For a long moment, Zenaya simply stood there, unable to breathe properly.
Did she really just do it?
Did she truly form a contract with a beast?
A beast.
Not a borrowed one. Not one handed to her under special protection. Not one forced into submission by some outside power.
A beast that answered her.
Her fingers trembled faintly as the reality settled in. Through the bond, she could feel it clearly, a deep, steady presence resting in the back of her mind like a mountain sleeping beneath clouds. Its thoughts were not words, not in the way humans spoke, but they carried weight and texture. A quiet awareness. A living will.
Her chest tightened.
I did it.
And just like that, her thoughts were no longer in the present.
They drifted back.
