Twice.

That's the number of times Azino'gre thought he was going to die that day.

And here he was now, sleeping with his new friend.

He wasn't exactly sure how he got where he was, but it was quite the adventure.

He was no longer the Zinogre he once was.

It all started when he had overheard his friend Aladar, the fox who was sleeping on him, talking with a couple other monsters at the dining hall.

This was a college in which both Hunters and Monsters attended, both sides of the school always doing their best to outdo the other, resulting in constant feud because they were enemies. Hunters and Monsters, a tale as early as time itself.

Aladar, or Foxy, as Azino called him, was a bit of a different case.

Though the fox was enrolled as a Hunter, he was more of a gatherer and researcher, not to mention he was an anthropomorphized fox, so he wasn't a human, or elf, or such as most of the other Hunters.

Aladar was a friend of both Hunters and Monsters.

Azino learned that the fox had these strange containers that he referred to as Channeling Stones, and the energy of monsters he's battled could be absorbed into them. This energy he'd gather had the ability to grant strength and elemental attributes depending on the monsters he had fought.

It was that last part that had him interested.

Learning about these stones, the Zinogre had began to follow Aladar around, and by follow, he observed almost every mission the fox went on.

The school had these devices that allowed students to monitor other students on missions that usually involved both a Hunter(s) and a Monster. The Zinogre was waiting for a mission the fox went on that involved a water monster. Though this wasn't too rare, the main problem was the fact that Aladar wasn't much of a fighter (or at least didn't admit it. He was a magic swordsman after all) and most of the missions he did were gathering quests, which resulted in him mostly avoiding any monsters that tried to get in his way.

Eventually, Aladar had joined a few other hunters on a quest to hunt a set of monsters. It must have been divine luck, because these monsters were a Barroth and a Plesioth.

Two water monsters at once, and he was actually going to fight them.

Azino would call himself lucky that the team of Hunters won, but he saw how good at magic the fox was.

After the match, the Zinogre went to find Aladar, or specifically, the Channeling Stones he had.

Luck must have been really on his side that day, because not only did he find Aladar's bag unattended, in it were two of the stones, both glowing an ocean-blue, meaning that they indeed had the essence of the monsters he fought.

Though he was a little ashamed for doing it, Azino stole the stones and rushed back to his room.

Unfortunately, he had no idea how to use them.

In frustration, he crushed both of the stones in his hands, sending the energy in the stones flying.

The energy rushed around him for a few seconds before forcing its way into his body. This was by no means a pleasant experience. The energy was from both a Barroth and Plesioth, so water and mud began forming around and inside him. His fingers began to turn into mud themselves, and water was constantly flowing out of his mouth and nose, making him unable to breathe; practically choking him.

He thought he was going to die, and eventually passed out.

Azino did wake up though, a few hours later.

To his surprise, the whole area and his body were completely dry, which was strange because he was fully-clothed, and was on a carpeted floor.

The only thing that stood out was the shards of the broken Channeling Stones that were beside him.

He was confused, but immensely relived of the fact that he was alive.

It was nighttime now, and he was exhausted despite just waking up from passing out.

The Zinogre went to change out of his clothes, and noticed something incredible.

He rushed to his bathroom and checked himself out in the mirror.

All of his white fur had turned dark-blue. Though he was surprised, Azino was also pretty excited; whatever he did with the Channeling Stones had worked, and he was now a water attribute monster.

The next morning, he went to his table, and everyone was looking at him and noticed the change.

They all pointed at him, and looked somewhat offended as well.

"You did it..." They all said at the same time.

Azino was about to ask for clarification, but then remembered that he kinda stole those stones.

The Zinogre may have been a strong guy, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to face his foxy acquaintance, especially since not only did he steal from him, but also broke the Channeling Stones as well...

He decided to skip class that day and hang in his room, but at around 7pm he was met with some pretty aggressive knocking at his door.

Aladar was on the other side of that door, but luckily so were his friends, who he could tell were doing their best to control the angry fox.

Judgement awaited.

The meeting went as well as you'd expect it would have: an angry little fox with the power to kill wasn't holding his tongue by any means, and had more than a few strong words to say. Azino was feeling guilty already, but it wasn't until he told Aladar that he had accidentally broken the Channeling Stones, did he really begin to die on the inside.

The once angry fox was now crying.

Apparently those stones were incredibly valuable, and it had taken Foxy a few years to make. They were very important to him, and were a huge deal to researchers and his work to create a way to harness energy from captured monsters to make elemental weapons without having to kill them. The fox really cared for all of his monster friends, and didn't want them to see any of them die after they would leave school and return to civilizations.

A little while later, the fox had tuckered himself out, and eventually their friends left, leaving the two of them alone.

Aladar was still upset, but had gotten most of his frustration out of himself.

Though they were far from even, Azino vowed to get or help Aladar make some new Channeling Stones at whatever the cost. Aladar said they'd talk it over tomorrow, and crashed on top of the Zinogre.

He was still angry, but Azino was fluffy, so he didn't feel like moving, and the two of them made small chat until they fell asleep.

__________________________________________________________________

By the way, this is a real thing.

Monster Hunter Stories.
Great game on the 3DS, and in it, you get to have monster friends, and you can change their attributes by giving them genes from other monsters.
However, it works a bit differently in the games than how I just wrote. The way I wrote about is how they did it in the anime (Minus the stone breaking and the graphic change).

But yeah, Azino'gre is a Water-attributed Zinogre who has dark-blue fur in place of the white fur that regular Zinogre have.

Art:  naughtybigdog