“Fish weir?” Daisy asked.
Alice nodded, drawing lines in open air with her fingers. She noticed the little girl still staring questioningly at her. “Yes.”
“What’s a fish weir?” Daisy asked in exasperation.
“Well, the creation and method of enactment varies, but the purpose of a fish weir has been the same since the time before written records. It traps or directs fish with a manmade obstruction to their natural path. This one, I believe, will forcefully divert the salmon swimming past this place into the river mouth, and then up the mountain,” Alice replied casually, still drawing lines in the air in front of her.
“Well, alright,” Garath said. He was glad to have some semblance of an objective at this point. The Tower was unlike any dungeon or Dungeon he’d ever encountered, either on this new Earth or in the video games he’d spent so much time on before the apocalypse. So open world. “The chest mentioned a chamber deep beneath each island. So, water forms then. By a show of hands, who doesn't have a Water form?”
Daisy, Athios, Maimon, Atlas, Obawon, Jebawon, and Sharon all raised their hands. Garath nodded and willed open his BeastScape panel for a quick refresher on which swimming forms he had access to. He only had two, and neither could actually breath underwater. Garath hadn’t foreseen needing a form to remain under water for extended periods of time. Even if he had, though, the Woodland Park Zoo had a fairly limited marine exhibit. The Necrologist frowned.
“Anyone have a cool water form?” Garath asked dumbly.
“Yes,” Alice said, looking at him with her signature head tilt. Then she pointed out to sea. “But you should unlock one of those.”
Garath followed her outstretched hand to see that the previously still water in front of the Lore Keeper was now being broken in regular intervals by a pod of majestic, black and white monsters regularly seen in Puget Sound near his home.
Orcas.
An excitement crept up his spine as he considered the idea of taking that powerful and beautiful form.
About a soccer field away, the pod played in the cold water, but Garath couldn’t unlock the form. He’d have to get close enough to make eye contact. His excitement nearly led the Necrologist to shift into one of his many flying forms, but then Garath’s cautious side poked its head out from the cage he kept it in. It reminded him what would happen if he used his allotted BeastScape transformations too quickly, and provided a solution. Garath thought for just a second that maybe, just maybe, he should let that part of himself out of its cage more often.
“Auto, be a pal and go unlock Orca form, then come back here and beach yourself so we can get it from you?” Garath asked with his prettiest smile on. Of all the advantages that the Chimerist Class had, the one that Garath envied the most was the removal of the daily shift limit.
Auto thought about it, nodded, and then shifted into the ugliest creature Garath had ever laid eyes on. Some familiar features, namely the mutant’s coloring and weight allocation, led him to believe he was looking at a hybrid of the two forms they’d unlocked at the zoo that could be considered ‘water forms’, a hippopotamus and a penguin. Garath laughed. Auto looked like a fat man with a beak wearing a tuxedo tailored for a child.
The Penguipotamus belly flopped into the water swam toward the pod of orcas with its short, stubby wings. Garath hoped the orcas weren’t hostile, but even if they were, he was sure Auto would be able to either take the damage until he could make it back to the group, or escape by shifting into a flight capable form. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.
The orcas swam up to him curiously, then circled him playfully. A few seconds later, Auto transformed to match their uniform black and white majesty. He swam and danced with them for a few minutes, playing and splashing in his new form, then doubled back to meet the Party on the white sand beach. Garath smiled to himself, pleased that everything had gone to plan, then cocked his head when he noticed that the orcas were following Auto back to the island. When the Chimerist beached himself on the white sand, the orcas stayed away and circled, looking up out of the water occasionally at the Party.
Everyone approached Auto in turn and met his gaze to unlock the new form, then Auto shifted back into his natural form.
Congratulations, Garath! You have unlocked the BeastScape form - Orca.
***See the BeastScape partition of your MENU panels for additional information.
“Those aren’t normal orcas,” Auto said, tipping his head to one side and shaking out the water. “Unless all orcas are that curious and friendly. I guess I don’t really know what I’m talking about. We don’t have many of those in Wyoming.”
“Orcas are curious by nature, but you are correct in assuming these are unlike the ones you would see in the oceans outside of The Tower,” Alice said. She held one finger up to her chin and tilted her head thoughtfully as she watched the circling marine mammals. “There’s something… familiar about them, actually. But I can’t quite place it. Like seeing someone you only met once, in a dream, a long time ago.”
Auto looked at Alice with some interest, then his face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Alice, can I get you to go into your octopus form for a second?”
Alice happily acquiesced, sprouting several extra limbs as she shifted into her favorite form. Auto stared into her emotionless, horizontally slitted eyes for a moment, then nodded.
“Got it,” he said, then almost skipped his way back to the water’s edge with glee. The Chimerist turned back to Alice, a terrible grin stretching from ear to ear. “Thank you!”
The Party watched as their tank took a few steps and began to shimmer
