This choice: Familiarise one of the slaves • Go Back...Chapter #8Familiarise one of the slaves by: Yote   Though you will be binding the slave to an even deeper servitude by taking it as your familiar, an existence serving by your side is surely preferable to a life toiling down here in the darkness.
You seek out a viable saluria among the slave - your eyes falling upon young, healthy-looking female. Her bioiluminescence throbs with the strong beat of her heart, filling the tunnel with pulsating blue-white light. He looks strong, with thick bands of muscle from a life of hard labour straining to be contained within his sapphire scales. Despite his intimidating build, as you approach he drops his pick and shrinks back against the wall, sinking to his knees and sobbing.
You touch him lightly on the forehead, uttering the incantation to begin the familiarisation spell. His body trembles and his limbs shake as the connection forms. Without consent or an understanding of what it happening, the bonding process can be rather traumatic, as his simple animal mind joins with your more evolved intellect. You try to push calming thoughts through the link to him. The psychic intrusion only serves to make it worse.
Inside his head, at least you can see why he is afraid of you. You're a being of solid granite, as though the rockface itself has come alive, sought him out for a lifetime of cracking open the earth.
[Chill, I'm not a rock monster! I'm just a wizard!] you think, trying to sooth him. Alas, the last word drowns his mind with such terrible fear that it forces you to sever the psychic connection. Your familiar cowers beneath you, shaking like a leaf, and then...
With five quiet pops, the flight part of the silurian's fight-or-flight response kicks in supremely. His arms, legs and tail all disconnect at once. Your familiar drops to the tunnel floor as a torso and head, while the class erupts in howls of laughter. Their mockery echoes and resounds in the narrow space.
"Nice choice, loser!"
"Looks like your familiar dropped something, Rocky."
"Half a familiar is better than none, Meade!"
"What... What the heck did you go and do that for?" you moan, staring at your limbless familiar in horror. "I was trying to help you." Even with the psychic link broken, the terror still comes off him in waves. His horrible, wormlike torso flexes and writhes as he tries to squirm away.
Damnit. You can't leave him like this. You're responsible for him now, at least until he can regenerate his lost parts. You crouch, making gentle noises of reassurance as you get close enough to slide your hands under the nubs of his shoulders, lifting him into your arms. His torso is muscular and heavy, and the air huffs out of you as you hold him close to your chest. The students laugh all the more, mocking you with kissing noises.
"Has your boyfriend been drinking, Meade? He's totally legless!"
"Enough," Sweetstone chides them sharply. "I said enough! Silence! I won't have you mocking your fellow student like that. Not here. It's far too structurally unsound. Your voices could bring the mine down on our heads. If you want to insult him, do it in the Grand Hall. The acoustics are excellent." She turns, striding off down the tunnel. "Come along, children. The dormitories are just round the next bend. Lessons start tomorrow so I want you all to get a good night's sleep."
Struggling under the weight of your familiar, you follow the group as quickly as you can.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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