Private Tales Night of the Full Moon

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth sat at the edge of Falwood. Where the forests met the grassy plains that seemed to stretch on for an eternity. The small fire in front of him would go out just in time to coincide with the setting of the sun, which was fine given that his business wouldn't have him sleeping or making camp tonight. The small village was about a mile off in the distance, small bits of smoke rising from chimneys as families lit up their own blazes.

Those same residents were the reason he was out here. For the last year, the residents had been harassed on each full moon by a creature. They claimed it was a werewolf, but Tereth still had his skepticism, but he had seen the graves that marked the victims of whatever was out here.

Whatever was out here, though, Tereth had been paid up front to deal with it. Or at least, he'd been paid half. So werewolf, vampire, or common bandit, he would be here. He would wait, and he would find whatever was out here, and he would kill it... or he would fight it at least.

His sharpening stone ran down the length of his weapon one last time before he slipped it away and pushed himself to his feet. He took one more deep, steadying breath and kicked dirt over his fire, stamping out the embers.

I'll make for the edge of the woods and watch, he thought to himself. He was familiar with the forests well enough and shouldn't have any trouble spotting... whatever was coming for the village. At least, he assumed that it came from the forest. But then, the road of assumption was lined with coffins. Time to earn your pay.

 

[Celestia]

She had never seen wounds like these before. Celestia knew she was crossing lines by getting involved with the Groundlings, but she couldn’t help but try to aid those in need. The man on the ground was gurgling and choking on his blood, the wounds on his torso grisly. Blood and viscera bulged out, and she had to rapidly work to set everything in order.

Despite her best efforts, however, the healing process took much longer than normal. Celestia felt helplessly frustrated as she tried to call forth her powers to mend the man, feeling her energy beginning to drain from the constant effort. He grew pale, his eyes glazing over as he stared into the full moon in the sky.

The man had been rushing to get back to the village up ahead, and something abruptly attacked him. Celestia had swept in moments later, her large wings sending gusts of air and rustling through the trees. Her appearance chased off whatever it was that attacked him, but it left him gravely wounded.

“Come on…” She whispered, puzzled at what was so unnatural about these wounds that they simply wouldn’t mend. Celestia was entirely too focused on this endeavor to note her surroundings in a world she was already unfamiliar with.

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth walked slowly and quietly through the woods, in search of whatever may be out here. The moon was now high in the sky and the night had grown deeper, but the stars and moon together cast enough light to see clearly. Or at least they would have if not for the density of the tree canopy. It had made visibility severely reduced.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been walking when he noted the unnatural stillness. The night, which was usually rife with insects and nocturnal predators, seemed deathly still as if something else was out here. Something the forest itself knew didn't belong.

He gently eased the sword free from the half-sheathe on his back and held it firmly in his right hand as he approached. The closer he drew, the more clear it was that there was something in the clearing.

Large wings and the body of a woman. Details were more than fuzzy in the darkness, and he realized immediately that this was a harpy he was dealing with. She was still hunched over her victim, wrist deep in his blood and her food.

His face twisted up in disgust. The scene was all-too-familiar, but not new to him.

In a flash, his left hand shot out and cast a small, telekinetic burst toward the creature, hoping to knock it off balance before moving in for the killing sword blow.

 

[Celestia]

Celestia couldn’t have predicted what came next, and the telekinetic blast hit her directly in the side. She was sent hurtling bodily across the grass and collided against a tree. The surprise resonated more than the pain from the collision, and she quickly scrambled to get her bearings.

Amber eyes widened in shock as she took in sight of her attacker, a human male. She had come under attack from humans before, but for someone to intervene while she was trying to heal one of their own? Her patience wore thin, and she drew out her blade. Celestia rose to her full height before she charged directly at him, wings trained forward to send her forth like a bullet.

She would collide with him directly, using her shoulder and arm to shove him back. She intended to knock the wind out of him, not having it in her to strike him down with her blade. If he toppled back, she would spin to the side and move to hover a few feet above, glaring at him.

“You have no shame!” Celestia spat out in broken common, pointing to the now dead man that weakly gasped his last breath, “I was trying to save!! Why are humans so cruel?!”

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth watched as she was flung back and closed with her, sword still gripped in a single hand. His eyes darted around the clearing to make sure that the creature was alone. Didn't harpies usually attack in packs? He knew how quick these winged creatures could be, but... was that a sword? Harpies didn't use swords?

It paused him long enough to slow his strike or evasion of hers. He stepped to the side, half-pirouetting to turn her slam into a grazing blow. It caused him to stumble back but not fall. He took another step back and glared daggers at her, but didn't advance.

For a moment, time seemed to freeze as she hovered above and then... she spoke! He hadn't ever heard of harpies speaking either, but she wasn't anything he knew.

What are you? An Ekhidna? Some type of Siren? he glared at her viciously. Out here killing and tormenting for fun? he asked. She was either a cannibal or killed for the pleasure like a harpy. Or she was something else entirely. But he'd seen her crouching over the body. Still, it didn't look like she had any blood on her mouth. Maybe she wasn't feeding after all.

 

[Celestia]

Celestia was surprised at how deftly the human moved - most of the ones she had seen were rather sluggish. As soon as she realized he shifted his trajectory, she brought up her blade to counter a potential attack. This time, he kept his distance. She could feel the hatred that emanated from his gaze, and it bothered her more than he would ever know.

His words elicited a gasp, and she gazed from him, to the dead body, and then back to him again. Celestia quickly realized that the scene had looked entirely too suspicious - she very well could have been the first Avariel he ever set his sights on.

Anger gave way to understanding and she slowly exhaled, folding her wings and lowering herself to the ground. Celestia even took it a step further and put her blade aside, putting more faith in the human than he probably deserved.

“I am an Avariel,” She said slowly. It felt strange to admit that to a human for the first time. Strange, and also liberating in a way, “The man was dying…” She glanced back over at the dead body, “I tried to mend but…” Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “Didn’t work. I don’t know why. Unnatural wounds...something vile did this,” He would only understand snippets of what she was trying to say, her skills in the common tongue text book at best.

 

[Tereth Adathar]

ereth continued to glare at her, but it didn't seem that she was the cause of this gory scene. Too much about it simply didn't add up. There were simply too many loose ends for her to be the killer, though he didn't know what an "Avariel" was. That wasn't a species he had ever heard of before, which made him unsettled in its own way.

She lowered her blade, though, and while he couldn't bring himself to let his guard down (he'd been double crossed too many times before) he didn't hold his blade quite so upright anymore.

I've never heard of Avariel before, he said bluntly after a moment. He circled around to the dead man, bending a knee to examine the wounds but never facing away from her. He'd already examined everything he could about her, looking for possible ways that she could have inflicted the injuries he was looking at now. He'd seen vampires and werewolves transform their appearance, and perhaps she could do the same. Extend out long talons to rip into flesh, but that seemed unlikely.

He glanced down at the carnage. The man's belly had been torn open and the insides were outside. Claw and teeth marks marred the rest of the man's body and blood covered half the clearing. A limb had been torn off by brute force and flung across the clearing. A terrible scene indeed, and most certainly at the hands of a monster, not a mere bandit or murderer.

A monster, he agreed with her a moment later. I was hired to kill it, he said. Hopefully before it takes anymore victims, he didn't add aloud.

I suspect it's some form of werebeast, he said. Although the wolven variety was the most common, werecats, wererats, werebears, and other creatures were not unheard of as well.

You didn't see what did this, then? he asked, standing and beginning to look for tracks. He already began wondering if her vision was like that of a predatory bird as well as her wings. Perhaps her eyes could pierce through the darkness and find this creature easily. His curiosity about exactly what an Avariel was would have to wait until later.

 

[Celestia]

Celestia could sense he was still tense around her, and she couldn’t exactly blame him. She made sure to stay put where she was, eyeing him as he went over to inspect the dead man. Guilt prodded at her for watching him die, and the pleading gaze that met her was burned into her mind. Though the man was wanting her to help, he still had a sliver of fear in his eyes. Even in his last moments, he wasn’t sure whether he was being helped or harmed.

“We don’t live in this world,” Celestia said quietly after a moment, pointing up towards the sky, “I’m...from there,” It was vague and not exactly specific, but he would get the idea at once that she knew little about this world.

She took a few steps closer to the body, glancing down as he spoke, “I heard screaming and then some noise when I came,” Celestia pointed further into the woods, “It went that way.”

Celestia looked at the human for a moment, doubting how something so lean and defenseless could be tasked with killing such a beast. She knew better than to comment, but the thought of a monster running rampant made her uneasy.

“How do you kill….a werebeast?” She had never heard of this before. Celestia began to walk in the direction of where she heard movement. She wasn’t entirely used to using her feet for getting around, and she made quite a bit of noise as she walked. Twigs snapped, leaves rustled and her wings grazed and scraped against all manners of plants.

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Not from this world? Tereth frowned slightly and started to try to think about what "world" she was from? Was she some sort of angel or demon? Something from another realm that he hadn't come across before and rarely ventured into their world?

Wherever she came from, she clearly wasn't seeing the best that the world had to offer here.

He looked up to see which way she pointed, and saw that it was deeper into the forest. That was a good thing because it meant the creature wasn't going to go to the village and keep killing quite yet. That meant time was temporarily on his side.

Very carefully, he said, almost absentmindedly and rubbed the runic tattoo under his mail and gambeson. Every job he took was dangerous, and he knew that one of these days, it would probably be his last.

But now wasn't the time to think about that, and he banished the thought of a werewolf ripping him to pieces.

She began to walk in the direction of the creature and he looked up with a shocked expression followed by a frown.

Where are you going? he asked, all but indignant that she would think she was going to hunt the creature. He certainly wasn't going to be splitting the proceeds. As it was, they barely covered his room, board, and necessary supplies for the job.

You're going to alert the whole forest with all the noise you're making, he grumpily added a moment later, and knew that the creature would hear them coming from a mile off at this rate.

 

[Celestia]

Celestia stopped when he was once again annoyed. She spun around to face him, causing a tremendous amount of noise while doing so. She may as well have been banging pots and pans together in the still of night. Her expression was priceless - eyes wide with genuine surprise at his aggravation.

“I was going after werebeast, of course,” She said matter of factly, wondering why he was intent on wasting time after they learned the gravity of the situation. When he pointed out the noise, Celestia blinked in surprise.

“Don’t we want to scare it away from human village?” It sounded like the most sensible thing in the world. Celestia was not at all suited for traversing on her feet, and she didn’t exactly want to ruin their chances of catching the monster.

“Okay you stay ground….I fly up and look for it and tell you what I see,” With that, she took a few steps back, bent her knees and jumped up into the air. A gust of wind expelled out from her large wings flaring up and carrying her into the night sky.

He was left alone for the time being to venture into the forest which would eventually lead to more open fields without the cover of trees.

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth wasn't sure if he should start arguing with her about wanting to go after the werebeast. He usually worked alone, and she... well, she seemed capable of taking care of herself at least. Maybe she'd be able to help, after all.

We want to kill it. Here or there, but if we scare it off, we won't find it and it'll keep on killing, he grumbled. He wasn't even sure she'd heard him as she promptly rocketed into the sky. The gust of wind that accompanied it sent twigs and leaves slapping into his face and he had to actually spit a leaf from his mouth.

He was left looking up at her for a time before moving on again.

Quietly, he spoke a word and tapped one of the tattoos under his clothes. His eyes drew in more light and his vision seemed to cut through the darkness more easily as he continued to step lightly and carefully.

He did his best to avoid loud noises as he followed the tracks for what seemed an eternity. Eventually, he came to an open field and clearing. He paused and surveyed the ground for any signs of the creature. A glance up didn't reveal the winged woman, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. She could have been anywhere flying around or even landing.

As she took to the skies, she would be able to see something moving below. It was large, but what exactly it was was difficult to make out. In addition, she would see the faint glow of a fire not a dozen yards further on. It's flickering flame cast even deeper shadows around the area, and worked to rob the night vision all the more quickly.

 

[Celestia]

Celestia could only see darkness for miles around, and she swept in lower for a closer look. She flew directly past something and quickly had to circle back in a wide arc to return to it. From above she could see the faint glow, and it was almost mesmerizing against the pitch darkness that surrounded it.

She went in lower, but knew that fires were mostly associated with humans. Celestia could recall the hunter’s reaction to having seen her for the first time. Instead of diving straight towards the fire, she moved closer to the edge of the clearing, descending towards where she saw the hunter.

Celestia landed next to him as quiet as she could, which was still quite noisy. This time, however, she folded her wings in and they receded into her armor to where they weren’t visible anymore. It was an ancient trick among her people, and it was born out of necessity to allow Avariel to blend in.

She cast the hunter a faint smile, “Hopefully less noisy this time,” Celestia gazed ahead, “There is small fire. I think more groundlin- more people, I mean,” She caught herself.

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth continued his trek through the woods, slowly, cautiously, and quietly before she returned. She alighted - more quietly this time - in the tree above him and folded her wings in. In fact, if he hadn't known better, he might have even thought she was a normal person.

Considerably, he said as she commented on being less noisy this time. He listened as she told him about the fire that was ahead and nodded slowly. If there was a small, isolated group of humans, they would make a prime candidate for attack by whatever was out here with them. The two needed to get there and quickly.

Good, show me where, he said, not even thinking about the fact that it might be a long distance and the only way they would get there would be by her picking him up and flying him. That would not be an idea that he would be eager about... if it was even something she was willing or capable of doing at all.

 

[Celestia]

“You told me to be quiet and now…” Celestia stared at him in confusion. She decided to chalk this up to plain human strangeness. She shrugged as her wings flared out once more, and she stepped in closer to him, “Don’t move much.”

Without another word, she abruptly grabbed him under the arms and pushed off the ground. He wouldn’t even have time to protest before he was suddenly airborne and feeling something he never had before. Naturally, this experience was occurring in pitch darkness when he couldn’t see his own dangling legs while being high up in the sky.

Her powerful wings flapped only a few times before she jetted through the sky and over towards the middle of the clearing. Celestia had the sense not to come sweeping down where the fire was, circling around a short distance away. She wasn’t sure how good human eyesight was, and she landed a respectable few hundred feet away in the darkness.

Once they landed, Celestia’s wings receded back once more and she glanced over at him, “You...don’t look so good.”

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth was not anticipating being snatched off the ground and suddenly lifted up into the sky. Before he could protest, he was high in the sky, eyes wide with shock and mouth slightly agape. He seized ahold of her arm in a vise grip in hopes of avoiding falling to his death. Somehow this was not how he'd anticipated leaving this world, and now it was feeling like a more likely scenario.

It felt like an eternity before he was set down on the ground in a clearing some distance away from the fire. His eyes were wide and his face was pale as he nearly stumbled back.

That... was... he didn't finish the sentence as he started to stumble forward and shook his head. he didn't think he was a fan of flying. Or maybe he would have been if he'd been expecting it? No, probably not. Not a fan.

Okay, he said unsteadily as he looked to the fire. That was when the screaming began. A guttural, horrid cry of agony and despair. It was a sound that Tereth had heard before and sent a chill down his spine.

Hurry! he said, charging through the forest and throwing aside caution. Whoever or whatever was at the camp was being slaughtered wholesale by this beast, and Tereth wasn't going to simply let it happen.

 

[Celestia]

Celestia’s sensitive ears winced at the shriek coming from where the fire was. She didn’t need to be told twice, springing up to fly towards the commotion. She quickly remembered that her appearance could frighten the humans even more, and she softly landed on the ground and ran the last few feet.

Her blade was already drawn by the time she arrived, but she came upon a woman on the ground. She was screaming as she grasped at her throat, blood pouring out from the wound. Celestia whirled around to look, spotting a large beast making off deep into the woods while dragging a man.

“THAT WAY!” Celestia pointed for the hunter while she rapidly tried to heal the woman. She had no luck with the man before, but perhaps she could do something about this woman.

The beast moved unnaturally fast, rapidly disappearing into darkness and easily dragging away the man. Twigs snapped and leaves rustled to lead the way it took, but there was no doubting how fast it moved.

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth wasn't as quick as Celestia, but he was still quite fleet of foot. He ripped through the underbrush and the leaves tore at his clothes as skin, but there was no time to slow or stop. He burst into the clearing by the fire and saw Celestia pointing into another part of the forest, shouting for him the direction of the beast.

Without hesitation, he plunged after it, following the trail of torn and rustling plants with relative ease. He could just barely make out the creature ahead, but the details of it were difficult to see. It was too large to be a human, but it might fit a werewolf just fine.

Back at the camp, the woman was clutching at her throat, eyes filled with desperation and fear as the life began to drain out of her. Her face was pale and there was a look in her eyes that as a healer Celestia would recognize. It was a look of being far away, as if she were about to pass.

Don't... not his fault... forgive him... she managed to gasp out, blood erupting from her lips as she coughed between words. She was barely hanging on by a thread.

 

[Celestia]

Celestia was desperately trying to help the woman, but it was to no avail. However, she managed to catch what she said, the words causing her to furrow her eyebrows in confusion. Whose fault? The man that was carried away? She was struck in the moment, watching as life left the woman and her face went pale.

She didn’t dwell there further, knowing that she needed to further refine her magic before she could heal this injury. Whatever caused it was immensely powerful and not a natural beast of the wilderness. Celestia jumped up and rose into the sky, her wings carrying her the direction the hunter ran.

Meanwhile, Tereth wouldn’t see anything for a moment. He would be plunged into darkness and silence. It was unnaturally quiet in the woods. Not even the insects chirped, and there was certainly no sound from the man that had been screaming earlier.

The distinct feeling of being hunted would creep along his spine like an icy chill.

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth had plunged into the darkness and he hated himself for having done it. The hunters were supposed to use their minds as their greatest weapon, but he hadn't played this smart at all. The feeling that his prey was at hand and people's lives were in danger had caused him to take the plunge.

Now he might well pay for it.

He gripped his sword tighter. His knuckles were turning white under his reinforced gloves, and he listened more closely. There was nothing. The sounds of the forest were completely silent, which should have made it easier to hear the beast, but it didn't.

He didn't realize that he had stopped breathing. Then suddenly there was a sound. It was behind him and lunged out of the bushes. He turned hard, pirouetting and slashing down as it lunged past. It felt his sword make contact, though only superficially. It was barely better than a graze. It took him a moment to realize that something warm was running down his right side.

Blood, he realized. Its claws had cut through his gambeson and mail like it was nothing. In fact, were it not for the armor, the strike probably would have nearly cut him in two. A curse ran through his mind as he finally got sight of the creature in front of him. He realized that it wasn't as large as he had thought. It was actually... smaller. Certainly a werewolf with eyes that could pierce right through a man's soul, but the size discrepancy, he realized, was from how it moved. It was erratic. Unlike most werebeasts he'd seen. It sprang among the trees and around the area, feigning an attack only to withdraw, evidently wary of attacking a target that was aware of it and could fight back.

 

[Celestia]

Celestia could barely make out the hunter, but she saw enough movement below to suddenly sweep down. She saw the man hunched over, still reeling from an attack as she landed next to him. Celestia’s instinct was to attempt to heal him right away, but she remembered how fruitless it had been.

“Are you all right?” She asked, concerned etched all over her face. Celestia was distracted when she heard some rustling in the trees around them. She glanced up right in time to see a set of glowing eyes moving towards them.

Right as the creature launched, Celestia raised her hand and unleashed a searing, powerful light at it. There was a high pitched, animalistic shriek as the creature backed away, thudding against a tree as it was dazed.

Celestia sprang towards it, spotting the beast on the ground. She saw the creature look at her and saw its eyes. The sight shocked her, as she could see a glimpse of….fear? Celestia knew the hunter would be next to her by then, and she quickly grasped at his arm to keep him from killing the beast.

“Wait! Don’t!”

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth could feel the blood beginning to soak through his clothes and wondered how bad the injuries actually were. He had taken worse hits before and survived, but he'd always heard stories about the most mundane injuries doing hunters in. Unknown poisons or infections that set in and tore the body apart from the inside out. He hoped that this wouldn't be the case.

I'm fine, he growled through gritted teeth. Though he'd certainly felt better before, he was still on his feet and fighting. He didn't feel as though he would be going down any time soon.

She unleashed a flash of light and the creature shrieked, recoiling from the stinging. Tereth saw his opportunity to strike and took it. With the sword gripped in both hands, he lunged forward, bringing the blade up diagonally in a slash that would have cleaved the creature in two before Celestia grabbed him.

Rage flashed in his eyes and he turned to her.

What are you doing!? he bellowed at her, knowing that an opportunity to kill this creature, avenge its victims, and save both of them likely wouldn't appear again without a protracted fight. Even as he asked the question, the creature slipped into the forest once again.

What was that?! he turned to her and shouted angrily, trying not to wince with the pain that now shot through his side as a result of the yelling.

 

[Celestia]

Celestia wasn’t surprised when the hunter screamed at her, but she kept her iron grip on his arm until she was sure the beast was further in the woods. She released the man at last, turning to look at him as she now had to offer an explanation.

“The eyes,” She said slowly, “There was something…” She knew she made no sense. Celestia walked away from the hunter and towards the woods and the direction the creature went. She looked around for a moment, spotting something glinting under the moonlight and in the grass.

Celestia picked it up, rubbing the dirt off it and noticing a ring with a signet on it. She walked back to show it to the hunter, “A hunter...and you still miss things,” Celestia couldn’t help but chastise slightly. She had only known humans to act with violence without thinking first.

“Does it mean anything?”

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth was still furious, looking to the forest where the creature had vanished. He knew that it would be far enough ahead now that catching up to it wasn't possible. It would require tracking it from scratch all over again.

In the meantime, he knew he needed to tend to his wounds. He moved aside and began to pull up his clothes, grabbing an elixir from his small satchel and pouring it over the wounds. There was a hissing sound and a horrible stinging as the injury ceased bleeding. The healing would take time, but it was a temporary fix at least.

What I didn't miss was that it's already killed people and it'll kill more now because of you, he spat. He was too annoyed to admit that he'd missed the trinket, but as he tucked his clothes back into place, he stood and made his way over to look at it, holding his hand out to take a closer look.

A signet ring, he muttered almost to himself. His mind seemed to have moved on and back to the hunt as quickly as it had become angry.

It looks like the mayors, he said, reaching once more into his bag.to pull out the contract he had taken with the same man. The symbol pressed into the wax was the same as on the ring.

What is it, the mayor? he asked before shaking his head. He wouldn't have fronted the money for a contract on himself. And it seemed too small to be him, he added. The mayor had been a large portly man and much taller than the monster.

Back to the mayors home, then? he said, unsure if he should continue pursuing into the forests.

 

[Celestia]

Celestia didn’t blame him for being angry with her, but she stood by her decisions to let the beast go for now. The ring being the mayor’s symbol piqued her curiosity.

“The woman back from the caravan said ‘it wasn’t his fault’,” Celestia finally divulged, “As if she felt bad for the beast,” She didn’t know enough about werewolves to put the pieces together herself. The Avariel turned towards the path the beast had taken, “It will kill no one in there,” As far as they could see, there was nothing but woods, “And if it carried that ring and it has attacked before, it has a habit of hunting only in these grounds. It won’t go to another village.”

Things were safe for tonight. She folded her wings and walked over to look at the elixir he used to heal himself, “What is that? It works on the beast’s attacks,” She leaned in to look at it, “I need to learn its properties to heal.”

Celestia looked back at the path leading back to the town and then over to the hunter. She managed a sheepish smile, “I’m guessing you’d rather walk back on foot this time.”

 

[Tereth Adathar]

Tereth still wasn't happy, but she had a point that the creature wasn't going to kill in the forest and if they were in the town they could deal with it there.

Fault or not, he still killed, he said gruffly, though it was partially an act. He felt some pity for the victims of lycanthropy. It was a terrible disease, but to look the other way was to allow others to die. Even hunting monsters wasn't simple. Nothing was.

If it comes into the village, I'm killing it, he stated bluntly.

It's a monster hunter's potion. One part white gull, six parts berbercane fruit, six parts white myrtle, four parts celandine, four parts crow's eye herb, and two parts vitriol, he said. He'd been forced to memorize the formula for several potent potions and elixirs at the academy, and he'd brewed them enough since then to remember easily.

And a drop of wyvern blood, he added. It was the magical element that gave it its potent healing effects.

You're a healer? he asked. She'd tried to patch up the woman earlier and was now curious about his healing abilities. What are your people like? he asked, his curiosity getting the best of him now that there wasn't immediate danger and they had to make their way back to the town.

Yes, I'd rather keep my feet on the ground this time, he agreed, nodding emphatically.