“And we’re here!” Juna thrust her home’s front door open only for a brown dog to be there ready to greet her. She crouched and pet the dog as it eagerly wagged its tail.

It was quite the cute-looking brown dog although they looked a little rough around the edges. When she moved out of the way the dog was able to finally see them and as it wagged its tail looking at him, when their gaze went towards Lar, they stopped wagging their tail and began to growl towards her.

An intense staring battle ensued between Fred and Lar who for one reason or another, was not getting a warm response like himself or their owner.

It appeared as if the staring battle would go on for at least another half hour were it not for Lar raising the corners of her mouth and intensifying their gaze down at them. Fred stopped growling and backed away slowly in fear.

“Quit it you two! No more of that!”

Lar appeared satisfied as the dog submitted to her intense gaze. Juna however was a bit annoyed at Lar’s attempt to intimidate her pet.

“You two better get along,” Juna continued. She patted her dog down and gave them a stern look. “Be good to her, you hear Fred? I don’t want you causing trouble.”

Fred barked in response but the moment Juna stood up and looked away from the dog, he could tell that dog had their eye on Lar as if they anticipated her to strike them at any moment.

They’ve just met and already a rivalry has formed. How appropriate.

The war between humanity and familiars was an impressive one no matter which side someone chose to be on. However, it had nothing against the eternal war being waged between cats and dogs that had existed since time itself began.

That was no war he ever wanted to take part in.

In the meantime, Juna let them go inside her small wooden home that had seen better days. It was, as she suggested earlier, not the largest on the inside. She had a big enough mattress of sorts on the ground near the very back and a dresser stuffed with clothing ready to fall out of the drawers. She had plenty of similar clothing that she wore for today. She liked clothing that showed off her legs and would chill someone to the bone if it were winter and if they willingly went outside wearing them during that season.

Though it was small inside, it beat the other place full of filth and spiders. The only question he had was where exactly they were going to be sleeping. There was what appeared to be another room so maybe in there.

“Sorry it’s a little messy here,” Juna said with both hands on her hips. “We’ll have to either fix up that other place a bit or find another suitable location for you two to stay at. I just hope you’re alright with staying here with me in the meantime.”

“Of course we are,” Lar said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Ah, that makes me so happy.”

The two girls were beginning to overwhelm him again with their gleeful antics. He ended up clearing his throat getting their attention. “I do have a question. Where exactly will I be expected to sleep?”

“In my bed silly. It’s big enough for us so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Excuse me?”

“Excuse what? Is that weird? My mattress is big enough to fit us all if we need to—” she paused and her mouth fell open. “Wait just a second. You have a dirty mind! I was not suggesting whatever it is you’re thinking of.”

“I wasn’t making any untoward suggestions,” he said blankly and matter-of-fact.

“Oh, you weren’t?” She scratched her head and had a bit of a laugh. He thought he could even see her blush. You’re the one with the dirty mind. Not me.

Lar changed into her cat form. The clothes they had been wearing in their human form fell to the floor. “You two can share the mattress. I’ll sleep over there or someplace else here in this place.”

“Are you alright with us sharing the mattress then?” she asked towards him.

“So long as you don’t try anything.”

She put her right hand’s palm to her heart. “I would never!”

That night he ended up sleeping on the mattress beside her. He could hear her breathing and feel the warmth radiating off her body. Lar had chosen to sleep in one of the opposite corners in a ball of sorts.

This isn’t so bad, is it? A little weird perhaps but not intolerable. Juna could be a bit of a handful at times. She was no doubt nice to them however. He was thankful for her despite those antics she exuded often.

The next day he awoke with Juna standing over him. “Heya there sleepy head.”

He rubbed his eyes and groaned to himself. He wanted to go back to sleep but chose to get up.

It became clear that his back ached and he had a bit of a crick in his neck. Great. Just what I needed to start things right for the day.

Although Lar was still in a ball where they had gone to sleep, their eyes were open.

“Alright you two. Since you’re brand new members to the Human Familiar Coalition, it’s my responsibility to introduce you to everyone important around here so let’s prepare to head on out for the day. Oh and Lar, you should probably appear in your other form. It makes it easier to blend in.” Lar took a few steps forward, transformed back into their human form, and put on some clothes thankfully although they were still quite revealing.

They left Juna’s home following her. Instead of returning to that same two-story building, she led them further through the wavy and dilapidated streets of Liall. Some parts were a little better than others but they were almost all in a sad state. The people in these parts still ignored the lockdown order as well since a lot of people just stood out on the streets and the corners intermingling with one another.

So far their travels went well compared to the day prior. There wasn’t anyone fragrantly taking a dump in the middle of the street like the prior day although he could smell that oh-so-familiar smell at certain points so it wasn’t like things were perfect. But he would take what he could get.

“Heya Leyo,” she said with a wave towards a young boy standing outside a bit of a nicer building. It was a large two-story building that looked like it had once been a place meant for authoritative-oriented functions at one particular time in the past. It had a fancy triangular roof at the front along with white pillars jutting out to the stained white steps leading up to it.

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“Hi Juna. Who’re these people with you?”

“I’ve got me some new members. I thought I’d show them around today and maybe even get some training done since they’re definitely in need of it.”

“Well I hope it goes well for you two.” The kid must’ve only been twelve or so judging by his appearance. They walked by them and up the steps to the double-doored entrance.

When they went inside it was marginally better maintained than the rest of these parts of Liall. There wasn’t anyone inside the main front chamber except an older man with gray hair and a long beard noticing their arrival.

“Who do we have here?” he asked towards Juna.

“A couple of recruits Asum. This is our newest familiar Lar and our nameless recruit.”

“Nameless, huh? Couldn’t spend two seconds to come up with a name to go by? Just had to make things difficult, eh?”

“I have someone coming up with a name for me,” he said.

“How odd. But anyways, I’m Asum.”

“Asum’s one of our top sword fighters,” Juna said. “At least one of you has experience using a sword right?”

“Just a little bit,” he said. While he hadn’t used a sword much during this new life, he suspected his past self had a lot of experience since he used one effectively during the fight with the giant.

Asum furrowed their brows. “And what about you? You have any experience?”

“Sure I do,” Lar replied. “I’m not one for using a sword though. I’m more experienced towards using a fauchard.”

“An interesting choice of weapon. I will be curious to see how you perform with one against me. Well, if you two are intending to be fighters for the coalition, I’ll be here to help make you perform better so long as you’re willing to commit to putting in the time.”

“We’ll talk to you more in a bit,” Juna said gesturing for them to continue onward. The three of them wandered up the stairs and into the room straight ahead.

Light from the outside came in through an opened balcony. He thought he heard fighting going on outside.

A young woman with her black hair tied behind her head fought against another opponent similarly skilled and shared a similar appearance. One man stood a bit away from them observing their movements and keeping a close eye on their engagements.

“That’s Lorek,” Juna said pointing towards the observing man out in the long rectangular grassy courtyard. “He’s one of our most talented magic specialists.”

“And the other two?” Lar asked from behind him.

“They’re our wonderful twins Sera and Sara.”

What an inconvenient choice of names for a pair of twins. “Sara and Sara? Who decided to give them the same name?”

“One of them is Sera, not Sara. You say it like this.” She tried to differentiate their names despite how similar they sounded. As far as he could tell, it was said the same although he supposed there was a tiny difference in pronunciation. “Seh-ra. Seh-ra!”

“Alright, alright,” he said throwing his hands up. “I get it.” I think I get it. I sure won’t be telling her that, however.

The fight continued with the two twins until one of them formed a translucent barrier around them and her twin slammed an aura-infused fist into it causing the other twin’s barrier to break and send them sliding across the grass thereafter.

“Come on, let me go introduce you two to them.”

They reached the courtyard and the two twins who had been fighting approached.

“Juna!” they both said together.

“Heya you two. Been a while hasn’t it been?”

“It has,” the twin on the left said.

“So which one of you is Sera with the E in the name?” he asked in an attempt to differentiate the two.

“Who’s this?” the left one muttered aloud with a weary gaze.

“Oh, these two are our newest recruits. That’s our nameless fellow and our newest familiar Lar.”

“Nice to meet you two,” he said with a hand out towards them. The two of them looked at each other and then back at him disapprovingly.

Juna let out a laugh to try to disrupt the quiet awkwardness that began to settle. “To answer your question,” she said directing her words towards him, “the one on the left is Sera and the one on the right is Sara.”

He struggled to differentiate the two of them besides the fact that one of them had their simple robe-like outfit a bit dirtier since their body had slid across the grass and dirt. Ah, why would they have similarly sounding names, look exactly alike, and also possess similar personalities? It became excruciatingly clear that telling them apart in the future was going to be a problem.

“Please don’t mind us Juna,” Sera said. Or so he thought that one was Sera. “We need to be elsewhere.”

“Alright, see you two later.” As they left, Juna wiped the sweat from her brow.

“I take it they don’t like me?”

“Um, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that.”

“Is it because of the first question I asked them? I wasn’t trying to demean them or anything like that.”

“I don’t think it was that. They’re always a bit reserved towards people they don’t know. I wouldn’t take it personally.”

“That’s a bit of a relief,” Lar said smirking. “I doubt he could bear the thought of another woman not willing to throw themselves at him at first glance.”

“That is not true,” he said

“Whatever you say,” she said with an evil smirk.

Lar’s attempt to toy with him was truthfully irking him. However, he calmed down as the other trainer of sorts came to approach them.

Juna introduced them to the trainer whose name was Lorek. They didn’t appear all that old. Maybe mid-thirties. They were entirely bald with a beard running down their chin. They chose to wear similar robe-like attire that the twins had worn that was black and with smooth right-angled shoulders with large droopy cuffs near their wrists.

“I’m pleased to meet you two,” Lorek stated with a slight bow. “Are either of you experienced in magic?”

“It’s hard for me to say,” he said. “I’ve used it instinctually a few times.”

“And what about you?”

Lar for whatever reason twirled her long white hair around their index finger. “I’m fairly familiar.”

“Familiar indeed.”

Juna stifled a laugh and redirected the conversation. “So it seems to me that both of them would likely benefit from you and Asum’s training.”

“I will gladly put them through the grind. We shall begin our sessions soon.”

They nodded their heads.

“Excellent. I look forward to working with you two. As for now, I must go. I fear I have certain obligations that I cannot miss.”

As they watched him walk away, the bells throughout the city began to toll. Juna’s mouth widened and she clapped her hands. “Finally I can start going outside of this area again.”

“I guess that means people are allowed out again?”

She nodded. “They can’t keep the city locked down for too long otherwise it would be a total disaster. Neither of you really ought to leave these parts though if you can help it. But if you do, at least try to obscure your appearances as best as you can. We can’t exactly provide you with appropriate safety if you do leave these parts so be careful at all times.”

“So we’re not forced to stay around I take it?”

“I mean, forced would be the wrong word. There’s no force involved with the Human Familiar Coalition. That’s kind of the whole point. You decide to work with us and we help you in return. We can’t exactly offer our services however if you’re not around so just be aware of that.”

“Understood,” he said. “Is there anyone else you want to introduce us to?”

“Oh you, we’re not even a quarter of the way done! Come on already, let’s go see the rest of our people around here.”