Due to Rolf being a minute late, he was scolded and forced to clean an extra 2 whole rooms before the end of his work day. After finishing his duties, Rolf sparred and trained with Grant for 2.5 hours before being able to return to his room. Sweaty and hot, Rolf quickly opened the door and window a bit before falling face first onto his bed. Although the sun had barely just gone down, Rolf's meal wouldn't come till an hour and a half before his "bed time", he thought that he would be able to take a short nap before he actually needed to shower and eat.
—--------------
An hour later Rolf woke up to something wet moving all over his face and something wriggling all over his small chest. Surprised Rolf managed to open his eyes in between the wetness' movement. Laying on his chest was the very same dog that left this morning!
Comforted by the "dogs" warmness, Rolf was still left confused as to why the dog was back here again. Ultimately, Rolf ended up forgetting about the "dog" due to the head butler's punishment and believing that after healing her, she would simply go her own way, never did he suspect that she would come back. Not only did she come back but she was much friendlier than how she was the night before. Recalling what happened last night, Rolf began to think.
After washing her and Rolf tried dressing her wounds, she became more standoffish, fiercely growling a little and nearly lunging at him a couple times, all of which he just dismissed since he thought she only did it because he was touching her wounds and trying to wrap something on her. Although Rolf was unscathed, he had to dodge a couple times while trying to dry her off with his towel.
Looking at her now she was sticking her tongue out and snuggling against Rolf's face, which was quite squishy from all his baby fat. Subconsciously petting her, Rolf looked over to his table to see whether or not his food had come, and if someone saw the dog they would definitely report it to the head butler as no one was allowed to have an animal within their employer's house. Seeing food already on the table, Rolf began worrying whether or not someone had seen "his dog" while he was asleep. Looking at her again, Rolf noticed that she was a little dirty from wherever she went during the day and that there were still some leaves on her from going through the bush outside his door.
Getting out of bed and bringing her onto the floor, Rolf began taking the leaves of her. Looking back at the food, Rolf saw some cut up meat, vegetables, 2 big slices of bread. Rolf walked over to his food and began eating some of the meat, although a little dry, it was still full of flavor. While eating, Rolf began to ponder whether or not he should name the dog and what he would do if she started living with him as his pet. Losing himself in thought, Rolf was awoken by the feeling of something fluffy rubbing against his dangling legs. Looking down, he saw the "dog" with her tongue out staring straight at him, more specifically, the meat on his fork.
Realizing that she was probably hungry, Rolf began hand feeding her, enjoying her wagging tail, which now that Rolf looked at it, was pretty huge! She was roughly about 2 feet long (30cm), yet her tail was nearly half her size and its fur stuck out a lot compared to the rest of her fur. While feeding her Rolf had finally thought of a name for her. Rolf had thought that even if he only saw her a couple more times, he had to give her some sort of name, or else what would he call her? Dog?!?
Could you imagine that? Calling over for your dog and shouting "Come here dog!", or "Dog where are you?". It sounds so vague, it was like calling your mom 'woman' which would be unthinkable, especially for a child. "Woman! Look what I learned today!!", their mother would have definitely taken emotional damage from that line.
'Rhea, that's what I'll name her!' Rolf declared in his mind. After finishing the rest of the meat he had, Rolf back at her,
"Hey, how would you like the name 'Rhea', little one?", Rolf asked quietly since it was getting pretty late into the night. Although not expecting an answer, Rolf was surprised that when he asked her she just let out a little growl as her tail moved wildly while licking Rolf once more.
Glad that she understood Rolf's intention, he took the rest of his bread and gave it to Rhea to finish off. Feeling full from both their meals, Rolf downed the tonic he had yet to consume after sparring with Grant. Afterwards, Rolf decided to hide Rhea under his bed while he showered and prayed that she wouldn't make noise, nor ruin something while he was away. After finally getting Rhea to lay down and stay put underneath his bed, Rolf had finally been able to sneak back to the secluded shower he used the day before.
—--------------
Feeling refreshed, Rolf dried himself off, cleaned himself up, and began walking towards his bedroom to sleep.
Opening his door, Rolf confirmed that no one went inside and checked underneath his bed for Rhea. Before he could flip up the bed skirt, Rolf was tackled by Rhea, who began licking and snuggling herself on him. Inwardly thinking that she was a little dirty, Rolf was happy regardless considering that this was already more warmth than he had felt in a while.
Hopping onto bed with Rhea in his arms, he fell asleep alongside her, for the second time.
—--------------
Later in the night during Rolf's nightly elemental absorption, Rhea began absorbing more of its smoke and her body began growing slowly, yet still visible to the naked eye. Her body began to give off a slight gleam in the little moonlight that was able to enter Rolf's room, and her fur seemed to become more refined and shinier than before.
—--------------
Before the sun threatened to cross the horizon, Rolf was soon waking up to get ready for his daily chores.
Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw in the faint remaining moonlight was Rhea, nearly glowing, he could tell that she had changed once again. Even though Rolf didn't know what was happening he thought that as long as she was fine and comfortable, then he was happy for her.
Feeling Rolf's movement, Rhea yawned, and opened her eyes to rub her snout against Rolf's chubby cheeks. Seeing her actions, Rolf couldn't help but let out a small smile, which was quite rare for him these days due to the sheer amount of things he had to do each day as well as there just weren't many things for him to genuinely smile at. Sitting up, Rolf noticed something change within Rhea's gaze but couldn't understand just what was different. Getting ready and putting on his outfit for the day, Rolf noticed Rhea standing near the door with clear hesitation in her gaze.
Letting out a sigh, Rolf understood that she had to go outside once again and perhaps he would only see her during the night. Squatting down to pet her, Rolf muttered to her,
"Go on, do what you need to do, I can only have this door open for so long before closing it and leaving for the day. I'll be sure to open it as soon as I get back tonight", and with that Rhea licked him on the hand before letting out a low growl and exiting through the bottom part of the door.
After that Rolf closed the door, used the bathroom, and set off to complete his day.
—--------------
"Haaa… why is cleaning so hard, everytime I do something William always finds something wrong with it, and instead of letting me fix that one mistake, he forces me to do the entire thing again", Rolf complained.
After having another grueling day and fruitful spar with Grant, all Rolf wanted was to go to sleep, preferably with his new comfy pillo- *ahem*, his companion, Rhea.
Entering his room Rolf changed out of his clothes and into his casual clothing, before opening up both his window, and door. Somewhat surprised, as soon as his door opened, there entered his little half white, half black "dog". Seeing Rhea safe and sound, Rolf was inwardly happy and took her into his arms where he could pet her to his heart's content.
After Rolf did his nightly routine, this night was quite similar to the day before except for the fact that he decided to shower the next morning rather than right now.
—--------------
While they were asleep like before, Rhea began absorbing more and more of the gray smokey elements that were going into Rolf's body. However not too long after Rhea began growing much bigger this time, and began secreting a black, goopy substance out of all her pores, causing her fur to become matted and Rolf's clothing to be stained by it as well.
Not long after, magic began gathering around her and soon she was set ablaze! Unlike what one would expect to happen, the flame didn't hurt her nor Rolf! It was quite the amorphous flame, uniquely changing color… no… colors, they began morphing around her, with 5 colors, never repeating the same pattern. Starting from a light blue, changing into a warm white, a holy golden color, a combination of reds with a slight tinge of orange, and then lastly a dark gray-black color.
Unbeknownst to Rolf, this was a sign of breakthrough in magical beasts, and the black goopy substance was Rhea's impurities being expelled. Although small in size, Rhea managed to do something unheard of within the beast kingdom; awakening at an early age, and harnessing more than 3 elements -powerful ones at that. Based on the colors of the flame, the definite elements she held were, lightness, darkness, multiple variations of fire, and the rest were unknown to the world. Only time would tell what they were.
Soon the flame settled in and entered Rhea's body to never be seen again that night…
—--------------
An hour later in the middle of the night, Rolf woke up to a pungent smell.
Quickly waking up trying to figure out what the hell that smell was, he somehow managed to light a match and use it on the lantern in his room that he's never needed to use. Holding up the lantern, he noticed that his clothes -mostly his upper body where Rhea would lay- was covered in some weird and nasty black substance. Assuming this was where the smell was coming from, Rolf sniffed it, only to regret his decision immediately after.
Lighting the fireplace once again, Rolf went back to the bed to check on Rhea as well as to see the damage that the substance made. Sighing in relief seeing the bed clean, he looked at Rhea, only to see her covered in more black stuff than he was. Irritated from how bad it smelled, Rolf decided that he had no choice but to shower and clean Rhea now, as being covered in this black goop would make the other servants think he pooped himself; most importantly he needed to clean Rhea now before anyone else was awake, otherwise she would have to smell like that the rest of the day.
Bringing his essentials and extra soap, Rolf crept his way to the bathroom.
—--------------
3 hours later, with much difficulty, Rolf had finally cleaned his clothing, himself and lastly Rhea, who took the longest to clean with her matted hair and the black goop sticking to her strongly.
Finally arriving at his room, Rolf checked the time on his new magical clock that apparently another servant had placed into his room sometime during the day - although he didn't notice till he saw it faintly glowing in the dark while trying to light a lantern.
Unluckily, Rolf only had about an hour before his day would begin, deciding to strip his bed bare for cleaning, Rolf could only take a nap on his wooden chair with a singular pillow in order to not possibly damage the expensive mattress. Holding the now asleep Rhea in his lap, Rolf finally could go back to sleep.
—--------------
After doing their new morning routine, Rolf and Rhea parted ways. As the evening rolled around once again, Rolf opened the window and door like always, only to be greeted by silence. Deciding that Rhea was probably doing something still, Rolf decided to shower and then come back to see if Rhea had returned.
Unfortunately for Rolf, Rhea hadn't returned for 2 straight nights.
—--------------
After being gone for 3 days, Rolf was quite depressed due to Rhea's disappearance, even if it was for a short time, he truly did enjoy Rhea's company.
On the night of the third day that Rhea was gone, Rolf went through his nightly routine and began eating his dinner slowly, before cleaning himself off for bed. Slowly eating his vegetables, saving the meat for last just in case Rhea did return, he heard a loud panting sound and low growl coming from outside the door, rushing to the door Rolf finally saw who he'd been waiting for all this time, Rhea.
Before he could exclaim his happiness and pick her up and pet her, the sight of her made Rolf's eye widen, she was now about 2.5 feet long and 1.5 feet tall, and by far the most eye-catching sight was her entire body, covered in blood.
Gently pulling her the rest of the way inside his room, he began inspecting her for wounds and injuries. Luckily enough she was uninjured but extremely exhausted. Bringing over the water he had left he cupped his hand and began making a makeshift bowl for her to drink out of. Satisfied, she let out a long quiet growl.
"Mm, it's glad to see you too Rhea", Rolf said, tearing up out of joy that she was okay.
Picking her up, Rolf snuck into the bathroom once again to clean himself and Rhea.
—--------------
Satisfied and reunited, Rhea slept for 2 straight days in Rolf's room due to his worries and commitment to ensuring her safety.
After that, their daily life resumed and Rolf could finally start smiling again - even if it was only around Rhea.
—--------------
Just like that, 2 months had passed.
Currently, Rolf was summoned by Lord Richard and was being escorted to his office by a maid. Informed that Lady Becky had finally come up with a plan to make use out of Rolf, he couldn't help but feel extremely anxious and nervous.
Entering the office, Rolf was greeted by a more clean setting this time, however the bottle of alcohol was still there on the desk where Richard could access it should he so desire. Sitting behind the desk was his "father", Richard, and standing behind him was his "mother", Becky.
"Ah so good to see you, my little butler", Becky japed. Richard decided to not say a word and just scoffed at Rolf.
"We've finally found your purpose in this world", Becky said ecstatically, and in front of her Richard just smiled.
"We've decided that you are priceless in terms of human development and are the perfect specimen for our studies", seeing the crazed smile on Becky's face, Rolf had felt uneasy and danger radiating from them. Deciding he needed to do something, he subconsciously turned to run away from the 2 lunatics, only to find the door slammed shut by itself…