60 Phase 50: Eighth Night

They wanted to know everything. How in Dreamworlds did he get those two?!

Colin spent the rest of that night telling them. It started when he met Michi, believing in her despite the doubts of the Breeders. Michi had given Shiro to Colin and Raiki to Katrin. She explained it to Colin and Katrin later. {"To the Kat, I gave a Cat. To the lost, I gave one to help him find his way."}

She had laughed until she cried when Colin said she must have had difficulty breeding such fine Comrades. {"You two… have no idea… how HARD it was…"}

Katrin hadn't known how much potential Raiki had when she gave her to Colin to save him from the Green Men. He still remembered what Michi said when she completed the Transfer. {"She gave you her strongest… the one guaranteed to bring you back safely. Colin… she gave you Raiki."}

But even without knowing Raiki's potential, that had been a life-changing moment for Colin. He already knew Raiki was superb, and all the things he brought back for Katrin from his travels, all that she asked for and more, had never been enough to repay her. He had offered her Shiro, but she refused flat out.

He had given her half his Comrades tonight, and he still felt it wasn't enough. He planned to give her Meek once that lynxmouse gave birth and could be transferred. He still felt it wouldn't be enough.

Finding out how powerful Raiki could really become, one day, only served to justify his feelings.

"A White Coat Breeder. One of Professor Jijin's students…" Abby said, shaking her head. "No wonder."

"What's so special about that?" Colin had asked.

"Jijin only accepts the very best Breeders. He even turned down Chief Breeder Larissa." Abby said. "Colin, in all of Nakama World, there are, until now, only three."

Colin gulped.

He told them of finding Sonia and meeting Kirin's mom. It was Shiro, really, who did it. Shiro was the one who dragged Colin to where the injured Sonia lay. Shiro was the one who brought Rain's egg to him when they were cutting branches in the forest near the pond of Edward's Farm.

"This very pond." Abby said in wonder.

"It's where I first met Rain face to beak." Colin nodded.

"You know, Colin… it's a really good thing Katrin gave you Raiki." Abby shivered.

"Why?" Colin frowned.

"Because if she hadn't, Raiki would have been chain-killed, just like the rest of her Comrades. She would have gone Frenzied, and then we'd have an absolute nightmare trying to seal her."

Colin stared. "But if she had Raiki, Katrin might have…"

"Raiki wouldn't have been able to do much at this level." Abby shook her head. "One day, sure, but right now, she's still a cub. She'd have died over and over again until she turned Frenzied and probably wiped out everything on this continent."

Colin gulped. {I'm going around with Comrades like THAT?! Mercy, if I let them get killed too often, too soon…}

"Colin, there is no way on Nakama World that I'm going to let you go into battle." Abby said firmly. "You've probably figured it out by now, but letting any of those four Comrades die more than once a night is extremely risky."

"But Satrox said I should help…" Colin objected. "And you need all the help you can get."

"We'd be putting the entire continent at risk!" Abby snapped. "I can't take that gamble!"

"You said 'once a night', right? So as long as I don't let them die twice…"

"It's still too risky! You're much too weak as you are!"

"Ahem." Satrox coughed as he came in. "Hi, Colin."

"Hi." Colin said, gloomily.

"Don't be so upset. I'll take you with me."

"Satrox?!" Abby jumped. "Do you have any idea what you're risking?!"

"About Colin's Comrades? I know about it." Satrox said. "Look, the risk has been there for over a week now, and they're doing just fine. Colin's not too unreasonable as far as I've seen, and he's got some people looking out for him."

"Such as yourself?" Abby gave him a flat look.

"Exactly." Satrox grinned and spread his hands. "You've got one of the Seven Champions watching his back. How bad could it get?"

Colin gulped. "They died at Farm Wars…"

"That wasn't really dying." Satrox told him. "They were defeated and counted 'out', but you notice they never vanished and gone back to your Starting Location, never felt sick afterwards. They were playing and everyone knew it. It doesn't count."

"Then… I should go on playing until…"

"That takes too long." Satrox shook his head. "Colin, you're stuck with this risk forever. The stronger you are, the safer we will be. You should train in Farm Wars and tournaments. Losing in Tournaments doesn't count as dying."

"Tournaments." Abby subsided. "That's all very well, but you're saying he should join the battles here?!"

"We need all the help we can get." Satrox said. "And he'll be with me."

Abby shivered. "I still think it's too risky."

"We've taken bigger risks. If it helps, I'll bring around a whole team." Satrox offered. "Maybe one of the other Champions would like to join me."

"I'll ask around." Abby said, as a little alarm flashed. "It's morning already. Time for me to Wake Up."

Colin glanced at his watch, and jumped when he saw what time it was.

"Eight a.m.?! Yikes, I'm gonna be late for school!"

***

Even in school, he fell asleep.

Colin almost never slept without the Dreamworlds Headband on, but this time was an exception.

And when he dreamed, his dreams were reflections of memories and subconscious thoughts, rather than the controlled wonder of Dreamworlds.

{The forest… I want to go back there.}

Colin remembered the richness of its colors, the depth of its shade, the sweet scent brought by its gentle winds.

{The farm…}

But the farm was destroyed by the Green Men, by those who hunted him and Katrin. They had waged war on seven towns, all of which were badly damaged or ruined entirely in the fighting. Even now, the aftermath of war left six of those towns overrun by Frenzieds.

{Katrin…}

Green eyes like emeralds seemed to stare at him from the wavering darkness.

Angry, like they had been the day they first met and chased their First Comrades all the way past Edward's Farm.

Happy, like they had been when they played together on the Farm, or trained with Farm Wars.

Sad, like they had been when she spoke of Raiki, whom she had given to Colin to save him from the Green Men.

Lifeless, as if dead, like they had been last night.

"Kat!" Colin gasped, jumping up in fright.

His classmates jumped too. "Wha…?!" Several of them looked around for a cat.

Mr. Trent gave him a stern look. "Colin, were you sleeping in class?"

Colin winced. "Sorry, Mr. Trent."

Mr. Trent went back to talking about the history of the Empire. "Pay attention. Now, every child of the royal family have had lives constantly endangered by assassins, or kidnappers and such. The politics of our empire are not pleasant, and the Federation is always looking for signs of weakness! They're hunted day to day…"

{And I'm hunted night to night.} Colin thought. {Katrin too, and that guy Phillip, though none of us have any clue where he might be.}

{What do those Green Men WANT from us?!}

***

When Colin went to sleep that night and returned to Nakama World, he found himself back at Crabby Island.

{That's right… I didn't change my Starting Location. Just as well. I wanted to see how Katrin was doing.}

But Katrin wasn't around. His calls couldn't get through.

Maybe she hasn't gone to sleep yet. Maybe she's having trouble sleeping.

Colin itched to wait for her, but he knew that wasn't possible. Satrox was calling already.

"Colin! Where are you?"

"Crabby Island. I didn't change my Starting Location…"

"Wait there. I'm sending Shinji to get you."

Colin gritted his teeth, but didn't complain. Keeping Crabby Island as his starting location before he Woke Up hadn't been accidental. He wanted to see Katrin again.

{Even though I didn't get to see her… just for the chance to be able to… a too-fast ride isn't that high a price to pay.}

It least, it wasn't Colin who was paying for the pick-up. Shinji must be getting rich in the midst of all this.

{Wonder where Meek is? Has she given birth by now?}

He'd left her with Katrin. Katrin's mom probably put her somewhere before Waking Up. Colin glanced around and took only one guess as to where that was.

{The Comrade Home. Definitely the Comrade Home.}

The breeder who greeted him had short blonde curls. "Hi, Colin! Back to check on that proud mother Lynxmouse?"

"Mother…?" Colin stared. "She's given birth already?"

"They were born six hours ago. Eight cubs. The father was a Desert Lynxmouse, wasn't he? Five of them take after him. All eight are Tames until bonded. What do you want to do with them? I'll give you standard rates if you sell to us."

"I'm giving them to Katrin, remember?" Colin said. "I'll let her decide what to do with them."

"That's so sweet. Meek is recovering well. A night or so and you can Transfer her to your girlfriend."

"Kat's not my girlfriend." Colin said, feeling unusually hot in the face. "We're too young for that."

"Really?" The breeder laughed. "Anyway, take care."

***

Shinji was mercilessly fast in fetching Colin to the Forward Command Post. "I don't have time to dawdle!" he said.

Colin grabbed hold of the ground shakily when he got off and just sat there grateful to be on solid land again while Kirin bade her mother goodbye.

"Colin?" a familiar voice greeted him from the right. "Colin! You're here!"

"Rita?" Colin blinked recognizing her.

Rita began talking as fast as she ever did. "What happened to you? You look so scared! And your badge! You turned back to a Yellow Badge! But I thought you were Green? Did you lose Comrades?! Nasty business that, so many people lost Comrades and they turned Frenzied, and then they started attacking everyone and everything, and all the towns north of here are in trouble, but oh, Granath was fine, see, Lord Geoffrey was there, and he died, but the Town was saved, and nobody lost any Comrades, and then…"

Colin let her go on. Rita was the fastest talker Colin had ever met, and she could go on and on for a very long time. They had been through quite a bit together. Colin regretted that he hadn't been able to save her from the Green Men. He did all he could, but it was too late.

Even so, if she was talking non-stop like this, she was okay now. She wasn't the one the Green Men wanted. They had released her with gifts in apology, just like they did with Henry, Jonah, Alicia and Larry. Some of those gifts were nifty Comrades. Rita had gone up from Green Badge to Blue while Colin had gone down from Green to Yellow.

{But I'll never regret giving Katrin all the Comrades I could. Even if I miss them sometimes.}

Satrox found them there as Colin recovered from his flight. With him was another familiar face.

"Henry!" Colin waved to him. "How are you…"

He trailed off. Henry's badge was Purple.

{Mercy… he's THREE ranks above me now!}

But of course. Satrox had given his younger brother all his old Comrades as part of a promise that Henry worked hard to keep. The Green Men's 'apology' only added to that.

{Getting to Blue Badge also means at least 30 mission points and 300 levels between all your Comrades combined. What does it take to get to Purple?!}

Even Satrox himself was at…

{Huh?! Satrox is Blue Badge now? But Henry's still a rank higher than him!}

But Satrox's ranking hadn't always been lower than Henry's. It had dropped for the same reason as Colin's. When he gave his Comrades to Henry, he had gone down to Yellow Badge. Before that…

{What was Satrox's ranking before he gave his Comrades away…? Whatever it was, even as a Blue Badge now, and because of his previous accomplishments the Justice Knights recognize him as one of the Seven Champions.}

Henry was answering Colin. "I'm doing fine. Hey, Rita."

"Hey." Rita greeted Henry. "I see you've reached 100 Mission Points. Congratulations on reaching Purple Badge."

{Cripes. Other than levels, going up to Purple Badge means getting 100 Mission Points? I only needed 30 for Blue!}

Rita began a non-stop talk on how she thought she might be able to reach Purple in three nights. Satrox, meanwhile, saw Colin's face and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Maybe we should go Tame more Wilds." Colin said. "You and I both have a shortage of Comrades."

"Maybe." Satrox shrugged. "Or we can stick to the few Comrades we have and let them get all the experience. They'll grow faster this way."

"Green Badge requires at least seven." Colin pointed out.

"That's only for Green. There's no number of Comrades specified for Blue or higher. Focus on the four you have now, and you can skip Green entirely, go straight to Blue."

"Is that possible?" Colin stared.

"It's what I did." Satrox said. "As long as you have 300 levels between them all and at least 30 Mission Points, you're set."

"I need a couple more Missions." Colin muttered. "And these four need to be three times stronger. I should still go Tame some Wilds."

"You can if you want to." Satrox shrugged. "But as for me, I'm going to visit Red Valley Comrade Home."

"Red Valley…?" Colin blinked. "Where's that?"

"It's west from Granath." Satrox said. "Let me show you."

Satrox projected the map from his watch. Colin stared at it as Rita went on talking at Henry.

.

https://imgur.com/NPW4r4V

.

"Wow… I didn't even know the names of the towns north of Riverside until now. I didn't even know of Two Lakes Village or Red Valley."

"Well, now you know. I hope you like it, because if any of your four Comrades turn Frenzied, the whole map's going to change overnight."

Colin paused. "Hey, Satrox… what about Michi's first three special experiments?"

"It would be a disaster if they turned Frenzied too." Satrox nodded. "My guess is they're all at least 10-Stage or better. But I thought you wanted to find them and Bond them."

"I do… but I can't bond them at my ranking. They won't accept me." Colin said. "But if I don't bond them fast…"

"The risk keeps getting bigger." Satrox agreed. "They've been around a long time already, though. They haven't gone Frenzied yet."

"All it takes is one slip." Colin shivered. "What would have happened if Katrin, Edward and I hadn't rescued M-1 from under that fallen tree? What if the ants got her?"

"Then most likely my map wouldn't be showing any towns at all." Satrox guessed.

{No wonder Shiro and Raiki ran to the rescue so suddenly. There I was thinking that my wolfcat cub was chasing a kitten when the pair of them were really saving the entire continent from disaster.}

"Anyway, I think I'll drop by Red Valley while we wait for the rest of our team to get here." Satrox said. "I'm going to pick up a couple of Crimson Condors. Want to come?"

"Uh…" Colin paused. "How, exactly, are you going there?"

"I'll ride Noble." Satrox said. "That's my Pegasus. The winged horse, remember?"

"And how would I get there?"

"You can ride behind me, or Dynast can carry you. He's strong for a Command Albatross. Horse or bird?"

"Horse." Colin decided. "Some birds just go too fast."

It was a wise decision.