"Speach"
'Thought'
«Other species»
[Writing]
Robin entered Gamma's workshop, a familiar sound of hissing steam and rattling cogs surrounding him the moment he entered.
The familiar sound of power tools however was lacking today.
Robin walked over towards Gamma who was standing at his research bench, diary open next to him while sketching out some kind of blueprint.
"Hey, what are you up to today?"
"I'm working on something called tracks. They're an alternative to wheels when it comes to transport."
"It looks like an alignment of wheels to me…" Robin replied looking at the blueprint.
"Well yes technically it is, but in a way, it's also different. You see, the continuous track is a system of vehicle propulsion used in… well-tracked vehicles what else? Anyway, they run on a continuous band of treads or track plates driven by two or more wheels."
"I don't get it…"
"Here, you see this band around these two wheels?" Gamma pulled both the diary and blueprint closer. "That's a track. By turning the wheels the track gets moved with them. It's basically like a carpet of interconnected plates that the first wheel places down in front of it so that it and the other aligned wheels have a stable ground to drive over before the final wheel picks it up again and moves it back to the front over the top where the first wheel places it down again. The cycle repeats from there. This way your vehicle has a lot more ground fraction and doesn't get stuck so easily."
"Oh, I think I get it now… Thanks for the explanation." Robin lied, still not completely understanding the concept, but deciding to leave it at that, fearing a long and detailed explanation from his friend.
"Well enough of that, you're here for the clock right?"
[A bit later]
Robin placed the now-repaired clock back in its place. "As good as new." he said, before turning towards Basil with a smile. "Try to not break it this time will you?"
The snake gave him an innocent look.
"Well talking about time, should we go hunting?" he added, grabbing his bow. At that Basil got up with an excited hiss.
"Welp didn't expect otherwise." he replied with a chuckle. He still wasn't sure if Basil could actually understand him or simply drew the conclusion from what he was planning by him picking up the hunting bow. He had to test it someday.
"Let's go!" he said, heading for the backdoor. He lifted pretty much at the outskirts of town, near the walls, something that made his job as a guard easier, but now also turned out to be handy when he wanted to leave the town unseen and avoid questions about why he had a dragonbite viper in tow.
With the help of a hidden away door in the wall, which was meant to be only used by guards that were actually on duty, he and Basil headed towards the forest. Good thing he was high enough ranked to own the required key, but he worked hard for his position after all.
"Anything specific you want to catch today?" he asked, only to earn a confused look from his companion. "Right, I tend to forget that you don't understand what I say." he chuckled to himself. "Well, you're a surprisingly good listener for having that problem… At last I hope you're being a listener as it would otherwise mean that I'm annoying you all day long with my constant talking." he looked at Basil again, who had zoned out by now, no longer paying attention. "Yea, that might actually be the case…"
Basil's head suddenly shot up, his tongue flicking out and tasting the air.
"You found something?" he asked, his voice lowering to a whisper. As a reply, the snake started sneaking in the direction he was looking towards, making close to no sound while doing so.
Robin silently congratulated himself for being able to teach him so well. He still remembered the mess of a noisemaker Basil used to be.
Their find turned out to be a boar, who was digging in the earth, searching for food.
He gave Basil a nod of approval, and nocked an arrow, before letting go. The arrow lodged itself in their prey's side with a well-aimed shot and the boar let out a terrified squeak, trying to run away.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Basil shooting forward, intercepting the boar with a loud hiss. The now completely panicked animal tried to turn around, but a second arrow found its way into the boar's head, granting it a quick death.
"Well done." he said to the snake with a nod, before picking up the boar. "Should we share or do you want to catch something for yourself?"
As a response, Basil slithered into the undergrowth. Not that he mined. While the viper was a nice companion, snakes preferred to be loners, in the end, something that Robin had to respect.
With the boar still on his shoulder, he headed towards the clearing where he usually cooked his meal, the same clearing he had also encountered Basil for the second time. Placing the boar to the side, for now, he started lighting the fire, careful that it would stay inside the stone circle and not jump, potentially starting a forest fire.
After that, he started skinning the boar and placing the meat above the fire to cock, while thinking back to the few times he and Basil had been hunting before. One of the things he had noticed was that Basil had slowly started to become less afraid of the fire, even comfortable enough to lazily slumber near it when Robin was nearby, trusting the human that it was safe. He however wasn't willing to interact with it when Robin wasn't around, even going as far as to extinguish it with sand like he had observed it being done by Robin.
While he waited for the food to be done cooking, he took a small bottle with a black fluid inside it, Basil's venom to be more precise, and started carefully adding it to a glass of water he had with him, carefully counting the drips, as the now poisoned water turned darker. He remembered with a chuckle how he had gotten it from Basil, the little snake happy to obligate after he had offered him a rabbit.
Well, that wouldn't work anymore for a while, as Basil only ate 2-3 times a week.
With that thought aside he took the poisoned water and drank it in a quick gulp. What normally would have been a suicidal move was in reality a crazy tip he had gotten from an even crazier mechanic.
He could still remember the first time Gamma had suggested mithridatism to make himself immune against Basil's venom and while he had first laughed it off, in the end, he had still done it after all, and surprise or not, Gamma seemed to stand correctly in his biological knowledge. Robin was already able to survive double the amount any normal human could, although it was still far away from the minimum of what a dragonbite viper's bite would inject on average.
(Author note: Obviously, don't try to perform mithridatism at home!)
Robin looked up when he heard a rustle from the treelines. "So you're back? Took you long enough Bas…" he stopped when he realized that it wasn't Basil who had slithered onto the clearing.
Instead, he looked up towards a giant Swamp Dragon. Robin quickly jumped up, sword drawn, slowly backing away. The dragon however followed, quickly shortening the distance and Robin realized in distress that it was carrying a net in its talon.
A second later the dragon leaped forward, right talon outstretched to catch him, but Robin managed to evade with a quick jump to the side. Swinging his sword at his adversary, he connected, the blade scrapping across the scales. To his concern, Robin noticed that he failed to leave even so much as a scratch.
The dragon grunted annoyed and swung its talon at him, but Robin managed to jump over it. He, however, didn't manage to avoid the elbow that came next and he was tossed through the air, barely able to hold onto his sword.
A moment later he felt a scaly talon grab around his torso. Robin felt his breath quicken as he beat down the panic that was slowly rising in him, before bringing his sword down, aiming at the exposed skin where the claw met the finger.
The dragon let out a hiss of pain and dropped him, Robin quickly taking the chance to get some distance between himself and the dragon. While walking backward, he suddenly felt his foot catch onto something, possibly a root or rock and he tripped, falling onto his back, and dropping his sword in the process.
He let out a curse, trying to reach for his knife, even though the logical part of his brain knew exactly that it wouldn't be of any use against a dragon.
The dragon seemed almost satisfied when it walked over to him, kicking his sword into the undergrowth while it was at it.
'Is this really how my story is going to end?' he thought his mind desperately searching for a way out of this situation.
Suddenly Robin noticed a quick movement at the bottom of his vision, followed by a furious hiss that send a chill down his spine.
Taking his eyes away from the dragon, he noticed that a familiar brown-red viper had taken a position at his feed. His head was angrily raised, and showing off two long fangs that were glittering like shards of ice in the sunlight.
"Basil…" he finally understood, a wave of relief washing over him. The dragon on the other hand looked terrified as it stumbled, its posture having changed from victorious to one of a cornered bunny.
Basil wasn't willing to give Swamp Dragon even a fraction of a second to recover as he was already in full charge, eyes full of bloodlust.
The dragon let out a sound that almost sounded like a squeak, before turning around in a panicked retreat, almost falling over its own feet in the process. Its wings pumping quickly, the Swamp Dragon's efforts paid off as it took to the air, a few unfortunate trees that were in the way getting smashed clean in half.
Basil and Robin watched the dragon fly away for a while, before slowly relaxing.
"Thanks, buddy." Robin mumbled putting his knife back in his belt, before gently picking up Basil and pulling him into a warm embrace, an act he knew his cold-blooded companion enjoyed. "You saved my life."
Basil happily accepted the gesture, coiling around his hands and arm, his tongue flicking out for a moment, tasting the air to see if Robin was ok. He couldn't smell any blood, so he relaxed and rested his head against Robin's chest.
They stayed like that for a moment, before Robin started recollecting his things while Basil looped around his neck, resting his head on his shoulder.
"Let's go home, my friend." Robin said with a smile, putting his now recovered sword back into its holster.
—000—
Gamma was just finished with attaching the last piece when someone knocked on his door.
"Come in!" he called out, turning towards the visitor, just in time to see Robin enter the workshop.
"Oh, hey. How was the hunt?"
"I caught a boar and got attacked by a dragon only to be saved by Basil." he replied in a casual tone. "By the way, do you have any weapons that allow me to hurt those flying reptiles?"
Gamma chuckled. "Straight to the point I see? Well, I see what I can do."
"You won't ask for more detail?"
"I don't need to because you will tell me anyway."
"Touché." he replied with a chuckle, before starting to recollect what had happened during the hunt, while Gamma was sketching something out on a piece of paper.
He worked a bit slower, both because he was thinking of an idea as well as listening to Robin's story.
"The most realistic for now would be some kind of melee weapon…" he finally concluded. "At the current point in time, I'm unsure how to make a dragon-killing projectile without packing it full with more explosives. Not something I'm comfortable with considering safety and all…"
"Sorry?"
"It has to be a non-projectile weapon because that seems to be the type of weapon you're the most familiar with and because that's usually the range at which you seem to engage dragons." Gamma explained. "You also got the advantage of it taking up less space since you don't need to carry ammunition and can't run out of said ammunition. I could make smaller ammunition of course, but the smaller, the less they're lethal. The only disadvantage is that you need to get close and personal, but it's kind of your job to do that and get your butt kicked."
Robin rolled his eyes, although Gamma could see him trying to hide a smile. "You owe me some good equipment for that remark."
"Did I ever supply you with trash before?"
"No, but you did crash a carriage."
"Mistakes are allowed during the testing stage."
"Only as long as you improve." Robin retorted with a taunting smirk.
"Oh, but I do." Gamma replied with a smirk of his own, mentioning towards the wall where he had leaned the vehicle track he had been building and modifying over the last two days.
"Took me a bit of time, but I finally managed to optimize the design." he started explaining, secretly watching Robin out of the corner of his eye to catch his expression. "Now I just need to build a second one for the other side and add a chassis… and engine… and breaks, steering wheel, levers, hydraulics… ok I'm still far from done I admit that, but hopefully this will be worth it and the design will prevent any further crash or the engine from blowing up."
"I only got a fifth of that but I will just nod my head for now and pretend I understand." Robin finally replied after a moment of silence.
Gamma let out a laugh. "You don't have to, I will show you how it works when it's done. Explaining is easier when you got visuals."
Robin was now laughing himself. "No thanks, I pass. It will probably still be over the top for me no matter how you try to teach me." With that, he turned to the door. "Anyway, thanks for your help, and good luck with your project."
"Always!" he replied, giving Robin a quick salute as he left before going back to work.