Tuck was honestly surprised that he had never been hunted before today. He was so small, he would be easy picking for any manner of carnivorous Lesser Gembound species. Yet, oddly, he’d been left alone. Perhaps it was just too hard to hunt in the trees, or perhaps the Lesser creatures had observed his quick movements and decided he wasn’t worth it? Then again, that would suggest that they had any kind of sense the way he did. And they didn’t. Lesser Gembounds were dumb creatures, unable to think for themselves and acting purely on instinct. Either way, Tuck could certainly tell that he was being hunted now.

It had started about an hour ago, when he’d been off collecting seeds and such for his backpack, which was currently slung on his back. He normally didn’t wear it in Eridanus, but since he was on a collecting expedition, he needed it with him. He’d been looking at the ground, searching for rare plants, when suddenly the hairs on the back of his neck had stood up. He’d spun his head quickly around, a full 180° to see what was causing him distress, and had noticed a huge creature (everything was huge to Tuck) staring at him, clinging to a wall of the Cave.

This thing had to be almost four feet long, and it had a long snout. Vertical stripes ran down its body, up and down its spine, like rain. The stripes were neon blue and green, and glowed dimly, with bioluminescence. It’s eyes were light green, its skin a slate-grey color, which juxtaposed nicely with the bright stripes. And it had wings, which were outstretched now, with small, claw-like hands on each wing. These small hands now helped it cling to the side of the wall. Its wings were covered in splotches of blue and green, the same color as the stripes on its back and sides.

Tuck, who was very aware that this creature wanted to eat him, stood transfixed. This was one of the most beautiful Lesser Gembounds he’d ever seen. Beautiful, but deadly. He knew he needed to escape. He began to walk very slowly away from the dragon-like creature, a kyte, as they were called in Origin. He did not want to run, since running would probably cause the kyte to rush him. Behind him, he could hear the kyte take off with a downward rush of air into its wings, and Tuck flinched, expecting to be ripped apart or picked up off the ground any second. No such thing happened, and when he looked back, the kyte was gone.

With a relieved sigh, he continued on back towards his tree, feeling suddenly unsafe.

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It had been a little while since the kyte had stared him down, and Tuck was still feeling that same level of intense unease. He was now sitting on the floor in the tangle of roots underneath his home tree, to stay away from the creature that he somehow knew was still after him. After a few more minutes had passed, however, he began to feel a little cooped up. This was stupid. If there was a Lesser Gembound after him, he shouldn’t be running away from it! He should be showing it who was boss! He got up off the floor and made his way to the entrance of the little room under the roots of the tree —

Suddenly, a shadow appeared on the ground in front of him, and he looked up to see the kyte’s back claws coming down on him, and coming fast! Luckily, he managed to hop backwards into the shelter of the roots, where the kyte would have a much harder time trying to get at him. It was too big to get in here, but Tuck had a feeling that the creature wouldn’t give up so easily, and he couldn’t afford to try and wait this out. He needed a strategy.

He looked around, trying to figure out some way of getting this thing away from him. Well… He had his pack with him in here, and he didn’t even need his pack to grow plants. His skin still tingled and burned in certain places from his overuse of the Host spell, but if push came to shove, it was still an option.

— The kyte’s long snout interrupted his train of thought as it shoved its way inside his little hide-away. And suddenly Tuck got an idea.

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Tuck rooted around in his bag for a seed that would grow a vine. Iceberry… no… Honey Reed? Well, that was long, but it wasn’t strong enough for what he needed to do. Finally he found what he was looking for — a seed that he knew would grow long vines, like the ones that he had seen growing up the sides of the some of the larger trees in Eridanus. With a grim smile — for needed this spell to work right away — he poked the seed into the fertile soil and said quietly, “Grow for me. I need you to work.”

The vine, however, did not grow. His Magic had other ideas. A sharp sting of pain, like he’d been pricked by a thorn or stung by a wasp, shot through his collarbone where his gem was. “Ah!” he exclaimed, hissing in pain and frantically rubbing his collarbone with the heel of his paw. “Come on, not now!” he complained loudly, as the desperate cries and exertions of the kyte continued behind him. It was now trying to rip away the roots that kept it from getting to him. If this didn’t work soon, he’d be dead — and killed by a Lesser Gembound, no less.

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His second attempt went much better, and a small vine began to grow out of the ground, reaching towards him as if wanting to wrap around him. He wanted to smile at his accomplishment but now was not the time for gloating — not when he was about to be killed by a ravenous and determined kyte. But he needed the vine to be bigger if this was gonna work. Now for the second part of the plan. Hopefully this kyte wouldn’t rip his home to shreds. “Stop it!” he snapped towards the reptilian creature, as if it would listen to him. Instead, the shouting only seemed to make it crazier.

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Ugh! When he’d asked the vine to grow bigger so that he could use it properly, his Magic adamantly refused to work! At least it hadn’t backfired on him this time. Maybe the pain in his collarbone had distracted him and that was why his Magic had failed him this time. Behind him, Tuck could hear one of the smaller roots snapping off and being thrown backwards into the ferns. All of the marmoset’s hair stood on end, making him look like a tiny fluff-ball. Now was really not the time for this! “I’m gonna die if you don’t work, Magic! Now work with me here!” He swallowed hard in hear and tried again.

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Oh, thank the Gods! His second attempt at the Blossom spell had worked perfectly. It grew now into a respectable size, and was thicker, which was just what he needed. While the angry kyte continued to thrash about behind him, he quickly bit the vine off at the bottom and he now had quite a long plant to work with. His plan was to use the vine as a sort of muzzle. Hopefully the Plantcharm spell would work, or all of this use of Magic would be for naught. He just needed to wait for the creature to shove his head in again and then use Plantcharm to quickly wrap the vine around its snout. Though… what he would do once it was wrapped around he did not know…

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Soon enough, the long slate-grey snout of the kyte popped angrily back into the hole in the roots that Tuck used to get in and out of his little room under the tree. And Tuck was totally ready to wrap the vine around its beak-like maw. Except… his Magic once again refused to help him out. And the kyte was inching closer and closer. Shit, shit, shit, shit! Tuck cursed in his head, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He was gonna die. Shit, he was gonna die! He pushed his back up against the farthest root in his hidey-hole, and some part of him was annoyed that the kyte was ruining the place. If he lived through this, he’d have to shore up the “walls” to regain what privacy he had once had in here.

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The vine moved, fast, the way he wanted — needed — it to. But the spell was weak in his fear, and when it wrapped around the muzzle of the kyte, Tuck could tell it hadn’t wrapped around hard enough to deter the creature for very long. It was already clawing at its maw, pushing it off in irritation, and that was when Tuck did something stupid. Really stupid. He grabbed hold of the end of the vine and leaped onto the head of the kyte, and then ran down the length of its head ’til it got to its neck and pressed himself against it.

Now the whole world was thrashing about, and Tuck squeezed his eyes shut in fear. He wanted to throw up with all the motions he was going through. He just kept holding on and holding on, unable to see that the kyte was trying to reach around with its head and grab at him. But he was on its neck and therefore unreachable. Even its wing-claws could not get at him, as small as he was. He just clung on and prayed. And prayed hard.

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Tuck was not expecting the sudden lurch in his stomach, and the whoosh of air that he only recognized at all because of his flight with Baratheon. Except this flight was not like his flight with Baratheon, and this kyte did not have any long fur for his claws to cling to. Instead, when the kyte turned all the way upside-down in an attempt to shake him off, all Tuck could do was dig his sharp claws into the lesser creature’s own skin. It screeched in pain and rage, and Tuck simply kept holding on, ignoring everything but his survival instinct. He had no hope of living another day. He was going to die today. He was sure of it. But he would do it his way.

Either that, or he would tame a kyte.

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The kyte righted itself, and seemed to hiss angrily at Tuck, who was still firmly clinging to the creature’s back. He opened his eyes now and looked down at his claws. Blood oozed around his claws and ran backwards down the kyte’s back. It was in pain, and it was still pissed at him. In fact, it was so pissed that it was now headed straight into a fucking tree! Tuck, for a moment, thought that it was just gonna run itself straight into the tree, but at the last moment, the creature twisted sideways, with the intent of knocking Tuck off its back.

Without thinking, for there was no time for that, Tuck shouted, “STOP!” His eyes squeezed shut in anticipation of impact with the trunk of the tree.

Instead, another whooshing sensation filled his stomach, and he once again felt the urge to throw up. They were falling, and the kyte was making all sorts of god-awful noises, screeching loudly in confusion. Tuck could feel its confusion in his own mind. No. Not It. Him. The kyte was a him. His name was Garmer.

“Garmer, calm!” he said loudly and clearly, both aloud and in his mind.

And just like that, Garmer calmly found his balance and began to glide smoothly.

“Find somewhere to land,” Tuck told him.

The kyte followed his instructions dutifully, and soon they were on the ground. Tuck quickly tumbled off the beast’s back, and stared up at the creature in confusion…

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