A torrent of ice cold water slushed through Shelby's armor and sandals as she scrambled to her feet. A huge wave had knocked her a dozen yards away from the strange sea dragon she was fighting, and Thimble was struggling to find his footing as the blue creature slashed at his shield. Shelby ran back into the fight through wet sand and fired at its back. The blow was enough to let Thimble jump forward and shove the creature back with his shield.

  They regrouped quickly and Shelby got back into the flow of fighting. Coda's healing ability affected everyone near him, so the 30 damage Shelby had taken from the water magic was slowly being healed as the bat snapped at the dragon. Soon they reduced the monster to 50% health and it started pulsing an intense blue once again. Shelby yelled, "Run out!" and Thimble sprinted away. The pulses took close to six seconds to reach their crescendo, and the party had retreated deep into the maze of coral to avoid it, but no wave came.

  Shelby was lucky that Thimble was standing behind her, because he suddenly pushed her with all his might and she stumbled forward ten awkward paces before she caught herself and spun around, yelling, "What the heck?"

  She saw that the sand where she had been standing was churning with deep blue energy, and a split second later a column of water erupted from the sand with a boom. Another mire of blue magic appeared under Thimble and she cried out, "Run back in!"

  A dozen columns burst from underground in a sequence as they sprinted back towards the dragon and circled it. It seemed to be in a sort of trance as the columns formed, so Shelby was able to take a few shots at it as it channeled its spell. Since they hadn't taken any damage, and had closed back in on the monster, they easily got back to fighting. One last pulse of magic awaited them at 25% health. Shelby didn't understand which version of the spell would appear from the strange pulsing pattern, so she called for Thimble to run away and they watched their feet for the last few seconds before the spell roared to life. It was the wave version again, and the spell crashed harmlessly to the ground a few feet in front of them.

  After the magic was resolved, it was simple to finish the monster off. Thimble's health had gotten perilously close to empty, ending the fight at 14, but they had finished it off quickly enough to avoid catastrophe. Tara clapped into her microphone, "You did great, Shells. You even managed to mostly keep your attacks going. What did you learn?"

  "That dragons are scary..." Shelby whined.

  "Okay, what about your fighting?"

  "That I need to watch out for attacks like the wave and geysers."

  "Good! Keeping track of big attacks is key information for difficult fights, like this one! What else would you have done differently?"

  "Hmm, I could have kept doing stuff during the wave attack, so I could try attacking while I'm waiting to see which attack it uses."

  "There you go! Great idea. You can attack during the geysers too. Try attacking while moving after you see where that attack will appear. And don't stop healing. You lost 15 seconds on your heal while you were running away."

  Shelby rubbed the bridge of her nose, this is so much to keep track of...

  Tara kept speaking, "Practice makes perfect. You already did much better than before. You two won!"

  That's true! Thimble was brushing sand out of his hair and wringing it out, but he was smiling softly. She cheered at him, "We won! Thanks for saving me!"

  "It wasn't a problem. Your directions were helpful. Give me a moment to recover and we'll continue," He said as he found a raised lip of stone to lean against and stretched his arms out. Health recovered at about 1% per second while out of combat, so he was back on his feet within a few minutes. The next lesser dragon they found was in a cramped nook that was glittering with sea glass. Thimble made to charge in but Shelby caught him by the shoulder and whispered, "If we fight in there then we won't be able to avoid the pillars, let me drag it out of there."

  He nodded, and she fired quickly as she backed away into an open crossroad between the towers of collected items. Their fight went a little smoother the second time, although Shelby consistently forgot about healing when the dragon was using its magic. Tara would say, "Healing" calmly when Coda's cooldown had been up for more than a few seconds, and by the end of the fight Shelby was developing a knack for the rhythm of her abilities.

  By the end of the fourth fight against the dragons, Shelby didn't miss a single heal. There were still some things that could be better, but Thimble's health had only fallen to 38, so he could heal and return to battle in less than a minute. His mood was much better when things were going well, and he had a habit of humming to himself while they were walking around the strange beach. Shelby was within 100 exp of levelling up, so she had them circle back to the fishing village and turn in the two contracts she had for 'Blue Dragons', which awarded 75 exp each.

  She scanned Coda's abilities and she was happy to see that Heartsap, his healing ability, now did 10 damage and healed for 5. That would make keeping Thimble alive that much easier. If she levelled up again she might be able to keep him fully healthy, and then they wouldn't have to stop to recover at all. Shelby noticed that Coda's claw attack was also starting to deal some serious damage, even more than she could do with Measured Shot, at 18! She would have to try to have him use Claw as much as possible. Since Thimble kept the enemy's attention, Coda wouldn't be in too much danger from getting close, save for getting caught in a tidal wave or pillar of water. Shelby bounced, they could clear the contracts quickly if everything went smoothly.

  She asked AIDAN for two more contracts, then they set back out for the maze. Coda's claw attack was really powerful, but it was a little awkward for Thimble, as he had to be careful with his attacks when Coda was nearby. After a few close calls, they slowed down and learned how to coordinate. The air attacks Coda could perform also had an un-noted benefit of pushing the enemy around, usually into the ground, and that would put them off balance to help relieve pressure on Thimble. Shelby experimented with the best approach as she plunked away with her bow, mentally keeping notes on their tactics.

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  Thimble was also hitting slightly harder, up to 6 damage on average. He must have levelled up too. She wondered if it was because she had levelled, or if he was as much of a character as she was. AIDAN was curiously silent when he would usually have read her thoughts and weighed in. She asked him in whisper chat, "Doing okay AIDAN?"

  "I am well, Shelby. Your understanding of battlefield tactics is proceeding faster than I had hoped."

  "You just seem a little quiet."

  "I am patiently awaiting your discovery of the surprise," he said with a happy tone.

  Oh, yes! They had slain 5 Blue Dragons, so they were halfway to the token for that species. Shelby hesitated when she thought about what that creature might be like. They were getting good at slaying the standard variety monsters, but wouldn't a special monster be dangerous for Thimble?

  "Indeed. But I have a solution that may help with that problem," AIDAN said. There was the mind reading she was used to.

  "And what is that?"

  "An uncommon event will be forced to occur on the beaches of the Fishing Village if you complete 5 contracts, and the reward for finishing the event has a chance to include an upgrade to Mr. Thimble's shield. It can also, rarely, reward participants with a unique bow. Upgrading your weapons would offset the increase in difficulty the token monster would represent."

  "Ooh!" Shelby eyed her quest tracker greedily.

  "However, the Blue Dragon token is not the surprise I have in mind for you."

  "Wait, what?" Shelby stumbled, "what do you mean?"

  "You have not yet encountered the other monster listed on your quest tracker, correct?"

  "Oh, you mean these... jorunnamanders?" Shelby furrowed her brow as she read the complex name.

  "That is correct. I will leave my explanation at that," AIDAN silenced himself and retreated to the folds of Shelby's cloak. So I need to find a jorunnamander? For my codex?

  The quest log for jorunnamanders showed that they lived further north than the blue dragons, and the mini-map showed an area that was polka-dotted with tide pools. Shelby and her companions navigated through the coral hoard, slaying another lesser dragon on the way, until they reached the pools. Although there were more than a dozen shallow pools surrounded by a rainbow wall of coral, they were notably absent of any life. Instead, the water was boiling and plump columns of steam poured out of the holes in the stone.

  Shelby swatted the steam away so she could see further into the area, and caught sight of something round and white sluggishly crawling between pools. She cast Shadow on it

  Shelby gulped. These monsters were much stronger than the blue dragons. If they did more damage too, then they could easily kill Thimble, and Shelby had gained enough game sense to tell that fighting in this area was going to be dangerous. She briefly flashed back to being trapped in a burning building and shuddered at the thought of falling into a pit of boiling water.

  Thimble followed her eyeline and squinted at the white mass. It drifted around a particularly wide swath of steam and came into focus.

  It was the cutest thing Shelby had ever seen.

  It was fluffy and round, with a constellation of black freckles covering the tips of its fur... wait, is that fur? Whatever it was covered in was fine and shimmered, like white rabbit fur. Two feathery black ears that looked like a cross between bunny ears and moth antenna bobbed on its head as it slid around. Shelby had seen this creature before, back in the real world. This is a sea bunny! A five foot long sea bunny that lives in sulfur vents, but a sea bunny! She felt an overwhelming urge to capture it.

  AIDAN couldn't help but break his self-imposed silence, "May I suggest waiting to capture this species until you've secured a codex token? This may be an excellent opportunity for you to learn about the benefits of bonding with unique creatures."

  He sounded slightly weary, like he really didn't want to interfere with Shelby's thinking. She squirmed, "Is that my surprise? A special sea bunny?!"

  "Yes. That is... if you can survive your encounter with this one," AIDAN played a short musical sequence that sort of resembled laughter.

  Shelby had to stop letting him hang out with Tara...

  Thimble readied his sword and shield, and Shelby drew her bow. Coda was having trouble safely flying through the steam choked area, so he landed and crouched down by Thimble's side. Shelby spoke quietly, "This enemy is stronger than the dragons, so if we need to retreat, we will. Be on the lookout for special attacks. Are we ready?"

  Coda chittered and Thimble nodded, so Shelby aimed and fired. Her arrow slammed into the quivering side of the jorunnamander and the entire creature vibrated like a mold made from gelatin. The arrow sunk in and disappeared as the animal's fur wrapped around it. Shelby mentally commanded Coda to use his wind attack instead of clawing at the mysterious mass, and Thimble took a cautious swipe. Luckily, his sword parted the swaying fur without resistance and his blow struck home.

  Maybe this won't be so bad. The monster didn't seem to have any obvious way to attack, but instead slowly advanced on Thimble. He backed away in a circle around a steaming cauldron. Since he hadn't taken any damage, Shelby urged Coda to "Use Claw! Carefully!"

  Coda took two long flaps and then kicked down onto the creature's back, digging his claws into the writhing fur. He did 18 damage, but a torrent of red "1"s burned away from his legs. He was quick to flap away, but the fur gripped his feet and it took a great effort to pull himself free. By the time he hurled himself back into the air and retaliated with an angry blast of wind he had taken 18 points of damage. Shelby called out, "Don't let it grab you!"

  This was problematic from a healing point of view. There was no way she would let Coda stick his face in that mess. She followed up, "I don't think I can heal you for now. If you take too much damage then lets run away."

  Thimble shouted back a quick, "Agreed" before he struck the animal twice. Since he didn't need to actively block he could be a lot more aggressive with his attacks.

  After taking a rain of blows for the group, the animal quivered furiously and stopped in place. Is this a special attack? Shelby wondered as she yelled, "Back away!"

  Better safe than sorry. Her instincts were correct, and the animal's quivering grew in intensity until a shower of thick droplets flew away from it. The droplets travelled a handful of yards and then landed on the stone with a sizzle that gave off sickly yellow smoke. Thimble looked horrified at the dozen trails of harsh smoke snaking away from the ground and covered his mouth and nose. He spoke in muffled tones, "I think that's toxic, don't stand near it."

  Sure enough, a couple of bright yellow "2"s fell away from him as he retreated from the smoke. The monster resumed its pursuit, and a few of the droplets remained as beads on its shimmering fur. Shelby tested one by firing into it and it exploded into fumes. Thimble flinched back and waited for the monster to slide out of the toxic cloud before re-engaging. They weren't taking much damage, but the battlefield was growing increasingly volatile and it was hard to attack the monster like this. Coda and Shelby did the majority of the attacking, since they could attack from afar and not worry about the smoke, but without Claw and Thimble's quick attacks it took a minute to reduce the monster to 50% health.

  The quivering returned and Thimble dashed away without needing direction, Coda hot on his tails. Thick drops oozed out of the jorunnamander's fur and grew to the size of a watermelon, about 30 in total. They crowded themselves and a few popped off and dropped to the ground, only travelling a few feet this time, and the adventuring team flinched back. The droplets didn't pop, though, and instead started to roll towards them, gathering speed with each goopy turn.