In a far away village there was an orphanage. While the orphanage did what every other orphanage did, it also did a bit more.
Deep underground far below said village was a man-made dungeon with one purpose: to breed promising specimen. Humans, beast kin, elfs, dwarfs, kobolds, orks, goblins and even feay.
The worst part was that they actually brought great results, Full blood vampires immune to the sun, beast kin able to fully control their feral morph, semi immortal orks, humans immune to everything, indestructible dwarfs and more.
And that's also where my story begins.
I was the product of an attempt of creating a new species, I'm the bastard child of hound and badger.
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It was like any other morning(?), the steel was cold and my stomach was empty.
"Congratulations, you're awake."
Being praised for waking up, truly lab rat privileges.
I didn't respond since I know the warden is just handing out rations. I did notice that he didn't hand me my portion, but I didn't respond. By now I know that I'm gonna be experimented on if they skip me.
I know that I'm not the only one of my kind, the two cells that flank mine have a scent that I just know belongs to my siblings.
Not much I can do with that knowledge though.
Just as expected the warden came back. He unlocked my cell and slowly walks towards me, his uniform and build physike giving him an intimating look in the dim light. He stopped just outside the reach of my chains, his eyes mustering my body, checking for any signs of aggression.
There's no point in resisting, he's bigger and stronger than me. Plus, I'm replaceable they don't need me to run along, they can just kill me and use my body for food.
After two heartbeats he walked past me and removed my chains. He didn't say anything but I knew to follow. It was the same walk as always until we went left instead of right.
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"Where are we going?"
"..."
That's strange, the warden loves to talk sometimes when he passes by I can hear him talking to himself if he's not making comments.
"...You will meet 'someone'."
After saying that he seems to be regretting telling me this, are we being watched? I don't smell anything except all the beast kin we pass.
After another turn the halls became free of cells and after a good amount of walking stopped infront of big double doors.
The warden placed his hands on the handle less doors and pushed them open.
The room in there was oval and the grounds covered in sand. The foreign smell in the room made my ears twitch. There in the middle of the room stood a girl with pointed ears I have never seen before. There something about her I just can't describe but before I could ponder any longer the door behind me closed shut.
That's also when the girl noticed me, ah, she's armed.
A dagger, or I think it was I didn't pay much attention to my classes. Her breath is frantic and I can smell her fear, she's showing weakness.
I ignored her and instead grabbed a handful of sand, this is the first time I see sand. Sure my classes thought me alot about, but seeing and feeling it is something else.
She pointed the dagger towards me and shakily shouted.
"S-Stay back! Don't come any closer!"
My ears perked up and I continued playing in the sand. I thought for a moment but in the end my stomach made the decision.
I started to morph since my beast form has terrain advantage on the sand. Black fur with brown streaks came to be all over my body, my face elongated, hands and fingers turned to claws and paws. I have the best of both worlds, a physike that allows me to climb and brutish strength and size.
I dashed towards her with speed that no bipedal being should have. Before she could muster a defence I already bit down on her neck and pinned her to the ground. She struggled a bit but her resistance was futile. Soon she went limb and I finally got my breakfast.
I feasted without second thought not even bothering to leave my beast form.
"Finally!"
I heard a foreign voice shout from behind. I snapped my head towards the one who exclaimed it. Next to the warden stood a female reasercher, wait, no she isn't just a reasercher. That smell, she's a higher up, the director of the beast compartment.
Just like any other human down here she's an albino. I'm not sure if it's good or bad that they experiment on themselves. She wore standard reaserchet clothing.
"Finally, a specimen with both properties of the birth parents in the beast form."
By now I turned back to eat, I almost skipped breakfast after all.
"Hey you."
She caught my attention again via snapping her fingers.
"How about a promotion? That would be great right? You'll get to eat meat, sleep on something and a name of course. But you will have to work your part."
I turned back to my humanoid form.
"You had me at 'about'."
I'm bored all the time here, this is a great opportunity for entertainment, the world smiles upon me!
"All I'll need you to do is sign a contract with me."
Am I selling my soul away? Maybe, but that doesn't stop me.