I ran into a helluva writer's block in that around this time Derflinger would be introduced but if that happens in this story the poor bastard is liable to get eaten. So I've been going in circles over what to do about this… That's one excuse, the other is that life sucks. I flunked out of collage went through tons of political red tape while looking for a job which I still haven't found on top of having to move twice. Not easy to write with that kind of pressure on you.
"Speech"
-/thoughts/-
*/telepathy/*
Story
Saito woke up comfortably on a slowly moving bed that was like a perfectly inflated and well heated waterbed. The blankets were weighing down in just that perfect way that he could just live there for eternity. */I don't care what happens, I'm not moving/* he thought sending it out without realizing it. It had been almost a month since the encounter with Guiche and things had progressed slowly but comfortably.
"Well you're going to have to as I have classes." Louise said and Saito miyahed in place of a groan. She sat up and he rolled off her stomach and onto the top of the now wrinkled up blankets.
*/Bleh, can't you just blow em off? I mean come on, it's not like missing one day will hurt you so much./* Saito sent.
"I can't blow off class! My grades are bad enough already with my problems with the practical portion to do anything like that!" she protested as she quickly changed and swept up Saito before rushing to breakfast before stopping. "You're not going to go crazy and eat everything again are you?" she asked looking him right in the eye. The incident had actually repeated itself twice but in the strangest ways, a giant stew pot had gone down on one occasion and on the other a whole tree. Yes, a tree.
*/...maaaybeeee./* he sent and she rolled her eyes.
"You'd better not or I'll use you for target practice." Louise snapped at him.
*/Oh brother I was kidding. I think the whole going berserk and eating everything in sight is a once in a blue moon sort of thing./* he sent and she stopped and glared at him.
"The second moon is always blue." She said sternly.
*/Not where I'm from lady!/* he replied quickly and jumped onto her head. Before spinning around and curling up like a fuzzy little hat. She shook her head causing Saito to fall off in front of her with a tiny "Mew" but she caught him easily and tucked him into her hood. He fell back asleep quickly and began snoring. Well more like giving out a series of "mewhunhmewhunhmewhunh" and so on and so forth.
"Miss Valliere just what is that noise?" Miss Chevruse asked and Louise blushed.
"My familiar ma'am he's sleeping in my hood." Louise responded and the teacher nodded, that was fairly normal for familiars to tuck themselves into their master's clothing to nap if they were small enough. One of Guiche's biggest problem was that Belldandy his Mole kept trying to do just that despite being as large as he was.
Some hours later.
Saito woke up blinking and being bounced around. It took him a moment to get his bearings but when he did he climbed out of the hood. The clomping noises were throwing him off. */Hunh? Louise? What's going on?/* he asked getting onto her shoulders and noticing that she was actually on horseback and the Academy was nowhere in sight.
"It's a rest day, so I only had one class. Anyways I'm going to visit a friend to show you off a bit so be on your best behaviour!" Louise explained shooting him a look and he put his paws up in time to be knocked off her shoulder. "Saito!" Louise shouted reigning in the horse.
*/Yea?/* he asked floating an inch from her face and she huffed.
"Don't scare me like that!" she scolded him and could swear he was chuckling.
*/Sorry./* Saito sent and he flew onto the horse's head and Louise took off again */So who's your friend?/* he asked as they went along, he couldn't shake the feeling that this was… very, very, very... slow.
"Her name is Henrietta and she is the princess of this country so you'd better be polite! She has a lot of problems as is without having to deal with an ill mannered rabbit." She explained as a City started looming up in the distance, like a stereotypical medieval town it had a large castle looming over it with massive walls designed to withstand ballista sieges but unable to withstand gunpowder weapons surrounding the city. She wove her way through the streets with Saito having moved on top of her head like some bizarre hat.
"State your business." A guard soon asked when they arrived at the gates of the castle and had handed the horse off to a servant. Louise simply presented a small shield like crest she produced from inside her school cloak. The guard examined it closely then nodded before handing it back and they were let through. Louise quickly navigated the familiar corridors and hallways until she came to a door she had stood in front of hundreds of times.
"Henrietta? Are you in?" Louise asked knocking a little. There was a rush of footsteps and the door opened to reveal a young woman with neck length dark purple hair, a gorgeous dress with numerous jewels and a crown on top of other royal ornaments.
*/Seriously, does anyone in this world have a normal hair and skin colour combination?/* Saito thought accidentally projecting it.
"Oh hush you!" Louise scolded him looking up to meet his eyes.
*/Sorry, didn't think I was using telepathy./* Saito sent as Henrietta stared.
"Oh my goodness, he's adorable! Louise is this your familiar?" She asked plucking Saito off Louise's head and gently scratching him behind his ears electing a content purr.
"He is. His name is Saito from the Hiraga clan I think. He says he was human just before I summoned him and some strange spell changed him into what he is now. So I have a very rare familiar that has the mind of a human. He even beat by himself Guiche the bronze in a mage duel by eating the golems he summoned!" Louise explained and Henrietta held Saito up to eye level.
"This little guy did? That's quite the power for such a tiny creature." She said before nuzzling getting another automatic purr from the very cuddly animal. She then held him much like a baby and started rubbing his stomach turning him into putty in her hands.
*/Ooooohhhhhhh yeaaaaa…!/* Saito projected to both of them unconsciously before being grabbed by Louise and glared at eye to eye. */What?/*
"Do you have any idea how dirty you sounded?" Louise asked crossly.
*/Sorry? I didn't realize it, it just felt really good./* he sent sheepishly. Louise sighed and placed him on her head. She then began… talking to Henrietta and in just such a way that it was all Saito could do to not drop off to sleep in the first five minutes. He didn't make it to ten.
-/This is familiar./- Saito thought as he stood in the middle of a dark crystal chamber. "I still have no friggin clue as to what the hell this place is. He glanced out what looked like a window and saw a shifting view of Tokyo between the apartment when he was young, the fire, the graveyard, the schools he had gone to and the orphanage. His eyes crossed at that and he paid attention to the inside again.
"Alright let's see. This looks like some weird ass spaceship and I know something in my memories is being blocked for some reason. So let's not go there because the sci-fi movies I've seen say that I'll either find Cthulu down there or it'll just be blocked again." He said thinking out loud. He walked over to one of the floating crystals and with only a marginal hesitation, grabbed it out of the air.
Nothing happened.
"Well that was anti-climatic. I guess the movies lied." He said smirking as he toyed with the crystal then was a little surprised when it turned into a copy of his cabbit form. "Holy crap!" he said then stared at the inquisitive little creature before holding it up to his face. It Miyad with delight and licked him on the tip of the nose. "Heh, heh. Friendly little guy aren't you?" he asked as the cabbit jumped onto his shoulder.
"So can you tell me where I can find something useful? Like a new power or something?" he asked the little creature and it nodded excitedly jumping off his shoulder and soaring through the air and down a hallway. "Hey! Wait up!" he called chasing after it until it led him into another room with the doorway being a wall that simply faded from view as he approached it.
"Dooo dooo doo doooo doooo doooooooo!" he said sarcastically to himself. (x-files) He rolled his eyes at the melodrama, it was bad. He took a quick look around and only saw and alter that the cabbit was sitting on. "So is there a sacrificial knife or do I have to improvise?"
"Cute." The cabbit said in a deep voice.
"Oh this is new. So tell me oh wise cat-rabbit, what the hell happened to me?" Saito asked sitting down as the floor rose up as a stool at a comfortable level with a dark purple cushion on top. It wasn't connected from the floor it was just a tile with rounded corners.
"I don't know what happened, but long story short as to what I am. I'm a version of yourself that is all the instincts of your new form. I know everything there is about being a Cabbit." It said.
"So why's your voice so deep?" Saito asked bemused.
"I'm the mentor figure, a deep voice is pretty much standard." It said and Saito chuckled.
"So I've got down flying, telepathy and an energy bolt. How much more is there?" he asked and the cabbit chuckled this time.
"A very large amount, but as a part of you I know what you want to know." It said.
"Of course you know what I want to know. I want to learn about my Cabbit abilities and you know them." Saito said with a bit of a sigh.
"Actually I meant that I know what you were going to ask about. Which is the ability to take a human like form." The cabbit said stretching it's back a bit.
"Alright, so what is the secret to it?" he asked.
"Well you need to know it's possible for one. Then, you have to know its limits. After that it is simplicity itself." The Cabbit said and Saito nodded.
"So the limits are?"
"You'll basically have two humanoid forms. A child form and an adult form, you can take the child form at will, but the adult form will need more material. You're a super energy converter capable of eating anything but you need a little more before taking a full adult form. These forms will be cabbit human hybrids so it'll take a few years of fine tuning before you can take a fully human form. Sorry, I can just give you the basic blunts kid." It said and Saito nodded.
"One last question." Saito said.
"Go ahead."
"You do realize you sound like Morpheus from the matrix right?" Saito asked sniggering.
"I do, now take the green pill to awaken into reality, the blue to wake up to a fantasy involving a pink haired young woman and a castle. Choose now." The cabbit said and Saito broke down laughing while flopping backwards landing on tiles that rose up to his levels with the same dark purple cushion. He sat back up to see the cabbit in a humanlike form holding a pair of pills. Saito grabbed the green pill and swallowed.
"Cyo man." Saito said as the area faded out.
"You know how to find me." The inner cabbit said as Saito opened his eyes still evidently on Louise's head.
-/All that in what? Twenty minutes?/- he thought sitting upright cracking his tiny back before grinning and expanding until.
"SAITO! How did you do that?" Louise demanded the cabbit child now sitting on her shoulders and resting his arms on her head.
"Learned a new trick!" he said then frowned. He had a very high childish voice.
"You're so adorable!" Henrietta exclaimed grabbing Saito off Louise's shoulders and cuddling him.
"Hey! I'm as old as you are! I deserve respect!" he half shouted. -/Why did I say that?/-
"Of course you do! And to make sure other's know it, you'll need fitting clothes!" Henrietta announced and Saito saw a gleam he did not like in Louise's eye.
"Alright then I'm sure we can find something." Louise said and Saito sighed. He had come to the realization a few weeks in that he was considered a pet, and it would take him a long time before he would be seen as anything but. Still, it was better than being considered a slave which he guess would have happened if he hadn't been form shifted. Go figure.
"I'm going to get you back for this. Both of you." Saito said ominously the dire tone overwhelmed by the cute voice it was being said in just in time for the maid to pull back the curtain showing him in a tuxedo with shined shoes, frills, a puffed out little neck bit (what are those called?) perfectly pressed pants and a severe twitch in his left eye.
"Saito you look like a little prince!" Louise exclaimed as she swept him up into a hug as he started growling. He then shrunk clean out of the clothing and wiggled easily out of her arms.
*/That was just plain demeaning./* he stated floating out of reach and landing on the edge of the open door looking down at them his gemstone glinting in the light.
"Aww come on down Saito." Louise said.
*/No./* was the simple reply.
"We won't do it again. Come on down cutie pie." Henrietta added.
*/For a politician you're fairly bad at lying./* Saito remarked formshifting back into the child state put putting more energy in so that it resembled a twelve year old over an eight year old. Still…
"Oh my goodness! You're even more adorable!" Henrietta exclaimed and Saito nearly fell off the top of the door in sheer exasperation.
"What is it with girls and cute? Seriously?" he asked.
"Oh come on! We'll put you in something better!" Louise promised.
"There is no way in the deepest darkest pits of hell that I'm going to trust your judgement on that again." Saito stated simply shifting positions to being cross legged just as a maid came in moving the door out from under him. He didn't fall.
"Saito… I can see your tail." Louise said and frankly, that was it.
"WELL TAKE A PICTURE THEN! Good ****ing god! Is it too much to ask to be treated with some common decency? I went above and beyond what I even thought I could do just so that you would get some respect all the while my life is being torn down around me and all you can think to do is put me in stupid outfits? What the hell is wrong with you?" He demanded his forehead gem glowing brightly. Louise and Henrietta had frozen at this afraid to move the maid had fainted. "I finally regain some token of my humanity and you make fun of it right away. I'm starting to question as to why the hell I'm staying with you." He stated and Louise actually flinched.
He slowly floated to a window unlatched it and then just barely landed to jump down into the gardens below moving much further horizontally then gravity normally allows.
"I think we went too far." Henrietta said with a small sigh.
"No I think it was just bad timing." Louise said sighing herself. "I really do keep messing up don't I?"
"No it was my fault, I dragged you into this. Maybe we should go apologise to him?" Henrietta mused and Louise looked scandalized.
"But you're a princess! You apologising to some familiar is a beneath you!" Louise protested.
"It is if I apologise to a political rival of some kind when I don't have to, but a friend's dearest companion? Far from it." Henrietta assured her as she walked out of the room with Louise a bit behind her.
Saito for his own part sighed and leaned back against a rock shifting a little uncomfortable being unused to a tail. He glanced into the pond and sighed at the alien face gleaming back at him. "Who am I?" he asked himself in a slightly anguished tone. "Damnit!" He shouted punching down on the boulder he was sitting on cracking it easily. "Holy Shit!" he exclaimed then heard something very unexpected. A gun cocking.
"All right you fuzzy elf. I have a pistol to the back of your head this is an instantly lethal weapon and if you try anything funny I will kill you." A voice said from behind him and he froze completely.
"You know I didn't expect to find guns in this world. Is it a flintlock, a revolver or an autoloader? I'll wager flintlock though right?" Saito asked and it was pressed to the back of his head.
"Flintlock a very well made model I should say. What is your business here?" the voice asked.
"Visiting." He said simply.
"Why did you smash that boulder?" she asked.
"I was frustrated and didn't know my strength." He replied slowly turning to face her. The gun barely moved and he shot forwards and bit by instinct its chamber and the bullet out of the gun and jumping backwards away from the sword.
"You little monster!" the blond musketeer woman shouted as Saito landed clear on the other side of the pond. He frowned then his eyes went wide as energy collected in his right hand and he clenched it into a fist causing a red energy sword to form with a slight dagger going out the bottom.
"Cool, I can roll with this." He said taking a slight kendo stance. He had never gotten far in that club. The woman jumped the large pond in one leap with a thrust with her rapier getting him off guard with the speed so he could only partially dodge and was pinned to the ground with his shoulder. "GRAUUUGH!"
"Agnes! What are you doing!" Henrietta shouted and Agnes put more pressure on Saito who was building up for a huge mouth based energy blast. He let a ten foot wide energy blast that Agnes dodged loosing half her cape in the process.
"Son of a bitch." Saito swore biting the sword and then pulling the shard out of his shoulder. He tossed it into the pond as Louise started to fuss over him panicking that her familiar had been hurt.
"Milady! I found this creature in the garden then he simply destroyed a boulder with a single punch! I was not informed of any creature like that allowed in the palace." She said quickly as Henrietta glared at her.
'Sigh' "You're excused, take the day off Agnes and remember to try to at least talk in the future."
"I did! I asked what he was doing here and he turned and ate part of my gun!" she protested and Saito got looks.
"It was a reflex I didn't even know I did it until it was done!" he said and Louise sighed.
"You have a talent for picking fights don't you?" she asked and he chuckled ruefully.
"What? Who else did the pest fight?" Agnes asked getting a 'Screw you' from Saito.
"Guiche the Bronze, ate all his summoned golems then his wand." Louise explained and Agnes looked at the fuzzy kid with renewed interest.
"The son of a decorated general and heir apparent to a prominent noble house decided to pick a fight with what looks like a small child of some sort of rabbit human cross and lost?" Agnes asked and Louise broke out giggling.
"Actually…" Louise had to pause for a belly laugh at this one most self restraint gone at this point. "Saito was in his animal form them and…" her laughter overwhelmed her at her memories of it. Sighing Saito took his small Cabbit form and Agnes double blinked.
"The son of a military genius lost to this!" Agnes asked pointing at Saito.
*/What! Just because I don't have thumbs you think my ears don't work or something? /* Saito sent quirking an eyebrow.
"Did I just get backtalk from a rabbit?" Agnes asked.
"Oh screw you." Saito replied taking a humanoid form and taking the smaller one of what he had available. Louise picked him up and held him like a cabbage patch doll instantly. "Ah! My arm! Careful!" he shouted and Louise set him down gently. "Oww… so much for kendo training." He said ruefully as the bleeding quickly stopped as the wound closed.
"So what is this thing? If it's not a threat or a spy then why is it here?" Agnes asked and Louise coughed to get her attention.
"He's actually my familiar I came here to show him off but we ended up upsetting him." Louise explained and Agnes glared at Saito before sighing.
"So I just startled an animal…" she groaned about to complain about her sword.
"I was actually human once a month or so ago." Saito said somewhat calmly rubbing the tiny scar that was already vanished and recovered with fur. "Still this fast healing is a nice perk." He noted.
"What are you exactly?" Agnes asked and Saito shrugged.
"If I knew I'd tell you, but the name Cabbit suits me as my most as my most comfortable form is a mix between a cat and a rabbit." He said and Agnes gave him a look. "What?"
"You sound like you've accepted being a pet." She said and Saito sighed at that.
"I've had no choice. It grates on me. Often. But frankly from what I know about this world, being the doted on pet of a noble is about as good as I can get it with what's happened to me. Until things change anyway..." he muttered mostly to himself but it was caught by all present.
"Ahem. Anyways what myself and Louise did was... fairly out of line and without consideration for yourself. I apologise." Henrietta said and Saito nodded while Agnes started choking on air.
"Forgot how to breathe?" Saito asked after Agnes went this way for about a minute.
"M-Milady! You are not supposed to apologise to those beneath your station! If another country saw this as a sign of weakness..." she began
"There is no one else within this part of the garden other then ourselves. I used several spells to check on my way here, so unless you Louise or Mr. Saito here are spies no one else shall know of it." She said calmly and Agnes looked abashed. Louise let out a gasp looking up.
"That time already? I forgot! I was only intending a short visit! I'm sorry Lady Henrietta if I don't go now I'll be violating curfew!" she exclaimed while giving a small bow and running off with Saito right behind her waving goodbye as he went looking every bit the child.
-/I really need to get a larger form/- he thought wryly seeing their expressions. He took his cabbit form and jumped on Louise's shoulder where he hung on for most of the trip mentally trying to tally up how much more material he'd need to eat in order to get a full sized form. He guessed about twice as much as he's already had. */Bleh it should take... a couple weeks maybe if I want a balance of all three?/* he sent accidentally during the ride and Louise looked at him puzzled already concerned due to his silence.
"All three what?" she asked as the academy came into sight and he mentally kicked himself for not keeping his telepathy from his thoughts again.
*/Food, wood and metal. If I get enough of all three I should be able to get a normal sized half human form./* he sent and she gave him a sideways look.
"And how are you planning to get all three?" she asked a little carefully fully aware of her familiars endless appetite. Her eye twitched as he gave the cat (or is it rabbit?) equivalent of a shrug.
*/Well wood and food are easy it's the metal that's got me stumped. I really doubt there's a scrap metal yard you know about and I know you won't let me eat all the cutlery./* He sent thinking hard.
"Perhaps a blacksmith could give you what's too impure to use." She suggested and Saito 'hmm'ed before giving her a happy nod.
*/That should do it... I hope. I don't want people to get the idea of playing dress-up again./* he sent and she coughed nervously but didn't comment.
That evening
"So there are scrap metal places I could get to then?" Saito asked later in his child form as Louise was getting ready for bed.
"For the millionth time yes!" she said exasperated and he snorted.
"That was the third time at most." He said and she sighed before pointing to the four poster bed.
"Bed now." She said as she resumed brushing through her hair.
"You realize you just told a seventeen year old guy to share your bed right?" Saito asked as he jumped up onto it and slid under the sheets before leaning back on his large down stuffed pillow. Lina had made a point of getting it for him and before he took up his habit of sleeping with her in his cabbit form it made for a VERY comfortable bed.
"First off, you're my familiar so it doesn't matter. Second you look barely ten, so it doesn't matter. Finally you're not even human so it doesn't matter again." She said sleepily as she approached the bed in her nightgown her eyelids fluttering. She just settled in with a sigh of contentment when she gave a sigh of disappointment. "Saito could you blow out the candles? I forgot." She said and Saito squirmed out of the blankets and leapt completely weightless to the nearby table standing straight up on it he was at eye level with the tallest candle of the small triple holder.
Blowing them out quickly he then joined Louise in bed well aware that she was asleep already as he slid in beside her. Just as he was about to fall asleep she shifted and drew him in close. -/I'm still aiming for being human again... but this isn't so bad./- he thought as he cuddled into her.
Author Notes
... yea I've got my general writing groove back here's hoping it sticks around.