15th of Ashan, 717
2nd Break
The dog tried to bark, yet its maws were not strong enough to fight the strength of the hessian fabric that wrapped around it. It growled, however, and shook its head in attempts of escaping the improvised restraints. The canine now tried to incorporate itself, but it couldn’t fight the vice grip of Kovic’s hands, which held its paws in pairs. It struggled, desperately trying to break free, pleading to the Mortalborn that cared nothing for its pleas. It tried again to whine, to appeal to the mercy of his captor, but it was vain, for Kovic knew better than anyone how animals worked. The dog whined now, but were it free, it’d try to bite. It was only fear what made it so submissive, but were the fear gone, it would be a predator once again. Well, it’d be a predator if stray dogs were predators by default. 2nd Break
Soon enough, the dog began suffering. The intensity of its whines lost volume but gained meaning, for the dog, with its last strengths, now tried to break free. It was then when Kovic saw it at last; the formation. Something moved inside the dog’s torso; something new, terrifying and majestic. It grew quickly, and soon enough it was pressing from within the dog’s filthy furs. The teacher recognized it almost immediately: it was a head. Said head grew from within, pressing against the fur with strength, and soon enough it began biting its way through. Blood poured out as the malformed head escaped the makeshift womb, revealing the horror born within the dog. A greatly malformed head, with an uneven bone structure and defective and uncomplete flesh. It bit at the air quite poorly, its fangs awkwardly bent outward of the head. It had no tongue nor eyes, and not even eye sockets for that matter.
It kept growing, and it now began to drag the suffering dog’s insides with it. First, it was some of the ribs, until the heart was also starting to peak out of the dog’s chest. It was then when Kovic quickly took the dog’s head and broke his neck. Enough was enough, he thought. If he ever suffered as much as that dog, he’d want his neck snapped as well. Now that the animal was dead, so was the formation it had started growing within it. After inspecting it closely, he found something similar; the dog’s mass had been repurposed. This was a major discovery for him; he could affect other living creatures with his Perfect Organism. All this by only feeding a finger to a dog. His possibilities were now endless. Now, Kovic needed to know if he could control those mutations, that ‘growth’, and create something usable.
Something crunched under his feet, and Kovic finally addressed the issue; his fodder was running low. The dog’s corpse he had been crouching on top of was now drained, being little more than a rug at this point. Every soft tissue and bone was missing, leaving only the fur and a dark red stain on the soul below. Thankfully, a new corpse was available to satisfy his caloric needs. Standing up, Kovic slowly extracted his bare feet from the drained corpse. As he loft them, the root-like formations grown from the plant of his surprisingly clean feet dangled hungrily around, craving for more fodder. Carefully, Kovic transferred himself from one corpse to the other, crushing the bones of the recently perished canine with his body weight. Once the surface was stable enough, he crouched down, and his formations dug deep inside the torso to begin their draining once again.
The third dog, and the last test subject, watched. Were it scared or unaware of what his fate was, its expression gave no hints. His maws were tied and a leash kept him tied to a tree without much of an option. It was somewhat agitated, in truth, but its tail also flailed in excitement. It seemingly cared more for food than death, and in that sense, Kovic could easily relate. He rose his hand up and, placing his other palm below it, he began letting go of his fingers. They fell, one after the other, into his palm. Five big and delicate fingers, which the dog watched with utmost desire. It had been starving for a while; not only when Kovic and his aura had come along, but also when it wandered the streets avoiding the ‘dog cooks’ that so eagerly hunted them. How could he not feed it? Kovic was a merciful being. Sometimes, his better nature made him oblige to the needs of the genetically inferior.
Kovic untied the dog’s maws and allowed it to eat the Mortalborn severed fingers. They looked delicious even to him, but so did the rest of his body; not because of that he tried to cannibalize himself. At least, not when he could avoid it. As the dog ate, Kovic looked at the growth progress of his fingers. The bone was growing already, and the lump was becoming smaller and smaller. It was always interesting to see those things, for the Mortalborn believed he was learning surgical skills by knowing the organization of the body. When the dog finished eating, Kovic untied it and shushed him away. Now the dog would be off somewhere, and when the growth began, Kovic would try to mentally control said canine or, at least, whatever it would grow inside it.
