It’s been a week since Otto gave his announcement and none of Teival’s classmates had succeeded in capturing the Zapada Leopard. One thing I feel I should note, however, is the significant lack of captured crystal beasts being brought into Base Camp. I mean, sure there are still about two other people catching one here and there, but their catch rates are reduced from how I recalled before.

 

As for Teival and Armin, they completely ignored the allure of catching the Zapada Leopard, and instead continued to put all their efforts into acquiring the regular crystal beasts. I believe Teival’s words when discussing future options with Armin were:

 

“There’s no point going after something with such a low chance of encountering, with an even lower success rate of capturing. Besides, only one of us would benefit if we ever managed to catch it…which defeats the point of us working together.”

 

Although I countered his argument by saying Armin could allow Teival to catch it as a repayment for saving Felicity – the Feuer Salamander – my master ignored me without even giving a response, or acknowledgement of my case…as often happened. So, after having already determined our next course of action to be the same as our previous one, my master led us to a new location on the mountain – with the hopes of not exhausting the local population of wildlife. As such, we trekked through the mountain paths with the intention of spending a few nights out of Base Camp.

 

+++

 

I have to say, scouring the land for signs of animal trails, as well as following said tracks towards our targets, proved to be exceptionally boring and time-consuming. I mean, I wasn’t allowed to yip, bark, whimper, or even run! Let alone Teival’s orders to remain close at all times and not mess about…It’s just, how am I supposed to keep myself mentally active and entertained if I can’t play with anything, or even hunt for food?! “I’m hungry! I can smell so many walking buffets around me! Why won’t you let me just grab a quick snack?! Also, why can’t you let a girl relieve herself away from prying eyes?! Master is a meanie! A meanie, I say!”

 

With my internal tirade somewhat soothing my irascible self, I was finally called to action when some Felsen Rabbits exited a nearby warren and entered our web of surveillance. “A chance!” After digging a large pit for them all before entombing them, I quickly bounded over to their burrow and did my business. “Ahh, I feel so refreshed. Ooh, some worms!” Having found a moving morsel, I glanced back at Teival to see if he needed me yet before nomming on the worms. Of course, they had been discovered a reasonable distance away from my bodily waste.

 

“Kia, open the pit!”

 

“Coming!”

 

+++

 

It was the third week of our trial when our little group of four crossed paths with a wandering pack of crystal wolves. Not to be mistaken for the variant from the plains near Penfallow, these ones were half their size and wore thick white fur coats with a blue tint. In terms of numbers, they were also lower than those at the village, which put my mind at ease over thoughts of needing to protect my master from them.

 

They had unfortunately surrounded us without us realising, earning a warning growl from me as my hackles raised up to increase my size – albeit not that massively. I saw Teival pull out his crystal dagger he often kept sheathed on his thigh, while Armin seemed to have a crystal device that had a hole on the end pointing at the wolves. We all stood still as none of us wanted to be the first to provoke a fight between the groups.

 

Eventually, our foes charged toward us in unison with their sharp teeth bared and their blue claws shining in the moonlight. Yes, we had been unwise in choosing to continue tracking a herd of crystal deer through the trees into the night…we shall be more careful in the future. Anyway, Armin fired a ball of fire from his device that hit a crystal wolf square in the face, followed by a pained whimper. The light produced from the fireball illuminated the dark forest, revealing many starving eyes filled with malicious intent speeding ever closer to us.

 

“KIA, DIG AROUND US!”

 

At my master’s instruction, I constructed a trench around our immediate vicinity, causing all the wolves to fall into it. I continued to dig deep into the land until Teival called me to stop. With the crystal wolves a fair few metres below us, I heard Armin order Felicity to paralyse them all. As such, within a few minutes, the trench had become a moat of poisonous liquid spat out by the Feuer Salamander.

 

Peering over the edge, I could see the crystal wolves slowly become more and more rigid as their muscles torpefied under the paralytic effects of the poison. Once the final few crystal wolves had ceased moving, Teival told me entomb and raise them up so he and Armin could place the crystal net devices on them. Going along absentmindedly, as I usually did, I glanced around in boredom only to discover two fairly young-looking crystal wolves – most likely cubs.

 

“Hmm?” Observing them for a few moments, I noticed they looked frightened and protective of one another. I’m not entirely sure why, but the sight of them reminded me of the night I had been captured with my siblings. Of how humans had come out of nowhere and had their crystal beasts attack my parents. How sibling No.3 strangled himself in a panic while inside the crystal net. How my parents had most likely died.

 

I turned to examine the crystal wolf hit by the fireball, only to see it wasn’t breathing and its eyes were beginning to cloud over. “Ah…I’m doing the same thing…” Drooping my ears and still-not-fluffy tail, I padded over to Teival who was placing another crystal net on a paralysed crystal wolf. Reaching his crouched side, I placed a paw on his arm and stared at him. “Teival, let them go. They were probably only defending their territory.”

 

“Hmm? What is it, Kia?” My master asked while pausing in his actions to look at me with curiosity.

 

Knowing I had his attention, I looked at the youngest members of the pack and began whimpering at their situation. Turning back to gaze into Teival’s eyes, I saw confusion and uncertainty.

 

“Are you wanting me to keep one for my next contract?”

 

“No!” I shook my head, vehemently, in the hopes I was getting my intentions across, however Armin decided to speak up at that point – distracting my master from our conversation.

 

“Hey, Teival! If you don’t hurry up, I’ll end up catching them all!”

 

I was then gently pushed aside as my master resumed his actions a little faster than before. Feeling depressed over my unsuccessful attempt at convincing Teival to release them, I stalked towards Felicity and slumped beside her. Sulking while waiting for the two boys to finish, I rested my head on my front paws and closed my eyes – soaking in the moonlight shining on me as I fell asleep.

 

+++

 

It was the final day of the trial and many things had occurred since Otto’s announcement. I suppose the first thing to mention is how most of our class had gone into open conflict with one another over possible Zapada Leopard tracks. When our little group had returned from our crystal wolf capture, we were met with the sight of three children covered in bandages, slings and black eyes.

 

Apparently, from my bout of eavesdropping around the Base Camp, the three of them refused to allow each other to traverse an animal trail that had signs of the rare crystal beast. Eventually, things had escalated to the point that they set their contracted partners against one another. The result: one crystal beast died, one was severely injured, while the other was injured but fine. Of course, Otto didn’t approve of the child who allowed the death of their crystal beast to happen, and so disqualified them for having lost the right to be called a Tamer.

 

Although I imagine this was a wake-up call to several of our classmates, for others it seemed to only provoke them to be even more aggressive with one another since the notion of knocking people out of the trial via their crystal beasts had been implanted in their minds by Otto. Of course, since that time our instructor seemed to take great effort in reminding everyone that the Zapada Leopard was still out there and would guarantee passing the trial. Due to this, I had determined Otto to be very evil and conniving!

 

One might ask why I thought the muscled man was a Machiavellian, and my response would be because he was so clearly distracting the class from performing the original task of the trial: to capture as many crystal beasts with as good a quality as possible by the end of the month. By constantly reminding the other children about the Zapada Leopard – and the reward upon successfully capturing it – he was almost ensuring that they would focus their attentions towards tracking it down, rather than capturing other crystal beasts. Thinking about the positive causes for him doing this, I could only venture a guess at it being an effort to weed out those who only thought of immediate gains rather than putting in the work to ensure stability.

 

With these thoughts in mind, I pondered over whether the other classes were given similar optional tasks for their trials. As I ruminated over such ideas, I wondered if Teival and Armin would end up ranking well due to them constantly capturing crystal beasts, instead of searching for an elusive target. My conclusion was that if my master and Armin had not fallen into the honeytrap, then inductees in the other classes would have also not fallen for it. As such, I hoped that our little group would end up in a good position overall.

 

Since it was the last day of the trial, Teival and Armin had decided to not leave Base Camp due to there being no point with there being barely any crystal beasts in the nearby area. So, with only an hour of the trial left, it came as a surprise to us all when the place came alive with applause and cheering. Curious about the origin of such a phenomenon, Teival and I vacated our tent and discovered a girl with almond skin and charcoal hair marching in with a proud smile on her face.

 

Peering around my master’s legs, I spotted the girl’s crystal beast – a Wasser Lynx – confidently padding beside her without a single injury. Observing for longer, I soon realised why there was such a huge commotion: there was a Zapada Leopard trapped inside several crystal nets being controlled by the girl’s device. After a few moments, Otto appeared with extreme energy as he ran towards the girl, grabbed her in his arms and twirled around while hugging her.

 

“Congratulations, Adelaide! You did it! I knew someone of your skill would be able to catch it! You pass with flying colours!”

 

I witnessed him throw the girl – Adelaide – into the air and catch her several times, before trotting closer with Teival and Armin to see the crystal beast. Examining it, I saw many grievous wounds along its body – staining its beautiful white fur with crimson. My ears managed to pick out the weak roar of pained anguish as it was hoisted in an uncomfortable position by the levitating crystal nets.

 

Observing the congenial and pleasant atmosphere of the humans, I couldn’t help but realise the discrepancy of mood when analysing the numerous captured crystal beasts in the Base Camp. I was once again reminded of the night I was captured, as remorse over my losses engulfed me. Moving close to my master, I buried my face into his thigh and pressed my ears firmly against my head in an effort to escape from this seeming nightmare.

 

As the never-ending cacophony of clapping hands resounded, my mind was filled with one wish: “Teival…I don’t want us capturing crystal beasts anymore…”