(Sunday, 25/10/1058, early morning)
(3rd person PoV)
"Good morning, lovebirds. Done eating?" Anakitty approached Henryk and Shira as they were exiting the mess hall. Fey was not with them now since Henryk told her and wolves to have a mock battle where Fey would dive at them to attack, and the wolves would need to find a way to drag her down to earth.
"Good morning, Anakitty" Henryk returned the greeting. "What did you come to talk to us about?"
"Direct, huh?" Anakitty murmured in a low voice. "As I was introduced a few days ago, my name is Anakitty Autumn. I was tasked to update you on your kobold. We observed it for you while you were unconscious. I'll tell you what we gathered while we are on the way"
"My name is Shira Williams. We were going to go check on the kobold just now" Shira said. She was hyper self-aware because Anakitty was not sneaky with her glances at their tails.
"She helps me control my tail. I just grew it this morning out of nowhere and couldn't control it for the life of me" Henryk said with a heavy sigh. He really was bummed by his lack of control over a part of his own body.
"Oh!" Anakitty gasped in wonder. "Could you grow cat-like ears then?"
"If I wanted to, yes" Henryk said with a tone that signaled her to cut the conversation there.
"Follow me then. I will lead you to the kobold" Anakitty turned around and started leading them to the room they used to keep the kobold.
"For starters, I will report the kobold's current state. Although it is mostly aggressive, a spark of apprehension and wariness uncharacteristic of higher floor monsters appears in it from time to time. To avoid it lashing out, it was chained with an adamantite chain that was lying around" Anakitty decidedly omitted the part where these chains were used on Ais as a child.
"And? How does it react when approached? Being wary isn't exactly descriptive" Henryk said.
"It curls in on itself, or tries to, while worming away from us. That was one of the deciding factors on why it wasn't outright killed upon being brought out of the dungeon" Anakitty said.
There was unfortunately less to say about the kobold than desired. The kobold was consistent with its behaviour around them.
"Well, here we are" Anakitty said as she stopped beside a room's reinforced door. "It was originally a mini armory until the kobold was put in it. It wasn't used much before that" She unlocked the door but held it firmly closed.
"Be careful. Even though the chains were tightened on it, it still could have escaped" She pushed the door open carefully, scanning for any signs of the kobold. It was where they left it the last time, hanging from the ceiling. Anakitty opened the door fully.
"There it is" She ushered them in then closed the door behind her as she followed them.
"Arf!" The kobold wiggled in its chains, causing them to clink loudly.
"As you can see, it is vigorous" Anakitty s said. "Although I must say, it is showing signs of hunger"
"You didn't feed it, did you?" Henryk asked with a casual tone.
"No. There is absolutely no reason for us to feed a monster" Anakitty said as a matter of fact.
"You've got a point there" Henryk said before approaching the chained kobold. He uncoiled his tail from around Shira's as he did so. He was not looking at Shira's face as she pursed her lips and glared at the kobold as if owed her its life and more.
'I wonder how it'd feel if I fell in love. Would I be this adorable?' Anakitty thought while seeing Shira's glare towards the poor monster.
"Hey, you. Can you understand me?" The kobold froze. It did not have a very good memory of before the link with Henryk was formed, but its latest torture session with him remained clear. It started wiggling much more desperately with an even paler face as compared to when the other familia members were present.
"Look me in the face" Henryk grabbed its snout. "Either nod or be killed"
The kobold whimpered but managed to nod once Henryk released its snout.
Henryk turned around to look at Anakitty. "Could we release it from its chains?" He said while pointing a thumb at it.
"Be ready. Any wrong move from it and I'll kill it without hesitation" Anakitty gave a stern warning before tossing him the key to the chains.
As the keys sailed through the air, Henryk opened the link between him and the kobold.
'Listen to everything I say and follow my words closely. Your life and death will be decided depending on how well you could follow orders' Henryk sent it though the link.
"yelp..." 'Please, let me live!' In contrast to his little whimper, his thoughts were very loud.
'Like I said, follow my orders very closely and I'll guarantee your life to the best of my capabilities' Henryk said as he dangled the keys before its eyes.
'I will follow your orders! Just please let me live!' The kobold's thoughts were reflecting his fear. Futura came here a few times and snarled at it, threatening it just as its fear started to fade each time. That prompted it to fear being calm.
'My first order is that you aren't allowed to attack anyone without my explicit orders' Henryk said to it before cutting the link from his side. 'Its intelligence seems to be just enough to form its instincts into thoughts. Maybe that's why it's so open on what thought passes through to me and what doesn't. I need to increase its intelligence to hold a more proper conversation later'
Henryk unlocked the chains and made some distance between them.
As soon as the kobold fell to the ground, it picked itself up and started backing away from Henryk specifically.
Henryk reopened the link.
"Kobold, your name from now on will be Kob. Respond when you hear this name" Henryk said.
"augh" Kob responded.
Henryk approached it as it shrunk away from him. Henryk kept approaching it regardless.
"Good boy, Kob" Henryk pet it briefly with a somewhat brighter and more relaxed voice.
The cognitive dissonance between its fear and the praise Henryk gave it just now made its brain short-circuit. It defaulted to backing away from him, but its hands kept covering the space between its ears, feeling for something that wasn't there anymore.
"Can you leave us alone with him, Anakitty?" Henryk said without looking away. He was still wary of Kob's instincts.
"I will check on you a few minutes later. Loki was very clear about keeping you two safe" Anakitty said before leaving the room.
"Shira, do you think playing with another's thoughts directly is bad? Even in the case of ridding a monster of its violence and making it more docile around people?" Henryk said somberly. He was divided on this subject. Messing with another's thoughts was not something he was comfortable with. Increasing one's capacity for thoughts? Sure, he was completely fine doing so. Messing with those thoughts? That was another thing entirely.
"I don't know" Shira said with furrowed brows. She got stuck in this philosophical dilemma. She shook her head.
"If neither of us is sure, we'll go with what seems to be the best option for now" Henryk decided. If he wanted to keep this one alive, he would need to alter its thought process.
{I ask thee, thou who oversees the fate of every living being, thee who directs the flow of things. Answer my prayer and grant my humble wish} {Alteration: Rewire the brain to lower aggressive responses and tendencies outside of explicit threats to one's life}
Henryk felt woozy, making him believe that the spell took effect.
'Well, we'll need to spend some time with the kobold free from its chains and see how that goes. Any signs of aggression would mean certain death for it' Henryk thought while intensely glaring at Kob. Kob got stressed from being looked down on by this bigger creature that was frowning and glaring at it.
"Kob, while I was unimaginative with your name, I reserved a better name for when you prove yourself worth naming. Live long enough and I'll give you a proper name" Henryk stepped away from it while his glare mellowed out.
"Arf!" For some reason, Kob was so excited about getting a name that he seemingly forgot most of what happened until now.
'Kob's brain doesn't seem to keep or recall long-term memories that well yet. We may need to work on that if his case doesn't improve with time' Henryk thought.
"Let's go" Henryk opened the link for Kob's emotions to flow through to him but not his to Kob. 'He's... genuinely excited... It isn't an act, it seems. We got lucky with this one's personality, currently at least. I hope his personality doesn't grow worse as time goes on'
(Outside)
Ankitty was waiting and listening in for any loud noises. While she left them to their privacy since they could kill it themselves, it was another story if an emergency arose. She was ready for that. That was partly why she almost beheaded Kob as he stepped out of the room without any chains or restraints. She only stopped her attempt at Kob's head when he bowed down as if to apologize.
'A monster bowing down politely, I didn't think I would ever live to see the day when this happened' Anakitty thought as she sheathed her short sword.
"Good job, Kob. You passed the first hurdle in becoming accepted. Being seen as polite would take you a long way forward" Henryk patted Kob between the ears again. This time, his hand lingered a bit more. Noticing Anakitty's puzzled stare, he responded. "I have a better name for Kob. He just needs to live long enough to receive it" He then walked away with Shira and Kob.
'Maybe we can finally pet the fluffier monsters more safely now?' Anakitty's focus was more on Henryk and understanding his character and thoughts, but her mind wandered to something she wondered when she first laid eyes on a horned rabbit.
For the rest of that day, Henryk spent the day recovering and cast his magic on Kob one last time to alter his larynx, more commonly known as a voice box, and its position, along with making his lips a little fuller, so that Kob would be able to produce human-like speech even with the shape of his snout as it is.