“Your name is Blink!”

With that, I set Blink down and pulled out some smoked fish, and started eating and sharing. I also pulled up the now un-grayed (Stats Blink) and was able to see Blink’s stats. It turns out that Blink is a she, I was glad I wasn’t calling her a fella… Also, she had skills to start with.

Name

Blink

HP

6

MP

20

Race

Ropola*

SP

36

Defense

2

Ropola are large chameleon type lizard. The eyes of the Ropola are some of the best as they can match their skin to whatever they see or have seen. Ropola have body sacks that they can fill to make them appear bigger and a thick boned head.

*Bonded: As a Bonded Ropola Blink will be able to grow, level and change faster. As the bond deepens so do the benefits to both sides.

Strength

8*

Dexterity

6**

Intelligence

4

Will power

12

Stamina

12

Health

6***

*Strength is relative to size. As Ropola’s grow the negative modifier will be removed for DMG. Until young adult size or level 15 is reached DMG is figured at half total round down.

** Dexterity is relative to size. For all movement dexterity uses figure at 3 times normal. Once young adult size is reached all Movement Dexterity uses figure at 2 times normal.

*** Health is relative to size. Until young adult size or level 15 health points figured at half total round down.

Nature’s gifts

Scales

+2 defense

Claws

+1 Attack Slashing

Mouth

+2 Attack Impaling

Natural skills

Level

Pounce

1

Stealth

1

Tracking

1

Skills

Pounce: The Hatchling at this stage acts like a cat and from a high place pounces. This attack is Weight Divided by five plus claw damage.

If done from surprise, it triples the damage.

Stealth: The Hatchling knows how to move without being seen or heard. As this develops, they will even be able to disappear when being looked at.

Tracking: This skill lets the hatchling track something. At low levels, tracking requires the proper area to track in and can easily be thrown. At higher levels, the hatchling will know the tricks to hide tracks as well as see tracks. This skill will help to identify what is being tracked.

Having a day-old pet to care for would set back my plans a bit. While I wanted to go out, I figured I could wait a few days and finish bonding with this little lizard. I also wanted to ensure that it got enough food to grow right. Young animals were often guarded by their parents, and while I wasn’t sure if this one would have been in the wild, I got to be with it now.

So I shifted gears from planning ongoing tracking to figuring things out and keeping an eye on a small lizard that thought my feet were the best thing in the world to play with. I wanted to get at least my morning routine in play as much as possible, even if I had a new pet and a limp. Working through everything with a limp was hard,, but knowing how my body moved when messed up was good.

All things considered, my morning with my new pet went well. That being said, as I walked, Blink was always hunting my feet, and anytime I stopped, I’d hear the stupid tick of Sam’s clock. Except when she was tracking bugs, and other tiny things I didn’t even know were here with me.

She started hissing when I climbed down to the water level, and she walked back and forth until she made the jump and ran over to me. Then she saw the water, drank some, and played on the edge while I was getting my sweat on. Then, when I took my bath, she swam around next to me and even went under the water to come up with a fish about twice the size of her mouth.

She laid back out on a rock and sunned herself when it was lunchtime, so I got to eat in peace.

Since I wasn’t going far with Blink being hatched today, I went back and fished for the rest of the day. I now had a growing lizard that wanted fresh fish and bugs. While she could catch everything herself, it would be better for the bond if I gave her food as much as I could. However, I figure that even with me hunting, she would turn out to be as smug about hunting as cats are and start to leave me gifts.

I chose not to ask Sam anything because I wanted to test out the theory that the time in his office didn’t count as rest for my mind. I was worried that not only was I getting bogus answers but that I was also impacting the way I functioned. I knew that I still could almost feel the tick of the clock as I lay down to sleep. Blink cuddled up on my chest once I settled down.

“Okay girl, I’m going to sleep now. See you in the morning,” I mumbled to my lizard.

By your actions today

You have increased your level in

Tae-Kwon-Do (Level 11)

Fitness Training (Level 6)

Spear (level 6)

Tumbling (Level 4)

The second day after what was hopefully my last dog fight and my last time being half dead when I got home, I came to my fingers being nibbled on my Blink.

“Alright, Alright, I’m up girl.” I grumbled as I climbed out of my sleeping roll.

As soon as I was out, I looked around while my eyes adjusted to the morning light and my body to the slight chill. I heard Blink yip from inside my lean-to and saw that she was happily settling down in the warm spot I had just left.

“I guess pets are the same in every world. You get me out of bed just to steal my spot.”

Blink raised her head, looked at me, gave a slow deep blink, yipped, tucked her nose under her front leg, and promptly went to sleep.

I chuckled as I got my day going. Now that my debuffs were gone, it was time to get back to looking around where I lived. I already knew that there was something here; the question was, what was it that made that little spear.

I also had to figure out a faster way to get up and down to the clearing above me. The river around the base of the falls was in a tight canyon, so there wasn’t much in the way of hunting here. Lots of fish but not much hunting. Above me, the river was more accessible, so there was an abundance of game.

I grabbed my pack and spear and headed out with Blink still asleep. I would head to the top of the falls again to see what all I could figure from up there. Unfortunately, when last I was there, I had a fight and didn’t get a chance to poke around any.

Because I knew where I was going, I made quick work of getting down the river bank to the assent. I had taken a look a couple of times on my way, looking for crossings and other ways up, and now I just moved.

When I got to the top, I saw that the unnt herd was still there. It was good seeing them so peaceful. A peaceful herd tended to mean that there were no predators around. So as long as they were happy, I should be okay. The caveat to that, of course, were things that might attack me but not them.

I spent some time scouting the area. I was looking for signs of people or other tool makers. I couldn’t believe that the little spear had come from a human unless for a child, but even so, they seemed wrong. I felt like I needed to be more careful of the owner of that spear than most anything else.

After looking around, I started to try to figure out how to get things from up here down to my camp. It was about a 90-minute hike one way, and while that wasn’t awful with an empty pack, if I was trying to carry an unnt back, it was going to be unfun.

I could drop most everything down, but it was a fifty-foot fall. Which for an unnt might break useable bones and ruin meat and skin things which I couldn’t afford to waste. So, I took my time trying to figure out a solution. It wouldn’t be easy, but I would build a sled to put an Unnt on, and then I would send it down the slope. If I could get about 150 feet of rope, life would be better, but as it is, this would have to do.

I knew that I didn’t have any vines back at my base, so I spent another hour getting vines. Finally, I took all of them and just dropped them off the edge of the cliff. Most of them hit the landing above mine, and some of them had just enough lift to make it to my landing. As I was looking out the cliff, I saw smoke. It looked like it was several miles away downstream and on the same side as I was on. Which was just a guess since the river could bend by the time I got that far.

I could see that it was more than one fire as there were at least three smoke trails. The smoke excited me. Where there was smoke, there were fires. If there were fires, then I was hoping for people. I was also hoping that they weren’t forest fires.