Book 3: Chapter 20: Patch 4.0: A Cat is Fine Too

Fenrir spends a few more minutes talking with Saya, mainly taking turns teasing each other, before finally getting back into the world of Fantasy Tales Online.

His first sight is The Shoebill’s hull. The wooden hull of the ship, now mixed with steel oak and some magical, self-healing wood from what is apparently a “branch of Yggdrasil,” the ship’s hull is starting to develop some more natural colors. There are spots and stripes of earthy green that he assumes are from the branch, and other spots have an almost metallic shine to them.

All of the hammocks are occupied as well. The only person not soundly asleep in one of the hammocks is Corwin, so Fenrir assumes that Corwin must be the one currently in charge of steering the ship.

Fenrir leans up and notices something is on him.

Looking down at his waist, Rock is curled up and soundly asleep on top of him.

As much as he wants to go “aww” and praise Rock for being so cute, he also doesn’t want to wake her up. Instead, he’ll settle for just petting her from her head to her back. Her left ear is still broken in half with the top of it looking jagged, but her back leg has completely healed.

Fenrir reaches up to check out his own ears. Yep, his left one is still halved just like hers is. He figures that he’ll try to get that healed once Rock’s is back to normal, if it ever is. He wouldn’t want her to be the only one with half of an ear.

Rock wakes up after a few minutes of being petted. Her eyes slowly blink open, unsure of what the sensation is, but then she looks up at Fenrir and notices him awake and his hand on top of her head. Her eyes open wide with excitement and happiness as her tail starts wagging so quickly that her entire body shakes as a result of it.

“Morning, sleepy pup,” Fenrir tells her.

Rock slips out from underneath his petting hands and attacks his face! She attacks it with her tongue, of course. Her tongue may be made out of a rock, but it is smooth, warm, and even a bit wet just like a real tongue would be. Fenrir has no idea how that works given that she’s a rock, but he’s not going to complain about it.

“H-hey, watch where you’re stepping, you’re right on my throat,” Fenrir groans as Rock accidentally manages to hop up and down directly on the front of his throat with her front paws. She doesn’t seem to care for his words as she’s just too excited about licking his face, so he has to manually push her legs off of him which causes her to slip and roll off of him, landing on her back next to him in the hammock.

With Rock on her back and her legs up in the air, that leaves her exposed to the ultimate, most effective attack against all canines.

A belly rub.

Fenrir is quick to take advantage of the situation by placing one hand underneath her chin to scratch her there while holding her down, and his other hand goes directly for her belly to rub. Her belly feels a bit softer than the rest of her does, and he can actually press in on it a little tiny bit, but it is still clearly made of rock. Once more, he has no idea how any of this works, but he does know that all puppy bellies need rubbed.

Though, she certainly doesn’t look like a puppy anymore. She will always be a puppy to him and all other members of The Shoebill, but now she is starting to look like an adult wolf in size and general description. The color of her rock has grown darker which he assumes is because of the dark cannon balls that she likes to munch on, her snout is more elongated now and the fangs within it are sharper and longer, and she actually looks intimidating and powerful now rather than like a small ball of not-so-fluffy puppy.

Regardless, she’s still adorable.

“You’re just the cutest, isn’t that right?” Fenrir asks her while her tongue hangs out from her mouth thanks to the belly rubbing. “What’ve you been up to? Have you just been lazing around being sleepy and bored?”

Rock barks a few times before going back to panting and hanging her tongue out.

“Sorry, I’ll try to give you more attention more often. Life has just been pretty busy lately, but you’re too important to leave hanging,” Fenrir says.

“Ah, capt—Fenrir, you are awake! I was wondering when you would come back,” Corwin says.

“Oh, hey, Corwin. How’ve you been? You look like you’ve got a nice tan going on there,” Fenrir replies. Looking Corwin over, he looks like he’s gotten a bit more toned and his skin has gone from being pale to tanned. “You look good. I guess that’s what happens when you’re on a boat, under the sun, without all the great food of a city.”

“Ah, I suppose so, Fenrir. I am sorry to ask you of this right away, but would you mind switching places with me? I am truly quite tired and Olly’s shift is not for another couple of hours. I feel as if I will not last that long, however.”

“Yeah, no problem. Sorry about running you guys so ragged. Time just flashed by and a few days passed by without me realizing it.”

“It is no problem, Fenrir.”

“Alright, Rock, you’ve got to get up so I can get out of here.”

Rock whines and rubs herself down into the hammock, nestling herself against Fenrir.

“You can’t just stay lazing around forever. You’ve got to get up and run around the deck for some exercise or you’re going to get all chubby and out of shape,” Fenrir explains to her, but all he gets in response is even louder whining than before.

She reminds him of those videos he’s seen on the internet of lazy dogs not wanting to get out of bed in the morning. “Saya, can you record this?” Fenrir thinks to her.

“I have been, Onii-chan!” Saya answers.

Perfect. Now he’ll be able to share just how cute Rock is with everybody on Fiscord.

It takes a few more minutes, but Fenrir finally manages to get Rock out of the hammock much to her own grumbling dismay.

“The hammock is all yours,” Fenrir tells Corwin whom gives Rock a few pats on the head before climbing into the same hammock.

With only six hammocks, one of the crew will always be left out, but that’s alright since somebody needs to stay steering the ship in the first place.

“Sleep tight. Don’t let the hammock bugs bite,” Fenrir says.

Corwin blinks a few times. “Hammock bugs?” he asks.

“Yeah, they’re ferocious, man-eating bugs that live in hammocks.”

“How – how does that work, Fenrir?”

“I’m just joking around. Get some rest.”

“Ah, I – I see. Very well. Goodnight, Fenrir.”

“Night.”

With that, Fenrir and Rock head above deck.

They are immediately greeted by bright rays from the sun shining down on them. Aside from a few small clouds in the distance, the sky is clear and Fenrir finds himself just staring at its beauty for a few moments.

A clear sky, gentle waters, a rock-wolf-puppy, and his own ship, today would be the perfect day for some fishing or swimming – for anything other than surfing, really.

Looking off the port side of the ship, he sees land in the distance which is where he’ll have to tell Aiko to try and spawn at. As long as she waits on the beach and The Shoebill sails close to it, finding her and picking her up shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Fortunately, there are spare clothes that he will be able to give her since he remembers now that everybody starts off completely naked without even a single piece of equipment.

He just has to hope that she’ll be able to survive getting to the beach in the first place.

Then, worries enter his mind about somebody else finding her before he does. What if a group like the one who screwed with Cassiel finds Aiko before she can make it? What if—

A rapidly blinking light catches his attention.

Fenrir looks over at it and sees Rod leaning up against the ship with his gem flashing at him.

“Hey there, Rod. Been a few days. You holding up?” Fenrir asks.

Rod pulses once – a yes.

“Sorry to keep you laying around doing nothing. I’m only supposed to be on right now to figure out where to tell Aiko to spawn at, but with Corwin needing sleep and you and Rock being neglected, I figure it wouldn’t hurt to maybe get some fishing in. What do you think?”

Rod pulses once again, and Rock barks while nuzzling her face against his leg.

“Alright! Let’s fish.”