Each whole grasshopper seemed to give me about 0.25g, and I got the impression the most I could store was about half of the actual mass of what I consumed, the rest going on to feed me. I wasn’t even able to store that much from each insect, because then I grew hungry and lethargic given my limited calories.
I ended up staring at the grasshopper tank most of the time, which Timothy occasionally replenished with grasses, keeping the population within fed and breeding.
Weeks turned to months.
My only joy was getting to see Timothy whenever he could slip away to feed me. He was such a good kid, and I became incredibly fond of him. Soon, the notion of escape faded away, because it would mean leaving him behind as well.
In those months, I learned that the stasis of the cages was imperfect. The other animals withered and died. Timothy cried when he cleaned out their cages. I tried to get him to feed me the corpses, but real communication was impossible. I watched helplessly as he removed them, one by one, until my cage and the grasshopper tank was all that was left alive in the chamber.
And then, one day, I finally met my maker again.
The wizard strode into the chamber, with Timothy following meekly behind.
“Remove all these cages,” the wizard commanded. “I need the ritual room empty so I can begin the new time flow experiments.”
“Yes, master,” Timothy answered nervously.
The wizard sneered in disgust as he surveyed the room, until his gaze fell on me. His eyebrows rose in surprise.
“This failure still lives?” he asked mockingly, as he strode towards me. “No matter, I’ll destroy it now.”
The wizard lifted his hand, and an orb of fire spontaneously ignited into existence above his palm. I was frozen in shock and awe at the sight of the magic, and it took a moment before I realized the danger I was in.
What should I do? Should I discard everything and turn into a grasshopper to escape? Is it too late?
“Master!” Timothy cried out, rushing between us. His act of bravery surprised all of us, and he trembled as he barely managed to keep his legs from collapsing out of fear of reprisal, but he stood his ground.
“So you kept this creature alive all this time?”
“Y-yes. Please, master, allow me to continue to care for it.”
“Hmmph.” The wizard closed his open palm and the fireball snuffed out. “Do what you wish with it, so long as it doesn’t affect your duties. Keep it out of my sight.”
“Thank you, master,” Timothy exclaimed as the wizard swept out of the room. He took a couple of calming breaths before turning back to me, an uncertain smile growing on his face. “Oh gods, Fuse, that was scary. I’ve never stood up to him like that before. But isn’t this wonderful? I’ve got master’s permission to take care of you! I’ll move you into my room so we can always be together.”
Timothy’s room was more like a broom closet. There was barely enough room for him to lie down, let alone keep any possessions. Fortunately, a nail that wasn’t hammered in all the way which provided the lad with a place he could hang my cage.
While it was nice that he could keep me in his “room,” there was definitely not enough space for the tank of grasshoppers. From then on, I was exclusively fed scraps that Timothy was able to scrounge up for me. Since I had already filled my mass storage, I was able to reduce my intake to sustenance levels; I didn’t want to deprive the boy of food if he was feeding me from his plate.
The sweet boy spent the nights talking to me, telling me about the village he was from and the time spent in his service to the wizard. He was, ostensibly, an apprentice, but his master was still treating him like a slave. Timothy refused to let it get him down. The wizard had seen something in him when he had come to the village, the boy said, and once he proved himself he would surely start learning magic of his own.
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I was skeptical about that, but despite my misgivings about the wizard, I couldn’t be that mad he had taken in the boy. Timothy was my lifeline. Listening to him babble in the late evening was the highlight of my day. I would have gone insane from loneliness without him.
“Wish I could pet you,” Timothy murmured one night as he peered into my cage. I had always avoided doing anything to startle the boy, but I could understand his fear of my stinger. With no way to communicate with him, I couldn’t provide him any guarantee it was safe.
It’s time I test these abilities, I decided. My 10g of mass storage should be enough for what I had in mind.
I navigated to my Loadout, selected my Tail component, and switched it from
An indescribable feeling of morphing overtook me. It wasn’t painful, though it was hardly comfortable either. The feeling passed quickly, as it was a small part of my body and it had changed quickly. I glanced back and saw the stinger that I had slowly grown accustomed to seeing had become a normal rat’s tail, making me appear like a regular, whole rat.
Since I had incarnated into this chimaera life, I had felt a persistent sensation of wrongness in my body. It was most obvious when I first woke up, and so I thought it was because I was a human soul inside a rat’s body, and I had no choice but to get used to it. Now that I was wholly rat, I noticed the sensation finally fade.
The wrongness wasn’t my misplaced soul, but an aspect of being a chimaera. Presumably, modifying my [Amalgamation] to include more species’ profiles would cause even more of a feeling of wrongness. Was that why chimaeras were often depicted as monsters? Could that feeling overwhelm me and drive me to madness? [Amalgamation] could be leveled up, but would that help, or make this problem even worse?
Timothy’s eyes grew wide at my display. “Fuse! You… you changed back to a rat?” He stood up quickly. “I have to go tell master!”
I squeaked loudly, jumping up and down in my cage. When he looked at me, I squeaked insistently again, and shook my head aggressively.
Please don’t! I cried out in my head.
Timothy paused, watching me. “You don’t want me to?” He sat back down, his brow furrowing. “Are you worried what he would do to you?”
Of course I was worried! He already saw me as a failure—though that was mostly his own failure at further developing his twisted soul magic—but if I had reverted to a regular rat I was sure he would dissect me to figure out the reason. If Timothy did go to his master, I’d have to switch back to the scorpion tail, and my mind was revolting against that idea now that I finally had a break from the feeling of wrongness.
Timothy sighed. “He did entrust you to me, after all… so I suppose I don’t have to tell him.” He shook his head, and in a lower voice, added, “I wouldn’t want to get blamed for something I didn’t do, either.”
I relaxed, the adrenaline leaving my body and replaced with relief. When I glanced back up, Timothy was staring at me rather intensely. What’s he thinking? I hope he isn’t even more scared of me now.
Contrary to my concerns, it seemed that the loss of my stinger emboldened the boy. Reaching forward slowly and cautiously, he unlatched my cage and partially opened the cage door.
I stayed still. I didn’t want him to slam the door shut if I moved, should he think that I was trying to bolt, so instead I tried to appear even more relaxed as I watched him. When I didn’t move, he opened the door the rest of the way, and then slowly reached his hand forward. I lowered my head, trying to show him that I wouldn’t bite.
His finger brushed the top of my head, and I nearly shuddered in pleasure. Contact! I had no idea I was so touch-starved, but as soon as the boy started to stroke the fur on my head, my heart surged. I pushed he head forward into his finger, turning my head slightly so he could stroke my neck.
“You’re soft,” he muttered. After a few more strokes, he reached in with his other hand and gently picked me up.
The feeling of being cradled completely in a pair of hands was pure pleasure. Perhaps it hearkened back to being held as a baby by one’s mother, to so completely trust and give yourself to another. I found myself grinding my incisors together in happiness.
After hours of petting and building trust, he laid down in his bed and let me curl up next to his neck to sleep. I drifted off feeling truly content for the first time in my new life.
“I’ve got to put you back in your cage now,” Timothy whispered the next morning as he was getting ready for the day.
I squeaked a confirmation. Now that Timothy would take me out of the cage at night, I didn’t worry too much about spending the day locked up. I wasn’t willing to break this trust, even to escape. I needed Timothy, but more than that, I felt like Timothy needed me. I would stay with him.
Back in my cage with the door latched shut, Timothy opened up the door to the closet that was his room. Before he shut it, he grinned at me.
“Today’s an exciting day. Master’s going to try his new spell. I’ll tell you all about it tonight!”
A worm of worry appeared in my belly. After all, I was the product of one of his previous research. What was he going to try next? Timothy had said something about time magic, but it was when I was feeling too dejected to pay attention.
Still, I squeaked positively to Timothy, and watched as he shut the closet door behind him. I settled down to nap.
I awoke to a tearing sound. I blinked my eyes to try and clear the blurriness, but quickly realized it wasn’t my eyes that were blurry, but the world before me. It was coming undone, and the sound of it grew deafening in my ears. I felt whatever was happening reach my body, touch my [Chimaeric Core], penetrate my [Bound Soul], and my world exploded into meaninglessness as time fell apart.
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