I hope two in a row isn't spamming; I just want to catch up to the current time.

------

Alasdair's Journal, Part 2: Vasuki

Without potions, hoards were much more difficult, but I drew on my experience from the first two, and was able to bring back at least something each time. Often, I managed to find a few PixCoins as well. “Don’t worry, you’ll get better at this,” Schnecco assured me each time, making me feel like I already wasn’t living up to the first Alasdair. During one of my travels, I was thrilled when I had found a cave filled with liquid gems that could be bottled, but the ones I brought back ended up having a dull grade. Each time I went out, I could go a little farther, but my progress was becoming frustratingly slow, and I often stopped at the gem cave just to bring something back.

I returned from my seventh hoard shortly after midnight on Christmas Day, and it was around then that the Noo-Long egg hatched. Even fresh out of the egg, the dragon-creature was massive, and took up much of the backyard unless they coiled themselves up. Schnecco named them Vasuki after a mythological serpent/dragon king. It had also been the name of her previous Noo-Long. “Come meet your new sibling,” Schnecco coaxed me, and I went over and held up a paw to Vasuki in greeting. They touched their bulky clawed foot to it, and even though I knew they wouldn’t, I had the sickening feeling that they could snatch me up with just that one foot if they wanted to.



It was late, so we all went to sleep. Visitors stopped by now and then to feed Vasuki and me some treats. Fortified, we were both ready to head out by morning. Vasuki needed almost as much food for their first hoard as I did for my eighth. We headed out together, and Vasuki hovered over me excitedly. I was stuck walking in their long shadow.

“Where do we go?” they asked.

I led us past the rows of houses to the edge of the woods. There were even more huts now than just a few days ago. “Well, there are the woods, and beyond those, a meadow and some rocky outcroppings. I haven’t gotten anywhere near the mountains yet, and beyond those, who knows.” Vasuki rose up a little to look into the distance at the places I was describing.



It wasn’t long before 15 minutes had passed, and neither of us had found anything yet. “I imagine you’ll need to be heading back soon,” I said to Vasuki, who seemed to be treating this like just going on a stroll. “I’ve still got half a day’s worth of travel ahead of me, so I’ll see you later. Good luck, and just pick up anything you find.”

“Oh, okay,” they said, a little dejected. There wasn’t much I could do about it, though. Vasuki was a very beginner at level 0 while I was now level 25, and even with their size, there was no way they’d be able to keep up with me. I walked on through the woods while Vasuki turned around for home.

Unable to find anything new and exciting even after exploring for six hours, I stopped by the cave again and bottled some liquid sunstone. I wondered if there was a better cave somewhere with higher quality gems. Back home, I presented my latest dull find and listened to Vasuki talk about their first four hoards. They didn’t find anything on the first two, but on the third, they found 10 PixCoins and some very dull orange pumpkin seeds. My jaw dropped when they said they found a Sunobra egg on the fourth hoard. I had been looking so hard for eggs, and Vasuki had already found one on their first day.

“It’s on the market, though, since we don’t have room for more PixPets right now,” said Vasuki sadly.

I tried not to show my envy, but went over and rubbed against the blue and gold PixPet Potion sitting on our inventory shelf. I wanted to tell Schnecco, “If you let me have that potion, maybe I could find you a Xeldron egg.” However, only Tuxos were capable of crude human speech, as I had found out when flipping through Schnecco’s beta PixDex entries during one of my breaks. PixPets could understand one another, but I had to find other ways to communicate with Schnecco.

“Don’t break that,” she said, rushing over to steady the bottle. “I’m saving it until we have room for more PixPets.” Looks like I would have to find an egg without the aid of potions. Oh well, that would just make it more special.

The next morning, Vasuki asked me if I wanted to go with them for the first part of our hoards, since we would be leaving at the same time again. “I’m level 15 now, so I can journey with you for a lot longer this time!” I wondered what would happen if we both saw an egg at the same time, but they seemed so hopeful that I couldn’t turn them down.

“Hey, I know, you can ride on my back!”

My eyes widened. “Are you sure?” I sure wasn’t. “That wouldn’t be demeaning to a majestic demigod dragon like you?”

Now Vasuki looked surprised. “No, why would it be?”

“Just making sure.” I walked gingerly over to Vasuki as they lowered themselves as far down as they could go. It was still a hefty jump up onto their back, and I struggled to climb up without using my claws. If I was having this much trouble on the ground, what would I do to hold on once we were in the air?

The thought had barely registered when Vasuki lifted up. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms tightly around their neck and buried my face in a tuft of their cloud-fur mane. My arms barely wrapped around a third of their circumference and Vasuki didn’t even seem to notice.

“Here we go, are you all right?”

My eyes were squeezed shut and I didn’t know if I could open them and still keep my stomach inside my body. A muffled “Not sure,” was all I could manage.

“Don’t worry, this will be fun, and now we can go faster!”

Yup, just what I needed. I felt the air rushing past, and when I was still alive after several minutes, I risked opening my eyes again and lifting my head. Vasuki was hovering over the tops of the trees and looking down for possible plunder. I guess this did have some advantages. I just needed to stay very still.

At the outskirts of the woods, there was a small white building at the edge of a little village I hadn’t seen before, and Vasuki headed toward it. “Brace for landing,” they said, “I’m going to check that place out.” I held on tightly and shut my eyes again, but Vasuki’s landing was gradual and gentle. When we were on the ground, I slid gratefully off onto the firm earth.

The white building turned out to be a pharmacy, and the pharmacist informed us that we could each take a free sample of one of the supplements. Vasuki and I both reached for calcium. “You don’t want to get something different from me?” The one they’d chosen looked to be a lower quality than mine. I was getting a little better at discerning these things.

“Nah, I like this one,” Vasuki replied. “Think of the potions Schnecco can brew for us with all of these!”

“I don’t think we have the other ingredients yet, and I don’t even remember what potions we can make with calcium.”

“Guess we will find out!”

We walked around the little village for a while, but couldn’t find anything else worth hoarding. The market here was much smaller than the one back home, and we didn’t have any coins with us. As we walked out of the market, though, Vasuki found 14 whole PixCoins. “Think I should try to find who these belong to?”

“I say just take them and run.”

“Okay, where to next?” Vasuki lowered their neck again.

I hesitated for a moment, but then climbed back up. “Wherever you want to go. You’re the one flying.” Vasuki grinned at me and took off once I was settled. We flew together until it was time for them to turn back for home. “I can still keep going for a few more hours, but thanks for the ride,” I told them.

“Okay, just remember you’re probably a lot farther than you’d be if you walked, so you may need to start heading back earlier than you think,” Vasuki said as they dropped me off in a wide green meadow. I thanked them again and waved as they lifted off into the distance. Before heading home myself, I managed to find another small farm with four packs of black pumpkin seeds, and on the return journey through the small village, I found nine PixCoins.

For the next few days, Vasuki and I were on different schedules, so we couldn’t travel together anymore. I was starting to find more normal, rather than dull, ingredients, but wasn’t having as much luck with PixCoins. Then, on my most recent hoard, no matter where I went, I couldn’t seem to find anything. I tried the pharmacy again, but was told they’d already given away all their free samples for the day. It had been a while since I had visited the liquid gem cave, and now I couldn’t find it. I almost got some pixeldust, but some cheeky Canisqua scooped it up before I reached it. Digging for treasure didn’t turn anything up. I had to go home empty handed, and gazed enviously at the PixPets hauling capsules and eggs and various ingredients along the streets.

I know Schnecco was disappointed, even though she petted me anyway. Meanwhile, Vasuki was bringing back all sorts of things, from orange capsules, lucky beans and Cani mineral blocks to a second egg. “Oh, I was just saying how much I wanted an Indigoat!” exclaimed Schnecco. “We’re keeping this one. Won’t it be neat to have a pet hatch on New Year’s Day? Each of you will have hatched on a holiday!”



However, that would mean one of us would have to sit out on hoarding in the PixPet inventory while the egg hatched. After my last hoard, I thought for certain it would be me. Vasuki had the luck that came with being a legendary PixPet, and despite hatching over three days after me, they were now one level higher at 38, while I was still at 37. But it was Vasuki that Schnecco asked to step out once they were done resting. “Alasdair’s got to work toward level 50 to evolve,” she reasoned. Vasuki was good natured about it, like they are about everything, it seems. Sometimes I wish I could be like that, but then again, I am not a dragon demigod.

I wonder what the new Indigoat will be like, but I will have to find out after my next hoard. Hopefully this hoard will be more fruitful than the last.