The Path of a Black Sheep in a Fantasy World (BL)

Chapter 98

Panick.

That was all Ash could feel as he slithered away from Evan as fast as he could.

Everything had been pretty smooth sailing so far before this meeting, with a few minor mishaps. To understand his current predicament, going back a few hours ago was necessary.

After leaving the village to complete his trial, which was to find three rare herbs, and heal five minor injuries and one medium, Ash had been trying to find the herbs based on what the book the grandma gave him said. The old lady had been gentle when explaining his trial to him, Ash liked her.

He had had all night and morning to look into the three herbs he needed to find. Then, before leaving the village, he had to give back the book and find the herbs without any help.

Being away from his newfound family worried him, but he knew he needed to prove his worth to be able to stay in the village with them. He didn't mind staying in the tribe, he liked grandma, and the first friend he had ever made! He also kind of tolerated the tall man who gave him a plush to apologize.

Ash rummaged through a few bushes as he pondered on where to find the herbs.

The first one was a tropical herb that grew up where humidity was located. While not normally found in winter, Ash guessed that the herb must be growing near or it wouldn't be his trial. The child worked his brain as he tried to think of places where humidity was located.

Just as he was starting to get anxious about not having any ideas, he heard the distant sound of water crashing against water. An idea sprouted in his head and Ash ran toward the sound. Sometimes, waterfalls had a cave behind them. The cave would probably contain humidity and thus have more chance of finding the herb.

The kid skidded to a halt just before stepping out of the forest, sensing a group of predators. Ash poked his head from behind a tree, glancing at the waterfall. All around the small lake under the waterfall, a pack of wolves was drinking water peacefully.

Just as Ash was about to give up and go looking for another waterfall, a shiny reflection caught his eyes. The snake nearly gasped out loud as he saw that the waterfall had a few holes in it due to protuberant rocks, which made it possible to see from the gaps that there was a cave behind it. The holes were small and without specifically looking for it, one wouldn't have found them.

From one of the gaps, situated near the bottom, Ash caught the shiny thing that had attracted his eyes. It was the corner of a silver plant, one the child had just been looking for. The shifter had to refrain from jumping up and down and squealing in excitement from finding the herb, as he still had to worry about the pack of wolves.

Now knowing that the herb he was looking for was just behind the waterfall, he couldn't give it up. The herb was still considered rare and its living conditions were also a problem. It was probably his only chance at getting it.

However, the wolves were dangerous. For one, Ash had zero attack power so taking out the wolves was out of question. For two, trying to sneak behind the waterfall without being seen or sniffed out would probably also be impossible. He may be small, but he wasn't that tiny to not be seen when walking beside the wolves. Humans smelt strong to animals too.

Well, that was only the case for humans...

Shifting into his snake form was something he had stopped doing a long time ago. In his younger years, he quickly found out that people were often disgusted with reptiles, and that his treatment would get worse when he shifted. Shifting became something he rarely did, and it had been a few years since he last shifted, as he didn't want to be hurt. However, it was his only chance now.

He would be small enough to not be noticed, and his slippery scaly body rarely smelt like anything interesting for wolves.

Still, Ash didn't really like shifting because of his past, which made him hesitate, but he knew that he needed to do it if he wanted to see his new family again. He wasn't sure what would happen if he failed his trial, but he didn't want to think about it.

The young snake shook his extremities, taking in deep breaths as he thought of becoming a small silver snake.

The process was longer than normal, slightly painful as his bones snapped and changed shape. His body had lost its natural process of shifting from years of not doing it, needing him to force the change, which was more painful and weird.

Finally, after a painful wait, Ash opened his eyes to find himself smaller than in his human form. Everything was much bigger now. From what he could guess, his snake form was now probably around the length of a forearm.

It was always strange, to go from a human vision to a snake one, that is. His eyes were now on each side of his head, which meant that he mostly saw what was happening on his sides rather than in front of him. Still, his long cylindrical body allowed him to move his "neck" more freely than his human's one, which made up for the shortcoming of his eyes' emplacement.

His vision was also sharper, more focused, it was difficult to explain it, but it was better. He could also "see" weird colors, which he discovered were often from animals and the like, or places and things with high temperature. The variation of the temperature made the color change, which Ash found funny.

He lacked explanations on the things he saw as a snake, but he didn't have any knowledge about it growing up, nor did he have anyone to ask, so he just gave up on finding answers.

It was quite useful though, like now as he watched the wolves with his new vision, able to better detect all the ones present and finding a few hidden in the bushes around the lake.

Now, all that was left was to evade their surveillance, catch the herb, run away and shift back.

Easy, right?

Hey dear readers, we finally meet Ash's snake form!

I know a few of you guys were wondering when we would meet his snake ;)

Don't forget to:

Like!

Comment!

And subscribe!

See ya next update :)

(1 078 words)