Plant Pet

"A little bit of moss?"

James was initially unclear on what Kareen wanted.

There was clearly only one other life form in this dungeon besides the mice. At least from what James could see, there were no other life forms. But he looked around, maybe he missed something.

"Yes, this moss? Is that what you call it?"

Kareen nodded furiously and then asked a question.

James open mouth stared at her.

"Yes, of course it smells so delicious. But it is too small. Tame it and then evolve it to be this big. Then, I am sure it will be good for my mice."

Kareen kept her momentum and continued to expect James to obey her.

"I am not sure I can tame another pet. I already have hundreds of pet mice now…"

Interrupting him Kareen stopped him.

"In the last three weeks, fourteen litters were born. Each pup glowed with the light of the contract. You can tame more. Tame this plant you call moss."

His little matriarch looked at him expectantly, almost as if she was waiting for him to try to give another excuse.

'How does this always happen to me?'

James asked himself.

And then Wilbur came up and stood next to Kareen. The two of them standing on their back legs with satchels over their shoulder and sniffing up at him with their cute little noses was impossible to watch.

'Okay, it wouldn't hurt to try.'

James told himself.

Bending down he proceeded to draw the array. Again he knew that the better the array would be the easier on the backlash it would be.

'Come to think of it, the backlash last time was crazy. I was out for a week!'

But it wasn't from the messing up the array, it was from a complete lack of understanding of the [Fertility] ability.

'Wait, slow down. What if this actually works?'

After telling himself some good advice James slowed way down. Even though he had practiced the contract array many times in the past and could basically draw it in his sleep, he took his time. Last time he did this with Kareen the result was so outside his understanding that it had changed the trajectory of his life.

'Ha! It wasn't the first time though. Wilbur changed everything when I contracted him. Then Kareen changed everything again.'

Snorting James shook off his fears. Even if his [Fertility] ability could allow him to contract this little bitty moss, how could it possibly change his life again?

'I have to take this contract seriously. It is not just a shot in the dark. It could really happen.'

Kareem looked at Wilbur, their master was acting kind of strange.

Finally after getting his mind right, James finished the array and injected his mana into it.

When it came down to it, he believed that what happened with Kareen happened because of Kareen. Obviously she was not your normal mouse. Not even your normal beast. She was a queen, she had the ability to communicate, she had her own mana, the list went on. This moss wasn't a leader of anything. It definitely couldn't put two words together and it couldn't possibly have its own mana.

James kept his hand on the edge of the array waiting, but looked up at Wilbur and Kareen. He wanted to communicate just how hard he had worked to make this work. They just looked back at him while he felt satisfaction through the bond. They were happy that he had obeyed them.

'I have to become a better trainer! Usually masters train their pets, but mine are training me to obey them…'

As the mice became more and more happy with James he had a deeper and deeper sinking feeling in his gut.

'Why are you so happy? It didn't work??'

The bit of moss that was barely the size of the nail of his pinky finger did not light up with the glow of a successful contract. But then James looked back at the mice. They weren't looking at him now, they were looking behind them, and in front of James, at the field.

Surprise captured his emotion before his thoughts could register. In the field a vast glowing wall was slowly converging on James or more correctly on the moss at the center of his taming array. It was moving slowly having started out at the edges of the moss the farthest away. The literature said that the contract happened instantaneously. The literature had to be wrong though, because this wasn't happening in an instant. It took a certain miniscule amount of time for each moss to join the contract.

'Oh, no! Why is this happening?!'

That was all James could think before the taming wave hit him. Maybe the taming wasn't instant, but it wasn't slow either. From when he first touched the array to getting knocked out again it wasn't more than twenty seconds.

[He fell asleep again.]

Wilbur said to Kareen.

[Yes, such a weak child. But so obedient. You could learn a few things from our master.]

[Oh, it is time to feed the pups! I better get out of here.]

Wilbur said hurriedly to Kareen's comment.

In the field the taming glow still brightened the fairly dark dungeon. The light bathed Kareen's mouse head in an eerie bottom lit look. Her teeth showed a bit as her lips curled upwards in what humans might think of as a smile.

[Much better than I expected, master. It was a good choice to become your pet!]

Then she reached down and delicately plucked a leaf from one of the fronded from the recently tamed moss. It shuddered at the treatment, but otherwise didn't react one bit.

Nibbling on the leaf Kareen gasped and then unladylike stuffed the rest of the dark green plant matter into her mouth.

A moment later another glow began deep in her fur. She closed her eyes and then began to convulse.

Her guards circled her and nosed her body.

[Wait, don't worry. It is good.]

Then blood poured out of her tissues and from all her orifaces. She let out a weak few squeaks.

When it was done she was breathing heavily on her side, but she was satisfied.

[Yes, you will do nicely!]

She said through the bond to James who was completely in a comatose state.

[I need a bath.]

Kareen said to the big bruiser mice that followed her around. They impassively watched willing to obey their queen whatever she wished no matter what it was. Already used to her strange ways and sometimes incomprehensible methods they knew better than to react to every little thing.

Of course they just looked at her confused. The concept of bathes was not a mouse norm. Instead they all started to lick her clean with their tongues.

[Do I have to do everything myself?]

Then she looked around and pointing her nose to the side of the field of moss.

[I think that direction will be good for a lake. Once we start evolving all my children it will good to have a place for everyone to wash up in.]