Kai’s head swiveled between David and Claire several times as he jerked back in surprise, the thick plumage along his neck slicking down immediately in bewilderment. He turned slowly to the left, then to the right, and then closed his large blue eyes before repeating the motion. The crest of feathers on his head couldn’t seem to make up its mind as to whether he was anxious or excited, and it raised and lowered several times while he tested his newfound sense of awareness carefully. David carefully began to trot around him in a wide arc, circling him while the huge golden bird's head snapped onto his position and followed him, although his eyes were still firmly closed. He was careful not to rustle any grass on the field outside the warehouse or otherwise alert Kai to his position as he did so, but the confused avian tracked him flawlessly despite his efforts.
“That’s freaky.” Kai chirped as he opened his eyes, “Some sort of magic alien bullshit or something. How does it even work? It makes no sense.”
David grinned a bit, “Absolutely no idea, but welcome to the Pack. I told you it’s useful. Doesn’t seem to have any distance limitations either. I went pretty far from Woodland last night and it worked just fine, Claire could even tell where I was above the city during the Event Quest.”
Kai glanced over at Claire who sat placidly beneath the cover of several trees, and she nodded to confirm David’s words with a slightly excited expression. Kai opened his beak to say something before he paused, looking down at himself and then shrugging helplessly. He shifted his stance and lifted a clawed foot into the air, extending a single talon in a remarkably recognizable ‘wait a second’ gesture, his balance flawless. David plopped down onto the grass and waited patiently, sniffing at an interesting smell that had wafted up from the grass with the motion.
I can’t blame him for thinking about it. I did the same thing when I saw how it worked, I mean come on, it doesn’t make sense. How does it know where we are? The same way it knows everything we did during a Life Stage? That means something’s watching us all the time then, right? What if…
“Okay, you know what? Doesn’t matter how it works right now, just that it does.” Kai sighed in defeat, “I give up trying to understand all this shit, but I won't deny it’s useful.”
“Does that mean we can go now?” Claire called lazily from her spot under the shelter of the tree line.
“Yeah, sorry. That just freaked me out a little bit, I can’t even think of anything to compare it to. I know where you two are, and I–” Kai griped before pausing, “Nope. Not going down that rabbit hole again. Alright, yeah, sorry. I’m good.”
Claire bounced to her feet with surprising agility as both their gazes fell expectantly on David, who froze midway through sniffing at a curious yellow flower that vaguely resembled a dandelion, yellow pollen smudging the end of his nose. He pointedly ignored how his ears seemed to want to lay flat in embarrassment, and forced them to remain upright as he stood slowly and wiped his snout with his wing. He shook himself hard, ears flopping and mane bristling as he cleared himself of the dirt, tiny bits of dried grass, and other debris his dense fur had collected from the ground. With that out of the way, he nodded a few times and motioned for both of them to follow and began to lope towards the little path beginning to form through the trees leading to the river. The relatively short grass around the warehouse gave way to a dense undergrowth of shrubs and saplings scattered between the thick growth of pines, and some small part of David marked it down as a ‘good place for an ambush’ when he finally reached the game trail.
“Okay, so here’s the deal. You guys aren’t allowed to eat me if Combos are only a Control thing. Fair?” David barked cheekily at both Claire and Kai as they both rolled their eyes slightly.
“No promises.” Kai said with amusement in his voice, “I hope they work for Offense as well, you would think they would.”
“I mean I hope so.” David nodded, “Here’s the plan. Claire, we’re both gonna follow you. You smell around for stuff, and when we get close enough I’ll sneak around and scare it back towards you, and Kai hits it from above. Then you guys just…you know…”
David snapped his jaws together suggestively, fangs clicking together with a crisp sound that was not at all pleasant. Claire enthusiastically repeated his gesture, and the almost hollow noise her jaws produced when they slammed together making the hair on his back want to rise, but he resisted heroically. Kai however had jerked his wings out from his body unconsciously, and hopped to the side a bit, regarding her with a startled expression. She failed to notice either one of their reactions and seemed to be waffling between excitement and fear while she regarded the path back out of their little haven. David caught her gaze and shot her an encouraging approximation of a thumbs up, which she returned with difficulty as her nerves seemed to settle a bit, though she still held herself anxiously.
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With a slight crunching of pine needles, he turned and began to make his way down the little trail worn into the dense growth by the Woodland population as they went to the river for water, and it wasn’t long before he heard them both begin to follow him. They wove through the tiny strip of trees and emerged next to the river in only a matter of minutes, and David took deep breaths of the fresh clean air coming off the river, thoroughly enjoying the way it mixed with the smell of the pines. Kai hopped out of the trees happily, extending his wings and simply running off the side of the hill, drifting down to the riverbank and making a stately approach to the water to drink.
“Yeah, not a bad idea.” David quipped at Claire as she raised her head high into the air and began to sniff loudly at the wind blowing in from farther upstream.
“I’m kinda nervous,” Claire admitted when she finished.
David swiveled his ears to focus on her, “Claire, trust me when I say that you have no idea how crazy your evolution is. Everything I hunted last night would have dropped me in a fair fight, but wouldn’t have qualified as a snack for you. Plus you need to eat something, I know you haven’t since you ate half that bear-thing.”
“I don't get hungry if I’m not out doing stuff, it’s kinda weird. Probably my trait working.” Claire replied with a slight yawn, shaking her head in an attempt to wake up a bit. David watched in horrified fascination as the dense muscles in her neck and shoulders rippled as she moved, her scaly hide continuing to shake for a fraction of a second after she finished.
“Eh, either way. Let's go get something to drink, then we’ll head out. I’d just disable everything for you guys but I’m not sure my cheatery would work during the day.”
Grass and dirt gave way to clay and gravel as they joined Kai at the river, stones crunching under Claire’s huge clawed feet as she crouched to drink, scooping gallons of water with every mouthful. David swore he saw her swallow an entire fish and not even notice, water spilling from his jaws back into the river, nearly choking while he lapped at the chilly river. Before long it was Kai and David who were waiting for her to finish as she continued her attempt to drain the entire river until finally satisfied, and with streamers of water spilling down from her jaws she stood and stretched.
I still can’t believe she swallowed that fish, what a rough way to go. Just swimming along and then BAM, gets the dinosaur aquarium treatment. I wonder if it’s still swimming around in there? How long can a fish…Focus!
“Everybody good?” David chittered happily as he draped himself over a large rock, wings spilling down the sides as he maintained his balance in the chilly morning breeze.
“Yeah, let me just…” Claire extended her neck and pointed her snout high into the wind. She sniffed loudly, her rattling inhalation extending for long seconds before she chuffed, emptying her lungs quickly and repeating the process.
She cocked her head to the side quizzically before lowering it, “There’s a whole lot of…somethings over that way ish?”
Kai nodded and launched himself into the air, climbing rapidly as he made good use of his newly improved flight and powered high into the sky with little difficulty. David and Claire watched him ascend as they began to head in the same direction, and he flapped up onto her back rather than cross the difficult rocky terrain of the riverbank on foot. Claire didn’t seem to mind, and she pestered him with questions about all the different creatures he’d hunted the night before as she stomped down the riverbank, curious about what lived around them now that she was ‘outside’. David did his best to answer all of them as the pair slowly made their way past the city limits, emphasizing that there hadn’t been a single thing he encountered she couldn’t shake like a rat. That had earned him a stern look but he’d managed not to quail under it, stubbornly refusing to back down that she wasn’t in any real danger from anything less than an entire herd of anything he’d found lurking about.
“Okay, that’s fine, but why did you have to say ‘rat’? Now all I can think about is having to bite a giant rat and its gross nasty fur and horrible little people hands and…” Claire’s full-bodied shudder of revulsion was so violent it shook David loose from his perch. He unfurled his wings and caught the air with a squawk of surprise, flapping a few times to gain height and gliding along slightly above her head level.
“Hey!” David protested, “I resemble that remark…kinda…”
Claire shot him a look as Kai began to descend towards them from several hundred feet in the air, sunlight reflecting unnaturally off of his feathers. They paused near a particularly sandy stretch of river, the ground almost entirely devoid of gravel near what had once been a popular swimming location, and David recognized the remains of a boat ramp visible under the water with interest. He didn’t have much time to dwell on either Claire’s distaste for rodents or the fact he recognized the location from his childhood before Kai touched down. The huge golden bird braked hard, kicking up a miniature sandstorm with the wind from his wings as both David and Claire hissed with displeasure.
“Sorry, my bad. I didn’t think about it, not a lot of sand around here.” Kai said dryly and landed, “I found ‘em. They’re a mile or two up the river, there’s like, a whole herd of them. How good is your nose, anyway?”
Perfect, how’s that saying go? Target rich environment? I can’t even feel bad about just murdering the wildlife anymore, it’s them or me. Well, us.
“Alright, sounds good. Let's go set this ambush up then, Claire?” David asked with false sweetness, “Does Bumblefuq have a…what did you call it…module like this?”
Claire stared at him with perfect stillness for a long time before finally admitting, “...Yes.”