The next day while Will left to get his things from his house, Mason decided to finish unpacking the rest of his own things so he didn't have boxes just sitting around all over. He was almost finished in the living room when he heard Banehound come in. Luckily, this is one of the few rooms that actually have carpeting, so his claws didn't make as much noise for once. Banehound groggily said, "What are you doing?"

"I'm unpacking these boxes so it actually looks like I'm living here."

"If you really want to look like you're living here, maybe you should've cleaned up all the dust and cobwebs first." The beast yawned, scratching an itch on his chest. Mason realized he was right, he should've dusted and cleaned the floor before putting anything down. He also noticed the beast looked and sounded tired, "Why are you so tired? Didn't you get any sleep last night?"

"No, I didn't get any sleep last night, I'm nocturnal."

"So why aren't you sleeping now?"

"My sleep schedule is a bit fucked up, so I really just sleep whenever, and with you doing all this up here, it's making quite a bit of noise downstairs. Oh! And one more thing, I'm still kinda pissed about what you did yesterday so be prepared to do a little extra cleaning. Also, if you don't mind I think I'll just crash here." Banehound wobbled over to the couch and laid down, seeming to try his best to curl up into a ball because of his enlarged stomach. Mason was a tad bit nervous about what he meant by extra cleaning and tried to ask him, but the beast yawned again before falling asleep.

Mason was able to smell his breath as he yawned and it was horrible; it was like a dog's mixed with a cat's breath. Mason also realized how wide Banehound could open his light blue mouth without even unhinging his jaw like a snake; he really could swallow someone whole if he wanted to. Mason tried to let go of the fear gripping his chest at the thought of being eaten alive by this monster as he continued to unpack. He also continued to think about what Banehound had meant. He did seem to emphasize the word 'pissed' in his -oh no. Mason groaned finding out what Banehound is gonna do later, but he can't exactly complain because then the monster will only get angrier and he didn't really want to deal with an angry man-eating beast.

Later he was in the kitchen, continuing to unpack things when Will finally got back and announced his arrival.

"I'm in the kitchen!" Mason called and soon Will was there holding two large suitcases containing his belongings. Will didn't have to worry about selling his house because he lived with his parents until now. Mason looked at the two bags and questioned, "Is that really it?"

"Well, I didn't get any new stuff like you did, so yes this is all I got and it's kinda heavy so I'm gonna go unpack these now. Oh, hey there Banehound."

The said beast had walked by the room and gave a weak wave to the men before heading back to the basement when Will greeted him. Will started walking to the bedroom to unpack some of his things; then Mason heard him yell, "Oh, god, It reeks in here!"

Mason then realized that the direction Banehound came from was not where the living room was, it was the bedroom. He sighed as he made his way over to the bedroom, "God damn it." He got to the room and the strong smell hit him hard; it smelled almost like cat pee. Will had his suitcases on the bed, one of them was open and filled with clothes as Will was unpacking them and complained, "Why does it smell so bad in here?"

Mason looked around the room then saw a large faint darker mark on the blue carpet in the corner of the room, "I think I know why. Banehound said, and I quote, 'still pissed about yesterday'. I can only assume what he did as payback and I have a feeling he's gonna keep doing it for a while."

"Are you saying he just peed in our room? And that he used a goddamn pun to express that?"

Mason nodded and went to get some cleaning supplies, "Yeah, I'm gonna have to go to the store anyway, can't live off of what little food my parents left for me. I'll make sure to get some things for pet stains while I'm there."

"Please do. I'm gonna finish unpacking things here. I'll see you when you get back."

About an hour later, Mason came back holding plastic bags filled with some food and a bottle of pet stain cleaning spray. He went through the front door and to the kitchen to find that Will had finished unpacking everything. Speaking of Will, where was he? Mason put the bags down on the kitchen counter and searched for his boyfriend. He heard some crashing in the basement and some loud growls. Fearful, he ran downstairs and found Will and Banehound... playing pool?

"Umm... what on earth is going on down here exactly?" Mason asked the two who had stopped their game for a moment. Will smiled at him and said, "Well, I managed to finish unpacking things, I came down here to see if there was a washer and dryer, which there is thankfully, Banehound couldn't sleep apparently, I saw there was a pool table, he was curious about it, and so both of us being bored, I taught him how to play and we've been playing since. And I just won this last game!"

"Uhh, good for you I guess. I'm gonna go take care of the mess upstairs. Also, Will, we need to do some of that research you were talking about." Mason said as he walked back up the stairs with Will following close behind.

Will sat on the bed, getting his laptop off the nightstand and opening it up while Mason went to work on getting rid of the stain on the carpet. It didn't take long for Will to find something, "Hey, Mason, listen to this it's about spirit beasts' mating behavior."

"Mating behavior? Does that mean there's more than one?"

"Afraid so, but anyway it says here that males become more aggressive when they're in heat because of competition usually. Also, the females can- holy shit, they can give birth to ten kits at a time!"

"What? So Banehound has nine brothers and sisters!"

"Possibly. Hold on there's a sketch here of a baby spirit beast and oh my god it's so tiny!"

"Let me see!" Mason stopped cleaning and hopped on the bed next to Will to look at the computer screen, "Aww, wait does every spirit beast have those markings?"

"Uhh, no their markings are unique, it's how they tell each other apart."

"Look at its markings here, seem familiar?"

It took a moment before Will realized and squealed, "Oh my god, it's a drawing of baby Banehound!"

"We can look at this later," Mason said going back to the stain, "I kinda wanna know if they eat only people. When I was first in the basement, I saw piles of human bones and animal bones."

"Alright, let's see... okay here. It says that there are spirit beasts that don't eat people at all, but most do. They can eat any kind of meat and large amounts of it. They only prefer humans when they get a taste for them at a young age. And will most likely eat only humans if possible."

"So we can give him things like chicken or pork to hold him off until we get him a 'full meal'?"

"I guess so. It would be pretty helpful like we could almost train him not to eat guests that we might have over."

"Yeah. What else does it say about their general behavior? Like what lines can't be crossed on his terms?"

"Umm... they don't like it when you're anywhere near them while they're eating, they are considered nocturnal, but like cats, they don't really have a solid sleep schedule, normally very docile when they're happy, aggressive while in heat, we've read that already, and... oh! Hey get a load of this, they absolutely love it when you scratch them behind the ears! So much so that they'll actually purr and just fall into the touch!"

"Really? We should try that with Banehound, see if it's true."

"Totally. Oh! So that's why they're called spirit beasts! They actually have magic. They can turn themselves invisible unless they want to be seen by certain people, only those people can see them or the one they're attacking."

"Well, that's interesting."

"Indeed, they're almost like hell hounds in that way; only the victim can see them."

They stopped their research and continued to look at the drawing of Banehound when he was just a little baby. They couldn't believe that the huge monster in their basement used to be that small and innocent.