Chapter 117 - Treacherous forest! (1/2)
After admiring the sight for a couple of munites, Ark had already managed to calm down again. As more and more minutes passed, he got calmer and calmer, sleepier and sleepier. It didn't take long for Ark to notice that something was amiss with his situation since he was beginning to have a hard time even standing straight when he was exposed to those flowers. He quickly left the small clearing, he didn't want to risk staying around any longer, what if another magical beast took advantage of him when he was weak? Then he would only have himself to blame.
After leaving the flowers behind him, Ark quickly returned to his recluse cave again. Once there, he abruptly dozed off into blissful sleep, the effect of the flowers hadn't worn out yet. Waking up the next day, Ark was feeling a little sluggish. His body felt the same as usual, full of vigour and energy, but his mind felt inexplicably heavy at the moment, something which he couldn't explain. Or at least until he remembered what happened the night before.
Ark conjured up about a bucket's worth of water and poured it directly on his own head. Though it seemed ridiculous and pretty stupid, it worked wonders and Ark almost instantly felt more awake. After drying himself off with the help of wind, Ark decided to inspect the flowers once more, he wanted to know how these flowers worked, and if they were something he would be able to make use of in the future.
A shocking revelation revealed itself when he arrived at the clearing this time though. Unlike the day before, none of the flowers were anywhere to be seen. In their place, exact copies, yet ordinary green plants, replaced them. Instead of the ghostly and magical glowing blue flower, generic green plants replaced them, though otherwise the exact same in appearance. Ark didn't notice any effect on his mental state either when he was here today, which was quite odd, he couldn't have hallucinated the day before, right?
Since Ark was sure that he hadn't been hallucinating the day before, he drew the conclusion that the flowers were normal during the day, but special during the night. That was the only hypothesis he could come up with right now, since the only difference between now and the night before was the time of the day. After pondering a little more, Ark decided to not dwell on it, and just go with the flow. He felt like eating something right now and decided to go for a morning hunt.
As he wandered around the large and tropical forest, there were many new sights. Numerous weird plants and berries filled the entirety of his vision, with some weird types of trees and bushes with purple thorns on them. Ark was mesmerised by all of the different sights, and he almost forgot that he was supposed to go on a hunt. As he kept walking, the sights around him started to turn from mesmerising to borderline disturbing.
On some trees next to him, Ark managed to spot deep claw marks, he wasn't really sure what kind of animal it belonged to first before he realised something crucial, these reminded him of his own claw marks! As he quickly used his paw to swipe the ground in front of him, numerous lines extended deep into the soft ground. Ark didn't find many discrepancies between his own claw marks and the one on the trees, which concerned him a little.
Normally he would feel like this, but after his time in the cell, his animal instincts seemed to have grown stronger. His sense of belonging to other wolves had also strengthened on that notion since the pack mentality of a wolf was fairly strong. Of course, Ark was more of a lone wolf, but if he could help someone of his species out, then he probably would, if it wasn't too much trouble. As he continued walking, he could clearly see copious amounts of blood scattered all over the place, dying the otherwise beautiful scenery an eerie shade of red.
An inexplicable feeling rose within him when he saw this blood scattered about, and he could feel a sense of familiarity stemming from his very soul toward the owner of the blood, whoever or whatever it may be. Though he didn't really know why exactly, a feeling of pensive sadness rose within him. As he continued walking further ahead, Ark started to hear some faint whimpers coming from up ahead. He was almost entirely sure that this was a wolf now, and he kept walking.
Next to a battered up tree, a fairly large wolf laid on the ground. Covered in soft white fur, with different coloured strands mixed in here and there, the wolf was very beautiful. When Ark saw the familiar fur, he was a little shocked, he didn't expect to run into any one of the same species when he entered this forest! His heart ached at the sight of the wolf covered in blood lying on the ground, but when he was going to heal it, he was in for another surprise!
”Grrrrrrrr!”