He pushed Charlie away slightly then gave him a good scratch. He looked like he was in a playful mood this morning.
James gave him a huge hug, then found a piece of wood and piffed it. Charlie went chasing after enthusiastically.
Squire was nowhere in sight. Given her current buffs, James pitied anyone or anything that tried to stop her. Still, maybe he should get Summoning Awareness
He walked over to get some stew from an enterprising Guildy nearby when Edward and Ken found him.
He bought two bowls and dropped down to give one to Charlie when he came padding back.
“Hey James. We ah… saw your messages when we woke and you were already asleep. Are you okay?” Edward asked.
“Honestly, no, not really. I should be dead. If Tristan was slightly less of a sadistic prick then he would have slit my throat and I’d be dead. As it is, they underestimated me. I had to summon everything.”
“I’m at fault there. We were on patrol, but there were so many Guild members coming and going that we missed them.”
James turned from scratching Charlie again and looked Edward in the eyes. They were a bit red.
He swallowed his own fear to console his friend.
“Hey, don’t feel too bad mate. There were so many guild mates around, and none of them noticed. Next time I’ll set Charlie on guarding me, or whoever is sleeping. She won’t let strangers sneak up on us.”
“All true, but I owe you. You slept, believing we had your back… and we didn’t.” Edward was choking up.
James dropped his gaze. It was true. He did feel betrayed.
There was a look of regret and guilt in Ken’s gaze when he glanced at him. He felt that Ken saw right through him.
It was safer looking at Charlie, who lapped up the attention.
He changed the subject.
“I want to hunt down some lower level creatures that can also guard us while we sleep. I also do not want to summon my Thorncat again or I lose Thornhide grafting.”
Edward embraced the topic change. “I’ve been thinking about that. I think you should buy some of these caged beasts. You may not find another opportunity like this again soon, and you’ll save the guild the chore of finding a buyer.” Edward paused for breath, then continued, trying to help. “It’s going to either be sold to the Arena or butcher anyway.”
He was right.
His morals had nearly gotten him killed.
He strode over to Janine. She made him wait for her to finish sorting out another Guild member's allotment of goods first.
Finally free, she looked up and motioned James over.
He approached and bluntly said, “I want to buy that wyvern from you.”
“Made your mind up huh?”
“Yes,” he said firmly.
“Good for you. But you don’t have a high enough Guild Reputation.” She seemed to be making a joke but he wasn’t sure.
He went to check his Character sheet for his reputation when Janine put her hand on his wrist. It was like lightning.
“I’ll make an exception for you. Something tells me you will be good for the Guild.” She winked and gave a brief glance at Edward and Ken who were close enough to hear.
“Well then… How much are we talking about?”
James was rich, despite paying off the five hundred gold debt. But he had no idea how much this would cost.
“Three hundred gold”
James was about to object when he noticed the look on Edward and Ken’s faces. Apparently that was a really, really good deal.
“Deal” he said and shook her hand.
“Is there anything else you would prefer to sell to me cheaply, and save a trip back?”
“Yeah, there’s some fairy dragon eggs, Baby Rocs, and a clown griffon with purple spots.”
“Okay, so no. I get it.”
She smiled.
He smiled.
She bit her lip.
He handed over three hundred gold and it disappeared into nowhere.
“You know how to make a girl feel special.” She did a little hair flip and strode off, emphasizing the sway of her hips.
James knew it was mock flirting, but it was still fun.
He turned and Edward gave him an excited, expectantly naive look.
“Yeah, we kinda hit it off recently.”
Edward grinned and playfully punched his shoulder.
James looked at Ken with a leading look.
Ken smiled in an almost perfect replica of Janine’s.
He smiled, trying to look exactly the same.
Ken flipped his short hair and strode off, also swaying his hips.
He guffawed. Ken laughed as well.
Edward had his own slightly betrayed look that said,
And like that he felt the awkwardness leave.
“By the way, where are our horses?” James asked.
Edward pointed over to a wagon. “They are picketed on the other side, ready to go.”
He nodded, then looked over at the big cage where the wyvern was, and back at Edward.
Ken was striding back with exaggerated steps.
“Come on. Let’s get this over with.”
They walked over to the cage. The wyvern had lighter scales than he’d imagined, and more sinewy, with membranous wings and tough but flexible skin under the wings. The creature looked dejected though, as if all fight was gone in him or her. James wondered how long it had been since it was last fed.
James felt a pang of guilt. This magnificent creature didn’t deserve to die like this. Perhaps it would be more honourable if they had one last meal first.
“Do you think if I fed it, it would consider becoming a bond?”
Edward shook his head. “No friend. I don’t. It’s not a griffon”
Ken also shook his head and spoke. “You can’t save them all. Sometimes putting them down is kinder.”
“Perhaps a last meal out of respect? While I was fighting Tristan and his mercenaries, the horse I was on was killed. I have its corpse in my inventory. I didn’t want to waste it, what with crafting unlocked now.”
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It was Ken who spoke up, surprising him. “Respect to a beast of nature is honorable among my people. It’s our tradition that the spirits of the dead remember the way they were treated in life, especially their final moments. For you, that’s potentially more important than most.”
“Okay, but I can’t just drop a full sized horse in there with it.” James turned to Edward. “Do you have a butcher’s knife by any chance?”
Edward produced one promptly.
“Here you go,” he said as if apologising.
“Thanks, mate,”
“No worries,” Edward responded, smiling.
Deciding he really needed a reclining chair in his inventory, he lay down instead and shifted to Commander’s Space.
Charlie stayed behind on guard.
James climbed the steps into his spaceship-like crafters hall, past the crafters station and glowing resources, and into the Inventory room. There, he found Tristan’s grisly corpse. It was not decomposing due to the wonders of this place, but the sooner he got it out the better.
Necessity first though, and he needed a sword belt for his new sword. Edward’s going to freak out when he sees it.
He carefully removed the sword belt, cleaned it off with some water, handily nearby, dried it off by cycling through his inventory, and then tied it around his own waist. The clever use of the system distracted him from how grotesque this all was.
Next he went to the dead horse.
Thinking of what Ken had said he whispered, “Thank you”.
He placed the butcher’s knife against its neck.
- Resource Card – Horse Meat (Basic)Time remaining: 1 hour.
Tool in use: Butcher’s knife.
The saddle and saddle bags magically separated out into their own slot.
James noted it was converted into Meat and not Horse Essence. Interesting.
He walked back to the crafting hall and decided to set up his cards again.
He dropped out of Commander’s Space and then re-summoned Charlie and Squire.
Drake Aspect Progress Increased – Squire: +10%
James looked at Squire’s further transformation and wondered if he should stop it.
Squire seemed to want it… and who could be unhappy with a Squirrel Dragon Bond.
“Okay, ” he said to the crew. “My crafting table is working on that now. I’m going to need an hour.”
“There’s so much I would like to tell you.” He thought about Sparrow. “But I… Sparrow warned me not to.”
“Perhaps we should go hunting instead?”
“Great idea team leader,” Edward said, while stretching out his leg muscles. “That’s the best news I’ve heard today.”
Perhaps Edward was laying it on a bit thick, but James felt better.
“Squire, my little squirrel dragon, go find us something to fight. We’ll follow as best we can but bring the fight to us if you can.”
Squire preened and then ran off to the woods.
An hour later, they had a dozen rabbits, two crows, and a hawk.
Squire was a machine when it came to chasing down small prey.
She had expertly baited the hawk down by pretending to be small, slow, and vulnerable. At a critical moment she’d sped up, then struck with a flurry of her mighty claws. They all hid in the bushes.
Once the hawk was dead, we’d all shouted cheers of congratulations along with enthusiastic clapping.
She seemed exceedingly proud of that one, tail waving slowly for a good minute, before tracking down her next prey.
Because Squire was his familiar, all of the creatures were easily tagged for looting, binding, or harvesting.
James carded two of the rabbits, looted one, harvested one, and opted to keep the rest as snacks for the wyvern.
The loot was unexciting. Rabbit meat that was wrapped in oiled paper with a bow around it. Harvest-wise he got a Rabbit Essence (basic)
Turns out, Edward and Ken were not needed in the end after all, but they didn’t appear upset about joining in.
Now, back at the cage, James opened his inventory and pulled out a piece of horse meat. There was nothing particularly special about it. For all he knew this was now a master cut. Weight wise, it was about 250 to 300 grams, and he could have grilled it on a BBQ.
What was special was that he still had eight hundred and three portions left in his inventory. It was rather gruesome, but he now had a new container made of horse pelt.
He threw the horse meat in casually.
The wyvern didn’t move to take the meat.
He threw another piece closer to the feet of the wyvern and it actually shuffled back a half step.
James spoke to Edward and Ken who had walked up beside him. “Do you know why it doesn’t want to eat?”
“No idea.” Edward said, shrugging.
Ken likewise shrugged.
There was a trough inlaid into the side of the cage for water. It was half full, so unlikely to be due to thirst.
He pulled out a piece of meat and smelled it. It smelled perfectly fine.
He threw some to Charlie who, after being given the eat command, greedily consumed it raw.
The wyvern shambled over, cramped as it was in the cage and awkwardly used its maw to pick up the meat and eat the meat as well.
James’ weirdness factor spiked. Something was not right here.
He gave the halt command which doubled for ‘do not eat’.
He threw in another piece of meat, waited a moment, then gave the signal to eat.
This time it was clear the wyvern was obeying his commands.
James made the motion for halt and the wyvern did so.
“This wyvern is trained” he exclaimed out loud.
“Think it would follow your commands if you let it out,” Edward asked.
“Uhh… I’m not quite there yet.”
Ken shrugged. He rarely provided words unless they helped the situation.
“Uhh… I’m not prepared to kill this creature anymore.”
“Well then, let's get the horses and head back. We’ll have to hitch the wagon up.” Edward said and went to get the horses.
Ken went with him.
James fed the wyvern a rabbit to see what would happen. On command, the wyvern ate the rabbit whole.
James looked over the cage. There were no scratch marks, dings, or anything that you would expect from a wild creature that was captured.
He then checked the wheels for any problems. There were none. That was not impossible, but surely unexpected, given the other damage done.
James walked over to Janine again who was checking everything was gone.
“Hi again, ready to move out?” she said in greeting.
“Actually, no. Do you have time for some questions about that wyvern?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“When you fought here there was a lot of damage, but none to that cage. Do you know why?”
“I happened to be fighting near it a few times. There was never anyone around it and we didn’t want to release a wyvern in the area. Bit of a flying menace. Why? Aren’t you just going to kill it?”
“I have something to show you.”
Janine appeared curious and followed along.
He set a quick pace as it was probably slow for her.
“Check this out”
He threw another piece of meat into the cage.
Again the wyvern didn’t touch it until he motioned.
Immediately it ate.
“This wyvern, which I assume is usually a wild beast, is like a trained puppy. That’s weird right?”
Janine didn’t respond and instead used a standard ‘come here’ hand gesture command on the wyvern. The wyvern did so.
Without concern she plucked a card out of nowhere and pressed it against the creature.
“It’s definitely a beast. If the creature was sentient, the system would have given me a name.”
She pulled the card back.
“Here, you try,” she said, handing over the card. “Just say no to the prompt.”
“Uh, no.” he said, backing off. “I have a trait that automatically accepts system prompts if I show the slightest inclination to accept.”
“Have I ever told you that you're weird?” she smiled.
She put the card away and continued. “It says, ‘Do you want to bind Wyvern (Rare)?’ Also, you owe me another two hundred gold. I thought it would be uncommon.”
James frowned.
“Have you ever heard of a wyvern, or any rare unbonded, and uncarded creature obeying hand commands like that?”
Janine spoke with certainty. “Actually, yes. We are a long way out from civilization here, having set up next to the dungeon. But far to the south there’s a mountain range with griffons who would do the same thing. The riders of Agnar, they call themselves, after the first griffon tamer, Warren Agnar.”
She paused for a breath and continued. “It would seem that this wyvern has been trained by a silver with rare or above skills, or a gold level master trainer. If that was the case though, you’d expect a symbol or mark.”
“Like a brand?” James said.
“Yes, but magical. It can be used for tracking. Janine gave a command he wasn’t familiar with and the wyvern turned completely around.
“There’s no mark. Either the master is dead, or the mark was purposely removed. I hate to say it, but I think this one may have been trained by Darneath himself.”
She smiled and added. “You owe me seven hundred gold now”
James gave her an exasperated look. “Why?”
“Because… That wyvern is now worth two thousand gold pieces, and even with a discount, I’ll need to report it to Anne at some point.”
“What! Why?”
“Because, it’s been trained and primed for bonding. I daresay that beast was meant for a lord. Maybe even his father.” She said pointing at Edward.
James turned and looked at Edward, surprise written across his face.
Janine leaned over and closed his jaw for him. “You really should pay more attention to people. Even with that letter you showed me earlier. We have lives outside of you and your quests you know.”
“Okay. Fair point. I’ll make more of an effort to get to know my team and what their goals are. Before we completely change the topic though, do you know why the wyvern is in a cage, if it’s so well trained?
Janine shrugged. “Perhaps people didn’t feel safe around it.”
He handed over the gold. Hopefully, worth every penny.
System Prompt: Initiate Bond?
Trait Activated – Wait—NO!
Initiate Bond failed.
“The system has recognised that I’m now trying to initiate a bond with the wyvern. I need a name but don’t even know it’s gender. Janine?” he asked.
“
“Hell yeah!”
Janine smiled and walked off.
“How about you guys spit out names and when I hear one I like I’ll use it. Perhaps that way my trait won’t kick in.”
Despite saying that, James ran ‘wyvern’ through his internal filter, and made a small laugh.
Trait Activated – Wait—NO!
Companion Acquired – Vern (Rare Wyvern)
Aspects: Beast, Drake, Wyvern
Elemental Affinity: Wind / Venom
Traits: Flight, Trained Obedience, Bond-Primed
Condition: Weakened
Bond Progress Increased – Vern: +1%
James’ face flushed in shame.
Ken sighed.
“What did you do?” Edward exclaimed.