Chapter Text
Ranboo was anxious, mouth dry and hands shaking in little quivers, he repeatedly had to fix the hat on his head so it wouldn’t fall off and leave him scrambling to chase it as the wind took it away.
Ranboo’s ceremonial robe ruffles in the breeze, the cold sending shivers down his spine and limbs, but what was worse than that was the stabbing cold from the bumpy ground on his bare feet. He chose to focus on that instead of the events leading up to this moment, and the ones that will soon come after.
It was easier to believe the cold was the least of Ranboo’s worries.
“You’ll do fine.” Looking to the left, Techno stands facing forward, eyes stuck on the path ahead of them. Singing could be heard from miles out, magic curling around the wind from the many witches' voices.
Ranboo wasn’t worried about the voices however. “What if nothing happens? What if nothing choses me?” Ranboo asks, biting his lower lip.
His nineteenth birthday started out like any other, with Techno waking him up with the promise of cake and a present hidden away underneath the older witches mattress, with excitement pumping in the young witchlings veins and a smile on his tiered face.
Ranboo expected the coven to act like they always did, ignoring him and sending his dad death glares if he does anything to piss them off, but the moment he left his room, with a new magic infused bracket around his wrist, Ranboo was bombarded with affection from the others. Witches congratulating him on turning nineteen, wishing him luck with his bonding ritual and sending Techno even deadlier looks.
It was worrying, because he was forced to remember his and Techno’s future relies on Ranboo making a bond with a familiar, after decades of generations before him coming out with none.
It was an impossible task, one Ranboo was sure he was going to fail.
“Then no one chooses you.” Techno shrugs, hand settling on his lower back. “Never stopped me from becoming a powerful witch, did it?”
“No…” Sighing, Ranboo thinks back on his dad. Techno was one of the strongest witches out there, nicknamed the Blood God for his magic over blood and his survival tactics. Yet everyone hated him, spat at Ranboo’s dad’s feet because he didn’t have a familiar bond. Techno didn’t seem to care, only showing emotions when it came to people disrespecting Ranboo over the fact he comes from a long line of witches without a bond.
And now it was time to find out if Ranboo was going to follow the family trend. “Now come on, I’m sure the faster we get this done the faster you have your answers.” Techno pushes him forward, the two walking down the path, the singing in the small clearing getting louder as they get closer towards it.
Coming off of the path Ranboo’s met with the whole coven surrounding a small pool of water, dug into the ground and lined with stones. The elders were front and center, eyes snap over towards him the moment he emerges from the forest.
Ranboo shudders, quickly looking away as he stops at the edge of the pool. Familiars stare, either hidden behind their masters legs or stood on their shoulders, all in animal forms.
Being the youngest in the coven ment he was the only one without a familiar, well, him and Techno, but they already know why.
“Ranboo Blade.” One of the elders announced, the singing dying down. “May your journey into the realm of magic bring back a familiar.” She gestures towards the pool, clipped. “I wouldn’t be empty handed, if I were you.”
Ranboo sucks in a breath, hand reaching up to take his hat off his head, holding it between both hands. Techno guides him into the water, immediately his limbs feeling live ice cubes as he steps into the water.
Once he was fully in, water up to his waist, Ranboo hands his hat off to Techno, who sets it on a table to the side. The table had a lot of different things on it, none of which he understood, but knew it was important either way.
“I Techno Blade, father of Ranboo Blade, bless thy child to find safety within the realm of magic.” Techno drawls, sounding bored. Ranboo stifles a laugh, ignoring the way the cover brittle at the tone his dad takes. Techno dips his fingers into a bowl on the table, squatting down to paint sigils across his face. “Let our family sigil guide you, and protect you from the evil that lurks, hunts, and devours the lost.” Techno adds more seriously.
Techno then runs whatever coats his fingers down Ranboo’s throat, closing his eyes, Techno’s hands glow as Ranboo feels his very blood turn ice cold. “Let my magic be a warning to those who think to take you away from me, and a promise to those who see you as potential, that I’ll stick down the unworthy, no matter who they are.” Standing back up, Techno puts the bowl back down on the table.
Ranboo waits, keeping his eyes on the older man as the coven gets louder in their singing. Techno kneels at the edge of the pool, hands resting on his chest, and in a hushed voice whispers, “It’s not too late to say you don’t want to do this.”
But it was, Ranboo thinks distantly. If he doesn’t do this, if he fails, the coven would be the worst of their problems. They have put up enough, if Ranboo doesn’t come out of this with a familiar, he’d be better off lost in the realm of magic. “I know.” Ranboo lies, smiling. “I can do this.”
Techno smiles back softly, concern lacing his features, with one swift push, Ranboo was shoved underneath the water. Ranboo doesn’t fight, staring up past his dad to the moon above, setting his dads magic sink into the water around him and covering his mind. Ranboo closes his eyes, hoping that he’ll fix generations of failures.
Opening his eyes, Ranboo was met with darkness.
Ranboo stood in a void, solid ground underneath him, rippling with liquid darkness. Whispers from the distant drove him to whipping around, trying to search for the owner of the voice. Ranboo opens his mouth to call out, but no sound exists, leaving him gaping like a fish to whoever crawls by, watching him.
The realm of magic was different for everyone, depending on the kind of witch you are, Ranboo didn’t know what his ment.
Techno’s realm of magic was a battlefield, bloodied and covered with skeletons, the sounds of hounds and howls ringing out in his ears. Ranboo hated how it was depicted, but his dad assured him he only felt safety while there.
Here, though, Ranboo felt freezing and unserved. He couldn’t see anything, and the whispers felt so far away one second then too close the next. It felt like hours until something caught his attention.
A bright light in the distance, glowing a blinding white, forces Ranboo to close his eyes, hands moving up to block the brightness from hurting. The whispers turn into shouting, causing Ranboo to flinch against the sudden noise.
A loud shriek shuts the now shouting up, somehow Ranboo could sense the light move closer, and with it a wave of magic washes over him, threatening him to tumble over.
Ranboo’s knees almost give out, until a sudden warmth overtakes the freezing chill that had stuck itself to his skin. “Oh, you're strong.” A smooth voice sounds out from behind him, Ranboo jolting in surprise.
What was that?
A clawed hand runs down his back, lava blooming down his spine, Ranboo jumps, trying to move away from whatever had found him, but his feet felt rooted in place. “Yet so young.” The voice continues, cooing. “Fragile, breakable.”
Ranboo grits his teeth, was this the demons the coven liked to scare him with? The evil that lurked in the shadows of the realm of magic? The whole realm to him was darkness, had something gone wrong?
Was Ranboo going to die here?
Fear takes root in his heart, and he tries to run, but his feet feel like they were glued to the ground. The creature chuckles, hand moving to lift his chin up. “No need to panic, I’m only a familiar.”
A familiar? Oh crap, that’s even worse, Ranboo thinks. He’s made a terrible first impression! What do you even say to a familiar? Hi, my name is Ranboo, please bond with me or else my coven is going to throw me and my dad out on the streets?
The familiar tilts his head up, his hand on Ranboo’s chin, making all of his thoughts sizzle out, the hand on his chin was warm, burning, the cold eradicating from Ranboo’s bones in a swift woosh of flames that beat against his skin, yet didn’t pain him.
The familiar stinks of powerful magic, more than the elders own familiars, and Ranboo finds himself relaxing in the others' hold. He knew in the back of his mind to not let his guard down, this was a dangerous place, no matter how calming it could feel to you, but the strength coming from the other blocks out everything else that could possibly find its way to bother him.
Ranboo struggles to try and open his eyes, to catch sight of the familiar that held him there, but a tutting sound stops him. “You’ll burn your eyes out, mate, keep them closed.” The familiar guides, his other hand moving up to move his bangs away from his face, it felt like he was being checked out, examined, but it didn’t feel wrong nor uncomfortable.
It sort of felt like he was being praised, in a weird way, like if he didn’t do something right the warmth would disappear and leave him freezing in the abyss.
Ranboo didn’t want to be cold again, it reminded him too much of sleeping in the drafty room his coven made Ranboo and Techno stay in, and reminded him too much of the fact the fireplace never warmed up their room, leaving them to huddle against each other late into the night.
Ranboo could feel things shift in the abyss, what he now knew was familiars drawing away from him and back into the inky void, his heart sinking to his stomach with the action’s. Had he done something wrong? Where were they going? Ranboo frowns, moving his head away from the familiar in front of him, he goes to call out, yet again when he opens his mouth no sound comes out.
The familiar must see the confusion and hurt on his face, because he quickly pulls Ranboo back to face him. “Don’t mind them.” The familiar says, a long trill leaving his throat. “They dare not touch what’s mine.”
“Yours?” Finally, Ranboo pushes out a word, tongue heavy in his mouth as the word hardly creates any sound.
The familiar chuckles, hands moving to settle on Ranboo’s shoulders. “Well of course, little witch.” Ranboo’s bones suddenly become heavy, turning to weights as he struggles to xstand, the hands on his shoulders turning to support as he falls forward, clutching onto the familiar. “You’ve given me everything, the least I can do is claim what’s mine.”
The words only confuse him, Ranboo had given the other nothing, what could he possibly mean—
Snapping his eyes open, Ranboo awakens underwater, struggling for oxygen as his lungs throb with pain, his mind screaming at him to breathe. The hands on his chest felt like iron chains, it takes an embarrassingly long few seconds to realize that Ranboo was going to drown.
Ranboo scratches at the hands, the grip on him lessening immediately as they switch to grabbing at his shoulders instead, dragging him up with a force that sends Ranboo’s head spinning in circles.
Air floods into his lungs, singing filling his eyes as Ranboo stares wide eyed at the water around him, having turned a bloody red while he was under. It stuck to his robes, staining them red. “Wa-what—“
“Breath, then talk.” Techno orders, grabbing a towel from a table to the side, looking like he wanted to know everything and nothing at the same time.
Ranboo listens to his dad, taking deep breaths in and out, shivering as he curls up into a ball, pulling his knees up to sit underneath his chin. After a few minutes Techno grabs his arm, helping him step out of the pool of water and onto solid ground, wrapping a towel around his shoulders.
Catching a glimpse of the coven, Ranboo flinches, they were all staring at him with an intense look in their eyes, bordering glares. Techno follows his eyes, huffing in annoyance. “Ignore them.” Techno whispers, rubbing the towel harshly over Ranboo’s head, practically manhandling him. “They're impatient.”
It dawns on Ranboo then, that he has completed his familiar journey, the coven was waiting on the results. They were waiting to see if he has failed, like Techno has failed all those years ago, if his family was cursed.
The phantom feeling of warm hands on his face perks Ranboo up, head whipping to the pool of blood, he looks for the face of whatever, whoever, has chosen him. “Ranboo?” Techno questions, his dads own gaze moving towards the pool. “What is it?”
“I’m looking for—“ Ranboo’s cut off by a loud screech, the coven around them covering their ears, Techno shoves him backwards as he clutched on the pendant around his neck, magic fizzling to life, but Ranboo felt no fear as he gazed upon what started to climb out of the pool.
The pool bubbles, blood boiling as smoke rose towards the night sky, an ash covered claw came out of the water, then another, and soon enough the cold wind was snapping away and being replaced by a burning warmth as what could only be described as a creature of death crawled up from the depths.
It was an amalgamation of feathers, bone and the void itself, wrapped up in a slender monstrous frame.
The singing around them turns to chanting as the elders rise, everyone ready to fight off this beast, Techno’s words to run fading to the back of Ranboo’s head as he looks upon the beast, and smiles.
Running past Techno, ignoring the fear lacing his dads voice, Ranboo sprints towards the creature as it fully crawls out of the pool, bloody water sliding off his feathers like it was oil to water. The creature snaps its head towards him, and with a burst of energy meets Ranboo half away, human-like hands finding their way around him as Rannoo’s head is tucked into the crook of his neck.
Looking up, Ranboo’s met with bright blue eyes and a somewhat human face, the whites of the man’s eyes being void as two giant black wings sat on the other's back. “Hello, little witch.” Ranboo’s familiar coos, a clawed hand scraping gently against his scalp.
“Stand down!” Techno’s voice booms, catching the attention of the familiar, who's now frowning, eyes narrowed as the others wings move to cover Ranboo.
The coven looks between Techno, Ranboo and the familiar, before they slowly stand down and back away. “And who are you?” The familiar asks, hands tightening around him.
Techno scoffs, letting go of his pendant as he takes a step forward, the feathers on Rannoo’s familiar brittling in warning. “Calm your feathers, that’s my witchling you have there.” Techno states, crossing his arms, all the worry seeming to leave him as Techno realizes what this was. “The names Techno.”
That Ranboo hadn’t accidentally summoned a demon, which he’s heard had happened too many times in the past.
“Philza.” Ranboo’s familiar, Philza, repelis, calming his rising feathers, yet not letting go of him. “And the annoying audience?” Philza spits, causing some people to jolt, shuffling even more backwards.
No one dares to speak in the presence of a familiar reeking of wild magic, enough to cause the chill to slip away into burns.
Techno looks at the coven, then back over towards them. “Our coven.” Techno answers smoothly.
“It’s my nineteenth birthday.” Ranboo adds, feeling the need to be part of this conversation. “The day I become a full witch.”
Philza cocks his head to the side, surveying the people before turning to look at him. “Happy birthday.” Philza grins, wings pressing Ranboo more towards the other, but then the grin slips from his face as he glares at the people around them. “But your dad is lying.” Philza growls. “I do not feel any bond between you and them, they have ignored you, you are no more than a stranger to these people.”
“That’s not true!” An elder cuts in, stepping forward. Ranboo doesn’t remember his name, but he does remember the older man bad mouthing Ranboo’s bloodline to the others. It’s why today was so important, if Ranboo couldn’t bond with a familiar, Techno and him were never going to be a part of the coven.
And witches without a coven don’t end up in good places.
The elder gestures to Philza himself, a smile on his face. “Ranboo has bonded with you, that means him and his family are aloud to join us—“
“So you force a child and his dad to be covenless because they are without a familiar?” Philza cuts in, sounding cold. “That’s no coven.” A clawed hand rubs his back in circles, giving Ranboo the implication Philza wanted to make sure he wasn’t upset, but Ranboo had already known this.
The coven never really cared about him and Techno.
“It’s fine, Philza.” Techno speaks up, walking closer. Philza growls underneath his breath, the other familiars in the crowd growling back. “We’re not covenless anymore.” Techno makes eye contact with Ranboo, a soft look in his eyes, like the weight of the world was taken off his shoulders.
Having a familiar ment they weren’t going to be thrown out and burned at the stake by humans, this meant Ranboo didn’t have to have nightmares of the day they got sick of us. Philza was strong, his magic like nothing he’s ever felt, with Philza as Ranboo’s familiar they don’t have to worry anymore.
“You shouldn’t have been.” Philza scoffs, one of his wings stretching out towards Techno, the tip of his feathers brushing against his dads arm. “They will not be joining your pathetic coven.” Philza announces, and Ranboo immediately goes rigid.
Even the elders look surprised, the coven starting their protest, but Philza’s chest starts to rattle, the grass underneath his feet turning to ash. “Shut it! You ignorant excuses for a coven, if you cared I’d be happy to let my witches—“ Did Philza just say witches, as in multiple? “—join you, but clearly you only wanted my powers as a familiar. If you had any knowledge of wild magic you’d know a line of witches without a familiar tend to have blood familiars, handed down from generation to generation.”
Ranboo watches as Techno’s eyes go wide, the other seeming to understand what Philza was talking about, yet Ranboo had no clue, being kept in the dark. All the elders go pale, they also seem to understand the implications. “Blood familiars?” Ranboo whispers, the hand on his back stilling.
Philza hums, a sadistic grin crossing his face. “Familiars that are born into a specific bloodline of very powerful witches, little one. In turn for your ancestors having no familiars of their own for centuries, you're gifted with me. I served one of the most powerful witches in the world, one of your ancestors, and now I serve you two, my witches.”
Shadows descend from the forest, the familiars growls as crow caws are heard from the woods darkness. “Come now, Techno, unless you want your son to watch what happens to people that disrespect my family?”
Techno jolts from his surprise, turning to Ranboo with a look on his face Ranboo couldn’t place. “Ranboo, we’re going home.” Techno quickly says, walking over and grabbing his hand, Philza lets him be whisked away into Techno’s hold.
“Wait! What’s going on, what does Philza mean we are his witches!?” Techno tugs him away from the coven, forcing him to look away as the sounds of hundreds of pounding bird wings get closer.
“Some things you don’t want to know, Ranboo.” Techno replies, looking over at him. Ranboo holds the towel over his shoulders more securely as he struggles to not trip over his two feet, he still felt weak after meeting Phil in the void.
Ranboo glades once back quickly, only to see cows and ravens descending upon the coven and their familiars, Philza turned away from them as he watched them leave down the path.
Ranboo didn’t know what was worse, the fact Philza was looking at him and Techno with such familiar love as the crows pecked and teared, or the fact Ranboo had no problem with it happening.
The coven never loved them, but from the moment Philza saw him, he did.