Just as Nekana had been promised, she heard whispering among the trees of intense sorrow. She followed the sounds, and she felt a sense of foreboding as she found herself heading toward where the town of Miron stood.

She had been there, now nearly a hundred years ago, when the first agreement had been reached between the humans of Dyran and the Moryshin, but no promises had been kept, and so it was a source of rage that the town of Miron still stood. And perhaps, if all had gone as was promised to me, to all of us, it would not stand still. The Moryshin was old now; it seemed he was unwilling to go back on his words or unable to do anything. It was difficult to tell. The end result was the same: nothing could be done without defying him.

Since the trees are responding to this degree, I suppose I am about to find an orphaned mystic. For thousands of years now, this forest had grown and thrived under “forest god” guardianship. Nekana had raised many of her own trees, and so had her mother, and her mother’s mother. The wolf had doubts that even a strong elven plant mage could influence this much of the forest.

Therefore, as she moved around a clump of berry bushes with deep purple berries mixed with decorative white ones grown by another mystic, and all but walked into a human, she felt overwhelming astonishment.

It was laying, reeking blood, wolf-blood no less, at the bottom of an incline in the grass. The trees were sighing most strongly in this spot; the source of it had to be this human.

Wolf killer? Nekana wondered, as her hackles began to come up. She was supposed to help this creature? Why? To what end? She half wondered if Kartowen had played a cruel joke on her. She calmed herself. She was meant to help… and get… peace? That seemed unlikely.

She slowly came down the hill and stood over it. Its face was dirty. It had been crying. It was a she. She was whimpering in her sleep and shivering.

Nekana took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Do I really have to take care of a depressed human? It would be so much easier to kill it. Or let it kill itself. They do not live that long in any case.

She slowly mastered her bitter feelings and tried to think of what to do with this human. I suppose I should wake it up and get to know it? Just how an intensive project did he give me this time? And why is this one important? So, she stood over her, larger than a draft horse, and nudged her shoulder a bit roughly.

The human blinked, her eyes struggling to open, after having cried herself to sleep. She looked about, and then looked up, and met Nekana’s eyes for the first time. The voices of the trees calmed once the human was no longer sleeping. In the sunlight, Nekana saw distinctly yellow eyes. A changer? The human did not look alarmed, but maybe she was not with reality yet? She closed her eyes. Nekana did not move, and the human did not move for several moments. Finally, the human spoke, “You must also be a mystic.” The voice was rough, and sounded almost more like a frog than a human being.

Nekana said nothing. The human was exhausted, that much was clear. As the silence stretched between them, she spoke again. “I…. know that I do not belong here,” she managed with tones that were unsteady. “So, I am prepared to accept the consequences of that.”

Nekana was… intrigued, just a little, by this human’s attitude. “And just what are those consequences, do you think?”

The human didn’t open her eyes. “Whatever you want. It no longer matters to me.”

You are Uryan. The blood I smell must be your lost liana. Nekana frowned despite herself. Why would you be here? Your liana would have known that it would displease the gods to bring you here.

Displeased Gods had a habit of being… lethal. Yet, Kartowen had specifically vouched for this one and wanted her rescued. Does that mean that the eyes of the Many-God are about to be on me? She did not care for that notion.

Still, she now had some context of what had happened, and she forgave the blood. Still, usually a human could not live through the loss of their liana, but this one was calm. She was dirty and bereaved, but not insane… not like the last one Nekana had witnessed lose her liana. That child had beat herself against trees, had picked up stones to strike against her head, and had screamed herself into unconsciousness. She had truly lost her mind; that was plainly not the case here. Even so, why save this one? For several moments, Nekana was unsure of what to do. “What is your name?”

The human seemed a little surprised about this question, and opened her eyes, as if attempting to look at Nekana. Instead, she seemed to be looking through her, as if reality were not with her yet. “I am called Rosalea by most,” she offered at last.

Meaning you were called something else by others? The eyes which looked back at her were wide with pain, distanced with agony, but there was still a person operating the body. There was still someone there. Then, Nekana was fairly certain she understood. “And who are you, Rosalea?” The human seemed to have a hard time with the question. “Are you Uryan? Ieshan? Something else? Who are you?”

Slowly, as if the words pained her, “I am of all bloods. And until a little while ago, I had all magics.”

Nekana smiled in a small way. And so it becomes clear. It is that prophecy of Theirs. Even though it begs many new questions, I understand why they want her saved at least. Hopefully, everything else will become clear soon.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I see. I have decided your punishment for trespassing here; you shall indeed be punished,” Nekana began slowly, smiling softly. “I shall take you home with and keep you.”

“Wuh…” was all the human could manage, looking confused, and therefore more alert than ever so far.

Nekana smiled broadly, bringing her nose down near the human’s face. “Yes, Rosalea, you offered me whatever I wanted after all.”

Rosalea cringed the smallest bit away from the massive jaws near her face. She also did not seem to know what to say. She was struggling with words that wouldn’t come out.

“The first order of business,” Nekana said, stepping forward and shoving the human down onto her back with her nose. She gripped a bunch of the leather of her shirt in her teeth, “bath,” she managed in muffled tones. She lifted the girl off the ground. The human flailed, but the shirt had been pulled too tight against her body for her to wriggle out. Nekana trotted forward, knowing exactly where to go, right up to the nearest stream; it was the same Rosalea had fallen into earlier, though much further upstream from that spot now.

The big wolf showed off her strongest affinity, for the water, and she heated a patch of it, stalling it from flowing with the rest of the stream, and she dropped the poor dirty human into it. Rosalea squawked and flailed, completely rumpled from this treatment, but she calmed as soon as she realized it was warm. “Wash yourself. You are not… presentable.”

The human looked down at herself, at the black smears of blood… and looked like she might burst into tears again. Nekana would have let her; she knew there would be a great many more tears before the kind of pain that she must feel would begin to die away. She shivered, and looked like she would just sit in the water without moving, perhaps soaking up the heat, or too listless to summon energy to clean up.

“Come now, Rosalea, or I will wash you myself. Are you going to do this the easy way or my way?”

“I thought I was dreaming before,” she mumbled almost incoherently, and began rubbing her leathers mechanically. The blood came back to life, floating red down the moonlit white water and drifting away. Tears trickled down to join the water, and slowly she stopped, sobbing softly.

Nekana softened just a little, laying down and nosing the human gently on her cheeks. Which, at first, seemed to make things much worse, a trickle turning to a fountain, but slowly she calmed again, and resumed scrubbing the blood off her clothes and herself while Nekana kept a sphere of warmth around her.

The human had cuts on her face, hands, arms and part of the blood running down the stream was her own, and Nekana let her take several moments to fixate on that blood and the act of cleaning the wounds. Doubtless the small amount of pain was relief to the larger pain.

It will not be good for you to stay in the water too long. It is winter, after all. Depending on how long she had been cold and muddy before Nekana had found her, it might be more than past time to get Rosalea warm and dry. She pressed more of her will into the spring, animating the water, using it to help slide against the injuries, finding debris and carrying them and the blood and mud away from Rosalea. Then Nekana bent over, catching the human behind the back of her neck, gathering wet leathers in her mouth, and lifted her clear of the stream. Another application of her magic had the water running off her wet body and back into the stream.

The human flailed a bit, then went a bit limp. It reminded Nekana a little of times she had scruffed her own pups, though Rosalea was a bit too big for that. “There, clean is much better. Do you have something to bind your injuries with?”

She shook her head, “Everything I own… was in earth storage, and now…” just getting close to mentioning the lost liana started the tears that had paused while she was getting washed and picked up.

Poor thing, Nekana thought. Rosalea swallowed several times to master her tears and patted along her body with her scraped hands, and she pulled a knife from her belt, and then she pulled her under shirt from beneath the leather and took a minute to cut away strips - she used this to cover the worst one on her leg and then one on the side of her arm. The rest had scabbed over because they were a lot more minor, and Nekana used only a little water to clean her again.

She stared up at the wolf, her yellow eyes intense on Nekana’s, though not as a challenge, but desperately looking for an explanation of the wolf’s choices. Nekana did not justify herself, but just looked back at the pale-faced, racoon-eyed exhausted, depressed little woman. I do not think I have ever felt quite like this toward a human before. Sympathy? Yes. But, I find it easy to want to be attached, and I am unsure why.

She thought of Kartowen’s cryptic words. Peace? Whether love or greed was stronger? Gods that potentially fight over you and how you fit into their prophecy?

“Why are you doing this? I cannot possibly be of any use to you,” she whispered softly, her voice ragged and hoarse.

“It pleases me to claim you as mine, what more justification could I possibly need?” Nekana said, deciding for now the wisest thing to do was be silent on her suspicions until she understood more.

Rosalea bowed her head and huffed in a frustrated way that reminded Nekana so much of her child, Raisa, that it was jarring. It was almost exactly the same noise. It is a long walk home, she thought. She scruffed the human once again, lifting her with a small squeak of protestation. “Get yourself comfortable; I will carry you home.”

Rosalea sighed and just lay limply. Nekana began walking, and as she began sliding off, she altered her position a bit and laid vertically along Nekana’s back. It was clear she was tired, more than tired, weary clear through.

Nekana walked and soon the human slipped into a dozy state that barely hung on, so she kept her steps as even and regular as possible. Amalia will be able to help the most, I think. She has the patience of the stones themselves, and we can give the human some work to do. Just as soon as I can figure something out to keep her busy… and some method of looking after her since she will need some supplies.

Almost as if thinking about her had summoned her, Amalia was there. “Mother, I was starting to wonder where you were.” Her eyes looked to the human, and she gave a quizzical look.

“You know that changer prophecy?”

“One of All?” Amalia said, sniffing the silver hair, but not touching.

“It seems to be so.”

“Where is the liana?”

“Dead.”

Amalia gave her a significant look. “So, what would you have me do to help you?”

“Can you gather everyone? I want to present her all at once.”

“I will see it done.” Her look-alike child disappeared into the trees.

Nekana proceeded slowly through the trees and knew her look-alike child would have plenty of time to gather the whole pack. If she went any faster, the exhausted little creature she was carrying would just fall off of her… and a little rest seemed to be needed. Well, this is only the third strangest thing that has happened to me because of the Gods, she thought with a bit of a wry smile.