So, how did Zehmik bond with Marsee, his loyal warclaw? Exhausted rambling time!
I still haven't decided the exact point in the timeline, but everything happens during Zehmik's first couple of years of being a Mist Warrior. [I'm gonna refer to my Mist War headcanons a bunch, so in case you want some hc juice, you can find them here]
For days he had been following a commander deep into enemy lines in one of the Alpine Borderlands. The other two Tyrias were focused on fighting each other in the Eternal Battleground, and they took their chance by conquering most of the land from their south-eastern nexus up to the snowy mountains, almost unopposed and with reinforcements regularly rolling in. It was an easy enough operation Zehmik had joined on a whim, hoping to get some valuable experience, but eventually the enemy noticed what they were doing, and the squad fell into an ambush north-west of the Citadel.
Sudden as it was, the commander was among the first to fall, leaving the squad scattered and to be slaughtered on the snow. Zehmik fought fiercely as he and others were pushed towards the cliffs, and eventually all fell either by the blade or to their death. Their pursuers picked new targets and moved on, but he was still alive, albeit barely. Wounded, bleeding profusely from the place nearly half of his ear used to be and with no more strength in him, he fainted in the snow where he had landed. He was still getting used to the concept of non-permanent death, but it was useless to fight to survive in that situation, as he'd be resurrected in a safe place at the end of the day.
No one had noticed it during the chaos of the battle, but a warclaw had witnessed everything and something had struck it with interest. While the last MW who had not yet escaped met their end, the beast approached the cold bodies in the snow, ignoring them and going instead for the only one still weakly breathing, picking him up in its mouth and carrying him away.
Zehmik woke up several hours later, feverish, weak and hurting all over... not at the nexus, but in a dark cave, much to his confusion. Then, the first thing he saw after his sight stopped being blurry were the shiny eyes of a huge beast approaching him, and he rightfully panicked, his weakened state allowing instincts to take over any logic. He immediately yelped and scurried away, but the beast chased and pounced on him repeatedly, each kick and clawing and punch and push to free himself only riling it up, as it played with him like a cat with a mouse. Eventually, the poor panicked Zehmik used one of his counterspells on the beast to repel it as it charged him again, and it worked a little too well. The effort made him faint again, while the warclaw staggered for a good while, hurting quite significantly due to the anti-magic spell being particularly effective on a beast made of magic.
Stirred awake by a moist and stinging sensation on his face hours later, Zehmik found himself still in the cave, but this time warm between the beast’s paws as it was actively licking his face and maimed ear. Thinking it was eating him and panicking once again, he stumbled out of her paws and on the bottom half of a dead rabbit, his partially destroyed and looted backpack, his sword and, much to his dismay, the rest of his ear. He nearly fainted once more after scrambling in the opposite direction and puking, but before his head stopped spinning the beast caught his attention with a chirping growl. It was still where he had left it, head high as if proud of itself and eyes calmly blinking as they moved from his things to him, and that sight turned off the alarm in his head. Slowly putting the dots together, he realized the beast was a warclaw and a she... and that while he was out, she had gone and gathered his things that he had lost in the fight, likely by scent.
Zehmik had little knowledge and no direct experience with warclaws, but the only logical option for what was happening was that she had chosen him somehow, especially as she actually obeyed his tentative commands. Quite an honor... if only she hadn't inadvertently gotten him stuck behind enemy lines with a reset approaching.
It was a miracle the fall hadn't broken any of his bones, but Zehmik was still weak from bloodloss and bruised all over, far from any medic and unable to really walk far. The warclaw was willing to carry him, often trying to get him to climb up her back when he tried, but he was too beaten up and weak to stay on long while she ran. He had considered going up to enemies to get himself killed, but the warclaw would not allow it, accompanying him everywhere and chasing away any lone patrol they came across. That left the only option of waiting a few days for the magic surges to heal him enough to make a genuine attempt to reach safety. A dangerous thing, given the reset was just a few days away and he had missed the early signs while he was knocked out and stuck in the cave.
The warclaw caught food for both, allowing his supplies to last longer, but with enemies retreating to their territories for the reset, Zehmik decided they had to move regardless of his state. It was a dangerous trek, made worse by the fact his Tyria had lost quite a lot of territory, which meant far too many occasions in which they narrowly avoided not one but two enemy teams. Still, the warclaw moved expertly and Zehmik fully relied on her, as he focused his energy on staying mounted.
Zehmik had to stop to rest after nearly a day of moving a a reasonable pace, but then the Mist rolled into the Borderland. Of that occasion, he recalls little, other than holding onto the warclaw's fur for dear life for interminable hours as she blindly ran through the thick fog in hopes of reaching their territories, begging her to go faster until the light engulfed them. Then he usually jokes about how long it took for his allies to get him off the warclaw and to a medic after they all reappeared at a different nexus, as she kept dodging and growling at them.
Zehmik decided to name her Marsee, in honor of an old friend, and after that experience, he decided to specialize as much as he could in healing magic.
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Most warclaws challenge their would-be riders in actual fights, but Marsee just went "I want that resilient rat with the funky magic" and tested him by poking and prodding said half-dead rat until he finally reacted and flashbanged her with anti-magic.
Also this is how Zehmik lost half of his left ear (while still keeping the earring he eventually sends to his sister along with all the gold he earned until then) and opted to go for the support-oriented kinda-healer kill-me-and-my-friends-if-you-can Spellbreaker build I've been enjoying in WvW. [a couple of things changed since I made this, but it still shows the ears so here it is]
