Off My Back

At once, the kitsubus' anger deflated, her ears drooping and her bared teeth being hidden behind her lips once more as she sighed. "I only have three hundred."

"Then I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to go."

"Hold on," Fate said suddenly as the dejected girl turned to leave.

He walked over to the two, holding up his right hand to show his ring as he met Serden's curious gaze. "I can cover the other seven hundred Lights."

"Fuck off," growled the kitsubus. "I know your type. You just want to get in my pants. You think I'm some horny beast, don't you? Well, we kitsubi often have lower sex drives than your human females, and definitely less than you sex-crazed men."

Fate stared blankly at her for a solid three seconds, his mind working overdrive as he tried to decipher what he just heard. "…What?"

"You can take your coins and shove them right up your ass – !"

"Now, Ms. Cait," scolded Cerec. He appeared behind her and gave her a reproachful stare. His scowl was still there, but now it was the scowl of an angry teacher or parent rather than someone in a generally bad mood.

"Not everyone is out to get you," he continued. "You need to learn to accept help when it's offered. If it helps, I'll cover four hundred Lights. That way it's split close to three ways. Is that acceptable, Mr. Fate?"

"Of course," Fate said quickly. He was never one to turn down a way to save money. "As long as she's fine with it."

"I refuse to have you attach strings to my limbs," the girl insisted defiantly. With how she was acting, it was almost like she thought Fate was forcing her into slavery. "I know you'll come to collect this debt later."

"You never heard of being nice, fox girl?" Fate asked jadedly as he brought out three golden coins, proffering them to her. "I swear on my mother's grave that I'll never hold this against you, if that helps."

'This girl is batshit crazy.'

"For all I know, your mom is still alive."

"Ms. Cait!" Cerec barked. "I expect you, of all people, to be more sensitive about such topics! That was completely uncalled for."

"Look, either take it or don't," Fate sighed. "It's no skin off my back either way."

Her eyes darted to the coins in his hand. With a snarl, she snatched the coins and shoved them at Serden, pulling another three gold coins out of her pockets and placing them on her palm with the others. Cerec shook his head in a "kids will be kids" sort of way as he gave Serden the other four hundred Lights.

The professor made sure to make his displeasure known with a long, scathing stare in Cait's direction as he walked off. Cait's ears flicked as her eyes flashed with conflicted emotions, but she made no effort to apologize.

"Alright, everything is in order," Serden said after counting the coins. "Go stand over there and wait for your turn."

She joined the other students against the wall, deliberately standing several feet away from Fate with a scowl as the students that paid after her gave her a wide birth. Fate just shook his head.

He knew where she was coming from, at least in part. He was skeptical of outside help when he was younger. It took him years to trust Old Man Travis, and months more to see the man as the father figure he was now.

'I wonder where she comes from, though?'

Earlier, when she had snatched the coins, he caught a glimpse of muscle under her sleeves. Was she a farmer's hand? A miner, perhaps?

Fate patiently waited as the first line finished, another forming where the students now stood as Serden motioned for the first in line to follow. Cerec gave the students a stern glare to remind them to be respectful, with a lingering look at the kitsubus, before following the other two into one of the doors.

The line slowly whittled down. Each student took anywhere from ten to twenty full minutes before the next one went in. The previous students didn't come out, staying inside that room with Cerec.

After what felt like hours, which it probably was, Fate was finally called in.

He willed his beating heart to stop thumping wildly as he tried not to grin like a child about to receive a present. Ever since his mother told him about Familiars, he knew this would be the only way he'd be able to make a friend.

As a kid with only one friend growing up – a friend that left him, mind you – he had always longed for someone to rely on. Someone that he could trust implicitly, that he could spend time with. In other words, a friend.

He knew his chances of that were zero in Brergan. Samantha was a fluke, nothing more, and even she hadn't stuck around.

Now he would get the one thing he'd been wishing for for years now, and he could hardly contain his excitement.

He followed Serden through the wide door and into another, smaller hallway. It was still as wide and tall as the one they just left, but it was only fifty feet long. A far cry from the endless expanse of the previous corridor.

Within this hallway were several more doors, and Serden brought Fate into the closest one, entering a massive barn room as big inside as the building was outside.

The floor was filled with hundreds of wooden pens with all manner of exotic beasts and animals, and the walls were lined with feed, grooming tools, bathtubs of various sizes, gloves, and everything else that would be needed to take care of Magical Beasts.

Everywhere he looked, there were men and women in the same leather armor as Serden feeding animals, petting them, checking their temperatures, and in one corner, helping a cat give birth.

In another corner stood Cerec and the students that entered before Fate, looking happy with their new Familiars beside them or in their arms.

But even the grand room he stood in paled before the Magical Beasts. As Serden brought him to a medium-sized pen in the middle of the room, Fate couldn't help but marvel at their beauty.