image [https://imgur.com/iK4PfOu.png]

image [https://imgur.com/ruehqzb.png]

Current Location: ??? (S.C4)

Normally I’m pretty nimble—you know this—but on my trip to the Kaugs with Reed, I abruptly slipped on a dash of mud some animal had smeared along a rock and flopped over.

“Cat!” Reed cried.

She saw it an instant before I did: the monster my fall had unleashed. It was a snarling orange weasel!

Before I could get to my feet, the critter was high in the air, in the middle of a body slam! Or body strangle, since its body was sort of rope-noodly-shaped.

Reed defended me. “Yeek!” she eeked as she whipped her leg out. Her foot, heavy boot and all, plunged into the weasel’s midsection and shunted them into the trees—and far far away, judging by the lack of a thud. I did hear a bodily crunch on impact, though.

Reed’s kicking foot scuffed back on the grass. Despite having just decimated a tough-looking weasel, and despite being way bigger than the weasel too, she looked frightened.

Exhaling from her core, she said, “I don’t like dealing with beasts or bad spirits when I don’t have my hands on a weapon.”

“Meow,” I said, pointing a paw at the boot she’d just weaponized.

“That doesn’t count! It’s so close to my foot. I could’ve lost my foot, if it’d gone wrong!”

“Maow…” I was shaking my head.

“I know it’s unlikely, but stranger things have happened…” She took her sword in hand. “Do you mind if I keep a hold on this as we walk?”

Why would I? Reed should do what Reed wants on our Reedspeditions, she’s earned it.

Besides, she’d just saved me from a battle that could’ve been rough. Unlike with Chora’s savior mode, I desperately wanted to thank Reed for it, but I didn’t really know how, and I didn’t want to stop everything for another limb-nuzzling session. At that point she’d just be scritching every half-hour, and then it just loses its power, doesn’t it.

…Or maybe it just makes us feel even more at ease, being out here together on a gloriously sunny day.

I thought about this as we walked on.

The landscape was getting more marshy. No wonder some very unwelcome mud had tripped me up back there. Another trickle of a stream flowed to our right and wended its way down an easy slope, and we followed it, peeking in to find little white fish darting through. The shade grew thicker.

Treasure Detected! Check your Map for the location.

Woah! That hadn’t happened in a long time.

“Huh?”

Reed stopped walking as soon as I did. Phew—that erased the temptation to keep walking while I pulled up my Map, then bump into a tree hidden by that Map. I sat, closed my eyes, and calmly opened it:

image [https://imgur.com/1bJIo1S.png]

Ah! It was a touch farther east, just past the border between this Map square and another. In hindsight, it seemed a bit weird that in my early days on Vencia, I never ran that way. That space shared a corner with the Taipha’s Tree and Reed’s Cabin space C3, after all.

As I digested the info, Reed crouched beside me. “Is anything wrong?” she whispered.

I shook my head.

“Did you see something good? Oh—is it like the time you led me to the Beacon?”

I nodded!

She smiled wonderfully! …and then faded into a look of worry.

“Will we have to get ready to fight something big?”

Probably not, but on the other hand, you never know. Since I couldn’t easily shrug, I just blinked kinda hard.

“Well, if that’s what it takes,” she said, her face changing to firm resolution, “I can do it—we can do it.”

That’s right!

Reed’s gaze wobbled. Distracted, she looked down into the winding creek.

“Huh…” She sounded disappointed. “This stream used to be wider. Or is it that I got older?”

“Mah?”

“You want to…hear more?”

Sure, and I waited patiently for it.

She sighed out a long breath. “For part of my childhood and young adulthood, I lived here, in the cabin. And for a special occasion or a shopping day, my family and I would go to Outlast.” She threw a pointing thumb over her shoulder. “It really was—is—a retreat. And one of the special things my brothers and I would do when we were all together is go fishing.”

And she started to tell me things I hadn’t imagined she would know about the stream—and with full conviction. That the fish in Mirror Pong were not only different, but larger, but somehow the fish in the stream swam quicker. That it nearly dried up in autumn until when the big chill hit in winter, it was nothing but dregs, the tiny divots of ice barely visible under snow.

As we walked toward the Treasure, she told me about how metefry would rocket into the air during their mating season. They’d jump right into nets, but catching them that way didn’t feel right. These were ordinary-extraordinary natural things, everyday things that I could wrap my head around, that made me feel at ease, made me almost feel like the whole galaxy was as simple as one cabin in the woods.

Our path took us away from the stream, but I still pictured it as Reed described a few more fishing stories. An older brother, Harp, making the biggest and most daring catches; a younger brother, Lute, getting frustrated with it all, throwing his rod against a rock and crying out when it broke; Reed sitting and humming in the middle.

“I miss that,” she said. “I don’t dislike where I am now, but I am allowed to miss it, right?”

I looked up at her, unable to communicate much of anything…besides my presence, and maybe the idea that I was here if she wanted someone to lean on.

Yeah. Maybe that was all she wanted at the moment.

Shhf!

My ear flicked as if a fly had bitten it. What was that sound just now? Reed didn’t react to it—had she even heard it?

Ah, no, she did hear it. Reacting properly took her a bit as she shifted hair behind her ears and rubbed at her eyes one last time. “That sounded like a camera shutter,” she said.

Oh yeah! Vencian, old-timey-Earth cameras, I remembered now. I wagged my tail like a dog. It took way too much energy.

“You’re not trying to go out and find it, are you?”

“Myeah!”

“But there’s people with it!”

“Meow.”

“And what if one of them is DeGalle?”

That wouldn’t stop me at all. In fact, it made me wag my tail more vigorously (playing through the pain)! “Meow!!”

“Sorry,” Reed said. “Strangers just make me nervous. Specifically strangers in the woods.”

I wanted to tell her, It’s fine! It’s okay! Come with me and get un-nervous!

Having revealed myself to random humans at the St@rs clothing shop, I now realized it was okay. Exciting, even. And in a worst-case scenario, surely Reed and I working together could get the jump on a couple of werewolves…right?

I walked on ahead, veering off the path of the Treasure to find, potentially, treasured new friends.

Oh—oop—wait, that wasn’t true, the Treasure was on the way there! As I led the way and Reed hesitantly walked behind (don’t worry, Reed, I thought, you can do like I did with the raccoons and hang back in the trees if you need to), I kept checking my Map, trying to figure it out. And by “I kept checking,” I mean I had to repeatedly open and close the Map so I didn’t get blinded. (Apparently you avoid getting blinded by giving yourself a migraine.)

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

In the end, the Treasure and the camera noise were in the same place. Was it smart to assume the camera was the Treasure, or smarter to assume nothing? I chose to assume nothing.

We stumbled across three people sitting on a log and bickering. Their clothes were freshly mud-stained in places, and they didn’t look suited to a long stint in the wilderness. In fact, the first thing that came to mind when I saw them was a gaggle of college students I’d once passed by on Earth. I think those ones were arguing over how to direct their student film. I hadn’t helped matters by accidentally knocking down their tripod.

Meanwhile, these three were squinting at a square photograph barely big enough to be pinched between two fingers. A clunky wooden box that must’ve been a camera (if not a bundle of travel essentials kinda like Reed’s camping case) sat patiently at their feet.

“That’s a hawk.”

“Look at the eyes!”

“Those aren’t even eyes, that’s glare!”

“Finn, you can’t keep calling everything bright and shiny ‘glare.’ It doesn’t make you look any smarter.”

“I concede that may be a wing, but then what do you call the—”

“Maow!”

All three of them glared up at me. A thrill in my heart told me that this was a look I’d been expecting ever since my reincarnation: deep, unadulterated annoyance.

But the look changed fast. One heartbeat later, they were racing to the camera. The one who grabbed it first squeezed a flashbulb and successfully blinded me, even as the other two flailed their arms all over him like a losing-but-desperate basketball team.

Reed emerged from the trees mumbling, “Oh, dear…”

Five more pictures were taken in quick succession, from slightly different angles. Now the argument was about whether they had enough film and why the photographer couldn’t get out of the trees and into some better lighting for crying out loud.

I took it all in stride, even posing a little for them. My Earth self would hate this, but my Vencian self found it a cute novelty. I was getting attention! My old self didn’t understand attention, didn’t have all the human context for it. Now that Sierra had told me what TV was and stuff, though…

“Um, may I interrupt?” said Reed.

It was unsuccessful. I gave her a look—she sent it back, both concerned and saddened.

Oh no. Or rather: oh no? This had all happened so fast that I wasn’t sure whether or not I’d just thrown myself into the deep end of something actually really bad.

Reed swallowed in breath and squeezed her eyes shut as if she was cannonballing underwater. Raising one hand, she set off a Fire Spell, a hurtling fireball that exploded mid-air like dynamite.

It was more sound than fury, and it dissipated quickly. But it definitely got everyone’s attention.

Now Reed was furious. Lucky for me, all her fury was pointed at the three camerapeople. “If you publish those images of a spirit going in peace,” she said, “I, Reed Gnaeomi, along with my very famous mother Lily Gnaeomi, will strike you down with a lawsuit the likes of which you have never seen!”

That shut them up. Well, two of them. But the third, the man with the camera who had the flashbulb in mid-squeeze, answered with a casual swagger, “Really. Against DeGalle’s media empire?”

Reed gulped. “W-well, we have several university systems on our side.”

“People!” cried the woman in the no-longer-white bell-bottom pants that, thanks to the rough journey, were literally eroding at the knees. “I can’t handle this right now. Why don’t we call a truce, and just give you the photos?”

Reed beamed.

Inwardly, I frowned. She was so innocent…but when she smiled that way, and no one else did, I felt like she was about to be ripped to shreds…

“And whatever university your big mom’s teaching at, they can have them! Provided DeGalle gets the credit.”

“Or I get the credit,” the photographer dude offered.

“I’m sure they don’t want to be associated with you,” said Reed. “What with the conspiracy theories and trampling on local property and such. No offense.”

“Oh, we’re extremely offended.”

The bell-bottom woman took the photos from the dude’s hand, stomped over to Reed, and put them in her hand.

“There,” she said. “And we won’t even acknowledge the cryptid you’ve got with you. Will that make you happy?”

“It would! Thank you!” Reed said, oozing sincerity.

“Meow!” I said in agreement, because Reed hadn’t gotten ripped to shreds after all! If she was happy enough with it, so was I!

Now seemed like a decent time to cross-check the Treasure against my Map.

image [https://imgur.com/cLBHtmv.png]

Current Location: Camera Crossing (S.D4)

We were still right on top of it. Could I zoom any closer in?

image [https://imgur.com/rHymnOr.png]

Okay, that didn’t help at all. There was the Map, there was my icon, and the Treasure. It was ever so slightly, um…east of me? Like the people were? But it could still be anything!

I wished I could see some other features on this thing. Anything, or anyone, else!

Map features huh?

Error: Invalid request.

Help Desk Map?

The Map is a feature of the System allowing the user to—

Gah! Ugh, I should’ve remembered that would just flood me with rookie-level information before the important stuff. I didn’t really have the patience to get my vision blocked for any longer right now.

“And could we interest you,” the second dude said, “in some DeGalle Swag?”

NO! I CAN’T MISS THE WEIRD BRIBERY!

I shooed the box away. This didn’t make it go any faster, but it did give the satisfaction of scratching an itch. Before me, the three DeGallians were crowding around a single backpack, digging in deep until they pulled out, unanimously, a little dangly sack.

On the outside was a picture of a floating head with a tall ponytail and a tough grimace. I assumed that was DeGalle dmAge. She sure did look like she was going to insult my dinner and flip it off the table. Inside the SwagBag that Reed hesitantly took, she found a T-shirt, a beanie, and a hacky sack, all branded with the DeGalle name and floating head. She also found a stress ball in the shape of a distressed cartoon horse. It seemed to have DeGalle’s phone number on its back.

She said softly, “These…nobody I know would want these.”

Hold on. She hadn’t taken everything out of that bag, and the last thing was…

I crept closer, studying the Map as I went.

image [https://imgur.com/N6U1YOO.png]

Yes! Now I could confirm I was inching closer and closer! I was discovering just how far I could push the zoom on this Map—and this, in all its grainy and pixelated glory, was as close as I was getting to pinpoint Treasure-location accuracy.

Then I jumped for it. As Reed was in the middle of handing the bag back, I swatted it down like a wildly successful basketball player.

The bag and I crashed to the ground together.

Complete!

Quest: Here, Have Another Quest with that Treasure—I’m Having Mercy on You Reward:

+Bonus EXP!

EXP: 62% (1570/2250)

What even was that? One EXP? That truly was the least Experience I’d gained from any single Quest! Thanks, Sierra!

Reed chuckled. “I guess someone wants it after all!”

I was glad she was saving face for us both, because with me currently struggling to find the opening of this bag, I seemed to be massacring it.

“Well,” the camera guy said above and behind me, “I’m just glad this has all been resolved. Now, could you do us a really big solid?”

“Uhh, I don’t really…”

Treasure Acquired!

I came out of the bag with my jaws holding something far too big for them. It was a tiny camera! At first, this thrilled me. But then I realized that Bayce had her very own.

Wait, back up…it was possible that the real Treasure was, instead, the complimentary postcard of DeGalle standing in front of what appeared to be the world’s largest peanut.

I dropped the bag and all its inhabitants, turning my attention back to the humans.

“Now,” said one of DeGalle’s crew members, “Ms. Gnaeomi, we took this strange photo about a minute before you happened upon us, and none of us can agree with what we’ve seen.”

“I don’t even know if I see anything in this photo,” she said, looking at the little square being held in front of her. “Couldn’t it just be a shadow?”

“But look at that part!” A finger jabbed at the image. “It’s a beak!”

“Or a snout.”

“But then wouldn’t that be a leg?” Reed conceded.

“Oh, you’re right.”

“I don’t see it.”

I returned to Reed’s side once it seemed like the three were back in their own argument-world again. Reed bent down to me and whispered, “Anything you like in there?”

I shrugged. Then I went back and pulled out the camera, dragging it out with my paws, presenting it to her.

Her eyes lit up. “I didn’t even realize this was in there! Wow, that’s kind of high-grade for a, um, swag bag.”

She stood up again, held the camera to her eyes, and, as she walked away, snapped a few pictures of the trees around us.

Just as we were about to make a clean, peaceful getaway…

“Wait,” Reed said, and loudly.

She turned back around to the trio, power-walked up to them. They stopped their discussion.

“Excuse me. May I ask what you’re investigating around here? And…why there are only three of you?”

“We got left behind,” said the third one, the one I haven’t even described yet and probably never will. Never mind. He had glasses. “Temporarily, so that we could figure out what this one weird silhouette was.”

“The rest is top-secret, of course,” said the white-shredded-pants lady. “Until she herself makes the report. But all of us are going down to the Kaugs.”

Reed wilted. “What a coincidence. We happen to be headed that way too. So if you three would like any help getting back, or just companionship on the road, I would be happy to extend an invitation along those lines.”

“No, we’re good,” they said almost in unison.

Reed bowed slightly. “Alright, then. Take care, and may you discover what the thing in that picture is!”

With a glance at me and a weird clicky side-of-the-mouth noise, she beckoned me and I came. We power-walked together out of that scene, and the people behind us sank back into their argument.

Once we were several severals of steps away from them, Reed slowed down and untensed. It was like seeing a marionette drop to the floor: her shoulders flopped forward like they had when she was physically exhausted, and so did her head—I was afraid her knees would follow.

“Meow!” I said, meaning “good escape” or, for all she knew, “meow!”

“At least we got something good out of it,” she said, pulling the camera out again and shaking it.

Yeah! Unless it broke after ten pictures.