Fugitive Status: Part 1

And now, we go back in time to the end of Dragon Seed. What DID happen when Hector and Karalti first fled Fort Palewing?

A Patreon exclusive! Part 1 of 6.

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The forests around Fort Palewing burned.

The flames created a false dawn, shrouding the woods in sick crimson light. Hot winds pushed us like a giant hand down a zig-zag trail beneath towering black trees, the firs and spruce that hadn't yet been consumed by dragonfire.

Karalti clung to my chest under the brace of my arm, her head tucked in against my shoulder. I clutched her tightly as Cutthroat gunned it down the path. The hookwing was as focused as I’d ever seen her: head down and neck outstretched, beady yellow eyes riveted on the dark, smoky trail. Pillars of smoke rose in the distance behind us, the roars of furious dragons carrying on the wind.

“Scared!” The hatchling peeped at me, clutching at my armor with needle-sharp claws.

Karalti’s terror beat against my own mind, and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to let it affect me. I tried to send her back feelings of confidence, soothing her. “I know. Don’t worry, girl. We’re gonna be fine.”

[New Quest: On the Run].Navigail's chirpy, faintly electronic voice chimed inside of my head. [To review quests, just think-]

"I know, okay?! Tutorials off! Or tooltips, or whatever this shit is! I've been in the game for weeks!" My thighs trembled with fatigue as I helped steer Cutthroat down a slippery, rock-studded drop, my one free hand locked on the reins with a vice-grip. "Read out the quest!"

New Quest: On the Run

You have fulfilled the final wish of the last Queen of the Eyrie in Ilia - to take her last queen egg and carry it, and the hatchling inside, to freedom. But freeing and bonding with her daughter, Karalti, is only the first step. Now you must escape your enemies, BrrrrRRRRRsss-SSSSS-

I frowned as Navigail's voice glitched and cut.

"Could you uh... try that again?" I asked aloud.

[I'm sorry, we appear to have experienced a system error. This quest is unavailable due to system corruption. The problem has been logged with our dedicated Support Staff. Do you consent to a Support Team Member contacting you if required?]

I laughed bitterly. The only way I was gonna contact a support staff member was with a ouija board. "Sure. Sure! Why the fuck not? If anyone out there's alive, by all means, contact me."

[Thank you! We appreciate your participation in the Archemi Online Beta.]

Anything I wanted to snap back at Navigail was driven out of my lungs when Cutthroat suddenly bounded up and over a fallen log. I pitched forward and only barely caught myself in time, thudding back into the saddle. Karalti squeaked in alarm.

"Hey, it's okay," I cooed to her reflexively, clamping my knees to steady myself. "We're gonna be okay, I promise."

"Hector!" Her voice was high and musical, more like the voice of a fairy than the voice of a child, but the mind I felt behind it was still simple. "Scared!"

"I know, I know." I hugged her close as another piercing roar boomed across the valley behind us, and Cutthroat bolted for the trees. "We just have to make it out of here, okay? Hang on tight."

Cutthroat somehow read and responded to my determination to save this hatchling. The hookwing needed no wrangling as we fled into the million-acre deep, virgin forest that blanketed the north-east of Ilia. She struggled for distance with the dogged determination of a marathon runner, and not once did she try to buck or throw us off. It felt like she and I were in some kind of survival trance, working together until the burning mountainside faded to a dim red glow behind us. I had no idea how long we'd been running - and only got a brief system warning before Cutthroat put a foot down on a boggy patch of ground and stumbled.

[Your mount is Exhausted!]

[The Exhaustion status means that your mount cannot reach speeds above a walk until she has rested for at least four hours.]

“Shit!” I managed not to go flying, gripping with my legs and pushing back against the saddle to stop from being flung forward. “Easy, girl. You alright?”

Cutthroat snarled as she put her club-like knuckles against the dirt and used them to push herself back up to her hind feet. She swayed on her feet, tongue clicking on each panting exhalation. The dinosaur’s body was hot, her chest expanding and flexing like a bellows.

“Easy, easy. Good job, Cutthroat.” I slid off to the ground - and was once again reminded of just how realistic this fucking game was when my feet jarred from the soles up to my knees. Unlike real life, the pain of dismounting suddenly after a long ride didn't persist, but the fatigue sure did. "I know we got off to a rough start, but you really came through tonight."

Cutthroat's wedge-shaped head swiveled toward me, baleful eyes fixated on my face. Then she took a step back, throat swelling... but instead of a growl, she released a tired moan and sunk down to her keel in the middle of the trail.

"Look, I know. But we can't stay out in the open like this." I gave her reins a tug. "There's a spring and what looks like a ravine about a mile from here. C'mon. I'll walk."

The hookwing flashed me a withering glare that expressed every shade of 'are you kidding me?' as the reins tugged at the rings pierced through the corners of her mouth. When I pulled harder, her expression turned murderous - only to soften when Karalti stuck her head out of my cloak to peer at her. The little dragon made an odd pulsing, chirping sound, like a baby crocodile. Cutthroat echoed the sound back, and after a moment's hesitation, she staggered up to her feet and began to resolutely plod forward.

"Yay!" Karalti cheeped at her, extending her scrawny neck to peer over my shoulder. "Mama got up!"

"Mama?" Amused, I shot a sideward glance at Cutthroat.

Cutthroat glanced back, and rumbled warningly. I decided to let this one go. For now.

Back before I got HEX, I could have run a mile in my sleep – but with my hunger and third meters pulsing with warning, the last mile to the springs was a slog. Any and all water and food I'd been able to scrounge on our way east had been given to Karalti to keep her going. She wasn't even Level 1 yet - when I checked her sheet, her Level entry just read 'N/A'. She only had 85 HP, and if her Nourishment meters got below 5%, that HP meter started going down. Fortunately, she ate pretty much anything, so long as it was some sort of meat. Bugs, snails... anything that wiggled and could be picked off a log, Karalti wolfed down with a whole lot of excited cheeping and unpleasant crunching noises.

Erruku was just starting to set, and the sun to rise as we crested a sharp mossy ledge and looked out into a swirling cloud of steam. The hot springs burbled down a series of natural terraces carved from the white stone that seemed to be part of Ilia's landscape. The pools of water formed by the small waterfalls were a pale milky blue, fringed by crusts of brilliant red, yellow and green minerals. Despite its beauty, there was no sign of human occupation. Across and down from us, a small herd of very prehistoric-looking deer grazed on the grasses that grew around the largest steaming pool of water. Focusing on them brought up an identifier: [Barking Deer].

[Barking Deer: An ancient ancestor of the deer on Earth, but just as nutritious.]

My eyes narrowed. I didn't have a bow and arrow on me, but I was a Dark Lancer AND a stuntman. I'd make it work, somehow. But first...

I led Cutthroat away from the water - where she was staring hungrily at the deer - to a partly sheltered spot beside one of the smaller pools. My hope was that the steam from the springs could conceal us from the air, while the concealed shelter I'd build in the trees would do the rest.

"Okay, kid." I opened the cloak and looked down at the baby dragon still clinging to me like a bat on a cave wall. "I need you to stay here with Cutthroat while I go and, uh, get us some food."

"Food?" Karalti's eyes got big, glittering with excitement. Whatever terror she’d experienced on the road away from Fort Palewing was apparently a distant memory. "Food! Take Karalti!"

"No, you’re too little for me to take you hunting just yet." Gently, I started to pry Karalti off the front of my body, unhooking her claws one foot at a time. "So you just-"

"No! Karalti hunt!"

Every time I managed to get one foot away, my dragon found another limb to hold on with. "Karalti, I really, REALLY need you to stay with Cutthroat. I don't have a gun, I don't have any arrows, and this hunt is going to be messy as shit. The last thing I need to do is traumatize my baby dragon with-"

“Ahhhh!”

By this point, I was laughing too hard to actually hold onto her. “Karalti-!”

“AHHHHHHHH!!”  The wyrmling unfurled her wings and began flapping them to either side of my face, yanking herself out of my grip. While I wheezed ineffectually, she swarmed around my head and got onto my back, clinging to my harness and the side of my helmet. "Karalti strong!"

“You have six points of strength.”

“Yeah! Strong!” The wyrmling snapped viciously at a fly that dared to pass too close to us. "The strongest! Karalti bite all meat things!"

Behind us, Cutthroat let out a wheezy sigh and flopped her head down onto the ground, staring flatly into the distance.

"Okay, fine. I give up. You’re right. There's no way I'll ever overcome the overwhelming might of Karalti the Black Opal Queen." I was laughing so much by this point that the deer had all lifted their heads and stopped eating, staring at us from over the lake. "Come on... we either catch these deer, or me and Cutthroat are going to starve."

"Won't starve! Karalti here!" She huffed a blast of hot, sharply chemical air against the side of my face. "Best at hunting! Like this!"

Karalti’s wedge-shaped muzzle darted in toward the strap of my helmet. She seized it in her teeth, growling, and began to tug at it.

“Right. Just like that.” I pulled the Spear of Nine Spheres out of my Inventory and puffed a strand of hair out of my face, watching as the deer – oblivious to the presence of Karalti the Ultimate Killing Machine – dropped their heads and resumed grazing. "Hold on tight, okay? We’ll get in position, then bring the pain together."