Three Months After Transformation?

The nights after that first inspection was a special kind of hell to Mark. Each time his neighbours spoke his name he would be hit by a new shaft of pain. As much as he tried to grit his teeth and bear with it no one enjoyed pain. The worst part of the situation was the contrast it made with the pleasure he felt when his handlers called him Pet. Every time they spoke his name or ordered him to do something Mark found himself balancing on a knife's edge between heaven and hell. The problem was that with the passage of time it was becoming harder for Mark to distinguish one from the other. The lines blurred together. On the one hand, if he fought them he would retain his sense of self but he would be in a constant state of pain. On the other hand, if Mark cooperated he wouldn't be hurt instead, he would actually feel good.

The familiars only had the simplest of ways to tell time, the passage of day and night and the turn of the seasons. Winter had well and truly set into the mountains now. Mark understood now what Drew had been talking about when he mentioned the cold made reptiles more tractable and docile. He had never been so cold in his life, and yet Mark found that he wasn't getting frostbite or anything like that. He was just drowsy, moving slowly about his cage. Mark had actually caught himself looking forward to training or being groomed. If for no other reason then those buildings were heated. He had finished shedding his human skin, leaving his tender new hide exposed to the biting cold of the mountainous winter.

Over the passage of time, Mark and Jake had both seen changes made to their routines. Jake was being fed mostly seafood rather than red meat. In Mark's case, they had switched out his water tank. The new tank was basically the same as the old one, only the position of the drip was changed coming out from the bottom of the tank, much like a baby bottle. The problem was that the tank had been raised so that it was only just within reach. It forced Mark to stretch as tall as possible without actually standing. Each week they would raise it just a little bit higher.

Part of Mark recognized the logic behind some of their actions. They didn't restrict human speech because the more he used his voice the quicker it would change. Similar logic could be applied to their other actions. His arms changed into forelegs the more he used them, so he wasn't permitted to walk like a human. The change with his water tank was probably so that he would stretch his lengthening spine. His tail hadn't grown by much, but his torso was quite a bit longer. Truthfully Mark had grown all over and was now eating roughly three times as much as a typical boy his age would.

The monotony of his routine and the passage of time was a weapon in and of itself that served to grind down Mark's will to fight.

***

Mina

Mina yawned widely as she slumped drowsily into her usual seat between Sasha and Talin. With the preparations for the Winter Solstice underway, she hadn't been getting nearly enough sleep. As the grand-daughter of Retreat Head Elaine, she was expected to attend the endless round of parties that the high ranking members of the retreat hosted. Alongside homework, her classes, and caring for Pet her days were jampacked from morning to night.

The classroom filled up rapidly as people hurried to get to their seats. In the front row, a second table had been added beside the Novices in charge of the Chimera. A second apex familiar had been identified a few weeks ago. This one had appeared among the rodents. It looked as though the Retreat's streak of bad luck had been well and truly broken. At precisely one-o-clock Madam Toreux entered the classroom, her high heels click-clacking on the hardwood floor. Her appearance silenced the chatter in the classroom. Mina stifled another yawn and sat up straight in her chair.

Madam Toreux observed the classroom with a critical eye. This late into the year the students were being pulled in a dozen different directions. Thankfully they were pretty much all passing her class, even the trouble makers had somehow managed to pull their grades up to acceptable levels. "Alright, this is your last class before your winter exams. I hope that you have all been studying hard. Today we will be discussing the selection process that we use to purchase our stock. Our first generations should know the process intimately, having gone through it themselves. Can any of you tell me the requirements we have for our stock? How about you Novice Finn?"

"Age?" Finn answered, startled at being called on by the teacher. Madam Toreux usually ignored those in the class with lower grades. "The Order only purchases children between the ages of ten to thirteen. I was thirteen when I was recruited."

Toreux gave Finn a proud smile that caused goosebumps to run up the older boys' arms. "That would be correct Mr. Tarker. But do any of you know the reason we only purchase stock at that age? Why not younger, before they have properly formed their sense of self?"

"It's because of the failure rate." Cerra snorted in derision from her seat in the front row.

"Exactly correct. We see a much higher failure rate among children below the age of ten if they consume the awakening potion. What we want is for familiars to form a balance between their pre-existing mind and their new animalistic instincts. Children below the age of ten, however, show an overwhelming propensity to have their pre-existing mind swallowed by the beast within. After which they display tendencies akin to a rabid animal and have to be put down. Then why not older, why don't we transform adults?"

A boy in the third row said. "It's awkward. Adults already have careers, spouses, and children of their own. They aren't going to just leave all that behind on the off chance they can pass through training that will easily take a decade or more."

"You're half right." Toreux waved her index finger in admonishment. "The ruse used for children wouldn't work on adults, that much is true. But there is a more important reason we don't transform adults. That reason is time. If an adult takes the awakening potion it will take them much longer to complete the transition into a magical beast. Even with the animus potion hastening the process we're talking about a length of twenty years or more. It's because they are too old, their bodies have long since stopped growing. This is why we work with adolescents, young, their bodies still maturing, they take more easily to the transformation. In effect, their bodies treat it as a different form of puberty. It's just that the end result has been switched with that of an animal."

"A greater reason we place such importance on the age of our stock is due to the end result of the transformation into a magical creature. Their physical age when they were human is reflected in their age once they complete the transition. For example, if a six-year-old boy were to transform into a magical beast, say a canine, he would become a puppy. An adult would become a mature specimen and while this might be desirable they would be middle-aged by the time the transition ended. Thus wasting a good two-thirds of their new life span. A pre-teen or teenager would become a magical animal just passed what we refer to as the cub stage. What other requirements do we look for among our stock?"

"Intelligence. At the very least they can't be stupid." A girl called out from the back of the room. "A dumb familiar is of poor quality. Naturally, they are worth less than an intelligent familiar."

Sasha raised her hand, waving it eagerly. "Magical ability. The awakening potion cannot create something from nothing. All familiars have latent magical abilities. A decent portion of those recruited manifests their magic throughout the three year grace period given to the stock. At which point they are brought into the fold and taught like any other novice."

The teacher nodded, happy to see the first gens participating in the discussion. "That was a very good explanation Sasha, and it brings up yet another question. Why do we have that three year grace period? Why teach them at all? Why not transform them on the very first day of their arrival?"

"It's like Sasha said. It's to weed out those who have the potential to become mages from those whose magic is latent." Graydon spoke up.

Mina lifted her hand. "It's also to educate them. The vast majority of stock is purchased from impoverished families in the borderlands. Most of them have wildly varying degrees of knowledge. The three year grace period is used to standardize their education levels. We look for intelligence in our stock, and that intelligence needs to be encouraged not stifled."

Lux turned around and glared competitively at Mina. "Those three years are also used to engrain the hierarchy of the Order into their subconscious. Grandmasters are in charge of everyone, masters order around the journeymen, and so on until you reach the stock who are taught to obey anyone in uniform regardless of rank. Even after the stock's rose-coloured glasses are ripped away that instinct to obey has already been instilled into their sub-conscious."

"Good answers all of you." Toreux clapped her hands, smiling. "But we don't get all of our stock from among the recruits. We do breed the apex familiars but none of their offspring are old enough for sale. What other ways do we obtain familiar stock?"

The class fell silent most of them fidgeting in their seats. They all knew the answer but it was an uncomfortable truth, to say the least. Madam Toreux waited patiently, unsurprised that no one wanted to answer the question, she still gave them the chance. "The answer is punishment. If a member of the Order commits a severe crime, say murder, rather then being imprisoned or exiled or even executed, they are force-fed the awakening potion instead. It is the fate of a criminal to become a beast of burden, in that way they can continue to contribute to our society." She finished the lecture, leaving those ominous words hanging in the air for the children to contemplate.