The Unwanted Tamer

Gaia awoke in her inn room, her bonds cuddled up with her. Malachite was shrunk down and trapped in her hair. Antonio was in his state of torpor like a statue by her shoulder. Liv was weaving something from webs that draped over her head. Finally, Shadow was splayed out over her. She heard the sound of metal being adjusted from the other side of the room.

Stephanie was there tinkering with some new contraption she'd made. Then she heard the sound of Fergus and Griff's voices as they knocked on the door. They entered with a bunch of plates of food. As they ate breakfast, Gaia thought about what had happened since arriving in the world.

Originally, she'd been a guy named Kaizer who'd lived on Earth and had woken up falling from the sky into this new world. He then discovered his gender had changed but also realized that was the least of his problems. He, or rather she, as she'd decided to embrace, was in this new world with no information, no abilities or skills, and lastly, with no clothes. She then proceeded to make some friends and gained a bond in the little turtle, Malachite. She'd hatched him from an egg that had been with her since she had first arrived. Then, she'd learned about the world before being blinded. Following this, she'd gained some trustworthy party members in Fergus, Stephanie and Griff. She'd gained more bonds in the spider-like golem, Liv, and Shadow-hound, Shadow, before also losing a leg and replacing it with a prosthetic. Finally, she'd gained an unwanted companion in a being she called the Amalgamation. This being was the one that had supposedly given her, her Tamer class.

They'd then had to deal with a deranged serial killer and gotten kidnapped resulting in a new bond, Antonio, who was an Agony Ant. They then took a request to deal with a dungeon and cleared it before going on a commission for the Journeyman's Guild and the League until a month ago. They'd been helping deal with any monster attacks that targeted the camp. They'd also helped explore and clear every floor of the ruins, including whatever challenges were required. The ruins had been discovered to be the ruins of Xerios, a mythical capital of the demons. They'd cleared most of the floors until the ninth and final floor caused something major to happen. The Eternal Lord who had been the leader of the demons was resurrected. This was a problem as he was also the person that Gaia knew as the Amalgamation.

It'd been a long commission. When they checked, they realized the commission had lasted for around seven months and even before that they'd been in a routine of taking requests almost everyday. When they'd returned, they had decided to take a break from hunting and requests from the Hunter's League. It had been almost a month since they'd returned and they only had around two months before they were to attend a ball in the Kingdom's capital, Central city. It was to congratulate the Journeyman's Guild, Hunter's League and the hunter parties that had helped find an artifact and cleared the ruins.

Gaia's party, Fauna, was invited as the party that helped clear the ruins and found the artifact. The Guild Master of the Journeyman's Guild, Delilah, was also going along with Baron Carrelion's family who was Fergus' family. Flora was also coming along as they were invited since their leader was part of the Baron's family. Legion, led by Stephanie's parents, had been invited too, which they'd only learned yesterday and would be coming along as well. That was a lot for what she realized was just barely over two years, and she wasn't even eighteen yet, granted it was only a few months until she was. She was soon drawn from her reminiscing by her companions. They were discussing what they wanted to do for the day.

They were going to be busy for a while and today was their last day of freedom, before they were going to take etiquette lessons from the Baron. This was an idea Griff had suggested, which Fergus and Titania happily agreed to, knowing that it would be entertaining to watch. They relaxed for the day, not really doing anything aside from taking a few walks around the city. The next day, their lessons began and Fergus, along with Titania, were surprised as they weren't expecting to be dragged in as examples or forced to take part when the Baron felt they weren't doing well enough. Before their lessons they would take their two requests, since the Mana Torrent was still going strong and didn't show any signs of slowing or stopping. Then, clean up before going to the Baron's mansion.

This was how their days were spent for the next month. The only thing was that since they would be going to a ball and somewhere unknown, they weren't sure how the nobles would take to Gaia's method of "feeling" her way around. She was currently using her web manipulation like she'd originally had to, but many nobles likely wouldn't take kindly to that. This wasn't the only thing they worried about, since it was also possible they wouldn't let her bonds into the ball either.

This was something she refused to accept and the Baron eventually had to ask the League if it was something they could allow. It took a while for the League to gain approval, since the ball would be in the royal palace, but they did. This solved one issue but still left the other. They couldn't come up with a solution before they had to leave for the capital, so they just decided to have her do what she was used to.

The trip to the capital would take two weeks, leaving two more to order some formal attire for the ball. At least, it should have taken them two weeks to arrive, but Gaia had an idea and asked Malachite to grow as large as he currently could. This was much bigger than before. She realized she hadn't asked him to grow as much as he could since the dungeon, so the difference was great. He was around the size of a small SUV then, now he was around the size of a small cottage.

Sensing this, Gaia started to wonder how big he would get. Would he be around the size of a small island by the time he reached bronze rank and if so, how much bigger would he get after that. He was starting to make her think about the Dragon Turtles she remembered from Dungeons and Dragons, but he obviously wasn't something like that, right? The other thing she wondered about was how his weight changed when he grew or shrunk. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't even questioned it before, but when he was small, he weighed the same as he did when he was that size, while when he was bigger, he definitely weighed more. She was drawn from her thoughts by the Baron's voice.

"What in the hells? Is that really Malachite?" He cried in shock.

"Yeah. I honestly didn't know he could get this big. It's been a while since I've had him grow to his largest size. This is apparently his limit at this level." Gaia replied nonchalantly.

The Baron turned to look at the others around him. His wife, the Guild Master, and the person appointed from the League, who happened to be Freya, were the only people who were surprised. The other parties of hunters looked at the scene as if it were normal. They'd all seen Malachite grow pretty large, mostly up to the size of an suv, but they'd guessed he'd be able to get bigger. Titania and Flora were the ones who'd discovered this over the time they'd known Gaia.

"If you give me, what, about three hours? I can make his armor into a carriage cabin, or rather small house might be a better word for it." She stated a couple minutes later.

"You mean, we're gonna ride on him? All of us?" Cayna, the Baroness, asked.

"I mean you don't have to, if you don't want to, but he's much faster than regular carriages and wagons." Gaia replied.

"It's also much comfier on his shell. The armor is silk, cool to the touch, padded, and it surprisingly doesn't jostle you around. It's much, much better than a carriage, you have my word." Fergus whispered to his mom.

"We shall take you up on the offer to ride on his shell, if he'll have us." The baroness stated immediately.

"What?" The Baron asked.

Gaia wasn't paying attention to the couple as she made the webs for the armor's increase in size but heard her friends quietly chuckling. She guessed the Baron got chewed out by his wife for trying to make her take a carriage, instead of Malachite's much comfier accommodations. She focused on creating webs until the armor had gotten enough of them for the size increase. When she sensed it, as Malachite formed the seating, she almost whistled in appreciation.

The armor had truly changed into what she could only describe as a small house or massive carriage. There was a string of webs that fell from the doorway of the house to the ground. When she touched it, a small step was created beside it that she stepped on and it raised her up the doorway. There was an actual door there that she opened. What she sensed was delightful.

There was a large square room in front of her that was around thirty feet wide and long. It had what she could only assume were meshed windows in each wall with an overhang above them to keep rain out, and seating for everyone. There were a few couches and loveseats scattered throughout the area. It would be plenty big enough for everyone to ride in. After she'd finished exploring the room, she realized there was a small staircase in a corner, there was a second floor. She went up it to find an area with seats out in the open, like a sundeck. She even seemed to be able to make a roof over the deck in case of rain and to keep everyone dry. Even if the sundeck wasn't covered, there seemed to be some kind of drainage system to keep water out of the bottom room.

She was ecstatic about the now mobile house she essentially had. She only wished she could actually see it. She returned to the houses entrance and called everyone up. They took turns taking the webbed "elevator" up. Then she heard everyone gape and explore around the two floors. The last two up were the Baron and Baroness. When they reached the top, they quickly entered and were extremely satisfied with the seating and comfortable space.

"Does everyone like it?" Gaia asked.

"Yeah!" Her friends called.

"Yes. It's quite comfortable." The Baron and Baroness stated.

"Alright. Are we all ready to go then?" She asked after everyone had settled in.

"I believe so." Titania replied.

"We're ready." The Baron replied.

"Great. Now we just need someone to direct Malachite to where we're going. We've never been there before, so he doesn't know." Gaia stated.

"I've been once, but I think father, mother or Nia would know the route enough to direct him." Fergus said.

"I'll start directing him. Alright Malachite?" Titania asked.

She got a nod from his large head.

"For now, just start heading north following the road." Titania started as she paid attention to where they were going from the sundeck.

"Do you have a way to indicate he is our transportation? I don't want him to be attacked or mistaken for a monster." The Barons asked.

"I honestly hadn't thought about it." She started before thinking for a bit. "Would a large sign that says 'Turbo-Turtle Express, the only way to shell-ibrate a trip with speed!' Work?" Gaia asked a couple minutes later.

From the deafening silence coming from the Baron and Baroness, Gaia assumed, it would work perfectly. So, she started creating the sign with her webs, it only took her about fifteen minutes to make, with Liv's help of course. Stephanie double checked it to make sure it was all correct before she put it around Malachite's neck. Malachite wasn't sure how to feel about the sign at first, it was large and had big letters on it, but it was comfortable enough that he forgot about it after ten minutes. Gaia was super proud of her punny sign and everyone else who saw it laughed with her, as it was a very Gaia thing to make.

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The Baron and Baroness, however, didn't know what to expect and resigned themselves to their fate. They were now comfortably and merrily traveling by Turbo-Turtle Express. They did have to admit the comfort and lack of bumpiness was wonderful, so it was overall worth it. Even with the embarrassment of the sign, to which they eventually laughed about with everyone else.

With Baron Carrelion and his family giving Malachite directions, they arrived at the capital in just over a week, nine and a half days to be exact. Malachite's unstoppable force ability made it so he could keep up an insane speed, and with the armor no one could feel the movement. It had turned out to be a wonderful trip and Fauna, Legion along with Flora took turns being on watch during the nights while everyone slept in the room the armor made. Liv had even made a few curtains to divide the room up for the Baron and Baroness's modesty.

They arrived at Central city riding in Malachite's armor, but when they got closer they heard a couple shouts as the Baron pulled something out from a bag, Gaia assumed it was some form of identification as the shouting got quieter after he thrust his arm out the front window. When they got close enough for Gaia to sense people, she had everyone disembark their Turtle Taxi and had Malachite shrink back down. He shrunk to just big enough for her to sit on her throne-like seat on his back.

They approached the front gate, and she heard murmurs from the people around them. Most were about Malachite and the fact he had just shrunk down, while others were calling him a monster. The ones calling him a monster made Gaia's excited mood about visiting a new city sour immediately. They reached what she assumed was the gate, but a different one than most of the other people based on what Gaia sensed. They were stopped there and had to present their identification to a few guards. Gaia was in the middle of the group and showed her Hunter's League badge. The guards checked it just as thoroughly as everyone else's before she had placed her hand on an orb, like everyone else, that had just a bit more mana than the surroundings.

She was questioned afterwards about her bonds, to which Freya helped explain. She was trusted more, being an important member of the Hunter's League for Boundary. Her bonds were made to wear something to indicate that they weren't monsters, but she could decide on what it was though. She asked one of the guards to guide them to a shop for something she could use and the guard obliged.

They were shown to a shop the guards frequented called Brent and Tanya's Blacksmithing and Tailoring. They opened the door which caused a bell to jangle and entered to the sound of hammering metal and what Gaia could only describe as the sound of a sewing machine. As they walked in, they heard a cheerful male voice, with a drawling accent, speak.

"Howdy! Feel free to look around if ya like. I'll be back her if you have any questions or requests."

"Just to make sure, but do you mind if feel or touch everything?" Gaia asked.

The man seemed to think for a minute before replying. "Nah, just don't damage anything. If ya break it, ya buy it."

"Ok. Thank you!" She said as she moved around the shop to feel what they had.

They had a lot. They had things from regular cloth to silk fabric, and stone to intricate metallic items. Gaia had a field day interacting with the items. She checked every item thoroughly before asking her bonds opinions on what they wanted.

Liv and Antonio didn't care, but Shadow specifically said she wanted a sweater. Gaia didn't understand why, as it was around summertime and warm out, but decided to humor her. Malachite wanted a mask, she might have been telling him about a certain group of four turtles that fought evil recently, and he loved it. He even wanted a belt, so she added that to the list. Antonio left it up to Gaia, as Liv did the same. For Antonio, she decided on a small trench coat since he was essentially their warlock. As for Liv, she was going to get a belt, which would essentially be a bracelet.

Having her decision made she called for Brent. She explained what she wanted, who they were for, and why. He was immediately excited, having never made any clothes for creatures before. He took measurements for each piece, including the metal "belts" for Malachite and Liv. The items wouldn't take them long to make and should be ready the next day.

Thankfully, the guards had said she had a couple days to have the items made but had given her some bandannas to use until she had something made. To make it all easy, Gaia had everything made to be purple, like she was told her blindfold was. Each item would have a touch of the bonds color though.

With the order placed, they left the shop to head to a small house the Baron's family had in the capital. It wasn't a place they came to often, but every noble family had at least a small house within the capital for any gatherings they were required to attend. They walked for around an hour, as they weren't in any rush and just leisurely strolled while Griff and Stephanie gaped at the city. Gaia enjoyed the smells and sounds of the city, she couldn't smell any air pollution which was wonderful and instead smelled bread, pastries and other foods or even flowers and cut grass. The sounds were loud as she heard children playing, people talking or yelling, and even carriages in the streets.

It was similar to Boundary, but also very different. The place seemed nice so she was excited to explore the different areas, smells, and sounds of the people. They soon arrived at the Baron's house, which she guessed was bigger than he'd let on based on her companion's gasps of surprise. Malachite sent an image through their link, and sure enough, the "small house" was only slightly smaller than the mansion they had in Boundary. They even had a garden that was around the same size as Boundary's too.

Gaia just gave up; the noble's sense of size or grandeur was on a different level. A small house to her, Stephanie and Griff, was about the size of the room they were in on Malachite's back. This was not small in any sense of the word, outside of Malhavia maybe. That had been the Draugr fortress on the eighth floor of the ruins, that they somehow got as a reward for clearing the floor. It dwarfed the Carrelion's manor in the capital.

It wasn't until recently that they'd figured out how to "use" the fortress reward. It was actually quite simple; all they had to do was wish to visit it and a bit of their mana was used to create a portal to it. It had only been used once, which was the night before they arrived at the capital. It had been an interesting experience; the portal was just like any other but led directly to what she could only call a different world.

It was small, only a few miles across, but had the same environment the eighth floor had without the rock walls or ceiling. There was what she assumed was sunlight and when she sensed the edge of the world it was like a fog of mist that just ended with nothing beyond it. The fortress was the same as it had been when they'd visited it to fight the Guardian, Lyriana. It had all the furnishings and even the fountain with rivers flowing into the mist wall. They'd also been able save a part of the guardian's spirit to bring her back, as she'd been an extremely kind person and was forced, through an oath her progenitor had made, to defend the floor.

Gaia was once again brought from her thoughts when they entered the "small house." There were quite a few people waiting in lines on each side of the entrance doors, which she guessed were servants and was proven right when the Baron spoke to one.

"Ah, Gerald. It is wonderful to see you again. Let me introduce you to my guests." The Baron stated as he got everyone's attention. "This is Gerald, the head butler for our house here in the capital."

The man bowed deeply at the introduction before speaking. "It is wonderful to have you all here. If you ever require anything please do not hesitate to ask myself or any of the other servants behind me. I do apologize for the state of the house as you arrived much sooner than expected. There are currently only four rooms that are fully prepared, the others will be ready before nightfall."

"Thank you as always Gerald. For now, shall we talk in the meeting room about the schedule for our time here?" Baron Carrelion asked.

"Sure." Titania replied.

"That would be great." Griff added.

"Sounds good to me." Douglas stated.

With this everyone moved towards a room to the right of the entrance. It seemed like a large room since no one was touching and Gaia could sense people walking around admiring the room. The Baron let everyone look around for a few minutes as he sat down. Titania was beside him as was Fergus, who moved there after leading Gaia to the seat across from him. Soon everyone was sitting or standing as tea and other refreshments were brought in.

Gaia was seated between Stephanie and Francois who had sat down soon after she had. They took a few sips of tea, which was delicious even though Gaia didn't like most teas, before the Baron spoke.

"To begin with, thank you Gaia and Malachite. We arrived here far ahead of schedule thanks to Malachite's swiftness. It was also quite comfortable compared to what we initially expected. Tomorrow, we should go to a few stores I know. One is where we will order our formal attire for the ball, while the others are where we will get our accessories."

"Is there anything specific we need to know? Like do we need to get specific colors or something?" Douglas asked.

"No specific colors, outside of white and purple. Those two in combination are reserved for royalty. Gaia, you will be fine since your blindfold is blatantly magical. All I suggest it for you to choose colors that match the rest of your party, mainly for your own sanity and safety. Some nobles will likely try and rope you into working for them, but they are less likely to do so when there are multiple of you together. The matching colors will hopefully deter them slightly. You are welcome to use our family's colors if you wish to as well." The Baron explained.

The discussions continued on for a while longer. They were eventually interrupted by Gerald who knocked on the door before entering when the Baron said to. He informed them that dinner was ready, and the meal could begin whenever they desired. This took the Baron by surprise until he got up and moved towards what Gaia assumed was a window as he moved the curtains aside. It had gotten dark out while they had discussed their plans and any questions.

"Very well. Shall we go eat? We can continue later if you like." The Baron asked.

Everyone agreed as they were all a bit hungry. They ate a large meal that was served by a multitude of servants, like the first meal she'd had with Baron's family. It was over quickly, and they were finally informed all of the rooms were prepared. Some of the maids and other servants guided each of the guests towards their own room. Gaia's was on the second floor, same as everyone else's, but was closer to the stairs than most of the others. Her companions rooms were close, and the other servants were extremely kind and understanding, so she didn't have any worries.

One of the maids, who introduced herself as Marilyn, was extremely kind. She guided Gaia around the room so she could get an idea for the locations of things. There was a large bed directly across from the door, situated in the center part of the far wall, a small table beside it on the left side, and a small loveseat or large seat a few feet from the foot of the bed. There was also a wardrobe to the right of the bed and a small table beside it. Thankfully there was also a bathroom attached to her room, so she didn't need to worry about needing to exit her room to find one.

It was a large room, and the bed was massive for a single person, especially one her size. She was quite small compared to her friends, aside from Griff. She was only four feet tall and didn't seem like she would grow anymore, at least she hadn't noticed any growth in the last two years. Griff was around her size only because his body aged slower than most others due to a title he had, which made mana circulate through his body. From his calculations he aged about one year for every ten that passed. Speaking of Griff she heard his voice from her door and he came in alongside Stephanie and Fergus. They looked around the room before one spoke.

"It's roughly the same layout as ours, only mirrored." Griff stated before continuing a moment later. "Sorry. I figured we should try and decide on our color scheme for our attire at the ball. The Baron did say we could use his colors if we like, which I wouldn't mind doing if we can't decide on it. Fergus, I figure you'll be wearing your family's colors, right?"

"Most likely, I can double check if it's required since I'm attending as a member of the party instead of as a member of house Carrelion. The colors are crimson, pink and blue like the shimmering forest's colors Either way I'll have the family crest displayed somewhere, though."

"Alright. If it's required we can all wear the colors but if it's not what colors were you guys thinking?" Griff asked.

"I'd prefer dark colors, but if we find something that looks good I'm fine with anything." Stephanie stated.

"I kinda want something to go with purple. I don't like the color that much honestly, but I don't want my blindfold to look out of place. It doesn't really matter to me too much, though, it's not like I can see it anyway." Gaia stated.

While, Malachite could send images down their bond, as could her other bonds, she didn't want it to happen super often. It just made her miss her vision. There was silence for a while as everyone thought. Stephanie was the first to speak up.

"We can do purple and blue, purple and pink, or even purple and red if you guys think it could work. We could even do a mixture of more if we wanted to, but I don't want it to look out of place."

"Sounds good to me. I'll trust you guys to make it look nice." Gaia stated.

"I think purple, red and pink would work pretty good. Pink and red are part of my family's colors anyway." Fergus stated before mumbling his next sentence. "It would also go well with Gaia's hair too."

"I say we keep all of them in mind and decide when we see the designer. They'll be able to determine what would look the best." Griff stated.

"Sounds good." The others replied.

"Alright, for now let's get some sleep, we have what's likely to be a busy day tomorrow." Griff finished as he rose and left the room, the other two following soon after.

Fergus, however, snuck a quick kiss with Gaia before leaving. With this, Gaia laid down on her bed, her bonds cuddled up with her and was about to happily drift off to sleep. Until she realized the hell that awaited her the next day. Clothes shopping. It was something she'd discovered she hated, when one of Titania's party members, Jess, made her try on dresses for six hours. The worst part was that tomorrow was completely dedicated to shopping for clothes and accessories.

She shuddered thinking about it, but eventually convinced herself that it was a problem for future her. She could enjoy her night of sleep, and deal with the impending doom that was clothes and accessory shopping, in the morning. For now, it was something she could ignore. Like this, she fell asleep in her usual cuddle pile of bonds, and the multitude of pillows and sheets on the bed.