Opening the Gate

Disclaimer: All characters and events in my stories are purely fictional and all characters are of legal age of consent. Any resemblance to real persons or events is entirely coincidental.

Author's Note: This story is set in the medieval fantasy world of Arnoth, where magical and anthropomorphic creatures are rare but not unheard of.

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~~ Opening the Gate ~~

The sun rose up early this morning, spreading its golden glow through the kingdom and flooding the Earth with its warm light from valley to mountain. Thick beams shone through the open window in the small house that Anna was staying in and lit up her room, causing her to stir a little as her body reacted to the arrival of morning.

It was still strange for Anna to sleep well, even after having time to adjust to her new life. She had barely been able to sleep for months after the village she had lived in had been taken by orcs and she had been forced to flee. People said it was obvious that the Bonethrashers would come, that it served the people right for living so close to the plains, but Anna didn't really understand. She hadn't chosen to live there, she had just ended up there. Her parents had been killed when she was a child, and it had been the first place she had found food. From then to when the orcs came, it had been her home.

But now she had finally found a new home.

As she fled the small town, she had spent week after week on the road searching for somewhere to sleep and eat that wouldn't send her away. She had scrounged for what she had lived off for her whole life, but most towns further into the kingdom weren't friendly to her kind. As soon as they saw the characteristic brown ears atop her head, people acted afraid or even angry at her. Most people had never seen a Canid before, never met one, never had a bad experience with one, but that didn't matter. People were afraid of what they didn't know and understand, and she represented both of those things.

Anna felt that it was some divine blessing that she had happened across the Lady Mari not two weeks ago, a member of the order of magic and someone who didn't fear the unknown. She thought perhaps it was because of their similarities that the Lady had invited her to come stay with her and train as a disciple. After all, magic users were just as strange and unknown to most common people as other species were.

When she had asked Mari why she'd helped, she gave a few different answers. They were probably all true to different degrees, though none of them the whole truth. She'd lately been saying that it was because she had sensed Anna's natural talent for the craft, but both of them knew that it was more a joke than anything. Not only was Mari the wrong kind of mage to summon visions of the future, but Anna had actually been a rather slow study. Still, she did her best to help around the house and did all the exercises that her master provided.

Probably a better reason, the reason Mari had mentioned earlier on in a moment of brutal honesty, was that she was afraid for Anna. Being a beautiful young woman, canid or not, could lead her to end up being used by men by her choice or otherwise. Honestly, she wouldn't have been wrong. Anna had thought about the possibility in her darker moments, and most men who'd given her a look had considered it as well. She was a tall and rather thin girl, with medium-sized breasts and a generously plump ass, just like men tended to like. Her face, if you could get past the dog-like ears nearby, was quite beautiful as well. She had soft dark features, from her brown eyes to chestnut brown hair. Sometimes she wondered if her mother had been pretty like she was.

Mari and Anna had spent many hours talking about their lives before they had come together, mostly trying to focus on the positive. Of course, there were inevitably some moments where darker topics couldn't be avoided, like when they each shared the stories of how they had lost their parents. In some ways, Anna felt as if Mari was becoming an older sister to her. She taught the younger girl, introduced her to new experiences, and showed her how grand a life was possible for someone like them who had started off in such a bad place.

That was probably what Anna was most thankful for. Hope. It was a powerful feeling, knowing that there was someone who believed in you and thought you could accomplish great things.

And that hope was what brought them to Anna's first conjuration.

Mari had informed her rather early on that canid mages were well known to have excelled in the more esoteric forms of magic rather than the more common ones. Most people know about the elementalists who controlled raw elements, the seers who saw through time, the alchemists who created powerful potions, and so on. Few people knew about the mages who could touch the fabric of the planes, shifting them or even pulling them together. With practice, Mari assured her that Anna could create bridges between points in space.

Even though Anna was far from naive, she had believed her instructor even before she'd demonstrated the magic. Mari only dabbling in the conjuring arts, she was only able to summon a tiny alien plant, but the effect on her student was immense. Seeing something happen was entirely different from being told, especially with something so unimaginably outside of the sorts of things that happened in everyday life.

Mari watched and double-checked the work Anna was doing as her disciple carefully drew runes on the ground, making a pattern that would focus her magic and keep the portal in a stable place in this world. According to some of the stories Mari had told her, there were canid mages alive today who could draw two foci like this one on two walls separated by any distance, and actually bridge the two into a path that you could just walk through as quickly and easily as if walking through a doorway.

When Anna was done, she looked over her symbols. They all looked right, just like the ones from the book she'd been studying from.

"Excellent" Mari said, nodding at Anna with a smile.

The two needed to be absolutely certain that everything was right, for a few different reasons. The first was that if things were quite wrong, Anna would exhaust herself without being able to open a portal or summon anything through it. The second possibility, which was actually quite worse and could happen if the error was something more minor, was that she would succeed but that the circle would fail in its complete purpose.

Anna had learned that there were several types of foci for portals, and had learned first and foremost the binding circle. It pulled through something from the other plane, but also contained the being within the circle's outermost ring. Depending on what came through, keeping it in place until Anna had time to release the spell and let it be pulled back where it came from was probably the only safe option.

"Are you ready?" Mari asked.

Anna didn't know. How could she be? Mari had told her that mages often summoned inert objects or plants their first few attempts, but being a canid, her teacher had warned her that anything could appear.

"Whenever you're ready" her master provided.

Anna raised her hands, focusing like she'd been taught, using the same energy she'd learned to pull from her body in order to move light objects and bring forth little orbs of light. Her hands glowed dull red, and so too did the circle, from the outer edge inward until its entire area was covered with the soft glow.

"Stay focused" she heard from beside her. "Concentrate."

With a sudden flash, the glowing was gone. Instead, in the center of the circle stood a large dog. Wait, it wasn't a dog.

Anna blinked, looking at it. She had thought it was just a dog at first glance, but there seemed to be little wisps of flame flowing up from its whole body, its eyes intensely looking around the room as it sniffed its surroundings.

Following its lead, Anna sniffed at the air, taking in its scent. It smelled like a dog, but with a faint hint of ash and fire. Her powerful sense of smell was a bit overwhelmed by how powerful its musk was.

"By the gods" Mari said in disbelief. "You did it."

Anna glanced over and smiled, then focused back on the strange creature.

"What is-" she tried to ask, but her master had predicted the question.

"It's a hellhound" she explained. "Very few mages can summon or control them."

Anna felt her heart speeding up.

"Is it dangerous?" she asked.

Her teacher shook her head.

"It's contained. In fact, it doesn't even seem hostile. Maybe it can tell that you're a canid."

Anna stared at it, as it stared right back at her. She couldn't help but feel a strange connection to it, drawing her in. She wanted to get closer to it.

"Remember I told you about planar bonds?" her teacher asked, breaking Anna's intense focus on the creature.

Anna nodded, knowing what Mari would say next.

"Should I just... talk to it?" she asked.

Anna jumped a little when the mage laughed suddenly.

"You can if you'd like" she said with a grin. "The important thing is to let it get used to you."

Hesitantly, the first-time summoner approached the wild creature, completely unsure what it really was or how it would react. The unknown really was quite frightening from the other side.

As she circled it, slowly moving closer, it turned to keep facing her. It most definitely knew she was there, and it was definitely focused on her.

When she got up close, she lowered herself slowly, squatting near the edge of the circle.

"Are you sure this is safe?" she asked Mari.

Honestly, it was a little late to be thinking about safe. She may not have known what a hellhound was or was capable of, but her master would have frantically tried to banish it from this plane if she thought for a second that it was interested in hurting either of them.

"Hi there" Anna said to it, sounding awkward. "My name's Anna."

It stared at her.

"I don't think you can talk, so I'm going to name you Roman. How does that sound?"

The creature just stared at her, tilting its head a little and panting.

"Is there something I'm doing wrong?" Anna asked back at her teacher, without taking her focus off the hellhound.

Mari, who was watching the whole thing with intense fascination and excitement, assured her that everything was going perfectly. The minutes passed by as Anna thought of random things to talk about with Roman, telling him the story of how she'd ended up here. She felt like he was actually enjoying it, spending time there with her instead of wherever he'd come from.

After nearly an hour, Anna felt herself getting exhausted from the summoning spell and Mari happily helped her close the portal. With a flash, Roman was gone again, whisked off to wherever he'd been pulled from.

The next few days, Mari had Anna repeat the summon and hold it open as she talked with Roman. She didn't know how, but she could sense that the two of them were getting closer. Something about him, and something about the way she felt, told her that their bond was strengthening. Each day, Anna felt more confident that she would actually make him into her permanent planar companion. She had read that the strength of the bond between summoner and companion was what determined how powerful the two became when they were on the same plane. She didn't really understand the magic of it, but so far the books had been right about everything else.

As Anna sat down and began talking to her new hellhound friend, she yawned.

"Are you feeling alright?" Mari asked, sounding a little concerned.

The young woman stretched her neck side to side, relaxing a little. She hadn't slept well last night, just unable to get to sleep and stay in her dreams. She had felt some kind of nervous energy that she couldn't shake.

"I'm fine" she assured her master. "Just a little tired."

Mari didn't like to take chances, but everything seemed to be going so well. She hadn't expected the process to be coming along so perfectly, and she didn't want to mess it up now.

"If you're too tired, you can stop early" she said, to which Anna gave a silent nod.

Anna wasn't really worried. She was tired, but not too tired to hold the portal open. Especially if it meant being able to talk to her newfound companion.

As she began talking about her day, something caught her eye and she felt her gaze drift down his body. Anna felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment as she looked back up at his face, then back down, then back up, then back down. She couldn't help but glance at it, now that she'd seen it. He was just an extraplanar demon beast, so he didn't mind her looking, did he?

Until that moment, Anna had casually given him a male name and treated him as such. Now, she knew that Roman was definitely a boy. Her eyes wandered over the thick furry sheathe on the underside of his body, the half-inch of his penis that was poking out the top, and the big furry testicles that were just below. His male organs looked just those of the dogs she'd seen, though she'd honestly never looked quite this close. She supposed it made sense, since hellhounds were somehow related to the dogs of this plane.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Mari asked, making Anna jump.

She quickly started talking to Roman, trying to pretend that nothing was going on. She would feel mortified if her teacher knew that she'd been looking at him there, so she made a serious effort to stay focused and talking the whole rest of her hour with him. Still, she couldn't help but glance at it once and a while. Curiosity was human nature, and it was also canid nature.

The next few days, she was a bit ashamed to admit that she found herself sitting the same way beside Roman. She tried to tell herself that it was just because it was comfortable, but she knew that part of it was just because she was curious to look at him down there. She'd seen naked men before, but she had never been able to look at one up close and for so long. Being a simple creature, she didn't have to ask Roman if she could look or feel guilty that she was doing it without asking.

The one day Mari had asked her to go to town before practicing her summoning, she found that she could hardly go for a few minutes without thinking about it again. She had finally found something that she was good at, that she had an honest talent at, and that set her apart as special in a good way.

She hurried around town and purchased the things her master had asked for, trying to make the trip as short as possible. She had noticed quite a lot of men staring at her, probably thinking nasty thoughts. She imagined how Roman would fight them off if they tried anything, the thought making her feel secure for the first time in a while. She couldn't wait until they were companions, and she would be able to call him into this plane just by focusing and calling his name.

When Anna arrived home, she was shocked to find a strange woman standing inside as she opened the door. Mari was supposed to be arriving home any time now from her trip to gather herbs, and Anna didn't sense that she was there. In other words, this woman had let herself in.

"Hello there" the woman said. "You must be the one who's trying to summon the hellhound."

Anna was confused. Rather than introduce herself, the woman had started talking nonsense, which made Anna suspicious. The woman also looked suspicious to Anna, which made the feeling worse. She was about Anna's own height, with a larger bust and a curvier figure overall. More to the point, the clothes that she chose to wear showed off the deep valley between her breasts and exposed the milky white skin of her midriff. Anna had never had very good experiences with women that looked like this one.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Who are you?"

The woman glanced back at the sanctum, where Anna's runes were sketched on the floor.

"The portal. Mari is well aware that she could never summon something as powerful as a hellhound, though I'm not sure why she would if she could. That means it's you."

Anna peered past her, at the circle. She didn't see any sign that she had summoned a hellhound, rather than a rock. The woman wasn't making sense.

"I did summon one" she said proudly. "Are you a friend of Mari's?"

The woman laughed.

"I am. And you couldn't have."

Anna's expression soured.

"I did. I'm a canid mage."

The woman eyed her, squinting, as if she were trying to peer into Anna's mind.

"Have it your way" she said flippantly with a shrug. "I just came by to drop off the ingredients I promised Mari. If you'll excuse me, I really need to get back to the city."

With that, she strutted past Anna and left. Not sure what to make of the experience, the young made went to her books and read up a bit more on the companion bonding process.

When Mari came home, she seemed to be excited. She said that she'd found some plants that she'd been trying to locate for a few days already, which had made the whole trip an excellent one. Anna told her about her rude friend, and Mari had apologized to her for the woman's behaviour. When Anna asked about the comments about summoning a hellhound, however, Mari seemed to get a bit defensive.

"She was just trying to get to you" Mari insisted. "She must have figured out that you had summoned one and said that to confuse you."

For the first time, Anna felt herself doubting her master. She had glanced through all of the materials on basic summoning that Mari had given her, and nowhere could she find the circle that she had drawn besides the sheet of parchment that her teacher had handed her. Still, that didn't mean that her master was lying. Either way, this was still the woman who had taken her in and helped her find purpose. Without a fuss, she followed her master to the other room.

"I think it's time that you take the next step, Anna" Mari informed her.

The next step was to summon him without being bound to the circle, sealing him in the whole room with her instead. As Anna looked at her with concern, Mari put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll be here in the room with you. Besides, we both know that he would never hurt you. You could have released him a long time ago, but I just wanted to be extra safe."

Anna felt reassured, walking around the circle and rubbing out the binding marks that were traced around its edges. At each wall of the room, she drew runes for a sealing box.

"Whenever you're ready" Mari said.

Anna focused and raised her arms, and with a flash Roman appeared in the circle. As if he could sense the sudden change, he immediately tried to move past the circle's edge and took a step past it. His gaze moved from the ground back up to Anna, walking slowly toward her.

As she took a few deep breaths, she could feel her body tingling strangely. She couldn't help but shift uncomfortably. For some reason, Roman's usual scent was almost overpowering today.

"I feel weird" she confessed to her master. "Maybe I should send him back."

"It's fine" her Mari reassured her. "You're doing great."

With her legs trembling, Anna lowered herself down to her knees, trying to stay up but leaning forward onto her hands. Her whole body felt weird. She couldn't describe it.

"Something's wrong" Anna warned. "I think he's dangerous."

"Everything's fine, Anna, he's not going to hurt you" her master's voice reassured her. "You're just reacting to his scent."

Anna was confused. She had never reacted like this before. Was the smell of him somehow draining her of her energy?

"Why does it feel like this?" she asked, trying to steady herself and stop the trembling.

"You're in heat" Mari explained. "I know it's a strange new feeling, but this is how your body is supposed to be reacting."

"In heat?" Anna asked. "This isn't my heat..."