(Insert standard Disclaimer here)
"Speech"
-/thoughts/-
*/telepathy/*
Magical stuff
The story
Louise ate her breakfast in silence away from her familiar for the time being. She persuaded him to go and play around with the other familiars but they both realized that what she really wanted was to keep him away from temptation at the tables. Still it was also a more peaceful moment until uhrg Kirche sat down beside her.
"What do you want Zerbest?" Louise asked and her rival/reluctant friend grinned.
"I was just wondering when you were going to tell us that adorable familiar of yours could take the form of a child." She said slyly and Louise gasped and looked at her hard. "Oh don't be so shocked, you should know that every good mage has many ways of learning secrets. Of course with your track record it's not surprising you don't." she said slyly and Louise was turning red with anger.
"Are you just here to boast Kirche or is there something you wanted?" Louise asked with narrowed eyes.
"Well I wanted to know how long you planned to keep such a delicious secret?" Kirche asked and Louise gave her a sideways look before sighing.
"He has some big plan for the familiar presentation and is all caught up in preparing it. I think he's going to be playing the piano as he's been disappearing into the music room for hours on end." Louise stated waving the redhead off. Neither of them noticed Guiche standing up when he heard this and walking out of the dining hall his meal only half eaten.
By himself the blond marched swiftly into the eastern wing of the academy and paused as he heard music just above his hearing range. It was complicated and it kept flowing and would definitely fit right into a very expensive orchestra or a well put together opera. He quickened his pace and the music stopped after a few more metres. If it had been any noisier to the point of a simple breeze he would never have heard the music before the player had stopped.
"Don't try to conceal it I heard the music." He said opening the door and peering inside.
*/Well there goes the neighbourhood./* Saito sent out. Guiche absently noted for the first time that the voice sounded around his own age at most. His eyes then widened as Saito expanded into a small humanoid form and floated up to eye level his intense gaze completely mismatching the 'small and innocent' look and feeling that was just oozing off this guy.
Guiche coughed to reorient himself and stared the... person? Animal? Thing? It? In the eyes before sighing. "Look familiar. Due to the code of honour upon which I have been raised I am in your debt due to the fact that you were able to strip away all my defences and allowed me to live regardless. I owe you." Guiche said slowly and Saito's eyes widened as he thought quickly.
"What are the limits to this?" he asked and Guiche looked surprised.
"Nothing that would dishonour or humiliate me, no lives may be taken and nothing that would subvert the kingdom." Guiche replied looking cautious.
"So asking you to summon about three times as much metal as what you used on the golems during our duel is alright then?" he asked and the blond looked confused at this request.
"Why would you need that much metal? No... why would something like you have any possible use for metal? Do you plan to eat it like my golems?" He asked and Saito nodded. "Why? Don't you get enough from the kitchens? From what I can hear they're quite fond of using you as a disposal for leftovers before they go stale."
"My shapechanging has limits. I need supplies like food and wood to do it and I think I need metal too. If I get everything I need I should be able to take a larger form and I'm really, really tired of being seen as a child." Saito quickly explained and Guiche nodded. It seemed reasonable. It took only a flick of the wrist and some petals flying and a small bunch of light flashes later and there were a good four piles of bronze ingots that he would normally summon in the form of animated guardians.
"Thanks." Saito said picking one up and taking a quick bite out of it. It just fell apart in his mouth for some reason and to be honest... it tasted like a jellybean, he couldn't peg the flavour though.
"How do you do that? Exactly what kind of creature eats metal?" Guiche asked and Saito paused on the ninth ingot.
-/how have I been eating this fast?/- he wondered and visibly sighed. "I don't know. I was summoned from another world and nothing there has this kind of eating ability. Anything here able to eat metal?"
"No... you make it sound as if you don't know what you are." It wasn't a question.
"I don't. I was born human and... it was like as Louise was summoning me something... changed me." Saito said slowly absently chewing the next one. He knew he shouldn't be able to fit something so large in his mouth but it just collapsed as he put his lips around it. It was exactly like he pegged it earlier the bronze even had the same general chewy with a touch of crunchy texture jellybeans did.
"Why would anything do that? Without some ulterior motive at least..." Guiche asked then began thinking only absently astonished that Saito had already eaten a good fourth of the ingots.
"I don't know. I managed to come into contact with an inner self sort of creature. It's basically the skills and powers of my new form given a teacher mindset but even it doesn't know how I was changed." Saito explained around the umpteenth ingot absently noting that only a small amount remained of the (tasty treat) necessary resource. He had picked up the pace without realizing it and was now crushing the bars into tiny marbles the size of a jellybean and eating them as such. He then reached down and found there were none left.
"How the hell did you eat so much metal so quickly?" Guiche asked shocked and Saito looked left to right quickly and crossed his arms trying to remember just how he had packed away so much so fast.
"I think I crushed the bars and ate them like candy." Saito said sounding uncertain.
"You don't know?" Guiche asked and Saito looked up with a raised eyebrow.
"My body still acts in strange ways when I'm not paying attention. I can't even count all the times I woke up having slept on Louise... hmm..." Saito said looking mischievous now.
"I'm afraid to ask but..." Guiche began not at least wierded out or worried that what essentially looked like a fuzzy cross between an elf and a rabbit had claimed to sleep with its bonded master. Hell he no longer had pillows and simply allowed Belldandy onto his bead as his headrest. That mole was very affectionate.
"Well I should have enough material to take a full sized human form, and only you know it... we can have some fun with this and if it falls through my tiny little form with big eyes is all I need to get her to relax." He said half laughing.
"First off you have yet to take a full sized form as you call it, nor detail just what it is you intend to do." Guiche said and Saito coughed nervously before expanding upwards. Guiche blinked as a blue outfit appeared around him and at first glance he was faced with a man with a wild head of dark hair. He blinked and it became obvious that he was covered in fur and that his ears were long and tapered as well as hidden into the hair. He was taller than Guiche by a head at least and there was a dark cyan lining the inside of his hair so that it would appear to be two separate colours. Only the eyes were the same as he stared towards Guiche obviously waiting for a reaction.
"Impressive but where did the clothing come from?"
"I was wearing it when I was changed. I'm not sure if it stayed with me or not. I guess it did." Saito noted not realizing that back at Tokyo an empty school uniform and abandoned laptop had indeed been where he previously was.
"Well I for one am grateful for that having no desire to be near a man in the nude. Now you mentioned some form of joke I take it?" Guiche asked and Saito snickered.
"It's simple really. We make sure that Louise hears me saying that I've slept with her while I'm in this form, at first glance I don't think I'm very recognizable." Saito noted and Guiche raised an eyebrow.
"She's liable to completely loose herself to anger... I'm in." Guiche said before his eyes narrowed. "The gem upon your forehead has changed from red to blue, is there any significance to this?"
"It's changed? Maybe..." Saito thought before flicking the gem and it turned red, at the same time his outfit did. He looked at it in surprise. "Well crap, I guess I did somehow conjure these." He noted fingering the outfit. He focused for a moment and both the clothing and the gem returned to its previous blue colour.
"Perhaps it reflects the previous ability used?" Guiche asked and Saito frowned and focused dark orange energy began to gather in his right hand and a three foot energy blade extended from his clenched fist as a good half foot extended from the bottom. The gem was now glowing a dark red and Saito let the blade subside into nothingness. "Since when could you conjure a blade of light!"
"Since I learned to formshift. All I'm doing is keeping hold of those energy blasts anyways." Saito said dismissively and Guiche raised an eyebrow but shrugged it off.
"So what do you believe Louise's reaction to our... jest will be?"
"She's going to blow me up. Never hurt me before though and I'll be taking all the blast." He said and his soon to be partner in (petty)crime smiled.
A short while later.
"So you have slept with Louise the Zero then?" Louise heard Guiche's voice as she and Kirche now joined by Montrancy and Tabitha stopped in their tracks.
"Yes she's actually quite clingy, it took me nearly ten minutes just to get feeling back in my legs again." A mostly familiar voice said and Louise started to both see and turn red as she could feel Kirche on the edge of explosion with questions.
BAAAAMN! It was short. It was violent. It was what she needed especially as she saw what now looked like a charred corpse with wild hair fall backwards onto the floor. She panicked for a moment, her stay at the school would be hanging on by its bleeding fingernails if she had actually...
"Saaitooo!" She snarled as she saw the person vanish as a tiny form took its place. "I don't know how you got stilts or a student uniform but this is not funny! This is damning and... where did the clothing go?" Louise stormed then asked as she rounded the corner and saw Guiche dusting himself off looking completely unharmed. There was chuckling from two sides.
*/The expression on your face made it worth it./* Saito sent and she blushed and put her nose up. There was some constrained giggling from Montrancy and Kirche as Tabitha turned the page on her book. Suddenly the giggling stopped as a weight was put onto the top of her head. She turned while forcing it off with her hands growling as she did and caught Saito who had fallen from just above eye level. She looked left and right quickly but didn't see a thing. The giggling resumed. Her eye twitched and she put it together.
"Saito?"
*/Yeeeeeessssssss?/* he asked in such a way that she was now completely sure of his guilt in this.
"Something you've forgotten to tell me?" she asked and by the founder she was sure he was grinning at her.
"maybeeeee" he said suddenly expanding in her hands until she was holding onto what felt like a firm if furry chest and he grinned down at her his forehead gem glinting brightly. The grin was now a smirk as he looked down at her. "It feels amazing to be looked up to at last." He said his voice full of humour.
"How? When did you get this form!" Louise asked shocked seeing her familiar a good foot taller than her and covered in soft downy fur over a well developed but still thin body. It didn't look like fur either it was just like his skin was blurred in a strange way giving him an almost dreamlike aura to her eyes. He was wearing just a blue pair of pants and no shoes she absently noted.
"About ten minutes ago. Apparently beating Guiche in a duel meant he was in my debt and I called it in with the metal I needed to complete the change." Saito said casually as he soared backwards into the air and sat down cross legged on nothing grinning down at her.
"Why the trick?"
"I'm bored, I'm in a good mood, and it's boring here." Saito said numbering them off with his fingers obviously relishing his every action at this point.
"Well don't you look darling?" Kirche asked and he turned in midair with a slight flourish and grinned.
"You're a treat to the eyes yourself Kirche." He said in a flirty tone and she was shocked for a moment that the fuzzy elf/man/familiar was flirting back.
"And what are you?" Montrancy asked sounding a little shocked. Saito shrugged with his arms out.
"No clue. Never encountered another creature as I am, for all I know I may be the only one. Who knows? I wasn't born this way but made into it. So no family to draw comparisons from, hell no family left anymore..." he said reclining backwards in midair as if lying on a bed.
"Ahh well, complain about the past and it's all you have left." He said wryly. "Still, I can now shoot energy, formshift, fly on top of eating absolutely anything, incredible strength, an energy blade, summon whatever clothes I want and more is coming in. I don't care how you slice it. That's freaking awesome." He mused to himself smiling more and more broadly as he went. This little performance got a giggle from all the girls with the obvious exception of Tabitha.
He floated down and Kirche decided then was the time to pounce and the large well built fuzzy elf with a rabbit tail disappeared to be replaced with the tiny cat rabbit hybrid. She noticed something was wrong a few moments in when the 'arm' she had pressed into her cleavage began moving in ways no arm had a right to.
"Oh my! Darling, that's rather quick of you." She said pulling him out and cuddling him.
*/I didn't mean to!/* he sent sounding panicked as he fought down the boner he was sure he was getting. Oh right, cabbit form. No one cares.
"Zerbest kindly let go of my familiar." Louise said in a low tone as she reached up and grabbed Saito by the leg as Kirche hung on by the scruff of his neck.
-/WTF is going on?/- Saito mentally demanded having no idea what to make of the situation. He just knew he needed them to LET GO!
"Ack!" Louise cried as both she and Kirche stumbled in opposite directions and Saito landed unharmed on the floor. He breathed out a mushroom puff as the two girls collected themselves. He had no idea how the hell he had slipped out of their grips but he was ok with that.
*/What the hell was that about!/* he demanded sounding incredulous. Montrancy was giggling hard at all this as Guiche sidled up behind her. He put his arms around her waist and held her lightly getting her to sigh a little. */I see you two have made amends./*he noted and Guiche held her closer.
"Kirche! What is the matter with you trying to smother my familiar like that?" Louise demanded and Saito facepalmed.
"I dare say he enjoyed my sweet bosom as he took his smaller form to get a much greater experience." Kirche said huskily.
"So you've reduced yourself to animals now then? Is the lust of a Zerbest so strong that even a dog would be taken to the bed? Just what do you do with your own familiar?" Louise asked and there was a ringing slap! The redhead glared at her for a moment before walking away. Louise turned to Tabitha but the blue haired girl was already gone.
*/You know she was probably just trying to annoy you. You didn't have to take it so far./* Saito sent and Louise huffed.
"Well she's not going to stay mad for long, and if she does it'll be a relief from her for a while." She dismissed and Saito sighed but began to wonder, just how did he escape that grip of death? He pushed it from his mind in favour of the mini-drama in front of him. The Valliere and the Zerbest families were apparently long and bitter rivals due to being in rival countries and the two families having the same basic role as border guard basically. So on and off romances, the only I can defeat my rival and other such crap was all over the place.
-/What is this World of Cliche?/- he thought then chuckled. -/If that was an MMO I'd play it./- he thought about to hop away when Louise picked him up and held him like a pet again.
"So, just what do you have planned for the familiar talent show tomorrow?" She asked and he looked up.
*/I thought a bit of music would spice it up./* he sent and Louise blinked.
"So you have been playing the piano? What song?" she asked and he grinned.
*/One from my world. The Moonlight Sonata first movement./* Saito replied.
"You have piano's there?" Louise asked and his jaw dropped. It wasn't a big drop as he had a tiny jaw but it got the point across. "Right poor question."
*/So could we arrange for one to be on the stage during my turn?/*he asked and Louise nodded. */Alright... so what's left in the day then?/* he asked and Louise sighed.
"Wind manipulation, my worst subject." She said sounding dramatic getting a snort from her nearby classmates.
*/I thought that was fire manipulation./* Saito noted and Guiche bit his knuckle to stop his laughter as Montrancy pushed herself backwards into him to stop her own.
"Well yes... that too."
"What about Water manipulation?" Montrancy asked and Louise coughed.
*/Not to mention Earth, Alchemy and all other applied forms of magic./* Saito chirped up getting the blond couple to laugh and Louise in a fit of anger hurled Saito down the hallway but he expanded into his adult form in midair and floated casually in a relaxed position. "Hey now! Relax I was just teasing you!" he said before floating to her. Montrancy and Guiche decided it was time to leave.
"I get enough of that from my classmates thank you very much." She snapped at him and he floated closely and gave her a gentle hug.
"When they do it it's to be petty and cruel. When I do it it's only as a dear friend. We are friends right? Louise?" he asked gently tilting her chin up to look at him full in the face. "If you really want me to stop I will." She teared up a little and just hugged him. He patted her gently looking left to right wondering what the hell was up with this girl and her emotional roller coaster. He just stood there rubbing her back as she proceeded to make his fur wet with salty water.
She fell asleep on him. He sighed in exasperation gently levitating himself up and flying to their room which he managed to open with his toes and lay her gently on the bed and got out from under her by taking his smallest form and wiggling out. This didn't work well. True to what he had said earlier Louise was clingy in bed and he was now completely crushed up against her. Still sleeping her head nodded down and kissed him on the top of the head. He felt... energy pour into his body and felt himself falling, downwards and deep... into Louise?
He landed softly and comfortably on... water... there were glittering lights everywhere that reminded Saito of the whole surrealness of his own inner world. Where his was an absence of noise to the point that what was relevant was all that could be heard Louise's was filled with light glittering absolutely everywhere.
"I feel like I'm in one of those nightmarish vampire books." He noted wandering around. Unlike his own inner place that was almost totally silent this place was throbbing with life. Suddenly something... strange rose up in front of him. It was just a silhouette pure darkness where no sound or sparkles came from. For some reason Saito knew this was an aspect of Louise he was strangely now in contact with.
"Oh no! Just look at yourself! I needed the Gandalfr not some rabbit elf!" it said walking around him and he crossed his arms and glared at it.
"And what the hell are you and how do you know I'm not this Gandalfr thing? I don't know my species so that could be it."
"No, no, no! The Gandalfr is a person not a thing! Human, male warrior, any bells does this ring?" It asked insultingly as Saito started to look at this thing like it was crazy. Seriously it was talking in rhymes.
"And just what are you?"
"What I am is of no import. Especially to the animal sort."
"Hey I'm human you dipstick!" he shouted and it looked him all over quickly.
"Strange race of men this be, for them to be entirely furry..."
"I was changed into something else but I was human halfway through the summons."
"Perhaps you are, perhaps you aren't. The question is can you play the part? But where to start?"
"You need to stop rhyming, you're not good at it."
"As arrogant as they this creature is. But yet to prove a man 'tis."
"And why do I have to prove anything to you? Can you get me human form back? Could you send me back to Earth?"
"Earth! As the element of the hearth? Or the world so very far yet near? Both another time and another place, the distance is queer."
"The world. I come from the country of Japan." He said and it soured up to him to stare him in the eyes, he felt it poking around in his mind and before he could chase it out it left.
"The truth it spoke. It has courage and many other things of note. The old ways stay true within their time. But as the rivers change the bell will chime. A new age dawns as four they are. Servants to great masters near and far. The final servant shall be you! A new form to Gandalfr brave and true! In my duty a mistake this may be. For I cannot imagine thy destiny. It is of war the winds tell and upon that note; I wish you well." It said quickly and a glowing set of runes appeared on Saito's hand as an eyebrow shot up.
"Wait what the hell is going on?"
"As the clock turns, the times will have many different yerns. To suit the day, adjustments cannot be far away. I small gift I gave to you. So that through strife you are led strong and true. When you find yourself bereaved upon every side, my gift will let you darken the sky. Our business must be forgotten yes that is true, it was a pleasure meeting you." It said and instantly Saito woke up.
-/What the hell was that?/- he thought completely confused. -/Ah fuck it./- he thought and fell asleep again the memories of the... thing already locked up.
"AHHHAACK! I SLEPT ALL OF THE DAY AWAY!" Louise screamed the next morning, and there was hysterical laughter just outside her room door as Saito tried to sort his own head out.
They rushed out the moment Louise was done preparing and they made it towards the stage and breathed a sigh of relief to see the piano there. Apparently some students were using it so that a dog could dance to it. She wasn't very good. Louise walked up to Mr. Colbert and asked him if Saito could go next which he nodded to. A few moments later as the girl left the stage with a smattering of applause. Saito was carried onto stage by Louise and followed his instruction with him promising up and down that it would be worth it.
She set him on the bench and he quickly expanded into his adult form, he gave the audience a quick look and began to play Moonlight Sonata. He went through the familiar notes not really noticing the sudden silence that had just plain fallen over the crowd. They thought they were getting animals doing silly little tricks and maybe a dragon showing off that yes it can breathe fire but not a piano recital. What really caught them off guard though was the fact that they actually really liked it and the silence was baited as he just comfortably went through the notes. When he got to the pause in the middle applause started up. He tried to shush them so he could keep going but...
An explosion rang out as one of the towers began to sway. Saito frowned and looked up to it. "Excuse me." He said jumping up and soaring around the academy to get a better look orange energy leaping into his hand as he did so. It was a huge bulk man made of earth and stone with a woman riding on its shoulder they were just turning away so Saito took aim and like the marksman he wasn't missed the woman by a hair. The golem swung around and backhanded the already damaged wall sending debris to the crowd and stage. He gathered another shot and shattered a couple boulders to pebbles and grit but missed one heading right for the stage.
"Louise!" he breathed before flying towards her as fast as he could and grabbing onto her not really noticing that he had gone through the stage without breaking it or even touching it and was now a safe fifty feet from it. They watched as all earth and wind mages present did what they could to keep the tower upright as the thief stomped away. He could only stare wide eyed as he realized that the now shredded and mangled grand piano was exactly were Louise was standing a few seconds ago. He only absently noted the terrified girl clutching him like a lifeline.
Author's notes
I'm sorry if the end feels a little rushed or half assed but my Christmas 'vacation' starts today and I'm so stressed out, high strung and just plain not ready that I'm afraid of standing up because I'm not sure if my legs can hold me. And I still have a ton to do.