Chapter 56: Some New Friends
Damien didn’t waste any time sightseeing, getting as far away from the capital as possible. Just in case, he also decided to avoid any housing camping out in the wild for the vast majority of his journey back to New Dawn.
It was a lonely trek, almost aimless, especially through Soaring Sun’s lands there were very few identifiers or landmarks that could help him find his way back. Only his trusty compass served to guide him back west.
Nightshade didn’t make things any better. Stoic as he was, Nightshade was not a good replacement for the cheerful conversations Damien had with Krista. Hell, he’d have taken Amelia’s badgering at this point. It also put a whole in his heart whenever Nightshade shot his head towards any bird chirping. An obvious sign that he was missing the little friend he’d made, one of the only two.
Travel became slightly easier when he crossed the threshold between Soaring Sun’s land and New Dawn’s. Unlike Nightside, Damien didn’t have a fire nymph for a mother, so he hadn’t handled the heat as well as his stallion friend. He would more than welcome some shade, not to mention a refill of water.
The loud crash of a nearby creak rung pleasantly in Damien’s ears as they headed toward in. The water in his flask always carried with it the taste of leather, so it felt nice to have a taste of freshwater. Though one sip reminded him how hungry he was.
His jerky rations ran out several days ago, and Dante had only left him enough chips to feed Nightshade. Selling the gems in Soaring Sun was out of the question as to not draw any unwanted attention. Where there is water, there is likely to be game, so Damien went hunting.
It wasn’t long before Damien herd the chattering of small game, from the sound of them reptiles. Not Damien’s first choice since the meat would be a bit tough, but anything was better than the nothing he’d been eating.
Damien hid behind a tree and knocked an arrow into his bow, around eight self-made out of some loose branches he’d found. Not the level of craftsmanship Damien would like out of his equipment, but he had to make it work. He never knew which trees might try to bite back if he wanted to use better branches.
Ahead of him were five yellow and blue lizards surrounding a small grey and green dog… wolf? It couldn’t have been more than a pup and based off the dotted frills on the lizards’ heads, they must have been water gremlins. Nasty little buggers than Damien had the misfortune of interacting with during his time traveling to New Dawn’s capital.
The wolf pup weakly barked at them, trying to scare the gremlins off, to no avail. Rather the gremlins started to shake their frills and hissed back while moving forward. The pup shirked back at their advance but didn’t leave the spot it was at. It more than could have run away, surely it was faster than the gremlins.
Instead, there was something the pup was protecting, a small tuft of blue fur. As they closed in, the chance for the pup to escape vanished. Left with nowhere to go, the pup wrapped itself around the blue tuft of fur. The fur on it’s back bristled and lengthened and took on a light green color. As it were, it became indistinguishable from a grassy mound.
“A lycan?” this was new to him, a creature Amelia or Matilda, he couldn’t remember which, mentioned to him in passing. An animal that augmentation wattiez to replicate the color and even texture of their surroundings. Damien assumed it was similar to Animus’s own ability.
The gremlins were momentarily confused, scrambling about to find where their prey had went. With few other options, the gremlins opted to go where they saw the gremlins last and opened the pores in their frills. Blasting water in that direction.
Each single gremlin couldn’t build a lot of pressure, but it still stung when he had been shot by it. Having several shoot the pup at once must have been far worse. Demonstrated by the pup’s yelp of pain and slow reversion back into its normal form.
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“Survival of the fittest, it’s a cruel thing.”
Watching the pup get bombarded, Damien noticed the purple ball it was protecting was alive. A very small bird. Looking above them, in the tree, he noticed a half-destroyed nest. The bird must’ve fallen out at some time, and the pup must have found it. Damien figured that shouldn’t get involved; this is just nature… but he really liked dogs.
Damien climbed onto the tree to get a better vantage and began his shooting. One shot one of the lizards, it went down instantly. Another shot and another one went down. They were aware of his presence now, but that was fine. Another shot but this time a miss. Damien was upset with himself, even if the arrows were makeshift, he was only 20 feet away. There was no way he should have missed.
The last three start panicking and beginning shooting randomly. Two more shots and another went limp. Afraid to take anymore loses, the last two gremlins started to run away. With three arrows left, Damien opted to take out a small knife he’d bought from one of Soaring Sun’s villages and threw it at one, killing it instantly.
“Four gremlins out of five, not a bad haul.”
Damien climbed down to claim his prizes and whatever arrows didn’t break, though as soon as he got close to the pup, it begins to growl at him. As it were, the pup was injured but nothing life threatening. The bird, on the other hand, looked like it didn’t even know it was in danger as it squawked gleefully.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Whether or not the pup could understand him in the first place didn’t matter as it stayed on guard. Damien had four of the gremlins, so he figured that he could be nice one more time.
Damien searched for and gathered some dry leaves kindling, starting a small fire, before he took his knife and skinned two of the gremlins. Whether that was because it was too tired, or enticed by the smell of cooking meat, the pup didn’t leave. Once the gremlins were sufficiently fried, Damien tossed one over.
Gingerly the pup sniffed at the fried gremlin before taking a bite. Enjoying the taste, it eagerly pushed it towards the blue bird. In turn the blue bird just sat there with its mouth wide open, waiting to be fed. The pup, not realizing what the gesture meant waited patiently for its friend to take a bite.”
“Looks like I’ll have to help,” Damien reasoned that the gremlin meat will be too tough for the hatchling, so he fish for some grubs in the ground, managing to find some worms. He even cut them up into smaller pieces.
As he approached, the pup continued to growl Damien, even turned a deep red color to try and scare him off, but this was no time to worry about that. When Damien crouched down to feed the blue bird, the pup started to bite at his leg, but it’s still too small to really hurt. Seeing the tasty grubs, the blue bird opened even wider, accepting its meal.
Soon, the pressure on Damien’s leg went away, once the pup saw him feeding its friend. Looking back, he noticed it continuing to eat the gremlin. Satisfied, Damien and Nightshade returned to their journey, though it was hard not to notice the pup following behind them with the bird on its back. Anytime they would glance at the pair, the pup would go into camouflage mode, though half the time the pup forgot the bird could not do the same, so it kind of looked like a floating bird just moving on its own.
When they set up camp, the pup would stay far enough away that it could run if startled. This process went on for about a week, Damien even decided to slow Nightshade down enough that the pup could easily keep up with them. Even though the wolfling could travel fairly fast it had poor stamina.
As they continued to follow them, Damien continued to share food with them. Eventually one day, it got very cold, and the pup decided to snuggle up and him and Nightshade. Nightshade tried to act like he didn’t like it, but Damien was sure he enjoyed feeling the warmth of another small companion. Especially, of the blue bird.
After that the pup became much more approachable, even allowing Damien to pet it. Soon after, the pup would also let him touch his friend. About a week after that, they finally let Damien pick them both up, so now he could hold them as Nightshade went at a normal speed. Figuring that he couldn’t keep calling them pup and blue bird, Damien decided to give them names. The pup he named Knight and the bird Fuzzball, he thought these names fit them very well.