Chapter 28- Adapting
Running endlessly down the snow pact mountain with Alice and the Lunar Blade on my back slowly whittles away at my strength. Each time I step my feet press deep into the snow, forcing me to pull my legs high with each passing moment. The blizzard snow around us blurs my vision. Alice tightly grips my back with her arms and legs rapped around me. The muscles in my legs and back begin to ache and creak with every movement. Night has long since passed as the crescent moon is high in the sky. I continue to search for shelter so that Alice can sleep and I can rest my legs for a little while.
I have been in nonstop motion since training the previous morning. I went from fighting the yeti, to running for my life from an avalanche. Then I carried the massive yeti for a few hours back home to be forcibly launched into another life or death battle against a dragon. To finish the day off I have been carrying the skinny but toned fifteen year old Alice and the giant six foot blue Lunar Blade for several non-stop hours. Even though this body can withstand not sleeping for a few days, pushing myself to the limits for almost twenty straight hours has finally taken a toll. I can feel every muscle in my body. The bruise from breaking though the wall when I was launched by the dragon hurts every time Alice bounces on top of it. However even with all of this I shall not show any weakness, I will become the rock in Alice’s life to prevent her from being further burdened from the death of her father. I want to slow down from my steady and fast pace but I can’t show weakness.
As these thoughts pass through my mind Alice’s grip on my fur begins to loosen and I can feel her slipping. I slow my pace and eventually come to a stop. Alice seams to not notice at all or even attempt to remove herself from my back. I try to turn my head back to look at her but as I do this she falls to the ground. I panic for a moment before realizing she is merely sleeping. Unable to find shelter I quickly dig a hole into the snow and place Alice within it. I wrap myself around her in attempt to keep her warm. With exhaustion catching up to me I close my eyes and fade into a deep slumber.
…
I awake with a heavy weight all over my body. I raise my head shaking off the snow that enveloped me. Barely poking my head out of the foot of snow that wrapped around us I look around. The glorious rays of sunshine cover my face warming my furry face. Taking a deep breath in I can smell running water in the distance. I should take Alice to this spot when she wakes.
I push off the ground in an attempt to stand up but am stop by a squeak from below “No don’t leave!” I look down to see Alice smiling brightly at me with her arms wrapped around me as far around me as she could make them. “Even though I am dressed up like this I would still get cold at night if it wasn’t for you… thank you Fenrir, I don’t think we have cuddled up like that for a few years!” As she finishes speaking she rubs her rosy cheeks against the fur on my chest.
I lick the top of her forehead knocking off her grey fur Russian hat revealing her golden blonde hair that now sways down to the middle of her back. She giggles as she looks up at me with a brimming smile.
“Ok fine let’s go!” she grabs her hat as she stands up and brushes the snow off almost every part of her body.
Feeling fully rejuvenated I usher her onto my back along with the Lunar blade. It takes only a few minutes to reach the source of water. As we approach it Alice shouts in excitement “Water!” and jumps off me to rush over for a drink.
The river has the top half frozen over, but I found a small water fall that still has water flowing out form below some ice. It looks like a giant frozen sink. Cold water shouts out of a spout of ice and falls into a small frozen drain before continuing under the frozen barrier.
“So where should we go to Fenrir?”
I make a slight groan showing my confusion as well.
“Well before the dragon was defeated everyone said we should head south toward the great planes. It is supposed to be warmer there and also several larger villages exist. In fact if we travel far enough south to out of the forest we can find Beowulf’s child hood home! Let’s go there!”
I nod my head in agreement.
After getting some more water I try to have Alice wait where she is while I search for food. But in the end she doesn’t understand and comes along with me. I get very lucky and find a reindeer in just a matter of minutes. With my collection of new skills I am able to kill it without it having a chance to fight back, even with Alice slowing me down. Alice doesn’t slow me down because she is dumb, or a bad fighter, but because she is a terrible hunter. After I kill the beast I rip it into separate pieces and hand one to Alice.
She waves her hands in front of her. “I can’t eat raw meat like you can, we need to find a way to cook it! I know I was never a great hunter, but I used to go camping a lot before you met me. Let me look around for something to make a fire!”
After a few minutes she makes a fire from some broken tree branches and twigs by grinding some rocks together to make sparks. When I moved in with Alice and Beowulf she would always make the most succulent food. I always thought Beowulf cooked but in reality he would burn anything he touched. I wonder where Alice learned to cook? In fact she had a lot of mysterious skills that I have no idea where she learned them, such as sowing. No one else in the village knew how to sow, but she would be the girl who would patch up or fix any fabric. For a while I thought it might be from her mother but she died giving birth to Alice. Alice was a very mysterious girl who would have childlike emotions and curiosity about the world, but also would act far to mature for her age at times.
After we both had our fill of food Alice climbed back on top of me and I ran further down the mountains.
After a few hours of silently running Alice began to talk to me. “We haven’t talked just you and me in years…It’s just you and I now isn’t it?” I continued to stay silent and run as fast as I can.
“I know you have your own secrets, and I really wish you could tell them to me…Maybe one day I will tell you all of mine as well?”
I make a slightly confused grunt. What kind of secrets could she have? I met her when she was still a small child, and even now she only barely turned fifteen.
“haha so your curious about my secret? Trust me its bigger than anything you have ever heard before! But I won’t tell you until you show me one of your secrets. No wolf should be as smart or strong as you. Just admit it, in reality you’re a human! You can totally transform from human to wolf! That’s how you were able to make that fort when I was younger, or why you can understand our language! So if you’re secretly some type of transformer just tell me, or show me! Because if that’s true then my secret is so much bigger!”
I make a disgruntled snort to let her know how wrong she is. I can’t escape the body of a wolf, and I don’t know if your secret could ever beat mine. My secret transcends worlds. It is something that goes across dimensions. It is something I could bring to my grave and then have it still hold meaning and reason to keep thereafter. Any secret you possess will fail for the need of secrecy at the coming of your death.
“Don’t use that tone with me! You can’t judge my secret until you know it! Also you just proved to me that you have your own secret, so I won’t be telling you anything!”
I make a slight whining noise in my own misconduct. Dam, I think I messed up on finding her secret out. Honestly I would tell her mine if I had a way to do so, but the only way I would know of to tell her is by writing it down, and I have no idea how to write in this world’s language.
“Ok fine, if you at least show me a new part of yourself or something then I will tell you my secret, but until then I will not tell you anything!”
After that she only talks about random things, and sometimes there are long periods of silence.
…
Several months pass of us traveling south. Each passing day the weather becomes warmer and the snow fall weaker. Eventually we stop seeing snow all together. Alice slowly lost more and more clothes eventually only keeping her long pants, fur boots, and a light white t-shirt. She got rid of her mittens, Jacket and coat, top layer of pants and also her fur hat. Every few days I would bring her to a river to wash herself and clothes while I would go hunting.
The forest is still thick even though the ground has begun to level out. We have finally gotten to the forest planes and out of the mountains. Even the wild life has changed. Creatures here have far less fur and more reptilian species are being found.
We find what looked like some type of mixed creature. It had a large shell on its back that is lopsided and dented from several attackers. Two large dagger shaped spikes protrude out of its skull toward the sky. It has a long neck covered by hard leathery skin. Its hooves were big and heavy. The creature is covered in green and black leather skin. Its tail is of equal length and girth of its neck. The thing stands ten feet tall and probably twenty feet long. It is massive enough to feed us for a few days, and the hard shell would be a useful sled to carry things behind me.
Alice and I surround the creature ready to take its life. I stand in front of it and she stands behind it. I charge in first and scratch at its face but it quickly blocks my attack with its horns. The horns on its head are able to easily withstand the strike of my Hei hardened claws. Alice comes from behind and slashes the back of its ankles with the giant Lunar Blade that easily cuts through its flesh.
The beast completely ignores the gash in the back of its leg and instead strikes at Alice with its tale while pushing me away from it with its horns. It lets out an earth shattering, but low bellow that forces me to cover my ears in pain. I look over to Alice to see that she had dropped her sword and is covering her ears also.
The beast start stomping the ground as hard as it can shaking the earth around us while continuing to release its tremendously loud cry. It lashes out further by thrashing its head and tail around preventing us from continuing to attack it.
After a few moments it calms down and I unleash another attack scratching out a large claw strike directly under its right horn and over its eye. Three gashes are cut open, two over its right eye and one slightly under its right eye. I bring in my other claw to strike lower at its neck but am stopped early as something bashes against my ribcage.
From the unexpectedness of the attack I failed to put Hei into my body. I fly into a nearby pine tree breaking it in half and ripping it out from the ground. As I impact the tree my ribs scream out in pain. Standing up I fall back down from the pain of my broken ribs. Looking over to the turtle like creature I see my attacker.
A guy holding a large wooden bat with a rock tied to the end stares angrily at Alice who is on her knees with a katana at her neck. The women holding the katana says “Why are you attacking the behemoth?”
“Why are you stopping us? What’s a behemoth?”
While patting the turtle like creature the guy with the giant club says “This thing is the behemoth, and he is our village’s sacred beast.”
Alice thinks for a second before speaking. “If we promise to stop attacking the behemoth will you let us go?”
The two glance into each other’s eyes. The man makes a slight grunt before saying “She is just a kid.”
“Normally we would kill any who attack the sacred beast, but we can forgive you this once since you didn’t know. However I must let the chief know of this and he will figure out a punishment instead.”
The girl removes the katana from next to Alice’s neck and nods her head before putting her blade away. Her eyes continuously scan Alice and I. Even with her weapon put away she doesn’t drop her guard. “What brings you and this alpha wolf down from the north?”
Standing up and brushing herself off Alice replies. “The wolf is named Fenrir, he is my best friend. And our village was attacked and destroyed by a dragon so we decided to go on an adventure instead. We have been hunting for food every day, and when we saw this creature we had hoped he could feed us for a few days.” Following in suit with the other girl Alice examines the two people. “Who are you?”
The guy says “We are village scouts also known as guards. We protect the village from intruders. We were on patrol when we heard the behemoth cry out for help and rushed over to save it.”
Alice thinks for a moment before saying “Could we visit your village?”
The girl looks over to the guy. He shakes his head before saying “You can, in fact you must to meet the chief. But your pet can’t.” His voice is filled with distain.
“What! Why can’t I take Fenrir?” An angry scowl covers her face. “Is there any way I can bring him into the village with me?”
“That’s not up to us. Talk to the chief.”
Both the guy and the girl start to walk away.
The girl wielding the katana turns her head back toward us and says “You can follow us back to the village now.”
Alice picks up her blade and I pick up my body but fall back down in pain. She rushes over to me and says “Fenrir are you ok?”
I can’t let her become angry at these people, I need to let her get to the village. I nod my head and force my way through the pain back into a standing position. I slowly follow behind the two strangers.
We follow them for about an hour before they tell Alice that she must leave me behind. She gives me a hug and tells me she will be back as soon as she can. I decide to rest and curl up by a tree and fall asleep.
When I wake up it is already morning again. Somehow I slept throughout the night. I look around and see nothing of Alice. How would she still be at the village after all this time? Did the village chief do something to her? No I can only believe she is ok.
Due to my broken ribs I decide to not go hunting or do much of anything else, instead I focus on my Qei abilities. I try to pour it into my broken ribs to see if I can quicken the effect of healing, but I do not know if this is effective or not. After a few hours of experimenting with Dei through my Qei and Hei abilities Alice finally arrives again.
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“I’m really sorry for making you wait so long, but I had to do a lot of things first. If you want to enter the village you must be wearing this chain.” She places the chain around my neck, and instantly I can feel the strength of the Dei within it. There is no way I can bite though this chain, it is truly a leash that will restrain me. “I’ll explain on the way, let’s go!”
We start to head toward the village as she holds the other end of the chain wrapped around my neck. This feels like a master walking their dog, only I am a wolf several hundred pounds heavier than any dog.
“Fenrir, you must be a good boy while we stay in this village. Most of the residents are regular people like the ones from our last village, except this is more of a traveling spot for adventures due to the rare monsters in the forest. They tend to avoid our area because of the cold weather, but not this place. Several very powerful people reside here. I met the village chief and he lent me money to be able to buy this chain and a few nights at an inn. He is holding onto the sword until I can pay him back along with interest for attacking the Behemoth. I am currently working as a wench in one of the taverns.” The forest begins to clear slowly as we near the village. “Once your fully healed and I pay off my debt we will leave this village and continue south in attempt to reach a larger safer town.” I guess she didn’t except my bluff of being ok.
The village is finally in sight. It is much larger than the one we used to live in. There are dozens of houses and a few larger buildings, possibly some type of bar or convenient store. The buildings are made of a combination of wood and metal spokes.
As we approach the village the man from yesterday and some other guardsman are in front of the village gates. The man from yesterday approaches us to inspect the chain around my neck. He tightens it to an uncomfortable grip around my neck, but I can still breathe normally.
Alice then guides me through the village gates. The village is surrounded by large Iron fences, similar to a thousand poles extending from the ground welded together by an iron strip near the top and the bottom. The tips of the long poles are filled down to a point to prevent one from climbing over it. The gate we enter from has two doors that lock at the center via a chain similar to my own.
Alice walks me past one of the larger round buildings with several metal spokes similar to a bike rack in front of it. “This is where I will be working from now on.”
She then continues down the street another block and points at a tall building with several floors. “I will be living here for the next few days as well… I wasn’t able to get you a room so you can just live on my floor is that ok?”
Normally I would sleep in the dining room or kitchen, or sometimes outside in the forest. I have never actually slept in the same area as Alice unless it was outside and she needed to cuddle for warmth. But I don’t mind sleeping on the floor of her room at all, especially since I am injured. I give of a nod and sigh of acceptance.
“Good! I am going to go to work now, would you like to join me?”
I bark and wag my tail in conformation.
“Alright!”
When we arrive at the Tavern we go through the entrance when someone shouts “Don’t you dare bring that monster in here!”
Alice puts on a pouting face and says “But boss!”
A short man with large forearms pops up from behind the bar and waddles over toward us. His outfit is that of a sailor and he reminds me of a short and stout version of pop-eye. “No monsters aloud in this place! Just tie him to the Dei poles outside. No one will be able to steal him nor will he be able to break free and run away. Don’t you worry your pretty little head.”
Crossing her arms Alice continues to pout but walks me out of the building. “I know you will be really bored out here but please be a good boy. Don’t harass any one and I will be back as soon as I can.” She ties my chain around the bike rack like pole. Standing up she kisses me on the head and says “I love you Fenrir, take care!”
I slouch down into a lying position and begin to do my make shift Dei healing on my ribs hoping for some type of results. People walk in and out of the tavern all day. Some people ignore me completely others give me a spectrum of reactions. The people going in are mostly afraid of me or curious but still keep their distance. The drunk people leaving try to interact with me in different ways ranging from scooting toward me slowly all the way to falling face first into my fur. Surprisingly these are the less annoying reactions.
Every once in a while I see someone giving me the stink eye and giving off some killing intent. They say things like ‘dirty beast’ ‘stupid animal lovers’ or ‘wish they would just die’. Some even spit in my direction, but no one goes up and attacks me directly. Some of the people truly hate and are disgusted by me and the thought of who every my owner is. These feelings are not shared by everyone, nor are they even shared by the majority, but the people who do hold these feelings hold on to them strongly.
A horrible piercing feeling of being watched over takes me as the sun goes down.
A few hours after night falls and all the people from the tavern are long since gone Alice and her boss leave the tavern.
Her boss, The pop-eye like character, addresses Alice without looking in her direction. “Now you just lock the tavern and go home. Tomorrow I expect you to close up shop by yourself. I do hate these late night shifts.”
“Yes sir.”
“And if anything goes missing or is broken on your watch, then I will deduct it form your pay.”
“Yes sir”
“Hmph, very well I will be leaving now.” He walks down the street as Alice locks the tavern.
Alice walks over to me while asking in a happy yet exhausted voice. “How was your day Fenrir?”
I bark excitedly at her. I want to get away from this dam bar and into the safety of our inn room. I show impatience in my eyes as I usher to move forward with my nose. She bends down and gives me a gentle hug while rubbing her face on my head. “Calm down boy. Why are you in such a rush to get to our room?”
A deep voice from the alleyway next to the tavern shouts out. “This your wolf little lady?” A man steps out from the darkness of the alley and onto the street followed by three other men. The front man looks to be the leader. He has slash marks on his face like that of a wolf attack. His skin is dark brown from being out in the sun for a very long time. He wears several types of leathers and scales from what I assume to be animals he has slain. He has metal rivets on his black gloves. Metal chains dangle off his arms and shoulders. Somehow when he walks the chains do not make any noise as they clank together. The other three people behind him wear similar attire, all their hair is dyed black except the man in front who is bald.
Alice stands up and backs away slightly. “Yeah he is mine, and what does it matter to you?”
The three men in back chuckle while the man in front tightens his fist. “We don’t take kindly to monster fuckers around here.”
“What!? I don’t… no gross!”
“Stop your acting! Randy, take care of the wolf. Everyone else help me get her!”
The man in the back pulls a medium sized dagger from his sleeve and rushes over to me in a blink of an eye. I put Hei throughout my body to protect myself. He stabs my front foot into the ground while simultaneously kicking me in the broken part of my ribs. The Hei I had built up in my body was useless compared to the amount this man had. He puts his lips close to mine and in a raspy voice he says “why don’t we watch your master suffer a little before I kill you?” I try to bite his face but in response he plunges the dagger deeper into my paw and puts more Hei and pressure into my ribs with his foot. My teeth will never be able to reach him.
I look over to see the other three have already surrounded the unarmed Alice. One of them has two small one handed axes, and the other has a sword and shield. The leader is still weaponless, but a horrible aura stronger than the others surrounds him. The axe man slashes in an x formation at Alice and she dodges it by using her Sei ability. She is very good at reading opponents movement with her Sei ability, but with three people on one she will not be able to hold out forever. If only she still had her sword.
After dodging the double axe attack the man with the sword and shield stabs toward her. Without looking she avoids the attack by twirling the other way but is then broadsided by the man’s shield. As Alice runs into it she loses her balance but keeps her momentum of avoiding the sword attack. The axe man switches his movements and slashes horizontally with both axes. This forces Alice to drop to the ground to avoid the attack. The sword guy stabs the sword at Alice’s midsection but she rolls out of the way. She barely escapes the two men’s attacks and has no way to counter, so instead she continues to roll away. She is suddenly stopped by the leader’s foot. Where did he come from? His Dei was so strong but it suddenly vanished. Alice wasn’t able to notice him move at all with her Sei ability.
Alice stuck under the leaders foot is unable to move. The leader launches a punch into her face, blood spills out from her mouth and nose. “You’re a fast one aren’t you? Your Hei ability is pretty good too. Most people would have passed out with that punch, but not you. That’s really unlucky because now you will have to suffer more. Hahahah” He kicks her out of the street deep into the dark alleyway and further away from me.
I struggle more to escape my bindings, but any time I move the pressure on my ribs is strengthened and the dagger gouged deeper into my paw. If only I was stronger. If only I had trained more in this world, or if I still had my powers of fire from my previous life. Anger boils inside of me as I howl into the night form both pain and rage.
Due to the darkness of the alleyway if I didn’t have wolf eyes I would not be able to see what happens next.
Alice tries to stand up but the leader lands another punch into her face. “Hold her down boys.” The two lackeys do as he commands and old her arms and legs down. “Hey throw me your dagger!” The dagger holding my paw down is ripped out and tossed over toward the leader.
Alice screams “What are you going to do to me!”
“Shut her up!”
One of the men holding her down shoves a dirty cloth into her mouth while continuing to constrain her arms and legs.
The leader gives a disgusting laugh. Bending over he glides the dagger around the inside of her thighs making slits in her cotton pants slowly getting higher on her thigh. Laughing again he slides the tip of the dagger under the bottom of her shirt and circles her belly button. He slashes it upward tearing her shirt half way up revealing her abdomen.
A heat boils inside of me as I am filled with rage. A heat that feels both uncontrollable, and familiar. Breaking through the pane I jump up from the spot and snap my teeth closed on the ankle of the man pinning me down. I pour every last bit of Dei into my teeth using the Hei techniques before clenching harder and ripping open the man’s flesh. The bone on his lower calf, ankle and upper heel are all scraped clean of everything but blood. He drops to the ground in pain. Lunging toward the other three attackers I am yanked back by the chain around my neck.
One of the men holding Alice down shouts “Oh shit he took out Randy!”
“Don’t worry he has no way to break that chain.” The leader refocuses on Alice.
I use all my strength to bite down on the chains, but the only thing that happens is a crack in my teeth. Dam it! He is right, I can’t break these chains. Instead I pull as hard as I can toward the three men. No longer howling or growling, I am simply gasping and wheezing trying to put in all the energy I have into reaching them. The chain tugs around my throat tightening it’s self as I pull. The harder I pull the stronger it chokes me.
The man continues to ignore my struggle and goes back to mentally and physically torturing Alice with the blade. He places it once more on her belly and traces it upwards as a red line forms behind it. He inches it up at a torturous pace, slower and slower as he gets closer to revealing more skin. She tries to screem through the cloth stuffed in her mouth but fails. As the blade reaches slightly under her breast I can see a trickle of blood drip down from her.
That is when I snap. I can no longer control myself. Red fills my vision as I recklessly pull at the chain choking myself further. I snarl and cough continuously. With every fiber of my being I attempt to push myself forward. I try to stretch my very essence outwards. I don’t care if I die, as long as I can stop what is happening right now. Sparks begin to erupt from my mouth. Grinding my teeth together I spit up more and more sparks from my pure unsaturated anger.
“Cut her up good boss!”
I won’t let that happen, I won’t let them hurt her any more. All the rage in my body is vanquished as I experience a moment of clairvoyance. My mind goes blank as something finally clicks. A small almost non-existent voice echoes in the back of my mind. “ta… Pow…kill…” Tiny black flames erupt from every one of my pores slowly melting away at the chain around my neck. A giant bolt of bright red fire explodes outward from my mouth as I give a howl of death.
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AN. So What does everyone think of this arc? keep it going for a while or move on to then next one? I know it is a bit weird that he is not human/humanoid and that's why I ask. Also I wonder what people would think if he was ever reborn as a girl. Would that be to unusual or would it be interesting to see how he exists as a girl? I think it would be funny to have him experience all the different types of hormones through puberty, but I am scared it would turn people off from the novel because of a gender bender type thing, and I also don't think I would give justice to the mind of a women. SO if I ever did make him a girl I would need all the female readers to help me out and make her/him feel more realistic. any way posts your thoughts here or on the Spoiler thread.