“Come, friends, the elders need their quiet.” Swiftstride told us, before turning and leaving the room. As we did, I saw a notice in the corner of my eye, telling me that I had gained a massive increase in reputation with the Pack of the North Wind, bringing my social status, something I had yet to raise to anything but neutral, up to a level called Honored Friend. Part of me wanted to laugh, that the first group I had befriended in a way the system recognised was a wolf-pack. Maybe I should found a city on a hill, it might flourish, at least if I could keep drunken fiddle-players out.

“You mentioned I would be able to assure myself that my patients are taken care of.” I reminded him, keeping the added advantage of bringing him into their infirmary to myself. While he had been a patient and I was relatively sure there wouldn’t be any problems remaining, I wanted to have it checked out by their healer, someone who would be used to working on wolves for their entire life. In addition to that, I was curious what sort of healer they had available, what sort of society they had.

“Of course. Follow me.” he agreed, padding ahead with us walking after him.

The tunnels we were now walking in seemed slightly wider and more populated, and I realised what the den reminded me of. We might be in the equivalent of a non-instanced dungeon, having just met the end-boss. It was an interesting idea, even if it made me wonder about the balancing. Having a dungeon mostly populated by wolves between level forty and seventy, only to have the end-boss in the two-hundred was… problematic, to say the least. At the same time, it raised questions about befriending other monsters, dungeon or otherwise.

In any case, we received friendly barks and growls in greeting as we walked through the den, making me rather happy. It felt good to be seen with favour - and some of the wolves, especially the younger cubs, were just adorable. I never had been able to have a pet and when a young, silver-grey pup decided to toddle after me, looking adorably clumsy while doing so, I just about melted. Without thinking, I stopped, kneeling down and started to gently scratch it behind its ears, while it tried to lick everything that came too close to its face. Its fur was so fluffy soft, it was marvelous.

Soft giggles pulled me from my mesmerised state, causing me to realise that the others had stopped with me and Adra was having trouble not to burst out laughing and even Sigmir and Rai had wide grins on their face.

“Oh… my... “ Adra managed to get out between giggles. “I never thought that you, little missy murder-blood mage, could look that cute.” I froze for a second, feeling a blush creep up on my cheeks, when a warm tongue tickled my face and I saw that the little wolf had managed to jump onto my knee and use that to boost itself far enough up to lick my face.

“Look, Sigmir, you have competition for kissing Morgana.” Adra continued, now Sigmir was giggling as well.

“Woe is me, my beloved mate set me aside for a wolf.” she said in a dramatically over the top voice, making me wonder where that came from. She certainly hadn’t seen any bad drama on television but maybe it was just part of who she was.

“Don’t worry, love. Nobody could ever replace you, but the little guy is awfully cute, don’t you think?” I assured her, while wrapping my arms around the wolf for a moment, causing laughter even amongst the wolves. Afterwards, I noticed a bitch-wolf standing nearby keeping very careful watch on the pup, making me assume that it was its mother, so I carefully set it back down, giving it a last scratch before gently pushing it back towards her.

“I’m sorry for delaying you, Swiftstride.” I apologised, even if it was a lie. I was not sorry for petting the little wolf.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Don’t worry about it.” he answered, amusement strong in his voice. “Let’s continue. And if you want, we can head into the nursery later, most cubs are in there.” he laughed, making me grin despite myself. At the same time, I wondered about their mating season and how many pups would be there. But considering that it should be early to mid-spring, maybe it wasn’t unreasonable, it was just that the endless ice and snow had concealed the changing seasons from me.

There were no further delays by cuteness on our way and in the infirmary, we were greeted by another larger wolf, only this one felt vastly different from those we had met before. Part of that was that it was smaller than the others who had crossed the first Divide - still larger than normal, and the aura of Power was unmistakable, but there was a difference. Part of it might be what I perceived as smell, she smelled less crisp but there was a powerful undertone of an earthy, primal scent of beast. I was not quite sure what to make of it, having not smelled anything like that before.

Around the main-chamber, there were smaller chambers, not much more than alcoves and I could see that the floor was covered in fur in there. About half of them were being occupied by wolves, most of them, I recognised as my patients from the days before.

“Greetings, cousin. Let me introduce you to the Traveller Morgana, who healed these before we got here, her mate Sigmir and their companions, Ylva, Adra and Rai.” he turned back to us.

“Friends, this is my cousin. I think the best name for her you can use would be Still.” he finished introductions, with all of us nodding in greeting.

“Ah, you are the one who healed them? Good work, even if there is still a lot to do.” Still complimented me.

“It was my honour. But could you please take a look at Swiftstride, he suffered the worst wounds and while I used a lot of power and did my best, I would rather have someone used to working on wolves look at it, just to make sure there won’t be more problems.” I asked.

My question caused Still’s head to snap to Swiftstride, with a glare in her eyes.

“You were wounded and didn’t come here first?!” she asked, her growling deep enough to make my bones vibrate. I almost laughed at Swiftstride body language, he looked so much like one of the dog-pictures on the internet, showing a dog that had done something bad and was being scolded by their owner, it was uncanny. The proud, oversized wolf, looked like a kicked puppy.

“I…” he tried to explain, before looking at me, “She healed me…” he got out before a wordless growl from Still silenced him. Next, I felt her exude magic, not in the same way I used it, not even in the same way Lenore used it, it felt more like Adra’s but still not the same. I blinked on Lenore’s sight, watching as the magic, glowing with multi-coloured light, emerged from Still before enveloping and seeping into Swiftstride.

“His belly was hurt? And even his intestines?” Still growled under her breath and I saw the light gather around the area I had healed, likely tracing the wound and my healing.

“No traces of infection, that’s good. But he will need to rest and heal for a while, the fix was done well, but it might open again, if he overdoes it.” Still continued, making me quite proud that my battlefield-fix was considered ‘well done’.

The magic faded and Swiftstride growled at me, “You said you wanted to make sure that the others were cared for, you never said something about me.” he grumbled, only to realise a moment too late who was still next to him.

“And you say that as if it is bad. I’m glad to have seen that, you will need to relax at least for a week, better two. You are healed but the healed areas are still weakened, compared to normal. She made sure that nothing remained that could cause infection, but if you are stupid enough to re-open those wounds, you will die slowly and painfully. And it will be entirely your fault.” Still growled at him and I was quite sure that it was the last I heard of that.

“But it speaks well of you that you want to make sure your patients are taken care off. Come, I will show you what I have done for them and maybe we can work together to alleviate some of the lingering damage. From what I have seen of your work, your healing is powerful and well done.” she invited me, using her muzzle to gesture to one of the alcoves.

Happy to work with another healer, maybe allowing me to learn more about the craft and my powers, I followed behind, leaving the others to relax or do what they wanted.