When we walked through the town people got out of our way immediately as we approached. They deeply bowed, and began to whisper after we passed. I looked behind us and noticed many people pointing at me.
The people were a medley of human, elves, and dwarves. The largest group was the elves though. They made up of three fourths of the population.
We kept walking all the way up to a huge mansion style house. Are we going in there? How do these people know the guys in there? Could it be they are actually someone famous? I asked myself as I continued to play the happy pet.
The town looked like it would normally be a bustling place. In fact, until the Delilah’s group passed, it was. They had to have at least a couple of hundred people here! Quite the sight. Delilah’s group continued to happily talking to each other.
When we got to the walls surrounding the mansion, two burly guards drew their weapons. After pointing at me they began to aggressively talking to the two adults of our group. I just stood there and rubbed my head on Delilah. I had to make sure they knew I wasn’t going to harm anyone.
The dwarf turned to me.
Dwarf: Entity! Sit!
Obviously I did. Rejecting his order now wouldn’t be the smartest thing. Anyone could see he was trying to persuade them for my sake.
Dwarf: See? I told you. Dalgeth.
There were some words I had learned, but a lot of them escaped my grasp. Although I did learn a few things that should be able to help me. Almost all of the words had a G in front. They would use the word, and add different suffixes to the end to change the meaning, or direct it at other people.
Prefixes worked the same way. For instance. Ga meant to tell. Gaath was I tell you (something). The ath changed who the word was directed towards. This world seemed to only use conjugated verbs, or names. It was very weird.
Through the days of listening to the conversations I learned a few things. Adding a D in front instead of the G made it past tense. I found this out because of the word Gig, which meant to kill. The elf girl always said ‘Glad Digeth’. Or ‘I killed this’, whenever she returned with food.
When we encountered enemies, on those rare occasions, the dwarf would run and shout ‘GIGETH!’ or, ‘Kill them!’ It was pretty easy to learn some of the words that they repeated often. It also made understanding the basic rules easier. I didn’t know what Galg meant though. I had heard it sometime while in the forest though.
Dwarf: Follow me.
I went to his side and cocked my cute little, deadly head. One of the guards tentatively put out his palm to me. The dwarf gave me a command I didn’t understand. I rubbed my head on the man’s palm.
He laughed heartily. I guess I was off the hook. I licked his hand. They let us through easily after that. Just the entry garden was huge! The path to the door took ten minutes to walk to, and was lined with various trees and bushes on either side. Past the immediate foliage, was a large swath of flowers and other plants.
We arrived in the interior of the mansion shortly after passing the gates. The entry way was filled with bowing maids and butlers on each side. I really hit the jackpot on this one!
A man walked down the long sprawling stairs. He looked very much like the Delilah, just male and older. He lovingly stared at her. He was dressed in a majestic manor. He had form-fitting robes, but they were impressively embroidered. As soon as she saw him she let out a scream. She giddily jumped up and ran towards him.
His smile as she approached was filled with love. They embraced in a heartwarming scene. I would have cried, but I made myself stop. It’d be weird if a dog started randomly crying.
He affectionately glanced at the two people that had brought her here. His face froze for a moment after seeing me. The dwarf saw this, and quickly began to talk.
I only understood the words: Entity, fed, followed. My only guess was he was talking about how I joined the group. If not that I had no idea.
The man walked towards me slowly. I felt a shiver run down my spine. He looked directly at my eyes. He mumbled something that sounded strangely like English. With a snap of his fingers my jaw was forced open.
For some reason he just stuck his hand in. He smelled delicious. Wolf wanted a taste, but I stopped him. This was obviously some sort of test. The girl looked teary eyed, and the two people that had been traveling with her had anxious looks.
Although we hadn’t eaten anything that day, and he smelled delicious, I knew I wouldn’t be able to even take a bite of him. As soon as I did I probably would be killed.
I stood there waiting for him to remove the delicious smelling hand. Every second made the need for Wolf to bite down increase. It was harder and harder to remain in control of the situation. After a minute and a half I could no longer exert full control over Wolf.
As soon as he regained control, he tried to eat the hand. By now it was almost an intrinsic need to consume it. The man pulled his hand away even before the order had been sent to Wolf’s jaw.
Still looking in my eyes.
Old Man: You did a good job, but if you hurt my daughter I’ll kill you myself. Don’t just think I will be satisfied with destroying your body though. I’ll rip out your soul!
I blinked. The man had just clearly spoken plain English! What was that!? I barked at him trying to get his attention as he walked to his daughter.
Dwarf: Sit! Quiet!
Disappointed, I obeyed. If I didn’t I knew I’d be valued less highly. Everyone in every world only cares about the value of others.
Delilah and her dad(?) went to the top story of the building. The dwarf led me outside. To a horse stable more precisely.
He spoke to a man who was shoveling horse manure. The man looked at me in shock. I had taken over Wolf again, and sat down happily. I stared at him with my tongue hanging loose.
He shook his head as he smiled. Out of nowhere, a jet black collar appeared. How did he do that? Do want!
He placed the collar around me without much fear that I might fight back. I just let him. Having a collar meant having an owner. Having an owner meant being trained. Being trained meant maybe others won’t kill on sight.
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The collar guy told me to follow him. We walked for a bit and ended up on what could only be described as a warrior training ground. Practice dummies were spread out across the field, and many men were training their weapons.
The collar man led me to one of the more imposing looking warriors. After talking for a few seconds the warrior looked at me, a hint of disbelief evident in his eyes.
Warrior: Hmph. I’ll see. Entity, right? Gleshgaesh!
He pointed to one of the practice dummies. I didn’t know why he would want me to train, but I went along with it. It was better than the time I tried to find food on my own without a pack.
I didn’t know what he wanted me to do though. Did he want me to attack? Or defend it against others? If I didn’t know what I was supposed to do I couldn’t do it.
The warrior sighed.
Warrior: Kill!
That one I understood. I ran over to the dummy, and started biting and clawing at it. After several seconds it was torn to shreds. I gaped in amazement after I was done. Not only because my ferociousness had even surprised me, but the dummy was repairing itself!
The other warriors had stopped attacking, and were staring at me, dumbfounded. What? I only did what I was told
The warrior that gave me the order looked at me suspiciously. He said something, and one of the other warriors came over and started to circle me.
I looked at the instructor. The warrior that gave me the order was obviously in charge of instructing these people
Insturctor: Gleshgaesh. Don’t kill. Gleshgaesh.
It meant for me to do something to him, but he looked like he was going to start attacking me. Maybe that was what gleshga meant?
I jumped towards the man. He swung his one handed sword at me, while at the same time putting his shield up to defend.
Seeing the sword, Wolf’s instincts told me to get away. I wasn’t going to disobey them. Using the shield as a spring board I launched myself backwards.
I sat down happily and looked towards the instructor, waiting to be praised. *Danger!* I jumped to the side, and growled at the man.
He still wanted to fight? I thought I was just supposed to attack him once, but if he wanted to spar I could do that. He swung his sword at me, so I angled my claws, and struck it with Light Claws.
The sword was far more fragile than I though. It shattered in only one blow. The entire group stared at me in open mouthed astonishment.
Why do people keep staring at me? I just did what you guys wanted.
I didn’t even know what they wanted anymore. I decided to lay down and rest. Whatever would happen, would happen.
After a few moments Delilah came running, and gave me a deep hug. She looked reproachfully at the instructor. He rubbed the back of his neck and gave a timid laugh.
After speaking to her for a moment she looked at me. She grabbed my paw and started to look at it. She pointed to one of the dummies.
Delilah: Kill.
I went over to it and tore it to pieces.
When I got back to her she shook her head.
Delilah: No. Kill.
I did though? Delilah you’re a cute kid but damn if you aren’t confusing.
She touched my claws and made a swishing motion.
!!!
Now I understood! I hadn’t actually showed off any of my special moves to her or our group while in the forest. Why would I? There was no real reason to. It’s not like we had any trouble killing the enemies. I even did my part.
I used the Light Claws on the dummy. Delilah delightedly clapped her hands together.
Delilah’s father appeared as if from the very wind. He looked at me again. His eyes are reeealy creepy. He spoke in English again.
Delilah’s Dad: You are really a weird one. I knew something was wrong with you, but to be proven right in less than a day? Ha! I know you can understand me. The Ancient Language I speak is the language of true magic.
I pretended to not be able to understand him.
Delilah’s Dad: Oh Great Creator of mana, and soul! Allow me to borrow a piece of power from your divinity. A piece to control the will of monsters! Greater Spell: BIND!
Light swirled around Wolf’s body. Chains of light embraced him. His neck was wrapped. His legs were wrapped. His torso was wrapped. Every part of his body was wrapped in chains. After only a moment a loud ding sound emanated.
In a whispery voice I could hear the man.
Delilah’s Dad: Now you are no more than a servant of the great Oscilo family. I don’t know what sort of monstrosity of a wolf can use rat attacks, but now you belong to us. Let’s see your status screen.
I saw a blue scree pop up. Hey! I tried to do that!
I couldn’t make a status screen pop up, but this guy could? That was cheating!
He looked confused, then narrowed his eyes. A faint light emitted from the wolf, who only whimpered. The wolf was led to attack the dummy again, but didn’t use the light claw. I had given Wolf complete control of the body, so that I wouldn’t feel the attack as much. As it was I didn’t feel anything.
What did that guy mean rat attacks? Was that attack not normally usable by wolves? The way he made it sound is that it was a rat exclusive attack. But none of the rats besides the one I controlled had used it.
That must be why Wolf never used it on his own. But why could I use it?
Delilah’s Dad: The wolf says it can’t use that attack!
Even though he wasn’t speaking English anymore, I could perfectly understand him.
Delilah: Daddy! What did you do? He came here because he liked me! I promised him nothing bad would happen!
Tears began streaming down her face. Delilah’s dad looked around, worried. He looked like he just broke his mother’s prize vase or something.
Delilah’s Dad: Honey wait. He isn’t hurt. I just made him part of our family. Isn’t that right?
His last sentence was directed towards me, or rather Wolf. Wolf felt a tightening around his soul. I noticed it too. He had no choice but to go over to Delilah, and place his head on her leg.