Within the magical beast forest stood a large pitch black wolf with violet eyes who was silently sniffing the ground while her restless eyes roamed the forest searching for someone, the wolf was of course Akari. 

As Akari continued to look round a smug voice rang out in her head "you'll never find me like that," taunted the irritating voice of Darius in mindspeak "Shut up Darius." was the only response Akari could think to give as she continued looking around before finally catching the glimmer of a tail moving within the topmost branches of the trees. 

"How the hell did you get up there!!!" is what Akari screamed in her mind as she stared at the irritating snake and thought back to what Lupos had said the day before he left. "Akari, whatever he's asks you to do, don't resist. I remember when once I tried to and.." Lupos had trailed off as his face paled "if you ever see him smile sweetly while saying "I'm not mad" run for it." 

At the time Akari had thought Lupos had been over reacting but now she understood, she was convinced. Darius wasn't a snake at all, he was a training loving demon disguised as a snake!! As she reflected on this point she felt a scaly tail snare her ankle and pull her down onto the hard ground "Now, now," said Darius changing to human form and standing above her an evil grin on his face. 

"Make sure you're paying attention at all times, I'd hate for something bad to happen while you're not paying attention." Akari felt a shiver down her spine as she noticed the old man's grin and suddenly felt very scared to hear where this was leading. "Now let's give you some practical experience and spar for a bit." 

Ah, a spar. Akari ran for it. Although Lupos had advised her to "not resist" he'd also warned her never to spar with Darius if she could help it, especially if he was smiling while he asked. (It's how he gets you to let down your guard) running as fast as she could through the forest she heard Darius's laugh "Ok, new exercise if you can escape capture for one hour, I'll give up on the spar, if you get caught you have to fight me, agreed?" 

"Agreed" replied Akari in mindspeak "tch, not stupid enough to speak aloud I see, that's a shame it would have been over quicker if you had." Using shadow magic Akari darted through the trees until she came to a cave network, "perfect," she thought "It'll be easy to hide in the darkness here."

Quickly but quietly Akari navigated her way through the unfamiliar cave system until she chanced upon a small hidden ledge like balcony in the upmost corner of a large cavern. Using her wolf forms superior ability and power Akari darted up the wall using small holds to make it to the ledge where she shifted into human form and sat down in silence using shadow magic to obscure her image. 

Sitting silently Akari waited half an hour and there was still no sign of Darius, it was then she heard the voices coming through the cavern and saw several men cloaked in black appear in the cave. Akari stared the men and gritted her teeth, it was the same, the same clothes as the man who killed her family had worn, and though she wasn't sure if he was among them, it was enough to want to butcher them.

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Before she could do anything however the voices rang out "has the boy been found yet?" asked the first voice "no," replied a second "but there is a suspect." Akari stopped moving and listened intently. "Are we sure the boy even has the information the mother stole?" a third voice asked "There's no one else who could have it. Even if it was thrown away or burned the boy could still be a liability if he comes to know of his heritage." replied the first. 

Akari continued listening and worried about what she should do when an old hand descended on her mouth, before she could resist Darius's voice in mindspeak rang out "Silence, it's just me don't make a sound." Akari gave a small nod and Darius removed his hand "good, there are ten men down there and seven of them would be easy to take on, however the other three are dangerous so we need to leave now." 

Akari looked at him in surprise "too powerful for you?" Darius shook his head "Not if it was one on one, I could take them maybe even against two but against three, I would lose not even counting the help of the seven others. Besides..." Darius trailed off "I don't want to hurt that brat Lupos by something happening to us, although he has his spirits we're the only real family he has left." 

At that moment, Akari reflected, Darius had a very sad look in his eye as he thought about the child he had raised like a son for two years. Seeing this look Akari decided not to argue and silently slipped out through a small passage that Darius had found earlier. However that didn't stop her shooting one more hate filled glance at the group in black before leaving the caverns behind. 

Arriving back at the hut Darius sat down opposite Akari and looked at her in the eyes with a serious expression "right you lost let's spar." Akari looked at him with a dumbfounded "What?" Darius cackled "no point brewing over things now, we'll wait until Lupos gets back. However you lost the bet, so it's time for a spar," an evil look appeared in his eyes. 

"There's no escape now!" it was then Akari realised that Darius had positioned himself between her and the door, a look of fear appeared in her eyes as Darius took out two daggers and tossed her one "this will be fun!" he grinned and at that moment Akari could admit she had herself never seen anything so terrifying in her life.

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Author's note

Back from camping!! Hope you guys enjoyed the change in perspective and thank you so much to the 103 people who have favourites my story, I can't believe over 100 people have favourited this story :) !!!! Please leave a comment or review so I know how you feel about the story and thanks for reading!!!