Moving through the village, I noticed several familiar children heading in the same direction we were – their crystal beasts in tow. Entering the large den I had been stored in upon arriving in this settlement, I realised that this place must be multi-functional depending on the needs of the villagers. I say this because inside the room that used to house our cages, there were now desks with the furniture humans sat on tucked beneath.

 

Pulling me out of my comfy cave of clothes, Teival placed me beside him on the ground then sat at the desk. Sitting upright, I sneaked a look at what the other children were doing and found them all to be pretty much mirroring my master’s actions. “Oh! There’s sibling No.1! Ah, I mean Mr Stripey, ahahaha!” Internally laughing at my sibling’s unfortunate name, I tried to get his attention by giving a short yap, only for Teival to pat my head and tell me to be quiet.

 

Eventually, the adult known as ‘Teacher’ came in – resulting in the room falling into a chilling silence. I wondered if it was a subconscious thing the adult was doing, since I recalled him using some kind of cold magic earlier, however I disengaged with that thought when I glanced at his stern face. “Ah…it’s more his presence than his magic…What even is magic…?” I lay down on my stomach, while waiting for something to happen – wondering what humans exactly did in a ‘school’.

 

“Seeing as how you’ve all had several days to acquaint yourselves with your contracted beasts, I think it’s as good a time as any to test out your bonds. We’ll head to the clearing and conduct some spars using your new partners. You better not disappoint me.”

 

All the children answered in the affirmative before rising from their seats and following ‘Teacher’ out of the room. Teival didn’t carry me this time, so I rapidly moved my little legs to keep up with him as we headed to where I vaguely remembered the clearing to be. Reaching the area, the adult male motioned for my master and the others to stand in a line before placing a pile of clear crystals in front of them.

 

“Pick up a crystal and inject some of your mana into it.”

 

I watched from the side as all the children scrambled to pick up a crystal before returning to their spots. Observing Teival, I felt his body thrum with energy as the clear crystal within his hand turned a light green. “Oh! It’s so pretty! Can I eat it? Does it taste nice?” I stood and stretched up my master’s leg, trying in vain to reach the crystal – only to be gently patted on the head and pushed back down.

 

“Your crystals should have changed colour. There are seven colour pairs. Your sparring partners will be those who match your crystal. Since there were thirteen of you, one of you will spar with me.”

 

An audible gulp resounded from the boy called Michael who – if I recalled – was the child who nearly got bitten by the Umbral Spider sling. Everyone looked in his direction to see his crystal matched the one in Teacher’s hand, leading those who were nearby to pat him on the back in condolence – I presumed. With them having been instructed on how to determine their partners, the line of children became disarrayed as they milled about searching for crystals pairing with theirs.

 

Amazingly enough, Teival’s sparring partner ended up being the girl who chose my sibling! I wagged my tail in happiness over getting to play with him so soon again – as I missed being in close proximity of his warmth. Saying that, the major thing I missed was his constant nuzzling and nibbling of my ear, “Ah, those were the days.” Searching around the rest of the group, it seemed that Dinara had ended up partnered with one of the girls who’d picked a Molnir Panther cub – couldn’t remember her name, though…or maybe I just didn’t bother listening initially?

 

I would have loved to have witnessed how everyone else had performed in their sparring matches, alas Teacher had determined that everyone had to spar in unison so it was not to be. With Teival and the girl separating from the other pairs to ensure there was enough space to spar, I found myself even less able to spy on the others. Anyway, I was still eager to interact with my sibling after all these days so quickly forgot about wanting to watch everyone else.

 

Standing opposite one another, Teival and I were on one end while the girl and Mr Stripey were at the other. We kind of stared at each other while waiting for Teacher to give the signal to begin. Upon hearing him clap his hands together, the girl ordered Mr Stripey to attack me at almost the exact same time Teival instructed me to attack my sibling:

 

“Attack Kia, Mr Stripey!” “Kia, attack your sibling.”

 

I didn’t need to be told twice to attack, since I’d been itching for some proper play-fighting since the day we left the ranch! Sure, we got to have a few rough-and-tumbles while in the cage on the way here, but it wasn’t the same! We couldn’t adopt the strategies we liked utilising since our manoeuvrability was quite restricted inside those bars…but I digress. I charged ahead at full throttle as I honed-in on my silly sibling.

 

My sibling broke my charge by shifting to the side at the last moment before kicking me in the back leg. “Ah! That’s cheating! Take my charge head-on!” Pouting internally at not getting to ram into my sibling from the front, I changed tactics and pivoted on my good leg before pouncing onto his back. Sibling No.1 didn’t dodge in time as I successfully landed on his back and dug my sharp claws into it.

 

Hearing my sibling whimper a little from the pain, I lessened the strength I was putting into my paws before nibbling at his neck. I was soon knocked off him when he rolled on the ground, before kicking me again and swiping at my beautiful face! Luckily, I rolled away, narrowly avoiding the scary fate of a scarred face. “How mean, sibling No.1! How dare you try to mar me!” I barked at him in protest before swiping at his own face.

 

We play-fought for a few minutes before I’d had enough. I went and tapped my paws on the ground to signal my yield when he had pinned me to the ground, and I went to nuzzle his face affectionately. However, he didn’t budge as he kept me pinned to the ground. A little confused as to why he wasn’t releasing me, I turned to Teival for an answer, only for him to give a new instruction:

 

“Don’t give up, Kia.”

 

Not wanting to disappoint my master, I somehow wriggled my way out of sibling No.1’s claws and kicked him in my retreat. He gave chase, only to result in me abruptly swivelling around and pouncing on him. However, he moved out of the way and kicked me straight in the stomach. “Ouch! That hurt, sibling No.1!” Moving around, I felt my stomach bleeding from where his claws had caught me.

 

I wanted us to stop, since the play-fight wasn’t fun anymore but whenever I intended on doing so, I was assaulted by both a headache and a claw swipe from sibling No.1. It eventually got to the point where I had run out of energy to run fast, and so got a big gash across my eye that stung tremendously. However, my sibling didn’t relent in his attacks and managed to pin me onto my back with my throat exposed.

 

Sibling No.1 bit down on my neck, resulting in my pitiful whimpering from the pain. “Sibling No.1, please stop! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!” Feeling a little nauseous while being incapacitated, I finally heard Teival say:

 

“That’s enough. The match is over.”

 

I breathed a sigh of relief, since his words somehow made my nausea cease, however…sibling No.1 continued. Due to being pinned in place, I had a good view of the girl who was sibling No.1’s tamer. She just smiled at Teival before smiling at me and my sibling. I whimpered from the pain as I felt my sibling’s claws begin digging into my stomach – making it bleed even more than earlier.

 

“Hey! I said that’s enough!”

 

I saw Teival begin storming over to the girl with a dour expression as he asked her to rescind her orders. However, once he was within a few steps of her, she suddenly gave a piercing scream:

 

“Kyaaa! Don’t hurt me! I didn’t mean to make you lose! I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me!”

 

I watched as she crouched down and covered her head defensively, while the other children all stopped what they were doing and looked over. I heard Teacher ask what was going on, from a distance, before making his way over to see what the problem was. I noticed how Teival didn’t seem to notice everyone else as he grabbed the girl’s arm and begged her to tell my sibling to stop since – by this point - my consciousness was beginning to fade.

 

Although I was losing strength, my perfect ears still caught the girl mutter in an undertone to stop attacking me. Feeling the release of sibling No.1’s grip on my throat, I kicked him away from me for being mean and hurting me so much. Just as I was about to bite his ear in revenge, I felt my body get grabbed from my neck before my vision rushed upwards.

 

“What in the Neveah’s name are you doing, Teival?!” I heard Teacher say from behind me – who was supposedly the one who grabbed hold of me. “Can’t you see the fight is already over? Do you have to stoop so low as to assault a poor girl?”

 

“…”

 

I watched on as my master carefully let go of the girl’s arm and despondently turned to stare at Teacher. My neck hurt as I felt Teacher’s grip tighten before I became weightless as my vision spun. After regaining clarity, I realised I had been thrown by Teacher and caught by Teival.

 

“Don’t come back to my classes until you’ve sorted out your aggression!”

 

Teival gently hugged me as he silently left the clearing, though I sensed the anger, frustration and sadness over being misunderstood come off him in waves. Still feeling weak from blood loss, I attempted to nuzzle his chest as I pondered over how my sibling was not my sibling anymore. Instead, he was Mr Stripey – an aardwolf pup who refused to acknowledge his family. As for how these humans seemed to treat my master…well, I guess we were similar in having been abandoned by our kin.

 

As I lost consciousness, I vowed to myself that I would get stronger, so we couldn’t be bullied as we were today. “Just you wait, Mr Stripey. I’ll make you wish you’d never made me bleed.”