The Mimic in Monsterland

“Lirae, please don’t make this difficult. And please don’t make me do something annoying and stupid. I would rather leave the whole council out of this.” Len sat up in one of the couches in Lirae’s office at the top of the Capitol Building. “He has already agreed to join the Fourth Legion. He will be a valuable asset on the field.”

Lirae sat on the opposite couch with her legs crossed. Her nose twitched just a bit before she addressed him.

“And a valuable asset for your little club no doubt.”

Len scoffed. “Yeah, no denying that one.”

“Rickard has been quite miffed about that building of yours.”

“Yeah, I may have outbid him on the location.” Len smiled. “By a lot.”

“Yes. Yes. He doesn’t shut up about it some nights. He wanted to put up some recruiting station there for the Second. Trying to bolster his legions numbers and pad his records.” She waved her hand in the air.

“I couldn’t be bothered about that at all. If a graduate is legion-worthy, they're going to be drafted no matter what. Into which Legion is of no consequence to me.”

Len shook his head. “As thrilling as it is to hear about your scandalous late night conversations with your husband, I’m here to get Liam’s citizenship official.”

It was Lirae’s turn to scoff.

“He’s already free and running around the city. And he is more than welcome to join the raids. First Ones know he’d fit in great with Jaren’s ragtag band of misfits that make up the Fourth.”

“A ragtag band of misfits that have topped the Watcher’s Leaderboards for the past…” Len touched his chin with his index finger. “Ten raids.”

Lirae’s nostrils flared. She sat up and stared into Len’s eyes before continuing. “But he won’t be getting citizenship. Not a single one of his kind will ever be getting citizenship.”

Len exhaled. He got up and walked over to the window behind her desk. He looked out into the city. Her window overlooked the Academy District and the Merchant District. But there was a small sliver of the Gloom in the view as well. It was still early morning, so the Gloom was illuminated by the sun. His eyes drifted over the plaza. Laurel’s Fountain. Len exhaled once more. “I miss him too, Lirae.” Len felt his heart twinge for a second at the memory.

“Don’t say another word.” She stood up and flared her Aura. Thorny vines climbed up her sides. He walked away from the window and over to her. Right through the lethal presence she was exuding. “I still haven’t been able to bring myself back to return there.” Len admitted, hoping to calm her nerves. “He was one of the brightest I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and teaching. Not to mention powerful. He would have run circles around me by now.”

Lirae let the Aura subside, sitting back down. The vines remained and wrapped around her body. She rubbed her forehead. “Then why are you trying to help one of them? After what they took from us that horrid day.”

He sat down on the opposite couch. “Because he wasn’t even born when it happened. He’s not even from their tribe. Because I’ve watched over him for months now. I’ve seen his character. You have as well. He jumped into the raid in the worst way possible because he couldn’t bear to see people die. And look at how he escaped this tree. He didn’t harm a single person. Hell, he was making friend’s with some.”

Len closed his eyes. “Lirae, I’m not asking you to accept him. I’m not asking for you to give him a home, to give him any assistance at all. Just citizenship, he doesn’t even need to be grafted into the Family Records. Just citizenship, so that the Watchers will compensate him.”

Lirae looked back up at Len. Her eyes were serious and cold. She closed them.

“I will stake my seat on the council. If Liam’s squad is not number one on the sub-ten leaderboard, then I will relinquish my position and give it to whomever you choose.”

The vines uncoiled from her body. She breathed in deep, before opening her eyes.

“Fine Leonard. But this will be the last thing you will ever ask of me. I don’t care if you obliterate ten bosses in a row. This will be the last.”

“That’s fine Lirae.”

She nodded and turned her head away. “And just citizenship, no records.” Len stood up and made for the door. She cleared her throat. Len turned back to her.

Her eyes darkened as she rose from the couch. The vine at her feet rattled. “If he doesn’t make it. He is on the first trip to Tiamantis.”

Len nodded once more and walked out of the room.

——

“Huff, Huff, Huff.” I heaved in as much air as possible. The sun just passed its zenith while I laid on the grass out in the Guild Hall backyard.

“Terl!” Jaren called out.

A smaller half elf man walked up to Jaren. He did the weird shoulder salute. His arms were covered in bandages and he seemed to wince in pain when moving them. He had antlers sticking out of his head. Now a large rack, but enough to give those fairytale vibes.

Jaren nodded towards me. “Shoot him up.”

I sat up. “No, No, that's enough, just give me a minute.” Jaren looked up at the sky. “Alright. Terl. Dismissed for lunch. Come back in an hour.”

The man nodded and turned away without saying anything. He did give me a side eye before leaving for some reason. Not sure what I did to piss him off. I stretched out my back, groaning as my tired muscles yelled at me.

“Oh quit yer whining. It’s not bad.” Jaren grabbed something from his pack. “Here, have a little snack.”

Without thinking, I grabbed whatever he handed me. It didn’t matter, it smelled like meat and that was enough. Breakfast felt so long ago. I tore into the ambiguous dark brown rectangle. However, even with my insanely sharp teeth, I could barely chew it. It actually hurt my teeth chomping on it. I spit it out of my mouth and into my hands. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just given a fricking piece of leather.

Jaren laughed as I examined the food. I threw the inedible garbage back at him. “What even is this?” I rubbed my teeth, making sure they were damaged. Jaren, of course, swiftly dodged the spit covered square and laughed even more.

“Hoo, that never gets old I tell yah. Watching newbies trying out jerky for the first time. Fennel’s reaction was a tad funnier though. He didn’t quit after three bites in like you. He just miserably gnawed on it until it finally broke down ten minutes later. I could hardly breathe when he walked into the squad hall the next morning, complaining about how sore his jaw was. Right in front of that dove he’s got a thing for too. Great times.” He smiled. He grabbed another piece from his pack and shoved it in his mouth.

He didn’t chew on it though, instead resting it in his cheek. “Jerky is dried up monster meat, it requires a few minutes of moisture before you can chew it. And as with all things monster related. It fights back. So the more you chew on it before it's moist, the more it fights back.”

I huffed again before responding with a simple and tired “Neat.”

Jaren has had me going through some drills this morning in each of the forms. Which would normally not bother me that much. That was my training regiment for most of the last few months.

But Jaren had me emptying my stamina bar in each form. Which comes with a huge fatigue penalty. But to combat that problem, he brought in his support from his personal squad to keep my stamina reserves topped off. The first fill up was almost indescribable. Going from pass-out-at-any-moment tired to chugging-eight-energy-drinks awake was exhilarating. Until it happened four more times.

I warned him about Gremlin’s Fight and Flight’s Exhaustion debuff, but he said he already knew. He did just read the character sheet I guess. It was the only form he let me revert out of my own free will.

He at least let me start off with Ursa form. I burned through my stamina quickly using the new ability Elemental Claws. I wasn’t sure how I went about choosing the element. I entered the form and nothing really happened. My claws were normal and I didn’t feel any different.

Jaren fixed up the training doll he was working with and told me to take a few swings at it. Apparently, he struck the statue in just the right places so that it didn’t actually damage the construct. So the head just clicked right back in place.

I swung at it a few times with no powers. My strike didn’t budge the thing at all. Jaren said they were made to withstand any attack from a sub-ten splicer. That probably referred to level, but I didn’t care to clarify, not in Ursa form at least.

I wanted to try lightning powers first. There is just something really cool about a lightning bear. My claws turned bright blue as I activated Elemental Claws. Small lightning arcs fire off when I brought them together. I swung at the air and blue electricity followed along.

A few minutes of clawing at the construct with lightning based attacks ensued. I ran out of stamina on my own actually. Jaren said he expected me to. “Everyone does when they get a shiny new ability,” he explained.

I had expended my final bit of stamina on Elemental Discharge. My eyes focused on the reptilian construct and unleashed the power. A single bolt of blue electricity appeared right above it, the bolt striking the wood and traveling down it into the earth. I grinned while I fell down.

Jaren handed me another piece of the jerky, I put it in my mouth and rolled it around. It filled my mouth with a vague meat flavor. My mimic mouth instincts took over and I started to salivate. A lot. So much that I started drooling. Jaren laughed at me again while I hurriedly wiped up the drool.

“Eh no shame. You’re far from alone in terms of nasty eaters. One of my old flames was from a Hippoton family. Those dinners haunt me to this day. I wonder how Lia is doing, her and her sisters.“ Jaren’s face was now occupied by a dopey grin. One that needed no explanation.

“Jaren!” Both me and Jaren looked around for the source of the shout. “Jaren!”

We both looked at the door that led to the guild training room. Terl walked through with a panicked look on his face.

“What is it?”

“You need to get down to the Legion Barracks. Fennel's out of control.”