The wait for him to finish cutting up and serving the food was almost too much for me to take, but I resisted the urges--getting another level in Hunger Resistance thanks to it--and waited till they bowed their heads and doing the same myself before eating. The moment their heads raised back up and Red's ears swiveled back up I practically tore the meat in-front of me into pieces. Inhaling the meat and not wasting any time quelling my angry stomach, I did not want to go that long without eating again...it felt like my stomach was trying to eat me alive.
Even if I have potentially unlimited Stamina, I still have to draw energy from somewhere! I imagined that was also the case for my non-existent Magic and Mana stat too...also, I was only a day old!
What a cruel world...
I stopped reaching for the second carcass when I noticed that they were both looking at me surprised; then again, I did eat the entire thing in a few minutes, so it was pretty implied that I was really hungry...
"You're acting like you're starving..." I growled at Redline's comment and visibly glared at her, tuning back to devour the second carcass while she scoffed at me.
"Sc'the is only a day old or so currently so it's to be expected he would be eating a lot." I looked up at Pops surprised, he actually said my name this time! "It shouldn't be surprising if he end up eating at least three or four times his own body-weight every day for the next few years...when his body will be more accustomed to moving around constantly, but you'll still be eating a lot little dragon."
Nooo, please don't go back to calling me that again. I huffed my annoyance toward his comment in the middle of stuffing my face. He smirked at me, as if knowing what I was thinking.
"Now that I have dealt with the situation and informed the Guild that no one is to come near you for the next few weeks, shall we talk about what kind of punishment you'll be receiving. Hmm?" His smile cut caverns with the sharpness of his tone and I could tell that this was the part Redline was dreading the entire trip here, probably hoping to delay for as long as possible.
"With everything that's gone on I am not going to make you do anything too harsh, as you wouldn't be able to take charge over watching the (Young) Dragon, but I sure as hell are going to make sure that you think about your options before taking another sketchy and demanding request again..." He made his way around the counter and to her side, Redline's ears pinned to her head and her tail went still as he did so.
"Outside to the Docks, now!" He roared and she didn't take the time to finish the piece she had still in her hand. Instead, she abandoned everything and rushed to the front door with her (Streak) Skill. I quickly stored all of her--and my--remaining food so that it stayed hot, hopefully, and followed after them.
I stayed by Pops' side, not wanting to accidentally run into Red or something equally bad, and also because I didn't want to accidentally be the cause for something else that was bad. My (Dash) skill was at level 39 and I wasn't all too interested in using it just for this to make it jump that one level...not matter how tempting it was.
He kept a leisurely pace as he turned away from the fields before us and went to the back of the property, I looked at the fields and then at him in confusion but he didn't seem to notice, even though I was clearly visible to them both. By the time we got to where Redline was--which was in the middle of the other giant expanse of land surrounding us-- I noticed that she was standing at attention with what looked like arm-guards, greaves, and a vest of some sort on. I looked at him in confusion as he stopped just behind her, Redline's ears didn't so much as twitch when he walked past her and messed with something on his wrist that I didn't know was attached to his arm...
"Lets see. What kind of fun thing do you get today..." He pressed one of the small crystals in the bracelet and a 3D visual of a land full of fire with an active volcano and molten rivers of Earth appeared. "That'll come later," He pressed another button to what appeared to be a desert complete with sand-dunes and metaphysical heat appearing as waves in the air, "Nope. Too calm..." This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
The next few minutes passed with him pushing a combination of buttons or just pushing one multiple times to show a similar, but different landscape with a common theme: from marshes to an ocean with only a single island in the middle; I wondered if Red had gone to each and every one of these for training, if she just chose them herself no matter how hard or annoying they were or if she was forced into the ones she didn't like like this?
Her ear had the barest of a twitch when he came to one with what looked like stilts of wood sticking out of swamp-like water and a symbol of what looked like a fish's sharp teeth on the top left edge of the model. "Oh, this one?" Redline's ears went absolutely still and she seemed to view the model with indifference, but that only made Pops' grin wider. "This one it is..."
He grabbed the image and crushed it in his hand: The thing turned into particles of light before fading away and suddenly the space all around us changed; I yelped as my feet were suddenly flooded with water and I looked for a way out when a platform of what seemed like pure energy appeared under me, lifting me up to have a birds-eye view of what was going on. I internally panicked being lifted up way higher than I was comfortable with, even with wings I only ever thought of gliding around places to slowly learn my way around to flying...
"Don't worry," Pops' voice was surprisingly soft and soothing as I floated up to his side, "I'm the one in control of those, and I'm not going to drop you."
I closed my eyes and shut everything out to internalize the sudden fear of going up to such a height so quickly, knowing that the ground was far beneath me. It took a few moments of breathing evenly but I was able to calm myself down again and peek down. My vision seemed to slow and the distance below me elongated into what seemed like an eternity...I quickly closed my eyes again.
"Oh, it's not that bad," Pops chuckled, "Only a few hundred Lengths to the ground...that should be nothing for you and your kind." I turned my head and glared at him intensely, imagining my vision being lasers burrowing their way into his red skull.
I am not used to flying yet, not to mention being lifted up a hundred of so feet off of the ground without warning or of my own volition! This isn't that bad?! You try having a new body barely a day old and being practically thrown into he sky! I growled my displeasure and took my time looking down again, setting myself stably on the platform and readying myself in case it suddenly stopped keeping me aloft...
It took me a few stages of looking down and away again before I was moderately comfortable with my situation and could actually look at the ground far from this kind of situation of being awkwardly in the sky...it felt unnatural to not be using my wings and still somehow be this far up in the air in this way. I wasn't able to actually focus on looking for Redline until my internal screaming settled and I was sure that Pops wouldn't just randomly drop me and leave me to my own devices...
It seemed that Redline had to hop from one stick to another in the vast expanse of the giant lake; I didn't know if it was a marsh or a lake because there were trees here and there, but they didn't seem to be alive. I noticed that, as she got farther and farther away from her starting point, the pole-like platforms seemed to be getting thinner and thinner until she could only use one foot per pole. Not to mention the ones a ways behind her were falling over or straight up disappearing without warning! This story is hosted at novelping.com.
I looked at the Demon sitting comfortably on his platform beside me. My jaw dropping as I watched him snack on what looked like dried Jerky bits. He noticed my shock and offered a hand-full of them to me, "You want some? They actually make for an excellent snack..."
You're just sitting there in amusement, watching from afar, eating, while Red's going through what looks like such a cruel and unusual punishment! He noticed my disapproving glare and his smile slipped slightly, retracting his hand and stuffing the handful in his mouth, and his hands were pretty big too! "Oh stop looking at me like that! I know what I'm doing, and so does she. This is actually one of the easier challenges she puts herself through during training. Not to mention there's plenty of safety measures in place for if she dies or gets trapped during any of the simulations: to deactivate the program and keep her from any unnecessary harm..."
What's unnecessary harm in your eyes?! I wanted to bite him, I wouldn't go through this on purpose, and definitely not with a blindfold like she was using for whatever reason. It didn't matter how much you threatened me, I would not be entering that smelly gunk and sludge filled watery mess!
"Oh don't worry, I'm throwing you in there after she's done a few more laps." He added nonchalantly. "It'll be a good experience for you."
You're what?!
Turns out he wasn't joking...I watched as Redline did a few more laps around the entire lake, going from pole to pole, with foot-holds that were barely there. I looked at Pops, now floating above me nonchalantly, and saw that he was grinning at me with amused malice, sitting on his--now chair shaped--energy platform-thing. He seemed to notice how I was looking at him and he winked at me, still wearing that evil grin!
"Your up," was all I got before the platform under me turned into a bubble of energy and shot me down to the earth at incomprehensible speeds. My wail pierced through it as I found myself stuck against the side of the trap and it crashed into the very center of the horrid arena. I shot to my feet as it disappeared and turned to look at him sitting there in the sky all smug in his chair.
My wails and yowls didn't seem to be reaching him through the distance and I noticed him doing something odd: he was pointing off to my right for some reason...
As if that's going to save you when I get out of this you demon!
...I looked over to see where it was he was pointing and realized it wasn't a where, but a what. A giant crocodile's head appeared floating in the middle of the water, a mere-few tail lengths away. I lept back with (Dash) yelping in fear as the giant maw opened slightly, .
Then it started swimming towards me.
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