Private Eastern Brisshal The Lay of the Land (Honeyhome)

[Seris]

“So, the wolves have been bothering your livestock.”

Seris, the sky haired lynx girl, stood in front of the cattleman of Honeyhome, Leonard, who stood easily a foot and a half taller than her as he leaned against the outer post of his shop, crossing his arms and nodding in confirmation of her question. “Yeah, it seems like they likely come from the western side at night,” he explained, gesturing his thumb toward the direction he was implying. “During the day, we’ve tried to send small party patrols out to see if they can find their den, but everyone’s always come up empty handed.”

The Beastfolk girl nodded in response to Leonard’s information, typing it all down in the notes tab of her UI in palm-screen mode, to which the blonde man looked at her oddly. “Are… Are you okay?” Hearing the question, Seris closed her palm, deactivating the screen as she diverted her attention entirely back to the man with an a stoic blank expression. “I’m phenomenal,” she said, her voice carrying almost as much emotion as her eyes portrayed. “Leonard, if I might be able to find the wolves’ den, and take care of them for you, how much would you or the town be willing to offer as payment? I only ask because I need to try and attain access to better armor, and possibly a weapon if I can.”

“Haha, ehhh… Oh, you’re serious,” the man commented, looking the small unfazed girl dead in the eyes with a slight look of disbelief. After only a second, he shrugged it off with a grin. “Well, if you were to find them, which is unfortunately unlikely, and you did take care of them and brought back proof, then I’m sure the whole town would be happy enough to help you out with some discounts! Clay, the smith, he’s got plenty of new stuff in, so I’m sure he could fashion a custom piece for you if you’d like; As for health potions and other gear, Alenir at the far end of town by the temple should be able to help with that as well!”

“I see… Very well. I will bring proof of my success come tomorrow morning,” Seris said finally, giving Leonard a traditional Japanese bow of thanks before making her way in the direction that the stable man had gestured, not paying attention to any others that might’ve overheard the conversation.

Leonard kept his eyes on the neko girl, and sighed with a cocked brow and smile, scratching the back of his neck. “Hope that girl doesn’t get herself killed…”

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Yu knelt the ground his eyes glowing a soft crimson as he activated his Investigation mode, the blood he'd already known was there lighting up yellow in the dirt. So he had hit the poor fuck after all. And with his blood bullet lodged in the beast's flesh, he could track it all the way back to the den.

Or at least that was the hope.

Yu had never tried to use his hemomancy like this before. Then again, he'd never tracked anything in his entire life to begin with. The man was treading unknown waters, and even still, it seemed to be going well so far. He'd managed to find traces of blood from the wolves' last kill, and followed that first. Yu wasn't sure that he'd have been able to reliably follow tracks, but blood? He was built for that.

Standing one more, Yu chambered another round in his rifle, the lever clacking softly as the bullet slid into place, just in time for a soft rustle to be heard coming from behind him. Whipping around, Yu leveled his rifle at the sound's source.

"Jesus fuck!" Yu swore, lowering his gun. "Don't sneak up on people like that woman! I almost shot you!"

@Seris

 

[Seris]

100 / 100

“I wasn’t attempting to sneak up on you,” Seris said as she passed through the foliage and out into the open.

It had taken her close to an hour to get this far. In her case, luckily, her Beast Arts skill had made tracking the wolf semi manageable. Since she hadn’t encountered a wolf in the game so far, and her beast arts skill wasn’t upgraded enough to include unseen knowledge yet, her Investigation overlay only labeled the tracks as ‘Undiscovered species’. But, the tracks were realistic enough that she could tell that they were paw prints from some form of canine, at the very least; Judging by the player before her, it looks as though her guess had been correct.

“My name is Seris,” she introduced, giving a polite bow before joining him in examining the blood on the ground. The blood which, if Seris had to guess, was from the wolves and caused by the man at her side. “Hmmm… So, you are a hunter? Or perhaps an adventurer, trying out something new,” she hypothesized.

As she conversed with Yugam, her speech was very oddly formal, and methodical. It certainly wouldn’t take a psychologist to tell that this lynx girl wasn’t that great with people... “If possible, I would like to settle the matter of the wolves while also keeping them alive; if you would be willing to assist me with that, that is. I have the Beast Arts main skill, so I might be able to befriend and train them. If I can’t, then I would happily leave the fate of the wolves to your discretion.”

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Yu sighed as the girl clarified that she wasn't trying to sneak up on him. Something else though? Yeah, she was probably trying to sneak up some mob or another. And frankly it didn't take a genius to figure out she was out doing the same quest that he was.

"Starcalled, same as you," the man stated. "You can call me Yu," he said, giving her a slight nod of his head in return for her bow.

As to her requests, Yu shrugged. "Fine by me, as long we get the rewards at the end." The methodology didn't matter too much to Yu, as long as the job got done. "I tagged one of them already, we should be able to track them anywhere they go until I dispel my tracker," he explained gesturing in the direction from which he could sense his blood. "They're not too far for now. We should get a move on."

@Seris

 

[Seris]

100 / 100

“Starcalled? Is that the lore friendly friendly title for players in this world?” Listening to who she now knew as Yu continue, the normally stoic girl held back a small laugh, remembering the scene from Rush Hour when Jackie Chan’s partner argued with a man named Yu.

Then, hearing that Yu was on board with her idea, she nodded and got lower to the ground. Attempting to immerse herself into the mindset of the character she was playing, she adapted her body language accordingly, her posture adjusting to create less noise and her eyes becoming sharper. “Understood. I shall follow your lead,” she stated. In the meantime, a single raven landed on a branch above their heads, otherwise not making a sound as if it was aware of Seris’ intentions. Opening her hand, revealing small bits of bread, the raven jumped down and landed on her arm, eating without hesitation. “Eyes up, Sillow,” the lynx girl commanded, and the raven let out a small caw before taking to the skies once again.

 

[Yugam]

"Yup. We're called the Starcalled Travelers," the man explained. "The NPCs and whatnot are called 'Landers'." Simple enough names, easily remembered. The girl then giggled quietly, and Yu raised an eyebrow at her curiously. "What?"

The girl, agreeing to follow behind Yu, quickly ordered her crow to the skies. The man's eyes followed it for a moment as it circled around their heads. "Alright, stay close," the man said, before shouldering his rifle once more and reaching out with his magic to feel where the wolves were, and where they were heading.

"Follow me."

The man quietly stepped through the forest. Their marks were too far away to hear them approach still, but the man wasn't eager to alert anything else in their vicinity to their presence either. Who knew what else was out there. The trek lasted minutes before the man gestured to Seris for her to drop low. Taking a knee, the man's eyes scanned the area ahead of them. Nothing.

"Just up ahead, somewhere. Think your friend can get us some eyes?" the man quietly whispered to the beastfolk.

@Seris

 

[Seris]

100 / 100

Nodding, the girl following Yu made a motion for him to stop with her for a moment.

Twenty seconds. The forest fell to nature’s tone, the two’s breaths not even heard as the chittering of critters and the faint hissing of leaves rubbing amongst each other in the wind filled their ears, otherwise unnoticed. The call of a fox at its den, the cracking of acorns against the tree by a squirrel to their left; Then, just as it had come, a familiar sound from above broke that serenity. Three distinct caws, with a break in the second into the third.


“Three just ahead. By Sillow’s distance, potentially forty paces. The wind seems to be blowing uphill, so they’ve yet to catch our scent this close. Once the wind shifts, they’ll likely be startled from our approach. Based on her second call, the injured one whose blood you’re tracking is among the three. As for a larger pack, Sillow hasn’t noticed one just yet.”

Opening her palm UI, Seris seemed to be taking notes at a quick pace, before closing it again. “She seems to be learning rather fast; Raven learning capability in this world is either exaggerated to the real world, or perhaps it’s benign influenced by my beast arts,” she comments aloud, and then looks over at Yugam. “How should we proceed?”

 

[Yugam]

"Sillow can measure paces?" was the first thing out of Yu's mouth before her focused back on the task at hand.

They were downwind, so their scents were masked, though that could change in an instant, much like Seris had surmised. No larger pack though. That seemed strange, Yu doubted three wolves were all it took to decimate the farmer's livestock as they had.

When asked how to proceed, Yu had to think for a moment. Taking down these three stragglers now would lose them the whole pack, the purpose of their whole quest. But, not acting, and they might run away faster than Yu, Seris or even Sillow could catch them.

But then again, there was one thing Yu hadn't considered yet.

"Think you can tame one if we sneak up on them?" Yu asked, looking over his shoulder at the lynx. "Don't see another way to fry the bigger fish here. No pressure."

@Seris

 

[Seris]

Seris looked curiously at Yugam, before she realized the confusion and shook her head. “No, Sillow can’t measure the distance; I trained my hearing with her by having her fly out to specific distances, and cawing. That way, I can discern the distance via the hollowing of her tone,” she explains in as simple of a method as she knew how. “So far, Sillow is the only one I’ve been able to accomplish that kind of training with; I tried training my howling mouse Lint the same way, but despite his smarts, he’s not as task oriented.”

Listening to Yugam’s proposal, Seris closed her eyes, as she considered the probabilities. “I might be able to… hm. The injured one; if we can lead the other two away, likely scouts for the larger, then that would leave the injured one tamable..” Then, the Lynx girl pulled what looked to be a small satchel of pin tip seeds out of her pocket.

Opening her eyes, the pupils slit as the irises seemed to illuminate to a near electric blue. Raising her left hand, the fingers contorted for a moment, and grew fur over the arm, long sharp claws slowly feeding through the digits of her now paw which was still semi humanoid in shape. Silently but quickly stabbing the claws into the ground over and over, she began to soften the dirt into a thin ground soil. Once she finished, her hand and eyes reverted back to their normal state, and she fed the seeds into the soil, holding her right hand over the small patch. A very faint, green glow began to emanate from her palm, and before too long, the seeds had turned into small sprouts, slowly growing larger and larger, beginning to turn into a thick blend of mint and dragon’s blood.

Seris’ breaths got a bit heavier as she did this; it was likely that the bestial transformation had taken some deal of fatigue to accomplish, but it didn’t take too long for her to recover.

Once the herbal blend had reached a few feet in height, she began pulling the vines of the herbs, collecting the leaves and pods into her hand and grinding them together between her hands. Lastly, she began rubbing the combination on her arms, lifting the hem of her hakama robes - potentially giving Yugam an unintended glance of more than necessary - before continuing to rub the blend into her upper chest and neck.

“Mint and dragon’s blood; The wolves may find the smell strange, but not odd enough to assume danger,” she explained to her companion.

 

[Yugam]

"Ah, gotcha." That made more sense. Crows were intelligent, sure, but gauging and communicating distance was certainly something that was beyond the average avian.

The other question here was how they'd lure away the two uninjured wolves. Frankly, there was only one way that Yugam could think of, and he wasn't exactly excited for. He'd have to play the role of bait.

The man was about to speak up and suggest as such as he turned around to look at Seris, only to notice that she was growing some herbs with her magic. Yu cocked an eyebrow at her curiously, not entirely sure what she was doing, at least, until she explained it.

"Alright then...well, in that case, I'll take this stuff, run it downwind and hopefully it hoof it back here before the wolves catch up to. In the meantime, you do your thing. That sound good?"

@Seris