Chapter 5 - Master and the Familiar

Three people traverse the woods, deftly dodging any large monsters by using competent strategies, for example climbing into the tree canopy to wait out a monster and using spells to mask their smell.

Leading up front is the knight Allelu, a half demon mix with an elf giving the usually tall race an imposing appearance, standing at 2 metres (6.5 feet) tall and having two, 10cm (4 inch) horns come out of her forehead and pointing at the sky, the raven hair that reaches to her shoulders and red skin is concealed behind a full plate steel armour leaving only the yellow eyes and black horns peering from the sideways opening visor, with shallow engravings on the armour giving unknown enchants. The knight carries a big backpack with a sword three quarters her length being sheathed on her back in an easily accessible way, along with a smaller sword at 1 metre (3.3 foot) sheathed on the side of her left hip.

Second in line is Sofia, the emerald scaled lizardman stand at 1.8 metres (6 foot) has slit hazel eyes and wears the least of all 3 adventurers. Holding a wooden staff embedded with a white stone near the top in the wood with 1 hand the lizard walks with her head held high and wearing an Aztec like outfit. Her headdress is made up of green and blue feathers along with golden buttons to hold the feathers together, with a blue robe that is tied around the chest depicting exotic creatures and a simple blue loincloth around the hips with sandals on her feet.

Finally, there is a member jumping from one tree branch to another and keeping a watch with piercing grey eyes on the parties surroundings to make sure they are not ambushed if the druids magic fails. Marie is a wood elf of fair skin that is of average height at 1.7 metres (5.6 foot). A single red braid reaches to her shoulder blades. Marie wears a tunic with short sleeves that is brown in colour and reaches to just past her knees, however it is sew in the chest and back with Sofia's shed scales which can also be seen on the leather bracers of the archer. A bow in hand with a quiver on the back are complemented by a belt around the waist to not only to keep the loose tunic together but also attach 2 daggers and a short sword for more fighting options.

As the party passes an area in the woods Marie glimpses a strange shine on the ground, splitting off before returning with a piece of dark green cloth and a stave in hand made of metal and a round sphere on top.

Marie: "Found some evidence of foreign spies in our woods, the cloth smells of rotten blood and the stave is not like anything the artisans in Snout port can create."

Sofia: "Great, do you always have to bring such things right up to my nose."

Allelu: "Stop complaining, this might be just what we need to cut this trip short"

Marie: "I highly doubt a strange stave and a piece of cloth can get the noble to mobilise an army of adventurers."

Sofia: "So then throw the trash out and stuff the stave in Allelus backpack and get a move on. I am finally back in the woods and I want to finally make use of my goddesses blessings."

Allelu: "Why not take the maned wolf then or literally any other creature?"

Sofia: "I am not just taking any wild fox or animal. I want it to at least be sentient, otherwise I am selling myself short as a heir to the tribe."

Marie: "There were plenty of goblins in Snout Port for sale."

Sofia: "They might as well be wild animals considering their intelligence."

Allelu: "Plus they look ugly."

Marie: "Hey, maybe its just because I am much older than you lot but there is a lot to life and beauty is always in the eye of the beholder."

Sofia: "What would a monster without a gender or care for the outside world want with beauty?"

Marie: "Not that type of beholder, I mean as in a master that owns something would see its inherent value."

Allelu: "I think this is just a waste of time, plus I agree with Sofia a goblin even if in a servant contract could get us killed if it is incompetent enough even if you believe in all that nonsense."

Marie: "Hey."

As the party resumes its careful walk through the woods they come across more signs of foreign interference, with what appears to be charcoal left after a campfire and magical wards etched into some nearby trees to disperse smoke over a large area and hide the smoke stack.

Not able to pick up any quirks in the glyphs on the trees related to foreign interference, and not even considering the charcoal as any solid evidence that it was made by a group of foreign spies and not natives or villagers, the group simply takes note of the rough location and continues onwards, closer to the mountain range and further away from the city and plains that surround it.

Eventually camp has to be made as the adventurer team spends almost a month delving into the woods in search of their informant based on rough descriptions given by Sssandra. By the time that they reach the rough location the Summer has started to become Autumn with trees becoming red and yellow with every foot step causing a crunching sound as the party trudges on with light supplies and a hope of a big payday for finding a metallic staff not from around Snout Port.

Sofia: "I smell something."

*Sss

Sofia: "A strong scent of blood coming from directly in front of us. One of the smells is wolf blood but I am not sure about the other."

Marie: "Ill scout out and you follow behind me silently."

Allelu: "Will try."

As the party arrives at the clearing Marie gives her report of the fight up until this point and the adventurers advance into the clear sight of the wolf pack.

*Awoooo

*Awoooo

*Awoooo

*Awooo

Hearing only 3 other wolf calls to his response the wolf leader gives a final howl.

*Awoooo

With the 4 remaining wolves running off from the new threat.

This leaves the party with the ability to look at what they just bagged for themselves.

Lying in a pool of blood is a large, bipedal lizard, reminiscent of the Grey Horned Lizard found to migrate from mountain caves to the woods in the early Spring to breed and lay eggs before returning to their caves. This Lizard is in fact quite large, much larger than the already imposing half demon. The lizard's scales have extreme resilience by the fact that a pack of 7 wolves couldn't bring it down, although being the size of 2.5 metres (8 foot) would also play a part in having difficulty reaching vital weak points like the neck and face if it resists being thrown on the ground. The 3 horns on top of its head are quite intimidating, being the size of daggers as the front horn is 20cm (8 inches) and the two back horns are 15cm (6 inches). A long tail with no pointed tip is lying limply next to the monster, still attached but having lots of broken scales from repeated biting.

Sofia: "Finally this is perfect."

Allelu: "Looks kind of dead to me."

Sofia: "Don't worry once the pact is sealed we will have a reliable damage sponge for ourselves, as the binding contract will allow me to heal it for almost nothing."

Marie: "You sure it is this creature that you want to use your God given gift on this creature?"

Sofia: "Gaea had given me a challenge that I completed, so I would hope that you are not questioning whether I am worthy or not to use this gift?"

Marie: "No, no I am not questioning your skills or devotion. It is just such a harsh penalty if you fail on this attempt and have to wait for a year to do it again."

Allelu: "It has already been a month. I think that it is even more insulting to not use a gift than to waste it because your bound creature."

Sofia: "Since we can not find any large snakes around, I will settle for this thing. It will make these excursions safer and wasting some challenges on a being that will not be permanent is better than being dead… believe me."

With a sombre mood Gaea's blessings of familiar is used on the monster and it is bound to Sofia as a master. All the magic takes is a chant and a glow of the rock in the staff for the spell to be cast.

Sofia: "Rise newly named Zutal, for you are my forest critter and I am your master!"

*Clap *Clap *Clap

Allelu: "Oh, I do love a bit of the theatrics."

Marie: "oh you incorrigible people."

With a toothy grin Sofia smiles: "That's why were all together, now then you go and finish off the quest while I'll deal with my new pe. *cough Familiar."