The days go by, fast at first. In the beginning I get a few strange looks and not just because I'm new. Whatever that devil man did made the mark on my head glow faintly all the time, though I think it's slowly getting less over time.

Everything is still new, the clashes at the feeding, the forest underground, all the other swarmlings and demons, the devils, everything. It's a rush to explore every nook and cranny. There are small fish in the stream that are really, really fast, making it a challenge to spear them out of the water. The obstacle course has different tracks you can take to make it more difficult and longer and boulders are spread around for weight training. Hidden from view, away from the central clearing, various demons fight to prove who is dominant or just for enjoyment.

It escaped me when I first got here, it seemed like an idyllic paradise, but nowhere is empty of competition. The general brawl to get to the feeding zone is the visible part, but it continues well after and after dark as well.

It's on my fifth day when I get ambushed for the first time. As much as the swarm is a group, each and everyone has their place and position. As a new arrival I'm of interest, to be assisted if needed and to be tested. Facing me on my way back to the central clearing is an imp, much like me. The wings are too small to carry the body, but at least there are wings. He spreads them to look big and intimidate me. It works, but I know backing down now is the wrong move. Crouching lower I rest most of my weight on my rear limbs and keep my eyes on my opponent while raising my tail with its lethal end above me. It's a defensive stance, but I'm not backing off either. I hiss at him, telling him to attack if he dares.

The imp makes a move forward and I respond by moving backward. We face one another a bit longer before the swarmling turns away. He reaffirmed himself being stronger than me, but I did not turn tail and run either. Neither of us really wants to fight right now, so that's it. Rustling around me suggests there may have been some casual observers.

The days slowly become more routine. Waking up and eating, though I do notice not every creature eats every day, only the younger ones. After the eating some lazing about to digest properly. A few rounds on the training tracks and listening to some devils do their thing down here follows. Some of them are actually afraid to be here, which is amusing. After that it's whatever I feel like at that time. This includes practising moving around in water in the shallow and slow moving 'river' and just wandering around the caverns.

After close to two weeks I find myself in a quiet area. It's away from everything else and it would make a great place to hang out if I want to have no-one around me. It's a few trees standing a little separated from the rest but as I explore the little copse it's clear I'm not the only one who thought so. As I clamber around the branches there is movement in the corner of my eyes. Before there is time to react the serpent reaches me and bites down on my shoulder. We fall to the ground together and as it wraps itself around me I feel numerous little hooks settle in and puncture through my skin. controlling my muscles I resist the impulse to rip it off of me.

Even though my body wants to panic, part of me thinks my life isn't truly in danger. There are supposed to be no killings and I hold on to that thought to keep me calm. Besides, being hugged by Yellow Hair was worse. Taking just a moment to think, I realize the serpent isn't that much bigger than I am. In weight and strength we should be evenly matched and I'm not worried about poison fangs. Even as it starts to constrict me I calmly reach out with my claws and circle its body just below its head.

The serpent stops trying to crush me. After a moment it starts to unwind its body from around me and I loosen my grip somewhat, turning it to face me. We study one another, then it glances over my shoulder in a meaningful way. Following the hint I look behind me and see two more serpents, bigger than the one I'm holding. One is much flatter and wider and has dozens of spiky legs, like a centipede, which seems very similar to what the serpent I'm holding is going for. I carefully lower it to the ground, not taking my eyes off of the bigger ones and start to back off. The smaller one slithers away from me while I turn and run. I'm at least confident I'm faster than them. For further exploration I decide not to look into out of the way hidey holes, someone is probably already there.

Back on the way to the central clearing the slow leaking from the numerous tiny holes in my skin stops and I use my tongue to clean myself. The hardest part of getting injured is to not lick the wound. It doesn't matter if it's my own blood, it tastes good! Off in the distance a quiet scuffle is going on. In a way, this is paradise. Food, places to use up your energy, others to fight and even maybe get smarter, if there is time left. Waiting for me when I get back is the reason why it's not a paradise.

Harijia spots me before I spot her and is already heading in my direction. She is informative and supportive, if a bit more distant now. I've observed her workplace a few days. Most demons have to stay in the cells a few days before there is any result and she fetches them, feeds them and cleans up after them. The last time she needed me was unpleasant, so her approach fills me with apprehension.

Once she's close enough she motions with her arm. "Come with me."

With reluctance I start her way, formulating a question on the way. "How you sure?"

"How I'm sure it's safe for you again? Your new mark completely stopped glowing, that's how." She taps the back of her own head where her mark is in emphasis. "Now come with me. For you it's a matter of getting in and getting out, so lets get it over with."

With nothing left to argue about I follow obediently. It's easy for her to say it's just 'in and out', but I'm tensing up in fearful anticipation. What if it's the dungeon thing again? Coming face to face with that fairy is not something I want to do again. What if there are worse places? Occupied with my thoughts I barely notice my surroundings. Soon I'm in one of the cells. Not being as bewildered as the first time I take some time to study it. It's smoothed natural stone in all directions with a cell door on one end of the box made of some kind of metal. Only the underside of the door is fully closed, the rest is bars.

The door swings on hinges. I've known the word, but now I can see what they are. On the other side is a lock. I know it keeps the cell door closed, but not how. Along the bottom of the door and the bottom of the wall are the runes I noticed last time. Once again I watch as Harijia makes a small cut on her arm and a few drops of blood land on runes outside the cell which start to glow. The glow spreads along the bottom of the walls. Before they fully activate, I ask her a carefully prepared question. "My blood, work too?"

Caught by surprise she hesitates a moment before answering. "No."

As the white light and the crushing sensation slowly take me, I smile to myself. It was a lie and it was the truth.

Even before the whiteness returns to shapes and colors I know more or less where I am. A sensation in the back of my mind I had almost forgotten about is coming back. It's her, the woman with the yellow hair. Where the emptiness was before she broke my back I can now feel the buried anger again, together with a soft desire, a longing for something. It's not my imagination, I'm better at placing those emotions. Keeping them apart from my own is a bit easier too, to my great relief.

When I see normally again I'm in the same room as last time. As far as I can change nothing has changed in the room, but Yellow Hair looks different. Mostly her clothes and her hair. Her hair is now bound back in a compact bundle while her clothes are brown leather. Leather is treated animal skins, the same as some of the Talkers, the devils, were wearing. Behind her I notice another one in grey, like last time, but it's a different one. As I look at her a slight smell of fear start to spread from her. For a while I just stare at her, amazed just this gets such a reaction.

The moment is interrupted by Yellow Hair who sighs softly, but loud enough for me to hear, and I turn my attention to her. She is smiling, but I find her smile hard to place. It's not a threat or a display of dominance or anything else I'm familiar with and it will be put aside for future thinking. She taps on her left shoulder and kneels with her left hand put on the floor in front of her. "Climb up here, it's time to show you off and go training."

I use her arm and find the left shoulder of her clothes padded and a bit bigger, clearly made for something to sit. I'm a little annoyed since my claws still do nothing to anything attached to her. There is a distinct feeling on my claws which prevents them from ripping and tearing. I don't know what it is, but I can tell where it comes from. It's not something she does, it's something I do, somehow. This is something worth thinking about. I can already see several situations where not leaving claw marks would be a huge benefit, like making it harder for some damn fairy to find me.

"I swear you've gotten bigger and heavier in just a few days." I hear her say. Before giving me a chance to find a stable position she stands up and I need to grip on tight to not fall off. Letting out a soft hiss I turn to face the same direction and grip securely on to the padding. Sensing a bit of amusement from her I decide to get one thing over with and I poke the side of her head with a claw.

She looks at me and raises an eyebrow. "What?"

I've prepared for this, I have, so saying it comes a little easier. Here's hoping she'll understand. "Name?" I croak.

She shows me that weird smile again and I feel some of the anger from her going away.

"You want me to name you? Of course I'll do so! I've already thought of several good names!" She misunderstands enthusiastically. Then again, a name for me would be good too. The idea of getting one like this repulses me a bit for some reason.

First, to correct her misunderstanding, I poke her head again, almost hitting an eye. "No. Name, you!"

Her enthusiasm goes down a little, to my relief. "Oh. My name is Avebella des Monté Cardatin. For you it's probably easier to call me Ava." She looks at me expectantly. As I continue to just look back at her she frowns. "Say it."

I had been avoiding this on purpose. It's one thing to know the sounds in my head, but it's a totally different thing to try and make that sound. Most of the time I don't know where to start, the rest of it just don't work with my throat, mouth and lips. Lips don't seem important to me, their use mostly for speaking. It's probably something I have to think about in the future, if Harijia is any indication.

It takes some concentration which seems to amuse 'Ava'. Time to give it my best try. "A-a. A'a. Ahhha!"

From off to the side comes a an amused scent and a strange sound, a giggle. The woman in grey, who had been afraid of me, is now making fun of me! I turn in her direction and hiss, causing her to fall silent immediately. Gathering my thoughts I search for alternatives. "Arra, Asa?"

"You can call me Ara, if that's easier for you." She nods in satisfaction. "Now, your name! I think Deathbringer would be fantastic, or Razorclaw, or Galadrion!"

At the last one a gasp sounds from the woman in grey. "Mistress, the name of the familiar of the Great Champion for a demon, I-"

Ara interrupts her with a wave of her hand. "I was joking, Ine." She doesn't take her eyes off of me though.

As for me, I do not wish to take any of the names she suggests. It is not something rational. Something feels fundamentally wrong with being given a name. I will take a name, make a name and have it as my own. I can still use parts of her suggestion. It takes me a while of trying it out softly before daring to speak out loud. The 'ay' and 'z' sounds just impossible to make, so some change is required. "Gal-rah-sor."

"Galrahsor. It will have to do, but I'll call you Gal for short. Everyone says it's useless to argue names with a familiar. Ine, the door." Ara quickly grabs some items from the desk and I nearly lose my balance again. This will take some getting used to. Riding along on a swarmling is much more comfortable.

The woman Ine opens the door and Ara walks me out the door and into the corridor beyond while she addresses me. "As familiar, I'll summon you to train with you, to watch my back, for special events or to fight."

It's been too long, I already don't know any more which way the hall is where I first came to this world. The corridors and hallways all look similar to me, though there is clothing, I mean cloth, on them too. On one of the cloths I recognise a gigantic swarmling fighting something looking like metal men.

"Right now I'm going to see how well you do in a fight and plan how to improve you. It will also be good training for me." Ara continues, oblivious to how distracted I am. At a sound behind us I turn around on her shoulder. The woman Ine is following us at a distance. The movement doesn't interrupt Ara at all. "Maids are trained to follow without intruding. It will be good practice for you to find her wherever we are. Later you will learn to spot assassins."

This familiar thing is starting to sound less and less like something fun to do and very much like it will take a lot of effort. My discontent must have leaked over, because I can feel the low key anger which is always present in Ara become stronger.

"If you think that is hard, try living my life," she snaps at me. That doesn't make much sense to me, but I'll also leave it as something to think about some other time. The number of things I have to think about when I get back is growing, which makes me more disgruntled. The main thing I don't like about it is the amount of things I know without really knowing them.

The rest of the way she walks in silence while I look at anything that takes my fancy. It suits me fine.

Two men open a large double door as we come close and Ara finally brings me outside. The yellow sun is not quite warm enough, but I will settle for even these weak but real rays. I feel a fresh breeze caress my skin for the first time in weeks. Just this once I will consider if I'd prefer to stay here in this world, rather than in the unnatural underground cavern forest. Another thing to think about later, there are more pressing matters demanding my attention.