☾ BARK! ☽
The sound cut through the fog that had grown in my mind. Sharp and urgent. Demanding attention in a way that bypassed every ntal barrier I’d constructed by instinct around and in my mindscape.
Vrika had found a way to force to listen. I stopped dead in my tracks, blinking as the world snapped back into focus with trees, wet ground, and chilly air.
"How far did I...?"
I looked around while trying to orient myself before rembering the system. My feet were muddy and scratched from rocks I didn’t rember stepping on. My naked body standing in a forest an hour’s walk from where I’d started, with no real mory of the journey between.
My wolf spirit still radiated concern and frustration, as if it had been trying to reach for so ti. In my mindscape, I could see it pacing with its back hair and tail fluffed, held low with worry.
I’d been walking toward the city in pure shock, my mind so overwheld by the revelations that my body had simply... continued without . I can’t just zone out like that in the wilderness.
> What if I’d walked off a cliff? Well, I might be fine as long as you took over in ti. For the record, I give you permission to do that if I ever get like this again. <
Now that I think about it, a lot of the tis when I was depressed it was the sa way. I ended up near those caves I hid in after just... realizing I was close to one of them. So I guess I have a history of just shutting down my thinking.
"And walking to sowhere I find safe."
The system map showed I was roughly halfway back to Vossden, having covered several miles. My feet throbbed with cuts that I think Vrika stopped healing in hopes the pain would wake from my idiocy.
Looking at the sky, I could see the sun well past noon and sliding toward the western horizon. If I continued at a stronger pace, with a transformation, I’d reach the city’s outskirts after dark.
But I can’t just show up as a hybrid, a wolf, or anything else without my things on . Walking naked through increasingly populated areas would draw the kind of attention I’d been trying to avoid.
More importantly, I wasn’t ready. To go back. I needed ti to process everything before I faced her again. Or anyone else, for that matter.
"One more night out here won’t kill . To get my head straight."
I activated the system’s lilac square to bring out the shipping container, placing it in the first area big enough to release it. The white walls felt reassuring and the inside ironically felt a little like a cave.
Reaching for a set of fresh underwear and clothes imdiately, my fingers were steadier than I expected. I pulled on the hiking pants and outdoor long sleeved shirt while Vrika’s continued concern was a literal warming presence.
> Thank you, really. I’m fine now. <
"Just... needed a mont to catch up with where everything was going."
Settling onto my fleece blanket with the phone in hand, I opened the web browser. If I was going to survive anything, I needed to understand exactly what I had to work with after all I’d done these past days.
The precious tals from that ravine cache could likely be converted into the most money the quickest... to start buying supplies. Learning their actual value ahead of ti would get the most return.
The first search for [gold coin values] returned more results than I could process. Apparently, the total worth depended on factors I’d never considered compared to my old world - purity, mint dates, collector interest, and sothing called [spot price] that changed constantly.
"However that part seems to be the biggest value factor to judge on. Let’s start with those. If the spot price is... roughly $1,800 per ounce for the base..."
I opened the calculator app on the phone, grateful that I could manage basicarithtic with digital assistance. 35 tis 1800 equals... I stared at the number on the screen, then deleted it and calculated again to make sure I hadn’t made an error. The result didn’t change.
"$63,000 dollars?"
Thinking about it again, that value per ounce was the sa cost as the shipping container I am sitting in right now. I could have obtained thirty five of these... I dive into my mindscape to seek out my wolf spirit.
> That’s... that’s more than a thousand als. More than three years of eating... an amount almost like I did that first visit to a diner. <
Blue eyes glowed as they assessed . I’d appeared again in my old human form, for reasons I don’t entirely want to think about. Vrika might have felt more at ease if I’d been more like Helene right now - more like the form of the person that just wandered on ’auto-pilot’.
Yet, I don’t really feel that. Like that person. Standing there, I reach out my hand in an inviting gesture while trying to radiate a sense of stability to the wary black wolf. And it doesn’t leave standing there for long.
> Oof. Tackles are prohibited. You’re giant, you know? <
Stroking its back, calming it down now that I’ve gotten sowhere close to being ’put together’... I let the seeming enormity of that sum settle in. Quickly, practical concerns crept back in as I rembered the prices at Moontrail Outfitters.
I’d seen advanced tent structures that cost well over $3,000 dollars. The high quality winterized wear ran into the hundreds per item, though I’m not sure how much of that was material build and how much was brand recognition.
Maybe sowhere in between, for so items. Altogether the things for a proper shelter setup, additional storage considerations, maybe heating equipnt, months... or even years of food storage...
"It’s a lot of money. That figure. But is it enough money?"
Out in reality, I finish looking up the other two tals. Silver by weight is worth considerably less on the market - despite that container having enough ’units’ of it to probably help poison the regeneration and kill every pack mber in the region.
"Which doesn’t even get into how you can just reuse whatever tool you make from it afterwards. It’s not like shifters in my world were invincible, but there’s sothing about having a *specific* weakness that makes death seem even more present here."
Regardless, one thousand ounces total of those silver bars I cannot touch directly would add another $25,000 if I get rid of them. The platinum bar at ten ounces was worth nearly $10,000 despite being small enough to hold in one hand like a small but thick, heavy rectangle.
Close to a hundred thousand dollars total from those three things, if I could find buyers for all of it. In a city, I’m sure that’s not a terrible problem. Enough to buy proper survival equipnt without touching Kyrie’s bankcard again.
That was before considering everything else in my Stash. The electronics, the weapons, the luxury items the hunter had stockpiled. So of it might be worth quite a bit to the right people.
Weapons might be traded off on the hunter’s app most easily, with anonymous possibilities, though continuing to interact with those people may be dangerous. I already have that BoundaryKeeper getting too close... and that ’package’ to figure out.
Altogether enough to be truly independent. But also... easy enough to burn through if I wasn’t careful - a few poor decisions and I’d be right back to owing soone else for my survival. And paying back my debt to her should co first.
However, I wasn’t thinking about how to survive the next week, now. I was thinking about how to survive the next year... the next decade. And honestly, that stressed out more than I feel it should.
Which is why I might just keep appearing as my old self in my own soul for a while.
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