The months flew by as I accustomed myself to my new body while Raina put the students of Dagda through a hellish training schedule. Adrian and Aaron were quite surprised to see my new form, but they didn’t have long to think about it once Raina arrived soon after me at the camp. The other students were too tired to even notice me yet, and that state didn’t change for the whole time, still, I’m proud about their progress, they’ve gone from only being able to last an hour before collapsing, to going through three full days non-stop, though I don’t think they're as happy about it as I am.

My new body was around the size of a small melon, I could easily sit on an adult’s cupped palms, and my short legs made it a pain to walk anywhere, so my flight ability has made drastic improvement. It’s lucky I got the ability to change my size, so I can appear as an adult wolf, but since my current form is from a curse, it costs me a massive amount of mana to maintain the wolf form, so I can only stay in it for about an hour, and that’s without using any spells. Basically, it was useless in a battle.

Despite the many inconveniences of my curse, I gained something useful, control over Zoe’s spike ability. Zoe was gone, she had been completely destroyed by Attela’s death spell before she changed it, but Attela had added in the ability to harden fur into spikes as a sort of apology for destroying my tail, though honestly, I wasn’t really bothered about losing Zoe. Most surprising, though, is that there is some time when I can escape my cursed form and return to my human one. I get one hour of time every week, and I can choose when to use it. After long consideration, I had decided to save all my hours for the upcoming tournament.

A little more than half a month before the tournament started I had everyone go back in the Toy Factory Dimension, though with a lot more resistance from the teachers and students. Luckily, Raina’s relatives were more than happy to help me out, and a few of them actually decided to come along with me, curious about the world outside of their home. Lord and Lady Redsword had left several weeks earlier, they and just about every other noble on the continent would be attending the tournament. The tournament was being held in our own country this time, each of the four kingdoms took a turn hosting the ranking tournament occurred, it gave them a chance to show off to their neighbors, and the large amount of years afterwards gave them a chance to re-accumulate the money they had blown on the affair. All in all, it was a well-organized affair.

My double pair of ears twitched as they caught the first sounds of the capital. I let myself glide gently towards the ground, snapping my wings shut the last few feet so that my small paws hit the earth with a dull thud, Void joining me moments later. Staying still for a long moment, I examined the vibrations in the earth around me, feeling with paws was a little bit different than feeling with feet, so I had to focus a bit more. I could feel the vibrations of the busy capital, but they were even fainter than I expected, even with the thicker pads of my paws. I must be farther away from the capital than I’d estimated, my transformation had caused my hearing to jump up a level, which I still sometimes forgot to take account for. Still, it’s close enough that everyone can walk there before the sun falls too low, anyways, my wing muscles are sore…..

I sat happily on top of Aaron’s head, his thick and naturally soft short hair acting as a very comfortable pillow for me to lay on. Void was happily slumped around his shoulders.

“Hey Felix, why don’t you got sit on Adrian’s head, even though you’re not that heavy, my neck is starting to hurt……..I’m getting some pretty evil glares from him too…….”

“Nah, short hair is a lot more comfortable to sit on than long hair…………. and I get to bug you at the same time~”

My ears flinched as a grating snip hit the air.

“Big Brother, my hair’s short now too, you can bug Aaron without having to sit on his head too…..”

Hmmm, I should have seen that coming, Adrian’s become even more clingy lately…..

“No way, you just want a chance to pet me some more! Anyways, I don’t feel like moving right now.”

Petting is way too dangerous! For some reason, this form is extremely sensitive, when ever someone pets me, my thoughts get all muddled and it feels as though my brain is melting. I previously incarnated as other animals but had never experience this big of an effect with petting….Sure, it had felt pretty good, but this…..this reaction is over the top….Well, at least since Aaron didn’t like me much, he could resist the pull to pet me, and after the first few times I turned my fur to spikes when he tried to get rid of me through petting, he had obediently become my designated safe perch. Too bad I was too soft hearted to try the same thing with Adrian, the poor kid was just starved for attention….and Raina….well, she just ignored the spikes…..Ugh, that time really hurt, I thought for sure big chunks of my fur had been torn out…..

“Awww, come on, I promise not to try anything, please…….”

“Nope, we both know you can’t keep that promise, and a half-month isn’t nearly big enough of a break to recover from the period of petting…….it was actually pretty nice at first, but then I got too much and now my stomach starts to hurt whenever I think about getting petted…..Urk, now I feel like barfing….”

In an instant, I was grabbed by the scruff of my neck and allowed to dangle in the air.

“There’s no way I’m gonna let you barf on me!”

I snorted at Aaron’s indignant words, latching a paw around the wrist of the hand that was holding me suspended and easily pulled myself free of his grip and latched onto his arm.

“Relax, I haven’t had anything to eat in a while, so there’s nothing for me to barf up, anyways, if I really wanted to barf on you, you wouldn’t have any say in the matter. You’re a satisfactory perch right now, so naturally I won’t do anything to make you dirty and bad smelling.”

Aaron groaned in defeat as I hopped my way back to my perch. I curled up into a small ball.

“Mmmm, I’m going to take a quick nap, try not to shake your head to much, or I might accidentally claw you in my sleep, I can be weird that way~”

I drifted asleep to the soft lullaby of Aaron’s unhappy grumbles.

……

A growing discomfort began to stir through my dreams, gradually attempting to pull my mind from the depths of sleep. Grumbling, I struggled against it, I had just been having a nice dream…..I can’t remember what is was about though…..something about a really strong person………….Mnnnnn, I want to go back and remember it…..sleep….sleepy…..

Suddenly, a burning, white hot pain blasted its way through my eardrums, jolting my mind into complete awareness. A shrieking howl burst from my muzzle as I buried my head in my paws. Sound, SO MUCH SOUND. Voices, shouting, singing, whispering, carts creaking, doors slamming, clothes swishing, boots thudding……..All of it was swirling together and Drilling through my ears drums.

The hard crack of my head against stone pavement cut through the ocean of pain enough for me to snap a barrier of magic around me before my mind shut down.

Aaron’s Point of View:

I was swept up in the colorful crowds of people and vendors, the streets fill with things I had never seen before when a horrid, high pitched sound, that I instinctively knew would haunt my dreams for years to come, hit my ears like a hammer blow to the head. I felt Felix’s body slip from his perch on my head, my eyes following his rapid fall through the air as my hands seemed to move like they were weighed down with mountains to try and catch him. Felix’s small furry body hit the ground like a rag doll, seemingly lifeless except for the the brilliant translucent red sphere of mana that appeared around him moments later, vaporizing the cobbled street his body laid on so his limp form hung suspended mid air within the sphere. It felt as the whole world froze for a moment everyone around me realized what had happened, Felix’s scream had caught everyone’s attention.

Then I blinked, and Adrian was kneeling on the ground, stretching his hand out towards Felix.

“No, don’t!”

The dark clothed man Felix had picked up darted forward and threw Adrian back just before his hand brushed the orb. Zale’s cloak swept forward from the speed of his movement swept across the orb. A loud sizzle snapped through the air and the chunk of Zale’s cloak was vaporized…….Slapping a hand over Void to stop the frantic creature from pulverizing himself, I took a big step back, at the same time glancing at the now white faced Adrian, if Zale had taken any longer, Adrian’s hand would have been…….I took another step back, just for safe measure.

Zale crouched down to examine the orb of destruction surrounding Felix, his careful movements the only possible sign of caution towards the sphere.

“His ears….there’s blood coming out from them….”

Squinting, I leaned forward slightly. A dark stain was spreading from the fur around Felix’s ears, the dark red of blood barely distinguishable from the red sheen of the barrier. Bro…..was hurt, actually hurt….I had seen him get injured before of course, cuts and bruises and all that but…..nothing like this, nothing that had made Felix show actual Pain before. Sure, I had certainly spent most of my time in the Toy Factory daydreaming about beating some real pain into Felix, but…..Felix was never supposed to look this Weak, in dreams or reality. He’s supposed to be a freaking all-powerful immortal playing around with reincarnation that tortures me at every opportunity, not the small, lifeless ball of bloody fur and feathers hiding away in an impervious barrier floating before my eyes.

“W-....what happened, how did he suddenly get hurt?”

I could barely croak the words out, my mouth was suddenly bone dry. Zale shook his head helplessly.

“I’m not sure, I didn’t sense any sort of attack…..his ears have clearly been damaged….his hearing is a lot more sensitive than usual, but if the noise of the city was too much, he should have woken up before now and left before it could cause this much damage……...maybe some sort of sound attack? But, there shouldn’t be anyone here that has a reason to attack Felix…..at least not yet. Hey kid, Felix hasn’t been to the capital before, right?”

“We came here for the Testing, we weren’t here for long though, and he stayed in the group, I don’t think he was left alone for any long amount of time, though admittedly, he can do a lot in even just a minute…..”

Zale sighed and scratched his head.

“So he may already have enemies here…...but they wouldn’t know about what he looks like now…….maybe an automatic attack that targets his mana signature when he gets in range?......but I probably would have sensed that, Felix too…...Argh! We’ll just have to wait for Felix to explain, let's just get to a secure position for now.”

Zale stretched out his hand and I watched as Felix’s red sphere floated into the air, blue sparks bursting into life randomly around the sphere. A groan burst from Zale’s lips, his face slightly pale.

“Guh, he’s packed a lot of mana in there, Raina, how fast can we get to wherever we need to go? It’s draining quite a bit of energy for me to move this safely.”

…..Zale’s void rank, right? How much energy did Bro manage to pack in there while he was overwhelmed by pain?........Ah, that was a stupid question, it is Felix after all……… Raina moved to Zale’s side, her eyes fixed on Felix as though she had found a new toy.

“Hmmmm……..Ah, I only remember the fighting parts of the last tournament? I wanna try and touch it, could be good for resistance training…..”

If it’s the tournament, we have to register our arrival somewhere, right? And then we’ll be assigned to one of the makeshift barracks set up just outside the city, but I don’t know where registration takes place, I didn’t hear anything from the gossip in school…

At this point, the Magical Theory teacher……….Ah, Eamon, stepped forward, sighing as he readjusted his glasses. Hmmm, I had almost forgotten he had existed because of everything that has been going on….

“We need to register at the Magistrates office near the castle, but it takes needlessly long, so I suggest you simply take Felix somewhere where he can’t accidentally cause mass destruction when he wakes up. We should be able to handle ourselves safely here in the city.”

“I see, then I’ll take him out of the city then. I’ll contact Raina when he wakes up.”

I watched Zale turn back the way we came, and then lurch to a stop. I turned my gaze towards the ground, Adrian was latched onto Zale’s leg.

“I’m coming with you!”

…….It feels as though I’m watching my past self….I’m pretty sure Felix didn’t hypnotize Adrian though…...which makes it even scarier….

Zale sighed and grabbed onto the scruff of Adrian’s collar, lifting him into the air and slinging him over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

“Fine, but you won’t be able to keep up with me.”

Zale vanished from my line of sight and I was hoisted into the air. The air rushed out of my lungs as my stomach hit a hard shoulder and I found myself staring down at Zale’s slightly dirty black cloak.

“I suppose you’ll want to come along as well, you might want to close your eyes.”

I stared helplessly as the ground turned into a blur.

No, I didn’t really want to come along at all……*cry*

…..

Felix’s Point of View:

When I regained consciousness, there was a blessed absence of pain that launched a wave of relief through my mind.

“....Are you an idiot?”

A lovely and familiar voice rang through my ears and I slowly opened my eyes. The delicate face with ruby red eyes hovering over my face slowly came into focus, lush dark purple lips pursed with disapproval. A strand of silky black hair brushed against my face and I smiled.

“Death, my darling, it’s nice to see you again.”