I sighed. I was trying to distract myself. Turning, the scenery turned gruesome as I looked at the carnage before me. I steeled myself and looked closer at each body in turn, ending up focusing on one of the less damaged mole creatures.

He was propped up against the wall, freely bleeding from two missing digits on his left paw, but carried no obvious lethal injuries. A moment later, I spotted a tiny shiver going through his body and I lumbered over, glaring down on the tiny figure. In disgust, I took in just how pathetic he looked. The weapon tossed aside next to him was little more than a sharpened stick and his emaciated figure looked both puny and malnourished. What little gear he wore, left nothing to the imagination and - oh, he was a she. Nothing about her radiated a threat. Iit'd be easy to forget that she and her buddies had come close to killing me minutes ago. My instincts however - my plan faded to the background, as I could feel every part of my body scream at me to crush the puny creature and get on with the feast. My jaws shot forward before I knew what was happening, and I had to force myself to step backwards instead of ripping into the terrified creature.

The next moments were a silent, trembling struggle, as I fought to regain control of my body. Slowly, a realization slipped through the red haze. "It's the hunger." Straining, I moved my focus from the pulsing, warm meal before me onto the fresh kills on the floor. I threw my distaste at what I was doing into the backseat as I ripped through flimsy clothing and tore into warm flesh, sinew and blood.

Moments later, I arose from the nasty mess with a shudder of horror and delight intermingled. Lesson one learned - feed the beast or the beast takes over. It felt like I was back in charge, though. God, I hoped they had therapists here. Locking out any considerations over what I'd just done, I returned my focus on the remaining survivor. She'd soiled herself in the meantime – I couldn’t blame her. I focused exclusively on the small beast, shutting out everything else. "Alright, time to figure out how this telepathy lark works."

My senses took in tiny details I could easily have missed. The sweet stench of her sweat was dominant, almost drowning out the blood and - other fluids. Her upper body had a range of tiny scars below the mangy fur that looked to be inflicted on purpose. And below it all, I heard - not with my ears, but inside my mind - a tiny voice repeating: "please don't kill me. Please don't kill me." Now maybe I could at least get some answers.

Trying to direct my thoughts back straight back at the voice, I thought: "Give me one reason why I should let you live." I punctuated it with a low growl.

Following a frightened peep and a short, stunned moment of silence, I heard her thoughts in my mind. The experience was surprisingly natural. "Please forgive me. We were starving and desperate and, and.... we spied the new clutch and thought it would be an easy meal." She groveled before me as her mental monologue dissolved into incomprehensible pleas.

I let her ramble on for a while, but when it became apparent that she wasn't going to snap out of it, I slammed my tail down to the ground. Hard. She jerked up, meeting my face with an abject look of terror on her face. "Stop. Rambling. I'm considering whether I should add you to my meal or let you live. You still might earn back your life." She stopped rambling quickly enough at that and just listened - or whatever you should call it when it's telepathy. I continued: "I want two things from you. Assurances that you and your pals aren't going to be attacking me again and answers to my questions."

She nodded fast enough to make her neck appear in danger of snapping. "Of course, Milord. No danger here. Had we known there was a chance that you would wake up, we would never have dared try for your life. With you awake and our tribe diminished, we are less than a threat to you and readily throw ourselves at your mercy." True to her word, she abased herself before my feet, baring her neck.

I stared at her in confusion. Who speaks like that? Still, if she was a liar, she was at least a convincing one. Clearing my throat emerged as a deep rumble from my belly, and I addressed her: "Accepted. For now. We will discuss your punishment later. I need answers to my questions."

"I shall do anything within my powers."

"First things first. Do you have reinforcements on the way?"

"No, Sire. Ours was an unforeseen opportunity and nobody knows we are here. The clutch of eggs containing you and your brethren were stowed in an unsecured area and we took a chance. We also collapsed the tunnel behind us, so they would be unable to track us down."

I took that in and then thought of the larger picture. A moment of silence reigned as I considered the magnitude of what I needed to know. Basically, I was starting from scratch here and I had no clue which piece of ignorance might be my downfall. "To begin with, I need to know exactly where I am. Then I need to know who and what lives nearby. I'd also like to know about your tribe and any other powers in this place. Also... you'd probably better patch up that paw of yours, because we're going to be a while."

She nodded before busying herself with the task of jury-rigging a bandage for her hand. "Sire, do you wish to consume my brethren before we move on, or would you wish to save them for later?"

I started talking, then did a double take. If this was a simulation or game, which I highly doubted, the programming was FUBAR. I liked to think of myself as hard to throw off kilter, but nothing in my upbringing had prepared me for a question like that. I mean who would think of that, unless this were real. "I... believe I would prefer to wait."

"Naturally. If I may make a suggestion?" I bowed my head in acceptance and she continued, "Natural predators are common in this area. We were trying to move you to a more secluded area to attack and partake of your flesh in peace. Your movement forced us to rush our plans, to our detriment. Should we move but a short walk away, we would be much safer. I would recommend against moving the bodies, however. We are not in the safest area, and the blood trail would be sure to attract predators. A dragon should be able to find new prey without issues."

I stared at her in distrust, but noted no hint of foul play. Of course, I wouldn't know what to look for in that furry, scrunched up little face in the first place. Still, her reasoning rang true and… it felt like I was able to sense her emotions? Staring her down, I concentrated, and within moments, I was able to single out several emotions fluctuating within her. Hope. Earnestness. Fear, obviously. Still, I accepted that she probably wasn’t lying and, within minutes, I was forcing my body in between two large natural pillars, moving from the large, natural tunnel into a small dirt cave. It was small, secluded and completely empty, apart from some large sandstone formations.

She turned around, relaxing slightly. "Much appreciated, Sire. Most larger predators are unable to fit in this place. Now, as to your first question - I believe you were asking about geography?"

The next few hours flew by as we talked. Well, mostly Aelis talked. Her exact name spoken out loud was a squeaky mouthful I couldn't pronounce, but mentally it translated into Aelis. Within minutes, I realized that I'd been lucky to spare her life. After an hour, the word 'godsend' kept popping up in my mind. Aelis knew little about the world outside her daily haunt - but that part, she was very well aware of. Oh, and regarding 'the world,' that part did take me a moment to digest, because Kansas had definitely gone bye-bye. We were currently near the southern corner of the lower layer inside The Scoured Mountain. A mountain which, to her tribe, was their entire world. Before my thoughts managed to bog down in the implications of that, I was swamped with further info.

Apparently, the entire lower layer was a contested area. Nobody doubted who ruled the mountain - Selys, a majestic and deadly red dragon. She only ruled the upper layers personally, however, and the lower layers were home to a constant battle for survival, food and dominance. As for threats, they were basically everywhere. Aelis freely admitted that she and her tribe were near the bottom of the food chain and scraping to get by - and that most groupings and plenty of clusters and individual monsters were far more dangerous than they. Pressed, she admitted that I would be outclassed by many, as well. Curiously, though humans and humanoids were well-known, there were none to be found within the mountain. One thing was starting to become abundantly clear to me though, this was no game. This would be and was a second chance of sorts, but not for the faint of heart.

Odds were, however, that nobody would spend time searching for a stolen egg. Survival of the fittest was the name of the game around here and it was expected for the weakest to be rooted out. In Aelis' words: "If they are not strong and clever enough to grow and prosper, why would Selys spend energy to protect them? She has plenty of hearth sworn protectors to choose from already." She had scarce little actual info on Selys or dragons in general, but she did provide me with some idea as to what I could expect. "There is a reason most monsters venerate - or at least fear - dragons. The majority of us have a mostly fixed path before us, knowing from the stories of our kin what the levels above us may grant. For dragons, it is not so. Not only do your levels allow you to choose your affinity and with that, your strengths and weaknesses. Once you establish your domain, you can also shape your surroundings in your own image."

That part was pretty unclear to me, but I supposed it had something to do with the 'increased production range' my Mental Power score could affect. Still, score team Dragon! Now as long as I could survive what awaited me, I would be able to build something for myself. Maybe even affect real change here, even if for no one else but myself. Make myself into the type of being I always wanted to be. A real power. That was a good initial long-term plan for me. Now, as to where I'd be able to establish myself and grow in relative safety, that was a tougher choice.

"There is no such thing as a safe area down here, Sire. Whichever domain you decide that you want to keep for yourself, you will have to earn through blood and might. I would be pleased to point out the dangers of different zones in aid for your decision. I do hope that my courtesy has been sufficient to erase your enmity." She knelt and looked at the floor, anxiety oozing from her pores.

The little critter had certainly regained her composure quickly - I admired her for that. Punching that admiration deep down again, I destroyed her world view with a single word. "No." As her face fell, I continued. "I did mention earlier that there was going to be a penalty for your attempt on my life. Yours is this: You will accompany me as we traverse the nearby area in search of a suitable domain for me. Until then, I will not release you." Okay, maybe her flowery way of speaking was rubbing off on me - that was a bit over the top. Ah, well, it got the point across. Softening my approach, I elaborated: "Yes, it is a punishment, but I don't intend to be cruel. As long as you don’t try to trick me, I'll protect you to the best of my abilities - and should we happen upon something edible for your kind along the way, you will be allowed to gather and keep it. Also, if you don’t cheat me, we might be able to come to some agreement between your kind and me. Finally, however, I need your word that you do not intend to try to kill me again." Like I was going to take the word of somebody who'd just tried to eat me - but it was a start.

At the last few sentences, Aelis' ears had perked up and she snuffled quietly, as if in contemplation. "I understand, Sire. On my blood of my tribe and the spirit of Deyra, I do so swear - your life is safe from me and mine. It is fairer treatment than I had expected from your kind, to be honest." She glanced at her damaged paw, which appeared to have stopped bleeding, and released a small sigh. "I have no pressing issues, Milord. Would you prefer to embark on our journey right away?"

Out of the emotions I could decipher from her, deception had no part. Sincerity, hope and annoyance at the pain of her injured paw. I gave her suggestion a moment of consideration, but declined. "No. I want you to return later. Spend a little time to get your paw seen to and allow your kin to retrieve your slain brothers." It was not all benevolence on my part either. I wanted a chance to regain my health and grow accustomed to my new body and abilities before I faced any new battles. The last sentence, I added as an afterthought in hope that the gesture would improve our relationship.

The effect was instant. She looked at me in shock, and then dropped to a knee on the ground like her strings had been cut. "Milord. This will mean so much to us."

Were those... tears? Mole-wolf hybrids have tear ducts. This day was one never-ending learning experience. It was also nice to see that their people did have something in common with humans. Perhaps respect for the departed was a universal thing here.

"They should provide sustenance for the tribe for a week. If I leave now, I may have time for a meal myself after arranging the necessary and still return in half a day. With your permission, Sire?"

Oh. What a... practical people. Hiding my distaste, I nodded my assent and watched her leave. Wow, just where was I?