《Binary Progression》Volume 4 - Chapter 6: Beached-Pet-Island
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"Where the fuck am I?" thought Arachnophobia.
She looked around and saw that she was sitting on what seemed like a patch of grass under the cover of trees and bushes.
The sound of gentle waves and the wind made it clear Arachnophobia was still near a beach.
"Oh great... I'm stranded on some fucking island..." she thought.
"I can track John without a problem... though it's not like I can out-swim the ship,"
"Greetings! I see you're awake!" exclaimed a rougher voice from behind.
Arachnophobia spun around to see a gold-furred dog, a terrier specifically.
"A dog!?" exclaimed Arachnophobia taking a step back.
"Fear not, cat! We are one and the same here on beached-pet-island..." exclaimed the dog.
At first, she remained tense, the dog's words didn't have an effect on her... until she went over the name "Beached-pet-island".
"...beached-pet-island?" asked Arachnophobia.
"That's right! Back when this was a game, pets lost at sea would almost always drift here to be picked up by their owners!" explained the dog.
"I too was lost at sea, though my master did not know of this place..." sighed the dog.
"I see... well, in any case, I should get going..." said Arachnophobia walking away from the dog whilst maintaining eye-contact and leaving the cover of leaves in favour for the heat of the sun.
"No! You can't!" exclaimed the dog.
A loud screech was heard as a massive bird, with claws black and rough-looking, black beady eyes and feathers that looked like rotting skin swooped down with its black beak ready to tear into Arachnophobia.
"Oh, shit!" thought the cat as the bird was inches away.
Suddenly the dog from before ran out and bit the bird on the neck causing it to fall, after a few-second-long tumble on the ground the bird left leaving little drops of blood in the sand.
"Are thou alright, cat?" asked the dog with large claw marks on his right half.
"You should think about yourself, man! I'm an undead-type!" Arachnophobia said looking up and seeing the bird fly up before flying back down.
She grabbed the dog by the collar and dragged him back into the cover of leaves.
They both went quiet as they heard the bird land in the sand before hearing the mighty wings lift it back into the air.
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"What the hell was that?!" demanded Arachnophobia.
"I'm not sure about the name, but I know its a lost pet like the rest of us... its type is highly aggressive, so it goes after anything it sees, luckily for us, it's too stupid to check under the leaves..." chuckled the dog.
"Remember, cat, if you die more than one-hundred meters from your master, you disappear forever... and they can't recall you back to them from over a hundred meters," the dog explained.
"I know that much... somehow..." the cat replied.
The dog got off the ground and began heading deeper into the bushes.
"I'll go pay the doc a visit, thou can get something to eat and have some rest... if your master is still looking for you, it'll take them a while to check here,"
After a while of trudging through the forest, they came across a large cave, inside, sticks, leaves and dirt made up several layers.
"Hey! You're back!" exclaimed a little humanoid doll.
"Indeed! And I found a cat!" exclaimed the dog.
"This is Steelby, he was a pet golem from one of the fire-type-raids, he was dropped into the sea and sank to the bottom before waking up here," explained the dog.
"He's like our guard!" he added.
"Helloo!" said Steelby, his voice sounded echoey.
"Oh, of course, I still didn't introduce myself! My name is Borknificus!" the dog explained.
"..." Arachnophobia didn't comment on the name.
"I'm Arachnophobia, an undead-type cat,"
"That's a long name..." Steeby remarked.
"Feel free to just call me cat," shrugged Arachnophobia.
"In any case! I must go see the doc, I got a bit scratched up," laughed the dog.
Borknificus headed into the cave, Arachnophobia followed.
He took a left turn and saw the large room where sat a goat, on its back dozens of tentacles, on his face a pair of glasses.
"Ah, Borknificus, how are you?" asked the goat.
"Not bad, I got a little scratched up earlier," he laughed gesturing to his bloodied side.
Without moving itself, the goat's tentacles moved around the room and started making an improvised healing potion,
"I see, and your guest?" asked the goat.
"I'm Arachnophobia... hey..."
"Hello, I'm Goatexperiment," the goat explained.
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A few minutes later the tentacles finished the brewing process and applied the potion to the wound.
"There, you should be fine, now." the goat said.
"Thanks, doc... What would we do without you?" laughed the dog.
"Any time..." the goat replied before lying its head down.
They turned to leave the goat-room.
"Didn't he seem... weird?" asked Arachnophobia.
"Oh, Goatexperiment? He's constantly making himself a potion to combat the effects of the questionable stuff he had inside... why does a goat need hamster-bladders? I guess that was some sort of experiment... though he doesn't like to talk about it..." explained the dog.
"Anyway, that's how he ends up! He's still incredibly smart though!" explained the dog.
"I see..." Arachnophobia replied uncertainly.
From outside Arachnophobia heard the golem exclaim: "Nice catch!",
"Looks like our forager is back!" exclaimed the dog.
"Forager?"
They walked out to the cave's entrance and saw a massive spider, black in colour with red eyes.
"I found berries and some meat..." the spider explained.
"Meat?" asked the dog.
The spider looked up to him.
"Oh, Borknificus, hey..." the spider began.
"You found meat?" the dog asked again.
"Y-yeah..." the spider gestured towards the sack of web it dragged behind itself, on it amongst the berries lay a rabbit with massive claw marks, it was bathed in blood to the point that its fur colour was difficult to tell.
"Oh... I see... w-well... I'll bring it to the cook..." the dog said, his voice suddenly sounding horse.
He grabbed the sack by one end with his teeth and began dragging it to another portion of the cave.
"Is that... a pet?" asked Arachnophobia.
"Yeah... he wasn't a regular here in the cave... He started a little berry farm up north, pretty sure he started a family too." remarked the dog.
"Are... you going to eat it?" asked Arachnophobia.
"...It's not like we have much of a choice..." said the dog, "The berried won't keep us alive for long."
Arachnophobia didn't comment.
"I know its gross... but I have no doubts that when I die I'll be eaten too..." said the dog.
"I suppose that's fair," Arachnophobia said dismissively.
"I'm an undead, I don't care if you eat someone you knew..." she thought.
After delivering the food outside a large pile of rocks they backed away.
"Why are we backing away?" asked Arachnophobia.
"Our cook is a fire-type, he lives under those rocks," explained the dog as a small rat-like creature with blood-red fur leaves the cover of the rocks and causes the meat to burst into flames.
"Cooking the meat makes it easier for the herbivores to eat and digest," explained the dog.
"If we could get fish and clams we'd have enough food to go around... but the damn bird is always picking off people stupid enough to leave the cover of leaves."
"Did you ever try killing the bird?" asked Arachnophobia.
"Every now and then there's a dumbass who goes after the bird... but they end up like the rabbit most of the time..." the dog explained.
Arachnophobia looked back and saw the spider.
"Hey, I don't want to be the one to say this... but we can't really handle any more pets in the cave food-wise," said the spider.
"Relax, Arachnophobia can take my portion of the food, I was meant to go on a diet anyway," laughed the dog.
"Nah, I don't need food. I'm an undead-type, remember." Arachnophobia reminded them.
"Arachnophobia, eh?" asked the spider looking at her.
"Yeah..." she looked back at him.
It was a pet stare-down.
"Anyway! I'm planning to leave this place, so I'll go have a chat with the bird, see if he can give me a lift," Arachnophobia said turning to leave the cave.
At first, nobody replied, they weren't sure if it was just a bad joke or if she was actually suicidal.
"Woah! Wait up! Are you alright!? Suicide isn't the answer!" the dog exclaimed running up after her.
"I'm already dead, remember," the cat said not turning back.
"We can't eat undead-cat..." the spider remarked.
"Screw you too, spider!" Arachnophobia called back.
The whole cave went quiet as the newcomer left their sight.
"Wait up, cat! I shall lead you to the bird!" exclaimed Borknificus.
"YOU WHAT!?" demanded the spider as he saw the dog run off after the cat.
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