"There are two reasons why we don't travel by Jran often," Rèmsciore said. "Do either of you know what they are?"

Maso considered the question. "If they travel in packs, and you can only use the calming spell on one at a time, then it's unpredictable. You'd need to make sure you have enough people with you to handle however many might appear."

Something about Rèmsciore's smile put Maso on edge. "I would've just said that we prefer our arms attached to our torsos, but that works too. The second reason is more important, though."

"There aren't many things more important than staying alive," Lanoch said.

"Mm." Rèmsciore turned away from them, stroking the chin of the Jran that was still resting its body on the sand. It stared up at him contentedly. "Do you know how old this Jran is?"

Lanoch shrugged. "How would I know that?"

"Look at the size of its neck and the overlap of its scales," Rèmsciore said. "As they age, their neck only slows its growth, never actually stopping. The scales, too - they increase in size, but slower than their body."

Maso squinted, trying to discern exactly what state the Jran was in. It was true that the beast's scales didn't quite touch each other, small gaps formed between them that left little centimeter-thick lines of skin showing underneath. The neck, too, was long - but Maso had no context for that, outside of an assumption that anything much longer would become unwieldy. "How old is it?" he asked.

"Likely over three hundred years."

"What?" coughed Maso. "How is that possible?"

"Magical creatures can live for a long time," Lanoch explained, still nonchalant. She was picking at something on the back of her hand, barely paying attention. "It's hardly unheard of. Smaller magical creatures without proper predators can live for much longer, too."

"Yes," Rèmsciore said. There was a serious tone in his voice that was out of character to Maso - not upset or angry, but... almost reverent. "This creature has experienced much more of life than most ever will. It has a kind of knowledge that is unlike ours, but still real. They're not mindless, they're intelligent creatures. To force it through the indignity of riding it just for convenience's sake is... cruel."

"Bwahahaha!" Lanoch burst out. "That's what's got you so worked up? I can't believe you, of all people, would fall for that kind of nonsense. It's an animal. It doesn't have thoughts like that. Sure, they're 'intelligent'. It's mostly used to figure out ways to attack people. And besides, with the magic you've used on it, it wants to help us."

"No. This is... a perversion."

"Right. What an incredibly useful tool to discard because you think you might hurt an animal's feelings."

It was hard to disagree with Lanoch. The Origin didn't have any kind of creatures like this - Maso would have known if it did - but if they'd existed, they'd have been made use of to the fullest extent possible. That was simply what life on the Origin was like; they had to use any possible tools to survive.

The only thing that mattered was the survival and furthering of the human race. Which was the reason Maso was here in the first place. And probably a good reason to hurry up, he thought.

Before he said anything, Rèmsciore continued. "I won't argue with you about this now. I only did it because this is the only way we can find those children in in time. Get on, or stay behind, I don't care."

They got on.

The process of riding a Jran was about what Maso would have expected.

It was almost obvious just from looking at the thing. The concave nature of its large shell made it seem like it was purpose-built to be a seat of some kind, this creature's looking like it could easily fit five or six people. The three of them sat down easily within it, kneeling in a tight triangle.

Maso idly wondered if there were people in this world that hunted Jran, and used the shell as a chair. Considering what Rèmsciore had been saying, it was probably a question better left unasked.

A nudge from Rèmsciore was all that it took to send them flying through the waves. White-tipped water churned around them, spraying up on the three passengers and coating the Jran's shell until it glimmered in the remaining starlight.

"How will you find them?" shouted Maso, straining to break through the noise. Combined with the wind, he could barely hear his own voice. "Shouldn't we follow a search pattern?"

"No!" Rèmsciore said, angling his head back. "I'm letting the Jran search for them. It saw them leave earlier, and has a much better sense of this ocean than we do!"

Maso nodded. Not that Rèmsciore could see him from in front, but he didn't want to yell a response.

It was quickly becoming obvious exactly why the father they'd met had seemed so distraught. He'd said that the water looked dangerous, but Maso had again been lacking context. There was no doubt in his mind that the Jran was made for this kind of environment - its tapered shell sliced through the waves, and its six flippers propelled them through the water with an impressive power, much faster than the paddle-driven fishing boats Maso had seen here previously.

Even with that, it seemed to struggle in these conditions. Every minute they'd be hit by a wave strong enough to cause the Jran to shudder and slow, its flippers splashing awkwardly to regain momentum. And with the constant shifts in angle, Maso had to keep his center of gravity low, fingers gripped tightly around scales as he tried to avoid being thrown off and drowning.

Overall, it wasn't a particularly fun method of travel, even if the prospect of drowning in potable water was a fascinating and darkly humourous concept.

After a few minutes of internally complaining about soaked-through hair - not even his hair, really, but he knew he'd need to deal with the problem later - Maso spoke up again, raising his voice to be heard above the wind and crashing waves. "Hey! Shouldn't we be searching more south?"

Rèmsciore turned back slightly. "Why?"

"The waves are angled in that direction!" Maso pointed. "If they're not in control of their boat, then they'll be dragged that way."

With a nod, Rèmsciore rested his hand on one side of the Jran's neck, and they curved to the right, bobbing to the side as they traveled over another wave.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It was another minute of being coated by ocean spray before they spotted it, a small fishing boat barely visible above the waves.

"There!" Maso shouted, pointing. But the Jran was already turning, the force of its movement almost enough to throw him off. Only his straining fingers, barely able to grip the soaked scales at this point, kept him on the back of the Jran.

They speared through the waves, cresting for a moment before carving through water the next. The pace was impressive. Even though the fishing boat had been some distance away, it took them only seconds to reach it.

Within the boat, Maso spotted two children huddling beside each other, completely soaked and shivering. The one on the left had a glassy expression in her eyes, and barely seemed to react to their appearance; the one on the right looked to be a few years older, and was clutching her sister tightly, staring at them.

"Don't be scared!" Rèmsciore said, even as the Jran knocked gently into the side of their boat, having come to a sudden stop. He leaned over the edge, reaching out with both hands. "We're here to bring you back!"

A wave exploded over the edge of the boat and into the Jran's face, showering them with more ocean water. At least I can't become more drenched at this point, Maso thought.

The cold water seemed to awaken the girl on the left, who had completely ignored Rèmsciore's words before. She bolted upright, pulling out of her sister's grasp, and practically leaped into Rèmsciore's arms.

Who promptly set her down on the hard scales of the Jran and turned back towards the boat.

"Come on! Grab hold of my arms!" he shouted, waving them towards the girl. "You're going to drown!"

She suddenly shook her head, soaking wet hair flying back and forth. "No!"

Rèmsciore shrugged, leaned forward, and grabbed her. Even as he dragged her onto the Jran's back, another massive wave crashed into the side of the fishing boat, rocking it into them. The Jran barely moved.

"All right, we're good!" Rèmsciore said. He tapped the Jran, and it broke into motion once more, surging forward in a long turn.

After a few moments of shuffling around, everyone finding a new seat in the Jran's soaked shell, Rèmsciore turned to face the sisters. "Why don't you two tell me your names?"

The one who hadn't wanted to come stared downwards, carefully picking at the Jran's scales with her hand. Even as Maso watched, she shivered, arm shaking for a moment before stilling.

Her sister spoke after a moment, soft and quiet: "Arín."

"Arín. Okay. What were you doing out there, Arín?"

The girl frowned. "Fishing."

"Why were you out so long?" Rèmsciore leaned forward. Maso spotted a small, gentle smile on his face.

He wasn't sure why, but Maso had the distinct impression that it was fake.

"We talked with your dad," Rèmsciore said, "and he said that you were going to come back before the storm started. Did you get lost? Is everything all right?"

The other girl spoke up, suddenly. "We were gonna be fine. You didn't have to do anything."

"Oh? Why's that?" asked Lanoch, seeming to pay attention for the first time since they'd left the shore.

"We would've respawned," the girl said, poking at a scale on the Jran's back. "We would've been fine."

Rèmsciore cocked his head to the side. "You were okay with dying? Wouldn't it have been better to just go back earlier?"

Arín, still shivering, interjected: "Amil said that if we died, then we'd get to meet the Thadh. Then it would talk to us, and we'd learn things."

"That's very rare," Lanoch said. "Most people just experience nothing. Just a blip, and then you respawn, a couple hours or days into the future."

Rèmsciore shot her a look. "That's true. But what really matters is that your dad was very worried about you! You would've been gone for days..."

"But we could've met the Thadh," Arín said.

Rèmsciore sighed, clasping his hands in front of him. "Arín. And... what was your sister's name?"

"Loran," Arín replied.

"Okay. Arín and Loran. I want you to listen to me very carefully," Rèmsciore said. He placed his hands on his knees, staring down at the two. Loran didn't meet his eyes, still facing the Jran's back.

"I've died before," he continued. "In war, yes. Fighting for -" he looked away for a second, then turned back. "Fighting for the Aspen, for our people. But I also starved, once."

Maso glanced at him. The man seemed deathly serious, his mouth drawn in a straight line.

"It was cold, and I didn't want to move. So I sat in one place for a long, long time. And as I got hungrier, I got colder and colder."

Loran turned her head slightly.

"It got colder and colder and colder, until that was my entire world. I was shivering, I was sick, I was miserable. It was the worst experience of my life. The pain grew, and grew, and grew until the moment I died, and I regretted every last part of it."

Both of the girls were staring up at him now, silent.

"That's why I don't want you to ever think about doing something like this again. Dying like that... it's an action you can't take back. You'd come back after, but you'd remember the pain, the agony of dying. It would stick with you forever, a memory you couldn't erase."

Neither of the sisters said anything.

"You need to tell me that you won't try this again. It's not worth it. The pain far, far outweighs any possible benefit - which there likely wouldn't be, as she said," Rèmsciore added, pointing towards Lanoch.

"Okay," Arín said. Then, slowly, seconds later: "Thank you for coming for us."

Loran said nothing, but nodded slowly.

The rest of the ride back to the beach was silent but for the sound of the wind, and the waves that crashed into their ride.

The Jran paid them no mind, easily slicing through the water at an even faster pace than before. Perhaps it was easier to choose a path, now that they had a known destination. The storm continued to grow, but they still reached the coast within minutes.

On the shore, true to the words of the initial quest notification, the children's father thanked them profusely, red-eyed and almost reverent of the way Rèmsciore handed the children to him.

"Can I do anything for you? We have fish, fresh food, a place to stay..." he said, glancing down every other second at the two girls. "I can't thank you enough for bringing them back safely."

Rèmsciore shook his head. "We have other things to get done, sorry. And you should get them warmed up, before they get sick."

The man nodded, and a moment later they were gone, walking back towards the village.

> Quest Completed: Heir Hunt

>

> How honourable - you hunted the heirs with heroic haste!

>

> Rewards: Your reputation has increased. However, the System has noticed that you have not spent the majority of your budgeted reputation points. Hoarding reputation points is strongly discouraged and may lead to repercussions. This is your only warning.

>

> No failure penalties have been applied, as you have successfully completed this quest. However, it is recommended that you spend at least (1) hour this evening agonizing over the morality of delaying a quest that might save the lives of tens of thousands to save only two.

"It's not true," Rèmsciore said, suddenly, once the family was out of earshot.

Maso minimized the pop-up then looked over. "What is?"

"Do you remember dying?"

A thousand images shot through Maso's mind. The lush green landscape; the massive red-blue lizardlike creature that he now categorized as much larger than a Jran; the painfully bright flame and the sensation of burning alive, flesh peeling off like bark.

It wasn't something he'd thought about much, but now he wondered where, exactly, he had been.

"No," he said, calmly.

"It's not that bad."

Maso blinked. "Dying?"

"Yes." Rèmsciore had a conflicted expression on his face. "Starving, drowning, burning... stabbed, speared through or blown up, the Thadh removes the pain for us. One of its blessings, I suppose."

Not particularly different from Maso's neural augment, then. "That's convenient."

"No." Rèmsciore turned towards him. "It's not. Don't ever think that way. I had friends who took that approach... respawning whenever it suited them, optimizing for convenience. One day..."

"They didn't come back?" Maso asked. Internally, he was mulling over this information. He hadn't been able to confirm, before, if this 'respawning' was a consistent feature of the world or something he had lucked into. If it was this reliable - so much so that people would intentionally die to make use of it - then he could be much less risk averse. Although, when he thought back to how he'd handled the spider killing quest, perhaps he didn't really need to try at that.

Rèmsciore still hadn't said anything.

Something in Maso's mind pumped out a socially acceptable comment: "I'm sorry if they're gone."

"Gone," Rèmsciore said, looking away. "That's a better way to put it. They came back, Maso. They always came back... but they're still gone."

Maso gave him a confused stare, but the man didn't meet his eyes.

Lanoch, standing a few meters away and staring at the ocean, finally spoke up: "Time to head north, then."