Rayas Colony Stone (Rayas Time Travel Sci-Fi LitRPG Book 2) by Ginger Booth

Author:Ginger Booth [Booth, Ginger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

22

APTITUDE

Gabe wasn’t impressed with the high shaman of Patenkal. The old guy hunkered low, head in hands, and the chamber smelled like he’d vomited recently.

“Her! Out!”

“Her, in,” Gabe countered. “Zephyr, heal the cranky dude.”

“What?! No!” The old man scrabbled away comically, as though afraid of the petite girl.

Zephyr wasn’t afraid of him, and nor was Gabe. Though in truth they had little excuse for that except youthful arrogance. A few casts of her female healing, plus a bonus zap with Gabe’s male variety, and the old shaman looked sheepish, as though he felt better but refused to admit it.

Gabe told him, “We seek to learn shapeshifter magic. Do you need to know our birthdays?”

His arrogance fled as the old man said, “I bring out the jaguar, not the dog!”

Bris pounced, “Yeah, that!”

Gabe pushed the jaguar enthusiast back with a hand on his chest. “I’m confused, uncle. I thought because I was born on dog-day, only the dog spirit would speak to me. That to become the jaguar, one must be born on jaguar-day.” This was a named day of the 20-day ritual month – Jaguar, Dog, and so on.

The old man cocked a much-pierced brow, and his nose-stick teetered. “And as you believe, so you see.”

Gabe squatted down to search his eyes from a level. “I don’t understand.”

“You keep claiming that. I believe you.” He smirked.

Gabe started over, and got the priest’s name this time, or title, for he called himself Balam, the jaguar. “Is your birthday the jaguar?”

“I left the owl behind.” He stood abruptly. “Enough lesson for today! Master your dog before sniffing the jaguar’s butt! Begone!”

“Esteemed Balam,” Gabe attempted, bowing. “I don’t understand what you mean for me to do. I know I’m an idiot. Please teach me.”

Balam returned, “I believe you on that too.” He cackled, then pushed them out of the small temple.

Zombat tapped Gabe’s shoulder as they stood atop the steps before descending. Gabe turned and barked at him, with a snarl. His friend almost toppled backward off the platform, but Gabe and Steve hauled him to safety.

“Just expressing my inner dog.” Gabe shrugged. “Our lesson for today.” He raised a lip to bare an eye tooth, and shoot a glower back to indicate the priest in his stone hut. “Though that’s my persona of the night. I think. My dark side. Howl at the moon, maybe?”

“Wolves howl at the moon,” Zombat countered. “Owls sleep during the day. What’s my dark side, as an eagle?”

“I don’t know,” Gabe said. “Swallow rodents whole, and hack up a hairball?”

“I saw an owl once in the Mexico City Zoo. It was asleep. Hid its head during the day. But eagles hunt during the day.”

In truth, hailing from 22nd century Mexico, the party knew next to nothing about their totem spirit animals, except for dogs. Few creatures survived in the wild without human assistance, especially not birds, with their fast metabolism. Children didn’t study animals much, because it was a sad story. Adults didn’t like to admit there was nothing anyone could do to save them, outside an animal sanctuary.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.