Starlight

Edited by: Chip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Atlas quickly forgot about his encounter with the cloaked kid and those assassins. On his way back to the carriage with Cyrus and Sophie, Atlas and Sir Walter heard a piercing cry coming from some sort of animal.

When Atlas looked in the direction of the sound, Sir Walter had already jumped out of his arms and transformed into a normal-sized wolf. Atlas ran after him, confused as to where Sir Walter was going.

Cyrus and Sophie looked at each other like, “Again?” because there was never a dull moment with Atlas. They followed behind Atlas once again, trying to keep up.

They just finished their high-speed chance and found some assassins trying to kill His Imperial Highness the Prince, now Sir Walter was running toward the sound of an animal’s cry for help. This was just one outing with Atlas… Hopefully, this was the last thing of the day.

When Atlas finally caught up to Sir Walter, he saw Sir Walter standing in front of a small kitten. He was growling at a man with a wooden paddle.

The man who was holding the wooden paddle felt threatened and took a step back. Still, he held the paddle like a weapon, ready to defend himself from this menacing wolf. “Get away from me you crazy wolf! Who the hell is your owner?”

“He is my friend, and he wouldn’t be growling at you if you were a good person.” Atlas looked at the mangy and injured black kitten that was lying on the ground, breathing heavily and panting. Its eyes were closed showing that it didn’t have the strength to even open its eyes.

Then Atlas saw the drops of blood on the paddle and felt his anger rising. “I suggest you run away or I won’t be nice.”

Sir Walter bared his teeth and growled, as though to threaten the man.

“Shit! Fine, I’m leaving.” The man hurriedly turned around and made a run for it. He didn’t even try to get the kitten he bought from the sketchy merchant in the black market.

That black market merchant said that the kitten was a legendary beast that could grow into the strongest companion for a tamer. It was pretty cheap so why not? As a tamer, he struggled to find strong beasts and monsters which was why he resorted to going to the black market to find his first partner. He was a weak tamer through and through and needed to rely on his tamed companions to help him in battle.

When he tried to tame the kitten, he was not only rejected but his leg was bitten. That was why he decided to teach the damn kitten a lesson by beating it up to show who was the real master.

Unfortunately for him, Sir Walter and Atlas came to save the kitten. He decided it was best to not fight the wolf and ran off.

It was cheap anyway. He would save up a bit more money to buy a better beast.

Seeing the man run away, Atlas quickly went to the kitten and accessed his wounds. They were quite serious. He was still learning healing magic, so he wasn’t confident that he could help the poor kitten…

Luckily, Cyrus came just in time.

Cyrus was a lot better at using healing magic, so when Atlas saw Cyrus coming, he immediately picked up the little kitten in a cloth he had in his item box and rushed over to him.

“Sir Walter heard this little kitten being abused.” He looked like he was about to cry. “Can you save him?”

Cyrus looked at the little kitten struggling to even move. He nodded. “Let’s go to the carriage first.”

Atlas, Cyrus, Sophie, and Sir Walter went to the carriage and headed toward Norrs estate, Sophie’s home. Cyrus opened up the cloth and saw the full extent of the kitten’s injuries.

He then used a light magic spell called body scan to check the full details of the kitten’s injuries.

First, he found out the kitten was a female. Not only was the kitten malnourished, but because of that disgusting man, she had three broken ribs, a broken leg, and an injury to her eye. Because of the treatment with the merchant, the tip of her left ear was cut off. There were also signs of injuries that had been there for a long time but didn’t heal well due to living conditions and lack of nutrients.

“She’s in rough shape,” Cyrus informed everyone of the situation while healing the little kitten. “I can heal most of her injuries but there are some that cannot be healed with light magic… She will be permanently blind in her left eye.”

Atlas gently held the kitten’s head and looked over at her eye. It was basically gone and even he knew it. Light magic was not all-powerful in this world. It could heal wounds like cuts and bruises, and it could cure curses, but it could not cure diseases and illnesses. That was why, alchemists, this world’s pharmacist, were here.

Not only that, light magic cannot regenerate body parts. This was something only the Gods or named Saints could do. Even though Cyrus and Atlas had blessings from the God of Light, they were not considered Saints.

“It’s okay. Sir Walter and I will take care of her from now on. We will be her left eye.” It was almost as if the kitten could hear Atlas because she wiggled her little head up against Atlas’ palm.

Sophie was a little envious of Atlas because he had a Unique skill called Taming Magic. She had always wanted to make friends with monsters and beasts, but she was not one of the lucky ones to obtain this skill. Luckily, she was friends with Atlas, so she could visit his tamed companions and make friends with them that way.

Atlas decided when the little kitten felt better, that was when he was going to use taming magic on her so she could become his and Sir Walter’s new companion.

*****

A few days later, the little kitten opened her eye and found that she was sleeping on a fluffy pillow on Atlas’ bed. Next to her, there was Sir Walter who saved her life, and Atlas who vowed to protect her.

There were parts of her fur still not grown back, but it didn’t stop her from being cute. She slowly moved and slowly started to sniff in front of Atlas’ nose.

Because she was breathing in front of his nose, Atlas felt like the air was being taken from him, and he struggled to breathe. With the kitten sitting on his chest, he felt like he couldn’t move or breathe.

Atlas sat up gasping for air, trying to figure out what was going on. Meanwhile, the little kitten slid down his chest and rolled off his lap. She was also confused as to why Atlas got up so fast.

He looked over at the little kitten and then at Sir Walter who was looking at him with one eye open. It looked like Sir Walter was saying, “Really? This early in the morning?”

Atlas sheepishly laughed and picked up the little kitten. “Good morning to you too, little kitty and Sir Walter. Are you feeling better?” He took a look at the patchy parts of her fur and found everything was healing nicely.

Her left eyelid was also sealed shut when they got back to the Alnhart estate a few days ago because there was no eyeball. It was just an empty socket. To ensure it doesn’t get infected, the Alnhart doctors helped stitch her eyelid shut and Cyrus healed it.

“I’m happy you are awake but next time, try not to breathe in front of my nose.”

The little kitten tilted her head innocently like she didn’t understand what he was saying, but he knew she did.

“Naughty.” He lightly tapped her on the nose.

After lightly playing with the kitten in his bed, he finally decided to ask her, “Do you want to be my companion? I will take care of you and make sure you will never go hungry. I will make sure you always have a place to sleep. Sir Walter and I will be your friends forever.”

There were two ways of taming a monster or beast. The first way was with Sir Walter where two equal partners decided to become companions. That was why Atlas didn’t have to say a spell to tame Sir Walter. It was something that they both wanted and they were equal in terms of “strength.”

As for the little kitten, she was weaker than Atlas and therefore, needed Atlas to initiate the taming magic via a spell.

She looked at Sir Walter and then at Atlas and gave a meow. That was her meow of consent. She also wanted to be with them.

“Great! Now close your eyes.” Atlas also closed his eyes and said the spell he practiced. “I, Atlas Alnhart, cast the spell tame on this little kitten to become my companion. Do you agree with this?”

The little kitten gave a meow, giving her consent.

A bright light flashed between them and Atlas heard in his mind that he had successfully tamed the baby black panther. It then asked him to give her a name.

“Your name will now be… Starlight.” He thought about some names and how she looked and decided to name her Starlight. It matched her shiny black fur and her glowing yellow eye. Her eye reminded him of the Northern star in the night sky, guiding travelers to their next destination.

“Starlight, please take care of me from now on!”

“Meowww!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grandpa Marky: I wanted to add another tamed beast! He's going to get one more and that's it :D