It all burnt down that day.
Not a soul left untouched, not a brick left unshattered.
Something so thorough, it was even denied as a memory. Yet amidst the ash, a witness escaped.
Yet his fate was to be eventually caught by something as cruel.
-
Misadventures…?
Everchanging, ever reforming, much like me!
… Yet it always felt out of place…?
Though I changed, it was from one shoddy life to another. Each identity short lived, each escapade a failure. I tried to chase fame, but ended up chased away. Then I tried fortune, and had it all taken away.
I didn't even own this dilapidated musty attic that I ended up calling home. All the scraps I called furniture were merely thrown out refuse, the only decent thing being the ornate mirror that came with the place.
I peered at my human form, nearly perfect in every way. Yet I recently learned that the perfect form birthed the ultimate flaw, the dreading uncanniness that would slowly allude to who I truly was. I was a monster, a thing that stole the very lives of others.
Yet this monster was exhausted.
"What am I to do?"
I tried to come up with a new plan, but no scheme felt right. This appearance barely lasted a month before I was caught. Stressed crept up in the back of my mind, as I mindlessly lamented over my worsening situation. My flesh felt raw from the early transformation, but I couldn't go on looking like this.
As my bone structure loosened, I was ready to change at a moment's notice. However before I could mentally act, there was an unshakable creeping feeling drenching down my spine.
I could only shudder, as terrible crashing sounds emanated from downstairs. The skittering of multiple footsteps confirmed my fears. There was a haze of thoughts rumbling in my mind.
Who-, no I knew who. A piece of me was trying to usher action, screaming at me to change appearance.
But I just couldn't. My mind went blank for a moment as noise only got louder and louder.
All I could do was cower and tremble, my legs gave out as I surrendered. Did it even matter anymore, they'd find me anyway.
So I crumpled and balled up, waiting for my end.
-
Time felt like it slowed to a crawl, as moments passed.
There was a loud thud behind me, as I refused to do anything. I could feel their eyes peer into my room, the one place I felt safe. They found me.
I felt myself lifted up, and I instinctively tried to squirm.
"Hoh, are you sure it's a stray, I feel mana flowing from it."
A stray?
"Sensor's are never wrong, it isn't a magical beast. Lacks any natural mana circulation."
What?
"...and you are sure it isn't a doppelganger bastard?"
"Zero reads on transformations, can't be a doppelganger, mimic, or changeling…"
My mind unfocused on their conversation as I slowly opened my eyes. What greeted me was an ornate mirror depicting a charcoal black feline, being awkwardly held by a robed figure.
I felt… unchanged. Was this what my body naturally looks like? I was filled with wonder as my ears perked up.
"...seems to have adapted to mana pollution from the defunct magic tool."
"Tch, so we got a near useless scrying mirror, and a pet barely fit for the apprentices… put them with the rest."
"And you sir?"
"Gonna catch up with the hunting party, you think I'm satisfied with trash?"
I was casually passed down to the other person, and carried down from the attic. It was terrifying seeing the aftermath of their visit. Every door was struck down into splinters and the walls were torn open like paper mache. The building was now beyond condemned, it was in ruins. It was no longer my home.
"Oh right, sir you mentioned to remind you to…"
"Ya ya ya, quit ya naggin'"
As we passed through the door frame that once housed the front door, I could feel a strange energy. It felt as if the choking air around me slowly dissipated as the old man whisked himself away at an unnatural pace.
As my situation dawned on me, my heart dropped.
I'm doomed.
-
I was casually hauled into a carriage. A motor started whirring, as the entire thing started trudging forward.
The mundane looking man who carried me, merely sized me up.
"So docile"
He pulled out a piece of jerky.
Out of a mix of fear and actual hunger, I started scarfing down. It was absolutely bitter, the salt crystals grinded down my throat.
Then I carefully followed his every gesture.
He started trying to play with me, thoroughly observing every move I made. I complied with everything he demanded.
I felt like I was a performer in a show, following his script to the T.
"Yep it passes." He muttered to himself, as he started jotting something down a clipboard.
Suddenly, I passed out.
-
I awoke in a cage mounted on a wall. Besides me are dozens of other caged creatures. Each one as silent as the one before, regardless of shape or size. I could only feel fear in the air.
Well I didn't expect much, as I tried to comfort myself.
It was hard to say where I was, or what was happening really. Suddenly after a while, randomly people started unlatching cages, carrying away their pick.
"Fit for apprentices" I muttered to myself, realizing the scene.
They were apprentices, choosing their familiars. The spawn of those insane calamities. I winced as I saw them branding each creature. It must be an oath of some sort. There were rumors of such things, about being enslaved for life, some even serving beyond the mortal coil.
Amongst these stories, was the mentions of torture used to force beings to accept such oaths, but there in laid the fact that you can't force one. There was a moment of contemplation…
But would they even allow me to die? No, would it happen regardless?
Then I noticed that someone was eyeing me. It wasn't a face of interest either, but shock. I could tell right away I was found out.
I immediately put my hand… er… paw to my mouth, realizing that I was mumbling. Cats don't talk, of course mumbling would be strange.
The little bastard started whispering to a much more imposing looking apprentice, such news was poison to me.
Well… I was screwed anyway. So I laid down and waited.
And waited.
But the affair just kept going, the gaunt scrawny bastard merely adjusted his round glasses at me, while he unlatched a cage with a brown snake.
Was I wrong? No, my intuition about this has always been correct…
Do they not care? Actually why would they care, as felt by the cold iron bars that made up this cage. I was at their mercy.
After a few more rounds of students making off with critters, finally the other apprentice made his move.
He beelined for me.
As I watched him unlatch my cage, I only trembled, as I allowed the oath to take hold.
I simply accepted fate.
-
I was instantly thrown into what seemed to be a leather bag, after our brief meeting.
No greetings, no introduction, not even acknowledgement. I could only fumble around, as I adjusted my eyes, pushing away the notebooks that wanted to crush me. I quickly found out that my tail had far more strength than I realized. I could use it like a tentacle, pushing a perimeter around the bag.
I don't remember cats being able to do that… But they said I was undoubtedly a stray?
It was nerve wracking, being jostled about, but eventually I saw light.
"I am Renard, knight of the Duchy Swiftmind."
He glared at me.
"You shall obey, now speak."
I recoiled, as I internally trembled, barely keeping my poker face facade.
"Hi!" I cheerfully exclaimed
That's all I could confidently say, before my mind ran blanks. All I had left is my normal bluff of bravado, what am I even supposed to do in this situation?
He smirked at the response, as he sat down, and promptly started… studying.
I spent the rest of the day, just observing him shift through paperwork, and just letting this entire situation finally settle.
-
Days pass, and the man merely comes and goes during the day, never appearing at night. Does he even sleep? Maybe he doesn't even live here…
Of course, I'd snoop the moment he left, it was a rather lavish room after all. The creeping fear slowly subsided, as I was left locked in the room, left to my own devices. Yet the stress merely hid behind his absence.
My new prison, a small room in a sorry state. Despite the pigsty state it was left in, it screamed luxury. The sheets were silk, the stains were of mead and wine, every wall was of beautifully carved stone.
Leaving this place, not just leaving this room felt like a terrible idea. There was an eerie energy that enemated in the air periodically. I felt doom coming from the archaic buildings that towered nearby.
I could barely muster the courage to look outside, and witness that we were contained within the fortress walls that houses these castles.
There was just me, and this accursed room. I could only suffocate, as my mind stabilized.
I was barely literate, but I encountered text enough to get the gist of it. Well besides the wall of books, there wasn't that much to do.
Days pass, as I slowly accumulate courage. I couldn't sit still, so I decided to brush up on the unassorted books lying about. Textbooks on familiars, swordplay, concepts on aura, but one book caught my eye.
Something I couldn't comprehend, a handbook on oaths.
This… didn't look like language.
Help.
Yet it was this book that caught my attention, beyond the impulse of action. Oaths, the thing that was performed on me… I needed to know.
I felt obsessed that I failed to keep the passage of time. However in the end it was futile. It wasn't some boring book, it was the real deal… Yet spread amongst the illegible writings were coherent sentences. I could only try to piece things together.
To this end, fueled by panic, I was engrossed in the strange structure held in the book. Through this focus ended up caught red-handed. Well it wasn't that the man named Renard sneaked up on me, but rather my insomnia making me sleep face first into the tome.
"Speak, what exactly are you doing?"
I felt words being forced out of my mouth, as I tried to minimize the damage.
"Reading… magic?" I felt myself stuttering out. Well it was absolutely true, I wanted to know more about the magic that bound my will to his.
"Reading magic…"
He tilted his head, as a large grin formed on his face. I could tell he wasn't angry, no he was humored by this. But despite that, I could feel a pit in my stomach growing, as if I unleashed some sort of horror.
"How much do you know?"
"I am barely trying to read it…" I barely embellished the fact that I understood jack beyond the title, testing the limits of his command.
Turns out that I can glorify the truth… I felt hope in such revelation.
"You… can read? What exactly?"
Well deceit is useless in front of multiple probing questions.
"Uh… Just the common language… Nothing else…"
"But not this?" He held other more mundane textbooks.
"I could, but I didn't want to…."
"you can read…"
He seemed rather surprised at this revelation. He quickly acted, as he ordered me to sleep. I could only lay down in silence, as there was the rustling of papers in the background, and the door slamming. I ended up rolling around in my little corner, contemplating what's going to happen, as I barely had a wink of sleep.
As I inspected his study area after his departure, it seemed that every single piece of text went missing.
Figures. I could only release my worries as I passed out from exhaustion.
-
The next day.
"Sit."
The bastard brought out a stack of worn out books and crystals, promptly spreading them around me in a circle.
Then he pulled out a textbook on familiar training.
"Learn this book, do not leave this circle for now" He announced.
Then he just left.
I felt compelled to read the textbook, but I regained control of myself. Well, there wasn't any reason not to, as I ended up skimming through the entire thing.
It was a textbook alright…
Then there were the other books. Besides the initial curiosity, I just backed away from the absolute garbage language that was in these books.
What was this even… learn?
He wanted me to read these?
I couldn't even read the damn title for half of them.
In the end, I started mindlessly flipping through all the books, there really wasn't much else for me to do.
Flip.
More scribbles.
Flip.
Just more nonsense.
Flip.
Eventually I found something that I could at least… comprehend?
In one of the thinnest books, it was a sketchbook made up of purely anatomical diagrams. One side was a normal man… and the other was uh… a man with extra bits? His body was strangely assembled, as it seemed that there were some things unnaturally added.
I flexed my insides, trying to figure out why organs would slightly misshapen like this, mimicking those in the book, but it was just extra baggage it seems.
I felt like I was plagued with a terrible disease, it was unnatural.
Then on one page, it was a comparison of a human eye, and a… eye looking thing.
Well… minor flesh transformations don't seem like much… I had to try comprehend something, didn't I?
Eh… Would this eye even work?
M…
Curiosity got the better of me, as I transformed my left eyeball, whatever structure that was, was definitely deliberate given the symmetry.
"SHIT OW OW WOWOWOWOWOWOW"
My eyeball felt like it was on fire, and now it was acting on its own?! I felt it unnaturally warp into itself, as I held back tears.
Regret regret regret.
Then it felt like my environment was filled with blue.
As I stared at the mirror, I saw my eye become a spectral swirl of blue. What the f-.
The lines of blue seemed heavily distorted, yet lines seemed to converge as I looked over to the bunch of dusty books. They bent and shaped into the strange writing, forming spectacular depths of information that I could zoom into.
It was still filled with gibberish, but it was even more of it than I imagined.
As I re-skimmed the books, it revealed a whole new world of intricate looking information, that also seemed to be unparalleled scribbles. The anatomy book itself at least revealed some very intricate details visual wise, with how the blue stuff flowed through the diagrams.
Apparently you needed to flow the blue through crystalline structures, with the various add-ons to the body being akin to implants. At least that was the conclusion I made, explaining the strange ebbing shapes of the organs depicted in the book, alongside the flow of the blue mist depicted on such images.
The question was now how to direct said blue stuff.
-
Hours passed, and I spent an extensive amount of time playing with how this strange stuff flows and affects the body, carefully inhaling it and exhaling it.
Using the funny blue eye model eventually overstrained itself, and became muddled. It eventually just leads to total blindness. My only solution was to uniform and reform it, rotating the arduous job between each eye.
The same could be said for the organs, not that I fully understood the functions. It'd be functioning as something, to only eventually fail. It was a pain sweating out all the blue debris that ended up collecting inside me, after every attempt.
I started to feel sickly, so I shed all of it, and took a break. Perhaps it had something to do with the bone structure? But anything related to bones is absolutely exhausting in shape shifting….
Ugh, now I am surrounded with funny blue rocks, and the trashcan is already full of them. I am going to have to ask the so-called knight to clean…
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
The door opened, with the Renard guy as exhausted as ever, which judging from the hellscape of fitness obsessed people outside, is probably self-inflicted.
He kinda just stood at the doorway, confused.
"Speak"
"Uh… hi"
"What type of wizardry are you pulling?"
"I dunno, you tell me"
You gave me these books, I assumed you knew exactly what I would do.
He blankly looked at me. He then recomposed himself.
"You read the guidebook, did you not?"
"Yes?"
I stared at the non-gibberish textbook
"Then do you think those techniques would be worth using?"
"Uh… the baby talk and training?"
I could only try to pull righteous indignation as I was exhausted. I decided to stand my ground after that entire experience.
"Yes."
"I dun wanna"
"Good, we are on the same page. From now on, you are to serve me directly as per the pact, you are clearly capable of such already."
"serve…?"
"Yes, I wanted to settle you into the environment, as I assumed you were a dumb pseudo magical creature with the talent to speak."
"Er…"
"Now I see that you are like these mana crystals, unrefined but fully formed. A thing that has a formed will."
"…"
"So you will serve me accordingly."
-