…Of course the marble was still unresponsive. It seems our plucky young hero has resigned himself to the fate of being digested by a cat.

Ah there you are Gary!

Someone ought to have you court martialed for dereliction of duty!

What's that? Ah, I see you're in immense pain.

Gary has just returned to his...marble at the most inopportune time. At the moment he was in the stomach of a cat. He had been in the stomach of this cat for a few years. It was quite a sturdy marble. The cat had found the marble one day, and thought it smelled nice, and ate it. In between all the screaming it seems Gary has come to the conclusion that he must engage the cat in soul combat.

Both souls appeared in the cat's sea of consciousness, a great plain.The cat's soul was in the form of a mighty lion. Hang on a minute. Didn't I say that all souls are tiny pathetic little marbles? Ah! I see my mistake only the newly created souls, and the souls of the weakest, and most worthless entities appeared as such.

Gary's tiny pathetic little marble conjured up a black sword on its right, and a pistol on its left. A soul pistol? Did it shoot little Garys?

"Alright cat, hand over the body and I'll make this quick" Gary's soul said pointing his sword-construct at the lion soul. The lion roared in defiance, and pounced at Gary. He floated backwards as the lion's mass barely missed him, and shot the lion in the eye. Naturally this wouldn't affect the lion's vision as souls didn't need eyes to see, but it did hurt it enough to be distracting. The lion swiped at Gary, but he deflected the paw with his sword, and then pierced it in the chest. The cat's lion soul shattered. Amazing! Gary's bested a cat in mortal combat! Congratulations Gary!

Lucy was worried. One moment her cat was bouncing off the walls enjoying the time of its life ruining the furniture. The next it just slumped over seemingly dead. Then it stood itself back up with a weird look in its eye, and went back into its bed. She was seriously hoping it wasn't sick, as she didn't have time to take it to the vet. The royal academy was having its admissions tests today, and she was doing some last minute cramming in order to score a few extra points on her written exam. Having a cat as a beast bond would already place her quite low in the rankings, but she wasn't privileged enough to have had prior training, or received some super beast for her birthday. The royal academy was her only real chance of becoming a wizard. She got back to studying, and hoped that the cat was at least healthy enough to participate in one bout.

The royal academy was the most prestigious institution in Calassar. Established by the Grand Emperor Eelwater after his reunification of the kingdom, and subsequent conquest of the whole realm. He had been an enlightened, just ruler for the last 120 years. His behavior had been erratic as of late, but overall the people's impression of him was bright. Gary had been gone a long time.

It was the dream of many youths to be selected to join the royal academy. Entrance into practically guaranteed success in life. As an orphaned tiefling Lucy Tucker felt that this was her only opportunity to achieve anything of note, and she was not about to lose it.

Gary was still getting used to his new body. He didn't really have anything against being a cat, but not having opposable thumbs would complicate things. At Least life as a cat was luxurious. He was just about to fall asleep on his new cat bed when Lucy picked him up.

"Oh my god. What in the hells is that?" Lucy exclaimed, referring to Gary's marble that was now on his forehead.

"Geri are you evolving or something? I thought you were a normal cat?" Lucy inquired.

"Meow" Gary responded. Unfortunately Geri, the cat, couldn't respond. Geri is dead, but Gary lives on!

"Shit! We're gonna be late!" Lucy yelled. She packed everything she needed, picked up Gary, and ran out the door.

The line to sign in for the entrance exams was long. The wait could be measured in days. Days Gary did not want to spend in line. Fortunately, he was a cat, and had promptly fallen asleep in Lucy's arms. Lucy signed herself in as a student hoping to be a beast tamer. She took her written exam, which it turns out she had over-prepared for. Now it was time for the practical exam. This exam was very simple. If a student was hoping to get into the academy they needed to bring their own beast bond, and have it participate in a bout with a low-level spirit wolf. If they passed they instantly were admitted to the A-class regardless of their written exam. A beast tamer that could control a beast more powerful than a spirit wolf on their first try could easily learn the necessary material. If the beast failed to best the spirit wolf then it would be graded on its performance, and then it would be determined based on their combined scores whether or not they would enter the academy let alone the a or b class. One could get in with written scores alone, but would only get into the B-class if they failed the bout. Lucy was hoping that with how easy the written exam was she would atleast get into the B-class.