Hello there ! It have been a while right ? Sorry for the wait between the updates. I've many projects and studies to do and having a clear organised AND respected agenda is apparently a foreign concept for me !Anyway ! I hope this chapter will please you and don't hesitate to tell me when I got something wrong with my english ( since it's not my mother language). I'm going to be more on the french version, so the update on this english version will take longer to arrive (unless someone is okay to translate it. I'm not against that kind of thing, just tell me in the reviews and mention the original work).

Chapter 3 : Familiar ?

Louise woke up at the sun rising above the horizon. As someone unable to use magic without making anything explode in the face, she had to be an early bird to prepare herself for the day. But, then, she didn't mind, as it was just like her internal clock worked.

She took her time, relaxing in the bathtub, surounded by warm water. It was only when she came out of the adjoining room that the young aristocrat took note of somthing missing...or rather : someone.

Guiche was basking in the sun on the bench next the little fountain peacefully until a discheveled pink haired little girl crashed in the square.

-...help...dam dog...

- What ?

- Help me find that dam dog ! Louise repeated once she catched her breath.

- Eh ? just said the blond haired boy, still dumstruck.

- My familiar...that stupid dog ran away !

Ignorant of the warth of his "master" and the hilarity of the people helping her, Link was lazyly bathing in the sun, at the stables entry. So, no wonder he was so discomfited when so many people rushed on him and had him cornered against one of the main fortification walls.

The kids were kinda exited by this wolf hunt, but were forced to take a step back at the menacing growling sound it made. The message was clear : " You touch me ? I eat you."

Suddenly, a voice declaimed something that sounded somehow familiar to the wolf, albeit a little puzzled over some détails.

Why is he talking about chiken ?

But the hylien couldn't pounder anylonger about this, ad he was briskly elevated in the air by a mysterious force ! He was so surprised by this that -and he won't admit it- he let out an undignified yelp.

- Want to be a bad lonesome wolf uh ? said the voice in a mocking tone. To bad ! I'm gonna discipline you into dog shape !

It's you who gona be alone once I've styled you a new face !...Or once I've vomited on you...Urgh

With gracious movement of the wrist, Guiche shaked the wolf in the air. Until Louise reached them, scolding ferociously at the adolescent :

-It's not your place to do that ! I asked to help me find him ! Not to punish !

-Ok, ok ! I was just teaching him to be more calm, what if it had bitten one of us ? Guiche said while stoping abrutly his spell.

The wolf fall wasn't enought to stun him. However, the nausea from the shaking earlier was worse in this form. It was sufficient for the pink haired magician to pass something around his neck.

Oh, you don't have an idea of what my fangs can do...tought the wolf in a sudden excess of fury.

But he was surprised again as something stoped him from jumping on that little insolent...he didn't have the words for it.

The wolf turned his head in the pull's didirection, only to discovert the girl from yesterday, holding a thin chain.

It can't be what he tought it was right ?

Do I look like a pet dog you can take in a stroll with a leash !

He was so outraged by this, he couldn't even move. The only sign of his barely contained fury was his slightly shaking body and his raised hairs.

Louise had almost jumped back in fright from the intensity if the human emotions she could read in the beast eyes. It's pride was hurt, she could feel it right in her bones.

Why does her familiar seems so defiant ? Even monster types were more dociles once the Contract formed !

Could it be... that she failed that part of the ritual ?

No ! It can't be !

What would be the value of a mage unable to correctly cast the most important spell fir one ? Nothing. The idea of her failure made her eyes shiny from ushed tears. But she won't back down ! She will prove to everyone that she can be the best magician of the court ! Enought to be serving at the right of the thrône !

I promised ! It was that determination that shone in her supernatural ametyst eyes. It wasn't directed to him, but the wolf felt he had a part in it. Somehow, in a way he couldn't explain, he felt a strange form of exitation and contentement. It was a weird feeling, between new and distant longing. It didn't erased his anger, but it distracted him enought to be less menacing, a new curiosity exposed in his body language.

However, the glares fights between the two was interrupted by professort Colbert, angry because of the undignified behaviour of the students.

Really, the first day after the Familiar summoning and they give chase to one of them, moreover the abnormal one !

- What are you doing here ! Go to the dinner hall immediately ! he scolded

Immediatly, the crowd retreated to take their previously forgotten breakfast. Louise was going to follow them, but was stoped by a thug from the leash. Behind her, the wolf had a rictus that could have been a mocking smile (ok, kind of creepy).

The professor noticed the strange behaviour of the familiar and decided to interrogate his student :

- Miss Louise, can you explain this rafus ?

- It...he wasn't in my room that morning so I thougt...I thought...

Louise couldn't finish her explanation, it was too humiliating to admit her fears.

guessed the rest thanks to the leash around the wolf neck. It was inded strange that it didn't follow the common tendencies of being the closest possible to their master in the first year of the Contract (he must address the problem with miss Tabitha familiar quickly. It's so huge it can't go anywhere near it's master !).

Normaly, the link between the master and the familiar was like an amplificator of the natural good chemistry between the two partners. It was a kind of accelerated taming that allow rare chance (encounters) to happen.

Is it different because he is really a human ? the scientist thought.

Well, the little magician had always been a strange one. And the rules in magic is a flimsy thing to begin with.

It doesn't erase the fact that is going to be an headache. he internally sighed.

- Miss Louise, it might be better to explain the situation to your familiar. He doesn't seems to understand what's happening.

- ...Yes, professor.

Why did she have to explain things to his familiar ? Did the others do that during the whole night they talked to their new companion ?

Well, look like she had to put more more effort into this. Not like it was something new to her.

Their arrival at the Dinner Hall had a mixed welcome, between the second years knowing what happened earlier and trying to not openly mock her, and the first years not having a familiar yet and curious about the wolf on a leash following the famous temperamental magician. Louise succeeded at ignoring them and sat at her designated place. The wolf did the same next to her, observing with his keen eyes the room and its occupants. People near them could almost hear the weels and cogs rotating in his head.

Link was admiring silently the architecture of the Hall. In a way, it was like the old temples he explored before, the roof lost somewhere in the darkness due to the absence of Windows, gigantic stones pillar acting like heightless trees with Crystal chandeliers as their luminous fruits. While thinking that, he quietly assessed his situation : First of all, the people around him were clearly different of him. They didn't have pointed ears, even slightly ones. They obviously didn't have the same religion as him. Secondly, they didn't seems to by perturbed being near beasts or monsters (strange one like this...flying purple eye gave him a little chill). Witch was good news cause, since he didn't know if his particular looks will be accepted, he can stay in his wolf form longer, the time for him to know if he could take of his Hood in his human form. Lastly, it seems that the reason he was "sumoned" here had somthing to do with the pink aired girl next to him.

Said girl was still eating her breakfast without a word, ruminating about what to do with her familiar. To be honest, the wolf was kind of cutious of her, even if he was still offended by what happened earlier. But that would be quickly frogotten as his brain finaly registered the delicious smell of slightly grilled meat and grease. How long had passed since the last time he had a tasty meal ? Too long apparently, since his stomach had already taken control of him.

So, Louise was quite surprised when an oversized dog stood up, its forelimbs on the table, wagging its tail with interest as it eyed the plate before her. If the message wasn't clear enough, the growling stomach was a sufficient indicator of its intention. The adolescent scoofed, as if she would become like those another nobles women completly doting their dogs rotten, growing them ridiculously obese and ill.

- You will wait to be served outside with the others, she said autoritary.

But it wasn't enough to deter the wolf. Stomach didn't know shame, unlike the brain, especially if said stomach was starved.

He whinned in protest, clearling saying :

"Come on, I know you don't want it."

Well...She never linked to eat meat in the morning, and it would be a waste to let it rot in the grabadge anyway. So, with a heavy sigh, she took a bacon slice and presented it to the wolf. The later swallowed it up in one go, carefull of her fingers. As he tought, it was delicious. What a downside to be unable to chew ! He would made the pleasure last longer ! In a few minute, all the meat in the plate was cleared. The first years, a little exited by it, started to feed the wolf with their meat, eggs and other delicacies. In another circumtances, he would have been outraged. However, like said earlier, a starved stomach didn't have to be ashamed. It didn't hinder the wolf to have a very human scandalised expression when the cook, pulled out his kitchen by the comotion crated by it, made a comment on how it would be pointless now to serve it dog's food.

- It's good to know that my work is appreciated ! the stubby man laughted.

One the breakfast eaten, the students went to their classes exept the second year's who had a day off in order to deepen their connection with their new companion. Louise searched a isolated table for adequate privacy considering the subject of their conversation. Once the appropriate location was found, the adolescent strugled to find the right words. How do she explain to a creature with human intellect that it was her predestined servant ? She can't help but remember the wolf's reaction earlier. She won't admit it, but the young magician felt fear when she was under the glare of her familiar.

While the adolescent was runing senarios in her head, the wolf was dozing off, his full stomach lulling him, along with the soft warm sunrays, to sleep. He was almost falling into it when a voice, trying to be assured, woke him up.

- Hum...Can you take your human form ? It's...more confortable to discuss.

The little magician was a bit awed by the show she was seeing. A strange black matter rising around the wolf equally figure, only leaving behind a man in the same strange clothing the day before. He wasn't that much taller than her. Maybe one head or two, one and half ? And she admited being quite short herself (to her frustration).

He must be of the same age as me. She thought.

She took the time as he slowly sat in front of her at the table, to examine the few looks she could see under the hood.

Ash golden locks escaping from a long, pointed hood, a straight nose, slightly bumped by a scar accros the bridge. A scar could be also spotted at the corner of his mouth, splitting the upper lip a little, and over one of his brow, with two saphire blue eyes with twilght sky colors glow looking straight at her under the light shadow the clothe cast on his face. It was probably his most stricking features. While more human, the sharpness de the predatory glare could be still found in the depth of his pupils. She could almost see the wolf behind his moves, as he put his chin on his interlocked fingers, elbows on the table, in a strange quiet command to explain.

Command she executed perfectly, giving as much détails as she could with her knowledge. Their location, the reason why he was here, what was expected from him following the Contract rules and nature.

At the end of the adolescent explication, Link was tasting bitterness on in tongue.

So, I'm almost a salve ? I can't believe it.

The hylian looked at some of the familiars around them. If he paid an extra attention into his inspection, he could spot the runes on the scales, skin, or fur, the letters colors blending with it. Link couldn't help but remember the feeling of being branded like cattle. Instinctively, he raised his left hand to see the cursed mark. If he was happy to see his skin being perfectly fine, he didn't keep his happyness too long, at the sight of the chain on his wirst, the runes glowing golden in an elegant cursive.

Seeing the face of the man growing darker and darker by the minute, Louise panicked a little. Of course he wouldn't take it nicely, he was a free man until recently. She didn't have to be a genius to understand that, but she couldn't let him go ! There was so much on the line ! But then, she saw it, the chain, linked to a tick handcuff taking half of the fore arm's length. On it, glowing faintly, the rune of their Contract. No wonder he made such an murdering expression ! It was as if he was her slave !

- But how ? she stuttered.

Why is it like this ?

- It was already there, said Link somber. Only in my beast form however.

-Oh...I see.

She was a little relieved hearing that. But now, she was a little curious after the last statement of her familiar.

- ...Are you human ?

- Yes. I guess it's not very common to summon one ?

- Indeed...

The young man took the same pose as before, minus the frozen, attentive gaze. Instead, there was an amused smile, on his lips, a little intimidating, but how so familiar to the pink haired magician. It was exactly the same as the shark like buisnessman that came home sometime to strike a deal with her father. It was predatory.

- So...what is your part ?

- Huh ?

- Well, that ritual is a Contract, surely, you know that it involve two party.

- I'm not really sure...I've never heard about a case where a human is summoned. Would it have been a beast, the standard would be protection against hunting, providing a home as well as food and any other form of care...There would be also a capacity offered by the contract, like telepathy or being able to speak human language. I think shapeshifting also exist, even if it's rare.

- So in exchange of any form of help I can provide you, you would assure my safety within your society and a home for me to stay ? With possibly a form of power that can help me in my task ?

- I would assume this is a correct way to summarise it. Louise responded, pensive.

Look like I'm still better than a slave. It's not one-sided.

Link decided he would take it like a job contract. Unlike the others request he completed, that one one would be longer, for a indefined period. A little more like a mercenary. He could manage with that he supposed.

The warrior extended an hand, ready to strike the deal. In a more...hold fashioned manner. Louise mirrored the gesture, a littledumbfounded.

- My name is Link by the way.

As they shook hands, she thought hearing thoses stranges words muttered :

- I heard your voice, little Louise.