Taming Destiny - a Tamer Class isekai/portal survival fantasy.

I gulp as I pass the rock that looks vaguely shaped like a head. It’s the sign that we’re rapidly approaching ‘home’ – and the angry nunda mother who is no doubt going to confront me as soon as she notices the bond between me and her cub.

We’ve gone over various possibilities, each of us who have come into extended contact with Kalanthia guessing what she might do or say, and how to deal with each scenario. But it’s hard to know exactly what her reaction might be – she’s surprised me in the past. Probably, Bastet is the one with the best ability to predict – she too is a maternal figure with cubs to protect. River is too fearful of ‘the Great Predator’ and Lathani is too biased. But even she seems split on how Kalanthia might react.

Frankly, I’m a little surprised that Kalanthia hasn’t already confronted us. Last time we came back from rescuing Lathani, she’d met us shortly after this point, so we figured that the same would happen this time. We’ve been bracing for that for the last hour, but there’s been no sign of the massive nunda.

I look around the cavalcade travelling with me instinctively, wanting to make sure everyone is with us. I see River with his temporary team of tempin, scalla, itho, encono, and his fellow samuran – Catches-leaves. When given the choice, he chose a team of mostly-bipedal creatures, with only one moving on four legs – the tempin who looks a bit like a tortoise, but is significantly faster than one.

Leading the vanguard is Bastet with her smaller and stealthier group of Tamed Bound. She’s only taken three, as she also has the three cubs to keep track of. These are the reer, oloc, and mea – all lithe-looking predators. The reer is the biggest of the group, slightly bigger than Bastet herself, and with a wicked bone spike on his tail. He’s completely scaled and has several bone protrusions elsewhere on his body, making him a thorny prospect to attack. That hadn’t seemed to deter the danaris, though.

The oloc and mea are not nearly as dangerous looking – at first glance. One look at their mouths full of needle-sharp teeth proves that they can do some damage when they want. The oloc looks rather like a big weasel, her body held close to the ground, her scales slipping easily through any sort of obstacle. The mea is far more chunky, looking far more like the wolvezard that I encountered in my first few days in this world. Heck, for all I know it is a wolvezard – I wasn’t able to Inspect creatures at that point so have no idea what that one was actually called.

Persephone has taken almost only herbivores, interestingly enough. That’s the icehal, quan, thion, and cyran whose hulking body offers significant protection against any attack. The lone carnivore of the group, the meiryl, is a shy-looking thing which seems to try to hide at every opportunity. Even Bonded, she was unwilling to come too close to me. I hope that that wears off – her bond is a trial one, so I guess that if I prove that I’m not planning on eating her or something, that she might decide to stick with us for the long-term.

Hades has a rather mismatched assortment of my new Bound in his team: the woshel, tidis, hernem, deri, and krerus. He’s acting as rear-guard, and his temporary team looks to be suited to that role. They have a couple of heavy-hitters, a couple of what look like moving tanks, and the krerus who looks particularly suited to rogue-like attacks.

The last three – the carnivorous serara and the two herbivorous stio – are just sticking with our group, moving warily at the edge of the party. Frankly, were it not that my destination makes me far more anxious than the forest itself does even on a normal day, I would feel completely relaxed at travelling in such a cavalcade.

The feeling and sound of scrabbling in the hide bag on my back reminds me of something else – the three danaris larvae I kept from the wounds of my new Bound. They’ve got a chunk of meat in there which should be keeping them happy. I was concerned at first that they might engage in cannibalism, since that’s clearly something which they’re happy to do, but it turns out that these slightly-older larvae can actually defend themselves well enough to deter the other larvae from seeing them as an easy meal. As long as there’s an easier meal present, anyway.

With my check done, I focus once more on the route ahead, soon seeing the river come into view. We’re almost back.

As each metre passes without any sign of the massive leopard-like predator, I find the knot in my stomach tightening. Almost at the hill now, I find myself mentally cursing Lathani for putting me in this spot. We all agreed that it was going to be bad enough with the marks of a consensual Tame Bond no doubt visible on her soul, but this? This is going to be far worse.

I glare down at the nunda cub padding next to me. I’d been very clear when we woke up this morning that I wanted her at my side throughout the trip. There’s no way I want to risk her getting into more trouble.

I’m sorry, she says again. It’s not the first time she’s apologised, and probably not the last, but all it does now is make me sigh in frustration.

“Sorry doesn’t magically make things all better,” I tell her, breaking the silence I’ve been in for the past couple of hours. “Besides, if you were truly sorry, you wouldn’t have done it in the first place: you knew before invoking the Bond that it wasn’t a good idea.”

It is a good idea, she corrects obstinately, as she has every time we’ve discussed this. But I know mother will be angry at you for it. And I’m sorry for that.

“Angry,” I chuckle humorlessly. “Sure, let’s call it that. The alternative is murderously furious.”

Why would I be murderously furious, Markus Wolfe? I freeze. The rest of the cavalcade stops with me. The ‘managers’ take their cue from me, and their teams take their cues from their leaders. Kalanthia fades into view, her stealth ability falling away to reveal her massive form standing just at the foot of the hill on the other side of the river.

The herbivores among us are abruptly poised to flee, the massive predator in front of them too much for their sense of safety. The carnivores cower a little too, their senses no doubt telling them that they have no chance against this apex-predator. As discussed, the managers take control of their groups, calming them and reassuring them. At least, that’s what they should be doing.

It’s OK, I send along the network of Bonds, just in case. She’s friendly. At least, I hope she is. Or will be when she realises what’s happened. She definitely hasn’t yet, as she looks more curious and amused than angry.

“Come on,” I tell Lathani quietly, walking forwards. She follows my lead, though her own nerves are clear in her body language. Better to get it over sooner rather than later.

Are you sure I should not come? Bastet offers again as I pass her spot. I send a sense of negation down the Bond to her: as I’ve told her before, I’d rather not have anyone else in the line of fire. We keep walking forwards. I, at least, feel a bit like I’m walking to my execution here.

I know the moment that Kalanthia senses exactly what’s happened. We’re only a few body-lengths away from her at that point, and her demeanour completely changes. Her lips lift to bare her teeth, her hackles rise as she shifts into a threatening crouch, and, most importantly, her aura billows out from her in a frightening wave.

I grit my teeth and stand my ground – having already felt it a couple of times improves my ability to withstand it, and my increased Willpower must also help as I manage to not even take a step back.

My Bound are not so lucky, and I sense my team leaders needing to take firm control of their groups to prevent a terror-stricken stampede from happening. But that’s why I delegated almost all the Bonds. The last three I have to control myself, but that’s relatively easily accomplished. Then I have no time to think about anything other than the angry nunda in front of me.

True to our expectations, she’s almost incandescent in her fury. Her eyes burn with some inner energy, the earth shifting beneath her paw. I’m very aware that at any moment, she could open a chasm beneath my feet and drop me in it, silencing my cries in an instant. But then, she could also swipe or bite my head off in just as little time, so the fact that she hasn’t done any of that is a good sign. Isn’t it?

You’ve Bound my cub, Binder, seethes Kalanthia. After everything I’ve done for you, everything I’ve…I trusted you and you’ve taken my cub for your own selfish designs. She seems to be working herself into even more of a rage, though I wouldn’t have believed it possible.

“Kalanthia, look, listen to me, I didn’t-”

No! she roars. No! I listened to you before and you have betrayed me! Then she stops and glares at me. My heart almost fails me at the look in her eyes. In that moment, I believe that looks can genuinely kill in this new reality. It’s not only because of the anger there, but also the soul-deep hurt which I see.

Without giving me a moment to say or do anything, she leaps towards me. She’s too fast for me to do anything but hopelessly and instinctively lift my hands to cover my face.

The next moment, an impact strikes me, but not the one I was expecting. Instead of teeth and claws tearing through my flesh like butter, I’m slammed to the ground, a weight landing on top of me. Not Kalanthia’s.

I open my eyes which had instinctively slid closed to see Lathani standing over me. That wasn’t the plan. Any of them. Through her legs, I see that her mother has halted her own strike and is standing only a couple of inches away from me, her claws practically touching my armour. I gulp at the sheer sharpness and lethality of those weapons. I highly doubt that even my nere-hide armour would stand up for more than a fraction of a second against them.

Fortunately, it appears I have something of a protector in Lathani, as she’s currently snarling back at her mother. By dipping into the Bond between us, I can eavesdrop on their conversation – Kalanthia’s already wanting to kill me, so I might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb.

As might be expected, their conversation isn’t really in words, but my mind automatically interprets it into such.

You’re defending your captor! shouts Kalanthia at her cub.

He’s not my captor! shouts Lathani back, just as passionate. I won’t let you kill him! You’ll have to go through me first! If it hadn’t been my life at stake, I might have rolled my eyes at the melodrama of teenagers, but as it is, I’m grateful. I mean, considering she caused the most recent issue, I would hope that she would defend me but still, I’m not going to just take it for granted.

You’re being affected by the insidious nature of the Bond, Kalanthia hisses at her cub next, her aura increasing in spikiness, almost provoking a physical response from my body. I do my best to stay still despite having the almost uncontrollable urge to squirm. You don’t know what you’re saying. I will kill him and then you will be free. And then you will realise that I am right.

I could be free any time I chose! rejects Lathani. It’s you who doesn’t understand!

I understand, Kalanthia says suddenly, sounding abruptly calmer. I would like to feel relieved, but a gut instinct tells me that it’s not what it seems. I understand that he has made you promises. Told you that he will release you whenever you want it. That he won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. That he won’t force you to kill anyone precious to you. But he’s lied. That’s what humans do! They cheat, and they lie, and they destroy. I thought that maybe he was different. But I was a fool to believe it. I will kill him and remove this cancer from our lives.

There’s a deafening silence for a moment. I feel hurt, I have to admit it, if only to myself. It’s illogical – I am pretty certain that Kalanthia has good reason to distrust humans, from what little I’ve picked up. I also know that this whole situation doesn’t look good – that’s why I was so nervous about coming back.

Perhaps it’s more empathetic hurt than hurt in myself. I know how awful it feels to be betrayed, and regret that everything has led to Kalanthia feeling like that. Especially when Lathani and I both know that the situation isn’t at all as she thinks it is. Whether Lathani can get the message across before it’s too late for me is another question, though – I have a feeling that Kalanthia’s almost on the point of forcibly separating us so that she can kill me without risking Lathani.

I’m not sure why she hasn’t just opened a pit beneath me – maybe she thinks that might hurt Lathani, or maybe she’s just been too angry to think of it yet. In that case, her calming down might be a two-edged sword.

I would try to speak up in my own defence, but have a distinct feeling that it would just make things worse. Especially if I revealed that I’m listening into their private conversation. For better or worse, it appears that I’ve got to rely on Lathani to be my advocate here – and hope that she succeeds in getting Kalanthia to back down before I get my head torn off.