Ping*: "Hey, it's been a while. Glad that you survived, you saved yourself from a one-way ticket to hell. At least for now haha".
The moment that Ryan heard the voice of the person he detested the most he immediately opened his eyes and stood up. 'Don't give me that, where have you been? That thing that you told me about being able to turn into a human is a bunch of bull. Even if by some miracle I would be able to then I would be attacked by an army. I was also nearly killed by the attack from the other clans. I thought that you said you wanted me here to have some entertainment, isn't that a little hard to do when I'm dead?'
Ping*: "Quit your whining, who do you think I am? I have multiple worlds to take care of, besides I never said that I would be in your beck and call. Anyway, I just wanted to congratulate you on your success, to be honest, I didn't think you would make it out haha. Cya around, stay safe."
'Wait aren't you going to do anything about the army that is killing humanity? Isn't that one of your jobs as a god?'
He waited silently but there was no response like usual so all he could do is sigh and try to go back to sleep. Ryan only had about 3 hours of sleep and now no matter how much he tried he couldn't. 'That old geezer only came here to ruin my rest. Well anyway, at least it's good to know that he's still looking over me, or at least I have to keep myself thinking that. If I am about to die I have to hope that he will help me so that he can keep enjoying my suffering. Still, so far things haven't been so bad, the clan has weakened severely but I'm sure we can strengthen it soon.'
Ryan grunted, stood up, and began stretching, 'Since my actual body hasn't moved in half a month I should work out a bit. That little trip in the advancing realm taught me one thing and that was that if you really want to survive then you must have good speed and stamina otherwise you're dead meat.'
He walked as silently as he could trying not to wake the sleeping Starlight. According to Sun Blaze, she hadn't slept much in order to keep an eye on him in case he woke up.
Once he was finally out of the makeshift den he found the pups playing around., They were being watched by River Paw and Mud Paw.
He slowly made his way towards the two apprentices "Hey it's good to see that both of you are okay."
River Paw turned around and gave Ryan a short nod and continued watching the pups. Mud Paw just looked at him and lowered her head slightly avoiding his eyes, "Viper Pup I heard from Wave Whip that you found me when I was injured and that without you I would probably not be alive so thanks. Looks like I was wrong, even you can be useful from time to time."
The she-wolf then turned around and paid close attention to the pups which was weird for Ryan since she couldn't stand it in the past. 'Even her apologies are insults.'
Ryan used his paw to pat the side of River Paw "Hey sorry about Fire Claw, he was a great warrior and we will all miss him."
The blue apprentice's ears and tail dropped and he looked at him "Thanks Viper Pup, I will make sure to follow my mentor's path and become a warrior that is worthy of having been taught by him. I'm also sorry about your father, he was a good Alpha."
Ryan nodded and tried to think of a way to change the subject "Where's Feather Paw? Is she hunting with Dust Thorn's group?"
Both the blue and brown apprentices dropped their heads and ears. Mud Paw began to growl and looked at Ryan with a gaze full of hatred "Both she and her mentor died fighting side by side. They were surrounded and defeated by the Blood Clan warriors during the battle."
He sighed and shook his head, even if he didn't really know much about the apprentice he knew that she was young and he couldn't help but feel bad.
He walked away and found a good place where he began to jog back and forth. Since his body hadn't moved for a good while he quickly reached his capacity and laid down for a bit. When he had rested he continued until he heard a familiar voice.
"Viper Pup it's great that you finally woke up, you had everyone worried."
He turned around and found a group of 5 wolves, each had goblin dangling from their jaws. The wolf leading the group was none other than Dust Thorn. Ryan gave him a short nod and tried continuing to run but when he looked at the goblin his stomach started to growl.
He was taken aback, 'The hell, since when did I start craving those dirty creatures? I mean I get that I haven't eaten for a while but still.'
With their sensitive hearing the 5 wolves heard his stomach and began laughing, Dust Thorn looked at the other 4 wolves "Give those to the weakened wolves and then let's get ready to go out again. That goblin den looked like it had a good amount of food, at the moment they still don't know about us hunting them so we should take advantage of that."
The wolves nodded and they broke up walking in different directions towards the injured wolves.
"Hey River Paw and Mud Paw get those pups over here so that they can eat a meal with Viper Pup."
When the pups heard Dust Thorn they immediately turned around and began running towards them. They stopped beside the goblin corpse that was laying in front of Ryan, all 11 pups sat down and looked at him.
Ryan felt awkward being stared at by the pups, apprentices, and Dust Thorn so he used his paw to point at the goblin "Well, what are you waiting for eat up."
The pups shook their head and like always his little deputy walked forward, "We heard Star Light say to Dust Thorn that you would be really weak when you woke up because you haven't eaten anything for a long time. Eat as much as you need so that we can play together again."
Ryan looked at the pups with watery eyes, he was touched by how the little guys were acting. If he had hands he would have lifted them and hugged them as if there was no tomorrow.
He gave a short nod and took a bite, after he had finished eating it he pointed at the goblin again and smiled. "Alright, now let's all eat this together."
The pups hesitated for a bit but in the end, their hunger got the best of them and in a few minutes they had eaten their fill.
Now that Ryan had finally eaten something he felt a lot better, he looked at the pups as they ran back to play in the rocks.
Dust Thorn sat down next to him and sighed "Those pups are really something, haha, they are getting stronger by the day and it's all thanks to you. Moon Heart was extremely proud of having you, he was excited to see what changes you would bring to the clan."
Ryan nodded, "I didn't really know much about him but the little that I got to know was great."
The brown warrior gave a nod and began laughing, "I heard that when he was an apprentice he would challenge everyone, even the warriors. Star Light would beat him and knock him out every time he tried to bite more than he could chew, those two have been close for most of their lives. That's why I can't even try to imagine how much she is suffering."
Ryan sighed, he really didn't feel like talking about depressing things like this. At the beginning of his new life in the new world, he probably wouldn't care. The thing now was that since he stayed here and met the pups and his parents he started having a sense of belonging. Even if he did turn into a human which now he found would be hard as hell and extremely unlogical, since there was a huge war against humans, he would probably still try to look after the clan.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts and then looked at Dust Thorn "When I was in that place I heard something about a demon army, would you happen to know anything about it?"
The brown warrior seemed to think about the question for a bit but then he shook his head "No, to be honest, I've never seen any demons around here. When I was a pup some warriors mentioned them, but the demons were tied and led away by humans. Since then there has been no news about them."
Ryan nodded "What do they look like? How did the warriors know that they were demons."
"Well according to what I heard the demons look almost like the humans, the only difference is that they have horns and markings in their skin that glow when they use their magic. As to how they knew that those were demons, I honestly don't know."
Ryan sighed, 'Sounds like the demons were targeted by the humans and now it's their turn to get payback. The thing that I have to start thinking of is how to get everyone away from having to participate in the war. I would like to see if I could somehow help the humans but I would be killed on sight. Split made it sound like most of the horned wolves were part of the war. That could mean that all the creatures either want to be in the war or they are forced to participate.'
He looked at Dust Thorn and took a deep breath since he was excited, "Umm….. do you think that perhaps you could help me learn how to use my new ability?"
The brown warrior was taken by surprise but in the end, he laughed and nodded, "Now there's the Viper Pup we know and love. At the moment I have to go and hunt some more but I know who can help you out. River Paw get over here and help Viper Pup."
The young apprentice nodded and walked their direction, "Viper Pup has come back to us and he wants to test his ability. He's the youngest wolf that I've heard advance so I don't know if he is ready yet. Let me know the results when I return from hunting."
The apprentice nodded and together the two of them saw Dust Thorn leave with the hunting party.
Both of them moved farther away from the pups. "Alright Viper Pup could you tell me what sort of magic you got?"
Ryan nodded and smiled "Lighting."
River Paw looked at Ryan with a confused expression "You mean like the light that comes down from the dark clouds?
He gave the apprentice a nod.
The young wolf sighed "I see, sorry but the thing is that I don't really know how you should fire your power but I can help you see if you can use it.
Ryan followed River Paw's instructions to the letter.
"Try to find the slight feeling of warmth that is traveling around your body. Once you have found it try to expand that warmth and fill up the inside of your body. After that do your best to try and let that warmth out and have it heat up around the air around you."
Ryan imagined the warmth escaping through his pores and soon there were little zaps of white lighting traveling around his pelt. He got excited and tried his next move, Ryan did the best he could to imagine the shape that a laser makes and suddenly a bolt of lightning hit a branch on the tree.
It was totally off and not even close to where he was aiming but the fact that he had just produced and fired lighting made him jump out of happiness.
Meanwhile, the apprentice was looking at the scorch mark that appeared on the branch in total shock, "What happened? Did you actually manage to use magic in your first try?"
Ryan nodded and looked at the apprentice "Yeah didn't you see the lighting hit the branch or the white lighting on my pelt?"
River Paw shook his head "There was nothing on your pelt, you were just standing there and suddenly there was a scorch mark on the tree. Could it be possible? No, it's not possible try it again and let me know when you think that you have lighting."
Ryan began to get even more excited and he quickly tried the process again, "Alright, I have lighting traveling around my fur now what?"
Suddenly he felt something in the shape of a paw touch him, at that moment there was a loud dog-like cry.