So, with that final though and the last bit of pigeon consumed Aarav crawled from the roof, slid down the side of the building and then in the fading light, and cautious to avoid all detection, scrambled over to the gryphon picket line. It was slow going, with having to camouflage over different surfaces but his skill’s ability to adapt to multiple types of terrain came in handy. Whether it was grass and dirt or dirt and tile or tile and brick, everything was possible as long as he had the various textures in his database. Being able to camouflage the area around him also helped. What with the movement of the grass in the strong wind and the small dust particulates. The shadows helped a lot with that as well, it made dodging people that were walking in the square and staying hidden much more possible.

His target, the gryphon, were almost all the way across the square so it was a fair distance to cross, further than his eyes could see even with Piercing Eyes +1 active. Still, he had a good idea of what the location was so even in failing light he knew which direction to head in. He couldn’t be too disappointed that the light was fading either because for the first time since being born on this world he was able to see those gorgeous colours.

The few hundred metres across the square took a little over five precious minutes. He was glancing back at the entrance of the inn every few seconds expecting any moment for the men to come out and take their mounts away, without Aarav getting a proper chance to check them out. He urged his useless, slow body to move and with his legs under him he did manage to coax a little more but it was a pittance compared to flight. Why did I have to get so heavy!? Should have thought of it earlier, no long term thinking is my problem. Now I have to suffer the consequences…hmmm. Anyway, gryphons! How could he be thinking of anything other than the majestic looking creatures in front of him...that were attending to the call of nature…yeah, I guess they are still animals after all, need to do the business just like everything else has to…except me now…hmm, how does that work exactly? The chemistry doesn’t make sense, but I am not going to complain about it!

As Aarav closed in on the gryphons’ location he slowed down even further making sure not to spook the creatures in the slightest. He needn’t have bothered though, with his size being less than one percent of theirs he was as annoying to them as an ant would have been to him. He huffed in a breath and then letting it out softly, quietly, making sure that he did not spook the mounts. Or make them jittery.

He needn’t have bothered though, him spooking a gryphon in his current state was tantamount to an ant spooking him by being in proximity. It was laughable at best, deadly at worst. The gryphon did not notice him. That was until he sidled up to one of their legs and attempted to latch on. Oh, it noticed then.

At first it reacted as if to a tick, attempting to twitch the leg to throw the intruder off. Then as it became apparent that this was a more persistent type of parasite, one back leg scratched at the offending limb. Still this parasite, whatever it was, persisted and more than that was climbing up the leg, further up to the calf and then to the knee. It was not an itchy sensation but more cool and soft, like being dunked in soft mud. The gryphon in question tried to turn to look to the side and then underneath to see what had a hold of its leg…nothing…there was nothing to see but it could feel the movement continue to move upward. Now it had left the back paw and encircled the thigh, continuing to move up. Still there was nothing to see.

The gryphon that had become the victim to this strange phenomenon continued to stare and try to understand what this was. Aarav looked away; his Camouflage did not extend to his eyeball after all. The ring of cool phantom material continued up the leg and seemed to become a little nervous, after all it was getting to closer to a rather sensitive part of its body…but lucky it quickly moved away from there and climbed up the side. Don’t worry buddy, just want to go for a ride…not that kind… Aarav hurriedly explained…to himself. He was not opposed to those types of relations he just didn’t feel that way. Anyway, it was a gryphon! Why did he have weird thoughts? The gryphon was probably just uncomfortable with feeling something crawling on him, anyone would be. Anyway, this was not the point of this whole situation.

Aarav continued to quietly move trying to move less on the actual skin of the animal and more through the air with the bit of his body not touching the gryphon, like a high jumper trying desperately not to touch the bar. No sense in irritating it more than it can handle. It was a difficult ask as this slime still had to get to a safe location that was not going to be moving so much like its back and all before the owners of said gryphon needed a ride…somewhere.

Only when he finally got to a place where he could only feel the creatures’ soft feathers did Aarav breathe a sigh of contentment. He was in a relatively safer space now and so he could allow himself to relax, if only a little. The gryphon he was on still kept glancing back to see what this alien object was that it could not see. Aarav had long since used Camouflage to replicate both the skin and then the feathers of the gryphon, purging thatch from his repertoire. At the same time, he emulated the gryphon’s smell with Odour Alteration. While those were simple to do, just taking a few seconds, it was not a perfect disguise. After all, the gryphon still knew there was a weight on its back. Small though Aarav might be right now, he was heavier than his usual few hundred grams. Indeed, right now after the situation with the pigeons he sat at almost two kilograms.

Aarav had struggled to get to his current perch and then remained completely still. Hopefully after a while the gryphon gets used to my weight. He had stopped just above the base of the creatures’ neck, just in front of where a rider might sit. Camouflaged as the feathers of the half bird no one would be able to tell that he was there, even if they put their hands through the feathers. He was that well camouflaged to the beast. The gryphon can tell…but who’s it going to speak to?

Regardless, there were still things that he wanted to check in his status menu, he had look at limbs but the urgency of getting to this mythical creature had overtaken his need to fully explore what his skill list held.

Melee Skills

X Exp per Use / Damage *(1+(0.1*Density))

Level

Exp

Next

Damage

Description

Club

Slime Club

5

86

162

7.90

Base 1X Club Damage, -1 Stamina, minimum volume 50cm3. 2Xcm away

Fist

Poisonous Jaws

10

104

532

9.48

Base 0.6X Claw Damage, -0.9 Stamina, minimum volume 15cm3. +1.5% Poison Damage per sec for 20 sec. 40% chance to poison.

Spear

Dual Wormtail's Stab

5

0

162

9.48

Base 1.2 X Spear Damage, -1.5 Stamina, minimum volume 100cm3 hit up to 4Xcm away

Staff

Tail Pole Smash

5

0

162

5.53

Base 0.7 X bludgeon damage, -0.8 Stamina, minimum volume 70cm3 hit up to 3Xcm away. 10% chance to daze.

Aarav only had a few minutes to review this information before it became clear that he would not be able to keep going much longer.

All that movement and jostling and trying not to get scraped off the gryphon with its paws had taken its toll, not in terms of damage, he was perfectly fine in that regard. Just in terms of hanging on for dear life. Also there was the part about trying not to get scratched by those wickedly sharp claws as well. Having suffered quite the ordeal Aarav promptly fell asleep. The soft feathers of the gryphon provided the perfect pillow for his tired and worked body. As he began to drift off, he was met with the niggling feel that there was something he was not remembering, something he had forgotten. It was too late to think much more on it though; sleep quickly claimed him, while he rejoiced in the presence of the mythical.