"Bro, that explosion was enormous! It even made the whole place shake. Do you think it might have been another divine sign?"
"Owen, I've told you those things don't exist. It must be some kind of... weird trick they're using to scare us, I assure you."
From the other side of the stone wall, Tenma continued trying to understand what was happening, but from what he had gathered from his communicators out there, they were just two simple deer.
Tenma kept trying to find a way out of the dark shelter.
Language ability hadn't given him the immediate solution he hoped for, but he could feel there was more to learn and understand.
The voice he heard outside the cave gave him a clue: the outside world was full of threats, and possibly silly conspiracies.
Anyway, it was time to act and ask for help.
"Can you hear me?! Hey! Heeeey!"
From the murmur he had heard from them, he suddenly noticed how they had fallen silent.
Or in the worst case, he had scared them off.
Tenma furrowed his brow and opened his list of skills to see what kind of animals he could communicate with now:
Level 1: Squirrel, rat, fish.
Level 2: Deer, opossum, dogs.
Level 3: ???, ???, ???
Level 4: ???, ???, ???
Level 5: ???, ???, ???
Level 6: ???, ???, ???
Level 7: ???, ???, ???
Level 8: ???, ???, ???
Level 9: ???, ???, ???
Level 10: ???, ???, ???
Tenma perked up at what he saw in level 2.
He quickly turned to look at Mama Wolf, who tilted her head in confusion.
"Can you understand me?"
He asked, approaching her eagerly. However, the she-wolf greeted him with licks on the ears, nudging him to lay down and rest.
"You have a lot of energy, little one."
"If you can understand me!"
Tenma jumped for joy, hearing the barks of the other pups, to which Mama Wolf silenced them all with a flick of her tail.
"We're still hiding... remember? Papa won't be long before he comes back. You better wait for him with more energy later, for now just come and rest."
"Mrs. Wolf, I need to get out of here. Could you please help me?"
Hopeful, he looked into the wolf's eyes, who lay him back against her.
"You're really sweet... I wonder why the pack left you on the outskirts of the camp. As weak as you arrived..."
Tenma lowered his ears, feeling a lump in his throat.
He could understand her, but she couldn't understand him.
Just like the pups, both she and he couldn't understand them.
Tenma looked at his paws for a moment, crestfallen, lying against Mama Wolf, sighing.
"Why do I bother if I never have what it takes to do something on my own... It doesn't make sense... none of this."
In a moment of silence, he felt a shiver as he remembered all the catastrophes he had been through.
Every time he approached someone confidently, he ended up injured, destroyed, eaten, or captured.
He felt the same fear with Mama Wolf... and the fact that he felt weak despite the fantasy power system that existed, which only played a cruel joke on him when it could, was another cause of a possible depression that could be setting in.
All his decisions had been made by others, because that's how he had lived much of his life as a human.
And from there, he followed the orders given to him by others in this new world.
Until the point where he was now, after having escaped from all of them.
And now, having none left.
Being alone.
"Do you know... why we hide here, little one?"
Mama Wolf began to whisper, licking his cheek as she saw him shed tears silently against her side, making sure the other pups didn't notice.
Tenma tried to ignore her, letting his mind go blank.
"Because Papa Wolf tried to save his pack, but they banished him because of a conflict with the alpha."
Tenma fell silent, sighing.
"However... since you arrived, it was one of the few times I saw Papa Wolf happy to have someone in his care. The pack... didn't trust him much because of his previous clumsiness."
Mama Wolf lay down too, closing her eyes and licking each of her pups with affection.
"Since then... Papa Wolf became very attached to you... until the pack expelled him. When they exiled him, for stupid reasons in my opinion, I decided to go with him. We formed our own family... but he always felt like someone was missing."
In an unexpected move, Tenma felt Mama Wolf embrace him with affection, comforting him.
"A special member of the family... that we knew if he ever needed us, we would be there to defend him."
Tenma clenched his paws, squeezing them into fists... but let out the stress tears he had been holding back.
"Could you... promise me something?"
Mama Wolf said, yawning before falling asleep.
"If you ever feel bad with us... you can go wherever you want. But let us protect you until you're ready to take your first steps outside. Until then... help me... take care of your new siblings..."
Mama Wolf hugged him under her neck, falling asleep...
"Can you...?"
Tenma stayed still and silent, listening to the slight breeze inside the cave, taking a long breath before finally exhaling.
"... I promise... I promise..."
Listening to the faint noises of the sleeping pups, in a fraternal and silent warmth, and after a long time...
Tenma finally closed his eyes, feeling completely out of danger.
And for the first time, in all he had experienced in this new world, he smiled satisfied, dreaming for the first time with others in company.
This time, without nightmares.