ALL NOVEL 13 - Five more minbets
The sky was beginning to brighten on the horizon and the stars slowly faded away as the night gave way to day. David had spent a couple of hours testing the increase in potency that came with Echolocation’s increase in rank. The pulses now came out in chittering bursts, the sensation feeling like a halfway point between a sneezing fit and a violent case of the hiccups. He could blanket the entire field accurately enough now to catch the way the grass under his tree was waving in the warming breeze.
Can't say I like how that feels but it's got a way better…framerate? Resolution? Eh, it's a lot smoother anyway. Goes farther too.
David waited impatiently while the illumination gradually grew until he was certain that Claire would finally be able to see properly. He fluttered to the ground a short distance away and hopped closer after carefully folding his wings before poking the end of her snout several times. She continued to sleep like a log despite his repeated jabs, her pebbly hide simply too thick to feel his claws. David considered screeching at her but decided that being snapped up like a dog toy if he scared her wasn't worth it.
“WAKE UP!" He howled as loudly as he could without actually triggering his Ability. She snorted a bit and rolled away, turning her large scaly shoulder towards him and tucking her head down opposite where he stood.
So, he scurried around behind her, rushing through the tall grass and bouncing over a large rock along the way. He paused briefly, and then bit her on the tip of her tail, careful not to break her thick skin. She jerked reflexively in response, the motion feeling like it was going to leave him toothless as the tail was pulled from his mouth and she raised her head blearily to look at him.
“You ‘spect me to fit…all dem fishes on the rocket ship?”, she mumbled grimly as she looked down her nose at him.
“...no?" David replied slowly after a few seconds of speechlessness, “Claire are you awake? It's time to get up. I found a quest, remember? We talked about it?"
"S’cold…gimme five minbets ‘kay.” She yawned cavernously and stretched, jaws smacking together softly as she slowly woke up all the way.
David tried to keep busy by picking a few of the tiny purple flowers that grew in scattered patches around the meadow with his hind feet as he waited. Claire turned her face towards the glow of dawn as a large moth-like creature landed on the end of her nose and fanned its wings prettily. Her yellow eyes slowly focused on the little bug for a few moments without really seeing anything before the slitted pupils narrowed and she sucked in a breath of surprise. The poor insect was snatched from the end of her snout like a pin drawn to a magnet, a single fluttering wing left flapping piteously as it was inhaled halfway into her large nostril.
“Ack! Bug, it's a bug!”, Claire sneezed violently and surged to her feet while the moth vanished like a shot into the distance.
“First moth in orbit!"
“Shut it squeaky!" She rumbled as she dug at her nostril industriously with one of her stubby forearm claws, head tucked uncomfortably by her chest.
“You awake now?! It worked, I found one! We were right! I was flying around and I found these creepy dog things then.."
David rattled off the night's events over several minutes as Claire stalked around lethargically trying to wake up and commenting on things every so often. She wanted to know how big the wolf things were, how many of them he’d seen, and most importantly what made them so creepy. He didn’t have a good answer for the last one, choosing to just repeat aloud his theory that they also had some sort of mutagen or another Unnerving effect after answering her other questions. He bounced enthusiastically around her as he spoke, eventually working his way through all of the details to what he considered the juicy part of the tale.
“Okay, so the Quest. It’s something called a Landmark Quest which makes me think that I can save time from now on by just looking for…well…landmarks.” David trailed off lamely before he rallied a bit, “Anyway, it’s like almost an entire level worth of Exp and get this, it unlocks something called a Pack System if we complete it.”
“Is that good?” She called up after him as he flapped into the air and circled the meadow excitedly.
“I dunno, probably. Come on it’s not that far, it's just up the hill, through the woods, and like halfway up that ridge over there!” David yelled as he darted towards the ridge in question, zipping several feet off the ground.
Claire stared at him like she wanted to eat him for several seconds before she started jogging after him. She left a trail of parted grass in her wake as she wove through the boulders that lay at the foot of the slope out of the meadow. David glided in a lazy circle while he shouted directions and encouragement as she picked her way up the hill until she finally roared at him for backseat driving and he wisely shut up. Deciding she could probably find her way to the top without any help he circled higher, fixing the top of the ridgeline and its huge rocky outcropping in his mind as he stared out over the trees at it.
It was a few miles away by air, and if they hurried he was sure they could make it there before the sun crept high enough into the sky to blind him. He continued to ride the breeze for a few minutes with the occasional glance downwards at Claire’s progress until finally she crested the steep slope. She stomped into the undergrowth before turning to shoot him a positively grumpy look and motioning awkwardly with her stubby claws for him to…
No, that was definitely the middle one. Man, she's really not a morning person is she? Almost feel bad for those things when we get there. Yeah she's definitely grumpy. Let me just…
|Echolocation E: Manipulate high-frequency sound waves to see with more than just your eyes. Multi-stage ability: Repeated uses against the same enemy builds Combat Expertise.|
|Combat Expertise: Prolonged analysis of your target grants increasing damage bonuses over time. Stacks 2 times.|
–Health: 40/40–
–Stamina: 115/140–
Yeah, I still lose Stamina gliding during the day. Lame. Cannot wait to see how good Combat Expertise is either. I better get down there before she actually gets mad. Maybe I'll walk with her a bit?
David folded in his wings and let himself fall like a sandbag for a few seconds as he closed his readouts lazily. Claire’s jaw dropped open for a moment before he snapped his wings open and leaned back, thick membrane billowing behind him while he slowed tremendously. He barely even grunted when he finally touched down a dozen feet away from her and closed the distance in only a few hops, glancing behind her into the woods. The wind in the air had been crisp and clean, but this close to the ground the wind from the forest carried too many smells to even name, and he wrinkled his nose in distaste.
Claire snorted at how quickly his expression changed after landing before she spoke, “Showoff. Now where are we going besides uphill the entire way apparently?"
“Okay, so I've had a lot of time to think about it and I have another idea. Follow me, I'll explain it on the way!"
Claire let out a long-suffering groan and began to trot through the forest as he pointed the way, gliding after every bounce to keep up with her long strides.