"Encourage the raptor. Okay." Man, did I feel stupid. But I'd already started this process and I was bound and determined to see it to its conclusion. And - if what they said was true - I would no longer be at the mercy of my arrows.
I stroked the egg, told him what a good raptor he was and how we were going to be the best of buds. I didn't know if any of that was true, but whatever.
It probably took another hour of coaxing, but the little tyke finally managed to break his way out of the shell. He was so cute and the hissing noises he made were adorable. I instantly fell in love with him.
"What are you going to name him?" Esmerelda asked, bending down to pet the raptor's snoot. He was still mostly in the shell, but taking a break.
"I'm not sure." I shrugged.
Who knew breaking out of an egg was so hard?
The little raptor pet looked to be a light blue color. Its scales had yet to come in, but his deep green, inquisitive eyes shined brightly up at me.
"Remember, he's going to need some meat." Elmer said. "We can get you something real quick if you're out, but you'll need to go hunting. Always keep meat on hand for him. It's part of the bonding process."
"Thanks. I think I have something left in my pack." I rummaged around and pulled out my last gull meat. "Does it need to be cooked?"
The raptor's eyes changed from inquisitive to intent the second he saw and smelled the meat.
"Heavens no, dearie." Juniper scolded. "They only eat pure, raw meat."
Slowly I brought the meat toward the raptor. He started to snap it out of my hand, but I pulled it back.
"Your first lesson will be to teach him to take the meat gently from your hands. Otherwise he might accidentally bite off more than he should."
I worked on the raptor for a bit. I still wasn't sure what I was going to call him - or her. Suddenly, the name came to me.
"I'll call you Trexxa!" I said in a sing-song voice.
The raptor nodded his head approvingly and hissed as he bolted the last chunk of meat down.
Then when his belly was full, he re-engaged with the egg.
"Come on, Trexxa! You can do it! Break out of that shell!" We all clapped when finally, exhausted, the raptor broke free. He stumbled around, examined his surroundings and finally came to me and laid his head on my lap.
"Aww!" Esmerelda wiped a tear from her eye. "You're mommy!"
"Is it a boy or girl?" I asked the Centaurs hopefully.
"Lift it up and check."
Now I felt even sillier. "Looks like it's a girl!" I said. "So, Trexxa it is!" I stroked the raptor's soft scales. She cooed and snuggled closer to me.
Hidden quest complete: Raptor Egg
Experience gained: 3650 (x2)
Congratulations, you now have your very own companion. At level 10, you'll be able to select her spells and abilities. Enjoy!
Just like that, huh? After holding her for a few minutes, I set her down and she ran around sniffing everyone and hissing at them.
"Aw, she's so cute!" Esmerelda fawned over the blue raptor. "Why is she doing that thing with her claws?"
"She wants you to pick her up." Juniper beamed.
"Really? She wants Auntie Esmerelda to carry her around? That's adorbs!"
I beamed and felt a huge sense of pride when she carefully picked her up and held her close.
Together we stroked the little raptor and within moments she fell asleep. It had been a long, hard, rough day.
A half an hour later, Elmer and Juniper had dropped us off back at the entrance of the cave. I found that the sleeping raptor fit perfectly snuggled up in my pack.
I started to go back into the cave so we could pick up where we left off, but Esmerelda reminded me that we needed to get Trexxa some fresh meat. Plus, we needed to restock our own supplies.
We went out hunting. Found a couple Elk that we killed and cut up for our little baby raptor. As soon as she smelled the meat, she popped her little head out of my pack, rubbed her bleary eyes and sniffed the air.
"Hiss!" Trexxa said excitedly when she spied the large pile of raw meat on the ground. She quickly jumped down out of my pack and started tearing into the raw flesh.
While Esmerelda cut up the steaks, I worked on teaching the raptor some manners. By the time she was full, I'd taught her to gently take the meat from my hands, rather than just ripping it away. Apparently, raptors were born with wicked-sharp teeth. If these were her baby teeth, I was afraid to see her adult teeth. Best to train that habit out of her now.
I ended up with quite a few toofie marks from her being overzealous.
She was a good pet. As we re-entered the cave, she trotted alongside us, her tiny tail wagging enthusiastically. At her age, I wasn't expecting her to help out in any battles, but she did hunt down and kill a few scurrying rats for us.
"Good girl!" Esmerelda patted her head as she dropped a small, dead rat at our feet. She hissed in response and wagged her tail even faster.
Esmerelda picked up the dead rat and carefully fed it to the quickly-growing raptor. I swear she'd already grown an inch since she hatched.
"She's a gem!" Esmerelda cooed. "I'm so jealous."
"You've got your own pet, too. Don't forget about that."
"Oh, that's right!" She waved her arm and out popped a fire imp.
Trexxa jumped at the sudden intrusion, then bared her fangs and hissed.
“It's okay, Trexxa..." I said soothingly. "Friend. Not foe."
She looked up at me, her emerald eyes sparkling brightly. "Friend?" She asked, her voice crackling.
"Holy shit, she talks?" Esmerelda arched an eyebrow.
"Apparently!" I knelt down and looked Trexxa directly in the eyes. "Can you say, daddy?"
"Da-ddy?" She tried, her voice sounding harsh and raspy.
"That's mommy..." I pointed to Esmerelda.
"Ma...me?" She tried the words, tasting them on her tongue.
"My God she's cute!" Esmerelda knelt down and hugged the raptor to her chest.
Tired, Trexxa crawled back in my pack and we set back off to finish up this dungeon. I had no idea how much bigger it was. We still had a bunch of goblins to gobsmack and a couple other quests to complete.
Seeing as how not much had respawned since we first swept through here, I had to believe that there was perhaps a third level under this one. How far down did it go?
I climbed down the ladder carefully so as not to wake the baby raptor. We grabbed a torch and steadily made our way to where we found the Centaurs.
When we entered the room, the fire was still blazing, but this time there was a wandering goblin scrounging around. We quickly dispatched him and searched the room ourselves.
18/100 Goblins slain
200 (x2) xp gained
I needed a shit-ton more xp now to level. At the moment I was looking at another 40k worth.
We split the 2 silver we found on him and continued looking around. There wasn't much there. Just a few worthless trinkets. We found the other side of the barred door we'd come across earlier. Things could've gone drastically different if we'd tried to bust it down instead of finding another way into the room.
Trexxa poked her head out to see what was going on, then snuggled back down.
After going through a couple of false doors, we finally found the passage to the next room. Before we could get to it, though, we were beset upon by 2 goblins and 5 skeletons. They way they just suddenly appeared made me think they had been sent by the AI. I had no proof of that, though.
I pulled out my bow, nocked my two arrows and activated my freezing and double arrow spell. Esmerelda cast her summon fire imp spell and he immediately began shooting the goblins.
Targeting one of the goblins, I iced it, then began peppering it with my arrows. Unbeknownst to me, Trexxa had clambered out of my pack and began nipping at the goblin's heels.
It was actually quite comical to see the goblin try to kick out at the nipping raptor. She may not have been able to cause much damage, but she was nothi
ng if not persistent.
But what really helped me was that she bought me some time. With her running interference, I could dance around and arrow them at my convenience.
Between the four of us, we took down the skellies and goblins with very little issues.
19/100 Goblins slain
20/100 Goblins slain
200 x2 (x2) xp gained
25/100 Skeleton Minions Slain
25 x5 (x2) xp gained
We still had a long way to go to finish those quests, but we were getting there slowly but surely.
But the star of the show was Trexxa. After the last skelly had fallen, she raced back to me, her tail wagging her entire body and a huge grin on her face.
"Good girl!" I patted her on the head and stroked her. I had no idea that she'd be this good straight out of the gate.
She trotted back and grabbed a skeleton bone and placed in down in front of Esmerelda and looked up at her expectantly.
"Playing both of us, I see." She grinned and petted the dino.
I laughed. "Yes, she's a smart fucker."
Looting the bodies we found a couple worthless gems, a silver non-magical bracer and a bunch of copper. I took my share which came out to 27 and we trudged on, Trexxa in the lead.
She was in hunt mode, sniffing the ground and peering ahead into the semi-darkness. Moments later, she stopped suddenly, her tail rigid and motionless. Then, without warning, she sprang forward and leaped onto something that squeaked in the darkness ahead.
Another rat destroyed.
It was almost comical how good and efficient of a huntress she was.
When we got close to the next room, I told Trexxa to stay back until we called for her. I didn't want her running blindly into the room, aggroing everything in sight.
She gave me a quizzical look.
"Shh..." I held my finger to my lips. "We have to be quiet." I tried to explain. "Stay."
"Stay?" She repeated and nodded her head as though she understood. How much she understood, I didn't know. One thing was for certain, she was as smart as a whip.
We slowly crept toward the room. I looked back and Trexxa was sitting stock still. Not even her tail twitching. Good raptor!
Esmerelda put her ear up to the door and listened for several long moments.
"There's something - or someone - in there." She whispered in my ear.
"Let's see if we can slowly open the door and peek in. Even if we aggro, it shouldn't be the entire room." I suggested.
"Cover me." Esmerelda said as she crouched and slowly opened the door. It creaked slightly and she waited to see if anyone would notice, but no one did.
I watched her eyes go wide as she peered inside.
"Lots of goblins, a shaman of sorts and even a couple of mean-looking Orcs." She whispered.
"Anything I can pull?"
"Affirmative." She nodded. "The two Orcs look like they're in some kind of patrolling pattern. They should be easy enough to pull - assuming you time it right."
I nodded and when she opened the door and stepped back, I aimed my bow and waited for the patrolling Orcs to come close enough to pull them alone.
As I didn't want to alert the others, I only shot a single arrow. I aimed it at one of the Orc's knees, hoping to slow him down.
"They're coming!" I cried and backed up. As soon as they had crashed through the door, I froze one and began wailing on the other.
"Trexxa, attack!" I said, hoping she'd recognize the command.
The next thing I knew, the cagey baby raptor sprang into action and began nipping at one of the Orc's heels, nearly causing him to trip.
Between Esmerelda's fire spells, my arrows and our respective minions, we burned down the imposing Orc with no trouble. He came crashing to the ground with a thud and a roar.
The second Orc, however, was a bit more difficult. He brandished a wicked-looking battle axe and was undeterred by the nipping raptor. He kicked Trexxa down the hall and charged Esmerelda, coming razor close to connecting with her skull.
He only missed because she turned away at the last moment. Trexxa stood, shook herself off and jumped back in the foray. She was a tenacious little fighter and I had a feeling that once she was fully grown, she was going to be a force to be reckoned with.
It was honestly fun just watching her nip and jump and claw at her opponents. Obviously she couldn't do much damage - yet - but it felt good knowing I had someone on my side.
Our little group quickly dispatched the remaining Orc. That left a bunch of Goblins in the room. Maybe others, it was difficult to tell.
8/10 Tusks gathered
450 x2 (x2) xp gained
"Can any be pulled safely?" I asked.
Esmerelda peered into the room and shook her head. "Do you know if they aggro on your pet if she's not attacking?"
"Not sure. I could try it." I scratched my head. "What are you thinking?"
"We send her and my imp in there for a nice distraction and take them out from back here. There'll be so much chaos that they won't know what hit them."
I nodded and knelt down to explain to Trexxa what I wanted her to do. She was to get in there, grab their attention, make a bunch of noise and run around trying not to get hit while we whittled them down. It was dangerous, but something told me that she could handle it.
She nodded and hissed, letting me know she understood exactly what I wanted. I have no idea how she knew, but she did.
Once we got into position, we sent our pets into the room to distract them. Sure enough, the mobs didn't aggro on either of them, allowing them to get real close before striking.
Trexxa hissed and jumped and clawed, then ran away, trailing a bunch of angry goblins behind her. Then the fire imp shot a couple and they turned on him.
In the chaos, we chose our targets and started wearing them down. I froze one, rooted another and set fire to a third. I shot arrow after arrow into whichever goblin was near me until that one fell, then turned my attention to the next.
When Trexxa had several on her, I focused my shots on her mobs. All in all the distraction idea worked pretty well. Not perfect, but good enough to sow enough confusion that neither of us were ever in any danger.
With our current group, I felt powerful. I felt we could even take on a boss and win. Maybe not the spider queen that the AI was going to send us, but I wasn't level 10 yet, either. But I would be soon.
I didn't know how fast Trexxa was going to grow, but from the looks of things, she might even be at her full strength by then.
When the carnage was over, I gave her a hug and told her she was a good raptor. She beamed up at me, then rubbed her belly.
"She's a precocious little thing, isn't she?" Esmerelda laughed at her silly antics.
I laughed and nodded. "Does wex wex want some nom noms?"
She nodded enthusiastically and her eyes widened.
Fishing around in my pack, I grabbed an elk fillet and made her take it gently from my hand, which she did. Once it was in her greedy clutches, however, it was fair game. She tore into that so savagely I thought I heard the dead animal cry out in pain.
Continuing my training, I reached down and took it from her. She tried to hoard it to her, but I explained that I was the leader and she had to obey me at all times.
She sniffled and a tear threatened to burst from her large, emerald eyes, but she nodded her understanding. Once that was out of the way, I handed her back the chunk of meat.
Trexxa took it gratefully and gulped it down like the greedy dinosaur she was. I patted her on the head, then cautiously stepped into the room. There was one goblin spider mount at the far corner which we quickly dispatched.
21/100 Goblins slain
22/100 Goblins slain
23/100 Goblins slain
24/100 Goblins slain
25/100 Goblins slain
200 x 5 (x2) xp gained
For the shaman, I received:
500 (x2) xp gained
We were a quarter fi
nished with the goblin quest.
9/50 Goblins Spears Collected
The room was unspectacular, except for some kind of gruesome shrine off in the corner. Esmerelda helped me loot the bodies and even Trexxa brought me a gem and dropped it in front of me, wagging her tail.
We did find a locked chest that took a bit of...effort to open. Inside was a fairly nice find:
5 Greater Healing potions
15 gp
54 sp
109 cp
10 goblin spears (bringing us up to 19/50)
And a pie. Yes, there was a freshly-baked pecan pie sitting in there, still wrapped up and untouched.
"Should we?" Esmerelda asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Eat it, you mean?"
She nodded.
I shrugged my shoulders. "It may or may not be safe."
"Yeah, but it's pie."
"I have an idea." I pointed at Trexxa. "Trexxa, I'll give you a steak if you can tell me whether or not this pie is still good."
Esmerelda smiled. "I think you're asking a bit too -"
Trexxa promptly sniffed the pie, then nodded.
"How --?" Esmerelda asked, her mouth agape.
"How'd I do it?" I asked, smiling, fishing out another piece of meat for the growing raptor. "Simple. The little beast will do practically anything for food. Here Trexxa..." I lifted the food above her snout. "Stand!" I said excitedly and the moment she did, I let her have the meat. "See? Anything I want."
"Good girl!" Esmerelda patted her head. As Trexxa chowed down, we divvied up the pie and had a nice, relaxing rest.
The pie was scrumptious. Perfectly baked, the crust nearly melted in my mouth. It was so delicious that I literally ate every last crumb of my half.
When I was finished, Orge popped out of my backpack and nearly gave me a heart attack.
Trexxa growled and began nipping at his heels.
"Ah!" Orge cried out and danced around the room. "Get it off me!"
I chuckled. "Trexxa, Orge is a friend."
"Friend?" She stopped mid-leap and pirouetted around. "No kill?" She sniffled.
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