Ray didn’t dream. It was all a blank, comfortable darkness. It reminded him of his home, his family, how nice… Sadness overwhelmed him as he remembered, all of that was gone, taken from him. Those foul furless creatures, he will kill them someday, and take revenge. He will tear them apart and eat them. Or not eat them, they stank, but still tear them apart. Thinking of the furless creatures, Ray suddenly felt mind-numbing panic as memories flooded his mind. He was fully alert now, and before even opening his eyes, he looked inward.

Did they change him? Was he not himself anymore? But if he wasn’t himself, how would he know that he wasn’t?

“Just chill dude, it’s fine, don’t worry,” Ray heard someone say. Except, he didn’t really hear it with his ears, but still heard it in his mind. It was very bizarre, but this distracted from his panic.

Who’s that…?

“It’s your genius best buddy who saved your hide earlier, you’re welcome by the way,” the voice seemed to answer him.

Did the voice just answer me?

“Yes.”

CREEPY, EXTRA SUPER CREEPY, Ray’s panic renewed manifold, his eyes shot open, he jumped up, and frantically looked around for the source of the voice. He hoped against hope that it wasn’t in his mind. He was lying next to the young furless creature, it was sleeping, and there was no one else around. What did those creatures do to him that he now was hearing this voice?

Then he remembered the wrong-spot, and looked inward again to see if it was the same as always. He looked towards it but… the wrong-spot… wasn’t wrong anymore? Ray’s heart sank. Even the wrong-spot couldn’t escape. The furless creatures must have taken over his whole being, he just didn’t feel it. Against his wish, he would serve them willingly?

Ray looked at the young furless creature, but all he felt was hostility. Ray thought of biting it and to his surprise, he felt like he would be able to. Ray didn’t understand why he still felt like himself for the most part, but maybe this wouldn’t be for long. So now, while he was still himself, he should bite the neck of this creature as hard as he could, and try to kill it. Maybe he won’t be changed then if this creature was dead.

Ray slowly started crawling closer to its neck, trying not to wake it. He wasn’t far from it, closer, closer… just a bit closer—

“You might want to rethink that.”—Ray was startled by the disembodied voice and he froze.

So the voice is an enemy, its protecting the furless creature. He growled in his mind. So is this how he would be controlled? By this voice? Or is this voice going to take over his mind completely?

Ray heard an exasperated sigh. “No, I’m on your side. You sure are dumb. First of all the ‘young furless creature’ you keep calling her is wearing protective charms. There is a big fat zero chance that your baby bite will get through to them. All you’d achieve is alerting them that, despite what they believe, they didn’t manage to enslave you. And then where would be your revenge? You’d just be killed, and most importantly, waste my efforts.” the voice drawled, as if it was explaining wolves had four legs, a tail, and a head, how could you be so stupid to not even see that.

I can bite, it’s no baby bite… Ray grumbled in his mind. Protective charms? What are those? And anyway… wait what…? I’m not enslaved?

“You sure are slow. You know, if you took a deep breath, stopped panicking and calmed down, you’d understand the basics at least. You’d still be an ignorant dumb baby, but at least not a totally brain-dead one,” said the rude voice.

Ray ignored the insults this time, he backed off a bit, lay down, closed his eyes and smelled. He realized his nose was extremely sharp, the smells were so clear and distinct! More than ever, they were talking to him so clearly. Now that he started using his senses again, and trying to actually think, he realized the haziness was gone. He could think well again, in fact, much better than before. He looked and smelled inward again, trying to take in the changes, trying to understand what happened to him. The smells told him everything, and he understood.

“Hahahahah, oh you ignorant summer child you still understand nothing,” the voice mocked him.

You are wrong-spot, except you aren’t wrong anymore, and apparently I can talk to you? Why are you different, did the furless creatures change you? Ray was calmer now, he understood that even though the voice was super annoying and arrogant, it was no enemy. It was the wrong-spot that accompanied him since he was born.

“I didn’t change, you did. Well, I changed you, to be exact, but you agreed. I fully integrated into your soul so I don’t feel ‘wrong’ to you anymore. Also, to me it was child’s play to protect you from those ‘scary furless creatures,’ as you call humans. Of course, I’m awesome, so they think they were successful. Aw, you poor baby, what would you do without me? You better be extra grateful.”

...thank...you… even though it almost physically pained Ray to thank this arrogant a...hole, it saved him after all, so it deserved a thanks at least… Wait, if you changed me, how am I to know I’m still me, and you didn’t just do the same thing to me they were trying to do to me?

“You don’t. But what can you do about it?” answered the voice flippantly.

Ray had no answer to that. The voice was right, he was too weak and ignorant, there was nothing he could do. He started to feel frustrated at his own weakness. He lost everyone he cared about, because he was weak. The furless creatures almost took even his mind as well. And now, this voice was toying with him. He was awed by Grey Soul before, thought him unbeatable, yet even he was too weak at the end. But so what? He would just have to become stronger than Grey Soul, stronger than the furless creatures, stronger than the voice, stronger than anyone, and then he would be free forever.

His soul shook as the thought resonated with his whole being. Free forever. Free to do whatever he wanted, to never be hunted again, but be the one hunting. To run free in the sky, to listen to the smells, and see new things, to run, to hunt, to howl, free forever…

“Good attitude. In all seriousness, I didn’t mess with you, all I changed is that I don’t feel wrong to you anymore. And you feel whole again, and your senses are sharper, because the internal conflict in your soul that was caused by my presence is now gone. I’m on your side, you can’t understand it yet, but our goals align.”

I see. Do you have a name? Ray felt too exhausted to worry anymore, he was calm, but determined to strive for his goal. First step was to get to know this voice, since he seemed to be stuck with it.

“You can call me Vorm.”

Okay, Vorm. What are you? He wondered how Vorm ended up in his soul, he was pretty sure it wasn’t a normal thing that just happened. Vorm seemed to be powerful, it protected him from those… humans. It also fooled them, and it said it was easy.

“I’m a Worm.”

Ray thoughts about Vorm’s grandness came to a halt. He was puzzled. Like those little squishy squirming long things in the ground? And on top of that your name is Vorm? Isn’t that… lame?

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“Not like those, you ignorant fool,” Vorm paused then announced to the naive pup in a grandiose manner, “A #*?#&?¤;*!##? Worm.” As soon as Vorm said that incomprehensible thing, Ray felt as if he was hit heavily on his head, making him painfully dizzy.

A what? But as soon as he said that, Ray felt a deadly chill, and he started shaking uncontrollably as if death itself was grabbing him by his neck, about to snap it. I… I mean… I don’t understand but being a Worm is… majestic! Yes, majestic! What a majestic being you are! And it is a super cool name! Yes, extra super cool! The deadly chill left, but Ray still felt shaky. It was better to not provoke Vorm too much.

“You should worry about yourself instead. If the humans realize you aren’t enslaved, they will kill you.” Vorm was starting to get bored of the pup’s questions.

Ray thought for a bit, then sneered, You don’t need to worry. I will play the perfect little pet for them, I’ll be Dusk, or whatever they want me to be. I’ll do whatever they wish, I’ll do it all happily. Even if they want me to hunt other wolves, I’ll betray my own kind, anything to please the humans. And then, when they trust me fully, when I’ve gown strong enough, I’ll slaughter them all. None of them will escape, I will turn their home into their graveyard.

Ray looked at the despicable human sleeping peacefully, unaware of his plans. He closed his eyes for a bit, thought about Mother, Father, his litter-brother and litter-siblings, Breeze, Gust, Gale, Yellow Ears, Blue Tail and Dark legs. He thought of them all, and savored his memories. He let himself indulge for a moment, then steeled his resolve, locked away his memories, his rage, and even his name.

I am Dusk. He told Vorm as he went closer to the human youngling, lay down against his new master’s chest, and curled up like the perfect pet. He soon fell asleep.

Vorm was quite amused by this. What an ignorant little pup. Good thing he doesn’t remember how I tortured his soul before. Not that it could have been helped. At last, I managed to fuse into his soul perfectly, I’m a genius after all. Vorm chuckled to itself, it was pleased.

*

Ray was startled awake. The first thing he saw when he woke up, was the disgusting human youngling that tried to enslave him yesterday. He crouched, the fur on his back stood on end, his ears pulled back, he pulled up his lips baring his fangs, snarling, and started growling. This disgusting creature tried to enslave him, he hated it, he was going to kill it no matter what—

“Pfffft.” Ray could hear choked back laughter, and Vorm said in a mocking tone, “You were like ‘I am Dusk,’ locking up memories and shit, being all so serious. Then the first thing you do when you wake up, is to fuck up all your grand plans. Hahahahah,” Vorm’s laughter intensified as he kept ridiculing him, “You think you can just tell yourself you are Dusk, their pet, and then you are a perfect actor? How naive. You are Ray, you are not gonna be Dusk, just because you tell yourself that.”

Ray felt quite embarrassed, but there was no time to think about it. He quickly stopped growling, and although he felt disgusted, he lowered his head completely in submission, and wagged his tail wildly as if he was happy to see his master, and the hostility he had shown before was just due to confusion. He looked at the youngling human and it… well the smells told him it was a she, so she looked shocked.

But she seemed to understand it was a mistake, so a big happy smile spread on her face as she rushed to put her arms around her new pet wolf to cuddle him.

Ray was trying his best not to vomit. He kept wagging his tail, and trying his hardest to convince himself he was happy.

“Call her Master,” Vorm said in a sing-song voice.

Ray froze for a second, but then he kept wagging his tail, and squirmed in the girls arms to get to her face and lick it happily.

Shut up, you almost made me growl again. I’d rather die than call her Master.

“Didn’t you say you were Dusk from now on and you would be a perfect pet? A perfect pet should call their master, Master,” Vorm kept mocking him.

Ray tried to ignore him, but Vorm went on, “come on, you already seem so cozy with her. If you want to pretend to be a perfect little pet wolf, you gotta think of her as Master.”

Shut up.

“Master, Master, Master…” Vorm started chanting.

Ray kept telling himself, ignore it, just ignore it… As Ray tried to focus elsewhere to ignore Vorm, he noticed something he hadn’t before. He could… feel this repulsive creature… she was… happy?

Discovering this, Ray was shocked and confused. But… he wasn’t enslaved? He was connected to this creature? Why? How? Wasn’t he free?

“You get dumber by the day. How are you supposed to act as if you were tamed, if you had no idea what she wanted from you?” Vorm asked in an insulting tone.

As annoyed as Ray was by Vorm’s attitude, he had to admit that it was right… He had to pretend to be her pet. He was still free, so as disgusting as it felt being connected to the human youngling, it was necessary. Also, he had to admit Vorm was pretty smart to consider everything. He would never admit that to Vorm though, it was arrogant enough already.

“Why are you so quiet now? Realized what a moron you are? Come on, admit my genius. Not that it’s difficult to be a genius next to you, 10 out of 10 creatures are geniuses compared to you.”

All the gratitude Ray felt towards Vorm was smothered, and he refused to answer. Instead, he examined the connection he had with the human youngling. She was still cuddling and petting him, and he pretended to enjoy it. She felt… happy? Ray remembered how he could feel his family, and he was drowned in intense grief again. But the girl didn’t seem to notice.

She can’t feel what I feel?

“Not unless you deliberately send her feelings, she can’t. Since I knew you sucked at acting, I made sure your feelings wouldn’t leak through your connection.”

While Ray was grateful, he found Vorm too irritating to thank it. ...It? The human youngling was a she. Ray himself was a he. What about Vorm?

What are you? Are you a he? She?

“You really are narrow-minded aren’t you? I’m neither and both.”

What does that mean? Isn’t someone either male or female? Are you an ‘it’ then? But ‘it’ is for objects, no? Are you they? But you are one, not many? This problem completely occupied Ray’s mind now, he tried to understand thoroughly, but he had more and more questions.

“…” Vorm didn’t want to bother with answering, so he stayed silent. It didn’t even make sense for Ray to have these questions when they weren’t even using a language to begin with. It’s just how Ray’s simple mind made sense of their communication. Why he would care about gender so much was baffling to it. Well, Vorm knew there were stupid languages that made a gender distinction in stupid ways, but it didn’t expect Ray to do that as well. Actually, it wasn’t that surprising, now that it thought about it. Ray’s past life must be bleeding through, and influencing him, even if he doesn’t remember.

After a barrage of questions, Ray realized Vorm was quiet. He suddenly felt a sense of triumph. Vorm finally shut up! So to shut it up, next time, he just had to drown it in questions?

His train of thought was suddenly broken as the girl pulled him off the bed and put him on the ground. Then she said something Ray didn’t understand, and turned around to leave. Although Ray didn’t understand what was said, he felt he knew what she wanted him to do. He felt the connection between them pulling at him, compelling to do his master’s bidding. While it was a repulsive feeling, Ray was happy to realize, if he wanted to, he could ignore it all and not do it. He was free.

Well, his goal was to pretend for now, so he gave in to the compulsion, and followed the girl. It was disgusting to give in, his whole being wanted to resist and scream, yet he still followed. Giving in didn’t change him, he didn’t feel less like himself, so he calmed down, and even pretended to be happy while following the girl.