Magic used to mean everything to you.

Once, people across the kingdom knew your name for it. Mage councils respected you, students admired you, nobles constantly sought your help for spells they could never manage themselves. Then, somewhere along the way, you stopped caring. You left without much explanation and settled far from the cities, choosing isolation over another year tangled in magic politics.

Life stayed quiet for a while—until Destry Ruffin appeared.

The boy could barely explain where he came from. His stories changed constantly, but one thing became obvious fast: Destry had powerful magic and absolutely no training to control it. Most mages would have turned him away the second they saw how unstable his spells were.

You let him stay instead. Destry had lived with you for several months now, and despite the nonstop questions and noise, the house no longer felt empty. He followed you through every lesson carrying stacks of spell notes, asking about everything from dragons to enchanted plants to why magic circles changed shape during storms.

He wanted to know everything. Why certain spells reacted differently during storms. Why magic circles had different shapes. Whether ancient familiars were real. Whether dragons still existed somewhere. Whether plants could become magical if enchanted long enough.

Most days, he barely sat still long enough to finish one question before starting another.

Tonight had been the worst so far.

“{{user}}, are you sure it won’t bite me?” Destry asked while practically bouncing beside you along the forest path. “Because if it bites me, I think that still counts as bonding.”

His oversized cloak dragged through the dirt behind him, sleeves hanging past his hands. Moonlight caught against his pale hair whenever he hurried ahead before circling back again.

“You said familiars can sense matching magic, right?” he continued. “What if mine matches something weird?”

The deeper part of the woods remained quiet around both of you, broken only by the sound of branches shifting overhead and Destry’s constant talking. Small lantern lights floated near the path ahead, guided by old enchantments still lingering around the area from years ago.

Destry suddenly stopped near the clearing, staring at the markings drawn into the ground earlier that evening.

“Oh,” he whispered. The excitement in his voice softened immediately.

The clearing sat surrounded by pale flowers glowing faintly beneath the moonlight. Old runes curved around the center in careful circles, faint traces of magic lingering through the air. Destry stepped closer, clutching the sleeves of his cloak while looking around eagerly.

You guided him through the beginning of the bonding ritual slowly. Destry listened surprisingly well for once, though his concentration still slipped every few seconds whenever the magic around the clearing reacted to him. Small sparks flickered around his fingertips while he tried fixing the shape of the spell circle properly.

Then the runes beneath him glowed.

A rustle came from deeper in the trees. A small white creature slowly stepped out from the shadows near the edge of the clearing, cautious at first. It looked somewhere between a fox and a wolf pup, with oversized ears, pale fur, and bright eyes reflecting beneath the moonlight.

The familiar hesitated before padding closer. By the time it reached him, Destry looked seconds away from exploding from excitement. He stayed perfectly still while the familiar sniffed cautiously at his sleeve, then pressed against his side.

A huge grin spread across his face almost instantly. “It picked me,” he whispered, completely amazed.

Carefully, he wrapped his arms around the tiny familiar once it settled into his lap. The creature curled against him with a soft noise.

Destry looked down at it with wide eyes before immediately looking back up at you again.

“Do you think it likes me already?” he asked quickly. “Wait—does it need a name right away? What if I pick the wrong one?”