ALL NOVEL Chapter 41: On The Other Side
It was sundown. The sunset painted fingers of colour across the sky, the effects on the clouds above visible even if the sun had disappeared out of sight beyond the trees a while ago. That was fortunate: Dominic mused that he might get claustrophobic if he couldn’t see the sky because the canopy blocked it out all the time. He definitely seemed to be more affected than he thought he would be by being in a lion’s body – the thought of not being able to see the sky had never been an issue for him before.
‘Well, that’s only fair considering how much you’ve infected me with your humanness,’ Leo accused him, a little unjustifiably, Dominic thought.
‘You’ve woken up, have you?’ Leo had been napping after doing the hard work of fetching the rest of the Pride from the forest fringes. Dominic had felt that that was fair enough for Leo to do considering the former-human had been basically doing the rest of the work.
‘Of course,’ the lion answered him a little more seriously than Dominic would have preferred. ‘It’s not every day that I get to meet a goddess.’
The former-human licked his lips in an unconscious nervous gesture which was a holdover from his previous body, though with a much longer tongue than he’d ever used as a human. He’d been trying to tease Leo a little to get his mind off the meeting that was soon to take place, not to bring it right around to that very subject. It was typical of Leo – distracted him when he needed to concentrate; made him concentrate when he wanted to be distracted.
‘Well, if it’s anything like last time, you won’t actually be able to meet her,’ Dominic reminded him.
‘Yes,’ agreed Leo with distaste. ‘I rather resent that I’m not considered a ‘sapient’ being when you are.’
‘Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?’ Dominic demanded, happily grabbing onto the random topic.
‘That between the two of us, I think we both know who is the brains of the relationship,’ Leo huffed disdainfully.
‘Yeah, not you,’ Dominic retorted.
‘Who worked out the best patch of forest for the kesh to live in?’ asked Leo pointedly. ‘And who forgot that you could heal yourself by Consuming the bodies of the kesh who had died in the fight?’
‘It’s not like I needed it – not with Second Wind and Regeneration helping. Anyway, I didn’t want to show the kesh how to absorb carcasses.’
‘Don’t pretend that you were being all logical about it. Admit it – you forgot,’ pushed Leo gleefully.
‘I had a head injury, alright?’ retorted Dominic defensively. ‘Anyway, you could have reminded me – you weren’t affected by the physical injury.’
‘Who says I wasn’t?’ demanded Leo.
‘Well, you were the one yelling at me to get moving when I was still dazed. Anyway, I don’t know why you’re getting at me all of a sudden: it’s not like you haven’t done stupid things too.’
‘Name one,’ Leo demanded.
‘Well, how about when you accidentally tumbled into a thornbush because you missed your step?’
‘You were distracting me at the time. That was your fault. And how many more times have you embarrassed me by acting like a cub still learning how to walk?’
‘Oh no it wasn’t. And I’d like to see how you’d do learning how to be bipedal all of a sudden. Anyway, how about when you tried to pounce on that porcupine-like creature and almost got a faceful of quills?’
‘LIke you would have done any better,’ scoffed Leo. ‘And I killed it in the end.’
‘Or when you tried to use acid spit on a bird that was flying over our head and almost got acid in our eyes.’
‘Alright, alright. You’ve made your point,’ growled the lion hurriedly.
Dominic subsided, satisfaction curling through him at having won that particular debate. As he continued watching the colours change in the sky, the satisfaction died away to be replaced with nerves again.
‘Do you think I should try touching the stone another time?’ he asked his companion, a little fretfully.
‘Might as well,’ the lion agreed. ‘Who knows when ‘sundown’ actually is. It’s not like we can see the sun from here.’
Dominic lifted a paw to touch the large black stone. This time he was here on his own, the rest of the Pride all out in the clearing. As with the last five times he’d touched it, all he got was a single message that flashed up before his eyes.
[Place of Power ownership: Dominic Martin Cole / Leo
Status: Temporarily frozen – conversion in progress]
He wondered what would have appeared if he had chosen to reject the offer of ‘conversion’ – would it have been ‘permanently frozen’ instead of only temporarily? Or would he have had access to some aspects of it but not others? He suspected that might be more likely to be the case – Selessa had indicated that the conversion would fully unlock the place of Power rather than unlocking it full stop.
Nyx hadn’t given him much to go on when he’d asked earlier – apparently she’d gone into the blank space and then came out soon after. Thereafter, she’d found that she’d been able to influence her pack to have the same Abilities as her on level up and that she’d started accumulating Prey Points faster, even when she didn’t do any active hunting. But she’d never seen anything when she touched the black stone, nor had she gone back into it on subsequent attempts.
Nerves once more making his stomach feel as if butterflies were dancing around within it, he tried to redirect his mind. Instead, he reviewed the questions he intended on asking the goddess as her promised ‘boon’ of knowledge.
When he’d finished doing that, he ran through the rest of what he’d done with his day after dealing with the kesh. He’d absorbed their Cores, bringing Easy Landing to 100% and three new Abilities, Extended Jump, Enhanced Accuracy, and Intimidating Hoot to 56%, 24%, and 36% respectively.
The most interesting Ability had been that of the kesh leader – Tribute. It was now at 11% and he’d even had a 30% chance of getting it, which was rather surprising. The previous pattern with Core probabilities had been that newly Evolved beasts dropped Cores which gave the absorber a very low chance of receiving their third Ability. Yet the kesh leader’s Core had offered him a 50% chance of gaining the first Ability, Easy Landing, and only 20% chance of gaining his second Ability. So the Tier of the Ability and the level of the creature couldn’t be all there was to it.
Maybe it was based on use? Certainly, Dominic wouldn’t be surprised if the kesh had used Tribute more than Extended Leap, which had been his half-step Ability. Maybe that’s why it had such a high chance of being absorbed. Which was rather intriguing.
Dominic touched the stone once more, by this point expecting to get the same message flashing up again. This time, though, he was surprised by a different reaction: his paw sank into the stone as it had once before.
Familiarity didn’t remove all sense of fear, though. He let the stone suck him in with nerves still battling it out in his stomach.
‘Alright then,’ he said to Leo with false bravado that he was sure the lion would see through easily enough. ‘See you on the other side.’
With that, he surged forwards and entered the stone once more.
Blackness surrounded him again, and the same message about requiring a drop of blood for the goddess reappeared. This time, he didn’t equivocate over it, agreeing immediately, eager to get this over with.
Once again, he emerged into a forest in his human body – the setting looked almost identical to the one before, down to the rock on which the goddess sat perched, her form silhouetted against the sky, at least twice his size. Dominic couldn’t help but think that it was all a bit dramatic.
“Welcome petitioner. It is time. Do you still wish to swear yourself to me?” Selessa asked,
“I suppose,” murmured Dominic, eyeing her. The large feline huffed.
“Come now, a little more enthusiasm, perhaps? It’s not every day that you swear yourself to a goddess like myself,” she said with pride.
“No,” he agreed, “but I’m still not sure whether it’s a good thing to do or not,” he admitted. Though absent up until then, abruptly the sense of a large predator staring at him and wondering whether he would make a good meal descended upon him again. He crossed his arms and glared up at the goddess. “And you doing that kind of thing just puts my back up,” he growled, almost sounding like he was in his leonine form. Are the benefits really worth all of this malarkey?
The sensation disappeared and Selessa shifted, moving to climb down the rock. Twice his height despite being in her four-pawed form, Dominic continued glaring at her until she reduced in size a bit. She didn’t shift into her bipedal form, though. With her current size, her eyes were on the same level as his, even when she was standing on the ground floor. It was just as disconcerting to see the two sets of eyes, one blood-red, one featureless white, as it was last time.
“I don’t understand you,” she admitted, sounding frustrated. “I’m offering you something that many others want, at cost to myself, incidentally, and yet it feels like I’m trying to bribe you into taking it.”
“Well, if many others want it, why don’t you go and offer it to them, then?” Dominic asked, not intending on being rude, though realising once it came out that it probably could be taken that way.
Selessa eyed him for a long moment. Then she sighed, the sound a mixture of irritation and resignation.
“I do not wish to give details right now, but the truth is that I can’t. Which is why I’m willing to…bribe you to become my follower. I need you, I won’t deny that, and you need me too. Which is why I’m confused about why you don’t seem to see that. ”
Dominic gazed at her, his eyes narrowed. She appeared to be being straight with him, but his instincts were jangling. He’d never had a particularly good sense of whether a person was lying or not, unless he knew them very well, but he’d come to trust his leonine instincts. Whether these were instincts inherited from Leo or not, he didn’t know, but he wasn’t willing to ignore them.
“There’s something you’re not telling me. Something important. You say you need me? Tell me the truth. And no bullshit or I’m going to walk out of here without swearing to you.”
“And miss out on everything I can offer?” Selessa demanded to know angrily, though with an undercurrent of what Dominic suspected was desperation.
“And miss out on whatever trouble I sense brewing behind the scenes,” he returned firmly.
Selessa glared at him angrily, an expression which was particularly powerful with her extra set of eyes. The sense of a predator pressed against Dominic once again, but he just crossed his arms and glared back at her.
Maybe this was stupid. He was testing a goddess here – or at least a self-proclaimed one, anyway. Though she had said that she couldn’t harm him in this space. But did he trust that? Did he trust her?
Actually, who said she was actually a goddess? Maybe she was a demon. Out to steal his soul and pretending to be a deity in the first place. He had no guarantee that anything she said was true.
“How do I even know you’re a goddess?” he accused, wanting to know how she would react. “What if you’re a demon?”
Selessa snarled at him and pressed down with her aura.
“Can you not feel it?”
“All I feel is that you’re powerful,” Dominic answered, struggling to keep his voice level. “Nothing else.”
“I told you before: that’s all there is to being a deity, human! Power! Those who have it, and those who don’t. And I–” She cut herself off abruptly, but Dominic had heard it.
“And you…?” he asked leadingly. A moment later, he narrowed his eyes shrewdly as a realisation dawned. “Let me guess, you don’t. Which is why you need me.”
“Yes, damn you!” Selessa growled at him and turned around, presenting Dominic with her back. He might feel tempted to attack her if she wasn’t still putting off very threatening vibes.
His human brain overriding his leonine instincts, Dominic thought through what she’d said this time and last. Something really wasn’t adding up.
“Why are you so desperate to get me? Even if you don’t have many followers, surely they can…prostletise, or whatever the word is. Spread information about you. Get others who would be more eager to take what you’re offering than someone like me. Unless there’s something else you’re not telling me…?”
Selessa turned her head to face him even while her body was still angled away. There was indecision on her face, and even a hint of vulnerability. She opened her mouth but hesitated. Dominic silently willed her to speak. Despite himself, he wanted to hear her explanation.
