As the howling of both the monstrously huge Spirit Wolf and the gathered werewolves started to die down, I found myself tensing. I…hadn’t expected the Chief and his clansmen to suddenly transform into humanoid wolves. Not only that, but they seemed to be a kind that were connected somehow to Spirit Wolves like my own companion. Most Thunderheart clan members that I’d see had already been large examples of mankind, but these changed ones were even larger. The smallest among them dwarfed my five-eleven frame, looking to be over eight or nine feet tall from the tips of their ears to the pads of their feet.

I had to wonder, were these all of the werewolves among the Thunderhearts? Was Bleddyn a werewolf? I was suddenly reminded of how he had killed that servant Pignolo, all those months ago. The asshole dwarf had almost looked to have been savaged by a wild beast.

What about in the village? Were there even more right now, howling to Elys in its walls? I couldn’t hear anything from that direction, but I couldn’t know.

Were Hook and Sylvia in danger?

Moreover, was I in danger right now? Why had Gruffyd decided to bring me to see their transformation? I thought this was just going to be a meeting with their ‘Ancient One’, who I believe Gruffyd had referred to as ‘Taran’. I’m guessing that was the massive Spirit Wolf starting to look back down at the gathered man-wolf hybrids.

Damnit, I should have kept my weapons on me.

The largest of the werewolves who I thought was Gruffyd raised his clawed hands in supplication to Taran and spoke, seemingly unhindered by the new shape of his mouth. “Honored Taran!” He bellowed, in a rough, growling version of his normal voice. “Blessings to you, on this night! We, the children of your claw, renew our pact as our ancestors did before us! May we stalk together in the light of the moon, for eons to come!”

To my astonishment, Taran’s muzzle opened and actually spoke back. “As before, so now,” He rumbled, in a voice that shook dust from the standing stone near us. “Be vigilant, my claws and fangs. Dark tidings sweep across this land, and old powers stir in the deep. Remember my teachings and beware, for all is not as it seems.”

Dark tidings, all is not as it seems…

Was…Taran aware of the horde? Was something else going on?

Gruffyd and the rest of the gathered werewolves bowed their heads in supplication. “We shall remember your words, Lord of Blood and Thunder.” He raised his head again, as most of the nearly formal atmosphere dissipated. “There is…another thing, my lord. You have likely noticed, but I have brought two outsiders to the gathering this night.”

The massive Spirit Wolf snorted in amusement, his eyes shifting to look at Fade and me. I stiffened under his assessing gaze. “I have, young Chief,” He said evenly, never looking away from us. “And what interesting guests they are.”

“This man and his companion traveled a great distance to warn us of an impending disaster, o’ Son of Elys,” Gruffyd said respectfully. “It was my decision to bring them before you, as I judged they would be of interest. If I am wrong, I humbly beg your forgiveness.” I had to bite back a bark of hysterical laughter as the enormous werewolf’s ears actually flattened against his skull in contrition.

Taran’s enormous blue eyes finally looked away from me to gaze at Gruffyd once more. “Do not worry, Gruffyd. Your intuition was correct. However,” He paused, letting his gaze run over the rest of the gathered werewolves. Their tails actually started to wag under his scrutiny. “I must ask that you depart on a hunt, for now. I have…business with these two whelps that is not meant for ears other than theirs. Go now, and return with a kill so we may feast together.”

The pack of transformed Thunderhearts started panting in bestial excitement, the wagging of their tails only picking up. “At once, my lord!” Gruffyd said eagerly, before turning to face the other werewolves. “Go!” He said, pointing one clawed finger off beyond the rim of the standing stones. With a round of howls, the wolfmen and wolfwomen dropped to all fours and sprinted off into the darkness in search of prey. Before he set off as well, Gruffyd turned to me and flashed a fang-filled grin.

I smiled back uneasily at the sight of so many sharp and pointy teeth.

With a howl of his own, Gruffyd bounded off into the darkness with the rest of his pack.

Leaving me and Fade alone with Taran, the ‘Ancient One’ I was supposed to meet. The ring of standing stones fell into silence for a moment, before it was broken by Taran.

“Come,” He said suddenly. “Join me beyond the stones. It wouldn’t do to speak of these matters in such a sacred space.” At that, the massive Spirit Wolf moved away from the ring of stone, while above us the burning blue heart blew away as ashes. The blue torches around me snuffed out as well, casting my surroundings in darkness. As my eyes adjusted to it, I looked down to search for Fade, only to find that he was already padding after Taran.

I grumbled to myself as I followed him into the grasslands. Little traitor, you could at least pretend to be concerned.

The two Spirit Wolves had moved to a small hill that wasn’t far from my position. Both of their lupine frames were silhouetted by the bright and full form of Elys high in the sky. The contrast between Fade’s comparatively puny frame and Taran’s gargantuan one was striking. As I joined them, my eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness that I could see the considering look in Taran’s eyes. He nodded his huge head at the two of us, before leaning down. I kept as still as I could as the Spirit Wolf took several deep sniffs of us both, ruffling my hair from the force of the wind.

“Hmm,” He said slowly, sitting back on his haunches. “This is a first. A Precursor has never bonded to one of my kind before.”

I…wasn’t even surprised that he could tell what I was. I stayed silent, though. I didn’t really know what to say to this presumably ancient being.

It didn’t seem like he minded.

His eyes settled on Fade. “You’re a young one,” He mused. “I wouldn’t put you at more than a few months old in fact. That makes you the youngest of us.”

Fade barked something back at the older, stronger, and larger wolf.

“Fade, then? And only five months old at that. Greetings, littlest brother,” Taran chuckled. “Truly, I have to wonder what the Whisper plied Mother with, to bestow her blessing on a young pup such as you.”

Whisper...

The only Whisper I knew was Sylvia's code name.

I furrowed my brow at the odd turn of phase. “Ah…” I finally spoke up, drawing Taran’s attention. “Could you perhaps explain that, Lord Taran? Or…why you even wanted to speak to us in the first place?”

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Taran barked a laugh then. “Such audacity! Rare is it that I find someone willing to speak to me in such a manner. Even my own blessed have a tendency to kowtow. I can see why this one likes you so.”

I turned and raised an eyebrow at Fade, causing him to look away almost bashfully. I smiled and nudged the young wolf with the side of my leg, causing him to huff and nudge me back. “I like you too, boy,” I murmured.

When I looked back up, I saw that Taran was watching us with a nostalgic and somewhat sad look in his eyes. “I have no problem explaining a few things to you, young ones,” He said, surprisingly softly. He slowly lowered himself down to the grass, letting out an unexpected groan of relief as he did so. Now that my eyesight had fully adjusted to the darkness, I could tell that Taran’s black fur was shot through with streaks of white. I think…his age affected him more than I thought it would, for what I had thought might be an immortal being. “Come, sit with me. I can speak with you until sunrise if that is what you wish. I imagine there are some things that escape you about the nature of Vereden, young Precursor.”

I did as he asked, flopping down into a cross-legged position while Fade sat on his haunches. “I think I’m adjusting pretty well, to be honest. And…” I decided to take a gamble. “I’m not exactly flying completely blind here, about what it means to be a Precursor. I met a chatty old Elf a few months back that had some things to say about our supposed ‘Quest’.”

Taran was unfazed. “Yes, I can smell Alveron on you, faint though the trace may be. I’m unsurprised he found you, desperate as he is. But I’m afraid I wasn’t speaking about the nature of Precursors, young Hart.”

Wait, had I told him my name? I don’t think I had.

“Instead, I’ll tell you the truth about what your young companion and I even are,” He continued. “What your kind call Spirit Wolves and what the Mynydd Clans call the Llais y Gwyllt are…nothing more than Awakened wolves.”

I blinked rapidly at that. “Wait, what?” I said in confusion. “But…Fade doesn’t have a Status like I do. And I heard that Mystic Beasts don’t have them in general.”

“Mystic Beasts, bah,” Taran grumbled, blowing my hair back with a snort. “Such a plain name for such a cornucopia of peoples. But yes, I am serious. We may not have a complicated, half-broken form of Awakening such as what the mortal races do in your odd numerical Statuses, but what we have is an Awakening all the same. Only, we are not blessed by your ‘System’. Nor are we blessed by any gods. Instead, we are blessed by the Spirits. It is the way that they reproduce.”

“I…what? Reproduce?” And…blessed?

Was that what a Status was? A blessing?

From what?

Taran nodded. “Yes. Spirits, especially Great ones such as Mother Elys, cannot reproduce in the manner that you mortals can. Instead, they bestow upon the recipient a fraction of their power, endowing their soul with the ability to grow in Mysticality. The ultimate goal of this blessing is so the recipient can transcend their mortal flesh and eventually become a Spirit themselves. However, the Spirits are incapable of blessing a fully sentient and sapient mortal with their essence, and are thus limited in choice to animals.”

I cast a gaze down at Fade. “So, Fade…”

“Was a normal wolf pup not unlike any other, until Mother cast her eye upon him and bestowed a portion of her essence,” Taran confirmed. “She does not do so often, and I have never known her to purposefully create a child and place them in the path of another deliberately, as I believe she did for you. It is almost…vulgar, and so unlike her. Unfortunately, I cannot ask what her intentions were with young Fade. She would dodge them expertly. Mother is fickle, at the very best of times.” He grumbled to himself.

“Blessing and Awakenings…” I said slowly, leaning back onto my hands. My gaze drifted away from Taran to rest on the very moon he was talking about. “So, if Awakenings like mine are just blessings, then…who blessed us mortals? What did the gods do to cause the Initialization?” I paused, a thought coming to me. “Is our Awakening from the gods?”

Taran sighed. “Unfortunately, I cannot answer you. The answer to that question remains unknown to all to this very day. Not even Mother truly knows the source of your bizarre Awakenings. And I truly mean bizarre. It is…a mish-mash of various workings and energies, and yet has such potential wrought within its depths. I shudder to imagine what your people could become if it was not incomplete as it is. I can tell you this. Mother believes that the gods found something or someone, and began to fight over it. She believes this to be the genesis of the War in Heaven. Some time in the fighting this…source of power was either manipulated or malfunctioned in some way, which led to the propagation of your Statuses. Beyond that, no Spirit can say otherwise.”

I took that in for a moment, slowly frowning. How did that fit in with what Elder Alveron had told me?

What had the gods done? How did Precursors fit into that? Was…the Precursors Quest an elaborate form of revenge, created by the System for whatever they had done to it?

Taran had no answers for me. He simply shook his head when I asked him.

We sat in contemplative silence for a moment, before Taran spoke once more. “However, that isn’t what I wished to speak to you about,” He said, perking up. A lupine grin stretched across his features. “Instead, I’d like to present an opportunity to you and young Fade.”

“Uh…” I said hesitantly, a little taken about how puppy like Taran was acting. “If it’s an offer to become a werewolf like the others, then no thanks. I’m good.”

I had no interest in suddenly sprouting fur and a tail, thank you very much.

“What?” Taran said, startled. “No, I couldn’t bestow my blessing on you like them if I tried. That’s only possible because of an old blood pact I have with the founder of their Clans and my own once-upon-a-time partner, Mynydor. That predates the coming of the Initialization, and was thus incorporated as a special Racial Talent for the Mynydd Clans. Not all choose to pursue my blessing, and thus not every member of the Clans can claim to be a Wolfblood. No, this opportunity is for young Fade. I…would like to extend an offer of what you would call ‘apprenticeship’ to him.”

Fade jerked suddenly, as startled as I was. The both of us exchanged a baffled look before my companion barked a question at the other Spirit Wolf.

“I’m getting to that,” Taran scolded Fade lightly. “Let me ask you, young one. You have found yourself struggling with your abilities of late, haven’t you? You’ve been wondering why your own growth has been so sluggish, coming in fits and bursts? Especially compared to the rapid advancement of your chosen companion. I would bet that new abilities suddenly manifest for you out of nowhere when you most need them.”

Uh, well. That honestly sounded pretty accurate.

Fade looked away almost mulishly.

Taran just nodded. “Yes, as I thought. You’ve no doubt wished you understood how they worked. Well, I can fix that. I am offering to take you under my proverbial wing, and teach you all that you need to know. The mortals have their own paths of advancement, in their Magic and Cultivation. So too do we have our own Eldrydd Path. I can teach you a great deal, young one. You will never be helpless again when I’m done with you.”

Fade went completely still at that, fixing Taran with an almost ravenous look.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but frown. “What…would that entail?”

“Ah,” Taran paused for a moment, before smiling at me almost sadly. “Unfortunately, young Fade would have to stay here with me. I’m afraid I cannot accompany you on your journeys, Nathaniel Hart. It would be months, possibly years before you see each other once again. The teaching that I would be bestowing upon your companion could not be interrupted.”

Months or years before I would see Fade again? I was tempted to immediately reject his offer, but…

It wasn’t my decision.

I kept quiet, as much as I didn’t want to.

Fade almost seemed to frown, looking off into the distance where Elys sat full and heavy on the horizon. Taran and I waited in silence as the young Spirit Wolf sank into visible contemplation. After a few moments, he stirred and looked up at Taran once more before chuffing something softly at his elder.

“Yes, you may have the night to consider the matter,” Taran nodded his enormous head, before getting to his feet. Padding down to the bottom of the hill, the ancient wolf looked over his shoulder at the two of us. “But I shall require an answer before your companion leaves in the morning. I…do not blame you, if you choose not to take my offer. I well know how hard it is, to be parted from the person you have chosen.” With that almost melancholy statement, Taran walked away, seeming to disappear almost instantly into the darkness.

Meanwhile, Fade and I were left on the small hill lit only by the light of a full moon. I looked over at Fade, from his position sitting next to me. He was staring off at Elys once more, looking contemplative. I lay a hand on his back, but he didn’t react to it.

“We’ll…just stay here for now,” I said quietly, to a small accompanying nod from Fade.

He had a big decision to make, after all.