--Point of View: The Beast--

My ears twitched as the sound of footsteps crunched just a short trek away. She was right on time and by the sound of it, had come alone. We had agreed to meet this afternoon, a week after our second encounter, in this desolate old tower. It stood much taller than the surrounding buildings, making it a suitable landmark that could be seen for miles. As I listened to them draw near, I rose from my warm, sunbathed spot on the floor and peered around the crumbling doorway. A small sigh of relief escaped my maw as I saw a familiar silhouette slowly making their way here, decked in the funny yellow attire I had grown accustomed to seeing all this time. A quick sniff of the air would confirm what I already knew. It was her.

Katie seemed to be a little uneasy though, checking over her shoulder periodically. They paused momentarily when they caught sight of me watching them approach. I sensed doubt and fear for an instant, but it was just as quickly squashed. All it took was one deep breath and they resumed their pace, some vigor in their steps now. They must really want to learn about the runes, although, if I am being honest with myself, I was also quite excited to have an actual conversation after a few hundred years of solitude. I had been doing my best to practice speaking again, finding some sounds and words incredibly difficult to pronounce correctly through my now elongated snout. Hopefully they would be able to understand me well enough.

They stepped through what was left of the doorway into our temporary meeting place, hesitating only slightly when I met them at the door.

“Come in. We have much to discuss and I’m afraid, at least on your part, limited time to do so.” I mused, motioning with my head to come in.

They slid past me and took a seat on the most comfortable looking piece of fallen stone, brushing away some dust as they did so. Once sufficiently comfortable, they set down their duffle bag with a loud thud. I imagined it had all of her usual supplies she took with her into this barren wasteland. She fidgeted at first, but Katie eventually seemed to collect themselves. She reached up to open the sun shield on their helmet, revealing their face behind a pane of thick glass.

“I much prefer to talk face to face but given our current surroundings, this will have to do. I hope that isn’t a problem.” She said casually, looking towards me with almost curious eyes.

Her courage was honestly quite astounding. I would most certainly not have come to a remote location, completely alone, to discuss ancient history with a monster that is several times my size. I valued my life. Did she? Probably but I think she valued information far more.

“You and your companions cannot wander around these ruins without those special outfits, correct? If you require them, then I have no issue with it. I would much prefer if you stayed alive and healthy during our talk.” I said with a toothy grin which I later realized probably gave off the wrong impression.

“Ahh..yeah. I do need this to live,” she responded, tugging at her clothing, “The city is still heavily contaminated from all the weapons that inevitably brought all this destruction around us to be. We would be lucky to survive an hour without these suits and even then, there would be side effects. How you are able to survive without issue is odd.”

I nodded, taking in her words as I did my best to follow along. The humans had mentioned the sickness many times before. While I did not quite understand it completely, an invisible disease was not something unheard of even in my time. I had lost a few friends to such a thing.

“I would tell you if I knew myself, but I believe we have more important things to discuss You wanted to know about runes. While I wasn’t a master by any means, I know the basics, as did most people from my time.”

“Yes, the runes are what I need to learn about.” She beamed, her eyes lighting up like a child’s, eager to learn something new. “They are everywhere around the city and the old technology. Knowing what they mean would be a great help to us. So, anything, even a little bit, would be amazing.”

“Well, where to begin.” I said slowly, closing my eyes as I dug around in my head for answers. There was so much to say but little time to do so. I decided to just keep it very basic for now. “Runes are in the simplest terms, a means to use mana to imbue items with magical properties. The effects are almost limitless if you can fuel the reaction. For example…” I was caught off before I could continue.

“Wait, slow down. Mana? Magic? What on earth are you talking about? You’re not making any sense. First of all, magic? Really? I haven’t heard the mention of magic since my dad read me fairytales before bed.” she protested, jumping to her feet. She seemed a little agitated. Had I said something wrong? I waited a moment to ensure she had finished her little outburst before continuing.

“Yes, magic. Apparently you don't practice it now, but it was an everyday sight back during my old life. We used it for everything. Lighting our homes, transporting water, and any other chore you deemed tedious enough to fix with enchanting. One could not live without it.” I said, sitting up a little straighter so I loomed even higher over her head. I saw her open her mouth to comment, but I just kept talking.

“At its very core, you would simply need to have a rune transcribed into a tool that would give the desired effect. For instance, making a sword unnaturally sharp. You would then supply that sword with a source of mana. Mana was the fuel for all enchanting. It existed everywhere, but in low concentrations. We solved this by harvesting trees that had adsorbed mana over centuries. The rune would draw upon this mana, activate, and perform its task” I explained, talking slowly to ensure I was completely understood. This time, she seemed to be taking me a bit more seriously. She was scribbling down notes in a book she had quickly retrieved from her bag.

“Okay, for the sake of this conversation, I am going to believe everything you are saying about magic and that the runes scattered throughout the city are in fact, enchanting. Are we able to use them? How do they tie in with the reactor? Those are the important questions we need to answer.” she asked, tapping her pen as she thought of more questions to ask. “Unless I can test and prove what you are saying is true, I will not be able to make use of this information. Nobody back in the lab will believe me.”

I thought for a moment, trying to remember back to my studies as a child. They taught the basics to just about everybody growing up so you could at least make use of tools. The tone deaf, monotonous voice of instructors droned on in my head. I did my best to simply repeat what I could recall.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I see. You make a good point. Well, we could potentially test a simple rune, although, it’s been countless years since I’ve last tried. And even then, I was not particularly good at it. I was a simple soldier.” I said, flashing back to the days of old for a moment. He missed those days. “As for the runes on your machine, a reactor you called it, I would think that the runes allow the device to spin as quickly as it does. To move without effort. It’s a simple rune, but a very useful one. You know of friction, correct? It removes friction so things can move more freely.”

“Removes friction? Are you sure about that?” she exclaimed, running up to him in excitement.

She must have liked what I said.

“That would make so much sense. The reactor spins up to almost impossible speeds with very little effort. Not to mention the fact it remains so cool.” She rambled, going on to talk about the intricacies of how the machine functioned and just how amazing it was.

I had no idea what she was talking about, but she seemed so happy explaining it all that I just sat still and listened. It was enjoyable regardless.

Once she had talked herself out, I spoke again. “Uhh, yes. That is the purpose of the rune. I promise you that.” I reassured her, extending a claw and began to carve out a simple rune into the floor. It was crude at best but hopefully it would suffice for the demonstration. I had no idea if this would work or not, but it was worth a shot.

This rune was one of the first anybody would learn if they sought knowledge of the craft. Even as soldiers we were forced to learn it. It consisted of a circle with eight, equally spaced lines protruding from it, much like the sun. Light, was what it read. With a few more careful scratches with my claws, the rune was complete. I stared at it intently for a moment, glancing up at my guest to notice they too, were staring at my handywork. I exhaled deep and laid my paw over the miniature sun I had carved and tried to think back to how I activated these in the past. Only a few select enchantments could be activated by residual mana alone, but light was one of, if not, the simplest. I focused all my attention to the paw covering the rune, feeling it grow warm. I could feel it, the mana inside my body. It flowed like water and with sheer willpower, you could direct it. So, that is what I did.

Nothing happened for a minute while I strained to control the flow of mana, having not done so for centuries. Just as the human’s patience was about to wear out, a dim glow started to radiate from beneath my claws. I hastily removed my paw and witnessed something that nobody had probably seen for a very long time. The rune glowed a sparkling blue, the swirl of remenant mana visible for just a moment before dissipating. While the blue hue was gone as quickly as it had appeared, a warm white light remained, illuminating their little hideout and casting shadows all around. It was a success.

“There we go. I wasn’t sure if I would still be able to do it in this body. I guess mana doesn’t really care what you look like as long as you know how to handle it.” I said, a triumphant smirk stretching across my face. I was pleased with myself.

The human opened her mouth to speak but just as quickly closed it. She slid down from her rock and kneeled to inspect my work a little more closely. She poked and prodded at it like a fresh kill from a day of hunting, wanting to make sure it was dead. After a minute of staring, she reached over and began to rummage through her bag, pulling out the tools I had watched them use numerous times before. After several minutes of knob turning and button pushing, she stood up and looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“Well, you got me on this one. I have no idea how or why this thing of yours is producing light. There is no fuel source, nothing is burning. While I refuse to call it magic, I will admit there is something beyond my understanding going on here.” She would say, leaning down again to cautiously run a finger across the rune. “Very odd indeed.”

“You call them odd, but to me, your tools are far odder. I believe it is a matter of perspective. While you claim to have never seen magic before, I am not familiar with the majority of your tools and machines. They did not exist when I was still a man.” I spoke, motioning my snout towards the small collection of tools that were now scattered haphazardly on the ground around the rune.

She nodded in agreement as she reached down to retrieve a tool. The tool in question was one I was most familiar with, or at least disliked the most. It was always causing such a racket with its insistent beeping, which continued with a flick of a switch just seconds later.

“This is a Geiger counter. We use these to detect the amount of radiation that exists in a current area or on an object.” She explained, turning the face of the device around to show me. It showed a red needle that bounced back and forth as she moved it around. There were small digits surrounding the outside edge. “We can only handle so much radiation and these suits can only protect us to a certain extent. These ensure we don’t wander into an area that would exceed that limit.”

She demonstrated the device a bit more by pointing it to various bits of rubble and even pointing it outside at different buildings. It apparently could operate at quite a range. As she was finishing up her little show though, the room went silent. The beeping had stopped. I arched a brow curiously as she looked down at her device, confusion written all over her face. She would look up at me and then down again, repeating a few times, her expression changing with each passing second.

“You can’t be serious.” She muttered, pointing the now silent device straight at me. “May I?” She asked, taking a step closer to me.

“May you what?” I responded, rising as I turned to face her. “Specifics would be preferred.”

“May I step closer and get a reading of you.” She added quickly, forgetting for a moment that her current company could very easily do away with her.

“Oh, well I suppose that’s fine. As long as it doesn’t hurt.” I figured it would be fine. If anything, it was probably a good idea. If what she said was true and this radiation was dangerous to them, it made sense to know how much he had. I nodded, impressed with myself. Then I jumped.

“Woah woah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” yelled the human, tumbling backwards onto the hard stone floor. “I did not mean to startle you. I should have warned you.”

I stood stunned for a moment, trying to figure out what just happened before the pieces fell into place. She had touched me. A simple gesture, but one he had never experienced since he was reborn. Nothing else besides him lived in this ruined city so having something reach out and touch his fur was completely new to him.

“Its fine. I was just surprised is all. When you live alone in solitude for a few centuries, you do not exactly become accustomed to being touched. I hope I did not startle you too badly. Please, do continue. I should be okay now.” I said quickly, regaining my composure and honestly, embarrassed by how such a simple thing caused me to react so skittishly.

What followed was a soft, gentle touch that was very quickly replaced by the cold sensation of metal on skin. They had carefully moved my thick fur to out of the way so their tool could directly contact my body. I imagine that gave a more accurate result. I watched them intently for the minute it took them to finally step back, satisfied.

“I guess my hunch was right. You, despite living out here for what you claim to be hundreds of years, give off zero radiation what-so-ever. Even the immediate area around you barely registers on my meter here. For a second I thought my tool was broken but if I just point it over this way.” She explained, pointing the device away from me and to a pile of rubble. The beeping started again.

“So, what does that entail for me? What does it mean exactly?” I asked, not particularly worried considering it had never affected me before.

“I’m not sure. I cannot explain it to be honest. I would like to…” she was cut off by another loud beeping that rang from somewhere on her person. She quickly looked down to her wrist and started to quickly gather all her things. “It’s time. I must head back to the base before everyone else starts arriving back. I’m not supposed to be out here. We will have to talk more next time.”