I thought I was finally done with the Molten Front when Shuurai tamed Soleil (Solix) last month, but a few minutes ago, I was grabbed by the strongest urge to go back... and to look for an old enemy. The bane of my existance, Karkin.
Some of you probably remember that back when the Molten Front was new, Karkin gave me absolute hell on my old main, so I gave up on that crab all together and declared total dislike for the family because of how much crap I'd been put through.
Fast forward to a few minutes ago.
I ran down to where Solix and Anthriss spawn for a quick way to see if anyone on Fireplume was up, and when I saw the solitary reddot sitting all by itself, I figured that it was going to be Skarr again (he was up when I got Soleil), and hesitantly, I moused over... Karkin!
The anxiety started to build right away as I made a beeline past the fire, and I nearly careened into Kirix! I'm rusty in how to get past the fire apparently, since it nearly killed me, but thankfully, I always carry restorative amber with me. I really didn't want to deal with Kirix, so I camoed up and snuck past her.
I remember reading about the jumping rocks being bugged to where it doesn't show them breaking and falling apart, yup, that happened to me. Instant Super Mario Bros. fail. Thankfully, I was put on Fireplume right across from Karkin. By this time, I'm shaking like a leaf even though I saw only one other person in the Front besides me, and they were busy with the dailies.
Still, I was leery of something horrible happening again, so I used up another restorative amber, switched to my impromptu tame bar, chugged a speed potion, and hit tame. I saw Karkn begin to cast Fieroclast Barrage, and my first thought was "Crap, gotta disrupt that!", but when I hit Silencing Shot, the tame didn't break, which I found very odd. The tame completed right before Fieroclast Barrage went off, and Karkin was finally mine.
It took this long for me to realize that Karkin wanted to come home with Shuurai, not Toph, and I'm really glad that nothing terrible happened this time. My Karkin is female, named Rui, which means 'gem life' in Japanese. Rui was also the name of Shuurai's first water strider, who ended up released for Hexapos. She came back in a new form that suits her name far better.
I still feel anxious whenever I look at her because of all the terrible memories Karkin holds for me, but I'm so amused by Rui's hyperactive personality and tendency to show off. I have a feeling that this wound will finally begin to heal, and I'm glad.
