THE BEAST

Before the storm

Everything was red. The old trees fell to the ground with a heavy thud as they burned. The houses were in flame with people running in different directions. The whole forest was on fire, coloring the evening sky red to black.

In the midst of that chaos, Eddy was pressing a red-haired girl to the ground. She screamed as she resisted Eddy's grip.

"You have the duty to fucking protect me, beast. You always ALWAYS have to obey me!"

"I am protecting you. Why do you think my protection is limited to the body?"

Eddy gritted his teeth as the magician slashed and screamed under him. Her eyes boiled with anger and denial as Eddy closed her mouth with his hands forcefully.

"I am trying to save your soul right now."

.

.

"I chose a wrong career," Brett sighed as he returned from his evening class.

His magic didn't work most of the time anyway but now that his staff had a big crack in the middle, the staff wouldn't even consider doing its job. It was just a big piece of wood, literally. Brett has consulted the wand-maker outside of school and he was told that the damage like this will take weeks to fix.

"What would you do if you were not a magician?" Eddy asked as he walked beside Brett to the dormitory.

Brett contemplated for a moment. His family has always been magicians so he hasn't really considered any other job really. His parents knew that he had a very low mavis so they hesitantly told Brett that he doesn't need to follow the family tradition. However, being a magician always felt right to Brett, yet so wrong.

"Maybe a swordsman?"

"Humph. With your...physical ability?"

It was hard to imagine Brett all muscular and wearing armor like a solider. And who fights with swords these days anyway? The military has replaced those with guns a long time ago.

"You're right. I would have sucked at being a swordsman too," Brett muttered.

"Good self-reflection. That's my boy," Eddy nodded, patting Brett on the head.

It has been a few weeks since the first night Brett trained Eddy. Eddy didn't sleep with chains after that and he didn't attempt to hurt Brett as well. It was mainly because Brett made sure that Eddy wasn't hiding his hunger from Brett out of shame or guilt. And Eddy didn't need to anymore, as their feelings for each other was clearly revealed that night. Brett fed Eddy when he needed to, and gladly so.

Brett has also taken additional potions to enhance his mavis temporarily because why not, his mavis was so low anyway. The potion manual mentioned it could have some side effect of nose bleeding but he would rather bleed his brain out of his nose than risk getting eaten by Eddy. Brett was also recording his process with the beast in his diary so that later, he can submit it as a proof to the council that the beast indeed could be trained.

"What if I became an artist? I think I'm pretty good," Brett asked as he rummaged through his backpack.

"Show me."

"I drew this in an art class today for you," Brett proudly handed the drawing to Eddy.

Eddy took the drawing in his hand with curiosity.

In the middle of the paper, there was a colorful drawing of Eddy. Except, it looked nothing like him. The character in the drawing had a crooked nose, bulging eyes, and spiky hair. The colors were all messy and the sketches were rubbish too. In short, it was the ugliest drawing Eddy has ever seen in his life.