We spent the night hunting, at least the early hours. I pushed Vivi to sleep before morning. She was a little confused when I told her people mostly were active during daytime. Then again, since the two of us met, we had spent quite a bit of time awake in the day. It was in her nature to be nocturnal but it was not necessary.
The trek through the forest was simple. We kept our distance from the lake and on our way to the city met nothing that could challenge us. Vivi had taken to my example and formed a necklace of water holding her supersensory matrix. It looked to be challenging for her but she held on. It was necessary to touch the item for the one using it. Maybe she could just hold it in her mouth?
We arrived at the town sometime mid-morning. The guards spotted me and the ocelot making our way forward and stared quite a bit. Vivi seemed hesitant but I pushed her onwards with a reassuring feeling. Once in the gatehouse, the one whose name started with O welcomed us.
“Welcome back, Fio. I see you have brought a friend. Captain is in a meeting right now, he’ll be with us in a bit. Until then, I will do the honours.”
I nodded at him and established a connection. The dwarf visibly cringed, his ears shaking from some unpleasant feeling.
“Good morning”, I greeted, “This is Vivi. She has lived nearby for a while and we met shortly before I came here. She was the one I needed the potion for.”
The dwarf turned to her and gave her a light bow.
“Greetings, Vivi. Welcome to Borsdown. I’m vice-captain Ogart. Captain Holden would normally welcome sapient animals and do the introductions but he is currently preoccupied.”
‘So that was his name!’
Vivi tilted her head forward and sniffed the air. She looked satisfied with whatever she got and sat down in front of the table. With her height, she almost reached the dwarf’s eyes with the top of her ears even in this position. To be fair, she did not get smaller from sitting down as humanoids would.
“Hello”, she sent.
Ogart went on with his explanations.
“We will need to [Identify] you before you enter the town. I hope you don’t mind. We will also need to find a chaperone to introduce you to society and be ready to answer your questions.”
“I was thinking Safrah”, I butted in, “I asked her and she was okay with it. I also want to stay with my friend.”
The dwarf made a face.
“Hmm… It would normally be too much for one dwarf to handle two introductions. If she had someone else living with her to help guide both of you I wouldn’t mind but like this? She’d get overwhelmed pretty quickly.”
I tilted my head. That did not sound like fun.
“What to do…”
The dwarf scratched his chin. I could only guess at his thoughts. Surely it would not be a problem, right? I could already interact normally with people and even help Vivi get used to them. I told the vice-captain just that. He looked at me for a long moment.
“I think it is possible with some extra conditions. I don’t want to burden the poor girl too much.”
Conditions?
“What kind of conditions?”
“For one, if both of you have a plan for what you want to do in this town, how you want to integrate into society, that would give me some rest.”
I nodded. That was easy.
“Then, there will be someone else you are going to be in contact with unless you somehow both want to learn to tan. Which I doubt.”
He looked to Vivi at that, eliciting a head-tilt from the ocelot. Then he met my eyes, looking expectant.
“That is fine. I want to learn about your magical technology. About artificing. Vivi has interest in carving, both wood and stone.”
A smile spread on the dwarf’s face.
“See, there you go. The artificers are going to enjoy having a skilled student. They should accept someone able to make items such as that.” He pointed at my supersensory matrix. “As for carving, Safrah has it at level four, she can show you the basics, how we dwarves do it and from there show you to a professional.”
Vivi let out a small growl.
“I know how to carve. I don’t need basics”, she sent.
The vice-captain nodded.
“I am sure you know how to do your carving but everyone does it differently. It is good practice for any artisan to interact with their peers and learn from different sources before proceeding past their first Breakthrough. Once you go past, whatever you did to your Skill will stay. There is no going back.”
“Just wait until you see the town. There are lots of carvings everywhere. I’m sure it would be good to see something you enjoy made by others.”
With that, Vivi seemed convinced for the moment. We made some more small talk until Captain got out of his meeting. He looked tired and grumpy but his face lightened when he spotted me. He greeted us with a nod and sunk down in the chair the vice-captain had vacated.
“Now then, welcome in Borsdown”, he addressed the ocelot, “I am sure you will enjoy it here as long as you don’t make trouble for our people. I am going to [Identify] you unless you changed your mind about wanting to live here.”
“I won’t live here. I will visit sometimes.”
That was news to me as well so I was just as surprised as the captain. Though he quickly caught himself.
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“That’s good as well. Now then…”
He focused for a moment and I saw Vivi’s legs twitch. It took her some effort to not run away or attack the dwarf. Said man’s face was looking at the words visible only to him with an incredulous stare. His mouth had opened and his hand was frozen on its way to his beard. One ear twitched, once, twice. Then he finally made a noise.
“Ah…”
It did not sound like an intelligent being. A cough followed and then he started to blink rapidly. Something had caught him off guard.
“Ahem… cough … I’m sorry. No. I beg your forgiveness, Guardian.”
He bowed deeply towards Vivi. What was going on?
“I did not know what you were. Please, ask for anything you need.”
That was some unfair treatment. Why was Vivi being respected this much? What did they believe a [Node Guardian] was? Some kind of local deity?
Vivi was just as confused. She looked around at the dwarves that had suddenly gone to their knees, one heart on their chest and head bowed. Something smelled fishy. Though fish would be much tastier.
Captain turned to me next.
“I also have to apologize to you. Had I known you were the servant of a Guardian I would not have presumed to question you so much.”
Now it was my turn for the head tilt. Only, I could almost get my face upside down. It was honestly kind of fun seeing the stout dwarf squirm in front of me. But it was time to set things straight.
“I’m not a servant. I’m her friend. And I told you she is a Guardian, didn’t I?”
The dwarf looked up.
“Not a…? But… This isn’t… No… I guess you did. But it is different to see it confirmed in the Status. Guardians are powerful beings and protect their nodes with diligence. Most of our cities are built around a Guardian’s node and have agreements with them to harvest a certain amount of crystals. They are the source of our prosperity so meeting one in person is a little… overwhelming.”
He was star-struck. Huh. I did not expect to see half a dozen dwarven guards in full equipment squeal like teenage girls trying to hide it from their crush. The dwarf started once again.
“I always thought Guardians would be a bit more obviously powerful. That’s why I thought you were one. An owl made from metal is not an everyday appearance. But…”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Ah? Are you calling Vivi weak? I’ll have you know, while she’s less powerful from a purely magical perspective, she is far stronger than I am.”
He nodded.
“Of course. I am sorry to presume.” He turned to Vivi. “As for you, feel free to move in the city as you want. I would appreciate if you keep from harming my people but other than that, I can not ask for anything. If you would like, we could find an agreement for harvesting a few crystals from your node. We could form a new settlement around it and eventually connect it to Borsdown.”
Ah, there it was. He was starting to show his true colours. Though I could not fault him. He was not pushing too much. Also, Vivi did not care too much.
“I don’t mind you taking crystals. I don’t need them. I want a more powerful node anyway.”
The dwarves let out gasps of surprise. Captain had to blink away his surprise once more.
“That… I don’t understand.”
I took the liberty to explain.
“She has a medium node. She needs a major node to evolve.”
“Ohhh.”
The dwarves made understanding noises. This was less surprising, somehow. Captain spoke up again.
“That is of course… understandable. If you find a suitable unoccupied node, we would be willing to help you with anything you need to secure it. The details of such an agreement would of course have to be worked out.”
Vivi looked intrigued.
“Thank you”, she sent “I have found a possible node but it has a non-sapient beast living there. Maybe you can help me kill it?”
Captain held a hand to his chin.
“Are you saying there is a non-sapient Guardian, or a non-sapient beast living close by?”
I took over the explanation.
“There is a level 101, 65 years old, Loch Moray living in the lake where the node is located. Its Name is Monstrosity and it’s non-sapient. I can’t see Status but I know it from the mature tag behind its Species. We don’t know if it’s a Guardian but it kept position between me and the node when I approached.”
One of the guards whispered to his colleague.
“The Monstrosity? They are talking about that thing?”
Captain closed his eyes and rubbed his brows.
“You are just an endless fount of trouble, aren’t you?”
I tilted my head and blinked at him. So what?
“The Monstrosity is well known for killing the previous Guardian of the Fountain Lake Node. There had been an agreement between him and a dwarven clan to build a town around the lake that would expand to include Borsdown and become a city. We have tried to communicate with it a few times since then but every time it attacked without giving us a chance. And we could not kill it. It’s simply too dangerous. The losses such a fight would bring are too much of a risk for this town.”
Vivi let out a chuckling meow.
“Then get help”, she sent, “Like us.”
Captain looked between the two monsters sitting in his office. One, an ocelot using obvious water magic and a Guardian, if of a weaker node than common. The other, an owl made from metal and glass, a necklace of darkness holding a thaumaturgic masterpiece of artificing to her chest.
“We’ll have to think about it.”