Chapter 5: Little Kitten is a Magical Beast
Hearing the footsteps of many people, the little silver kitten turned her delicate head to find several men walking into the encampment, being welcomed by the spear wielding man from before. In front of this new group of people was a large bald man with a warm but stoic expression. He had a noble baring and his steps seemed to hold a large weight to them. Behind this man were five others. All wore identical armour to the spear wielding man, except they all wielded longbows in there hands. Also of note were rather large sabers that laid by their waist, hung by a leather belt.
"Welcome back, Uncle!" the teen was quick to rise to his feet and greet his uncle, the large bald headed gentleman.
"Haha, why are you back so early, little Nephew? Did you get your ass beat up?"
The bald man laughed aloud, his lips raised in a taunting and child-like grin.
"Hahaha. No, it's like this, Uncle. While I was out hunting Magical Beasts for my solo training, I came across this little lass being attacked by a Hell Monkey!"
As he says this, the teen gestures towards the little silver kitten by his side, drawing the attention of his uncle and the other men towards her. At this point in time, the little kitten has turned away from her food to also study these new people. She is feeling somewhat nervous, hoping they won't kick her out from the camp. She really wouldn't know what to do in this forest of hellish creatures on her own.
Seeing this little oddity, the uncle held a confused expression.
"Oh, a cat? What's a cat doing in the middle of Red Winter Forest?"
"What's more fascinating, Uncle, is that she was attacked by a Hell Monkey!"
"Oh, indeed. Does that mean this little thing is?..."
"well, I don't know yet. I just had her fed and was going to check her just now to see if she is indeed a Magical Beast."
The Uncle nods his head in approval, so the teen turns his attention to the little kitten by his side, whose head is tilted in a confused expression.
"Little lass. Let's start this off simple, do you understand what we are saying? Nod your head if you can."
The little kitten doesn't immediately respond, she simply stares into the teens eye as if judging how she should respond. Meanwhile, the surrounding men turn to face their young master with a confused expression at his attempts to talk to this seemingly normal looking cat.
'Should I respond... Would it be dangerous? I don't know anything about this world. But... I really can't see this person as a bad guy... Welp, there's no gain with no risk. I've always had a straight forward attitude, why change now!'
A grin seems to appear on the little kitten's face with these thoughts, and after the few seconds it took to think this far, she then slowly nodded in her response to the teen's question. This causes the teen to put on a wide smile while the other people held expressions of awe. For an animal to have this amount of intelligence would put the bast beyond the ranking of a Minor Magical Beast. It was hard to believe that this unassuming little kitten held the intelligence to understand them; some started to believe it was just a coincidence that the cat had just nodded at the right time. Seeing the doubting eyes around him, the Uncle stepped up to speak.
"Hmm... Let's see. Bite the closest person to you!"
Hearing this strange request, the little kitten couldn't help but blink her eyes a few times. As the one closest to the kitten, the teen was shocked when he heard his Uncle speak up, not knowing weather to laugh or cry in response.
After a second of contemplation, the little kitten seemed to shrug its shoulder and then leaped forward at the teen to take a bite at the exposed flesh of his ankle. Being just a normal cat bite, the teen didn't get hurt too bad, but he still felt indignation in his heart.
"You damned Uncle! There was a thousand other ways to test her, you old git!"
"Is that how you talk to your superior?!"
"Tch!"
The teen could only sulk while the other people began to let out loud laughs. These two family members have always been known for their pranking ways, always trying to get one over the other. They couldn't wait to see what their young master would come up with in response. And indeed, the teen was already cursing in thought while concocting ways to get back at his moronic Uncle.
"Alright, enough of that. Hahaha. Then little kitten, I'll ask you straight up. Are you a Magical Beast?"
The little kitten was still for a second as she resumed a sitting posture, then she visually shrugged her shoulders in response.
"Can it be you don't know?"
Hearing the teens question, the little kitten nodded.
"Hmm... How strange. Well can you use magic?"
To this query, the little kitten proceeded to stand up and then crouched to the grassy floor. She felt that familiar but mysterious energy fluctuate around her four paws, empowering her strength and then she leaped high into the air. She jumped around two stories high into the air before landing back on the ground with a thump. The ground beneath her seemed to crack a little where her paws landed.
"That's magic! Uncle, what was the strength of her aura?"
"Hmm. It was the power of a mid level Minor ranking Magical Beast. Which is odd considering she already has the intelligence gained when a Magical Beast breaks through to the Major Rank of Magical Beasts, or higher for that matter."
"We'll just have to have Sir Jermine have a look at her."
"Yeah, this will need the work a Beast Tamer. I believe he also has a Beast Communicator on him at the moment, which means we'll be able to directly talk with her at that time as well."
The little kitten's eyes lit up when she heard this. She could communicate with them? This would be a great help in understanding this new world and her powers. She really wants to learn how to use magic, how wonderful that would be. She couldn't help but get excited.
"Now then, little Nephew, what do you plan to do with her. She's a little weak to tame her for yourself."
"I was thinking of gifting her to my little sister."
"Good idea. She'll be attending Raven Academy in two years, by that time we can teach the little thing some magic, she can be used to protect my little niece from danger."
"Little lass... Would you like to join us and become a Tamed Beast?... You probably don't understand what that means right?"
The little silver kitten nods in response. Though she can understand that becoming a tamed beast would be essentially be becoming their pet, she doesn't understand the difference from pet and Tamed Beast, so she would like to understand more before accepting this proposal.
"Alright, let me explain. To become a Tamed Beast requires the human and the Magical Beast to make a contract. There are two types of contracts. The first and most used contract is called the Human Superior contract. In this contract the Human is the master while the beast is the slave. Most Beast Tamers will battle a beast and suppress them until they are forced into this contract. In this contract the beast can not harm their master or go against their orders. They are fully at the will of their master, no matter what abuse they put them through."
The little kitten's small mouth couldn't help but gape and she began to furiously shake her head. She will never agree to this contract!
"Hahaha! Don't worry little lass, I'm not too fond of this type of contract either. We'll be offering you the second type of contract."
The little kitten calmed down a little, but she was still quite apprehensive after hearing how horrible the first contract could be.
"The second contract is called the equality contract! With this contract, the beast and human are on equal footing. In this contract, if you harm you partner, you will be damaged as well. This prevents the human from abusing the beast, and of course the other way around as well. To break this contract requires both parties agreement though. This is to prevent betrayals. The biggest drawback to this contract, and why it is less used, is that when one of the two of you die, the other party will suffer a great amount of damage. While it won't kill them, it will hurt them a great deal and you will require a long while to recover.
I should also say, my little sister is just four years old and is a very nice girl. She'll definitely treat you well. So... Will you agree to become her Tamed Beast?"
The little kitten went into deep thought. Seeing this, the teen could only sigh. It was a life deciding choice, so of course it wouldn't be easy to decide. At this point the Uncle chose this time to put in a word.
"How about this lass. Why don't you follow us for now, we'll introduce you to my little niece and also have a person called Sir Jermine to have a look at you. With his help and the use of a Beast Communicator, we can have a proper conversation then. How about this?"
This deal was very tempting for the little kitten and she was quick to nod her head, to the glee of the duo.
"Good, then I think it's time to introduce ourselves for that matter. I am the eldest son of the Wilderwolf family's main branch, Jonathan."
"And I am this little rats Uncle, brother to his father, Uncle Kil Wilderwolf. These people are our personal soldiers and servants. You'll get to know them personally as we travel together."
The little kitten nodded her understanding before pondering on the conversation and her newly gained knowledge.
'A world of magic... This is going to be interesting... And, to become a Tamed Beast. While it takes away my freedom, it would be a lot safer and my master would just be a young girl... (sigh)... Its all too much, I'll need to ponder on this. Let's meet this young mistress of the Wilderwolf family first, I'll decide on this matter then!...'
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