“So you just?”

“Yeah just kinda think at it, it’ll appear and disappear when you need it. If you lose focus it clears right away. I think that’s so that stuff can’t eat you while you’re looking at it.” David replied drolly as he hung from what was quickly becoming his favorite branch on the huge gnarled fruit tree he had called home for the last two days.

Claire turned her head sideways where she lay in the thick grass below him, swinging her eye upwards to glare at him as he peered down at her from 20 feet in the air. She snapped her jaws together with a clack, something that he noticed she did when she was irritated, and then went back to reading her status for a while. David took a moment to pull his own status up after almost an entire day of studiously ignoring all his notifications as he yawned hugely and tried his best to stay awake. The sun had been up for about an hour, and the urge to wrap himself up in his wings just to keep it out of his eyes had been growing stronger by the minute as they continued just to enjoy each other’s company.

User: David Fisher

Species: Duskling

Rank: F

Health 30/30

Stam 130/130 (++)

Level: 2

Exp: 67/75

Special: Echolocation F

Traits: 4/4

Nocturnal: +8% Damage, Stam Regen, Exp Gain at night.

Next Upgrade: E

Echolocation: Manipulate high-frequency sound waves to see with more than just your eyes. Next unlock: E

Flight: Allows for flight and gliding. Moderate Stamina drain. (stam+)

Next Upgrade: C

Small: Your form is small, weighing no more than 65lbs. (stam+)

Next Upgrade: D

Abilities: 2/4

Screech F (2pts): You emit a loud screech, damaging enemies around you. Low Stam consumption.

Next Upgrade: E

Glare F (2pts): You fix your target with a baleful gaze, inflicting Fear. Moderate Stam consumption.

Next Upgrade: E

Empty:

Empty:

Mutagens: 1/5

Unnerving Mutagen B: Your appearance is unnerving. May cause enemies to reconsider aggressing you.

Empty:

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Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Did flight rank up? So that was…ten levels for a rank? Must have been when I almost hit that tree trying to get Claire back to the meadow. Huh. Cool, almost level 3 as well. Movin’ on up in the world, I wonder if…

“Hey David, what’s ‘Special’ do?”

David shrugged a bit, wings fluttering a bit with the gesture, “Depends on what it is, probably. Mine’s Echolocation. It lets me see things without my eyes, think of it like this…I dunno…being able to feel things with your eyes, except it’s your ears but you can still see it in your head. Does that help?”

“Are you sure you’re not crazy?” Claire's raspy voice had a high enough snark content that he burst into chittering laughter. She joined in a moment later, booming laughs sounding more like ominous barking sounds as they echoed through the trees around them.

“No, but I'll hang around until we're sure.”

They laughed even harder at the awful joke, David reduced to hanging from the branch by a single hind leg and flapping his wings to regain his grip as Claire rolled on the grass. David had to flap his wings several times just to get the happy energy out, absolutely elated to have another human being to talk to, even if they were a giant reptile that could probably eat him in one bite if they wanted to. He’d been afraid he was losing it for a while there, and just having someone else around was incredibly grounding and made the entire situation a lot easier to deal with. They were both human, even if they didn’t look like it, and humans were social creatures. They’d both sat up all night and talked about everything and anything after David had managed to slowly walk her back to the meadow through the darkened forest.

“No, seriously though.” David chuckled in his high-pitched voice, “What’s the special? Probably worth knowing what it does, Claire, they’re really strong.”

“Uh…Shred?”

“Sounds…fighty? What’s it say?”

Claire paused for a moment as she stared off blankly into the space ahead of her before responding, “Shred…Your attacks ignore a moderate amount of the enemy's physical defenses?”

“What?! You get to be huge and scary and cool? I feel like I got ripped off here.”

“I’ll trade you for flying.” She replied with a violent snort as she used one of her heavily muscled legs to scratch the hide on her neck, “That looks like so much fun.”

“Oh yeah, big time. I only had to nearly die a couple of times to get the hang of it, I’m small compared to you but I'm big enough to hit the ground plenty hard.”

David winced as he remembered the torn wing membrane and a few of the crashes into the pine trees where he thought for sure he had impaled himself on something. He’d been doing his best to improve though, even missing his first rank up on an ability because he’d been busy just…doing what he could. It was impossible to lie to himself that he didn’t enjoy it a little too much, he caught himself flying around even when he could hop or even walk. There was just something immensely enjoyable about being able to hold out your arms, scoop up some wind, lean a little bit, and let physics do the rest for you.

“I don’t like how mean it made me. I didn’t wanna be mean. My abilities are both things to hurt people too! Rend and Kick!” Claire moaned piteously, “Why did this–”

“SSHHHHH! Can you hear that?!” David interrupted suddenly, dropping from his branch to land on the ground beside her. He didn't even bother gliding to the ground, landing hard and bouncing with a snarl as he absorbed the impact.

Claire surged to her feet and held perfectly still the way only a reptile can manage, sniffing the air explosively as David’s ears swiveled around like radar dishes until the left one finally locked onto the offending sound. The right ear quickly followed it, and he hopped twice in the direction he’d detected it from, dusky grey fur bristling as he hunched forward and listened with all his might.

Cracking branches, crunching of underbrush, and odd hooting sounds drifted out of the forest across the meadow opposite the hill that flanked one side. David paused for a moment before sending a few pulses of Echolocation outwards hoping that it’d just be a weird mutant deer or maybe even another new person. Instead, when the soundwaves returned and built their complex overlay in his mind his hackles raised fully and his lips pulled back in a snarl as he instinctively bared his fangs at the approaching threat.

“Claire, something bad’s coming. I can help but I can’t be close or my ability will hurt you too, I think.”

“S-Something bad? David, you’re scaring me, don’t play around. What’s going on?”

He didn’t have time to reply as the first of the creatures burst into the clearing and screeched to a halt, hooting and bouncing with excitement. There was no intellect in their glassy black eyes as they continued to pile out of the dense undergrowth and leer across the meadow at the pair of them. They strongly resembled some sort of monkey, or lemur, except for the leathery greenish hide that covered most of their bodies. Some were slightly larger than David, but most were of a similar size or smaller, but that wasn’t the part he was concerned about. It was the way they began to rile themselves up, throwing sticks, rocks, and handfuls of grass as they hooted and bared their long canines while screaming and shrieking.

His fears were all but confirmed when he heard the happy little jingle in his ear and a small line of text printed out just as the largest of the creatures suddenly leapt forward and sprinted towards them, the rest quickly following in an unruly mob.

–Encounter Quest Available: Break the Horde–

–Reward: Performance Based–

–Failure Penalty: Death–

That's such a lousy way to figure out how quests work!