Frost 8th, 120
Wandering wanderances of wandering aside, Nuraku had taken the form of a boar for the last several days. At first the Mold was jittery, the senses murky, but the numbness had faded at least. Trotting along beneath the desert sun, she had long since left the more alpine northern reaches of Daravin for the hotter desertified region.
Vesta hadn’t mentioned it, but she did get the idea from the woman and her talk about ‘features’--a venomous snake would be more than ideal. Sniffing around with her snout to the desert grasses, she picked up on trace scents that reminded her more of plants than anything else; the boar’s snout was adapted for finding edible fungi, not beasts. Still, she learned, and slowly she began to synchronize her movements with the boar’s body as time went on.
Digging her tusks into the earth, Nuraku checked to see if she could find some water--it stood to reason if the undersoil was muddy, that there’d be burrowed critters somewhat nearby, and if those existed... then there would be snakes.
While Nuraku had seen a pack of hyenas lounging in the distance, she hadn’t bothered to catch their attention, preferring to steer clear and stay focused. It was a lot harder to form the hand symbols she needed to summon anything as a boar compared to the ermine which could stand upon its hind limbs, so she felt rather vulnerable.
Climbing a hill beneath the warm sun, she passed beneath a rocky outcropping before coming across a large, flat boulder. It saw her before she saw it, rearing on its coils and rising a good foot above the ground. A small, pink tongue flickered as it hissed.
Schfpt!
That horrible sound was met with a wet feeling on Nuraku’s porcine cheek. She shut her eye, backing away in shock to put a few more feet of distance between her an the angry Spitting Cobra. Did that thing just... spit on me? No... It spit venom. I didn’t know snakes could spit venom.
Standing at a distance, she stared down the snake, beginning to Imprint. The reptile was transfixed with her, perfectly willing to stand completely still while the minutes rolled on. The way its tongue flickers--is that to breathe, or to ‘taste the air’? How do its scales move?
Soon enough she began to feel the presence of the Template, and backed away. The last thing I want to deal with is a venomous bite, or getting blinded by whatever that stuff it spits is. There’s no other reason I can think of for it to spit at me, other than to blind--I bet that stuff does NOT feel good on the eye ball!
Heading back down the hill, she trotted to a place between some rocks and knelt down, raising her head and feeling for the Template in her mind. Feeding it her power, she began to feel herself shift, innards twisting and churning to a sense of queasiness as her muscles and bones squirmed and popped, fur dissipating for scales. Her big boarish snout narrowed to a fine point as the minutes rolled on, and eventually she settled as a rope upon the ground.
Those first few moments were difficult... and perilous. I’m helpless, she thought as she tried to move, just turning her body and getting a feeling for its spacial awareness truly harrowing. If anything came to get her now, she’d be dead meat if she couldn’t scare it away.
“HsssSSSsss,” hissed Nuraku, moving and pushing on her scales in every direction until she felt herself begin to glide forward. It was a careful dance as she learned to slither along, eventually coiling and directing her attention towards the senses. As she flicked out her tongue and jiggled it up and down, she got a sense for the difference in ‘smell’ between two points. The scent of hyena was nearby, and based on the strength of it as she pulled her tongue back and the trace elements bounced around in her mind, she could tell it was upwind from her. It only took a few more tongue flicks to determine as much.
Notable about the snake was its lack of decent eyesight. Nuraku immediately remedied this by beginning to Integrate her Ermine eyes, there was little visible difference outwardly, but she could see a little better. However, everything still had this extra brightness that made it harder to see. Is this... something related to the darkness?
Slithering along through the desert, she found the pack of hyenas from before steered very clear of the snake and her venom. For hours and hours, she enjoyed relative comfort, at least until the sun set and it began to grow cold. “Ughh,” she muttered through her tiny snout. “The pains of being... ectothermic, was it?” Big words were still hard for her, sometimes.
Still, the snake could see... amazing in the dark. As she stared over a hill, she saw someone ... a woman, quite far away and almost glowing beneath the moonlight from the snake’s colorful thermal vision. “I can see her... heat? Is it heat?” mumbled Nuraku. “That is a girl, right?”
Curious, Nuraku advanced towards the traveler, slithering up on her over time. So quiet, so sneaky, and so hard to see, she spoke up from the ground. “Hey stranger, don’t be alarmed, you’ve got a mage to your left. A little lower. A lot lower. Where ‘ya headed? I could use the company.”
Nuraku reared up, her rodent-like eyes glinting beneath the moonlight. “I may be a snake, but don’t bite--be assured, I have no such intention. If you’re nice, I’ll even let you carry me.”
Ah, an excellent way for someone small to trick someone large into being the beast of burden.
