Chapter 128: A familiar hunt.

Jengal, over-enthusiastic as ever, speaks. “I want a dragon!”

Lightly holding my head in my hands. “As I said, you catch it, I will bind it. Can you catch a dragon?”

“Nah, you are right. How about a giant.”

“Can you catch a giant?” I ask in annoyance.

“Maybe.”

“That is not a yes. They are also borderline sapient. So, no!”

His shoulder drooped for less than a second before rising again. “An Enderman!”

“No!”

“A mountain!”

“That is not even alive!”

“A demon!”

“A dumb idea… No!”

“An end dragon!”

“No dragons!”

“A wyvern!”

“I already said no to a dragon; stop trying to circumvent me.”

He just huffs and puffs like a child. Sighing in mental anguish, “what do you want your familiar to be able to do?” I ask, half defeated.

“Fly me!”

“You have a flying belt!” I say before hitting him on the head.

“What do you want it to do!” Frustration filling my voice.

“I want it to be able to protect me.” He says in defeat.

“Are you sure?”

He hesitates for a moment, “yes.”

“How about a bear?”

“Too slow.”

“Lion?”

“Too prideful.” Making me giggle.

“Let me guess, agile and dangerous.” I say in prediction of his wish.

“Yes.”

“How about a Ventoraptor?”

“What is that?” He asks, cocking his head to the side.

“Larger than a man, evil scythe-like claws, feathers, and extreme speed; exactly what you want.”

Jumping up from his seat, “yes! I want one!”

“Finally, let’s go dino hunting.”

I walk with Jengal towards the parked Tardis. Looking over my shoulder, I spot Chic and Cassie following. “Bored, I take it?”

Chic nods in confirmation; while Cassie speaks. “I just like the dino place.”

Shrugging, “swear you got stalked by a giant carnivore last time.”

She rolls her eyes. “Like I am in any danger with you around.”

“I am not omnipresent.” I reply honestly.

“And I have life insurance; let’s go!” She says, taking the lead.

We quickly arrive at the Tardis. Cassie flinging open the door before storming off towards the library. I heard a shout, “tell me when we land.” Her voice weakening to a whisper as she enters the sound-proofed room.

Turning to my other traveling companions, I see them both in awe.

Jengal, mouth agape; “it is bigger on the inside.”

“And you have a magical belt that lets you fly; get over it.”

Chic is gazing around the room, eyes fluttering in a variety of directions.

Turning my gaze to Jengal again, he has gotten his head back together. Simply admiring rather than being dumbfounded. Looking back towards the spider, I see empty air. Slight panic pangs my heart before a simple search reveals the spider, quickly scuttling towards the large room I made previously.

“Welcome to the Tardis. This is why I needed the Kontron crystal.”

“Wait, so this is what it made?”

“Yes.”

“So this vessel can travel through space and time?”

“Absolutely.”

“Sweet.”

“Let’s get going; want to watch me fly it?”

“I would love to.”

Walking to the panel, I select my bookmark. Finding another source of dinos would be a pain.

Turning the speed to 2/3 of its maximum, I launch. The vessel violently shakes before the familiar sound reverberates through the room. Feeling the needs of the ship, I begin to fly. Jengal watches in bewilderment as I use every ounce of my mind to press the buttons, flip the levers, and turn the dials as needed. This is currently my speed limit without crashing.

Given the high speed, we reach the destination in minutes. Falling back in exhaustion from the running around. Armor doesn’t help with stamina, to my sadness.

Jengal turns to me, “that looked… Complex.”

“Easier than you would think; just tiresome.” It really is… After you get a mental bond.

“I will stick with a horse and cart, thank you.”

“Okay.” Smiling from amusement, it looks so much harder than it is.

Cassie quickly emerges, “that was quick.” She says in annoyance.

“You can read later. Let’s go dino hunting.”

“Fine.” She replies with a bored expression.

“Do you want a familiar too, Cassie?” May as well while I am at it.

To her credit, she considered it seriously. “I will think about it.” Said with a little more energy.

“Okay; here, take this, Cassie.” I say before tossing her a flying belt. “We are not exploring; we are hunting. Get used to that belt; we are heading to the plains.”

“What is it?” She says, running her hand over the leather, feeling the thrum of energy from the buckle.

“A flying belt. Jengal, teach her.”

“She is your girlfriend; why me?” He says, stunned and confused.

“You are more used to that type of flight, and you're familiar, right?”

“Fine.” He grumbles.

He is getting complacent; I need to make him work for stuff in the future. While Cassie learns, I sit in a chair pondering all the pointlessly difficult tasks he can do.

I get a great deal of amusement watching Cassie flail about like a ragdoll. Adding my own snarky comment when she stumbles. Shooting me a dirty look in response, which I reply with a blown kiss. As much as she is annoyed, out of respect, she grabs the kiss… Before throwing it at me. I acted hurt, which got us both chuckling.

After some time, she eventually got good enough at flight for us to begin. Flying above the treeline with my 2 human companions, we see something awe inspiring. The sun only having just risen, a beautiful orange and blue dawn cresting over the treeline. The different shades of trees refracting the light like a cut emerald; truly a sight to behold.

We stood there, in the air, just looking. Eventually, the sparkly treeline returned to normal as the sun continued to rise. We begin to fly away from the sun towards the savanna plains; the dinos needed likely appear there.

As we fly, I fill them in on the dino. “Okay, the Ventoraptor is a group hunter, fast and agile; they will use pack tactics to take down prey. I would imagine the ideal target is single medium eight class herbivores. Potentially, smaller animals as well; packs animals require lots of food; so look for big prey.”

Jengal and Cassie nod in confirmation. “Good; let’s go hunting.” I say with a smile.

We quickly come to the plains, finding the diurnal hunters and prey out and about. We don’t spot our target at first glance, so we perch on a massive tree. Below and above large branches, covered from aerial predators. Of course, arboreal creatures are still a risk, but they won’t likely pick a fight.

We watch the animals slowly move across the warm plains. The uncomfortable humidity and heat grating on Cassie and Jengal.

I take out a cube of ice from my bag of holding, placing it on the branch. Jengal and Cassie immediately jump on it, silently fighting over space on it. I just continue my watch, internally sighing.

I can’t help but ask, “do you guys know each other outside of like, both knowing me?”

Jengal and Cassie laugh, “of course, small town, we both went to the same school.” Jengal says while grinning.

“That answers a lot of questions.” Looking between the two, “at least you two don’t hate each other. That would be frustrating to say the least.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I spot something. Snapping towards what caught my eye, I see it. A Ventoraptor skulking in a large bush, flanking a large tusked cow; further observation reveals 3 others in similar hiding positions.

I beckon the attention of Cassie and Jengal, all of us watching them like hawks.

3 raptors are hidden in several bushes on one side of the creature. Carefully separated into equal distances, a pincer. Another Raptor is slowly approaching from behind, crawling along the tall grasses towards the grazing cow.

Suddenly, the beast flicks its ears. Looking around cautiously, it observes the area around it. Something clued it in; it began immediately running slightly off course towards the right side of the pincer.

The raptors all rush towards the beast, jumping towards it with glee. It uses its tusks to bat the raptor in front of it to the right.

A clean hit, causing the raptor to roll across the ground, clearly hurt from the strike. The beast begins to run forward as the other 3 raptors rapidly gain on it. Two together, and one lagging behind; the first finally reaches the beast.

It jumps on the back of the beast, clawing at its thick hide. It does little more than slow the beast, allowing the second to jump onto it. With the second on its back, it makes a desperate gambit. Throwing its own body onto a tree, it dislodges and hurts one of the Raptors.

At this point, they all agree the hunt is too risky. They disengage from the creature, backing away cautiously. The Cow-like creature got off lightly, only some light lacerations on its back. The raptors, not so much. One of them, very badly wounded. The 3 Raptors return to their companion, finding it struggling to stand. They nuzzle its side, trying to push it up.

They stay with the struggling beast for over an hour before they slowly leave the disabled beast. A liability they cannot afford in this dangerous place. The moment the other Raptors leave, the wounded one begins to whine. Predators who were watching; begin to approach.

“Jengal, it looks like we found you’re familiar.”

Looking over, I see his eyes glued on the beast.

With other predators approaching the crying creature, we are prompted to act. Rushing towards it in haste to beat the beasts eyeing an easy meal.

A bipedal reptile leaves the treeline, 3 men tall with strong armor-like green scales and a red mohawk decoration. It rapidly begins to sprint towards the easy meal, forcing me to activate my high-speed flight.

Reaching the beast in moments, I pick it up with my golden lasso. Mere seconds before the reptile bite where it was sat, that was far too close. Taking the special package, I return to my startled companion. Jengal turning to me, “what happened?”

“I got the Raptor.”

“Where is it?”

“Don’t worry about that; it will give you a headache.”

“You know what, okay.” The curious man says. Cassie just looks at us with amusement.

We fly back to the Tardis. Cassie and Jengal collapsing upon entering; “I missed normal air.” Cassie says while lying back, a smile on her face.

Jengal adds, “I love non-humid air.”

“You two gonna sit there all day or come see Jengals familiar?”

Jengal jumped up with renewed vigor. “Yes, yes, let me see it.”

Cassie begrudgingly follows as we walk towards the large room. We walk to a corner before I remove my lasso. Releasing the beast onto the floor.

Jengal quickly goes to approach it. With my arm, I physically stop him. “That is a wounded animal, are you stupid?” I ask him in genuine curiosity. He turns to me, realization dawning on him. Lowering his head in shame.

I mindlessly toss a health potion onto the beast. Collecting it back into the lasso. “Well, let’s get it bonded.”

“Yes, I can’t wait,” Jengal says, beaming with excitement. “What was your bonding like?”

“I don’t think it will be applicable in this situation.”

“Why?” Jengal asks.

“Because the spider domesticated me.”

Jengal and Cassie look at me in confusion.

“It just started following me,; I started feeding it, and now we are soul bonded.”

“And, it didn’t attack you on sight?” Cassie asks.

“Nope.”

“That is weird.” She says. “If a monster is classified as an aggressive monster, it is unlikely you will find a passive version.” She helpfully says. “Cave spiders; unlike their partial neutral cousins, large spiders; are aggressive. Without fail, they are territorial and highly aggressive; I thought you forcefully bonded it.”

“Must be a smart spider,” Jengal says. “I wouldn’t pick a fight with you.” Which Chic agrees with by nodding towards Jengal.

I interject, “so, yeah, I don’t think it is applicable. You will have a normal familiar bond. Me and Chic will likely be a bit closer because it was a mutually agreed bond… Kinda. “Chic, did you agree?”

Chic nodded.

“See, mutual. I don’t know how it will change the bond. Likely not by much, but still, it won’t be the same.”

“I see,” Jengal says with less enthusiasm.

“Don’t look so down; you are about to complete your soul, as some witches would say. It will be good, trust me.”

“Okay,” Jengal says.