Beasts of the land are quite powerful, even if they aren’t monsters. While extremely dangerous, most animals can be tamed. And whoever tames a beast can become much stronger because of it- On the flora and fauna of DIO.

Jonar began glowing, a brilliant white light escaping from within him, light spilling out from his pores. Jonar grimaced in pain and screamed out, blood coming out of his eyes, ears and throat. The heavenly light seemed to heal him. He raised from the ground, chimes sounded, and a heavenly choir started singing. It was all quite breathtaking, if a little cheesy. I understood how unbelievably powerful this sight would be to an NPC, though. I could convert millions just on doing this alone in front of them.

Finally, after about 30 seconds of this and with a fair amount of blood being soaked into the earth, Jonar was put back on the ground. He was shaking quite a bit and the echoes of pain were still on his face.

“Jonar, are you OK?”

“That was so unbelievably painful.”

“I could tell.”

“And um, a little orgiastic too.”

“Ew. That I couldn’t tell, but thanks for that info.”

We spent the next hour talking over things that he previously had no clue about, like XP and powers. His class was a ranger and his specialty was Beast Tamer, and one of his first powers, called knacks, he could buy was Animal Companion. He purchased this immediately with the only XP he had and was told that his animal companion was seeking him out.

Brawns was his primary attribute and was a remarkably high average of 3 and he had 8 health. Beauty was his secondary attribute, and his tertiary was Belief. The weakest was his Brains attribute. It was odd, as I didn’t think of him as slow or dim-witted at all. He seemed almost as intelligent as me.

His knacks had three trees. One was Animal Companion, which seemed to affect the bond between him and his animal companion. Since he had bought the first level, the tree showed him two other knacks: share senses and mental link. The second knack tree was Archery, and the third tree was Utility. The first Knack on the Archery tree Spectral Bow, which was a bow that could never be lost or stolen. It could be upgraded in power as all his knacks could, and the bow did +.15 damage and boosted his courage while equipped. Courage must be a hidden stat like speed and morale. Utility had one power available, though it seemed useful, and we almost bought that instead of animal companion. It was called unseen passage and allowed for a party to leave no tracks behind that could be easily followed. To track us, a person would have to have an extremely high tracking skill or a power that helped her track prey.

It also looked like Jonar had automatically spent XP while he was an NPC. Most of his XP had been spent on Agility, which was at level 5, and was hopefully used with Archery since that was at level 3.

Jonar had complained he hadn’t had a bow almost every time the topic could possibly come up, but now we knew that he could have a spectral one for 15 XP. He started to make arrows for the bow and a leather quiver. He knew how to make both, and his skinning knife was quickly becoming his most valued tool.

We spent the next day walking and talking, and I told him more about my world and my family. I told him about our voyage and how we came here during that voyage so that we would not be bored. He asked why my family wasn’t here, and I explained that we could not buy passage all together. While I told him almost everything, I never told him that this was a game. I just didn’t have the heart to tell him he was artificial, especially since he had lost so much due to his belief in a soul.

It was the next night when we met his animal companion. We were sitting around the campfire, not yet ready to sleep, when we heard the loud sound of some sort of raptor. Suddenly, a bird came out of nowhere and grabbed some of the dinner we were preparing, which was squirrel that night. I stood up to shoo it away, but Jonar simply extended his arm and the beast landed on it.

I looked at the raptor and closely analyzed it.

Jonar’s Companion (Unnamed)

Female Martial Eagle

Total XP: 50

Status: Neutral

I whistled as I looked at the massive bird. It was nearly 1 meter long, and as it flapped its wings, I could see that it’s wingspan was nearly two and a half times that. It looked like it weighed a good 5 kilograms. It looked almost plum-colored and its feet were a dark green. It had fierce yellow eyes, wicked black talons, and a grey beak that was sharply curved. It gobbled down the cooked and skinned squirrel in a couple of bites.

I told Jonar what I saw and he nodded. “I could tell she was my companion the moment I saw her. She is beautiful, isn’t she?”

I agreed, a little wary of her. She could shred me with but a thought, and we both knew it. Despite that, she was beautiful in a predatory, almost alien way. She hopped off Jonar’s arm and started looking for more squirrels, eyeing the one left hanging over the fire.

“No, little one. You will have to hunt on your own if you want more food.” Jonar said this as if he were talking to a child, and the eagle seemed to understand. She watched as we ate the bird, and I felt a little guilty. She had eaten a huge meal compared to her size, and we had only one tiny, little squirrel between us. But somehow, I was the one that felt guilty for eating half the squirrel. I sighed and took off a chunk and threw it to her.

“What are you going to call her?” I asked, later I was cleaning our clothes and hanging them up to dry while he was working on crafting some arrows.

“I don’t know. She looks fierce and regal and a little haughty. I love her. But I am unsure of a name for her.”

“How about Princess?”

“No, that feels like a spoiled title. Like she is self-centered and needy. But I like the direction you are going.”

“How about Queen?” Jonar looked aghast when I suggested it. “I would never call her that. That would be the death of both of us if other Yeshuans heard.”

“Hmm, what about Empress?”

“Now, that name I like. Do you like the name Empress, little one?”

I rolled my eyes at Jonar calling her little one, but the bird seemed to like it. She let out a piercing whistle that shocked both Jonar and me.

“Can you understand her?”

“No, but I get the feeling she can understand me. Maybe once I learn beast speak, I will be able to communicate with her.”

“That will be pretty cool, maybe when you talk to other animals, you can tell monsters to stay away.”

“I hadn’t thought of that. That might be useful- I will have to try it when I can.”

The next day we hiked, Empress scouted in front of us. Periodically, she would hunt, and throughout the day caught two rabbits that she gave to us. Jonar was impressed, as he said that forests are harder for eagles to hunt due to lack of visibility and ease for prey to dodge. The fact that she was sharing food with us was also impressive in my book. She was thinking like we were family, or at least that Jonar was. I tried to get on her good side, mostly because being on her bad side was scary.

Even though Empress was cool, I kind of thought it would have been better to have a jaguar, wolf or a tiger. Something big that could hurt a monster badly. Empress looked deadly, but mostly to smaller birds and weaker prey.

I thought this until halfway through the day when I saw her in action. Apparently, a man-sized snake was tracking us. It was a constrictor type, so I am unsure why it was thinking it could attack multiple prey. It was moving silently, and neither Jonar nor I detected it. But Empress sure did- she let out her trademarked piercing cry and came barreling out of the sky downward as fast as she could and flew down at a point behind us. We whipped around and saw the snake.

It was huge, as long as I was and it could easily fit me in its mouth. It was a mottled green and yellow, and its body looked like one huge muscle. Its tongue flicked outward, and its red eyes were alien and reptilian. Empress dive bombed right behind its head and clawed it fiercely before flying back into the sky.

By this time, we were ready for a fight and we came running towards it. I got out my sword and started hacking at it. The Against All Odds boost did not show up, so I knew we were either evenly matched or we were stronger. I called out ‘0”, which Jonar meant that it was weaker than us Three times during the fight, Empress flew from the heavens and tore into the snake, doing as much damage as I did. The snake finally died, giving us 5 XP each without damaging any of us. Jonar was excited to find that Empress got 5 XP too and that he could use it to improve her stats. Apparently, Empress had powers called Instincts and she could use willpower to use them, though she had no Belief attribute.

It was then I got a real appreciation for our new party member. We would have eyes in the skies and something that could protect our backs.

I was impressed.