A loud bark reached Dorian's ears just before he was forced to the ground by a huge weight. Before he could scream, he was assaulted by a warm tongue and a cascade of warm saliva. Dorian was frozen with fear and was unable to do anything in time to stop the slobbery assault. He only regained control of himself when the hound stepped back of its own accord.
He quickly wiped his face and shuffled back when he sat up. He eyed the hound warily. It sat back on its hind legs and wagged its tail slowly as it studied him with a tilted head. It was almost as if it found him interesting.
'What the hell?' Dorian hesitantly stood up and put some space between the hound and himself. When he was sure that the hound wouldn't move, he did not think twice before turning around a breaking into a sprint. To him, it would be better to die trying than to be eaten on the spot without even raising a finger to resist his painful demise.
The heavy footfalls of the one meter tall hound soon reached Dorian's ears. He risked a look back, only to see his doom encroaching upon him.
The hound was chasing after him, with the body of the snake hanging from its large maw. Just the sight alone was enough to drive a stake of fear deep into Dorian's heart.
'Oh, God! Why me?!'
Dorian was all out of options. His only choice left was to keep running until the hound eventually gave up on chasing him. However, that was not to be. Even after running for a whole ten minutes, the hound showed no signs of slowing down while Dorian was almost out of breath.
"Ah, fine! Just get it over with! Kill me already!" Dorian announced loudly as he collapsed against the wall of a crumbled building, out of breath, and glaring at the figure of the Lightning Hound which had stopped only a couple of meters away from him.
The hound simply dropped the body of the snake on the ground before sitting down and looking at Dorian.
[Companion functions are available.] Psyker suddenly announced in Dorian's mind.
'Companion? What is that supposed to mean?' He sighed tiredly. His brain was on the verge of shutting down after the various surprises that had been dropped on his lap ever since he woke up.
[A companion is a companion. Didn't you go to school? I don't think I need to explain it, but I will explain it in relation to your current predicament. This lone Lightning Hound seems to be in need of a pack. As a lightning attributed Awakened, you are the closest thing to its pack in the nearby regions. Therefore, it seeks to form a pack with you.]
At first, Dorian was dumbstruck by Psyker's admonishment. He never expected such sharp words from his once monotone advisor. Hearing it admonishing him like a child hurt his pride. But that feeling was soon washed away by the more relevant information that Psyker provided.
Pieces of a seemingly random puzzle began to fall into place as Dorian processed this information. He finally saw some sense behind why the hound had protected him from the snake and presented him the body of he snake. Maybe that was the hound's way of showing its goodwill.
Slowly, Dorian sat up and fixed the hound with a cool look.
...
"I never thought I would have a traveling companion so soon after I woke up." Dorian spoke to himself as he slowly turned the stick that held a thick, juicy slab of meat over it.
After settling the matter of having a companion, he had consulted Psyker on the map, and quickly found a water source in the nearby region. Washing and cleaning the meat of the snake after confirming that it was not poisonous had been a small task that he quickly handled. Starting a fire to cook the meat after was also a small issue. It turned out that the Lightning Hound was able to understand Dorian, and was able to use small sparks of its lightning to light a fire over some stale wood.
Not too far from Dorian's spot, the Lightning Hound who had yet to get a name hungrily gobbled down the large piece of the snake that Dorian had left it. Dorian had only taken a part of the snake that was closer to its tail and left the rest of it to the dog. What he had left was over two meters long and about half a meter thick, yet everything disappeared into the belly of the hound in mere minutes.
Dorian watched the hound for a few minutes before speaking up.
"We need to get you a name." He stated loudly. The hound's head shot up at the sound of Dorian's voice and turned to stare at him. Its pink tongue darted over its nose as it took a seat on the ground opposite him.
"Names... names. I'm bad at naming stuff." Dorian murmured. He rubbed his chin with his hand as his mind went deep into thought.
'Any ideas for a name?' After a while of thinking, Dorian turned the question to Psyker.
[A name... I cannot come up with anything relevant. How about something related to his abilities?] Psyker suggested, sending Dorian back into a stream of thought.
"I have it! Bolt, I'll name you Bolt!" Dorian exclaimed after spending nearly half an hour in thought. The Lightning Hound, Bolt, raised its head up, slightly startled by Dorian's outburst before jumping on him to celebrate in Dorian's joy.