Mist drifted slowly throughout the treetops, dew hung from the leaves and branches slowly dripping lower and lower before dropping to the ground wetting the grass, the light rain that was piddling from the sky before had now ceased.
A figure slowly walked through the forest aimlessly, he had no idea in which direction he should be heading so he used what he had, a silvery glow flickered from beneath the cloth covering his eyes as he scanned the remnant spiritual energy residing near the forest floor, each time he seemed to encounter a black aura he turned away and changed direction.
'Still no sign of another person, I'm trying to avoid areas where that thing has been, but I don't know if it's helping at all' Seth thought as he sighed, he shifted the luggage laid over his shoulder slightly before moving onwards.
'If only he'd wake up…' The luggage wasn't any normal item, it was the young man who ended up fainting during the fight with the wolf monster, Seth decided it wasn't a good idea to remain there for too long, so he decided to haul the man with him even if he wasn't awake.
"Hnn…?" A slight groan came from the luggage lumped over his shoulder, so he stopped and placed it down next to a tree to lean on.
Seth waited for a minute or two waiting for the man to regain his senses, as his eyes turned from hazy to lucid, they jumped wide open as he stood up with his sight darting everywhere while sweat dripped off his neck in panic.
"What? Where…? The monster, where's the monster?!" He stared at Seth, the last thing he could remember was the howling of a wolf as his conscious turned to black, he thought for sure he was dead but now he was here and perfectly fine.
At least mostly, as his health caught up to him, he stumbled and fell on hit butt while swaying his head dizzily.
"Ugh, I feel like I drank too much…" His body felt lethargic and weak as his gaze slowly rested on Seth once more asking for answers.
"I'd like to say you can sit still and rest for a while, but I'd like to keep moving, I scared that thing off, but I have no idea if it'll come back sooner or later" Seth said urging the man to stand up from his ass.
"You 'scared it off'?! That monster?! How!" He was surprised beyond belief, at least from what he saw that monster was something not even a large hunting party could deal with.
"I just did, do you really need to ask how? You should be happy you're still alive at least." Seth held his palms up as he shrugged and shook his head not-so-discretely telling him that he wouldn't say any more.
"Right… I'm sorry, you're right you saved me I shouldn't be complaining… what's your name?" The young man asked him.
"It's Seth, I'm just a wanderer if you were going to ask" He casually replied
"It's fine, I'm Christopher, just call me Chris since it can be a bit of a mouth full" he said with a weak smile on his face, Seth offered Chris his hand and he accepted, he lifted him up off the floor until he stood in front of him.
Chris removed his leather cap letting Seth take a better look at his features, he had a face that definitely gave off a hot-blooded feeling with sharp features and clear silvery-blue eyes along with his messy but somehow refined curly ash-blonde hair it gave him an overall good-looking figure.
Chris bowed towards Seth and spoke with a sense of confidence: "Once again, thank you very much for saving my life! I don't know what I can do to repay you, but I will do all I can! I'm part of the guard from Mist-Veil Village, if you don't have anywhere in particular to go, we can head there; although we don't usually allow outsiders in, I'm sure I can get someone to pull some strings and allow it"
Seth nodded to him; he was at a loss of where to go right now so this was a godsend.
"I'll take you up on your offer, I don't know exactly where I am right now, so I'd like some information!"
"Right, you mentioned you were caught in a teleportation trap, right? How unlucky, I'd heard such things were usually worn away by time in all the ruins so to have one still active…" Although Chris was still young, barely entering his twenties, he was at least knowledgeable about many worldly subjects due to the teachers in the village, most arrays wore themselves down when in use for a long time, even when inactive it happened, so the older a ruin was the more likely it was to have no array traps.
"Tell me about it…" Seth murmured to himself just loud enough for Chris to hear, he at least had to put on a performance to back up his story even though it wasn't entirely true.
"By the way, do you know the way? This entire forest makes me feel like I'm in a maze, everywhere looks the same" Seth asked, no matter how much he wondered he couldn't find anything like a landmark.
Chris smiled in return, he was already expecting to be asked this: "Yeah, this forest does make a great natural barrier against other people that's why our village is here in the first place, as for how we get around we usually have our Ghost Wolves as companions"
"Ghost Wolves? Like the one from before?" Seth asked with doubt, they kept such monsters as companions?
"God no, the ones I'm talking about are at most a medium-class for the alpha and smaller for the rest, they have fur as white as snow and eyes to go with it, they can't compare to that monstrosity" Chris still felt chills when he thought about his short confrontation.
"White? So, like that?" Seth asked, pointing in one direction with his long index finger.
A short distance from where he was pointing was a smaller wolf, it seemed to be young and had larger tuffs of fur around its neck than an adult Ghost Wolf.
"Wait, what?" A surprised expression rose upon Chris' face, a wild Ghost Wolf was rare and there shouldn't be any out here alone, he took a closer look at the four-legged figure quietly pacing itself towards them.
'That unique fur…" He saw that some small areas of fur on the small pup seemed to be dyed an azure blue "Isn't that the one Alpha is particular about?" He realised which wolf it was, this particular one was known to basically everyone since it seemed to be a mutation species, though other than the colour of the fur there hadn't been much else different so far but Alpha, the leader of the pack currently was protective of her.
"You know this wolf?" It was Seth's turn to be surprised, as far as he knew most animals like this looked overly similar so to tell which was which immediately said something.
"Eh, yes and no, it's a mutation so she stands out a lot among her siblings, a lot of people know her"
"But why is she here?"
"That… I have no idea; she should be in the village still" Chris was completely lost at this turn of events.
They both stood completely stumped and just stared at the small wolf as it plodded its way towards them, more accurately it ended up before Seth who just returned its curious stare.
She sniffed him slightly and started to walk around him looking him up and down while occasionally sniffing him, he just stood stock still as he had no idea what the little wolf was up to.
Soon it stopped and sat down staring up with its blue eyes at Seth's face before barking.
"Bark!"
"Uh, hello?" Seth was beyond confused, he kneeled down in front of it and decided to pet its head out of reflex, she sat still while he patted her soft fur for a for seconds and scratched behind her large ears, he didn't have a dog in his previous life, but he did like them, he couldn't have one due to his hectic work schedule and the fact he live alone so he didn't have time to look after one.
After a little while he stopped and held his hand out: "Do you want something?" He asked hoping it would understand him, yet before he could say anything else the little pup moved-
*Nom*
It bit his hand, not hard, just enough to leave a small mark but she remained latched on.
""Ah"" Both Seth and Chris exclaimed with surprise with Chris showing a bit of worry, but Seth didn't care much, his flesh was fake anyway even if it took a chunk it wouldn't hurt, but more importantly the moment they made contact he felt something inside him resonating.
He focused his vision and he could see something that interested him, his spirit flow and the spirit flow the small wolf was giving off seemed to be merging, not in the way he made when he merged with the ley-lines or Silva during the contract, they seemed to be taking on each-others form, at first he was slightly startled but he instinctively felt there wasn't anything bad happening and just let it occur.
After a minute of awkward silence, it let go of his hand and it seemed to have shed some fur and grew slightly, a new sparkle seemed to rest in its ice like eyes.
As for Seth he could feel somewhat of a connection to the now less-small pup in front of him, similar to his connection to Silva but a degree closer.
As he was trying to understand what he was feeling he felt a voice echo in his head, it was that of a young girl.
("Food")
"… What?"