11 - Darwin doesn't do 'free'

The screen closed with a victorious drumbeat, which David thought was a nice touch and a welcome break from all the little jingles and chimes the System seemed to like so much. He’d spent more than an hour looking through everything before making a selection, the ability seeming so good when he finally found it that it seemed almost tailor-made for him specifically. Tucked in the last few pages of the Duskling Appropriate Abilities he’d found himself a real gem, it was Passive, didn’t cost any stamina, and all he had to do was fly around for it to start working. David was proud of reviewing his many options so carefully, and he felt more than a little clever about the whole thing too.

Which lasted right up until several large rents suddenly tore his wings, leaving them ragged and full of holes.

Claire bellowed in surprise, bounding over to him and shoving her enormous scaly snout right up into his face, huge nostrils sniffing loudly as she confirmed the wounds were real. David, for his part, screamed shrilly and flailed for several seconds in agonized shock, his shredded wings leaving long dark smears of blood on the grass in his panic. He continued thrashing until he smacked his right wing firmly against Claire’s pebbly snout and scrambled to his feet, pulling his wings in firmly with a hiss of pain.

–You have taken 1 Impact Damage–

–Health: 34/40–

–Stamina: 138/140–

“WHAT HAPPENED?!”, Claire literally roared at him as he felt his ears blown back by the force of her question.

“I’M STUPID!”, He squealed back into the cavern of fangs filling his entire view, “I DON'T KNOW!”

|Gloom D: Your wingbeats spread Dusk powder with every flap. Enemies under the effect of Gloom are inflicted with visual hallucinations. Stacks up to 7 times.|

David snarled at the text as it printed out over his vision, not seeing anything in the description about exploding wings or crippling himself in exchange for the ability. Just as he was about to start screaming and swearing the bubbly sensation that had faded to the back of his perception began to ramp up in intensity, rushing through his body to concentrate in his wings. David gasped as the pain faded away to nothing, replaced by an impossibly intense feeling that swept through his arms and into the tattered membranes like a tidal wave.

Claire slammed her jaws shut and jerked her neck back, twisting her crocodilian head violently away in disgust. David vaguely heard her make a noise that was probably gagging as he flared his wings and shoved his face into one of the appendages to see what was happening. He immediately wished he hadn’t looked until it was over, as veins slithered through the open spaces in his wings and slowly knitted together, new flesh spreading outwards from the edges of the ragged wounds as they visibly healed. His mouth dropped open in surprise as the gaps closed, flesh wriggling together nastily before everything settled and he realized he had several crescent moon patterns on his restored wings, the new skin silvery and reflective against the dusky grey of the rest of his body.

“EWWWWWWW! Were those WORMS in your wings? Hech. Eeeeeeechhhhhh.”, Claire managed to choke out as she pranced from foot to foot, visibly disturbed.

“STOP YELLING!”

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“Wrrrrrrreeeeeeecccchhhhh!”, she gagged a final time before turning away rapidly and jogging a few steps away to rub her maw loudly against the grass. All David could see of her was a long tail waving violently above the tall grass as she scrubbed her nose clean the only way she could.

“Oh my god, no. It wasn’t worms! Why do you always think I’m so nasty?!”, David yelled after her squeakily, “My wings healed up in, like, fast forward! Why did you think it was worms?!”

“It’s too dark! It was wiggly like worms, okay!”, she snarled after she had finished, “Why did that happen?!”

–Health: 40/40–

–Stamina: 140/140–

David glanced briefly at his readout as it suddenly pinged full, then sucked in a breath to respond before he realized that he had no idea, and instead continued to examine the silvery patterns on his wings. The skin was soft and seemed to sparkle slightly to David’s sensitive eyes as he peered closely before having a brilliant idea. He pulsed the wing with Echolocation and a heartbeat later he finally understood what had happened; the new skin was delicate and covered in tiny hair-like scales that were packed almost too densely to perceive. He flapped his wings tentatively and marveled as the air around him filled with a cloud of silver sparkles that floated in the air for a few moments. The haze began to sink, slowly at first, then rapidly as it fell to dust the ground around him.

“I think I get it? The Ability says when you flap your wings it releases dust that affects enemies. My wings didn’t have anything that could do that…now they do.” David finally replied woodenly.

He bounced over to where Claire was still shaking her jaws distastefully and held his wings up for her inspection, pointing at the new patterns with his short snout. She leaned in suspiciously, struggling to see anything in the extremely low light that David was most comfortable in before she noticed them. Her mood immediately shifted a full 180, and she was soon cooing about how fancy they looked while he was immensely careful not to get any of the powder on her.

“I bet they look great in the light. You know, it’s a real shame that you can't see during the day and I can’t see anything at night or we could get a lot more done.”

David furled his wings in and thought about that for a minute as Claire continued to list all the things they could do if they weren’t stuck with one of them leading the other around blind.

She’s got a point. Nocturnal is decent but it’s a pain if your friends can’t see in the dark. It’s like we’re always waiting for dawn and dusk to really…I actually am stupid. I’m a Duskling. Maybe the System does give hints.

“Hey Claire, I have another idea.”

“Oh, no. Nope. Nu-uh. You’re not the idea guy, that’s pretty obvious at this point. I say it’s my turn to hand out ideas.”, Claire grumbled at him with a quick shake of her head, “I say you go fly around and get some exercise and I go to bed.”

David hopped in place excitedly while he chittered at her, “Hey, that works with my idea! Just hear me out!”

“What? What’s your great idea this time?”, she sighed explosively in defeat.

“You go to bed, and I go look around while nobody can see me. I find a quest or something, then I come back here. We wait until the sun’s coming up and then I take you there and we do the quest. It’s perfect!” David explained happily, “You can do the same thing during the day for me. If anything bad happens we’re both fast, we’ll just run back here.”

Claire stared at him for a very long time with total stillness. If David wasn’t close enough to hear her breathing he would have sworn she was an inanimate object, though he could see the gears turning in her head. Slowly, she clacked her jaws together before nodding at an even more glacial pace and huffed in annoyance.

“That’s actually kinda smart. Where was all that earlier?” She finally conceded snottily after due consideration.

“Oh my god, you explode your wings and almost get eaten by monkey lizards one time!”