That night I put what felt like multiple miles between myself and the wolves before my body just couldn’t make it any further. My muscles were sore and wasn’t working properly. I even fell from a branch when one of my legs gave out. Luckily, I was able to catch myself on a lower branch. I slowed my pace after that. Eventually, I found a stream and rinsed my mouth out.

  Meanwhile, the sound of whimpering never ceased, though it did quite down as I moved further away. Even after I found a hole in a tree to sleep in, the whimpering continued, though I couldn’t be sure this wasn’t my overly exhausted body and mind playing on my guilty conscience. There was no doubt in my mind I broke some sort of bro code. This would be something I would put behind me and never think of again.

  I woke up to several prompts floating in my vision. I blinked them away to check my surroundings. As I crawled out of the small hole in the tree, I half expected wolves to be biting at the base of the tree. The sun met my eyes, and I felt completely rested, not even sore in the slightest. This was odd, but hey, I wasn’t about to complain. The thought of this squirrel’s body not being so bad crossed my mind, but I quickly pushed the thought down. I was a human through and through.

  Crawling back into the hole. I opened my prompts. It was odd knowing how to do things like opening prompts and leaping from branch to branch. But I was a talking squirrel in an entirely new world, so I pushed the thought away and read over the prompts.

  By maiming the pack leader of your racial enemy while still a basic level one, you have been awarded the following title:

  Title achieved: Alpha Neuterer

  Title rarity- Unique

  Effect- Boost all attributes by 23%

  ~Even the mightiest of alpha’s has their weakness. Sometimes it just takes the right one to stoop low enough to exploit it.~

  “What! Really! Come on, it was self defense!”

  I couldn’t complain about the boost to all my attributes, but that title was a bit degrading. Hopefully, no one would see it. Also, would that transfer when I got my body back? A twenty-three percent increase to all attributes was insane. That, along with the boost I get from being in the forest, was a lot. Too bad I didn’t have a way to fight. Blinking this prompt away, another one appeared.

  For being the one responsible for de-throning Greydalf the Wrathful, you have gained relationship points with all prey animals in the forests. The prey animals of the forest will forever be grateful to Arther Nutsy, the Alpha Neuterer.

  “Arthur Nutsy the Alpha neuterer, come on!” I could live with Arthur. But Nutsy! Come on, this was absolutely ridiculous, especially with that title. Shaking my head at the absurdity of the message, I blinked away the prompt. Having gained relationship points had to be a good thing. Maybe no one would catch on to how I de-throned the wolf.

  Greydalf was actually a cool name. Why couldn’t I get something like that? Sighing, I crawled out of the hole. I needed to remember this place. Holes in trees were really hard to find. You would think the forest would be full of them, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Taking in my surroundings, I noticed that the forest looked thicker than before. More underbrush and even larger trees. The ground must be more fertile in this area or something. I was also getting closer to this mother tree. I could feel it.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  There were birds chirping and the sound of some sort of buzzing insects off in the distance. This made me think of honey, and my stomach rumbled. Sniffing around, I smelt blueberries and darted off in that direction. I stayed in the trees in fear of more wolves. There was also a very noticeable difference. Jumping was easier and my claws seemed to grip better. Even my eyes were improved. This was no doubt from my new title. Maybe that incident with the wolves was more beneficial than I realized.

  As I followed my nose, I wondered what the yellow bar was exactly. My stat page said nothing about that. Although, I also couldn’t find anything about the skills I earned, so maybe there were just some things that were hidden. Well, all things hidden were meant to be found.

  It didn’t take me much longer before I was staring down at a blueberry bush. Looking around, I didn’t notice anything, so I slowly began down the tree. Looking every which way for danger. Seeing none, I quickly moved to the bush, sniffing around to find the ripe ones. I began stuffing my face. I was starving. It didn’t make sense why I was always so hungry. I continued to eat berries for several minutes. Only stopping when I heard a hissing behind me. Quickly turning around, I noticed a large brown snake only a foot away from me. My eyes winded, and I put some distance between myself and the snake.

  “Look, I don’t want any trouble okay, just trying to get a bite to eat and I’ll be on my way.”

  “Do asss you wissh Alpha Neuterer.” The snake hissed before slithering into the bush.

  “Holy tree sap!” I said as my mouth fell open. Am I Parselmouth? Pushing the thoughts of being a wizard away. I thought about what the snake called me. How did that snake know I had that title?

  Looking up, I tried to see if there was a name floating above my head or something, but I saw nothing. Part of me wanted to follow the snake into the bush, but that seemed like a bad idea. If I wasn’t mistaken, snakes ate squirrels. Quickly stuffing my cheeks, I bound off up a tree.

  Finishing up with the few blueberries I had, I headed in the direction of the Mother Tree. Or at least in the direction I felt I should be going. I really hoped I would get some answers. There was a lot I didn’t know about this world. And I was certain this squirrel brain was affecting my thought patterns.

  Jumping from tree branch to tree branch, I felt free. This was my domain. I was fast, especially now, with all my boosts. I didn’t know how the boosts worked exactly. But I assumed if I got twenty-three percent from the title and fifteen from the racial gift, that meant I got a thirty-eight percent boost to all my stats in total. But I wasn’t sure, and that was something to figure out later. Right now I was just going to enjoy the freedom of bounding through the treetops like a ninja. In the distance I saw mountains and the best I could tell it was forest all the way there.

  I was running across the tree branches and leaping to the next so quickly it felt as if I was flying. As the wind blew past my face and pushed my ears back, I felt unstoppable. It was the most freeing moment I had ever experienced.

  Right up until an eagle swooped down out of nowhere and snatched me mid jump. I nearly passed out as several talons pierced deep into my small body. I gasped in pain and coughed up a bit of blood. A red bar appeared in my vision and it was already at half and slowly dropping. A little red blood drop was next to it. Though I only gave this a cursory glance. The trees began getting further and further away as my vison darkened only for my eyes to snap back wide open in panic.

  The yellow bar appeared, and everything slowed. Even the pain subsided and the wind in my face stopped. My mind raced. I was nearly forty-feet above the trees now. The yellow bar was dropping, and it had just barely recovered from using it yesterday. I knew I didn’t have long. If I was going to do anything, now was the time. Remembering that I did indeed have sharp teeth and claws, I began biting and scratching with everything I had at the talons holding me. Even with the yellow bar slowing time, agonizing pain shot through my entire body with each movement. I pushed through it and for the entire remaining duration of the yellow bar; I bit and clawed at any and everything I could reach. If I was to die, it would be on my own terms, not eaten by baby birds.

  As soon as the yellow bar bottomed out, the eagle let out a high-pitched screech. It sounded like it was more surprised than hurt. However, I was in so much pain, I barely realized I was falling. My tail flapped in the wind as my vision began to tunnel. All I could see was the eagle darting down towards me, but there was nothing I could do. I was going to die on impact any way. Everything was becoming hazy.

  Hitting what I could only assume was a tree branch, my eyes flashed open. I saw the eagle on top of me and I blinked in confusion at the wide-eyed, panicked look it had. In a daze, I glanced at my health bar. It was just above a sliver. However, my health bar was noticeably larger than it had been, likely from being back in the forest. My mind barely registered this before darkness filled my vision once again.