Anortha was wandering around the forest as usual when she spotted a pile of grey fur on the floor. She rushed over to it, and was relieved that it was still alive. Checking up on it, she learned that it was mostly just extreme fatigue, along with a bit of inflamed tendons from overexertion. She made sure to heal all the damage, and let it sleep on her lap. While gently petting it, she thought it was horrible that the lupo was being abused and overworked. Furthermore, this was not the first time it happened, and Anortha was worried for the lupo.

Hoping that history of abuse would be a good reason for her parents to allow her to adopt it, Anortha carried it home, only to be stopped by the gatekeepers again. She gently lowered the lupo on the ground and rushed home to her parents, only to be greeted by an empty house.

She forgot that they should be working during this time. Knowing that they would be mad if she were to bother them for something so trivial, she walked back to the sleeping lupo.

However, the lupo was no longer there anymore. She saw the small fresh footprints, making it clear that the lupo left already. With a sigh, she resumed her usual daily routine.

“Oh, Anortha? It’s rare of you to be home this early. Something happened?”

Fidgeting, Anortha said, “You know how a while ago, I asked about lupoy? Well I was out in the forest, there was a lupo child that was clearly abused. May I save it from its misery and adopt it?”

Frowning, her father said, “Animals will be animals, and while it may sound cruel, that’s just part of nature.”

“But it’s being abused!”

“Nature isn’t a very kind place. Look, every time you eat meat, some animal had to die for that. Even the lupo that you complain about being abused, they routinely hunt innocent deer and eat it. Besides, what you might think of abuse might simply be a rite of passage or a punishment for whatever it did.

Now, I won’t stop you from healing, feeding, or playing with it, but adopting is not allowed. I really do not want our house to be destroyed yet again.”

“But that’s a squirrel and this is a smart lupo. I’m sure it’ll know not to chew on everything in sight.”

“No means no. Besides, if you think about it, if you did adopt it, you are basically kidnapping, since I’m sure its parents still care for it.”

“So what if we know for sure it’s abandoned. Could I adopt it then?”

“We’ll talk about it If that ever happens, alright?”

“Alright.”

While Anortha stopped bringing it up to her parents, she still wasn’t satisfied, and vowed in her heart to help the poor animal.

*****

Initially, Anortha spent all her free time waiting for the lupo to show up, but very quickly realized that it always showed up early in the morning every other day, sitting or lying on a stump located at the southeast of the main entrance. Every time, it was extremely fatigued, with the occasional blister or torn tendon.

While she was very worried for the poor creature, she was secretly glad that she could practice recovery magic, as practice makes perfect, but she isn’t desperate enough to harm others or herself just to practice.

After healing the lupo, they usually spend time playing various games, although every time she tried to get it to play any physically active game, there was clear reluctance. Given that the lupo always shows up dead tired, she concluded that there probably is some trauma involved in physical activity, and eventually stopped suggesting them.

In her campaign of trying to adopt the lupo, she thought that if she could demonstrate how well behaved it is, her parents would be more willing. She taught the lupo simple commands like “sit”, “stay”, “roll over”, “hand”, etc., and while it learned them really quickly, it always gave her this unamused look and quickly stopped trying to comply. She tried to offer it various food items, but none of them could entice it. In the end she gave up, hoping that when it actually came to demonstrate to her parents, it would be more cooperative.

Knowing that there is no way the guards or parents would just let her take the lupo into the settlement for no reason, she patiently waited for the day that the injuries to be severe enough, but as the months went by, they only got lighter. This gave her mixed feelings, as it’s definitely good for the lupo, but that also means the excuse for adoption no longer applies.

By the time a year went by, the lupo no longer had any injuries, but still showed up regardless. Not only that, it still wanted healing magic for some reason. Wondering if there was some hidden effect, she casted it on herself, but all she felt was the magic that she casted enter in her and then that was it. It still served as good practice, and she was never the type to care about these trifling details anyways, so she just casted healing magic on the clearly healthy lupo. Not only that, it gives her an excuse to play with it.