Chapter 3

  The sky is gray, and snow falling, covering the nds in white sheets. The snow has been falling for several days now, getting thicker and thicker.

  Near the base of a mountain, we see a yer of snow, looking unsuspecting. But after a while, a certain point starts to sink in, creating a dent on the perfect surface.

  The snow started to move and finally, it colpsed with a sudden boom, creating a huge snow cloud. Out of the cloud, we see a familiar sight walk out, a being looking almost human, a boy looking barely 5 or 6. This time tho, it had some changes. Its hair was still white, its eyes still reptilian and its teeth still sharp. But unlike before where its skin was fwless, this time it was covered in scars, the wounds it received from the wolf it had fought.

  It was confused, the st it remembered was killing the unknown beast, stuffing its wounds, and eating the beast. After that, it had moved to a cave and colpsed. Now, everything was covered in snow. Well, it's not like it hadn't experienced weather changes before, so it brushed it off and started thinking back about the fight. While it couldn't deny that it almost died, and the fear of death still looming in its mind. The thrill of the fight was even more present, the feeling of the hunt, of victory. This feeling... it... no, he... he wanted to feel it again.

  While he had thoughts before he showed clear signs of living. His mind was empty, so to speak. He had no drive, only the want for food and water, acting like a simple creature. But now, his mind was filled with desire, the desire to fight, to hunt, to stalk... to win. Eating the fish in ponds didn't seem enjoyable anymore, compared to the feeling of having fought something to eat it. This desire was the start of his very being.

  And so, he started wandering again, only this time he was not searching for simple food, he was searching for prey.

  Time passed with him not finding anything to hunt, he saw several wolf packs but he knew that was certain death if he fought them, so he left them alone. This resulted in him wandering again, and again he went towards the west unknowingly.

  Yet, after a few days of walking, he realized something. Not only was he being watched, he was being followed.

  Standing still, he looked around but he saw only white. So, he closed his eyes and focused on his nose, yet he didn't notice anything. Thinking about what to do he tried something. He started running, running like a madman. The trees were whistling past him as his speed started picking up. And as a new mountain started getting closer to him, he stopped at the bottom. And again he focused on his nose. He waited, and he waited. Until he noticed a new smell entering his senses. Now that he noticed it, this particur smell was present before, it had been since about the time he woke up.

  Focusing on the smell he started to pinpoint the location on where it was coming from. Looking in the direction, he started running again, this time straight towards the smell.

  Arriving near the origin of the smell, he appeared to be in a sort of opening between all the trees. Looking around he saw nothing, nothing but snow and trees. He tried finding anything, but all he saw was nothing. This now left him with 2 senses to find the beast, hearing and smelling. Tuning everything else out, he focused on these two senses at first there was nothing but after a bit of time, his smell started picking out the area where the smell was more present and his ears started picking up a certain rhythm, thumping, like the thing inside his body. And when he found the direct location his eyes shot up and looked at it. He saw snow, only that. But after focusing his eyes a bit more, he started seeing something. He saw the snow looking a bit abstract, it was hard to describe. Going towards it, he saw the snow start to rise upwards and disappear. And what he looked at was again a creature he had never seen before.

  It had a simir structure to the beast he had sin before, yet it was smaller. It was around his size. Its fur was pure white, the same as the snow and its eyes were a deep blue.

  Unlike the beast before, this ones tail was more fluffy and it's ears bigger. Also, if one looked closer, they would notice that it had infact 2 tails.

  Now that the beast was standing there, face to face with the "human" it started showing hostile activitys, fletching it's teeth and growling.

  The "human", again witnessing a new creature, started doing the same thing he did while fighting the wolf. Observe, then mimic the opponent. The reason for mimicry was simple, he was aware of the ck of knowledge on how to behave in a fight, so he figured he could do nothing wrong if he did the same thing as the enemy. And since mimicking the wolf, by going for the throat proved successful, why not do it again?

  Crouching down, the "human" prepared to dodge, fshing back to the pounce attack of the wolf. The beast did the same, which resulted in a stare-off between the two. This went on for a minute or two, so the "human" decided to go on the offensive. He jumped forward, trying to grapple the beast, but it promptly jumped up, nding just behind him. It didn't waste a second to go for an attack, but the boy rolled to the side, which resulted in the beast tching its jaw onto his left forearm. At first, panic filled the boy's mind, remembering the sheer power and force the bite of the wolf caused, but feeling the bite wasn't even a comparison. While still incredibly painful, he managed to clench his teeth and only grunt a little. If the wolf had bit the arm, the bone would have broken without issue and the arm would probably have been ripped off. But this beast only managed to sink its teeth in, not even reaching the bone.

  The beast stayed on the arm, which was its biggest mistake, as the boy used this chance to easily sink his teeth into the beast's neck. And before it could realize the blunder it was in, its life vanished as half of its throat was ripped off. Blood spttered everywhere, painting the white surroundings red.

  Waisting no time, the boy started eating, finishing, looked at his arm, touching the wound. Flinching, he yelped up, regretting his decision. The blood continued to drop and he couldn't just leave, as the trail he would leave would attract wolves and maybe other beasts.

  Looking at the outer yer of skin and fur he thought of something, grabbing the rgest piece of pelt and slowly putting it on his wound. Seeing it slide off, he did again but used the ends to intertwine them around his arm. If any normal human would look at the way he intertwined them they would say that this was probably the worst knot they had ever seen, but it held on and it stopped the bleeding, at least somewhat, that's all that mattered to the boy.

  Walking away from the bloody field, he started to wander around again. Having his stomach filled, he started looking for a pond or a river, it didn't take long before he found one. Drinking, he started to realize something, the pce he covered with fur, felt... different, and not in a bad way. It was something he had never felt before, something completely opposed to the feeling he was experiencing constantly it was simir, if not exactly like the feeling of fresh blood from a beast.

  What the boy was experiencing was warmth, but he didn't know that, yet.

  Wandering again for a few days, the boy noticed the smell of the beast he had fought a few days back, it was again following him. Deciding that he could go for something to eat again, he started searching, and this time he found the beast rather quickly. Also learning from the st fight, he instantly attacked, resulting in a surprise for the beast. This surprise had the result of the boy killing the beast quickly, without getting wounded this time.

  Unlike st time tho, he tried to not rip the pelt to much, and after only it and the bones remained, he tried something. Tieing the pelt around his chest, he waited. And to his surprise, the feeling around his arm, where the first pelt is, started appearing around his torso. And with that, a goal was born, hunt for pelt and fur, to cover his body.

  ...

  And with that, time began to pass and he began to wander again. Killing everything he came across and stripping it of its fur to cover his body. A few months seemed to pass that way, and now, the boy's body was nearly completely white. Everything except his head was covered, having gained most of the pelts from the white beasts that stalked him. Tho, there were some brown or grey spots, where the fur of a rabbit or something simir was used. And of course, many red stains.

  But right now, the boy was feeling good. He didn't understand why, but he didn't need to, all he needed to know was that it helped him.

  ...

  Currently, the boy was watching something interesting, he was sitting on a rock rather high up a mountain. He was watching below, as he saw a pack of wolves dismember a huge beast the boy had never seen before. It looked to be about 3 to 4 times taller than the average wolf. Which frightened him, to be honest. The feeling of fear wasn't new to the "human", but there was never a beast where he would say he was afraid of it, until now. The beast was walking on all fours, and its paws were huge, with long cws that would tear most things to shreds. Unlike the beasts he had encountered yet, this beast's ears appear to be rounded instead of pointy. And this one was built for strength and durability and not stamina and speed.

  The beast the boy feared was a bear.

  But it appears to be that the wolves were winning. More and more wounds appeared on the huge beast, until it colpsed, throwing up a snow cloud.

  The boy was watching with interest as he watched something interesting, as the wolves finished eating, they started wandering on, all but one. The one left behind appeared to be wounded in its hind right leg, just like the one the boy had fought back then.

  The boy wanted to get up and march down to fight the beast, but he hesitated. He wanted to try something, he wanted to copy the stalker beasts.

  So, he got low, he kept a constant eye on the beast to see what it would do, and when it started moving, he followed.

  At first, he simply followed, until the beast turned around and looked in his general direction. This told him that it was aware of his presence and he needed to do something. So he started crouching, he also tried to hide his general presence as much as he could, limiting his sound and more.

  After one day of following, the hunger started gnawing at him. At one point, he just wanted to get up and directly approach the beast, but then he remembered the st time he had fought such a monster. And while he had improved, he had too little knowledge about this kind of beast to be sure of victory, so he continued.

  The boy didn't notice it, but over time, his presence vanished nearly completely. To the point where birds and other beasts almost didn't notice him until he moved.

  Days passed and the wolf kept on walking, until, one fateful night, it y down. Having grown tired from the continuous marching.

  The boy saw this and was thrilled. He got closer and closer until he was towering over the sleeping wolf. And with a quick movement, he ripped its throat open.

  He was happy that he tried this method, he liked it and would continue to use it, but first, he ate.

  -

  Bestiary index: Twin Stalker

  The twin stalker is a common beast of snowy nds. It is a descendant of the common foxes, who evolved to hunt in the frozen nds. It uses its white fur along with the little bit of mana it has in its body to camoufge itself.

  It gets its name from the fact that it stalks its prey over days and that it has two tails.

  The twin stalker is a pest to humanoids, as like its evolutionary father, the fox, it tends to hunt livestock if it doesn't find proper prey to stalk. Which can be a death sentence for settlements in the freezing nds.

  The Twin Stalkers are rather smart, with cases being reported that it sometimes even ys traps for its prey.

  The Twin Stalkers possess no lust for humanoid races.