The Stat screen came with a notification box.

  Name: Strange

  Level: 30

  Race: Compy

  Traits: Nimbleness, Observant, Frail

  Bonded: Alex, the First

  Bonded Trait: Adaptation

  Class: Baby

  Stats:

  STR: 18

  QUICK: 30

  FLEX: 18

  TOUGH: 23

  INT: 15

  FORT: 12

  WILL: 12

  CHA: 24

  Skill: 5/5

  Venomous Bite

  Stealth

  Pack Awareness

  Enhanced Senses

  Shadow Sharing

  [Would you like to learn Distraction? Warning, you already have 5 skills. You will need to forget or merge other skills.]

  I already knew what the first four did, but the last one was new to me, so I opened it up.

  [Shadow Sharing: You share your Bonded’s shadow, able to hide and travel inside.]

  That was just overpowered, yet I wasn’t going to complain, because it would be really, really useful once his level got high enough to hunt with me. He could hide inside my shadow, sneak attack once I got close, and dart back in to not get hit, especially with the frail trait.

  “Well, you can merge Pack Awareness and Enhanced Senses together,” I observed.

  [You have merged Pack Awareness and Enhanced Senses to create: Collective Awareness. Collective Awareness: Your enhanced senses combine with input from pack members to provide more detailed information about the environment.]

  Information washed over me from my bond with Strange, from the hints of copper in the air to the cool dirt under his feet. It took several seconds for me to get a handle on the additional information.

  “That’s a good one.”

  Strange nodded, then chirped.

  [You have learned Distraction. Distraction: You create a chaotic and irritating diversion, drawing the attention of large threats.]

  “You could also merge Stealth and Shadow Sharing…” Before I finished the suggestion, I got the ping.

  [You have merged Stealth and Shadow Sharing to create: Shadow Embrace. Shadow Embrace: You operate effectively under the cover of darkness, or while in the shadow of your bonded. You can hide, travel, and remain connected to your bonded while in their shadow.]

  I made a mental note to think before I made any suggestions to Strange. He now had a slot free for an additional skill, though overall, I had several things to keep in mind. That frail trait weighed on my mind, and I didn’t know if he earned any free stats when he leveled. Also, he only had five skills he could learn.

  Maybe it was because he was a beast, or because he was a baby. I didn’t know.

  “Hey Dengu, why does Strange only have 5 skills?”

  “He is not grown.” The answer came quickly from the older dinosaur.

  “Good to know, thank you.” Now I knew for sure. “How about we check out the lake?”

  Dengu nodded, along with Strange, who copied the larger dinosaur's movements.

  This time, as we stepped away from the rock that the most recently dead hare had been on, water glittered in the distance. Bright flashes of hazy light flickered as we stepped closer. The grass from the field shortened to a rocky beach with a massive lake smack dab in the center.

  “Fish!” Dengu darted closer to the water, with a gaping mouth. “Grizzle taught me to fish.”

  Strange chased after him, right on his tail.

  I slowly serveyed the area, trying to figure out why I didn’t sense anything.

  Reeds sticking up from the water moved in the light breeze, but nothing else did. Nothing on the rocks, or swimming in the water as far as I could tell. It didn’t make sense.

  Dengu reached the water first. “Fish!”

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  The light reflecting off the surface made it hard to see what he did. Then, Strange touched the water. My senses blazed as hundreds of creatures suddenly appeared.

  All in the water.

  “Dengu!”

  Yet, he stuck his head under, snapping at a fish. He yanked back, suddenly growling. “Sharp fish!”

  Strange couldn’t go farther in the water than a few inches, and he rapidly backed up at Dengu’s comment.

  Dark shapes swam closer to the surface as Dengu tried to snag one.

  As soon as Strange leaped back from the water and Dengu’s tail, all presence of the fish vanished. He hurried backward, getting closer to me and my shadow.

  The dark shape under the strange water darted toward Dengu before suddenly breaking the surface. A hundred winged fish leaped up, taking to the sky. They were all around level 28, but there were so many. They attacked the large dinosaur en masse.

  He chomped on a couple, and his tail snapped at a couple, sending them to the grass.

  I stood there with my spear, just staring in awe as they swam through the air.

  Strange did something, and three headed in his direction as he raced away. Suddenly, he pivoted back, snapping at one. His teeth sank in deep, but the other two rammed him.

  He let go of the one he’d bitten, but the fish couldn’t flap its wings correctly anymore. The other two tried to help it into the air, and Strange leaped at the next one, latching onto its back fin. Again, he only held on for a little until it couldn’t flap right before he targeted the last one.

  The larger mass ignored the smaller battle and kept dive bombing at Dengu, though it wasn’t doing any damage.

  [Flock of Flying Fish, Level 30, Prey, Tasty.]

  Dengu snagged a couple more out of the air, tossing them to the bank before leaving the water. Once he left the water, the massive flock dove for the surface of the lake.

  I couldn’t stop the laughter that spilled out of me as the last part of the flock vanished beneath the surface.

  A flock of flying fish.

  Unreal. Completely unreal.

  Dengu tossed a fish my way, which I just put into my inventory. I’d deal with all of them at once.

  Strange tore into the three fish on the ground until they stopped moving. Yet, through the bond, I felt pain around his mouth. He whimpered, looking at me. Blood dripped from a few cuts along the inside of his gums, leaving a coppery taste in my mouth.

  I crept closer and examined the fish by picking one up. The scales were pretty sharp, if your toughness wasn’t high enough. They couldn’t hurt me, though.

  “I can skin them later, unless you're hungry?” I asked.

  He whimpered in reply.

  I picked him up and pulled out the healing crystal from under my shirt. I touched it to him, pushing the cooling energy toward his mouth.

  It healed almost instantly.

  He jerked back in shock.

  “Alpha fixed?” echoed inside my head, along with confusion.

  “It's something I can do for some injuries, but it isn’t unlimited.”

  Strange's head went to one side like a dog's. He clearly didn’t understand.

  “It can run out.”

  This time, he nodded.

  “No like the lake,” said Dengu, and he crept farther away from the water. Yet, he paused. “There is a wall.”

  I stood up and moved closer to his side, keeping hold of Strange. There was an invisible force that wouldn’t let us keep moving away. We also didn’t get a notification about where to go.

  “I guess we aren’t done here yet…” I turned back toward the lake.

  Across the sparkling water stood a grouping of trees, and the barely visible gap of a dirt trail between the trees.

  “I bet we need to exit on the other side.” I let out a sigh, thinking of how long my clothing would be wet. I disliked wet clothing.

  “Fine.” Dengu glanced in that direction and padded closer to the water. He took the lead. As soon as he stepped into the water, the dark mess of flying fish leaped up into the sky. Dengu picked up the pace.

  The mass rammed him, but it didn’t do anything to the dinosaur. Instead of engaging, he ignored the fish and kept walking across the lake.

  I quickly followed, after tucking Strange into the sling.

  The fish tried to ram me, but each impact felt like a damp rag someone had tossed in my direction. It didn’t do anything.

  Strange hid his head within the cloth of my cloak.

  Thankfully, the water didn’t get deeper than my boots, but I didn’t dare let Strange down since it’d be close to the top of his head. The fish trailed after us, but didn’t try to ram us after figuring out they couldn’t hurt us. They just hovered above, watching us stomp through the water.

  Once my boots left the liquid, the flock of fish dove back down beneath the surface.

  [Would you like to stay at the lake or enter the forest?]

  “Enter the forest.”

  None of us wanted to deal with the sharp fish anymore.

  I set Strange down on the ground.

  He quickly darted toward my shadow, vanishing inside it.

  Surprisingly, my boots dried off quickly and fit the same way as before.

  No more wet socks!

  Not that I actually had socks on under these custom boots. While I’d saved my combat boots, these were a work of art that I still felt thankful for.

  I stepped closer to Dengu as we entered the shadowy light of the forest.

  These weren’t the massive trees from outside. They were more like a single-story tall. Still large, but not comically oversized. The canopy stretched over the path, with only small beams of sunlight filtering through in little bursts.

  Strange darted out of my shadow as a flying beetle crossed his path. Two bites later, it was gone.

  He froze, then leaped high with his tail moving all around. Excitement echoed down our bond.

  “New skill?” I asked, trying to figure out what the impressions that I was receiving were.

  He nodded then vanished back into my shadow.

  It must be a decent skill for him to get that excited. The small bugs didn’t show up on my radar unless I concentrated on them. I kept them filtered out. Nothing bigger showed up either as we slowly traveled through the trees. The dirt path had faded away into the underbrush, and we just kept going.

  Leaves flickered on a bush near us, as something slithered through the plants. Both Dengu and I stopped.

  [Large Centipede, level 38, Prey, Unknown.]

  Bugs. It had to be bugs.

  Something rustled in the bushes to our left, and again it didn’t even register on my radar until I focused on it. Prey, but I couldn’t see more than a faint outline as it blended in with the bluish leaves.

  Strange popped out of my shadow, but given the shadows overhead, he blended in pretty well. I knew it’d be hard to see me in this light, but Dengu stood out.

  The raptor stared at the Centipede ahead for a moment before he launched himself forward, chasing after it as it fled.

  A cry came from the area that Strange had been stalking, where he’d clearly attacked something from the shadows. From within the leaves shimmered a large grub thing.

  [Camopiller, Level 39, Prey, Unknown.]

  The bug jerked back from Strange, then leaped at him, opening a large mouth full of sharp teeth.

  I took a few steps in that direction, but Strange dodged before clamping down on the grub-thing’s midsection for a second before letting go. He then ran away from it as it chased him.

  Eventually, it slowed down as the poison took hold. Then Strange went to town, snapping quick bites before dodging the increasingly slow counter-attacks. This continued until the thing died.

  [Strange, Bonded Baby Compy, Level 36, Bonded]

  I did not put the grub thing into my inventory. It took a while of hiking before we caught back up to Dengu, but eventually we found him napping in a clearing. He opened one eye as we approached.

  “Found exit.” He stood up and bobbed his head toward an opening in the trees. “Massive bug guarding it.”

  I took a step closer, and the bug registered on my radar.

  Something large and within the trees. Two large eyes stared out from a branch. It took a moment to realize they were on a set of wings.

  [Flying Moth, Level 40, Prey, Unknown.]

  “I bet that’s what the grub thing turns into.”

  Dengu turned toward Strange, who nudged his tail.

  “You need to hurt its wing to make it land. Then chomp chomp.”