Being such a small creature in a world filled with giants was something no creature got used to overnight. But being the one chosen as the familiar of a being who ruled over so many others, and whose Charisma was high enough to continue to cause those around to flock to him, though, had its perks. Jerky stretched in the plush circular bed his master had gifted him for their chambers. He had called it a dog bed, but having no idea what a dog even was, he just looked at it as his master taking expert care of him.
When he had been in the plains of Alothrim, Jerky had lived in a cave buried under rocks at the base of a cliff. Fighting for one's life daily as one of the lowest forms of life had been a struggle, but he had mastered the strategies necessary for him to stay alive and find food, while not antagonizing the greater creatures that existed.
This new world was a living paradise compared to his previous world. The skies and heavenly bodies had been blotted out by the smoke and ash that rose from the top of the tall mountains in explosive displays every hour of every day. The hot liquid rock that ran through the valleys like rivers was also not something to trifle with, as he had seen many creatures fall in or be thrown in, and heard the terrible pain it caused them. So he simply stayed hidden.
Since his arrival on this plane, he had been treated like a king, as he felt he deserved. He only answered to his master, and he loved his master for the kindness he showed him. Food was given to him simply because of his relation to his master, and he really enjoyed the scratches the female with the music gave him. Why didn't everyone treat him like this? He certainly deserved it.
Getting out of his bed, he went into the large slippery room and relieved himself in the wash box. He still wasn't so sure why his master got so upset about this. He had seen him excrete in the wash box, why couldn't he do it?
After this, he began to feel hungry. Master was still asleep, he needed far more sleep than Jerky did. Probably because of all the killing. Master was so good at killing. He had killed creatures far larger than he was, and Jerky truly admired him for his prowess in battle. He was so confident in his fighting abilities that he even let the monsters hurt him just to prove he wasn't invincible. Yes, his master was truly humble.
He left the room that he shared with his master and went down to the great food room. There were so many places for the others to sit and eat, but the eating places were too big for him, so he went into the food-making area to see if he could get something to eat. Once inside, he removed his invisibility and hopped up to where the food lady was working.
"Well, good morning you tiny menace you. Have you come for some breakfast?" The food female asked him.
Jerky nodded enthusiastically and reached out his hands in a gesture for give me food.
"Can you say, Charlene?" The food female asked him.
He never understood why she wanted him to say this word. It didn't make any sense at all. Was it some kind of proper etiquette on this plane to use certain words to acquire food?
"Charlene," Jerky repeated the word and sat on his haunches to show he was being patient, even though he wanted to just disappear and take what he wanted.
Once before, he had done this. Unfortunately, he had slipped on some yellowish cube that had been left on a plate with an unsharpened knife next to it, which come to think of it, was odd to have as a weapon, and he had fallen, causing metal cooking containers to fall and giving him away. So he always asked now. The food female seemed to be willing to give him what he wanted when he asked. So he would play her stupid games.
"Excellent! That's right, I'm Charlene, and I control the food." The food female said.
She called herself Charlene? That was a stupid name. Jerky was so much better. Why did this woman insist he says what she called herself before feeding him?
"Here, since you've been a good boy this morning," The food female turned and came back with a piece of meat she hadn't cooked yet.
Jerky's mouth began to water at the sight of the food. His tail began wagging on its own. Stupid tail. Why did it betray him so?!
He reached out and the food female placed the meat in his hands. Diving in like he had never eaten before, he tore the meat to shreds and devoured it in under a minute. That was his best time yet. He liked eating fast. It usually meant he would be given more food.
"Wow, you sure were hungry this morning. Here. I have a little extra for you. Try this." The food female said, bringing him a plate of some kind of reddish strips.
It smelled good. But he had never seen this before and was wary. Why couldn't she just give him another piece of delicious meat? getting close and smelling it from every possible angle, Jerky finally decided to trust the food female and licked the end of one of the strips.
An explosion of flavor burst on the tip of his tongue in a way he had never experienced before. Grabbing every strip on the plate, he shoved them into his mouth as fast as he possibly could.
"That's what I thought. Everyone loves bacon." The food female said, going back to preparing the food for the others who lived here now.
Bacon. That was a funny word. But he would remember it forever.
"Bacon," Jerky tried the word, but his mouth was full of food so it came out as "bekking."
"Don't talk with your mouth full, Jerky. It's impolite." The food female chastised him.
Talk, don't talk. This female clearly didn't know what she wanted. Deciding he was done with this confusion, Jerky hopped off the counter and became invisible again as he left the great food room. Racing down the halls, he found his master in the metal room with the magic boxes.
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The magic boxes always showed others on them doing things, but it was never exciting things like killing or sneaking. Another one of those who lived here now sat in a seat facing the magic boxes and just stared at them. These creatures did such odd things sometimes.
Seeing that his master was busy speaking with some of the others who lived here, he turned to go. At the last minute, he noticed that the sneaky male was staring at him. But he was invisible, wasn't he? He looked down at himself and realized he was not. So he became invisible again and scampered out of the room.
Deciding he wanted to do some hunting today, Jerky left the main entrance when someone opened the door. There were always creatures coming and going from the home, so he just needed to leave at the same time. Once outside, he headed for the wall. Being invisible was a great way to sneak in and out of the home without being noticed. He worried that if his master needed him he would not be there, but his master could always use the mind talk to call him. His master had never used it before, but Jerky was sure he would when he needed him.
Traveling in this plane was so much different than his previous home. The creatures here traveled in some kind of metal box. He was sure it was just to keep them safe and move faster, but it was incredible that his master could control such a large object with just his hands. And they insisted on having the ground covered in stone. Such strange creatures.
Moving along the stone ground, Jerky made his way to another home, where he knew small furry creatures that squeaked lived. The System called them rats when he Inspected them, but he called them fur snacks. They seemed so helpless and undeveloped, with no skills to use. What sad, pathetic fur snacks. Moving inside through where the clear barricade had once been, but was now broken on the ground, Jerky entered and began to sniff around for his next victims.
Killing the fur snacks also gave him experience. He wanted to get stronger to help his master fight and killing the fur snacks was a good way of doing that. Today, however, there was one of the stinky green creatures in the other home and it was digging through some kind of box.
Master hated these green stinky creatures. He even ran them down with his big metal box for traveling. Jerky loved it when that happened. It always left such a pretty red spot on the ground and the green creatures made a funny noise that made Jerky happy when they died. His master had killed so many of the smelly green creatures that they had begun to fear him. As they should! All should fear his master!
Jerky decided that he would help his master get rid of these creatures and would kill this one for him. Sneaking around behind the creature, he got ready to strike. Charging up an attack, he let loose his eye beams, which burned the backside of the creature and made it scream and jump into the air. It grabbed the spot Jerky had hit and turned around. It saw him and got angry.
That's right, come and get me! Jerky thought and readied himself.
Diving at him in rage, the creature clumsily tried to grab him, but he simply jumped up and onto the creature's head as it fell and used his claws to begin scratching at it. It wailed again at the pain he was causing it, and Jerky cried out in triumph of his foe. Blood began to flow from the scratches on its head as it flailed about. He would destroy this creature for his master!
He was suddenly struck on the side by one of the creature's hands as it continued to throw them around in an attempt to get him off. It DARED to strike him? That would be the last mistake this creature made. Growling now in fury, he got back to his feet and saw the creature charging him. Right before it could get to him, Jerky activated his shield and the creature ran face-first into the barrier.
Laughing now at the creature's antics, he released the shield and jumped at it, biting into its neck.
"BLEGH!!!!" This creature tasted horrible and Jerky tried to spit out what was in his mouth, but the creature's blood was different. It wouldn't come out of his mouth. Oh, this was going to be so awful to taste for a while.
Meanwhile, the pathetic creature grabbed at its neck and flung itself around as it sprayed more of the nasty blood around. Jerky knew it was going to die. It was only a matter of time. No creature lost this much blood and lived. So he waited. As the creature began to grow tired, it fell to its knees. Running full force at it, he impaled the creature with his horns to finish it off.
Climbing onto the top of his victim, he raised his hands as the stupid male had done several times in victory. Jerky didn't understand why his master kept the stupid one around, but he seemed to like him. Jerky did like his animal friend. He sometimes rode him around instead of walking. The fur was also super warm, and it was good at killing too. Though it seemed to really like to bite creature's reproductive parts a lot. Jerky had no desire to try that but was fine with the fact that it made the stupid male's pet happy.
With his foe defeated, Jerky was happy to see he had gained another level. Soon he would be strong like his master. Leaving the stinky body, he returned to his hunt for the fur snacks. Once he had his fill of the tasty creatures, he left and went back to the home. He found his master getting ready to go hunting too.
Climbing up onto his shoulder, his master reached over, scratched him behind the horns, and praised him. He must have known of his kills. His master knew everything. He loved master so much.
They went out onto the stone grounds and hunted for creatures to kill for most of the day. Killing many creatures, Jerky was able to level up several more times. He helped master with his shields when he could as well and kept him safe. He was a good familiar.
When it was time to return to the home, they entered through the front and his master went to their room to the wash box. He got all of the blood and dirt off of him, which Jerky found odd because those were like signs of honor in his other plane. He jumped in with his master though and washed himself as well. He wanted to show master that he was going to be just like him someday.
Once they were cleaned, they went back to the great food room. Most of the others who traveled with master were there as well. The big male, the weird male that always talked about farming, the female with music was staring at some papers bound together, the sneaky one sat at the end looking at everyone, the one with armor sat across from master with his mate, the other nice female who always had snacks for him, and the one with the red beard was next to her.
They talked for a long time while they ate, which was very inefficient. If they ate faster the food female would give them more. But they seemed happy with the talking, so Jerky didn't interrupt them. He moved over to the music female's lap and curled up to wait for his master to finish his meal. She scratched his head idly while staring at the strange papers, occasionally eating a bit of her food too.
When they finished eating, they all walked out and went in different directions. Master went to the machine that held the things. He talked with the serious male and the stupid male about what things he wanted. The old male who knew too much was there too. Jerky was happy his master was getting new things. They would help him kill even more creatures!
Finally finished with the things machine, Jerky jumped onto his master's shoulders as he went back to their room. Lying down on the bed, his master sighed heavily from the work he had done today. Jerky wanted to show his master he was proud of him and nuzzled his hand and face. Looking over at him his master scratched him again and gave him more praise.
He then told Jerky it was time for sleep, so Jerky obliged and moved to his soft fluffy bed and laid down while his master removed his clothes and climbed into his own bed. Soon the sounds of his master's snoring could be heard, and Jerky allowed himself to drift off as well. This new life was truly amazing, and he was glad his master had found him and brought him here.