Clerk rose up in a shower of light. His limbs were lengthening and he gained height rapidly. His snout extended and he rose up on two legs. The light blazed as the energy waxed and waned and Brand could make out the outline of dense fur growing around the Databeast. Eventually the shower of light faded and Clerk stood tall in his Juvenile form. He was a tall bipedal humanlike canine Databest, who’s body was covered in silver.

  Brand flinched.

  It was an Anugent. Clerk had become an Anugent. He looked just like the one Brand and Rosie had fought, only fluffier.

  “I was not expecting that,” said Rosie. The situation must have put her on edge also as her Calfwort had responded by getting into a defensive posture, pawing at the ground at Clerk. Clerk hadn’t noticed, as he was currently tottering on his newfound limbs, stretching them out and stretching his jaw. It was interesting to see a Databeast adjust to a new form, thought Brand. Although the transformation had shocked him, he had quickly recovered, even though he was still a little wary.

  “Me neither. Hey, at least we know it’s a strong one,” Brand joked.

  “Whats going on guys? Why are you being weird?” asked Tommen, nonplussed.

  “That’s the Databeast that almost killed Rosie and I,” Brand explained.

  Tommen nodded along a little before frowning and saying. “It may look like it, but it isn’t. It’s Clerk. We’ve had more Authorn’s try to kill us than Anugent’s.”

  “You’re right,” said Rosie, “it just caught me a little off guard is all. Congratulations Ravena! And congratulations Clerk! Well done.” She walked up to pet his shoulder. He was taller than her now. He cocked his head to the side, panting happily. He could tell she was a little off with him but didn’t realise why.

  “Thank you. I understand it’ll take you a second to adjust. An Anugent is a strange Databeast to fight against, after all. Trauma responses are common amongst Tamers. It’s part of the life,” said Ravena.

  “So wait, you can manipulate our minds now?” asked Tommen to Ravena.

  “Not to my knowledge… but it’s possible Clerk will develop a skill that can. But you know, not all mind manipulation is bad. It’s certainly good when we use it on enemy Databeasts. And there can be positive forms of mind manipulations that buff you. Of course, I wouldn’t cast them on you without you asking, just as I’m sure Brand wouldn’t cast a fireball at us without asking,” said Ravena.

  “Well I might be tempted sometimes…” joked Brand. “I get you though. Hopefully Clerk develops some skills like that. It would be nice to have an Anugent buffing us. I’m sure that would do a lot for Rosie and I. A pain relieving mind Tech wouldn’t be the worst right now.” The pain in his shoulder caused by the blades of the terrifying horse Databeast they had fought earlier had started to burn again now that the adrenaline had faded.

  “Alright, we need to head back and get you fully patched up,” said Ravena. “I think this little excursion has been productive enough, don’t you? We got Databeasts for you three and evolved mine, rescued a man frozen in time, fought two bosses and found out more about QBEA than I ever expected. And got these keys.”

  “When you put it like that, it’s been a hell of a day,” laughed Tommen. “How are you doing Brand?”

  “Good enough to fight, not good enough to fight well. We’ll have to move a little slower without BumBum guiding us, but I can hold out,” said Brand.

  “Alright! We’ll think up names for our Databeasts as we go!” exclaimed Rosie.

  ____________

  It had taken them a while to get back to the inn, but had managed it without any major incidents, though Rosie got a slash down her arm from an ornery Authorn. This had enraged Calfwort who had bravely and relentlessly attacked the Authorn with no regard for strategy or anything else and got brutally defeated in one hit. Such things were expected when a newly born Instar Databeast took on a Juvenile, but it was still sad to watch the young Databeast fade into the aether.

  They all breathed a sigh of relief when it had restored enough health to be resummonable, though Rosie had been worried for a while there. It was only natural, Brand surmised, as they had never seen any other defeated Databeast regain their form.

  That had earned the Calfwort his name though. Berserker. Rosie thought it was a cute name, one for ancient Tamers that went mad in the heat of battle. Brand couldn’t think of a sweeter looking Databeast, but expected that Berserker would grow into it. If it turned into an Authorn, those were scary enough. Brand trusted that whatever Vanquisher level Databeasts that Authorns turned into, it would be sufficiently mental.

  Brand had come up with nothing that felt right for his Sparkbelly and Tommen was having similar difficulties with the Lepidusk. They had been discussing little else.

  “How did you come up with Clerk so easily?” asked Brand to Ravena, once they had all settled in to a meal at the inn and he and Rosie had been patched up, much to the horror of Rosie’s mother. She calmed down when Rosie brought out Berserker the Calfwort and immediately began fawning over the little cow Databeast, much to its delight.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Ever since I was a little girl, the name for my Databeast had been Clerk. My - much - older brother was a clerk and I always thought it sounded cool. And it made it seem more like he was there with me,” Ravena replied.

  “Oh. That’s sorta sad. Wasn’t he around much?” asked Brand.

  “No, it was just me and him, so someone had to work. And I was a little young at the time,” she laughed, but then continued before Brand had finished processing that sentence. “Didn’t you guys ever name your Databeasts when you were young? Maybe you can work with that.”

  Brand tried to think back. He supposed he had, but they were always spur of the moment things, based on the Databeast he’d got. He never expected to get some kind of adolescent tadpole that could spit fire. The fire part he had anticipated, at least. “None that fit… How about you Tommen?”

  Tommen looked a little embarrassed now. “Well I always went with Stormcloud… but that would be for a wyvern, not a… sharp caterpillar.”

  “Is it possible it’ll turn into a wyvern?” asked Rosie curiously.

  “It’s unlikely,” said Ravena. “But there are a lot of strong insect type Databeasts that it could turn into. Definitely a lot of flying types, though none that would really suit the name “Stormcloud,”” she laughed.

  “Shame. I like names like that,” Tommen told them.

  “Names like what?” asked Rosie.

  “You know, the world around us. Symbolism. Databeasts named after… things? Objects. Weather patterns. Mountains. Trees. Does that make sense?” asked Tommen.

  “I suppose so…” said Rosie. “So you wouldn’t have named a Databeast Berserker like I did? Or Clerk like Ravena did?”

  “No, because they’re occupations, actions. It’s hard to explain what I mean.” Tommen summoned the caterpillar Databeast into his hands again. It looked up at him.

  “What about Obsidian?” Brand piped up. “It’s black and very sharp, just like the volcanic rock.”

  “Obsidian, huh? Do you like Obsidian, little one?” Tommen asked, staring at the Databeast. It crawled up his arm and curled up on his shoulder. “I think he’s alright with it. I like Obsidian. It suits him. Let's hope it suits his evolutions. Cheers Brand. Just you left to name yours, now.”

  He was right. Brand had been thinking over it for a while, but nothing came to him.

  “Well Tommen likes things, whatever that means. I like names to do with actions apparently. What names do you like, Brand?” asked Rosie, looking directly at him. He held her gaze as he thought, remembering back to all the times he’d played Tamer as a kid with Kelvin and Ember.

  “I like things… aspirational,” he said finally. “Yeah, that’s right. I like things to be very of the time they are. I want to call my Databeasts name and remember why I named it, what I wanted for myself when I gave it that name and see that I have got it. That’s how it always was when I was a kid,” Brand explained.

  “That’s sorta odd but I like it,” said Ravena.

  “Yeah that’s interesting,” agreed Rosie. “Difficult thought.”

  “Surely it’s easy,” laughed Tommen. “You just have to know what you want, right Brand?”

  “Hah. It should be,” said Brand, but he struggled as he thought about it. What did he want? Well what didn’t he want?

  He wanted adventures, he wanted to find his friends, he wanted to find more out about his world, he wanted to have a strong Databeast, become a strong Tamer and get even more Databeasts, he wanted to save his family, he wanted revenge on Cabletown and Harlow and Rizzo, he wanted to have the motivation to decide what else he wanted and he wanted to go out and take it. Too long he’d felt stultified and held back by the stifling atmosphere of the town of his birth, now he wanted to do everything, try everything.

  “Well I want everything really,” he said lamely. “But I’m not calling him that.”

  “No, that doesn’t really sound like a Databeast name,” Rosie chimed in. “Keep thinking.”

  So Brand did. He was thinking all night as they ate and drank and talked with Marius and Rosie’s mother celebrating the momentous day they had had. They had agreed to split the Keys up tomorrow and that Ravena would take four whilst the others took two each as agreed. Marius had seemed very interested in them, so Rosie immediately promised him her extra and they all agreed to wait til tomorrow to try it out with Marius’ Databeast, Chance. They would go into the woods to try it, so they weren’t in the proximity of people if something somehow went wrong.

  Ravena had talked about leaving to go back to Shingle City immediately to tell Dalton and the others about their discovery and the meaning of QBEA and see what they could figure out about the Keys, but had decided to stay longer to see what would happen to Chance. It would be a good experiment, she said.

  But through all that Brand kept thinking and thinking about the name of his Databeast. It shouldn’t be this hard, he thought. It should just come to him instantly, wasn’t that how it was supposed to be? If it was difficult then surely he was doing something wrong here. He headed up to bed with his Sparkbelly lying over one shoulder with its head on his chest. It looked a little silly, but if the Databeast was comfy then he was happy.

  It took him a while to fall asleep. Part of him couldn’t believe that he finally had a Databeast! He looked at it beside him, resting away as he should be. He really had managed to get himself a Databeast somehow and he couldn’t even decide what to name it. But that was one thing that he had wanted which he had got, he supposed. But eventually he had managed to fall asleep. The day had been exhausting after all.

  Brand’s were long and confusing. The Sparkbelly accompanied him in them and he knew now that he would never be without it even in his dreams. They adventured around, defeating other Databeast and collecting things, everything they could find. He dreamed that he and the Sparkbelly were standing atop huge hordes of gold in a cavern, laughing as they took it all for themselves. He woke up with a shock. That was right, he wanted everything. More than that he wanted to want everything, rather than be content with trudging through life as he had been. He wanted the desire to seize it all for himself and not grow complacent.

  The Sparkbelly was beside him, already spawned. He picked it up and it belched fire at him. He wanted everything. And he could tell the Databeast wanted it too. “Greed,” he said. “That’s your name. I’m going to call you Greed.”