He half expected to never awaken again. And yet, he somehow did awaken having just merely fallen asleep for some unknown quantity of time.

But what he did not expect to feel from waking up was something furry, soft, and warm brushing up against his right hand which dangled along the side of his body. He figured at first that it must’ve been a rat or something gross since what else would dare touch such a disgusting body.

However, it was not that at all. Instead, it was an adorable white cat brushing their head up against his mostly fleshless hand. His finger bones lightly trailed along their head and down their back. He couldn’t help himself; he just had to smile.

“How nice of you to come by to see me off.”

The cat jumped into his lap and began to purr as he kept petting them.

“Ah,” he said in a frail voice. “I am not deserving of your company, especially when I appear as I do. Are you not afraid of me at all? I am but one moment away from being just another corpse after all.”

“I’m not afraid of you at all mister.”

His last remaining somewhat good eye went wide. His mouth fell open and air exited his lungs. “Y-you can talk?”

“Of course I can.” Their voice was feminine in tone and somewhat seductive.

“How…very strange,” he said and watched as the cat appeared to smile at him.

“You’re in immense pain aren’t you mister?”

“Yes, I’m afraid I am.”

“How did you end up this way?”

“I have no idea. I just woke up one day in that jail south of here and wandered out as I am now.”

“That’s terrible.” She pitied him. “Wouldn’t you like it if I eased the pain for you?”

“By giving me a quick death?”

“What? No way mister. I would rather have us sign a contract with each other. If we do that you’re sure to start feeling better.”

“A contract?”

“That’s right. With our souls of course.”

His last remaining good eye began to squint towards the adorable white cat. She was eager to make a formal arrangement with him. A contract involving the two of their souls no less.

Thus far, everything this world had shown him was immensely cruel and unusual. He knew not of the way this world worked or the systems that governed it. For that reason, he gazed at at her with skepticism.

Her kindness is quite suspicious, isn’t it? Why yes, of course. Why else would such an adorable creature be out and about in this miserable place? This thing must be up to no good!

And yet, what was he to do? He was an inch away from death and in the middle of a depraved dead forest.

“Mister? What’s wrong?”

“Tell me about this contract. What are the terms?”

“Oh of course. Well, you see, if we agree to have a soul contract between ourselves, you’ll get to share the power I have and I will get to share the power you have. It’s a two-way street you see. All you’ve got to do is agree and I promise you that you’ll be sad you hadn’t signed on sooner.”

“A two-way street you say?” He kept eyeing her skeptically. “What power exactly do you gain from me? I’m practically powerless. In fact, I’m fit to die any moment now so I can’t be all that powerful.”

“You must really not know anything huh mister? You powerless? Who are you kidding exactly? You’re like the most powerful soul around here for several hundred miles at least.”

“I am?”

What did having even a powerful soul even mean in this world? He was just an old man on the verge of death. And there was clearly more to this than what meets the eye. This cat was a suspicious one that he knew better than to trust. She was so desperate, she was so eager, she was downright diabolical in their manner of trying to appeal to him to sign some soul contract with them that he couldn’t help but think it must be a bad deal one way or another for himself.

“How about this,” he said struggling to speak at all. “How about you give me your power, and you receive none of mine in return?”

“What? You’ve got to be kidding me mister. That’s not an offer I could ever think to accept.”

“Why not? It seems like a good deal to me. If I’m as powerful as you say I am, just merely forming a bond between us should be good enough.”

“You’re completely clueless as to how things work here.” She jumped off his lap and faced away from him. “Soul contracts are as I stated earlier mister; they’re two-way streets. If only one party benefits, it defeats the whole purpose. What I’m willing to grant you is half of my power to receive half of yours. That’s fair enough if you ask me. It doesn’t get better than that I promise you. And just so you know,” she said then faced him once more, “you better not take too long to decide ‘cause I really do think you’re not long for this world as you say so yourself. And besides, don’t you want to start feeling better immediately?”

She was continuing to be a deceiving and conniving creature. He might’ve been a frail old man with a body ready to fall apart, but he wasn’t about to make a rash decision that could screw him in the long term. He had to learn more about things before he made a decision.

“I’m not signing any contracts until I know more,” he said declaratively.

She sighed. “You’re really making this more difficult than necessary. I’ll tell you everything I know right after we sign, alright? Come on mister, go ahead and sign already—”

In irritation, that same strange presence he had used against those crows went towards her. He stared her down focusing the presence on them. Her fur stood up and she lowered her head towards the ground with her rear up into the air.

He might’ve been practically unable to move any further, but the unknown presence that exuded from inside him caused her to realize that she shouldn’t play any more games with him.

“Please forgive me, I did not mean anything bad by my behavior I promise.”

He released the oppressive presence which eased her once more. With their right paw, she brushed the top of their head and let out a sigh. “What would you like to know first mister?”

“Do you know who I am?”

She came up closer and brushed her paw against his fragile thigh. “I don’t have a single clue on who you might possibly be.”

“Where am I then?”

“Well, this area has been largely abandoned for over a century so it doesn’t technically have a name anymore. If I recall, this area was once referred to by the humans as the Emerald Grove. That was one heck of a long time ago though as you can see mister. If I were to name it now I’d be calling it the Dead Grove.”

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“I see,” he said. “What are you then? You’re more than just a cat aren’t you?”

“I mean I guess that’s technically correct. Though I usually choose this form over others at least for now. If you ask me, I’m just an honorary cat at this point in time in my life.”

“You’re some kind of shapeshifter then?”

“Essentially. If you want a real answer though I’m what’s known as a familiar.”

These were somewhat useful answers, but it didn’t really do anything to soothe his mind towards this suspiciously adorable cat that was a familiar.

“What all then comes from us signing a contract besides us sharing our power?”

“This is really a question you ought to already know so I guess I’ll ask. Did you lose your memories or something?”

“That’s hard for me to answer. If I lost them, I would’ve had to have had them in the first place. Frankly, I don’t know. I have some memories and understanding of reality but as for who I am, I am sorely lacking in that regard.”

“That’s terrible. Losing one’s memories or not knowing whether you had any to begin with is quite a scary thought. I’m sorry that you’re going through this.”

He coughed and thought he tasted blood. His sense of taste was barely there however so he could’ve been imagining it. “Spare me the pity.”

“I’m sorry mister.”

“It’s fine,” he said and coughed again. She pressed both of her white furry paws on his tattered left thigh. “Just start from the beginning over what forming a soul contract means. I want to know every last detail about it.”

“Alright, but it might take a while. You might even die before I reach the end of it.”

“I’ll take that chance.”

According to her, soul contracts were formed between sentient beings such as humans and familiars. Soul contracts could only be made between these two groups. Two individual humans couldn’t sign a soul contract apparently. It was also absolutely paramount that both sides understand what they were signing up for when signing a soul contract which was one reason why he wanted to fully understand what he might be getting into.

“What about if one of us decides we want to break or dissolve the contract and go our separate ways?”

“In order for a contract to be dissolved both parties have to be in agreement.”

“You’re telling me there are no exit clauses in this process? There must be.”

She shook their head. “Bonds between normal sentient beings and familiars are iron-clad. The only other way to break a contract is for one of the individual parties to die.”

“So if I wanted to break our contract all I would have to do is kill you? Sounds fair to me.”

“Wait, hold on just a minute! That’s not really the way it works. You can’t just kill the other party. Or well, I suppose I should say that if you were to do it by your own hands, you’d wind up killing yourself or essentially committing suicide.”

“That’s convenient.”

“I didn’t make the rules.”

“Yeah, well, I sure would like to speak with the person who did and ask why they’d not have exit clauses as a part of the contract process.”

“So now that I’ve answered your questions, are you ready to sign?”

A piece of paper appeared before him with the terms and conditions alongside a knife. It read as follows: Both parties shall each share half of their power with each other. Neither party shall break their soul contract unless both parties agree. And it went on and on and on to list a bunch of mundane boring paragraphs that he couldn’t care to think much more about.

I really don’t have much other choice, do I? At least if I want to keep living that is. I could just sit here until I die and that’d be the end of it. But I don’t really want that.

Still, this cat’s not telling me the whole truth. I know she isn’t. If I were to bet, I bet she’s not being completely truthful about how these soul contracts work. However, she has all the advantages of knowing how this world works while I don’t know a thing about it besides what she tells me.

He decided he would agree to her terms knowing full well that he might rue this moment one day in the future. While that day may come to pass, he would accept that reality knowingly and take full responsibility for the consequences that may arise from making such a decision.

“How do I sign this damn thing?”

“Um, well, normally you’d cut your thumb or something and press it against the paper right around here, but it appears you don’t exactly have any blood to procure from those fingers of yours so I guess uh, you’ll need to use one of your toes instead. Surely they’ve not all rotted away.”

He gazed down at his toes finding that flesh did still exist on them. “Fine then. You’ll have to cut it for me, however.”

“I wish I could but you have to be the one who does this. A contract cannot be signed or assisted in any shape or manner by the other party.”

You’re kidding me. To think that he might not end up being able to sign the contract simply because his body was in such a bad state of being, that he might be unable to cut his own toe and press it against the paper. Since he had no choice but to do it himself, he took the knife and moaned aloud as he struggled to reach his big toe.

His finger bones barely gripped the knife and shook all about as he hunched over. The tip of the knife missed his toe several times until finally managing to cut it by his own accord. He grabbed the paper and pressed his toe awkwardly against the paper managing to sign it by blood.

The paper burst into flames and he sat there questioningly.

“Well, what’s supposed to happen next—”

Immense power began to fill his body. A blindingly white light filled all of his sight and all the pain that he once possessed went away. Soon enough the body that was once so frail became strengthened.

His fingers began to regrow muscle and skin. His long hair went from a dark gray into more of a dark black. His ribcage no longer jutted out as it did. Skin and muscle formed and filled it in and his once slim arms and legs became filled in as well.

Where he once possessed the body of an old ancient man, he now possessed the body of a two-decade-old body that was full of youth and vigor.

The light that blinded him ceased to be allowing him to see more of his surroundings. He now occupied a beautiful youthful body with sight in both of his eyes allowing him to see how dire and depressing their surroundings were in even greater detail than before.

Wow, this landscape looks a heck of a lot worse than I ever would’ve imagined.

“You must feel so much better now that we’re soul-bound,” she said from far below him.

He gripped his palms tightly forming fists as he looked down to the cat that raised their paws up to him. “Yes, I in fact do feel much better now.”

“Even in that frail body of yours you were quite powerful but because your soul was badly damaged you were unable to heal properly. But as I suspected, by us binding our souls together, it gave your soul the boost it needed to grant you a proper body.”

“That does appear to be the case,” he said not knowing if that was actually the case. All he knew was that he was eager to get to use this new body of his. “Where shall we go to next then? I want to find some form of civilization that ideally is friendly.”

“Well, I’ve got some bad news for you mister. We’re several hundred miles away from the closest human civilization. In fact, I’m a bit perplexed as to why you’re in this particular area. There’s not a single human soul for hundreds of miles and that’s primarily due to this fog. Any other human would’ve died within minutes of just being in it. It’s just by mere chance that I happened to be in the neighborhood to find you.”

“Hundreds of miles away huh?”

“I know, it’s a bit of a hassle. But if we go right now, well, we’ll be there in a few months at least.”

“We better get the move on then.”

She hopped onto his shoulder and they began to walk along the worn dirt road together.

“Say mister, what’s your name?”

“I don’t have a name.”

“What? You’ve got to have one surely.”

“I don’t.”

“Hmm, well why don’t you choose a name then?”

“Once I have one figured out I’ll tell you.”

“Oh I’m so eager to hear what you come up with. My name’s Lartharaxia just so you know.”

“I’ll be calling you Lar from now on.”

“Aw come on. I like being called by my full name.”

“It’s too long.”

“Alright, but I expect a short name from you whenever you decide what it is. It’s only fair mister.”

“Fine, but just so we’re on the same page, you can stop calling me mister.”

“Whatever you say mister!”