****

Part of the old story, make sure to check out the remade Alteration here.

***

*thunk*

Blake carefuly got off of Teruna and landed on the ground next to her. His landing was a bit clumsy because he didn't dare to lose sight of the monster. He made a few steps away from her which she immediately noticed and reacted by closing the distance. After a second she stood right next to Blake and looked at him an obviously upset expression.

She knows exactly how ridiculous this situation is... I don't really think she can guard me if that is her goal. That being didn't even seem to be bothered by her all out offense.

She turned around again to the wolf and tilted her head. A moment later the wolf suddenly twitched and a voice filled with surprise and outrage filled his head.

-''Who are you calling a flame stealer? I'd never do that!''

He swung his head abruptly upwards after the roar and waves of fire came from his fur and flew in their direction. Blake tried to back away, but Teruna was faster and threw herself in front of him, splitting the incoming flame waves into two with an earthsaking swing of her pawn.

-''RRRRHHHHAAAAAAAAA!''

She roared at the wolf with smoke coming from her mouth. Her spikes turned brighter and hotter simultaneously with her roar and forced Blake to take a few steps back to not get hurt. He was at a loss not knowing what he should do.

Why did he suddenly attack? What does he want? Did she say something? Just what is happening?

He shifted his look from the outraged Teruna to the wolf which seemed unfased by what was happening in front of him. He even sat down a few steps away and looked calmly at them.

Ugh... just what is she trying to do with this heat? Did she lose it or what?

He looked back at Teruna because the heat turned unbearable again and made him retreat even further. Teruna seemingly lost her temper and let her destructive powers flow freely.

The wolf watched indifferently and his calm voice rang again.

-''It wasn't your flame.''

Teruna let out a surprised growl after hearing and the heat stopped progressing.

Just what is he doing? Wait... could he have attacked just to prove that he didn't steal the flame? Is he insane? How does that prove anything?!

The wolf stared at Teruna.

-''Is this really any way to start a civil conversation? Insulting?''

... He is only bothered by the thought of him stealing Teruna's fire? He sees nothing else wrong here?

Teruna sat down but it seemed like she was nowhere near calm, she stared intensly at the wolf. It is more like she managed to cage her emotions for the moment.

The wolf was visibly satisfied and his fire was gleefuly dancing on his body.

-''Finally! We can talk. You really like wasting time.''

Teruna didn't respond in any way, but it was clear to Blake how she felt. Her spikes were now turning into an agressive red color and the air around her started to lightly flicker.

-''So how is your faction faring? Where are you located?''

Blake's complexion turned even paler rivaling one of a ghost.

Oh no,no,no. How wil she...

-''AH!''

Teruna's spikes were now a rediating mixture of red and yellow light violently exchanging and shining so hard they blinded Blake for a few seconds when he first looked into them.

-''Ugh...''

Waves of energy came from the spikes hitting Blake and knocking him down first and throwing him around every time he tries to stand up. The heat that came with the violent wind was so considerable that he had to shield his entire head and stop breathing in fear of it. Smoke already started to come from some spots on the armor that the wind hit. A part of Blake's face also got badly burned in the first hit of wind and made him roll up on the dirt and slowly try to crawl away from Teruna.

Uhhhh... She is going berserk after that blatant provocation... She totally forgot about me.

He covered the hurt part of his face in pain and tried to see what was happening. Teruna was still painfully bright but he could now look easier in her direction as smoke dimmed her light down. The earth all around here was scorched and only smoking piles of ash were left of the previous vegetation. The earth was all black and cracked up from the dryness and the cracks were growing as it got gradually hotter.

Blake had to crawl with all he had to somehow stay alive. The air he breathed in was so warm he nearly chocked on it. Gasping and crawling he gained a little bit of distance turning around every now and then to check the situation. His armor caught fire numerous times and Blake always hurriedly extinguished it as well as he could.

If this goes on I am dead...

All the trees in his vicinity had already caught fire and were now blooming up with fiery flowers and the flames and sparks mixed up with the infernal wind leaving Blake shocked. He snapped out of it and immediately continued crawling for his life, but his thoughts were all jumbled from the specatacle that was happening behind him.

It is... ferocious and beautiful. Unbelieveaable. A deadly dance of fire and wind, enveloping anything, destroying everything and leaving nothing behind...

Blake finally gave up crawling and stopped, turning back to the two monsters. It seemed like the heat spread now considerabely slower making it much easier to breathe.

The wolf was jumping around evading the waves as well as he could, but most still found their target and sent him flying or knocked him onto the dirt. Teruna was also charging independently from her blazing gales, ripping off part of the wolfs body with her pawns and piercing him with her spikes.

This isn't right...

The wolf had an expression of pure confusion and bewliderment. Teruna's attacks hit him, but he always stood up trying to get away just to be beat down on the floor again.

Is she even doing some damage? And why is that damn bastard so confused?

His flames were dancing alongside with the wind and were nearly getting swept up from his body every time the blazing wind hit him.

-''Stop! I said sto...GUH!''

His voice resounded inside Blake's head, but was quickly interrupted by one of Teruna's swipes which took out a good part of his lower body. The flaming body quickly reformed, but his expression was now frantic and the voice that now resounded again was one of total missunderstanding.

-''Why?! How dare I?! What do you mean? Are you really ignorant of what I am?'

*KRRHHHH*

A gale hit him and sent him crashing into the scorched dirt leaving a crater in it from the impact. His outraged voice was soon again heard as he rose from the crater.

-''Prey?! Have you lost your mind? I am an Elemental!''

He is making no sense...

Teruna charged at the rising wolf through the smoke filled air and hit him with her full mass sending him flying into the air where he was engluffed in the infernal wind that shook him mercilessly and robbed him off his flame, finally sending him crashing back oneto the dirt creating a new crater. Flame once again started appearing all over his body but nothing was left from his once calm behavior. He yelled out in frustration.

-''You have no idea! How do you not know?! We were hunted just like you!''

What?!

Teruna froze on the spot. The wolf used that moment to restore his fire and continue talking.

-''Listen to me! We need to talk. Also you might want to get a hold of yourself . Your supposed leader is quite far away and still getting grilled.''

Teruna stopped releasing the heat aura and slowly turned around to look at Blake, but she found him to be be at least fifty meters away from her. Her look suddenly  shifted and she looked at the whole area around her. There was nothing left in her vicinity and the very dirt she walked on seemed dead, cracked and still smoking on the spots where previously grass and trees were.

She didn't even notice what she was really doing...

The whole forest oustide of the scorched circle of ash turned into a boundless sea of fire.

Teruna waited until Blake came to her side.

-''Don't attack again unless you really have to, please.''

Teruna snorted and turned to the wolf that was once again patiently waiting, but with a troubled expression. As soon as she turned his voice resounded again.

-'' I will just explain this from the beginning. Elementals are as their names suggests beings closely associated with the elements. We are guardians of the elements and hunters of everything and everyone that disrupt them. Do you remember now? How could you even forget about us?! The world is full of us! ''

The wolf cried out in an outraged voice and Teruna just kept shaking her head lightly while looking at him without even trying to hide her scepticism. The wolf suddenly paused and continued with an unsteady voice.

-''Just how many years has passed...''

He made a weak step forward.

-''Hedgehog. Tell me how many years have passed since the war? I was caged that time around when you started losing.''

Teruna quietly thought for a few seconds and directed her gaez again at the wolf.

The wolf's head hung low.

-''Hundreds of years... unfathomable. I don't understand what you mean by you lost track though, explain that.''

She is speaking telepathically probably... or can he read her mind?

They went silent once again and Blake also quietly waited to hear what the wolf will have to say. A few minutes passed.

The wolf suddenly laid down on the dirt and a very silent, nearly fretful voice resounded.

-'' I see... and you never heard anything of elementals? Or maybe saw a creature similar to me?''

Teruna shook her head.

The wolf burried his head in his pawns, but his weak voice still rang again.

-''Why? Why did they do it? Did they know what will happen? Impossible... but maybe..? No, it is just improbable... Miss, it seems like my people are either all dead or imprisoned.''

His voice was weak, but it didn't sound unconvinced.

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-''You don't seem to know of my people, even though I remember that your faction and many of mine share a common taste for habitats.  It is very unlikely you would never meet any elemental even if they were mostly captured by the other factions. You were probably far from civilisations, just where my people usually are...''

Wait... all the stones... That was a prison for elementals! The minotaur was a guard, but how could I slip in so easily?

Blake and Teruna looked at the wolf with a mixture of pity and fear. The wolf just laid on the floor with his head unmovingly resting on his pawns.

-'' You probably guessed it already, but I managed to free myself from the stone seal  because of your influence. I and my people have been imprisoned there for all this time... It seems like the enemy knew or doubted at least...''

Blake was still frozen from fear and pain, but curiosity got the better of him and he inquired the wolf with a weak voice.

-''What did they know?''

The wolfs head lightly sprung up and he looked at Blake.

-''Ah, the supposed leader.''

He turned back for a second to Teruna and started talking again with a slightly surprised voice to Blake after that.

-''Oho so you really are the leader. So, leader, do you know the backstory of this world?''

Blake cleared his throat and tried to conceal his fear as much as possible.

-''I have heard most parts from Teruna I think.''

The wolf nodded.

-''Good, then you know what happened to the world to leave it in such a sick and twisted state.''

Blake's eyebrows rose and Teruna grunted approvingly, but the wolf simply continued talking.

-''I don't really know much because i just got caught a few days after it happened, but I did feel that it was wrong. It simply didn't feel right, the world seemed to cry out and be forcibly moved and controlled. We were all alarmed and were confused at what happened, but some of us,including me, were suddenly captured and sealed. Now it seems like that was just the first wave and that all were later either caught or killed.''

Blake trembled lightly from rage at the thought of the opposing factions.

I haven't forgiven this monster for what he has done to me, but what is it with these enemy factions? They seem more monstruos than anyone else... But it doesn't make sense.

-''Why were they after you in the first place? Also why not kill you all instead of sealing if they wanted to get rid of you?

Laughter without a shred of joy shook Blake's mind.

-''That's it! They knew it! Those damn cowards knew it! Ahahaha!''

Is he mad?

-''What did they know?''

The wolf continued to speak with the same humorless laughter.

-''Nature chose us, ahaha... We, the elementals were designated to be the true protectors of this world against the enemy which forced the world into the path he wanted. And I was capture before we even received the powers! Most of us probably were, hahaha! See! That was their plan they got us before we got our powers! My people probably even fought them if not all got the caught or killed before, but I got captured in the first way and got my powers in the safety of my prison where I was perfectly useless! Hahahaha!''

Blake looked at him with a troubled expression.

Sorrow and the information that you are the only free indiviual of your kind in the world... Also being the first one to get captured... After so many hundreds of years in prison and this I'm not really surprised he would snap. I hope that he will continue talking, this sounds highly useful...

-''What are these powers you awakened?''

Did he turn immortal and that's why they chose to cage all the Elementals quickly while they were stil able to?

THe wolf looked up and started talking with a faint trace of vigor sneaking its way back into his voice.

-''As I said, nature chose us. We were made into tools to restore and protect the balance of the world that was starting to shake up because of the foolish actions of other factions. You have seen my powers. I can also control the state of some aspects of nature on a smaller scale wether it is in the direction of bringing temporal balance to it or temporary disrupting it if needed. They weren't enough to free me from my prison though and believe me I have tried, I bashed against it for yeard and maybe even decades without pause, but it wasn't even scratched,until you came that is. But the bottom line is that I do not have much power so I can only make such small changes for a short time.  In the big picture one elemental doesn't really make a big difference.''

The wolf's eyes sparkled.

-''However we need to keep in mind that you managed to create an opening for me... Its probably because of you unique condition... You aren't from this world but you fit in. The world isn't rejecting you... But why did only I manage to escape? Did you do anything special while being around my stone?''

Blake though for a few moments with a troubled expression.

I did note the seal pattern... I can't really remember that well my mind is really a mess right now.

-''I did fumble a bit around your stone, but nothing special really.''

The wolf came a few steps closer and talked with an excited voice.

-''That's the beautiful side of it. Imagine what you can do if you try! Help me free all the Elementals and watch as werevert what was never meant to be changed and the people who caused this twisted state of the world.''

Blake's mind froze for a moment and it got replaced by a sudden calmness that even surprised him. He clenched his fist and looked the Elemental in the eyes and spoke with a resoslution he didn't even know existsed a few moments ago. He refused to just continue taking part into this as abaystander or victim.

-''No.''

The wolf stood on stil for a second and suddenly burst out a furious roar.

-''You heard my story! How could you, are you maybe on the side of the other facti...''

-''RRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA''

An even louder roar interrupted the wolf and he turned silent. Blake nodded thankfully to Teruna and continued talking with a tone that gradually got more secure and cold.

-'' Do not lose your temper like that wolf. I am the only chance you have. Also I am not on the other faction's side otherwise I would have selled out ther Lava hedgehogs wouldn't I ? Or do you maybe think they suddenly turned into best friends with the other factions after they slaughtered nearlly their whole faction''

Is he an idiot or what?

The wolf remained silent, but briefly nodded. Blake continued talking.

-''We have something you want and you have something we want. The only difference that you are as good as dead if we leave you.''

Well the same actually goes for us but I hope he is stupid enough to miss that detail...

-''So why don't we make a deal?''

The wolf's voice was very unsteady and it seemed like not even he knew what he should think about the current situation.

-''What do you have in mind?''

-''You will join my faction and serve me. After you prove your loyalty and show that you have kept your end of the bargain I will make sure to release as many Elementals as I can and let them do as they please and maybe even ally with them depending on the goals you set, You however will continue serving me and my faction.''

The wolf looked at Blake with a gaze full of suspicion.

-''This doesn't seem fair at all. What would keep you from using me indefinitely and never setting my people free?''

A unsteady smile appeared on Blake's face for a second.

-''This first period is only here for you to prove that you can be trusted. And don't forget that we have a common enemy. An Elemental army on our side would be quite nice. We want to set them free just as much as you do, but we need to see that you stand by your word and will maybe even help us ally with your people after they are set free. We will help you and you will help us, but we want to first develop a bit of trust.''

A silent dissatisfied growl came from the wolf and he answered.

-''Very well I will show you that I stand by my word, however I will not serve you after the rest of us are liberated. At least let me be part of both factions.''

A smile bloomed on Blake's face.

-''Agreed.''

He suddenly looked around them and saw again the flames and smoke that rose in the air all around the scortched eart.

-''We better run now.  The sky is clear so the smoke will be visible even from very far away. Gah!''

Teruna put him again carefully on her spikes and gestured the wolf to follow her. Blake's face went pale again and he whispered to Teruna with a weak voice.

-''Please keep me in mind while running.''

Short growls came from here resembling a laugh. The wolf already started runnining and his happy voice filled Blake's head.

-''Remember this day, this is where we start!''

A smile appeared again on Blake's face.

Idiot.

And with that the two flaming red shadows disappeared into the forest leaving behind them only scortched earth, ashes and a howl lingered in the air.

***

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