All That Glitters 2 (1/2)

“C’mon Keira, you can’t be serious!” protested Rowana. “That thing’s a monster, isn’t it?”

Of course she was upset. Her girlfriend had just picked up a rather outrageous thing from a random pawn shop and seemed like she had the intention of looking after it. She wasn’t an adventurer herself, so she wasn’t 100% sure what the small, animate box really was, but it certainly didn’t look like a puppy.

“But! It’s so pretty! And it’s kinda cute, isn’t it?!” argued the catgirl in question.

Boxxy’s actual reason for wanting to look after this thing was a deep, nagging curiosity. Whatever this thing was, its internal structure was much different from its own. It was undoubtedly a type of mimic, but what kind was a mystery. It certainly wasn’t a Lesser or Greater variant of its old species, which meant it was likely a completely different being. Not to mention that looking after this thing was the perfect excuse to look up research materials regarding shapeshifters.

It certainly wasn’t because the thing was exceptionally shiny or anything.

“Rowana! Keira! Wait up!” shouted Lia from further back.

She had stayed behind for a few seconds to make sure the distressed pawnbroker was alright before following the other two. Luckily they’d only taken a few steps by the time she got out of the shop herself.

“Lia! Help me out here!” said both of the lovebirds at once.

“Okay! Let’s take a deep breath, calm down, and think this through. First of all, Keira, how in the blazes did you actually spot that creature?”

“... I thought I saw it twitch outside the corner of my eye. When I went into the shop, it realized it had this weird smell about it. That’s how I knew it wasn’t a simple box.”

What actually had happened was that it spotted the odd creature with its Mana Locator Gland. Since that’s not something it could state outright, it made up a believable excuse. The notion that beastkin had sharper senses than elves was not something Boxxy made up, but a sort of general knowledge that it found out from Xera when planning its disguise. Without this bit of convenient trivia, it would have made up some dubious reason like ‘I just knew’ or ‘it winked at me.’

“Wait, does it?”

Rowana leaned in and took a sniff of the mini-mimic that Keira had pressed against her chest. However, although that thing did have a scent of its own, it was being overpowered by the catgirl’s ‘perfume.’ Realizing that Lia was looking at her weirdly, the young Alchemist gave an embarrassed cough and straightened herself out.

“I, uh, guess it does,” she half-lied out of shame. She did think she detected an earthy odor rather than a woody one, so it was good enough.

“Anyway… Keira, do you know what that actually is?” asked Lia.

“It’s a type of mimic, obviously. But it’s different from what I heard they were like.”

“Yeah, you do have a point.”

“What’s a mimic?” asked Rowana, who was clearly out of the loop.

“They’re dungeon-born monsters that usually look like treasure chests,” explained Lia. “Pretty much all the dungeons in the Republic have them, so they warn us in advance.”

“So it’s a monster after all, isn’t it?!”

“Maybe? I mean the ones I know of are supposed to be big enough to swallow a person whole and have rows of sharp teeth. This one seems… a lot less so.”

“How about dropping by the CC to check it out?” offered Keira. “Surely mister Faehorn or one of the others would know about it.”

“You sure it won’t just attack you?” asked Rowana nervously.

“It’ll be fine,” claimed the green-haired elf. “Keira clearly has a handle on things.”

It wasn’t because Boxxy was putting in any effort into it, either. The creature struggling inside its arms was so pathetically weak that even Rowana would be able to hold it down if she tried. Even if it were to bite something, those flat teeth didn’t look like they’d do a lot of damage.

“Well… okay… I can come with, right?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Rowie!”

“Oh, you!”

The trio proceeded towards the Central Consortium building. Despite everything, Lia did end up feeling like a third wheel as the other two flirted the entire way there. It made her more than a little bit uncomfortable, but she too was curious about that weird thing Keira had found. They arrived at the massive mansion-like building 15 minutes later. Inside it was a grand hallway, with a staircase at either end of it. Each floor was divided into two wings - a north and a south one - and each of the 8 guilds were assigned to a single wing. There were also a few common areas like the library, cafeteria or a number of meeting rooms, but the vast majority of each floor belonged to one guild or another.

The trio climbed up to the 2nd floor and went into the Hidden Arrow guild in the north wing. Unfortunately, it would appear all the high-ranking members, including instructors, were currently away. Apparently there was some big meeting or conference and they were called away, which was why there were no Ranger classes today.

Not to be discouraged, they visited the other guild on the same floor - the Children of the Wild. Rangers and Rogues meshed well with nature-oriented Jobs, so the two organizations usually got along famously. The Blessed of Nyrie and the Maleficum on the 3rd floor, however, had a bit of a strained relationship to say the least. Lia wasn’t sure who put the devout believes literally next to the people most likely to violate the taboo of the gods, but she hoped he or she got fired.

Regardless of such inter-guild politics, the group actually lucked out with their visit to the Children of the Wild, as a Level 63 Monster Tamer was available for a consultation right away. They were escorted into one of the shared meeting rooms after all of them pitched in for the 50 GP consultation fee, and were told to wait. The room itself was a bit bare, but pretty nice. The walls were a soothing cream color and lacked in any decoration. Three tall windows allowed plenty of natural light, while a large rectangular table sat in the middle, with nearly 20 seats available.

The three girls waited rather nervously, with Keira still hanging onto the mini-mimic. The creature seemed to realize it wasn’t about to get squished and it was already abundantly clear it wouldn’t be able to get away, so it had stopped squirming. Besides, it felt a strange sense of both awe and fear from the cat-eared man-thing holding onto it. The same sort of feeling a house cat would get when it was introduced to a janther.

Almost exactly like that, actually.

The door swung open, and a bald gnome wearing a bushy black beard and a dark brown tunic walked in. He introduced himself as Jeremy Rizzlecrank, the Monster Tamer they had asked for, and the girls gave him their names in kind.

“Now then,” he said once introductions were out of the way. “Let’s see this peculiar beastie you found.”

Keira got off her seat and placed the ‘beastie’ on the ground. Having finally been freed from her grasp, the jewelry box didn’t actually run as she expected. In fact, it just sort of stood there, completely still. Rather than ask questions, Jeremy grabbed onto it and forced its lid open. It finally squirmed to show signs of life, but more or less just let the gnome inspect its mouth cavity. Not that it had a lot of choice in the matter.

“Hmm, teeth like that of a herbivore, tongue similar to a frog’s…”

He let go of the box, which closed its jaws and growled a bit. The gnome took off his leather glove and poked at its mouth and teeth with an unprotected finger, seemingly trying to provoke it. However, it didn’t bite or attack the gnome, just gave his finger a few licks before backing off.

“Doesn’t seem particularly aggressive either.”

Jeremy then reached into a pouch on his waist and pulled out a jar that looked far too big to fit into it. That pouch was a Bag of Holding, a popular Superior-quality magic item that was 10 times bigger on the inside than the outside, and items stored in it would only weigh a quarter of what they normally would. He twisted open the lid of the jar and took out what appeared to be a dried piece of peach, then presented it to the strangely docile mimic. The creature immediately stretched its tongue out and snateched the tasty treat out of his hand, then happily munched on it. The gnome fed it two more pieces of dried Hylt fruit before he was convinced.

“What you folks have here is a House Mimic,” he declared with a smile on his face. “Quite the rare thing you’ve found there.”

“So… it’s not dangerous?” asked Rowana with a bit of apprehension.

“Nah, no more dangerous than a puppy or kitty. It’s not even a monster, not in the truest sense of the word.”

He slightly patted the jewelry box’s lid as it happily munched on its snacks to prove a point. The House Mimic didn’t seem to shrink back or flinch this time.

“It’s actually kinda cute, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, guess it is,” admitted Rowana. It was a strangely endearing sight.

“So can we keep it?!” asked Keira with a face full of expectation.

“I don’t know… How would we even care for that thing?”

“Ah, that’s easy really,” said Jeremy. “These buggers mostly care for themselves. They don’t poop or shed, and will eat pretty much anything so long as it’s small enough. They even go after bugs or other small vermin all on their own if you forget to feed ‘em, though they like Hylt fruits the most. Fresh ones are best, but dried works too.”

“You sure seem to know a lot about them,” noted Lia.

“Well yeah, I got one back home, although that one’s in the shape of a cookie jar. Found it 3 years ago while raiding the cafeteria’s pantry at ni- I mean, I found it in the cafeteria. Been looking after it ever since.”

He fed it a few more pieces of fruit before putting away the jar.

“They’re pretty stupid, but make surprisingly good pets. Just don’t expect them to scare off any burglars or whatnot. Poor guys’ jaws are so weak they won’t even draw blood if they bite a person. Er, not that they have a habit of biting things bigger than themselves you see.”

He then gently picked the animate box and tickled its underside, which it seemed to enjoy.

“Their bottoms seem to be sensitive, so while they like having them stroked, they’ll get mad if you overdo it.”

“Oh look sweetie, something you two have in common,” said Rowana with a coy smile.

“Rowie!”

“Sweet Nyrie, they’re both like that,” mumbled Lia while hiding her reddening face in her palms.

“So yeah, if you guys don’t wanna keep it, I’ll gladly take it off your hands,” offered Jeremy, who seemed to not notice their exchange.

“We’ll keep it! Definitely keeping it! Right, Rowie?!”

“Jeremy, can you promise me it’s safe?”

“I swear it on my life, miss Slyth.”

“... Okay then. I’ll trust Keira’s judgment on this.”