章節 148: Milo
"Hello, Blood the human!" Milo shouted with excitement.
He held his paw forward and stepped closer to Blood, a difficult to read smile appearing on his face.
Watching this, Blood didn't know what to do. This was the first time he's interacted with beast people, the legends surrounding them discuss tails of savagery and wildness.
'But we were told the same things about Black Gate,' Blood quickly stopped himself from accepting rash assumptions.
But even if he didn't want to fall for the classic trope of distrusting a specific species for their rumors, was now really the time to break down those prejudices? In the middle of enemy territory, trapped in an inescapable canyon, he can learn to trust at a better time.
The crystals of blood slowly revolving around him liquified and returned to his side. Blood willed the dark liquid to attach to what remained of his shoulder, eventually solidifying and taking the place of his left arm.
With his blood arm, he reached forward and grabbed Milo's paw, shaking it reluctantly.
"What happened to your arm?" Milo asked as he squeezed Blood's semi-solid fingers.
"It was vaporized," Blood responded nonchalantly.
"How?" Milo asked.
"By a guy with long hair."
"Oh —" Milo shook his head, "that's really too bad."
"Why are you here?" Blood asked, getting straight to the point.
"To talk to you," Milo replied.
"No," Blood shut him down, "why are you here in this canyon? Why were you running around the canyon?"
"Oh!" Milo's eyes lit up, "That's easy! That's because you and your friends deactivated the illusion and I was sent to see what happened to it!"
"Sent by who?" Blood pushed.
"By my boss."
"Who's your boss?"
"Skipper."
Blood maintained a look of uninterest during this conversation, but his nerves were stretching to their limit. For one, he couldn't figure out if Milo was intentionally vague when it came to answering questions or if the fox was just an idiot.
'It's like talking to Roy,' Blood thought.
Taking a deep breath, Blood continued asking questions:
"And who's Skipper?"
"Skipper is the boss of the exploration team, Horizon and I am also a member of that team which is why he's my boss."
"How many are there of you?"
"Um…" Milo pushed apart his paw and began counting his claws, "there are nine of us including me."
'That's not too large' Blood sighed in relief.
"What is that metal door we found?" Blood continued to ask every question he could think of since Milo seemed so eager to answer all of them.
"That is the main entrance to Underneath!" Milo chirped.
"What's Underneath?"
"Our home."
"How do you open the metal door?"
"You can't," Milo sighed and shook his head, "the flower you need to activate it no longer exists."
"So how did you come up from Underneath?"
"The back way."
"What's the back way?"
"The other way in the back."
"Can you show it to me?" Blood asked as he smacked his lips in annoyance.
"Um… I don't think so. Master said never to bring outsiders Underneath, but I can ask boss when I go back."
"Who's your master?" Blood asked his last question.
"Master is Master."
"Go and ask your boss now, I'll be waiting in front of the metal wall for a while." Blood dismissed Milo.
"Okay!" The red fox's tail perked up, pushing his cloak slightly higher than before.
Strapped around his waist, Milo wore a belt containing numerous tools: rope, knives, anchors, pics, everything the little fox could need for exploring extreme terrains.
Meanwhile, Blood watched his back as he left. Milo pulled his hood back over his head and rushed towards the wall of the canyon.
Like it was child's play, Milo pulled the two pics from his belt and soared up the wall of the canyon like he was weightless.
Once he reached the top, he looked back at Blood and waved his paw in the air. Blood smiled awkwardly and waved back, he needed to be nice for him to come back after all.
***
"See? That wasn't so bad, was it?" Willow asked mockingly while the essence poured into her chest.
"Roy, are there any foreign substances inside Willow?" Emile asked concerningly.
"None that I see."
"Good."
Emile stepped off the edge of the crater and slid down the snow covered wall. He arrived next to Willow who was in the process of returning her slew of relics.
Just as Emile arrived, Willow wrapped her arm around his head and pulled him into her. Using her knuckles, she aggressively scratched the top of Emile's head:
"Was someone worried about me?" She teased.
Pushing her away from him, Emile responded, "I'm afraid of Ulmor."
"Mhmm," Willow smirked as she released Emile.
Focusing on their objective, Emile brushed past Willow and approached the wooden cage. He placed his palm on one of the surviving bars and observed it.
The wood was surprisingly warm and malleable, when he pushed his finger into the cage it slowly sank. The roots possessed a small amount of give.
Then, he retracted his finger and balled it into a fist. He punched the same part of the cage and it suddenly felt solid.
He pulled his fist back and there were no remnants of having ever struck it, it wasn't malleable this time. Emile continued with his experiments, the wood was like oobleck, a semi-solid semi-liquid substance he played with in science class back on Earth.
The summary of oobleck is that its nature responds to the shock it receives. So for example, striking the wood hard results in a strong, sturdy bar. On the other hand, a gentle touch loosens the bars and allows for them to move more freely, like a liquid.
But that couldn't have been the only special property of the wooden cage, the last one was self aware. So Emile entered the wooden cage and picked up one of the destroyed pieces of the cage.
Like before, the smaller piece of wood almost melted in his palm while he held it. Then, Emile poured some of his essence into the wooden piece and immediately the piece solidified like a rock and expanded.
The piece of wood shot out from Emile's palm and expanded a few feet, becoming the length of a common sword instead of a knife.
After waiting some time, the essence Emile injected in the piece of wood depleted and the piece returned to its smaller size.
"Pick up all of the pieces of this wood, we need to take this back to camp."
-- 收到的禮物 
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票