Aj opened the front door and peered into the hall of his apartment complex. he took a quick look both ways down his hallway confused and a little annoyed that someone had rung his doorbell at 11 pm no one was there.
He understood that kids can be kids, but if the Parker boys down the hall had ding-dong ditched again he was going to have to seriously consider mentioning it to their mom. He wouldn’t mention it of course because who knew how badly AJ could botch that social encounter, but he’d have to consider it.
Then again at least no one was there instead of some salesman or nosy neighbor. Aj chalked it up as a win and began to shut the door.
Midway through closing the door, he stopped as he heard a soft cry, looking down he saw a small kitten on his doormat.
Before he even knew what he was doing he’d picked up the kitten and wrapped it in a blanket from his couch by the door.
Who the hell left a cat out at my doorstep in the middle of winter?
Aj hugged the kitten through the blanket trying to warm it up. though on second thought it didn’t feel that cold.
What the hell am I going to do with this kitten I told the guys I’d be back in 5 to continue raiding when I heard the doorbell shit! Aj thought on his way to the kitchen.
It’ll be fine I just run it to a shelter tomorrow or whatever and I’ll keep it in the bathroom for now how much trouble could it cause? AJ unwrapped the cat
Shit!!! AJ said freaked out.
In the light Aj could see that The kitten wasn’t just a kitten its fucking face had very clear markings and coloration similar to a tiger or a lion or something. More alarming its torso legs had no fur and instead were covered in mostly green and red vines. In several places, he could see what looked like small thorns sticking out from the vines.
In his panic, AJ dropped the thing from his hands and it fell to the floor with a thump.
He’d heard of things like these before everyone had, Sovereigns had been deposited to people for decades, but the odds are like at least one in a few million why the fuck did it have to be him. There’s no way he was going to survive this!
Aj pushed himself into the corner of the room as the “kitten” made its way out of the clump of blanket. It pushed its head through and looked around the room before settling its eyes on Aj.
“meow” it cried looking up at him as if to say, please hold me I’m scared.
AJ’s shoulders loosened as he looked at the adorable monstrosity, which was now crying desperately. he couldn’t just leave it on the ground.
That’s right, sovereigns grow in aggression as they age, it’s probably only a few days old at max. Aj told himself as he picked up the crying “kitten” once again.
Aj moved back down the hall and sat down on his couch, cuddling and petting the “kitten”. He knew that this creature if not right now, then soon would be a serious danger but he just couldn’t get over how cute it was.
Stolen novel; please report.
Curling into his lap the kitten closed its eyes and began purring contentedly.
“Okayyy, ok” Aj whispered to himself.
This is fine for right now it’s sleeping and peaceful. I’ll just carry it upstairs and put it at the end of my desk wrapped in a blanket, it will sit there until I finish raiding and then I’ll figure out what to do with it tonight.
TOMORROW
Aj woke up to the sensation of claws digging into his chest.
“Arggh” he woke up grabbing the kitten who had previously fallen asleep next to him. In his hands, the kitten squired kicking its hindlegs into AJ’s forearms until he let go.
The “kitten” seemed delighted in its surprise attack and took this opportunity to stretch out at the end of the bed.
Aj layed in bed staring at the ceiling debating his life choices and what he did to end up here. What stayed on his mind was the main problem at hand.
Everybody was familiar with the general concept of Soverign’s but he’d done a deep dive on them online after raiding last night.
They are creatures that mysteriously appear and bond to a specific person. They rapidly age over the course of around 3 months, and they get increasingly aggressive towards their bonded person as they age. Additionally, they get exponentially stronger and ferocious as they age, some even developing strange abilities. A lot of people dream of bonding to Sovereign because if it dies while bonded to you, you receive its power and become known as a sovereign yourself. Aj knew that already though because he’d read and watched plenty of anime, manga, and movies about heroes becoming sovereigns and challenging the underworlds.
The consensus online seemed to be that it’s pretty much unheard of for someone to make it past 30 days without intervention from the government, bigger families, or another 3rd party. Many panicked and killed the Sovereign in the first week and there’ve been multiple cases of Sovereigns murdering their bonded person, which have even resulted in civilian casualties.
All of this knowledge weighed on Aj as he layed on his bed, his potential murderer or murdereee lying at his feet now licking its vines.
He’d have to kill it, but how could he kill something so cute and he’d already been thinking of a name for it despite himself?
Or he could do what some of the online ads recommended and report it to the government or someone else. Maybe they’d be able to do something, surely they’d have at least better information than the threads he searched last night online.
He made his decision he was going to get out of bed and do his morning routine and then decide which of the hotlines he was gonna call.
On his way to the bathroom, he got a message from one of his guildmates Tim
“Dark King raid in a couple mins? you can bring your alt”
Aj stopped and thought
“Yeah I’ll hop on in a few, can’t be long though gotta do some stuff today” he replied.
He could afford a quick break from this mental and ethical problem he thought, in fact, he deserved a break!
“I’ll hop online real quick and then I’ll deal with this,” he thought gesturing to the kitten which was currently following him through the hall.
As he sat down at his desk the kitten followed and resumed sitting in the spot he’d been last night. Looking at it now in the same spot as last night, Aj could tell for certain that it had grown a few inches overnight. The thought gave him some anxiety.
“Okay, one raid, and then I’m taking care of this” Aj repeated to himself, building up some courage and then exhaling.
With little more internal debating Aj logged into the MMO Ascending Divinity and he played one raid.
LATER THAT NIGHT
One raid completion had been taken as a good sign so he and his raid group farmed some upgrade material from a few world bosses, which then turned into currency farming to allow for the upgrades, then the upgrading process itself, and then he had some leftover materials so they had to do another raid to get other materials……
Before he knew it, it was dark outside and he had spent the entire day playing video games. The few times he stopped to eat or use the restroom the kitten had followed him with only some quiet mewlling.
Surprisingly most of the day it had behaved pretty well it got the occasional urge to explore and run around the room but it spent most of the day curled up in its spot. Interestingly too the entire day it never seemed to get hungry or have to use the bathroom which was a plus for AJ. Several times Aj peered over at it, watched its odd vines wiggle, and thought ” In a few minutes I’m gonna get off the computer and deal with it”, but then it would open its sleepy eyes and stretch, and Aj would continue gaming.
“Tonight,” Aj thought as he watched the adorable yawn,
”I’m gonna call tonight”
ONE YEAR LATER
Aj woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed, he quickly got out of bed and headed to the bathroom, reminiscing of a time when a small kitten would follow him around the house….
He smiled,
He could hear a commotion coming from the game room down the hall, it sounded like his guildmates were getting rowdy.
Walking into the room he saw his roommate, an 8ft long tiger-like creature, with a body of vines and thorns. Currently, it was wearing a gaming headset and using the vines from its body on the keyboard and mouse.
“Dude,” It said turning its black and white colored tiger head towards him, “You have to see the drops I got last night”
Aj smiled and booted up his PC