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Side story 1: Mirror mirror on the wall

Before master came, life was a lot worse.

I was born from two Felinoid Argentum, as master calls us, along with five other siblings. We were immediately abandoned and left to fend for ourselves. Hungry, lost, and just born, the six of us huddled together during our first night as living, breathing creatures.

When we woke up, two of us were gone, with only trails of blood marking the fact that they had ever existed at all. The blood didn't perturb us much- in fact, none of my siblings seemed to care that two of our kin had just been whisked away like that in the middle of the night. I was incredibly scared of whatever creature had been able to do so.

And thus, I turned to thinking.

Monsters, as a general rule, are not very good at mental things. A monster that can speak is a rarity, and usually is at least a few hundred years old. A monster that can understand a language is less rare, but are still few and far between. I was of the latter case. I could understand what intruders into the forest were saying, but my mouth couldn't make the sounds I wanted to make. After all, the vocal cords of a feline aren't very well suited for actual speech.

And so passed two years, while I grew and grew and ate and ate, occasionally jumping into a tree to observe intruders into the forest. I watched them talk, I watched them fight, I watched them live, I watched them die. I picked up more than just languages from them- it was almost as though a part of me was no longer a monster.

And then I was introduced to the previous [Lord of the Mystical Forest]. A senile old frog firmly convinced that the world revolved around him, I had no intention of serving under him and said as much, which enraged him so much that he sent every creature in the woods to attack me. Until I found master, my life was a constant game of cat and mouse, with the roles reversed.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

One day, I woke up to find a strange blue box in front of me. Thanks to my knowledge of language, I was able to read what it said.

'The previous [Lord of the Mystical Forest] has fallen. The new Lord has been chosen.'

Then I was unaware of master's greatness, and trembled in fear at the existence of a being higher than the frog. But my curiosity got the better of me and I peeked at him while hiding in bushes. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that he was not another monster, but a human, like the ones I had been scrutinizing for so long! Desperately hoping that he would not be angered at me, I gathered fruit I knew the humans ate, and brought them to him as a peace offering. His lack of a reaction was relieving, as it meant that he would not kill me.

That night, I could not sleep, and obeyed the strange tugging sensation in my gut that pointed me towards master. He was sleeping under a tree, so I clambered into it and stared at him during the night. Somehow I had been inching closer and closer to him without myself realizing it, and before I knew it, my face was touching his, and he woke up. I honestly thought he would kill me then and there, but my fears turned out to be unfounded, as he simply murmured a sentence in a language I did not know and did not seem to be angered. This was when I knew that I wanted him to be my master.

Watching master be surprised by my requests to become his pet was amusing, and even more so when he accepted and tried to let me go. When he accepted the request, I felt something flow into my head, giving me knowledge, allowing me to taste but a fraction of the incredible amount of facts held inside master's head. It was... Intoxicating, that's the word. And it only solidified my determination to be a good pet for my master, for he deserved such loyalty and devotion.