Chapter 99: Final preparations
Felix Sythias' POV:
I woke up well rested and feeling better than I had in a while. That was good, since today was an important day. We’d finally be getting our water. Though before that we’d need to level Alex’s new riding Skill first. Hopefully, that wouldn’t take too long.
I turned my head to Alex. I was lying on my side with him in my arms, though he had half slipped out. It didn’t look like he was awake quite yet, so I pulled him back into my arms and rolled onto my back. Alex also rolled around in my hold, hugging me back. His arms couldn’t reach all the way around my chest, however. It was kind of adorable how he kept trying, though, even in his sleep.
I remembered last night and how we laid like this then, too. Well, almost like this. Alex had been a bit further back, rubbing our slits together like he was making up for lost time. It had been a lot of fun, and it had felt really good. Though the fabric of his pants had started to chafe after a little while. But that was fine—the pleasure massively overshadowed any negative sensations.
I had to admit I was very surprised by his initial advances. It wasn’t the first time he’d grinded against me, but it was always an accidental, heat of the moment thing and stopped after a few seconds. Not this time, though. I had noticed rather quickly there was nothing accidental about this. It was in the way he kept readjusting himself to find the best angles and speeds. It had been very intentional. On top of that, he hadn’t just stopped after a few seconds.
In any case, it was a nice change of pace from the last few days. It was nice to feel desired and horny for a while instead of just feeling that dull thrum of fear and dread that had been there since we’d gotten stuck underground. And masturbating to the memory of our dicks rubbing together, and how Alex’s dick had tented in his pants was a novel experience too. I wouldn’t have to rely on just fantasies anymore.
The best part by far was Alex’s progress, though. I was really glad he was feeling more comfortable with himself and the idea of sex. Even if we couldn’t finish together, it was clear that it was just a matter of time and thought.
We laid together for a while more until Alex finally stirred awake. He blearily stared at me for a moment, before looking away and refusing to meet my gaze. I chuckled. “Feeling embarrassed?”
He nodded meekly. “Yeah, a bit. I can’t believe I did that yesterday. That we did that.”
“Do you regret it?” I asked. I didn’t think he would, but I had to ask to make sure. It had been a big step forward. And maybe like he said yesterday, he bit off a bit more than he could chew.
He shook his head vigorously. “Definitely not. And we’re definitely doing that again sometime.”
I pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “I’m looking forward to it,” I said. “But for now, we should start preparing for the day. I have a feeling it will be another long one.”
With some reluctance, Alex stood up and started relighting the fire. Without anyone to maintain it, it had gone out while we slept. I nodded at him and stood up as well, then took off to get us some breakfast. It didn’t take long for me to spot some kind of pig-like monster nearby. I swooped down and snatched the creature up, breaking its neck with the twist of a talon as I went. I landed some distance away from camp and began harvesting the meat from the monster, leaving the remains for others to scavenge.
When I got back, Alex was reading by the fire, occasionally checking on it. Between last night and seeing the book in his hands now, I had an idea. He was more comfortable with sex now, so maybe he would like to start reading that adult book together? I’d suggest it later, when we got back from collecting the water.
We cooked breakfast and lunch, drank some blood, then ate a quick meal while we talked about today’s plans.
“We’ll need to level your riding Skill,” I said. “But aside from that, I think you need to fight some weaker monsters as well, to get used to your new strength in combat. You got used to moving around again surprisingly fast yesterday, but that’s not the same as using your strength to fight.”
“Sounds good,” Alex said, nodding. “One thing, though. If I’m going to be fighting from your back, I’ll need a weapon with more reach. Do you think you could find a strong and straight stick so I can make a spear? It won’t be as good as one from the Academy, but it doesn’t need to be.”
“I’ll go find one. In the meantime, why don’t you clean out my saddle bags? That’ll save us some time later.”
Alex agreed, so I went off to find a decent stick. It took a little while, but I found a bunch of decent looking sticks deeper into the forest. So like a dog playing fetch, I brought them back. Alex quickly fashioned a spear from one using his knife and some rope we had on hand. He tested it with some quick thrusts, then adjusted the balance a bit by having me shave off some wood, then we were off.
We flew a small distance away from camp so we didn’t attract any monsters to our stuff. We landed, and I kept watch as Alex fought with the monsters. They didn’t really pose any sort of threat, and this was just all about his control. At first he fought a little clumsily, putting too much force behind his attacks and especially his movements, but over the span of an hour, his control returned to what it was before he got his Path. Luckily, the spear survived the ordeal, too. Alex still took it apart and replaced the stick, though, as the previous one had small cracks in it.
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Once that was taken care of, we took off again, this time with the intent to get his [Dragon riding] Skill to at least level five. We flew around for a while, with Alex focused on staying seated while I did increasingly extreme maneuvers. I did loops, corkscrews, sharp turns, and anything else we could come up with.
The Skill leveled surprisingly fast, and after only an hour was already level five. So we landed back at camp and practiced a little while on the ground too. The Skill was about riding dragons, after all, not just about flying with one. We practiced that for another half hour or so, netting Alex another two Skill levels. Satisfied with that incredibly fast progress, we ate lunch, then went monster hunting. We were done training sooner than we expected, and I needed more blood, while Alex wanted to get a few more levels before we went to the lake.
The reason I needed more blood was something we discovered while we ate lunch. The blood I had stored away had lost its potency for some reason. I was pretty sure I knew why, but I’d need to do some more tests to be certain. But my guess was that the mana had leaked out. To my senses and taste, the blood had almost the same mana concentration as the surrounding air did, while it had started out with a really high concentration..
If this really was the case, though, it made me wonder why the health potion had still worked. It had been well over a day old when I drank it. Was the mana somehow stabilized? Or did the bottle contain it somehow? If it was the first, it was probably something I could learn, and if it was the second, it was something I could buy. Either way, they were good options for me, but that would only do me any good if this really was the issue.
We decided we would start off by hunting a few birds, but that proved difficult. There simply weren’t all that many flying monsters. And the ones that were here were all of a lower level, so they weren’t really worth our time. So we proceeded to harass normal land-locked monsters from the air. I would dive in, snatch them up—leaving little possibility for them to fight back—and would take them up high in the air. Alex would stab at them a few times with his spear before I let go again. A couple of seconds later there would be a thud or a splat and Alex would get his kill notification.
The method was terrible for getting blood, since it mostly just splattered all over the place. So we killed one large monster from the ground too. The method was really really effective in leveling Alex up, however. Just two hours of work gained him another two levels and leveled his Skill up a few times as well, bringing it to level eleven. The extra Attribute points were nice, too.
As we kept fighting, we both noticed a significant difference in how stable Alex was in the saddle. Before it had always felt a little like I was carrying a fragile and unwieldy package on my back, something that could fall off and break unless I moved in just the right ways. And even if Alex stayed seated, the feeling limited my movement.
Now Alex felt firmer on my back. He shifted around less and his legs locked him comfortably in place. The knowledge aspect of the Skill was really showing off its worth. On top of that, the magical effect that glued his butt to the saddle made him fall off a lot less—though he still did at times. Luckily, I always managed to catch him on time if we were in the air. Coincidentally, today, Alex also learned how to climb back into the saddle from my talons while we flew.
It all made a huge change to how I moved around while we flew since I didn’t have to worry about Alex nearly as much as I had before. When we talked about it back in our camp, he said as much, too.
“It’s great knowing I won’t just fall off if I miss with my spear and overreach,” he said. “I just know how to leverage my body and the saddle better now. And even when I feel like I’m falling off, there’s this force pulling me back. It’s weak, but it’s definitely there.”
“That’s probably the magical effect the Skill was talking about,” I said. “Speaking of the Skill, did the description change in any way? It was supposed to be highly susceptible to change, right?”
Alex nodded. “Yeah, and I’ll check. Give me a moment.” His eyes unfocused as he read something only he could see. “Huh, it did change. Awesome.”
I waited for him to continue, but when he didn’t and just reread the message again, I poked him on the snout with my tail, causing him to sneeze. He glared at me for a moment, then snorted with laughter and finally told me. “The change is really small, there’s just this one extra line: ‘As you’ve spent time practicing dragon-back combat, you’ll now have access to basic knowledge of basic dragon-back fighting techniques.’ So, basically, I can be better at fighting now when we’re together.”
I nodded. “That’s good. I have to ask, though, what’s it like to have access to that knowledge?”
Alex thought about that for a while, then answered, “It’s odd, for sure. It’s like remembering memories I never made in the first place. They’re just there, waiting for me to access them. And if I focus hard enough, I can. I now remember things about how to sit in a saddle, how to stay seated while thrusting a spear, how to help you be more aerodynamic while we’re flying together, and a lot more. And since leveling the Skill, accessing the basic memories has gotten easier, and some of the knowledge is almost like a weak instinct now. Like, during that last fight, I didn’t even have to think about readjusting my leg’s grip while you turned. I just did.”
“Are you sure that’s part of the Skill and not just you internalizing the knowledge?” I asked.
Alex shrugged. “Maybe, but it is part of the Skill’s description, so it could be both. I don’t think it really matters, though.”
“I suppose not. I guess we’ll find out eventually,” I said. “Anyway, are you rested now? My mana-pool is full again, so I’m ready to go when you are.”
“I’m a little thirsty, but other than that I’m fine.”
I opened one of my cuts back up so Alex could drink, then put the saddlebags back on. All the stuff that had been in them was lying around us now, stacked into neat little piles and covered with some branches so monsters wouldn’t come to investigate the pretty colors.
“Alright, then,” I said with a heavy tone, “ready to go collect some water?”
He rolled his eyes. “You make that sound way more dramatic than it needs to be, but yeah, let’s do this.”
He hopped onto my back and settled into the saddle, then told me he was ready to go. Without a further delay, we were off. Hopefully, we’d get back safely.
And with enough water to last us for weeks.