Norbert looked at the dust before him, slowly forming into a shape. As Norbert looked up, the dust swirling around it until he was looking at the wolf he had first seen.
"Hello all, the items you have just been given will need to last you for the next few days until the next shipment arrives."
Norbert looked around, seeing the horror on everyone's faces. Happy that he still had his and that he didn't feel like he needed them, he continued listening to the instructor, drowning out the words of annoyance and irritation around him.
"Now, onto the lesson; in your travels, you will see many creatures you must notify of to exterminate." She looked around, letting her words bounce off the dirt around them until all eyes were on her again.
"You are not expected to fight them; if you did, you would die quickly. You are all expected to notify of what has been found accurately and let the others in your group deal with it. Now then, there is little that can be said about these groups. When you are scouting, the three key important factors are how many there are, what type they are and what creature they come from. With this information, it will be possible to refine exactly what beast you have seen."
The words rushed over Norbert, the realisation of what he would be doing. That this was no joke, the fears of the forest coming back, being alone, seeing strange things, and the only thing he could do was wait until he was devoured.
PECK
"OWWW" Norbert exclaimed, looking over at his shoulder. There sitting, Obsius just stared at him. Norbert looked back at him, seeing if he would get another peck. The bird looked away and back to Lily; Norbert went and allowed him to be there again. Getting out of his funk, Norbert looked towards the front again, listening to the instructor again.
"The reason you need this is the vast number of beasts you may encounter constantly creeping on us; due to the amount, the most necessary information was said before. Now numbers mean the amount there; don't underestimate any beasts you will see. As if you undervalue them, it can result in deaths on your shoulders."
The instructor looked out towards the crowd, her voice dying off into nothing; Norbert, with the class, looked on, shocked at what was being said. The realness struck him, and like a blade being quenched, it hardened Norbert, listening back on what the instructor said.
"The second item to note is the type. This can be trickier but can mostly be noted by any colour distinction on them, as well as seeing how they move throughout their habitats. Another way of looking at them is how they are augmented. It might be for speed, strength, using specific magic, or poison. With these knowing the best way to defend against them is needed. What equipment would need to be brought, and what are the possible casualties."
"The final thing to notify is what type of creature it is. Is it a bird, a bear, a deer, a tyrannosaurs-rex" Norbert looked straight at her, head whipping around? Not believing the words that came out of her mouth. No way did he hear that correctly; an actual T-Rex could be found. Norbert thought back to his younger years, watching dinosaur movies in the theatres, getting entrapped into a pre-historic world from thousands of years ago.
He went to the library with his mother, running around and picking up the dinosaur encyclopedia book he had there. Sitting down on a chair and pointing to them, letting his mother read them to him and sitting down and remembering the names of all the dinosaurs and their times and ages, looking at the pictures and borrowing them on the car ride home flipping through them, excited to get back and read more.
Once he returned home, he got out his dinosaur figures and played with them, comparing them with the book he had given.
On his 5th birthday, he opened it up and received a massive wooden T-rex. Building it up piece by piece (with help from his parents), he looked towards the marvel he had made. He stood way taller than him, looking up at its open jaw. Instantly one thought came through his mind of wanting to climb it.
Sadly, Norbert knew, even at that age, the wooden pieces would fall apart and break if he tried, so he just read his books under it, letting his toy dinosaurs run up it and use it as some giant from eons even before them. As he thought back, trying to remember the names he once so quickly knew, he was stumped, only knowing several and only the main ones.
Flashing before his eyes, Norbert tried to remember the book's contents. Only the blue book cover comes to view with the dinosaurs in front. He remembered the t-rex, diplodocus swallowing stones, the pterodactyl in the air, the stegosaurus with its plates and finally, his favourite, the triceratops. Trying to remember, he could not, the rest blank.
Thinking back to his family, he remembered that break was coming up in the next week; usually, heading home, he would do so once again, seeing the old stead, seeing his family once again, and if he was lucky, then finding that old book and looking back on the dinosaurs.
Looking back, Norbert once more focused on what the instructor was saying
"Monsterbook if you are interested in further analysis, though it is not needed or expected. Now let me show you some of the more common ones you will find.
Listening, Norbert saw the dust creature shift from one to the next. Seeing the bull horses he saw before, rodent-like creatures, rabbits, squirrels of massive proportions. One, in particular, has what was described as a gaseous tail, which can release this for different effects depending on the species and the area found. Some were massive, like the squirrel and the T-Rex; seeing it blocks out the sun, Norbert imagined it could eat up half of the group currently in one swipe of its head.
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Norbert kept on listening, trying to ram the facts into his head, not knowing if this would be repeated. With his head feeling floaty, eyes now tired from concentrating and trying to pick up any minute details that would save him when he left here, Norbert was surprised when the dust creature disappeared again, the cube seeing it again.
"Now that you have all rested, it's time for obstacle course training,", The instructor said with a smile, waving her arms in the air as she flourished them. The cube once more picks up the dust. Behind her, it also raised out, looking like it was always meant to be there. It slowly morphed from the soft sand that could always change shape to hard sandstone. Compressing itself, Nobrert did not know how the dust on the ground could change like that, but before his eyes, it did.
Opening up, there was what he usually saw in any obstacle course, ropes to climb across, walls to jump down, and balancing logs. But there were also other aspects he only saw on tv shows. Parts looking like hammers jumped out, ready to smash anybody that tried to walk across the tight section of the wall. Fists coming out from the floor repeatedly in sync. The one section near the end had only what he could barely see as tiles with nothing strange about them.
As Norbert glossed over, he noticed the further along it went, the weirder and stranger it became. It was going from the levels of reality into the stupid. Looking back at those tiles apprehensive, knowing it was hiding something underneath it.
"You must complete it at least ten times before returning to our resting place. You can always do more, so I hope you were paying attention to where to go," The instructor said before the dust came up once more, obscuring her from view. When it settled again, she was gone, just like a specific bat figure.
Looking at the task ahead, Norbert swallowed, waiting to see who would be the first to step up.
***
Lily stepped into her office, looking at the pieces of paper on her desk, nearly in piles. Stretching, she removed her leather clothes, sitting in only the fabric shirt and pants, feeling her skin breathe again. Letting her hair go, she stretched out her fingers and toes, letting them breathe for the first time. Shaking her hair and trying to get the dirt off, she sat on her chair. The leather creaked slightly with her weight, the cushion giving in just the right amount that it was used to. She was hitting all of her necessary pressure points.
Leaning back, falling into the comfort, she closed her eyes. Leaning slightly back, she draped her hands around the wooden armrests, letting her relax for once, the work of the past few days catching up with her. Opening her eyes, she leaned forward on her chair, it clacking back onto four feet, hitting the wooden floorboards. She brought her chair forward, looking at the papers on the desk.
She saw them in their last piles of what could have been theirs, re-organising them to their current potential. One section showed a picture of Norbert on it, only his first name and the little details they could find. Tapping her fingers on her desk, magic circles appeared in different colours and sizes; by instinct, a screen appeared of the dust bowl she had just left, and the participants started to move forward and select them.
Going through them in reverse order, Lily added new information, going from the easiest to the hardest. The ones lower in potential are more manageable due to being easily able to fill it out and the previous information being accurate. She listed everything she found, going to previous recordings to confirm it. Writing down information about who they spoke to, how far they ran, who they stopped with, how long they slept, how quickly they adjusted again, what section they put themselves in with the pack, how quickly they ate their resources and more.
She wrote her reports through the list, occasionally looking up to see the progress on the screen. Seeing that nobody was making their way back yet, she continued. She made her way through Papers, slowly adding to the completed pile. She stopped writing as she landed on Norbert, one of the last ones left.
His face stared back at her, a smile on his chin and a sparkle in his eyes like everything around him was mystical and new. She saw the bird on his shoulder get its head in the frame. An even bigger mystery is how someone could train one of those birds, or any birds from Flare-dew. Shaking her head, she looked further on, seeing his lack of magic potential, with little body from the initial investigator. Looking, she tried to find anything that could spell his mystery, but it was mostly unknown.
Someone who had shown up someday unable to speak a lick of the language, just living as they could. Skimming through the report, she found the most recent development. A medical wing note showed his recovery time after the two elixirs were much lower than others and back up and functional much sooner. Looking at the ooze created, it was noted that it was also less than was typical.
Seeing at the bottom said, "may have had elixirs before, no way to confirm at the time."
As she placed the paper back down, Lily thought about her interaction with the man and his companion. The bird can have great endurance, and Norbert is even more so. Thinking back to the run the other day, she noted that he kept on going, even past what she could, while being augmented by items and magic to allow the resistance to be less. Looking down at her hands, Lily shook her head, not believing that someone with only two elixirs in them could have beaten her in a race.
Fiddling with the circles again, she looked at yesterday's footage, his hands shining purple, and saw the veins do it. Skipping forward, she made it back to the night, doing a final look and tracking him, this time not skipping over it. She watched him move away from the others before taking off some of his clothes and sitting down. Skipping forward, Lily saw Norbert start to move up and down. Seeing him do the pushups, he continued going and going.
Fast forwarding again, she could see him rise and fall, becoming a blur in view. Slowly his body started shining again, working its way from his chest to his arms, then back up his back to extend to his arms. A tree blooming leaves after the hard left, starting in the most needed sections, with the most warmth and light before moving to the rest.
Watching, he continued to move. He suddenly stopped as she looked at the time he had been going for. Quickly she played it back to average speed. Seeing he just fell on his back. He was watching up at the sky, unsure if he could somehow see the recording device.
Closing his eyes, the light of his veins slowly receded until nothing was left. She saw that it was only thirty minutes before he was up again.
Looking at what to write down, the door to her office opened.
The lady from before stepped in the first welcoming who stood on the stage addressing Norbert. No longer donning the leather armour, she still had her sword strapped to her side, the clothes lose on her with sleeves rolled.
The new person looked around the room. Seeing only the three pieces of furniture in the room, the chair Lily was on, the desk she was working off with the mountain of heaped papers in an order she could not discern, and a lone empty chair facing Lily. Stepping forward, she moved the chair back, looking at the two screens, one playing footage from the night, the other showing people running an obstacle course.
A gruff voice came out of her, croaking and gravely from shouting too much throughout the owner's life. "So, has the cat brought back any mice?"
Lily laughed, sliding Norbert's file across the desk to the woman. "The cat's brought back more than just a simple mouse", she said, the twinkling in her voice going higher. "The cat's brought back a true beast."