Gift on the way

Unfortunately, three days of being left to rot had given too many animals and people time to pass by and muddy up the trail. There was nothing to be followed from the corpse. In a neighbourhood where a body can disappear for three days wishing for security camera footage was hopeless. All the Orcs could do was look around the area, questioning people that passed by.

Meanwhile, in Jason's apartment, he was being pulled into his mind once again. Only this time, he was not merely standing alone in the mind space with Siegfried. Arthur had appeared along with him, but he was no longer attached to Jason's back. Instead, he had his own body, the Hydra only stood up to Jason's waist. While the Hydra possessed nine heads, only one was awake and appeared active. The other resting eight heads all had dim crystals embedded there. Only the crystal in Arthur's head was lit up red.

Suddenly a booming voice was heard.

"So you managed to get ahold of a hydra now! That is rare don't see many of those nowadays. Especially a beast such as yourself with nine heads but only a child with a single head awoken. You would be a worthy prize even for me."

Siegfried had materialized from a whirlpool of blood behind the pair.

"Why am I here again? What do you want?"

Jason was impatient and displeased with the constant pulls from his mind. There was never a warning, and they were very intrusive.

"Nothing, I just felt your soul split slightly, and I was curious, so I decided to call you here. You know to make sure my grandson wasn't selling his soul or anything stupid like that, but it seems you bonded with a hydra."

Siegfried knelt to look closer at Arthur and his drooping heads. He seemed oddly curious about the drooping heads and the gems in them. Siegfried getting so close to him made Arthur nervous. While there was no outward hostility or aggression, a sense of fear grew within Arthur. Something within him screamed out to be careful that what he was facing was no simple man or vampire. Arthur's bestial instincts exploded to their full potential as he tried to escape from this man. But there was no escaping death. He was standing before him.

"Whatever you're doing, I want you to stop."

Jason had intervened and stepped between the young Hydra and Siegfried. There was something noticeably wrong with the Hydra as its originally black scales had started to grey slightly at the edges with the sole awake head beginning to droop.

Without making a word, Siegfried looked up and put his hands up as if surrendering. Seeing Jason still rooted to the floor between them, Siegfried decided to back up further.

"What do you want, why am I here again? I don't believe it's just for the soul thing."

Jason was not in the mood to see Siegfried again honestly, he never really was.

"Well, since you're still so hostile as your grandpappy, I thought I should get you a gift, and since you turned recently, I thought getting you a familiar would be useful, but it seems you found one and of exceptionally high-quality kid."

Siegfried was once again taking on the role of caring grandfather. But the more he did that out of the blue, the more uneasy Jason felt.

"You probably aren't even sure what a familiar is, are you?"

Siegfried was curious about how in-depth his knowledge was. After all, it had not been long since Jason entered this world, and if he were an utter novice, he would most likely die very quickly in the hands of a random creature.

"If books, games and anime are anything to go off, a familiar is a creature under your control. An example would be an animal or a figurine that does your bidding for you."

Luckily Jason was no beginner to the supernatural. He was always interested in supernatural creatures partly due to his nosiness in all things hidden and partly because of a weird geeky obsession. But of course, most of his knowledge came from games or novels, which were either all false or only partially true.

" Not bad, but a familiar is much more useful for a vampire than that, especially for us. By connecting to a creature throughout its blood, we can accept it into our household and share our powers. Of course, they, in turn, will help you in battle and support you with their abilities as well. There's not really a limit to how many you can accept, but having too many is pointless quality over quantity. So I brought you a quality gift, but it seems you are quite lucky."

Siegfried pointed his finger at Arthur before backing up again.

"But that is beyond quality that is rare."

Siegfried said that last word with almost a shiver of glee. It was clear he was disturbingly interested in Arthur.

"Well, if I had not met Arthur, what would have been your gift?"

Jason was interested in seeing the kind of Familiar Siegfried would give him because this would be the best benchmark for his strength and intentions.

"I'm still giving it to you, except it's just not as useful now since you found yourself a familiar, but I am sure you will still get a lot of use out of her."

"Wait a minute it's a her?"

"Yea, it is a her, so please be respectful when you meet her, and she will explain the rest and next time, you really do have to tell me how you got this hydra."

"Wait a minute next time I still got questions for you."

But it was too late all Jason could feel was a whoosh before he was pushed out of his mind, and he woke up again.

(What a fucking asshole man.)

But before Jason could even steady his feet, he could already hear a knock on his door.

(Wow great timing now let's see what kind of monstrous fucking she-thing he sent me. I better open the door before it gets torn down)

Moving quickly, Jason opened his door and was blown away at what he saw.