††† Siegfried †††

"No!" Siegfried roared, jerking upright. His gaze fell on Haylee, who had stumbled away from him. "Haylee," he shouted, barely able to restrain the relief in his voice.

Before she could respond, Siegfried rushed forward and fell to his knees, hugging Haylee into a bone-crushing embrace. He buried his face in the curve of her neck, needing to feel that she was still breathing.

Haylee went stiff for a moment before relaxing and returning the embrace. "It's okay, Sieg, I'm okay," she sweetly cooed into his ear. "There is nothing to worry about. I'm here, and nothing will hurt either of us here." She was straddling his waist now, caressing his hair with slow strokes, trying to calm him down.

Siegfried just held her tight. He knew he had to say something. Explain something. But words eluded his mind as fear, shame and frustration warred within him.

Again, he was not able to defend those he held dear. Again, he had to be saved. And Haylee had given her life for him. She hadn’t known that a miraculous healer would appear.

Siegfried focused his unsettling gaze on Haylee's eyes. But other than most, Haylee did not flinch. She did not even blink as she stared into his odd-coloured eyes — her own, bright-green eyes, full of sympathy and appreciation. "I…," Siegfried started weakly.

"Take your time, Siegfried. If you want to tell me about your dream, I will listen. If you cannot, then I'll wait."

Not once in his life had Siegfried shared this story with anyone. Not even Bolverk, who he loved like a father. But, somehow, he wanted Haylee to know. So he closed his eyes again and took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"My sister and I grew up in the slums of Nemeah." His voice was still shaky, but the more he talked, the easier it got. Siegfried told Haylee of the day he woke up from sleep with a blindfold on his eyes. He had to stop several times when emotions threatened to overwhelm him, but it also felt liberating.

"At the end, I was knocked unconscious. I woke up in the little shack that we called home. My wounds had been healed. Broken bones mended. It was as if it had never happened… not even a scar remained. But Katharina was gone. I've searched for her, always."

The image of Katharina’s face turning into Haylee’s, and then her limp body, pierced by the clawbear’s forelimb, assaulted his mind.

"After that day, I started to train like a madman. I wanted to become stronger than anyone else, so I would never have to watch a loved one getting hurt again.” Sieg looked at his closed fist, his brows furrowing. “That might also be why I never let anyone come too close to me, apart from Bolverk, maybe. Because I was afraid of losing someone again."

Haylee gently laid a hand atop Siegfried’s fist, leading him to look at her again. There was a mixture of shock and compassion in her eyes. But she understood well that he wouldn’t want her to pity him.

“I understand it better now,” was all she said for a while. And it meant many things. “Trust in Eurydike’s words. You can overcome any limits, and I’ll help you get stronger to the best of my ability.”

She was such an amazing woman. Exotically beautiful and kind but also fierce, dangerous and brave when needed. Right then, Sieg wanted nothing more than to hold her again, but before he could make a move, Haylee jumped up with a bounce.

“Oh, and I’ve already met Ryden. He’s waiting outside for us — let’s go!” she shouted cheerfully and bounced along the corridor with her usual enthusiasm.

It was fascinating how quickly she could shift her mood. Or maybe she just had a very short attention span, Sieg thought with an internal chuckle.

Haylee was unique in many ways, and the pain he felt when she almost died was real. He realised that his heart had already decided, and he wouldn’t back down this time.

They found Ryden still training his martial arts on the plateau outside the cave. "Good form," Sieg called out.

"Hey Siegfried, everything okay on your side?" Ryden wore a concerned frown on his face. "I heard you shouting, but Haylee was already in there with you, and it didn't look like there was any danger, so I stayed out to give you some space."

"Thanks, everything's fine, just a nightmare… Now that we got some time — care to sit with us, Ryden?" Sieg motioned at the space in front of him while sitting down on the flat rock surface.

"Sure, I'd say we get Haylee up to date first," Ryden answered.

After Ryden and Siegfried briefed Haylee about the recent developments, the cat-girl shook her head in astonishment. "I still don't get how you could bring me back if it was that bad. I should have been dead."

"You were not, but as said, it was close," Ryden answered. "I'm not able to bring back the dead. No one is. But as long as your brain doesn't stop working, I can heal even life-threatening injuries, provided I got the time and energy left."

"And that punch you threw against the clawbear?" Sieg interrupted. "You cracked his skull open like an eggshell while my blade didn't even scratch the chitin."

Ryden bit his lip and stared at nothing for a moment. "Simplified, you could say I have much more control over my body than you.” He spoke slowly — apparently still contemplating how he could describe it in terms they would understand. “Our muscles are capable of much more than you would believe. But our body prevents us from using all that potential because our bones and flesh cannot withstand that amount of power. I can circumvent those limitations for strength and the speed of natural healing.

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“When I threw that punch, the bones in my hand and arm were crushed on impact. I can heal myself almost instantly and mute some of the pain if I know it beforehand. I can do the same to others, speed up their natural healing and even direct it to a certain extent, but it has a limit. After healing Haylee, I won't be able to perform such a feat again without enough rest in between."

"Thank you, Ry," Haylee said and bowed her head. "Thanks for saving my life. What can we do to make up for it? Siegfried said you need some information."

"Yeah, there is something that you might be able to help me with," Ryden nodded. "I'm searching for the man who taught me everything I know. My mentor, Cain. About a year ago, he suddenly vanished without a word. I found traces leading close to the forest. It's a vast area, but there is one place in particular which I can't check myself —"

"The City of Nemeah," Sieg interrupted.

"Correct. Cain told me once about an acquaintance in the city. It would be risky for him, but it's a possibility. I know the city is enormous, but Cain's sticking out like a sore thumb in any crowd." Ryden chuckled, a reminiscing smile on his lips. "He always wears long, brown robes with the hood up and hides his face behind a plain wooden mask with two holes for his eyes. I only saw him without the mask once, and he surely wouldn't take it off anywhere near other people."

Siegfried and Haylee took a moment to contemplate, but ultimately, Siegfried shook his head. "It's true that the mask alone would have spread rumours around the citizens, especially the Guard of Nemeah. But I've never heard of anything the like. There are about ten million people in Nemeah, so if he somehow managed to sneak into the city, there is still the possibility that it just didn't reach my ears," Siegfried explained apologetically.

"You said he had an acquaintance inside the walls," Haylee remarked. "Did he mention any specifics about him?"

"Her," Ryden corrected. "And he only talked about her remarkable shapeshifting ability. She should be able to alter her outer appearance into almost any human form you could imagine. Means that even if you did see her, you would have never known it was her." Rydens tone was dejected, and he did a double-take when his new companions broke into grins.

"That's Eurydike!" Haylee exclaimed excitedly. "There can't be a second woman with that ability, I'm sure!" Her smile fell quickly when she contemplated what that meant for Ryden. "But I'm afraid she never met anyone like that in the past year. I would have known for sure if she had — we keep no secrets from each other."

Siegfried threw a discreet glance in her direction. He couldn't imagine someone like Eurydike having no secrets before anyone, but he kept that thought to himself.

To their surprise, Ryden looked more relieved than discouraged. "That's good news, though. Thanks a bunch," he replied gratefully. "At least I know for sure that Cain is not in Nemeah. I would have had no chance to follow him if he was, so it’s actually the best outcome I could have hoped for. Now I just have to continue my search through the forest."

A distant roar shattered the quiet atmosphere and made Sieg jump. He relaxed a bit when neither Haylee nor Ryden moved.

“That was pretty far away,” Haylee said in response to his reaction. “Unlikely it will come near when there’s nothing to hunt on these rocks.”

"So, what's your story?” Ryden asked, unperturbed. “The squad they sent after you seems to be high-grade. You’re not the first to escape the city, but I’ve rarely heard of a team with more than one second-class enforcer on it. I’ve seen the red dots following you on the way here, and they hardly ever stopped moving. Third-class don’t move like that."

The warrior and cat-girl exchanged a look, thinking about where to start. There was no reason to hide anything before Ryden, and at the very least, he could provide them with more information about the denizens of the outside world in general. Siegfried started with the general lack of knowledge about people who went through sudden evolutions, the information kept hidden by the Red Brigade and the lies they spread through the population instead. At several points, Ryden scoffed or shook his head in disgust, but he never interrupted Sieg. When it came to their decision to gather a force from outside to oppose the Red Brigade, the healer was absorbed in his thoughts.

Ryden tapped his knuckles against his lips in an unconscious gesture while Haylee and Sieg waited patiently.

"I've travelled non-stop for the past year through The Wilds," Ryden started. "And your plan to rally others under your banner could work, in theory," he stated cautiously. "But to be honest, I don't see how you could manage such a feat. No offence, but you are hardly able to survive out here, even if you avoid the more dangerous parts of The Wilds."

"We can manage it," Haylee stated firmly before Siegfried could get a word in. "As Siegfried already said, he just came to his newfound ability. The reason Eurydike is betting on him is his potential," the cat-girl explained. "You have seen that he can regenerate his own wounds quite quickly, right?" Ryden opened his mouth to argue, but the energetic young woman didn't let up. "And that's where you draw the wrong conclusion, just like the enforcers did. Sieg's ability is shapeshifting, not regeneration."

Ryden forgot to close his mouth when the ramifications of that information hit him. "Impossible," he mused silently to himself. "A shapeshifter can only shape the mass that is already there. Even if someone could shape freely, he could not close a wound with flesh that was ripped out of it. He would have to take it from somewhere else in his body, opening a new wound instead," he concluded, still mumbling more to himself than Siegfried. His eyes focused on the tall warrior again. "Show me. Show me how you shift," he requested.

Without skipping a beat, Siegfried raised both hands, and his organic blades shot out of the palms. Ryden's eyes widened like saucers as he took in the surface of the sharp appendages, tapping his knuckles against the flat of the blade. "That's enamel," he whispered, clearly in thought once more. "Can you show me your teeth?" Siegfried frowned at the strange request but complied nonetheless.

Ryden took his time, examining each tooth until he finally seemed to be satisfied. "You were right," he admitted. "It should not be possible, but you can somehow shift something that should not be there." The healer shook his head in wonder. "The enamel that coats your blades is a material that is only present on our teeth. Normally you should have to shift all the enamel from your teeth to that blade, but nothing is missing. You just shifted mass that should not even be in your body," Ryden marvelled, clearly at a loss.

Neither Siegfried nor Haylee had a real grasp on the scope of the potential, but the trained physician seemed more exited with every moment he pondered about the possibilities.

"It could really work," Ryden muttered in amazement. "If you get a better grasp on your shapeshifting, and we find out how you manage to shift more mass than your body should hold, it could work."

Haylee grinned proudly, satisfied that Ryden had come to the same conclusion as Eurydike. "Hey Ryden, if you are searching for your mentor, we could stick together a little longer, right?" she asked, hopefully. "We have no fixed destination right now, and travelling The Wilds would be safer together than alone, right?"

"You mean safer for you. I'm not the being hunted by a death squad of enforcers," Ryden teased. "But as a physician, I could not live it down if I didn't take the chance to study Siegfried," he quickly added when he saw Haylee's smile drop. The healer snickered at the quick change of facial expressions, and Sieg almost joined him. The way she wore her feelings on her face really was endearing.

"We would be honoured if you decided to stay with us, Ryden," Siegfried stated.

"Sure, sure, but first of all, I need to take a very long nap now," Ryden yawned. "Keep your eyes peeled, and don’t try anything that could kill you until I'm awake again, okay?" he jested with a wink.

"Have a good rest, Ryden. I'll try not to get myself killed," Sieg responded. And silently, he vowed to do anything it would take to become stronger.