As you walk the plains and try to think of a worthy animal to hunt as prey, your mind wanders.
You must destroy to live. You have long accepted this, and hunted the small creatures around you. And yet, you are growing stronger and mightier, your body demands ever more sustenance - enough that sating yourself on the seemingly endless Longears and Treetails and other small creatures will eventually no longer be enough. At some point you would have to spend all your time hunting and you would consume them all, to the last one. So it's only natural that you practice hunting larger prey.
Your thoughts turn to what the prey might be thinking. Of course they probably don't wish to die... But they have no choice in the matter. You are bigger and toothier, so you'll eat them if you catch them. Maybe a particularly fast or clever Longears will evade you for a few seconds longer, but it would never be enough to escape you entirely. The Longears are born along with many brothers and sisters. They are hidden away in a pocket in Earth, and their parent brings them food for the first short while. You were prepared in an egg - Longears, like many Goodbeasts, are prepared only some time after they come into the world.
Then the Longears leave to create their own burrows. And then you eat some of the young ones, still even slower and stupider than the adults. Some grow further and have children of their own - and you eat some of those too. As does Slideclaw, Furyclaw, and (from what you have heard) many other beast-eating-beasts. The world, to a Longears, must be incredibly fearful and dangerous. Anywhere they might go, they could suddenly be snatched up in jaws and gone forever! Only their sheer numbers and the hope to pass part of themselves on before that happens could drive them forward. It's a strange and terrifying thought to you, but that's just the way things are. That is how the Onesong is arranged.
You idly wonder if the magic of Enkindling, the delicate and dangerous business of changing other life, could make a Longears as mighty as a Tusksnort or as clever and less insane than the Blackburns... They are a prey-animal who rest safe in Earthen burrows and create and love large families. Would empowering them change that basic nature? You have no idea how Enkindling or many of the other magics adult Draak-Kin are capable of work, so you cannot even begin to guess.
You keep walking on the plain, the breeze rustling across dry grasses and through your crest-feathers pleasantly.
Your mind always seems to wander to the far future or to topics like the nature of plants and animals. It sometimes seems like a great effort to keep it focused on the present. What should you hunt? Something to challenge you, something to lift your spirit with a delicious new taste... You remember Oak's tale, which came with vivid sights and smells and tastes. You really, really want to eat the meat of a Woodstrider, the graceful forest-grazers. But you've only seen them in the local area occasionally. Perhaps a Tusksnort Hatchling? The adults are fiercely protective, though, and while you might be a match for a small one, you fear you are not ready to fight a full-sized enraged mother. You are only a hatchling yourself, after all.
Perhaps you should hunt some of the flighty featherbeasts or swimming waterbeasts instead? They would be very evasive to you, having a mastery of the skies that you are jealous of in the former, and existing in a realm you are not truly meant for in the latter. (You still remember squirming around in the mud when you chased that water spirit what seems like so long ago... Bah.) Or perhaps the Blazetail, a red-colored medium-sized predator that other beasts and your own observations have shown to be very fast, very clever, and very evasive. Catching a difficult foe would certainly be a challenge, but the skill to sneak up on your prey and not allow them to escape is very different from the might you feel like you're lacking and need to build.
Suddenly you remember the Surefoots. During your wandering up the hills in trying to make Magnets, though you did not ascend all the way to the peak of a mountain, you saw a strange tribe of animals that you did not linger long to observe. They were smaller than a Tusksnort, but far larger than anything else you have ever eaten. Yes, something like that would be a nice intermediate step. It will have new tricks and be faster than stupid, slow Longears, but wouldn't be so overwhelming as the other large creatures you might hunt.
[Observing from a distance: 84.]
You make your way to that place once again, and calmly search. Sure enough, before long you spot one of these new tribe of beasts. It is a strange thing, very skilled at climbing up and down steep slopes. They are larger than yourself, but smaller than the Woodstrider or Tusksnort. Two short horns adorn its head, enough to be potent weapons without slowing the Surefoot down too much. Its feet are hard and sturdy, but also flexible enough to cling tightly to stone. Its eyes are strangely shaped, very wide instead of round or slitted. The first time you try to approach one from behind, it sees you from quite a distance even though it barely moved its head, and flees! Interesting. While some animals soar through the air, it seems this one finds safety by clinging to steep cliffs and hills and by its very eyes being changed to be ever watchful.
They are also stubborn and tough - you observed several times two Surefoot Givers ramming each other with their heads over and over again, bleating angrily. They fought for quite a long time, stubbornly facing each other, before one of them was exhausted enough to give up. When cornered and unable to escape, they will boldly face whatever threatens them, too. While not as unrelentingly angry as the Furyclaw, you think that these beasts have a stubborn spirit in them that will make them worthy prey, at least when faced with danger. They seem playful and mischievous with each other when they are alone and safe. Still, you're probably going to be hurt in your hunt from one unless you can cripple it in the first strike. On the other hand, taking down larger prey while you're still a tiny hatchling is a thrilling idea, and you're already imagining what it might taste like...
[Stalk 1: 42. Stalk 2: 94.]
The first few days, you don't manage to find a good target. The Surefoots do not stick to their herds as tightly as some tribes, but most of their time is still spent in proximity to others. That plus the steep terrain they haunt, rows of hills and the occasional small cliff, and their excellent side-vision, means that every time you attempt to sneak up on a Surefoot you are foiled for one reason or another. Properly hunting is an involved task, dangerous work that requires careful judgment of yourself, your target, the terrain, the wind. It takes great patience, to move silently and slowly over the ground for large fractions of a day. It takes keen observation, to know what your prey will notice and how to tell if it is alert.
And you can be patient. You can be quiet, a silent and sudden death to all you survey... Some day. For now, a quiet and surprising death to a Surefoot foe. One more day passes until you see your moment. A Surefoot isolated from the others, munching on some hardy vegetation on a hillside dotted with sparse bushes. There's a slight rise to the terrain that you can use to creep closer, hidden by vegetation and with the wind blowing towards you. Now is your moment! You are tense, muscles coiled and ready to explode like lightning at the first sign of disturbance, as you sloooooowly, sloooooowly, creep towards your prey.
Something alerts it. Perhaps you made a sound, or perhaps it caught a tiny glimpse of you somehow. Either way, you make the snap decision to freeze instead of exploding into motion. After a long, tense pause punctuated by bleating, the Surefoot returns to its grazing. Even more cautious than before, you get closer and closer. Close enough that you can faintly hear its Rhythm, its heart-beat, and you can almost taste it...
[First strike! 90.]
The whole world narrows to just you and your target. You see and hear and feel other things, but sensation flows right past you if it's not a minute detail about the Surefoot you hope to kill soon. It's only when you're almost close enough to reach out and touch it that it seems to notice you again, and this time you leap forward with all your might, aiming to grasp onto it with your claws and bite its neck. You've caught it completely by surprise! Your teeth sink through fur and deep into the thick muscle of its neck while your claws rake at its back and leg. With a violent jump, it tries and fails to throw you off and you bite down harder and try to tear. Fur comes off in thick clumps, but the thick mats of it form a crude sort of armor and creature's neck is thick and strong. It's not finished quite yet, even as blood surges into your mouth, the taste of victory!
[Philosodragon vs wounded Surefoot: 7 + 20.]
You continue holding your claws into this wailing prey's flesh, preparing for another vicious bite, but a sudden spike of pain interrupts your jubilation and forces you to release the Surefoot! It reared its head back and pierced your right wing with one of its horns! As you scramble away in shock, you realize that now you can hardly move that limb without severe spikes of pain, and you think at least one of the tiny, fragile bones there is broken. As you reel back in surprise and pain, it angrily turns to face you and charges with shocking suddenness and speed. The charge hits your armored neck with the point of one of its horns, sending a spike of pain through you and making you dizzy. It backs off slightly then charges again, barely giving you any time to recover. You begin to dodge to the side, but in a split second realize aren't fast enough and that would let the Surefoot gore you in the side with its horns. You loose a quick flash of fire from your mouth instead, not nearly a proper breath attack but just enough to make the Surefoot hesitate and blind it for a split second.
[Used Fireflash skill. Wounded philosodragon vs wounded Surefoot: 68.]
With the bare moment the fireflash buys you push the pain to the side. You slink left and then right, watching the Surefoot level its horns at you and make as if to charge before abandoning the move. It's bleeding from the scratches and horrible bite you managed to inflict, its grey fur growing more red-stained by the moment. But you're hurt too. And your spirit is high, burning with the fire of the Dance of Destruction! Perhaps unwisely, you decide to boldly attack with a sudden charge of your own. It twists its head, aiming to meet you with a piercing horn, but your neck is quick and flexible and the horn pierces only air while you bite down on its neck again. The impact hurts your injured frame further, your small frame taking punishment as the Surefoot wildly strikes out with its hooves, but you push forward, straining with all your meager might against its greater bulk and weight, unwilling to allow it to control your movements. You have a decisive advantage now, teeth closed around its throat.
[Finish the badly rounded Surefoot: 83 + 20.]
No matter the strength of its skull or the danger of its horns, those things can't hurt you now, your flexible body under the prey and your teeth holding on even as it tries to backpedal. It unbalances and falls to its side. You tear outs its throat with one surge of muscle. After that, there is little the beast can do. But it stands up again, even mortally wounded, and points its horns at you. You don't attack again, keeping your distance - for you know that it is dead, now, it simply hasn't quite accepted it yet. The Surefoot stands stubbornly to its last breath, shouting out its fear and anger and stubborn defiance, even as it ultimately came to nothing.
Its flesh is tough, but very filling. It's an interesting contrast from the small herbivores you've eaten, and quite delicious. Not to mention, there's quite a lot of it! You eat as much as you can stand to, before leaving the rest to whatever scavengers might come find it. A satisfying meal - you are heavy and slow with such a bounty of flesh within your belly. Your underside drags against the soil as you make your way downhill. Your scales have even loosened around your torso, enough that you can stick the tip of a claw between them and it hurts the soft flesh beneath. It's an extremely comfortable and satisfying feeling, despite the fact that you're slower and more vulnerable like this. You could sleep for a week! You won't need to go hunting for weeks!
After breaking off one horn, you half-limp home on your wounded limb to heal and meditate on the hunt and the brief battle. You hoped to hone your Fire with that task, the strength and aggression to seize what you want, and skill in battle... The way it presented its hard head and dangerous horns, acting quickly and without hesitation to attack you despite how you were supposed to be the hunter... There is only so much you can learn from a single encounter, but the great meal and the Surefoot's stubborn have kindled something inside you none the less.
+2 Lessons in Fire from difficult and fierce fighting. +1 Lesson in Earth from an enormous (for your size) and well-earned meal.
Your Earth affinity has increased to 6. You don't unlock any special powers at this level, but you are that much more tough, patient, and enduring.
Autumn has been here for some time. The world grows colder each day. The trees are almost all finishing changing, and many goodbeasts are making ready for the coming winter. You feel a heaviness begin to settle on you. The time for hibernation will come soon - you have time for perhaps one or two more significant tasks in your first year of Life.
What do you do next?
[] Seek a Herald from among the Bluewings, to announce to challengers that this territory is claimed and you will return soon, whenever you leave it.
[] Venture South and try to find and meet the other hatchlings that are supposed to be there. You won't necessarily challenge them, you just want to meet them. Too late in the year for this.
[] Try to find a path to the wise Draak called Leafback, whose territory is North and West across a band of steep mountains and rough terrain, and ask them to teach you. Too late in the year for this.
[] Learn the Way of a tribe of beasts. You have spent time watching animals and plants, but your understanding of particular kinds can deepen and bring you insights.
-[] Pick an animal. Surefoot? Longears? Lumberer? Tusksnort? Furyclaw? Treetail?
[] Try to craft something useful or unique with the various electrical supplies you have in your Hoard. Maybe you can think of something useful. Maybe it would just be a neat Treasure.
[] As a Draak, you must become fierce and mighty. Train your strength and claws by moving heavy objects and trying to dig through durable stone.
[] It is time. Your instincts guide you to hide your Den and bury yourself in Earth. Enter the long sleep now, as the heaviness of Winter urges you to.
