“I’m already starting to regret coming up with plan B. My backpack is heavy and it’s going to reek for weeks.” Darius remarked, arms and face covered with scratches and bruises. It didn’t help that he was also carrying nearly 20 lbs of meat in a backpack Kristina let him borrow and his gadget pack, after he took everything out of it.
Using the rest of Kristina’s funds, they had bought a considerable amount of that taurus meat. Kristina even came up with the idea to season the meat so that the smell was stronger. Unfortunately, that hadn’t thought of the possibility that other creatures might pick up on the smell well before they made it to the griffin, leaving them in their predicament.
“I keep telling you to let me carry the backpacks if you’re going to be so pissy about it,” she remarked for about the eighth time.
As much as Darius wanted to do just that, it was the person who wasn’t carrying the backpack that had to go into the nest in his plan. All he had to do as bag bearer was safely lead it away for a bit. Out of the two jobs, Darius would prefer keeping the one he had now… Oh and being a gentleman and all that.
“Just shut up and let me complain. It eases the pain. We’ve already past the place where we met, so it’s cave shouldn’t be too far anyway. Also, that disemboweled… beaver?”
“Platypus. Augmentation type.”
“Right, platypus.” The place they first met, to Darius that already felt like a lifetime ago, but maybe that happens when you nearly die helping someone. “Hey Kristina, where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
She stopped in her tracks moving and looked at Darius with a raised eyebrow. “Is this some kind of, “you might die so at least let me know your dreams before you do,” kind of thing?”
A seemingly random question before fighting a deadly creature, Darius could understand her hesitation. “Not at all, it’s just something my dad and my gramps used to ask people. It was their way to get a read on someone’s personality. Whether they are practical or idealistic, if they have a motive or dream to strive for, or if they think their lives will remain stagnant. Just a way for them to get some insight into a person’s life and determine what kind of person they are. I just kind of picked up on it and sometimes ask it myself.”
“Sure, I’ll bite, but only if you tell me where you’ll be too. It will at least give us a better topic to talk about other than every animal and plant we come across.”
“Well excuse me, if seeing a plant made completely out of water or a rabbit flying away piques my interest. I’m a Journey boy, born and bred, that kind of stuff just doesn’t happen there.”
“So, a simple waterflower surprises you, but an object that only points north is just normal? I mean, what’s even the use?”
Darius took a look at his hand, inside was the small round device Kristina was referring to. “A compass, no way, don’t act like you don’t know what this is.” He had already surmised that the people here were a bit technologically underdeveloped, but a compass. That’s as old as time itself.
“Feels strange to be on the other side, huh?”
Darius didn’t want to agree with her, so he moved to change the subject, “I’ll give you my 10 years later story first because I already know mine. I’m back home, maybe not in the place I grew up in, but it’s Acumenos. I’m surrounded by the people I love, by this point I’m probably missing an eye or a finger or something, but we’re all laughing together at a table having the time of our lives.”
A simple dream and Kristina seemed to agree with that sentiment. He caught her badly trying to conceal her own laughter. “That’s such a small dream for a big guy. You didn’t really come here all the way from Journey, just for that to be your dream?” She broke and started laughing uncontrollably. “You know, your dream is actually really sweet, I’m only laughing because it was so unexpected.”
Darius’s face started to flush, but he decided to just take it as a compliment. “Whatever, tell me yours then, where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
She wiped a few tears out of her eyes and stood proud, “Easy! I’m at the head of the most impressive army in Stelar. A hero! A great warrior! By my side is my partner, the lone person I’ve sworn devotion to. Together, we’ve finally ended these never-ending wars and start a new age of peace, or at least a long armistice.”
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Kristina looked so proud of herself, but Darius couldn’t think of a way to tear her down, eventually deciding to get back at her for laughing at him later. “I’ll admit, you have your sights set higher than mine. Though why a monarch? I don’t take you for the type to work under somebody.”
“Everyone has a role they play best. I can lead people, train them to be stronger, but I can’t lead a country. I plan on finding someone who can. No, I plan on finding someone who could lead the entire continent of Stellar into a better era. That’s my dream.”
“Then the griffin is a steppingstone for that goal or were you just suicidal enough to take a job like this for no reason?”
“Along with being able to keep the griffin alive, I get a recommendation from the Chief. With that I can join the Hunters. Through them I can build up my reputation and earn some cash. Should be the fastest, albeit most dangerous, way to achieve my dream.”
“Why not the military? Didn’t you want to lead an army? Pretty sure that’s the best place to be for you.”
“I would if I could, but my parents would never allow it.”
“You know what? I think I’m starting to get why you laughed earlier,” he just couldn’t hold himself back. When someone lays out their life plan in front of you, no matter how grandiose, it just sounds ridiculous. Not to mention that she was this much of a mama’s girl.
“The only reason I don’t make you spit up breakfast, is because I laughed at you earlier. We’ll call it even.”
“That is if you could even catch me.” Darius responded, narrowly avoiding a wild swing from Kristina. “Enough playing around, that’s the cave, isn’t it?”
The cave wasn’t that deep and only reached about 10 feet high. The griffin was fully visible when looking from the outside, resting on top of her two eggs. She was probably so sure of her ability that it didn’t matter if other potential predators saw them, this land was hers and hers alone.
“Darius, this is your last chance to back out.”
Darius could hardly believe what he was hearing, this far in, and she was still willing to let him call it quits. “Hey, don’t forget that I have a dream too, and it involves getting to New Dawn. Besides, I’m not the one who has to actually take her eggs.”
Kristina nodded and let loose a relieved smile, she hadn’t actually known what she was going to do had Darius decided to call it quits. “Remember you only need to lead it about 200, no, 100 feet away. That should give me a good enough head start.”
Darius nodded and moved forward, hiding behind a bush about 10 feet away from the cave’s entrance. He grabbed one of the steaks and tossed it to the entrance. After about five minutes, the griffin slowly walked out until it reached the steak and began to sniff it. Gingerly, the beast took bite out of the steak before consuming the rest of it. While it’s preoccupied with the steak, Darius threw another one about 20 feet in front of it.
Unlike before, the griffin only took the time to look at the steak before turning back towards its nest. Thinking quickly Darius tossed another steak closer to it, about 10 feet away this time. Luckily, the griffin happily pounced on the meat, quickly gobbling it up, before jumping onto the one he threw before.
“Bit of a lazy type, are you? Any further than that and it’s just not worth it, ok.”
Darius had about 17 steaks left. More than enough to achieve his goal, but he knew he needed to stay conservative. In case anything went wrong.
“Good work, now it’s my time to shine,” whispered Kristina
Seeing Darius and the griffin pass by some thick foliage, Kristina decided that moving now would be as good a time as any. Even if she went in a bit early. Inside the cave, Kristina found it to be nicer than she thought; quite spacious, nice soft grass, no wonder the griffin liked it here.
“These eggs are a bit… bigger than I thought.” Each egg was about two feet in length and about a foot in width. “How did she lay these things?”
Upon trying to pick them up Kristina had a bit of trouble. Not only did they weighed exactly as much as she thought they would, a lot, but they were extremely slippery. Every time she tried to pick one up the other would try to slip out of her arms.
“This is asinine! Who knows how much time I have left? I need to hurry out of here before Darius runs out of meat. We should have brought another backpack, assuming I could even fit these giant things into one!”
A slip and a sudden weightlessness in Kristina’s right arm. Immediately, she knew what she’d done. “No!” On the ground the egg laid… cracked but still intact. “Thank Vitnova!” I’m so sorry, but we really need to go.”
Kristina got the idea to use her shirt to tie one egg, the non-cracked one, to her side while carefully holding on to the other. She left the cave and took off running in the opposite direction that Darius left in. Things were going well for about 10-15 minutes when she felt a strange rumbling on her back, and in the corner of her eye she saw a fallen piece of eggshell.
“No way, you cannot be born right now. Give me like three more hours, please!” She felt a familiar burning sensation on her back before turning around to see what was causing it. Unfortunately, things were only going to go from bad to worse.