Chapter 8: The Bonding

It only took Harry a minute to retrace his path back down the slope to his cottage. Surprisingly Elder Zhenwei was there when he arrived. From the look the Elder gave him Harry was under the assumption the Elder was there to oversee his Bonding.

"Well get in here. Its not every day you get to see the hatching of a Dragon Viper. Why its been close to 50 years since I was last able to witness it myself."

Harry could only nod at the Elder as he spoke. Subconsciously Harry headed straight for the Cultivation chamber. He wasn't sure what drove him there but he followed what his instincts told him to do. He only saw the Elder nod approvingly as he began to enter.

As he sat on the meditation pad in the Center of the room the Elder looked around before giving a slight nod and beginning to walk around to each of the sconces in the room. He left something in each one before moving on to the next. As he walked he began to talk.

"You know when I first heard about you I had my doubts. All I had heard is that some young Initiate had been making waves down on the first peak. Oh we have had plenty of those before. Some were from other sects wanting to find out some of our secrets and some were just as they looked young geniuses. I figured you were likely one of those and almost did not want to allow you to take the test just yet. Give you a little more time to show your true colors." He reached the final sconce and suddenly each one seemed to burst into a white blue glow. The Qi consentration skyrocketed higher than Harry had ever felt before. The Elder just grinned. "Then the Great Mother mentioned you. I have heard her speak of those she has seen before and every last time she has spoken what she sees comes to pass. She is the reason this Sect is considered one of the Great sects. So please do make sure you keep up the good work."

The Elder quickly stopped walking around the room and stood dirrectly in the doorway so as not to disrupt the flow of Qi that seemed to be surging into the room. The egg Harry held in his hand almost seemed to undulate back and forth under Harry's touch. For Harry himself the extreme concentration of Qi in the air seemed to weigh down on him. His Qi which he had been unconsciously circulating in fits seemed to smooth under the extra weight. The flow he had so much trouble with seemed to sooth and Harry for the first time since reaching the 5th stage of the Core Foundation realm began to feel his Qi flow smoothly.

As his Qi flow harmonized the egg in his hand began to split. At first a small slit appeared in the egg before a moment later a second slit appeared. Within 3 minutes the Egg had about 5 small slits all over the top of the eggshell. Then slowly a small nose poked itself out of the egg. The nose seemed to be almost a solid dark brown color lacking any green visible the Horns which the older serpents had at least small spikes of were no where to be seen.

Slowly the small Dragon Viper pulled itself out of its shell curling itself into Harry's warm palm. The serpent was short at what looked to be only about 20 cm in length. It couldn't have been larger than Harry's index finger in diameter. Harry while looking at the small thing could only feel his Qi thrum as he himself broke into the 6th realm of Core Foundation.

After about 15 minutes of resting in Harry's palm the small viper turned and looked up at Harry's face in what he could only describe as the smallest squeakiest voice he had ever heard the snake spoke. "Hello" Harry felt his heart warm at the words and all he could do was reply in kind. This might have been a mistake as the young hatchling decided to imdiatly start babbling about meeting a speaker. This of coarse confused Harry as the little snake had just hatched and as such should never have heard about that before. Of coarse he had to ask how it knew anything about speakers and what followed filled a lot of holes Harry had in the gaps in his knowledge.

"Oh I know all about speakers from my ancestors. When we are hatched we come out with all sorts of little bits of information. Like I know about Speakers and I know how rare they are. I know how to cultivate by myself without anyone around telling me what to do. I also know that when I get chosen by my partner we can bond and we will be friends forever and ever. Oh I hope I get to be partners with someone like you. Do you think I will? Do you?" The little snake just rambled on and on in quick tiny squeaks. Harry couldn't help but smile widely as they spoke. His grin grew even wider at the last question.

"I don't know I mean I was supposed to bond with someone today." Harry couldn't help but smile widely at this. "I mean I was even given their egg to hold onto until they hatched."

The little viper seemed to grow sad at this. They seemed to be so downcast by the thought but perked up at a thought. "Well do you know someone nice I could bond with?"

Harry couldn't help but chuckle before asking a rather obvious question.

"I told you I was given an egg that my partner would come out of. Where do you think that egg is now?"

It seemed confused for a moment before looking around and checking Harry carefully for a moment. It seemed even more confused when it turned out Harry didn't have any egg. Then as if a lightbulb went off in the small snakes mind it turned slowly toward the egg shell it had come from just a few moments before. Harry this time couldn't help but burst out into small childish giggles. When it turned back and looked at Harry he could see amazement in the eyes of the small reptile.

"I got chosen to bond with you? I got chosen to bond with you!" It almost seemed to be doing a small dance as it wiggled back and forth on Harry's arm. "Yay! Oh oh wait you wanna bond now? Its supposed to make us SUPER strong if we bond early but my venom is super strong when I am realy small... though with you being a speaker it shouldn't be to bad I guess. So you wanna bond now? Do yah? Can we?"

It was super hyper at the thought of bonding with Harry and he couldn't fault it. He was starting to get infected with its hyperness and was about ready to just agree but before he did he had to ask a question.

"By the way I gotta ask. Are you a boy or a girl Dragon Viper? I keep calling you it in my head and I don't like that. Also my names Harry."

"Oh sorry I got super excited but I'm a girl... I don't have a name yet we normally either pick our own or our partner picks one for us. I think that's not quite clear in my memories. But I supposed you can name me if you want Harry." The little snake had a small grin on her face at this. She really seemed like she would love to have a name given to her.

Harry for his part couldn't think of suitible name until a flash of memory passed through his mind as though he had forgotten it long ago. It showed a weird greasy black haired man in weird black robes with a older man in really bright purple robes. Standing across from them was his Aunt Petunia and they seemed to be arguing back and forth.

"I will not continue to have my sisters hellspawn do this stuff in my house. Fix it or you can take it away."

"That's not really necissary my dear I am sure we can fix this right up and he won't have any more outbursts. You won't even know its going on I promise. Severus I will handle the block you erase his memory of this would you?"

The black haired man spoke before he turned toward Harry at. "Lily would be so ashamed of you Petunia. Obliviate."

The memory cut at that almost as if he had been knocked unconscious at the word but the name the man had spoken triggered a older even deeper memory. He remembered a time when he was just a baby being held by a woman with bright red hair and eyes that he could remember seeing every time he looked in a mirror. He remembered a man that looked almost just like him speaking to her and calling her Lily. A tear fell down his cheek remembering his parents.

His mind snapped back to the present just a moment had passed but the young snake could tell something had happened and tried to console the teary eyed boy. Harry had all sorts of names running through his mind for a moment but the flower names seemed to really stick. Through several his mind rolled some he outright refused such as Petunia. Some names just seemed to long like chrysanthemum. Suddenly his mind went to something he saw recently. Just a few weeks ago when he was going through his body purification the Lotus flowers that were in bloom in the little pond one of the waterfalls led to.

"I do think I have a name for you. Meilian. I thought for while and remembered my mothers family loved to name their children after flowers. Or I think they do at least both my mom and my aunt was named after them. Then I remembered a beautiful Lotus blossom from nearby and I felt the name just clicked."

The newly named Meilian just seemed to preen at the new name before turning up and looking at Harry. "Then I shall be named Meilian and I am looking forward to being your friend forever Harry."

Harry could only smile while the small snake opened their fanged mouth and bit down directly on the vein running through his wrist.

Harry of coarse had been expecting this. He had been expecting pain and the loss of control he saw from all the other Initiates that went through this same process. The problem was no one spoke of exactly the amount of pain he could expect and he didn't think anything anyone said to him would have even prepared him for the pain he felt rage through his veins. Harry had survived a lot in his short live. Untold numbers of beatings where the only thing that kept him alive was his absurd levels of Qi. None of those even came close to the pain he felt now.

He could feel every pump of his heart as the venom coursed through his veins deeper and deeper into his body. Each heartbeat felt like it took what could have been seconds minutes or even days. Harry wasn't sure. By the time it reached his heart he was sure this would kill him. Then the venom shifted into his Qi Channels and a new level of pain emerged. It raged through his body he could feel as it devoured his network only to seconds later do it again and again and again. When it passed through his channels it felt like they melted and burnt but after the venom passed them Harry could feel his channels reform stronger than before with something extra seeming to be left behind.

This torment continued on hour after hour day after day year after year. Harry was sure he would die of old age before this venom finally killed him. Finally the venom finished spreading through his body. How he was still alive he wasn't sure but he could feel it heading to one last place his Core. All the venom converged it had completed its trek through his body devouring everything and just his Core remained strong. As it reached his Core it began to devour. Qi began to be consumed by this ball of venom. The venom growing in size as it burnt away at his cultivation. Just as the Venom was about to eat the last of his Qi it seemed to stop. The venom slowed leaving just a fraction of the Qi behind and then it began to disperse throughout his channels.

This time the spread seemed slow though it also didn't hurt slowly almost as if it was saving it the venom began to surround his last small drop of Qi. Slowly the Qi seemed to meld into the venom and the venom turned from a sickly green to the most amazing shade of teal. The teal coloring traveled back through his channels until they circled his entire body it then traveled through his body converting every spec of Qi and venom left behind into the amazing teal color before finally reaching the point where Meilian had bitten him.

The change didn't stop. Harry could sense the team energy travel up her fangs and into her body. The energy flowed through her quickly as if searching but it came up empty. He could instantly feel that she had not yet even broken through to the first level of Body Tempering and this energy wanted to correct that. It pulsed through his body into her fangs and into her body instantly pushing her Body into the first stage of Body Tempering. Harry then felt as Meilian's body began to dissolve leaving a small tattoo on his arm. Her being though melded into his channels and settled into his core.

Suddenly as if the pain had been just a dream Harry snapped awake. The pain he was sure he had just felt faded into a hazy memory that seemed to fade away. Meilian was apologizing profusely which Harry noticed was inside his own head. Around him it seemed less than 5 minutes had passed as Elder Zhenwei was still standing there watching him. The Qi around them still heavy and thick though a moment later it seemed to begin to pull into his body. When he looked inside he realized Meilian had started her own cultivation and that had started his cultivation in turn.

Meilain seemed amazed as she cultivated inside him as she quickly seemed to fly through the first 4 stages of Body Tempering in just a few moments. Harry could tell why as all the Qi outside of his body that just a few moments ago had been very thick had considerably thinned out.

"Well it seems everything went perfectly if she is already cultivating."The Elder smiled brightly. "Take good care of little Meilain I am sure you two will be the pride of our sect soon enough." He then turned to leave but not before Harry got his attention.

"By the way Elder. What were those things you put in those things in the corners." Elder Zhenwei grinned at the boy at this question.

"Spirit Stones. They are stones of pure crystallized Qi. They are fairly rare when they are mined out of the ground but they can be found easily enough from Spirit beasts that have at least passed into the Core Foundation realm. We will give each Disciple 4 when they first bond to allow the two partners plenty of Qi to merge properly. Now you two enjoy them they are only low grade stones so shouldn't last more than another 10 to 15 minutes."

Harry could only nod as the Elder turned and finally left his small cottage behind. Meilian was still cultivating away inside his core. Harry turning himself inward assisted her by speeding up his on rotation. He and Meilian had a long night ahead of themselves.