“Oh, no you don’t.  Let me see what you’ve got there, buddy.  I need to make sure it won’t make you sick.”  He leaned down and took hold of one end of the thing. It was made of soft fabric.   Fuzzy reluctantly let go, and Allistor got a good look at it.

It was a stuffed toy, about eight inches tall.  A little creature of some sort. Bright green with big ears and feet, it had a leather strap across its chest and an underbite with only three crooked teeth.  It held a stick in one hand.  The thing looked familiar…

“Fibble!  Ha!  You found a Fibble plushy, Fuzzy.  I had one of these as a kid.”  He held the slobber-covered doll up and waved the arm holding the stick.  “Pew! Pew!”

Chuckling, he handed the doll back to Fuzzy, who took it gently in his mouth.  Opening the back door of one of the ranger trucks, he said, “Hop up in here, bud.  This is our new ride.”

Fuzzy approached the door, sniffing at the truck.  Then he turned and looked back at the pickup.  He walked over and got up on his hind legs, putting both paws against the passenger door.  Looking back at Allistor, he chuffed once.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” Allistor joined him.  A quick glance inside the truck, and he understood.  “Your nest!”  Allistor opened the truck door and grabbed the pile of blankets from the seat.  He transferred them over to the back seat of the Suburban, and Fuzzy happily hopped up and made himself comfortable.  He placed the little doll gently on the blankets between his paws and put his head down.

Helen joined Allistor up front a few minutes later, and they hit the road.

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Mall Rats

Helen was driving the truck as she knew the territory.  While she navigated the back roads toward Cheyenne, Allistor took some time to review his options for choosing a class.

He quickly eliminated all the warrior classes, as well as most of the melee options.  The system had different names than he was used to.  But from the descriptions, he eliminated the monk and paladin classes as well.  He wanted something with powerful magical abilities, but he wasn’t willing to dedicate his life to a deity in return for his powers.  Especially since he didn’t know anything about the pantheon in this new place.

He thought about the druid class or some hybrid of druid and melee.  With Fuzzy as his companion, it made some sense.   But the druid class was focused on nature-based abilities that didn’t really fit with what he wanted.

Focusing on the Mage and Sorcerer classes, he scrolled down until he found one he thought fit him pretty well.  The word Battlemage seemed to jump off the screen at him.