This chapter contains the third scene I worked on since starting the story. One of the benefits of writing non-chronologically is I get to work on important scenes early. The disadvantage is that I end up doing more rewriting because circumstances change based on how earlier chapters go.

The title exists, you-know-who is making an appearance. Frankly, I hate the guy. I wrote him based on what was implied in the anime, rather than what was seen, but I kept it toned down because I like keeping my stories in a certain rating. If I wrote Count Mott realistically, this story would jump straight to rated M. (And frankly, I don't want to write that type of content)

Normally, Tobias wouldn't mind being doted on. He had missed a lot of the luxuries of childhood, and a second chance to be pampered wasn't something he would turn down easily.

However, when all he wanted was to get away for five minutes to heal himself, the watching eye of someone who deeply cared for his wellbeing was more harm than help.

Tobias, to his misfortune, had fallen asleep before Louise the night before. And when he had awoken, Louise was already awake and dressed for the day, sitting at his bedside once again. In fact, for all he knew, she might have slept in the chair in her clothes, or not slept at all.

When the time for breakfast rolled around, Tobias thought that he would have a chance to take some time to himself. However, to his surprise, a familiar maid delivered breakfast to him and Louise. When Louise had to go to class, she instructed the maid to keep an eye on Tobias and monitor the progress of his health. With a watching eye over him and a lack of mobility, this left Tobias with little options in regard to his morphing. Even when he went to the bathroom, he couldn't take the risk that the maid would hear the cracking and squelching of bones and muscles rearranging. Plus, if he fell over due to biological rearrangement in mid-morph, he was worried that the door would be busted open in an attempt to "assist" him.

"I never got to properly thank you," the maid said demurely as she stood to the side of the bed and watched the boy eat. "You saved me back there."

"…It was nothing," Tobias said awkwardly. Being carefully watched while he ate was a no-no as a hawk, and the discomfort lingered in him even as a human. The topic of the conversation—if it could be called that—was also not helping matters.

"If it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have been bedridden," the maid said in a trembling voice. "I can never repay you for that."

Tobias sighed quietly. He really wished that he could tell her to leave, but with Louise's orders and the maid's guilty conscience, he doubted it would be that easy. "I didn't do anything for payment," he said. "Just do whatever you normally do and try to stay away from the pompous peacock until he forgets the incident, okay?" While he didn't look up from his meal, Tobias caught the sound of a stifled giggle when he referred to Guiche by the undignified nickname.

The maid nodded and bowed low. "I will take your advice, Mister Familiar."

"Tobias."

The maid looked up. "I beg your pardon?" she asked.

"My name's Tobias, not Mister Familiar," Tobias said, raising his eyes to meet hers. "And please stand up, you don't have to bow to me."

"But I can't be disrespectful to you, Mister Tobias!"

Tobias groaned loudly, not even bothering to hide it. It was annoying that most people treated him like a kid—which, given his underdeveloped thirteen-year-old body, was understandable—but this girl was treating him like some kind of savior. At this point, Tobias wasn't sure which was worse.

"Tobias," he stressed as emphatically as he could. "I am not a mister; I'm not that old." Technically, he was twenty, going on twenty-one, so the title was accurate, but the girl didn't need to know that. "Yeesh, now I know how Jake felt when Ax insisted on calling him Prince," Tobias muttered under his breath.

"You know a prince?"

At this point, Tobias was just hoping an alien spaceship would smash through the wall and save him from the conversation. In the past three and a half years before he was summoned, he had spoken to less than a dozen people, half of which he had known for years. He was up a creek without a paddle when it came to navigating conversations, let alone dealing with friendly and overly polite teenaged girls.

"Of sorts," Tobias replied vaguely. "And I don't know how it works here, but where I come from, normally people exchange names when they are introduced."

"My apologies, Mi—Tobias," the maid corrected herself. "My name is Siesta, and I will be serving you during your time of recovery."

Tobias sighed. "Don't get too comfortable," he warned. "I heal pretty fast."

"Yes, I believe I heard you yesterday saying you'd be fine after a good night's rest." It was only because Tobias's own tone was usually deadpan that he managed to catch the sarcastic tinge in Siesta's voice.

Tobias sighed again and pushed away the tray of food he had been eating. Honestly, the meal proportions that nobles took were just wasteful. "I'll be fine when I can get some good rest," he insisted.

Judging by the amused look on the maid's face, she didn't believe him.

Siesta picked up the tray and started to walk away. Tobias thought he would finally get a moment to himself, but instead the maid set the tray on the table before moving to stand by his side. Tobias waited several moments to see if she would do anything else, but she continued to stand there, watching him with a concerned but somehow tranquil expression on her face. It was starting to make him strangely uncomfortable.

"You aren't going to return that to the kitchen?" Tobias finally asked.

Siesta shook her head. "I have been ordered to remain at your side until Miss Valliere returns from her lessons," she explained.

"When did she say that?"

"I believe you were still sleeping. You looked like you were having a nightmare."

"Huh." At least he hadn't been morphing in his sleep. He hadn't done it before, but he was going through a lot of firsts right now. Instinctual sleep morphing wouldn't be the craziest thing to happen in the past two days.

"Don't you get tired of standing?" Tobias asked out of curiosity.

Siesta gave him a soft smile. "Maids are trained to remain standing at attention for as long as needed," she assured him.

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should," Tobias said with a grunt. "Grab a chair and sit down."

"Is that an order?"

"If it'll convince you to get off your feet, then yes."

After several painfully slow days, Tobias was finally was allowed to wander around on his own. He had managed to subtly accelerate his recovery by partially morphing while under the sheets of the bed. The healing process was much slower than Tobias would have liked, but it took the worst of the pain away and helped him maintain his image of being a normal human.

In hindsight, attempting to morph away his injuries immediately had been a bad idea that would have blown his cover immediately. Tobias assumed the pain had robbed him of some of his common sense. Or he was starting to get too relaxed in his new environment. Both were viable and not mutually exclusive reasons.

The time of rest had given Tobias plenty of time to get used to the constant presence of Louise and Siesta. Louise was mostly focused on her studies, but occasionally used him to vent her frustrations about the day. From those one-sided conversations, he learned that Louise had been bullied during her entire time at the academy. The little she said about her home life made him believe that her family wasn't much better. He also learned more about how society was structured. Nobles were mages, and magic was considered a gift from their "founder god", so they felt justified ruling over normal people. Sometimes, Louise admitted, the nobles ruled unfairly, but the young mage insisted that system was optimal despite the occasional flaws.

Siesta gave Tobias perspective into peasant life. While commoners were disgruntled by the corrupt nobility, rule by mage nobles was the accepted way of life. It wasn't as if the common folk could overturn the hierarchy anyway, as a single line class mage could effortlessly defeat twenty trained commoner soldiers—or so it was said; Tobias vehemently disagreed based on his own combat experiences.

Not only would a peasant's revolt be suicidal, but it was also unlikely to make things better in the long run. In Albion—a country that was said to drift across the sky—there already was a terrible war to overthrow the ruling monarchy. From the limited information going around, the "insurgents" were winning, but it was a bloody fight that was harming innocent people across the country. Even if the war was won, it would leave the country with precious few mages for military and domestic utility.

While the news was delivered somberly, Tobias found morbid relief from it. Wars and senseless violence were still around as usual. It almost made him feel like he was on Earth again.

Tobias sighed, kicking his legs idly off the raised ledge by the cafeteria. Classes were over. Louise was doing homework. He finally had time to himself. However, he had already flown around the academy, surveyed the nearby roads, and scouted a few potential morphing spots. For the first time in what felt like years, Tobias was bored. And to make matters worse, he couldn't idly fly around without running the risk of losing track of time. For the sake of not tempting fate, he remained grounded in his human body.

In the corner of his eyes, Tobias spotted the familiar raven-colored hair of Siesta. Surprisingly, in this world where natural hair could be every conceivable color of the rainbow, Siesta was one of the few people he had found with solid black locks, making her very easy to spot at any distance. The young lady was surprisingly not clad in her usual work attire. Instead, she was dressed in a pale yellow and tan dress on top of a white blouse with puffy sleeves. In her hands was a small brown suitcase. She turned her head towards the Academy's central tower with a look of longing.

Tobias casually waved a hand, catching her eye. Siesta briefly waved back with a smile that did not reach her eyes before walking away. Tobias could spy a carriage near the entrance, an unfamiliar symbol etched on its doors. Siesta entered the carriage, but not before turning to turning to Tobias and giving him one last smile.

Tobias sat as still as stone as he watched her leave. To the untrained eye, it looked like she was giving him a simple goodbye. But Tobias knew that resigned expression anywhere. It wasn't "goodbye".

It was "goodbye".

As the carriage pulled away, Tobias let a hiss escape his teeth. His eyes shifted, taking in the area and identifying the closest target who could answer his questions. Spotting a brunette maid preparing tables for whatever nobles called their afternoon snack, he called out, "You there! Do you know where is Seista going?"

The young woman didn't look startled by his abrupt demand, probably due to working while surrounded by pampered nobles. However, she did pause a moment when she noticed he wasn't wearing a mage's robes. Tobias's current outfit was something Siesta picked out: a thick cotton shirt that was baggy at the arms but otherwise fit nicely, and a pair of baggy brown trousers. She had also provided him with boots, but Tobias preferred to keep his feet bare when he wasn't accompanying Louise to classes. The ensemble was a commoners' attire, but Tobias held himself in a way that made it clear he was not a servant.

Recovering, the maid replied, "Siesta's contract was bought by Count Mott, Mr. Familiar. She'll be working at his estate now."

Count Mott was not a name Tobias was familiar with. He wasn't even sure what a count was. All he knew was it was some sort of noble title, which that meant whoever the guy was, he had some level of authority. Still, something did not seem right. Tobias's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by him buying her contract?"

"He has purchased her current contract of employment from the Academy and transferred it to himself."

"So quickly?" Tobias pressed. He had seen Siesta only the day before, and he was certain that she had looked completely normal. The expression in her eyes would be hard to conceal from some as perceptive as himself.

"The count spent the greater part of the morning here scouting out a new hire," the maid explained. "The contract was finalized by lunchtime, but she was given a few hours to pack her things."

"But transferring a contract shouldn't be that simple," Tobias argued. "It sounds more like he was buying a pet, not hiring a person!"

"The nobility has the right to our service," the maid said forlornly.

That sounded ominous. Tobias pushed himself off the ledge, his feet landing on the courtyard grass. "Is she in danger?" he asked curtly.

The maid hesitated. "She will be treated well as long as she remains in Count Mott's service," she said carefully.

Tobias strode forward with frosty expression on his face. "Speak plainly," he ordered. "Save the tact for someone who cares."

Once more, the maid hesitated, but with Tobias's frigid glare piercing into her, she quickly yielded. "The Count is known to take many maids, use them as he wishes, and cast them out when he tires of them," she explained in a bitter tone. "He is not especially cruel, but he is not kind either. A lecher who values himself over the people he is supposed to protect."

Upon hearing this, Tobias closed his eyes. After several seconds, he opened them. His glare had softened, but face was resolute. "I apologize for scaring you earlier," he said in calm, oddly detached voice. "You have been very helpful."

"Thank you, Mister Familiar—"

"Tobias," the boy cut her off immediately. "No Mister. No Sir. I don't even know how you knew I was a familiar, but that is not my name either. Got it?"

To his surprise, the brunette maid smiled at his curt words. "Siesta spoke highly of you, Tobias," she replied. "She also informed the staff of your preferences, but old habits are hard to break, I'm afraid. My name is Anne, and I've worked closely with Siesta." She looked at him curiously. "Do you plan to request for her return?"

"Something like that. Do you know how to get to this count's place?"

Anne pointed to the front gate. "Travel on the northeast road. His territory borders the academy, but it will take at least two hours by horseback to reach his manor."

"And the carriage will travel slower than horseback, correct?"

"That is correct," she confirmed. "But I would still advise haste. Count Mott likes to 'break in' the new maids once night falls, which won't be long after Siesta arrives."

"Got it."

Anne stepped away as Tobias's eyes gained a deadly glint. While she was relieved that Siesta stood a chance of being rescued, the boy's face was truly unnerving. She was expecting him to ask his master to repurchase Siesta's contract—since that would be the simplest solution—but the expression on Tobias's face was borderline murderous.

Up in Louise's room, the young mage was hard at work on her studies. The past few days she had been distracted by her familiar's condition, which had resulted in her grades starting to slip. Thankfully, Tobias's boasts about healing fast weren't as empty as they first sounded. The healers at the Water Tower had predicted several weeks of recovery with regular visits to make sure everything was healing properly. To everyone's surprise, her familiar had lost his limp within two days. In less than a week, the physicians concluded that he was fully healed, as if the injuries had never occurred in the first place. Such potent healing wasn't beyond the effects of talented healers and powerful elixirs, but Tobias had recovered with only mundane treatment and a few days of rest.

Her familiar was a constant mystery to Louise. He always looked so serious, but he teased her frequently. And when he teased her, it wasn't like the biting words of her classmates, aimed to take her down. Instead, he poked at her stoic shell and backed away when she became upset. It was… nice. She couldn't explain it, but his attitude put her at ease. Except when he looked into her eyes with his usual pointed glare. His expression gave no clear emotion, but there was something unnerving about his eyes. The glare that pierced into her very soul almost reminded Louise of her mother's disapproving stare.

Speaking of her mother, Louise had kept the details sparse when she had last written home. She had mentioned summoning a peculiar familiar, but had not elaborated further. She also had not informed her mother of Guiche's actions against Tobias. Her mother was known for having a terrible temper, so Headmaster Osmond had advised Louise and Guiche to settle the affair at the academy, lest they extend their conflict to the Gramont and Valliere houses.

Louise had originally planned to have Guiche pay for Tobias's costs for recovery, but with her familiar's ridiculous healing rate, that was no long necessary. There was plenty of space to extort more finances from Guiche to fund the care of her familiar, but Louise wanted to spend her own money on Tobias. She didn't want it to appear that she couldn't take of her familiar's basic necessities like food and clothing. So, she left Guiche on hold, declaring that she would make a reasonable request in time. At this point, she was considering asking Tobias for advice, as she was out of ideas, and he was the one who had been harmed in the first place.

The sound of the door suddenly swinging open startled Louise from her thoughts, causing the girl to jump from her seat. In the process, her knee banged against the table, knocking over her inkwell. A black puddle spread over her parchment and across the table. Her familiar walked inside quickly, his normally stern eyes tightened even further than usual.

"Louise?"

The girl in question was currently trying to wipe off an ink stain that was now dripping onto the front of her dress. "You better have a good reason to come barging in her and interrupt my work!" she said crossly. "Just look at my homework! Now I have to do it all over again. And my dress is ruined!"

Tobias didn't consider ruined homework to be very important, but then again, even when he had been a student, he hadn't put a lot of effort into his education. Clothes were equally dismissible. "Do you know about a man named Count Mott?" he asked, not bothering to address Louise's concerns.

"Ugh, don't even mention his name," Louise said in blatant distaste. "That man is a disgrace to nobles everywhere. If it wasn't for his family name, he wouldn't have territory anywhere near the Capital or the Academy."

"So he's bad news," Tobias concluded.

"Jules de Mott is lecherous cretin who makes Guiche look almost saintly," Louise spat. "He's decently competent as a triangle class water mage and governor, but that's where his positive traits end. It's no wonder that no noble family has been willing to offer their daughter's hand in marriage to him. I hear he settles for hiring whores to fulfill his desires. Disgusting."

"I see."

Tobias's normally flat toned was now heavily laced with something else. "Why do you ask?" Louise asked, suddenly suspicious.

Tobias shrugged. "I just heard about him from one of the maids," he replied vaguely. "Apparently he visited the academy this morning to find a new hire."

Louise made a sympathetic face. "I pity the poor girl who he hired," she said sincerely.

"Would there be a way to undo the hiring?" Tobias asked.

"Not unless he decided he didn't want her services anymore," Louise said with a sigh. "And then the Headmaster would have to hire the maid again. The process is too complicated for anyone to take their time to do anything about it."

"A pity," said Tobias blandly. "Would it be wrong if a guy like him died in a ditch somewhere?"

Louise made an exasperated sigh. Her familiar was stubborn in his insistence in using morbid terminology. She'd have to correct that habit. "That man is a disgrace to nobility," she finally said. "I don't appreciate his existence, but that does not mean you should say things that could be interpreted poorly. Remember, your words and actions reflect on me as your master."

"And saying or doing the wrong thing would get you in trouble, correct?"

"Exactly," Louise said with a pleased nod. "So be careful when you're out in public, understood?"

"I understand," said Tobias. "Thank you for the advice." He stepped out and closed the door, leaving as abruptly as he entered.

"Advice?" Louise echoed. She moved towards the door, but then remembered the stain still spreading on her clothes. "Stupid, Tobias," Louise grumbled as she started to take of her ruined clothes. "Making a mess and running off. The nerve of him!"

Tobias flew to Count Mott's territory. Horses were faster than carriages, but hawks were far faster than horses. Technically, he was taking a risk flying out in the open. He had seen owls at night and other raptors flying over the forest by day, but he had yet to see a red-tail hawk in particular. Despite the risk, Tobias felt it was worth the speed.

He reached Siesta's carriage in roughly half an hour. The girl was the only occupant, with a driver and a single guard sitting outside on the front part of the carriage. The defense was skimpy for an escort, but Tobias figured that the distance between the Academy and the mansion was small enough to not fear thieves and robbers, especially with the spires of the capital poking out over the tree line.

Satisfied that Siesta was safe for now, Tobias pulled ahead and flew towards Count Mott's manor as fast as he could. While the roads winded around the thickest parts of the trees, Tobias was able to skip twists and bends and fly in a direct line as long as he could see where the road led. Sure enough, he eventually came across the Count's manor.

'Who builds a small castle so close to a national academy, let alone literal freaking capital?' Tobias mentally asked himself.

The manor, if it could be called that, was massive. The bottom half resembled the base of stone roman cathedral, while the top half was designed like a mansion from the 19th century. The design was odd and flatulent, which was complimented by the high stone walls that surrounded the property and the shapely trimmed trees and bushes. If Tobias didn't know better, he would assume that the designer of the property had slapped together as many interpretations of "fancy" as possible and called it a design worthy of an egotistic noble.

Before scouting the manor properly, Tobias took a few minutes to change into a raven morph. While he had personal distaste for the creatures, they were more commonplace than red-tail hawks, which would make it easier for him to avoid being noticed.

Previously, Tobias had attempt to morph from red-tail hawk to another morph as an experiment, but found that he could not. Somehow, his base form had been reset to human. He had assumed as much when he had first noticed his morphing ability, but he had held hope that he might have gained the ability to morph freely. Tobias wasn't sure how Louise had managed to do it—especially since she didn't even know about his morphing abilities—but ultimately decided to take the cards he was dealt. After all, with all of the variables to consider, there was no way he would figure out that mystery.

While flying overhead as a raven, Tobias took note of the number of guards and where they patrolled. They tended to stay in pairs, and the ones that patrolled the outer wall were accompanied by soot colored dogs with leathery wings. Tobias assumed that the wings were not just for show, so his movement options would be very limited. He took note of the positions of doors and windows that were less likely to be guarded.

Then, he found Count Mott.

Tobias had seen many things growing up that no child nor adult would want to see in their lifetime. And yet, here he was, witnessing a new first that disgusted him. The "maids", if they could be called that, were dressed in outrageously skimpy outfits. Tobias had seen girls wear bikinis that covered more skin than those parodies of a uniform. But it wasn't just the girls' clothes that perturbed Tobias. It was the Count himself.

Tobias had mentally pictured the count to be a pudgy man who used women to compensate for his lack of masculinity. However, the Count was a pretty good-looking guy. Well-kept facial hair, a face that wouldn't look out of place on a celebrity magazine, a fit body; the count had the whole package when it came to physical appearance.

While the Count's physical features came as a surprise, his personality fit the bill. Tobias was disturbed seeing how Mott treated his maids. He would casually paw at one's barely clothed chest with one hand and slap another maid's lace covered posterior with his other. Worse yet were the girls' responses, both verbal and physical. Every grope was usually accompanied by a moan or squeak from the girl being fondled, but there was no pleasure to be heard. Some of the girls maintained an impassive, dutiful expression, but others trembled at Mott's touch and reddened whenever he wasn't looking in their direction.

Tobias had seen enough, and he could hear the sounds of Siesta's carriage pulling up. A quick glance at the sun told Tobias that he had at least an hour before sunset. He carefully considered his options. With the way the Count treated women like toys he could collect and throw away at will, it was unlikely that Tobias would be able to talk him out of having Siesta. And Louise didn't want anything to be traced back to her, so he couldn't afford failing at diplomacy.

Tobias was a person of many morphs, but not so many talents. Surveillance? Easy. Infiltration? Doable. Combat? Been there; done that. Negotiation? Rarely. Very rarely. Normally, he was the silent observer, not a speaker.

Plus, he wasn't feeling all too chatty with pond scum.

Well, desperate times called for desperate measures.

Tobias watched as Siesta was directed into the house. A maid—this one dressed somewhat sensibly—guided the raven haired girl in through a side door. Tobias tracked their movements by the many windows in the manor's halls. The layout let in a lot of light, but it also made it easy to track people inside. This manor was clearly not designed with practicality or safety in mind.

Tobias's eyes followed Siesta as she was directed to a bedroom. Thankfully, the room also had a window to the outside and it was left partially open to let in the cool breeze. Tobias was able to swoop down and perch on the windowsill. He saw Siesta look despondently at a set of black and white clothes lying on the bed in front of her. Tobias didn't need to guess what they were.

Siesta sighed and started to pull up her blouse over her head.

{Siesta.}

The girl finished pulling of her blouse before looking around. Thankfully, the second layer she wore underneath prevented any accidental flashes. "That's strange," the maid said out loud. "I could have sworn I heard Mister Tobias."

{I already told you to call me Tobias,} Tobias grumbled.

The girl jumped with small shriek and looked around frantically. Seeing no one except a bird on her windowsill, she eventually said, "I must be stressed about the transfer, that's it."

{Stop being in denial,} Tobias snapped. {I am here. You're not crazy. If you've finally calmed down, I need you to listen to me.} He was being harsh, and he knew that, but he needed to get the point across.

"Are you speaking through the bird, Tobias?" Siesta asked curiously.

Tobias immediately turned his head away, but the damage was done. He cursed himself for falling into his hawk-like habit of staring at everything he focused on. {Leave the bird alone,} he warned. {I'm speaking to you through your mind. I'm sure Louise already told you I could do this.}

"I thought it was a special master and familiar things," Sista replied. "Wait, can you hear me through the bird? Can you feel through the bird?"

{Stop asking pointless questions and—hey!} He let out a vocal squawk and Siesta poked a finger into his breast. {Don't touch the bird, I'm trying to talk here!}

"Did you make the bird your familiar? Are you a mage too?"

{Focus!} Tobias shouted. He felt ashamed when the girl recoiled, clutching her head. {Sorry, but I don't have time to fool around. When are you supposed to see Count Mott?}

Siesta winced as she fought through the pounding of her head. "After dinner, around eight or so, I think?" she said hesitantly. "The maid who showed me in said that they would come and get me when he was ready."

Not on my watch. Tobias kept that thought inside his own head and projected, {Good, that gives us more time than I thought. Stay put, don't say anything about me, and I'll be back soon.}

"What are you going to do?" Siesta asked.

Tobias stared at her with beady eyes. {Just do what I say and don't cause trouble,} he responded before taking flight.

Well, that wasn't exactly how he expected the conversation to go. The girl was more perceptive than he thought. At least she didn't suspect that he was the bird. Now that would have been a problem.

While Tobias technically had almost two hours to come up with a new plan, he didn't see a need to. What he was about to do was probably the most stupid, reckless, and dangerous thing he'd attempted since he ended up in this strange, magical world. However, he decided to stick with that approach. From the time Tobias had learned of Count Mott's existence, there'd been an itch burning him from the inside out. It was time to act on it.

Still in his raven morph, Tobias flew down to the sill of one of the many windows in the mansion. This window in particular was the closest to the door to Count Mott's… lounge room? Tobias hadn't seen a bed when gazing in through the window, but there had been a couch large enough to double as one. Tobias shook his head. He could wonder about the odd choice of furniture later. Right now he had to think of a good way to get through or around the two guards stationed in front of the Count's door. The design of the manor might have been terrible, but the guard system was rigid enough to make coming through the front entrance seem to be an unnecessary hassle.

Just as Tobias was about to leave to find another route, the younger of the two guards—looking in his early twenties—whispered a question to his companion, "Did you get a look at the new girl?"

The older one—looking at least thirty—gave a low, appreciative whistle. "Sure did. An exotic looking one, she is."

"Any idea where she's from?"

"Balduns if I know. He picked her up from the Academy, so she can't be from too far out."

The younger guard sighed. "Hopefully she's not to the count's liking."

"Why's that?"

A lecherous grin spread across the young man's face. "Wouldn't you like to have a go with her?"

"Pfft, nah," the other snorted. "Give me a noble's bastard daughter and then we'll talk."

The two smothered their laughter as a brunette maid turned to walk down the hallway. Tobias flew away as well. The guards had been unobservant enough to not notice his extended rest, but he didn't want to push his luck.

{Of course, the man would hire people as depraved as himself,} Tobias grumbled to himself. {So far, this world seems somehow worse than mine!}

With devil dogs guarding the ground level and too many people walking through the inside of the building, Tobias decided to morph at the top of the building and work his way down. Despite the existence of flight spells and winged mounts, there were precious few guards stationed at high points in the manor. Count Mott was rather extremely confident in his spread of ground level guards, or he was foolish enough to leave an obvious blind spot in the defenses of his personal estate. Given Louise's opinion of the man, Tobias assumed it to be the latter.

From the roof of the building, Tobias surveyed the positions of all the guards. They were rotating positions, probably for the evening shift, which meant he would have to wait until they were done before he could make a move. That was, unless he wanted to face double the amount of guards.

Tobias remained on the roof, hunched in the shadow of the largest spire so his silhouette wouldn't be illuminated by the sun that was starting to brush the edges of the treetops. Then, he began to morph.

This wasn't a morph he used often. Not for a lack of convivence—it was strong, fast, and deadly—but because it belonged to a sapient creature. As an Animorph, morphing into other sapients was a big no-no. However, the person Tobias had acquired the morph from understood the position he and the other Animorphs were in, and Tobias had been given permission to use the form when he needed it. While he still rarely used it, as he didn't want abuse the generosity, this was the perfect time.

The first change was his height. Tobias normally stood a little over five feet tall, which wasn't bad for a malnourished thirteen-year-old body. Within seconds he was easily seven feet tall, but this was mostly due to his neck suddenly stretching out. His peachy-tan skin became covered in dark brownish-green scales. His head became snake-like, but ended in a beak. His foot shifted to form three fat toes, each ending in sharp, hooked talons. A tail stretched out from his spine, completing the reptilian look.

Then came the blades.

Blades of a distinct forest green hue jutted out from several part's of Tobias's body. One stuck out from the end of his tail, with another emerging slightly further down the tail. From his wrists, elbows, and knees a wicked spike protruded. On his head, two curved blades grew, curving towards Tobias's similarly colored beak.

This was the form of Ket Halpak, one of the first Hork-Bajir the Animorphs had rescued, and the mother of Tobias's goddaughter, Toby.

Hork-Bajir were terrifying creatures in appearance, but were actually docile and naïve. Despite looking like living weapons, they were herbivores who used their blades to latch onto and harvest bark from the towering trees of their planet. They were simple-minded, having the average intelligence of toddler, which made them all to be easy to be captured by the mind enslaving Yeerks.

Tobias shook his reptilian head. Thinking about his old enemies was a distraction. He had to remain focused on the one target he had.

The sun was setting in the direction of Tobias's entry point, so he had to make sure to time his entrance perfectly. After taking one final glance to ensure no one else was looking in his direction, Tobias began scaling down the side of the manor. Most of the building was rock, but a Hork-Bajir's climbing ability was not restricted to using their blades for purchase. His powerful foot muscles were able to hold him steady whenever his talons found a chink in the rock. His clawed hands gave him a similar advantage, allowing him to scale down the stone surface like a malformed spider.

Once Tobias had traveled far enough down, he let himself land on the window's narrow wooden ledge. His talons sank into the wood as his shadow stretched into the room. The eyes of Mott's maids widened in shock and fear.

Tobias jumped in with an unearthly screech. The shattering of the window with the setting sun on his back made his entrance all the more dramatic. The maids screamed in terror, tripping over each other as they bolted to the door. Said door was flung open by the one of the two guards on duty outside, but they were unable to press into the room due to the women trying to escape. At first, they tried pushing through, but when they caught sight of what the women were running from, fear paralyzed them.

"Demon!" shouted one of them before he was shoved aside by one of the fleeing maids.

Tobias screeched again. Now that the maids were clear, he dove towards his target. The count had at first been frozen when he had seen and heard Tobias enter. Now, he was reaching for his wand. Tobias narrowed his eyes. He knew what a spell as simple as levitation could do to stop him in his tracks.

{DIE!} he screamed into Mott's mind as he vocalized a screech. The count faltered, nearly dropping his wand in shock. Tobias swung his tail to lob off the man's wand hand, only to hear a clatter of steel. One of the guards, whose greying hairs revealed his experience, had managed to get between Tobias and his target. The boy-turned-Hork-Bajir snarled and lunged towards the man with both arms. The guard stepped back out of Tobias's grab range, but was unprepared when a powerful kick nailed him between the legs. Hork-bajir legs were longer than their arms, and much stronger too boot.

This delay gave the second guard time to advance with his sword drawn, but when Tobias turned to look him in the eye, the man panicked, dropping his sword and fleeing for his life.

'Coward,' Tobias grumbled in his mind. Still, it made the job easier. Now all he had to due was—

"ARCK!" was the involuntary cry Tobias made when a blast of pressurized water smacked into his chest and carried him to the other side of the room. Survival instincts guided him to leap to the side as an arc of water ripped through the stone that his head had been in front of.

"No monster will be killing me in my own manor!" Count Mott declared as he pointed his wand towards Tobias. "Water Blades!"

Tobias was calling BS on the count's magic as he was forced to jump around the room to dodge a flurry of water crescents. Setting things on fire made sense. Moving around the air made sense. Heck, even puppeteering earth golems made some amount of sense. But summoning and firing pressurized water arcs that could cut through stone from thin air? Where was the logic behind that?

"My lord, the creature is an evasive hunter," the veteran guard warned. Despite the near destruction of his family jewels, the man had managed to remain on his feet and keep a clear head. "If you restrict it's movements, it will lose its greatest asset."

Technically Hork-Bajir were herbivores, but that was a pretty good deduction. Tobias would have given the man props for his excellent combat analytics, if that skill wasn't being used against him!

"That sounds simple enough," said Count Mott. "Water Tendrils!"

Tobias thought dodging arcs of water was annoying, but this was pure madness. From an orb located at the end of the count's wand, six large watery tentacles sprouted forth. Their range was absurd and their coordination was damning. While Tobias was able to dodge the first few grabs, it wasn't long before one managed to nab his leg. Then another grabbed his arm. A swing of his tail cut through the water to free his leg, but he wasn't able to fend off the watery appendages faster than they could latch on to him. Within seconds, Tobias was restrained and hoisted up. A tendril warped around every limb, with the sixth wrapped around his waist.

The guard brandished blade and stepped forward, but the count held up a hand. "I think it is well restrained," Mott said. "I will finish it personally."

"Are you certain, my lord? Even while trapped, we don't know what that thing is capable of."

"True… but I think I've found it's secret weapon." With that, he moved the trendily around Tobias's body to cover his mouth. "When it screamed, I swear I heard a voice telling me to die. I think it's some kind of banshee."

"A bladed lizard banshee?" the guard asked doubtfully.

"Perhaps," the count said idly. "Unfortunately, as much as I would like to keep it as a pet, it seems far too dangerous." A thin blade of ice stretched out from the tendril around Tobias's mouth. "Let me see if I can keep its head intact, at least."

Tobias now regretted leaping directly into action. He should have gone for an ambush, or at least made sure to focus his attention on the mage now standing in front of him. Now he was going to die because he stupidly let his anger cloud his judgement.

No.

He wasn't supposed to die doing something stupid. Hadn't he promised Louise that?

I refuse to die here. Not like this!

Tobias had one trick left in his book. It wasn't something he had tried in combat before. He'd only experiment with it on animals during his time away from society. He didn't know if it would work, but now was a good a time as any to make it happen.

Count Mott grinned as he saw the fury in creature's eyes. "Perfect," he whispered. "That's the expression I want on my trophy."

{I AM NOT YOUR TROPHY!}

The mage stumbled as the shout echoed in his mind. Tobias's bindings fell apart as the count lost concentration on his spell. Desperate not to waste the opportunity, Tobias charged for Mott.

The count raised his wand.

The guard drew his sword.

Tobias relived one of his most physically painful memories.

Thought-speak was a very weird thing. It was generally inferior to the power of telepathy, as it was more of a radio broadcast than a two-way communicator. Additionally, while thought-speak could send pictures and even videos, but it was hard to do. The sender had to consciously hold a memory of what they wanted to project and share it with the receiver. Essentially, projecting anything aside from words was retrieving and replaying memory, something that was hard to do except for simple pictures or easy concepts.

The feeling of nearly dying was something Tobias was very familiar with. Thus, it was easy to relieve one of those memories with the two people before him.

Tobias knew it wasn't real. He knew he wasn't being stabbed in the chest by a Hork-Bajir while in polar bear morph. He also knew that his entire body wasn't littered with painful burns from Dracon Beam fire. However, the memory caused his body to react anyway. Tobias stumbled as his muscles to locked up. Shaking off the numb sensation, he stood to his feet as quickly as he could, and checked to see how his opponents were doing.

Count Mott had fallen to one knee. His wand arm was dragging on the floor, and the other was covering a non-existent hole in his chest. The guard had a pained grimace on his face and was resting heavily on his sword. His limbs quivered as he struggled to rise, but it appeared that he lacked the strength in his legs to move.

Tobias lunged with his tail, intent on ending this fight as quickly as possible.

Count Mott, though some force of sheer will or a moment of panic, reflexively cast a spell just before Tobias's tail spike buried into his throat. Tobias retracting his tail violently, sending a spray of blood careening over the wall and floor.

A hiss escaped Tobias's teeth when he realized that the Count's last-ditch spell had frozen the water on the floor. The sudden freeze had not covered everywhere, but the epicenter wasn't far from where Tobias was standing. One bird-like foot came out of the ice easily enough, but the other was frozen halfway to the calves.

The guard, seeing his lord now dead, fell back. That ended up saving his life, as Tobias's tail snapped through the space the guard's head had previously occupied. Tobias lunged again, but his tail was barely able to craze the guard's armored shin. The man was unable to rise to his feet, but he was able to pick up his sword and kept it between himself and Tobias. His hands shook and his eyes threatened to burst from their sockets, but he was alive and conscious.

The sounds of shouts and armored footsteps were echoing through the open door. Tobias knew he had to get out of there fast, but he couldn't risk morphing out of the ice with someone watching him. This left one other option. 'This is going to suck,' Tobias mentally grumbled.

Tobias lashed his tail forward to intimidate the guard while straining his partially frozen leg as much as he could. With a swift fwick, his tail blade amputated the lower half of his leg.

The guard was surprised by the move, and that gave Tobias the opening he needed. The pain was too much for Tobias to make an accurate killing strike, so he pushed off with his good leg and tackled the guard. The guard's sword came between them, but that didn't stop the Animorph. Tobias's blood dribbled to the floor from where the sword struck him in the chest, but the injury wasn't fatal. The wristblade that sank into the guard's neck, however, was.

Tobias let out a pained hiss as he pulled the sword out of his body. Normally, impaled objects were supposed to be left alone until the wound could be treated. Otherwise, the injured person would risk dying due to blood loss. However, morphing changed that dynamic. Tobias had to get away as soon as possible to morph out the injury, and a sword in his gut would not only slow him down, but it would make it impossible to properly heal during the morphing process.

Blood spilled from Tobias's fingers as he covered the wound with one hand and leapt out through the broken window. He could hear the sounds of barking dogs, so he hobbled over to the wall as fast as he could, his tail functioning as a poor substitute for his missing foot. As the guards caught sight of him, they let their devil dogs lose.

Tobias smirked. He tensed his one good leg and jumped, easily landing on the top of the manor's wall. Like trained attack dogs, the flying canines jumped straight at him, spreading their wings as they took to the air.

To the guards' shock and horror, the mutant mutts were struck down in rapid succession. Tobias knew where to cut a dog to maximize their bleeding, and he had more than enough to blades to do the job. The creatures might have been very good against people who weren't used to facing opponents from multiple directions, but compared to the aliens Tobias had fought in the past, they were child's play.

With his human pursuers paralyzed in fear, Tobias seized the advantage of the moment and leapt into the trees. Thanks to that display, the guards would be a lot more hesitant to send their dogs wildly after him, which meant he had plenty of time to get some distance before demorphing back to his human form.

"Now all I need to do is grab Siesta," he said as he started to morph back into a raven. "Hopefully she doesn't ask too many questions."

The sound of a window sliding shut woke Louise from her slumber. She shot up in bed, her bleary eyes struggled to make out the form of her intruder in the silhouette of the moonlight. The lanky frame could only belong to one person.

"What were you doing out so late?" Louise asked furiously, the thought of sleep instantly purged from her mind. "I searched the entire academy for you! Where did you go?" She then realized that her familiar was standing by the window in nothing but his underwear. "Why did you come through the window? How did you get up here? We're on the seventh floor! Where are your clothes?"

Tobias stared blankly at Louise. "That's a lot of questions," he stated.

"Answer me!"

"I went exploring. Windows are convenient. I'm good with heights. Clothes are annoying."

Louise glared at him. He didn't sound like he was lying, but it didn't take a genius to know he was hiding something from her. "No more breakfast for you tomorrow," she decided. "And don't complain or else I'll take away lunch too."

"Sounds fair," said Tobias. He'd been starved worse as a kid, and hunting outside the academy was always an option for sustenance. "Good night."

Louise was surprised by the passivity Tobias displayed as he made his way to his hay bed. While he rarely outright defied her, he normally would evaluate her orders before agreeing to anything besides simple commands. When the boy approached the bed of hay on the floor, he didn't lie down as much as collapse onto the floor.

"I already told you can sleep on the bed," Louise lectured him. "Don't make me take back my generosity." She heard no response. At first, she thought he was ignoring her, but then she realized that he was softly snoring away.

Curious, and more than a little concerned, Louise crept up to her human familiar. Tobias looked about the same as normal, with no noticeable injuries on his body. He also looked surprisingly clean for someone who had scaled a tower in nothing but a pair of boxers.

Louise watched as Tobias's body tensed in his sleep, his breathing became shaky and his arms started to twitch erratically. The girl sighed and knelt down on the hay by Tobias's head. She gently stroked her fingers through his hair. The shaking lessened, then stopped, and his breathing evened out as he slowly relaxed. When Louise was a child, her older sister Cattleya would sometimes give her the same treatment. The young mage had been doing it to Tobias whenever he had trouble sleeping. She doubted that her familiar had noticed, but that was fine. It wasn't like she was doing it to be rewarded by him. Taking care of Tobias was simply her duty as his master.

With the boy calmed, Louise rose to her feet and dusted the hay from her nightgown. In the morning she'd have to ask a servant to remove the hay from the room to prevent this from happening again. Just as she was about to return to her bed, Louise noticed a dark spot on Tobias's otherwise pale skin. Curious, she reached over and scratched at his arm, prying the mark from his skin. She examined it in the light of the moons and frowned.

"Is this blood?"

No, it's tomato juice. False alarm. Red herring. Holy mackerel. Gummy bear.

Tobias is not in the best state of mind right now, hopefully that came through in the writing. It's hard to write from perspective of someone's who views the world through a broken lens, which is why I needed to shift the camera focus to Louise for this last scene. I was considering dropping it, but it was way too necessary.

Who wants to guess what consequence will unfold from this? The timeline will be shifting pretty early in this story, and the divergences will only get worse from here. I've drafted chapter 5 already and a few other scattered scenes. The body count in this story is going to be... higher than usual.

Remember, reviews are food for a writer's soul!