Samuel Walked over to the edge of the caverns having left most of his gear at the camp he was not afraid of getting a bit wet if he had to swim deeper into other caverns, because he could simply dry himself off with spells really easily.
The others were all doing their own thing and he would just enjoy finding a quiet spot and taking it easy for a while. He took a deep breath before diving into the crystal clear water and started swimming down. He could even open his eyes in the water and see everything with ease.
But just for extra safety he casted a water breathing spell and a cantrip to prevent stinging in his eyes. The feeling of breathing water was a bit hard to get used to, it felt very different after all suddenly having lungs that could breathe in water.
Samuel took his time to enjoy exploring everything in the crystal clear water as he swam around and looked at every little thing under the water that caught his eye. There were quite a few plants and crystals giving off light after all.
He started swimming deeper into the caverns and found several places where there were airpockets and smaller caverns. He passed by plenty of larger caverns as well that were simillar to the one they had set up their camp in.
He wondered just how old this place truly was, it must have existed for hundreds of years, left undisturbed. Thankfully the path inward was pretty straightforward and most tunnels hardly went downward. So finding the way back would be an easy task.
He kept going and going until he suddenly heard a weird song. He could hear it in his head, something was calling him. Begging him to swim deeper inside, it was almost irresistible. But the most weird thing about it was the fact that it felt familliar the closer he got.
Samuel heard muffled words that were annoying him, the song was cancelling out everything else. He found another cavern after following the song for a while, the cavern was huge, probably bigger than the one they had first entered. It looked very simillar except for one thing that stood out.
On a small hill stood a lonely wooden cabin, with smoke coming out of a small chimney on top. It had a small wooden porch with stools and a small table. An inviting smell and cozy feeling was also emitted from the cabin.
Samuel couldn't stop himself from slowly walking forward, although every step felt like he was walking against a strong wind. Every step became harder so he grit his teeth as he got about halfway, it was becoming increasingly hard to get closer.
When he was only about 1 meter away from the porch it became so painful that he sunk down on his knees. The song was still beckoning him in, until it suddenly stopped entirely as Samuel's hand reached the wooden porch.
The door suddenly opened, "I didn't think you were ready yet, but you have proven yourself by reaching this far!" A female voice suddenly spoke. Samuel looked up and saw a humanoid white wolf in front of him. Standing just like a human the only difference was the fur covered body and the head of a wolf.
As he stared into her yellow eyes she knelt down and placed a hand on his shoulder and suddenly just like that all the pressure was gone and Samuel could finally breathe. "Poor child, how I pity you children of mana, persecuted and killed, cursed and alone, twisted and gone mad." The wolf sighed.
"Who are you? How do you know what I am?" Samuel asked as he finally finished gasping for air. The woman chuckled, "I am nothing but a servant of the White Moon, Luna'Celesia, Arx, Pelt'han. I am a messenger and nothing more. I know about children of mana because they were the first to walk this planet when it was first found by the gods."
"The children of mana wanted nothing to do with the gods, but the gods insisted because they knew chaos would plague this world!" She spoke and Samuel absorbed everything she said, he didn't know if it was true or not. But if even the slightest hint of it was true, he would be one step closer to answers.
"By chaos.. you mean the abyss, demons from the neverending abyss that crave destruction more than anything else?" Samuel asked and the messenger nodded.
"The gods couldn't break the rules, they couldn't kill an innocent species, so they became creative!" She sighed and Samuel continued, "The other mortal races?" The messenger became wide eyed for a split second before nodding.
"The gods needed a weapon to counteract chaos where they could not directly interfere, but how would the gods know that the other mortal races would..." She grew quiet for a few seconds and a tear blended in with her fur.
"That the mortal races would kill and hunt children of mana!" She sighed, seemingly remembering painful memories. "Some gods saw it as a way to fulfill their work and be able to fight against chaos while others looked on in horror. Unfortunately they were not allowed to interfere by their own stupid rules. Some gods broke those rules to try and save the children of mana, feeling that it was their fault to begin with."
"Others encouraged their mortal children to hunt them, it was a mess to say the least. Those that still to this day feel guilt among the gods have chosen to keep an extra eye on any surviving children of mana through some of us followers of theirs!"
She helped Samuel stand by giving him a hand and pulling him up. "I am here to give you a blessing of three, the blessing of Luna'Celesia, the blessing of Arx & the blessing of Lesalia. If you would take them!"
She gently clutches his hands while he thought about everything said. "Perhaps children of mana were already the answer to fighting chaos, this planets natural born children of magic through the universe. But the gods were blind to it!" He said after a while and she looked down in shame.
"Luna'Celesia is the white moon goddess of balance, the one to look to for guidance, the safekeeper of balance. I do not know this Arx however, I have never heard of him/her."
"I know of Lesalia however, the goddess of the blue moon and sister of Luna'Celesia she holds a simillar role if my knowledge is correct, her gentle blue light can pierce clouds that the white light cannot."
The Messenger nodded along. "Will I be bound by anything? How does it work?" Samuel asked. She gave him a wolfy grin, "I have been watching you long enough to know you are worthy, and these gifts are mine to give out to those I deem worthy, but if I ever deem you unworthy then you will lose the blessings. As long as you continue walking the path you are on....."
"A path of good deeds and fighting chaos!"
"Then I will be your friend and guardian!" She held out her hand where a mark of a moon like shape was glowing. "Show me your shoulder!" She instructed and her nails suddenly grew into claws.
Samuel looked at them with a bit of worry but did take his shirt off. A few months ago he wouldn't have accepted this offer, but seeing what Ulma had done, to be trained by a goddess personally. He still had questions, but he had detected no lies in the messengers words.
In fact, the song that had beckoned him had told him the truth of everything he needed to know. The songs of truth didn't lie. He gave her a nod and she placed her hand with the glowing moon on his shoulder. "This will hurt!" She said and he nodded, then she sunk all her claws into his flesh around the moon. Making him grit his teeth as blood started flowing her eyes shone white.
Weird black tattoos suddenly started spreading over his left shoulder and arm. Almost looking like ancient runes of some sort.
But then she removed her claws and thats when the real pain started. He grabbed his stomach as he felt something inside was changing. "What is this?" He panted out in pain, and she knelt in front of him. "Not a curse, but a blessing."
Then everything went black.
When Samuel next woke up the first thing he caught was the sweet smell of grass, and he heard the trickling of water droplets far away, he smelt the water. Before finally opening his eyes, the wooden cabin was long gone but he could still smell everythings presence in the air which meant that they truly had been there.
"Night?" He growled out, feeling his voice was hoarse and raspy compared to normal. "OH NOW YOU RESPOND? I have been, BITING your leg for hours ever since you just stood still on a small patch of grass and then... and then you... you changed!"
Suddenly Samuel's memories started flooding Night's mind through their mental connection and she became quiet with an 'Oh'
"You should probably go look in the water!" Night said in a worried voice, and Samuel nodded before pushing himself up from the ground with his arms that were unusually hairy paying no mind to it he instead stood tall, "Woah! Is it just me or did everything shrink slightly?" He asked and Night couldn't help but roar out in laughter.
"Or maybe it's because you grew taller you dummy!" She started rolling on the ground in her small dragon form which made Samuel furrow his brows and he felt his tail dropping to the ground. He shook his head as he looked at her and looked at his hail.
Tail?!
He grabbed his tail that was slightly moving and looked at his hands that were huge furry hands with claws. He quickly ran over to the water and looked at his reflection. Where he stood instead there was a huge blue werewolf. His dark blue fur and green eyes reflected in the water.
He was at least 3 meters tall, with a mouth full of white fangs and teeth. There were also white markings around his eyes. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-" He screamed out in his deeper raspier voice.
He started walking back and forth, "IS THIS A BLESSING??? HOW?" He yelled out and Night covered her head with her wings before speaking inside his mind. "How about calming down first?"
"Calm down? How the hell do I calm down? I am a wolf, a werewolf? Or am I a lycan? Am I both? How does this 'blessing' thing work? She could have told me so much more details!" Samuel was once again reminded of why he disliked gods and godly business and swore in his mind to never trust the words of a stranger again.
He sat down and held both hands on his face and started feeling out how this new body felt and worked like. He sighed and wondered what he should do next, he didn't know where to begin, so he lay down on his back with his arms outstretched in the grass.
He started breathing to calm himself down before seeing if he could still tap into his mana breathing. It worked and he found himself floating away, but it felt different for sure. It felt even more pure, even more evolved... his entire body felt more evolved as if he had finally overcome the great wall that had been blocking him previously.
He suddenly opened his eyes again and sat back up and looked at his human hands once more. "Hey look, you did it! I knew you would find a way!" Night cockily said to him and he flicked his finger casting an airbolt. A small cantrip that produced air force enough to feel as if you actually got flicked by a finger.
"Yow!" Night suddenly exclaimed as she rolled backwards when she got hit. Samuel lay back down and started the mana breath again, trying to find a the previous feeling. It took him quite some time but eventually he found it, inside his mindscape close to the bottom there was a sleeping wolf.
With his astral like body inside the mindscape he floated down to it and felt the presence of whatever lay in the depths.
Alsian had told him that there was something always watching them from the depths of their mindscape, something that was twisted and sad now, but was a some sort of guardian deity.
He didn't want to go deeper inside the mindscape so he simply shook the wolf that woke up with white eyes and he felt his body painfully changing again.
He sat back up as a werewolf with a groan. Looking at his hands he sighed, "So changing into it hurts like hell but changing back is almost like a magical transition.... great!" He said with a voice oozing sarcasm and he could hear Night snickering in the backround.
He spent some time there changing back and forth a few times before finally growing tired from doing it and sat up now fully inspecting his human body. There were indeed fresh scars from where her five claws had punctured his body but the odd thing were the tattoos that still remained, although there was no sign of the moon that had been burned unto his skin.
The tattoos coiled around his upper left side and left arm. Almost like circles or snakes. He felt nothing different when he was a human again however. Although his voice was a bit hoarse from changing back and forth.
"There you are, you had been gone for a while so I came to check on you!" Erethi came walking out of the water with only basic clothing on, she must have followed his scent and swam after him. She walked closer when she suddenly stopped and sniffed the air.
Her eyes grew wide and she assumed a cautious stand suddenly and stared at him as if he was a stranger. "You... you're a lycan? No werewolf? Both? How did you manage to hide it? Who are you?" She suddenly yelled her questions out loud and Samuel sighed.
Guess there is no fooling their senses, even he realized to have heightened senses in his human form. Smell and hearing especially. He waved his hand, "Still the same guy from earlier. I get the confusion though, but it's really easy to disguise your smell with the right flowers." Samuel withheld the truth because frankly speaking, no way she would believe him.
So going with the academic answer was the better idea. She seemed to relax a little bit although she still seemed to be very much on edge. She was squirming slightly at all times. "What about you are you okay?" Samuel asked, he saw that she was turning redder and redder by the second.
Samuel stood up and walked closer and she started backing off, "Im quite alright, no need to come closer I promise I am fine!" She suddenly felt frozen on the spot, 'Damnit why couldn't he have hid his smell for only a day or two more'
Samuel shrugged and walked a bit closer, there was something off about her. Something intoxicating. "Are you sure you are alright?" He stood in front of her now and she started huffing. She quickly took a step forward and her eyes looked completely lost, Erethi had never smelled such a delicious scent before from any Werefolk.
Samuel grabbed her by the shoulders to keep her still and she used that moment to suddenly give him a very deep kiss as she quickly slid a hand into his pants. Samuel taken by surprise fell backwards and hit the ground but that didn't stop her.
She let go of the kiss when she needed to breathe and Samuel could see her mouth was filled with drool coming from her pointy fangs. Samuel couldn't take it anymore, the intoxicating scent was too much and he started kissing her back.
That was the first time Samuel got to experience the thing called a werewolf in heat. What followed were hours upon hours of bliss. Followed by hours upon hours more during the night. When morning came around the corner they were laying underneath a makeshift blanket in the warm grass. Erethi nuzzled into his chest with the most satisfied smile Samuel had ever seen.