That night they ate the wheel of cheese they had brought, along with some berries Alya had found by the trail, and some mushrooms they found growing on a fallen tree. The fire burned brightly, pushing the shadows away and bringing some comfort. They tried to make a plan, but all they could come up with was "Go over the mountains, and see what's there." Eventually they lay down on their bed of leaves and went to sleep.
A noise in the night woke Jak up, and he looked around, trying to remember how he ended up sleeping in the forest. As memories and clarity came back, Jak saw the source of the noise—the moonwolf had returned. She was standing a distance away, holding in her jaws a moonwolf pup. Maintaining eye contact with Jak, she slowly lowered the pup to the ground, and then left again, vanishing in the trees. Jak had no idea what to do. It seemed pretty clear that the moonwolf had given the pup to Jak. Feeding himself and Alya was hard enough, how would he feed a third mouth? On the other hand, there were stories in the villages of great heroes who had mighty beasts as companions. Jak had never seen it in real life, other than the guard dogs stationed at the village gates. Could this pup be a companion for Jak? Would it grow into a mighty warrior-beast?
His thoughts were interrupted by a gasp as Alya woke up and saw the puppy sitting on the edge of the clearing. "Can we keep him?" she whispered. Jak nodded slowly, not wanting the mother wolf to come back.
"I think so." he whispered back. "But let's wait until morning to move, I'm a bit scared this is some kind of trap." The pup himself had no intentions to wait until morning, and walked right up to the two humans sleeping next to the fire. He sniffed them a few times, then jumped up onto the bed of leaves, curled up next to Jak, and fell asleep. His fur was a beautiful grey and white, and on his forehead was a small tuft of white that glowed softly. Jak couldn't believe it. A real moonwolf pup, right next to him. Jak smiled for the first time since they had been forced to leave the village. Maybe the villagers would hate him and reject him, but here was a little creature that actively chose him. The pup started to snore softly, and Jak himself drifted back to sleep.
The next morning they woke as the birds started chirping. Jak looked around at the clearing, seeing the firepit that had gone cold. The ash pile looked surprisingly big, and Jak was about to lean in for a closer look when suddenly a cloud of ash went everywhere, and the pup jumped out of the ashes. He yapped excitedly, ran around three times, and ran over to some butterflies, jumping and snapping them up whole. Jak laughed. "We'll need to get some real food for you soon. Butterflies won't feed a growing wolf."
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"Ash." Alya said, looking at the pup, who was still shaking gentle clouds of ash off each time he leapt up to eat another butterfly. "That's a good name for a good boy."
They packed up and got back onto the trail, heading up into the mountains. It was a hard climb, but they made quick progress, and by midday they had reached the top of the pass. Looking back they could see the entire valley stretch out behind them. The only place they had ever known. Dotted throughout the land were the villages they had grown up in, and the forests they had played in. Surrounding the whole valley was a ring of tall mountains. "Will you miss it?" Alya asked.
"I'm more excited about what's to come." Jak replied, turning around to face the track again. "Looks like our pup is, too." Up ahead, Ash was off on the side of the mountain path, yapping at a boulder. It was a cute picture, until the boulder stirred and two glowing yellow eyes opened and narrowed at the small wolf. Within a few moments the boulder uncurled and stood up, revealing itself to be a mountain troll. The troll was short but with thick muscles, and his skin looked to be made entirely from stone. He held a large wooden club, and swung it about easily as if it weighed nothing. Jak had no time to think. He sprinted towards the troll, trying to distract it from Ash. While running he grabbed the knife from his belt, then with the other hand lifted the sack containing all his possessions and threw it at the troll's face. With a angry below the troll swatted the sack with his club, but while he was doing so Jak jumped to the side and plunged his knife into the troll's ribs. Seeing the stone-like skin, his heart sank and he was expecting the knife to simply deflect off the troll completely, but to his surprise the knife sank in cleanly, with no resistance at all. The troll seemed equally surprised, and with another bellow tried to swing his club at Jak. Jak ducked down to dodge the blow, then came up again to plunge the knife into the troll's neck. The troll kept struggling a little more, but the damage was done, and soon he sank to the ground motionless. Jak sat down, breathing heavily. His hands were shaking from the sudden fight, and he tried to take deep breaths to calm himself. After a few moments, he saw the skin of the troll was starting to lose its stone-like quality, and at the same time, his own skin seemed to harden and look a bit like the rock around. Jak blinked, and his skin returned to normal. Ever since they left the village, something weird was happening. He looked over to Alya, who had picked up Ash and was looking on from a distance.
"Is everything ok?" She called out.
"Yea, everything is ok here." Jak tried to smile as he reassured her. He had a sinking feeling that this wouldn't be the last danger they would come across on the road. He went to the troll and picked up the wooden club. It was a dense wood that was surprisingly light in his hands, even though it should have been quite heavy. He decided to keep it, and they continued to walk down the mountain pass.