Exploring the land eventually led me to find an interesting place. It was a forest. Small and clearly shaped with hands to those who were supposed to plant it. I'm using 'supposed to' here because it all was done by the device, nevertheless, it looked man-made.
It was placed closer to the direction of the crocodile-dragon-creature territory.
From afar it was gorgeous. Nice trees with a vibrant mix of blue and green leaves peeking out from the thick fog, forming circles. Here and there you could see the dull orange, of bonfires burning bright, but the light got then dulled by the thick fog.
As I got closer I started hearing the humming of many voices. Quite low, but sometimes the voices went slightly up. After that, I realized that the fog wasn't actually a fog. It was smoke. White, beautiful smoke, which smelled very nice. Contrary to what you might think, it didn't hurt my throat or made me cough like mad. It was mixing with oxygen very well, so I could breathe with no particular problems.
It had a very fruity smell. Like a mix of citruses. It was combined with spices, which mixed together nicely. I swear I could sell a note of cinnamon there.
The music and the smoke made me quite relaxed. Soon I realized that the combination was very much affecting my mind, but because I was so strong both mentally, and physically, the effects were minimal, but they were definitely there. For somebody weaker, it could prove to be something hard to deal with.
I landed and went on foot closing the distance and approaching the first bonfire. I could see shadows moving there. Some creatures got alarmed by my presence, and they began moving.
Suddenly I felt pressure on my body. My muscles were tightening up like I had to fight some invisible pressure. I pushed back, and the effect disappeared, but it made space for a different one. It was weird, I began feeling like some of my energy was leaving my body. Like I was being robbed of my strength.
It was a very faint feeling, but it definitely was there.
- That's enough - I growled at them, then extended a hand to use some air magic.
A gust of wind pushed back the smoke, and trashed the bonfire, revealing the creatures hiding in the smoke.
They all had long, thick limbs, and rather small torsos. Horse-like faces with strong jaws. The lower lip was pushed away usually by two large teeth protruding from the mouth, but sometimes there were more of them.
Their most eye-catching characteristic, though, was the hair on their heads. It looked like prolonged mohawks, which went all the way to their backs. It didn't grow at all on the sides of their heads. The most important thing about that hair was the color. Either red, green, or blue. Always very strong, vibrant almost.
They also had some tattoos, usually of animals. Almost always located on their torsos, but I also bought a few on the shoulders.
They were mostly naked, not covering the pale blue skin, except the loins. A flap of leather was enough for them. It was quite weird, but I noticed a lot of jewelry. Bracelets around wrists and ankles. Bone plates covering their hands. Tooths and fangs in the ears.
To put it in a few words, they looked very tribal.
All those strange feelings were caused by some kind of their magic, which just couldn't get a proper hold of me, but it was definitely dangerous. Not to mention, very annoying. I literally tore them to shreds, that's how angry they've made me with the continuous casting of the weakening spells.
This incident made me very wary of their shenanigans, and as I traveled further through the settlement, because that's what it was.
They had tents very similar to tipi's, made out of large pieces of leather,s reached on two branches, tied up at the top, forming this triangular shape. I saw some simple tools, pieces of bone, and animal hides. They all seemed to be focusing on making the very same jewelry they were wearing.
As I progressed further, often circled around a wall of trees, planted in a way to form some circular maze, I cut down every single one I was able to see. Later I learned that from above it looked more like some kind of mysterious glyph.
Eventually, I arrived in the center, where I found rectangular stone pillars placed on the ground. Some had reliefs depicturing the hunting of animals done by the tribe of those strange creatures. Others had some mysterious beings. Some were even carved in totems of different animals.
Among them, working on an altar made of a roughly carved boulder, was a large representative of those creatures. He had some fancy hat on his head, made out of feathers and bones, tied up together with straps of leather.
His whole body was covered in red, bloody, tattoos. Strange symbols I couldn't understand.
I cleared my throat to herald my entrance, which caused an immediate reaction. He jumped, twisting his body, as he turned to face me, and extended a hand. Suddenly, from the ground emerged a whole pack of wolves. Blue and shimmering, like they weren't real.
They charged at me.
I blocked the attack with a quick barrier. Normally I would finish the fight fast, but I wanted to see what the boss could do.
He was jumping from one leg to the other, humming something, which only made more wolves appear. Unfortunately for them, my barrier was too strong to be easily breached, so they just jumped at it like complete morons, unable to understand that this approach wasn't working at all.
In the meantime, the boss surrounded himself with a shimmering blue hide of a bear, which enveloped most of his body.
That wasn't the only difference. I saw little stones, piling up by themselves, forming small towards, that started to spit blue energy at me. All those attacks couldn't break my defenses but were quite interesting. Definitely out of ordinary. Ordinary being everything I've encountered so far living under the dome of Petrograd.
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