The Oasis

[greatcleavage]

What the heck was he doing here?

Beneath the shade of the palm fronds, Roy stared out at the desert that stretched out in every direction. Somehow he'd found himself here, against all logic. A weird sidequest? A dream? Maybe he was dead again and his spirit had been hijacked.

Well, what could he do but wait and see what came along? The oasis showed signs of being used by travelers, so he wouldn't be stuck here forever anyway...

Comments

[najaran]

"I like this one, he's polite," Gooligan muttered as Najaran took him from Roy, then put him in her mouth so her hand was free to offer Roy a hand up. "Unlike some people," he muttered.

"Wha whaz at?" she asked around the cane that was his body.

Poor Gooligan.

[greatcleavage]

"I might be a little less polite if I considered you a close and personal friend," Roy said, in oblique defense of Najaran. Very carefully, he took her hand -- well aware that his weight and strength were likely a great deal more than she expected.

[najaran]

And she might surprise him with her higher than expected strength stat as she easily pulled him up behind her, then tucked Gooligan under her arm. "Apparently when I found him the first time as a kid, first thing I did was to start chewing on him. I think Master Horowitz said I was about five, maybe? But Golligan is useful for all sorts of things besides chewing on!"

[greatcleavage]

"Oh, you've been with him for quite a while." But isn't five kind of old to chew on things...?

[najaran]

Have you seen her appetite?

Najaran nodded. "Yep! Me and Gooligan have been together practically forever. He doesn't even have any memories from before meeting me!"

[greatcleavage]

"Huh." Well, that isn't suspicious in any way, shape, or form. Roy leaned back slightly to look at the staff, wondering if he'd betray anything involuntarily.

[najaran]

"But plenty of people remember him," Naja went on. "Real bad guys too, who want to know why he's not on their side, but I know Gooligan is on our side, always."

"That is right, I would never work for people such as the Black Cepter or the Lord of Flies. And I certainly would never betray..."

Najaran cut off his heartfelt and earnest words. "Besides, how would I ever stir soup or find my way without him?"

"Master Horowitz," he said dryly, clearly not how he intended to end that originally. "I would never betray MAster Horowitz."

Najaran glanced back, over Golligan's head and winked at Roy with a grin. "We ready to fly?"

[greatcleavage]

...She actually had the self-awareness to mess around like that? Okay, Roy's respect for her went up a notch.

"I'm perfectly ready." He only had one rank in Ride, sure, but that would be enough to get by.

[najaran]

She grinned. "Good, hold on tight then! Alright, Thunderbeak! To the closest food you can find let's ride!!!!!" she cheered, not following her own advice as she pumped one fist in the air.


The huge creature dunked its head into the oasis for a long drink, then hunched its hind legs, the only warning before it launched itself strongly into the sky, water flying off its head onto them as his wings snapped out loudly to either side.

[greatcleavage]

That was a smoother launch than he anticipated, and Roy held on with a minimum of effort thanks to his rather absurd Strength score.

But... "Uh, what does Thunderbeak consider 'food'?"

[najaran]

"Oh all sorts of things!" And then Roy would get a cut away that implied her spending four hours listing yummy foods. Most of which sounded more like things she wanted to eat than the massive bird did. Except... that he was licking his lips at some of them.

[greatcleavage]

Roy didn't know what was worse -- that he'd brought this on himself, or that he was getting hungry too. "Enough, enough!" he said, lifting his hands to stop the recitation. "Just so long as we're not being taken to a pile of carrion or something!"

[najaran]

"Oh, you want to stop and eat, not pick up something to carry on as we go?" It was hard to tell if she was intentionally joking or honestly confused.

[greatcleavage]

Roy chose to take the question seriously for the sake of his own sanity. "Finding a town and further information would be ideal. I have no idea where we are."

[najaran]

"Alright. Though... we probably can't land IN town, we'll still have to walk some," she said, considering that.

[greatcleavage]

"Hmm, yes, he might get mistaken for a monster." And plenty of adventurers or even town guards took a 'shoot first, ask questions later' stance towards that sort of thing. Some of them weren't even misguided about it.

[najaran]

"Well he is. But they'd probably guess that he is bonded to a Cepter. Then we might not find anyone to sell us food."

[greatcleavage]

"That assumes anyone here knows what a Cepter is. There's a possibility not." A strong likelihood, in fact, but Roy didn't want to oversell things.

[najaran]

"If we're still on my world, they will," Najaran said. "And jail cells rarely have yummy food. Last time Altia had to break me out and steal my cards back for me."

[greatcleavage]

Having been to jail himself despite his rigid attempts to be Lawful, Roy let that comment pass without incident. "If we're anywhere I know, they won't. And we may be somewhere strange to both of us entirely."

[najaran]

"So we're taking a chance?"

[greatcleavage]

"I don't see another viable option." Low on food and with no resources...

[najaran]

"Alright then, but if we get arrested, you're getting us out."

[greatcleavage]

"If we get arrested I will do what is in my power to navigate our release through the system," Roy corrected. "Unless the authority is illegitimate."

[najaran]

She frowned back at him confused. "How can authority even have parents?"

Gooligan gave a double mustached face... um.... mustache.