"Lab rats?"
Sebastian was a little taken aback by the idea.
"Calm down, it's not a big deal. If anything, it's good for us." Simon stated.
"How so?"
"The entire point of contacting our village and other small villages was to temporarily acquire the usage of their young altered."
This intrigued Sebastian. He had never had contact with anyone outside his village. Ever.
The opportunity to meet people excited him.
"Temporarily acquire us for what?"
His dad sighed.
"They want to try out new methods of training their young altered on you guys."
All of the adults at the table looked down in resignation. They weren't keen on the idea.
"They haven't given us much information on what exactly will take place so that we don't steal their new experimental methods, but we do know that it will include a tournament of some kind."
Sebastian's hand balled into a fist, and a smile bloomed on his face.
He and his fellow village mates had been trained for this since they could walk.
Sebastian was always bored, unless he was playing pranks on someone or fighting.
The world they lived in was dominated by big, powerful monsters and even more by powerful humans.
Your fighting ability alongside your beasts' fighting ability determined your place in the world.
All of the children of the village were trained to be skilled fighters in hopes that one day they could gain an opportunity to turn their small village into something more.
And it sounded like that was exactly what was taking place.
Before Sebastian could get too excited, he sensed that there was more.
He looked at his dad's glum eyes.
"What is it, Dad?"
"There's a catch, Sebastian." He started. "We can only send three of you."
Sebastian shrugged.
"So what? It'd be unrealistic to expect to be able to send any more if we're being honest. Why is everyone so upset?"
One of the other elders spoke up, wanting to get the conversation over with.
"We're upset because you made a stupid decision, boy! Your father worked hard, used a lot of village resources, and pulled a lot of strings to procure you a Rock Golem egg. And you come back from your walk with a random beast you found in the forest that none of us have ever seen!"
A rock golem was one of the most popular beasts around at the time. And for good reason.
They were beasts with low intelligence but high loyalty. Their amazing defense gave them a good reputation in the beast community.
That companion would have given Sebastian a great chance at landing a good spot in the tournament. Basically guaranteeing that his village would rise from a small one to something better.
But his childish decision to bring home a random beast almost certainly cost them that opportunity.
"Now we'll have to give it to Twain and hope he's not as much a disappointment as you are." The elder finished.
"That's enough, Kasim!" Simon interrupted. "Everyone knows he made a mistake. Even him. But the boy's only thirteen."
Kasim stood up in a rage.
"Well, he has three years to grow up!"
He stormed out of the building.
Everyone stood there in an awkward silence.
Sebastian stood completely still, thinking hard.
He didn't care what anyone in the world thought, besides his parents.
He looked at their faces and easily recognized the look of disappointment on them.
It had appeared plenty of times, whenever he completed a prank or walked out of the village during an important moment.
But he had never seen it like this. He could feel it radiating out of them.
This was a mistake he couldn't come back from.
The more he looked at their upset faces, the more he felt torn up inside.
He cost his village.
Tears welled up in Sebastian's eyes.
He ran out of the building as fast as he could.
Sometime during the meeting it had started raining heavily.
Cindy had awoken when the yelling began, but she was still drowsy. Once Sebastian started running, she had to hold on tight to not get launched off his head.
Sebastian ran out of the village and made his way to a huge tree with long, dangling branches that almost touched the ground.
He referred to it as the weeping tree, and it was where he went whenever he wanted to be absolutely alone.
He climbed to the top like he had done this a million times. Not even having to think about where to place his hands and feet. The rain made it slightly harder, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle, even in his emotional state.
Sebastian reached the top in a split second; a surprisingly wide branch was waiting for him where the leaves completely covered him. Protecting him from the rain.
Soon lightning started coming down. A massive storm had come out of nowhere.
Sebastian might as well have not even known.
He sat there and curled up into a ball, tears flooding out of his eyes, uncaring for the slight amount of rain seeping through the protective barrier of leaves. Or the slight chance of the tree being struck by lightning.
Cindy, being a newborn, had never experienced rain or thunder before. She cried out in fear and went over towards Sebastian.
She forced her way into his arms and immediately calmed down.
The same happened to Sebastian. The feeling of the weight of the world being on his 13-year-old shoulders lessened immediately.
The tears calmed, and despite the weather, he soon fell asleep.
That night a dream came to him.
A gargantuan, white-winged beast flew through the air at unimaginable speeds. It had a horn so large and prominent that it looked like it could pierce the entire world.
It suddenly started flying straight up as fast as it could and opened its mouth wide.
A human being so small in comparison to the monster fell hurtling through the air.
The beast flapped its wings harder and harder until the person fell in, and its enormous jaw closed around them.
The ear-splitting sound of the mammoth jaw snapping shut startled Sebastian from his slumber.
He woke up unsure if the liquid he was covered in was sweat or rain.
Cindy lay on her back right next to him, still sleeping.
He felt something on his hands and looked at them.
The bones on them had protruded once again without him desiring it.
'What the hell was that dream?' He thought to himself.
He looked down at the cute creature who was obviously having a very pleasant dream.
Cindy's tail was wagging back and forth playfully.
"Was that you in my dream?"
Unsurprisingly receiving no response, he shook his head and grabbed her.
She yelped, not expecting to be woken up, and was placed once again on top of his head.
Sebastian descended the tree easily and started making his way back to the village.
Before he lost sight of the tree, he turned back.
The water still dripped from its many long limbs, making it really look like it was weeping.
"Thank you." He said softly before turning back to keep walking.
He slowly made his way back and walked under the arch at the entrance of the village.
All of the new refined of his village sat in front of one of the elders who was teaching them something. Multiple other people stood around analyzing the many new beasts, one of them being his mother.
When Sebastian walked in, everyone turned his way.
His mom ran towards him and hugged him harshly.
"What were you thinking?" She asked emotionally.
"What are you talking about, Mom? I sleep outside all the time."
She looked at him like he was crazy.
"That was the worst storm this village has ever seen. Look around."
Sebastian did just that. The wall surrounding the village was slightly dismantled, roofs were taken apart, and trees were on their sides.
His jaw dropped.
"I was so worried about you." She hugged him so tight he could barely breathe.
Sebastian didn't even understand how he was okay.
'Maybe the worst of it just missed me.'
It didn't really matter now. He had something more important to do.
"Mom."
She let go of Sebastian to look him in the eyes.
"Yes, son?"
"I'm sorry."
She looked deeply into her son's eyes and could tell he was being more genuine than he probably had ever been in his life.
"It's okay." She said with a smile.
Sebastian shook his head.
"No, it's not." He said seriously. "I won't let you down ever again."
She laughed when he said that, thinking it was a joke, but she could see how serious he was being.
'Where did my son get this confidence from?' She wondered.
She tossed the thought aside and hugged her son.
"I'm just happy you're home safe."
Eventually they separated, and his mother stood up.
She was just a little bit taller than her son at this point and got the chance to get a really good look at Cindy.
Cindy looked back with her striking red eyes.
"What are you?" She asked.
In response, Cindy started cleaning her paw calmly.
'What a unique-looking creature.' She thought to herself.
Eventually Sebastian walked towards the group sitting on the ground in front of the elder and reached the front with Twain sitting there in front of everyone else.
"What's up, loser?" Twain said towards Sebastian.
Sebastian glanced at him sitting with his baby rock golem on his lap.
"None of your business." He said back.
Instead of sitting next to him and right in front of everyone else, he walked right in front of Twain and sat straight ahead of him.
With Cindy on his head, there was no way he could see anything in front of him.
"What the hell, man?" Twain exclaimed.
Sebastian ignored him and sat waiting for the lecture to start.