I was quick to discover that school was another word for hell. It had been a few days since Uncle Joshua had got me in to the best and most expensive school there was, and I discovered I knew next to nothing. Uncle Joshua understood it was because I had never attended a school before, nor had I had a father, but the teachers there were unforgiving. Constantly pushing me and getting angry when they discovered I couldn't do what they had asked of me. Many other students began picking on me, not knowing who my uncle was, but saying stuff like the one boy was saying now after stopping me in the hallway, "how could someone so stupid have parents that have enough money to get you into any school?"
I didn't want to reply to him, not really caring about what they had to say, it was just irritating at this point. I wasn't allowed to have my wolves at the school, although I was trying to convince Uncle Joshua to let me, because I would feel safer, but in reality they have been a huge help in doing my homework. Tunstall turned out to be a better teacher than anyone else here. He was the only one out of the five that could read, and apparently he knew a few different languages too that he offered to teach when I was ready. Seeing as I could barely write this language, I had to turn him down. Taking a deep breath, I dodged the boy who tried grabbing me, and continued down the hallway for my next private class.
Never before have I been so bored. Nothing was interesting, everything was dragged on, making no sense. I was so excited when the day ended, and my uncle came to pick me up. One we returned to the large building I was beginning to call home, the first thing I did was find my only real friends, who were also excited to see me. They taught me how to communicate with them without speaking, something that Cana, Lupus, and Ulric were intent on me learning. It was weird, trying to project my thoughts, and knowing that something else was practically reading my mind. Cana quickly said something that peaked my interest, "we have a gift for you!" I told my uncle that I was going to go work on homework before allowing the wolves to lead me to my room. Cana was almost shaking from excitement, "Conwenna had been working really hard on making it happen, and she finally finished!" I grinned as I closed my bedroom door behind me.
"It's on the bed," Conwenna said, sitting down, the others doing the same. I approached it carefully, not seeing anything at first until I got closer. It was a metal bracelet of some sort, but it held a stiff circular shape while being suspended from the bed. Five circles formed the bracelet, and when I looked closer, I recognized them as each of the wolves sigils.
"All you have to do is tie the old sigils around it, and that will become the same as those, binding us to you," Lupus said, watching as I picked it up.
"Are you all okay with this?" I said aloud, examining it, how the little pieces that made the sigil were floating in the circle, not touching anything but air. All five gave their approval, so I did as Lupus told me, tying the five bands with the blood red sigils on them to the new metal creation, and watched in amazement. The metal turned red as the bands seemed to dissolve into it, the sigils overlapping their duplicates. I put the bracelet on, watching as the metal circles enclosed my wrist, and began burrowing in my skin. I hissed in pain and shock, dropping to my knees and clawing at my wrist. It didn't last long, and when I looked again with watery eyes, I saw the five sigils around my wrist, etched into my skin with Conwenna's metal. I looked up at them, "did you know that was going to happen?"
"Yes," Conwenna said, "but we chose not to tell you because we did not want you to say no. We are permanently yours now."
Before I could say anything, my door opened, revealing my uncle with a worried look on his face, "I heard you shout, is everything okay?"
I didn't recall shouting, but I nodded my head while hiding my wrist, "I'm fine, just stubbed my toe."
"Are you sure?"
"Are you sure that I can't take them to school?" I asked, gesturing to the wolves that had moved around me.
He groaned, "you can't take them to school!"
"Please, Uncle! At least one?" I pleaded, wanting to at least bring Tunstall so that he would help me.
He stared at me for a long moment before pinching the bridge of his nose, "I can maybe convince them to allow you to bring one."
"Yes!" I cried out, growing a fist into the air, "thank you!"
He only glared, closing the door and leaving.
I turned to Tunstall, "would you mind coming with me? I could really use the extra help."
"Of course," he replied, "there is no reason for me not to."
I gave his head a good scratch before pulling out the homework that I needed to do, Tunstall gladly helping me with reading the instructions and explaining what to do. He was patient with me, unlike the school teachers, and we took our time getting it done.
I was glad to discover that I was allowed to bring Tunstall along with me when going to school, but I had to make sure that he would behave, and wouldn't attack any of the other students. Knowing there wouldn't be a problem, I agreed, and thus the reason for him being with me as we walked along the halls. Tunstall was quick to pick up on the teasing, so he walked so that I was sandwiched between him and the wall, and it didn't help those who were trying to tease me that his shoulders reached my own. It still amazed me that they were so big, Ulric easily being the size of a horse. Him being there alone was enough to scare most of them away, while others were trying to use him to tease me even more, but it didn't matter.
The teachers seemed impressed that I was "improving quickly," but it was really because Tunstall was there to help me step by step, rather than their way of telling me what to do and expecting me to know. School actually went by quickly for once, and for the first time none of the teachers had yelled at me, and I had no homework because of Tunstall's help. When we returned home, I gathered the other four and pleaded with my uncle to allow me to roam the capital with just me and my wolves. He agreed after I argued that I did travel from south Lüm to Sühama on my own with demons lurking about, and I made it alive. With freedom back in my grasp, I wandered away from my new home, and into the city.
I had Conwenna grab a mouthful of neos from my bag on her way out, and she kindly spat them out into my hands, only have a little amount of spit on them. I wiped them off using my shirt before tucking them away in my pockets, and began my exploration of the capital. We formed our original formation that we had while in the woods, Ulric in the front, Tunstall in the back, Lupus to my left, Conwenna to my right, and Cana at my side, my hand resting on her fur. It was a tight circle, and we seemed to scare off anyone who wandered too close to us. There wasn't a ton of shops as far as I could see, until I discovered that the buildings actually contained shops and not sleeping rooms or restaurants. Not really wanting to explore inside, as there was a ton of people, I continued on with the new knowledge. There was so much to see, and yet none of it was really interesting. Until I spotted a shady man reach into another man's pocket, stealing a large amount of neos. I felt that it was wrong to let him go when I had watched him perform the theft, and so I didn't.
I commanded Cana to rush at him to hopefully take him to the ground, and have Ulric pin him to the ground. Conwenna offered to make me a sword, but I told her it wouldn't be necessary. I explained to Conwenna and Lupus to make sure that the mans arms were immobile so that he couldn't do anything against Ulric, and Tunstall would stay by my side and look out for anyone else that could be dangerous. Getting their approval, we took action. Cana did as she was told, using her speed to get to the man in a blink of an eye, and latch on to one of his ankles. Ulric followed, unable to move as fast, but got there before the man could stand. He simply used a single paw to keep the man on the ground. The rest of us came after, Conwenna and Lupus putting the mans wrists between their teeth, while Tunstall and Cana took a more defensive approach, and watched the passing people.
I reached down and took the neos from the man's hand, and walked over to the other man, holding my hand out as his scared expression and said, "sorry, sir. He stole this from you when you weren't looking."
The man stared down at me, slowly accepting his money, "ah, uh- thank you?" I merely nodded at him, turning away and retreating back to the wolves, encouraging them to get off as the professional crime fighters came, dragging the man off to who knows where. A few people actually came up and asked if they could pet them, and after asking my companions if they wanted to accept, replied that only the ones that approach them can be pet. Cana was the first, loving all the attention while Lupus sat with his ears back, sitting in the middle of the growing crowd, accepting their affections but seemingly embarrassed to do so. Ulric and Tunstall stayed by me, along with Conwenna, who only wanted me to scratch that spot behind her ears. I thought it was cute how they all had such different personalities.
Eventually I rounded them up, and we continued on with our sightseeing. The big OM tower was on the edge of the city, and I could easily see it in the distance. It was amazing that they had gotten it so tall without it toppling over. It didn't take us too long to get there, as we were walking at a good pace. There were two guards standing at the entrance, each having hounds near their person. The guard to my left had two large cat-like creatures that were sitting near him, while the one to my right had a hawk on his shoulder, and two generic wolf hounds sitting next to him as well.
The hawk screeched with its demon-like voice before taking flight and landing on my shoulder. I shouted in surprise, trying to shake it off, but Lupus stopped me, "it is alright, he wishes to meet you."
"Umm," I looked at the hawk, "hello?" The guard didn't react, but he was watching me now with narrowed eyes. The hawk began making noises that were creeping me out, but when Tunstall began translating, I realized that the hawk was actually communicating.
"He apologizes for frightening you, and introduces himself as," Tunstall then mimicked one of the noises the hawk made, which I assumed was his name, before continuing on, "but knowing you can't pronounce that, he offered you the name that his master calls him, Stalkin."
I nodded and then looked back at the hawk resting on my shoulder, it's black, shadowy figure almost creeping me out, "I'm Ashton." I felt dumb for not saying any more, but the hawk seemed satisfied with it, as it bowed its head in a way before returning to his master. It was an odd encounter, and I wanted to try to ask more questions. Why was it interested in meeting me? Was it the same reason that the two hounds from long before had when they saved my life? I wanted to understand, yet I didn't know how to ask.
We wandered away, as I was satisfied with seeing the tower up close. As there wasn't really anything else that I was interested in seeing, I decided that it was our time to head back home. As we were walking back, I could have sworn that I heard the old man singing, "you'll learn, you'll learn, you'll learn..."
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