“Alright Lar,” he said whilst still trying to wrap his mind around what the heck just happened. She stared into the flames of a fire they prepared earlier in the middle of an endless flat landscape. “You’ve been awfully quiet all day. I’ve asked you at least a half dozen times what happened back there so do me a favor and explain it to me.”
She looked away from the flames looking up at the moonless and starless sky. “What you witnessed,” she began to say quietly, “is what happens when a familiar forsakes their soul and tears apart their spirit remaking it into a new form.”
While he sat there cross-legged by the fire across from her, she pulled her knees up to her torso throwing her arms around them at the same time. “That thing you saw is what is known as a Divine Familiar. They’re different than any normal familiar like me.”
“You’re telling me that thing is somehow supposed to be divine? It looked like nothing more than a terrifying monster.”
“That’s because it was,” she said. “The process of ascension from one’s own base form to become a divine familiar is a practice that few ever dare try. It used to be a process our earliest ancestors would do after spending decades preparing for it. It’s not something meant to be done on any given day or on a whim. What Leo did is profoundly irresponsible and if things were like the days before The Great Fracturing, he would be hunted down and slain. In this world, he will be allowed to roam around unburdened with no one to stop him—not that there’s anyone or anything out here necessitating that response. Thankfully, I doubt we’ll ever see him again.”
He could be happy about that. Although he found himself regretful that he hadn’t perhaps mercifully put an end to them before it came to this. “Is that thing even Leo anymore?”
“It is still Leo. But it might as well not be them. I also suspect that the only reason why we’re still alive is because a part of them still existed in that form of theirs.”
The fire crackled as they both sat there. What she was telling him was quite fascinating but also terrifying. Leo had, in her words, forsaken his soul to become that terrifying thing. Just thinking about their appearance made a shiver course through his spine. If I go my whole life never running into one of those things again, I think I’d be quite happy.
“So there’s familiars and divine familiars,” he said continuing their conversation. “Are there any more types of familiars I need to be aware of?”
She managed to grin a little. “Those are the only two types. All familiars can become divine, but most never will due to our wish to retain the sanctity of our souls.”
“Doing what Leo did removes the sanctity?”
“Yes,” she simply stated. “It doesn’t have to but doing it carelessly like he did does. As I said, our ancestors would spend decades preparing for this process. He did it simply to free himself from any further agony and to not die. As a result, he became that abomination out of his sheer selfishness and inability to accept his death.”
“Perhaps a different title other than divine ought to be used to classify cases like him. He didn’t exactly look divine to me.”
“That may be so. I didn’t make the rules however. My ancestors did thousands of years ago.”
He let out a long drawn-out sigh. What a mess. Did things really have to go this way? He didn’t get to know Leo all that much. The little fellow was in so much pain that he stayed mostly silent during their travels together as he writhed around in constant pain. He really wanted to get him to Liall since they were headed there anyways. Unfortunately, the pain grew too much for him and he chose drastic actions so hedidn’t have to die. And now he is to wander around in that form for who knows how long.
The fear of death was a powerful thing. It made beings, even ones such as Leo, carry out a process that appeared quite taboo within the familiar community as far as he could tell.
“So if a familiar goes through that process in the appropriate way, how do they appear in that instance?”
She contemplated his question for a moment. She unwrapped her hands from around her knees and stretched out her legs allowing the warmth of the fire to keep the palms of her feet nice and toasty. “I cannot fully describe it to you in words. Proper Divine Familiars are truly miraculous. I’ve only ever met one once before a very long time ago. I felt this warmth whilst I was there with them. It was like something you’d have to experience for yourself. It’s…admittedly, hard to describe.”
“What do they look like though?”
“It varies. Their appearance will depend on what they envision as they ascend to become divine. The one I met looked somewhat like a lion.”
Divine Familiars could be either a truly remarkable being or a terrifying one like the one Leo turned into. There was quite a spectrum that existed for them.
He cleared his throat getting Lar’s attention. “I don’t, uh, have to worry about you ever becoming like Leo, do I?”
“Do you really think I would do that?”
With the tone of her voice, he thrust up his arms. “I don’t know. I guess not.”
She glared at him intensely. She quickly calmed down however. “I always have to remind myself that you’re ignorant of things. I know you didn’t accuse me of doing something like that maliciously so I’ll let it slide. But let me put what you just said to me in context. It would be like accusing someone of a willingness to commit an absolutely heinous act as if it were a real possibility. I know you didn’t mean it that way so don’t worry, I didn’t take offense.”
“Really? My, how you’ve grown tolerant of me over these last few months.”
“I could always revoke that decision.”
He grinned seeing that all was well between them. “I would expect then that we shouldn’t come across situations like this frequently?”
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“Likely not. Divine Familiars like him are an extreme rarity or familiars willing to do that to themselves in general. The fact that we witnessed an ascension before our very eyes is something few can ever boast about let alone survive. I’m still a little mad at you by the way for not having us run away. What the heck were you even thinking just standing there like some dolt who got caught with their pants down?” Considering he didn’t really have much for pants currently, that analogy didn’t apply so well to him.
“I think a part of me thought of it as futile. I thought maybe if I showed no fear or the illusion of no fear that it would work out. It turns out it did. Had we run, they might’ve killed us instead of letting us go.”
“We’ll never know,” she said, “but I’m glad it did work out. Maybe next time though you’ll rethink whether to let something suffer or to mercifully end its suffering. I know it’s a terrible thing to have to do, but sometimes it’s what’s necessary. Leo should’ve been spared having to forsake his soul to deny himself a proper death.”
The more he thought about it, the more it felt true. This whole mess could’ve been avoided if he had just put him out of his misery. He didn’t want it though. He was adamant to live, so adamant in fact, that he allowed himself to turn into that abomination.
After resting for the rest of the night, he awoke only to find it cloudy. He thought given the covering of clouds that it might begin to provide them a whole new round of rain to keep him drenched for weeks on end.
However, while they walked along the tattered landscape starting that morning, it didn’t start raining even though it appeared eager to. If it starts raining all over again, I’m really going to be upset.
The rain itself wasn’t such a bad thing. In fact, he quite liked it under different circumstances. But they were out in the open without hardly any covering. Their lack of clothes also didn’t do him any favors meaning he felt much colder than he wanted to be especially when drenched.
But while he feared it may begin to rain again, it didn’t start for now at least. He walked and walked and walked without a drop of rainwater in sight.
While some of the land became mountainous and hilly, they chose to avoid wandering in those more treacherous areas. They stuck to the flatter lands that made for easier travel. Having to walk for hundreds of miles really meant that they needed to be wise about what paths they took. So far Lar was good at guiding him through these lands.
Lar chose to be in her cat form today and sat on his shoulder. It made life easy for her. He would just have to do all the walking and all she had to do was sit there while he essentially did the hard work, not that walking was necessarily that difficult although doing it for most of the day certainly put its toll on him.
He didn’t really mind it though. Lar had saved him enough times at this point that if he had to do all the walking for her, well, he was alright with that. They both did things in favor of the other without making a big deal about things.
While at the time he wasn’t sure whether partnering up with a sleazy familiar to bond his soul to hers was a good idea, so far he felt like he made the right decision. She hadn’t done anything grotesque or questionable to the point of making him regret it. It bode well for him in consideration of having her around long term. It would all depend of course on the future and how their interactions went, but he felt mostly good about things between themselves.
He began to whistle a tune. Lar stirred a bit by jabbing his shoulder with one of her claws. “Watch it there will you,” he said feeling the sharp pain running through his shoulder.
“That tune you’re whistling is quite annoying.”
“Is it?” He whistled a bit more only to find them jabbing him even harder. “Oh come now. I quite like this tune.” He couldn’t quite remember when he had heard it. Probably from sometime during his previous life.
“Quit it already!”
“Alright fine.” Someone’s a little grumpy today. He was thinking such positive things about Lar and now she decided to be a grumpy little ol’ cat. “You whistle a tune then. I need something to keep my mind preoccupied as we travel.”
“I don’t do such silly things.”
“What, you mean to tell me you’re too good to whistle?”
“No, it’s just not something I do.”
“You mean it’s not something you do in front of others.”
“What? No, that’s not what I said.”
“That’s what you meant to say.”
She sighed. “Fine, you really want me to whistle a tune for you?”
“Yes.”
She reluctantly began to whistle creating a new tune he hadn’t heard before. He had never heard her whistle before and found that she actually did a decent job of it. Once he got the basic rhythm and notes down, he joined in by whistling along with her.
After several minutes of whistling, they both stopped as the tune ended. “Who knew you could hold a fine tune. I learn something new about you practically every day.”
“Are you happy now? Please don’t request me to do that again.”
“Aw come on. It was nice. Don’t be embarrassed about it. Besides, we’re all alone out here. There’s not another soul around that might listen in on us being silly.”
The more he got to know Lar, the more he found that she was quite the serious person. She came across as less serious initially but that was probably because she was desperate to be extra friendly towards him to entice him to agree to sign a soul contract with her. Still, he liked trying to get her to be a little less stern and be a bit more free-spirited like himself sometimes. Although it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing that she acted this way. He merely wished to lighten things up a little and make their journey just a tad bit more enjoyable.
“Here, let’s see if you’ve heard this one before.” As he began to whistle a new song, Lar quickly jabbed him causing him to cease whistling at once. Alright fine. No more whistling. At least no more for today. Tomorrow, on the other hand, I’ve got a whole orchestral arrangement to perform just for you and only you.
While the clouds continued to motion above them, it still never quite rained. At one period, it sprinkled a little bit worrying him, but it quickly stopped allowing them to remain dry. With all the blessings he could give, he was glad to not end up drenched yet again. If it could hold off for a while, that would be great.
What he really needed was a big hat or something to keep the rain off of him. Then he might be able to tolerate it. Sometimes the rain got so intense out here that he could barely keep himself from falling over or ending up walking into a river that moments ago hadn’t existed. It was quite treacherous already out here without the rain. It only ever made things worse with how it flooded so quickly out here.
But that’s how it is out here, isn’t it? It made his desire to reach Liall even greater. A city where humanity almost exclusively resided within this domain and according to Lar, some familiars settled there as well although not as many since they were apparently heavily persecuted there.
The relations between humans and familiars were still somewhat a mystery to him. The history shared between the two must’ve been a long and arduous tale. He needed to know more about it if he was going to navigate this world better. Lar however was asleep on his shoulder right as he thought he ought to ask her a bit about the history shared between the two species.
Oh well, I’ll ask another time and let you rest. After all the whistling, it’s the least I can give to you. He smiled and kept on walking towards the endless flat land that spread out towards the horizon in front of them.