A couple hours after they fought the Ghost-Storm Wolf, the beast tamer thrust his arm into a thick bush. He grabbed something, and pulled it out.

“There you are!” he grinned in delight. He was extremely excited about getting new wild Storm Wolf pups. But when he pulled the pup out, his grin was soon replaced with disgust.

Seeing his mood change so abruptly for the worse, the tank next to him asked, “What’s wrong?”

Shaking the struggling wolf pup in disgust, the beast tamer spat, “It’s worthless. It’s so young, but that damn Ghost-Storm Wolf already bonded with them. And even if it’s already dead, even if all the pup’s pack is killed, since it was already bonded to wild Storm Wolves once, it’s impossible to tame it now.”

“Well can’t you just break its wild wolf connection, or whatever, and then tame it?”

“Of course I could do just that, look,” spat the beast tamer in frustration.

The beast tamer threw the pup down on the ground, and roughly grabbed its head with both hands. He focused as his palms started to glow with an eerie, faint blueish light. His frown grew as the pup started whining and thrashing more and more intensely. Then it suddenly grew still, and went limp. The beast tamer snorted, picked it up and threw it at the tank. “Look, I did just that.”

“It’s dead…?” asked the tank hesitantly.

“Of course it’s dead! Its soul couldn’t take it and broke,” exclaimed the beast tamer exasperatedly.

“Ah… let’s head back then?”

The beast tamer got back on his wolf mount, but didn’t turn back. He took another direction. “No, there should be more pups.”

Following him, the tank asked puzzled, “Didn’t you say they were worthless?”

The beast tamer didn’t answer. It cost too much to kill that damn Ghost-Storm Wolf, he at least wanted to vent some of his anger on its pups.

*

Ray grew numb as he lost his litter-brother and litter-sisters one by one. He was all alone. He felt empty. He didn’t even notice the smell, nor heard the footsteps. He only came to when he felt something grab him and roughly pull him out of the hole.

He was too numb to be scared anymore, or smell anything at all. He only looked at the creature that grabbed him. It was ugly, its fur was gone in most places, its nose was shriveled up, its eyes seemed dull. This creature was so ugly, Ray only felt repulsion.

Ray’s numbness lessened and he smelled. Then he started thrashing, trying to bite the creature. The smells told him everything. Murderer, this creature, with other creatures like him, murdered his family. He was still tired from all the running, but he summoned all he had, to bite, to hurt, to kill this creature.

The beast tamer impassively watched as the feisty pup tried to bite him. Not that it could even scratch him. “What a pretty, unique pup. Such a shame it was ruined,” he muttered to himself and sighed.

He put it down on the ground, grabbed his head and did the same thing he did with the other three before, without any hope.

When the creature grabbed his head and pushed him down on the ground, Ray was helpless. He was too mad to be afraid before, but now he was truly scared. Scared, because this creature invaded inside him, forced its way in, then grabbed a most precious part of him and tore it out. The sudden excruciating pain was too much, he cried out mournfully as if death was shredding him apart. But he lived. There was a giant hole ripped inside of him now, but he still remained. He couldn’t hear well anymore, he could barely see anymore. Even the smells grew dull and quiet. His mind was hazy, he could not think anymore.

The beast tamer picked up the now limp pup surprised. “It survived… Heh… HAHAHAAHAHHAAA!” He started laughing wildly, his mood soaring high. Never mind the other pups, he got this unique one after all.

The tank looked his way, and saw the beast tamer was now in a good mood while holding a limp pup. “It’s not dead?”

The beast tamer checked between its legs, hugged the limp pup to his chest and gently started stroking him. “No, no. He’s still alive after I broke his connection.” He looked at the pup with eyes full of affection. What a great find this little guy was.

“Great. You tamed it too?” The tank wasn’t that interested, but he saw it was a pretty pup.

“His soul is too hurt right now to be tamed. He wouldn’t die, but he would be crippled for now. Also, my daughter’s tenth birthday is coming up. I’ll gift this little guy to her after I heal him up enough, and help her tame him. He will be her pet wolf.”

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*

Ray was slipping in and out of consciousness, but even when he was awake, he barely knew what was going on around him. His mind felt stuck. He gave up on trying to think and just tried to endure. He just was. Sometimes when he was a bit more conscious, he heard muffled sounds, and felt a bluish shimmer warmly soothing him inside. He felt he was still grabbed by the disgusting creature, his dull nose was filled with their repulsive smell. But he felt too weak to struggle, he couldn’t bother to care. He was all alone now, there was no reason to care anymore. He wasn’t even hungry, but sometimes he felt something being stuffed down his throat, and filling up his belly. He didn’t really care, he just was.

A week passed like this. Ray’s soul was slowly healing, and he was gradually regaining awareness. One night, he slowly opened his eyes to look around. The furless creature’s smell still lingered around, but was less dense. He felt hazy, but he could think slowly, see and hear a bit better. He shakily stood up to look around.

There were sticks around and above him. He tried to bite one to get out, but it was very very hard. The smells were faint and weak, but they told him this was a cage. A cage… As he looked outside of his cage, he was startled. He backed up and softly growled. There was one of the furless creatures. It was a smaller one, and it was lying on its… bed? Growing despair choked his growling as he realized this must be the furless creature’s youngling and its den. But the growing despair faded as soon as it came. What did it matter now? His family was all gone, and he was all alone. He lay back down, curled up, and closed his eyes.

He looked inward. The hole that was torn open inside him was gone, healed, yet forever empty, lacking. Ray understood that what was taken from him was vital to Storm Wolves. Without it, the smells were quieter, his ears stuffed, his eyes hazy, his mind dull. He didn’t feel like himself anymore. He felt too empty to be sad, to whine and howl.

At last, he looked towards the wrong-spot. He felt a subtle excitement, because it was still there where it always was, unmoved, unchanged. He hated this wrong-spot, it felt foreign and alien, not belonging, but strangely, now he felt comforted by it. This one thing that hadn’t changed. He fell back asleep.

It felt like it hadn’t been long when he was woken up again. It was bright now, and he was being carried to somewhere by the adult furless creature. Its youngling was walking by its side. Ray was uneasy, where were they taking him now? But his uneasiness soon faded, and he closed his eyes. He didn’t really care. After they slaughtered his family, there was nothing worse they could do to him. And it was hard to think to begin with, as if a thick fog was enveloping his whole mind.

A short while later, his cage was put down. They must have arrived. Was he going to be eaten now? He opened his eyes, and saw the furless creature opening his cage and grabbing him. Ray knew there was no point to struggle, the furless creature was immensely stronger than him. He was put down, stretched out, and chained down so thoroughly, he couldn’t even move an inch. He was now anxious, and his anxiety kept growing. What horrible things these repulsive creatures were going to do to him...? He couldn’t imagine, but he knew it couldn’t be anything good.

The young furless creature came closer, holding something in its hand. Ray had a really bad feeling about it, he tried to move with all his strength, but he couldn’t get free. The chains mercilessly kept him bound, no matter how he struggled, they hurt, yet he still strained with all his might. He knew it was useless, yet he still violently twisted and shook in his growing dismay.

The young furless creature put that something on his head, and then the creature covered it with its hand. Then the adult furless creature put his hand on the younger one’s as well. Ray was now panicking, the feeling that something horrible was about to happen grew, but there was nothing he could do. He was helpless. And the next second he learnt… yes, there was something they could still do that was worse than death, worse than even losing his whole family and being left all alone. Worse than anything else conceivable, only these vile creatures would do it.

“Dusk,” Ray heard. They would even steal his name and force a new one on him.

His mind fled inward, trying to stop it, but their intrusion was relentless. Ray instinctively knew what they were doing. They wanted to change him, and he would not be him anymore. He would turn into one of those hollow wolves he vaguely saw. He thought they were serving the furless creatures, because they were weak willed and submitted. Now he learnt the truth. He would rather die, but even death wasn’t allowed to him. He felt them invading his being, he knew it was inevitable. He fled deeper and deeper into himself until he reached the wrong-spot.

The wrong-spot was as unchanged as ever. Ray still felt an innate repulsion towards it, but it never did anything bad to him after all. Anything was better than what the furless creatures were doing. His mind curled up around the wrong-spot, hoping it could help him, pleading to it without hope to do something. The wrong-spot reacted, and Ray felt a sliver of hope. The wrong-spot wanted Ray to accept its wrongness and not resist whatever happened next. Ray agreed. Whatever the wrong-spot would do, could not be worse than what the furless creatures were doing. Even if it somehow was worse, at least it was his, Ray’s, own choice.

Ray felt the wrongness intensifying, spreading. This wrongness was terrible, alien, incomprehensible. Ray felt himself being driven to the brink of insanity. But he didn’t resist, he accepted this wrongness, he reveled in the encroaching insanity, anything to escape the furless creatures. Soon, he knew of nothing as he slipped into unconsciousness.

*

“Congratulations! You tamed your first wolf. Happy Birthday!” The beast tamer patted his daughter’s head. It was her birthday, and luckily, the wolf pup’s soul healed enough to be tamed today. The pup passed out in the process which wasn’t uncommon. He would wake up loyal to his daughter now, striving to please her every moment, and letting himself be directly controlled through their connection whenever his daughter wanted it. A perfect pet.

“Thanks daddy! Dusk is so pretty!” She picked up her new pet after her father removed the chains, and hugged him closely, stroking his fur tenderly. She bent her head down to his ear, and whispered kindly full of affection, “I’ll take good care of you.” She kissed his head gently and added, “I love you Dusk.”

As his daughter cuddled with her pet wolf, the beast tamer looked out at the setting sun. He frowned, feeling like it wasn’t quite right to be this late, but the next moment he shrugged and turned to ruffle his daughter’s hair some more.