Kevin didn't take any chances. He made sure to find a relatively safe hiding place with a good vantage point over the lake but behind plenty of trees. At first, he stayed in his goblin form, but then he realized that he was making life much too hard for himself. Instead of staying low in a painful pile of rocks, he transformed into a chipmunk and climbed one of the trees near the lake. He didn't go too high up, avoiding potentially being surprised by any predatory birds or airborne monsters, but he was still able to keep watch over the water below.

Branch hadn't asked any questions during the transfer to the tree. It seemed the fairy had figured out what Kevin was doing and why. Based on Branch's expression, he approved. Once the two of them were comfortably sitting on a tree limb, they settled in to wait.

When at least twenty minutes passed, doubt began to creep in. Kevin was beginning to worry that his plan might not work. After all, even though he knew his venom was potent after a few experiments over the last week, he wasn't sure if it would be enough to kill something as large as Baron Titus. At least he knew that he'd gotten venom into the Baron's body, though. There was no way that hadn’t worked, since he’d been able to bite directly on a wound.

Now that he was thinking about it again outside of fish form, it was really gross. Times like this, he wished he could brain bleach himself.

Kevin kept watching the lake. Interestingly enough, the monster that the Baron had ambushed was nowhere to be seen either. He reasoned this meant that as Kevin had been running away, or rather swimming away, his giant adversary had still taken the time to finish subduing the creature that would become a meal.

Suddenly, there was a ripple in the water near where Baron Titus had set up an ambush spot. Although it was just a disturbance in the water, it was fairly large and could have only come from one thing. Mutely, Branch pointed at it, and in his chipmunk form, Kevin nodded. Then they settled in to wait longer.

After another half hour passed, Kevin frowned as best he could with his chipmunk face and gestured at Branch to get his attention. Then he nodded at the water and at Branch. The silent communication was effective; Branch understood what Kevin was asking, and he took off from the limb they were sitting on to investigate the water below. After hovering above the part of the lake that had been disturbed before, the fairy turned and zipped back.

"I think it's dead, Boss," he said, words quickened with excitement. "The turtle critter is not moving, and I can see him way better now. Whatever hiding skill was working before seems to be gone."

Kevin nodded slowly and decided it was worth taking a look, but maybe after another twenty minutes passed. He used his dragon life skill for communication, telling Branch his plan, and the Fairy agreed.

Then another twenty minutes later, branch checked the water again. “Still hasn’t moved, Boss!”

Kevin nodded. He easily bounded down the tree, moved to the lakeshore, and jumped directly in. The moment he was submerged, he polymorphed into his fish form and quickly but cautiously swam towards where Branch had seen the Baron. As he did so, he decided not to jump in the water as a chipmunk ever again, even if he was in a hurry. That was dumb, he reflected. Especially since his fish form was of a large, predatory fish.

There were definitely fish big enough to eat chipmunks in most lakes this size. Whether Kevin could survive being eaten when he was polymorphed, he wasn't sure, but he didn't want to find out. It was something his parents hadn't known the answer to either, at least not for him. The truth was, Kevin’s polymorph abilities differed in fundamental ways from a real dragon’s. When dragons were polymorphed, they kept most of their same native strength and toughness. Kevin's native strength and toughness was that of a goblin.

He thought there was a pretty good chance he could escape from, say, a giant bass, but at the same time, if he got lost in a large fish's body, it would be easy to suffocate and die that way too. His mind was wandering, and his situation was far too tense for that, so he chided himself and refocused.

Finding the Baron's body wasn't too difficult at all. Like Branch had said, it seemed like whatever the monster was doing to camouflage himself before was no longer working. Whether this was a ruse to draw out his enemies, Kevin couldn't know for certain, so he proceeded cautiously. He was ready to take off after so much as a twitch of the huge monster.

Kevin approached a new cut in the named creature's back leg, a fresh one from the struggle it just had with the other newly dead monster currently on the bottom of the lake. He had a little bit of venom that had regenerated now, so Kevin darted in and bit the cut, injecting more venom as he did so. The second the substance had left his teeth, he turned and swam the way he'd come from at top speed. However, after a few moments, he didn't feel any tremors or hear any pursuit through the water, so he cautiously circled around again and eyeballed the giant corpse spread eagle in the mud.

I guess it’s really dead, he thought. It would sure be a lot more convenient if this system would tell me that the monster I was hunting was dead and I got a new ability or something. That line of thought made him realize that in order to get a new ability from Baron Titus, if he even could, he'd need to eat the thing. His fishy stomach fell. Part of him was tempted to just swim up, take a bite, and be done with it. But not only did Kevin not like the idea of casting off the last of his civilization, he also wasn't sure if eating in a polymorphed form would even satisfy the requirement of his bizarre ability. Diving it is, he thought, and he turned towards shore to resume his goblin form and get himself some weird, turtle-like monster meat.

***

"What are you doing?" asked Branch.

"I'm making some sort of turtle soup," said Kevin. He took a small sip of the concoction that was boiling in a metal cup and said, "Needs a bit more salt and paprika, I think." Saying so, he reached into his pack, took out a couple of small bags, and measured a pinch of each into the cook pot.

"Why didn't you just eat it from a fire like you have before?" asked Branch.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Don’t want to. This will make it taste a lot better," said Kevin. "Not only that, I haven't eaten turtle many times, but each time before it was in a soup. I figure if it ain't broke, I won't fix it."

"Is it really better in a soup?" asked Branch.

"Depends," said Kevin. "I take it you've never had turtle before."

"Of course not," said Branch. "I'm a blossom fairy.”

“Can you really not eat any meat?" asked Kevin.

The fairy blinked a few times and slowly lowered himself from where he was hovering in the air to sit on a stump. His vibe was suddenly so different than usual that he had Kevin's full attention.

"I thought about it before," admitted Branch. "Everybody seems to have so much fun when they eat the muscles of dead things, which still seems disgusting to me, but again, I am already a bit different than many of my kin by having the curse of curiosity."

Branch rested his folded arms on top of his knees. "Do you know why and how magical races are different from world races?" Kevin nodded but then shook his head. He definitely had read some books on the theory, but it was one of the subjects he'd never gotten around to discussing with his parents, and most of the books he'd read had not actually given a conclusion by the end.

"Most fair folk and other magical creatures don't get close enough with mortals to discuss this sort of thing, or they feel uncomfortable doing it. Lucky for you, I'm a strange one," said Branch.

"Thanks for being strange.”

"Of course, boss. I feel like I'm in good company." Kevin wasn't sure if the little fairy had just made a joke at his expense or not, so he let it go and just raised an eyebrow.

Branch said, "Every thinking being in this world has a core. What makes them unique? Or at least makes them, them? Things like morality, or opinions, or strong likes and dislikes. The core is separate from an person’s power. For instance, if a prince is born and has no personality, he would have a great amount of power for a human, at least politically, but his core may be weak. The weaker a core is, the easier it is to change."

"Magical creatures not only have much stronger cores than mortals, usually, but in general, we cannot change it without changing everything else."

"What do you mean?" asked Kevin.

Branch scrunched up his face in thought before continuing. "If you decide tomorrow—and mind you, you are probably the least-mortal of any mortal I've ever met in my life with how strong your soul is—but if you changed your mind on something major tomorrow, you would still continue being you. You would just be a different version of you. However, if I change a large part of my core, I will cease being Branch Wirt the Blossom Fairy and become something else."

"What would you become?" asked Kevin.

"I don’t know. And that is scary. No magical creatures can ever truly know. First of all, most magical creatures have strong cores to begin with, so they'll never change and they'll never even discover what they could change into. Second, many things can change what a magical creature can change into. It's usually some other version of what they were before, but many other things can mess with it, like where they're at, or what they're doing. On top of that, it's much easier for a magical creature to become a new, corrupted, or darker version what they were than anything better."

"You're talking about monster evolution, aren't you?" said Kevin.

"Ooh, a lot of magical creatures are offended by that label. Also, not entirely. What I’m talking about is one way that magical creatures and, by extension, powerful monsters can evolve, but it's not the only one. This is probably the most random effect, though, and not likely to end in a stronger or better form."

"I see," said Kevin.

"I'm glad you get it. Anyway, part of my core is already a bit kooky. I'm a curious fairy. I'm adventurous. Most of my kind cannot relate. I like this part of myself because without it I wouldn't be having this adventure. But that part of myself also makes me wonder if eating meat might be an adventure or something that would be fun to try. I have to remind myself that if I were to eat meat and change my core, it might turn me into a dark fairy or something even worse."

"Really?" said Kevin. He figured his soup was done, so he ladled a decent amount of it to cool while he continued talking to Branch. “Do magical creatures ever use this evolution possibility as a way to escape danger?"

"Not really, because they can't know what they'll turn into. When I was younger, I actually asked why magical creatures, and fairies don't keep stories and learn of possible evolutions or changes. Other fairies got mad. You would not believe how much trouble I got into for asking that question."

"What happened to you?" asked Kevin. The little fairy's story was sucking him in. He could have never imagined that goofy, carefree Branch was something like the bad boy of Blossom Fairies or fairies in general.

"I was grounded for a week," said Branch with a pout. "They made me stay on an ugly flower I didn't even like, and I had to sing songs I didn't like. And if I didn't, they wouldn't give me my weekly honey."

"Weekly honey?"

"Yes, it's one of the few things I miss from home. When we were learning, we got honey every week so that we could grow stronger and think better."

"Why didn't you ask me for honey before this?" asked Kevin.

Branch started. "Casually asking for such a precious thing?"

Kevin just stared at the tiny winged man in front of him and moved his mouth as he tried to decide what to say, if anything. The shameless fairy had been asking him for anything from gold to annoying favors almost since they met, but honey was a bridge too far, apparently.

"I'll get honey for you the next chance I get," Kevin finally said.

"Yippee!" said Branch. He took off into the air and did a sudden complex aerial maneuver in excitement. "I haven't had honey but one time since I left home, and the bees, they were so angry. Very angry." He shuddered. "That was probably when I decided I needed a friend."

"Wait a second," said Kevin. "I thought you approached me because you were just curious, but now you're saying you needed a friend?"

"Oh, I already forgot about the honey when I saw you. I just thought you looked interesting and probably had stories. I didn’t know that one day I would be traveling with the son of the Paxdraconis!"

"Yeah, well, let's keep that to ourselves," Kevin picked up his spoon and got a decent mixture of everything he'd put in his soup—carrots, peas, turtle meat, and some sprouts. He’d flavored it with a decent number of spices and browned and cooked the turtle meat on a hot stone before actually putting the soup together. It was barely cool enough to eat, so he stuck the whole spoonful in his mouth and thoughtfully chewed.

"This actually isn't bad," he said.

Suddenly, a new screen popped up in his vision.

By consuming a portion of Baron Titus, you have inherited a portion of his strength. Ability learned: [Ambush Camouflage].

"Did you get something?" asked Branch.

"It looks like it. It’s weird how the screen and message is never the same." Then Kevin explained the ability to Branch.

"Hmm," said the fairy. "Maybe that's what Baron Titus was using to hide before ambushing."

"Probably. Interesting.”

“What are all of your abilities again now?" asked Branch.

Kevin already had his screen open, so he read them all off.

-Lion-Iguana Neurotoxin Venom

- Wall Climbing Fingers

- Ambush Camouflage

- Uncanny Balance

- Beastly Stamina

- Poison Resistance, Minor

"Some of these I probably still need to play around with more or practice more, but not a bad start," said Kevin. “I also have my cleric abilities and dragon life skills.” As soon as he got done speaking, another couple lines appeared.

Dragon Life Skills

Clerical Support (Cleric of Morrigan)

“That’s handy,” said Kevin.

"Wow, if you were a monster, you would probably be a really nasty one now," said Branch. "Actually, some people in the world still think goblins are monsters, so to them, you probably already would be a really nasty monster."

"Thanks, Branch."

"Of course, Boss! What are friends and traveling for life for?"

"For life?" asked Kevin.

"Well, yes, unless I get too bored or become a Champion, too."

Kevin sighed and took another bite of his surprisingly delicious turtle stew. Branch really could be annoying or weird sometimes, but he had to admit it was nice having somebody to talk to, especially somebody who could do aerial reconnaissance and seemed to have an extremely strong sixth sense about danger.

Suddenly, Branch stood up straight and said, "Uh-oh, boss."

"What?"

"You know that dragon girl I was telling you about before? You called her a Lydia?”

"Uh-huh."

"I can hear her again, really faintly, still calling your name."

"Darn it. Time to go"