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Chapter 31: A New Friend
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“Major Gods? Noronabi created them. To contract with a Major God, one of the Seven, is a privilege reserved for racial champions. To contract with Noronabi? To our knowledge, none have achieved such a feat.” ~ Sestina Elise in response to a student inquiry at the Myra Institute of Scholarly Arts.
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The crib was constructed of hewn and shaved branches tied together to form a rectangular sort of cage with no top; the baby llort was perhaps the size of an average adult human male though much wider and with chubby, recognizably infantile limbs with small tusks protruding from its lower jaw and the hallmark blue-grey skin of its parents. If Logan had to guess, he’d say the thing might have weighed two hundred and fifty pounds or so, though it was hard to tell as he was unsure of the structural anatomy of the species.
Heaped in piles spread all around the crib were the prizes of all of the llorts’ various encounters. Like hoarders or the greedy dragons from children’s stories, they’d stashed their riches into the back of their cave. Heaps of bronze, silver, and gold coins spilled out of open chests, the pristine skulls of several monsters were mounted to the walls or placed neatly in rows on the floor, and dozens of other valuable-looking oddities such as weapons, hunks of stone and crystal, and bits of armor and other items that Logan couldn’t place were everywhere. He even spotted the deer’s antlers, their carved, crystalline spokes as breathtaking as ever—though lacking the glowing shine they’d had in life.
The baby llort’s sobbing wails, for that’s what Logan realized they’d been, intensified into something more closely resembling screaming—though it still sounded wrong. Logan tore his eyes from the treasures, and rushed to Tarn’s side.
“Holy shit!”
“Bloody fockin’ ‘ell, it’s a baby! Ugly bastard, isn’t he? But cute too, in a stupid sort of way.”
Logan narrowed his eyes on the llort, contemplating it. It was flailing hysterically now, its screeches a frantic pandemonium.
“He’s like a dumb looking dog, a pug with one of those fucked up, squished, fat pancake faces. Loud though, Jesus.”
Tarn burst out laughing, leaning back, and bellowing from his stomach.
“I don’t know what a pug is, but he does look like a stupid dog doesn’t he? Damn it he’s loud! What’re we going to do with him?”
Logan returned his sword and torch to his inventory—he wondered if the fire would stay lit in there—pressing his hands to his ears to block out as much of the noise as he could, and approached the cage.
He sidled up next to Tarn, his eyes not leaving the llort in its crib.
“I’m not sure… It looks like a baby, though it’s pretty big for one. I don’t feel like it’ll be too much of a threat, and I’d feel bad about killing it.”
“Aye, he doesn’t seem capable ‘a doin’ too much to hurt us, ‘specially locked in ‘at cage as ‘e is. Want to leave ‘em be ‘an look around a bit? ‘e might shut up if ‘e realizes we’re not here to hurt him.”
Logan looked at the llort’s crying face contemplatively, wondering what he might do to calm it down. They did just kill the thing’s parents, and he felt it would be cruel to mistreat it; even if llort’s were monsters, they seemed intelligent. Plus, this one couldn’t have killed anyone yet. Logan took in the loot stockpile surrounding them with a sweeping glance, noticing all of the clearly human armor and skulls that’d been accumulated over the years. Hopefully, hadn’t killed anyone yet, that is.
“I think I might have an idea, can you watch my back if it starts to try to attack me?” Logan started towards the cage, searching for handholds to climb up the wooden posts.
Tarn followed after him, then noticed the llort’s reaction to the fire of torch and hung back a few feet. “Sure mate, not sure what I can really do but I’ll come rushin’ in if things go tits up,” he said.
Logan had wrapped his legs around one of the poles and begun shimmying up by raising his knees to his chest then reaching higher before lengthening his body again. Like this, he made his way to the top of the cage, the llort watching him all the while but thankfully not attacking. Maybe they’re not born hostile? If it’s a baby that’s never fought anything before and doesn’t have instincts to kill straightaway, maybe it won’t even think to attack me?
“Alright, here goes,” Logan said, removing a Steam Fish Fillet from his inventory and catching hold of it, precariously balancing on top of the post he’d climbed.
“Fuckin’ ‘ell mate for a fledgling rei user ‘an a guy that’s ‘sorta’ contracted, you’ve got some mighty useful tricks. You sure you don’t want to come back with me to the deserts?”
Logan laughed, then gritted his teeth as the seven foot long fillet began to slip in his hands. It’d appeared vertically, making it longer than he was tall, and he had to lean back and hug it to his chest to stay upright. The waxy paper within which the fillet was encased began to slip and tear in his fingers, but he managed to awkwardly step around the cumbersome fillet and lay it down on the post between his legs. There wasn’t much room to stand, and he hurriedly began unwrapping the fillet. If the baby llort was going to appreciate its gift, he didn’t want it eating paper with its first meal.
Logan noticed that the baby llort had stopped howling, and was watching him with a look of perplexed curiosity. It must smell the food; I think I have some meat from Tarik in there too if it behaves. I wonder what it’s preferences are? If its parents’ appetites were anything to go by, then presumably any kind of meat would work. He hadn’t seen any evidence of them eating vegetables or mushrooms or anything. He winked at the llort. Having finally gotten the fillet unwrapped, he shifted it off the post and into the cage, slowly lowering it down. The llort rolled from its side onto its butt, then got up to its feet.
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“Come here little buddy, come to Logan,” he said, making clicking noises with his teeth as if he were beckoning to a dog. He felt a little stupid doing it, especially calling the infant llort “little,” but he didn’t know how else to call to it. Can llort’s learn languages?
“You’re feedin’ it! At least you got it to quiet down, I thought for sure I’d go deaf in ‘ere.”
The llort began waddling towards Logan, who was out of reach a few feet above, looking up at him with his fat, squished, adorable pug-like face. “C’mere, take it, its food,” Logan said, making his best attempt at a soothing, supplicating voice. He’d never really been good around children or toddlers, and had only owned pets as a kid, so he was a little out of his element. Whatever the case, it seemed to be working. The baby llort raised its chubby hands up to the fish fillet, and Logan dropped it into his grasp.
The llort failed to catch it, instead getting smacked in the face by the thick fillet and falling to the ground onto its back with a low pitched yelp. Logan cringed, and Tarn burst out laughing again.
“Damn it all but ‘es cute. Shall we name ‘im?
Logan watched the llort turn over with the fillet, then sniff at it for a few seconds before lifting a portion to his mouth and biting in. He looked up at Logan, wide black orb eyes glistening, then returned to his meal. It looked like he was enjoying it.
“Hmmm…. what about Pug?”
“Pug?” Tarn said, stroking his beard with a hand; he’d returned his sword to its hidden place beneath his robes.
“Yeah, like the dog I mentioned.”
“Pug,” Tarn said again, slower, testing the word’s feel in his mouth.
“Short and sweet, has a bit of ‘oompfh’ to it; I like it!” he concluded, smiling broadly. “Pug the llort!”
Logan hopped off the side of the cage onto the floor to begin collecting their spoils. He easily absorbed the force of the fall, the high drop barely effecting him at all. He was starting to feel superhuman with his stats the way they were, and was excited to test his limits when they got a bit of down time.
“Let’s take a look around. I should be able to carry everything here, and we’ll decide what to do with Pug when we leave. Sound good?”
“You’ve got it boss,” Tarn said, turning away from the llort with a lingering look.
The first item that Logan approached was the set of Brightwood deer antlers. He analyzed them, and a text box appeared in his vision.
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Brightwood Deer Antlers
(Epic) The antlers of a Brightwood Deer. A rare crafting item, these antlers are used in weapons, armor, and alchemy for a variety of effects. Can hold and channel rei and are frequently used as the vessel of rune carvings.
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Rune carvings? Channeling rei? These might be more valuable than he’d originally guessed. He did start to wonder if he’d be able to sell it though, even in Tarik, at the best price. Either way, they needed money to move forwards, so whatever price they got for it would have to do.
Next, he moved to the open chests with coins spilling out. There were two of them, one nearly filled to the brim with dazzling coins, the other knocked over and only a quarter full, close to empty. He picked up a silver coin, flipping it over in his fingers. It was too large and heavier than the other silver coins he’d traded with, and bore unfamiliar markings. He called Tarn over to have a look.
“Ever seen a coin like this?”
Tarn took it from him and began to inspect it.
“Hmph, no. This isn’t Protectorate Standard, must be a coin native to one of the Seven Sovereign Realms. Wonder how it got here though, mighty strange. We won’t be able to use them to trade, but the bigger cities across the mountains should have exchanges. I don’ know how much they’re worth, but it’s got to be a beautiful bronze if they’re from outside the central realms. Good find, mate!”
Logan thought he understood. The bronze, silver, gold, and platinum coins that he’d looted from monsters and traded with in Tarik were part of a standardized currency used across the central realms, but there were other currencies used in… civilizations beyond? Or did he mean other continents? Countries? Other planets? He’d save the questions for later. Logan scooped the chests into his inventory and swept a hand across the spilled coins on the floor, collecting those as well.
Moving on they found several pieces of armor, each from a different set. None of them matched, but that didn’t matter to Logan as he was intending on analyzing each one later for special properties and presumably selling most of them anyways. He moved through the cave, collecting everything he encountered. Flashy helms, plated gauntlets, gilded boots, broad, heavy chest pieces with intricate carvings, spears, swords, bows, and even quivers with intricately designed, elegant arrows. Logan even took the trophy heads of the monsters and animals mounted on the walls, and the hulking chunks of stone, ore, and metal.
It seemed as if the Llorts, in addition to being carnivorous club-wielding brutes, were also eclectic collectors of anything and anything that seemed remotely interesting, hoarding it all in this back room of their cave. After what felt like several hours of looting, Logan’s inventory started nearing capacity. He didn’t have a level up feature, but his stats had grown significantly after the llort fight and he’d unlocked rei. These two combined led him to suspect that his ability to carry more items in his inventory had increased, since he was sure that he held more now than when he’d had to stop and go to Tarik in days prior.
Finally, all that was left to do was to deal with the llort. Logan thought he might be able to put it in his inventory but wasn’t 100% sure and didn’t want to risk what might happen if he tried. He’d have to experiment with a rat or something later, so that he had an answer to his question. Instead, he and Tarn joined each other before the cage, looking in at the baby llort, Pug, eating the fillet. He’d already managed to eat half of it, which was incredible as that was nearly a third of his own body mass in food. I guess growing llorts have to eat, he’s got a lot of size to gain. Do llorts have growth spurts? Logan was expecting Mikey to chime in with a sly comment any minute, but the celestial had been unusually quiet for a while now. He wondered if something was wrong and decided to check in on him when they got out of the forest to safety.
“I want to keep ‘im.”
Logan jerked to face Tarn. “What?”
“I’d feel bad killin’ ‘im, and I don’ think ‘ed survive out ‘ere in the forest without his parents. I’ll take ‘im with me back to the desert. We’ve got plenty ‘a caves there where he can feel right at home. Who knows, maybe I can even train ‘im up to help me catch ‘em flyin’ fuckers; he’s bloody tall enough!”
Logan thought it over, then shrugged. No reason not to, I suppose. If Tarn wants to keep it as a pet, that’s his call.
“Sounds good. How’re we going to take him with us though? Do you think he’ll just follow along?”
Tarn turned slowly towards Logan, his lips turning up into a conspiratorial smile, his pearly white teeth standing out sharply against his dark skin and black beard, eyes glinting.
“Allow me to show you the true powers of the Awali rei users, my friend.” Tarn removed his chain blades, Jabar and Jakar, and spoke another of his odd, short invocations. They unfurled, the coils of chain straightening and spreading, folding, and twisting in the air. They levitated behind his shoulders, following him as he slipped through the bars of the cage and approached the llort.
“‘ay there Puggie, I’m gonna be your new papa alright? Gonna treat ‘ya real nice. Come ‘ere Puggie, I won’t bite.” Tarn walked with his hands spread before him, showing that he had no weapon. The chains floated calmly behind him, the hooks on their ends having changed shape into more chain links. Tarn reached into his hair and removed a bead, then whispered to it and it began glowing.
The llort watched him cautiously, still nibbling on quickly disappearing fillet as Tarn crept closer. Tarn rolled the bead on the stone floor towards the llort, and the llort picked it up and held it up to its face, enamored by the glowing yellow marble. “Not for eatin’, just for lookin’, okay? Will ya’ hop up on my back for me, puggie?”
Tarn was only a few feet from the llort now, and it didn’t seem the least bit hostile. It kept the sand pearl in its hand while it finished the remainder of the fillet, then sat on its butt, regarding Tarn and his floating chains.
Tarn motioned the llort to come towards him, and it stood up and began taking awkward, lumbering steps in his direction. Tarn turned his back to the llort, gave Logan—who stood just outside the cage, mouth agape—an exaggerated wink, then said another word to his chains. They spread wide apart and surrounded the llort, gently engulfing it and lifting it onto Tarn’s back, fastening into a seat under the llort’s bottom and securing around its back and shoulders before looping around Tarn’s legs. The llort sat on Tarn, riding piggy back, with a chainmetal seat and back-straps to secure it.
The chains around Tarn’s legs acted as a sort of exoskeleton, giving him increased strength to support Pug’s weight. The baby llort mewled softly as if agitated, then fell asleep, its thick, bulbous head resting on Tarn’s shoulder.
Logan was amazed—flabbergasted. He stared in disbelief at the incredulous sight of Tarn, glittering beads in his hair and sand robes down to his feet carrying a llort on his back in a makeshift backpack. He just stood there, staring, until Tarn gave him a beaming grin and spoke up.
“Help me clear one ‘a those pillars, will ya’ mate? Gotta get my puggie out’a here and take ‘im to his new home.”