"... Well this is interesting." Osho lay on his back in a bed which wasn’t his but was significantly more comfortable than anything he had.
In fact, the room he was in wasn’t his either.
Not long after the Major left and he was chatting with the Doctor, he’d been ushered to a private room that looked like a luxurious prison cell. There was a nice bed, a chair with a table in front of it with a bookshelf behind it, a small dining table, and a television.
The windows had metal bars over them, preventing entry and exit from them. Oh, there was also a bathroom and toilet.
The soldier who took him there explained that he’d be there until further notice, and gave him a button that would alert them of when Gale woke up, which would prompt someone to come with the food the bird would need once he woke up.
Osho sighed and stood up, his hands still cradling Gale. He went to the window and leaned his shoulder against it while looking out. The room was in a pretty high position, allowing him to see over the walls of the military base and observe that the streets were devoid of all civilian activity, and what took their place was the large number of military vehicles going back and forth, carrying supplies, soldiers, volunteering beast tamers, and other things.
Osho was aware that they weren’t actually taking all these soldiers to join the fight just yet, and instead, they’d be rotating them. Once the soldiers that were fighting got tired, they’d be swapped out for new, well-rested soldiers, and the cycle would repeat over and over until it cycled back to the first batch who should have been well-rested by that time.
Osho sighed at the faint sounds of gunfire and explosions, the faint light of them flashing against the darkness wrought by the black clouds in the sky. He had many questions. Where did the Skyblight Harbinger come from? If it indeed was an artificially made lifeform, who created it? How did they create it? Why were they sending it to destroy a Citadel? Would they try to eliminate Osho upon seeing how effective Gale was at subduing the creature? Or was this entire situation just some massive experiment?
’I am not a fan of being treated like a pawn without my input. Not a fan at all.’ He thought vaguely as his eyes turned a shade colder, however, his thoughts were interrupted when he felt a stirring from the other side of his bond.
He quickly looked down and saw Gale yawning, his feathers puffing up as he stirred awake.
He quickly returned to the bed where the button was and pressed it before sitting down cross-legged with the bird in his lap. A few moments later, Gale opened his eyes and blinked with clear lethargy. Gale could sense his confusion through their bond, and the bird eventually looked up at him, his big eyes bleary with exhaustion.
He seemed to make sure it was Osho he stared at, and then he flopped down on his stomach, seeming content to just lay there.
A moment later, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," Osho said calmly, and the door opened for a female army cook carrying a large tray, and behind her was a soldier, the same one that had led Osho to this room. The doctor was also there.
Osho stood with Gale in his arms, but the doctor gestured for him to sit back down as the tray was placed on the side of the bed. The cook nodded at the doctor before stepping out with the soldier.
Once they were out, the doctor who Osho had come to know as Alex squatted in front of Osho and observed Gale who looked too tired to do anything besides look around lazily.
"Hm, as I thought, he’s exhausted." He nodded to himself and Osho asked with a hint of worry.
"Why though? I can tell that he still has a lot of Mana left." Hearing this, Alex smiled reassuringly.
"I’d be surprised if he didn’t. You see, bloodlines, upon activation, don’t take any mana, but instead, they consume bloodline energy. Well, that’s what we call it, but in reality, it’s just the duration for which the creature using the bloodline can handle it. So it’d be more appropriate to say that it consumes stamina." The doctor explained as he reached forth and started to inspect Gale’s body. Normally, the bird would have been against being touched by someone who wasn’t Osho, but he was so tired he didn’t even care, besides, he trusted Osho, and if Osho let yhe man touch him, then he wouldn’t resist.
"Bloodlines are the traces of a more powerful ancestor that was passed down. By activating his bloodline, your beast temporarily manifested one of the abilities of that ancestor, however, he had to bear the strain of using such an ability. Think of it , a metal bottle can easily contain boiling hot water, however, the same can’t be said for a plastic bottle. It is still a bottle, but if you put in water with the same temperature as before, it’d only be able to contain it for some time before eventually succumbing to the heat." He seemed satisfied and pulled his hands away before moving to the tray of covered food.
"Gale is quite durable for a Novice rank beast, and it appears that other than being fast, he can also sustain long-distance travel, meaning his stamina and durability are higher than most of his grade, which is probably the reason why he could sustain his bloodline manifestation for such a long time before succumbing. I guess for my analogy, Gale could be considered a significantly tougher plastic bottle, which will only get tougher as his strength increases." Alex opened the food and a smell immediately filled the room.
Osho blinked as he found himself subconsciously salivating. Moreover, Gale who looked too be in a state of slumber and awareness suddenly perked up, his bleary eyes clearing up as he smelled one of his favorite things in the world, food.
Moreover, he could sense that this food was special, as his body subconsciously desired it, much like how he felt whenever Osho created something to help him evolve, though at a lower level.
Without Osho’s prompting, he already started moving towards the food, but Osho straight up just grabbed him by the wings and held him up, something he wouldn’t have been able to do if Gale was at his normal strength, but the bird was so tired right now that all he could do was let out a screech of protest.
"Hold it. What is that?" Osho asked while gesturing to the food.
"Ah, well, this is food made with high-quality beast meat. Beast food is actually just beast meat as well as a few other additives. After all, it’s a bit of a universal rule that beasts gain the most nutrients from eating other beasts." Alex explained and Osho nodded, he knew that much, however...
"That may be so, but that’s not ordinary high-quality beast food, is it? Because while Gale loves food, uts difficult to attract him this strongly." Osho asked calmly and the doctor smiled slightly.
"Perceptive. Well, it certainly IS high-quality beast food, however, let’s just say that one of the ingredients acts as a tonic which boosts recovery in beasts and is quite appealing to them." The doctor explained and Osho raised a brow. He didn’t doubt his words, but it certainly was surprising.
Unlike evolution, tonics virtually almost always worked since they followed a different principle from evolution methods. While eveey beast was fundamentally different which made evolving them difficult as all of that had to be accounted for and materials had to be used in a specific way for each beast, tonics followed the principles which all beasts possessed. For instance, all beasts had energy and expended said energy when doing anything. There were some differences here and there, but the core co kept remained the same.
As such, while one couldn’t evolve their beast using tonics, they could still strengthen them, and more often than not, people used tonics whenever they wanted to allow their beast to break through to the next rank, or stabilize them after they completed a break through.
The only issue was, tonics were not cheap, and it was usually the rich that could afford them. So the fact that a tonic was simply being used as a supplement to allow Gale a faster recovery spoke volumes of the value they’d placed on the beast for what they had in store for him and Osho.
With a sigh, he let Gale down and the bird immediately started to eat the food with a gusto that made Osho feel a tad bit envious.
’Wait, if don’t even cook his food in the first place. Why would it be jealous?’