Chapter 2 - The Joigon
The now utterly adorable little creature eagerly squeaked and flapped with its wings when Robin picked it up from inside the bubble. Observing the not-dragon, Robin heard Kyles voice inside their head; "That's a joigon. They're usually not hostile, but this one seems to be very upset over something..."
After this...experience, Robin decided to put the joigon back inside the bubble and put it inside their backpack. They then grabbed Kyle, putting him on their shoulder and heading outside. Once outside, Robin realised that the ruins of the city seemed to be even less intact now than they were yesterday. Taking a quick look around, Robin caught a glimpse of something or someone moving amongst the clutter of chiselled limestone, broken glass and wood splinter. Rubbing their eyes in confusion before looking back, Robin found that whatever it was was now nowhere to be seen. Shrugging their shoulders at the situation, Robin paid it no more thought.
Seeing as Robin still wasn't quite sure about the actual mission, they decided to go back to the library to see if there were any clues or anything to help them on the right track. But as they turned to go back to the library, Kyle spoke once again; "Are you still confused about your mission?" to which Robin answered with a slight nod. With this, Kyle suddenly looked to be in deep thought. Not wanting to interrupt him, Robin sat down on the stairs in front of the library, deciding that on second thought, it would probably be better to look outside the walls for clues or hints on the mission.
After a little while, Kyle spoke up again; "I might know something that could possibly help you...". This made Robin snap their head up and look at him, signalling for him to continue. Kyle just gave them a weird look before continuing; "You know the book I came out of, right?", "Mhm", "Well, that's a bestiary, and it used to be empty. Until one day, a wizard came to the city and cursed it so that everyone in the city got sucked into it. We were stuck in there for years until a few days ago when an outsider managed to break the spell. This allowed us all to escape the book, but it didn't turn out to be as harmless as it sounds. You see, before all this happened, everyone in the city was civil and well mannered. But being stuck inside the book had made some feral and wild. Come to think of it, this could explain the joigon acting like it did...".
Robin's mouth dropped open and they just stared at Kyle for a few seconds. Snapping out of it, Robin's eyes widened when they realised what the mission was. "I'm supposed to capture all the escaped creatures and return them to the city!" Kyle just looked at them with a confused look then asked a question. A question that would come to haunt Robin to the day of their return upon this sorrowful city; "Who sent you on this quest, and how did they know about our situation? No one has been able to get inside these walls since it happened... and unless you know what you're looking for, you won't find it...".
Still grubbling on what Kyle had said, Robin picked the little one up, putting him on their shoulder, Kyle held onto Robin's ear to keep his balance. While contemplating which way to go, Robin's eyes wandered onto something moving. When the creature came into focus, Robin's eyes widened and they had to put a hand over their mouth to not scream.
What robin had just spotted was a creature unlike they'd ever seen before or even dared to imagine. It was terrifyingly beautiful. It had a light pink coat of what looked like a mix between scales from a fish and reed, but it took the form of a gigantic sparrow. It had a light blue beak with glowing red eyes, and its wings were decorated like those of a brimstone butterfly. it was about 30 feet away from them, at the edge of the wood. It glimmered like the ocean when the sun's beams hit its body.
Snapping out of their trance and back to reality, Robin realised they weren't actually sure how they were supposed to catch the creatures. Nothing that they'd been taught at the academy had anything to do with catching creatures this big. Figuring that they'd just figure out how to do what they did in order to catch the joigon, Robin walked closer to the beautiful creature. Before they could get too close though, Kyle winced, making Robin stop. Kyle, who had closed his eyes in fear, opened them again, although keeping them away from the beauty before them.
Finally calmer, Kyle began to explain: "That's a goombeey. They're very enchanting although they behave extremely passively. They may look like a daydream, but fighting them is a nightmare. You do not want to get too close.".
While cautiously observing the creature, Robin tried to think of a way to capture it without having to fight it or get too close to it. Even though they had somehow managed to capture the joigon earlier, that would most likely have been due to the intense feelings of fear the joigon had made them experience. Although that would perhaps not have been the last time that happened. You see, although Robin was keeping their eyes on the goombey, the creature had managed to hypnotize them with its beauty, allowing it to advance closer to the pair and before either of them knew it they were face to face with the gorgeous fella.
This, to nobody's surprise, scared the absolute wits out of Robin, allowing them to once again, out of nowhere, capture the creature before them in a transparent bubble. And once again, when Robin twisted their fingers into a fist, the bubble shrunk down to the size of a baseball. The bubble fell onto the ground, rolling towards them and coming to a stop at Robin's feet. Robin and Kyle were both just staring blatantly at the bubble as if it was something so extraordinary it was impossible for either of them to wrap their minds around what had just happened.