Wish upon the Stars chapter 295

Sadly, being that he was a sadist who lived to torment us, Abel  refused to say another word about the Shatter Lanes until the next  morning when we were just about to leave. He did invite the others, but  Sloane and the others had gotten an offer from some of the low F-rankers  in the Beast Lord Garden to spend the day with them. Apparently they  were planning to take their seniors down to Riot Bay to do some fishing,  hoping to make some more money.

I wished them luck, but  that left us with Sydney, Megan, Wren, Lestri, and Lament coming with us  still, which would be fun. We also had the wolves with us. They weren't  fans of water so we hadn't brought them to the bay but the Shatter  Lanes weren't water based, and Abel insisted they would have a blast  there. We'd had them wait in the rooms before, and I felt kind of bad  about cooping them up inside, so it would be nice to let them run a bit.

Sydney  was absolutely enthralled by Jin and Rellia as soon as she met them,  and spent the entire morning at breakfast sandwiched between the big fur  balls, cuddling them mercilessly. Finally though, it was time for us to  head out, and Abel decided to finally fill us in on what his comment  about bird racing meant as we walked.

"Alright." He said  after the twentieth time I asked. "Fine. Racing. It's not a complicated  thing. The Shatter Lanes are a huge dirt track in the middle. When you  show up you can pay to race on the backs of giant wingless birds called  Ralkors. They have scales instead of feathers and their beaks and claws  are metal. Scary little fuckers if you piss them off, but they're  trained not to attack their riders."

I was beginning to  sense a pattern here. "Let me guess. During the race the Ralkors attack  anyone who isn't their rider who gets close, and to win you need to  battle your way through the pack of them to reach the front?" I should  have known Abel wouldn't suggest any activity that didn't have a chance  to kill us all, training or not. Still, it definitely sounded like a lot  of fun, especially since Callie and I had our F-rank armor to fall back  on even if we did get attacked.

Abel gasped in feigned  shock, putting a hand to his chest. "What? Me? Put you in danger?  Preposterous! Lies and slander! Absolutely...ok yeah. They'll try to  kill anyone who gets too close, but you have to kind of nudge them.  Riders can team up too, and attacks take away from running, so its not  like every single Ralkor will be attacking. Some riders choose to go all  out on speed, or set traps, it's fun trying to figure out exactly what  people will do. I'm actually going to be taking part in this one.  Personal strength is much less of a factor here because the Ralkors are  all about the same. Though admittedly my spatial perception might help a  tad."

He sounded genuinely excited to take part, and it  occurred to me that Abel had mostly been forced to stay out of all the  activities we'd been doing. With the exception of the fishing, this had  been more of a supervisory thing for him. For someone who obviously  loved Doomtown and all the things he was showing us down here it must  have been hard to just sit back and watch, but he'd never complained. I  felt kind of bad for only noticing that now.

It was easy  to forget that while he was a bit older than us, Abel was still a  G-ranker too. We'd been treating him more like a mentor than a friend,  and during training that was fine, but he wasn't the formal type  usually. I was pretty sure he'd prefer we treat him like one of the gang  when we weren't mid training session. I felt kind of stupid for not  considering that before, but it wasn't really too late. I chuckled  lightly. "I guess that means we finally have a chance to take you down  huh? Get ready to taste defeat."

"Taste the feet?" He said  archly, wrinkling his nose. "Whatever weird stuff you and your  girlfriend get upto isn't my business man, just keep me out of it." I  heard Megan choke down a snicker even as Callie squeaked in  embarrassment. I grimaced. I'd kind of set him up for that one. I would  have my revenge eventually though.

Luckily the  conversation was cut off by our arrival at the Shatter Lanes, a fact I  was alerted to by the growls and yips of Jin, who it seemed did NOT like  the smell of Ralkor. "By the way, you mentioned Jin and Rellia would  have fun here?" I asked Abel, as we got in line. "Are they able to race  with us or something?" That sounded like it might be dangerous, but the  puppies did need some exercise, and chasing scaly hate birds would  probably be a blast for them.

Abel just laughed. "Sadly  not. But the adolescent Ralkors are much less dangerous, and they train  them on a smaller track. The wolves should be allowed to race with them,  and since they haven't developed the metal claws and beak they should  be much safer." He turned to the man behind the counter we'd just  arrived at. "Nine for the noon race. Plus two tickets for the training  lanes." Then he paused for a second, checking his scan ring. "Actually  we'll rent one of the novice pens for the next half hour if there's one  open."

The man, a tall lanky fellow with dark skin and  hair and bright blue eyes, just grinned at him. "Sure are. Anyone with  any sense has already done all the training they need. You're free to  use one. Just go around back and receive your Ralkor assignments."

We  turned to do just that, but Callie called us to a stop as her scan ring  buzzed. "One second. I think that's Mordaunt. She decided to meet us  here." Sure enough within a minute or two, Mordaunt made her way over,  the hulking form of Rahm lumbering behind her silently. Well, that  wasn't fair. Rahm didn't lumber. He was a pretty graceful guy. But the  whole dead person thing combined with his total silence creeped me out.

After  stopping to pick up her own tickets she came around to meet us so we  could walk over to get our assigned Ralkors together. As we walked, I  had to ask Abel. "So...Ralkors. Is there a lot of variation? Because  being assigned a bird makes it seem like some of them might  be...recalcitrant." Which was a polite way to say crazy rage beasts that  tried to rip apart their owners.

He just shrugged. "There  are good birds and bad birds. Some of them don't like riders much, but  we'll see what we end up with. They don't give the best ones to the  early attendees or anything, that would just make it a matter of who  showed up first. It's random."

Mordaunt looked incredibly  interested. "This sounds like a blast. I'm glad you invited me. No hard  feelings if I maim some of you." Her teasing grin made it clear she  wasn't planning to actually maim us...or that she was? I didn't have  enough of a read on her to be sure.

It didn't really  matter. With our armor Callie and I would be fine, and anyone else who  got hurt had the Vitality not to bleed out before I could fix them with  heal bursts. When we came to the spot at the edge of a fenced off area, a  bored looking woman with blonde hair in a ponytail yawned at us.  "Welcome to the Shatter Lanes." She droned. "Please be aware than any  mutilation or untimely deaths caused by Ralkors during the course of  your visit is not our responsibility. A stipulation you will agree to  before being given your Ralkor."

Since this was Doomtown,  that seemed to be pretty much par for the course. We all agreed, and the  woman nodded, leading us through the fence to where a series of massive  bipedal birds waited. The scales of a Ralkor were much more delicate  than expected, the dense coating of small plates retaining flexibility  and durability regardless of thickness by virtue of overlap.

The  beaks and talons, as mentioned, were metal, and gleamed imposingly in  the low light. Abel nodded in satisfaction as he took them all in. "Just  as scary as I remember. The Ralkor is actually a pretty cool animal.  They feed them scrap metal as youngsters, letting the metal build up in  their bones. When they get old enough to go through puberty the metal is  vented into their beak and claws, creating the effect you see here."

There  were about a dozen Ralkor left and eleven of us, so I knew I would be  getting one of these. Jin and Rellia just growled at them menacingly as  they tried to back away. Sydney knelt down next to them, pulling them  against her an cooing softly. I rolled my eyes at them. Big babies. What  kind of wolf is afraid of a giant chicken? Still, I reached down to  scratch Jin behind the ears. Even if he was a scaredy wolf he was still a  good boy. Besides, those metal beaks actually did look kind of scary,  so I couldn't blame him too much.

The  woman from the entrance had followed us in, and gestured to the Ralkors  scattered around the pens. "Alright, now each of you take out your  tickets and tear them." I'd been handed a ticket when I showed up, but  hadn't paid it any mind. Still, it was her show. I took the ticket out  and tore it, and the scraps of paper burst into green flame. The flames  floated as a ball in the air before zipping over to be snapped up by a  green scaled Ralkor.

When  the woman made a shooing gesture I shrugged and walked over to the  Ralkor. Its eyes were glowing green like the fire when I arrived, and as  that faded I felt a small link form between us. Nothing as permanent or  strong as my link with Callie, but similar. Some kind of empathy maybe?  I turned to Abel, cocking my head, and he grinned at me. "Beast bonds."  He said with amusement. "Only temporary, but they're good for learning  to interact with bonded partners. Bonding Skills can be pretty similar  sometimes."

I  burst out laughing. "You lying ass, you said you didn't have any  special training in mind. This whole thing was one big game to get us  here." He'd been planning this from the start, or at least as soon as he  confirmed we'd gotten the Paired Dueling Skill. He just winked at me  and I rolled my eyes. Then I narrowed them suspiciously. "Wait, this  doesn't give you an advantage in the race does it?"

He  just chuckled. "Not much. I'll adapt faster because of experience, but  the beast bond isn't a Skill I actually have. It's just as temporary for  me. The training pen should give you plenty of time to get adapted  before the race, so we'll be on even footing when I absolutely demolish  you all with no real effort." He said that last part with casual  confidence that made me want to punch him a little, but I just rolled my  eyes again.

Once  we all got our Ralkors we headed for the training pen he'd reserved to  get used to our bonds and learn to control our temporary mounts. It  didn't take long to pick it up, like he'd said, so we were ready to go  by the time the race started. As we all lined up at the starting line, I  realized that though we were the last twelve, there were about fifty  people here. This was going to be much more chaotic than expected. I  couldn't wait.