I watched and listened to them more attentively. They could speak some words normally, with a weird accent but still understandable. It seemed to me they had most problems with "th" sounds. Instead of "The", they would say "Sfe" or "Fe". They also had some problems with letter like "P". Instead of saying "Top", they would say "Tof". That though depended on individual though, and some of them were able to say the letter "P". After a while, I realised they usually replaced those letters with "F". As long as I could mimic that, it shouldn't pose too many problems.
"Sfo, fats how I whill Sfpeak…" I tried it out. 'Yea, a bit more practice and I should be fine' I thought and continued. The Vanauts didn't stay in one place though. They moved to different locations every once in a while. I had to follow them, while staying hidden at all times. When finally half of them went to sleep, my target was in that group as well. It was time to make my move.
I approached them at a normal pace, and move past those who kept guard. It wasn't that difficult to be honest, all of these Vanauts were below Inner Limits stage. I stopped in front of my target, and in quick succession tapped a few pressure points. I wasn't sure whether those locations would work, as they looked different to the usual humanoid creatures.
It sort of worked, and didn't at the same time. The Vanaut couldn't move, but woke up. I reacted quickly, and tapped on his throat. It seemed to work, as the Vanaut was unable to make any sounds. I then tried a few more locations, and the Vanaut finally fainted. 'Good, now I just need to take him outside unnoticed' I thought. This was actually harder than it seemed. Although I knew the Art of Stealth, the Art was personal and usable by me alone. I wasn't able to make other things disappear.
Or at least in a sense I couldn't. Illusions were able to do that, but my Domineering Aura wasn't useful for such stuff. I had a different way, it was a distraction. A plain and simple method, but usually most effective. I threw a few rocks in one direction, while waiting for the Vanauts to check it out. Without fail, the Vanauts quickly gathered around the spot where the sound came from, while I left in the opposite direction.
With my speed, they had no way of noticing anything at all. I ran further and further away, until I could get some peace and quiet. "Alright, I have the body. I just need to kill him, and skin him carefully". It wasn't that difficult though, I skinned many animals in my life. Vanauts might be more humanoid, but the creature was a creature. Vanauts had muscles, tendons and such, just like most creatures and races. After the painless death, I skinned him in a way that preserved the skin.
I couldn't cut his head, legs or arms for obvious reasons. But I could extract the skeleton without the need of cutting these parts. The only part I cut, was the stomach. It was also through this opening, I would climb into the skin. The skinning was just the beginning though, I still had to soak it inside a medical bath. Otherwise it would rot after a while. Shades had the ability to stop the corpses from rotting, but that was mainly due to fusing with those corpses. I wasn't fusing with it, but simply wearing it.
With the medical bath prepared, I threw the skin inside and allowed it to soak. This had to stay in that bath for a while, and I used that time to rearrange all my stuff. I had to place everything I had into my Storage Feather, it didn't increase in size and could be easily carried while I was inside the skin. Unfortunately, I had to take my clothes off too. With that packed into the Storage Feather, I was left standing in my underwear. Hiding the Feather was not a problem, and the bags were empty too. All of that could easily fit inside the skin with me. That was perfect, as I didn't have to leave stuff behind. I also took out a special thread and needle, then placed them on the side. This would be used to stitch the skin back up.
When the skin was ready, I squeezed out the excess of medicine from it, and then rolled it out onto the ground. 'I really don't want to do this though…' I thought when I saw the skin in front of me. It was cleaned out and all, but still. This was the best choice though. Even though I could use my Art of Stealth to infiltrate their camp, I could find out much more if I posed as one of them. I opened up the still wet skin, and slowly climbed inside. I had to modify my body to a certain extent, in order to fit. A bit of wiggling and adjusting, I finally fitted into the skin. "Fis is sfo disfgufting…" I said to myself, realising I didn't even try to speak in a broken language.
"Why did I frain it fen? Ah, Wafever". I was inside the skin, but I had to act quickly. When the skin dried out, it would shrink and make it stick much better to my body. Walking, was not easy inside that skin. Everything became new to me. Walking, moving my arms, fingers and even simple movements of my head. I struggled, but picked up the threat and needle, then proceeded to stitch myself up. "Fis is so anoyfing" I said to myself, while trying to use those thin claw like fingers to stitch the skin.
After much, much more fiddling, I finally managed to do it. 'The stitches should disappear after the skin dries. I need to get used to this skin first, I can't act as if I'm some sort of retarded Vanaut' I thought. I didn't head to the ruins just yet, I practiced first. Basic movements changed into more complex movements. Running, jumping and so on. When the skin dried, it stuck very firmly to my body. Thanks to that, my movements become more natural, and I could act like a Vanaut. This was not the end though.
'I still need to replicate their smell. Right now, the whole skin smells like medicine, this will arouse suspicion' I thought. Fortunately, I knew how to replicate the smell of Vanauts. Using some weak poisonous herbs, I smeared them all over my body. I also rolled on the ground, to make myself more dirty. With that taken care of, I was ready to enter the ruins.
I wasn't really sure what to expect, when I arrived there. But I could just feign ignorance, in case someone asked me more private questions. I met Vanauts on my way, but they didn't seem to care much about me. The closer I got to the ruins, the more of them I saw. 'Their population is not small, even though they lost so many people. Are they breeding like crazy or something?' I asked myself.
I then saw the ruins. The most prominent parts were the leftover walls, and a destroyed tower. The walls as well as the tower, seemed to be constructed from some sort of bricks. I never encountered that colour of a brick, greenish grey colour was rather unusual. At first I thought it was moss and dirt, but on closer inspection, they had that colour. A few Vanauts approached me, they looked to be guards of the ruins. "Fhy are you fere?" one of them asked.
I shook my head while replying, "I'm not sfure. Foke up in fe miffle of nofere, and came here". Another guy asked, "Enemy affacked you?". I shook my head, and again replied that I didn't know. They asked for location, and I pointed them there. They told me they will check it out, before allowing me to enter. 'Good, they didn't seem overly suspicious. While they chase non existent enemy, I can explore the ruins' I thought.
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