It had been a few days since I was betrayed by Dinara and ended up being looked after by Teival. Well, I say looked after but it was more being in an exhibit with him constantly observing me while reading from that object before using a small utensil to create black symbols on something white. Oh, he also fed me when I was hungry, so I suppose he has that going for him – although I was a little afraid to eat as ravenously before due to his ‘pig’ comment. “I swear I’m not fat!”

With the fifth day since arriving in this village approaching, I found myself being transported in my cage by some adults. I had no idea as to why they were moving me from Teival’s decrepit room, however once a large clearing came into view, I somewhat had the vague sense of déjà vu. The sense being vague due to the scene being both familiar, yet different at the same time.

Once my cage was set down beside sibling No.1’s, I noticed the group of children standing in a line – dressed in much fancier attire compared with their usual outfits. It was then that it dawned on me, these children were going to perform their contract ceremonies with us. A wave of excitement washed over me as I recalled that euphoric sensation I experienced in my most recent dream. “Ah, I liked that feeling! Will that happen again today?” I wagged my tail as I delved into my own, blissful thoughts.

While I was in my reverie of pleasant memories, the children repositioned themselves so they were standing in the same order they’d picked their beasts. When I saw the white-haired adult enter the centre of the clearing, I started grooming myself as I didn’t really care about what he would be saying. “If it wasn’t important for not-me in the dream, then it can’t be important for me in reality!” It wasn’t at all because I found his tone of voice terribly boring. No, it was more because I wanted to look extra pretty for when it was my turn in the limelight!

Precluding my time to shine, however, was the group of children awaiting their own turns before mine and Teival’s. Internally pouting at the fourteen little humans, I chose to behave myself as I waited patiently for them to finish. Of course, the white-haired adult had to finish meandering with his garbling nonsense, first. I swear he was taking twice as long as the adult female in my dream did!

When the adult finally ceased his monologue, he called the child at the front of the queue who then carefully walked towards the centre of the symbol-circle. A few of the other adults then carried a cage over before taking the beast inside out and chaining it to a pole inside the same circle. I wasn’t too interested in how this ceremony would proceed, since I’d already seen it all in my dream – like how the child put his crystal into the mouth of his beast. However, I soon picked up on several differences that intrigued me.

The first difference, was the actions performed during the ritual: the child started clapping his hands together in a circular motion before cupping them and bringing them to his mouth. He then began humming through them – creating an odd sound that I’d never experienced before. Stomping his feet in a steady rhythm, he then marched around the beast while humming into his cupped hands. If my face had been able to portray a vast quantity of expressions, then I imagine my current one would have been of befuddlement and amusement at the same time since the boy’s figure painted a humorous scene.

The second difference was the layout of the surroundings. By this, I mean the ceremony wasn’t on a raised piece of land with the onlookers in a circle; instead, they were simply in a line on one end. As for the symbol-circle, the colours and shapes of the symbols seemed less elegant and sophisticated compared with the one in my dream. I began to wonder if this was a societal difference, or simply a regional one, but I digress.

I have to say that the third difference that struck me was their outfits and – upon a more in-depth analysis – their faces. They weren’t wearing the dark blue robes and silver sash like the children in my dream. Their attire was actually a lot simpler – if a bit more formal than their usual outfits: the boys wore dark brown leg clothing and a white upper clothing with a weird tail made of cloth tied around their necks; the girls wore white flowing dresses with a mish-mash of flowers covering them. As for their faces, the girls had brown symbols under their eyes and red stuff on their lips. “Is it blood?” The boys had white symbols under their eyes and nothing on their lips. I had wondered why the boys didn’t have the red stuff on their lips too but couldn’t fathom why.

With these inconsistencies, when compared with my dream, I found myself drawn in as my piqued interest demanded I observe until the end. So, with over an hour of watching several children attempting to establish their first crystal beast contracts – with some failing miserably and breaking down into tears – it eventually approached the time for Dinara to perform her ceremony. I decided I would scrutinise over every little detail for this one, since I had a bone to pick with this traitor!

Wagging my tail as I anxiously awaited the not-so-pretty girl’s attempt – I have to admit that I may have been secretly wishing for her to fail like some of the others so she could ruin that pristine image! Ahem, I mean so I could revel in the traitor’s misfortune. No, that’s not right either…so I could see her suffer the consequences of not choosing me? Anyway, I saw her feed the Umbral Spider sling a pitch-black crystal before doing her own song and dance.

I’d go into detail about her ritual, however since she succeeded and even fell unconscious, I determined the recording of such a dud scene to be scrapped at my mental editing board. In other words, she did so well that her bond with the beast overwhelmed her to the point they lost mental acuity for the rest of the day. Some might think that a bad thing, however…the stronger the initial bond upon contract establishment, the more chance of your crystal beast evolving into something stronger over time. I mean, it’s common knowledge! “Why do I know this…?”

Beginning to switch off my attention for the rest of the children, I then recalled how that stupid girl chose my stupid sibling No.1 over me right after Dinara! Eager to see how my sibling would fare during all of this, he seemed surprisingly calm…until the dancing started. If I had to describe the anguish and mental distress I experienced while witnessing my sibling writhe around on the ground, I don’t know if I could hold back my tears enough to sound coherent. I suppose the one small positive from this was the name the girl gave him: Mr Stripey. I mean…I just…yeah, it’s a bad name, and I found it hilarious!

After some more gruelling minutes of cycling through the rest of the children, it was eventually Teival’s turn. “Ooh! Ooh! I’m looking forward to this! I’ll get to feel that nice sensation again!” I wagged my tail and barked at Teival in excitement, which earned a few laughs from the other children. I’d have loved to explain what Teival looked like but – even with the special clothes everyone was wearing – he still managed to defy common sense and wore that cloth thing over his outfit and head.

With the adults having carefully taken me out of the cage and chained me to the post, I lay on my stomach with no trepidation as I believed this ceremony would be fun. Teival inched towards me and dropped a grey-brown crystal onto the ground before me, then walked away. I tilted my head in uncertainty, since everyone else had taken the extra effort to feed the crystal to their beasts. However, I was not one to back down from a challenge! I confidently chomped on the crystal and coughed due to it catching in my throat. “How are you supposed to swallow something so huge?! How did sibli- Mr Stripey do it?!”

Hearing my spluttering, I vaguely sensed Teival turn around and return, before massaging my throat to ease the crystal down. Of course, my ears were prickling at the sounds of sardonic laughter from the other children, but I didn’t understand the joke – if there even was one. Teival then performed similar actions as everyone else before him – though his seemed to be more fluid and effortless. When his humming started, that’s when the magic started happening.

At first, I detected an odd energy entering through the ground into my petite paws. I thought to move away from that area, only to be hindered by the chain. Thinking it would be a brilliant idea to jump from paw to paw, I began performing my own little dance in order to avoid the foreign feeling. Once Teival began properly singing, my mind was no longer a safe space.

Tingling. My whole body felt an intensifying tingling that terrified me. If that was all, then I wouldn’t really have much to complain about, however it wasn’t. Voices in my head. So many Teivals. All of them in a clamorous cacophony of choral chants that were not in harmony with one another. I’m afraid my mind was a little…scuppered as I struggled to maintain coherent thought.

Just when I was starting to get accustomed to this disorienting dissonance, I was struck with yet another problematic situation: I could barely breathe. If I had to describe the sensation, imagine your lungs had been expelled of all air and then you were asked to exhale repeatedly. Of course, there were opportunities for inhalation, however it had to be less than half of what you exhaled. I’m not sure if I successfully described the sensation, however I guess the best way to put it would be it was as if there was no air to breathe in the first place but I digress.

If having difficulty intaking air wasn’t enough during this whole process, I then had to contend with the splitting headache that was like something was tearing my head in two. As Teival’s singing and dancing increased in tempo, so did my torture. I would love to know how people are able to survive having their bones shattered in unison after a great fall since I swear my body was experiencing something similar. Although it appeared my bones were not literally shattering into pieces, it certainly simulated the sensation of that.

With all of this agony, I couldn’t contain the cries of agony escaping my mouth as another wave of misery struck me down from my precipice of hope that it would end. As Teival stomped his feet on the ground, my heart thumped in tandem. When he hastened his movements, so did the barraging beats of my heart. At the sound of his claps, my heart reverberated in response – wildly rampaging within my chest as I suffered a most excruciating experience.

“I don’t like this. It hurts. Make it stop.” I weakly cried internally beneath the uproarious crowd of Teivals still singing and chanting in my head. My claws and teeth then felt like they were being ripped out of me, to being shoved back in, to being yanked out again. I wanted to run away from this but couldn’t even move due to some kind of invisible external force holding me down. “I’m scared. Mother, Father, save me!” I howled silently.

My body ascended into the air, which only further stoked my fire of fear as I realised I had nothing to hold on to while being vertically suspended. I wanted it to stop. I didn’t like this. I gazed at Teival and began begging with my eyes to make it end. Teival then raised his head and held out his hands towards me before shouting: “I name thee, Kia!”

All of a sudden, the pain ceased as my vision faded to black. As I slipped into unconsciousness, I remember thinking to myself: “Kia…that’s a nice name…” The sounds screeching inside stopped, resulting in complete silence as I pondered over what had happened. “That dream was a lie…There was only pain and anguish in this ceremony…Dreams…are not…reality…”

Nahrenne

Hi, Nahrenne here with a little note for you all:

We're at 25 chapters now and our little MC finally has a name and tamer!
\o/
I was wondering how everyone was finding the story so far, so I've added a poll allowing you to vote for which choice you best agree with. You'll have 3 days from when this was posted before it closes.

Another thing I wanted to say was if you haven't already done so, please add this story to your reading list - so you don't miss out on chapters - give feedback in the comments, and favourite the chapters you enjoyed.

With all of that out of the way, I hope you're all staying safe and enjoy the rest of your day/evening! Also, thank you for reading my story.

*huggles you all*

\(^o^)/

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