As it turns out, the deeper I go, the more bizarre stuff gets. Strange, as in something a mad scientist would have done in their secret lab, as I have encountered so many weird things. Like a plant that can produce electricity all on its own, a pack of rat and porcupine hybrid that was chowing on what I can only assume is a giant cricket. Some giant insects, which I was able to deal with, were among the common varieties of plants that have jaws, as well as weird-looking but still dangerous-looking small hybrids...
...What the heck is this place?!
At least there are a few animals and plants that are still normal, though. Normal in the sense that they do not look heavily altered or cross-bedded. Those were a welcoming sight for my eyes.
Even found edible fruits and berries. Those were really delicious, which makes me remember a certain morbid fact.
I was not born as a crab/what I am now. I was molded into this form.
My human body was used to construct my current body. Flesh, bone, skin, organs, and body fluids, every part of my body was turned into something similar to a crab's body part.
So in turn, I was more human than crab, so in turn, my senses are similar to a human's. But there are those situation that makes me think otherwise. Molding my body into a crab's wasn't the only thing that had happened to me. Something else was added to me.
My respiratory, digestive, motor, and mental senses seem to be different from what they were more enhanced, I guess. Aside from the mental senses, since I know that I am getting a bit insane with talking to myself, it may be a mental sickness.
Sadly, I do not have the means to get a therapist. I mean, how on earth would there be someone who has the capabilities to try to heal my mind when I have a fractured one?
No one, that's who. As such, all I can do now is wander around doing a bit of sightseeing in the place. At least with that, I wouldn't have to worry about money or anything. But sickness is another thing that I worry about, so I'll just put that at the back of my head for now.
I should focus on this thing in front of me first.
Right there in front of me was a ravine of sorts, a small one, actually, from my perspective. But what caught my attention was the fact that there are a couple of beings there by the bottom, where there is a lake of, I guess, fresh water.
Now I would have gotten closer to take a look, but then I instantly noticed something familiar about them that made me stop and hide myself.
Why would I do such a thing, even though those things were smaller than I am? It's the fact that they look awfully similar to the point that it made me stop in my tracks.
Those things that I was talking about stood on two legs, a pair of arms picking up miscellaneous stuff, a roundish head, two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, which they use to let out familiar sounds. These beings are humans...
Living, breathing humans, no odd appendages, tan skin, and nothing out of the ordinary.
That boggled my mind as I was not expecting this at all. Not for a long time at least, since I have expected to come across something human-like in the future, but not like this.
So for obvious reasons, I didn't run towards them like some sort of idiot or an over-eager human. No, instead, I quickly looked for where to hide and stayed there while making sure that I could still see them.
From my observation, these humans look a bit tribal, judging from their unique dress, which sort of blends tribal and a bit of fantasy-like aesthetic with those intricate symbols and carvings on their tools and clothes.
There are about 10 of them, 2 are what I think are males, while 5 are females for obvious reasons, and the rest are small children.
The 2 males are, I believe, the ones who are guarding the group. The females are gathering up water with the use of some skin bags made out of leather, while the children are just playing about, causing trouble.
Again, I was not expecting to encounter something like this at all...
Seeing them, I did the next best thing...I carefully turned the other direction and left the area.
It's really great to see that there are actually human beings living in this place, if it weren't for the fact that I was not human at all. Anyone would argue that I should have approached them, but with how much I value my own life, I picked the other choice and left the area.
An idiot would argue that I could try and be nice to them, but I know for a fact that these people would know just how dangerous this place is, so it's obvious that if I try and act nice, then they would take advantage of that and either kill me or I would be forced to kill them. Those options are not what I want.
So leaving was the best choice. Maybe another day I might try to see if I could have a sort of friendly relationship with this tribe, but for now, though, I will need to go and check out the rest of what this place has to offer me.
Maybe I would encounter something else new along the way, with how my luck has been, and finding that there are humans here on this place, I expected it to get worse. So I did not get my hopes up...and I should have expected things to go from bad to worse...of course it would go from bad to worse.
For context, as I have left the area where those humans are, I found a cluster of cave entrances, which was amazing to see if it weren't for the fact that at each of the cave's entrances, there were tons of skeletons of different animals all scattered about. Some were familiar bones of monkeys and birds, while the others were from beasts that I have yet to encounter.
I wasn't facing the entrance by the way, as I was hiding beside some foliage when I noticed the bones. Of course, it was obvious to anyone that caves are the primary dwelling of some animals because they are perfect places to sleep in, rather than wasting energy digging up a hole. So now, though, the question is which sort of animal did this? It may be a mammal like a bear or a big cat, since those are the obvious ones. Maybe even a bird, but that's gonna happen.
My further musing was shaken as I soon found out just what was living in those caves as a massive head peeked out of the cave's entrance.
Oval-shaped head, scales that shine in the sun's rays, a forked tongue, and piercing fangs. This thing was a snake, and it wasn't the only one, as there were many more slithering out of each cave entrance, all of which were of different sizes.
That made me nervous as I was not expecting there to be so many. I guess that would have explained a few puncture marks on the bones. I didn't mind that since that might have just been because of some weathering occurring in the area.
So with that, I quickly left the area before any sort of incident occurred that would just put me in harm's way.