A Study of the Fauna of Termina [For kasumu_sekai]

[feathered_mages]

The next time the younger Rydia sees the little Black Mages, they may seem a bit more prepared for a trip. At least judging from the new little grade-school-type backpacks they're sporting. Blaze had picked those up for them at the Nexus Mall, being of the opinion that visiting other worlds was a great opportunity to pick up Shiny Things and that it might help to have something to carry them in. He couldn't use a backpack himself, what with the wings, but he has no doubts about their usefulness.

Comments

[feathered_mages]

A lot of nodding and snuggles follow on the part of the Magelets, and Mistral - watching them - joins in on a hug as well. He can't carry a backpack, of course, what with the wings, but he does have a waist pouch with some supplies and his knife. And his bell, of course, now cleaned up a bit and on a new piece of ribbon - it's still a weathered brass-brown, with traces of green verdigris in the patterning.

Mistral chuckles a little, "The other two Waltzes almost wanted to come, until I mentioned which world we might check next."

[feathered_mages]

"The moon is... weird," Mistral admits. "It looks like it's going to fall down, and it has a face on it. But there are a lot of interesting creatures there, and I didn't get to study as many of them as I wanted to last time."

[feathered_mages]

Mistral nods. "Besides, if it was really going to fall, it would have by now, so there's no way it can squish us." He doesn't know about the strange time-travel issues of Termina.

The Magelets waddle around, snuggle, and generally get themselves situated for teleport. Mistral will get his PINPoint out, mentioning the coordinates to Rydia for future reference as he sets them.

[feathered_mages]

And they'll teleport into a grassy field, facing the outer walls of a roughly circular town. Mistral, having been here before, takes care not to look up. The town isn't squashed, that's all he needs to know about what's hanging over it.

The Magelets look around. And then they look up. And then they shriek and try to hide behind Rydia and Mistral.

[feathered_mages]

"I-it's not a monster?" says a hiding Magelet - with them all huddled in a clump it's hard to say just who.

"Is it going to eat us?" asks another.

"I don't know what happened to it," says Mistral. "It looked like that the last time, too. And, no, it's not going to eat you."

[feathered_mages]

"Here," says Mistral, looking around for one of the strangely circular patches of tall grass. "Look at this instead." He'll step closer to it and there's a slight bubbling sound as a ChuChu forms.

"It's see through," says Juro, fascinated. The Magelets soon form their usual observant semicircle.

[feathered_mages]

"Mikoto's second least favorite creature in the known multiverse," Mistral says with a chuckle. "It's a ChuChu. She kept stabbing one the last time we were here, but you can't really kill them in any way I know of. They just pop and then reform. In fact it seemed to like it, since it started following her around to get stabbed over and over. I've also heard they use the slime from them in potion-making."

"It likes to be stabbed?" says a baffled Teo.

"And popped?" adds Tavi.

Kaze looks for a stick.

[feathered_mages]

Kaze finds a stick, but then can't quite bring himself to use it to try to pop the creature. Magelets really are just too non-violent for their own good. He joins the others in petting it instead. The ChuChu just jiggles. It's surrounded and can't do much else, even without being affected by a bell.

Mistral looks around, careful not to look up. "There are four different places around the town. We only saw parts of them last time. There's a swamp that way," he'll point out the directions as he goes, "a canyon over there, a mountain with lots of snow up there, and a beach that way."

[feathered_mages]

"I think the swamp is closest," says Mistral, who starts to head that way. The Magelets follow after a moment - and the ChuChu jumps after them. It will stop its pursuit after a while, though, unless some effort is made to keep it following.

[feathered_mages]

Mistral looks. The Magelets also look - and meep - but they hold their ground this time.

"It did that the last time, too," says Mistral, finding something faintly odd about that. "It was some kind of shiny stone. I think Blaze kept it. Maybe that's another one."

"Did it fall down over there?" asks Luca. The Magelets are curious now.

[mage_hatchlings]

The Magelets are already waddling curiously in that direction, but Mistral still finds the small impact crater first. Right where the last one was. He looks around, suspicious, and can't find an impact crater from the last time.

The Magelets semicircle to look in the hole.

[feathered_mages]

It's a very pretty blue stone shaped like a curved teardrop. It almost seems to glow, and the Magelets look entranced by it.

Mistral nods. "It's just like the one Blaze found. And that one landed here too... but I don't see another crater. Could they be falling in exactly the same place every time that happens?"