Wolf blacked out soon after jumping into the river. I could only see blackness. If I left Wolf I might be able to see more, but as it was I couldn’t see anything. If I left Wolf I might as well give up on obtaining any other, more powerful, creatures. At least for a while.

While Wolf was unconscious I began to reflect on my journey so far. I had taken over a rat, and it evolved. It learned how to use a thing called Light Claw. The attack was pretty potent.

For some reason none of the other rats could use it. I attributed that to the fact that the rat had only learned it when it evolved. That was fine. But why couldn’t any of the other wolves use it? Wolf could, but never seemed to use it unless I was the one to control the claws.

If I had a way to communicate I might be able to ask, but I didn’t. I could only guess. Maybe I had gotten lucky and possessed two creatures that both had a unique ability. That didn’t sound too difficult to accept. For now I decided to just go with that.

Wolf woke up on the bank of a river. He was groggy, and wasn’t able to stand up at first. The wounded leg had sealed up. Wolf still only had three legs though. It was better than dying.

Wolf started to sniff the air. He obviously smelled something. I adjusted myself to be able to smell. It was easy. After Wolf fainted I had lost all connections to his senses, but now I was able to reassert some control over them.

After wandering around for a while, Wolf started to get hungry. We couldn’t find anything to eat though. Nothing we had a chance of beating anyway. I had to exert more and more control just to stop Wolf from attacking something that would lead to suicide. The more I took control the more I felt the hunger though.

On several occasions we tried attacking things I thought we could win against, but we ended only getting injured and not getting food.

A few days later:

Meat! It smelled like roasting meat!

*Gurglllle*

Wolf hadn’t eaten in a while. He was obviously hungry. His ribs had started to show after the second day without any food. His breed did eat a lot after all. Without giving me a chance to think about what to do, Wolf started running to the smell.

He ran for a while, a wolf’s sense of smell is really something else. We only got close to the smell after ten entire minutes of ‘full speed’ running. Even at ‘full speed’ Wolf could only go about half as fast as before.

Although Wolf quickly got used to not having one of his legs, his ability to run on three legs was low. He could only go about half as fast as before. Not to mention the fact that he was practically starving at this point.

When I got there, I couldn’t believe my (Wolf’s) eyes. Three humanoids! Wolf had somehow found a campfire with three humanoids cooking dinner.

Two were obviously elves. They were fairly skinny. They wore light armor, had deep brown hair, and their pale skin was complimented by their pointed ears. One elf was only about half the size of the other, with a much smaller bow. A child.

The last one had to be a dwarf. He was about half as tall as the tallest elf, and had a thick, bulky build. He had jet black hair, and a thick golden-blonde beard. He wore heavy metal armor.

They were enjoying a large boar they had probably killed earlier. The large pig was on a spit, and being turned by the dwarf. They were eating it, even as it cooked.

I took almost complete control over Wolf. I knew this would be hard, but if we didn’t get any food we would die anyway. Wolf wanted to kill the three and take their food, but I knew they would be able to kill us too quickly.

The elves had bows and rapiers, the dwarf had a large axe and a kite shield. There was no way we could get a victory. Instead, I made a plan to get them to give us food willingly.

I started whining. I started limping towards the group. As soon as they heard the bushes rustle, they drew their weapons. We would die even if they didn’t kill us, so I kept going. I could only hope for the good will of the group.

The group had all of their weapons pointed at me as soon as I left the bushes. I was grateful that they didn’t attack right away.

I slowly, as unaggressively as possible, pushed myself to make it the last few feet to the meat. I looked at the group, but only a sad whine came out. One of the elves tightened her(?) bow. The dwarf raised his axe.

Not even a foot away from the meat, just before I made it I noticed that one of the elves was going to shoot if I got any closer. I let myself lose all strength in my legs. I fell down with my tongue hanging out, I only needed to have gone a few more inches to make it.

My sad, pathetic whimpers didn’t seem to make any difference. The group decided I wasn’t a threat, and sat down to continue to eat. They all had their weapons drawn though.

My whimpers slowly died down. I guess this didn’t work. I had no choice but to just wait there until the group left. I was hoping that they’d give me some scraps of their food, but I didn’t have any such luck.

The group was talking to each other, but as with the three mage looking people, I couldn’t understand a thing. They were probably talking about what to do with our pelt.

I felt something touch my head. I growled, but didn’t do anything. I had no more strength. After this last attempt at getting food failed, I knew Wolf was going to die. It was actually very sad. I had formed a connection to Wolf over these past days.

The pressure on our head didn’t try to kill us. Instead it felt somewhat, pleasant?

I looked up. One of the elf girls was petting my head. Wolf wanted to bite her hand, to get any food he could. He just couldn’t take the pain anymore. Even death was better.

I took complete control at that point. I knew Wolf was probably going to die, but being killed brutally was worse than starving, in my opinion.

Until now I had only felt a blunted effect of the hunger. Once I took complete control, I understood why Wolf was so eager to die. The pain was tremendous! No one could stand it!

I felt something being shoved in my mouth. I didn’t even care what it was. With Wolf’s need to fight, and the fact that I felt so much pain I knew could be cured with food, I bit and swallowed as quickly as possible.

Something else was put into my mouth. I feebly chewed it, then swallowed. Nothing was trying to kill me with weapons at least.

This process repeated for several minutes. After a few mouthfuls, I felt fresh water poured into my mouth. I greedily drank it. I looked up.

An angelic face, encased in light from the setting sun sifting through the trees greeted me. The only words that could describe her were: Great Goddess.

She looked like a deity. A holy version of one of the elves from earlier. Suddenly my mind snapped to. I jumped up. I gave an involuntary yelp as I found my leg had been healed. Eating food was the only way to heal for animals, but I hadn’t been able to eat for a while.

When I jumped up the girl looked startled, and the other two people had their weapons pointed at me. The little elven child was the one to feed me. The elven girl began to cry after I jumped up.

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Instantly I felt like I was about to be killed. I did the only thing I could think of. I laid down with my head on the elf girls lap. She had been seated with her legs folded beneath her while she stroked my head and fed me.

The girl stopped crying right away.

(*Author’s Note* I am going to put parenthesis around what the other humanoids actually say. The things like Grathal Galrin are what John hears.)

Little Girl: Glarath? Glad Daath! (See? I told you!)

The little girl began to giggle. I had no idea what she said, but she seemed to be happy that I laid my head down. She looked to the other two people. The look on her face made it seem like she wanted their approval.

Older Elf: Galath. DaDaleeth. (Be careful. It might be dangerous)

Little Girl: Gareath Gam Gadar. Gadeth. (You don’t know how to have fun. It’s beautiful.)

I didn’t know what they were talking about, but it seems like the little girl is going to help me. I did notice that they had a lot of g sounds though.

The girl hugged me tightly. I felt indebted to her, so I just rubbed my head on her.  

Little Girl: Glarath? Gladeth Gafoth! (See? It likes me!)

She vigorously petted me. I just went with it. If I didn’t I would probably die. Wolf wanted to tear at her throat, but I wasn’t about to let him get us both killed.

She got up, and waved at me.

Little Girl: Gareneth Oth. (Follow Me)

She patted her thigh, while looking at me. The meat was all gone, and the other two in the group were giving me strange looks, but I knew what the little girl meant.

I loved animals back on my world. Of course patting your leg and waving meant ‘come’. So I did. I happily padded over to the group, and followed beside the girl.

She seemed delighted. The two people got to both sides of her, with the dwarf to my left. I was on the little girl’s left.

While the little girl seemed to be thrilled I was here, the other two obviously didn’t approve. They kept close tabs on me the entire time.

I traveled with the group for a few days. Once a day the older elf woman would randomly leave, and bring back an animal corpse. I didn’t know how she carried them sometimes. They were often bigger than her.

The dwarf could eat his own weight in food though. So I guessed it was necessary. Whenever the elf was out hunting the little girl would talk to me and play.

The first time she played with me she pointed to herself.

Little Girl: Delilah. DEL~LI~LAH!

I barked. I had no idea what she was doing. She then pointed to me.

Little Girl: Entity. EN~TIH~TEE!

Was she giving me a name? She named me Entity? Really? I mean there was no way I could tell her no, so I just happily barked.

She pointed at herself again.

Delilah: DEL~LI~LAH!

I get it. I barked happily.

She said some undecipherable words to the dwarf. On the second time the elf woman went hunting the dwarf pulled me to the side.

Dwarf: Entity! Gash!

He pointed to the ground. What are you trying to say old man?

I cocked my head to one side. He stared at my eyes.

Dwarf: GASH!

He pushed my hind legs down. I got back up after looking reproachfully at him.

Dwarf: GASH!

He pushed my hind legs back down. After repeating this once more, I understood.

He said it one last time.

He looked meaningfully at me. I guess he was trying to see if I were a trained wolf. No reason not to play along. If they thought I was trained maybe they would feed me for longer.

I sat down on my hind legs. Delilah giggled and clapped her hands excitedly.

Dwarf: GASHE! (Sounds like Gash Eh)

He shouted this just as I started to stand up.

I thought the command was gash?

Dwarf: Gash.

I sat down right away.

Dwarf: Gashe.

OH! He wants me to stand! Maybe… I had never trained animals before, but I knew that you should teach them similar commands at one time. That way it would stick easier.

I stood up while looking hopefully at him.

He smiled approvingly. He pulled out a piece of meat. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew that it smelled delicious!

Dwarf: Garene.

I started to understand something. I started to think I understood the language a bit. Delilah earlier said Garen, when she wanted me to follow her.

When the dwarf added the eh sound to the end of a word, it most likely negated the word. I might not have been good at much, but I had a Master’s in linguistics. The problem was that with DI making their translation software so good, there was no demand linguists anymore.

Whenever the girl said Garen she wanted me to follow them. So I could safely assume that meant stay.

My tongue flopped out of my mouth, but I didn’t move. I really wanted that treat! Or else Wolf did. Sometimes his desires would overpower me. I had to consciously stop him from going over.

Dwarf: Garen.

I slowly walked over to him. He smiled and petted my head. He gave me the most delicious piece of jerky I think I’ve ever had. I was so content right then. I’d never have to eat again after tasting that, that’s what I honestly felt.

Delilah ran over and started petting me. The older elf girl appeared carrying a large cow. She threw it to the dwarf, and he started his routine of cutting it up for food.

Delilah delightedly showed the older elf girl that ‘she’ had taught me a few tricks. The elf looked surprised, and asked the dwarf about it. After mumbling to themselves for a while she finally accepted the fact that I had been able to learn.

We continued this routine for a few days. I learned a lot of words during that time. Stay, follow, sit, stand, rollover which was just conjunction of circle and follow. I assumed what circle meant. I had already learned follow, and Delilah kept putting her fingers in a circle while saying the two words.

I also learned that when the two spoke about, or to, Delilah, they added Eta to her name. I didn’t know what it meant, but the other two didn’t ever even address each other by name. So I had now way of knowing if it was a politeness thing like in japan, or a station that she held.

By the end of the week we finally exited the woods. I had been in this world for a very long time, but I had never seen anything like what I saw before me.

A large village-like medieval city laid sprawled before me. It was a huge place, and I was excited to finally meet other humans! Maybe someone would even know how to talk to me! I happily plodded along with the group of three, expectations high for my future.