MUSTA KOIRA

Magic was foreign to him. No one really had such abilities where Kyy was from - or he just wasn't looking from the right places.

Not that he cared. He wasn't interested.

To his misfortune, magic didn't differentiate between those that garnered an interest, and those who didn't. It started as a gentle tingling in his stomach. Then it became insistent heartburn - and soon after, it roiled.

Kyy didn't like it. It felt like his rib cage was on fire. Like his heart was ablaze, and the circulating blood in his system boiled him alive. But his biggest grievance wasn't what it did to his body.

It was what the accursed thing did to his forest.

It started to smell like iron and burnt flesh. The stench gave him a headache. It hampered his ability to travel from one place to the other. He couldn't focus there. It was stolen from him.

Until something materialized from that miasma, and swept it away like a malevolent breeze.

Manan rakki. Hiiden hurtta. Musta koira.

(Mutt of Mana. Hound from Hiisi. The black dog.)

Kyy recognized the beast instantly when it blocked his path the very first time. Its fur was naught but individual hairs forged from blackened iron, sharp like needles. Small flames stared back from the deep sockets of its skull. Its shoulders reached the level of his eyes, and it wore a spiked collar - the barbs made of copper, just like its intestines were.

But it wasn't what it looked like - far from it. Its blood-drenched breath held something tight in its grasp. A familiar singe. Kyy had an idea what it was, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. Denied it. Buried it like a bone.

And within his misty forest, it followed him like a shadow. Out of curiosity and boredom, he taught it things. Silly things. Tricks. Commands.

Against his better judgement. He shouldn't have. Kyy had taken a gamble, and lost.

He grew attached to the iron monster. Away from it, he was wildered.

And in its company, he was afraid.