Beastborne
Page 10
Support Familiars provide unique battle-oriented buffs for the Wildsmaster and their party. While physically frail and not inclined to fight, they more than make up for it by bolstering the fighting potential of those around them.
Utility Familiars are the rarest breed of all. Capable of empowering both in and out of combat, they augment a host of properties that no other Familiar can. They can impart buffs such as Treasure Finder, Sparkboost, Experience Bonus, and many more, making them arguably one of the most sought-after Familiars. While not typically useful in battle, their unique utility buffs and augments make them invaluable for Crafting, Gathering, and recovery out of battle.
Elora looked down at Komachi. A small swirling mark appeared on the pobul’s belly, it glowed with a golden-edged purple light. The mark, and Komachi, seemed to be waiting for her to touch it as a means of accepting the pact.
Komachi was uncharacteristically quiet. As Elora dragged out her decision, the little pobul began to dig around in her nose with her paw. As she picked her nose with her tiny dexterous pads, Elora made her decision.
She reached her hand down to the mark and focused on it. Becoming a Wildsmaster imparted the knowledge she needed to enact the Familiar Pact. In an instant Komachi vanished into a swirl of purple and gold smoke, seeming to collapse in on herself for the briefest of moments.
Elora could feel Komachi in the back of her mind, like she was just out of view scampering about and playing to her little heart’s content. With a thought, Elora called to her and her arms grew heavy as another plume of gold-and-purple smoke erupted in them, depositing Komachi into her arms.
“Komachi!” squealed the pobul with unrestrained glee.
“Aren’t you precious,” Elora began but then noticed that Komachi was trying to sneakily – and quite unsuccessfully – wipe a booger from her paw onto Elora’s jacket.
When she noticed she was caught, Komachi flung her paw wide and the tiny glob flung off into the distance as she flopped to face away from Elora and pretend like nothing happened.
“Komachi find treasure!” she cried out and squirmed free from Elora’s arms.
The pobul leaped easily and landed lightly on all four paws. She put her muzzle to the moss-covered floor and began to sniff intently as she scampered away from Elora.
Komachi uses Treasure Sniff.
Treasure discovery rate up.
Komachi has discovered Treasure.
Elora followed behind her as Komachi wormed her way through small openings that the Wildsmaster couldn’t hope to follow. She had to continually remind herself that Komachi was practically indestructible. If something harmed her – which she would of course hunt to the ends of the world and utterly destroy – it wouldn’t actually kill her.
Komachi was in less danger than Elora was.
13
“Komachi?” Elora called at the water’s edge.
She lost sight of her less than two seconds ago. The wily little pobul had slipped her with disturbing ease. She’d need to put a bell on her or something. Of course, that was completely unnecessary.
Aside from the fact that she felt sure Komachi would absolutely hate the thing, as her Familiar, Elora had a keen sense of where Komachi was at all times. She could sense her somewhere under the cold dark waters of the lake even though she couldn’t see her.
It was a strange juxtaposition.
Just as Elora was getting worried something might have happened to her Familiar, she felt Komachi’s elation through their bond.
Shortly after, the pobul began moving closer to shore. Soon enough Elora could make out the blurry dark shape of Komachi struggling with a chest at least ten times her size and many orders of magnitude heavier than her.
Covered in lake weeds and silt, the heavily tarnished chest was large enough that Elora could have laid down inside it comfortably. Its intricate carvings and lack of any clear lock made it clear to the experienced Wildsmaster that her meager Thief skill wasn’t going to get the chest open.
And judging by the sturdy look of it, main force wasn’t going to be an option either.
Komachi fussed with the lid, rolling back a cunning contraption that hid the locking mechanism behind a coat of arms in the shape of a serpent coiled around a sword.
The heraldry was familiar to her, though she couldn’t place where she’d seen it before.
Elora had a breadth of experience adventuring beside the Rangers. Usually only in small stints and never as long as her exodus from Fallwreath with Hal, but not once had she ever come across an honest-to-goodness treasure chest.
Komachi squeaked and made a sound that Elora could only describe as a squonk, a sound that was part squeak, part snort, and all frustration. Elora stooped down and plucked the drenched Komachi off the ground and placed her onto the perch of her shoulder.
The pobul settled into a comfortable scarf-like position, draped across the back of her neck, and resting her head on Elora’s right shoulder as she intently watched Elora study the chest.
She tried to lift it but even with her 24 STR, she couldn’t do more than lift one side at a time a couple of inches off the ground. And it was far too big to put into her Inventory.
Just as she was trying to figure out how Komachi managed to dredge it up from the bottom of the lake, the pobul waved a paw at the chest and performed a series of sing-song chirps.
It sounded delightfully like birdsong.
The chest was wreathed in a purple-gold light and when Elora went to lift it again, she found it was as light as a feather.
Komachi casts Bamboozle: Weight.
The [Ornate Treasure Coffer] is affected by Weightlessness.
Elora gave Komachi a look, but the little pobul would not meet her gaze. It was almost as if she were somehow embarrassed by her abilities.
“Komachi, are you a Utility Familiar?” she asked, all but sure of the answer.
Komachi covered her eyes with her tiny paws and nodded. Elora gave her a loving pat with one hand.
The prompt had not lied, the chest was practically as light as one of Ashera’s pancakes. If not for its gargantuan size, she could have carried it one-handed.
How ridiculous she looked lugging the coffer across the magical path that led her back to the opposite shore of the lake.
Each of her friends – and they were all her friends, she realized with a sense of pride and warmth in her chest – were standing and waiting for her. Mira’s violet gaze was wide and shocked when she saw Komachi.
She quickly turned that surprised look to Elora, her mouth hanging open in silent astoundment.
It took Elora a moment to realize that they had likely seen the same light that blinded her. If it attracted their attention all the way out here, the column of light must have been larger than she thought.
She looked at Komachi, who was looking everywhere at once with great interest. The pobul’s gaze fell most often on Ashera, not that Elora could blame her.
She found herself in the same position often.
Clearing her throat, Elora said, “I suppose you’ve already been made aware that my Quest was completed?”
Each of them nodded in turn.
It would have been one of the strangest things about the Quest, that is until she met Komachi and saw the bizarre things she could do. Each of her friends had received a Quest that instructed them to help Elora complete her own Quest.
While she wasn’t an expert on Quests yet, that didn’t strike her as normal.
Not that it mattered in the end. Neither of them could cross the lake without swimming and it was cold enough to make that a dangerous prospect. In the end, Elora had gone on alone to finish her Quest.
But she never would have gotten through the fights leading to the lake without her friends at her side. None of them, perhaps, would have gotten to the lake without Hal’s impressive display of destruction against the Corvids.
Never thought I’d see the day when I was indebted to Hal for his combat prowess, she thought to
herself ruefully.
Though she had to admit that he had grown a lot in a short period of time. Still the weakest of the group, he was possessed of powers that dwarfed anything in any of their arsenals.
None of them could have felled so many of the Corvids at once.
In fact, she mused, adding an addendum to her previous thought, I never imagined I would be on the beneficial end of a Founder’s magic. As grateful as she was for Hal’s intervention, she couldn’t help but feel a little repulsed.
The ability to control another thing was terrifying. If Rinbast had that same power… she suppressed a shudder. That was not a road she wanted to go down. Bad enough that Hal could do it and with all the world of good intentions at his back. If a monster like Rinbast could do it?
She shook her head to clear the thoughts. “Well, we have a lot to talk about on the way back, then.” Elora lifted the chest higher, though she hardly needed to. The thing was massive and easily visible held out in front as it was. “And Komachi found this. I couldn’t figure out how to open it but I assume one of Durvin’s clan would be able to pick it, if not bust it wide open.”
“Who is Komachi?” Hal asked.
Komachi snorted and grumbled. Elora jerked her head toward the pobul on her shoulder. “This is Komachi, she’s a pobul and my Familiar.”
Hearing Elora call Komachi her Familiar made the slightly grumpy pobul raise her head up high and puff out her chest proudly. “Komachi!” she squealed happily.
“That’s my girl,” Elora said proudly. She nudged the huge coffer toward the group. “Lead on then, I’d like to get back to the caravan before it gets dark and get on the move just in case any other creatures are lurking in these woods.”
“Or something from the watery grave your little friend pulled that from comes looking for their lost treasure,” Angram quipped. With a chuckle, the Ranger turned about and led the way back into the woods.
As keen a mind as any she had ever met, Elora had full confidence that Angram could guide them along their exact path back to the caravan with his eyes closed.
Hal studied Komachi suspiciously as if he recognized her but couldn’t place from where.
The pobul squinted at him. “Midarian sends his regards,” she said in the direst tone possible. But with her adorably small body, she just sounded silly trying to be so serious.
“Who?” Hal asked, furrowing his brow.
“You know.” And that was all Komachi would say on the subject.
If there were any monsters lurking in the boughs high above or the brush to the sides of the group, they didn’t dare show their face. Hopping over familiar downed trees and bridges of rotting logs across small gullies, Elora told them about the fight with the Corrupted Spirits and how she saved Komachi.
She explained all about the new perks of her Fabled Class, making it quite clear that she was among the likes of Mira, Hal, and Ashera now.
“Was,” Ashera corrected her, weaving around a particularly thick oak tree.
There was nothing wrong with what she said. Ashera was neither bitter nor angry about it. The slip was unintentional but it was the way Ashera said it. She was so… resigned.
It cast a pall over the group, and they walked in silence the rest of the way back to the caravan.
Still, Elora couldn’t help but think back to that pillar of light. Never before had she seen something so devastating. Everything took damage. As far as she understood the System, nothing was simply “destroyed” as the prompt stated. It should have taken damage and then been defeated. Not destroyed.
Every so often Elora glanced at Komachi, wondering.
She knew nothing about Familiars, Utility or otherwise. But it didn’t seem normal for such a small and adorable little aquatic mammal to be able to wave a paw and make a coffer weigh next to nothing.
The two times she witnessed Komachi’s prowess in action were both fairly implausible, if not outrightly impossible. By her best estimation, the coffer weighed at least half a ton.
A few advanced spells she knew of by reputation could halve the weight of an object but nothing short of uniquely (and heavily enchanted) Inventory items could completely negate an item’s weight.
Rather than be concerned, Elora felt a sense of optimism and hope. If Komachi could do all this on their very first day, what could she be capable of given time and experience?
What might all their coming adventures do for the little pobul?
The unseen sentries let out a series of birdcalls, which Komachi immediately began to chirp back to as if they were talking to her. Elora leaned her head closer to Komachi and gave her a smooch.
Komachi’s rounded ears wiggled happily and she let out a joyous chirp. Thankfully, nobody had seen that egregiously outward sign of affection. As they neared the first wagon, Durvin’s own, Komachi began to wiggle and sniff the heavily scented air. It seemed the caravan was in the middle of cooking an early supper.
“What’s the matter, Komachi?” Elora asked.
Chirping and making a series of noises that were somewhere between a grumble and a squeak, Komachi looked at Elora and announced, “Komachi hungies.”
And with that, she leaped off Elora’s shoulder and bolted through the tall grassy field like a cannonball. Elora, who had seen many strange and horrifying things in her life, had never seen anything so small move so fast.
14
Life with Hal was easy. Ever since Vorax met the monster-man, he had known more safety and gained more strength than the not-so-little mimic had ever known.
He even was reunited with Quibbles, his pet slime who was tucked away somewhere between his fourth and fifth extra-planar stomach. A room of sorts he made specifically for his little pink friend.
Once they left that city of people with the canny small sturdy people known as “dwarves,” things got even better. Hal routinely gave Vorax prized loot to “hold onto.”
Naturally, Vorax ate each valuable piece. What safer place than in the mimic’s extra-dimensional belly? Besides, a stronger Vorax could better protect Hal’s items. Not only that, but as he grew in strength he could repay Hal’s protection with his own in kind.
The increasingly reckless man was going to get himself killed one of these days if Vorax wasn’t there to save him.
Yes, indeed, the days alongside Hal and his moving caravan of goodies were everything the mimic could have hoped for and more. It knew peace and happiness unlike anything it ever had before.
That was, until the blonde one got one of those Quest things that people were always so intrigued by. The perceptive mimic noted a keen shift on the winds of fate.
Something was coming.
Not that Vorax knew what. He wasn’t that strong yet and his experience with life was minimal. But he could not ignore the feelings of concern and unease that rippled through his boxy frame.
He kept his feelings from Hal, though the human was growing more perceptive by the day. Already he had discovered how to communicate with Vorax like a young monsterling might and not a baby. His impartations were complex and better executed.
By showing Vorax that he understood higher concepts, the mimic responded in kind. Hal thought Vorax was growing and becoming more human and understanding. The mimic allowed Hal his misconception, he was still learning after all and it would not do to discourage him.
Besides, what would be the point in correcting him? Vorax was not overly prideful. What did it matter if Hal thought it was Vorax that was improving instead of himself?
In either case, their conversations were fuller and richer than they ever were before. How they came to that point hardly mattered in light of their greater ease in communication.
Everything was going quite well, until they left on one of their Quests. Hal mistook Vorax’s anxiety for worry over his safety. As kind as it was of Hal to try and reassure the mimic that he would be just fine, Vorax was not worried about Hal.
He was worried about something else that he could not pinpoint.
And it came straight for Vorax, screaming that dreadful war cry, “Komachiiii!”
Try as he might, Vorax couldn’t hide from that overwhelming monstrosity. Did they know the destruction they brought back with them? Vorax could sense Hal out there and he seemed fine, but why did he allow this devil to roam freely among his people?
As much as Vorax wanted to lash out and attack this thing that was scrambling up into the back of the wagon, its two-tone face one of the last things the mimic would ever see, the mimic knew he was not strong enough.
Nobody was.
What magic was about this hellish creature gamboling toward him?
Despite the futility of it, Vorax unleashed his pseudopods and tendrils in all their spiked glory. He hissed, rearing open his lid and baring row upon row of sharp dagger-long fangs.
Maybe the creature wasn’t smart. If he could scare it away, Hal would be safe. The caravan would be safe, something Vorax knew to be very important to Hal. Though he could hardly fathom why.
This little furry creature with the too-intelligent black eyes was strong. Perhaps the strongest thing Vorax had ever seen. And Vorax had once glimpsed a mighty red dragon through a broken scrying mirror.
“Komachi?” the thing asked in a high-pitched, almost adorable voice.
Clearly, this deity condensed into a small loaf-shaped furry form was truly powerful. Its beguiling nature evident in the way its spellbinding foreign word ensnared all 7 of Vorax’s hearts and made the mimic feel kinship with this creature.
“…Komachi!” The furry creature, heedless of Vorax’s many deadly appendages stalked closer, hunching its back and sniffing the air intently.
Terrified, Vorax found himself unable to attack. Unable to defend his own life. So powerful and overwhelming was this little creature’s aura of strength.