Questions Birthed Once More

And when the magic had finally subsided, the elven siblings huddled together as our protagonist stood there, next to the beast as he was still shocked and trying to make sense of what was in front of him.

Yes, it was a Wendigo, and yet it didn't fulfill all of the necessary bits of information that it should have. The blood of the beast was a dark hue of blue, which didn't help him to explain why did something like this even exist.

'Alright, blue blood. Why the fuck is it's system even working with blue blood? Certain enzymes? But that would mean that there should be a baseline for them, Wendigos only exist whenever a human partakes of human flesh. Some sort of ferality being triggered within them whenever they eat it.

Wait, there are studies on this. Fuck, it's still dark, and this thing isn't going anywhere, I'll examine it later, the chances of more of it coming is more than possible.'

The beast's corpse was still dripping from its impalement as our protagonist scaled the tree again with the injuries that he gave himself earlier. At the same branch as the siblings, he then sat down again and noticed that they were getting skinnier.

'Alright, magical runes, them looking skinnier when the skeleton tree lit up, and even more questions getting made than ones getting answered, oh frabjous day, truly, this is a nice little walnut to try and crack into.' he cracked his neck to alleviate some of the pressure, boh physical and psychological.

'Tomorrow it is, whatever the fuck I could do with a Wendigo corpse, that's best left to a mind that could think more calmly, not one like mine right now.'

And when that thought came and went, our protagonist felt his eyes growing heavy, his body feeling of stone, and his throat giving out a grand yawn, he closed one eye and kept the other open, just like how the younger ones did as well.

Tomorrow would be a different battle for them, but for now, the Sandman's Domain awaited them all.

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/?????/

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I stood there on the parapet as I watched the beast plow through our troops. The heroes, they were doing their best, that much I knew. Alas, the enemy we fought against was as smart as all of us, and more feral than even the Demon King himself.

I could feel the grand behemoths that were sculpted by his hand, they were training their weapons to us, and with another roar of dark dust coming from them another eight hundred of ours died, and sixteen hundred more were injured.

Why did we choose to fight them again? We were peaceful, idle, and happy! I could feel the consumption cloying and swishling within my body. It was getting all too hard to bear.

Our enemy even had a saying about a branch of a tree, and yet my liege and father had spat on their lands and had them razed, all because he talked about love.

I wouldn't even know where to begin when it comes to that. How had all of my father's insight and wisdom just suddenly disappeared when he had met the enemy? And why did he even attempt to make an enemy whose strength we weren't even sure of?

I know not the reasons why he chose to make an enemy of a monster that day, but what I do know, is that the cost of trying to keep it at bay was much much more than whatever we could've possibly gained out of them.

Forgive me, my dear siblings, your sister has failed to protect our lands from a monster of our own making. And pray for me and our father, for our souls are already consigned to be sent to the D7!&39!:?@$534.

>A final message from the Princess of the 2(';&(39#';@+2 Hegemony to her siblings who had been exiled long before, circa ??????

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/MC POV/

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The sleep, well, that wasn't exactly the greatest thing that I've felt. It's a tree, not a four poster bed of goose down, so it is expected that it's going to be rather uncomfy to some.

But for the two little shits in front of me to be sleeping like a baby, heh, that's a real spit in the face alright.

Hell, they're probably designed to enjoy the fucking feeling of whatever sort of wood this tree was.

"Ah fuck me back."

Yes, age still being a bitch, and my back still aching from last night. My brain was more or less feeling like a fucking taiko drum right about now, but I had to suck the pain up and climb down to examine the corpse, and by fucking Jove I really really wish I didn't.

The body, as simple to say it, was a fucking husk. It's blue blood was flowing within the very roots that impaled it. The eyes were thankfully still relatively moist enough to be there, but I wouldn't try to pluck them out.

That's not going to be the best idea to perform. And so, I tried my best to pry off the bastard from the roots, but the tree gently shook it's leaves and slapped my ass straight to the ground, and threw my fucking back out again.

"Oh you little, ah fucking shit! My fucking back!" I didn't notice that the little bastards were awake already, and that it was the shyer one that came down to look at what I was doing this time.

". . . . . get!" I tried to shoo off the shy one, but the ballsier elf just flinged a rock so damn close to my head that the damn thing scratched my cheek.

Thankfully, it's just the single scratch to me, unfortunately, I pissed the ballsy one again. It was literally baring it's teeth at me as I clicked and got back to studying the thing.

I had no parchment, that's the issue, and so I banked on the fact that the damn forest never got any water to the point where I stuck my index into the ground and wrote in English to list things down about it.

Wendigo #1

- quadruped

- sharp claws, but teeth unfound, retractable perhaps?

- multiple eye and uneven growths on body

- nocturnal?

- very fucking dangerous, obviously enough

Yep, that's the essentials. But since the tree allowed me to touch it, I was able to gleam some extra tidbits of information off of what the cadaver held.

It's skin, obviously enough was very dark, but it felt smooth. Odd thing for a hunter to have smooth skin, as if it was suppose to let things slide off of it. Hmm, considering that it could have other contesting hunters around, it might've been trying to adapt a form that made it easier for them to not get significantly harmed by other things, and perhaps even allow it to get a hit in before they ran?

No, that's most likely not it. If there were any other contesting species in the forest, then I really wouldn't be alive right now, and neither should it. Since the chances of their hunt was reliant on possibility and timing, then the chances of a similar hunter type animal would also be a thing.

And yet it's not, most likely due to some of the more outlandish, as if cannibalism turning you into a Boogeyman wasn't crazy enough, tales of the damnable thing.

But I digress. It might not actually even be a Wendigo, it might just be some sort of stupid "Demon Beast" or some sort of "Monster", as if it wasn't obvious.

Nonetheless, chances are a thing that I don't really like taking. The bones of the thing were hard, very very very hard. And I am getting shocked that the rate of the tree getting as much of the nutrients out of this body was so fucking high.

It was slowly shrivelling up before me, and the bones were feeling lighter and lighter, until the tree broke it down again and left the skull intact.

Why, why is it leaving the skull? It's a fucking skull! This thing has lipids inside of the bones dammit! Yu haven't sucked everything out yet! You have the capacities obviously enough, and yet you're still not going that far to suck everything!

Fuck it, I'll take it. It's still rather heavy since it's a Wendigo skull, and it's got nothing inside of it.

Great, that's fair enough, albeit it would be interesting to try and note down the structure of it's brain, but I guess I'll just have to make due with an empty fucking skull then.

Groaning to pick up the thing, it was bigger than me, and I swear to god, the closer this thing was to my ear, the more it seemed to make sounds.

So I placed it back down, took out my hammer from my haversack, and swung overhead right at that bitch. I was not an intelligent man, but that, I've read enough stories to know that cursed things should never be placed on.

What I forgot however was that you weren't exactly supposed to break cursed objects in fear of the curse getting onto something.

Yeah, so I may have done a very very large oopsie, and there was a cloud of red right in front of me as it entered through my fucking nose. My eyes burned as the taiko drums of pain within my skull reverberated even harder than before.

GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

THE PAIN, FUUUUUCK. SJVIEOSOVISBANWLEOGIVVJSKZOVJEKAOVJSKSJWNMAKINRIGNNITFUCKIGMENEKFICNSWATOOOPPPPPPPPPPP

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/3rd POV/

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The two elves looked down below as they watched the changing of the being that fed them slowly turn into their new tormenter.

First, their skin flaked and peeled like shale rock when damaged. Their skin tone darkening to a deep void as their voice slowly but surely corrupted.

Their eyes were switching between being bloodshot and fully black, with indications of their nails growing and sharpening. They fell to all fours as their graying hair on their head slowly but surely fell off, follicle by follicle.

And what was left of the being was a bag, some tools, and blood from the being itself.

The elves knew that they had another issue to try and fix, but when the transformation was about to complete again and make their newest warden, something changed. Something was different this time.

Their warden stopped changing, their hands staying and yet still sharpened from the transformation. Their eyes a red sclera with a single black dot in the middle, and their peeled head, having a strange symbol to it that made them feel shivers down their spine.

The new beast's back cracked as it groaned to stay upright and bipedal, and it's attempts were not for naught. It looked to the two as it grabbed the haversack and bit into a strange metal can, but soon spat out the contents and growled.

It shook it's head as it bared it's mixture of deer and canine teeth to the pair as it looked at its predecessor. It bit into what flakey flesh it had left and seemed to indicate feeling of euphoria from the taste of the dried and nigh leathery meat.

It continued to do so until a strange symbol on it's back became slowly more and more evident to the naked eye.

The two didn't know what it depicted, but when they saw into the eyes of the monster, it was no longer a deep red with a black dot, rather, it was now a yellow sclera with a proper pupil smack dab in the middle of it.

The beast stood next to the tree, as it placed it's hand on it, and began to climb. It did not hunger, and it knew that there was a time for it's hunger, but right now, it would do as it was bidden by it's instinct.

For that was what truly made it tick, the instinct that it would have whenever it had the chance to try and assess a situation. As it finally came near the two, a deep purr slowly came from its mouth as it slowly reverted back to the old creature that they once saw, only this time, it looked stronger, no, it was stronger.