Academia: The House of Lionheart

IV PII

Wax, it said — and it was no rooster — it was a basilisk.

"Wax the Basilisk?" said Sebastian.

"Ohohoh," the elf ran back to Sebastian, "A familiar whose name you cannot choose," she climbed onto the table to get a closer look at his face, "What's more, a basilisk, you say? You must be an exciting individual for such an intriguingly tragic entity to be tied to you."

"Exciting? I'm not—"

"Ah yes, well, the rarity of this creature as a familiar exceeds that of dragons, you see. Such a monstrous legend it has, too — they say any living being it gives so much as a glance to would die without further ado. If it saw a reflection of itself, it would die too."

"Ahh! Help! My hand—" a cadet screeched across the tent.

"No, no, no, no, no!" screamed the elf, "I told you all you must use your LEFT HAND!" the boy's poor right hand had transformed into a fox's tail. The Lionhearts realized just how lucky Sebastian was when the elf intervened for him. Now, the others knew the stakes too.

They all got their parchment, rods, and then finally, their marks — but there were more oddities within the Lionhearts besides Sebastian.

"A minotaur?" said Serenity, but how could it be? She was the first person to ever receive the mark of a minotaur. Their bipedal species was locked in a perpetual war against the three intelligent races, so how could she ever get close to a minotaur?

When Raiden came along, he nearly pricked his right hand as a joke, making the others lash out. When he saw his mark glow, pointing to where he'd find his treasure, he wouldn't stop gloating about how he had a dragon to find and tame.

Finally, Roiru was the last among the Lionhearts. He let the blood drop onto the rod — as it fell to the parchment paper and puffed into red smoke, Raiden couldn't feel special anymore.

"I thought dragons were supposed to be rare," Raiden pointed at Roiru's hand.

"Laoxin the Dragon," said Roiru, and the circle glowed towards the mountains. As they left the tent with Zerakiel and began their expedition, the glow within the marks moved with them. It always pointed to where they needed to go to find a familiar — if there was no name, they could find any of that species and form a contract. If there was a name, they had to find that named entity even among all the others of its species.

Cadets would normally find their familiars in their second year because creatures worthy enough to become them were dangerous to deal with. Dragons were territorial when untamed, chimeras and basilisks were murderous, and sphinxes and griffins attacked those who failed to form a contract with them. They couldn't go in without combat training, but the House of Lionheart was there under their grandmaster's orders.

First, they searched for Sebastian's basilisk at the foot of the mountains, near the waters.

Sebastian couldn't count how many times he recalled what the elf said. He hoped the basilisk couldn't really kill with one look. The Lionhearts followed him closely through the forest, sticks and leaves cracking beneath his boots. He covered the top of his hand, and the glow pointed straight for the mistiest part of the woods.

"Be ready for a fight, Lionhearts," said Zerakiel.

That's right, Sebastian and the others were trespassing on a basilisk's territory. The glow was getting brighter the deeper they went into the mist. The fog became so thick, they couldn't see much farther than a dozen feet in front of them.

The next step had Sebastian splashing the water beneath his boots. He stopped — his hand was the brightest it'd ever been, giving more light than a torch ever could. The Lionhearts fell silent, listening to the world around them. Then, he heard the ripples of something swimming not too far away from them. The waves were getting closer — it was swimming towards them — any second now, they'd make contact with whatever monstrous beast awaited them in the water.