Ray and the girl didn’t go far before they went into a bigger room. It was there… Ray shivered but he tried his best to seem normal. That nightmarish, furless creature who killed his family with his kind was sitting there, eating. When Ray and the girl came in, he looked up and smiled, but all Ray felt was horror and disgust. He didn’t dare to move. He wanted to pretend to be the perfect pet, but the memories of losing his family one by one kept assaulting him. The best he could do was not move at all.

Ray inwardly started panicking as he saw the creature stand up and come closer. He wanted to run away, but he knew he shouldn’t. He tucked in his tail and lowered himself. He was terrified. The man frowned and crouched down to put his hands around Ray’s head. Ray was uncontrollably shivering. He knew he should pretend, but he was helpless, he was too traumatized, he lost control of himself.

He felt the creature’s probing of his soul, but this time it stayed on the surface. It kept going over and over to the connection Ray had with the girl, but didn’t intrude deeper. Ray was confused.

“You should trust me more, you know. It’s not hard to fool him into thinking he’s thoroughly inspecting your whole soul.”

Vorm’s explanation somewhat relaxed Ray. So as long as I have you, I don’t have to worry about… wait a minute… couldn’t you have done something when he ripped my connection to the Storm Wolves? Ray suddenly asked in an accusatory tone.

“I could have, but I didn’t,” came the flippant answer.

Realizing Vorm could have helped earlier but chose not to, made Ray really mad. His anger burned away all his fear.

Vorm chuckled. “I don’t owe you anything. I help you when I wish to. Don’t expect me to solve your every tiny problem.”

Getting a part of my soul ripped out of me wasn’t tiny… Ray growled. But he had to admit Vorm was right… Wait, was it really right? You live in my soul, so you should… pay rent!

“…”

“...how do you even know what paying rent is?”

I don’t, what is it? I just felt like it suited here. The smells must have told me.

After the beast tamer inspected the pup’s soul, he didn’t find anything amiss. He petted the pup’s head and got up.

“Everything seems alright. Since I had to break his wild Storm Wolf connection it’s not surprising he’s a bit different. Your connection with him feels okay?” the beast tamer asked his daughter, deep in thought.

The girl answered frowning a bit, “I’m not sure. Dusk seemed pretty scared now, but I felt nothing from him?”

Dumbwit, quickly send her your happiness, wag your tail and jump at her.

Ray wanted to ask why, but he felt the seriousness in Vorm’s tone so he did as it said. He felt for his connection with the girl. He thought of his den, the warmth he felt there, the happiness, and pushed the feelings through their connection while he jumped up wagging his tail. He put his front paws on the girl, trying to be tall, and reach as high as he could. Like a perfect happy pet.

A wide smile bloomed on the girl’s face as she crouched down to cuddle her pet wolf. “I can feel his happiness now.”

“Alright, maybe it just takes longer for the soul connection to settle. And anyway, over time, the feedback from tamed wolves tend to get muted as they become more tuned to their tamer, content and less excitable, so you don’t need to worry about it.” As the beast tamer was saying this, he reached down to pat his daughter’s head, but she dodged it.

“Daaaad, I told you not to mess up my hair!” said the girl indignantly.

Ray didn’t understand what the humans were saying, but he had a feeling that someone did… Vorm, do you understand what they are saying?

“Of course. While you were knocked out on the way here, I learnt their language,” Vorm said it in a way that was as if someone said, “of course I know how to breath.”

Can you teach me? Ray decided to swallow his pride.

“No.” Why would Vorm bother?

Why not? Ray swallowed his pride harder.

“Because you are too dumb.” Vorm didn’t understand why Ray always asked the obvious.

But you learnt it in a few days?

“Dumb-ass, to me all human languages are basically the same, it’s not hard to figure out the patterns. It only took so long, because they didn’t talk much. But to you? It would take way too long, I can’t be bothered.”

Please?

“No.”

Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease? Ray kept swallowing his pride so hard he almost choked on it.

“No. Why do you even want to understand their language to begin with? Don’t you just want to get stronger, then kill them all?”

I’m not sure, but I have this feeling, that I should know my enemy if I don’t want to fail. Tell me what they are saying then?

“Nothing important.”

Still... what is it?

“… I’m sleepy, good night.” Vorm had enough of the fool’s pestering.

Wait a minute! Vorm? Vorm!! VORM ANSWER ME!

But there was no answer.

Now that Ray finally left his own mind and focused on his surroundings, he realized there were more humans sitting at a table. There was another adult human, it was a female. Maybe it was the mate of the terrifying human. Also, there was another human youngling, but it seemed it was close to becoming an adult. It was a male. Ray had a very bad, slimy feeling when that human looked back at him. His fur stood up, and he softly growled instinctively. Seeing this the human grinned wildly, but then looked away, and didn’t do anything. No one else saw this, the girl youngling and the terrifying human were moving to sit down.

Smelling around, he understood more. He scolded himself for not smelling around first thing he entered. He told himself, he should always smell around first, the smells he could trust. He blamed Vorm for distracting him, but then Vorm also saved him. It wasn’t Vorm’s fault, he should learn to take care of himself. So he focused on the smells, and tried to understand more.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The adult female human and the terrifying one were life-mates, and the almost adult male one was their offspring. Also, the almost adult one was cruel and insane. Ray thought all humans were cruel, but this one felt even crueler. On the surface, he didn’t seem different, but there was an underlying smell of insanity no one else seemed to notice. Ray thought humans were really stupid. He decided to avoid that one the most, and stick with the girl for now.

He was quite hungry, and some smells were nice. He followed the girl who sat down by now, and was about to jump up at her in hopes of getting some of that food, when he froze. There was danger smell. He didn’t understand what was wrong, but backed off a bit and sat down. That’s what the smells told him he should do, and as he did that, the danger smell left.

He was confused why, he didn’t understand. He felt lonely, he wished he had someone to talk to but Vorm refused to answer. Thinking how alone he was, his mood plummeted, he didn’t even feel hungry anymore. He looked inside towards the spot where Vorm was, but there was nothing different. Was Vorm really sleeping? Knowing that Vorm wouldn’t answer made him feel lonely. It was only recently that Vorm started talking to him, but it felt comforting. Now, knowing that Vorm wouldn’t answer him, made him feel this incredible sense of loss.

Time passed and Vorm still wasn’t answering. He had to be alone for a long time now… it had been so long already that Vorm went to sleep, Ray didn’t even know how long… but it was very long… and he felt very lonely...

“Alright, alright, I’m here, just stop already with the it’s-the-end-of-the-world kind of mood,” Vorm suddenly said.

Vorm!!! You are finally back! Why didn’t you answer, you left me all alone! A boundless happiness spread within Ray. He didn’t even realize before how much he relied on Vorm now.

“It’s been three minutes… literally three minutes… and you act like I was gone for decades.”

I don’t know how long that is but three minutes feels very very long! Ray complained justifiably.

“…dumb wolf and your nonexistent sense of time…”

“Anyway, they were trying to trap you, letting you do a mistake, then punish you to teach you how to behave. You aren’t supposed to beg for food, but wait for them to graciously provide it.”

You saw what they were planning? Weren’t you sleeping?

“The guy was telling the girl how to use the connection to punish you the moment you tried to beg for food.”

Wait a minute, you said they weren’t talking about anything important!

“Yes, and how is that important?”

It felt dangerous!

“I’m not your babysitter.”

What’s a babysitter?

“I’m not your mother to look after you.”

Why are you in my soul then?

“None of your business.”

It’s my soul, so it is my business.

“Too bad.”

Ray gave up, Vorm wasn’t going to answer. He grumbled to himself about Vorm, but he was actually very happy that he wasn’t alone after all, and Vorm was here. Even when Vorm wasn’t answering, it still paid attention… wait… that means… Vorm ignored him! Ray felt a bit salty about it, but now that he was thinking… You don’t need to sleep, do you? Ray asked again.

“Pff, I’m not a weakling like you who needs to sleep. Only the weak sleep.”

So… earlier you lied when you said you were going to sleep?

“…”

So lame… Ray felt some chills creeping in his soul… of me to think you’d need to sleep haha… the creeping chills vanished. Vorm was really dangerous, Ray thought to himself, but he wasn’t really bothered. If anything, he felt happy that Vorm was strong. But he still wanted to understand why Vorm was in his soul. So he smelled, and smelled around his soul, around Vorm, asking the smells what was Vorm doing there. He still didn’t understand but he was sure of one thing now.

You are hiding. It was not a question, it was a statement that Ray was sure of.

“…”

What are you hiding from? Aren’t you super-strong?

“…” Vorm reluctantly answered in an uncharacteristically somber tone “...there is always someone stronger.”

Ray pondered about that. He did think his Father was the strongest, and couldn’t imagine anyone stronger, but then the humans killed him. But then the terrifying human was easily fooled by Vorm. So if there was someone even stronger than Vorm, it wouldn’t be weird. I understand. There are probably many things stronger than you too—

“No, hold on! Don’t misunderstand me, you won’t come across anyone stronger than me,” Vorm hastily clarified before the fool would have even more strange ideas.

But you said there is always someone stronger? You are hiding?

“Yeah, that’s what I said, but you won’t come across them.”

Why are you hiding then if I won’t meet anyone stronger than you?

“…stop with the inane questions already. It’s impossible for you to understand.”

Can’t you explain?

“Look at that ant. Can you explain anything to it?”

Ray looked at the ant running around on the floor. He certainly couldn’t explain anything to the ant, because he couldn’t talk to it. But Vorm could talk, so why can’t it explain?

“You can touch the ant, that’s a form of communication. But you can’t explain anything to it. Same way I can communicate with you this way, but can’t explain anything to you.”

Ray was enlightened. I understand! But you explained it to me why you can’t explain it, so you can explain things to me after all?

“...bye…”

Ray felt a sense of triumph. He wasn’t worried now, he knew Vorm was still paying attention, it just couldn’t bother talking anymore. Which was fine, but he was still curious.

So… can you read my thoughts?

“…”

Vorm, can you read my thoughts?

“…”

Vorm? Can you read my thoughts?

Vorm sighed, “…so persistent. Only when you think thoughts at me. Otherwise I only have a vague idea, and if you consciously hide your thoughts from me, I won’t hear it.” Before, there was no distinction between the fool’s thoughts like this, but Vorm had compromised for stability. The fool’s soul really refused to have zero privacy.

Ray wasn’t sure that was really the case, so he focused all his mind, trying to close out Vorm and started thinking what a huge jerk Vorm was, how lame its name was, how arrogant and annoying it was, then waited. Nothing happened. Ray was now convinced, you really can’t hear my thoughts if I don’t want you to, that’s great!

As soon as Ray said that to Vorm, he felt an intense pain rush through his soul but it passed as quickly as it came. Ray was confused at first, but then he was sure it was Vorm’s doing! Why did you do that?! You can read all my thoughts after all, can’t you!

“…I can’t, but I was sure you thought something rude about me. So I was right, wasn’t I?” Asked Vorm menacingly.

Ray’s indignation instantly evaporated. Hehe, no, no, I just thought you were… cute… yes, cute, and that it offended you. That’s all really!

“You are a horrible liar.”