A mortal? He vehemently shook his head in denial. No!
Ascendant? No. Why would they bother him? Master Prince Wyatt alone perceived his worth.
Demi-humans? No, they would be more likely to kill him for soup than to toy with him like this.
Could it be...a magical beast?
"Look at me when I am speaking to you, rodent!"
He looked up. And he saw....
"Rewriting the past - altering what was meant to happen and what has occurred. Seizing my inheritance by force... " A reptilian beast, with skin that seemed to be made of white snow, flesh, and scales as hard as ice, emerged from a sudden snowy tornado.
"What is your excuse?" The beast fixed its gaze on him, its jaws agape as it spoke with human speech.
Eyes? Blue and piercing.
Teeth? Razor-sharp.
Claws? Deadly.
Strength? Unfathomable.
Magical beast level? Unmeasurable.
Weakness? Unknown.
He instinctively crawled backwards, making his objections known.
"Can you not speak? Or is your mind too primitive to formulate speech?" The beast growled.
As the icy wasteland thundered in tandem with the beast's voice and pounded against his ears, Bones again instinctively scurried backwards.
"Huff!!" The beast exhaled a thick cloud of smoke that momentarily obscured his vision as it clashed against his skin.
"Look around you! If you are too afraid to speak, then how do you hope to stand up against me?"
And he did.
What he saw made him crawl backwards in dread.
All around him, at every turn he looked, there were creatures composed of ice and flesh. they appeared as though they had been carved from the ice and snow, yet upon closer scrutiny, they were not ice sculptures, they were alive.
"....Where am I?" Bones muttered again, in confusion.
"Where we are at the moment is insignificant..." the reptilian beast stated. "What is important is that I cannot connect to my main body, so I have decided to take matters into my own hands by reclaiming what is rightfully mine from your possession".
The beast waited for a response, but none came. Instead, the rat continued to crawl backwards, until it turned and fled.
The beast let out a heavy sigh. "How unfortunate...Where is the reverence that I, a 'Revered Beast', am owed?" The reptilian beast glared at the icy, mutated beast waiting in hiding. "Capture him!" The commandment was given. Like an arrow unleashed from its bow, the icy mutated beasts lunged forward in pursuit.
Meanwhile, amid the snowy wasteland, Bones ran for his life. His instinct flared and sent blaring signals that couldn't he couldn't ignore.
He ran and ran until his hands began to ache and the beast behind him drew closer. Soon, after several minutes of endless pursuit, he --
Crumpled.
"GROWL"
His instincts kicked in once more. He dodged and kicked his paw out instinctively, striking the beast's face. The beast, a mutated bone leopard, a predator that vastly surpassed him in size, strength, agility, and every other aspect that nature had not bestowed upon him, was kicked back with incredible force.
Bones stood on his hind legs. He raised his paws and examined them before staring back at the beast that had landed far away, its head blown off, in amazement and curiosity.
"... Amazing".
"Yes, it is amazing…"
He spun around in alert, and stared at the familiar beast that had frightened him, and sent him speeding away.
"Rat, what is your name?"
Even with fear and apprehension in his heart, he responded.
".…. Bones" He repeated.".. I am Bones".
"Bones..." The name danced around the beast's mouth repeated with a distasteful tone. "How unpoetic? Listen, from now on, your name will be Pe'zen".
"Pe'zen?"
"Yes, Pe'zen… Do you like the name I have picked out for you?" The reptilian beast said.
Bones shook his tiny furry head "No". He replied. "My name is Bones".
The beast growled, its voice filled with anger and contempt. "Disrespectful and ungrateful. Perhaps I should just extinguish your existence right now and reclaim back my inheritance…".
The beast's words were filled with threats. "Of all the beasts infected by my spawn, a rat, a mere rat, is the only one worthy enough."
Bones turned to escape once more.
He was trapped!
All around him, in every shape and size, were the mutated magical beasts, snarling and preparing to pounce on him, to tear his skin from his flesh.
"Apart from yours, I can sense another link..... ".
The beast peered at Bones. Its jaws gaped and its front rows of teeth marvellously displayed itself. "I see… You have a master".
Bone's tiny eyes widened. "..Master! Don't touch my Master?".
The row of sharp, pointed teeth was now fully exposed.
"And you think you can stop me?" The tone of amusement was clear in the beast's voice.
".....Me? .....I will stop you" Bones declared with determination.
"You! A rat, against me, the sleepy behemoth" The beast mused. "How are you going to accomplish that?".
"I will stop you" Bones repeated. His speech became clearer and more assertive.
The beast snorted. "What is the name of your master?"
"His name is Master Prince Wyatt".
"Wyatt" The beast said.
"Master Prince Wyatt" Bones corrected.
"Hmph! I admire your confidence, but do you truly believe that you can stop me - a powerful magical beast with authority over the mind, ice and snow?"
Bones stood up once more on his hind legs. He stared at the beasts with narrowed eyes. His master had plucked him from his lowly existence as a ship rat and imbued him with the strength and fortitude to accomplish things he never thought possible.
He would not forget!
He could not, even if he wanted to.
His master not be forgotten. He cannot be harmed.
"My name is Bones...," Bones said, craning his tiny head from side to side as his magical energy erupted. "I dare you to lay a hand on my master."
Amongst all the chaos, he had almost forgotten the unbridled confidence that possessed him whenever he was with Master Prince Wyatt.
Even Toothless, Master Prince Wyatt's other beast, his companion, and now friend, no longer scared him.
So who was this creature that dared to threaten the life of his master?
The beast watched as the insignificant rat erupted with raw and untainted magical strength.
It grinned.
"Words alone cannot stop me" The beast growled. Its limbs were spread out in a pouncing stance. "Maybe you are just as foolish as your master who chose a weak, insignificant rat as his beast".
No one was there to inform the beast that because of Wyatt, Bones had become a proud beast. A Pride born from the kind of master he had and another born from being acknowledged as a magical beast.
Trampling on that pride was the same as insulting Prince Wyatt's supposed incompetent decision of choosing a rat as a beast.
"I am not weak" Bones proclaimed, striding forward on two hind legs and stopping in front of the beast. "I am his strength."
As far as Bones knew, no one else was here. Not Toothless or his master. So if he didn't stand up for himself as his master's beast, then who would?
A thin, icy fog escaped the beast's small nostrils and collided with Bones's small frame.
'What madness! A rat standing against me?' The beast thought to itself. The beast lowered its head and pushed it against Bones' forehead.
Bones didn't back down. He pushed his head against the behemoth's scaly forehead.
What impunity!
"I have slain mortals who were hailed as gods. I have faced others who aspired to be gods. I am Ag'na - the ancient magical beast of mind, ice, and snow, the sleepy behemoth" Ag'na declared with a menacing growl.
He paused and then continued. "You who possesses the spawn of my flesh and the speck of my soul, rat...… Who. Are. You. To. Stand. Against. Me?".
"I am Master Prince beast --"
"No! You are not a beast. To your master, you are nothing but a pet….." Ag'na replied."…. And to me, you are nothing but a rat..... You are not strong enough to go against me?".
Bones' small body shivered. Yes, he came from a rat. A common insignificant rat.
Yes, he is still a rat. But the border separating him from a common rat was now wide, and boundless.
A common rat he was, a common rat he is no more!
His tiny paws boiled up into a fist. And with a triumphant 'Squeak', he threw it forwards - -
"BOOOOOM"
His fist connected. The sleepy behemoth, the giant reptilian beast with scales of ice flew backwards and skidded against the ice to halt his momentum.
For decades --
No! Inwardly Ag'na shook his head.
For centuries --
Yes, this might be the most extraordinary thing that he has witnessed and felt for centuries.
"Fantastic!" Ag'na growled out. He stepped forward. With each step, several humongous icicles would erupt from the snowy ground and point straight at Bones. After his 20th step, 35 icicles were directed at Bones.