After shouting those words, Rex sheathed his sword again, hopped onto the lowest branch and scrambled as high as he could go. To the east were more treetops, and to the west the shrubs gave way to rolling plains.

The girl who called for help must be hidden deeper in the woods, underneath the canopy.

This isn't perfect, but even if I can't find the victim...

Voices rose from the forest floor right below him. Rex held his breath and peered down through the leaves; the moonlight cast pale its light on two louts standing by the trunk.

"I could've sworn I heard someone call out here," said a thin, scraggly man holding a sword. "'The hero has arrived!' Some foolish shit like that. Did he want us to come over and kill him?"

"If we can't find him, let's just get back to the girl before the other wildlife get to her first," said a woman in a leather cloak, pointing at the trees. "What do you think? Kill her for the bounty or sell her as a pet?

"I want to search around here some more," said the Thin Man. "To tell you the truth... recently I've been having some auditory hallucination. I haven't been sleeping well at night after we attacked those refugees."

"You know what that means," said Leather Cloak. "Next time we mug a doctor. That way we can get you some sleeping pills."

"You always have good ideas on what to do, Leela. Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes Phineas?"

"Do you hear that same rustling, scratching noise?" said Thin Man. "From somewhere above our heads? Or am I just going insane?"

They both looked up at the same time Rex finished sawing through the branch in front of him.

*snap* *crack* *thud*

"Good night, thieves." said Rex, rubbing his hands together as he slid down to the grass. Leela and Phineas were snoozing with leaves and wooden splinters as their blanket, and large bumps on their heads.

If I can't find the victim, I can at least draw the perps to me and take them out.

"Now that they're all dispatched, I just need to find the person who called for help..."

He walked through the brush where the woman had pointed, moving slowly and carefully. Rex had heard howling and it was doubtful that the bandits were the ones barking at the moon.

But when he reached the clearing where the howling had come from, no beasts were there. .

Instead, there was a girl. She was a small girl, smaller than Enna but with long, dark, hair that reached her knees. She was curled in a little ball, a cloak covering her head, with green eyes that watched him move. Bruises covered her arms and legs, and dried blood caked her side.

"Everything's okay now... " he reached out a hand. "I'm Rex. I'm here to help you."

Her mouth opened slightly and her eyes were anxious and fearful. She raised a hand, almost defensively, but then gestured behind him.

"Careful..." she breathed. "Slowly...

Rex turned and saw a set of large, glowing eyes.

----------------------------------------

"So he's gone," said Gemini. "You see? Keeping our goals secret was the right thing to do."

This was the last meeting of the day. The first was about logistics; that noble science where generals sought to make the most men march on the farthest on the least amount of food. The second was about an incident where human partisans had refused to act on the information of a spy because he was a beastkin. The third was about Mathilda's 'personal project' that was now being concealed in the barracks, whose mantra still hadn't changed.

This final meeting was about Rex. Or rather, about the lack of him.

"Maybe it was because we kept things secret that he left in the first place," said Mathilda. "You can't fault him for that."

"We gotta get em back," Caliban growled. "Having a 'chosen one's' good for morale even if he needs a hundred years of training to measure up."

"Hold it," said Gemini. "Before we carry on this discussion..."

She stood and left the room. From next door, in the wine closet, Mathilda and Caliban heard muffled protests, then screaming, then silence.

Gemini returned, dragging Enna by the ear.

"I was just drinking!! I was just drinking, I swear!" said Enna. "I wasn't listening through that hole!"

"O.K." said Gemini. "You can leave then."

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"Well... since I'm already here..." Enna said. "Maybe..." she pushed her fingers together. "I could sit in?"

Everyone exchanged looks.

"Okay!" Enna said. "Surprise! I was listening in."

Enna began to pace around the table. Tap-tap-tap her feet went on the hard stone cold floor.

"Let me find him," said Enna, "I'll bring him back" - Mathilda raised her hand "-and Mathilda, if I'm in danger I'll do this."

She spun her palm and a circle of blue sparks burst forth, crackling. "Then Gemini can rescue me."

Gemini snorted. "Blueberries. Nice."

"Leaving isn't wise," Mathilda said. "We've been working so hard to conceal your existence until now and if you're discovered the Demon Lord will place you in great danger."

"Maybe fighting will toughen her up." Caliban shrugged. "I don't give a shit either way."

"I say let Enna do it." Gemini smirked. "This 'Chosen One' or "Chosen Zero' kid, if the Demon Lord's thug get a hold of him they'll force everything out of him. And none of the three of us have time to track him down across the entire continent since we're making our move soon."

"Then with my and Gemini's vote it seems we're at an impasse of one to one."

But someone else raised their hand.

"I break the tie!" said Enna. "I vote that I go!"

"That's not even a real vote!" Gemini said, but Mathilda spoke as well.

"Enna... are you sure about that...? You've never seen what it's like for someone to perish. And my heart would break if something happened to you."

"That's the worst case," Enna said. "I've been in the woods before. Leave me with the lions, sit me with the sharks, throw me to the wolves, I can take them all!" She was almost bursting with joy, and static cracked as she brushed her hair aside.

----------------------------------------

The hair on Rex's neck stood on end. He painstakingly turned, one small twitch at a time. There was another, larger, set of green eyes in the darkness. And then he heard a howl.

"Aooooooooooooo!"

It was a deeper howl than the one he heard before, one that echoed in skull after it died down.

"Aoooooooooooooo!!!"

I don't have a real plan, thought Rex. I'm out of tree branches and sand. But there's always Plan Z...

He glanced again at the girl and crept his hand towards his rapier.

...winning in a real fight.

"3..." breathed Rex, as his fingers curled.

"2.."

Then the wolf pounced, and Rex's hand bolted to his sword. The creature bounded, once, twice, and the fangs fur and teeth rolled into him. He slammed into a tree and the rapier slipped out of his hands into the weeds.

Rex scratched at the bark as the wolf clawed at him. He clambered onto a branch and kicked the wolf in the nose, and it shrunk away, growling, then he scrambled up into the leaves. "Safe..." said Rex.

The wolf turned away, towards the girl in the middle. She had just barely begun to stand.

Aaooooooooooo!

"No!!" said Rex. The wolf started galloping towards her, mouth wide, fangs like swords. "No!!"

She had rose fully now but she was staring at the wolf. "Are you... okay? Can you understand me?"

The wolf paused. Then it stretched out its paws, extended its claws and roared even louder. It bounded forward...

...Rex slid down, twigs and sticks scratching him etching red lines into his skin

...the girl still simply watched the wolf, frozen...

and then Rex threw branches at the wolf. "Here boy, catch!"

The wolf whirled around and its jaws snapped through all the branches then rushed back towards him.

Shit.

"Hey! I'll distract him!" Rex shouted. "Attack!"

Something in the grass glinted in the moonlight, but Rex's eyes were forced to focus on the growling beast.

"No," she said. "Save yourself; in times like these, the strongest must be the one to survive."

"Either you help me or we both die! I'm not climbing up another tree!" Rex rolled as the wolf's swung with its claws and shredded the bark on the tree behind him.

"Use my sword! If we injure it it might give up!" Now the claws found flesh, shredding his shirt and injecting a burning pain. He clenched his jaw and as nausea washed over him he still forced his legs to move, forced himself to dart around the trees, throw rocks, and most of all avoid a second, deadly, blow.

The girl crawled through the grass and found the rapier. But when she tried to lift it, the sword jumped from her grasp too, as if this were some kind of bad dream.

""Stranger, I can't! I just can't attack with this sword!" she said.

"Now's not the time to be a pacifist" Rex said. "We've got to drive this wolf away!" He darted behind the wolf, into its blind spot.

"It's not that," she said. She raised her hands and while they had been bruised before, they were both now covered in blisters. "It's silver!"

The wolf smacked Rex with his tail and he flew into a bush on the far side of the glade. The wolf was licking its paws, satisfied for now, but the madness in its eyes had not faded away.

He clutched at his chest and his hand came away covered in blood and rags. Oh god, thought Rex. Think about training. Studying in the library with Enna... the arena with Caliban .... in a dark room, one time, with Gemini...

All that time, useless!

Useless?

Rex tore off what remained of his shirt and tossed it towards the girl. She caught the ball and tilted her head. "Use it!" He half shouted and half-whispered because the pain was beginning to strain his breathing.

The wolf now charged at Rex to finish him off.

Right before it reached him, it paused, and the terrible creature filled his entire vision.

Then it tackled him, putting all its weight on top of him, smothering him. Rex prepared to be smashed with a flailing claw, but after a single, terrible, shudder, the wolf no longer moved . Rather than lunge at him the animal had collapsed.

Rex crawled out from underneath from the fur. The girl was holding his sword, covering her hands with his shirt-rags.

"Wolves are weak to silver," she said. "and this wolf was an old wolf. So one strike," she stabbed with her pointer finger. "gone. Gone easier than bandits."

Rex laughed. "I think bandits were easier for me. I'm sure I'll live, though. My friends have always said I never know when to give up."

"Rex," said the girl. "My name is Jin. Thank you for saving me, from the bandits and from the wolves. Wait over there."

Jin rummaged in one of the packs lying in the grass and returned with a water bottle. "Supplies from the bandits," she said, and poured the water onto Rex's wounds, cleaning the blood.

"Are you cold?" said Jin. "...you can wear my shirt. I'll take it off."

There was a shuffling sound from underneath her cloak and she produced a bundle of black cloth.

"I don't get cold easily. And it's the duty of the older to protect the younger."

"There are so many things wrong with that statement... I don't know where to start." coughed Rex. "Wouldn't it make more sense to give me the cloak?"

"I need to wear the cloak." said Jin, who pulled her hood over her eyes. "But I don't mind the shirt."

"Is this for the same reason that you can't hold a sword?" said Rex. "I swear, is this a fantasy world or a.... nonsense... world...

His head dropped and he closed his eyes.

"Rex?" said Jin. "We just met, you can't... Rex!"