'thoughts' "out loud"

*Zero is inside mc's head. doesn't count.

'I don't like to gamble like this, but from the lack of footsteps around, it seems that the traveling distance is far enough to require travel by wheels. Someone needing help at night is less suspicious than in the middle of a day on a probably busy road.'

While Adam is waiting for the carriage to stop, he completely misses a scene that would have him rethink his current plan. As soon as he laid down and closed his eyes, the owl landed beside the carriage driver. The driver, startled, looks at the owl. As soon as their eyes meet, the owl's eyes glow an electric blue. The driver falls into a trance and stops beside Adam.

Inside the carriage

A young man, seemingly in his twenties, gets startled by the sudden stop. He looks at his companion, a young lady, and sees her still in meditation. He shrugs and calls out to the driver "Old man, why did you stop? we're still far away from the city."

Waiting for a response and receiving none, he looks back at his travel partner and nudges her gently. The young lady stops her meditation with a small grunt. She looks at the young man angrily while he just gives her a wry smile and points out "We've stopped earlier than planned, and the driver isn't responding. Both of us should step out just in case."

The young lady looks at him with disdain "What? are you scared of the dark, or maybe the trees? What could possibly hurt us in this region? wolves? bears? we're both 2nd grade magi. It's unseemly of you to act this way."

The young man already used to his companion's scathing remark and poor show of personality, calmy answers back "It's not a matter of what is there, but simply a preventive measure. The driver did not respond to my call, and while I'm here trying to convince you to step out, he's most likely dead already."

The girl scoffs" Dead? from what? stop exaggerating, let's go and take a look at the scaaary situation happening" and steps out of the carriage while the young man himself shakes his head and follows her out.

Back outside

Meanwhile, the driver is simply looking ahead in a daze while Adam himself is puzzled. He knows the carriage has stopped not far away from his position, but he's unwilling to open his eyes, not without knowing if someone is currently in front of him. So he sits still. While waiting, he hears what sounds like a couple arguing in the carriage. A few minutes later, he hears the carriage's door open and someone steps out, followed by a second set of footsteps. He notices the distress in their voice as they call out to the driver, followed by anger at them being ignored. The female voice sounds angry while the male one is trying to calm her down. Most likely stopping her from doing whatever she was about to do. As they continue arguing, all the people present fail to hear or see the owl perched on the carriage roof. As the owl hoots once, the girl shrieks while the guy stumbles away in surprise, as they turn around, they both make eye contact with the owl. Like the driver, they both fall into a daze. As the scene falls into silence, Adam realizes that things are getting weird. He opens his eyes to a dazed driver, dressed like a clean working peasant, wool clothes, leather shoes, and a wool cap. The other two, a male wearing a navy blue robe, with emerald trimming and the girl wearing a bright red robe with emerald trimmings were in a daze too.

'This is unnatural, something must have caused this.'

While keeping an eye on all three of them, he unties his bag and reaches inside to grab his hunting knife. He does not go near the robed duo as they seem to have some sort of status, and something potentially harmful should he lay his hand on them. So he aims for the driver, holding the knife in one hand, he gets close enough to touch him; he points his finger at the driver's temple "Zero, give him a small shock, I want to see if it'll wake him up".

"Yes sir", his finger pales a little as the blood on the tip is held back by the nanobots. The skin at the tip of his finger opens just a smidge, enough for a hair-like tendril of shapeshifting metal to make contact with the driver's temple and give him a small shock. Nothing seems to happen, as he's about to order zero to analyze the driver's blood, he hears a hoot near his ear. As soon as he hears it, he feels a weight on his left shoulder. With speed he didn't know he was capable of, he slashes at the air above his left shoulder with the knife held in his right hand. As soon as he finishes his attack he rolls to this side, under the carriage. He knew what he heard, an owl. Staying under cover was his safest bet. "Zero, if you feel me fall into a daze at any point in time, shock my brain, start small and increase the intensity if you're unsuccessful. Keep this order active until told otherwise." Zero acknowledges his mental order "Yes sir."

As soon as Adam slashed at the owl, it simply vanished and perched on a branch nearby, giving it just enough of an angle to see under the carriage.

As Adam looks around, he spots the owl on a tree branch further away. As soon as they make eye contact, Adam feels himself falling into a daze only to get jolted back awareness. He starts sweating, not comprehending this situation, it seems like the owl wishes to put them in a trance. 'Is it to eat us? that doesn't make sense, I just confirmed that a large enough shock can wake us up, getting eaten would surely wake us up. Should I wake the duo up? No, the owl seems to be able to hide from our sight or senses. They will likely try to interrogate me, who knows how they will treat me once they find me unable to communicate or understand them. The owl seems intelligent, should I try to communicate, while I can't speak the language, it's an animal. It should be able to sense my intent for peace.'

He keeps an eye on the owl's beak, avoiding its eyes while making a show of putting his knife away. He makes sure the owl understands that he's unarming himself and slowly steps out with his hands up. While still staring at the owl's beak, he speaks slowly to make sure it gets his intent "I apologize if I offended you. I simply want to walk away. If you want, I can give you some water. I don't have any food to give you, I'm sorry." While he's talking, the owl observes him, and tilts its head sideways, as if to demonstrate it doesn't understand. Adam sees this and starts furiously thinking 'It doesn't understand what I'm saying, this implies that it's not a simple animal. An animal wouldn't respond to an unknown language. It would respond to all spoken words as if they were noises rather than an actual language. This owl doesn't recognize my words, either it's tamed, or the animal itself understands the local language.'

Deciding on a different plan, he slowly crouches and takes hold of a nearby stick. Using it, he draws a simple picture, of him walking away while a bird is drinking from a bowl. The owl looks at the picture and looks at him, it hoots and slowly shakes its head side to side. Now that he confirmed the owl understands, he starts thinking 'Does it want me, the duo, or all of us? Am I simply collateral, wrong place wrong time? No, it would've stopped them earlier if that's the case. So I'm the goal, and the only valuable thing on me is my origins. It knows where I'm from, how? Did it spot me when I first came here? Has it been following me the whole time? Is it following someone's orders or did it simply find me and decided to do so. From the way it had to use its eyes to try and put me in a daze, it seems to be a mental power. Does that mean the owl itself uses psychic powers or is someone ordering it from a distance?'

He crouches to the ground under the supervision of the owl and starts drawing, a stick figure, with the bird in front of it, at head level with a zigzagging line coming out from the figure's head to the bird. He points at the stick figure and points to the owl with a tilt of his head. The owl looks at the picture and looks back at him for a few minutes straight, making him sweat a little, then slowly nods. He releases a breath he didn't know he was holding. 'So someone is controlling the bird, they should be capable of telepathy but they decided to put me in a trance. That means they're unsure if I'd be cooperative and they want to see me, that would make sense given they showed themselves only when there was a carriage. I have no choice but to follow, I can't get rid of the owl, it can fly and dodged a point-blank hit earlier.' He looks back to the owl's beak and nods slowly while walking to the carriage. He looks back at the bird to make sure it understands, when the owl give's a hoot, he steps inside. As soon as he crosses the door, the first thing he notices is the difference in temperature or humidity to be exact. While it was neither cold nor hot outside, it was a bit humid. The inside of the carriage was cool, with no humidity, something you would expect from an A/C. He proceeds to look around the lavish carriage, hoping to find the device, and spots nothing. As he focuses a bit, he spots what seems like runes, different from the ones used by the Norse. They were carved in the carriage itself, out of sight, in different corners. If he wasn't looking for them he wouldn't have spotted them, he approaches them, making sure he has a clear view 'Zero copy the runes and save them under new file new world runes '.

"Yes sir."

He hears a hoot coming from the outside, a bit of shuffling then sees the young duo step inside, still in a daze. They proceed to sit down, looking blankly ahead while the owl is perched on the young man's head, looking at Adam. The driver whips the horses, making the carriage move while the inside is still engulfed in awkward silence. About 15 minutes later, Adam notices himself starting to feel a bit sick. Feeling the effect he calmy thinks 'Zero, scan my body and tell me what's happening'. "Yes sir...it seems like you're suffering symptoms from radiation exposure, your body is slowly shutting down, the nanobots are fighting back, but it won't be long until total organ failure. Time until organ failure: 30minutes."

Without panicking, Adam looks at the owl's beak, catching its attention. He points to the outside and his crotch, hoping the person on the other "line" doesn't get offended. The owl, or the person, seems to understand as the owl hoots and the carriage stops. He steps out and empties his bladder while thinking about why there was radiation in the carriage.

'Zero, were you able to pinpoint the source of radiation?'

"Yes sir, the source was the male and female creatures inside the carriage", he hums to himself and then catches onto something weird 'Creatures, why do you call them like that Zero?'

"Sir, no living human should be able to cause such an amount of radiation without dying themselves". He chuckles to himself thinking how even Zero is puzzled by this situation. 'Zero until further notice we shall consider them humans.' "Yes sir".

He walks back to the carriage, but this time he sits next to the driver. He knocks to the closed wooden window behind him. He hears nothing and then hears a hoot way closer than what he expected, making him almost jump away. He looks up and finds the owl looking at him in what looks like schadenfreude. That he could find any kind of emotion in the eyes of a predatory bird is unsettling, without thinking about how the owl got on top of the driver's head without his notice. Maybe because it sensed how uncomfortable Adam was, even with his poker face, the owl decided to perch on his shoulder.

'Zero, use the nanobots to shut my ear canals.'

"Yes sir"

Seemingly able to sense his mental conversation with his assistant, the owl looks at him curiously. Adam notes down this observation, if the person, using a proxy can sense this much, it would mean they should be able to read his thoughts face to face. At least on a surface level. He'll expect the worse and hope for the best...

Author's note: Chapter 3 ladies and gents and everything in between. It's hard to get started but easy to finish once you're on a roll. Making sure it's not slow paced or too descriptive is the hard part. I can't help myself, I guess that will be my style.