The jungle beyond the western ridge was quiet in the wrong way.
Toren moved slowly through the underbrush, keeping low, eyes scanning. The usual buzz of insects and avian screeches had faded into something more muted, cautious—like the entire forest had taken a breath and decided to hold it.
He should've turned back.
He didn't.
His satchel hung heavy with metal scraps and fiber bundles—remnants of a collapsed structure Mira had pointed out on a crude map she scribbled in dirt. He'd been digging through debris for over an hour before he noticed the first sign: a tree root cleanly sawed near its base. The cut was fresh. Precise.
A few meters later, he found the second: a broken length of rope and a shallow clawed trench in the soil. Something had struggled.
That's when the silence started.
And then came the smell—sharp, earthy, tinged with blood.
Toren moved toward it on instinct.
He crested a moss-covered rise and stopped dead.
Below, half-draped in leaves and struggling weakly, was something out of a prehistoric nightmare—long body, feathers matted with blood and soil, talons like crescent knives. Its snout was narrow and curved, its breath ragged, frothing pink between thin lips. But its eyes—black, glossy, reptilian—locked onto him the moment he stepped forward.
It didn't snarl. Didn't lash.
It just… watched.
The snare trap had cinched around its left hindleg, wire digging deep into scaly flesh. Blood pooled beneath it, soaked into the roots. One wing—more a forelimb with plume tufts—twitched uselessly beside its side.
Toren crouched slowly.
"Well, you're either gonna let me help you," he murmured, "or you're gonna bite my face off and I'll die thinking I tried."
No movement.
Just breath.
Unregistered native lifeform detected.Passive threat assessment: Moderate to High.Behavior: Defensive. Non-aggressive.Subtask Unlocked: "Bond the Wild."
Toren blinked.
Subtask: Protect and bond with native lifeformReward: "Loyal Companion: Unique Unit – Chirrissk"Penalty: None. Optional task.
Optional.
But that didn't mean ignorable.
He crept forward, palms out. His heart pounded in his chest—not from fear, but certainty. He could feel it again, that quiet gravity the system always exuded when something important was about to happen.
"Okay," he whispered to the beast. "I'm going to help you. And if you hate that, well—fair."
He reached for the snare.
The creature didn't move.
It just watched.