“Y’all sure do have an interesting way of training.” Adam said to Finn. He lay on the ground by a small fire Finn had lit with his rings. The heat from the flames abnormally hot. It almost felt like he was sitting directly by the fire and not the ten feet that separated him from it. It was no doubt some weird effect Finn’s ability had on the heat of the fire.

Adam sighed, weariness over taking him with each passing second. He was beyond exhausted. “Caius wasn’t joking when he said I would need the sleep yesterday.”

Finn spun the rings on his fingers. “Well, having your vitality drained to almost the point of death will do that to you. I slept for nearly two days after my own introduction to ‘my limits’.” He shuddered at the memory.

“Is it always that brutal? I mean I can’t imagine doing that to a kid.” Adam said. He knew this new reality of his was different, but still. There had to be better ways. “If we did that where I’m from it’d end up on the news with the parents in handcuffs.”

Finn winced toward Adam. “Well, you got it a little worse than most. As Ava is half elf, she inherited their racial talent for sensing other beings’ vitality. She pushed you to the brink because she knew she could without killing you. Most humans only get an extremity stabbed or maimed a little, not eviscerated and poisoned like you were.”

Adam looked over toward Ava who was standing watch. He could just make out the sharpened tips of her ears as her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. He was a little surprised to find that elven features were extremely similar to how fantasy movies and games had described them. Perhaps earth actually had elves at one point in time. If the Eldari had been there, it was a reasonable assumption.

“And do humans have any… racial talents?” Adam asked.

Caius walked up then and joined Adam and Finn by the fire. He leaned his head back against a log and crossed his feet. It was the first time Adam had seen him drop his guard since meeting the man.

“Ahh the age-old question.” Caius said. “One the dwarves and elves frequently like to remind us of.”

“Here we go.” Finn said. “I really don’t see why it’s such a big deal. If we would all just work together and put these petty differences aside then perhaps the endless war with the Eldari would finally be put to rest. Alas, I know it’s not to be in my lifetime.”

Adam sat up, finding not even his extremely weary body could deter his interest. “The dwarves also have racial talents?” He asked.

“Hardy little bastards.” Caius said. “Can drink like a fish and have the fortitude to turn around and fight a battle with an axe in one hand and a mug of beer in the other.”

“They are… formidable.” Finn said. “What Caius fails to explain is that they are typically the best frontliners due to their natural predication for stronger constitutions and increased vitality. Where the elves are subtle and delicate, the dwarves are straightforward and brash.”

“In general,” Caius continued, “elves typically make the best healers, dwarves frontliners, and humans damage dealers. Obviously, there is wiggle room in there, but those are the roles each of the races fall into naturally. The elves and dwarves just have much more defined directions and natural talents that help them fall into those roles where humans don’t.”

“Then why don’t you have a dwarf as a frontliner?” Adam asked. “I mean, if they have such a natural affinity for it, why even bother with Ellis?”

“Oh, I would much rather have a dwarf than Ellis, even if they are nearly as insufferable. At they’re always down for a drink. Get them drunk enough and it’s actually a good time.” Finn said.

“When have you ever been drunk?” Caius asked as he shook his head. “Let alone had a conversation with a dwarf that wasn’t more than grabbing them something from your fathers shop?”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Finn shrugged and flashed a toothy smile at Caius. “Just saying. They may be prickly but they’d be a lot more fun to have around than Ellis.”

Caius didn’t deny what Finn had said and turned back to Adam. “For one, that is just a general rule of thumb. And, like it or not,” He fixed a look at Finn, “Ellis is the exception to that rule. Even if he wasn’t, dwarves and elves aren’t the fondest of humans. Having one on a team of humans is extraordinarily rare.” He glanced over at Ava’s back. “It’s more common to see a human working with dwarves or elves than the other way around, but still rare.”

“Thank the primordial we reproduce like rabbits and having a baby for them is a grand occasion or else we would have been run out of the Kingdom a long ago.” Finn said.

“We don’t have to worry about that anyways.” Caius said. “We have Adam now, who’s looking like he may have been a dwarf in his past life himself with Vitality like his and a Primordial defense skill.”

Adam felt his cheeks grow hot at the comment. He had always been uncomfortably with praise. He just wanted to do his best with is head down. “Just make sure yall kill whatever is attacking me fast and I’ll do my best to stay alive.” He said. He yawned after, unable to keep his mouth closed as a great sigh escaped. Finn followed close behind him.

Caius chuckled. “You two get some sleep. I’m going to see if Ava needs anything.”

Adam wouldn’t argue. He could still vaguely feel a stabbing in his stomach from where Ava had gored him, not to mention fighting a colony of titanic carnivorous ants. He closed his eyes, mind turning over the days events.

Adam thought he had finally accepted coming to terms with leaving a life of war behind him. The rocking of his boat on a late winters evening in the Key’s was almost enough to get the pit from his stomach. Only now did he realize what that pit had been. Not war, but the bonds forged through a shared conflict in a way only fighting for survival could bring. He had become such a loner over the past years, it was nice to finally have a group that counted on him again, and that he could lean on as well.

For the first time in a long time, Adam fell asleep without the plague of negative emotions that had haunted him for years.

**

Adam walked through the frozen wasteland. It was dark, with only a full moon to illuminate the dried husks of tree’s dotting the landscape around him that made him feel like he was in the graveyard of a once great forest. Undisturbed snow, save for his footprints, surrounded him.

He knew this place. He had bene here many times before. Always accompanied by the distant thundering of the Titan, who he now knew was Atlas, in an eternal struggle with the great wolf. It was silent now.

Adam was acutely aware of how lucid he was. He could feel the cold on his bare feet, freezing them as if he was actually standing on snow barefoot and not just in this dreamworld. He felt the cool breeze whip through the dead forest along with the whistle of wind through tree branches.

Before, he had always hidden. He would search out a hollow in a tree and hide away from the figures battling in the distance until he finally woke. That was when he thought he was crazy. There had to be something he could learn from this. Some piece of the puzzle he was missing. If there was one thing he had learned over the past days, it was that anything was possible.

He walked through the frozen wasteland for what felt like hours, the only sign of life his breath fogging before him. Adam began to think he was here alone. Maybe with the death of Atlas, the wolf had no reason to be here. Maybe he was visiting a different world in his sleep, his body an astral projection that was only meant to observe. That is until a deep growl pulled his attention to his left.

The scenery had been identical to this point but there was suddenly there was a thicket of wood to his left that almost looked like a jail cell made of wood. The trees and limbs overlapping in a criss-cross pattern of vine and wood. In the center, he could just make out a pair of yellow eyes tracking him from the darkness. They seemed to glow in the night, a malevolent intelligence obvious , much like the eyes of the Eldari.

Adam walked toward the edge of the thicket, making sure not to get too close. There were thick thorns woven through the cage of wood, red liquid dripping from their tips. A rumbling growl echoed from within and Adam had the feeling he was being laughed at.

“At last, the little titan has come to visit.” The yellow eyes in the center of the cage grew brighter as a grey wolf crept toward Adam, the moonlight illuminating its figure. The beast didn’t look like the Eldari who had distinct human characteristics, but was clearly all wolf, if not the most majestic Adam had ever seen.

“It’s a pity really,” The wolf continued when Adam didn’t respond. “That old Atlas was able to get to you before me. Even more so that he was able to set up this infernal cage.” A single leaf that dotted the exterior of the cage turned an ashen white then fell from the branch, dissolving into thin particles of dust as it fell to the ground. A growl-like laugh escaped the wolfs jaws at the sight. “But it seems it won’t last for too much longer. Tell me, what did the fool Titan leave for you?”

Adam stared at the wolf, unable to move or speak. He wanted to, but felt his body tremble, fear overwhelming his every sense. It was as if even the sight of the wolf was doing something to him. He was paralyzed with a deep-seated terror like nothing he had ever felt. It’s words echoed in his soul, rooting him in place.

The wolf licked its pearly white canines. “No need to be afraid. Afterall, I’ve been with you since the beginning. Don’t you remember? I allowed you to see the monster within all those people. Even in your friends. Those weren’t hallucinations, but the truth. Don’t you want to know the truth?”

The wolf crept closer to the thick thorns, squeezing its snout through an open space and sniffing the air. “I can tell you. I can show you everything you want to know. I can give you power, make the fear disappear. Isn’t that what you want? For all your fear to be taken?”

Adam felt something in his mind shift as a surge of Primordial Energy rushed through him. He didn’t even mean to, but he activated his [War Regalia of the Primordial Titan] skill. The armor forming around him in a puff of mist. The terror that had gripped him just a few moments before fled and Adam felt his control of his body come back to him.

He didn’t speak. He didn’t want to risk engaging with whatever this beast was. It wasn’t so simple as just a grey wolf. Adam backed away from the cage.

“Ohh. Don’t be like that little titan.” The wolf seemed to pout. “What’s the harm in a little conversation?”

Adam turned and ran, wanting to get as far from the cage as possible.

“Don’t worry, this is but the first of many conversations.” The wolf called from behind him. “Until next time, little Titan.”