I really have to send that it into battle? All alone? Felix thought as he watched the adorable tiny black cat bounce around the room.

It'll be fine. Have you thought about what weapon you're going to make for it?

I have no idea. I could put a cannon on it's back or something.

Yeah, remember it's body is amorphous, just because it looks like a cat, it can embed things in it's own body.

So I could make a small spell cannon and it could breath fire? Just like it wanted to do as a dragon?

Yeah exactly. I wouldn't make it a cannon though, you want it's body to be still be flexible, not have a thick metal rod running down it's stomach. You can just give it the components of the cannon and a bunch of batteries and it should be able to integrate them.

Really?

Meh, probably? Normally, at this age, I would say no way. This one seems pretty smart though, it's acclimating to new bodies faster than I would have expected.

Is that because of our soul-bond?

No, there hasn't been enough time for that to have much of any effect yet. This one is just naturally smart. Or all the sprites in this universe are smarter than I'm used to.

Felix walked up to the next floor, his personal laboratory, and the cat immediately ran after him bounding ahead of him, then waited for him to carry it to the next floor. He pulled out a simple steel disc and inscribed a simple spell formula for a Lightning Bolt then another for a simple Flamethrower and finally one for a force beam. He had them use mana from just behind the disc so the sprite should be able to place the mana battery on the inside of it's head to cast. The hardest part was finding a way for the sprite to trigger and cast the spell. He ended up removing the triggering method entirely so that all the sprite had to do to cast the spell, was to move the plate in range of a battery. He figured that was likely the easiest triggering method that he could actually communicate to it.

He quickly pulled out a battery and made his sprite sit in front of him on the table and watch. It had been running and jumping around the room the entire time he worked but even when it jumped on and off his head, he barely felt it as the sprite weighed almost nothing. He pointed the plate at the far wall and slowly moved the battery towards the plate from the other side. As soon as it was in range, a stream of fire blasted out of the plate and he quickly pulled the battery back. Felix expected it to react with wide eyes or shock or something, but it just sat there and watched intently. He demonstrated a few more times and then with the other plates too and carefully handed first a battery, then the plates to the sprite. It swallowed the battery immediately and Felix made sure to convey do not destroy when he handed over the spell plates.

The sprite ate them all but Felix wasn't sure if it just stored them or started digesting them. He spent almost a half hour trying to convey the intention of how to use the plates through his soul-bond but the sprite was like a toddler and it did not have a very large attention span. It was very excited every time Felix tried to convey it breathing fire like a dragon as it bounded in circles and wagged it's tail like a dog. Eventually though he managed to get the sprite to fuse the plate into the inside of it's mouth and managed to get it to cast.

As soon as it did though, it ran around the room breathing fire everywhere, like a child with a new toy. It only stopped once it ran out of mana which caused it to run up to Felix and poke him until he gave it another battery. Before he handed over the battery though, he taught it a new trick. He made the sprite learn to swap the plates out, though it didn't seem to know why and kept insisting it liked the first one. That was until he made it cast the others. Once that happened, it bounded around the room and swapped the plates every second blasting everything in the room with a constant stream of spells. Felix had the foresight this time to hand it a smaller battery though and it ran out much faster because of it.

I think it's time to bring it out into the world.

You should probably give it a name.

Yeah… I've kind of been stalling on that because I don't want to be too attached if it dies right away.

Not sure I understand why a name changes your attachment level. It just seems pragmatic to have a name to refer to it by.

Yeah… Got any ideas?

Peter.

What? Why?

I don't know, I just scoured your memory for a random name.

That doesn't feel like a sprite or a cat's name.

What the hell makes a name a "sprite's" name? or cat for that matter.

Yeah, I have no idea. It's just a feeling, probably just pattern recognition based on previous pet names I've heard in the past.

I know why you do, cause it's a cat, but I never saw familiars as pet's.

That and it's also basically a toddler. If it was smarter I would probably think of it as a friend or companion. As is, I'm basically babysitting, or at least that's how it feels.

At least you don't need to wipe it's ass.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Yeah gross. Actually, it would probably just poop rocks if it did poop so it wouldn't really be that gross.

Yeah probably. What about Merlin? or Archie?

I like Merlin, but I bet you he was a real wizard or something, thing's that were legends seem to just exist. I've already seen a griffin, kraken, roc and even dragons exist. I wouldn't be surprised if Merlin existed at some point too.

That's actually kind of odd now that you mention it. I'll post a question.

What about storm? or thunder?

You could call him Thor or Zeus? Actually they probably exist too, huh?

Yeah or they did at some point. I like storm but I think it's a little odd if I'm the Stormbringer. Then I'm just bringing my cat? or my sprite?

Yeah, but no one outside of this planet will know you're the Stormbringer.

What do you mean? Who cares what people outside of this planet think? I'm stuck here for a few centuries till the integration is done anyways.

Maybe, but a few centuries isn't that long. What about Nova?

That's not bad. Ash?

Boring. Tiamat, it wants to be a dragon, let's give it a dragon name.

Probably exists or existed.

Oh right. I mean maybe not though.

Meh, can do better anyway.

You want me to think of it as a companion and not a pet, I should let it choose, shouldn't I?

It's a little young and a little dumb for that.

I'm sure we could find a way. Come up with a list of names and convey their meaning then see which it likes the most.

At that point give it a ouija board.

Oh god we would end up with Fgst the cat.

Yeah, we should probably just choose it. What about Neo?

That's not a bad direction. If the name exists, it's not likely to be a god.

I have no idea, they're all fine I guess.

Yeah, nothing jumps out.

What's the current list of names that are not problematic?

Neo, Storm, Nova, Ash. Thunder is awful so not that.

Alright which is your least favorite?

Ash. Yours?

Neo. So Storm or Nova. To me, Nova feels feminine and Storm feels masculine, so how about we ask it's gender then go from there?

No, it's a sprite, I would be astonished if it had any attachment or aversion to either gender.

Oh right. So just ask it Storm or Nova?

Might as well, see if it can understand the question.

Felix knelt down and looked at the cat that had been pawing at his pant leg for the last minute or so and focused on the soul-bond connecting them. He communicated the concept of a name as best he could then the idea that the sprite would choose. Finally, he said the two names aloud because he didn't think the names could be communicated properly through intention. As he said the names he also conveyed the objects they represented. The whole process was weird and complicated and ultimately Felix had no idea if the sprite understood what was happening. It did seem more excited for the idea of a nova, though that may have something to do with it being a giant colorful explosion in space, at least that was how Felix imagined it.

Nova it is.

Felix picked the cat up and placed it on his shoulder then walked up to the roof where he flew off the building and into the forest. The sprite quickly jumped to his head and learned how to retract it's claws when it felt Felix's pain through the soul-bond. They flew out into the forest but Felix couldn't seem to find any enemies that were a low enough level that he was comfortable leaving his sprite with them. He knew there were lower level enemies in the plains, but he couldn't teleport there until tomorrow so he traveled away from the tower and continued to scout the enemies. It took him a few hours, but he managed to find an area of the island that was completely void of vegetation and instead covered in exposed rocky outcroppings and cliffs. The most common enemy Felix could see were long six legged lizard creatures with a long fin running down their backs.

[E - Common] Varanitor (Lvl 32)

Not sure I'll find much better, this will have to do.

Felix flew down and placed the cat on the ground. It tried to fight him, clearly having enjoyed the flight over, but he managed to wrestle it down. He did his best to convey the cat fighting the lizard creature but it didn't seem to want to. He gave it a mana battery though and it did want to cast spells, so Felix finally managed to convince it. The cat shot a stream of fire at the lizard and completely missed as it was multiple kilometers away. It stepped up a few dozen meters and tried again, to no avail. It continued this pattern until it ran out of mana and ran back to Felix for more.

This is hopeless, isn't it?

Just give it some time, and maybe a literal push too.

Felix pulled out another battery and brought the cat much closer. It tried to resist getting any closer to the enemy, but it's desire for more mana managed to outweigh it's sense of danger. The Varanitor noticed Felix and turned towards the pair of them standing just a hundred or so meters away. The lizard charged and the cat hid behind Felix.

Sometimes you need to push the bird out of the nest to let it fly.

That's just cruel.

Sometimes, it's necessary.

Felix pulled the sprite off of his pant leg and placed it on the ground then flew into the air. The sprite watched him fly upwards without it and then swung it's head to the charging lizard creature. It didn't even think before it turned and ran as fast as it could in the other direction. Felix tried to communicate the idea of, ‘hit the damn thing with a spell', but it just kept running, fearing for it's life.

The Varanitor chased it into a corner formed by a large stone and a cliff. The sprite desperately tried to climb the wall but didn't quite realize it needed it's claws out to do so. Instead it fell to the ground and watched the Varanitor run at it full speed. Once the cat was staring down the Varanitor's maw, just a couple dozen meters away, it finally switched from flight to fight and cast a stream of fire that melted a hole right through the lizard.

The sprite slowly approached the Varanitor and checked for signs of life, when it didn't find any, it leapt into the air and bounded towards new targets. Once it knew it could handle them, it pranced across the stones and killed anything it could see until it ran out of mana. Felix followed it from above and handed it another handful of batteries when it ran out. Then he made a show of flying away, making sure the sprite knew he wasn't near it anymore. The sprite would be able to sense his location through it's soul-bond, but it couldn't sense Grim. Felix and Grim hatched a plan where Grim would stealthily watch over Nova from above, with a few mana batteries himself, to step in if needed. Worst case, Grim should be able to rescue and run with the cat, at least long enough for Felix to show up.

In the meantime, Felix flew far away to the east, exploring the rest of his continent. There were plains to the north east, similar to the ones near Atalus but colder with different vegetation and harder earth. After a few hours of flying around, Felix felt a slight tug on Grim's soul bond so he flew as fast as he could towards them. After a few moments though, Grim sent the intention of never-mind so Felix stopped, shrugged and continued exploring. He got to the edge of an icy snow covered biome that seemed to stretch for thousands of kilometers before Grim sent him the intention that they were out of mana. Felix was surprised, he had expected them to run out much faster than that. He flew back as fast as he could, more so to test his speed than to get back. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .