Ibehru finds backup from an unexpected source.
The arrow thunked into me.
Or rather, into the large bag on my back - where it comically hit something that went...
Boinggggg!!!!
Near me, a young woman was crouched in the shadows of an ancient tree that had seen better days. Its branches where almost bare.
She held her pilum and round shield in the classic defence position, daring anyone to get close.
A pugio on one hip and a gladius on the other, at the ready for close quarter combat.
"You dumb ass! Don’t just stand there! You’ll get shot for real! Oh, why am I talking to a donkey at a time like this...?" [Ibehru]
As a second arrow whistled towards me, I took a heartbeat to take in the situation.
Three unkempt individuals were running towards us down the dirt road that meandered along the forest edge, with what looked to be farm fields in various states of decay on the opposite edge.
One was the archer, the other two were armed with crude but nevertheless quite dangerous blades of questionable heritage.
To call them swords would be to insult the family of those noble weapons.
Attack is the best defence - at least that is what my gut was instructing - so I bunched up my leg muscles and launched myself towards the thugs.
The second arrow this time harmlessly bounced off the bag on my back.
All four of my hooves spit up road dust.
Wait....
A....
Minute....!?!?!?!?!?!
HOOVES????
Oh well, we'll worry about that later...
Avanti!
As some dust hit me in the eyes, I blinked - and a fancy looking poster floated in front of me, and time...
STOPPED.
All four of my hooves were in the air at the same time, with no sign of letting gravity take its natural course downwards.
{
Race: Donkey - Lvl 1
Stats | Skills
HP: 200/200 | Carrying Cargo
MP: 25/25 |
INT: 17 |
STR: 25 |
CHR: 13 |
AGL: 16 |
Titles: None.
}
I blinked again, and the sign was gone, and my feet landed.
Well, no time to think right now - I had reached the first thug.
A high pitched angry yelling from behind consisting of words I dare not repeat here blistered the air blue.
Some of the words and turns of phrases were quite new even to me.
Thug #1 swung his horrid blade at me - I skipped - all four legs - to the left, and soundly chomped at the arm that had just missed me.
And... I regretted that instantly.
Ugh!
Putrid!
When had this fellow last washed his shirt?
But my bite was effective - I suppose we donkeys do have huge and solid teeth - we need that for chewing thistles and such!
Thug #1 one screamed out as his blade spun from his now useless hand - I had felt a bone crack under my bite.
No time to thi...
The world halted in its track again and a new sign appeared.
{
New Skill!
Crushing Bite - Lvl 1
}
I blinked and was back in normal time again.
Two more thugs, no time to think.
Right, I have hooves.
Standing on my front two, I twisted - and as every bucking bronco has done since time immemorial - gave the archer a good two hooves worth of kick to the chest.
He rag-dolled through the air for almost ten cubits1A cubit is the average length from an adult's elbow to the end of their outstretched fingers. Brought to you by "Donkeysplain"! before tumbling another four cubits down the dirt road.
K.O.
Possibly with permanent spinal damage and certainly a few cracked ribs... and... ouch... having landed that way... one arm will be feeling it for the rest of his life.
Which will be short if he keeps his current line of work.
I started twisting towards the last thug and ... time stopped again.
This...
This was getting a wee annoying.
Who thought this was a good idea???
{
New Skill!
Bronco Buck - Lvl 1
}
Sigh.
Blink, and back to normal.
The third thug ... turned tail and decided by the grace of the Seven Fates to high tail it out of there.
"S*** ****-ing S***! Not worth it - don't care if THEY get mad!" was what I heard trailing away as the thug ran.
Guess fighting donkeys was not something these fellows encountered in the course of their nefarious skulduggery.
Hm, to chase or not to chase, that was the five silver piece question...
But the first thug was not fully incapacitated, and was still a danger to my now no longer shouting mistress, so I better go fini... oh never mind.
He apparently still had a few brain cells left and was following his comrade back down the road, leaving the archer behind.
I trotted back to the now wide eyed and open mouthed woman, the round shield and spear just hanging down loosely from her right hand and left arm, respectively.
She was tastefully dressed in a well oiled lorica segmentata, a bronze helmet protecting the head.
Her legs were covered in both mail and an unfamiliar form of segmentata, that strove to balance protection with ease of movement.
A herald of a spread winged Phoenix under three stars decorated her shield, and the various buckles and snaps of her armour bore tiny versions of the same.
No text - just the signet.
She had long pointed ears that stuck out a bit from her reddish hair.
An... Elf? I guess?
And just as I was about to reach her, guess what?
Yup.
That thing again.
{
Quest completed!
Task: Rescue Ibehru
Reward: +10 exp, +1 skill point
Items: None Do you want to spend your skill point(s)?
***
[ YES! ] <---> [ NOPE ]
}
Hm... why not?
[ YES! ] please.
{
Skill Catalogue [1 point]
Appraisal -Lvl 1
Trap Detection - Lvl 1
Extra Sprint
Extra Carry
Fireball - Lvl 1
Ice Spear - Lvl 1
***
Choose!
}
Hm....
Some interesting choices...
Fireball???
That... well that sounds handy, hehe.
Seeing as we were in a not so friendly neighborhood - I’ll pick that!
{
New Skill!
Fireball - Lvl 1
}
Well, I’ll have to try that out soon.
Blink - and we are back!
"O....K.... that was... unexpected. But amazing. But NEVER EVER scare me like that again, OK donkey?" [Ibehru]
Ibehru - as I suspected she was called - came over and hugged my big old donkey head.
"Sure, I’ll try..." [Donkey]
Was what I attempted to say, but all that came out was...
"Neighhh... heeheehee..." [Donkey]
Dang it.
Well, at least she was safe.
"I’ll take that as a sorry... We’ll need to report this new danger on the road, and get our deliveries done - and I’ll get you a big bucket of juicy carrots as a reward - you like carrots, right?" [Ibehru]
Hmm...
I suppose I liked carrots, being a donkey and all that?
So I nodded - was the least I could do until I figured out a better way to communicate.
"And... we’ll leave that guy there - his buddies can take care of him, if they want. Can’t take him along, you already are maxed out on weight.... although... you did run around like a colt... nah, we’ll leave him. Let’s go!" [Ibehru]
*** End Quest 1 ***
*** Please wait...
****** Processing...
Stat update available:
{
Race: Donkey {Lvl 1}
Stats | Skills
HP: 200/200 | Carrying Cargo
MP: 25/25 | Crushing Bite lvl 1
INT: 17 | Bronco Buck lvl 1
STR: 25 | Fireball lvl 1
CHR: 13 |
AGL: 16 |
Titles: Protector {New!}.
Exp: 10 | Skill Points: 0
}
Definitely a unique start. Let’s see where it goes :-)