**Author's note: if you have not read the prologue and are starting from this chapter, please go back and read it first. You won't understand much if you don't.
A light breeze passed among the trees, the leaves were rustling while the sun was spreading its light up in the sky. A squirrel was busy gnawing something while turning it around constantly trying to crack it open. Suddenly its ears started to move in a certain direction, it had heard something-
*Phooosh *Bang
A stone hit it right in the head and it dropped to the ground. a rather small beast, half a meter in length and height ran toward it and grabbed a hold of it in its maw and ran back.
"Nice"
A young man of around 1.7 meters tall, with green eyes, short brown hair, pinkish lips and tanned skin could be seen standing 15 meters away. He was dressed in animal pets sewed together and was holding a stone in one hand, and a sharp stick in another. The beast ran to him and dropped the squirrel to his feet and then sat there politely with its mouth open and tongue out, its tail constantly sweeping the ground.
"Good girl" he said as he patted the beast on the head and scratched behind its white erect ears.
"Woooof" the beast closed its eyes and enjoyed the rub, happiness clear on its face.
The two were Ango and little snow, hunting for lunch; this was the third squirrel they had hunted, two for little snow, one for Ango.
Almost two months had passed since he had reached the mountain range; little snow had grown bigger and Ango had a taste of freedom, they would hunt, play and sleep together; inseparable from each other. Ango also found out that little snow was a beast not an animal, he found out after he saw her eating a tree trunk one day, tearing a piece of it and swallowing it whole. His heart almost leaped out of his body at the sight, the first reason being that he thought the wood would get stuck in her throat and she would die, two being that beasts were known to be hard to tame and dangerous, turning on their masters once they didn't want to follow them anymore.
The first matter was thrown out of his mind after he found out she was a beast and he convinced himself that he wasn't little snow's master; she was sort of her child, friend and companion. He never actually ordered her to eat something, and even if he did, his tone was more of a request than an order.
He didn't even know what kind of beast little snow was, a sort of canine of course but of what kind? He wasn't an expert or anything and that's why he didn't know that almost every beast was unique. Each kind of beast that something particular to itself, different from its parents, whether it be physical or magical and only their general appearance remained similar. Little snow looked like a normal wolf, a small normal wolf for now and didn't have anything strikingly different about her but she was able to tear apart a piece of the tree trunk.
Ango himself didn't have anything particular to do in that period but to play around and physically train himself by climbing trees and running, everything had been peaceful during that time except for one thing.
A few days after he had arrived here, he started to have some unusual dreams, not specifically nightmares or queer dreams but dreams about … a life?
He started dreaming that he was playing with a lady dressed in green, with beasts, that he had a sister, that he was living a peaceful life in a jungle.
But recently he had begun to dream of battles, no, not just battles, but war. He saw he was fighting elves, dwarves, Angels and many other things he didn't know of. He was confused when he started having those dreams, the ones that took place in the forest made him feel good and relaxed but the recent ones, the ones that had begun a few weeks ago, disturbed him. They reminded him that he was not truly safe here, that he was just in hiding, waiting to be found so, he started training. He found himself a stick and sharpened it and tried to learn how to use it. he didn't have any opponent but he practiced some thrusts, lunges and sweeps.
He knew that if anyone came after him, he wouldn't be able to overpower them so he was mostly trying to learn them so he could surprise his opponents.
When they were returning to their cave, they heard a faint but loud roar, coming from some distance away. Ango was surprised
'A beast? Here?' this was the first time a beast had come to this place, or at least the first time Ango found out about it. He became worried, the roar was quite a distance away but it could come closer and be a threat. He wanted to go to the cave quickly but a thought appeared in his head when he heard the beast roar again but it seemed to be less powerful than last time.
'Maybe it's fighting some other beast? If it is I can get close, remain hidden and get some meat after one of them is done eating the other.'
He started to run toward where the sound had come from and then slowed himself when he was close and crouched, getting closer cautiously with little snow following him on her tip toes with a serious face.
When they were at a distance that they could see the battle, Ango was stupefied. There they were fighting, a large bear with brown fur with spikes on its body and –
'A man? What?' he was surprised at first but then his face became a mask of horror.
'Fuck fuck fuck fuck, what is he doing here? Is he an elf?'
He couldn't get a good look at the man's face since he was constantly moving and was hooded, he only found out it was a man based on his broad shoulders. The bear kept getting close to him, hurling its massive clawed hands toward him but he would sidestep it every time and attack its face with the sword he was holding in his right hand; He seemed to be dancing with the bear.
The bear would also make use of its spikes and would hurl itself toward him in different angles and in the middle of attacking with its paws to impale the man on them, but he would either jump or step out of the way in time and slash at the bear's back.
Ango wanted to run away and hide o the man wouldn't find him but he was mesmerized by the sight. The man was fighting a bear, twice his size and was doing that easily using a sword.
The bear suddenly roared again, its eyes turned red and the spikes on its back grew longer, it put some distance between itself and the man and then charged. When it was close to the man, he threw himself towards him; the bear rotated itself in midair and now its back, full of spikes was moving with the force of a train.
The man took a step to the left and the bear flew past him
*BOOOM
The bear hit a tree and the tree trunk broke apart. The bear was sliding to the ground when a sudden light captured Ango's attention.
*Szzzzzzz
Ango was astonished, the man was sliding his empty hand over the sword and red lightning was appearing wherever his hand touched.
'WHAT? Lightning??? Isn't he an elf? None of the elves I've seen use lightning' he didn't know what was happening and he could smell something distinct in the air.
The man suddenly moved toward the bear, his sword augmented by lightning, cutting through the air; the sword furiously stabbed the bear right in the eye, penetrating its head. The bear tried to roar and resist but its body was moving, jerking uncontrollably, its body was vibrating and smoke was coming out of its head and its fur was now standing erect which made it look even bigger than it was. The bear's other eye was rolling backward.
After a few seconds the man pulled his sword out of its flesh scabbard and the bear fell to the ground, no longer moving.
Ango's mind was silently exploding, the man that had killed the bear with the sword and lightning was now standing still and Ango could take a good look at him. He stood over 1.8 meters tall wearing brown leather armor and his sword's scabbard was on his left hip, strapped to the belt he was wearing.
The man's hood was now on his back, blown back due to his high speed when he stabbed the bear. He had medium-length messy black hair, an unkempt beard and –
'Normal ears? No pointy ears? That means-' his thought process was interrupted by the man's voice
"You, the one there behind the tree with the wolf, I SEE YOU"
Ango's heart stopped beating for a second. The man was looking at him dead in the eye with the bloody sword in his right hand.
"Come out"