This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/The_Fallen_1 on 2024-06-16 19:00:05+00:00.
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“Watcha doing?” Milla asked Daniel as she padded up behind him and rested her head on his shoulder.
“Oh, just checking in with Affinity, making sure everything’s ok,” Daniel explained as he closed his holo and began to scratch between her horns.
“Is she?”
“Yeah, she’s fine. No issues with her presence on Earth, and while Leshnat-trevarn attempted another attack with better strategy, she didn’t have too much trouble repelling it with their massively reduced numbers. She’s expecting another attack soon, but they don’t have the ships left to beat her rapidly growing numbers.”
“After everything that happened, I thought more was going to happen to be honest.”
“Well, we did spend months taking out all the big threats and buying time for Affinity,” Daniel reminded her. “It is awful though that she is the reason we’re still alive, yet she can’t reveal that she exists.”
“Yet,” Milla reminded him. “You can bet your arse that once this war is over and the CDG makes it clear she’s a war hero that things will change. It’s just getting there that’s the problem.”
“I suppose,” he agreed. “Enough about that though, is there anything you’d like to do today?”
“I would like a bit of alone time with you,” Milla admitted.
“I’m sure the Oprin and Felkira will be fine alone for a bit,” Daniel assured her.
“We’re going on a date then,” Milla decided. “It’s a nice day, so how does the Dalgontock national park sound?”
“I’ve somehow never been,” he replied.
“Well let’s change that,” she told him, heading towards the front door and pulling a black leather saddle out of a nearby cupboard, slipping into it.
“Like, right now?” he asked, getting up.
“If you don’t have any other plans.”
“I don’t really,” he admitted, heading over to get his shoes and jacket. “Alright, let’s do this.”
“Oprin, Felkira, Daniel and I are heading out for a bit. If you need anything, just send us a message,” Milla called out to the house.
“Okay,” came both of their replies.
“Let’s head off then,” Milla declared, using her wings to lift Daniel onto her back and walking to the back door as Daniel secured himself.
She exited into the garden and headed over to the open space designated as a Dragon landing pad. Once in position, she looked back at Daniel and visually inspected her harness to make sure it was both properly secure on her and holding Daniel in place properly. Once she was happy, she shook herself to confirm the saddle fit was good, and then unfurled her wings. After a short moment, she launched herself into the air, flapping hard to gain altitude and rising until she was at a safe altitude, at which point she levelled off and began to head West towards the forest on the horizon, rapidly gaining speed and making sure she was far enough away from the other Dragons flying around.
“Are you ok back there?” Milla asked; her voice transmitting through her saddle.
“Yep, the wind shield is working fine,” Daniel replied, only feeling a gentle breeze instead of the torrent of air.
“Good. We’ve got a gentle tailwind, which makes this a really nice flight when you add in the clear skies and sun. I just wish it was a little warmer.”
“You don’t feel the cold though,” he pointed out.
“I can wish things are pleasant for you as well, can’t I?”
“That you can, thank you. That being said, you are nice and warm, so if I did get a bit cold…” he trailed off.
“Don’t worry, I’d turn into a hot scaly donut before you finished asking,” she chuckled.
“Just be careful when we get a dog, because I know you’re going to want to do that to them and they have a lot of fur keeping them warm already.”
“I’ll be careful with the dogs, don’t worry,” she assured him.
“Dog.”
“Dogs.”
“Dog.”
“You know it will be dogs,” Milla smirked. “Don’t forget you promised to think about it if Felkira decided to stay.”
“I did, and I am thinking about it, but currently we’ve only agreed on one.”
“Why are you so insistent on only one?” Milla asked as they reached the edge of the forest.
“Because I’d prefer to make sure we can actually take care of one properly first, and I know if I let you have more, you’re just going to keep increasing the number. Therefore, one until I’m confident we can take care of it and more.”
“Then can we get another nine or an even ten?”
“Milla….”
“I’m kidding. I get what you’re saying. Don’t worry, I’m not my mother, I’m not going to start hoarding animals,” she assured him.
“Good, because I don’t think I’m ready to run the world’s largest dog sanctuary.”
“Yeah, dogs require a lot more effort than deer. All she has to do is make sure they are safe and then pretty much leave them be. Well, whenever she’s not out relaxing with them that is.”
“That I’ve got to see,” he laughed, imagining the giant green Dragon laying in the middle of a herd of deer that were paying her no mind.
“That being said, early on into starting her hoard, she tried to fully domesticate all of the deer. As you might be able to guess, it went poorly, and in the end, she decided to only domesticate the deer that showed interest in bonding with her.”
“Remind me, what does bonding with an animal mean again?”
“A sapient being basically forms a permanent strong Aetheric link with a sentient but not sapient being that is interested in forming one, which for the person just means they can telepathically communicate with the animal at will, but it for the animal there are numerous benefits, like an extended lifespan, and in rare cases, limited spellcasting. The animal rarely understands what they’re doing, but a bond can only happen if the animal would choose to form one if they did know, and that’s not a guarantee it will happen. It’s complicated, but it basically means that the animal considers you to be extremely close family. Any species can form a bond with an animal, but Dryads have by far the best chance, followed by Humans, then Elves, then Dragons if their hoard relates to that animal. Occurrences with the other species or Dragons that don’t have a related hoard is so rare that it’s hard to gauge how likely it is.”
“Can an animal bond to more than one person?”
“On rare occasions. When it does happen, it’s usually because the bond with the first person was broken in death, but there are a handful of documented cases where Dryads have adopted animals Humans have domesticated and both owners managed to form a bond simultaneously. In theory, it can happen with multiple people of different species, but it’s so rare that there are no recorded cases. I do suspect that there are some occurrences though that people don’t report so they don’t have to deal with the hassle,” Milla explained as she began to descend towards a clearing in the forest that was marked out by dim infrared lights. “Are you hoping that we’ll both bond to our dogs?”
“Well, kinda. If someone is going to bond though, it should probably be you.”
“We won’t have a choice in the matter. The dogs will simply decide who they like more, and if they happen to bond, that will be that,” Milla told him as she began to slow down, flaring her wings and gently touching down in a fenced off field and quickly vacating the area. “Now, here we are: Dalgontock national park.”
Daniel began to look around, finding a few small huts woven out of living trees, serving as vending stands and tourist booths, with a pair of big buildings tucked away, signposted as a café and a forest keeper’s hut. There was a significant abundance of Dryads, which he wasn’t surprised about given their natural tendency towards nature, but they weren’t the only species there.
“Seems nice and peaceful here,” he commented.
“Yep, this is probably the quietest corner of the park. The main entrance can get very busy, but that’s a few hours walk away from here,” Milla explained as she carried him towards one of the stands. “This end tends to only really get traffic from the villages in the area, and the Dragon settlements like ours, but few Dragons appreciate nature.”
“I see….”
“Now, what would you like to drink? Tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate?”
“A hot chocolate sounds nice,” he replied, as they arrived at the stand.
“Hi there, a large and a Dragon sized hot chocolate, both with cream please,” Milla requested to the Dryad manning the stand.
“Of course, just a moment please,” the Dryad replied, presenting the payment reader to Milla, and he then began to make the drinks.
Milla held her holo up to the reader, waiting for it to beep before retracting it, and then watching for a few moments as their drinks were quickly made. She took the drinks as soon as they were done, thanking the Dryad, and passed Daniel’s to him. He looked at the drink, mainly focussing on the large mound of whipped cream on top, which he began to lick away until enough of the drink was exposed for him to drink. Before he actually tried to drink it though, he waited for Milla to stop walking away from the stand so his bumpy ride wouldn’t cause any of it to be spilt.
“Thank you, Milla,” he told her.
“You’re very welcome,” she replied, taking a large…
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1dhel6n/thjverse_arcane_starfarers_ep_311_rr/
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