We settle into a routine: I manage my summons during the day, help Roger practice control in the evening, and random walk my library for interesting things at night. Wesley copies spells from my library all day, practices control with Bearcw in the evening, and trances at night. Bearcw does weapon drills all day, practices control with Wesley in the evening, and sleeps at night. Roger sleeps during the day, practices control with me in the evening, and keeps to himself at night… he goes all over town, I'm unclear on what he's actually doing, however. Once a week we clean out the dungeon to keep it stable.

  A week after the summoning, my Mindsight tells me a magical beast with an intelligence score of five is approaching… when he's still a mile away.

  So I go out to greet my new pet while he's still flying (I'm actually much faster than he is at the moment… Griffon Animal Companions are initially less capable than their fully wild counterparts). I catch sight of him easily enough: He is about the size of a horse, has the body of a lion, the head and forelegs of a great eagle, and a massive pair of feathered wings… and he's a she. Eh, no big deal. She's also young… still has some down showing, which is probably why she's flying slowly. Still, she is full sized, so that's good.

  I greet her telepathically, knowing she's incapable of traditional speech, “Good to see you! Call me Marty in this form, please.”

  “I am called…” she makes a sound my throat will NOT be able to reproduce, “...I heard your call…” she replies along the channel I opened, “and have come to accept the offered alliance.” She pauses, “Do you have any horses we can eat to celebrate?”

  Right… the primary reason ranchers hate them, “Not currently… but I do have some gifts. Here….” I spend some time buffing her up: I can apply personal spells to her via Share Spells thanks to her status as an Animal Companion, so I give her basically all of my buffs, add her to my ring, and load her up with additional buffs I haven't felt the need to add to myself. I mean, why shouldn't she have weapon focus and Greater Magic Fang on all of her natural attacks?

  When I'm done, she chirps happily, “I can fly faster than the adults now!” as she zooms around.

  I chuckle, “Well… come on down and meet my other allies, eh? We'll also need to get you started on getting used to my weight.”

  As we go, I check with her, “I'm not physically capable of verbally pronouncing your name. Do you have any preference for what I give humanoids when they want your name? It will end up being what they call you… and what I'll call you when I'm not using mind speech.”

  The beast considers, “How about ‘Last Shadow’?”

  I nod, “I can work with that.” I guide Last Shadow to nd outside the town, and come in through the gate… which is currently guarded by my minions, which makes walking in the front gate trivial. We get some odd looks as we go down… well, I'd say ‘main street’, but we don't have enough streets here for them to be worth the time to name, so it's just "the street" as there's only the one for now. Nobody stops us, though: Everyone recognizes me well enough. I visit each of my party mates’ regur haunts…

  …starting with Bearcw at the mess hall; he speaks first, “You have a horse eater now?”

  I shrug, “I'll keep her fed, but I want to go over the details once, all right?”

  The barbarian just nods, and follows. I catch Wesley and Roger at the same time in the great hall of my Keyhome; the elf checking out of my library, the rogue just getting up for his nightly exercises… convenient.

  “You have an adolescent griffon now?” Of course the Wizard recognizes magical beasts, magic is kind of his schtick.

  I nod, and make sure I'm fully audible, “Close; we're allies. Everyone, this wonderful young dy has chosen to go by the name of Last Shadow among those not blessed with the kind of beak needed to pronounce her actual name.” They all wave, and I go around the trio, “this sneaky little guy is Roger,” the halfling waves, “This highly intelligent man is Wesley,” the Elf nods, “and the living avanche here is called Bearcw,” the half-orc smiles.

  My new pet bows to each in turn, and I add, “Now, we should also show her our other forms, so she's not surprised if she sees them. So if you would….” I suppose it helps that everyone practices control at the same time.

  Roger takes off his shirt and breeches before focusing on changing, everyone else just does it… and all get it on their first try. I of course don't need nearly as much time, having fully embraced what I am a long time ago.

  Last Shadow looks at us carefully, and replies along the mental channel I keep open to her, “So… the little one grew a bit, you and the other two shrank a little… doesn't seem like a big deal.”

  I chuckle, and reply mentally, “It's not, but kindly refrain from letting people know we can do that. Anyway, I'll give you the tour…”

  Verbally, “Thanks! That was all I had for the moment, you can go back to what you were doing, shift back… or not… and go about your business.”

  Bearcw and Wilma don't bother, just heading into the guest wing to practice. Roger focuses and shifts back, tailing us as I take my Griffon on a tour, showing her the pantry, kitchen, dining room, ballroom, hygiene room, guest bedrooms, library, workshop, my bedroom, and two storage areas.

  She likes the pantry, of course, and asks me a question, “Can I fly here?”

  I shake my head and reply along the mental channel, “Not really… the ceiling is just ten feet high.”

  My pet looks up, frowns, jumps a bit, and presses a talon on the ceiling, pushing off before coming back down, “That's annoying. Do you have anywhere I can fly?”

  I consider, “The Ballroom has a thirty foot ceiling for the chandelier; still not great, but at least viable. I don't have any issues with you flying around over town and the nearby environment, please just remember to go in and out through the main gate so everyone knows you're civilized and respectful of the w of the nd.”

  Roger pipes up, verbally, “Are you two telepathic?”

  I am, but I don't really trust you completely, so I shrug, “We're bonded. Why do you ask?”

  “Oh, you're just acting like you're having an actual conversation…” Roger pauses, “...like with a real person, you know?”

  I consider a moment, “There's some magic involved,” kind of, it's not going to register as such, “but Last Shadow's intelligence is on par with many humanoids.” With an Intelligence score of nine, she's smarter than about a quarter of the popution. “She can't use traditional speech because she's not physically equipped, but seriously, respect that she's a person.”

  “You're right,” the halfling turns to my pet, “I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?”

  Last Shadow bobs her head at the halfling, and turns to me, “So you're his master, then?”

  Oh. Oh, man, I accidentally gave an order, didn't I? Well… at least it's not a bad one. “Not exactly,” I reply mentally, “but they literally can't say no to me… they just do what I say like it's natural, and aren't even aware that's why unless someone draws attention to it.”

  “And you don't necessarily know you're telling them what to do,” Last Shadow pauses, “unless someone draws your attention to it.”

  Apparently. “Yeah, it's not great.” I shake my head.

  “How so?” My animal companion looks at me, “You rule the roost. That's good for you, isn't it?”

  “Well…” I consider how I want to phrase it, “while it's nice to be obeyed, unthinking obedience is bad. Like… suppose there's a wizard out there who can control minds.” There's actually lots, although there aren't many who could get me, “If he knows I can control them, and manages to control me, they can't rescue me, because he can tell me to tell them not to. Or… suppose I don't know something important, like that a hallway is trapped. If Roger knows it and I don't, but Roger blindly obeys when I tell him to go open the door at the end of the hallway, he could be seriously hurt.” Wesley clued me into this, and I've had time to think about it. “On the other hand, if they can tell I'm compromised and recognize that not helping me is a bad order, or stop and tell me that the trap needs to be handled first….”

  The Griffon is a little slow, but not too bad, “...then either situation goes better. Okay. So I shouldn't ALWAYS do what you say.”

  “Right,” I agree, “We're allies, we help each other, neither of us should act like a mindless sve… but if we're NOT doing something the other needs, we need a good reason, and should generally communicate what it is.”

  “I can accept that,” my companion reaches up and nabs some fruit from the trees… okay, so an omnivore, despite being a hybrid of two carnivores… good to know.

  I gnce at Roger and switch to verbal communication, “I'm guessing you're ready for our regur control practice session?”

  “Oh yes,” he beams, “Also, I enjoy how good it feels to have a meat rod in my baby bakery, and practice always ends that way.”

  Something bugs me about that phrasing, but I can't quite put a finger on it, “Cool.” I focus on Last Shadow, “Eat as much of the fruits and nuts and such as you like from here, it'll all grow back by tomorrow. The guards should let you enter and leave freely, so you can also go hunting if you like.”

  “Eh… I'll stay here for now,” she thinks to the obvious temporary dismissal, “it's a bit te for hunting, and I've been flying for days.”

  I nod, “Great; I'll see you in the morning, I'm off to help Roger for now.”

  I part ways with Last Shadow to let her eat and rest, and I enjoy myself when helping Roger. She's sting much longer now, and seems to have embraced being on the receiving end, even maintaining her cool enough during to tell me how much she enjoys having my meat rod in her baby bakery. What is it about that exact phrase that's bugging me….