Name: Reaper (short for "Grim Reaper". Rea for short)
Gender: Male
How Did They Get Their Horns?: Sorry if it's weird to read it was hard to keep everything within a 1,000 work limit and tell a solid tale after I really got in the zone, but I still hope it gets the point across😅😅Reaper was the beloved companion of a Tiefling Sorcerer who traveled the lands. One day, as they've been visitng a local alchemist artificer on one of their travels. They'd stopped by the wizard's shop hoping to buy some potions to have on them, in case they ever run into trouble out on the road, as well as just to check in on something that his friend had been working on since their last visit.
Last time they were here, he had requested something to protect Reaper from the unstable weave's arcane abilities. Since he never knew when or how it could backfire on them. And he didn't want his friend to get caught in the crosshairs. He was desvastated ot find there was nothing to counter it. However, there was something that they could do. His friend had requested the tiefling's blood, a splice of it's DNA for study, he'd had the brilliant idea to find a way to channel this wild magic, and perhaps embue some items that could prove very fruitful. But the tiefling, hesitant and reluctant at first, he was worried at the thought of his abilities falling into the wrong hands, should anyone ever find out. His friend told him that if this works, he could enchant some items that could give Reaper a protective aura, whenver he was near this... Wild Magic, that draws its power
from the chaos of wild magic, and leaving it's user with unpredictable, but powerful, spell effects. It was something else entirely. And it was a ticking time bomb, just waiting to go off. This could be anything, a necklace, a collar, jewlery, or anything that could be held or worn by Reaper. And the tieflings eyes fell, face laced with a deeply saddened frown. He could feel it. Crawling, beneath his hellish skin, writhing through it's veins. And so, he agreed. But the master (wizard) warned them against it. He could tell it wasn't a wise idea, this magic couldn't be studied, you'd have to be born into it. His strong disapproving gaze burned through the both of them.
But that didn't stop them form wanting to try, as the tiefling was very insistant on being able to keep Reaper safe. Reaper was his responsibility, and he couldn't just abandon him, he'd had no where to go. He was his friend, but more importantly he was family.
Now, returning to the old shop, something would change their lives forever. The alchemist turned around to greet his devilish friend with a teasing remark, with which the tiefling rebuttled. It was then that he invited him in and they discusssed the progress of his research, and unfortunately there wasn't much. As he was walking him through, and showing him what he'd done so far, and it was in this moment where it was hard to keep an eye on the cat, and prevent it from knock anything down or perhaps hurting itself on some of the.... more stranger items that laid around. The curious cub couldn't help but explore the back of the workshop while his handler talked to the merchant. Just one singular moment was all that was needed, and Reaper, playing with one of the bottles, knocked it over, causing it's contents to spill everywhere, and sending the room into a butterfly effect, loudly one by one things caught each other, pulling trinkets, artifacts and potions down, mixing gods know what, and spilling it all over a projective gone similar to a crossbow housing snake teeth. Reaper terrified tried to find refuge, as the room erupted into chaos, while the two beings tried to contain it. Mixtures haivng violent reactions, sparking and popping, exploring, catching fire to books, or anything within radius. When suddenly the weapon fired, and propelled the magic glazed teeth to inject the tieflings dna into the poor frightened cub. The tiefling heard the crying roar and let himself be distracted, his weapon knocked out of his hand, mind unclear as he channeled his power, and the artificer struggling to salvage the damage.
The wizard having returned to his shop, saw what was happening, his familliars panicking, and apprentice in danger, so with a booming voice, he cast a spell to subdue the chaos.
It was then that the tiefling imemdiately took Rea's side, distressed and confued. The wizard commanded the artificer to create a potion of healing based on what was on the snake fangs. They could patch up the puncture wounds, and the cub was as good as new. As time went on the tiefling noticed white proturiding nubs forming onto Rea's head, the cub spent the next few days in agony as his bones morphed and mutated to acommidate the tieflings blood, along with it's unstable magic, had been injected into Reaper's system. And potions could only do so much to help him, and the tiefling didn't have the power to heal him, but he KNEW he needed to try, he was ready to do anything if it meant it could be reversed. So he'd asked around and set out to find a healer.
Once reaching the Cleric's door, he cried on his knees and holding Reaper close to his chest, begging for the cleric to help him. "Please, you have to help him. I'll do anything for him to be healthy again, please, just- Y-You have to... Please.. Help him." He sobbed, ready to even lay down his own life for this cub. So the cleric, her heart strings tugged, took pity on him.
Time has now passed since then, and the new horns grew out looking almost identical to the tiefling's own, shining as the sunlight colided against them. Reaper, all grown up and completely pain free, laid against his companion happily. It was a rough process waiting until they grew out properly to the point when the white little numbs had turned to a burnt color. But they are both happy it's over.
(993 words)
