One m at breakfast, Amilya warned Niphru, “I’ve heard from Morris, the Church of flict has heard that we have an Awakened fox here and are sending a rge group of warriors here. It is best if you hide, though I will still do what I to protect you. Unfortunately, they don’t care about ws and will likely try to hunt you down and kill you. Being in the vilge will make that much easier for them.”

  “What? Why would they want to kill me? I haven’t done anything wrong, have I?” Niphru questioned.

  Amilya replied, “No, they just believe humans are superior and any threat should be killed. They regurly cause problems in the capital by hunting the Awakehere. Mages tend to keep them safe iowers, but it means they ’t roam the city. I was hoping you wouldn’t have to know about them for much longer.”

  “But if they go around killing people, how they still exist?” asked Niphru.

  “Well, the people in charge still haven’t fixed the ws to at for Awakened, despite them being around for so long. And the warriors of the Church of flict aren’t all bad, they regurly go into the wilderness and kill the biggest mohey find nearby. This means that they help out the vilges a great deal with stopping true monsters from reag them,” Amilya responded, before sighing and tinuing, “I do wish the ws would be updated, Awakened are clearly people too, but the w only protects humans.

  Niphru whined before asking, “Why wouldn’t they want the ws to protect everyohough?”

  Shaking her head, Amilya replied, “A lot of those in charge agree with the Church of flict that humans are the only beings that matter. Others don’t want to risk their position. Anyway, at the rate they tend to travel, you have about three days to find somewhere to hide from them. I ’t give you any advice because they will question me, and I have to help them or I might lose my position and be uo help iure.”

  “I’ll go try to find somewhere then. Thank you for the warning. Will Dawn be okay?” Niphru responded.

  “You are wele, and Dawn will be fihough I’m sure she will miss you. When the church leaves, we will e find you again like we did before. Actually that reminds me, I still have some of your fur which be used to traagically. Let me go grab it so you destroy it,” Amilya stated, before leaving the room.

  A moment ter, Amilya returned with a small box, opening it up to reveal a tuft of hair. She took it out and put it into the firepce before waving Niphru over. She then spoke, “Could you please burn that hair? This way you know it is gone and ot be used to follow you.”

  Niphru he his foxfire into the firepd burhe hair down to ashes before bringing his fme baself. He then replied, “Thank you for this as well. Hopefully we meet again soon. I already miss Dawn and the food.”

  He thought for a few moments as he left. He could ask Diara for help, she was often in the forest as well. But the more he thought about it, the less it seemed like a good idea. If the Church’s people were going to be asking about him, she might be forced to talk as well. Perhaps it would be best if he were to find somewhere on his own.

  As he wandered into the forest, he realized something he should have noticed before, hat his danger sense didn’t seem to activate at the same distao the forest as before, and that area had increased with his seutation. If he kept going into the forest, he should be able to get further away while still being safe. And since his intelligence had recovered, and even increased, he should be able to risk another mutation to expand that safe area even further.

  With a basi in mind, he raced towards the barren trail through the forest, as that would allow him to move more swiftly, and he cloaked himself in an illusion to remain hidden. As he ran dowh, he sidered more deeply. He could make a den, stay there a little while, then go even deeper with another den. Perhaps even a third. That should put him well beyond where the humans traveled into the forest.

  After a while, his sense of daarted to warn him he was getting close to the edge of where he could travel safely. At this point he decided to make his first den, rapidly digging into the ground near a tree trunk irail, still surprised at the plete ck of life.

  Following the creation of a small den, he explored the area around the empty trail, finding a few trees that had dropped nuts, as well as a few berry bushes he could sna. Grabbing a bit of a snack, he then headed back to the small burrow he had made. Holding an illusion of nothing out of the ordinary above the burrow, he curled up and fell asleep.

  After waking up, he went hunting, tapping a squirrel with mana to startle it into jumping off the tree it erched on. Following this meal, he could feel the may was starting to bee dangerous, but as that was iional, he ighe sense of danger. Instead of leaving, he explored even further into the forest, following the same dead trail.

  As he became tired again ter in the day, he began digging a sed burrow, though it was a bit too dangerous this deep in the forest to stay. Once he had it dug out, he returo the first den, curling up and sleeping again after setting up his illusion.

  He woke up part-way into the night to an intense burniion, he focused his will on st the mana safely, a all of his mana flow into his body. A sudden feeling of arm struck him as he somehow khis was a very bad thing to alloen. Pushing with all his will, he shoved the densing mana into his mouth, struggling to hold it there for the time it tio press. A moment ter, he spat out an amber-colored stohat he could feel was lio himself.

  Nudging the stone, he could se was strongly ected to him on multiple levels, and somehow k was vital to keep it protected. He tried extending a tendril of mana and instead it emerged from the stone. Likewise, his illusion seemed anchored to the stone, and wheuro foxfire, it was lio the stoher than himself.

  However, he did notice that the pressure from the ambient mana was immensely decreased, funneling into the stone instead of his body. sidering this, he carefully picked up the stone in his mouth and headed deeper into the forest, sleep fotten in his excitement and curiosity.

  Even as he reached the newer den, he didn’t notiy signifit danger from the mana, though he did have to expel some iionally as he could feel a sense of fullness from the stone. Reag out a long tendril of mana and then snapping it off at the root seemed to do the trick for an hour or so. As such, he repeated this several times, marveling at how it no longer hurt to do so. Upon pleting this task, he curled up to sleep again, pg an illusion above his burrow again to make it look like just more barren ground.