Although I am in a more confined space than my original home, I must say that the service here is top notch! Food every few hours, grooming every few days, I even get toys to play with! My neighbours are so-so, what with them being sibling No.1 and sibling No.4 being directly opposite me, however sibling No.5 is right next to my mini-den, so I guess it’s not all that bad. As for the people who have filled the role of our parents since arriving here…they’re fantastic!

Sam visits every now and then and gives me many tasty treats that cause me to present an indecent visage due to the slobbery saliva that automatically oozes out whenever I smell them. I can’t help it, those treats are that delicious! If I had to rate this place, I would give it a full five out of five. “Rate? What does rating even mean? Something to allow those in charge to know how well, or poorly they’re doing?” Shaking my head to clear my cluttered ruminations, I played with the rolling thing that released tasty treats whenever it moved.

I’d love to say everything was sunshine and daisies, since being sequestered here, however I fear my positive opinion of the place has become slightly diminished over time. This morning, sibling No.1 thought it would be a good idea to pounce on the person who brought his food. He then made a mad dash towards the open door and aroused anarchy among the humans running this place. Of course, I was well-behaved and just watched with disdain for my sibling’s foolishness – something which the humans seemed to share views on.

I’m not entirely sure what to call the devices they used, but I know they caused pain and terror among the non-family neighbours. Leonard often came by with this long, supple thing with heavy things attached to the ends. Whenever sibling No.1 caused problems, the gaudily dressed human would wave this odd device around in the air before directing it towards my sibling. A terrific clashing sound would then pierce my delicate ears as the pained snarls from sibling No.1 sounded from wherever he had escaped to.

Eventually, it reached the unfortunate point where sibling No.1 had his legs chained together as one of the other humans who milled about this place pressed a rod of some kind against him. I seem to recall that the rod emitted purple sparks from time to time – a little like that stuff that came out of my hands in that dream with the crystal cobra. Well, whenever sibling No.1 was subjected to this specific treatment, his body would shudder uncontrollably before falling limp.

My first time witnessing such a thing angered me as despair clouded my mind over losing a sibling…only to be both relieved and disappointed when he woke up a few minutes later. “Make up your mind! Don’t go to sleep and then disappear like sibling No.2!” I sighed in vexation at my sibling’s antics, before going back to playing with the rolling toy. “It’s so fun!” After expending an excessive amount of energy getting the treats to fall out, I curled into a fluffy ball and fell asleep.

+++

I appeared to be in that little girl’s body again, as the height was the same as my last dream and Raoul was standing beside me. I seemed to be sitting cross-legged inside a circle of glowing symbols within a dark, dimly-lit den. I say den but the materials used in the construction of the area were not of the land, but of stone and wood.

Curious about what I was doing in this circle, I observed my surroundings – as best I could – through the girl’s eyes. I say this, however it soon became apparent that the girl was intensely focusing her vision on several blue and red crystals. My ears picked up the strange mutterings I was making under my breath that seemed vaguely familiar to me but wasn’t sure why.

Eventually, I picked up a not-claw and sliced my hands as my chanting escalated into a song. With the increase in volume and intensity of my chanting, the blood dripping out of my hands glowed dimly before floating into the air. Dumbstruck by what I was witnessing through this girl’s eyes, I continued to be gobsmacked as this scene played out. The blue and red crystals crumbled into disintegrated piles of dust before also glowing and floating into the air.

“Good, ??????, keep going! You’ve nearly finished!” Raoul chimed in with an encouraging cheer.

I felt myself nod towards him as I changed up my chanting to become more melodious – evoking a sense of harmony. The surrounding atmosphere seemed to become supercharged with energy as the crystal dust melded with the blood drops, merging into a cohesive ball. After a few seconds, the ball bedazzled my eyes with a white flash of blinding intensity before dimming to a dull glow.

I sang one final closing line of a spell I’d clearly been practising for a long time before holding my hands out towards the floating item and breathing heavily in fatigue. The mixed materials had formed into a blue and red crystal with tinges of crimson speckling the veins within. It slowly descended before landing in my still-bleeding palms.

Raoul clapped his hands in applause as he crossed the boundary of the circle, then carefully cradling me in his arms and stroking my head. “You did well, little miss. Your bonding crystal looks faultless. I’m sure that Bastien will submit to the contract without difficulty.”

“I hope so, Raoul…I hope so…”

I then felt my lids grow heavy as I rested my weary head on Raoul’s shoulder while staring at the pretty bonding crystal I’d crafted.

+++

I woke up with another headache and a multitudinous amount of questions over why I kept having these dreams and why they felt so familiar to me. After a few minutes of trying to establish a logical reason for my abnormal experiences, I soon tucked my musings away as Sam had arrived with a new toy. “Ooh! This is so nice to chew on!” I thought as my jaw was locked on some kind of hard – yet supple – material connected to a pole on the wall.