I'm not sure why I decided to hug it, but my instincts told me that I should. It felt odd holding a being made of pure aether. If I had to describe how it felt, it would be...contradictory. It was like hugging a ragdoll but the cloth was made of rigid stone and was somehow hot and cold at the same time on the exact same spots.
I felt the being tense up in my arms, I was pretty sure it was confused by my actions and didn't know how to respond. The being reminded me of the time I first held my baby siblings in my arms, unsure of what to make of someone that was not their mother holding them. Out of reflex, I started comforting the creature. I slowly stroked its back in a soothing manner while calmly and softly saying, "It's okay. It's okay. I'll make sure you're safe and sound". It felt a little silly, but I could feel the creature starting to calm down as soothed it like a fussy baby. I guess this thing was basically a baby, granted it was big as I was and made of pure aether, but a baby nonetheless.
As the creature started to relax, I felt that the link between monster and binder was established, well grew stronger. Evidently, this lack of "feeling the bond" was why I was hesitant to summon it in the first place. I was scared of it going crazy and attacking us, and overpowering our monsters. I did not expect it to be so scared, which might be why I decided to comfort it instead.
[Well aren't you adorable], Voxea quipped.
[Oh hush you], I retorted.
Now that I could feel the bond between me and it, I finally understood why it was freaking out. It was incomplete. When I bounded it while we were in the woods, I had interrupted some kind of wild spell. The aether had gone rampant in that moment and started infusing itself into the two majimonsters in order to turn them into one majimonster. If I hadn't bounded it while the spell was ongoing, the Agustus and Grassassin would have perfectly fused into some horrifying composite majimonster and would've been to strong for my mother and I to handle. But because I did so, the process had damaged the incomplete combination and removed it prematurely from the wild aether, the resulting creature was now much weaker than the two majimonsters composing it. On top of that, because it was bound to my drajule it couldn't access the aether to finish the process. It would remain stuck like this...unless...
[You're just made of reckless abandon aren't you]?
[Very much so].
I relaxed my hug with the creature and positioned myself in a way to stare at it eye to eye. "So my formless friend. You're lacking enough aether to take proper form right?", I said out loud but soothingly towards the creature. It paused for a moment and then slowly nodded at my words.
"Okay then...follow my lead and I'll give you some of mine".
Sitting up straight, I rose up my right hand and had my palm facing towards it. Hesitantly, the being mirrored my own movement and placed it's own "hand" against mine. I repeated the motion again with my left hand and it did the same. There we stood, palm to palm, an incomplete majimonster and a foolish binder/...maji-in-training.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on the task of channeling aether into the incomplete monster. My belt began to softly hum as I focused. Over the past few weeks, I learned that my magic staff could still gather and store aether even as a belt. The only downside was that I couldn't cast spells with it, only store it. However, that function would serve very useful for this next part...assuming everything goes according to what's in my head.