Capítulo 3: Into The Woods
"Fouhhh..." sighed Landon, annoyed, after destroying the fourth bear trap he had encountered.
The young man with green eyes continued his way through the forest toward the noise he had just heard.
About three minutes had passed since he noticed the earlier commotion.
Landon kept moving forward for another minute, this time without running for not attract the attention. He approached the area where the smell of blood was becoming stronger.
He finally arrived at a clearing where he saw two people: a girl about 17 years old with black hair, and a blond boy, also a teenager around the same age, who was kneeling on the ground, his foot bleeding. And next to him a broken bear trap.
"Of course this was going to happen..." Landon murmured, once again cursing the madman who had placed these traps.
He was about to step forward but stopped for a second to consider the best way to intervene.
'I need to help the boy. My flames can heal him, but I can't reveal my powers or my identity...'
Landon still didn't know exactly what world he was in and he wasn't ready to expose his abilities in public, fearing he might be hunted by the government or some secret, malevolent, or who know, possibly even extraterrestrial organization if they discovered his powers.
Fortunately, when he arrived, he had stopped far enough away and was hidden by the trees and vegetation. The two teenagers didn't seem to have noticed him.
'But I have to do something; the boy is losing blood, and his life could be in danger...' Landon decided to opt for the least risky option in the urgent situation. He discreetly picked up two small stones from the ground, planning to throw them at the heads of the two teenagers, just strong enough to knock them out.
It was a risky move because he had to carefully control his strength and avoid hitting a sensitive part of the skull to prevent serious injury.
'Damn... I wish I had Conqueror's Haki in this situation...'
He bent his arms and focused his senses and Haki to the maximum. But just as he was about to carry out his plan, a premonition stopped him.
Something was wrong, trusting his instinct, he concentrated on the boy, from whom this feeling emanated, and there, he immediately noticed something strange: the boy's leg was only slightly injured.
'Given the bear trap and the amount of blood on the ground, he should be severely injured, maybe even close to losing his leg. If it weren't for my flames, a doctor might have had to amputate his leg.' Landon was confused by the situation.
He observed the bear trap covered in blood, and his eyes discerned the scarlet blood on the blade as well as pieces of flesh and skin.
'The blades sank deep, cutting into the muscles and an artery. Hmm, he should be severely injured...' Then he noticed something he hadn't seen earlier: the trap wasn't just broken; it was literally split in two, as if it had been torn apart by bare hands.
Landon realized something was off, and he sensed, through his Haki, that the boy didn't exude the vibe of an ordinary human; his aura was wild and bestial.
His thoughts were interrupted by the girl's voice:
"Isaac, are you feeling better?" asked the girl.
"Hmmm, don't worry, I'm healing. Give me another minute, and we'll go help Scott. Fouhhh," the boy responded with difficulty, breathing heavily as he tried to calm himself and ignore the pain.
'Healing...?' Landon observed the boy's leg as precisely as he could with his senses, even though he was about 20 meters away. He also concentrated his Haki as much as he could.
He managed to get a fairly clear image of the boy's leg and its interior, and Landon indeed saw the boy's leg healing at a pace impossible for a human. The most severe injuries, like damaged nerves and muscles or the leg bone, were already healed or in the process of being fully healed.
Landon marveled at the accelerated healing process he was witnessing; he had never seen anything like it. He could see that the most serious injuries were being repaired, but he also noticed that the healing process was nearing its end.
'Hmmm, it seems that once the worst is dealt with, the process will slow down significantly. The leg will be weak and still slightly injured, but it will still be fully healed within a few hours.'
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when his Haki sent him a signal, warning him of something.
He quickly took cover behind a tree, and a fraction of a second later, the boy Isaac turned his head toward the exact spot where Landon had been.
"What's wrong? Is the pain too much, or is there a problem with the healing?" the girl asked, kneeling next to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. A shotgun that hadn't been visible earlier was now hanging by a strap around her shoulder.
"No, it's not that. I thought I felt someone watching me, but the feeling's gone..." said Isaac, unsure of what he had sensed, still looking in the direction where he had felt the gaze.
The girl, who had the shotgun on her shoulder, followed Isaac's gaze but saw nothing.
"Have you healed? We shouldn't stay here," she asked the boy.
"Yeah, I'm good. Help me up." Isaac stood up with some difficulty, using the girl's help, and she helped him walk as they moved away together.
Landon remained hidden behind the tree, pondering what he had just witnessed.
'As I suspected, there are unknown and possibly dangerous things in this place.' Landon didn't think he would have been reincarnated in this city, in a new body, and with incredible powers if this world were ordinary and safe.
'For now, let's observe from a distance.' He thought about following the two teens, but he had detected a strange scent of both animal and human since his arrival. He wasted no time and followed the trail at a fast pace, trying to be as discreet as possible.
He walked for a few minutes before hearing a long and loud roar.
"ROARRRRR!" A roar from a wild beast, but with immense power.
The sound echoed throughout the forest, even causing the ground to shake slightly and leaves to fall from the treetops. All the birds took flight from the branches without hesitation after hearing the roar.
Landon knew he was close to the source of the roar. He threw caution to the wind and ran at full speed toward the sound. It seemed like he was slicing through the air as he ran. He arrived at the location where the noise had come from a few seconds later, just as the roar was fading away.
There, in the distance, he saw the strangest scene of his new life: a boy the same age as the ones he had seen earlier, with black hair and a jacket, crouched on the ground like a wild animal, in a position uncomfortable for a human. But this boy showed signs that he wasn't entirely human.
A scruffy beard, claws instead of fingernails, and canine-like fangs adorned his jaw. The most striking thing was his eyes, a bright scarlet red, glowing with dominance and savagery.
The young man's mouth was open, proof that the roar they had just heard had come from him. In front of him was a small coyote with gray and white fur, completely terrified and submissive. There was nothing strange about this animal, except for its eyes, which shone with an icy blue light.
Then the strangest scene unfolded. The coyote began to back away, and with each step, a transformation took place: its fur shrank until it disappeared, its size elongated until it doubled in volume, its black skin gave way to light brown human skin, and its fur transformed into brown-blond hair.
And in front of Landon, in a matter of seconds, the coyote transformed into a teenage girl, naked, with disheveled hair, her body dirty, bearing traces of soot. She lifted her eyes and looked around in confusion. She seemed completely lost...
----------------------------------------------
"Not only did you bring me far more carcasses than I would have imagined, but in much better condition too. Kid, I have to admit, I underestimated you," Angus said with a smile as he handed me my $123.
"Happy to do business with you," smiling at Angus as well.
In just an hour of hunting, I had made over a hundred dollars, and that was just from hunting small game. I know that if I hunt a pheasant, a deer, or even a doe, I could make several hundred dollars in a single catch.
Landon smiled, pleased. This day had been lucrative. Not only had he made some money, but he had also learned a bit more about this world. He had gotten a glimpse of the potential dangers lurking here.
On his way back, he reflected on what he had seen and concluded that what he had just witnessed was probably mystical or supernatural.
The blond boy, Isaac, possessed rapid regeneration and likely superhuman physical abilities, judging by the broken trap he had seen on the ground. The other boy with black hair he had seen later resembled a hybrid between a human and a wild animal, and the third, who had transformed from a coyote into a human, was probably a shapeshifter.
'This place is quite interesting...' Landon smiled more deeply at the thought. A place with no action at all would have only bored him; he wanted some excitement.
'Hmmm, peace and quiet would normally be enough for me. Pfff, damn Marco...' Landon sighed at this new personality trait he had inherited.
'And I didn't even get to train or transform with all of this...' he complained as he returned to his hotel.
*****************
Elsewhere in Beacon Hills...
"So, you're telling me that this girl is Malia Tate, and that she really was stuck for eight years in the body of a coyote?" the sheriff asked with as much seriousness as he could muster, looking directly into the eyes of the two boys in front of him. Over the years, these two had become experts in causing him problems and terrible migraines.
Around them, several police cars were parked, officers were bustling about, and an ambulance was nearby, where the girl named Malia Tate, wrapped in a blanket, was sitting. Completely confused and lost, she instinctively reacted aggressively to anyone who approached her.
"Well, yeah, Dad, I told you that was the case, but you didn't really want to believe it..." said one of the two boys, his hair short on the sides and medium length on top, he had two particularly black eyes, he was fit but quite puny, around 1m75.
The sheriff, who was clearly his father, just stared at him without saying a word.
The young man seemed to be searching for something to justify himself.
"But you know, all's well that ends well, and that's thanks to you. You reopened the case after learning about the supernatural. You thought there was something suspicious about this old case, and you were right... So, well done, big chief," the boy said with a big smile, as if to congratulate him.
"Damn it, Stiles! I thought Malia and her family hadn't died in an accident but were killed by a dangerous werewolf during a full moon, not that this poor eight-year-old girl had slaughtered her family and then got stuck in an animal's body," the father exploding with frustration, but without raising his voice, not wanting the discussion to be overheard.
"Yeah, you didn't know exactly why or how, but you sensed the supernatural touch in the investigation, and me... I call that a good investigator" the boy said in a complimentary tone, winking. The father was left speechless in front of his son, as if realizing that this crazy situation, which seemed normal to the young man, was also making him seem a little insane.
The second boy, the one who had managed to transform Malia from a coyote back into a human, decided to step in.
The boy was athletic, with brown skin and black hair. You could see from his handsome face that he was someone gentle and calm. Standing about 1.75 meters tall, his eyes were now black instead of the red they had been before, and that wasn't the only thing that had changed. His scruffy beard, fangs, and even the claws he had on his hands had all disappeared. The boy now looked like an athletic young man, kind, and completely normal.
"Listen, Sheriff Stilinski, Malia's okay now. She's finally human again after spending eight years as a coyote. She should go find her family," he said calmly.
Stilinski sighed, eventually abandoning all logic in the face of the situation, and nodded.
"Yes, you're right, Scott, and I know you both did the right thing. You should be proud," said the sheriff, a man in his fifties with blond hair.
"It's just that now I have to tell her father that we found his daughter, who he thought had been dead for eight years, and I have no idea how to explain this to him..." Noah Stilinski sighed. He knew this wasn't going to help his situation, with all the murders and supernatural events in this town. He was under investigation to figure out why such things were happening and why the suspects were never found, leaving him with civilian casualties and unsolved cases. As the sheriff of Beacon Hills, all this responsibility fell on his shoulders.
Sensing his father's distress, Stiles approached and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Dad. Today, you managed to close a case that's been open for eight years, and even if there are strange circumstances, you still closed it. You're the one who reopened the investigation and told us about it, thinking there was more to it than just a car accident. Without you, that girl would still be wandering in the woods, eating raw meat,"
The sheriff looked at his son, and his worries seemed to fade. He began to smile at his son. If there was one thing he was proud of since he started as sheriff, it was his son, his greatest pride, despite his strange talent for getting into impossible situations.
"Yes, you're right," Stilinski responded, regaining his composure as he patted his son on the shoulder.
"Well, I'm going to break the news to her father, and I won't be pressing charges for the bear traps he set up in the woods. He thought the coyote had massacred his entire family; he's a broken and desperate man. I don't want to push him down any further by arresting him, and besides, there were no injuries," said the sheriff, more to himself than to the two boys, about what he needed to do next.
"Uhhhh..." x2
The two boys said in unison, glancing at each other for a few seconds, both thinking of a certain blond who might not agree with the sheriff's words.
"What?" Stilinski asked, suspicious.
"Well..." Stiles began, obviously searching what to say.
He looked between Scott and his father before speaking.
"Yes, no injuries at the moment..." he said convincingly to his father, while Scott simply nodded mechanically at his friend's words, which were technically true. Stiles seemed to be a master of half-truths.
"Oh, please, just go home, I'm begging you..." the sheriff sighed, exasperated at his son's unreliable words. He turned around and left, exiting the conversation without even a backward glance, not wanting to know the whole story.
"Wise choice..." the son said as he watched his father leave, before turning to his friend.
"Come on, I'll give you a ride." They walked away from the scene, leaving behind the law enforcement officers, police cars, and the sound of sirens, whose presence here is entirely their involvement.
The two of them drove off in an old Jeep.
*****************
A few hours later, a dark figure dressed in black could be seen walking toward a gigantic tree stump. The figure approached the stump and stopped, making no further movement, remaining motionless, simply observing. His clothing blended into the darkness of the night.
A few seconds passed, seeming to last an eternity in the ominous atmosphere. Then, the figure made their first and only gesture: he reached out toward the lone plant growing on the tree stump, grabbed it with his gloved hands, and abruptly tore it out, not even sparing its roots.
He threw the plant to the ground, turned around, and left without a backward glance. But behind him, at the spot where the plant had been just seconds earlier, a firefly took flight. It glowed yellow and green. Another followed, then another, until there were dozens, then hundreds, illuminating the night with their colors.
A strange scene unfolded. The fireflies grouped into threes around the tree stump, each separated by two meters. The fireflies began to circle, and with each turn, darkness, resembling shadows, appeared in their place. After a few seconds, all the fireflies vanished, and in their place, three shadows gradually took form, materializing.
Three humanoid beings, made of darkness and shadow, finally appeared. They all wore clothing similar to that of assassins, with straight, short swords like ninjatos on their backs and silver masks that reflected the moonlight. The only visible trace of the fireflies was the yellow-green eyes that could be seen through their masks.
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