Shifter - Infinite Transformation-Chapter 41: Friend? Foe?

After a day full of fighting, I gained a few more Accessible Shifts. Among them was a Deathstalk Squirrel terrorizing the neighborhood, a Gloating Wasp with a little bit too much energy, but also a berserk Esar Boar, as well as a Lesser Wisp.

The latter was the least violent. It was a small blue mass of light that phased through trees and bushes without inflicting any harm. Yet, as soon as it took note of me, everything changed. It floated toward me, its movements slow and steady. I tried to move aside and even went as far as to fly away, but it followed me everywhere. So I cut it down – or tried to.

Both blade and spear phased through the Lesser Wisp. That was when it reached me and clung to my arm. It didn’t phase through me but held on to my arm instead. The cold hit me first. Next came a sensation of weakness.

Scared and helpless, I shifted into my other forms. I turned into a Blue Slime, which only seemed to worsen my situation. My liquid mass was being devoured at an incredible pace. Precisely, all the mass the Lesser Wisp touched lost its luster and turned into a puddle.

To kill the Lesser Wisp, I had to transform into the Airborne Archaeopteryx and use Sonic Boom on it. The Lesser Wisp tore into a thousand fragments when struck by Sonic Boom, killing it instantly. That... I would have loved to say that it was raw and unfiltered skill. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

I was lucky. It was nothing more than that. Just luck.

Be that as it may, I survived and traveled back to the grove where a surprise was waiting for me.

It was already late when I made it back, but Fern was not at the hut. I found her at the grove’s heart instead... covered in blood.

"Shit!" I shouted and ran up to her without a second thought. "What happened to you?"

Fern turned to me smiling, her ears red as a tomato as I spent minutes inspecting her from head to toe. Her blush spread to her cheeks when the others turned to her. That was when I first noticed that we were, in fact, not alone.

Looking up, fae warriors met my eyes. One scrunched his nose and turned away with a grunt, but the others stared at me, sizing me up.

"You care for her." A young-looking man with long, disheveled hair said in a tone I couldn’t quite grasp. He had broad shoulders, but his physique was more athletic than bulky. Just like mine. He was not all that old either, yet his presence was that of an apex predator. His arms were covered in dark fur, which only highlighted the crimson ring in his dark eyes.

"What?" I asked as the young fae grinned at me.

"You care about me." Fern said instead, brows furrowed and sounding like she was asking a question.

"Of course, I do." What kind of question was that? Who would accept someone they don’t care about as a mate? That’d be beyond stupid!

"Even though you’re weaker than I am, you worry about me." Fern muttered, her smile growing even wider. Then, her features grew more serious. "You should not waste your time worrying about me. Worry about yourself first!"

Her hand blurred and appeared before my face. A moment later, she flicked my forehead.

"Ouch." I grimaced.

Was that really necessary? In the first place, why couldn’t I worry about her just because she was stronger? Was that also a fae thing?

"Is it a bad thing to care? I don’t mean to belittle you or anything." I said, rubbing my forehead.

"It could be," the... wolf-man fae – if that was what he was – stepped forward, shaking his fur to get rid of the blood smears. "If you worry about her well-being thinking that she is weak. That she is no real warrior. To think like that when you are but a fledgling is disrespectful, even more so being her mate."

He let out a low growl, looking as if he dared me to make another mistake.

"That was not my intention." I responded, meeting the apex predator’s eyes. "I don’t know what happened to your group. All I saw was blood, and I worried Fern got injured... by a Tier-3 monstrosity or something worse."

The last part I added with the knowledge that Fern was at the 2nd Tier. Personally, I didn’t consider it important given that Tier-2 monsters were strong enough to kill the unprepared. But maybe that was the issue. Maybe thinking that Fern would lower her guard in the Eserian was the problem. She was an experienced hunter and knew better than to make such a foolish mistake.

She wouldn’t do such a thing, and it was my job as her mate to believe in her. To trust that she knew what she was doing. Because she knew what she was doing – more than I, for sure.

I really am a little bit of a fool.

"Mind your actions, human." The wolf-man growled, but there was no edge to it. It felt more like he was lecturing me, not with bad intentions but the desire to help instead.

"I will." I acknowledged my mistake, my eyes shifting to Fern. She waved dismissively, but I took the warning to heart.

Got it. I need to learn a lot more about the fae and their culture.

My words seemed to resonate with the fae warriors. A few even went as far as to offer encouraging smiles.

"Maybe you are not a lost cause then." The wolf-man nodded slowly, the corner of his lip curling upward.

That didn’t turn out nearly as bad as I feared. Even better, Fern was unscathed, and the fae’s opinion of me improved... I guess? The last part was still a little unclear, and so were the wolf fae’s intentions. He smiled kindly at me, but the feeling of being in a predator’s grasp was ever-present.

The way he eyed my steel swords was odd as well.

Was he a friend or something I’d have to fight with in the future? I certainly hoped for it to be the former. A friend would be great.