I'll Name You...

There it was. Sitting right there, the beast stared back at him.

"Give me a gheji bull." Vallum said without hesitation.

"Hah!" A laugh escaped the lips of the man in the red cloak, "He says he wants a gheji bull, Mr. Jerem." The man had humor in his voice.

The man in the suit, Jerem, smirked. "Give it to him."

"But you know-" The man in red started.

"I do know. Now give him the bull." Jerem said with a small smile, "This will be interesting."

Vallum watched the exchange annoyedly. 'Can't they just give me the bull, so I can break out of this place already?' He thought.

"If you say so, Sir," The cloaked man said, "Let us do this, shall we?" He motioned to Vallum.

Vallum followed the man over to a cage that held a gheji bull. The beast was just as big as the one he fought, three times the size of even a big bull. It had a shiny black coat with a strip of white running from its tail, along the spine to the tip of its nose. The bull was shackled on each limb, and it stared at Vallum as the two of them approached. The man unlocked the cage and told Vallum to get in, giving him a key.

"Unlock his shackles," The man ordered.

Vallum caught the key and looked at the bull. He had already defeated one of the brutes, but he couldn't stop the slight tremor in his hand as he unlocked one leg at a time. The bull stood stock still and let out snorts while Vallum moved around it.

The man motioned to the bull with his hands and the bull looked at him warily. Then the bull slowly walked out of the cage and stood right outside of it.

"Both parties have to be physically unimpeded for the contract to have the most power." The man explained, "Put your hands on its horns."

Vallum did as the man said and then the man raised his hands. Vallum could feel a spark pass between him and the bull. Both of them tensed up, looking at each other cautiously. Vallum recoiled when a glowing seal appeared in between him and the bull. Then the seal, that looked like three chain links, placed itself between the bull's eyes. Then another seal, this one looked like a coiled whip, appeared in the air and moved to the inside of Vallum's bicep.

"The process is complete. You can communicate with the bull mentally; it will go better if you give it a name. Every time you give it a mental order, it has a choice of if it wants to comply or not. With your current relationship it will not want to comply very often. If you want it to follow your orders despite it not wanting to, then the contract will take strength from your body to compel the action. The amount of strength does depend on what you are asking, so be careful. That is all. Work on your relationship as much as possible if you want to make it in the arena." The mage told him.

After talking to the mage, the guards came over to him and started to lead him back to his cell.

'Follow me.' Vallum instructed the bull. All he got in reaction was a snort. 'Fine. You want a name? Hmm. Your name is Raef. My fear has been flipped around and is working for me now. Raef, follow me.' The bull snorted again, but it slowly started following Vallum.

It didn't take long for Vallum to notice that he was being taken a different way then was the way to his room. He wondered what else was in store for him, but he found out that he simply got a new room. The room he arrived at had a barn door so that Raef could easily fit through. Inside the room was a barn stall for the bull and the same furnishings as the last room for Vallum.

"More spacious, huh." One of the guards said.

"Look at our fellow slave moving up in the world." The other said.

"You guys are slaves?" Vallum asked in surprise.

"What else?"

"I thought you were hired guards." Vallum said.

"We do have a higher status than most slaves and get a monthly stipend, but we are still slaves."

"Is there anyone around here who isn't a slave?" Vallum clenched his fists.

"Even many of the arena spectators are slaves like us, who get a stipend and then spend it on the arena. Some of the spectators are free, and of course you have Jerem and his family. Not many free people exist around here though."

"I am going to break out of here and free the slaves in the warehouse that I was bought from." Vallum blurted out.

The guard who was talking laughed nervously, "It would be best if you just kept your head down. If you escape then lay low and don't worry about anyone else. You'll just end up making a mess."

Vallum walked into his room with Raef and raised his hand to the guards, "Thanks for the talk." He said as he closed the door behind him. One thing that he hadn't noticed earlier was that the room was dimly lit, although he couldn't identify where the light was coming from.

'Sit down, Raef.'

Snort

'Will you please sit-down, Raef?'

Snort

'Let's see how much strength this takes.' Vallum thought, standing in front of the bull, 'Raef. Sit.' Vallum did not let the command go, pushing it onto the bull with his own strength. Promptly, the bull plopped down on the ground and Vallum staggered as strength left his body.

'I can't use that in a fight. I would die.' Vallum thought, 'Is that why the mage was laughing at me? Does the amount of strength it takes to command an animal have a direct relation to the strength of the animal?' He sighed and the bull got back to its feet.

"Ornery bull. I just told you to sit."

'Hey, can you talk back to me?' Vallum asked.

'Mooooooooooo.'

'Woah! You can.' Vallum thought excitedly. 'What does that mean though?'

'Mooo.'

'This is going to get annoying, isn't it?'