Beastborne

by James T Callum

  Ashera motioned to Luda.

  “We would lack a host of sturdy dwarves, an entire clan to help us build a Sanctum,” Hal said, motioning with one arm flung wide to indicate the whole of the caravan. “No comfortable wagons to sleep in out of the rain and wind. Our journey, though detoured because of me, may still take nearly the same amount of time as it originally would have. And the meantime we are supplied and able to fend ourselves against nearly any attack against us.”

  Elora conceded the point with a nod. “I would dearly like-”

  “Ahem.”

  All heads turned to Komachi.

  “Komachi would not be here if you did not come rescue me,” she pointed out, as if that was the most obvious and important part of the whole affair. “Komachi has blessings for the caravan that Elora is not using!”

  Komachi squonked her displeasure at Elora and then climbed up her until she nestled around her neck like a scarf with too much material. She was looking a little overweight.

  “Nor Vorax,” Noth said. “Many powerful allies you have gained by suffering a few days detour.”

  Elora reached up and petted Komachi, giving her all the affection the pobul could want. She chirruped and squeaked like a songbird, her tiny voice full of love and happiness at the sudden outpouring of love. Normally quite reserved, ever since she got Komachi, Elora had shown a side of herself few knew existed.

  Ashera smiled at that and continued eating her breakfast. Elora’s cheeks flushed a little and her blue-gray eyes darted around the table challenging anybody to make a remark. When nobody did, she nodded and said, “Komachi is right, I haven’t been using her blessings.”

  Mira leaned forward, clapping her hands together and rubbing them excitedly. “Well, let’s change that!”

  22

  Uncomfortable with being put on the spot so suddenly, Elora cleared her throat and took solace in petting Komachi. “Yes,” she said. “I’ve told you a bit about how Wildsmaster works as far as I’ve been able to learn. But one of the most important aspects is the use of my Familiars. Komachi is a Utility Familiar, she isn’t meant for battle but rather aids in camping and other activities, only….”

  “Only what?” Angram said, rolling up the map he had hanging up in the air and stuffing it away into the folds of his [Ranger’s Cloak]. He was leaning forward with more than a little interest.

  As the only member of the party that didn’t have a Fabled Class, he was perhaps most interested in the Class Evolution Elora underwent. Until not too long ago, she was also a Ranger.

  “Only her stats don’t make any sense to me,” Elora said with more than a little tremor of worry in her voice. She cast a wary glance at Komachi, but with all the head-scratching and petting she was blissfully unaware of anything.

  Elora breathed a little easier then. “The stats don’t make sense. She has five stats: Moxi, Agitation, Charm, Bamboozle, and Chonk. The descriptions make only a little sense to me but mostly it reads like…” Elora leaned in, causing everybody else to lean in. Komachi warbled unawares. “Like she made the stats herself. I know it sounds crazy but… a lot of weird stuff has happened!”

  “Okay,” Hal said, leaning back and taking this at face value. After all the strange things that happened to him, he wasn’t about to doubt Elora’s word. A sentiment they all seemed to share from the somber, supportive looks the group gave Elora. “Let’s leave any strangeness off the table for now, what kind of blessings are you talking about?”

  “Remember that chest the dwarves still haven’t been able to crack open?” They all nodded their heads. It had seemed a simple thing to bust open the large – and heavy – stone coffer. Their best Thieves were foiled by the complicated locking mechanism and the strongest among the dwarves couldn’t do more than scratch the hardened surface.

  Everybody thought it would be an easy bit of loot. And everybody had turned out to be very wrong. But nobody could forget the sight of slender Elora carrying it like it weighed nothing. When she set it down, it had taken five dwarves to lift it up into a wagon. And the wagon groaned with the added weight so much that it was largely emptied to prevent any damage.

  But the allure of such a challenge was so enticing to the dwarves and their canny minds that they hardly minded the cramped quarters during the daytime rides. Elora had given the coffer to Hal to do with as he wanted, and Hal – hoping to motivate the dwarves – had offered 10% of its contents or similar value to the one who was able to open it.

  So far, nobody had.

  “She used magic on it, one of her blessings, something called Bamboozle: Weight. I don’t know what it is but its use is easy enough to understand. And the description of Wildsmaster mentioned that Utility Familiars often boosted the efficacy of the party like a camping buff.

  “But her stats change all the time. Sometimes I’ll be looking at them and they’ll say something entirely different for a moment. Once, her Moxie was at nine-thousand. I looked back, and it was ninety. The whole day she looked at me warily as if she knew I saw something I shouldn’t see.”

  “Does she scare you?” Hal asked seriously. “Do you think she’s a threat?”

  It was weird talking about the cute, adorable, slightly overweight pobul sitting on Elora’s shoulders like she was some potential threat to the caravan while she was right there. But Komachi was unfazed by the talk of her. So long as they didn’t use her name, she didn’t seem to pay much attention if she was getting affection.

  For a long while Elora thought about what Hal said but eventually, she shook her head. “No, she has a kind heart. It worries me, is all.”

  “Well, what kind of blessings can she do?” Hal asked, leaning forward with interest.

  “She’s not very strong at the moment… and sometimes her abilities change for reasons I can’t begin to fathom. But right now, she has three blessings or spells available that I can see. Chonk: Skill Boost, Chonk: Health Boost, and Chonk: Treasurefinder.”

  Hal worked hard to suppress the grin. Across the way, Mira openly snickered at the names. “Everything seems to be… chonk-related,” Hal pointed out obviously.

  “It is her highest stat… today.”

  “What do you mean, ‘today’?” Mira asked.

  “I don’t think her stats are stats like we’re used to. She doesn’t have Strength or Dexterity like us and they’re not static numbers. If you lift something heavy your Strength doesn’t go down. After she eats her… Chonk rises.”

  Hal bit his lip but Mira burst out laughing. “Oh that’s priceless!” she cried. Komachi turned to regard her with interest that quickly faded with Elora’s petting.

  “We don’t have much use in finding treasure at the moment,” Hal said, taking a look around the ring of wagons. “And I plan on us making haste to the location of the Manaseed so we can get out of here as fast as possible. What about the skill boost?”

  It surprised Hal when Elora nodded at his suggestion. He was so used to her doubting him and looking to the others for a consensus that it still felt odd when she took one of his suggestions at face value.

  “Komachi?” Elora asked, taking down the pobul and clearing a spot for her on the table in front of her.

  “Komachi,” answered the pobul. It was one of her quirks. She reminded Hal of a pokemon in some ways, she frequently said her own name with varying inflections as if it was a language all its own. Whenever she spoke with Vorax, that was all she said and the mimic had no trouble understanding her.

  “Could you use your Chonk: Skill Boost blessing?” Elora asked her.

  Komachi laid on her side and grabbed at a piece of sausage left on a plate nearby, one that Mira was about to eat. She popped it into her mouth and chewed as she thought over the request.

  “How many ya wanna get blessed?” she said the last word in a surprisingly deep baritone.

  “The whole caravan?” Elora ventured.

  Komachi closed her eyes as if she were focusing her magic and then opened them. Her voice was surpri
singly reprimanding and curt, “You must construct additional sandwiches.”

  “What’s that mean?” Angram asked.

  “More blessin’s, more chonk,” Komachi answered.

  “How about just the people at this table, then?”

  Komachi looked at Angram, then back to Elora for confirmation. When the woman nodded, Komachi shut her eyes again. Her fur rippled. A golden glow began to peek out from her typically dark coffee-brown coat until she was gilded like the noonday sun.

  A spray of shivering light echoed out of her in a sphere that captured everybody sitting at the wagon and the wagon itself. For a moment they all shimmered like somebody had set off a glitter bomb. The magic slowly faded until nothing remained.

  As she cast the spell a small notification flashed above Komachi’s head, detailing the amount of Chonk she just expended.

  When Hal looked back from his no-longer-glowing hands to Komachi, she was noticeably leaner than before. No longer overweight, the pobul seemed quite pleased with herself and it wasn’t long before many hands reached across the table to give her pets and affection.

  Among other things, Komachi was a glutton for attention and love.

  Komachi casts Chonk: Skill Boost.

  Komachi: -75 Chonk.

  You gain the effect of Skill Boost.

  For the duration of this effect, all Experience Point gain for Skills +50%.

  “Looks like we have a busy day ahead of us if we’re all going to make use of this gift,” Angram said, his red eyes were still round from the prompt they all received.

  “Are you up for a little Alchemy, Hal?” Ashera asked, there was a glint in her pale green eyes that was missing as of late. As much as Hal wanted to work on his newfound Bone Armor and Blades of Bone abilities, he wanted to encourage Ashera’s sudden change in mood.

  Not to mention a ridiculous 50% bonus was too good to pass up.

  “Of course, Noth would you like to join us?” Hal asked.

  The distracted once-Reaper looked over, surprised to be included, and unsure all at once. A faint smile traced itself across her pretty features and she nodded. “I would like that.”

  “Komachi the best,” Komachi muttered with a profound yawn and a deep stretch of all four limbs to their limits.

  For the first time since losing her Sin Keeper abilities, Ashera seemed excited. Everybody pitched in cleaning off the table, and stowing it back into the wagon. In less than an hour, the wagon was ready to go.

  The koblins typically ate by themselves, though they could eat the same food as people, it wasn’t their favorite. Meat, in particular, was something koblins couldn’t stand to eat. Whether that was a quirk of these specific koblins, or the people as a whole, Hal wasn’t sure.

  They rushed over to the wagon, returning from their own meal of vegetarian koblin food. Lurklox hopped into the driver’s seat without a word. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just the koblins that came back.

  Rondo was accompanying them and the sly gnome was grinning ear-to-ear.

  Not long after discovering Rondo as a stowaway, the clever gnome had sworn that he would remain out of Hal’s way as much as possible. He vowed to filter among the dwarves and learn what he could. If he ever learned something he thought vitally important to Hal, he would share it immediately.

  “It would seem you found something,” Hal said, motioning him to get into the wagon.

  23

  Rondo sat in the rear of the wagon with Hal, the door flung wide as the pair sat side-by-side to watch the strange and alien landscape roll away from them.

  Vorax stood guard at their backs, making sure nobody was close enough to eavesdrop on the quiet conversation between them. Nobody except Komachi who resumed her usual perch atop the mimic as if he doubled as a bed.

  The gnome had started to grow a single sinuous mustache that curled down from his muttonchop sideburns and across his upper lip in a bushy white tuft. It looked good on him. His bald pate gleamed in the morning light as he looked this way and that. “Are you sure you would not prefer a more… private method of discussion?”

  Hal brushed aside his concerns. Aside from Luda and her two attendants, Hal trusted every single soul in his wagon. And even the strange Oracle was growing on him.

  True to her word, she remained utterly unobtrusive. Most of the time he forgot she was even there. When Noth had rejoined their wagon, without being asked Luda offered her bunk.

  Naturally, one of her attendants then offered his bunk to Luda. Seeing that she likely would not be able to politely turn down the offer without offending the older man, a skilled Carpenter by trade, she graciously accepted the offer.

  It must be so strange to have people falling all over themselves to help her. What must they think of us, letting her tag along but hardly offering her that which they must think she deserves as per her station?

  “I trust everybody here, and even still Vorax is making sure nobody gets too close.” Hal spread his arm out wide to indicate the rear of the caravan. As one of the two “important” wagons, Hal’s was situated in the middle of the caravan beside Durvin’s. “Unless you’re worried one of the caravan drivers or karaks will overhear?”

  “No, no, no,” Rondo said, flapping his hand and fussing with his clothing. Just like his shop back in Murkmire, the gnome dressed well in a fashionable and well-kept suit of black and white. He looked a bit like a butler to Hal, except the addition of a Colonel Sanders necktie made the whole ensemble seem a bit off to him.

  “Rondo?” Hal prompted.

  “Oh, right. My, you are more imposing than I remember,” he said as he took out a handkerchief and mopped his gleaming bald spot. “I thought you should know that the dwarves of Clan Bouldergut view you with great respect. But, yes, yes, you probably already knew that. What I mean is, allowing them to accompany you into dangerous territory is much how their own patron, Durvin Bouldergut would treat them.

  “Dwarves are a hardy, largely independent lot that don’t ascribe much to following just any old leader. Their leaders are often paragons of their own ideals of hard work, perseverance, and individuality.”

  Hal raised a brow at that. “They seem to get along in a group pretty well.” As far as their individuality, he sometimes had trouble telling one dwarf from another. Especially if their beards were styled similarly and of the same shade.

  But he let that pass for what it was, who was he to pass judgment on how individual they were? “While fascinating, Rondo, I don’t see how this is deeply pertinent. Clan Bouldergut is a great friend to have, and I treasure each and every one of them. I’m sure if they were displeased with me, they would let me know in no uncertain terms.”

  “You have a fair understanding of it, though a dwarf’s anger can simmer under the crust for a long time before it finally blows. And with long memories, they have a habit of holding onto grudges.” Rondo put up his tiny hands. “Not that you have wronged them. Quite the contrary! And that is why I am here: The Shardite.”

  “What about it?”

  “What do you know about the material? Ah, I can see by your vacant – partly bored, partly annoyed expression that you don’t know much and you want me to get on with the explanation and-”

  “Rondo.”

  “Yes, yes, sorry.” The little gnome cleared his throat. “Shardite is a rare mineral found in only some of the deepest mines. It is rumored, or so the dwarves say, that the Mirrorlands contain several rich veins of the stuff above ground. It is incredibly valuable for its ability to conduct mana and similarly to be a vessel for large stores of mana.

  “With a proper Goldsmith fashioning the receptacle you could create a Mana Battery, which is-”

  “I know what a battery is, Rondo. How much could a Mana Battery hold?”

  “Something the size of your thumbnail could hold well in excess – depending on the skill of the Goldsmith of course – of 500 MP. Something the size of my small fist could store ten times that if not more. And that’s not all Shardite
can do, though it is one of the primary reasons for its value.”

  Hal understood well enough that Shardite would be immensely useful, but he failed to see why Rondo was so animated about it. He told the gnome as much.

  “Dwarves are all about codes of honor and rules,” Rondo explained. “Rules they do not tell others, even their friends. Shardite is immensely valuable, on par with Mythril. You wish to build a Sanctum, an army to overthrow Rinbast, yes? With a store of Shardite, you could create immensely powerful weapons and armors.

  “There is an understanding among dwarves,” Rondo continued when it seemed Hal still wasn’t getting it. “The one who leads them to a rich mineral vein is owed sixty-five percent, often called the ‘beard’s share,’ of the mined ore. It is an incentive, you see, as most of these veins are found in dangerous and difficult-to-reach areas.

  “Areas that most dwarves would not go without the promise of wealth or a good vein to mine. You have, technically speaking, discovered this vein and are bringing the caravan to it by allowing the dwarves to come along. By rights of the ‘beard’s share’ you are entitled to sixty-five percent of all the mined Shardite. But the catch is, you have to ask for it.”

  Now he understood why Rondo was so agitated. This was a secret among the dwarves, a cultural bit of knowledge that Hal would have no understanding of and thus, would be unable to claim rights to the Shardite.

  He hardly blamed them. If the stuff was nearly as valuable as Rondo suggested, at the very least it would fill his burgeoning kingdom’s coffers. At the same time, 65% was a lot for simply leading them there. It felt wrong.

  If he had discovered the vein somewhere deep in a mine, sure. That involved actual risk. But this? He was coming into the Mirrorlands anyway and the dwarves had wanted to come along. All he did was say yes.