Homestead Survival

<06 September 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER, A+>
[Theo and Julia]
Theo went and found Ordus, quickly telling him their plan. Ordus went and retrieved the Grublix cage and met them north of the plinth where they had come out of the dungeon.

"So these are part of your latest acquisition?" Ordus said, looking at the strange dog goats.

"Yep," Theo said. He went to try and identify the Cliffhound in the left-most cage, and it nipped quite forcefully at his finger.

"Let's start with the Grublix," Julia said, and Theo nodded.

"Very good, I do think that they want to get out of the cage," Ordus said, "I also think that I will appreciate them not needing to be fed."

"Thank you for that, Ordus," Theo said.

Ordus simply nodded, "It is my job."

"Now then, if I remember right, we need to give them a drop of blood?" Julia asked.

Theo nodded, "So do you want them bonded to you? Or to me? I vote that they bond to you, Julia."

Julia thought for a moment, looking at the Grublix. "Alright. I'm fine with that, they seem like rather interesting little guys. So what do I do?"

Theo shrugged and poked his finger into the Grublix cage and Identified it once more.

"It just says feed it a drop of your blood," Theo said.

"Okay," Julia said, "Can I borrow your dagger?"

Theo nodded. He got it out of his pouch. "Here you go."

Julia poked her finger, drawing blood with the tip of the dagger, before sticking her finger into the cage. She felt three tongues lick at the blood. Then a pulse of energy rushed through the area. Julia stepped back after opening the smaller cage.

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Out of the cage hopped the somewhat slimy-looking little gremlins. They hopped out and immediately looked up at Julia. One of them was significantly larger than the other two, and after a quick identification, they knew that the larger one was the Grublix Queen, and the others were called Grublix Drones.

"I think I can instruct them to do something," Julia said, getting the sense that they were waiting for something from her.

"Why not send them to the fields for now, and we can go from there?" Theo said, remembering that they were some kind of colony creature that would help with dealing with pests.

Julia nodded and pointed to where the fields were. "Go and protect the crops that were planted in that direction?"

She said it questioningly, but they all three turned and began hopping away. Theo shrugged. "Now then, how about these big doggos?"

Ordus was crouching in front of the cage. "I think that you have a couple of choices, you can either try and claim them as pets, or you can let them loose, and they will probably establish a pretty good population of them here on the Overlook."

Julia crouched down in front of the other cage and looked at the Cliffhound inside. She was immediately struck by how much it looked like a cross between a Great Pyrenees and a mountain goat. It didn't have horns, but it had the stalky-looking legs of a goat and the strange hair clusters over the hooves on the ends of its legs. The rest of the body was oddly over-muscled and looked almost exactly like a Great Pyrenees dog.

As Julia looked into the eyes of the Cliffhound, she could see its intelligence. "I would not mind having them as friends, but how do we swing that?"

"Well, my Claim would be my first recommendation," Theo said, focusing on the skill. "It says that I can claim land property and other things. So maybe I can claim them?"

"Sure," Julia said, "let's give it a try."

With that, Theo reached a hand out to the left-most cage again, the Cliffhound lunged forward again, and Theo let it bite him and triggered the Claim skill.

The rush of energy that rushed out of the sky, into Theo, and then through him and into the Cliffhound was astonishing. Theo and the Cliffhound froze for a moment. Then Theo got a notification.

"Oh, interesting," Theo said, "she resisted it. I can try again in twenty-four hours. Should I try the other one?"

Julia shrugged. "Sure."

Theo stepped over and stuck his hand into the male's cage. It also lunged at him, and he triggered Claim when it bit into his arm. Julia triggered Warmth of the Hearth this time. Theo felt the thrum of power and then received a notification.

Theo thought for a moment. "You are gonna be Benny."

With a thrum of power, Theo felt a bond of power form between them. He opened the cage, and the fluffy white goat-dog came out. He looked at Theo, then walked over to the cage of the female, and whimpered.

Theo shrugged and let the female out; she took off, and the male looked torn. Theo waved him away. "Go, I'll come find you tomorrow."

With a strange bleating bark, Benny disappeared towards the cliff edge after the female. Theo turned back to the other two, "Alright now, how about this stuff?"

They all turned to look at the loot.