The Summoner Guild (On Hold)

New Family Member

"Everyone, this is Gobber. Gobber, this is everyone." Kyle introduced the gremlin to his family.

"Kyle, does that thing have to eat at the dinner table? It stinks." Aguth asked hesitantly, though Kyle was offended.

"Hey, this is my first familiar, it's a part of me!" Kyle replied.

"We can tell." Shelly said sarcastically while holding her nose. "The smells are similar anyway."

"Take that thing out back and give it a bath. Otherwise I'm not letting either one of you inside of the house again." Aguth ordered, and apparently neither Brandon or Rider had anything to say before Kyle got up from his chair and started heading outside.

"Fine, but Gobber isn't a 'thing', he's a friend." Kyle harrumphed before leading the gremlin out of the back door where they had a private fenced-in area with a  large pool of water inside of a giant wooden basin that they used for baths. It was filled automatically by a large water tank nearby that was refilled by one of the girl's magic every morning, so clean water wasn't an issue. And thankfully, nor was the heat as the pipes underneath of it led directly to the kitchen where Aguth had been cooking dinner, which made the water nice and steamy.

"Come on Gobber, let's get cleaned up before-"

"Raaaaah!" Gobber let out another battle cry before running forward, dropping his club and cannon-balling into water with a large splash.

"Seriously? It's just a bath." Kyle laughed as he got undressed as well and climbed in after his familiar. However, after about a minute of Gobber not getting up from his original dive, Kyle hurried over and pulled his familiar out of the water just in time to save Gobber as the gremlin coughed up a good amount of water.

"Don't dive into water if you can't swim!" Kyle scolded. Some of the people in his house were massive, so the bath needed to be deep in order to get them clean and even Kyle's feet could only just barely touch the floor of the tub. However Gobber didn't appear to be listening to him as the gremlin grabbed the edge of the tub to keep himself afloat and completely relaxed in the water with a loud sigh.

"Yeah, enjoy it while you can." Kyle stated, getting a bar of soap out and starting to wash himself with it before he handed the substance over to Gobber, who sniffed it slightly before starting to eat it.

"Hey! You just saw me, right? You wash yourself with it!" Kyle instructed, grabbing another bar and washing himself again, hoping that this would be a case of 'monkey-see-monkey-do', and thankfully it started to work as Gobber washed himself accordingly before finishing and eating the bar of soap of anyway. However, Kyle didn't mind as progress was progress.

After the bath, both Kyle and Gobber returned to the dinner table where the others had surprisingly waited for him before pulling out a guest chair from the side of the room and putting it next to his, where Gobber immediately sat causing disapproving looks from both Aguth and Shelly.

"Kyle, that 'thing' will not sit at the table." Aguth instructed, though Kyle wasn't about to hear that.

"Gobber is a part of me and the family now. If he isn't allowed at the table, then neither am I." Kyle declared. Gobber wasn't a pet after all, he was Kyle's familiar. And after Gobber had calmed down from the incident in the town, Kyle had started liking the little creature more and more.

"It's fine. 'Gobber' isn't a monster, he's a familiar." Rider stated.

"But it is just a monster, Rider. Don't you remember how summoners all treated their own familiars when we were partied with them?" Aguth asked.

"Aguth, are you really putting our son in the same category as those people?" Rider asked. "They used the things they summoned as nothing but shields for themselves and treated their familiars even worse than slaves. For all I know, perhaps that is the reason that they were all weak."

"Y-your right." Aguth sighed to herself. "I'm sorry Kyle, I should never have said those things."

"No problem, but I'm not the only one you offended." Kyle said with his arms crossed and indicating towards Gobber, who was sitting and listening to the conversation intently while looking at Aguth.

"U-umm... I'm sorry, Gobber." Aguth said awkwardly, and Gobber broke into a wide grin before slapping the table a couple of times and saying something incomprehensible in his own language.

"So did you find out which gender Gobber is while you were in the bath?" Shelly asked curiously. "I've heard that no-one can really tell when gender they are because neither the males or females wear tops."

"I'll assume that Gobber is a guy, and I'm not impolite enough to check." Kyle sighed. "But anyway, what's for dinner? I'm starving."

"A boar that Brandon killed this morning. It should last a couple of meals with how much he brought back." Aguth answered, and Kyle looked at the banquet on the table hungrily as he hadn't eaten since yesterday. And today, he wasn't going to let Brandon steal his share.

"Let's eat!" Rider said happily, and the family continued it's tradition of gathering all of the food in the center of the table onto their plates before digging in, though Kyle made sure to grab Gobber's portion as well. And after a slight pause, the family all started eating with both Brandon and Rider lifting their plates up to their mouths so that they could simply shovel their food inside as quickly as they could, a habit picked up from adventures when time was of the essence and one needed to eat as quickly as possible, though everyone had adapted to it save for the one new addition to the family.

"Hurry up and eat Gobber, or they'll eat your portion to!" Kyle instructed his familiar as both his father and brother started clearing off the center of the table of any food scrapes left. And while Kyle was guarding his food furiously, he heard a sudden and short cry of pain before looking up to see Brandon nursing his hand as Gobber hissed at the man.

"That little bugger bit me!" Brandon said accusingly towards Kyle.

"Maybe that'll teach you not to steal someone else's food then." Rider stated, though Brandon turned towards their father with a horrified expression as that man had reached over and stolen the last of the pork off of Brandon's own plate.

"Hey! That was mine you arrogant sack of blubber!" Brandon yelled before standing and tackling Rider all together, and for the second time that day they were rolling across the floor while the others silently finished their meal as if completely used to the scene.

"Nice going Gobber, you managed to secure your food. That isn't something easily done around here." Kyle said happily with a proud wink towards his familiar, to which Gobber smiled broadly as he finished the food on his plate. And once they were done, Gobber was surprisingly well behaved as they joined Aguth and Shelly in washing their dishes and stepping outside while Aguth solved the dispute between Brandon and Paul, which seemed even more explosive than the two warrior's original fight. The fight was over soon enough, and both Kyle and Gobber walked up the mostly shattered stairs until they reached his room and prepared to turn in for the night.

Kyle climbed into his bed first, grinning to himself as he thought about how tomorrow he would go to the Summoner Guild and learn how to be a real adventurer. And he smiled even more when he remembered that he more than likely made his first real friend with his new familiar that now seemed to accept him. Though that thought was lost as Gobber hopped onto his bed and pulled Kyle's pillow our from under his head and placing it under his own.

"Hey, at least share it." Kyle grumbled, attempting to take the corner of the pillow again only to have his hand slapped away as Gobber hissed at him. "Oh, don't you even start with me again!"

After his first failed attempt, Kyle succeeded in ripping the pillow our from underneath Gobber's head, which causes a string of unfamiliar curses before the gremlin leapt at him and the two found themselves in yet another fist fight. The fight didn't end until Aguth barged through their door and settled it for them by freezing almost half of the room in a solid block of ice, which unfortunately sealed both the exit and the window as well. And so, they both spent a cold night in a chilled room, sharing both Kyle's blanket and his pillow before they drifted off to sleep with happy dreams of what tomorrow could bring them.