5 No Escaping

"B-but Rosa dear," The king rebutted, confused. "The pups over here are much more energetic, or there are other shops with different animals if you want..."

'Yea pick some other one you twerp!' Anna thought, feeling aggrieved at being pinched by a girl who looked a couple years younger than she was in her previous life.

 "No," The girl said firmly, "I want this one."

"W-why?" The King couldn't help but ask, 'I thought kids were supposed to like cute and energetic animals? Maybe she pitied it?' He wondered to himself in confusion.

Rosa was squatting near Anna who looked up at her with grievance and anger in her eyes. She saw this and her smile grew brighter, lifting her lips to show teeth with two large canines. "It's just so sad and miserable looking that it's cute." She reasoned as if it were a perfectly normal thing.

'What's wrong with this child?' Anna questioned perplexedly.

Meanwhile the king felt a cold sweat on his back as he began to realize his daughter had inherited more than her red hair from her mother.

However, what Rosa didn't say was that the pup had pink eyes, not red. She was sure the attendants hadn't noticed in this dim room, otherwise it wouldn't be for sale.

"O-okay," The worker broke the awkward silence, "W-we'll start the process of the companion bond. Follow me."

Rosa picked up Anna despite the latter squirming in resistance. 'Mother! Help me! I don't want to be this creepy brat's pet!' Anna cried inwardly only to look and see her mother was distracted chewing on a bone. 'Noooo!' She screamed as she was taken out of the room, once again only letting out a cute "awooo!"

The group moved down a long hallway with many doors. From Rosa's arms, Anna tried to see through the bars of the doors. However the rooms were too dark to see anything. She also took notice of the attendant's tail and ears: in the room it had been too dark to notice but they were strangely realistic. 

She didn't have too much time to think about it as they turned right into a large room furnished with many cabinets, a small table and several chairs oriented around a circular pattern on the floor.

"First you can go ahead and sit on the magic circle while I get the necessary materials. You can use this time to go ahead and check the pup's status and make sure everything looks good," The store attendant advised.

Anna was getting irritated by the fantasy terms.

'What is with these weird cosplayers and the fantasy tropes? Is this some sort of event? What, will a screen appear if I say status or something stup-" her sarcastic rant was interrupted by a semi-transparent blue screen appearing in her vision.

She was dumbfounded, then she remembered the god's words: "a body of Earth cannot tolerate such amounts (of mana)."

'I'm not on Earth anymore…?' 

While Anna was miles behind on the revelation, Rosa was using an analysis skill to read Anna's status.

===========================

[Anna - Infant Lykaion - Female]

[Lvl:1]

[Status: Healthy]

[Mana: 1249]

[Defense: 101]

[Strength: 20]

[Intelligence: 16]

[Dexterity:8]

[Resistance: 73]

[Skills]

-Universal Language Translator

-Disassociate

============================

Rosa furrowed her brows upon seeing the status. However, it was quickly replaced with a knowing smile.

Anna had finally caught on to her situation, pushing down the shock, she was now also looking at her status. She had no clue what to make of it. Without any point of reference the numbers in front of her meant absolutely nothing. Even though she knew the attendant had said her species had high defense and strength, she was still an infant and these stats could be garbage for all she knew. Despite that she was very happy to see the mana stat. She was very excited about the prospect of using magic. 'Maybe I can use magic to turn back into a human!' She concluded, making her very happy. 'And then there's this translator skill. Why do I have this?'

Her thinking was interrupted by the store attendant. "Alright, I've gathered the materials," in front of Rosa, he set down a needle, and a scroll engraved with a circular pattern similar to the floor. Not wanting to offend her again he cautiously asked, "are you familiar with the binding process?"

The Princess answered with a curt "of course," before picking up the needle.

'Companion bond? Is that gonna bind me to this brat?' Anna was worried. 'No way I'm doing that!' While Rosa was grabbing the needle and only holding Anna with one arm, Anna used all her strength to struggle and jump away. 'Once I escape this building, I'll need to find somewhere to hide and get foo-' she'd only managed to get a few steps away when she was pulled back by the scruff of her neck.

Rosa had caught her easily. Now standing, she held Anna at eye level. Anna felt that her eyes were gazing into her soul. "There's no escaping me now, naughty pup." Rosa said with that a cute smile that gave Anna shivers.

Rosa quickly sat back down in the pattern on the floor; now holding Anna in her lap, she took the needle and poked her own finger. A small drop of blood coalesced that she let drip onto the circular pattern on the parchment. It started to glow, faintly emitting blue light from the pattern that Anna now realized to be some sort of magic circle. Suddenly, she felt that her paw had been grabbed. Looking at the approaching needle, she realized that this might be her last chance to escape. She tried to pull her paw away or wiggle out of Rosa's lap but Rosa's grip was like steel. Rosa slowly and gently pricked Anna's paw with the needle, once again letting the blood form a drop and fall onto the paper.The glow from the magic circle on the paper grew brighter. 

Still holding Anna, Rosa took the parchment and placed it face down onto the larger magic circle they were sitting in. The paper caught aflame, scaring Anna. She looked at Rosa and saw she was calm, making her realize that it was intended. Once the paper had completely burned up, the magic circle on the ground started emitting light. It li up starting from the center, quickly tracing the pattern outwards until the whole thing was shining with an intense azure light that was growing brighter and brighter until the whole room was engulfed. At this point Anna had stopped struggling, completely enraptured by the scene before her. Her skin began to feel tingly. She felt a burning on her ankle. Looking, she saw a hazy white band forming around her ankle. She tried to shake it off but it didn't move. Quickly enough though, the burning subsided and the black band had solidified. The light began to fade before disappearing completely. 

Anna felt satisfaction, which confused her as to why she would feel that. However, she realized the feeling seemed to come from outside of her body. She turned and discovered that it felt like it was coming from Rosa. 

'Hell no,' Anna thought before biting the white band. However, when she tried, her teeth sank through it without contacting anything.

"Congratulations dear," the King said to Rosa. "Happy thirteenth birthday." He smiled at her gently.

"Congratulations princess Rosa." The brown haired butler kneeled.

The store attendant quickly followed suit and kneeled.

Rosa thanked them, allowing them to stand. She also stood up, still carrying Anna in her arms.

The store attendant then said, "A-alright, it'll need to be weaned off milk for the next two t-to three weeks before it can eat solid f-food. I-If you'll follow me to the front counter, I'll ring you up."