My father first encountered his companion animal when he was watching over a slime field. He didn’t take much note of it at first; an animal is expected out in the woods, after all. It seemed calm enough to him and wasn’t aggressive at all. He actually found the small thing hiding in the tree rather cute. He gave it a pat on the head, and the sleepy little guy leaned into it like some sort of cat.

No, he wasn’t a cat. He was a snake.

Since there wasn’t anything alarming about a stray snake in the woods and all animals appreciate positive affection, dad didn’t make any moves to examine the snake more. He took care of his job. Before he left, though, he went back to the tree where he’d seen the snake.

Dad was really only looking to make sure he hadn’t disturbed or hurt the little guy. He looked like a little baby out on his own, and that’s tough for wild things. The snake had come down from the tree and was staring at Dad for several minutes. Dad didn’t move, just waited to see what it would do.

And then the snake nodded.

Snakes - well, snakes don’t do that.

Dad gave it a nod back and then left.

If he’d stayed then it would have gotten complicated, and he didn’t know how to tame companion animals or anything like that. So he went home and did some research to figure things out. The snake was just a baby, after all. It wasn’t going anywhere fast.

According to mom, Dad came from a family of assassins. They were raising him to be an assassin too, so whenever he says ‘he went home’ he doesn’t actually mean it. I don’t know where he went that he found everything out, but he learned that companion animals are creatures that can evolve like we do - and that they aren’t any smarter than normal animals.

He figured out that this snake was special.

It took some time for him to see that little snake again. Animals have habits, but they also aren’t plants rooted to the ground or stones that can’t move on their own. They tend to go wherever there’s food and shelter. It was two weeks before he saw that snake again.

Oh, shut it, Marty. I’m not going to listen to your crazy story anymore so you have to listen to mine.

The snake was in the same spot on the oak tree, but much more awake this time. Dad got up on the branch and sat down next to it. He waited for the little snake to do something. After a bit, the snake just curled up into what looked like a knot on the tree and poked out his little head. It rested on the wood of the tree in some sort of hollow and just flicked his tongue at the world.

Dad laughed and pulled up his status screen and started telling the snake all about it. “This here is my name,” he said, “and this is my level. See these stats here? They say how strong I am and list all my skills. I’m not very durable, you see, but I’m fast.” You know, nonsense like that.

Yeah, that probably is where we get the habit of talking like this. It all started with Dad.

Anyways.

The snake was sitting in that hole watching and listening. It saw dad pull out his status screen and point at it and go through all of it. And what does that snake do?

Crawls out of the hole, raises its head like some pompous professor, waves its tail and calls forth a status screen.

Privacy blur kept dad from reading all of the information, but the little snake tilted its head this way and that and waved its little tail just like dad explaining his status screen. It was apparently a very surreal mimicry talent.

Definitely a talent. Dad later saw the snake’s skills when they bonded and the snake didn’t have any mimicry skills.

Anyway, apparently the two got along crazy good. They couldn’t have an actual conversation since they weren’t bonded, but Dad would do something and the snake would try to prove that he could do it too. And most times he managed a reasonable replica.

The status screen, though, that one was weird. Animals can’t read, and most probably can’t pull up a screen like that. Even if they did it wouldn’t mean anything to them. It was more proof that this little snake was special, and that made dad even more determined to befriend him.

Yes, I said befriend, you idiot.

There’s two ways to tame a companion. Two main ones, at least. Bribery and force. Dad didn’t want to force a baby, and he didn’t know what the snake wanted to offer a bribe. He figured getting the snake to want to be his companion was easier. Thus, befriending. In his weird mind befriending was similar to bribery.

I don’t have to say it worked. You already know that. It took a few more visits for him to figure things out.

That snake was dad’s best friend through a whole bunch of encounters. He saw their party come together, and break apart, and come back again. He helped them fight colt pixies and kelpies and even unicorns. Not the nice ones. The ones that use that horn for stabbing. Blood-red eyes and all. He even saw mom and dad fall in love.

There’s no doubt: Dad had a special bond with that snake.

I guess that’s why when mom and dad first had a child, they named him after the snake that saved dad’s life. It was their way of honoring his sacrifice or something like that. Dad thought that snake was blessed by the gods. That’s why it was so smart, and why it was such a good companion animal. Like they were made for each other or something.

Anyway, Noir takes that connection a bit more seriously than most. Some people think it’s nuts, but I mean… I get it. If the snake hadn’t saved dad then mom would have raised Noir all by herself. I wouldn’t even be born.

We need to honor that connection. Noir’s decided to do that by taking on the snake’s goal.

Me?

I save stupid old men from riding up a monster-infested mountain without any awareness of their surroundings.

That’s the sort of thing the snake did for dad. He looked out for danger and did his best to protect the group. Our group’s just starting out, and we’re not really right for each other yet. We all have different goals and different reasons for climbing up to fight the cats.

Noir and I - we need the experience. The only talents our parents have are hunting. If we want to survive after they’re gone, we need to be able to earn our own way in the world.

Penelope might be a bit of a gossip sometimes, but she’s also really sweet and has mostly good intentions. She came along because we asked her too. That was all it took.

Tom and Noir seem to get along really well. They fought together better than I expected. Noir doesn’t do well with other people in his space, but they were really in sync today. Tom just needed the money, I think.

Trixie… I’m not really sure about. Her family isn’t poor, so it’s not like she has to go out and make money, and she doesn’t have any aspirations to be level 100 or anything ridiculous like that. Not that I’m aware of at least. But she also isn’t about to let someone challenge a higher-level monster without a shield and first aid. She’s very protective.

What are you even doing over there? Can’t you just go to sleep? Everyone else treats me and Noir rambling as a bedtime story. You finished your soup. Sleep.

Fine, I’ll tell you a bit about the snake.

It was a curious little creature that thought it was the reincarnation of a tree. Some sort of pine, though dad never figured out what kind. It had a funny little skill called ‘roots’ that let it communicate with trees through the redistribution of health. Essentially, the back and forth of health worked as a sort of code and the snake was able to understand it. Dad was skeptical at first, as anyone would be, but all the information the snake gave him turned out to be true.

The snake had made a home out of an apple tree when it was very young. Dad estimated it was days old when the mother snake was killed by a mountain lion. By the time Dad found the tree, the corpse was almost completely decimated by local insects and predators.

Just thinking about it makes me want to puke. I get that he was too young to really understand the other snake was his momma, but watching a parent get killed when you’re only days old… it’s no wonder the poor little guy was all sorts of backwards about things. It messes with your head and your heart until up is down and straight is sideways.

Anyway. It took three more weeks for the snake to decide to come into the village with Dad. It came down from the apple tree and curled around dad’s neck so its body was hidden by dad’s hood and peeked out from under dad’s ear to taste the air. So many people in one place for a baby.

A baby who was already leveling up.