"Ah, you need a partner, don’t you? Someone clever, someone who sees all, hears all, yes? Ha-ha! Well, look no further! I know things—oh yes, secrets, shortcuts, the tricks to get what you want without losing your feathers. You could use me! Imagine how far we could go, together! You keep the hands busy, I keep the eyes sharp. You do the dirty work, and I give the warnings. Fair trade, yes? You get your prize, and I get my share—a bit of shine, a little taste. That’s all I ask! Ha-ha!" Parroting the Wise.
The bird returned a few minutes later carrying a large basket of woven leaves. It was very cleverly made.
“That is a clever bag,” I said. “My name is Marvin Wygon.”
It chirped. “Tāwai. Tāwai. Tāwai. I am Tāwai.” It nudged the leaf basket, “Got weaving skill,” it said proudly.
That indicated he had a high dexterity. I looked at the clawed feet; they were very flexible and tough. Tāwai opened the top of the basket and nudged it on its side. I saw a familiar pipe near the top. It put its head in the basket, almost disappearing.
He lined up five Skill Stones for me to look at. I appraised them. “Those two are powerful abilities,” I said, pointing to Plant Manipulation and Water Manipulation. I can’t learn them, but I can sell them and get some useful things with the coin.“
“Shiny. Shiny. Shiny.”
“Coins are shiny. I would like to learn that one.” I said, pointing.
He squawked dismissively and used his beak to roll it over to me. A creature with wings probably looked down on Feather Fall. It was basically a weight-reducing ability, and my Acrobatics had great synergy. It would change my trajectory in the air, making me less predictable and extending my jumps. I am pretty sure that at the higher levels, I will be able to use it to run on water.
Stone Skin and Wood Cutting didn’t interest me. Wood Cutting was a Carpenter Skill and will sell to woodworkers everywhere.
I laid out Paralysing Howl, Nightsight, Diving Attack, Lacerating Claw and then, reluctantly, Poison. Five for five.
He pushed back on Paralysing Howl and Nightsight.
“Why not Nightsight?” I asked.
“Dark Vision better. Much better,” he replied.
Dark Vision was an advanced version of Nightsight. Nightsight enhanced low light to allow better vision, while Dark Vision didn’t need any light to see.
He cocked his head at me again, studying me. “For me?” he queried. “But not fair. Not fair!”
“You have Air Manipulation. I really wanted to learn that, but I couldn’t. I have seen you use it. You are clever. Clever is what we need, and it is what I am looking for in a bond.”
He looked at my wound. “Not so clever.”
“I still caught you.” Then I said, “But you are right. This wasn’t so clever. I need someone to watch out for me and help get me out of trouble. I will do the same for you.”
He cocked his head back and forth and stepped to the side, thinking.
“Get shinies?”
“We will definitely get shinies.”
He stopped and just stared at me for a long time. “You need wings!” he declared.
I laughed, “Wings would be great,” I said, “But it’s probably not going to be soon. Feather Fall will help. Maybe instead of wings for me, we need a growth ability for you, and then you can carry me.”
He thought about it briefly and then gave a cheeky chirp, “Might be fun.”
I didn’t need to be a seer to know he was thinking of how he could use me for his “fun” in the air. Feather Fall will need to level fast.
“I have Assessing Eyes, and you have a minor Light and Shadow affinities—more than my Air affinity. I will look out for another copy of Light and Shadow Manipulations. Bonding is permanent. I have a skill called Seekers Intuition that is telling me we would be good together, but nothing is certain.”
He squawked, “Silly, Alrashian. Silly. Silly. Silly.”
Wait, how did he know I was Al’rashian? I look human.
“Silly, Al’rashian. Silly. Silly. Silly,” he repeated. "We already bonded.” He bent down with his beak, picked up each stone, and learned them.
I checked my status, and there he was, Tāwai (Kea Parrot). I checked his status.
Bond Attributes
Name: Tāwai Age 12 months Race: Kea (Parrot) Level: 8 Health: 400 Stamina: 400 Mana: 160 Strength: 20 Agility: 30 Dexterity: 24 Constitution: 20 Intelligence: 16 Wisdom: 12 Free Attribute Points: 0 Abilities Air Manipulation 5 Poison Resistance 1
Skills
Pickpocket 8 Adaptive Camouflage 3 Claw Strike 4 Peck 6 Wind Blade 2 Mocking Call 6 Gust 5 Weaving 2 Dodge 8 Lacerating Claw 1 Dive Attack 1 Poison 1 Camouflage 10/max Movement Skills Swift Flight 5 Silent Flight 4 Vision Dark Vision 3
“You need some defensive skills and a self-heal,” I said.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Tāwai’s head bobbed in agreement. “You need wings.” he reiterated.
“You should have access to Storage. Check the Skill Cupboard. I don’t think I have anything there that is useful, but it pays to check. We might be able to trade with someone.”
Quest Complete:
Hunt a Hunter. Seek out and hunt another Trial Challenger.
Reward: 1000XP, Muffle Sound.
Right. That is convenient. My seeker class can level now, as I have found one of the things I was seeking. I levelled it and bumped up my Constitution to help with my current situation. It will also bump my Stamina. In fact, I have found two things I was seeking. The quest was a quest for seeking and finding Tāwai. I can level it twice. I am finding the XP not to be a problem at these low levels. The other class requirements are slowing me down. I am sure that will change as the XP increases as the classes level.
I checked what else Tāwai had in his basket. There was a collection of Potions and coins. He seemed to be collecting the loot drops we missed when they fell below, or we moved on. Smart.
He had a number of random stuff, as well as Ryan’s pipe. A shiny rock, a guard insignia, buttons, etc. I resigned myself to my Storage having a lot of random junk in it. Things like the Guard insignia could be useful in a disguise though.
Then I noticed Tāwai had used my spare Slash skill stone. I saw him trying another ability. He tossed it away in disgust. I caught it in my Helping Hand.
“Don’t throw it away just because you can’t learn it. It is valuable,” I admonished.
“Not fair. Not Fair. Fire and Air good.”
I knew he had no affinity for Fire, and his inability to learn Fire Manipulation was not surprising.
“Self-clean, good,” he said as my spare Self-clean charm disappeared.
I practised my Copy Image and created a copy of Tāwai next to him, and he jumped. That was good. I made the Copy jump as well. The more moves he did that I could copy, the better I could animate the copy.
“Stupid Image. Stupid image. Stupid light.” he squawked at me grumpily.
“You know,” I said conversationally, “Your Dark Vision does not use light to see and, therefore, will see right through the images.”
He squawked at me angrily, but I got the feeling he was more angry at himself for not thinking of that. I just smirked. I could have my own fun.
I recreated a copy of myself like before. Tāwai was not the only scavenger around, and it was going to be a while before I was mobile again. Minor Regeneration was good, but it wasn’t fast, especially with a serious wound like this affecting bone and organs. It will probably be a couple of hours before I can move properly, and it will probably be tomorrow before it is healed properly. I can probably take another potion soon without risking mana poisoning or wasting most of its healing ability in overlapping the other potion.
About an hour later, Alistern appeared with Myantha on his heels. At least they hadn’t forgotten about me. Alistern was the party leader, so I guess he knew I was still alive. I did have a bunch of XP come in, so they killed whatever it was.
Myantha looked at my copy, but Alistern looked at me and Tāwai. Tāwai ducked behind me. I dispelled the Copy and the Spectral Cloak.
Myantha’s eyes snapped to me, “So you’re alive then?” She said.
“Yes, although it will be a couple of hours before I can move enough to ride. My armour is probably going to take several days to repair.”
“What’s that?” Alistern said, pointing at Tāwai. “I have sensed you around. You are the thief, aren’t you.”
“This is Tāwai. He and I are now bonded. We are a team,” I responded.
“You stole from me,” Alistern accused.
“And I considered that a huge recommendation for joining my team,” I said to Alisterns displeasure.
“Suda could have died without that stone.”
“But she didn’t, and Tāwai has something better for her.” I pulled out a stone, “Plant Manipulation. She will be fantastic with this. It is worth much more than Poison Resistance.” Alistern nodded at that. “We want something in return.”
Alistern looked suspicious, “What?”
“Healing or defence skills or spells we can use.”
“Why should I?” he asked.
“Because Tāwai is now a part of our group, he will be much more valuable than a single stone.” I conveniently left out all the other things he stole and the loot that should have been ours. In a way, it was now ours, or rather mine and Tāwai’s.
“If I catch him stealing from us again, I will kill him regardless,” Alistern said.
Hear that, Tāwai? Don’t get caught. I didn’t say that.
Alistern tossed a stone over, “That is Heal Wound. It won’t do anything for bones, blood loss or any number of other things, but it will heal a flesh wound. Not a deep one at the low levels, but it will grow.”
I tossed Plant Manipulation over. Then I rolled the stone to Tāwai, who grabbed it in his beak and learned it. I felt the skill wash over me. It wasn’t very strong at level 1, but it was something.
“So, what did you fight?” I asked as others started arriving back.
“A Tangle Vine,” Myantha answered. “Very large and high levelled. Without Norm’s fire, we probably wouldn’t have won. As it is, there are several wounded, and we need to rest for a bit anyway.”
I noted that the others looked worn, and Norm was obviously out of mana but looked quite pleased.
I saw Alistern talking to Suda and handing her the stone. They then had a longer conversation, and then Alistern went to scout. The others were sitting around and eating or meditating; some were drinking potions, and some were drinking alcohol. I could do with some of that myself, but it will need to wait a bit until I heal.
Suda came over. “I believe I have you to thank for the Plant Manipulation?”
“That would be Tāwai,” I said, moving him forward.
“Pretty girl, pretty girl,” he squawked, the cheeky bastard pretending to be less intelligent than he was.
“Well. Thank you,” she said. “I got the Create Vines skill from the Tangle Vine, but with Plant Manipulation, I was able to get an Advance Class. I never thought I would, but now I do, and it is thanks to you.”
“What is it?” I asked, “If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I don’t mind. It is no longer a scout class, although all my scouting skills are better. I am now a Nature Shifter. I have never heard of it, but I can blend into nature and Meld into plants and adapt to environments. It is amazing. Thank you.”
“You are welcome. Who got the core?”
“The Lieutenant gave it to me. Do you want to buy it?” She pulled it out. It was a large one.
I ran Mana Web over it. There was a skill there, but I suspect it is not for me.
“You know, sometimes these can hold skills,” I said. “You should probably see if there is one in there for you.”
“Can you tell if there is?” she asked.
“Not usually,” I said, “but sometimes I have a feeling about things.”
She looked at me, “It is worth a lot.”
“Yes, but it is months away before you can sell it at full price, and skills are always worth more.”
“Do you think there is a skill?”
I shrugged, “I will buy it off you if you want.”
She looked at me, “No thanks, not this time.”
It took her longer than it took me my first time, but she got there. Bark Skin complemented her class very well.