It took almost two hours rather than the hour it would normally take to return since the figure had awakened several times and flipped Fetus onto his back before Luxa could stop him, but passed out again when she pet his head and shushed him for a little bit. It finally stopped when Luxa carried him for the last fifteen minutes of the trip. Luxa got looks of jealousy from Fetus when he didn't wake up once, or at least didn't flip her onto her back if he ever did. As they entered, the guards stared at the figure hanging off of Luxa's shoulders but still let them through the gates. Fetus took the headless orangutan to the elders to explain what they found and why they brought in a stranger, while Luxa took the man to her family's house. She laid him gently near the fireplace and watched over him as he continued sleeping peacefully. Her parents gave her a concerned look since she placed the stranger in her favorite spot before sharing a look to see if the other had any idea why she would let a stranger sleep there when she didn't let anyone else near that spot.
"Luxa sweetie, why is there a stranger in the spot you defend so fiercely from others?" Her father spoke quietly to let the stranger continue sleeping without any disturbances.
"He's strong enough to lay there." Luxa's casual statement stunned her parents, but she ignored them and focused on the boy before her. She thought about how she had found him and how he had healed in his sleep while she held him.
"Dear?" Luxa's mother crouched beside her and brought her back by touching her shoulder gently. "What do you mean he's strong enough? There are so many others stronger than you that haven't been able to come close to your favorite spot, but this stranger is able to? Help your mother understand."
"He fought and killed a large part of the orangutans that have been stealing our prey after we bring them down. He only had light scratches all over his torso and they healed as I held him after I found him on a small hill of their corpses." She pointed to his shirt which caused her parents to gasp. There were faint marks where the cuts had been and the shirt was barely holding together with only a few thin threads holding the shirt on his body.
Her father stepped forward and tried to move his daughter away from him, but she refused to move. He couldn't understand this. She let him move away from the males chasing after her in their village, but she refused to move away from this stranger. "Luxa, we don't know if he is dangerous or not. You need to move away from him." Her father tried to reason with her since he couldn't guide her to move away like he usually could.
"He could have killed me when we met, but he asked if I was a foe and I told him not unless he did something to make me kill him. That's when he went to sleep and started to heal. When Fetus carried him, he would wake up somewhat randomly and flip him onto his back. Thankfully I could pet his head a bit and shush him like mother does when I wake up confused, and he went back to sleep within a minute of me doing that. Other than that, he never really woke up and tried to do anything to us."
Her parents shared a look behind her back and then focused on the stranger again. He had bone like skin and dark purple hair still, but what stood out the most to them was the bat ears where a human's ears would be. As they looked over him, the figure's eye suddenly opened. They were startled as the figure sat up quickly before seeing and focusing on Luxa.
"You took me away from my birthplace. I'm guessing it's because of what you saw in the clearing, the painting of my survival." His jade green orbs stared into her eyes as he spoke.
"Yes. You are the best hunter I've ever seen and you could help my pack survive a while longer. We haven't been able to hunt food without it being stolen by those orangutans that you slaughtered. Our pack is indebted to you and we need your help to hunt food for the whole pack." Luxa also seemed to ignore her parents as she talked to him. "I'm Luxa Sharpclaw, a hunter for the Sharpclaw pack or clan as other races call our packs."
"Terra, only one of my specific kind since an accident befell my brothers in our birthplace." Terra's voice held a hint of sadness as he spoke but it didn't convey any sadness, just regret. "I will help your pack, but only if you will accompany me to find more of my kind and figure out how and why I was created by Mother Mystim."
The parents suddenly stood and frowned at the stranger. "Why do you want my daughter to accompany you? Couldn't you take anyone else?" Her father's voice held a quiet warning as he glared at Terra.
"She helps me to heal faster than I normally do, maybe because of the strange abilities I possess that none of my siblings possessed while they lived. I ate their bodies to live and I have been hunting since then to survive. Your daughter is also the only one who hasn't tried to attack and kill me at first sight, so I wish to keep her around." He refocused on Luxa before speaking again. "Only if you want to accompany me, of course. I'm not going to take one of the best hunters of the pack away unless she wants to go with me."
Luxa's father took a step forward only to be stopped by his wife and daughter glaring at him. "How did you know that?" He growled instead.
"Simply by observing how the pack reacted as she walked by, the way she carries herself is like a proud hunter, and just a bit of guessing as well." Terra shrugged, but this only seemed to frustrate and anger her father more.
"You just want to weaken our pack and have a girl to play with on your travels. No. Not my daughter." His voice was barely audible; he was so angry at the young man before him.
"I could have killed your son and your daughter, or just killed your son and stolen your daughter when we met or as they were bringing me here. Why would I let myself be brought here if I was just going to steal your daughter and use her on my travels?" The quiet response shocked the older man into silence since what he said made sense. He pressed on as he knew he had the advantage now. "Your daughter is beautiful, yes, but if I wanted someone to use, wouldn't I go for someone else who was more developed in figure? The only reason to pick your daughter is due to her skills which I am sure will prove useful to me in my travels."
Her father nodded along in agreement while Luxa looked a little upset and her mother was clearly showing her shock at the words the young man was using. "You bring up very valid points, little cub. I am sorry for my behavior before. I wasn't thinking clearly as she is my daughter and the pride of the pack."
Terra only smiled softly. "I know. I would be the same way if I had a daughter like yours. Your daughter is needed by the pack and you've been able to watch her grow stronger for the pack. It's only natural that you would be so against a strange young man like me wanting your daughter to accompany him on his travels to learn about his origins and why he was made."
Luxa frowned slightly as she thought of how he was talking. "You have read the records in the Mystim den?"
"Only a few still left that I haven't read. There are still some I need to read later, but I am sure I can find more if I search other Mystim locations or the ruins I was told about when I was around six years old." Terra's face fell slightly as he recalled something. "I also feel like I am older than I really am most of the time. I could move and talk before my other siblings could, and I also get the feeling that things are familiar when I've never seen them before. That might be why I have survived for so long, these fragments of information floating around inside my mind that make sense when I need them. That is also part of why I must leave this planet and find ruins to learn about why I am this way when my siblings weren't."
Luxa frowned for a moment before nodding to herself. ��I'll watch your back, but you have to watch mine as well. We just need the elders to agree to it, and then we can leave without angering the pack and have to avoid desperate bounty hunters as we travel."
The door suddenly slammed open as the last word left her mouth. Fetus walked in before two bigger and more muscled werewolves. He was heavily bruised, as if he had just been beaten up before he was forced to walk home with the culprits. Fetus collapsed to the floor when the thicker one released his shoulder and seemed reluctant to move after he slammed into the floor.
"Huh. A new victim." Terra flippantly stated a few tense seconds after the sound faded away.
"Funny. I was going to say the same thing." The shorter one said as he glared at Terra. He turned to Luxa and his anger suddenly vanished to be replaced by lust and happiness. "It's good to have you back again, Luxa darling." He got a fierce and angry growl in response, but Luxa didn't even look at him. She was just staring at Terra as if waiting to see what he would do.
"I don't think she wants to be the darling of a cocky cub who can't even hunt a good flower down to please his lady, let alone food for his cubs." His voice was still flippant, but contained a hint of arrogance that would almost guarantee the reaction he wanted. "So be a good pup and just scram back to your father."
"Do you even know who you have the honor to be in the presence of?" The bulky henchman roared at Terra as if he somehow offended a powerful and important deity.
"The spoiled brat of the chief? That's the only thing I can think of who could be so dense and full of himself to think he has a chance with someone like Lady Luxa." Terra now sounded honestly curious, as if he didn't already know who the arrogant brat was. Luxa accepted the compliment with a faint blush and a quiet thanks only Terra heard over the fire's crackles and popping.
The henchman stuttered and spluttered as he couldn't say anything after what this stranger had said. The chief's son frowned and he looked again at the stranger. "You aren't a werewolf." He stated simply as if just noticing that.
"It should also be obvious that I am not a vampire as I don't have even the slightest hints of fangs, nor am I fully human as I have these ears." He gestured to his bat ears with a slight flourish before he continued on. "I don't think I'm a slime, but then again I don't even know what I am."
"It doesn't matter. I'm still going to challenge you to a duel since 'Lady Luxa', as you called her, seems to at least want you around. Maybe then the pack and I can see why. I hope to see you in the ring within the hour." He turned around and 'accidentally' kicked Fetus in the gut before he left with his henchman, who was still looking back to glare at Terra as they left.
Luxa moved to help Fetus get up and to the table where he could be checked by her mother, who was a healer, as she questioned Terra with a frown. "Why did you tell him that?"
"Tell him what?" Terra feigned ignorance so well that the house was quiet for a moment.
"You told him that you didn't know what you were?" Her father tried to get him to remember with that question, and it seemed to have worked.
"Right!" He made a face as if he just recalled what he said just mere seconds ago. "That's because he's a bully and a dimwit who will help me make my case to the elders to let Luxa come with me to find out who and what I am. He'll more than likely loudly taunt me with tidbits of info that I already have guessed at to make me try to beat him, and if he doesn't it just means I get to see how strong the son of the chief elder is."
Silence reigned for a few moments, other than Fetus's quiet moans of pain from the table, before Luxa's mother spoke. "You seem a little too casual about this fight. He doesn't have to fight or be on guard duty because he is the chief elder's son, but he has trained relentlessly to try and grab my daughter's attention. What makes you think you have an advantage over him?"
"He has brawn and lust, while I have purpose, magic, and strategy." A greenish golden flame appeared in Terra's hand as he spoke of why he was casual about the fight. The fire startled Luxa's mother because it was a magic called Life Fire and was desired by healers because it was so effective at healing and burned out possible infections so the patient would recover faster.
"You have nature and fire magic? You could make a name for yourself here as a healer after you return. You'd even put me out of business if you opened a clinic on our little planet." Luxa stared at her mother because she couldn't believe that her own mother was saying that with a little magic, he'd be more desirable to go to than the herbalists who had the job of healers in the packs.
Terra shook his head and put out the magic flame. "I could only provide relief for surface cuts, infections, and possibly curses if I practice this magic enough. I'm not as useful as you are, a true healer and herbalist." He turned to the door and sighed. "I'll need some help finding the arena since I am practically blind. Would someone help me there?"
Luxa's father nodded to her that she could take him there. "We need to help your brother recover. Once he has healed enough, we will find you in the stands and watch the rest of the fight with you." He got a hug for his permission and watched as his daughter had a little spring in her step as she guided the young man towards the arena. "Ha. I wish she would be so happy with a werewolf, but if he's as good as she says I don't think we have to worry about her getting hurt."
His wife just shook her head before pouring a freshly made healing tonic down her son's throat. "Let's just help Fetus heal quickly so we can watch the whole fight together as a family."