Ray didn’t dare to say anything more, and instead, focused outside of his mind again. The humans were eating, and he was still sitting a couple steps behind the girl, waiting patiently. He was bored. He also felt kind of hungry, but apparently had to wait. Or did he? He felt for his connection with the girl again, and sent through his hunger. He saw the girl pause for a moment, but then she continued to eat without even looking at him! So he sent more hunger feeling towards her, but nothing happened. He didn’t dare to be too forceful, so he gave up and just waited.

“Interesting. Is Dusk not hungry?” asked the beast tamer.

“He is, I can feel his hunger,” answered his daughter. “Can I feed him now? You can see what a good boy he is, waiting patiently.” She couldn’t wait to feed her Dusk, so she looked at her father with pleading eyes.

“…” The beast tamer wanted his daughter to teach the pup not to beg for food, but now his daughter was begging for it instead of her pet. “Sure.”

Ray was bored out of his mind when he saw the girl suddenly get up, and put a small bowl down in front of him. It smelled good, and he really wanted to eat it, but now he felt suspicious, so he still didn’t dare to move, and instead, looked at the girl. The girl looked back at him for a while, then wickedly showed her teeth as she looked at his father. She said something, then she looked back at Ray, nodded and went back to her seat to eat.

When she nodded, Ray felt her consent. Now, he was allowed to eat. She didn’t command him to eat, but she allowed him to eat. Ray looked at the bowl, and the minced meat in it. He knew it was good food he could eat, but his hunger was all gone. All he felt was pure indignation. He was allowed to eat? Allowed? He was a proud Storm Wolf, and now, he had to put up with their stupid human games that he can only do things when he is allowed? He felt furious. Is this how he was going to have to live? Wait for the human to allow him things? Don’t move if not commanded? Death was better than living like a fucking pet and doing as they wished. He was a Storm Wolf, not their plaything.

“What happened to your revenge, Dusk?”

Don’t ever fucking call me that. He didn’t even care if Vorm punished him for being rude to it anymore. He looked at the humans still talking and eating, sometimes laughing. He could feel the disgusting happiness from the girl, and her twisted care for him. So repulsive… Then all his hot rage disappeared, turned into an ice cold calm fury. Just wait, I’ll kill them all. He started to eat. He will kill them all. He will play along now, then kill them all. Take revenge…

“Wow, so cool…” Vorm yawned.

Ray froze for a second, then continued to eat menacingly while Vorm kept chuckling.

After eating, Ray felt slightly better, but his mood soured just as fast. Not long after he finished eating, the girl got up and Ray followed. She didn’t command him to follow, he just did on his own, and when he realized he naturally followed her without being told, he was in a foul mood yet again. Why the hell did I follow…?

So he stopped following and sat down. He might be forced to play along, but he will not do anything on his own initiative. That girl will have to command him, Ray refused to be a brainless idiot following along. After a few steps, the girl realized he stopped following, and she stopped as well. She looked at him, but she still didn’t command him to follow. She just looked, and kept looking. Ray was confused, and started to feel uncomfortable for some reason. But no, he refused to follow willingly without being commanded. As the girl kept looking at him, and he just stared back, Ray’s uneasiness grew. Say… Vorm… is this one of their games, like with the food?

“Why should I spoil it for you? Just keep sitting here, and you’ll see,” answered Vorm cheerfully.

Ray was now conflicted. Since Vorm told him to keep sitting, he didn’t want to keep sitting anymore, but he didn’t want to follow the girl either. He also didn’t want to go back to the room with the other humans. But before Ray could decide what to do, the disgusting human came up behind them, and went to the girl to give her a long strip of something, and said a few things.

The girl nodded a few times, then came back and crouched down in front of Ray. She held that long thing in both hands, and started wrapping it around Ray’s neck. Ray really didn’t like it, and jerked his head back to turn around and run away, but suddenly he was commanded not to move. He froze and complied, but was extremely uneasy. Vorm, what is that?

“A collar, will look good on you.”

What does it do?

“Wait and see, I doubt it’s just a plain collar. I bet it’s something to mess with you.” Vorm sounded pretty pleased, which just annoyed Ray.

Aren’t you on my side? Why do you enjoy when they are messing with me?? Ray complained indignantly, but Vorm just chuckled to himself.

The collar was finally put on, but Ray felt nothing. Then the girl patted his head, and left. At first, Ray felt nothing, but as the distance grew, he started feeling nauseous and dizzy. He lay down and asked Vorm. Why are they doing this? Can’t she just command me to follow?

“Because they enjoy their sick games, they want you to be willingly obedient without having to give you commands. Didn’t you say you were gonna be a perfect pet? What are you even resisting for? Little pet pup, just go and follow her.”

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Ray growled, shut his eyes, and tried to endure. Vorm was right. He just had to do what the humans wanted until he grew strong enough to kill them. So, why did he feel so stubbornly about not wanting to cooperate unless he was forced by commands? He wasn’t even forced by the commands in the first place, he could choose to do whatever. But then, they would kill him. Who would avenge his family then if he died? So… if he was already willingly following commands, might as well just willingly follow even if he was not commanded.

He decided to follow the girl as he felt a sense of defeat again. It infuriated him, but he still got up. He stumbled a bit, and fell. He was too dizzy. His head started to pound. He could feel where the girl was, so he slowly started to crawl. He felt so dizzy and nauseous… The food he just ate wanted to come back up. He steeled himself, and continued to crawl forward. It felt forever, but slowly as he got closer, he started to feel better. He shakily got up, and with drooping head and tail, he made his way towards the girl’s room.

Yet, he was too slow. Suddenly, he felt the girl moving away again. The sense of dread overwhelmed him as he tried to catch up, but the dizziness intensified again as he stumbled to the ground. He threw up, and he used his last bit of strength to avoid lying in his own vomit. He sprawled on the ground shaking. The whole world was dancing around, he felt terrible. His thoughts got jumbled up, and he didn’t even have the strength to talk to Vorm. He heard Vorm’s roaring laughter, but he didn’t even have the energy to be angry at it. He just lay there, blankly staring at nothingness, wishing to die.

Ray didn’t know how long he lay there. When he came to, he realized the dizziness and nausea was gone, and someone was gently picking him up and carrying him away. He was put down on a soft bed and fell asleep.

He woke up to the smell of food, and felt hungry right away. He opened his eyes, and realized it was already late and dark. The girl picked him up, and put him down in front of his food. He stared at it, his mind slowly waking up. He was hungry, he should eat, but he had a feeling he shouldn’t eat. He tried to remember why, and slowly the memories of that morning floated into his mind. So, he just dully looked at the girl waiting for her to permit him to eat. He should be angry and pissed, but he couldn’t muster up the energy to feel anything. When the girl nodded and gave her assent, he buried his head in the bowl, and mechanically ate all the food. He felt so exhausted.

After he was done eating, the girl picked him up, put him on the bed, lay down next to him, and hugged him tightly. It was uncomfortable, and the girl’s smell disgusted Ray, but he was too apathetic to try to move away. He fell asleep again.

When Ray woke up early morning, the girl was still sleeping and hugging him. He really hated being this close, and having his nose stuffed with her smell, but he didn’t move. He wanted to think in peace for a while, and he was afraid he’d wake her if he tried to move away.

Yesterday… he was humiliated over and over. He thought it was going to be easy pretending to be obedient, and then, when he was strong enough, and they least expected it, he would just kill them all. But within a day, they exhausted him to the point that before he fell asleep, he barely cared anymore. Ray realized the greatest danger wasn’t that he might do something, and the humans would realize he wasn’t their slave, but that he would get worn down by them. Worn down to the point that he stopped caring, and soullessly followed along, like all the other hollow wolves. He shuddered.

The more he thought about it, the uneasier Ray felt. Vorm, we need to get away.

“Sure, let’s escape. If you are lucky, you might even survive for a day outside.”

Is it really that dangerous? Can’t you help me survive?

“Of course I can, that’s why you might even survive for a day!”

??? You are useless… Vorm seemed so capable before, but Ray felt he was tricked into believing that.

“Pfft, you ignorant summer child,” Vorm said mockingly.

Ray stopped talking to it, and seriously considered escaping. Maybe it was better to die than to stay here. Even if that meant he couldn’t take revenge. Was it worth it? Being slowly whittled down to the point he wouldn’t even recognize himself, for revenge? Because Ray way increasingly sure that no matter how he resisted in his heart, how he kept saying to himself he was just pretending, if this kept going on, it would change him. But the only alternative was to die. While he didn’t believe he’d die in a day like Vorm said, he didn’t have the confidence to stay alive on his own until he grew up.

He was scared of how staying with the humans might really change him, but for now, he was even more scared of death. He decided to stay. I’ll just stay a bit longer, if I change my mind, I can still escape later.

“You know, they say, if you place a frog in boiling water, it jumps out. But if you put it in cold water, and slowly heat it up, the frog cooks to death.”

Ray didn’t understand what Vorm was going on about. What does that even mean? What frog?

“Don’t worry, you will understand it later. It’s not even true anyway, the frog will jump out either way.”

Then what are you talking about if it’s not even true? Asked Ray, annoyed. He felt Vorm was tying his thoughts in knots on purpose. The more he listened to it, the more confused and annoyed he became. Shut up, I don’t want to talk to you anymore.

Vorm just chuckled, and said mockingly, “so feisty…” but it stayed silent after that.

Ray let out a weary sigh. He couldn’t even decide whether the humans or Vorm was more exhausting to deal with. He stopped thinking and just kept lying there until the girl woke up.