Robin had never been more grateful to be awake at sunrise. The sun was beginning to break through the trees in golden slides of light, and the forest was waking up with the sounds of bird calls, cries, and songs.

Opal had long since climbed onto Robin’s back, growing weary from the extended run. Robin had secured a small harness for her from web, and although she made it very clear that she did not like the contraption, she allowed him to wrap her in it.

The run had been less troublesome than he expected. Contrary to his expectations of constant Tweaker Goblin harassment, they had not encountered any of the monstrous humanoids from the Tweaker Clan whatsoever. Whatever had happened at their base that had generated the huge cloud seemed to have consumed their attention.

Not that Robin was complaining.

He was beyond exhausted, tired to a degree he had not known was possible, at least not to be that tired and still function. It was not just physical exhaustion, but the mental fatigue that comes along with second-guessing every shadow for an ambush in wait, anticipating every branch that fell oddly from the parent tree for a trap.

His PHYSTAM and MENSTAM were drained, as well, and even the slower pace he was moving at now could not compensate for the demands he was placing on his body. May was showing signs of exhaustion as well, her pace considerably slowed from her normal breakneck alacrity, although she was still moving faster than Robin. She had put her hair into a ponytail, not pulling it through on the second loop of the band, creating a lazy sort of half-bun. It kept her hair from getting tangled on the branches and trees, though.

Abruptly the treeline broke and the two of them ran onto a small grass and rock-covered slope, both openly unnerved by the sudden lack of tree cover.

The slope was fairly gentle, covered in boulders, grass, moss, lichens, and the trunks of fallen trees. It would not be hard to walk down, but the bottom was covered in a low-hanging mist, and the sound of moving water could be heard through it. The treeline stopped at the slope, and looking down the treeline, Robin could see that the slope continued for farther than he could see, the misty depths of the canyon alongside it the entire distance.

Across the slope and past the mist was another slope, leading to more forests.

The other route down the slope, though, following what Robin guessed was a river at the bottom of the canyon, held something shocking enough to make Robin immediately dismiss the other routes from his mind.

Roughly one hundred twenty meters away from where Robin and May stood, there was a huge boulder, almost big enough to simply be a stone hill. It looked like the others that dotted the area, some larger, some smaller.

This one, however, looked like it had been shattered by the hammer of a giant. The jagged, dangerous-looking stone debris from whatever originally cause the damage lay around the boulder, overgrown by plants. The former boulder was now shaped like a plate, although it differed from houseware in that it had what were almost stalagmites dotting the bottom of it.

Those stalagmites look like they were melted from something, or maybe hand-shaped. Robin squinted, staring. It was hard to tell, but… Is it covered in blood?

May let out a happy noise that almost reached full-word status, causing Robin to lift an eyebrow at her.

“Look! There’s something shiny on the weird bloodrock thing!” She pointed, bouncing slightly, her energy apparently renewed.

Actually, now that I think about it, I feel a little better, as well. Having a high RECOV helps.

“Do you actually want to go to the huge bloodrock?”

She stared at him, her mouth hanging slightly open.

“Do...do you not?”

Opal began squirming to get off of his back and out of the harness, and Robin moved to oblige her. She scuttled into the trees a few meters before climbing one, contentedly dancing.

“I guess I am not opposed to it. I think we should be prepared to run, though. I do not want to have to wipe out a cult, much less be sacrificed by one.”

May shook her head. “Do you always talk like that?”

Robin looked at her, mildly shocked by the change of topic.

“Like what?”

“Never mind”, she said, a tiny amount of humor in her voice. “Let’s go!”

May moved back into the treeline, and began walking towards the stone, following the slope from the cover of the trees. Robin sighed and followed after her. He could sense Opal doing the same, skittering from branch to branch overhead.

They had reached a distance of twenty or so meters from the stone slab when something passed overhead.

Robin could feel the presence of the thing overhead before he saw the shadow or heard the beating of its massive wings; it was like an ominous presence weighing down on him, almost a physical weight. It reminded him of the solidness in your chest that comes from intense loss or grief, but… without the sadness.

May clearly felt the same, crouched at the foot of a tree, staring upwards without blinking, her tiny form tensed and ready to spring.

It came into view a moment or an eternity later, Robin was not sure which.

It was a dragon.

Not a drakeling, or a wyvern, or any other kind of inferior mystical lizard. No, this was a true dragon. Robin could feel it in his bones, in his soul, in his instincts screaming at him to run, to hide, to flee the predator.

It had legs with forearms the size of city buses, and biceps, if dragons have such a thing the size of a double-decker bus. The body of the dragon was incomparably huge, dwarfing some naval ships. The wings blotted the sun as it passed over, and the shadow remained for some time, light sneaking in with each beat of the wings.

Opal was on his back again, suddenly and without impact. Robin noted her presence and dimly noted that the wind was picking up.

He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the sheer awe that had overtaken him. He glanced back up almost immediately, though, unable or unwilling to keep his eyes from the beast.

Robin stared at the legs for a moment. He had been so stricken by the size of the gargantuan reptile that he had not noticed that it was carrying something at first.

It was holding a struggling, fighting whale. Robin was not sure what kind or species of whale it was, as it had been affected by the Ysari System, causing it to grow a series of bone spikes along its back and sides. The dragon had carefully avoided these with its own claws when it picked it up, and the whale was thrashing, trying to drive the spikes into its captor.

And then what, Whale? You fall onto the forest floor? The ground does not want to be your friend. And… looking at all these rocks and boulders on the slope, I doubt the stream can support you to the ocean.

If it goes to the ocean...

As it neared the shattered stone slab, the dragon released the whale with a flip of its claws, half-throwing and half-dropping the whale at the slab.

It impacted with a sickening crunch, the stone shards piercing into the whale. Several of the spines broke off the of the carapace of the whale, and it groaned, the haunting, agonized whale call echoing through the canyon. The dragon was already flying away, slightly upwards.

Robin stared in disbelief. Was it just leaving!?

May was beside him, and she spoke, causing Robin to jump. He had not been aware of her approach whatsoever, having been entirely engrossed with the scene that had played out in front of him.

“It’ll be back. It’s just dropping the whale there to kill it, like seagulls and whatnot do with clams.”

She stared at it, then glanced at Robin.

Seeming to read his mind, or perhaps just the extreme shock and confusion on his face, she went on to say, “It will be back. Look, see? It’s gaining altitude to turn around. The wingspan on that thing is so massive I bet it takes a while to fully turn around. We might have two or three minutes, maybe even four, if we want to try and run by it now.”

Robin kept staring at the stone slab holding the dying whale, the blood of the creature gushing out in splurts onto the grayish white stone of the slab. He turned to look May directly in the eyes.

“No… I think I have an idea. It is dangerous, though, very high-risk/high-reward. If I want to do it, I have to do it now. Can you stay here with Opal?”

May searched his eyes, and seeming to find what she was looking for, smiled and nodded.

“Go quick, Kid Robin.”

🀇 ☼ 🀈 ☼ 🀣 ☼ 🀙 ☼ 🀅

Robin rolled his eyes, moving into a sprint immediately. May heard a quick “thanks” as he ran by her. She glanced over at Opal, who had hopped onto a tree as soon as Robin had requested she stay with May. He had not seemed to notice his familiar’s reaction.

Typical dude. Get so obsessed with an idea you push your responsibilities onto the nearest lady, May thought sarcastically to herself. She smiled up at Opal, who was already staring at her, and said “He’s a good kid. Wonder what his idea is?”

Opal stared down at her for a few moments, and then cocked her head slightly as a nearby bird made a honk noise. She moved abruptly, lunging her entire body like a fencer stabbing with a full-thrust, then snapped her arms back to her torso.

May stared at the golden retriever-sized pink preying mantis that had just snatched some kind of wood-duck seconds after it had heard it. Opal was staring at her again. She began to move downwards, just barely piercing through the bottom of the branch layer, and slowly extended the claw holding the wood-duck towards her.

After a moment of hesitation, May took the bird delicately off of her claw and murmured out a confused thanks.

What was that about? I wish you had some way to display your emotions, she thought, still staring at the mantis. Opal just moved back up into the tree. May turned to look back at Robin, taking a glance at the dragon as well.

The dragon was still moving up and away, but it was slightly tilted now.

Robin, on the other hand, was hugging the whale.

May rubbed her eyes with her hands and double-checked if what she thought she had seen was real.

Yep, he was hugging the whale. Was he saying something? She squinted, unable to quite make out what he was saying. She shook her head, annoyed, and began fixing her hair, adjusting the loose ponytail where it had come loose from her exertions.

I get sympathy, kid, but you can’t risk your life to comfort a whale that is already basically dragonfood.

May was startled alert by a series of bright blue flashes that came from the whale, snapping her head towards it.

Robin was shooting his revolver into the eye of the whale, emptying and recocking the hammer as fast as he could. May frowned. There was something wrong, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

The kid seemed to be briefly distracted by something in his face, and May surmised that he had gotten a level up or something from shooting the whale. Good, good. May nodded, but slowed as she saw him deviate to the side of the stone slab rather than run back to her.

She glanced at the dragon, and saw that it was halfway through the massive turn. Shit. This is where it might go bad. That thing speeds up on the way down, I’m sure. She tried to signal to Robin to return, but he did not seem to notice her.

What is he gathering? Are those the whale armor-spines that broke off?

Robin was now sprinting back to her, clutching a massive, round spike of what appeared to be ivory under each arm, panting wildly. Each had to be two meters long, and at least eighteen or nineteen centimeters thick.

He only stopped moving at full speed when he reached her position, dropping the massive sleek spines and leaning against a tree, panting. He recovered most of his stamina fairly quickly, and turned to give her a thumbs up, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his other hand.

“This may be the only ethical ivory in the world right now”, he said with a sardonic grin.

He paused, apparently having realized he had not fully recovered, taking a few more deep, slow breaths. After a moment, he continued. “I accomplished the idea I had when I went over there. I managed to kill-steal the whale, which was a “Greymaw Fin Whale”, by the way. I got a level-up for that. I also got several Motes, two of which I think are…Well, I think they are pretty good.”

Robin took a deep breath. May squinted at him suspiciously; he was obviously about to explode with whatever detail or information he was building up to.

🀅 ☼ 🀇 ☼ 🀈 ☼ 🀣 ☼ 🀂

“I got a title! A really neat one!”

May gestured with her hands for him to continue, and Robin took the opportunity to open the title and read it aloud.

Mercy of the Deep You have shown kindness and mercy to a noble of the deepest courts, granting them a swifter, and prouder fate than that which awaited them, all at great personal risk to your own life. The title’s holder may breathe underwater. The Mercy of the Deep doubles the title holder’s SWIM speed at the moment of acquisition; the title has no further effect on later SWIM speed increases. Creatures of the Deep Court are less likely to attack you or a vessel you are aboard.

May nodded thoughtfully.

“It won’t be super helpful right now, but it might help us later, when we reach the coast. Or maybe even on the way home. No sea serpent attacks can only be a good thing, right?” May reached out and gently knocked on a tree with her knuckles.

Robin nodded, a grin widening on his face.

May looked at him, her curiousity turning to mild annoyance at his antics. "What?"

"I got that shiny thing, too." Robin held his hand out to her, dropping something heavy into her palm when she reached out.

He watched her examine it the highly-polished platinum band closely, squinting at the one yellow gem embedded in the metal. He did not tell her about the atrophied disembodied hand that had been wearing the ring. No need to freak her out unneccesarily. That detail will not help anyone.

After watching her for a moment, Robin piped up.

“Do you think I have enough time to mess around with my new Motes for a moment?”

May took a quick, judging glance at the dragon and nodded.

“Just hurry.”

"Will do. After that I can Identify your ring, if you would like me to do so."

May nodded, her eyes going back to the dragon arching through the sky like the inevitable wrath of heaven.

Robin pulled his Motes menu up, possibilities racing through his mind.

Motes Lightning x1 Electricity x1 Blue x1 Spell x1 Might x1 Ivory x1 Will x1