The midday sun was burning on her skin. It didn’t help that everything surrounding her was reflective metal.

“Gah. I feel like a pig on a roast spit in this heat! What happened to that snow storm?!” She heaved for breath and wondered how many layers of her armor she could strip off. When she was a man, she could just go topless.

“Bah. Try having fur, weak two-legs. You see me complaining?” Kami grunted as he walked fast to overtake her, like the heat wasn’t bothering him at all.

[Weather patterns in this region is not like a country on Earth. Seasons can change in a week or days on some continents of Seria. For the Expanse for the Lost, one day could be a heat wave and the next a snow storm. This is due to the rotation of Seria’s two moons, and their variation in gravitational pull. That is near double to Earth’s] System informed Veronika who wasn’t paying attention.

“Right now, a snow storm sounds good. I’ll take it.” Veronika huffed and turned to Kami. “Can’t you whip up an ice breeze or something.”

Kami sighed and gave a short bark, which caused frost crystals to hit her face. He chuckled when she nodded and looked happy with her frostbitten looking mug. She shook off the crystals, so color returned to her cheeks, and decided to rest.

The group found a shady spot within an escape pod wreckage, that was mostly dangling wires weathered with age. Entangled around rusty frames and bent metal sheets of a one-man hull. Scot leaned against a shady wall to inspect his rifle. Veronika checked around her pockets for food, and found the remaining beef strip rations in her back pocket. She sat down on the pod’s lone chair, placed the skinny, oblong tin on her lap and opened it.

To Kami, it was like she was opening a treasure chest full of shiny gold. His mouth began to drool when he smelt the savory bliss. He sat eagerly before her, wagging his tail.

“You know if you don’t ask nicely you don’t get any.” Veronika began teasing him. Naturally, receiving a furrowed brow from him in response.

“Here.” She rose and placed the tin on the chair for him to eat.

He sniffed the glorious food and licked his lips. Damned if it was poison, he’d eat it anyway.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Veronika smiled warmly at seeing his dumpy, furry white body going hard at the food. She hoped they’d reach the town soon, because that was her last ration pack.

Kami licked his chops with satisfaction when he stepped away from the ration tin. “Thanks Shepherd.”

“Any time.”

He shared the same shady spot as Scot when he dumped himself down on the ground and began grooming himself.

A hint of sadness crept into his eyes when he thought of his days he was always starving. Back then, he thought he was going to die. Likely would have if Veronika hadn’t given him the beef strips.

He paused his grooming to stare up at her who had her gaze toward the stark, clear, sky. The day felt peaceful around her. He frowned. The other one called her a clone. He didn’t know much about them, only that they were fakes made in some tank. But Veronika didn’t come across as fake. He slipped into his inner vision to see the traces of her aura energy, which was glowing brightly.

All beings carried a double outline of color around their bodies, which reflected their mood and energy levels. The outer line constantly changed colors and vibrancy to reflect their emotional state. But the inner line rarely changed. If it did, the change was subtle and gradual. This was because the inner aura line was their spirit energy level. His kind called these aura outlines, the Emotional Aura and Spiritual Aura.

Unlike emotional auras, which could fluctuate sporadically, spiritual auras had level ranks. Pups were born white and pure. When they learned their basic magic skills, their spiritual aura colors were yellow. When a wolf mastered an immediate level of spirituality and magic, their color would be blue. Most adult wolves stayed with inner blue aura lines. Only Alpha Leaders had the ability to cultivate their spirit energy to a higher level, which was purple. This was no different for other organic species, especially humans.

He peered harder at her aura around head and gasped at her colors. Her emotional aura was a faded red color that indicated her tiredness, but her spiritual aura was dual tones of purple and gold. A purple-gold aura! There were stories of the Legendary Wolf King, who had bested many Alpha Leaders to be the greatest and most powerful wolf mage of all time. The Wolf King of Anaconda. No other creature had held this aura since. But this human carried it. Although, some invisible energy was keeping the color’s vibrancy dull as if sealing her power. It explained why she was weak.

He blinked to make sure he wasn’t seeing incorrectly and mistaking the gold for a dull yellow. But her Spiritual Aura was strong with those colors. Gold was gold. It was unmistakable. He couldn’t believe it was possible that this fake human could be built with powerful spirit energy levels. A near god-like level. If they made humans like this, he feared what trouble they would cause.

“She can’t be fake.” He reassured himself as she seemed too genuine. For the first time in his short life, he felt the Wolf King’s blessing had been gifted to him. If he could develop his magic under her care, he too could be a legendary beast master and the Alpha Leader he always wanted to be.

He closed down his inner vision and rose to follow Veronika’s lead as they resumed their journey.