Half chapter for you guys this time. Sorry, but I haven't had enough time to write so this is all I had ready to go. Classes are brutal.

Louise gently stroked Tobias's head as he laid on their shared bed. The boy was curled up by her knees, arms twitching like he was trying to flap non-existent wings. His entire body trembled like a leaf. His face, contorted in pain, was more expressive than Louise had ever seen while he was awake. Harsh, panting breaths left his lips, which were forming soundless words Louise couldn't interpret. As Louise's fingers ran through her familiar's hair, he gradually calmed down. The trembling and twitches subsided, and his breathing evened out.

With the episode finally over, Louise let out a sigh of relief. "Honestly, you are very fortunate to have me as your master," she lectured her sleeping familiar. "Most nobles wouldn't bother to give a commoner this much attention." She heard no response, as expected. Her familiar was silent, with the only sound being that of his gentle breathing.

"You're frustrating and impossible to handle," Louise continued in a soft voice. "I bet none of the other students worry about their familiar wandering off for hours on end. And when you finally come back, you make it sound like I'm at fault for your disappearance. If you were a proper familiar, you'd do what I say without question. Instead, you question almost everything I say. You don't always say it out loud, but I can see the judgement in your eyes. You always think I'm being unreasonable, but you follow anyway because even a strange a peasant like you understands the concept of duty."

Louise huffed, crossing her arms over her flat chest. "Sometimes I think you're more trouble than your worth. Walking around in only your underclothes like a barbarian. Entering my window in the middle of the night like a thief." Louise clenched at the end of her nightgown with trembling fists. "You're crude, creepy, and so stubborn!"

"I can't even punish you for your disobedience," she complained. "When I do, you act like you don't care. When I deprive you of food, you don't react. When Guiche beat you hard enough to break your bones…" Tears began to fall onto the backs of Louise's hands. "You laughed. You were in pain, but you laughed, and fought back. You weren't even angry! How? How are so strong?"

"I see you like this every night, but you're always the same in the morning. You're suffering, but if we didn't share a bed, I would never know. How are you able to live like this? Never showing weakness, always keeping your head high? My mother taught me that that is the way to live: the 'Rule of Steel'. But I've never met her expectations. What's the difference between you and me? What do you have that I don't?!"

Tobias said nothing, of course. He continued to sleep away peacefully, Louise sighed and ran her hand over Tobias's head one last time. The girl then slid off the bed and stretched her arms over her head. Taking care of her familiar every time he woke her up with his twitching cut into her beauty sleep—which left her very cranky in the morning—but it was routine at this point. While Louise would never admit it to Tobias's face, she both feared and admired her familiar's unfailing attitude. She knew that there was something very wrong with him, but if only she could have the iron will that he did… maybe, just maybe, she would be able to get somewhere in life.

The young mage looked out the window and took in the night view. Prior to summoning her enigmatic familiar, she normally wasn't one to stay up late. However, she had grown to appreciate the beauty the night brought. The twin moons shone over the courtyard, illuminating the open grass and cloaked figure running across it.

Louise frowned and walked closer to the window. Whoever the person was, they weren't wearing the robe of a student or teacher. And who would be out in the middle of the night? Louise found it suspicious. She grabbed her wand and quickly threw her robe over her nightwear before sneaking down the tower.

A hooded figure was standing at the base of the Void Tower with a wand in hand. The person had made several attempts to transmute various parts of the tower, but to no avail. The walls repelled the spells like a duck's feathers did to water. The frustrated person was so engrossed by their task that they didn't notice that they were not alone until a voice broke through the quiet night.

"Stop right there, intruder!"

The cloaked figure whirled around to face Louise, wand at the ready. "What is a brat like you doing up at this hour?" the person asked. The voice was ambiguous, making it hard for Louise to determine if the speaker was a man or a woman. The lack of proper lighting didn't help matters either. All she could tell was that the person was taller than her and had long hair.

"Identify yourself!" Louise ordered, pointing her wand at the intruder.

The person chuckled. "Normally I would save the introduction for my exit, but for you I'll make an exception. I am Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth."

Louise nearly dropped her wand in surprise. "Fouquet?" she squeaked. "Here?"

Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth was an infamous thief known over all Halkegenia, a triangle class earth mage who specialized in transmutation. Very few people caught Fouquet in the act of stealing, as his primary strategy was transmuting the walls of vaults and manors and only leaving his signature behind.

Despite knowing this, Louise held her ground. She tightened her grip on her wand and pointed it at the thief. "Surrender yourself!" she ordered.

The man tilted his head ever so slightly. "You think you can order me around, little girl?" he sneered. "I'm not one of your lapdogs, willing to roll on my back at your beck and call."

"You're a dog regardless for having the audacity to attack the Tristan Academy of Magic!"

Fouquet didn't respond right away. "I normally try to keep a clean record, but you're really trying my patience," the earth mage said in a sharp voice. "You really won't stop until I surrender, won't you?"

"That's right!"

The man let out a long sigh. "What a pity," he said. "I guess I'll have to take care of you first then." He raised his wand and pointed it at Louise.

Louise's wand was already pointed at Fouquet, but the threat was an empty one. The only thing she could create with her magic were harmless explosions. She didn't even know if her explosion could reach Fouquet at that distance. Indecisiveness and doubt plagued Louise's mind, leaving her unaware as the earth rose up to trap her. By the time she realized what was happening, her arms had been pinned to her sides and she was trapped from the neck down.

"Release me!" Louise shouted. She struggled against her encasing, but to no avail.

"I'd rather not have a noble brat running underfoot," Fouquet said casually. Louise took in a deep breath to scream, but Fouquet predicted her action and had the dirt cover the lower part of her face. Louise could still breath through her nose, but she was now silenced as well immobilized. "There. Now with you taken care of, I've got a Vault to break into. Don't go anywhere~."

Louise struggled angrily, but there was nothing she could do. The earthen encasing was much stronger than she was. Her wand was still in her hand, but even if she managed to blow up the rock, she had no guarantee that her own body would remain intact in the process.

Was that it? In the face of a single thief, Louise had been defeated before she had a chance to cast a single spell. No, she could have cast a spell, but she hadn't. Hesitation had cost Louise the chance to strike the thief first. Now she was trapped, helpless, unable to even call for help. No one would be coming to save her; they were all sleeping safe and sound in their beds.

Louise strained against the confines as she saw Fouquet approach the tower. If she could only create an explosion, one loud enough to wake up the school, then she would have at least done something. If she failed, then she risked the spell blowing up her arm. It was a risk Louise was hesitant to take.

Then Louise narrowed her eyes. If she always held back, then she would never get anywhere. Her own familiar wasn't scared when his life was on the line. If Tobias could do it, then so could she.

Willpower was the source of a mage's magic. If a mage had no will to control the elements, the elements would not bend to their will. It was as simple as that. Louise, despite her constant failures, had never lost her willful, stubborn nature. Every time she casted a spell, regardless of how many naysayers whispered and jeered around her, she always gave it her all.

This time was no exception. From under the gag of dirt, Louise whispered a single word as she felt her willpower siphon into her wand.

"Explosion."

A thunderous boom erupted from Louise's wand. As she suspected, the earth around the wand caused the spell to detonate directly against her skin. To her surprise, however, she could still feel all her fingers. Instead of dirt and clothes, smoky ash ran from Louise's wand to halfway down her bicep.

Fouquet, who had been attempting to transmute the ground underneath the tower, jerked his head towards Louise. "Tch. Stop causing trouble for me brat!" he growled as he raised his wand. This time he would make sure to remove her wand. One explosion could be dismissed as Louise doing some unappreciated late-night magic practice. If she fired off any more, people would start looking to quiet her down.

A second explosion erupted in front of Fouquet, throwing the thief from his feet. "Damned brat!" the thief cursed.

Louise didn't let up. She wasn't worrying about aim or power. Her goal was to stall Fouquet as long as possible. All the jokes Tobias had made about her destructive power were actually proving useful. No one liked to get blown up, so despite the harmlessness of Louise's explosions, Fouquet had plenty of incentive to prioritize dodging over attacking. The beauty of this failed spell was that there were no projectiles to block. Wherever Louise pointed her wand, an explosion erupted. However, she was quickly tiring. This was the first time she had used this many explosions in a row, and her mind wasn't strong enough to keep it up.

Eventually, Louise made a mistake. She fired an explosion that detonated too far away from Fouquet. With that second of breathing room, the thief pointed his wand in Louise's direction and had the earth crush Louise's wrist. With a muffled cry of pain, the girl was forced to drop her wand.

Fouquet made a tsk as he realized that lights in several rooms were now lit. "Great, you've ruined my heist," he said bitterly. "I normally try to avoid dealing with people, but to recoup my loss, I think I'll take you along with me." The earth mage flicked his wand and the ground around Louise rippled and groaned. The earth around Louise shifted into a closed fist as a golem sprung up from the ground.

The change freed Louise's mouth, allowing her to yell at the thief, "Unhand me you ruffian! Kidnapping is serious crime! Do you know who I am?"

"How can I not? You're the daughter of Duchess Karin of the Heavy Wind," Fouquet responded. "I bet you'd fetch a pretty nice ransom. Well, assuming your family wants you back in the first place. Last I heard, you were a bastard child between your mother and one of the strapping young male servants."

"You take that back your obscene dog!"

"Tsk. Tsk," Fouquet said as he waved a finger. "Never argue with your captor." The golem's hand squeezed tighter, the constriction forcing excess air from Louise's lungs. "Just stay quiet and we won't have any problems."

Louise struggled, but she was slowly losing air. Her voice was gone, and her muscles went slack as her eyes stated to close against her own will.

Help…

Someone…

Anyone…

Save me…

Tobias was dreaming.

He knew he was dreaming, because he had gone through enough messed up craziness in his life to know the difference between a dream and reality.

He also knew that he had gone to bed sometime after the moons had risen.

He must be dreaming, because that was the only to explain what he was experiencing.

His body was trapped. His body struggled, but he couldn't break free of the bindings that held him. He couldn't even see what was holding him. It wasn't the cold of steel or the roughness of ropes. Whatever it was, it covered him all over, and was unshaken by his struggles.

His arm came free. There was a strange tingle running down his forearm, but that wasn't important. What was he doing? Why wasn't he morphing? A partial morph into a small creature would allow him to easily escape his confinement.

He wasn't alone. Someone was there. An enemy. A threat. A slender, shadowy figure.

His prison was shifting. His arm was no longer free. He was slowly rising into the air. His breath was short as the air was crushed out of his lungs. He was silently yelling and screaming, struggling to keep his eyes open. A curtain of tangled pink knots fell over his eyes just before they closed.

Wait.

Pink?

Pink hair?

He didn't have pink hair.

Louise.

Louise had pink hair.

Louise was in danger.

Tobias's eyes snapped open. He didn't know what was going on, but he had a bad feeling in his gut. Louise wasn't in bed beside him. He could hear low thuds coming from outside.

Tobias flung open the window and leaned his body as far forward as he dared as he began to morph. In the light of the moons, he could make out a hulking figure clambering over the academy's outer wall. As Tobias's eyes adjusted, he could see a mop of pink hair carried in the thing's hand. Tobias wasted no time shedding his too-large clothes and jumping from the window.

There wasn't enough distance between Louise's room and the ground for Tobias to make a complete morph. However, he had long since mastered the art of mid-air morphing. He kept his arms spread as his body continued its transformation. Only feet away from the ground, he managed to catch himself in a glide as he continued morphing. Flapping his now fully formed wings, Tobias pulled his completed hawk morph into the air.

People were starting to come out of the school building. Unimportant. Tobias focused his attention on the thing that was carrying Louise. It looked like a deformed, vaguely humanoid, walking lump of dirt. Tobias could only assume it was a golem like Guiche's Valkyrie had been. The differences were vast in its size, design, and composition, but he didn't know what else to call an animated dirt clod. Tobias could also see a cloaked and hooded figure riding on the golem's shoulder. He was most likely the puppeteer.

Tobias needed to rescue Louise, but he couldn't afford to be hasty. Based on that dream, vision, whatever it was, the golem was clearly strong enough to crush her without a thought. Incapacitating the puppeteer was also risky. If the golem fell apart, Louise would get smothered. And if it stayed still, then Tobias still wouldn't be able to free her before the kidnapper recovered.

'I need back up,' Tobias told himself. 'This person is too strong to fight, and I can't follow them and rescue Louise while in this morph.'

By this time, the Academy was a fair distance behind him. Flying back for reinforcements wasn't an option. The time it would take to demorph, find someone useful, and convince them to give chase would give the kidnapper ample opportunity to get away. Even if he threw away his secrecy and spoke directly as a hawk, it would take too long to convince someone to take him seriously. And if he tried to broadcast his message to everyone in the area, the thief would hear it too, and change course. Tobias needed a way to get a message quickly a single person who would believe him without asking pointless questions.

If Tobias was a human, he would have slapped himself very hard. There was one person who would listen to what he said without question. {Siesta!}

Here the trouble with thought-speak showed itself. While Tobias was familiar enough with Siesta to project thoughts to her mind, he had no way of knowing if she was within range to hear him, or if she was even awake. {Listen, this is an emergency! Louise is being kidnapped by a large golem and its puppeteer. I'm following behind them, but I need reinforcements, preferably some that can take down a golem the size of a house. I'm traveling north by north west. Get help!}

That would have to do it. Tobias had no way of confirming if the message had been received, but there was nothing else he could do about that. He also wasn't sure if there would be anyone who would listen to the maid. All he could do was hope that help would come. Otherwise, he was on his own.

A fun thing to note is that Tobias's dream/vision is canonically explainable in both series. That worked out surprisingly well.

Louise is using Tobias as a role model because her mother really dropped the ball there. I know Karin loves Louise as a mother, but her parenting skills are heavily lacking. Tobias isn't the worst influence Louise could have (see canon Saito) but he's far from ideal.

If you like this story (or any of my other ones) and you want to support me, please donate to my Ko-Fi! Every bit counts. The last story that will be updated this month is The Black Shielder, coming out tomorrow!

If you want to predict what will happen next, ask me a question, or just show support in the easiest way you can, leave a review! Remember, reviews are food for a writer's soul!