Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Backyard of strange creatures

The duo quickly made their way to the backyard of the compound. The area was different from what one would expect from a normal backyard and it wasn’t just one thing, it was everything.

A large patch of land had been cleared of trees. The land was divided into different quadrants with each quadrant having different species of animals in it. One area was filled with blue sapphire sheep that were naked with no wool at the moment. 

Dyr couldn’t help but admire the smoothness of their skin at the moment. His dad was unreliable most of the time but when it came to his “pets” he would be a river of competence. 

Next to the blue sapphire sheep were rainbow-tailed chickens, jackalopes, giant wetas which looked like a weevil but have the hind legs of a grasshopper, and a few opimacus which were birds with 4 legs. They had the upper look of a heron while at the lower back the 2 hind legs were shaped like that of a grasshopper and the 2 front legs were that of a normal bird. The opimachus were currently devouring a pit filled with snakes.

There was also a beehive however the bees there looked different from normal bees as they were stingless and their abdomen was slimmer than their thorax. These bees were known as eintykára famously known for their gold honey.

This was just but a few of the creatures that flooded the backyard with more to come as there was an area that seemed like an incubation area that had different kinds of eggs lying around. Some were placed in grass, others in shallow pools of water others in what looked like red crystalline rocks, and others were in orange wood ash.

Leo ignored the noises that seemed to increase a few decibels the moment the creatures in the backyard spotted him. The noises were varied but they all had one thing in common, they were one of excitement.

Leo and Dyr made their way to the middle of the yard where there were two distinct ponds. One had black murky water while the other had dark green water. This was his destination. As they were walking over to one of the ponds a creature rapidly darted out of the black murky pond before it made its way to Leo with clear excitement based on how it was wagging its tail. 

“Misty stop, stop, don’t you dare jump on me with all that mud, I just changed clothes.” Yelled Leo as he quickly conjured a wall of ice to stop the muddied creature in its tracks. The creature quickly shook its body to get rid of the mud and water on it. After the shake, its body was pristinely clean and smooth that one wouldn't be able to tell just a second ago it was filled with mud.

The creature had short shiny fur that was silky which was dark in color just like the pond it came out of. It looked like a dog except it was the size of a leopard. It had webbed feet, and three pairs of eyes but two of them were closed leaving one pair open which was red in color. By its nose, it had two pairs of barbel whiskers similar to the ones found in a catfish and lastly, it had asymmetrical ears. One seemed to position higher than the other. This was a rare magical beast whose whole body was geared overwhelmingly towards sensory capabilities making it the best guard animal one could have. It was a canine sentire.

Once it was done clearing the murk off its body, it barked twice in excitement almost as if to tell Leo it was clean now. Leo quickly erased the wall of ice he had created, with Misty the canine sentire rushing him almost tipping him over.

“Okay, okay, good to see you too Misty.” Said Leo as he gently petted her with her fur still clearly wet as he still ended up with dirt patches on his shirt and some on his hands despite Misty looking clean. 

“Dyr come take over, I need to wake Kel up it seems he is still sleeping.” Leo quickly pulled Dyr over as he secretly wiped off part of his muddy hands on Dyr’s back hair who didn’t notice anything as he was all too excited to goof around with Misty at the moment who was just as excited to have a playing partner.  

Leo squatted over to the pond with dark green water and slowly stirred the water with his right hand as he made whistle noises that sounded like a mix of cricket noises and frog croaks. He continued with the stirring and the noises for a few minutes before a neigh sounded as a creature with a dark coat with glowing green stripes of green came out of the green watered pond.

The creature looked like a horse. It had green tribal stripes over its eyes, forehead, muzzle, part of the neck, lower back, and both hind legs. It had a mane that looked like water reeds, even its hooves looked like they were made of reeds. The creature that was now nuzzling affectionately at Leo was a kelpie. A horse whose talents lay not on land but traveling in water.

“Hehehe Kel stop that, it tickles.” Leo laughingly said as he gently pushed the kelpie aside.

“We need to make a delivery in town today Kel, we will be using you. You stand out too much in your original form. You might draw some eyes and scare some folks. As usual, I’ll need you to transform.”

Kel neighed as if in protest at the request as it stomped its feet and turned away from facing Leo. It even smacked him with its tail as it was turning.

“Don’t be like that. I’ll buy you something great. Bremdal is sure to have daylilies, sunflowers, and purple passion vine in stock.” Leo soothingly said trying to coax Kel.

Kelpies had an innate gift for shape-shifting however, there were usually some setbacks. In their shape-shifting form, they couldn’t use their full powers, and depending on the circumstance they had to seal some part of their abilities. In the case of Kel every time he went with Leo to town he had to shape-shift into a regular-looking horse. This meant making sure his coat was dry, the mane was not reed-like, and have on regular hooves. It always felt like it was in someone else’s body. It was always an uncomfortable experience for it, one it would rather not go through.

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Seeing that Kel was still giving him the cold shoulder Leo decided to up the ante a little more. He knew how stubborn Kel could get. Not that he could blame him for it. Being exposed to the sun without its regular moisture coat was always a strain for it. But there wasn’t much he could do. The experience would be torturous but from his research, he discovered the more it shapeshifted in these strenuous conditions the better it got at the skill. Its familiarity flourished the harsher the conditions were which was why Leo would use it occasionally to go into town even if he had alternative means, especially during the summer when the temperatures were the highest.

The primary reason he kept making Kel shapeshift was to train him the secondary reason was that Kelpies weren’t exactly liked around in most places. They were notoriously known to be extremely violent and brutally drowning their victims. 

The only reason he was even close with Kel was that he knew it since it was just a month-old colt. He ended up trading a lot to get it from an adventurer during one of his lectures at the Adventure guild branch in Paratus Kingdom.

Having taken care of it from such a young age, it imprinted on him. It was also really close with Misty as they have been around each other since they were young. Fighting, playing and eating together.

“How about I add sweet potato vine and some rosehip plants.” Said Leo. Kel pretended it hadn’t heard anything but those flinching ears and pawing the ground with its legs betrayed it.

“Fine I’ll add yarrow into the mix but that is as far as I’m going.” 

Kel on hearing the word yarrow turned with some excitement and Leo wasn’t sure but he could have sworn it saw a merchant’s cunning glint coming from its eyes.

“Has Alf been teaching nonsense to Kel again to get it to be his horse? The man never gives up.” Leo grumbled as he eyed Kel wearingly.

“Dyr it’s time to go. Misty make sure to keep watch, you’re the only one left at home. Don’t let anyone try and steal the rainbow chicken eggs. I saw how those guys from the village have been eyeing them, sleazy bastards.” Said Leo as he made his way to the front of the house with Kel and Dyr in tow leaving the mopping Misty behind. 

Leo fastened a brown carriage with a grey tap over it to Kel who had already shape-shifted into a black mustang horse. Everything from the green tribal marks, water reed mane, and hooves had all disappeared. One couldn’t tell this was a kelpie.

 

Once everything was fastened, Leo and Dyr started packing the chests filled with blue sapphire wool into the carriage. Leo also spotted a cloth tightly wrapping a few swords in them. They were the swords Mira asked Leo to barter for the ingredients she needed. Leo opened a secret compartment at the left side of the carriage and placed the cloth neatly inside before locking up the compartment again.

Within a few minutes, everything had already been packed up with Dyr not forgetting to put a small pile of blue sapphire wool above the chests for him to lie on during the journey. He was currently rubbing his nose as he had on a silly grin as he stared at the wool. He had an eager expression of a wool diver searching for the best position and pose to dive in for maximum comfort.

“Sometimes due to his carefully planned deviousness and trickery I sometimes forget he is a kid. He’ll be turning 4 soon, I bet he can’t wait to start learning mana manipulation.” Leo thought to himself as he warmly stared at his son who kept moving the wool at different spots trying to find the ultimate angle and spot.

“Let’s get going Dyr… MIRA WE ARE LEAVING SEE YOU LATER.” Leo yelled as he got in the carriage driver seat with Dyr joyfully diving into the wool with a satisfied expression on his face.

“Be safe and not a single thing better be missing from the list.” Mira’s voice echoed from the house.

Leo flinched upon hearing the last part of the sentence before he asked Kel to get going. The carriage was driven slowly through a small man-made pathway at the front right side of the house. The outline of the house was soon left behind as what welcomed Leo and Dyr at the front was an open space of grassland and a couple of hundred meters past that was what looked like a massive full-body skeleton of some beast that was been 5km in length. The weirdest part wasn’t the massive skeleton but there seemed to be earth, plants, and buildings inlaid in the skeleton of the beast.

This was Leo’s and Mira’s village. The Saarthguard village.

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