14 Phase 12: West Road

"You're bonding the bear?" Aoi stared.

"I'm sorry." Colin said. "But…"

"It's okay." Aoi told him. "If he respects you enough to follow you, then it's good. That's what we raised him for."

She hesitated, eyeing him rather curiously. Colin didn't know what that was about, but he gave her a short bow. "Thank you."

They were registered officially, and Colin asked his second new Comrade that night, "What's your name?"

"Rawl." Came the reply.

"Welcome to our Journey, Rall." Colin said. "Sorry we had to drag you away from your home."

"Rall." The honey bear shook his head.

Colin scanned him.

Rall

Abilities:

HP: 1/128

MP: 4/37

Str: 34

Sta: 30

Spd: 17

Int: 17

Wis: 15

Wit: 4

Total: 107

Traits:

Ursine Fortitude

Earth Bond

Territorial

Hoarder

"You haven't even scanned him?" Aoi was surprised.

"I brought him for his sake more than mine." Colin said. "But it's nice to have someone as strong as him with me."

"I'll say." Aoi observed. Again, she hesitated, looking at him curiously. But then she shook her head and told him. "He's good at carrying stuff too."

"Carrying… stuff…?" Colin stared. "You mean, I can ask him to carry our food supplies and everything?"

"Yes." Aoi said.

"Won't he eat them all?!" Colin asked.

Aoi pointed to the trait marked 'Hoarder'. "He likes to store things."

"Oh." Colin realized. "He had lots of honey in his cave…"

"You should take them with you. It's his." Aoi advised.

"What does this mean?" Colin pointed to the trait marked 'Territorial'.

"That means he's protective over what is his." Aoi said. "It also means he'll guard your stuff if he's carrying it. Lastly, he's going to want a habitat soon. Some people use bears like him to guard their houses and items."

"What kind of habitat?" Colin asked.

"Give him a cave or hollow in a tree. If all you have is a house, you can give him a room to himself and make it as cave-like as you can." Aoi frowned. "He might be willing to share with your other Comrades if he likes them enough."

Colin glanced at Shiro.

"Yip." Shiro appeared dubious.

"I don't think they know each other well enough yet." Colin said. "So far, all he knows of them is how well they fight."

"You'll find out in time." Aoi agreed.

"What are these?" Colin pointed to Rall's other Traits: 'Ursine Fortitude' and 'Earth Bond'.

"This," Aoi tapped 'Ursine Fortitude', "is why his HP is so high. Ursine Fortitude doubles the amount of HP that strength gives."

(Author's note: Normal HP = Sta*2 + Str. Ursine Fortitude means HP = Sta*2+Str*2)

"I see…" Colin paused. "What about Earth Bond?"

"You know how Intelligence affects how powerful some special techniques are?" Aoi asked.

"Yes."

"Rall's intelligence isn't too good." Aoi said. "But because of the Earth Bond, when he uses his special attacks, he'll be using his Strength to power them also."

Colin whistled. "He's a great fighter."

"He would be, with a good Dreamer to tell him what to do." Aoi petted the honey bear affectionately. "He's not too smart on his own, though."

Colin shook his head. "With Shiro around, I don't think that's going to be a problem."

***

Rall had three pots of honey and two empty pots in his cave, as well as the Treasure Hunt's glass pot. Colin left the Treasure Hunt pot behind, thinking that Riverside Town would probably need it for the next Treasure Hunt.

"Where did you get pots from?" he asked Rall.

"Rall." The bear nodded to the Comrade Home.

"Oh. Right. You were raised there." Colin smacked his forehead. "Of course they gave you the pots."

Each pot was the size of his head, or slightly larger. Putting them into his backpack made it quite full. "Here, Rall… you can carry this."

"Rall." The bear grinned.

Colin thought of getting another backpack at that point. Between himself and Rall, they could carry more supplies. Especially when Rall grew bigger.

Shiro sniffed the honey curiously, then snorted in disgust. Warc and Raiki wouldn't even look. Meek sniffed, then thought for a bit, and backed away.

Rall, though, held up a pot, then looked at Colin.

"Go ahead. Everyone else already ate." Colin told him.

"Rall." The bear said and put his whole face into the honey pot. Colin watched him gulp it all down hungrily and wondered if one pot was going to be enough.

Rita was nowhere to be found. Colin wondered where she was and how she was doing. He hadn't seen her since he rescued Rall from her.

"We're heading to Hot Sands now." Colin told his Comrades. He brought up his map, which had the updates from one of his mission rewards and Aoi's bonus for finishing it quickly.

Map image:

https://imgur.com/JvfbE7F

"I don't think we need to go back to Town. We'll just go around it and head straight to the West Road. We should train up as much as we can before we reach the Forest's Edge."

"Yip." Shiro wagged his tail. He seemed to be looking forward to it. He glanced at Warc. "Yip."

Warc took off.

"Hey!" Colin jumped. "Where are you going?"

"Wuark!" Warc replied, and flapped away.

"Huh…?" Colin blinked.

"Yip." Shiro told Colin. "Yiyip."

"Looking… ahead?" Colin frowned. "I don't understand."

Shiro shook his head. "Yip."

Feeling a bit nervous about it, Colin kept an eye on Warc as the bird flew overhead. From time to time, he shifted his gaze to keep an eye on Rall, in case the bear decided to finish off all their food on the way.

Ten steps later, Warc called down. "Wuark! Wuark, Wark!"

"Yip." Shiro barked up. He turned to Rall. "Yip."

Rall and Shiro ran off together to one side.

"What are you guys doing?" Colin wondered, getting more and more curious.

He found out soon enough. The pair of them were battling a big rock-like beetle that was about half Colin's size.

"You guys are {training}?!" Colin stared.

{And Warc is scouting the area, telling them where to go…} he realized. {They're working as a team. When did they…?}

"Yip!" Shiro barked at Colin. Colin looked up in time to see the beetle spraying a stream of green liquid at him.

"Whoa!" Colin jumped out of the way. He took cover behind a large rock as Warc swooped down from above and joined the fight.

Just then, a call came in.

It was Rita. "Colin… I…"

"Rita? What's wrong?" Colin asked, worriedly.

Another stream of green liquid flew overhead splattering the tree near him with a dangerous sounding hiss.

"Yip!" Shiro ordered, and Rall roared.

"I… I'm sorry… for snapping at you." Rita said. "You know, I do that sometimes, when I'm tense. I just snap at people for no reason, and it's not that I'm angry at you or anything…"

Rita went on and on like that, but inwardly, Colin felt relieved. If she was back to being a chatterbox, then she must be feeling much better.

"Yip! Yip!" Shiro barked.

Colin glanced over the rock and was startled to find that the beetle had had a friend nearby. Shiro, Rall, Warc and Meek were currently fighting two big rock beetles, not one.

But they seemed to be doing fine without him, so he turned his attention back to Rita.

"…and it was three days before she forgave me for it… I know it's bad, but I'm trying to control my temper, really I am… it's just after seeing Henry…"

"I know." Colin said, and surprisingly, Rita actually stopped to listen. "Have you seen Jonah, Alicia or Larry since then?"

"They're fine." Rita said. "I saw them heading north together earlier tonight. They must have gotten away from the Green Men. Colin, what do you think happened to Henry? When they took him…"

"I don't know." Colin admitted.

"Where did they take him? Why did they do it? What are they doing to him?! Who are those people?!"

"I wish I knew." Colin managed before Rita cut in.

"Is he a prisoner? Are they feeding him? What if he's being tortured?!" Rita went on and on about how badly Henry might be treated.

A shadow passed overhead. Colin glanced up to see Warc blasting wind gusts at something farther ahead.

{What is she doing? The fight's back over THAT way…} Colin spun to check on things.

One of the Beetles had fallen, and Rall was currently wrestling with the second one. Shiro was attacking its legs and Meek seemed to be busy taking what looked like a red marble from the first Beetle. She carried it up to Rall and took it into the backpack on the bear's back.

{Meek's LOOTING the fallen Wilds?!}

Loud hissing sounded from in front. Colin turned in time to see a giant Mantis chasing Warc. The Mantis reached the clearing just as the second Beetle fell.

"Yip." Shiro greeted the Mantis with a Sonic Bolt. Rall charged it head on.

{And Warc is baiting nearby Wilds to this spot.} Colin understood. {She's bringing them more and more Wilds to fight without them needing to run all over the place.}

{They're doing exactly what I asked them to; train up as much as they could before we reach the Forest's Edge.}

Well, at least Rall and Shiro were. Warc, too, sort of. Meek seemed to be on duty collecting loot.

Which made sense. She really wasn't much good in a fight.

"Hey, Colin…" Rita paused in the middle of her chatter to go into a completely different topic.

"Hmm?" Colin watched Warc bait another Mantis to the battle zone.

"Where are you going?" Rita asked.

"Hot Sands, remember? To tell Henry's brother about what happened to Henry."

"So you said, but I'm on the road to Hot Sands, and you're nowhere in sight." Rita said. "Are you sure you know where you're headed?"

"I took the west road." Colin explained.

"The WEST road?!" Rita gasped. "Colin, that's crazy! You're not going to make it! The Forest of Legends is dangerous! Remember Dani, at Sunshine Gym? She says not to try it unless we're going with about twenty Comrades!"

"Why twenty?" Colin asked. "Wouldn't a few strong ones be enough?"

"Colin, have you heard of Sonic Wolves?" Rita said. "Apparently, they travel in packs. Dani said that the Chief Trainer once tried to go in with his four strongest and died."

"Larissa {died}?!" Colin stared.

"Not her! She's the Chief {Breeder}. I said 'Chief {Trainer}'. That's the Gym leader, Dylan. He and his Comrades had to respawn at town." Rita answered. "They lost quite a good bit of their gear."

Colin frowned. "Rita, what happens if someone dies here?"

"They feel really sick for an hour, lose equipment and items, and the Comrades get upset for a while."

When Rita said 'upset', Colin thought of Raiki's condition.

"Dying is a really bad idea." Colin figured.

"Really, really bad." Rita agreed. "You should forget about the West Road and come to the North Road. It's safer."

"Rita…" Colin sighed. "Thank you. But…"

"But what? You want to die?" Rita asked.

"No, I just… I just want to see it." Colin said. "Even if it's too dangerous to go in now, I want to see what the Forest is like. If going around the Edge is dangerous, I'll just stay back."

"It's not worth it. Try it when your Comrades are twice as strong. No, five times as strong. I'll even come with you."

"Yip!" Shiro barked. Colin turned to find the area littered with fallen Wilds.

"Wark!" Warc called back.

"Yip! Yip, yip!" Shiro said.

"Wark." Warc turned around and helped out with the last big Rock Beetle. It fell in short order.

All Colin's Comrades sat down to take a break.

{They're done.} Colin realized. {That's all they can take. They're tired out.}

Five Rock Beetles. Three giant Mantises. Two big fat yellow lizards with tall fins on the top of their backs. One gigantic snail with horns at the sides of its shell.

"Any of them worth bonding?" Colin asked Shiro.

Shiro shook his head.

"Colin?" Rita sounded worried. "Are you still there?"

"Yes." Colin said. He started thinking.

{Shiro, Rall, Warc and Meek had a challenge fighting the Wilds on this road. The Wilds will most probably get tougher the farther down this road I go.}

{Even with rest and food, we may not even be able to reach the Forest's Edge before they're exhausted again.}

"Mik." Meek struggled to stuff what looked like a ball of string into the backpack. It was already full.

"Rita, how hard are the Wilds where you are?" Colin asked.

"No trouble, so far." Rita said. "A combined attack from all three of my Comrades can take down most of the stuff I meet out here."

In other words, nowhere near as strong as the Wilds on this road. Colin took a deep breath to tell Rita that he was going to join her after all.

"Rita…" he began.

But he never finished the sentence.

"What's wrong?" Rita sounded uncertain.

One word, that was all he managed. Just one word.

His voice caught. His tongue froze.

He couldn't say it.

He couldn't tell her that he'd join her on the North Road.

{I'm an idiot. I'm a total idiot.} Colin scolded himself. {I'm most likely going to die if I continue on this road.}

But…

"Thanks." Colin said. "I'll see you at Hot Sands."

{If I make it there alive, that is…}

But he couldn't do what she wanted, even though it was safer. He could not turn back.

{I should return to Riverside, get another backpack… more food supplies…}

But he couldn't. He couldn't turn back.

{Why?! Why can't I say it? Why can't I go back?}

The Forest. Colin could almost see it, taste it.

{Actually, I can see it already. It's that bunch of trees farther up ahead…}

"The Forest of Legends." Colin whispered.

Something stirred in him when he said that. Something that spoke of wind rushing through endless green leaves, something that spoke of a waiting power, and a sense of liveliness under the shade of the towering trees.

{And I want to go there. I want to go in.}

{Idiot. It's dangerous.}

But…

"Yip?" Shiro asked. He twisted his head at Colin. "Yip?"

"Time to rest. Eat a bit more." Colin suggested.

Shiro shook his head. "Yip."

Uhoh. They ate just fifteen minuntes ago. They couldn't eat again so soon.

{I can't go back, I can't go on with my Comrades all tired…}

"You guys need to rest." Colin told them.

"Colin, if you're not coming to join me here, then I'll come join you." Rita said. "I owe you twice now, remember?"

"Uh… not really." Colin said. "You don't owe me a thing."

"Very funny, Colin." Rita snorted. "Seriously, you saved me twice already. I'm coming to join you."

Well… it was going to be dangerous… and his Comrades needed to rest anyway.

"Okay. I'll wait beside the road." Colin said, and cut the connection. "Guys, come on. We'll rest at the roadside."