“It doesn’t seem to be aggressive…” said Rosie as the bumblebee Databeast shook its bum at them in a dance once again.

“And yet it isn’t running away. Very odd. A Juvenile Databeast like that should have rushed us. And yet it’s… trying to communicate?” said Ravena, puzzled. She put her bow away now, all thoughts of trying to take down the flying Databeast gone from her mind. She was much more interested in figuring out this curiosity.

“Hey Databeast! I don’t know where you want us to go! But if you lead us, we’ll follow,” yelled Tommen.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asked Rosie.

“I think it’s a fairly bad idea,” said Brand. “This Databeast is clearly intelligent and could be leading us right into a trap. With that being said, I really don’t think we should miss out on an opportunity like this.” He addressed the Databeast after. “Hey Databeast, do you have a name?”

The Databeast buzzed excitedly. Brand guessed that meant it did. It took off and flew a few circles around them before landing back on the megalith. This was not the behaviour of a wild Databeast.

“Can you tell us your name?” Brand asked, taking the lead in communications.

It buzzed noncommittally, as if unsure. It tapped its abdomen twice with its mechanical leg, then buzzed at them.

“Abdomen?” asked Ravena. It buzzed negatively, a short and sharp thing that sounded like a no to Brand’s mind. Clearly the Databeast knew how to communicate with humans.

“It tapped the black patch? Is your name Black? Fuzz? Bee?” asked Tommen. It buzzed no to all three. It landed on the ground several metres from them and tapped its abdomen with its mechanical leg again.

“I don’t really get it.” said Rosie. “Maybe it isn’t telling us its name.” The Databeast buzzed in a noncommittal way again.

The bumblebee tapped twice on the ground and then scraped a few times, motioning with its whole body. It gave Brand the impression of a come here signal.

“You want us to go over there?” he asked. The Databeast buzzed excitedly and then negatively. Brand gave the others a puzzled look. “I don’t really know what that means.”

“Maybe we should go over there?” said Tommen. The four started moving towards the Databeast and it took off into the air, moving backwards by about a metre. It buzzed excitedly then negatively again.

“You want… just one of us to go over there?” Brand asked. This time the bumblebee buzzed excitedly but didn’t follow it up with a negative, so Brand took that as a yes.

“Okay this definitely feels like a trap,” said Rosie.

“You guys have got my back, right?” asked Brand as he started hesitatingly walking towards the Databeast.

“That’s right,” said Tommen, holding his staff. Brand saw Ravena draw her bow again, but not knock an arrow in there.

When Brand was around a metre from the Databeast it buzzed negatively again and he stopped. The Databeast seemed skittish.

It approached him, but took a long circular route to him so that it approached him from the side. Brand kept a hold of his shield, just in case. The Databeast was walking slowly, but he was ready for it to burst into action. Still, he wanted to give it a chance. He didn’t think it could do a lot of damage before the others got to him. He trusted them.

The bumblebee Databeast walked up to him slowly and extended a furry leg up to about his waist, and then patted him on the side of his arse twice. It then quickly retreated and then buzzed at him.

“...what on Excoria was that?” Brand looked down at his legs, then back at the Databeast. “Your name is Bum?” It dawned on him. The bumblebee Databeast buzzed yes no again, then patted the ground twice. “Your name is BumBum!?” exclaimed Brand, as if solving a difficult riddle. It was a real eureka moment.

The bumblebee Databeast, BumBum, buzzed excitedly once more and took off again, circling the group in the air a few more times before landing back down on the megalith stone. It did its little dance again, then took off and landed near the forest, where the minimap showed an old path once was.

“Well. That was certainly something,” said Tommen.

“Did that really just happen?” laughed Rosie, as Brand walked back to the group. BumBum looked at them in confusion.

Brand shook his head, still somewhat amazed at the short interaction. It was not what he expected he’d be doing today. “Ravena,” he said, “what do you say we should be doing?”

“Right now I just want to go back to the College and make sure that interaction was written down for posterity,” she laughed. “Honestly, I think Dalton would be fascinated with it. I've never seen a wild Databeast smack someone in the arse before.”

“Very funny,” said Brand, but he also started laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Databeasts were terrifying creatures that all adventurers feared, even more so when they acted abnormally.

But the bumblebee was cute! Though perhaps even that was a trick. Brand was still uncomfortable with the way the Anugent had tricked his mind, so he hesitated to trust this Databeast. But he trusted he could keep himself protected - the Anugent had messed with his mind, but the Anugent had paid the price.

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Ravena spoke. “Well the bumblebee is going the same way we are. I guess we'll head down the path and see where it goes.”

BumBum seemed to understand them because it buzzed excitedly again. It moved its metal legs and then took off. They headed after it, but soon enough it flew back to them, landing a few metres behind them and wiggling its antenna. It buzzed aggressively.

“What’s it doing that for?” asked Rosie, right before a Bushgle burst out of the forest line and headed straight at them. These plant Databeasts blended into the background of a certain area and then jumped out at unsuspecting travellers. As its name suggested, it looked much like a bush, with two big yellow eyes glaring out from the darkness of its body and two lithe wooden clawed legs that lifted the entirety of its body off the ground. It ran at the adventurers, flailing thorny vines at them.

Ravena aimed her bow and shot in a flash, hitting dead centre. Tommen took the lead after that. It was moments like this where the staff really shined. For Rosie or Brand to get in close to the Bushgle would probably require them to take a few grazes from the flailing vines, for Tommen he could keep them at well beyond arm's length and use the staff to trap and wrap them. It tried to pull the staff out of his hands and engage in a tug of war contest, but before it could begin properly testing the strength of the blond lad, Brand and Rosie had already burst out from around him and flanked the Bushgle from either side. A few hits from both of them and it went down.

BumBum buzzed happily and took off again, leading them down the old road. Brand checked the minimap and they were still heading the right way.

“Huh…” said Ravena. “This little one might be more useful than I was expecting.”

They continued down the path the minimap had marked out for quite some time. They knew they were on the right track as they continuously passed little stacks of stones - cairns. The bumblebee Databeast continuously flew back to them whenever a Databeast approached, allowing Ravena to get some hits in before it reached the party, speeding up their training considerably. Ravena had brought Clerk out so it could get some EXP, and it seemed to enjoy following the bumblebee Databeast, barking excitedly whenever it flew back towards them.

At some point, BumBum stopped and circled in midair, buzzing negatively at something. It was making tight circles, making it easy to pinpoint what it was referring to.

“Hold on,” said Ravena, “you see that, right there? Coming out of the ground, like a pink star?”

Brand squinted. Indeed there was something coming out of the ground. It looked like it could be a weird plant, or possibly an odd type of fungus. It twitched slightly as he looked at it.

“That’s a Snaptooth. I’ve seen them before, but not around here. It’s hiding underground, sensing for when we get close enough, and then it’ll burst out the ground and rip us to shreds. It only has that short burst though, if it doesn’t get you then, then it’s slow moving and we should be able to handle it no problem. Watch what happens when I shoot it,” said Ravena.

Brand readied his sword and shield whilst Ravena aimed up her shortbow.

There was an eerie silence broken only by the buzzing of the bumblebee Databeast. Then a twang and a whistling as the arrow sailed through the air, hitting its mark perfectly. This triggered an explosion of soil as two long clawed paws followed a long furred snout out of the ground and up in the air. It was a sort of gigantic crocodilian mole. Its snout took up at least a third of the length of its hunched up body and the gnashing the Databeast performed in the air whilst it scrambled for prey revealed several rows of serrated teeth. Its body was quite hunched and it had a long tail. This was the only place with scales.

Ravena had been readying another arrow during the chaos. The Databeast realised there was nothing around him to snack on, so it made an immediate beeline for the party. Clerk barked at it as he transformed into something more intimidating. It did nothing to slow the Snaptooth down, but Ravena managed to get another arrow in before the Databeast closed in.

Immediately the party broke into formation once more. Tommen took on the front, shoving his staff straight into the face of the Databeast as Brand and the girls surrounded it. It clearly couldn’t turn quickly, but its strength was immense. A clawswipe sent Tommen reeling backwards and it turned on Brand next. His sword was buried haft-deep into its side, and he couldn’t pull it out in time as it turned. That was fine, it would do damage over time.

Brand put both hands behind his buckler as the thing snapped at him with its gigantic mouth. Serrated teeth smashed into the top and the bottom of his buckler, centimetres away from his forearms. He kept himself in place and held as the gigantic Databeast tried to bite down on him.

Brand flowed his energy into the shield, hoping to reinforce it better. He could feel the fire energy flowing through his hands directly into the buckler. It began heating up hotter and hotter and in a few seconds he could feel it affecting the more sensitive parts of his face, namely his lips and his eyes. He squinted a little as the roasting heat came his way, but he knew his fire resistance was high and would protect him. The Snaptooth had seemingly no such defense. It thrashed its head around in response, trying to throw Brand around. Its instincts wouldn’t let it let go of what it had bitten, so it could only react spasmodically.

With the others attacking it from the flanks, it was just a matter of seconds until the Databeast disappeared into aether. Brand’s sword clattered to the floor.

BumBum buzzed happily.

“Alright! I’m rethinking this Databeast,” said Rosie, “it might be the best thing that ever happened to us. I don’t want to know how it would have ended if we’d not realised the Snaptooth was there. It could have torn us apart.”

“Too right, it was strong as anything. Sent me flying,” said Tommen. “You alright there Brand?” He asked upon seeing Brand looking down at his shield still. “It didn’t get you, did it?”

“No, not at all. Well, almost. But I got it.” Brand touched the outside of his shield. It was still hot, but not searing like it was before. “It’s cooled down. Touch it though,” he handed the shield to Tommen.

“Damn! Careful!” exclaimed Tommen as he passed the shield from hand to hand like he was playing hot potato. Brand snatched it back. Tommen continued. “That’s it cooled down? Sounds like you’ve found a way to manifest your Element! Great stuff man!” He clapped Brand on the shoulder.

“Oh well done!” said Rosie.

“Congrats. This is turning into quite the fruitful excursion, and we’ve barely started,” laughed Ravena.

“Cheers,” said Brand, picking up his sword. “It feels good. Just happened naturally. Shall we get going?”

“Of course. If this little one keeps finding Databeasts before they can get the jump on us, we might have to turn this into a proper hunt,” said Ravena. BumBum buzzed.

“Say, BumBum,” began Tommen, “if you can find Databeasts, how about Databeast eggs?”

The Databeast buzzed excitedly and then negatively.

Brand’s eyes widened. “Doesn’t that mean… maybe?”