Among the numerous tribes of the Beast-Kin, six of them are blessed by one of the six Great Spirits.

The Valore tribe is blessed by the Spirit of Darkness Valdis. The Valore tribe is made up of cat Beast-Kin. They can see in the dark and are good at casting dark spells.

The second tribe is the Kiyiya tribe is against the Valore tribe. They are blessed by the Spirit of Light Anpaytoo. They are skilled with manipulating the light. The Kiyiya tribe is made up of wolf Beast-Kin.

The third tribe is the Honaw tribe. This tribe is blessed by the Spirit of Earth Liwanu. The Honaw tribe is made up of different types of Bears. They are also very skilled Earth mages.

The fourth tribe is known as the Sinopa. The Sinopa tribe is blessed by the spirit of Fire Agi. They make up a lot of fox Beast-Kin and can burn an entire mountain to ash.

The fifth tribe is known as the Yahto. They have been blessed by the Spirit of Water, Tooantuh. Many of the Yahto Beast-Kin are made of up of aquatic Beast-Kin and they build cities underwater. They are very skilled healers able to heal most diseases that we in Halkeginia have not been able to cure.

The sixth and final tribe is known as the Whoali. They were blessed by Sahkonteic the Spirit of Wind. Most of the Whoali are bird Beast-Kin and so they have wings that can help them fly. They can cause huge tornados that can cut through the landscape and cause devastation.

There are even more tribes that have been blessed by a Nature spirit, but are not as widespread as the six great tribes as they are known. When true contact is established between Halkeginia and Terre de Bêtes, I wonder what tribe the kingdoms will back.

-A Comprehensive Guide to the Tribes of the Beast-Kin by Count Francis de La Avesnes

Louise was dreaming. It was one of those dreams where you knew you were dreaming. She dreamt of a land far across the ocean. A place where spirits roamed freely. sprawling mountains were numerous, where there was a sea inland. Where large crystals floated and magic was free to roam. Yes, Louise dreamed. The dream soon changed though, and she then found herself on a large floating island. There were several colors in the sky with a circle of moons. The island itself was made up of crystal.

"So you are Catori's master. The one who inscribed those damnable runes on her hand. Their influence is hard to ward off." A booming voice spoke. Louise quickly looked all around, but she couldn't find anyone around.

"Whose there?! Show yourself!" She demanded. A booming chuckle could be heard, and in a tornado of flames a creature appeared. It stood on four legs, underneath it's feet fire could be seen licking up from the ground. It's face looked like that of a wolf, but it's tail resembled a foxes. On it's back were two draconic wings. Louise squeaked unsure of what she was looking at. "W-who are you?" She questioned fear lacing her voice.

The creature gave another deep chuckle. "My name is Kagutsuchi little Human. I am a spirit of fire bound to Catori. And you, you are the master of my charge."The eyes of Kagutsuchi seemed to glow red as he spoke. The flames around his feet growing larger. "I should burn you to ashes while you sleep but my charge would not be pleased if I did so." Still though fire seemed to snake around Louise's ankle and up her leg burning the skin there. "But there was nothing about causing you the trauma of what it is like to be burned to ashes over and over again." And with that, Louise was engulfed in a pillar of flame.

She screamed as the flames burned her skin. Tears went down her face only to be evaporated into steam by the heat. She was burned to ash. Kagutsuchi looked rather amused at the ashes of where her body was for a moment. The grin stretching his face rather disturbing. Then Louise's body reappeared and she was living and breathing again.

"Oh, don't worry you won't die." The laughter that came with that sentence would haunt Louise for years to come.

Outside of the Dream World

Catori was watching over her little master, as she dreamed. Her eyes took in the face covered by pink strands of hair. She gave a smile. That smile was then turned around into a frown. She was still worried about her tribe. Without her there it was only a matter of time before the Kiyiya tribe actually decided to begin an all out war. Or what if Valdis decided to destroy the surrounding landscape out of boredom.

This was even more likely then the Kiyiya tribe starting a war with the Valore tribe. After all it was a well known fact that Valdis was a the one who hated boredom and would do anything to relieve it hence why it was the duty of the High Priestess to keep Valdis entertained. Really though there was also a chance of her come across the sea if only to retrieve her favored high priestess.

As she was thinking about she didn't notice Louise tossing and turning in bed. It was only when Louise whimpered did she realize that she was having a bad dream. Red eyes taking in the shivering, sweating, and whimpering form of her master; Catori quickly begins waking her. "Louise wake up, you're having a nightmare." She kept shaking the petite mage, but to no avail. Instead she was met with only to receive even more whimpering.

Looking around for something that would assist her in awakening Louise, she decides to pour a jug of water on her head. The pink haired girl jumped up, fist coming up with her. Catori had no time to react as the fist suddenly slammed into her nose. She yelps falling back off the chair she had been sitting in and hitting the ground with a rather loud thump.

Clutching her nose she looks up to see Louise hair casting shadows onto her face. "Um... Louise it's me." The cat girl said rather nervously. She watches as Louise grabs the wand that was on the nightstand.

"Familiar!" She barked, causing Catori to jump. She could see that Louise wasn't that pleased with her. Sweat dripped from the petite mage down her face, and her fac4 was still pale.

'By the Six Great Spirits what did she dream about?' Catori found herself questioning. She noticed that Louise was shaking, rather from fear or anger she didn't know. It also didn't help Catori that her nose was bleeding, but luckily not broken.

"I had a very strange nightmare, do you want to know about it?" Louise asked, but the tone of her voice left no room for saying no. The shadows moved revealing that her master's face was as cold as steel. She gulped suddenly feeling like she was staring at somebody completely different. "I remember a being of fire, the head of a wolf, the tail of a fox, and the wings of a dragon. This being said that it was a spirit bound to you." She spoke slowly causing Catori to shake.

"Um... I don't understand Louise." She spoke with uncertainty in her voice. Louise gave a chilling smile, something that didn't really belong on her face. She crept closer to her familiar until their face was only a few inches apart.

"Its name was Kagutsuchi, and I was burned over and over again. I felt the flames burn my skin away and then burned my bones until it was ash. Tell me why exactly would I dream about something like that." The more she spoke, the paler the raven haired girl's face became. Red eyes widened in horror as realization dawned on her.

'He didn't' Mentally she searches through the spirits bound to her, and she can feel immense sadistic satisfaction coming from the spirit of fire. 'He did.' She thought. She suddenly yelped when she felt somebody yank on her tail. "Noooooo!" She shouts. She was almost sure that everybody heard that. Louise ignores the scream, eyes screaming with rage. She tugs on the tail harder causing more pain to shoot through Catori. "Please forgive me, I will make sure to punish him!" Catori cries trying to escape from her evil master.

Louise's eyes widened in realization that it wasn't dream, before she tugged even harder. "Silence!" She orders. She yanks on the tail again, causing another scream of pain. A slightly sadistic smile came onto her face, as she found herself rather enjoying the screams. 'It is after all just me punishing my familiar.' She stated in her mind.

Meanwhile Catori decided to try to ignore the pain of somebody tugging on her tail, and closed her eyes. Slowly she felt herself drifting away a little, not physically but in the spiritual sense. Looking side of her soul, she stood on an island with ash littering the ground and dead tries lit on fire. The sky was the color of flames blocked partially by the smoke rising up into it.

Standing before her was her Spirit Guardian of Fire. "Kagustuchi!" She yelled at the spirit of fire. His head turned to look at her, one eyebrow raised. "I told you not to do anything to her!" She shouted, slightly annoyed with her spirit guardian.

"You only told me not to kill her through her dreams, I only traumatized her. But I will admit I wasn't expecting this sort of sadistic outcome, it does warm my heart to see somebody finally teaching you a lesson." The spirit said before throwing his head back and laughing. It was a well known fact that Catori had a rather lazy streak and when spirits did act up she dealt with them ruthlessly. This was refreshing for the spirit of fire to say the least. "Plus it's just good that she didn't decide to say pull on your ear and tail at the same time. It's one o f the customs of the Valore Beast-Kin when proposing isn't it. Of course there is also biting, among other customs. I still remember that young man who tried to beat you in combat for your hand in marriage. That was a rather entertaining fight when you lit a certain part of his body on fire." The spirit sighed in bliss remembering the pained screams.

"Sadist, you're a sadist!" Catori accused. Kagutsuchi just gives a deep chuckle, shaking his head at his charge.

"I never said I wasn't."

Catori grumples shooting the Spirit of Fire a look, before returning back to the physical realm. She gives a small scream as more pain shoots through her body. Louise pulled even harder laughing slightly as her familiar gave another pained shout.

This all ceased when the door opened, and a woman steeped into the room. She had pink hair, but it was tied up. Her face was nearly identical to Louise's except it had a more mature look about it. Her eyes took in the scene before and she opened her mouth to speak. "I didn't know you were into such things Louise." The rather tightly controlled voice said.

Louise stuttered, looking at the woman before her and suddenly found herself staring wide eyed in fear. She looks at the what the woman was talking about, finding herself almost straddling Catori and her eyes widened. She quickly moves back on the bed, but the cat girl just lays on the ground.

Catori grabs her tail rubbing it soothingly before shooting Louise a rather nasty look. Louise ignores it to instead looking at the woman. The woman gave both of them a rather scary look, before Louise stuttered out a greeting.

"H-hello mother."

-Line Break-

I'm going to be ending this here for now. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Next chapter Louise and Catori have a talk with umm... Karin, who decides to spar against Catori to measure her strength. Needless to say, Catori will lose rather badly too.

I'm slowly going to be working up on making these chapters longer as I get more use to the Familiar of Zero Universe again.

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