Alex drank the potion, but not without complaining. "Bleugh! This
thing is disgusting." He got to his feet, hacking up the bit still
in his mouth. "Thanks," He mumbled. Although she could be annoying
and didn't share his views, he had grown a grudging respect for
Lyra. "At least we're done with the dragons. We should go check on
the other cats!" Alex meowed, and bounded over, ignoring the
residual pain in his feet.
Lyra looked at him one more time, and then trotted away to go check
on the other cats. She didn't have any potions left but she would
try to help in any way she could. When she got there, she realized
they all looked exausted too, but she didn't have any potions left
so she decided to see if they could stand up.
The female voice spoke again. "We gotta get outta this dungeon."
her silhouette bounded past them with the other stanger behind her.
Miko was quick to follow, as she would like to find out who they
were. But as she ran out, she noticed a glowing blue light at the
wall of the dungeon, and as the others ran past her, she stopped,
unable to be seen in the shadows. She approached the blue light,
and found a rare blue ember! Swiping it, she hurried after the
others, heading outside the dungeon, where the other Guildmates'
identities were revealed...
Alex trotted out of the cave, but not before picking up some coins.
Wow, if he'd known questing could give you this much money, he
would have started long ago! This one the most money he'd held at
once. He wondered what to do with it, maybe give some to that cat
who sometimes gave him a scrap of food when he was back on the
street?
Putting the money and the thought away for now, he lifted his head
in the breeze, the sunset lighting us his orange pelt, and making
his tattoos glisten. He took a deep breath, happy to be outside,
then, finally, took a look at the cats whom they had helped...
After quickly picking up about 200 coins before leaving, Lyra
followed them out of the cave to finally see the cats colors, she
still didn't know who they were but she went up to them and asked.
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Asked the newbie archer. "I'm new so
sorry if I con fused you for a second."Replied Lyra in a sweet
tone.
Meanwhile Purrcila was at the guild wondering if there would be any
newer-recruits since they had already gotten two in one day. She
stood by the entrance awaiting new arrivals, or for the last quest
to come back. Soon, she got bored and went to the cauldron and made
a few potions for the next cats who went on a quest.
The cats turned to them, one was a grey cat with a self-inflicted
scar across his eye. He was clearly male. The other was a fluffy
white cat with blue eyes, the owner of the female voice, and the
caster of the heart spell. The male cat spoke to answer the
question. "My name is Kyle, and the white cat is named Angel.
Thanks for helping us." Both were clearly in their first evolution
stage.
Miko heard the name 'Angel' and felt a half hate, half connection
towards the white cat. It happened every time she heard the word
'angel' or 'demon' and she didn't understand why. But now that they
were out in the open, she could clearly recognize them as her
long-time guildmates, and felt no mystery towards them at all. "I
guess Conan half wanted us to come rescue you." She grabbed the bag
of collected materials. "Now what did we find?"
The bag contained Miko's found rare blue ember, a common green
ember (they must have gotten lucky), 600 coins, and as they opened
it, Miko, Lyra, and Alex grew to level two. Angel stared at the
rare blue ember, then looked at Miko, as if asking if she could
have it.
"Awesome!" Alex looked in amazement at the embers and the coins. He
quickly did the math in his head, the gears in his mind turning
quickly. "If you wanted to split the coins evenly, thats 120 to
each of us, or 200 to three of us and an ember to the other 2."
Alex stated quickly. "How do you want to divide it?" He hoped he
could get some of the coins to himself, there was a lot of trading,
buying and donating he wanted to do back at the guild and the town.
Miko looked at Alex. "Kyle and Angel could use the embers, I
think." she looked at the two bright-eyed cats, who were nodding
vigorously. Miko looked at the gold. "Gold is going to the Guild,
it helps purchase upgrades, and funds the organization. Considering
you aren't official yet, it only makes sense we don't keep it,
sorry." She shrugged, as if she honestly didn't care.
Lyra looked at him and said. "You can share some of mine I got a
lot" Said the archer. While peering into the sack too. "I just want
to upgrade my bow, and it's not to much for the first upgrade, only
about 50, you can have the rest of mine" She gave him a quick smile
and looked back into the bag."But make sure you only use it for the
good of the Guild, I'm upgrading my bow is that okay, it will help
on quests for the guild."
Alex shrugged. He still had the hundred he found in the dungeon,
which was more than enough for now. Besides, if all the cats at the
guild were honorable and respectable like Conan, he was perfectly
fine in letting them have the lot, they probably didn't earn too
much more than what they got from questing. "Thats fine win me." He
meowed nonchalantly. "Let's head back to the guild." A little tired
than he was earlier, he began trotting back to the guild.
Alex nods at Lyra while walking back. "Thank you." Again, he was
coming to respect the small archer."
Back at the Guild, Angel and Kyle were staring at the embers
happily. "We can evolve now!" Purred Angel excitedly. She glanced
at the three. "Want to watch? Please do!" Her paws were wrapped
just outside the floating fire as she stopped to gaze into the blue
glow.
Miko shrugged and looked at the other two. "Wanna watch the
evolution?" Personally, she'd seen evolution a few times, enough to
know how it worked, and it would increase with the current dragon
problem, but Lyra and Alex were new, and she was still the escort
for now.
Alex nodded, eager to see what would happen, and ready to take
mental notes to see if there was anything useful he could remember
for when he would inevitably evolve (he was determined to reach
final form). Besides, Angel wanted them to watch. Alex sat down on
the ground and began licking a paw, waiting impatienly for them to
start.
Lyra responded with a curt nod, and while watching she wondered if
anyone in town could sell her some embers for a cheap price. She
mainly wanted to help her guild with her money, but she had to
think of herself sometimes to if she wanted to be able to give her
full strength to the guild. She also was very hungry she wondered
if anyone had a snack for her.
Then Purrcilla walked over and gave them all a quick snack, "These
are some sandwiches from the town, they were made by the greatest
cooking cat, our local baker." She trotted away after that, and she
imeadiatly ran into Francis, he just looked at her for a second and
walked away. Purrcilla felt heart broken...
Both cats touched their embers and began to glow, their appearance
beginning to change. Kyle ended up with a purple cape over his
back, and Angel began to change in more than just and accessory,
she began to sprout large angel wings out of her back, lifting off
as soon as the glowing stopped, a natural flyer.
Miko watched, unimpressed as ever. Well, the cats should be happy
now, there was their educational experience, and all it ever
managed to do was make Miko jealous of the evolving cats. She
wanted to evolve! She wanted wings, too! Maybe it was just her
bad-tempered, demon side speaking, but it didn't help things. She
glanced at the fortress, they'd be heading there next, so she
waited for the reactions to ensue.
Alex's eyes widened when it was done, and a purr rumbled in his
throat. "You guys look so cool!" He complimented, wanting to be on
good terms with these cats. Miko looked unimpressed, she had
probably seen this a bunch of times, but Alex wondered how you
could ever get bored of something like this. It gave cats a new
component to analize, and it mad him curious about how he might
evolve. It also made him wonder how embers worked... but it was
late, and he was getting tired, rather leave that question for
another time.
Lyra looked at Miko and noticed she looked unimpressed, sad and
jealous at the same time. Maybe it was because she couldn't evolve
yet, Lyra decided to surprise her at some point, just so she could
be kind and make sure everyone was happy.
"We better get to Starlight. We need to be in bed soon. we'll talk
to Conan in the morning." Miko stood up and led the way to the
fortress, yawning. She wanted to curl up and head to bed, but
before she could do that, she had to bring these two to Starlight,
so here goes.
Luna Sparkle was watching Purcilla look at Francis, and saw her
crestfallen look. She sighed and shook her head, but knew how much
it hurt the calico mage, and approached her. "Purcilla? What's
wrong?" Her sparkling pelt made her hard to miss in the dying
daylight.
Alex saw how jealous and annoyed Miko had looked the whole trip.
Despite being snappy and argumentative, Alex felt a twinge of
empathy. He knew how it felt to see others suceed in front of your
eyes while you are left in the dust. He followed Miko, staying
silent for a moment, before voicing his thoughts:
"Listen, I know you probably don't want to be questing with us two,
and you are jealous of the other cats who got the embers that
helped them evolve." Alex stated plainly. "It's not hard to see.
But, try to make the most out of this. If we get along, we can work
better together, and we'll all get to evolve." This wasn't just
persuasion anymore, Alex genuinely believed everything he was
saying, and that usually was the most effective way to talk to
someone. "I'll personaly help you find whatever ember you need to
evolve, ok?" He didn't want to be overly optimistic or seem cold,
so he settled for a respectful stare instead of a grin or nothing
at all, as the trio walked through the evening air.