Isekai Elf King: Architect of a New Empire

***

 A few hours later, with a sword that had been incredibly dulled and chipped except for the point from his efforts, Leo had finally made a fire. He had assembled a circle of stones, filled it with dry leaves and sticks he had found on the ground, and then whacked rocks until he had finally managed to, somehow, start said fire.

 He sat beside his work, underneath a small, broad-leafed tree.

 It had occurred to Leo, late in the process, that this was also probably not practicing fire safety. He had set up on the other side of the pond from where he had butchered the deer, since he didn't want to attract beasts to him if he was near a still-fresh carcass. He was in the puddle of light cast by the campfire in the semi-dark around him.

 The moon was up, and small, glowing blue moths flew around the pond and closed flowers. Leo had to admit that if he wasn't fearful of being eaten, even the night in this forest would have been idyllic and pleasant.

 He had managed to make a chunk of deer meat that was only mildly undercooked, and about ten chunks that could charitably be described as "well-carbonized." He had eaten the first, but for the remaining ones, he had decided he would carry them with him since he was pretty sure that "charred" would count as "smoked" for preservation purposes and last him a day or two.

 As Leo stared at the fire, he happened to glance up and spot a wolf observing him from about twenty feet deeper into the forest. Leo scrambled to his feet, spilling the meat everywhere, but after a second, he realized the wolf wasn't attacking him. As Leo gave the canine a onceover, he realized it was the same wolf as earlier: brown-furred, red-eyed, with shoulders that came to where Leo's belly was.

"Um… hey," Leo said in as soothing a voice as he could. "So, um, you still don't have to attack me." He pointed toward the deer carcass on the other side of the pond. "I left meat over there so that vicious predators like yourself wouldn't need to get your calories from me."

 The wolf glanced in the direction Leo had pointed and stared at the carcass. After a second, it turned back to face Leo, still unmoving.

 "No, bad doggy," Leo said, grimacing. He reached down and picked up a chunk of overcooked deer, waved it vaguely at the wolf, and then threw it toward the carcass. It didn't make it quite all the way, but it did clear the pond. The blackened chunk of meat landed with a thunk, just like the rock it was.

 "Go get it! Go mangle the meat, my man-murdering mutt!" Leo almost laughed at himself hysterically—he always made jokes, frequently wordplay ones, in his head when he was upset or nervous. Now he was talking to a dog.

 The wolf stared at him, then rolled its eyes. Leo was briefly nonplussed, but his next coherent thought was, Cheeky bastard.

 The wolf ambled around the pond and over to the carcass, then dug into it.

 Leo called out to it, now beginning to suspect it did, at some level, understand him. "That's a bribe! Eat the carcass, not the poor sap from another world who hates camping!"

 Leo watched the wolf for a bit, but it seemed content to gnaw at the carcass.

 Leo was bone-tired, despite the wolf eating on the other side of the pond. His initial fear was fading, since the wolf was conducting itself like a particularly large, not-very-aggressive dog. Despite everything that had happened today—the new world, the new body, Audrey getting shot—me getting shot—and now his trip through the woods with a bizarre, giant-ass wolf hanging around, he felt he would sleep well. He lay down on the ground next to his fire, hoping the smoke would keep the bugs off, put his arm under his head, and tried to stop thinking.

 For once, it worked.

***

 Slowly, reality returned. Leo was well rested and uninjured. He was also warm, with a fuzzy blanket, but it had fallen off, and he tried to pull it over him. It didn't work.

 Fuzzy blanket?

 Leo opened his eyes. He was lying on the ground, up against the giant wolf.

 He gave a startled yelp, then rolled away from the wolf. He tumbled across his nicked and dulled sword, grabbed it, and then scrambled to his feet.

 The wolf opened its eyes and stared at him. Then it looked at Leo's sword and gave a little huff of exhaled breath. It slowly stood, languidly stretching out by lowering its front.

 Then it nodded to him again, turned, and ran into the forest.

It took a moment for Leo to react, but he called out, "Thanks for not eating me!" in the direction the wolf had gone.

I can't even with this wolf, and this world, Leo thought to himself.

After a moment, the chirping, buzzing, and squeaking of the forest returned. Leo glanced around and saw that the dawn had barely come, the light filtering into the trees at an angle, and there was no sun overhead.

 The bees get up early on this world.

 As his heart rate slowed, Leo yawned and rubbed his eyes, then gave a disgusted sniff. Despite multiple washings and a smoking, he could still faintly smell the blood on his clothes, which was gross. And he'd added a faint dog smell to the morass.

 He hadn't thought to do this last night, but he looked at the sun, which appeared upriver from him. So I'm following this river stream west, currently on the south shore. Not that it really matters, since I have no idea where anything is, but good to know.

 Leo collected his busted sword, only the tip still sharp, and then grabbed his meat chunks. He quickly ate three, which were quite gross and tasted like charcoal. Then he stuffed the next three in the now-empty satchel and tried to carry the remaining two in his hands.

 It will have to do.

 Just before Leo started his trek again, his gaze wandered over to where the deer carcass had been.

 It was gone.

 Well, frik. Was that a random bear or did the wolf eat the whole thing? Or maybe it has wolf buddies?

 With a shake of his head and a brief shiver, Leo finally followed the water downstream again, continuing through the forest.

 As he walked, he took note of all the interesting wildlife around him.

 While it was almost all normal wildlife, that almost still left room for some fascinating creatures. None had the impact of the wolf, but a few seemed much more obviously abnormal. Leo briefly saw a white-furred weasel with six legs run into a bush, but when he went to investigate, he never found it. Later, he did find a small swarm of bees that were almost the size of his fist. Each looked like a normal bumblebee but for the size and a faint green haze around them. Leo didn't go closer to investigate—they seemed as docile as normal bees, but dealing with a whole swarm if he did tick them off… It didn't bear thinking about.

 And one bush had slightly glowing apples on it—the fact that they were on a bush and not a tree would have been a clue they were unusual even without the glowing part. Leo left them alone.

 Leo ate the two chunks of meat he was carrying as the morning stretched into afternoon. He passed two places where small streams connected, and by late afternoon, Leo was following a much larger stream, perhaps even a tiny river, through the forest. He saw fish in the water, and once what looked like a colorful snake.

 He was almost having a good time, in a tired sort of way, as the sun started to set on his second day in this new world, when a sense of unease overtook him. A faint smell of something rank and eldritch hit Leo, a smell like old blood and incense, as near as he could figure it.

 But there was something more to it than just the smell. A wrongness that he felt in his bones.

 Although Leo knew the smart thing to do would have been to keep going downstream, he couldn't help it—the old monkey reflex had him determined to see what this terrible feeling was, to know and understand it.

 Leo glanced southward, away from the river. He couldn't really see anything different at first, but then he noticed the lack of the ubiquitous birds.

 He cautiously made his way in that direction, trying his hardest to move quietly and stealthily. Although he heard himself step on dry leaves or a twig more than once, he figured he was doing an okay job.

 As Leo crept away from the river, the tranquil forest seemed to change to something slightly more sinister. The trees appeared more skeletal, and the branches had fewer leaves on them. He saw a few piles of old animal bones, half-gnawed. The air felt sickly, and he experienced something like the sensation of entering a hospital full of ill people.

 He stopped between two trees and saw that the forest was bisected by a huge ravine. He couldn't make out the end of it in either direction. He estimated it was miles long. But it was only a couple hundred feet across.

 Leo carefully made his way closer through the trees and walked up behind one low-branched tree that partially leaned out over the ravine. The edge of the ravine was a harsh drop-off, and it looked like parts of it had collapsed. If Leo wasn't careful, he could easily fall and slide into the ravine.

 He stayed away from the edge, fearful that it would crumble. But he could still see that the ravine went down miles, at least.

And across the chasm, a few feet below the opposite cliffside, he saw, well… It's a bat-harpy, Leo. No way around it.

 Sunning itself on a ledge in the dying light of the day, barely below the lip of the opposite side of the chasm, was a woman with bat wings instead of arms, claws at the ends of the wings. Her legs ended in wicked raptor talons. She was naked but so covered in filth and… viscera… that even her human parts were utterly disgusting. As Leo watched, a small, whip-like tail reached out past her and picked her nose, flinging a booger into the chasm.

 The wrongness was intense in the area—and it all clearly emanated from the chasm. Leo backed away, his curiosity satisfied—he knew what the threat was, and like he had suspected, getting away as soon as possible was the best option. He stood once he was behind the tree at the edge of the cliff and prepared to return.

 About forty feet away, slightly deeper in the forest, was a small dragon. It was about eight feet long, with bronze scales and a horned plate on its head, almost like a triceratops plate but with the horns flaring backward for some reason. It had wings tucked down on its back, and its claws looked large enough to end Leo with a single swipe. Its tail was closer to that of a fish, with an upward and downward facing fin at the end, but it still looked quite thick and deadly.

And it was staring right at him.

 The tableau held for a few seconds, and then the dragon roared and charged.