At the sight of the massive bear Lanek immediately reached out to confirm that it was Yuri’s mother. After receiving confirmation that she had simply evolved, Lanek used [Identify]. He was pretty sure that Liv would be very interested to know what Yuri could evolve into eventually and he didn’t see her or Yuri in the stables.
Letha
Dire Bear
lvl 1
Dire bears are the natural evolution of cave bears, being much larger, stronger, and with subdermal bone plates as hard as any plate armor. The cave bear evolves into a dire bear out of necessity as the family group of cave bears can only grow by moving into more dangerous territory where predators exist that can prey upon unwary or lone cave bears. However, once a dire bear evolves, many predators will keep their distance as dire bears are not only known to be territorial but also quite protective of their kin. It is not unheard of for a dire bear to hunt someone or something down for months on end to avenge the killing of one of the bears under its protection.
Lanek eyed the dire bear and noted a few changes to her appearance that the System had failed to mention. Such as the massive fangs that extended down past her lower jaw, making her appear like some terrifying combination of bear and saber-toothed tiger. She was also at least a meter taller and longer than she had been before her evolution.
“So… hi, Letha.” Lanek said hesitantly, noting Talwarg giving him a startled look as he spoke. Letha chuffed in response, butting her head into Lanek’s chest. This forced him to scramble and grab hold of her fur to keep from falling. Letha chuffed once more, this time in clear amusement before approaching Talwarg and repeating the process. However, the heavily built hobgoblin was more easily able to keep his feet.
“Well, Talwarg. Something you want to tell me? Don’t think I didn’t see the look on your face when I greeted Letha over there.”
“Uh, yeah. I mean, yes, my khan.” Talwarg stuttered for a moment.
“Come on, knock that shit off and spit it out.”
“Sorry, Lanek. Force of habit at this point.” Talwarg joked. “I was just surprised to hear you call her Letha. It’s what I’ve been calling her when I come up here to feed her.”
“You’ve been feeding her? What about the crew Caelis has taking care of that?”
“I asked them to stop and let me handle that for her. I’ve been cleaning her stall and spending time with her when I can as well. It’s helped a whole hell of a lot with my stress and mood.” Talwarg paused, a look of concern flashing across his face. “Please don’t make me stop.”
“Talwarg, I don’t care that you’ve chosen to take her care on yourself, especially if you enjoy it and its helped your mental health. To be honest, when I invited her back here, I was hoping you two would get along. Besides, what grounds would I have to object? Your responsibilities have not suffered in the slightest. You do remember what I told everyone, right? About her not being willing to be tamed or a mount?”
“Thank you for your understanding.” Talwarg said with evident relief. “And yes, I remember. I’m not looking for a pet or mount, just an animal companion.”
“I love animals as well, Talwarg. However, I’m curious. Is there a reason why an animal companion is so important to you?”
“Yeah, there is. You would find it difficult to find any member of my tribe that doesn’t want an animal companion wandering about. You should have seen it, when I was growing up we had cats, dogs, wolves, and the like all over camp. They were part of the tribe and were welcome in any of our homes. However, we decided to stop taming or bringing them home. The number of attacks we suffered and the many times we had to flee resulted in so many of our animal friends dying or becoming lost. We couldn’t handle the pain anymore and just stopped, although I know many of us dream about bringing those days back if we could just find a secure home.”
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As Talwarg spoke, Lanek could see a group of former Night Arrows standing nearby listening while looking at Letha. One of the older goblins looked away, eyes wet with remembered grief. I don’t know why this is surprising to me, the goblins and hobgoblins have proven time and time again that they aren’t really all that different than humans.
“I’m truly happy that this could happen for you. I think once we fight off the matriarch and secure our home, we should see about bringing some more life to this place and try to find some cats and dogs. As long as our people care for them and treat them with respect, I would love to see them wandering the monastery and plaza grounds.” Lanek said as he looked down and remembered his own pets and how much they had meant to him. He was grateful that he had not left any behind when he came here, his last pet having passed away well before he woke up in this world.
As he finished saying those words, he heard a series of shuffling footsteps approaching. Looking up, he found the older goblin that had wept at Talwarg’s story along with about a dozen others standing behind Talwarg, Ograch, and Nerek. Upon seeing Lanek’s eyes upon them, they saluted in unison.
He was about to object to this, but stopped himself when he saw not a trace of irony or mirth in any of their eyes. With that realization, Lanek knew that chastising them at this point would do nothing but hurt his relationship with his people. Taking a deep breath, Lanek cemented this gesture in the Talons and returned the salute.
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The next few days passed quickly, Lanek spending almost every waking moment helping out where he could. This would often take the form of joining in on Talwarg’s training sessions for morale purposes and taking his turn patrolling the walls now that they had multiple wooden staircases rising to them. When he had down time and wasn’t ready for sleep, he would spend his time in the library learning everything he could about the area around Caelis.
After poring over maps and dusty tomes, Lanek had a few possible leads for finding new allies when the issues with the matriarch were resolved. Instead of looking at cities and towns that likely would have been the primary targets of the gaunt invasion, he had looked for remote villages or towns with wilderness areas that the residents could have escaped to and hidden themselves. This included a small series of villages near the mountains, mountains that contained several mining complexes according to his maps.
Lanek had also found references and directions to possible dwarven outposts. The true dwarven kingdoms were a long distance away from what he could tell, but they did have smaller settlements scattered around the continent of Laheris.
He had also searched for some of the other races, such as the various types of elves. Once again, he couldn’t find any large kingdoms or cities nearby, just references to small towns, typically located within large forests. While he wasn’t sure if any of them would have survived the gaunt invasion, he still marked the closest one he could find, which was a fair distance to the east, past Laethon.
God, I hope they aren’t cunts. Lanek thought. He had always been fond of the idea of elves in fiction and RPGs, but it seemed like just about every writer thought that they should be portrayed as insufferable pricks that are just begging to get punched in the face. Then again, it may just be those writers projecting as he had met a few of them at various conventions and book signings that were most definitely cunts.
As he stood from his maps and made his way out into the hallway outside of his quarters, he heard the bell atop the monastery sounding loudly. Swearing at the sound and the fact that it had nearly made him jump out of his skin, he rushed to the stairs and climbed up to the top of the bell tower, finding Talwarg already there and peering to the east.
Lanek turned to look in the same direction, barely able to make out any details at first, then he saw what had alerted their sentries. All across the buildings to the east he could finally make out a writhing mass of spiders. It took a moment for Lanek to see that even the space between the larger spiders he had fought before was covered in a carpet of fist-sized spiders clumped together. However, they all remained in place, staring not toward the monastery but to the east.
The ground rumbled and shook then, buildings collapsing into the earth as a massive chitinous limb stretched up into the air before crashing down and crushing a small home beneath it. With that first limb anchored, the remaining seven emerged and pulled the full bulk of the matriarch from the ground. She stood as tall as the monastery itself and Lanek found himself doubting their ability to hold.
It was then that another rumble spread through the area. Turning to look to the southeast, Lanek felt himself tremble slightly before he mastered himself.
Another matriarch had come to join the impending battle.