#his plant markings being extremely faint on his eyes when they aren’t glowing is very true to me also

[ohitslen]

Something other about his eyes

Bonus! Based on this quick thing I did this afternoon and the idea took a bit more shape and turned into that thing from above uEK

[suitov]

Komaegi Week: Garden

“I’m sorry it’s not a normal kind of date.  I just remembered I’d agreed to help Shikiba and I didn’t want to cancel on you outright...”

“For all the experience I have, this could be a completely normal date!” said Nagito cheerfully.

“But do you know what Celeste said when I told her?  She said ‘Well, I wouldn’t trust you pair of submissive lambikins around any kind of tools’...”  Makoto unlocked the garden shed.  “But then I asked if she meant she wanted to come help, and she said ‘That’s what I have men for, dear’.  Like, make up your mind!”

“It’s not as though we’re doing anything dangerous,” said Nagito, picking up a trowel and giving it an uncertain heft.

“He even labelled them for us, he said.”  Sure enough, Makoto found the small sack marked Early Onions without difficulty.

Nagito had found some gardening gloves; he handed Makoto a second pair.  See, they were off to a great start!

“All right.  He said it’s this bed over here, the one under the cherry tree…”

Nagito followed him with the rest of the gear, sparing the tree a wry look.  It was bare, of course, being February.  No blossoms for Makoto’s birthday.  But maybe there would be for Nagito’s!  He could take Nagito to look at them.  Yes, they’d go together and they’d hold hands—Nagito would finally agree to let people see they were dating, he’d realise he was worthy of Makoto—better yet, he’d realise there was no such thing as worthy, and then maybe… maybe they’d kiss!  In front of the trees and everyone!  Now there was a hopeful thought.

Makoto tripped over his feet in excitement and planted his face in the bare earth.

“Are you inspecting the beds personally?” asked Nagito with all that subtle irony he displayed sometimes.

“Yeah, something like that.”  Makoto picked himself off, brushed off his nose and the knees of his uniform pants—on reflection, he should’ve done like Nagito had and changed into something more casual before heading off to grub around in the dirt.  He’d been too excited to think about details.  Cute guy and all that.

Nagito smoothly folded his long legs into a kneel.  “Ah… Shikiba really didn’t leave much to chance.”  He held up a hand-drawn diagram of a bulb, tiny feathery roots and all, firmly labelled PLANT THIS END DOWN.

They set to work.

“I guess everyone thinks we’re that hopeless,” said Makoto with a rueful grin.

Nagito’s laugh was gentle, as if apologising for its audibility.  Makoto wanted to hear it more often.  “Then they’re wrong.  It’s never hopeless with Makoto around.  By definition.”

“Are you talking about—ah, Nagito, you know Ultimate Hope is just a nickname my classmates came up with!  Now I think about it, it must have been after I tried cheering Toko up one too many times…”

“That many Ultimates can’t be wrong, that’s what I always say,” said Nagito, who was capable of digging in his heels on certain topics every bit as effectively as he was currently digging in the onion bulbs.

Makoto stuck out his tongue, but he continued in Nagito’s wake, patting down the soil and giving the bulbs their first watering-can baths.

It looked as though, in spite of certain people’s expectations, their task would soon be finished without any disasters at all.

“I wonder how long until we see them growing,” said Makoto.  Dim recollections arose of the time he’d planted an acorn and checked back hourly on its progress, before running to his mother at dinner time in tears because it hadn’t become a tree.  Hey, he’d been five, all right?!

“Assuming my accursed presence hasn’t poisoned them somehow,” Nagito offered cheerfully.  “Knowing my luck, they’ll all wither and the soil will go completely barren, or they’ll grow into homicidal monsters, or…”

“Or,” said Makoto, before the ball of hypothetical horrors could really get rolling, “what if it’s good luck instead, and they all grow big and beautiful and tasty in stir fries?”

“Oh, no, I think I’ve already identified the good luck in this situation,” said Nagito with hooded eyes.

“Really?  What’s th— Nagito, why’s your bag glowing?”

Nagito followed his eyes.  He took off his gloves and opened his book bag.  “Ah...” he said.

Makoto realised what it was just before Nagito produced his wand.  The weird, dark metal wand, one of the pair they’d found by accident while out walking together.  Glowing, which was why they’d originally seen them, but hadn’t happened since then.

“Do you think it senses danger?”

Makoto picked up his own backpack.

“Ha!  So you don’t want to be far from yours either?”

“I feel all uneasy and lonely if I get too far away from it, a little like when I’m away from… um, from home,” Makoto quick-thinkingly unadmitted. Ha, and to think Kyoko had called him an open book!  “But mine isn’t glowing, look, so either it doesn’t mean that or… heehee… I’m the threat.”

Nagito gasped dutifully at Makoto’s fierce face and intimidating flex.  But he did grin a little.  “If I ever find the Ultimate Hope is my adversary, I’m switching sides.”

Makoto zipped his backpack up again.  “So maybe yours wants you to transform.  You could try it.”

“I don’t even know how it happened the first time.  Do you?”

“Um, no.” Makoto frowned and touched his chin with a knuckle, a gesture he’d unconsciously picked up from Nagito.  “Maybe wave it around?  Twirl with it?  Is there a magic word written on it…?”

“No, no and no,” said Nagito dizzily.  “I don’t even think I was thinking anything special that first time.  All I remember was—um, well, that surely wasn’t it.”

Makoto leaned forward like a puppy seeing a ball.  “What?  What?”

“Oh, nothing… um.”  Nagito squirmed.  “I was just feeling very… extremely ga—”

It happened immediately.  Nagito’s formerly quivering fingers clamped firmly around the wand and he struck an unlikely pose, spine bent such that somehow his chest and his rear were in view at once.  Blood-red ribbons of light spilled out and cocooned him.  Makoto even thought he heard a faint theme song.

Nagito’s high heels touched the ground again.  He looked down and smoothed his slinky red cocktail dress.

Makoto choked on a giggle.  At the questioning look, he said, “They’re back…”

“What are—oh no.”  Nagito reached up and tugged at one fuzzy cat ear. “Magical girl and catboy now?  How is this reasonable?”

“I don’t know about reasonable, but it’s cute.”

“Yes, but we didn’t even turn into cats… dog… animal people on the same day—they were completely separate incidents!”

“Maybe your magic wand found it cute too.”

Nagito’s fluffy white tail lashed.  He started to lick a hand, then thrust it embarrassedly behind his back.  “And what was even the point of this?” he demanded of the magic wand.

“Ooh…” said Makoto.

“…just trying to have a normal date with a very adorable boy and you go around glowing and, and giving people hairy ears willy-nilly…”

“Um…” said Makoto, who was all squeaky inside after being described as very adorable.

“…appreciate some idea of what you want me to do here.  I mean, magical girl powers aren’t exactly something the guidance counsellor can help with, and I’ve asked her…”

“Nagito, look!”

“…said it wasn’t even the weirdest thing she’s been asked by a student at this school, which is saying somethi—yes, Makoto?”

Makoto mutely pointed.

“…oh,” said Nagito, accurately.

The onions were growing.

The onions were growing big…

“Nyaow!” Nagito hissed and swiped his wand at a waist-high bundle of leaves.  The leaves took no notice, neither to attack him nor to quail away from his indignant hiss.  The bulb at the base of those leaves, half submerged in soil, was massive, more like the size of a pumpkin.

The onions stopped growing with a self-satisfied chlorophyllic creak.

“Uh,” said Makoto.

“…Yeah,” said Nagito, slinking farther away from the garden bed before anything else could happen.

“So that was…”

“It sure was…”

“Do you think that’s your magic power?  Nagito, that’s such a cool power! They’re blooming like crazy!”

“I don’t think onions bloom, do they?”

“I have no idea, but I’m pretty sure they don’t normally do that, either.”

They stared at the vegetable garden a little more.  Then, both at once, they started laughing.

“Onions, right? Pungent and making people cry.  Perfect imagery for me!”

“Nooooo, onions are good!  They’re good in cooking, they give things flavour, and… they have like, circles.  What’s the word?  Like layers!  They’re complicated, just like you!”

“You think I’m good?”  Makoto realised Nagito had stopped laughing.

“Yes, silly catboy, I think you’re very good.”  He stuck out his tongue, just to be extra convincing.

Nagito wordlessly reached out and brushed a petal out of his hair.

“And I’m not sorry we’re dating, even if weird stuff like this happens every time.”  A falling petal tickled his nose.  He rubbed it with the back of his gardening glove.  “At least I get to experience the weird stuff with you.”

Nagito shuffled his feet.  Or maybe he was just trying to keep the heels from sinking into the grass.  He rubbed the back of his neck, trailing the red veils that formed part of his distractingly alluring outfit.  They looked kind of nice, spangled with pink petals.

“Wait a minute,” said Makoto, looking up.

At the riotously blossoming cherry tree.

They gawped at each other, framed in falling flowers.  Then one of them reached for the other’s hand, and later on neither remembered who it had been.

They did remember the kisses, though.  So it was a pretty good date after all.

[artnerd1123]

Not My Fight

Chapter three ——————–

It’s about time we had an update, eh? Happy reading all :3c Chapters list can be found here

——————–

After Avery had made a proper blanket tent, he extinguished the flame of the lantern that sat on his desk. A soft purple glow soon shone from his cupped paw. He used the light of his magic fire to get back to his bed. Settling down, he let the small fireball float above the scroll. It illuminated the old runes and small pictures that a monster had inscribed decades upon decades ago.

“Ok,” he whispered to himself, “let's see what this guy has to say about the little pests…”

Pcoumos: their creation and their impact on monster society

Pcoumos are highly interesting creatures. They were created by a magic battle between two very powerful wizards, back in the days where magic ruled over all. We aren't quite sure what spells caused their existence. Hence their name, which is an acronym for Parasitic Cloud Of Uncertain Magical Origins. What we are certain of is that they “spawned” during what would have been a fatal blow to both wizards, who were both using a barrage of different spells in addition to their death spells. Due to the unique properties of the opposing magics, the resulting explosion cloud took on a life of its own.

Pcoumos can be anywhere from harmless (but extremely annoying) to lethal. This, of course, depends purely on their interactions with other monsters. When you spot a pcoumo, it is advised that you flee the scene and report it to the authorities-

At that point, Avery snorted, and stopped reading the short paragraph. They've made it clear since we were babies what we are supposed to do about them, he commented mentally. Freeze, run, and report. I bet that would just make them come after you...

He skimmed the scroll to see if he could find anything of more interest than warnings. Sure enough, he found a passage discussing the pcoumo’s instincts. This oughta be good, he thought. He moved into a more comfortable position before beginning to read again.

Since they are magic based beings, they need a host to replenish their energy regularly. This host is always a monster of some sort. The pcoumo usually enters the host by phasing through them; similar to a fog and a cloth, but stays inside the host’s body. It can also take control via a handshake. Sometimes the host does not realize it is a host until the pcoumo becomes rather difficult to remove.

Avery shifted uneasily, briefly wondering if anyone he knew could have a pcoumo. He shook his head. The kingdom had taken precautions for that. Especially after all of the ruler of Nthenda’s actions concerning pcoumos…

He moved the scroll up.

Once inside the host, the pcoumo gets to work by slowly learning the monster’s mannerisms and behaviors. Upon gathering enough information, it will communicate with its host via dreams and faint telepathy, giving off the appearance of unconscious thoughts. It will offer the monster the ability to gain its wildest fancy. Or occasionally offer to help them with a particularly difficult academic or job-related issue. If the host accepts this offer, the pcoumo has access to the host’s limbs and memories. This particular method of taking over a host is why most targets of pcoumos are of a relatively young age, as younger monsters are easier to win over.

The host can also be a voluntary one, as certain very old pcoumos have gained the ability to speak. It’s not uncommon to find children playing with them. One must be extremely watchful of their children if it is after dark or storming out.

It takes anywhere from a couple days to a week for the pcoumo to get full access to a host’s body. But when it does, it can take control of the host whenever it wants, and do anything that it desires.

However, these desires are usually just pure curiosity, such as chasing after butterflies or stopping to watch a fish swim by in the river. That does NOT mean that they can’t also be destructive. While pcoumos generally do not listen to monsters’ instructions, they can still be trained to do one’s dirty work. This can include forcing the unfortunate host to comply to whatever the monster who trained the pcoumo wants them to -

There was a noise outside the hall.

Avery let out a small panicked gasp. If he was caught reading scrolls in bed again, he’d be unable to do any training for two weeks. He snuffed out the small fireball he’d summoned with one paw, then attempted to toss the scroll onto his desk with the other. He winced at the clattering sound it made.

The sound of footsteps in the hallway went silent. Avery’s wince turned into a grimace.

I shouldn't have done that, he thought, pulling the covers over himself. But it was better to be caught with a scroll on the floor than a scroll in his bed.  

The footsteps moved slowly closer to his door. Avery did his best to take shallow and deep breaths. It would give him the appearance of sleep, even if he was still in his squire’s clothes.

But, unexpectedly, there was a knock at the door. A  very particular knock. Two knocks, a pause, then three slow knocks. Avery was silent for a moment more before rolling out of his bed. He crept silently over to the door.

“Avery…?” Francis called sleepily, half opening an eye to look at him, “What’re you doing…?”

“Shh-” Avery put a finger to his lips, “someone’s at the door. Go on back to sleep.”

“Mmh… ok…” Francis yawned, folding his petals up around his face again.

Avery waited until Francis had fallen asleep again before knocking on his door softly, mimicking the previous sound. There was an answering thump from out in the hall. He opened the door to reveal a yellow and brown dinosaur. The moonlight glinted off his dusty scales, and made it seem like it's chocolate brown eyes glowed in the dark. The dinosaur was a few inches taller than Avery, forcing him to look up in order to meet his gaze. Its banded sleeves revealed that this particular dinosaur was a guard, and on duty at that. But Avery knew the scaly sentry well. It was his colleague; Kade.

“Kade, what are you doing here?!” Avery whispered vehemently, “we’re gonna get caught!”

Kade simply shook his head.

“Just follow me. And be quiet about it.” he said gruffly.

Avery sighed. Nodding, he carefully slipped out of his room to follow the dinosaur down the hall. Despite his rather bulky frame, Kade moved almost silently. It was only the soft clicking sound of claws on stone that revealed his footsteps.

Avery followed as silently as he could, but still managed to be louder than an elephant in a glassblowing shop. That’s what he thought, anyway. It’s just late night jitters, he thought to himself. He wondered what Kade would want to do at this hour. Certainly not to go train. At least, I hope not.

Soon, the two had reached the outer wall of the castle.

“Jus a bit more,” Kade muttered, “through here…” He gestured to a gap in the flagstones before slipping through. Avery tilted his head, brows furrowed in confusion, but nonetheless followed Kade through.

The gap had led out to a ledge built into the castle wall for an archer during a time of siege. But for now, it housed Avery and Kade. And a rather large bush. Avery glanced over at the dark leaved plant before turning back to his scaly companion.

“Ok Kade. The jig is up. What did you want to show me?” he yawned, rubbing his arms to keep them warm.

“This,” kade said, gently reaching up to pat the bush, “you can come out now, Prisma.”

Avery bleated in shock, slapping a paw over his mouth. The bush’s leaves and branches had begun to retract themselves into the stonework to reveal... a ferret?!

It wasn’t so much the presence of the ferret inside the bush that surprised him. It was the colors she was wearing. The ferret, who he guessed was Prisma, stretched her arms and scooched over to stand next to Kade. She had light tan fur with taupe markings around her eyes and on her paws, tail, and back. Her outfit confirmed her occupation as a spy, but the color of her shirt was sea green rather than blue. This was not a spy from Eitilte.

“... Kade…” Avery said nervously, “Why is there a spy from Ranomasib here? Why didn’t you turn her in?! And why did you show her to me?!” He reached for his sword, momentarily forgetting that he’d left it in his room. Kade held up a hand, giving Avery a warning look.

“I wanted you to meet her. I found her a few weeks ago. And I did report her. The princess didn’t say her presence was unlawful,” he explained.

“Well… alright then… but does that mean there are more spies from Ranomasib?” Avery asked, shifting uneasily.

Prisma nodded.

“Price Zander’s spies are in more places than you would expect. I was gathering some castle information when I was caught by Kay here,” she said, turning to look up at Kade. She chuckled. “He was… unsure what to do, but I let him take me to your princess.”

Kade snorted.

“If by “let”, you mean “made me chase you around the castle walls twice,” then sure. You let me take you.”

“Oh be quiet. I didn’t know what you were gonna do to me.”

“And I didn’t know what you were doing in the first place. But hey, it all worked out.” Kade smiled gently at the ferret. “And we’re partners now.”

“In more ways than one,” prisma said, grinning mischievously. She leaned on Kade’s chest and laughed, holding his hand in her paw. Kade simply snorted and rolled his eyes, but didn’t deny it. A small rosy hue had appeared on his cheeks.

Avery looked back and forth between them.

“So… let me get this straight,” he said, clapping his paws together and pointing them both at the couple. “You're partners with the spy of another kingdom… and you're dating her too…?”

Kade’s cheeks flushed a darker shade of red.

“That’s about the gist of it, yes…” Kade responded with a small nod.

“Is that a problem?” Prisma’s bluish-purple eyes flashed dangerously in the dark. Avery gulped. An angry spy wasn’t one he wanted to tangle with.  

“No, no, it’s fine-” Avery waved his paws, taking a step back- “I-I just wanted to clarify…” He sighed, pushing his fur up out of his eyes. This was… he wasn’t sure what to call it. Not necessarily good, but not really bad either.

“So… what now…?”

“I just wanted to introduce her to you. Y’know. So she could be a part of the group.”

Avery stared at him blankly.

“You… want her to be a part of the group?”

“Yeah, I mean, she won’t do any harm…”

“And I’ve heard so much about it already!” Prisma broke in excitedly.

Avery jumped. Her voice had seemed to come out of thin air. He shook his head. Spies, he thought to himself, sneaky even when they don’t mean to be…

“Well… I suppose i could talk to Kry about it…”

Kade grinned at him, going over to clap him on the back.

“Thanks Avery. I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

“Heh, no problem kade…” Avery said with a yawn. “Now can I please go back to bed…?”

“Oh, right. It is kinda late.”

“Kinda late??? It’s like 11 at night kade! I’d call that actually late. Especially when I’ve got training tomorrow.”

Prisma laughed, and Avery felt himself blush. He muttered to himself, shifting from foot to foot.

“W-what…? What’ so funny?”

“Oh, isn’t he a riot! 11 at night is “actually late…” Well, off to bed you go then,” she said, smiling. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around!”

“... I… guess so…?”

Kade chuckled, shaking his head.

“Stay here, my partner in crime,” he said, giving her a kiss on the forehead, “I’ll be back in a jiff.”

The two walked back to avery’s room in silence. It was more due to the need to be quiet in the late hours than Avery’s inability to ask questions. He had several buzzing around in his head. By the time they were at the door to his room, he was fit to burst.

“Kade-” he started, whispering, but was stopped by a claw over his mouth. Tomorrow, kade mouthed. Avery huffed, but reluctantly nodded. He slipped back inside his dark room, and fumbled for his bed.

He lit a small fireball, letting it float in the air by his bed, then got into his night wear. He flopped onto his bed with a sigh. There had been so many questions left unanswered by kade’s spontaneous night visit. Things like, how long had he had a girlfriend? Why was she a spy of all things? Who else knew about her? Why had this happened so suspiciously close to the ball? Why wasn’t Kade worried about how easily a spy could get into their kingdom, especially at a time where Nthenda’s power was so ominously growing in the distance?

Then again, she is a Ranomasib spy, his brain chattered as he slipped under his blankets, relations with that kingdom are always good. And princess glacia never seems too troubled to share stuff with that prince Zander guy.

It’s just prince Squall that we really have to worry about.

He shivered, tugging the covers closer.

Prince Squall Derecho Gladeness. Nthenda’s current and most dangerous ruler.

Just the name was enough to make people glance over their shoulder. He certainly didn’t need to be thinking about the yellow-eyed dragon before bed. And not just because of the dumb rumors about him coming to get you while you slept. Those were for babies. It was because it send his mind down paths he didn’t want to go. Paths where he had to go onto battlefields while he was still in his squire’s garb. Where his friends were sharp-toothed and red eyed. Where he felt himself forced into hurting people he cared about by some evil black cloud.

He whimpered softly and rolled over. It was just best not to think about Squall at all. He reached out and extinguished his ball of purple fire. He had training in the morning, so he figured he’d better get some sleep.

-------------

Avery tossed and turned in his bed. He slept fitfully for a couple hours, but when he woke up for the tenth time in thirty minutes, he gave up on trying to stay asleep. He sat up, running his paw through his messy fur. Stupid Nthenda. Giving me nightmares and bad thoughts, he grumbled mentally.

He swung his legs over the side of his bed, gently placing his feet on the floor. He shuddered softly. The stone floor was cold against the pads of his paws. He summoned in a fireball, gently tossing it up so the purple light would illuminate the room. He tiptoed over to his desk, crouching down to pull out a box he kept under it before hopping back into bed. He stuck his feet back under the covers. They were warm, and would hopefully warm up his feet after the small walk on the frozen flagstones. He hated being cold…

Opening the box, avery twitched his paw to bring the fire closer. He rifled through it, searching for something… Pebbles, small flasks of different liquids or spell scrolls, a couple gems… there. He gingerly lifted a ribbon out of the box. Setting the rest of the contents back inside, he put the box on the floor. A quick shove sent it sliding over the floor to rest under his desk once again. He turned his attention back to the ribbon.

It was a gentle shade of red, the kind you would see from a rose or the sky as the sun sets. Avery smiled to himself as he remembered the day Krystal had given it to him.

It was after they’d been friends for about a year. They’d been talking about the different things they liked to collect and keep, as they were out in the creek looking for different feathers or stones or cool looking plants to decorate their tree fort with. He’d mentioned how much he didn’t really collect any one particular thing, and how she was confused. He remembered laughing at the expression on her face before telling her about how he liked keeping all the little things his friends gave to him in a box. Explaining how each thing he had was a reminder of what his friends liked. Of what they meant to him and what he meant to them by what different trinkets they’d give him. He remembered her soft laugh… her kind smile… how she’d reached up and untied one of the red ribbons around her ear to give to him… how their paws had brushed, and they’d laughed it off…

Avery shook his head slightly to bring himself back to reality. The slightly-faded ribbon had been in the box for six years now. And what wonderful years they had been. A jesc hooted softly outside his window. He yawned. It was still late, and he needed to sleep. Squall or no Squall.

He tied the ribbon around one of his horns, then laid back down on his bed. He dropped off to sleep, dreams of laughter and playing in the fields dancing in his head.

[hika-in-wonderland]

Paracosm 3

Today was a very interesting session! We made up for it being later than intended by making a whole lot of progress :0 this is super long, sorry about that!

earlier in the week we were too tired to do anything in-depth, but we got in some practice with our weapons (target practice was a drag, but very worth it) and learned a little bit about the lore surrounding weapons in this world. apparently, when the owner of a weapon has earned it, that weapon will communicate its name to the owner. knowing its name is a sign of a strong partnership.

it also appears that time only passes when we’re paying attention, which makes perfect sense but also makes it really easy to keep track of what we’re doing. this marks three days in the paracosm!

anyway, we started this morning by getting all our gear together and deciding that today, we’re finding something to do outside of town. there’s a bulletin board in Claywood where people post notes wanting help, and we figured that would be a nice place to stop. on the way to the board, someone stopped me and asked where i got my bow; i pointed them in the right direction. 

we’ve heard repeatedly that Claywood is way out of the way of anywhere else in the country, but people seem to come here anyway just to get their hands on the amazing craftsmanship coming from it. it’s definitely a bustling town for somewhere that’s in the middle of nowhere.

we checked the bulletin board first for any news, but there really wasn’t anything besides people asking for help gathering ingredients and materials and such. we did see a note signed by Ilium, the merchant we met before, which said that a bear had stolen some of his merchandise and he was offering a reward to get it back. since we know who he is, we figured that’d be the best one to take, and we took the flier and went to find Ilium.

he confirmed the story on the flier, said something along the lines of, “every time I come around here, this bear takes my stuff. nobody else will believe me, but I even know where it lives!” we promised we’d get his stuff back, and he pointed us in the right direction. i really wish i had a picture of Claywood’s layout, but the road we’d come from when we entered is on the exact opposite side of the road we needed to take. “Take the road until it curves into a different direction, and then keep going the same direction,” Ilium told us.

after quite a bit of walking (we played I Spy and tried to identify plants. we aren’t very good at either) the road curved away and we kept walking in the same direction. there was a very faint path, and at the end of that path there was a little clearing that looked like it had been used as a campsite multiple times. we didn’t notice it at first, but immediately behind the remains of the campsite, there was a massive cave in the side of a mountain. it was just... right there. i can’t describe how suddenly it seemed to appear.

before going in, we discussed whether or not we should go in with weapons drawn. eventually we decided not to; we were kind of hoping that we’d find a peaceful way out of this, without actually fighting the bear. plus, i wanted to learn more about what defines a bear in this world; attacking it immediately isn’t usually the first step to observing wildlife.

so we creep into the cave. it’s very dark, but the pendant i’d bought from ilium, the one with the moon, cast a little bit of silver light--just enough to see by. after a while we got to the end of the cave, and we could see the bear. it was generally the shape i expected a bear to be, but its ears were much pointier and slightly tufted. its fur looked a lot less coarse than a usual bear’s, and was super fluffy. its tail was just as short, but it was, again, really fluffy. it had its back to us, but behind it we could make out the shape of what looked like boxes and bags, slightly beaten up as if by big bear claws carrying it. we hesitated before we tried to speak to it.

hika started by saying, “excuse me, we were sent here by a merchant who said he stole your merchandise. we were hoping to get it back.” you know, the polite way to go. the bear only grunted in return, but it did seem to be responding.

“we’re sorry to intrude on your cave,” i added, “but we were hoping to resolve this without, you know, fighting?” i sounded a lot less sure of myself than i could have, for sure.

the bear rolled over to face us. its eyes were the first thing i noticed--glowing gold, with slit pupils like a cat’s eyes. its face was covered in scales, and the scales went all the way down its neck, its belly, and on its arms and legs. this thing was basically a super fluffy bear which also happened to have Really Cool Scales, reflecting the silver light from my pendant, and it was pretty damn cool. also, it had enormous claws. scary ones.

it snorted at us, apparently uninterested, and hika turned to me and said, “do you think we should have bought something that lets us talk to animals from ilium?”

as soon as he said that, the bear sat up and turned toward the pile of stuff behind it. it hooked something on its claws and tossed it to us--two earrings, shaped like (surprise surprise) bear paws. they weren’t actual earrings, just clip-on things, and we put them on pretty much immediately.

as soon as we did, the bear said in a distinctly feminine voice, “you aren’t like the people ilium usually sends to me. usually, they stab first and ask questions later, or not at all. honestly, it gets tiring to die all the time, even for a goddess.”

“a goddess?” we repeated back, because holy shit our first encounter outside a town and it’s literally a goddess. what are the odds?

“yes, a bear goddess,” she said. “it’s refreshing. you can keep those, by the way,” she gestured at the earrings we were wearing. “they aren’t for communicating with animals, but they’ll let you hear divine beings speak. take it as thanks for not killing me immediately.”

“thanks,” we said, and then hika asked, “did you really take ilium’s stuff? or was he tricking us or something?”

“a little of both,” the bear goddess replied. “we have a relationship of mutual thievery. sometimes i steal from him, and sometimes he hires people like you to steal from me. and, of course, i can always make more magical items myself. it’s like a game.”

“do you have a name?” i asked.

“i do,” she said. “but a goddess doesn’t share her name on the first meeting. not for superstitious reasons; it’s just tradition. divinity around here has a lot of that stuff.” she didn’t really seem to have much opinion toward that. honestly, she came off as extremely nonchalant the whole time.

finally, she turned around and picked up a small crate, and handed it to hika. “you two can take this back to ilium. i’m sure he offered you a reward that you don’t want to pass up on. make up whatever story you want; a goddess can’t actually die. i have a nap to return to, though, so you should probably leave.”

so we took the crate and headed all the way back to Claywood! it still took us some time to get back there, but it was a fun walk where we talked a bunch about the bear goddess and what the things she told us tell us about the world! when we got back to town, we found ilium and returned the crate to him, and in return he gave us the reward he’d promised. technically we don’t need money since i can just conjure it up, but it feels more immersive when we actually keep track of it.

and that’s about it! it was super eventful and we learned a whole lot. we have no idea what we’ll do next time, though; if anyone has any ideas, let me know!!