Chapter 155: The Bond

In many ways being connected to the beast was like being connected to BB. 

<Oi, I resent being compared to a mangy animal,> BB retorted, which started the alien beast off in a menacing growl. 

Huh, so they could interact with one another as well, that had been unexpected. 

Either way, it was like being connected to BB, but it was also pretty different. 

Instead of getting full-blown thoughts from the extraterrestrial predator I was just receiving glimpses into its mental state, the emotions it was feeling, and the desires that it had. 

Right now the creature was thankful that I had spared its life, surprised that I had managed to keep up with it, and held a deep respect toward me because of the fact I had managed to best it. 

Above all of that though, the creature was hungry. 

That was a sentiment that I could understand. 

The bond that I had with the creature was somehow intertwined with yet separate from the rest of my manna powers. That meant the corruption was unable to influence this new bond. I was pretty sure the connection was being sustained by the creature's manna and not my own, which would explain things. 

I sent a pulse of intent along the connection, it explained that I was hungry as well and that we were looking for the nearby civilized settlement so that we could get food and shelter there. 

The predator seemed to accept that explanation. 

"Squadron Leader Jacob Lyre, have you dispatched the beast?" Yr'Arl called out, clomping through the bushes and undergrowth with the heavy footfalls of his metal armour. 

The predator bristled at the sound of another voice, the flaps that made up its head pointed outward as straight as arrows. 

I sent a pulse of comfort through our bond, attempting to explain that Yr'Arl was a friend and not his next meal. 

"Uh, kind of," I replied, "I unlocked a new ability and bonded the creature to me, it kind of just happened, but I'm pretty sure it'll defend us and fight alongside of us now." 

There was an eager pulse of excitement from the mind of the creature, it was more than ready for a fight if that was what we were going to get ourselves into. 

I was glad of that, from what I understood the creature would be an incredible benefit in any battle. 

"What do you mean by that?" Yr'Arl questioned, finally breaking through some of the leaves that I was surrounded by. 

He all but jumped out of his skin when he saw the predator lying down on its belly, front paws crossed over one another with its head atop its paws. 

"You doing okay there, bud?" I asked as Yr'Arl kind of stood there shivering in fear, "It's okay, he won't hurt you at all. 

I felt a pulse of amusement at that statement. As if the creature were saying something along the lines of 'but he doesn't need to know that.'

"You control that… creature?" He asked, a hand outstretched with small sparks of power flickering between his armoured fingers, ready to attack at any moment. 

"Yes, Yr'Arl, I'm sure," I said, "I mean when have my powers ever failed us before?" 

<Is that really a question you want to be asking?> BB snorted in the back of my mind. The predator was curious about that, so BB sent it a replay of the memory regarding my powers malfunctioning and sending us all the way to this world. The creature felt equally amused at my choice of words. 

"Okay, fine, probably a bad example, but I'm pretty sure about this one!" I said, exasperated at the incredulous look that Yr'Arl was shooting my way. 

"Hmmm, if you are sure Squadron Leader Jacob Lyre," Yr'Arl eventually relented, dismissing his combat armour in a shower of sparkling blue motes of light that the predator found very pretty. "But if the thing devours us in our sleep then you only have yourself to blame." 

I rolled my eyes at that, "Enough badgering me, come on, we've still got a ways to go before we reach civilization." 

The predator growled under its breath, a short sharp sound that with my connection to the creature's mind read as 'follow me', but by Yr'Arl's current reaction probably sounded more like 'you look tasty.'

"Don't look so startled, he just wants us to follow him," I explained to the shocked feline alien, "I think he knows an easier way through the forest, at least one where we won't get pounced on by any more of his kind." 

"Very well…. Squadron Leader Jacob Lyre, I will trust the creature as you do for now. But in the event that we are betrayed by the beast, please remember, this was your idea," Yr'Arl replied. 

I rolled my eyes at the level of mistrust Yr'Arl was showing, it was honestly kind of funny at this point. 

I sent a pulse of reassurance to the predator, I didn't want him to think that he wasn't going to fit into the group dynamic or something like that. He needed to know that I, at the very least, trusted him due to the bond we had. 

I wasn't expecting the pulse of reassurance back. Somehow it seemed to understand that Yr'Arl wasn't going to accept it right off the bat, and he was okay with that too. I also got the distinct impression that he was looking forward to what the people in the city we were walking toward would have to say about him travelling with two extraterrestrials. 

Hopefully they wouldn't be too frightened. 

Hopefully they had already encountered other alien races. I hadn't really given much thought to what I'd do if they hadn't had contact with alien races before. Would we be breaking some kind of Star Trek style first directive if we made first contact with a species that couldn't even make it into orbit? 

"Yr'Arl, have you given any thought to what we'll do if these people have never even seen any alien life forms before?" I asked as we trudged our way through the gloomy jungle, "Is it breaking some sort of a law to interact with a species that don't even have space travel yet?" 

"Why would such a thing be illegal?" Yr'Arl asked, puzzled at my query if his tone of voice was anything to go by. 

"Well, what if you were to mess up the development of a species by introducing them to advanced technology, or magic, before they were ready to experience it?" I asked, it seemed like a pretty simple prospect in my mind. 

Every species should be given their own chance to develop, external to the influences of the greater galaxy, until they were at a position in their evolution that they were ready to be introduced to the galactic community. I guess things didn't actually work that way in this universe. 

"Unfortunately, Squadron Leader Jacob Lyre, while that is a truly noble and lofty goal, the war against the Human race and the war against the Null Space Invaders are known on every world, no matter how civilized," Yr'Arl explained, his voice sad. "If we were not to interfere with lesser species then those species would be devoured by the hordes of evil, and that is a fate even worse than our intervention. 

I agreed with him on that. 

If I were some lowly alien with no idea about the wider universe around me, and then some crazy monstrous species like the Null Space Invaders showed up, I'm pretty sure that I'd want another more advanced species to come and bail my world out too.

Better than the alternatives if the alternatives were death, destruction, and my manna being harvested as food for those creatures. 

We followed the predator through the jungle until, eventually, we came to the end of the tree layer. 

The predator seemed unwilling to venture from the protection of the trees at first, and it was a sentiment I could understand. He had probably spent his entire life living in the forests of this world, and when he took a step out of those forests it would likely be that he would never ever return to them. 

I sent a pulse of comfort along our neural connection. Comforting him. Promising that, if he ever did want to come back here one day to visit and we weren't in a situation where the entirety of the universe was at stake then we would be more than willing to come back. 

That seemed to be just the push the predator needed. 

It emerged from the trees first, with Yr'Arl and I right behind him. 

The three suns had dipped low in the sky, casting an amber glow across the ground. We could only just about see one of them peeking above the hill that we had to climb. 

We were going to make it to civilization before dark, that was for sure. 

But that was where sureity ended. After that, anything could happen.