I wasn’t worried about being attacked by this Fox. While I wasn’t physically strong, the speed I could unleash basic spells was literally eyeblinks on some of them, and my Wards and Defenses were basically all-day things at this point.

“So, your father talked to me. He said I should make a Spiritual Contract with you, as you were a most fine and noble Fox, a perfect candidate for a random Human to make a deal with.”

He puffed right up on hearing that, almost poofing out in his sudden fluffiness. Having a seven-Tailed Silver Fox for a sire was no doubt a great thing, but only being a Crimson Ghost himself rather something of a downer.

“Why don’t you tell me about some of the fine Fox things you’ve done that encouraged your father to speak so well of you,” I told him, gesturing him to lay down next to me as I Burned goldweight to empower Zeben in the small Infusion pattern there.

I was doing little Healing and no fighting, so Naming Karma wasn’t coming in. Thus, I had to fall back to normal methods, which was slowing the process of improving my Gear, but that was fine.

I was getting in a lot of scrimshaw practice carving things out of high-end Beast ivory. It didn’t take much to make most of the things that I wanted, and only a few days of goldweight to empower them up. My Ranks still restricted the higher-end things I could work on, but I needed breadth as well as depth, so it was not an issue for me.

He was very eager to talk about himself and some of the tricks he’d pulled off. He was big on the thieving, swiping kills from bigger Beasts, tricking prey into making themselves vulnerable or trapping themselves, taunting more powerful Beasts before slipping away, and stealing in on more powerful Beasts and slipping away without them noticing.

Listening to him boast about his stealth and cunning, I realized the Crimson Ghosts weren’t shy and elusive at all. On the contrary, they were actually pretty damn courageous and daring, but they were also hypersensitive to danger, and didn’t like being exposed because of it. As long as they got to determine their approach to a situation, they could dive right into the jaws of danger, confident they could sneak their way in and out.

He’d done a lot of sneaking up on hunting Shades, spoiling their ambushes of other Beasts and basically getting them killed by stronger Beasts, laughing and leaving as just a rush of vanishing scarlet in the shadows, all most creatures ever saw of a Crimson Ghost.

“Well, thank you for your help and your courage. That was very brave of you,” I acknowledged, scratching his ears and making him grin so wide his eyes couldn’t open. “If I’d known you were so good, I’d have had you leading around a bunch of Wolves on ambushes, picking off the Shades one by one.”

He yipped something about Wolves being clumsy blockheads, probably because he pulled pranks on them and ran away laughing so often.

“Now, now. You know Wolves are strong and dangerous, especially if they fight together, which they do better than almost any other Beasts. But that doesn’t mean they don’t fight better with a proper leader who can point them at the right place. We all have our strengths.” I tapped his scarlet head. “Foxes are foxy, wolves are wolfish. Nothing wrong with either one. Just have to do what you are best at, and things are good.”

“Monkeys have good fingers for grooming!” he promptly blurted out with sudden insight.

“That we do.” I showed him my hands, which he inspected closely. “But I have neither good paws for traveling, nor claws for grabbing or climbing. And, of course, monkeys can be very clever too, and some of us can even do sneaky if we need to.”

He jerked as suddenly I was on his other side, leaning on him in a completely different pose. “Now, I don’t think about being sneaky or sly or clever all the time like a Fox does. I do a lot of Healing, and a lot of shooting things with magic, very un-foxlike.” I looked into his eye, then Blinked to his other side as he twitched again. “But if you’re okay with having a boring little monkey like me as your Contractor, I can take having a clever Fox around who can be sneaky.

“You wanna partner up with me?”

He put his head down and thought about that, looking back and forth between me and some of the other Great Beasts in the area, many of them Commanders and so completely domineering existences to him. His father was naturally one of them, sitting over there and pretending to pay no attention to what was going on.

“Are all Humans like Healer Fae?” he asked. “I hear stories...”

“No. Humans are a very weird species. Some of us are as bad or worse than the Shades and Undead. Indeed, a great many of those probably used to be Humans when they were alive.” I sighed despite myself. “You will have to be careful around many Humans. As your Contractor, you will know if you can trust me or not. It will be difficult with other Humans.”

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“Interesting. Can trick them!” he said confidently.

“Yes. You just need to be good about looking into their hearts, and seeing what’s there,” I assured him, stroking his ears again. “You can find nasty people, as foul-tempered as Red Fury, and you can find others as noble as the Emerald Swans,” I nodded. “And then others who think they are as clever as any Fox,” I whispered under my breath, and his ear twitched as he inhaled proudly.

“Must see this world with so many Humans,” he agreed, dark eyes sparkling. “Will Contract with Healer Fae!” he blurted out. “But, but,” he hedged, unable to stop himself, “if want to break Contract?...”

“As long as it is not really bad timing on your part,” I rapped his head once, and he yipped in understanding, “I will break the Contract with you if this little Human gets too boring for you to be around, yes.”

He giggled in both fear and trepidation, now that he had taken the big step, looking at his father reclining as if aloof from all the world over there, pretending not to be paying attention to anything.

A dot of light emerged from his forehead, floating over in front of me. I raised an eyebrow at it, instantly noting it was a type of magic I’d actually never seen in the Beast World before. It had to be the Summoning Sphere I’d been told about, which had some distinct similarities to the Binder Magic that I knew of.

Really not too different from accepting a Familiar or Eidolon, I deduced, and proceeded to weave the agreement between us into completion.

The Bond solidified into existence, perhaps woven a wee bit/whole lot differently than he was expecting, as his head popped up and he turned around to stare at me in shock as our minds and souls touched.

“Very smart,” he whispered, staring at me in awe. As usual, there’s a much different way of looking at someone when you can see how smart they are and how much Will they have.

“We shall see if I can keep up with a clever Fox,” I told him, ruffling his ears again, and he loll-tongued in pleasure again. “For now, we must give you a name, because every clever Fox deserves a Name of their own.”

“Ohhh, ohhh!” he half-exclaimed. “Yes, a Name!” he agreed, understanding the concept would set him apart and make him more than other Foxes without one.

I nodded solemnly. “There are many names for clever tricksters, but for Foxes, the one that stands above all is the great trickster Reynard. So that is who you shall be, my handsome trickster, Reynard the Fox. But you know the wonderful thing about names?” I leaned in close to him as something gelled in his spirit, having been given his own Name. “As you become greater and more powerful, your Name can grow with you. So, you borrowing the name of the great Reynard means you could become Crimson Reynard, or the Great Burglar Reynard, or Mountebank Reynard, or Reynard the Sly Fox, or Reynard the Bane of Clumsy Wolves, or many, many other such names. The Cleverness of the Fox determines his Name.”

Reynard was very excited now. “Will have great Name!” he promised with a proud yip.

“Very good,” I agreed. “Now, the nature of the Contract says that you will help me, fight with me, and serve me as I might need, but I do not know what I give you in return?” I asked him calmly.

“Power, magic, strength!” he replied instantly, pulling at our Bond and the magic. “Send power to me, help me grow stronger!” he guided me quickly.

“Oh, that is very unusual. Let me make sure I am doing this right.” I composed myself, my other Thoughtstream having maintained the Burn all this while, and gently sent some of the raw Summoning magic, very close to the default background Mana of the Beast Plane, through my link to him.

He shivered in excitement as the power washed over his body and soul in a cool stream. “Ah, yes, is good!” he told me in delight.

“Let me try something a bit more direct for you.” Since I wasn’t truly pulling spells, I could use my entire Heavenbound feed on him, so I gently started feeding the Eldritch energy of my Heavenbound Pact to him.

He jumped to his feet in shock as it came down on him. Where the other energy was like a gentle rain, this was more akin to standing in a shower. “What?” he barked in shock, trembling from toe to tail, and even drawing the attention of some of the Great Beasts around. “What is this?!”

“Pact energy, the power of Heaven.” I pointed at the Healing Circle not far away, still Healing others, although since over a month had passed since the Breach, the number of Beasts who needed to be Healed had fallen sharply, and instead Beasts from outside these territories were coming by the Healing Roads, along soil and sky, to be Healed here. They were all Commanders and Nobles, of course, and were as shocked by the power of the Circle as any of the local Beasts, as well as of the Pyramid which I was slowly erecting atop the glowing circle of vivus there.

“It is the power which enables the Circle to Heal even the deepest wounds of body and spirit, burning away Corruption, Taint, disease, poison, and old injuries. Is it hurting you? I can stop it if you wish.”

“No, no! Is not, is not what I was expecting!” Reynard answered quickly, his dark eyes still unfocused and looking inside. “Is... very strong...”

“Look up at the sky.” He did so, staring at the blue sky, puffs of clouds, and the sun far above. “Such as you see is less before the power of Heaven than a single blade of grass beneath your paws. If anything, the power I am showing you is very, very weak.”

He could tell I wasn’t lying at all, and his dark eyes were wide as the power continued to pour down on him.

It was the power of a Familiar Bond, an Animal Companion, and a Pact Eidolon, wrapped up all together and flowing with the Magery Mana of this place.

None of them required the blood or bones of the creatures that came before them to evolve to a state where they could serve their Contractor amicably. Reynard was going to be Evolving to something greater with great speed, something that had nothing to do with a rote Summoning Contract the Great Beasts here would be familiar with.

Familiar Companion stacked Arcane and Druid Levels and benefits. Theurgic Companion and The Name of Nature likewise combined Binder and Druid. Divine Companion added the Celestial Template.

Stacking all three together was going to be quite the thing. I doubted the Beast Realm had ever seen anything like it.

Reynard the Fox was going to very quickly become something that wasn’t a Crimson Ghost or a Silver Fox. I’d just have to wait and see what kind of waves that would send across the Beast World.