Earth

Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies

August 16, 2019

05:00 PDT (08:00 EDT)

Rather than being awoken by the alarm, I was instead awoken by a combination of the alarm and a very loud, high-pitched barking, the latter of which was directed right into my left ear. I shot up off the bed which caused the alarm to shut off, with Vixa ceasing her barking shortly thereafter.

Realizing we weren’t under attack, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, before looking back to the bed. Vixa was now standing, though she had her tail tucked between her legs and was visibly trembling. Sitting back on the bed, I lifted her up and pulled her into my lap. “Sorry about that, Vixa. It was just the alarm.”

Still trembling slightly, she looked up at me and cocked her head.

“It’s a loud noise to wake me up in the morning. Without it, I would probably sleep half the day away,” I told her softly while petting her back. “Did it hurt your ears?”

She made a soft chirping sound that sounded very much like a confirmation.

“Alright, I’ll check later to see if there is something else I can use to wake me up in the morning. Or turn the volume down.”

I sat there just petting her while trying to wake up a bit. After a few minutes, she began purring before falling asleep, which meant I was stuck there. I wasn’t in a rush to do much today, so I retrieved my phone and took a look at our team page. While Sonja had some designs for a team logo, she still hadn’t gotten around to giving them to me so I could get that sorted.

Scrolling down, I tapped my name to take a look at my stats, which made me notice that Abi had reached level twenty-one. I knew she was going to level late last night, but I didn’t feel the usual sensation when I was out with my friends, so it must have happened while I was asleep. Thinking about it some more, I realized that it was delayed a few hours because of how much mana I was using while in the dungeon.

Precognition and Mana Shield were probably my two most-used abilities, though the former was both expensive and reduced my mana regeneration by a little over seventy-five percent while active. That affect is probably what led to Abi leveling several hours later, since I consume mana faster than I generate it as long as Precognition is active. For now, at least. If Abi wasn’t transporting the dragons and their eggs, Precognition probably would’ve been much higher than it currently was.

I continued looking through each of my friends profiles, seeing how much we had progressed in a short four days. Thanks to my mom, all of us were all incredibly overpowered, though I knew it probably wouldn’t remain so for long. The dungeons we were going through now were pretty much kiddie dungeons compared to what was in store for us at the higher levels.

Anja’s profile had me pausing to take a longer look than the others. Each person’s page shows the cumulative amount of attribute points they have, and Anja had the least out of any of us at one hundred fifty-one attribute points. The highest was Mason with over double the amount of attribute points with three hundred twenty-eight, while the next lowest was Sonja who still had over thirty more attribute points than her twin. Hopefully she will get lucky sooner rather than later.

Eventually my stomach started growling, loud enough to awake Vixa once more.

“Hey, girl. Have a good nap?”

She yipped and proceeded to rub her head against my chest before disappearing. When she reappeared, she was standing in front of her food and water dishes. I could see that the food dish was empty, which meant that she probably ate as soon as her breakfast was deposited into her dish. Wanting to make sure it worked properly, I walked over to the dishes and looked at the display. Last night there was an arrow beside 06:30, but now the arrow had moved to 12:30, indicating the next feeding time. I could also see a bit of residue in her dish, so I was satisfied that the feeder was working properly.

Turning around, I went to the bathroom and relieved myself before undressing and taking a shower. After toweling myself dry, I walked over to the closet and grabbed a clean set of clothes, dropping the towel and my dirty clothes into the hamper. Exiting the closet, I could see that Vixa was back on the bed while she groomed herself.

“Hey, Vixa, Wanna go for a walk?” I asked once I was dressed.

No sooner had I finished talking, than there was a popping sound and Vixa appeared at my feet. Her tails were just as active as they were when I picked her up last night, a clear sign of excitement.

“Alright, c’mon,” I said, leading to the door.

Vixa left my room as soon as there was a small enough gap for her to fit through, but she waited for me on the other side. Closing the door, I began walking towards the cafeteria, Vixa following dutifully beside me.

Upon arriving at the cafeteria, I looked around but didn’t spot anyone I knew. It was likely that some of them had already eaten, but I told my friends they could sleep in if they wanted to. Walking over to the buffet line, I gently tapped on Sonja’s shield, not wanting to wake her if she was, indeed, still asleep.

[Hey, Jonny. What’s up?] she sent almost immediately.

[Good morning. Did I wake you?]

[Nah. We got up a little while ago. Anja and I are eating breakfast with our parents and then we’re going to do a little shopping.]

[I just wanted to remind you to bring that team logo you drew up. It seems we both forgot about it the last few days.]

[Right! I came up with another design a few days ago. As soon as I’m done eating, I’ll go transfer it to my phone so I can show you later]

[Awesome. I spoke with Tamara last night. The meeting will be at 13:00.]

[Who?]

[Tamara Ridley, the woman my dad referred us to about the Tame Beast perk. She was there when I went down to get Vixa last night.]

[Oh, right. I forgot all about that. I’ll let Anja and the boys know if you haven’t already.]

[Alright, thanks. I just got up and I’m about to eat breakfast, myself. Have fun with the shopping and I’ll see you guys later.]

[We always do,] she replied with a chuckle. [Later.]

I had been keeping an eye on Vixa while moving down the buffet line, but either she knew I was doing so, and behaving as a result, or she wasn’t as much of a trouble maker as I had been led to believe.

After loading my plate, and grabbing a mug of coffee, I turned to look for somewhere to sit. Apparently my first sweep of the room had missed some people because Tamara was sitting with her daughter while they both ate breakfast. Rajenni was sitting on Tamara’s shoulder, with Tamara handing it little bits of food every so often.

I started walking over when I noticed that Bria also had a companion sitting beside her, but it was nothing I’d ever seen before. Well, I had seen drawings of them before, but I didn’t realize they were real. Or that they were as small as the one sitting beside her. The small animal had the head, front claws and wings of an eagle, while the rest of the body was that of a lion.

“Good morning,” I greeted. “Do you mind if I join you?”

“Good morning, Jonathan, Vixa,” Tamara said. “Feel free, though you may not want to sit next to Thoosa, though. She tends to bite.

“Thank you. I noticed her when I was walking over. I thought gryphons were a myth,” I said as I walked around the table to sit beside her. Rather than follow me, Vixa jumped up beside Thoosa and began to inspect her. Thoosa didn’t seem to appreciate it, as she turned, spreading her wings and began to shriek at Vixa. A moment later she tried striking at Vixa with her sharp beak, but met nothing but air.

“Not a myth,” Tamara said. “There were only a few thousand left by the time a Scyftan science team arrived on Earth over thirty-four hundred years ago, and it didn’t get any better by the time our group arrived. There were less than a hundred still alive and the lack of any abilities meant that they were easy prey to hunters. After discovering them, I stepped in whenever I saw one being hunted, and eventually tamed as many as I could before they finally went extinct in the wild.”

“Those I tamed were moved to North America where their numbers recovered, somewhat. There was more than enough food to go around, so the natives rarely hunted them. This base was mostly excavated by the time North America had begun being colonized, so I moved the gryphons here. You haven’t seen it yet, but there is an even bigger enclosure below the other four where animals that need space are kept. I would have liked the other four enclosures to be just as big, but there just isn’t enough excess mana being generated to support them.”

“Excess mana?” I asked when my mouth was empty. “What do you mean?”

“The fifth enclosure is like the TARDIS; bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, thanks to an Enlarge enchantment carved into the walls,” Bria answered. “Most of the mana generated on the upper levels is transferred down there to keep the enchantment active. There is more than enough to power the one, but we would need a few hundred more people living here to power anything more than that.”

‘Hmm...that sounds like it could be useful if Abi could replicate it on herself.’ I thought to myself. “Why is Thoosa so small, anyways? I thought a baby gryphon would be bigger than that.”

Bria shook her head, but her mother was the one to respond, “Thoosa has already doubled in size in the two weeks since she was hatched. She’ll be fully grown in a little over two years, and mature in five years, give or take three months.”

“How big do they get? Big enough to ride?”

“Easily,” Tamara said with a nod as she fed Rajenni another piece of meat. “They’re about three times bigger than fully grown male lion and can lift several hundred pounds. The reason they were hunted to extinction is because sheep, goats, and even pigs were easy prey for them. If a family of gryphons was in the area, it was impossible for farmers to make a living.”

“So if gryphons are real does that mean that other mythical creatures like hippogryphs, unicorns, chimera and hydras are real too?”

“Hippogryphs are related to gryphons so they may have existed at one point, but we’ve seen no sign of them. Unicorns are purely mythical, though the other two you listed can be found rarely in high level dungeons.”

“Oh,” I replied before shoveling another forkful of food into my mouth.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I would be cross with you, since we had never met before last night,” Tamara said changing the subject.

I nodded and she continued.

“Seotrosses are aggressive animals, though I had built up a modicum of control over them over the centuries. That changed on Tuesday when one of them was more aggressive than usual and wouldn’t respond to me anymore. It ended up tearing apart some of the enclosure before I managed to tranquilize it and move it to its own smaller enclosure. I had hoped that it would listen to me when it regained consciousness, but it didn’t, and began tearing up that enclosure as well.”

“There is something about Seotrosses that people don’t know, since it is very rare that someone is able to scan them. If someone does end up scanning a Seotross, that Seotross will only take directions from them. As such, you are the only one that Orileth will listen to. You may even be able to tame her, but that is a long, long way off.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. I had just learned how to scan so I went through the enclosures and scanned everything in range. I didn’t know that anything was off-limits.”

“Oh they weren’t,” she said. “Every Scyftan on this base tried scanning the Seotrosses down there at one time or another, myself included, but all of their minds had been closed off. The only reason I was cross with you is because of all the extra work you made for me.”

“I apologize, that wasn’t my intention. What do you mean taming her would be a long way off?”

“Gabriel told me why you wanted to meet with me. I can give you and your friends more information about Tame Beast than you’d find online, and help you get started on taming your first beasts. The first thing you need to realize is that there are no shortcuts when it comes to Tame Beast. You can’t find or buy a Tier S Tame Beast Skill Gem and immediately tame a Class S beast.”

“While Tame Beast does have one hundred ranks at each tier, it doesn’t work like other skills that level up as you use them. Instead, Tame Beast will increase by one rank for every day that your tamed beast is alive. If your tamed beast dies before then, you have to start all over.”

“If you successfully keep your tamed beast alive for one hundred days to level up Tame Beast from tier E to tier D, then you need to start all over again, this time with a Class D beast. Each time you rank up, the amount of time you need to keep your tamed beast alive also doubles, so two days per rank for Tier D, four days per rank for Tier C, etc. I think it took Bria nearly twenty years to level up Tame Beast all the way to Tier S, so you can see how time consuming it will be if you want to level up Tame Beast all the way up.”

“I could’ve done it faster but it took me a while to find a Class S beast I wanted to tame,” Bria said. “The fastest you can do it is just over seventeen years and three months.”

“I see. Are there even any beast native to Earth that are above Class D? It seems like it would be impossible to level it all the way up to Tier S without going offworld.”

“A few,” she answered with a nod. “Gryphons are one of them, and some of the larger whale species are Class C, though there isn’t much point in taming the latter. It’s not impossible to level up Tame Beast to Tier S on Earth, it’s just very, very difficult to do so. There are some beasts that can spawn in dungeons, albeit rarely, that you can tame, allowing you to actually remove them from the dungeon. The difficulty comes in getting lucky enough to find a tameable beast, and being able to tame it before the dungeon reaches 0% and everyone gets booted out.”

“Huh. What sort of beasts are there that can be tamed in dungeons?”

“It’s different for every world. Usually they are larger versions of animals that can be found outside of dungeons on that planet, but other times they aren’t. Hydras and chimera are some examples, as is this,” she said putting a cube on the table.

After pressing a button, light shot out of it, seeming to form a portal on top of the cube. A few seconds after it formed, Tamara whistled and a red streak flew out of it. It continued to fly the length of the room before turning around and heading back, where it landed on the floor next to her.

Now that it landed, I was able to get a better look at it. It wasn’t as red as I thought, there being orange mixed in with the red that almost looked like the bird was on fire. It had a small number of feathers sweeping out of the back of its head, but that was nothing compared to its tail feathers. They easily added another three to four feet to it’s already long length, making it seem like it was much bigger than it actually was. Looking into its eyes, I could see intelligence there that wasn’t in other birds.

“A phoenix? You really found a phoenix?”

Nodding she reached into a pouch around her waist. After a moment she withdrew what she wanted and threw it to the bird. As the bird caught it, I could see that it was a small fish. “I tamed her predecessor about nine hundred years ago in a dungeon at the base of Mount Ontake in Japan. Since then I have seen first hand that the myths surrounding phoenixes are quite true. This is the third phoenix to be born from the ashes of another. The first two both died of old age at around four hundred years old, while I accidently got the third one killed while in another dungeon. Fortunately I was able to collect the ashes, so this one could be born. Meet Ashe.”

Tamara handed me one of the small silvery fish, which I then threw to Ashe. Catching it without issue, she quickly ate it and looked at Tamara for more.

“That’s enough, Ashe,” she chuckled, before whistling again. “Off you go.”

Ashe took off, flying across the room once more before turning and flying through the portal. Tamara pressed the button on the cube again, and the portal closed.

“What is that thing?” I asked, pointing to the cube.

“It’s like the gryphon enclosure I told you about, but on a much smaller scale; one that I can power on my own. With it, all of my animal companions have a familiar home, and I can call on them when necessary. It’s something I cooked up so I wouldn’t have to leave them here on the base when I go somewhere else.”

“So you’re saying that it’s an even more advanced Pokeball?”

“Poke-what?” she asked, looking confused.

“It’s from a Japanese anime, mom. People use Pokeballs to capture monsters, transforming them into energy and storing them until they’re needed. Only one of the monsters, called Pokemon, can be stored in each Pokeball,” Bria answered.

“Aside from not transforming my companions into energy, it does sound very similar. The difference is that once place and activated, I too, can enter the cube where my companions live. I even have a wood cabin in there. It certainly beats camping.”

Laughing I said, “I can definitely see that. You said that you made it, so there must not have been anything like it on the market, either here or in Scyftan space. Have you looked into patenting it? It seems like something that could make you a ridiculous amount of money.”

She shook her head, looking thoughtful. After a moment, she responded, “I have to admit that I haven’t given it much thought. Perhaps I’ll bring it to Mr. Gidres to get his thoughts.”

“If someone is already making something similar, he’ll definitely know. Going back to classes, what class does Vixa fall into?” I asked, looking to the chair beside me where she was laying done, apparently asleep.

“Phenidae are Class S. They’re one of only six other beasts I’ve come across that fall into that class.”

“Really? I wasn’t expecting her to be that high up.”

“Neither was I when I found out that they were Class S. We’ve found that there are four things that go into determining which class a beast will fall into. Those are abilities, intelligence, lifespan and size. Seotrosses have average intelligence, a fairly long lifespan, are very large, but don’t have any abilities, which is why they are Class A. Phenidae on the other hand are very intelligent, have long lifespans, are small, but have some incredible abilities. Scientists believe that sooner or later, Phenidae will be able to communicate with us. How long will that take? No one knows for sure. It could be in a hundred years, or in ten thousand. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

While I would’ve loved to sit there and chat with Tamara and her daughter for hours, they had work to do. My injured sister was still sleeping, so having nothing to do myself, I accompanied them down to the second floor of the base. Once there, I was able to see the damage that Orileth had wrought first hand. There were numerous snapped trees, and, in a few cases, some ripped right out of the ground. It also seemed like some large boulders were thrown around, judging by a few craters in the area.

They wanted to replace the trees and move the boulders back to their original places, so I helped them out. It would have required them to bring in some equipment to move the boulders and remove the stumps, but it was child’s play for me in my Seotross form. It was really cool being able to lift one ton boulders like they were nothing. Stumps and roots were a bit harder to deal with, but with a little bit of help I was able to rip them out of the ground and drop them onto the trailer that would take them to the incinerator.

A job that would’ve taken them the entire day only took a few hours, and soon we were moving on to the smaller enclosure that Orileth was moved to. There was some damage there too, but not to the extent in the main enclosure, so it only took thirty minutes or so to clean it all up. After that, Tamara took a large syringe out of her storage and injected Orileth with it, the contents being a counteragent to the tranquilizer that was keeping her asleep.

[You’re sure this will work?] I asked, glancing over to her.

[Reasonably certain,] she answered. [Seotrosses assert dominance over each other by fighting. You have an advantage over her by being able to level, so you should be able to win handily. You should also have all the knowledge you need on how to act after scanning her.]

After Tamara stopped sending, I saw Orileth’s eyes flutter open before locking on my form. She quickly got to her feet and roared before beginning to beat her chest with her lower set of arms. I reciprocated her actions, roaring and beating my own chest. Orileth didn’t like that one bit, as she began charging towards me. When she got within range, she dropped down onto her front two arms and then launched herself at me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to dodge it, so I wound up and punched with all my strength.

Two of my fists connected with the side of her head, but that didn’t stop her heavy mass from colliding with me and sending us tumbling. I was the one to recover first while Orileth lay on her back, shaking her head. Not wanting to give her time to recover, I rushed forward and opened my mouth before locking my jaws around the back of her neck and beginning to apply pressure.

She tried to reach back and grab onto me, but wasn’t able to find purchase on my body. After applying a little more pressure, Orileth let her body go completely limp, a clear sign of submission. I let go of her neck and walked around to stand in front of her. Dropping down onto my top set of arms, I grunted at her before turning and walking away. I didn’t need to turn back to know that she would soon be following me.

As I turned, I saw that my mom was standing outside the enclosure with my friends.

[Hey, guys,] I sent. [Did you just get here?]

[Just in time to see that other Seotross barreling towards you,] Sonja answered. [What was that about?]

[That’s the Seotross I scanned a few days ago. Apparently she was causing some issues down here so I had to show her who’s boss. We’re moving her back to the main enclosure, so you may want to step back,] I said, gesturing to Orileth who was slowly walking forward.

[C’mon guys, lets go stand beside Tamara and her daughter,] my mom sent. She slowly made her way over to Tamara with my friends following her, allowing Orileth a way through.

Orileth stopped to watch my friends go by, so I grunted again to get her attention. Her head snapped back to me and she continued following me. We made it to the entrance of the main Scyftan enclosure about a minute later, and she followed me inside. After a series of grunts and gestures, she went deeper into the dense forest. When I could no longer see her, I turned back and left the enclosure before closing the door and switching back to my human form.

“Let me know if she causes anymore trouble and I’ll come back down,” I said once I was done shifting.

“I will. You’ll probably need to come down once a week, but it won’t take more than a few minutes of your time.”

I nodded before looking over to my friends, “Is it 13:00 already? Time definitely went by fast.”

“Just about,” my mom answered. “I directed them down here, but I’ve got to go back to work. I’ll see you all later.”

She teleported away a minute later and Tamara was the first to speak.

“So Jonathan filled me in on why you wanted to meet with me, but he didn’t go into any detail about what you all want as your first tamed beast. We have quite a few options available, but more exotic beasts might take longer to procure.”

“Our team name is ‘The Wolves’, so I thought it would be cool if each of us had a tamed wolf. I haven’t given any thoughts to any other animals, but we have no idea where to start,” Mason said

“It can be quite difficult for people to get started on the path towards being a beastmaster,” Tamara agreed. “The most common way they do so is by taming a family pet like a dog or a cat, while others go the rather cruel route of hunting for a young animal in the wild, usually killing its parent or parents in the process. Fortunately I have a way of doing things that will give you a more formidable companion, and won’t hurt anyone in the process. Do you have any preference for the type of wolf you would like?”

Anja laughed at the question, “If I know Mason at all, then he’ll want the biggest and meanest type of wolf.”

Tamara chuckled. “Well I might be able to help you there. Teleport up to your rooms and equip your armor and then come back down here. You may want to let Abi know whats going on so she can provide support, just in case there are additional bounty hunters already on Earth. Once you’re all back, we’ll get started,” she finished, directing the last bit at me.

“Where are we going so I can let her know where she should position herself?”

“Ah, right. Tell her that we’ll be near the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories.”

Fifteen minutes later, eight of us were standing atop a hill surrounded by a forest and a large winding river. There were a few signs that humans had been in the area, but the rest of it was pristine wilderness. Tamara’s husband, Floyd, had joined us for this trip, as they were the masters of both the alpha male and alpha female of a nearby pack.

Once we were through, we hiked through the forest for about fifteen minutes until we reached a small opening without any trees. When we stopped, both Tamara and Floyd shifted into beautiful gray wolf forms and proceeded to howl off and on for about a minute or so. When they were done, Tamara shifted back into her human form and sat down in the grass.

“Take a seat,” she said after looking back at us. “If they’re nearby, they’ll be here shortly, and if not, then we’ll move and try somewhere else.”

“How close do they need to be to hear your howls?”

“Somewhere around nine kilometers is the max while in a forest. The sound just gets bounced around too much so it doesn’t travel as far. If we were on a tundra, that increases to about fourteen kilometers.”

Floyd suddenly barked softly, which caused a broad grin to appear on Tamara’s face.

“They’re close. They’ll be here in a minute or two. When they arrive, don’t make any sudden moves.”

“You’ll also need to let them smell you,” her husband said when he was done shifting back. “When Tamara prompts you, or I do, slowly reach out and hold your hand out, palm down. Don’t go to them, let them come to you. While we did tame the alpha male and alpha female, they do travel with additional wolves. Arkus and Fenra will keep them in line, but be careful.”

After Floyd’s instructions, we all sat there and waited. About a minute later, I could hear some of the nearby bushes rustle. There was a quick bark, and then two wolves appeared, one quite a bit larger than the other. The bigger of the two walked right up to Floyd and began licking his face, while the smaller one did the same thing to Tamara.

Floyd and Tamara reciprocated the affection shown to them by petting their companions and scratching them behind the ears and under their necks. A few minutes later, both wolves broke off and began inspecting the rest of us. The female wolf, Fenra, went right up to Bria and licked her face, while the male, Arkus, came right up to me. I very slowly lifted my right arm, allowing him to sniff me, all while keeping my eyes averted. A moment later, he licked my hand and then walked past me and repeated the same thing with Anja.

After Fenra got her head scratches from Bria, she too began inspecting my friends, starting with Sonja. As I watched, she went from friend to friend, making sure that none of them were a threat. When she got to me, I repeated the same action I had with her mate, and soon felt her lick my hand as well.

Immediately there was another bark and I could hear the bushes rustling once more. This time, six pups appeared, followed by four more wolves.

“Aww, so cute!” I heard Anja coo from my right.

All six pups looked over towards Anja and froze when they heard hear talk. They quickly turned around and hid behind the grown wolves that were standing behind them. Arkus barked once more and the pups slowly and cautiously came back out from behind the wolves, their eyes locked on either Tamara or Floyd, as they were the closest two.

Apparently the pups weren’t coming forward as fast as their parents would like, so Fenra walked forward and picked the first one up by the scruff of its neck. She proceeded to carry it over to Tamara before lowering it into her lap, before going back and getting another one. Arkus wasn’t idle at this point either, and he was following his mates’ lead.

Soon, six of us all had one of the pups in our lap, the only two going without being Mason and Ben. I lifted up the one that had been carried over to me and saw that it was a female. She had a beautiful brown coat with a small area of black fur on the tip of her tail. While she struggled a little bit while I held her, eventually she sat there, enjoying the attention I was showing her. I had no doubt that Vixa would be jealous if she had been here right now.

“Well, Mason, you wanted the biggest and meanest type of wolf, and these are them,” Tamara said, carrying the pup that was dropped in her lap and handing it to him. “They’re called Mackenzie River wolves, otherwise known by their other names; Rocky Mountain wolf, Alaskan Timber wolf and Canadian Timber wolf. They can get slightly bigger than Arkus over there, but even he is a bit bigger than the average size.”

“How old are these little guys?” Sonja asked while stroking the back of the pup she was holding.

“About six weeks or so. Arkus and Fenra were living around my cabin until the beginning of July when we located them here. We wanted the pups born in the wild where their parents could teach them how to hunt and act like a wolf is supposed to act.”

“Are these pups ours?” Mason asked.

“Not just yet,” Tamara said with a chuckle. “They’re too young to be separated from their parents as doing so would do more harm than good. Today, we’re just bringing you to see them, and so they can get used to you. We’ll come back perhaps once or twice a week so they get used to seeing you, and eventually a bond will form, or one won’t. While Tame Beast is a skill, it’s not an active one that you cast to tame a beast. Taming one of these little ones will require commitment, and no shortage of affection.”

“Each time we come, you’ll be given a different pup to look after while we’re here, just to give all of you the best chance of having a bond form. If one or more of you aren’t bonded by the time we leave Earth, then I’ll see what I can do to put you and a few more pups together.”

While Tamara was talking, Floyd brought over the pup that had been brought to him by Arkus and deposited it in Ben’s lap. Now all five of us had a pup to play with, as did Bria who soon walked over to join us. The pups got restless after fifteen minutes or so, so we all gathered in a circle and placed the pups down on the grass and let them play.

It seemed like we had just started playing with the pups when Tamara came over and interrupted us, “Alright, that’s enough for today. We’re going to head back now, and we’ll come back on Wednesday, weather permitting.”

The twins immediately started protesting like little kids, requesting five more minutes.

“If you can convince Arkus and Fenra to give you five more minutes, then we’ll stay, otherwise they need to go. I’ve heard a couple of rumbly tummies coming from Arkus and the other wolves, so they must not have eaten yet today.”

The mention of hungry wolves had the twins quickly placing the pups back on the grass before stepping back and causing Tamara to laugh. With a chuff from Arkus, the six pups ran back over to join their parents, who turned to head back into the forest after receiving another head scratching from their masters.

When they were out of sight, we began the hike back to the hill we arrived on before taking the portal back to the base.

“So if taming animals is such a big time commitment, how did you even manage to tame your phoenix before getting kicked out of the dungeon?” I asked when we were back in the lower levels of the base.

“It wasn’t easy, believe me. Fortunately, things like the internet and newspapers didn’t exist at the time, so the locations of dungeons could only be passed on by word of mouth. After the dungeon was discovered, we quickly built one of our buildings around it. That allowed us to limit access to it, like we had with all the other dungeons, and gave me a bit more time to search. There were a few reports of phoenixes being in the dungeon, but there was no way to confirm it. It still wasn’t until perhaps fifty years later when I was in the dungeon that I saw my first phoenix.”

“Unfortunately the dungeon was only at around 29% with other people in the dungeon, so it hit 0% without me even getting close to taming it. Every time the dungeon reset I was the first one in there clearing my way through looking for one. Even so, it took another two years before I found the next one.”

“This time I went in prepared, and knew that it was likely that I wouldn’t be able to tame it in its adult form before getting booted out. Instead, I killed the phoenix and collected its ashes before setting up camp in the room I found it in. The morning after I had killed the phoenix, there was a red egg sitting in the middle of the ashes, though it was another week before it finally hatched.”

“At that point, I acted as its mother, feeding it worms and insects while it grew. After two weeks of taking care of it, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to tame it in time. I had kept regular contact with the Scyftans manning the building on the surface, so I knew the dungeon was under 5% on the last day. As night fell, I felt the sensation I was waiting for; a link was established between the two of us.”

“It was the first beast I had tamed inside of a dungeon, though I knew a few Scyftans who had been able to take their tamed beast with them when they left. I immediately started packing up the small camp I set up and made my way to the waygate on the level I was on, all while my new companion was perched on my shoulder. When I reached the surface, I was happy to see it that it was still perched there, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

“You really tamed a phoenix?” I heard Ben ask from behind me. “I thought they were a myth!”

“They’re not, I’ve seen it. Apparently a few of the animals we thought were myths can be found rarely in dungeons. Some even roamed the planet, though they went extinct a long time ago. Well, except for gryphons, that is,” I answered.

“Wait, gryphons are real too!? Why haven’t I ever seen them? Do they have camouflage like dragons do?”

I shook my head but Tamara beat me to the punch, “You haven’t seen them because I’ve been protecting them. There were less than one hundred when we arrived fourteen hundred years ago, and I moved them somewhere where they wouldn’t be hunted. For hundreds of years that was on North America, but when the continent was finally discovered, I moved them into this base. Would you like to see them?”

“Absolutely!” Ben exclaimed, seemingly very excited to see a ‘mythical’ animal.

Floyd laughed. “Well, I’d love to join you, but I’m needed elsewhere. It was nice to meet all of you.”

We all shook Floyd’s hand and then he opened up a portal and stepped through. Tamara led us back to the elevator which had evidently been up at the top, based on how long it took for it to arrive.

“You said there were less than one hundred gryphons alive when you got to Earth… how many are there now?” Sonja asked.

“Two hundred fourteen as of the last count, with Thoosa being the newest addition.”

“Thoosa?”

“Oh, right, you haven’t seen Thoosa yet. She’s a two week old baby gryphon that Bria is working on taming. I’m sure you’ll see her shortly.”

There was a ding when the elevator arrived, and the seven of us piled in. Tamara pressed a button and then raised her hand and sent a pulse of mana at the panel. A light at the top turned green, and the elevator started its descent.

“What’s with the extra security?” I asked.

“I had them added to protect the gryphons the best I could. They’re pretty vulnerable down here, especially if someone were to destroy or interrupt the Enlarge enchantment that encompasses their enclosure. I know that isn’t very likely, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. This way, only authorized personnel, or people escorted by myself or my husband are allowed down here.”

“I think the gryphons will be coming with us when we depart for Nedovis. There are more than enough vacant planets in Scyftan space, and they could thrive on any number of them. It would raise too many questions if I released them back into the wild on Earth, and they would probably be hunted or captured pretty quickly.”

“Do you have a planet in mind? My dad can probably help you out if you don’t. He put together a list of viable planets for the dragons, so I’m sure he could do the same for the gryphons.”

“I haven’t yet, but I planned to later on. We’ve still got a ways to go, so there is plenty of time,” she answered.

A moment later the elevator dinged again and the doors opened. My friends and I were immediately treated to the sight of a number of gryphons flying through the air, as well as a large number of them perched on what looked like an actual mountain. There was a river flowing through the enclosure along with a forest on either side and an open area in the middle.

As we watched, a gryphon swooped down and snatched some sort of large fish out of the water. It carried it back to the mountain, dropping it for a gryphon that was sitting in a nest before turning around and heading back to the river. That wasn’t the only food source it seemed, as I could see a few gryphons fighting over the remains of what looked like a deer.

“This is so cool! How is the sky generated, though?” Ben asked.

“It’s an illusion projected from the ceiling,” Tamara answered. “I had seen similar enclosures before back on my homeworld of Rozsin, so I modeled this enclosure after them. There are measures to prevent them from flying too high, but to them it’s like they’re out in the real world. There is simulated rain, wind, lightning and a whole host of other meteorological events. At night time, it gradually gets darker and the sky is filled with stars and the moon, too.”

“Awesome. Can I ride one? They can carry humans right?”

“They sure can. C’mon, we need to enter from the forest,” she answered, turning right and leading us down the hall.

It seemed like we were walking forever, but eventually we came across a set of doors at the corner of the enclosure. She pulsed her mana at the door, allowing all of us to hear an audible click before she pulled it open. Gesturing for us to enter, she held the door open before following us in and closing it behind her.

She led us down a path that had clearly been trampled down, either by humans traversing it, or whatever animals lived in the forest, besides deer. It didn’t take as long to reach the edge of the forest when she stopped and turned to her daughter.

“Would you mind announcing us please, Bria?”

Nodding, Bria walked forward into the edge of the plains, raised her hand to her mouth and whistled loudly. I could see a number of gryphons look in her direction, but most of them ignored her, going back to whatever they were doing. Two did take off from the mountain and were followed by a much smaller form. As they got closer and closer, I realized that it was Thoosa gliding behind the two larger gryphons.

After touching down at the edge of the forest, Bria walked forward and reached up, stroking the head of one of the adult gryphons. As she stroked it, the gryphon lowered its head and closed its eyes. There was a high-pitched screeching which caused Bria to laugh and look down at her feet, where Thoosa was staring up at her. Reaching down she picked Thoosa up, before turning around and walking back to the rest of us.

“Guys, this is Thoosa and her parents Nathid and Yoni,” Bria said pointing to each of the gryphons who were now laying down behind her.

The twins quickly walked up to coo over Thoosa, but that’s probably because they didn’t know her temperament. Sonja reached forward to stroke the baby gryphon’s head and quickly pulled her hand back when Thoosa tried biting her.

“She doesn’t really like other people,” Bria said with a chuckle. “Or other animals for that matter. I’m the only one she gets along with, besides her parents. Ben, if you want to go for a ride, you can go climb on top of Nathid. He’s rather used to humans by now, so just don’t make any sudden movements and he’ll let you mount him.

Ben nodded and slowly walked up to Nathid. When he got close, he reached out with his hand and gently stroked the gryphon’s head. He seemed to really enjoy his head being stroked, as he closed his eyes and even slightly leaned into Ben. After a minute or so Ben walked around Nathid’s large wings before gently climbing on his back, all while being watched by Nathid.

“What do I do now?” Ben asked when he was situated. There wasn’t a saddle or anything, so I wondered how he would stay seated when Nathid took off.

“Grab hold of his fur, just below where his feathers end and then tell him to fly. Make sure to stay low to reduce the amount of drag and make it easier to keep a grip. Taking off is the hard part, but if you manage to hold on, the rest will be easy,” Bria answered.

Ben nodded and looked down at the gryphon’s back. He saw the spot that Bria was talking about, and reached for it. After seeming to get a good grip, he looked up at Nathid and said one word; “Fly!”