In the cold, gloomy basement of the Weaver mansion, Auriel was sitting on the hard ground with crossed legs.
The fresh scent of blood filled the ancient room but it wasn't enough to change Auriel's satisfied expression.
In front of him were a pair of wolves, cats, mice, crows, ravens, and lastly humans. However, except one, all of their expressions were pained but frozen, as if time had frozen while they experienced unimaginable pain. They were just lifeless bodies that couldn't survive Auriel's experiment, only a raven was alive while the other one was laying on its back with lightless eyes.
"Too bad that I couldn't find the proper balance of string injections to mundane living beings until the last one," Auriel said with pity as he too didn't like to kill animals but it was necessary to do this.
Then Auriel took a glance at the last living raven and lifted his arm and the raven perched on it robotically like a tamed animal, but Auriel could see a deep resentment in its eyes.
Well, he knew that ravens were intelligent animals but he could tell that this raven was older than most ravens, hence it was more intelligent. But he still believed that like every animal, this too wasn't intelligent enough to hold a grudge for more than a month.
Auriel slowly caressed the raven's glossy black feathers and lifted its beak from under with his fingers.
"Don't look at me like that. If what I am trying to do works, then you won't be just a normal raven but something more, so can you stop staring at me like this?" Auriel complained after enduring the raven's piercing gaze.
And to his shock, the raven shook its head as if it was giving an answer to Auriel.
Because of the unexpected reveal, Auriel dropped the raven and kicked the ground to make some distance between himself and the raven. But the old bird didn't move from its place and just stared at Auriel.
"Haha!" Auriel laughed self-deprecatingly at his idiocy. "I got scared by an intelligent bird after living with Gods, what an idiot I am." He said, then turned to the raven.
"I know that it is impossible for you to be intelligent like this just because you are old. So, this means you must have something mystical in you– show me or die." Auriel coldly ordered.
Auriel didn't even like the thought of something with unknown power and who was holding a grudge against him, would stay on his side. He believed that this old bird might attempt to assassinate him in his sleep if given the chance.
However the raven didn't move from its place even after hearing Auriel, just stayed silent. But a second later suddenly it disappeared completely!
Auriel quickly held the strings of the raven tightly to protect himself from the raven as he thought that it was about to attack him but strangely, he found that the raven still didn't move from where it was previously standing.
"Hmm, so you can become invisible, huh?" Auriel exclaimed in surprise. "Are you a fiend– no you are not, you don't have the destructive urges of fiends. You must be something like Awakened in animal terms, pretty unique I say." Auriel said, but the magnificent bird only responded with a glare.
"I may release you from my control but if you try to do something funny, I will crush your beak and throw you into a forbidden zone," Auriel said as he grabbed the raven's black beak.
Then he released the beak and slowly caressed the raven's head. "Now, I can't call you just raven, right? So, I decided to name you as your master. Be grateful."
Auriel thought for a minute or so while mumbling the names that came to his mind. " Midnight? Nah it is boring. Kuro? Too cliche. Shadow? A bit gloomy I say. Grim? A bit too deathly."
Auriel let out an "Aha!" and snapped his fingers. "You will be Loki, an intelligent but mysterious bastard. I hope you won't backstab me though."
Previously, only the raven, now Loki, slightly nodded his head and hopped towards the human corpses. As a scavenger, it was normal for this dark bird to eat fresh carcasses. Loki's beak ripped apart the raw meat, and splashed blood onto his beautiful feathers, but still continued to eat.
Auriel watched this sight as if he was watching a documentary. He liked ravens, cats, crows, and wolves, that is the reason he chose them as his test subject. However, only this raven was alive after he injected his strings. He wanted to make them his puppets to both use them for his own benefits and to watch them or maybe even pet them. But unfortunately, mundane animals died in agony after he injected his strings and only Loki remained alive.
Auriel was still human and not just a human but an empty human being. He craved any form of love to alleviate his loneliness and boost his morale, and spending time with animals was the safest option available.
He wasn't going to completely trust someone or he was thinking like this as he knew humans were a bunch of hypocrites and trusting them was similar to giving them a reason to betray when they see a bigger benefit somewhere else.
Lost in his thoughts, Auriel observed Loki devouring his meal but all of a sudden, his thought process was cut in half.
A loud, hard to understand noise of bells reached him.
"Young master Clint returned from slaying the Monstrosities! Prepare the food, bath, and clothes!"
Auriel got up from the ground after hearing this and threw a gaze at Loki. "Follow me or perch on my shoulder. I need to meet with my brother and learn what happened."