A True Person

Early morning was enveloping the camp located in the picturesque savannah. The atmosphere was imbued with tranquility and harmony, in which the zebras found their place.

Alexei had just finished breakfast and was now scrutinizing the sacks that had been left overnight to dry. For the past two days he had saturated them with a special compound suggested by Saada. Zebra had outdone herself by perfecting the recipe and changing some of the ingredients. Alexei also contributed as much as he could, offering a few ideas. He progressed rapidly and was soon to reach intermediate level alchemy.

The main component of the potion was now human blood. Being an entity without a single drop of magic, his blood did an excellent job of hiding magic radiation. However, this compound was only suitable for processing objects, so Alexei still had to gather ingredients for the potion he used to feed Tama.

Alexei smirked, thinking of his partner.

Tamu had undergone an incredible change lately. Previously cowardly and hesitant, he had become literally obsessed with his daily forays into the forest. The conversation on the hill was deeply ingrained in his soul, and the stallion tried his best to collect as many magic crystals as possible.

Now Alexei was giving him a portion of the spoils, but it did not cause him losses. On the contrary, his profits had tripled!

Tamu glowed with hope and turned into a hound with burning eyes. It was just as the man had planned. He even pretended not to notice Tamu hiding some of the crystals he had found from him. As long as the stallion didn't cross a certain line, Alexei wouldn't suppress it.

Of course, he knew that sooner or later Tamu would get cocky, but that was the nature of all sentient beings, be they human or zebra. But the human didn't care about that. By then he would be leaving the tribe and traveling with the caravan to Equestria.

He quickly transferred the crystals from the bags into two sacks and looked out of the hut, looking around. The tribe was just waking up, and aside from a few sentries there was no one in sight.

Taking one sack, Alexei quietly snuck over to Imani, who was just waking her sister. He decided to leave one of the bags with her and hide the other in his hut.

He couldn't risk leaving the crystals in the forest, after all, the beasts had much keener senses and his shielding bags wouldn't fool them. To many beasts, the crystals were like delicious and extremely nutritious cookies, and he didn't want to lose all of his prey.

Imani wished the man would stay for breakfast, but only sighed when she saw him hurrying off.

Noticing the sadness on her face, Alexei leaned over, wrapped his arms around her face and kissed her passionately. A quiet giggle came from the right side of the long awake filly, but the man ignored it.

Finally pulling away from the flushed zebra, Alexei straightened up.

"I'll stop by at night," he winked at Imani, further embarrassing her, and got ready to leave.

"Please be careful," the zebra said in a quiet voice.

"I will," the man replied with a smile as he walked out of the hut.

Alexei sighed as he pondered his bond with Imani. He constantly had to consider a lot of factors and worry about a bunch of things.

Earlier, he could no longer ignore the zebra's increasingly obvious hints and flirtations. The man wasn't sure how she would take rejection, so he didn't take any chances and now they were in a relationship. He didn't care one bit about her obviously exotic appearance by human standards, but he had no real feelings for her either.

"Poor thing doesn't realize she's harboring a snake. It makes my heart bleed," Saada said with feigned sadness, interrupting the man's musings.

"You don't have a heart," Alexei snorted in response, walking briskly toward his hut to the displeased grunts of the zebra.

Returning to the hut, he hid the sack in the hole he had dug earlier, filling everything with earth and covering it with all sorts of trash.

Quickly gathering himself, he headed towards the forest, where his highly motivated partner, Tamu, should already be waiting for him.

"What's taking so long? I've been waiting for half an hour already," Tamu grumbled unhappily, his eyes expressing impatience and determination. He was standing near a tree, waiting for Alexei, who had just approached him.

"Sorry-sorry, had some business to attend to," the man replied nonchalantly, he was pleased with the stallion's attitude.

As usual after giving the stallion two potions, Alexei leaned against an old tree and began to contemplate the route they were about to take

They stood at the edge of the forest, preparing to set off. Today they planned to get deeper into the forest, and they might even have to spend the night in its dense thickets. Alexei didn't really want to do that, though - he knew that the forest was an even more dangerous place at night.

The outskirts of the forest were relatively safe during the day, but that all changed as darkness fell.

The deeper parts of the forest were even more dangerous and unpredictable. A human could probably survive by relying on their stealth and experience, but a stallion would definitely not survive the night. Unless they found a safe haven, but was that easy?

The man was well prepared for this journey - he had packed everything he needed in his bag. He even took a supply of food for a few days, including dried meat that he had cooked himself. Although it was tough and not particularly tasty, it didn't bother Alexei.

Previously, to replenish his protein supply, he had eaten maggots, frogs, snakes, and robbed birds' nests. The dried meat was truly a royal meal compared to his former diet.

Tamu was also well prepared. He had two saddlebags filled with items he found useful - ropes, potions, dry rations, and more. Mounted on his chest was a double blade, which he had chosen instead of the standard spear. In the woods, weapons of this type proved more comfortable and maneuverable, especially when crawling through ravines and some of the larger burrows. These blades had already tasted blood - Tamu had fought alongside a human against several storm wolves.

The route they had chosen was fairly safe. The foot of the mountain they were headed to was a relatively desolate area, indicating a low concentration of magical energy. The local zebras didn't go there, preferring busier areas. Alexei wouldn't have gone there himself, but now he had his talented searching partner, and he decided to comb the place thoroughly.

Finishing their preparations, they moved forward, traversing the dense thickets of the forest.

As they passed through the magical forest, they looked around carefully. The trees with curved branches and lush foliage created a mysterious atmosphere. The air was saturated with the smell of wild magic and strange energy, which made their skin covered with goosebumps

Gradually, and most importantly without incident, they reached the foot of the mountain. Here the air was cool and fresh, and the forest was receding, giving way to bare earth and rocks.

Tamu and Alexei stopped to survey their surroundings. They began to look closely at every corner of the foot of the mountain. Alexei squatted down, examining every rock and crevice.

Tamu, for his part, looked around, looking for any unusual signs or tracks, listening for his fate mark. From time to time he even stopped and sniffed the air.

Several hours of strenuous searching passed when they came upon a small waterfall.

The water flowed down from the heights, forming a noisy stream and creating a majestic sight. Tamu and Alexei stopped to enjoy this moment of nature, but the man's attention was caught by something behind the waterfall.

Climbing up the wet rocks, he discovered an opening in the rock hidden behind the waterfall. Tamu followed him cautiously, his tail swaying slightly with impatience and curiosity. Alexei raised his eyebrows, sensing that this could be something promising. Or extremely dangerous.

Alexei moved forward warily, accompanied by Tamu.

Inside, they found a narrow passage that led them down into the bowels of the mountain. The stallion used his tattoo, capable of creating a ball of light above his head, to illuminate the path in front of them. The man relied on Saada's night vision, already used to it after many night hikes.

Tamu and Alexei exchanged glances full of excitement and anticipation.

They moved deeper and deeper inside the passage, carefully skirting the stalactites and stalagmites that hung from the ceiling and grew from the floor. Suddenly, a flock of bats flew out of the darkness, crashing into their figures and creating noise and confusion. Tamu was startled and recoiled, but the man reassured him and they continued on their way.

Finally, a cave opened up before them, its walls covered in moss and mushrooms glowing with a pale blue light. The babbling of a flowing brook filled the air with the music of nature. It was an amazing sight, as if they were in a fairy tale world.

But most importantly, on one of the walls was an entire area covered in black crystals. They glittered like drops of night and emitted powerful energy.

These were magic crystals with the element of darkness. And judging from the radiation, they were of high quality. Crystals of darkness were in demand by alchemists, shamans, dark mages, necromancers, and many other dubious individuals. There wasn't a lot of them - only a small sack, but even that would be enough to buy a house in luxurious Canterlot.

The stallion's eyes glittered with greed. He was well aware of the value of these crystals.

"This is my greatest luck!" flashed through his mind. "If I collect them and return to the tribe - I can change my fate! I could marry Aisha or we could even run away from the tribe...

"Stop. I almost forgot. I've also got that monkey with me.

"He'll take most of it for himself. Why should I share with him? It was my talent that brought us here!"

"I'll kill him. Only by killing him can I finally change my life," the stallion's hoof reached for the blades, but he immediately stopped. "No, no. First I must calm him down and lie that the crystals belong to him. I'll put his guard down and stab him in the back. I could push him onto the sharp rocks and then finish him off.

"This place is so hidden, even if I kill him, no one will know."

All of these thoughts passed quickly through the stallion's mind, though in reality only a few seconds had passed.

Finally, Tamu came up with a plan and pulled on his best fake smile, preparing to speak.

He slowly turned to Alexei, but before he could utter a word, the blade of a spear flashed toward his face.

The stallion's pupils narrowed to the size of a pinhead. It happened too fast, and he didn't have time to react when the blade pierced his head.

A second or two later, Tamu's body fell to the floor of the cave with a thud.

"You were over thinking it," Alexei shook his head, glancing at the corpse lying on the ground.

He had seen the stallion reach for the blade perfectly well. He also couldn't let him inform the tribe of this find. The naive stallion didn't understand how society worked. The chief or shaman would simply take everything away from them.

The man's gaze was about to head toward the wall of crystals when an unexpected event occurred - something abruptly flew out of the stallion's corpse and rushed toward the exit.

"What was that?" he asked Saada.

"A guardian spirit," the zebra replied somewhat guiltily.

"And why am I only finding out about this now?" Alexei asked irritably.

"I swear I didn't feel a thing!" Saada replied. "It was hiding inside his body the whole time."

Alexei nodded, accepting the explanation. Saada did the same thing, hiding inside the man's body all the time.

The spirit would be sure to tell the shaman everything. He could no longer return to the tribe. All of his accumulated crystals were also lost, but it was still worth it.

Returning to the stallion's body, he began to search it thoroughly, not wanting any more unpleasant surprises. Tamu had nothing of interest, but he did find a hidden pocket in one of the bags. Slitting it open, he found a scrap of parchment with an image of a map and frayed words in a language he didn't recognize. The map also marked a certain point.

"What does it say?" he asked Saada curiously.

"Hmm, you can't make out the words, but it's definitely the language of the griffins," the zebra replied after a few moments. "There are many mercenaries among them, this must be some sort of stash of their junk."

Alexei could only sigh - he wasn't interested in gold, but it was still worth checking.

After collecting all the crystals, the man put all his things away and was about to leave.

His gaze stopped on the corpse of the stallion - the second sentient creature killed by his hands. He did not look for excuses for what he had done. He was being honest with himself.

He didn't want to kill him, but unfortunately, Tamu had become an obstacle in his path. If that was the case, he would trample on the obstacle and keep moving forward.

The man's thoughts traveled to the very beginning of his journey - the portal.

Somewhere out there, in another world, was his family. He had abandoned them, pursuing his ambitions in this world. Perhaps he had been buried long ago and no one remembered him.

He wasn't dating anyone, so there was no one to mourn his lover.

A certain mare came to Alexei's mind - Imani. Her company was quite pleasant...

Perhaps he could fall in love with her in the future. He had plenty of money now. They could escape the wrath of the tribe, buy a house somewhere in Equestria, and live a long happy life.

But would he want that? Would he be satisfied with such a life? Alexei looked into the deepest parts of his mind for an answer.

His lips stretched into a smile when he finally found the answer - no, he would regret every second of it. Only by chasing his dream was his life given meaning. He enjoyed the journey itself and felt no regrets.

"Even if I can't reach my goal at the end, so what?"

"Even if eternal life doesn't exist, so what?"

"I still want to do it!"

"That's how I want to live!"

"That's how I can find meaning in my life!"

Coming to this realization, the man began to laugh maniacally - he was happier than ever.

"You know, sometimes you scare even me," Saada murmured thoughtfully.

The human didn't reply. Stepping over the corpse of the stallion, he headed for the exit of the cave, feeling that nothing was weighing him down anymore.

As he emerged from the depths of the river, Alexei felt his lungs fill with long-awaited air. Coughing and breathing heavily, he looked around with a certain amount of fear.

A swarm of huge bees circled over the water on the opposite bank. These bees were not only different from their Earth version in size, they were five times larger than normal bees. Their steel stingers easily pierced the wood, and Alexei's body was now covered with bleeding holes left by these insects.

Earlier, he had come across a ruined hive of these bees. Seeing the remains of the honeycomb, he was about to eat them, but suddenly the owners returned.

Who knew that at that time they were killing an impudent individual who had dared to attack their hive?

"Could it have been that bear?" wondered Alexei.

Yesterday he had fought with a huge black bear, but he had been unable to pierce its hide with his blade, and the potions had not done much damage to it. The bear had also failed to wound the agile man, and finally they had simply parted ways, realizing that the battle would bring them nothing but loss of energy.

After breathing and eating a few medicinal herbs that should help stop the bleeding, Alexei shook himself off and continued on his way.

It was already the fifth day of his rapid journey. He almost never stopped, trying to get as far away from the tribe as possible. At night he hid in the trees, and Saada gave him a chance to get some sleep. Often he was awakened by all sorts of night noises and the roar of beasts, reminding him of the restless forest he was in.

The end point of his journey was what was presumably the griffins' cache.

The man was not interested in the jewels and riches that might be hidden there. He needed only one thing, an iron cauldron or any other pot.

He had nearly exhausted his supply of potions, and the ability to cook them in the forest was limited. Some trees could withstand fire, but were not suitable for brewing potions. Alexei could make simple pottery, but he didn't have time for that right now. He was a decent alchemist, but without the help of Saada, who shared her sense of magic with him, much of his knowledge would be useless.

Alexei thought eagerly of the moment when he would be able to get magic in his own hands. What bliss that would be!

Pondering the twists of fate, he finally reached the area marked on the map.

Alexei explored the entire surrounding area looking for any sign of a hiding place.

After a couple hours of persistent searching, he finally found something interesting. On the slope of one of the hills, hidden beneath the grass and earth, was a double-leaf wooden door covered in scarlet runes.

"Those are blood runes," the zebra said in surprise, touching the door with a hoof. "They're already inactive, don't worry."

Carefully opening the flaps, Alexei suddenly felt a horrifying stench hit him in the face.

He warily picked up a few clods of earth and tossed them inside, checking for traps. Once he was sure everything was in order, he entered a room hidden inside the hill. Before him was a view of a large room filled with rusty tools lying on dust-covered tables.

There was no doubt about it - these were instruments of torture.

Cabinets along the walls hid their dark secrets, and the bones of various creatures were scattered across the floor. Next to the table lay the skeleton of a griffin, stripped of several claws and ribs.

Alexei noticed a ragged book lying on the table, covered in dark stains and bound by hand.

"How interesting," the man muttered, licking his lips.

Taking another careful look around he made his way over to the table. Carefully taking the book in his hands, he began to leaf through it. The book was written in a language he didn't recognize, but a few pages caught his eye. They showed a circle filled with many symbols and lines.

"What's this?" Alexei asked the zebra that was hovering above his head.

"Hehe, that griffin is quite the fetishist. Had to come up with that," laughed the zebra. "These are blood magic spells."

The man immediately lost interest. After the contract, he found out that he couldn't use magic, even with the help of a spirit. Perhaps these spells would be useful to him in the future or as a reference, but right now, he had more important things to do.

"Why such a cold reaction? Didn't you want to learn magic?" the zebra asked cheerfully.

"What good are spells if I can't use them?" Alexei brushed it off, continuing to rummage through the things on the shelves.

"But you can use them! With my help, of course," was the zebra's immediate reply.

The man froze in front of the half-opened cupboard.

"Translate to me what it says there," he said in an even voice.

When he got the information he needed, Alexei was stunned with surprise. Zebra was right - the griffin was a real fetishist. A masochist, to be more precise.

Blood magic was one of the varieties of magic available to everyone. It used life force or blood as part of the fuel for spells. But this gryphon went even further. Its spells required no magical energy at all, only mental energy and the sacrifice of the caster himself.

Nails, teeth, bones, eyes, skin, limbs, and even internal organs were all used in seven spells. Of course, all of these parts had to belong to the caster himself.
Four of these were attacking, two restraining, and one defensive.

Many might find this book extremely disturbing, but Alexei's eyes were already sparkling at the possibilities before him.

Bright daylight filtered through the thick tree branches of the midday forest.

In its depths, among the variegated foliage, the entrance arch of the cave was hidden. The whole cave was pierced by the rays of the sun, penetrating through several holes in the ceiling. The rocks covered in moss and lichen made it feel as if nature itself had reached inside the cave to leave its mark.

"Are you sure?" Saada asked doubtfully. "Even for you, it's too much."

Alexei, sitting completely naked on a rag spread out on the cold floor of the cave, paid no attention to her words.

"If I'm stopped by such a petty thing, my ambitions are worthless," the man said indifferently. "Just make sure I won't pass out."

A cup of steaming liquid stood before him, holding the already rust-cleaned tools he had found in the griffin's hideout. Alexei was now carefully treating his right side with a special potion. Taking a belt folded several times, he bit it in his teeth and took a razor-sharp blade out of the cup.

Methodically, he began to cut his flesh around his ribs, opening one of them completely. Working his way down to his sternum, he freed the rib from the cartilage.

Removing the blade, Alexei put his thumb under the rib at his side, holding it firmly, preparing the breaking point. Then, clenching his teeth and pulling sharply, he broke off the rib.

The belt clenched in his mouth muffled the man's scream that would have pierced the deafest of ears. His entire body shook, cold sweat trickled down his forehead, and air rushed violently from his flared nostrils.

"Merge the edges," the man mentally relayed to Saada. Immediately he felt his flesh fuse together, hiding the rest of the rib.

Grabbing the potion standing nearby, Alexei poured it over the fresh wound. A stifled groan came from his mouth, muffled by the belt.

Gradually, the flesh began to heal, forming new tissue and bringing new agony to the man. Finally, all that remained on his side was a crusted scar.

Spitting the belt out of his mouth, Alexei picked up another vial and greedily drank the healing potion. Then he simply collapsed to the floor of the cave, broken and exhausted.

Glancing down at the bloody rib in his left hand, his lips stretched into a grin.