Pain. That was the only thing he could feel. He didn’t know what had happened. He had come home. He had laid down and fallen asleep. And now here he was, being crushed. Each breath was a struggle, and it almost felt like he was breathing liquid. That could’ve been his blood. How should he know?
Sunlight streamed in through a few cracks above him, and he could see people moving around. He didn’t hear them though. He couldn’t hear anything except this high pitched ringing. He knew he was dying. There was nothing that anybody could do. He couldn’t even try and end it quicker. He was forced to lay there, immobile, unmoving, and wait for it to end.
I just…I just want…for things to be…
And with that thought, he passed away from this life. His soul slowly left his body, and began to drift upwards. It passed through the rubble of the building above him. It passed by the rescue workers trying to save people who were trapped. It drifted by a news helicopter that was covering the recent building collapse. It reached the upper atmosphere, but kept on going.
It was only when it tried to move on that something different happened. The soul flickered with the barest hint of fear and sorrow. This brief flicker caused it to bounce back. Unable to move on.
But this soul was creative. If it couldn’t go forward, it’d go around. And it did just that. It travelled sideways. But with each jump sideways, it deteriorated. Little bits of it broke off, again and again, until it couldn’t jump anymore. So it floated, stuck.
As it floated, another planet slowly came into view. Water stretched across a good portion of it, but the land masses were covered in a vibrant green. The planet grew closer and closer, until the small little soul started to fall. It had lost too much of itself to remain floating.
The soul gently touched down in the middle of a forest, surrounded by wildlife. As it floated there, small little lights started to float up to it. They circled it for a bit, before one of the lights approached it.
As soon as the small light came in contact with the soul, it flickered, and vanished. The soul pulsed, before thoughts started to pour into it again. But these thoughts didn’t contain words; they only contained feelings.
It looked around in panic; at least, as much as a soul can “look around.” It noticed the small lights surrounding it, and it tried to move closer. It glided across the ground, right up to one of the lights. The lights flitted around a bit, as if it was scared, but it didn’t flee. The soul “reached out” and touched the light. Same as the first light it had come into contact with, this light flickered and vanished.
This time, the soul’s thoughts began to contain words. It thought for a moment, and realized that the lights must have granted it this ability. So, if it touched more of the lights, it would get smarter.
It quickly started to chase the lights, but the lights had begun to flee after they watched the soul absorb a second one. The soul only managed to catch two more lights before they were all out of range. Its thinking had not improved any further as far as it could tell, but that didn't mean it didn’t have fun playing chase.
Something was niggling at the back of the soul’s thoughts, but it was distracted by a rustling in the bushes. Focusing in that direction, it saw a wolf charge out. The wolf was massive, around fifteen feet tall at its shoulders, with pitch black fur. It was missing patches of fur and was covered in multiple scratches. It was barreling directly towards the soul, but the wolf couldn’t see it. Before either of the two knew what was happening, the wolf passed through the soul. The wolf stumbled a bit as its soul was forcibly absorbed, and the soul quickly hopped into its body.
Looking through the wolf’s memories, the soul realized it was being chased. But, when it thought about what was chasing it, something tickled the back of its mind again. But this time, the feeling was stronger. It slowly stopped running and turned around. It sat down and decided to wait a bit. This feeling was beginning to bother it.
It didn’t have to wait long. It heard a group of somethings approaching it, not at all stealthily. It was at this moment that a group of people burst out from the very same bush the wolf had come from. They quickly skidded to a halt, obviously not expecting the wolf to be sitting there waiting.
The soul, however, was panicking. When the people appeared, it felt this great tugging in its head. And then, like the dam had broken, a wave of memories washed over it. It remembered it’s death. It remembered it traversing across the worlds by sheer tenacity. It remembered that it had once been human.
Almost unconsciously, the wolf’s body started to bubble and shift around. The group of people watched on, weapons still raised, as the wolf slowly shrank down. They watched as the fur slowly sunk back into its skin. They watched as it took on a humanoid appearance. They watched as it opened its eyes, and looked at them one at a time. And they watched as it collapsed to the ground and started to cry.
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“How many times do I have to tell you to stop sleeping with the receptionists!?”
“It’s not my fault I’m so handsome! Besides, it doesn’t affect you in any way whatsoever, so just stay out of my business!”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Thea was tired. She hadn’t slept well the night previous, and now she had to deal with these two idiots. Malik and Havel were twins, but they almost never got along. Sometimes she thought they purposefully angered each other, just to have something to argue about.
She dropped her head into her hands with a sigh. Thankfully, the party’s resident meat shield decided it was a great time to show up and save her before the twins began cutting each other up.
“C’mon gang, we got a monster to hunt. Sources say there’s a Grand Dire Wolf out in Mildrgar Forest. It’s taken to eating farmers’ livestock, which is what caused a bounty to go up for it.” Jorreck slammed a wooden tablet on the table, startling the twins out of their argument.
Their resident mage, Yval, raised her head off of the table and stared at Jorreck with a glint in her eyes. “Does this mean what I think it means?” She asked, with something that bordered on obsession in her voice.
“That depends. If you’re thinking that you get a new fur coat after this job, then no. The guild wants the body as intact as possible, which means we have to try and lug it back whole.” Jorreck sighed.
Thea stood up. “So, how do y’all feel about heading out now? I don’t know ‘bout you guys, but I don’t particularly want Havel to “distract” another one of the guild’s receptionists.”
This earned a few chuckles from everyone present except Havel himself, who just frowned at the group.
It was also at this point that Thea remembered something rather important.
“So, uh, who’s gonna go get Ciella up?” A silence fell over the group, an almost physical pressure.
“I think Malik should-”
“Why me? You haven’t woken her up in a while-”
“Y’know, I should probably go talk about the job-”
“Haha, none of you guys even want to think about waking up Cie? Wimps~”
“Hey, if that’s what you think, why don’t you go get her up? In fact, why don’t you wake her up for the next month?”
“Gladly. I’ll show you guys how you wake up a healer.”
With that quick argument, Yval stood up from the table and approached the stairs leading up. A hush fell over the table as they tried to listen to the following chaos. Thankfully, nobody was usually up this early, so they could hear what was happening on the inn’s second floor much better.
They heard the slamming of a door and Yval shouting. Jorreck said a silent prayer for her safety, though he doubted it would be of much use. What followed was a bunch of screaming, and some ominous thuds. With each thud, the party would wince a little.
A little later, Yval came stumbling down the stairs, looking a bit shell shocked, but otherwise fine. She slowly made her way over to the table, and plopped down in her seat.
“I take it back. You guys can wake her up next time.” Yval’s head fell onto the table, eliciting ominous chuckles from the rest of the party.
“That’s not how things work honey,” Havel said with a grin. “You said you’d gladly wake her up for the next month. A mage doesn’t go back on their word, now do they?”
Yval raised her head long enough for the rest of the party to see her expression morph to one of horror. However, before anyone could make more jokes at her expense, the healer herself strolled down the stairs.
“I hear we have a job hunting a Grand Dire Wolf. When do we leave?”
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They had been walking for the greater part of the day before they found the first sign of the beast. The half-eaten remains of a sheep were partially hidden under a briar patch. Thea made a gesture, and the party grouped up closer together.
Malik was leading the way, following the tracks it had left behind. They slowly made their way deeper and deeper into the forest, where the trees grew higher and higher.
Ciella was the first to speak in a few hours, but she still spoke in a hushed whisper. “So, I don’t know if this means anything, but the spirits seem to be attracted to something in the same direction we’re heading in.”
Nobody knew what to make of that fact, so Thea just told them to keep their guard up. After all, it would help to be prepared for whatever it meant.
It wasn’t until a few hours later that they stumbled upon the wolf. It was resting in a small clearing, with a small pond on one side and a pile of bones and rotting flesh next to it. Malik cursed.
“Shit. That’s not a Grand Dire Wolf. That’s a goddamn Fenrir. If we don’t take care of it now, things could get much, much worse. Thea?” Malik looked at the party leader.
She pondered for a moment. “It’s sleeping now, so we can get the jump on it. It’ll put our abilities to the test, but Malik is right. If we don’t take care of it now,it will only get to be more of a danger later. Plus,” she added with a grin, glancing at the rest of the party, “a Fenrir will fetch us more than just a Grand Dire Wolf.”
This earned a few wry smiles from the party, but they quickly got into formation. Without making a sound, they charged into battle.
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They were exhausted. They had been fighting nonstop for an hour now, but all they had to show for it was a few tufts of fur and a few splatters of blood. The Fenrir was much tougher than they had originally thought. In fact, the only advantage they had over it was that they had surprised it while it was sleeping. It was barely able to dodge everything as soon as the fight had started.
It was also this fact that had led to the current situation. The Fenrir was running away at top speed. The party was chasing after it, but there was only so much they could do to keep up with a fifteen foot tall behemoth of a wolf. They were falling behind, and they could tell.
It was only when they burst into another clearing and saw the Fenrir sitting there, watching them, that they stopped. They raised their weapons, despite knowing that it was pointless. They were all exhausted at this point.
Jorreck was the first one who noticed it. “Guys, it’s different. It seems almost completely different. Less dangerous, but more…curious.” Once he had pointed it out, everyone else noticed it too.
But then things took a strange turn. The party watched as the Fenrir shook its head a bit, before staring at them intently. It then leaned back on its haunches and pawed at its face. They watched as its skin started to bubble, and the flesh seemed to almost slough off.
It slowly shrank down until it was human sized, and it looked human. Human, that is, if you ignored the wolf ears and tail it clearly still had. It was still squeezing against its head, as if it hurt.
But then it relaxed, its arms dropped to its side, and its eyes opened. It regarded them for a moment, before its knees gave out and it fell to the ground. It started to cry at that moment; great, big, chest-heaving sobs came from it. It raised its head to the sky and let out a wail so full of sorrow, that anybody could experience the pain it was going through.
And the party had no clue what to do.