Phase 83: Choices To Make

The Wilds she defeated earlier, Katrin noted, remained still as she dashed past them. The Wilds that came by whom she hadn't met before, however, were a different matter.

"Scrap!" Katrin panted, running as hard and as fast as she could, zigzagging to avoid a Fin Lizard's firebolts. "Scrap, scrap, scrap…"

The Fin Lizard watched her go, seemed to laugh at her, with its forked tongue wagging at her back, and went on its merry way.

Katrin arrived at J-Knight Desert Outpost panting and exhausted. Recently relocated exactly at the fork in the road between the plains and desert paths, it was all but emptied except for two familiar faces.

"Hi, Katrin…" Maggie said, looking just as tired as Katrin felt. "How come you're arriving from that side? Everyone else is fighting Frenzieds over at the east."

"I'm on an Investigation. I need to get to Forest Village." Katrin gasped, leaning back in the rest area under a big, open tent in the center of the outpost.

"Don't take that road." Maggie advised. "Take the long way around. It's safer."

"You think?" Katrin shot at her, looking at Mika, the last Comrade she had left standing.

"Your other Comrades died, didn't they?" Maggie sighed. "You better stay here until they recover, Katrin, then call them to meet you. As you are, you wouldn't even make it back to Hot Springs Village."

Maggie, Katrin realized, was absolutely right. She was usually too pessimistic for Katrin to agree with most of the time, but in this case, there was no doubt that Katrin would die before reaching her home base.

"Katrin…?" the other person at the outpost was Aoi, who had been Chief Breeder at Riverside Comrade Home before Riverside Town was destroyed. Now she, too, had joined the J-Knights, like many other survivors of the Green Men attack. "Are you all right? Where are all your Comrades?"

"It's a long story." Katrin sighed, leaning back. "The short of it is, they died their way back to Home Base because I tried to fight a Wild at the edge of the Forest of Legends."

"That's suicide." Aoi said. "Even I have trouble with just one of those."

Aoi was a Purple Badge, like all the Breeders in the Comrade Homes that Katrin had ever seen. Katrin glanced at her Blue Badge, a whole rank lower, and figured, {I'm lucky to have gotten away alive.}

"I thought you were taking up farming." Aoi added. "That's why you haven't been helping us with the Frenzieds."

"I…" Katrin trailed off. "Well…"

"Don't get me wrong; farming is good." Aoi said. "I'm not saying you should come join the battle, because in a short while, this entire region is going to need food desperately. What you're doing is dreadfully important. But you've been bonding Comrades suited for farming. They're not too useful for combat, especially in places like the Forest of Legends. Your theme is one of the last I'd pick for a Traveler."

"I know…" Katrin sighed. "But…"

"Kat, you need to choose." Aoi told her firmly. "If you want to farm, and only farm, then a mix of all sorts just to keep a farm running is the thing for you. But if you want to do investigations and to go through dangerous places, if you want to be useful as a Detective Knight, you're going to need to make up your mind."

"What do you mean?" Katrin stared. "I was doing fine as a Resident Knight!"

"That's because most of your work had to do with reporting incidents and helping out with the smaller annoyances here and there. You never had to go far from your Home Base or deal with anything too dangerous." Aoi said. "I've only just joined the J-Knights, but even I understand the difference."

"In short, Katrin, if you want to be a Detective Knight, you'll need to give up farming." Maggie told her.

{Give up farming…?} Katrin quailed at the thought. {From the first night we joined Dreamworlds, I began farming with Edward. Easy jobs on the farm was our first source of income as Travelers. Edward offered me and my Comrades place to stay. I just kept going…}

She remembered now. Colin had declined from the start.

{"You can stay, Katrin. But as for me… I am a Traveler."}

Colin had understood it from the very first night. He'd bonded a Lynxmouse to help him find food and scavenge, something a Traveler would find useful. Most Farmers tried their best to get rid of Lynxmice.

Mika peered up at Katrin with soulful eyes. That Lynxmice Colin bonded was Meek, Mika's mother. If Colin hadn't bonded her, or brought her to Satrox, Mika and all his siblings wouldn't even exist right now.

{And as a farmer, I should be getting rid of him and his mom.} Katrin realized. {The bears Colin gave me would be less useful as well. The most they can do is serve as guards while they eat a whole lot. And what's a Desert Wolf like Junrei going to do on a farm? He's okay at digging, but I've got moles for that, and they dig a whole lot better.}

{What have I been doing…?}

{Colin…}

He'd known it from the very beginning. Everything he'd done, he'd done with the Journey in mind. Even while she was busy planning next week's crops, he was seeking for answers, trying to find out what the Journey was for, and what the Journey's End was about. He sought his purpose on this world and found it.

"But he's become a Forester. How does THAT figure into reaching the Journey's End?" Katrin asked out loud.

"Huh?" Maggie blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"Katrin?" Aoi asked. "Were you listening?"

"Uh… sorry." Katrin said. "I was thinking about… Colin."

"You mean the issue with the Purple Heart transfer?" Maggie shook her head. "I didn't know Foresters had that kind of power."

"What are you talking about?" Katrin asked.

"You didn't know? It was an official J-Knight notice! Every base and settlement should have got it by now." Maggie said. "Colin's moved the Purple Heart from the Dark Forest to the Spike-back den at Lost Paradise."

"He's moved what …?" Katrin blinked.

"That thing you need to touch to reach Purple Badge." Maggie wagged her finger at Katrin. "He's moved it out of the Forest."

{To reach Purple…?!} "Wait… if he's moved it… then he's definitely…"

Colin was definitely Purple Badge now. If a Forester could command the Forest Wilds, then reaching it should be no problem at all.

{Was that his plan from the start?!}

{He's gone ahead of me… so far ahead of me… he's totally left me behind…}

Katrin screamed her frustration at the ceiling of the tent.

"COLIN!!"

***

Katrin stared at the floor of the Desert Outpost for what felt like an hour. She sat, and she thought, and she didn't move an inch.

At last, she raised her head and glanced at her watch. She called all her Comrades to her, then looked around a while.

Maggie was gone, probably off to fight the Frenzieds some more, and Aoi had returned to that circular tent. It was like a mini Comrade Home, Katrin remembered. After joining the J-Knights, Aoi had kept her ways and became a Breeder Knight. Her job was similar to being a Comrade Home Breeder, except that her breedings were much more specialized and she did a lot more traveling.

She looked up when Katrin approached her. "Have you decided?"

"How do you choose?" Katrin asked at last. "I mean, you said it yourself. This region's going to need food…"

"You can't choose like that." Aoi said. "Kat, forget what this region needs. There are other farmers, other ways to deal with such. Focus on yourself. What do you want to do?"

"I…" Katrin paused. "I just wanted to have fun. Play with my friends. Enjoy my dreams."

"And what is fun? Where are your friends?"

Katrin sighed. "On the Lamico Continent."

At least, those were the ones that she knew where to find. She had other friends too… but not on this Dreamworld.

"And what is fun?" Aoi repeated.

"Farming had been fun, at first. Just feeding my Comrades had been great fun, the first night. But at this point… nothing seemed fun any more. Everything's so…" Katrin trailed off. "Frustrating."

Aoi laughed softly. "Then I think it's time you changed what you're doing, don't you?"

"What do I do with my farming Comrades?" Katrin asked, with a groan.

"Transfer them to Edward." Aoi advised. "I've got a couple of Comrades here you might want to bond. I was aiming for a very specific set of breeding, and these are two of the early parents for the second generation guys I want. I didn't want to let them go, but they seem restless for travel. First, however, I need to know your theme."

"My theme…" Katrin thought of that. "You mean my Comrades should all be of a certain kind so they get along better, right?"

"Right."

Katrin thought about it. "If I transfer my farm-types to Edward, I'll be left with two bears, a wolf, a cat, a dinosaur, and two lynxmice. I can't find any theme in them."

"Well, you can try for bears and wolves… they're sort of related and share a lot of common traits. Or you can go for cats, since your lynxmice are half-cat, in theory. You can even do away with the whole lot and start a new theme."

"Colin gave me these Comrades." Katrin remembered. "How can I give them away?"

Aoi paused. "All of them?"

"What do you mean?" Katrin blinked.

"Colin gave you all those Comrades?" Aoi pressed.

"Well, Mika was a newborn Tame when Colin gave me his mom, but yeah."

Aoi thought about that. "You know… that can be a theme in itself. It's remarkably specific."

"But it's also going to limit me to getting Comrades from one person." Katrin pointed out.

"True. And Habitats is still an issue." Aoi said. "Katrin, if you want a strong theme, you're going to have to make sacrifices. Other than giving away Comrades that don't fit your theme, that's the only way I can think of."

"And I'll need to wait four nights for them to recover." Katrin muttered.

"He doesn't have to Transfer them to you, he just has to give you Tames and let you bond them."

Katrin thought, {this sounds like a good excuse to stay close to him all the time…} But it still irritated her. {I don't want to be dependent on him for everything!}

Aoi wasn't done yet, though. "I can just imagine the two of you walking into a Comrade Home together, and he'll have to buy all the Comrades you want for yourself. It'll be like shopping with your boyfriend."

Katrin's eyes went wide. Very wide.