Wayne

Bats were cool. I'd thought so since I was a little kid. Granted, every American little kid had a certain superhero on their mind when they thought of bats, but they were still cool on their own.

The only mammal that truly flies, can emit sonar to see in the dark, are adorable looking fuzzy foxes with wings, the pros are immeasurable.

That said, I wasn't so sure about my plan. I knew bats could be somewhat trained and domesticated… by humans. And I wasn't even sure of the extent that could be done. I thought I'd heard of people training them to do small tricks, but they weren't turned into messengers and hunters or anything like pigeons and eagles were.

For some reason though, when the idea came to me it felt like… like the world had aligned. As though my Qi sort of 'clicked', my beetle brain locked in on the plan. Who knew what that meant? But anytime my more logical modern human brain tried to explain why the plan might not work, the more illogical cultivator and beetle minds would work together to just say 'nah, it'll be good.'

Well. That was the cultivator lifestyle. Do the impossible, see the invisible, I guess.

So I made a plan. I needed to track where the bats were coming from. The first night I tried to follow them as they flew back to their home, but they quickly outpaced me. It still gave me a direction to head, and I confirmed that while a lot of the bats were bug-eating, a whole host were eating fruit or sucking at the nectar of flowers.

So I took some time to eat more fruit and plan things out. I also took a look at the knife I'd found. It was rusted, but just along the surface. I wasn't able to do more than carry it, but having something sharp would be useful for any number of reasons. If my half remembered survival training taught me anything, a good knife was always useful. I hid it away for later.

The next day, after a full meal and some quick stretches I flew out again, heading in the direction the bats had come from. It took me a long time, even with Pursuit Arrow pushing me forward. I started early in the morning and by the time I got there the sun had begun to fall again. It actually turned into a good workout. But I found it.

Caves. They were just north of the lake, with a river running its way from them. The actual caves were in a well of sorts, a big open hole within the earth with three caves in the side walls and a bunch of spiky rock formations poking up all around it. I landed on one of the rocks and looked around. If I had been human, the rocks would have sliced my skin apart. As a beetle, I could navigate them somewhat safely.

I looked down at the caves below, where I could see my… well, not prey. Not target either. Well, failing to think of the right word, I'd just go with 'potential mounts'.

Bats were weird in this world apparently. While they were recognizable as such, some of them looked colored differently, with streaks of blue through their fur, or claws colored pink. Although that seemed to be from the larger amount of Qi I could feel from them.

Some animals in the forest had more than others. The snake I'd fought had a lot. The monkeys
had almost none. One wolf I'd seen in the distance seemed on the tip of… I don't know. Igniting? Was it the right word? Like they were about to turn into a full spirit beast.

The bats ranged just as much in terms of how much Qi they had. And in size. I looked them over with my poor eyesight, Qi sensing, and super beetle senses, trying to see if I could recognize them. I wasn't an animal expert, but while there were some familiar ones, a lot were some kind of new Xianxia species or something. At the very least, they looked different, some having pink or blue fur, a few with wings with strange patterns of red across them.

I dropped down towards the caves, my wings bursting open to stop my fall and turn it into a glide. Inside the actual caves, water dripped from the stalactites above like water from sharp icicles. I landed on a stalagmite, one of many, and noted the guano everywhere. Kind of yuck, but not the worst thing in the universe, so I just climbed up. This close, the bats were almost deafening to my senses.

I focused. I could feel everything around me, smell, hear, and sense all of them. I needed a bat that was strong. That had a chance of not just carrying me, but that also had enough Qi to maybe ignite-

A shudder of wings in the air like all the rest came to my attention. Mostly because it was coming my way. I hesitated. Bats could eat insects, but I'd figured I was too big for them to risk it. Was one trying it anyways?

No… the bat circled me in the darkness, wings flapping quickly. It was curious? And it felt like it was about to ignite. Like it was on the cusp.

"Hey," I chittered. "How's it going?"

The bat dipped in the sky, wings stopped before starting again. This time, it floated down out of the shadows to land before me. I stared up at the bat.

God… I was atop a spike of stone the size of a large hill, staring up at a fur-dragon on a hill of her own. I flared my Qi, not in challenge but to… I don't know, to say hi?

"B. Ug," A voice said. Not with sound but with… something else. Not with its mind, this wasn't telepathy. I felt its, no, her Qi reach out just a bit, a mere wisp of that energy of life touching against mine the way that… that Si Chou's used to.

I slowly touched that Qi with mine. "Hey… Hi girl. I'm just a beetle friend. I just need help, okay?" I tried to share my feelings, that I wasn't mean. She approached me, and I got a better look at her.

She had black fur strung through with stripes of dark blue. Her ears were tall, quivering atop her head at high speed, with that ribbed look on the inside that a lot of bat ears seemed to have. Her face was adorable, almost fox-like in nature, with a cute look in her eyes as she looked at me curiously. Her wings were large compared to her, which made sense.

"Fr. End?" Her 'voice' was hesitant. Partially from confusion, but I could tell she was also having trouble speaking. Was this normal for an animal that was on the cusp of igniting?

"Yeah. Friend. I know a place with lots of food. And if you help me, I'll take care of you?" As I asked, I tried to keep the flood of anxiety out of my Qi. I needed her. But I wouldn't blame her for just flying off.

"Food," the bat said her first complete word. She sounded so excited.

"Yep. Peaches! …Bats like peaches, right?" I could have sworn I heard something about Chinese bats and peaches, but nothing came to mind.

The bat girl flew from her stalagmite to mine. I watched her approach slowly, until she was almost nose to horn with me. "Bug. Friend. Food?"

"I mean… I know where food is? You aren't asking if I'm food are you?"

The bat girl didn't shake her head, but I felt a hint of confusion from her. Okay then.

"All right girl. Let me just hop on your back? Okay? I'll hop on, and you carry me."

The mere idea of that seemed to befuddle her. I hesitated. Then I jumped down onto her back.

A wave of confusion hit me. I tried to return it with calming, soothing emotions, of relaxing under the warm sun, eating good food-

"Food!" Cheered on by that last emotion, she flew up. I held tight to her fur.

"Wait, let me get used to this, wait, waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaiiiiiii-!"

We flew up and out of the cave and into the night.

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Holy shit bats are fast! I mean, I knew that, intellectually. In fact, they are the fastest fliers if you don't count Peregrine Falcons cheating by diving.