Louise was awoken by the sound of her door opening. The mage sat up, rubbing her eyes as she wondered if she had overslept again. Turning to the door she saw Bug closing the door behind it as it entered her room, before turning around.
She stared into its 'eyes', the sockets showed nothing but black.
"Bug?" She called out groggily "Did you," she yawned "Did you leave the room?"
It didn't answer, instead going back to the hay stack by her bed. It reached into its cloak, pulling out the piece of paper she had given it and the quill. It began to scribble into the paper once more
"Did leave my room Bug?" She asked again, her annoyance at its silence waking her up a bit. It turned to her and gave a nod, this made her frown "You shouldn't be going out on your own, you're my Familiar."
It tilted its head.
She looked down at where it was sitting "What did you even do, leaving out so late in the night?" For a moment a thought came to her.
'It wasn't trying to find a way to escape was it?' Fear mixed with anger 'It was already acting rebellious last night, but that couldn't mean that it was going to...'
It turned the paper in its hands, showing the map that it had drawn yesterday, and to her surprise the contents of it was already larger than the one it had shown her last night.
Fully awake, Louise's eyes widened "Bug, did you spend the whole night exploring the school?" She looked out the window after it nodded. Dawn was just starting to break, meaning it spend well over six hours just going around the school all so that it could complete its map.
Turning back to her Familiar, it scratched the parchment with precision. Despite the stumps that it had for hands it showed remarkable dexterity as it expanded the map.
A smile grew on her lips, a Familiar that could write and draw. She'd like to see Zerbst try to say that her stupid fire lizard was better when her own was a literate cartographer.
She sighed as another thought came to mind 'What would a mage need a cartographer for?'.
She thought about it in silence as her Familiar continued to draw.
After a while, the sun's rays were starting to peek through her window and at that moment her Familiar had finished adding things to its map. It turned to the window, black sockets staring out into the sun.
"Are you done?" Louise asked.
It turned its head back to her, and nodded.
She reached out, "Let me see it." It stood up from the hay stack, heading towards her bed and giving her the map. After that it walked past her to stand by her window.
Looking at the map she was impressed, even if a mage didn't have need for a cartographer she figured that letting it have it as a hobby wouldn't be so bad.
She noticed more details on the map, the courtyard had what looked like small trees dotting the edges of the circle and the gate, the room before it had that fountain she'd see Zerbst flirt with her boy toy of the day, she even noticed that one room had what look like a chicken thigh. A grimace grew on her face when she noticed another smaller drawing of a rat near, what she can only assume, was the kitchen.
Of course all of them had gibberish writing, so she could only figure things out by the shape and diagrams.
"Well," she lowered the map to look at Bug "If nothing else, if I can teach you how to write the language I can have you take extra notes."
Her Familiar didn't respond to her, at least it didn't turn to her. Instead it was looking at the sun that was slowly rising up into the sky.
"Oh I should get ready." She placed the map on the bed, before pulling the covers off her legs, Louise got up from the bed and headed towards her closet. As she took out the clothes that she needed she called out to Bug "Familiar, can you get some of the parchment in the drawer? And get the inkwell and quills as well."
She had the day off today, as did the rest of the second years who had summoned a Familiar, so she figured she'd get a head start in teaching Bug the written language. It couldn't be too hard, it could speak her language even if it didn't seem to want to, and could understand her orders.
When she finished putting on her uniform and dropping yesterdays cloths in the laundry basket, she was ready to leave, only to find that her Familiar wasn't. Not only had it not get any of the items she had ordered to get, but it was still staring out the window.
"Bug!" She called out to it, her hands on her hips.
It didn't turn to her. It continued to stare out the window, head tilted upwards to stare at the sun.
Growling, she went towards it and grabbed it by the hand "Bug, I told you to-"
THE LIGHT?
A chill went up her spine as it usually did when it spoke. She shook her head "Bug," she tugged its arm "When a master tells you to do something, a Familiar must follow that order."
Finally, it turned its head towards her. Nodding her head, she pointed to her desk "Get some parchment and quills, I'll be teaching you how to write after breakfast."
She released her grip on its hand, allowing it to go to her desk. It rummaged through it, and came back with a handful of scrolls and more than a couple quills in its hand. It stopped in front of her, and then offered it to her.
For a moment she was going to tell it to go back and grab some ink wells. But she recalled the quill it had used last night, and decided against it.
It took a step closer and offered the scrolls and quills once more.
"Not now after breakfast," she walked past Bug, prompting it to follow her. "I'll be in the dining hall to eat, so you wait with the other Familiars." She reached the door, frowning a bit when she noticed that one of her keys was in the lock. Pulling it out, she turned to it and waved it in front of its face "Don't take my stuff unless I give you permission to."
It tilted its head.
She rolled her eyes, stepping out she held the door open for it.
[Scene]
When it was told to wait with the other Familiars Bug did not object.
The ever silent Familiar was content to leave the presence of the one that had awoken and summoned it, even if she herself seemed to be hesitant of allowing it to leave.
It took a seat by the wall alongside the other creatures that waited for their masters to finish their meals. Scattered around it were the parchment and quills that it had brought along, which caused some of the other creatures to gather around it as they looked at them with curiosity.
One of them, a fluffy creature with wings, had even taken off with one of the quills.
Bug ignored most of them and instead focused on something else, mainly remaking the map it had created last night. From how its Master looked at it, it figured that she wanted that map for herself.
Drawing the map again took no time, the memory was still fresh. Some of the creatures stared at it as it worked on the parchment.
It tweaked some of the diagrams and positions a bit, it was the first time it had to make a map from scratch as oppose to finishing an incomplete one. It was harder than it looked, but it didn't mean that it couldn't do it.
A map was necessary in case it ever got lost, as it recalled needing it back when it traversed the twisting paths that resembled labyrinths. Had it not drawn all the paths back then, it figured that it wouldn't be able to do what it could do now.
And not a moment later it was done, the map was completed with a couple of additions such as a small diagram of the one that had summoned it, drawn at where her room was. And outside where it and the other creatures were waiting for, it added a small drawing of them.
The map and quill was then stored into its cloak, both of them vanishing inside it.
With nothing else to do, Bug simply sat on the grass as it waited for its Master to leave the hall. As it did, its head tilted up to see the large yellow ball in the sky.
It was as bright as the last time it had seen it. It hovered so far above it, then it figured that it would need it to stand at the highest point of this area to challenge it. But it needed a weapon first, going with a means to defend itself wasn't smart.
It looked away from the sun, and found itself looking at the two creatures staring at it. The other creatures had long turned away from it, with the exception of a large blue beast with wings and one brown rounded creature with a triangle on its head that was staring at it intently.
The latter of the two crawled towards it, brown beady eyes staring into its own. Then without warning it stuck out a tongue and licked it.
Bug was pushed against the wall by the lick, it simply stared as the beast recoiled. It shook its head and staring scrambling away from it, its tongue waving back and forth. It bumped into more than a few of the other creatures and before it could do anything else it quickly burrowed underground.
The other beast upon seeing the reaction of the creature backed away with a nervous look on its face.
Bug simply grabbed its cloak to wipe away the slime on its face.
[Scene]
Once breakfast was over Louise was the first to rush out of the dining hall, heading out to where the Familiars were waiting.
"Bug!" She called out to it when she left the building and entered the courtyard.
The Familiar in question was slumped against a wall, a few of the other Familiars had picked up some of the parchment and quills quickly dropped them at her voice. They scrambled away from Bug as her Familiar raised its head. It stood up and gathered the scattered utensils and started walking towards her.
Oddly enough a sense of relief filled her heart as it walked towards her. Whether she was relieved that it hadn't simply left like it had done last night, or relief over the fact that none of the other Familiars had decided to copy their Masters and bully it, she didn't know. But when Bug reached her and once more it offered her the scrolls and quills, she pushed that feeling aside.
"Aww, isn't that adorable?"
Just in time for another feeling to take the place of relief. The familiar voice made her wince, Louise turned her head to see Kirche looking at her Familiar with a hand on her cheek and her usual mocking smile. She pointed finger at it "Did you teach it that?"
"No," Louise chest puffed up "Bug is simply smart enough to be able to do that from the beginning." Placing a hand on her hip she pointed a finger at her "Something I bet your stupid lizard can't even do."
"Oh please Zero," she stepped past her "As if just carrying equipment is anything special." She cupped her hand over her mouth and called out "Flame~ come here!"
The Salamander responded to its master's call, crawling towards and stopping at her feet. She looked at her in the corner of her eye as she knelt down to pet the beast "Any Familiar can do menial tasks for their Masters," she narrowed her eyes and smirked "At least my Familiar is a lizard that can breathe fire, what can your little 'Water Spirit' do?"
"Well," her smile couldn't have gotten wide "If you must know, my Familiar is a skill map maker." She crossed her arms and looked at it "Show her Bug."
Bug, who had still been offering the equipment to her, lowered its hands. It looked around for a moment before it dropped all of them to the ground, some of them spilling to her legs. It ignored her cries as it reached for the inside of its cloak and pulled out another piece of paper. Again it offered it to her.
Louise snatched it up an annoyed look on her face for a split moment before a smile returned on her face, turning to Kirche she held out the paper, unfurled it and showed it "See, my Familiar is already smarter than yours."
Kirche's eyes widened at the piece of paper in her hands. She stood up and looked at it "Well then," she looked at the small child sized creature at her side, it was already in the process of picking up the scrolls and quills again, and smiled "I'll admit you have quite a smart Familiar there."
Louise let out a happy 'Humph', handing the map back to her Familiar and started to walk away "Of course I do, it's just befitting of my own skills." Bug quickly followed after her.
Just as she was almost out of earshot Kirche called out to her "I guess you'll be able to handle the Familiar Exhibition just fine then!"
"You know I will!" Louise shouted back, and headed to one of the empty tables.
The mage took a seat and then gestured Bug to do the same. It climbed up the seat with some level of difficulty due to load it was carrying, but it managed to get on the chair. It then promptly dropped them onto the table, some of them rolling off and falling to the ground below.
Louise didn't care, she couldn't keep the smile on her face as she leaned forward "Did you see the look on Zerbst's face?" She asked giddily "She was shocked, actually floored by you!" She almost held back a cackle "Serves her right."
Bug had gone down to pick up any of the dropped scrolls, ignoring her apparently happiness.
Once it had managed to pick them all up, it placed them gently on the table. Before it place their own hands as well.
Louise nodded her head, still grinning "Once we're done here, I'm going to make you the best Familiar there ever was. And if a Familiar is great, so is their mage." She opened a scroll and took a quill "Now Bug, we'll start your lesson today."