“I get it! I shouldn’t have done it, get off my back...” Derb was being held down by his teacher, who was shouting every profanity he could think of. Gerald was sweating. His student was going through shock, he barely seemed phased by the fact that his arm was mutilated. Luckily his teacher managed to break through the barrier to separate the hand from the wolf’s mouth. A quick sleep spell and the wolf fell to the ground, unconscious. He did the same to the boy, not wanting him to hurt himself in the process. The light entered his student’s body, slowly mending his hand at a barely noticeable pace. This was going to be a long night…

He picked up Derb’s body and stepped out of the ritual. “Let this cage hold, let them know their ways.” A quick spell, but effective nonetheless. The barrier surrounding the ritual broke, turning from a dome into a white square. Chains were protruding from various angles, holding the wolf down. Sighing at how badly everything went, he walked back home. This boy really had some luck, didn’t he…

The damn wolf would only get more and more independent, Derb wasn’t there to show him his place after all. He opened the door, careful not to let up on the healing. Thankfully he didn’t seem to be losing blood anymore. Healing was always more expensive when it came to restoring it. He set the boy in the chair and began the healing process. He scraped parts away that seemed too mutilated to be of any use. He even removed an entire finger in the process. It was too mangled and would just come out deformed if not started anew.

He focused on certain parts first, namely the bones and nerves. Anything wrong with those and he’d have to remove flesh once more to heal them properly. He never expected such a gruesome scene to come from this… though he blamed the kid for his obvious idiocy. He knew the kid was thinking that he could become friends with the demon. What a dumb idea, he had no idea how cruel those monsters could be. He knew firsthand the love they had for battle, the lack of remorse they held for their fallen brethren… He shook his head clean of thoughts. He had to focus on the boy’s arm, bones weren’t an easy thing to regrow.

__

Derb opened his eyes to greet the day… he felt sluggish, more than he had in a while. He tried to pick himself up, only to be filled with a terrible burning pain coming from his left hand. The pain woke him up, reminding him of what happened before he fell unconscious. He managed to get up, ignoring the pain. What the hell happened? The book said they wouldn’t follow orders, but to go for the kill like that? He remembered the calm face of the wolf, moments before it snapped at him… he could feel his heart quicken at the memory.

“Damn, that really happened huh…” He didn’t remember how his hand looked like from the attack, he probably didn’t even get the chance to see it. He flexed his hand, ignoring the signals telling him not to. After a successful (and extremely painful) clench of his fist, he wiped the tears from his eyes and went towards the door.

He found his teacher and the two brats sitting on the table, eating a buffet of food. The table was filled with meat, cheese, and fruits. Loaves of bread too. It was at this moment where derb realized how painfully hungry he was… he ran to sit beside them, grabbing both a loaf and meat with one hand, ripping into them like an animal. “What’s the occasion? Someone’s birthday?” He was wondering about it, they didn’t usually eat together. They usually just got some food whenever the moment called for it, or in his case, whenever Tiffany was feeling like a cook.

There was a silence, the only thing coming from the table was the chewing and choking down of Derb himself. What was up with that? “Hey uh… Tiff? Did something happen?” he turned to her, why act so weird? She looked away nervously, as if she didn’t know how to respond. what was up with them? Eventually, his teacher spoke up… “Boy… do you feel ok?” What kinda question was that? “Of course I am? What’s happening? Is this about yesterday? I just got bit, I didn’t even know how it looked like, I passed out before I could see it. Gerald had a face that wouldn’t be that uncommon in a funeral. “You… I’m talking about your body, have you not noticed yet?” Derb looked towards his hands… he didn’t want to notice it, he really didn’t.

“I… yeah, I get it, what happened.” Derb was quiet, Tiffany looked down into her food, even Hannah looked distraught. Derb looked terrible, skinnier, and malnourished. His right hand looked worse, it was completely pale, reminiscent of Derb’s skin from before he came here. It was gangly and looked older, wrinklier. His fingernails were grey, as if they had no blood circulating towards them. The worst part was the scars, rippling up towards his elbow. It looked like a hand latched itself into his forearm and began chewing it out.

He let it lie limply by his side, touching things with it didn’t hurt, only moving it did. His teacher looked distraught at the meekness of the usually boisterous boy. “I… had to heal it, it was barely recognizable as your hand before this.” He watched carefully for the boy’s reactions, there was none, except for some noticeable twitching of his new hand.

“It will look better after a few weeks, although getting used to its… new size will take a little longer.” The boy perked up at this, “I won’t be looking like an old man?” The old man smiled, “It’ll regain its youth and color back in a few days, it just needs time to work.” Derb beamed at the good news, “and the scars? I look like a peeled banana...” The old man’s smile remained, even with the bad news. ”They don’t look too bad, I suggest you get used to them, those aren’t leaving.” he looked at his scars, reaching up and wrapping his arms all the way to his elbow. It was… glaring, but not more so than the hand itself. He could deal with the scars, as long as his arm wouldn’t like it was 70 years old for long.

“You’re taking this rather well, people usually don’t react to their first sight of gore.” The teacher eyed the boy’s relief. Maybe he just didn’t realize how bad the situation was? He did say he had no memories of his hand in that state.

“Then how do you feel about confronting the mount again? We still need to tame it before anything else. I doubt you’d be able to swing the sword today.” Derb flinched. “What? Go near that thing again? Why? Wait, it's not dead?”

Derb felt the fear creep up his spine, thinking about going near that thing again made his instincts go haywire, what was Gerald thinking? Gerald shook his head. “Don’t say that, that was your own fault for nearing an improperly trained mount.” Derb scoffed, “Untrained, I thought that meant it’d ignore me, not eat me up. Why is Connor so well trained?”

His imp never gave him trouble, only the occasional sass. He was well taught too, for some reason. He could clean, carry things, and follow ambiguous orders. Gerald patiently taught his student, this was a bad time to get angry. “That was a perfect contract from the void. He obeys you because to do otherwise would cause him to return to the void. This was different.”

He put an extra loaf of bread and cheese on Derb’s plate, ordering him to eat more. “The mount was made against his will, using materials it didn’t want. It doesn’t want to leave this world. However, it is much less resistant to the idea than your imp, who came here in its ideal body.” Besides, your view of demons usually being docile is unique. Most people would consider demons to be a constant evil.

Gerald got up from his seat, patting down his robes. “Come, we need to be quick or it’d just take longer to tame the thing.” He walked out of the house with a meek Derb, who wasn’t ready to meet the beast at all. They walked up to where it was, still asleep and caged in a barrier. “Whoah, is this like the one you put around town?” Derb saw how it shined, chains stabbing ethereally into the wolf. “Not even close, this was one is nothing compared to a domain. Much less expensive too.”

They reached the barrier, and Derb’s heart was beating wildly at the thought of having to interact with the wolf again. His teacher noticed Derb hiding behind him and hit him. “Stop being a coward, command the beast with your mana, don’t use words. You were linked the moment he was created, we have to strengthen that bond.” Derb looked at the wolf lying down in the grass, sleeping peacefully. It would almost be cute if it wasn’t the size of a horse.

Derb closed his eyes, looking for the connection inside him. Inside him, he found two souls. One dark and small, another large, grey, and vicious. He could guess which was who’s. He brought mana into the soul, causing it to flay and wail. Instantly the animal awoke, shocking derb to open his eyes.

It growled fiercely, darting its eyes back and forth between the two people in front of it. Eyeing Derb particularly fiercely, he felt more scared than he ever had in his life. He darted behind his teacher, who wasn’t amused. “You won’t get anywhere acting like a child, continue ordering it, command it to bow.”

Derb felt the pull commanding his wolf, he did not need to close his eyes this time. He forced his mana into the tether, trying to overpower the wolf’s defenses. The wolf lunged forward, attacking the barrier. Its face was shoved into the ground, to Derb’s slight satisfaction. He kept pouring everything into the tether, no longer scared of the wolf. He had his teacher to thank for that.

Eventually, the wolf became docile, the soul no longer looking like a roaring fire. Still nowhere near as docile as Connor's dark soul, but tamed nonetheless. His teacher patted him on the back “Nice job, boy. He seems quieter, let me just...” With a wave of his hand, the barrier exploded. Derb screamed in fear, why the hell would he do that!?! He started running, only to be picked up by the collar of his clothes, like a kitten.

“Oh, stop being so dramatic, can’t you see he isn’t aggressive anymore?” Derb, still in flight or fight, glanced frantically at the wolf, just to see it casually licking its paw. It was still eyeing derb occasionally, but it was no longer a look of anger. It looked as if it was waiting for him to say something.

“Uh… come here?” The wolf nodded, which was creepy, and then started jogging towards the two. “Eek! Stay, stay!” Derb tried escaping from Gerald’s strong grasp to no avail. “Teacher…” Derb felt embarrassed, both by how he was being carried and his fear towards the wolf. “Isn’t that all? Do we have to do anything else?”

Derb was put down about as gently as a sack of manure. “Call the beast, it’s not a mount for nothing. We’ll be riding it today.” Derb was about to complain until he saw the serious look on his teacher’s face. He knew the beast was docile, so why was he still scared? “Come here boy… slowly.” The wolf meandered, gracefully, towards the two. Its head towered over him by about a foot. It was scary, very scary. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

“Down boy… let’s be friends, ok?”