“A bond of two is special indeed.”

“To go through life together with love and hardships is beautiful.”

“However, few actually undergo that Bond for Life.”

“Therefore, do seek a Bond for Life.”

“Therefore, beware that few find it, and even fewer accomplish it.”

#15 Quote - Book of Races and Species

*

Central Continent - Inner Sea - Magi and Maximus

Maximus knew not he was named.

He knew not Why he got named as such.

Neither would he care if he could understand its meaning… probably.

Yet, just because you don't know or understand it does not mean it will not cause ripples to emerge when a Being of a higher existence names those of a lower Reality

Names defined, just they explained.

Therefore, the moment Maximux gained his name, a tiny nudge was given to his Life Path.

Although it would take time for that little nudge to lodge itself into his desires, it was bound to happen at some point.

And so, Maximus, stuck in a weird relationship with Magi, spent his life with her.

In the beginning, their relationship was simple. Magi took charge.

She dictated where they went, what they did, how they did it, and why they did it.

Maximus just followed along. It felt natural when he followed this bigger female. It was as if he relived the nostalgia of being an adolescent again.

Maybe that was a good thing for Maximus as he found out that this big female not only hunted down bigger prey, he also found out that sometimes she would spew out a White Flame.

Now, Maximus had a weird relationship with White Flames.

It all started when he made the first mistake a long time ago (a decade or so from his point of view).

Maximus made the mistake of tasting the weird phenomena that were the White Flame in that weird place he had not visited ever since that moment the White Flame had eaten him.

What happened to him at that point, he vaguely recalled.

All his little mind knew was a white memory, and that going through all that conditioned his little mind with fear.

From that point, he never visited the weird place in his Dreams.

Still, that was not the only consequence of the White Flame eating him.

Somehow, ever since that day, he had a weird feeling inside him, and when he explored it, he manifested a White Flame.

At first, it scared him. Over time, however, he had grown used to it.

The problem was that the White Flame did nothing, but now, after meeting this bigger female, things have changed slightly.

Maximus saw Magi spewing a bit of White Flame on a carcass, and that very same carcass lit up considerably. It had scared him off for a moment, yet when he turned back, he saw the female enjoying herself as she gnawed on the White Flame as if it was a delicious meal.

With care, spawned by his negative experience, he inched closer to the burning carcass of the bulky and pointy creature.

It was smaller than Magi, but its two tusks identified it as a Boar. At least it would be so if one ‘certain’ Being got asked about it.

Maximus knew and saw them occasionally, but he ignored them for the most part.

Not this female, though. It was bigger and therefore needed far more food to satisfy itself. Yet, this Boar became a different kind of food.

A type of food Maximus had never eaten before, so when he inched closer to the burning carcass, he treated it with caution. Even when he was beside it, he did not immediately imitate Magi.

However, his curiosity would eventually triumph over his past experience, so he opened his jaw and tried his best so much on the White Flame.

Maximus did not know what to expect, but he did feel a slight texture to the White Flame when his snout, whiskers, mouth, and tongue touched the White Flame.

When he chewed on the Flame slightly and swallowed it into his stomach, a slight sense of satisfaction came to him.

It was different from everything he had tried before, but he did not dislike it.

A few more munches later, the carcass was no more as the White Flame consumed it all.

What followed that experience was a repetition as Maximus followed Magi around and indulged his culinary tongue on some Flame from time to time.

However, as with all things one is indulged in, there will come a point when the desire to indulge triumphs over Fear.

After many years of Maximus' giving in to his Fear, desire overcame his Fear, and he embraced the distant call inside his Dreams.

Seeking, burrowing layer after layer, he soon came upon the barrier that separated him from that weird place he had stayed away from for so long. Then a flick of his tongue upon his teeth and mouth made him remember why he was here in the first place, and with a few claw strikes, he penetrated the barrier.

Moments later, he found himself in the vast expanse of colors and things he could not understand.

All that got set aside when his beady eyes looked down. His beady eyes saw the White Flame engulfing the bottom of this strange place.

With hesitation, he made his way to it.

Although, it took him a few tries to remember how to do that.

Still, Maximus’s hesitation only increased once he got closer to the phenomena that had once eaten him whole.

Once beside the enormous wall of White Flames, Maximus hesitated one last time before his desire overcame it all, and he bit into the Flame.

For a moment, his fear spiked, but after the few practices he had done with Magi, he calmed down and began munching and swallowing the Flame.

The more he swallowed, the more his hesitation vanished, and he truly began enjoying himself.

However, little did he know Two Beings observed Maximus.

*

One was in the form of a Mirror, and the other was a Honey Badger.

This Honey Badger was standing on his hind legs, and his right claws scratched his neck.

His beady eyes, on the other hand, radiated an understanding. An understanding that something finally clicked within him.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

At the same time, his face projected a frown when his gaze shifted from Maximus to the whole in his Dream Realm.

“Master? What is going on? How is Maximus here?” The Mirror spoke and glanced at its Master with the golden-slitted eye.

It had no mouth to speak, but that was what it did.

“He's not truly, truly here. That is a Dream Projection, I think.” Mir replied as the Master of the Dream Realm in which they all found themselves. “Still, this is truly unexpected. It explains quite a few things but gives rise to a few Mysteries.”

“Yes, Master. What will you do now? Will you dismiss Maximus?” Goldy asked its Master.

“Hnng” Murmured Mir in response. “Goldy, give me two Observations. One of Maximus’s Dream Projection and one on his true body, out there in Reality.”

“Yes, Master.” Goldy, in his Mirror form, affirmed.

On the backside of his mirror, two projections appeared.

Mir observed and played with the settings before a firm understanding hit him.

“Let's leave him at it, but I will need to work on that… entrance he made.” Mir decided. “ It feels like a natural portal to me, but it's so… undignified looking as it is now. I'll deal with it once Maximus… fills his belly, so to speak.”

“Understood, Master.”

With all that said, Mir vanished from the observation platform Goldy got stationed on.

His destination was the ginormous library he was presently building out of obsidian gold glass.

Maximus, on the other hand, indulged himself until the point he fell full and made his way back home.

Once he reached the opening he made and crawled inside, Mir, in his Honey Badger body, appeared right beside it.

His gaze lingered on the opening, and the other side of it, for a few moments before shaking his Honey Badger head.

Then he flexed his power, and the gap widened.

Within moments it became a big shimmering Portal.

A column on each side made out of obsidian gold glass manifested.

Above the Portal and the columns, an arching formation of obsidian gold glass blocks assembled itself. Adding in the details made it look hand carved to a certain degree.

Done with those, Mir created an Arching Portal to his Realm.

Examining it for a few moments, Mir nodded, and below him, more obsidian glass blocks manifested as a floor.

Soon after, a Portal Chamber manifested as well.

This chamber's insides were big, with multiple columns supporting the domed roof plastered with a few mosaics of Honey Badgers. However, none of that was as important as the end of the Portal Chamber.

No wall existed, and the full view of the Realm was observable from it, but just before the end of that slightly curved terrace, right at the edge, a concave gold bowl manifested.

It was two meters in diameter, but because it got inlaid into the floor, its height would not be visible because the next moment, Mir waved his right paw, and a small part of the White Flame at the bottom of his Realm separated and appeared in this golden bowl.

“Good, this should make it much more appealing to them when they come.” Mir murmured. “Now, let me see if I can fine-tune the portal somewhat.”

Appearing beside the Arching Portal that he made, Mir placed his right paw on the widened portal and examined it.

It took a bit of time, as he was as delicate as possible because the Portal was a natural occurrence. It was his first time interacting with it on a deeper level, so he did not want to mess it all up by making it harder for Honey Badger’s use.

Yet, when he truly dived deep into its inner workings a curiosity came upon him.

In his current perception, tiny lights existed in the far distance. Some of them were closer and some far away, but only four of them truly connected to the portal.

Who those four were was easy to guess. The others, though?

Well… the others surprised Mir on a big scale but not because of who they represented.

No, they surprised Mir because of the numbers that they represented.

“That… is a lot of Honey Badgers.” Mir remarked.

Seeing them all, he did not even bother counting them all.

Immersed in it, Mir began examining the little lights in the distance.

His goal was to check the differences between each of them.

The results were straightforward. Those the furthest away from the Portal emanated the least. But the most significant difference between them and those closer to the Portal was the Vigor they radiated.

“No doubt about it, those are cubs. Then those closer to the Portal are adults or older adults.” The answer was straightforward, but one mystery remained in Mir’s mind.

It remained a mystery because the closest ones shined the brightest, yet they still had not made contact with the Portal.

It was as if the Portal was just outside their reach for some reason.

“Either those four are special, or something is the cause?” Mir was puzzled, but when no answer came, he just shrugged it off.

“Whatever the case was, I can remedy the fault.”

With conviction, Mir focused on the Portal, and with clear Intent, he gave it extra juice.

Enough extra juice to give off a more prominent presence.

He held it like that for about a minute when he noticed the first changes.

The four connected to the Portal were the first to react, but more followed as the Lights in the distance blared their intensity.

Seeing the success, Mir stopped, and the Portal returned to its natural state.

Still, all this had given Mir an idea.

Returning his awareness to his true body, Mir focused on the inner projection of the Portal to the surface. Once that happened, tiny Stars of Light appeared on the big portal.

Some were bigger, some were smaller, some were further away, and some were closer.

However, the important thing was that they stayed there even after Mir retrieved his Power and Intent.

With a nod of gratified work, Mir vanished for the time being.

He returned to his ongoing project of building a library.

*

Like that time passed, but not without things changing for the Honey Badgers out there in Reality.

Every time they slept and dreamed a distant presence called to them.

The oldest of them knew that feeling the clearest. However, recently, that distant presence flared from time to time as if beckoning them to reach for it.

To grasp it into their paws and jaws.

Only the oldest of the Honey Badgers could actually try to grasp for it as they dived the inner layers of their Consciousness.

Nevertheless, there were always those lucky enough to be sleeping at the correct time when the presence flared in the distance.

Being directly exposed to it became the Juice of Desire that nudged them in the right direction.

And that Juice of Desire only increased as they neared and neared the destination.

Nonetheless, it wasn't easy, and few managed to reach that distant location.

When they did, they entered a place of obsidian gold glass columns and walls full of reliefs of Honey Badgers.

Those who reached this place of wonder wondered what to do now that they finally reached this place. But that state of confusion lasted for very little. For something gave them a nudge into their little minds.

The nudge was for them to reach for something. So when all followed that nudge and found that something they all found one strange phenomenon.

A Flame. A White Flame.

Fire, a concept unfamiliar to them, much less a White Flame, yet the nudging feeling returned with instructions.

The resulting action had a few scenarios.

The most common result was the Honey Badgers that refused the nudging effect and its calming instructions.

They yelped out in surprise at the strange feelings the White Flame produced on them. And if that happened, a stronger nudge reached them to calm down and tell them what they had to do to get rid of that feeling.

The rare few reacted calmly to the feelings the White Flame produced on them. They followed the nudging instructions of eating the White Flame as if nothing mattered to them at that moment.

Mir gave the latest newcomer a look.

It was one of the rare few that calmly followed the instructions he had placed upon the Flaming Golden Bowl.

Seeing it happen without a single problem, he mentally patted himself on the shoulder as a well-done job.

Mir still remembered how the first few that arrived reacted. So with experimentations under his belt, every next Honey Badger that came followed the Instructions better, yet, personality was a thing, so diversity of instructions was also a thing.

The strangest thing was how they processed the White Flame once enough got consumed.

For that reason, two additional chambers got assembled with even more straightforward instructions.

Mir had them sleep inside one chamber and poop in the other, where a whole just the right size for Honey Badgers existed.

Seeing it for the first time, Mir knew not if he should laugh or if she should feel sorry for himself and his Realm. Only the knowledge that it wasn't real shit calmed him down.

Forgetting that part, Mir gazed at the tiny bubbles in the distance emerging from the White Flame.

Thirteen new bubbles appeared carrying the signature of the Honey Badgers that had paid a visit to his Realm and satisfied their imaginary bellies.

Their bubbles barely left the White Flames, but the curious thing was how all thirteen traveled towards the same stream of bubbles. And that same stream fueled into the same river.

Mir knew without a doubt what all that signified.

Since more of them are… subscribing to me, I should probably consider implementing the reward system soon.

Another thing on my waiting list to prioritize. As if I am not already busy enough.

Sigh, so much to do, yet only one of me.