"Conclusion, humans, weird." I shrug in the direction of Harijia. It's been a few days since coming back to my senses after the summon and I'm still in the cell.

"So, what happened next?" Harijia asks me.

I glare at her through the bars of the cell door. "Me out and we talk."

She just hisses a laugh at me. "You know how to get out. Unless you do it, you're staying there." She moves off to talk with some other demon without waiting for my reply.

As soon as she's out of sight I slump down. The headache isn't that bad, especially compared to the one after my first time here. It's the combination of the headache, no food and no-one for company for three days. Without food would be no problem once I'm fully grown, even now I can do a day or two without, but my growing body is demanding something, anything, to eat.

It's being alone which wears me down the most. Never have I been this alone before. There were always others around, even if we weren't interacting there was the option to do so. Now, the only one I see is Harijia and I find myself hoping she'll stop by my cell every time she walks by. With at least ten cells and her own work, she barely does so. By now, even having Talkers, devils around with their constant noise would be an improvement.

Then there is the headache, caused by the residual energy of the summons. I glance to the simple looking device hanging from the wall by a cable. Even without hands it's easy to just press the back of the head against the metal mesh on one end of it. This will suck energy from the mark we all carry. Only until the headache stops, or so Harijia tells me, and then I'll be allowed out and to the feeding area.

The reasons I had not to do so right away don't seem so important now. Get stronger faster, I earned this strength and it's mine and mine alone! Those were my feelings when I came back to my senses in my cell. I'll show them, I'll show them all! Suddenly everything here felt restrictive and oppressive. From Harijia's devotion to the devils to living here with too many species in a small space to the rock overhead. It was too much.

Now, two days later, it's still too much, but this isn't helping me either. I thought I could wait and let the changes happen as before, getting the most out of being summoned, before making a show of cooperating. But it's not happening. The rapid changes from before slowed down to a crawl, as if the mark on the back of my head is rationing the energies required for the changes. Just the thought that might be the case makes me want to stand by my decision.

However, this is not getting anything done.

It's several hours again before Harijia stops by my cell once more. I'm waiting at the back wall, making sure she sees me pressing my head against the mesh. Almost instantly the headache lessens and a sense of well-being spreads through me, a feeling not unlike having a full belly and knowing I'm in a safe place to sleep. Contentment. That I'd feel it here and now makes me shiver. Harijia nods with a reptilian smile, approving of my surrender. I move to the door of the cell and look at her, waiting for the door to open. Harijia just stares back.

"What," I query.

"It wouldn't be much of a punishment if I let you out now, would it." Seeing the look on my face Harijia shakes her head. "you were warned. If you cause trouble, you'll be punished. You were stubborn for two days, so two extra days it will be. I'll bring you food and water though."

I had been prepared for some kind of punishment, yet it still hurt.

"Why don't you tell me more about your time in your summon and I'll keep you company," Harijia says as she settles in what I assume is a comfortable pose for a serpent like her.

While I hate myself for it, I'm very grateful she's staying with me for a bit longer.

It takes Ara just a short while to change with the help of Ine. It's still a blue robe, though significantly shorter, leaving her more free to move. Underneath she is wearing some padded and reinforced clothing, also on her legs. She taps her shoulder to tell me to get there and with some hesitation I do. The direction we're heading in this time is the same as the first time, towards the doors leading outside. At the doors she encounters one of the women who were also at the lecture and they exchange some words. The girl seems a bit embarrassed and Ara doesn't seem to care at all, which is confirmed by the lack of emotions I can sense from her.

Once outside she takes the same path again, to the training area, walking together with the woman. I look back and see Ine following at a short distance. She smiles weakly when she notices me looking at her. It's the smile of the weaker one to show they're not defenceless and I take a moment to enjoy her respect of me.

When we arrive at the training place, it's a lot different from before. There are dozens of people with familiars waiting in small groups. The terrain has scores of things, some I recognize somewhat from back in the cavern. An obstacle course, things to test strength and what I assume to be puzzles of some kind. Most of it much less challenging than what I've already gone through. It's almost all too small for humans, so it's obviously set up for me and the other familiars.

For the first time I study the other familiars in finer detail. It's not a very impressive sight. There are a few that would be able to challenge me to strength, endurance, resilience or speed, but none of them can challenge me in more than one. It would be interesting to see if any of them have good claws or other offensive tricks. In my admittedly limited experience with things like this it won't come up. Fights to the death don't fit with the soft people here.

We, the familiars and their summoners, are separated into groups. There are six groups of men and one of women, a thing I've noticed before. In the swarm, male and female isn't important unless the swarmling reaches sexual maturity. Both forage, hunt and rest together. These humans isolate their females to a high degree. If the numbers are an indication of how many males there are compared to females, that might make sense.

The women are talking among themselves, occasionally directing their talks to Ara. It's obvious they don't want to, but something makes them try to include her anyway. For her part, Ara feigns interest and gives a response, enough to satisfy these soft females who don't notice the hardness in her eyes.

The groups each get assigned their own challenge to take first and I note with interest some glowing rings appearing in the air. A flying familiar wings through the hoops, showing off its skills. Soon it will be my turn to show them what I can do! Ours is the agility course. A simple one compared to the one in the cavern. Ara has chosen a place in the back, so I can see the inability of my competition and I can't help but grin. It's at this moment Ara gives me a mental poke.

Turning away from the others, she speaks softly to me. "You are going to make sure you fail at every test. Don't be the worst, but be among the least on everything." Her eyes bore into me, bright blue like the sky here. I'm sure she can feel my instant rejection of the whole idea. Instantly, her mind pushes on me, smothers me. I try to resist again and though it feels like I hold out for a moment, that fraction of a second is gone instantly. I'm not her equal, not yet. As much as I hate it I will follow her command.

On the agility course I 'misjudge' some jumps and have to scramble not to fall. For the strength test I lift less than half of what I can. The puzzles I solve by hitting them until they break, just to vent some of my building anger. All the time I can feel the esteem of people falling. A little bit of Ara, but mostly it's the way they look at me. After the fourth test I scream my frustration out to the world and some of them laugh at me! As I scream my anger at them they only laugh more! A hard mental poke from Ara stops me from doing more.

The humiliation is not done yet. At the next part, men with padded wooden sticks test how I can react to being attacked. With the fun I had before with Ara, their attacks are slow and easy to see. By now it's a constant mental struggle with Ara, who keeps me from dodging effectively or making a counter-attack. One thrust bowls me over and throws me a few meters over the ground and the man who hit me calls the end. Ara forces me to limp back to her and slowly climb to her shoulder, despite not even being injured.

Two can play that game. While my claws can't draw blood, it doesn't mean I can't hurt her. Going up I grip as hard as I can, squeezing her calf and thigh, pinching her back and clamping down on her shoulder. She shows no reaction, though I know it hurts her.

The men actually have to fight older familiars. Even though they're supposedly stronger than me, I'm confident I could take those familiars if I had to, but the men are struggling. Ara and the other females face off with one of the men who tested the familiars and I am amazed. During our own training together, Ara moved with certainty and balance. Nothing of that can be found in her now and she gets amused and pitying glances from the onlookers as she stumbles on the flat ground.

She is strong, she has power! She must be and she must have. If she is weak, what would that make me who is easily put down by her will alone! I want to tear at something or someone and Ara is still keeping me subdued. This probably doesn't help her performance and she actually gracefully dances around some of the strikes aimed at her before she corrects herself and almost trips.

On our way back to the big buildings I just ride on her shoulder. Neither does Ara try to interact with me. She feels tired in my mind, but it's none of my concern. Back in her room, Ara undresses with the help of Ine and lies down on the bed. She is ignoring me as much as I am ignoring her as I climb on top of the closet.

"Ine, wake me in time to prepare for the official dinner. Give Gal some of those berries and Gal, you stay where you are until I wake." After that she closes her eyes with a sigh, though I can tell she doesn't sleep yet.

Ine takes some of the berries out of Ara's pouch and offers them to me with a hand which is only slightly shaking, but I ignore her. Being rewarded this way feels as much as an insult as it was to force me to fail the tests. Besides, with the pressure of Ara's mind on mine gone, much of my anger leaves me and I feel how tired I am. Curling up on top of the closet I close my eyes too, ignoring Ine, Ara and the rest of the world.

It feels like only a moment before noise wakes me. Ine is fussing around Ara, putting her in yet another set of blue clothes and doing things with her hair. I'm still too tired, exhausted from the mental struggle and the anger from before. There is another special contraption on Ara's shoulder for me. It takes until they reach the door before Ara calls out to me and taps her shoulder. Reluctantly I climb down and then up. As I touch on her legs and back she flinches slightly, probably from the sore spots I've left there.

We head for the door to the outside again. It's already getting dark and a row of lamps in the strangely straight bush illuminates the road. A carriage is waiting for us and the three of us share it with two of the young women and their maids. It's a bit crowded and I need to stay on Ara's lap as the rocking of the carriage makes it impossible to stay on her shoulder. The other women aren't even startled by me, so much different from before. It makes me want to snarl at them but I can't be bothered. Instead I listen to the conversation.

"So different from the stories," one seems to say, to which Ara responds. "Well, now we know their ferocity is an exaggeration, but at least his coloration looks good with blue!"

A conversation about clothes and colors starts up. Useless and boring except for a few remarks about some colors contrasting with one another and how this can be used to blend in or stand out, which sounds like it might help me hiding in the ridiculously green foliage here.

Before long the carriage stops and everyone steps out with the help of a little ladder some man brings over. Ara walks towards a brightly lit building from where I can hear the sounds of a lot of people. Above the door is a sign that means at least something to me: Two crossed gloves with glowing lines, one holding a crystal and the other a staff or something. I haven't seen Ara with a staff, but the gloves and the crystal are familiar.

Ara is still carrying me, instead of letting me ride on her shoulder, but I'm too tired to object. Once inside the women wait together in front of some large doors until, at some signal I didn't see, they open and a man inside shouts out at the same time the sound of a lot of people talking hits me.

"Her Grace, Avebella Des Monté Cardatin! Lady Simone Garfia! Contessa Mercia Valentis!"

Ara walks past, me on her shoulder, with all the grace and composure she was missing during the testing. The talking lessens for a bit, then returns full force. Behind us the maids slip in and move off to the sides of the room, where more people in grey are talking amongst themselves, not mixing with the people in other colors at all. And there are so many people, in so many other colors! Both my ears and my eyes are overwhelmed.

When Ara instructs Ine to loosen the shoulder contraption and fasten it on a stand seemingly designed for it I climb on it with a feeling akin to relief. I really don't feel like glaring and intimidating now. Most of the event passes in a blur. People in too-bright clothes coming to talk to Ara, sometimes coming to look at me. Some rhythmic noise are heard in the background and I identify it as coming from a small group of people with strange tools standing in a corner. It is oddly soothing.

Tables with food are rolled in. I haven't felt actual hunger once during a summon and this is no exception, so there is no temptation. I do rouse enough to study human eating habits which are quite bizarre, like using tiny tools to move the food front of them to their mouth instead of just using their hands. Ara is a different person here. The cold and distant person I've seen before replaced with a bright and caring woman. I can feel the cold anger in her growing again though, and I wonder what is going on.

Her anger is slowly getting to me and my tail starts to twitch. I'm not something that is just interesting to look at, yet weak, flabby people are showing no fear or caution around me. As if I was a weak animal.

Near the end, Ara picks me up while Ine fastens the straps and padding back on her, then places me on her shoulder. She takes a place in a line of other women with familiars, a man talks for a long time while a lot of people pretend to be listening, people clap their hands together startling me and some of the other familiars and it's back to talking.

I'm not sure how long it lasts, but there was no way I could rest more with all the noise and colors and strange people so I'm exhausted from what happened before and from constantly being on my guard. By the time Ara steps outside I'm not paying much attention any more. Once in the carriage Ara sighs. I suddenly feel twice as tired as my sensation of her fatigue mixes with mine in my mind. Ara makes some motions with her hands and they slowly start to glow. If my eyes didn't deceive me it was almost as if her hands passed through one another a few times.

She puts a hand on my head and speaks. "I think it's best if you went back to rest. I need a good rest too and I'm not sure if I could sleep well with you in that mood. Be well and see you next time."

While talking she moves her hand back and forth over my head. The sensation is not unpleasant, but I don't want to be touched by her any more. Being carried was bad enough. I want to swat her hand away and snarl at her. Next time, when I have more energy. The lights and colors bled together to a shining white and the now familiar sensation of being 'pushed' make me realize I'm returning to my own world.

Once my vision returned and I see I am back in my cell, I rage with all the rage Ara had suppressed before. After a while, Harijia interrupts me to tell me to touch my head to the device on the wall. That is when I decide I will not play along! This is mine and my strength and I will get stronger and make everyone, every, single, one, realize just who I am!