"I beg of you… My slave who lives somewhere in the universe! Oh sacred, beautiful and strong familiar spirit! I desire and here I plead from my heart! Answer to my guidance!"
For such powerful magic words they are quite vague are they not? The universe has long since been proven to be far more massive than can be measured and the reflections even more infinite. Beautiful and strong can be defined in numerous ways and differ by one's own views of strength and beauty. However, a plea that comes straight from the heart fueled by a desire created from years of emotional torment by one's peers? That is a voice heard by any who are willing to listen.
Familiars of Zero is a series of one-shots featuring a plethora of what-if's consisting of a large cast of characters ranging from the unique to the downright bizarre. However, while the cast of familiars will be diverse a few key little details will remain in effect. All familiars will be sentient and will, at the very least, be chaotic neutral. I may include an "evil" familiar or two but I'm not really into writing horror all that much…
All one-shots shall be followed by an explanatory note regarding the new familiar (the who's, the why's, and the what's), a brief summary of what could continue, and finally explanations towards an "OCness" on the pre-established characters. With that said, I hope you enjoy reading:
The Familiars of Zero
By Corvus no Genmu
"Hail to the King"
When does the dreaming begin? Is it on that first night spent asleep as a baby, dreaming of the end, or is it as the yet-to-be-born resting in their mother's womb or beneath hardened shell dreaming of the beginning? Does the mind, so inexperienced with life's troubles and rewards, comprehend enough of itself to make a semblance, a seeming, of a dream? Or is it not the mind of the child but that of the parent that sings the music of creation to the waiting child?
Here, deep within the darkness, he dreamed… of what he had no idea but the… sea? Yes, the sea! The sea was beautiful, a world of water and food, food everywhere! Whole schools of fish and other things too! Things that swam in groups or alone, some big and others small, a few friendly and more too vicious to associate with. He could spend his whole life down, beneath the ocean waves if he didn't need to breathe the air, to walk on the land. If this was what being alive was like, than he was eager to make his way into the world.
Wait…
What is that…? The sky, it's burning? How, why? He's burning too, but on the inside, and it hurts, it hurts so much! The sea has turned red and the water tastes wrong! He swimming, faster and farther than he's ever gone but he doesn't stop until he finds land. The island is strange, hard and shiny rocks are everywhere and there's little things running around… and he, he doesn't feel right. He's walking differently than before, the world seems so much smaller than before, and there's a pain in his throat, a pain of—
FIRE!
He's different, different than what he's supposed to be, but this is not the him that lies within the protection of the eggshell, this is the first one… the father/mother? He doesn't understand, doesn't comprehend. If he is not that which he is supposed to be, what is he then? He's crying for someone, anyone, to reassure him that he isn't bad, that he is right and nothing about him is wrong. That he is cherished, that he is loved.
"I beg of you…"
A voice…! Not the voice of the father/mother… is it just mother? He can't see her but… she sounds different and yet… that sounds right… because… because he's…
"My servant who lives somewhere in the universe!"
He sees a different place, a world of green grass and blue skies, where all kinds of animals roam and those tiny things, they can do all kinds of things! Bend the earth, change the flow of water, call forth the air, and cast fire with a simple gesture! She's different though… different like him…
"Oh sacred, beautiful and strong familiar spirit!"
He sees himself growing big and strong, but it is in a land of clear skies and soft grasses. The ocean is wild, untamed and waiting to be explored but he goes infrequently, only to feed. Her hand is small, even as a hatchling, he towers over her but the contact is enough for him to purr, soft nails scratching at scales soft enough to be scratched by such dainty fingers.
"I desire and here I plead from my heart!"
There are challenges too, some small enough that she can handle on her own and others… others where he dare not let her leave his sight. Intruders to his territory! Attackers of his land, his parent! He roars challenge to them all and they charge at him and he strikes them all down. He kills those that don't retreat and mocks those that do, but for those few that stay and become like… a pack… they are family to him, just like his parent is…
"Answer to my guidance!"
Mother!
It took everything Louise had in her not to scream at the sickening sludge that suddenly splattered all over her person the instant her summoning was cast. It was made harder when something screeched within the smoke caused by her explosive magic, especially when that something jumped out and knocked her flat on her back and the breath right out of her. She squealed as a tongue lapped at her face, a bit of eggshell dropping past her face as she stared up into a pair of nightmarish orange eyes. The thing was obviously a reptile of some sort and a big one at that! It stood taller than Professor Colbert and, if the broken pieces of eggshell still stuck to its body was any indication, freshly hatched out of the egg!
"St-Stop it!" Louise giggled helplessly. "Let me up already!"
The lizard-like beast screeched once more and backed up enough so that he, for some reason Louise innately knew it to be male, no longer was pushing her down and now that she had space enough to sit up, she saw that he was standing on two legs built like a dragon's own but with arms that were more humanlike than anything else. His head was quite large, his eyes even more so, but given that he was a newborn it wasn't that strange. His scales were colored like dark leather and felt like it too as she stroked the little thing's muzzle. His eyes closed lazily and his chest rumbled in a reptilian purr, his tail, quite long despite his youth, swished to and fro in the air.
She was covered in egg goo and reptilian slober but for all that Louise was as high as a kite from sheer elation alone for hers was a familiar never seen, never recorded, and from the size of him, a true monster unlike any other, one to rival that stupid Zerbst's salamander with ease and brought shame to Tabitha's own dragon! In fact… now that she was actually paying attention beyond staring adoringly at her familiar, Louise saw that many of the familiars were acting strangely toward her own. The smaller animals, those of no real magical inclination towards the elements, were all quivering, heads bowed and claws or talons tucked away out of sight, a clear sign of submission. As for those who did possess the spark of magic…
They were prostrating like one would to a king…
Why…?
The Exhibition of Familiars was proving to be a higher-brow name for what constituted as an overly extravagant and grossly unfair talent show staring the newly summoned familiars of the second years. Some would argue that the exhibition was rigged as no ordinary familiar, that is to say a normal beast or animal, had ever won it in five decades past. From the time of its premiere, every winner has been some miraculous creature unlike any other and yet so commonplace amongst the hierarchy of mages. Salamanders, gryphons, dragons of all breeds, and even the occasional manticore or cerberus; all each unique unto themselves and yet there be no child, noble or commoner, who does not know of these creatures. All these years, rare is it that the judges of the exhibition were ever fully impressed.
What they were about to see would blow their little minds…
"Next up, Miss Louise de La Vallière." Professor Colbert announced, stepping aside as the small, pink-haired maiden stepped forth to take the center stage without fear. She met the open mockery as she stepped out alone with a smile for in the week she had taken leave from the school to secure a method of feeding her familiar, he had grown further in size since her classmates and piers had last saw and had discovered new abilities and aspects of himself she thought impossible in any one creature. They thought her alone, abandoned by the monster that was her familiar.
They were wrong.
She was not alone and would never be again. Her heart swelled at his touch, unseen but felt within the recesses of her heart and mind as she announced herself and her familiar to the world.
"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière! Allow me to introduce my familiar… Godzilla!"
The ground's trembling was the only warning of precedence as the earth exploded behind the exhibition's stage as a massive form pushed upwards, a rectangular head with fangs long as a man's arm and eyes of a demonic nightmare, pearlish white on burning vermillion glared down. The rest followed in a sleek body of maltese grays and dark browns with curved spikes of slate blue that could rend a careless dragon wingless. A massive tail whished through the air, as large, clawed feet pressed against the earth on either side of the exhibition stage.
Standing fifty meters in height and easily twice that in sheer length, this was a monster born of myth and standing tall in legend for only one other creature bore the name countless millennia ago, by the Founder Brimir's Windalfr who too, had earned another title in its escapades of defending Halkenigia but that name had been butchered somewhat through time and mispronunciation.
One brave and stupid soul on the judge's table opened his mouth to argue the name and found his voice caught dead in his throat for, had he not seen the result of what followed, he'd have thought he had gone mad though he did not believe he hadn't either. An ethereal light traversed up through the hulking monster's dorsal spines with a sound like magic flying through the air and ended in the beast's eyes which glowed like the sun.
Godzilla's mouth opened in a roar of primeval supremacy intermixed with a hellish inferno as blazing emerald fire shot forth from his mouth and traveled like an arrow through the air and past the stunned crowd of students, to vanish away behind the academy's central tower and impact against a freshly constructed mountain golem and its creator standing astride its head, destroying them both in a blaze that left no evidence save for a cloud of ash and smoke which blew away into the wind of the monster's follow-up victory roar as he and his master were ceremoniously announced the victors.
On the next Calling...
"The Lost Wanderer"
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Relatively short, I know, but I never said that the inspiration was a big one nor that this story would be of epic length. It was just one of those little plot-bunnies that refused to leave without being put to word. I shan't lie, for the longest time I had harbored the idea of Louise summoning Godzilla (that is to say Gojira) but the main problem with that was that Gojira was the fact that he doesn't eat normal food anymore and likely would have either died of starvation… or gone underground to feed on what lies hidden beneath the continent of Halkeginia and likely mutated into some magical monstrosity in the process. That, and Gojira is far too powerful to unleash upon Halkeginia. Godzilla (that is to say "Zilla") on the other hand…
Now, to be fair, I hate the American Godzilla film with a passion unrivaled but I absolutely adore the cartoon just the same for it is that "Zilla" who redeemed the creature in my eyes. He has the fiery breath, gamma green, and a healing factor that, while sub-par compared to Gojira's, still good enough to pull the scrapper through. I admit, if written correctly, Zilla can be just as awe-inspiringly awesome as his namesake. If anyone is interested in my own personal recommendations, send me a message and I'll give you a list of excellent stories featuring Zilla in both a positive, and epic, style and where you can find them.
As I wrote earlier, this was a story written for fun's sake with no clear plotline intended or though-out so there's really not much to say that couldn't be read in earlier works. I never planned to write this out as a further detailed story nor am I likely to do so because… well, quite frankly, I watch giant monster movies for the monsters. I doubt I could stay relatively true to the plot of Familiar of Zero with a monster death match every other chapter.
I'll wrap up this note by stating that, yes, at long last the wanderer is finally in sight but it will take time to write. The character is not so much up to question as it is when I want to take that character from their story as their personality and capability is different depending from whence that character is taken out of that character's timeline. For those of you who are in the know, please refrain from stating this character's name as it will spoil the surprise, just be assured that I'm going to do my best to keep this character true-to-form. Also, I shan't lie, following "The Lost Wanderer" will be not one, but two, inspiration interruption stories. Shouldn't surprise any of you by now really. Frankly, I blame all of you who keep giving me such wondrous ideas or sparking said inspirations in the first place!
I won't say much on that pair only that it bares similarity to the Monster Hunter pair in that they both will come from the same franchise but shall feature two entirely different characters.