Upping The Ante

11. Strange New Life

Hmm. To tunnel or not to tunnel? And even in the event that tunnelling does in fact occur, where to tunnel?

It isn’t reasonable to expect that a largish city would be built on the very edge of some monster infested wild frontier. It’s obvious now, but I really did hope there would be more monsters in here for us to eat.

Aside from those hairy scraggly things, the only monsters we’ve encountered are creatures that are fairly close to regular forest animals on Earth. The occasional slightly larger boar, some deer with sparkly horns, a few decently sized birds.

Enough to get a bit of food around, but completely insufficient to fuel the XP and Biomass needs to power up the colony.

There is only one place to get what we need, and it just so happens to be the place we only just escaped from.

Dammit!

I’m going to have to dig down to the Dungeon again.

The question is, where? I’m certainly not going to dig straight down from inside the new anthill. That would be completely stupid. Perhaps I could create a new tunnel a few hundred metres away that Tiny and I could use for hunting, perhaps even lead workers down there in hunting parties.

The other option is to head back to the existing tunnel which opens up within the church. Monsters might even be climbing out of there already, invading the surface. For his own sake, I hope that priest doesn’t try to give those monsters his ‘blessing’ like he did me. He won’t escape with only the loss of an arm if he tries to smack an Earth Bear Tyrant on the head!

Thinking about the human town causes a slight pang in my chest. I still don’t know how to think about the humans of this world or how I should relate to them. Part of what bothers me most is how much less I consider them now. Perhaps accepting the colony as my new family has drawn me closer to accepting my monstrous life. I mean, experience has shown me I have no hope of ever being part of human society again, so perhaps my feelings are drawing away from them more as time goes on.

Still, I hope that by tunnelling into the middle of the town, we haven’t inadvertently caused the deaths of hundreds of ultimately blameless people.

I might have to sneak back there soon to see how things are going.

For now, not venturing too far from the nest in case of the unexpected, Tiny and I continue our first sweep. The forest itself is lovely, old and lush, full of the sounds one would hope to hear in an old wood.

There is a peaceful vibe I’m quite enjoying. The place is so still compared to the Dungeon, especially since the wave hit.

Hang on a sec. I’m getting a heat reading from over near that tree!

Signalling Tiny with my antennae, I point to the tree.

His eyes brighten at the prospect of prey, and he starts scanning for it in the indicated direction. A frown almost immediately creases his face as he fails to notice anything and glances back to me with his hangbat expression.

Don’t look at me, buddy, I can’t see it either!

The tree in front of us has thick, gnarled roots curled around the base and twisting their way into the soil beneath. The thick trunk isn’t smooth, but rather covered in curls and knots, clumps of moss dappling the trunk and hanging from its boughs.

This is strange…

There is, without a doubt, a source of heat only a few metres in front of me, but all I can see is tree!

This is curious. My interest has been piqued! Why is this tree giving the vibes of a creature? I mean, I know trees are alive, but they shouldn’t be like this, right?

I gradually approach, my eyes agog at this strange mystery.

Tiny has grown bored and is sitting on his backside studying the hair dangling off his arm.

Dammit, Tiny! Where is your sense of wonder?

I’ve come close enough to the tree that my antennae are directly tapping it up and down.

I can clearly detect heat from this. Something that no other tree has shown in the forest. Just what is it about this tree?

At that moment, as my antennae are tippety-tapping on the bark, something odd happens.

The tree giggles.

Uh…

Tippety-tappety-tap.

More giggles.

Tippety-tappety. Tippety-tappety. Tippety-tappety!

As my antennae go completely crazy on the trunk, a section of wood starts to wiggle with laughter and detaches from the rest of the tree before collapsing on the ground.

Before my eyes, a strange woodish humanoid is rolling about, thin root-like fingers at the end of gnarled mossy arms attached to a thin, branch-like body.

When the… thing, notices I’m no longer tickling it with my antennae, it suddenly stops moving. Two deep green eyes stare up at me from what I can now tell is a gnarled bark face.

Tippety-tappety. Tippety-tappety. Tippety-tappety.

When I resume my antenna tapping, the creature immediately begins giggling and rolling around on the ground like a small child.

What. The. Heck. Is. This. Thing?

Next to me, Tiny has waddled over and is staring at the creature with his beady bat eyes. I can tell exactly what he’s thinking.

Can we eat this?

You know what, Tiny, I’m not sure…