[9] King of the Reptiles

[9] King of the Reptiles

The cloud of poison was thicker than Bjorn thought it would be but now was his chance to escape. He located the beaker in the foliage below which he had dropped when the wolf bit him. He took back control of his other head so he could use his senses and get a good count of the wolves. Now that he had both heads tasting the air he could accurately count how many wolves there were even though he could not see them.

There were twelve in total; he could taste the confusion and fear of the toxic gas radiating from those that remained. The problem was he would not be able to use his magic again for half a day according to Failsafe. That is when the air changed and he could taste death. Two of the wolves were in the middle of having seizures and twitching on the ground. He believes the first was the wolf that bit him and breathed in the poison the longest. The second must have been in the mist longer as well.

Bjorn wasted no time in sliding down into the mist which to him had a sickly sweet smell. He returned control of the right head to Failsafe as he picked up the beaker with his jaws. He had to run in between one of the shadow wolves in order to make it to the lake. The wolf was taken completely off guard as Failsafe bit its leg without even slowing down Bjorn.

The wolf howled in pain and turned to give chase. It didn’t make it a few yards before it started bleeding from the eyes and mouth and collapsed against a tree. Before any of the other wolves could even react, Bjorn was already jumping into the water and diving as deep as he could as quickly as possible. Surprisingly he found swimming to be quite natural for him. His instincts took over and guided him in how to properly swim with his anatomy.

He continued to swim out until he was sure he lost the shadow wolves. He floated along the surface of the water easily enough. He basked in a mission complete now all he had to do was get back. Bjorn didn’t like how close the Shadow wolves are to the troll’s cave. He is only about forty five minutes walk and with the troll dead it is only a matter of time before they become another problem. Bjorn knew he was going to have to do something about the wolves but that was a problem for later.

“I think I am a water lizard thing of some kind.” Bjorn thought.

“Yeah, you might be right.” Failsafe agreed. “That was a close one though let's not do that again.”

“How did they get so close to us without us noticing them?” Bjorn asked. “They didn’t have a scent or anything.”

“Looked like shadow manipulation magic.” Failsafe stated. “I remember the name shadow wolf so we have seen them before but I don’t remember anything else about them.”

The duo continued to float in the bayou traveling far downstream to hopefully leave the shadow wolves territory. Bjorn noticed a bask of crocodiles, dozens of snakes and other reptiles and even frogs leaving the water as he slowly floated by. He could taste the fear of him in the air as the animals seemed to be eyeing him warily.

“Well that is weird.” Bjorn stated.

“I think your dragon repellent works on all reptiles and amphibians by the look of it.” Failsafe stated with intrigue. “Hmm. I am going to have to give that skill a cooler name.”

Bjorn asked while counting the animals he saw at the bank. “That reminds me, what about our cultivation thing, did I get anything from the wolves?”

“Yes, actually we killed four of ‘em. I saw another collapse in the poison puff. Also good news you have a healing factor.” Failsafe stated as if it wasn’t obvious.

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“Wow a little more and we unlock more about who I was, right?” Bjorn stated as he looked over the status. “Restoration jumped up but my vitality stayed the same?”

“The two are close in meaning but not the same. Restoration is how fast you heal while vitality is how much life energy you have. On the same note, constitution is how durable you are physically and mentally.” Failsafe paused for a second. “Uh, actually, I should probably change that one, how does Willpower sound for mental fortitude?”

“I think it would be fine the more accurate these are the better I am assuming.” Bjorn states.

“Yeah and it is also pretty fun, right?” Failsafe said with a head bob. “When we get stronger, probably around level ten, no, level fifteen, you should have enough mana for me to scan and calculate other people’s status and skills. We’ll know how strong someone is just by looking at them. Won't that be crazy?”

“Yeah, that would be really helpful in a fight.” Bjorn stated as he looked over the status again. “But why did the amount of mana I am getting from the familiar bond go up?”

“Huh? Oh, I didn’t even notice that. Weird.” Failsafe admitted his head turning to look out blankly. “I don’t know, maybe it is just how the bond works. It would make sense the more you two interact the stronger the bond would become.”

Bjorn thought about it. “Strengthening the bond would eventually make it so I couldn’t break it. The containment back at the academy was supposed to do this right?”

“Yep, I imagine there is a point of no return. I will keep an eye on it so when we reach that point you can make the decision if we are going to stay or go. So what do you think of the name of the skill?” Failsafe said cheerily. “King of the Reptiles sounds pretty cool, right?”

Bjorn didn’t really care about the name but thought it was a little on the nose. “Well... it’s not bad...” He saw Failsafes' expression dropping. “...It’s not bad, uh, because it’s great, buddy. So-so cool.”

Failsafe lit up bouncing and bobbing his head going on about how he thought of the name. The two continued floating for a few hours before returning to land and immediately climbing a tree. Now that they had the beaker full of water he had Failsafe carry it in his mouth. Bjorn wanted to look out for the shadow wolves and now that he knew the taste of their magic he knew what to look out for and needed to be thorough. The last thing he wanted was to lead the pack to Freja.

After watching his surroundings for an hour he felt it was safe to move. He climbed down and began his walk home this time far more cautious than his arrival. It took another hour and a half for Bjorn to make it back home. He wanted to give the wolves territory as wide a berth as possible. He tasted the air as he arrived and could detect no changes aside from the increased numbers of vultures.

He arrived back at the cave and saw Freja still lying on the ground. She was crying and didn’t seem to notice him until the clacking of his talons against the cave floor roused her. She turned her head with a wince and some of her worries seemed to melt with his return.

“Bjorn.” Freja said her voice was weak. “You really do have two heads. I thought I might have been hallucinating that.”