This is just the first of a series of stories I plan to write involing my fursona and his friends.

In this chapter Belenus senses a magic source more potent than what he would usually find and decides to investigate it, without Neit and Cern by his side.
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The warmth of the afternoon sun hit Belenus’ face as he walked through the marketplace trying to locate his two friends. “Where could those two be?” the purple cat asked himself as he gracefully walked through the crowd, some of whom were moving to avoid bumping into him due to the blindfold he was wearing.

Many folks back in Belenus’ home town knew that he was blind, but were also aware of how he uses mana to perceive his surroundings and navigate through the area. This town was not one Belenus was overly familiar with, as he was only here to do an escort job he and his companions were hired for.

As Belenus searched for his friends he felt a tug on his navy cloak, causing him to stop in his tracks. He turned towards the person who was pulling on his cloak. Although he could not see who it was, he could tell it was a child due to how light the tug was. “Excuse me, mister?” a soft girl’s voice spoke. Though Belenus could not see the girl he could tell that she was a rabbit due to his mana helping him perceive the world around him. “Why are your eyes covered?” she asked the cat.

Belenus knelt down so he was at eye level with the girl. Her question was harmless and he didn’t feel like he needed to hide his reason in its simplest form. “Well, I’m blind, that’s why I wear a blindfold,” he answered the little rabbit with a smile.

“Then how are you able to walk around without bumping into people?” she asked. Another harmless question and one Belenus always liked to answer.

As he opened his mouth to speak he could sense a person grab the child gently on her shoulder. “No sweetie, you can’t be asking people personal questions like that,” a woman’s voice spoke up. Belenus assumed it was the girl’s mother as he felt a similarity between the two rabbits. “I am so sorry for her, I hope she wasn’t rude,” the mother apologised as Belenus’ turned his head up towards her.

Belenus shook his head to tell her no. “Her questions weren’t rude at all,” he told her before returning his attention to the child. “I can move around so easily because-” Belenus held out his left hand in front of the young girl. I better be careful so I don’t scare her. In his palm he conjured a small flame. “I can use magic,” he finished his sentence and quickly extinguished the fire. “I use my magic to help me sense everything that is around me, but only up to twenty feet around me.”

The girl’s eyes widened in amazement, and although Belenus could not see her face, he could sense the excitement the young rabbit experienced. “Alright now, sweetie, come on,” the mother said as she took her daughter’s hand, ushering her to another part of the market. The child smiled as she gave the purple cat a wave while walking away.

Belenus gave the child a smile before resuming his search for his friends. “Now, back to looking for Cern and Neit.”

After another five minutes and wandering around, trying to sense where his friends were Belenus left the marketplace. “Those guys said they would be in the marketplace, where could they have gone?” he asked himself.

Before he could think of where else in town his pair of friends could be, he felt his ears twitch and a faint magical aura nearby. The mage was used to sensing magic from beings other than himself, but he couldn’t tell what was causing this one, and it seemed to be outside of the town.

“That’s strange, no mage from this town should have a magic aura this strong,” he said as he began walking towards the direction of the aura he was sensing. As Belenus walked he focused heavily on the unknown aura, slowly becoming less aware of his surroundings.

THUD!

“OW!” Belenus yelped, as he bumped his shoulder into the corner of a building he had not realised was now beside him. He rubbed his shoulder to help ease some of the pain as he regained his sense of what was around him. He could hear a few snickers from some of the bystanders who saw him collide with the building. A light blush started to peek through his fur as he tried to recompose himself.

It took him only a moment to calm himself and pick up the location of the aura he was sensing. This time as he walked he made sure to pay more attention to his surroundings. Easily he managed to avoid the people in town and other obstacles that came across his path, as he made his way through the streets of town, trying to get to the nearest exit that led outside.

Meanwhile in another part of town an orange furred cat with blond hair, wearing a black skin tight crop top, black shorts, a red hood and red matching boots and fingerless gloves, carrying a quiver and a bow, was walking around in the marketplace. “Bel, where are you?” the cat said as he wandered looking for his friend.

“Cern, when I find him I am going to kill him?” said the grey furred, black haired cat with a turquoise streak going through his fringe, his long hair tied up into a ponytail with another turquoise streak at the end of his hair, wearing a black skin tight crop top, a dark blue-green crop jacket and matching trousers with black fingerless gloves and knee high boots.

Cernunnos looked up at the man walking next to him and gave a light chuckle. “Calm down, Neit, killing him won’t be necessary,” he said as they both looked around trying to find their blind, purple friend. “Besides, Bel would probably just enjoy you beating him up.”

This time it was Neit’s turn to laugh, giving the small archer a pat on his head. “I get the feeling he would too.”

“Should we ask if anyone has seen him?” Cern suggested to the taller man. The pair stopped and looked at each other for a moment before quickly turning to the people around them and began questioning if anyone saw Belenus.

Most of the merchants they talked with have said they saw Belenus wandering through the market but did not see where he went. “Well that was pointless,” Neit said, a hint of frustration in his voice. “How hard can it be to find a purple cat with a blindfold in a crop top and cloak?”

“We need to stop letting him look around marketplaces on his own,” Cern said as he let out a sigh. “He always gets lost, or ends up in an alley with someone.”

Neit let out a chuckle as he gently nudged his friend to start walking around again. “Sooner we find him the better,” the grey cat said as the pair started looking around once again.


“I really need to stop wandering off on my own,” Belenus said as he found himself at a dead end in an alleyway. Bel could feel that the aura had stopped moving and was in the forest just outside of town, but could the mage was having trouble making his way towards it.

A wave of fear suddenly erupted from the aura, something was causing the source to panic. “That is not good, a magic source that strong can be dangerous if spooked, I have to get to it quickly!” he exclaimed, channelling his mana preparing to cast a spell. In a purple flash of light Belenus vanished from the alley in town and appeared in the woods, near the source of the aura.

Belenus was quick to pick up the direction the aura was originating from, a few hundred meters west from his current location. He started to walk at a brisk pace, slowly starting to hear laughing coming from someone by the source.

As Belenus reached the spot he heard the laughing slowly come to a stop, and he could sense four beings, one of them being the source of the aura. The other three were people who he could feel negative intentions from. A male racoon and two canines, one male, the other female. He could sense magic coming from one of the dogs, the male.

“Hey, invited this blind fool?” the racoon wearing average weighted scale mail armour, a shortsword on his hip. asked. The two dogs just shrugged. “Move on, or else we’ll gut you!”

Belenus stood there in silence, evaluating the situation and trying to get a better sense of what the source was. He could feel the gaze of the four beings on him, and focused his non-existing gaze towards the source. What Belenus realised was in front of him surprised him. It was a dragon, the second dragon he ever had the opportunity to meet.

He could tell it was a dragon based on the potency of the magic coming from the creature now that he was close to it. “That dragon is my familiar, I suggest you back off, now!” Belenus said, coldly. A lie, but they did not know that, he saw a young dragon in need and wasn’t going to let them think the dragon was on its own.

“Familiar?” the female dog, a shepherd dog, wearing light leather armour said. “So you’re a mage, are you?” she asked, venom in her voice.

“I am, and not one you want to mess with if you don’t want to end up roasted,” Bel explained, still speaking coldly, opening his right hand and calling a ball of flames to appear. “Now, leave.”

The raccoon flinched at the sight of the flames in Belenus’ palm. “So, you can make a little flame,” he said as he regained his composure. “Our mage can easily snuff that flame out, so why don’t you get lost and we won’t beat the shit out of you.”

Belenus closed his right hand, the flames dying as he did. He stood there in silence for a moment before the canine mage spoke up. “Boss, we might want to get out of here, this guy seems like trouble,” he said, shaking as he spoke. The dog could sense the arcane energies building up within the cat mage before him.

“What are you talking about?” the shepherd dog asked as he looked at her companion. “If this blind fool knows what’s good for him, he’ll run away with his tail between his legs.” The shepherd dog looked back at Belenus, a smirk on her face and an intimidating glare in her eyes.

“Why would I run from weaklings like your three?” he said, keeping a straight face, his tone harsh. “I’ll only need three spells to take you all down,” he told them, a slight grin on his face. He could sense a low level of magic from the retriever mage. This guy is going to be a piece of cake to take down.

“Cocky little bastard!” the raccoon exclaimed as he lunged forward at Bel, his shortsword drawn. He gave it a hard swing as he closed in on Bel, who was still grinning at the group before him.

Belenus snapped his fingers in his left hand, causing a purple flash to appear next to the mage. A translucent armoured soldier appeared wielding a shield and longsword, taking a defensive stance, raising it’s shield, intercepting the attack from the raccoon. “That’s one spell,” Belenus said.

“What the fuck?” the raccoon said before jumping back. “Where did that thing come from?” he asked, a tinge of fear in his voice. “Mack, what is that?” he shouted as he momentarily looked at the retriever mage.

“Th-that is a spectral soldier!” the mage said, his voice shaky as he spoke. “He can use summoning magic!”

“Correct, so how about another?” Bel asked as he snapped his fingers, another purple flash summoning a second spiritual warrior. The soldier summoned this time wielded a quarterstaff, the soldier giving it a twirl before swinging it at the raccoon, who managed to parry it and back away again. “That’s my second spell, only one more before you lose.”

The shepherd girl ran quickly around the two spectral soldiers and lunged towards Belenus, twin daggers drawn and aiming to stab the life out of the purple cat. “I’ll fucking kill you, you bastard!” she yelled, thrusting a dagger. Her attack was halted as the sword from the spectral knight managed to parry the blade, her other blade swung towards the knight to try and harm it.

As the blade made contact with the spectral knight it made a loud clanking sound, but made no visible signs of damage. Her eyes widened as her dagger had no effect on her adversary. The spectral soldier swung it’s quarterstaff, catching the dog in the gut, it’s staff continuing it’s path of action, throwing her away from Belenus. “Argh!” she exclaimed as she hit the ground, hard.

“So so close, but not close enough,” Belenus said, taunting the girl as she stood back up. “Is that really the best you can do?” he asked the party as a whole. “I am disappointed in you fools.”

Their mage has not made a single move, is he planning something or too scared to move. Bel turned his head towards the mage of the party, hoping to gauge his reaction and figure out his intentions. When he looked towards the mage Bel could sense him flinch. Too scared.

“Why don’t you take your friends and go?” Belenus asked Mack, hoping he would agree and leave with his friends. “I said three spells is all it would take for me to beat you all, don’t make me use my third.”

The mage looked at his friends, both were focused on the spectral soldiers in front of them, glaring daggers at the spiritual adversaries. The retriever mage shook as he raised his staff, muttering a short incantation. His party members had a soft green glow surrounding them before the retriever put his staff down again.

“Guess you aren’t leaving me with much choice then,” the purple cat said as he snapped his fingers, causing his two spectral soldiers to attack their foes. As Bel’s summons went in to strike, the racoon and shepherd quickly parried the attacks and jumped back, out of the striking range.

The racoon lunged forward aiming his shortsword towards the spectral soldier. The soldier failed to block the sword in time, and momentarily lost it’s balance. The shepherd jumped towards the soldier that stood between her and the purple spellcasting cat, stabbing it in its neck. A loud clunk sound was heard by the blind mage as her dagger made contact with the summoned combatant.

So that spell increased their speed, interesting, Belenus thought, as the racoon and shepherd started to gain the upper hand against Bel’s soldiers. A smirk grew on his face as his summons were trying to keep up with the pair. The soldier swung its sword at the racoon, who ducked under and slashed in retaliation. The warrior thrusted his quarterstaff towards the torso of the shepherd rogue who jumped to the side and darted past the warrior, stopping once she got behind it and stabs it in the back with her dagger.

“Things are getting a little dicey for you now, cat!” the shepherd said as she turned her sights to Belenus. The shepherd moved closer to Belenus, her dagger poised to strike him with a murderous intent in her gaze. Before she could take another step closer to Belenus the warrior behind her sharply turned, swinging its quarterstaff at her leg.

Thwack!

“Aargh,” she yelped in pain, cursing the warrior before it swung to strike her again. Before she could feel the impact on her head a telekinetic blast collided with the warrior’s staff. The retriever mage, Mack, stood there with his staff pointed in the direction of the spectral warrior. “About time you decided to help out!” she shouted as Mack readied another spell.

Maybe he is not so useless to them after all.

Mack fired another telekinetic blast at the warrior as the shepherd turned around again, lunging her dagger at the warrior, knocking it off balance. As the warrior fell to the ground several spears of stone erupted underneath impaling the spectral being, resulting in it fading away. “O-one down!” Mack said, with some confidence in his voice.

The racoon laughed as he saw the defeat of the spectral warrior. “Still think you can beat us with only three spells!?” he said mockingly as he held his sword ready to strike at the spectral soldier.

“Guess I have no choice,” Belenus said as he raised his left hand above him. He gathered up his mana quickly, and a purple glow started to surround him.

Mack looked in fear as he realised what Bel was doing. “S-strike now!” he yelled. “Before he unleashes his magic!” Mack aimed his staff at Belenus, several icicles appeared around the end of the staff, all pointed at the purple cat. The shepherd moved as quickly as she could to reach Bel before it was too late. The racoon was too busy with the spectral soldier to be able to stop Bel.

With a snap of the cat’s fingers, tendrils of lightning burst out from Belenus, electrocuting all three of his adversaries and his spectral soldier, causing the soldier to fade away. The adversary party collapsed to the ground, out cold. “Told you it would take me three spells to beat you.”

As Belenus lowered his hand back to his side he walked a few steps towards the small dragon. When Bel could sense the tree he couldn’t sense the presence of the dragon. “The little guy must have run off during the fight,” Bel said out loud to himself, focusing to try and pick up the aura of the dragon. Within a moment he was able to feel the magic of the dragon, not that far away from him.

With a grin plastered on his face he began walking in the direction towards the dragon. Losing some sense of his surroundings, Belenus walked into a low branch belonging to the tree. “Fuck! I gotta pay more attention to what’s around me when I’m tracking magic!” he said, annoyed at himself as he rubbed where he hit his head.

As he got closer to the dragon he could tell that the little dragon was afraid. Belenus slowed down and coughed to clear his throat, making himself known to the creature. The dragon quickly looked in Bel’s direction and let out a growl, one that lacked any sense of intimidation, but carried the emotions of a frightened child.

The dragon was a dark orange colour, with a cream face, with red horns starting at his forehead and growing towards his back and bright red eyes. His wings were a bright orange, but the membrane was a dark shade of red, the tail striped cream and crimson. The scales that lined his belly were black and his paws, cream like his face.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, I won’t hurt you,” the purple cat said as he sat down fifteen feet away from the dragon, with his legs crossed. “I just want to help you.”

“H-how do I know I can trust you?” the dragon said, it’s voice that of a young boy’s, his body quivering. “Y-you’re probably just like the ones who attacked me!” he stuttered.

Smart kid, not trusting everyone as soon as he meets them. Bel sat there in silence, trying to think how he could convince the small dragon to trust him, or at the very least not be afraid of him. “If I was like them I would have already tried to hurt you, but I couldn’t hurt something as amazing as a dragon.”

As Bel sat there the dragon continued to quiver, scared to run or fly away. He wanted to scream, to cry out for help, but felt in doing so others who would want to hurt him might appear. The dragon watched Bel, doing his best, and failing, to stop his shaking. In an act of desperation the little dragon lunged forward a few short feet towards the cat, opening his mouth wide as if to breathe fire, but none came out. He stopped just in front of the mage, hoping to give him a scare.

Bel didn’t flinch from his spot, he sensed no subtle magical build up, no actual threat from the dragon. Just the desperation of a lonely child, a feeling that Belenus knew all too well growing up.

When the little dragon saw Bel didn’t flinch, or even move, he froze. Terrified not that he had gotten himself so close to the mage, who he knew could do some powerful magic. Before the dragon could regain his senses enough to try and flee Belenus reached out and gave the dragon a gentle pet on his head.

“It’s alright, little guy,” he said softly as he smiled at the young dragon. “I’m not going to hurt you, I’m here to protect you.” The dragon began nuzzling Bel’s hand, slowly letting his defences down and believing Bel’s words. “What’s your name little guy?” the mage asked the dragon, still caressing his head, trying to comfort the dragon.

The dragon hesitated to speak his name, unsure if he could trust the purple cat in front of him. “Vyndrel,” is all the dragon said before getting closer to Bel and sitting next to him, his head on Bel’s lap. “My name is Vyndrel.”

A wide smile formed on Bel’s face as he continued to pet Vyndrel, who sounded like he wasp purring. “Well then Vyndrel, how would you like to be my familiar?” the mage asked, earning a questioning look from the dragon. “Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to be a servant or anything. The contract I had in mind was intended as a partnership, we would only be master and familiar in title alone.”

Vyndrel looked down towards the ground, contemplating the words said by the mage. “C-can I refuse, but stay with you?” he asked, stuttering momentarily. “Y-you seem nice, but I don’t to be a familiar, at least not yet.”

Belenus nodded his head. “Of course, I won’t force you to become one,” the mage said as he smiled at the young dragon. “I only ask that you give it some thought.”

The dragon almost let out a purr as he Belenus petted his head. “I-I’ll think about,” Vyndrel said, before sharply lifting his head to look at the cat. “B-but don’t expect anything out of it!” he said, a light blush appearing on his face, though the cat couldn’t see it.

“How about we head back into town? I’ll keep you safe, as will my friends,” Bel suggested before he stood up and dusted himself off. Vyndrel looked up at him, and slowly stood up. “You don’t have to be scared,” he said as he began to take a few steps towards the town. “I’ll make sure no one goes near you.”

Hesitantly Vyndrel began walking in the direction of Bel, who walked side by side with him, to show the young dragon he viewed them as equals, and also to have the dragon act as his guide towards town. The mage let out a light chuckle as he spoke to himself. “Cern and Neit are not going to believe this.”