With Erisha unable to move Dawn refocused his gaze on to the shaking Cain.
The little boy, like his sister could not move an inch.
"I already told your sibling once and it seems foolishness runs in your family. Your life is no longer your own! You no longer have the freedom to withold any information that concerns the safety of this journey!"
Dawn then let go of Cain's arm and the frightend child fell to the floor still shaking as he looked at Dawn with a terrified face.
Seeing what state Cain was in Dawn paused for a moment.
He did not expect the elven boy to be this afraid.
Nonetheless he continued.
"I do not ask you to share your secrets because I will not mine, but you endangered me, your sister and yourself by refusing to inform me of your weakness to cold! We are only at the start of winter and from here on the cold will only get worse!"
Cain however did not react.
He was still in a frightened state and could only stare at him.
Dawn then stepped closer to him and crouched down.
He locked eyes with him and continued.
"Let me make one thing clear. I will do whatever it takes to reach our destination and the road ahead is long and filled with danger you have no idea about."
Dawn then reached out and grabbed Cain's shoulder firmly.
"I want you to promise me to never withold information."
Dawn's grip on Cain's shoulder tightened as he sook the child.
"I want to hear you say it, boy."
This made Cain somewhat snap out of his shock.
"I- I p- promise." Said Cain with his shaky voice
Dawn nodded then stood up and went back to his bag.
He pulled out some kind of meat wrapped around in leather and tossed it to Erisha.
"Use Cain's fire to heat those up and eat. I am going to sleep."
With that as if nothing has happened Dawn layed down, resting his head on his bag and began sleeping.
With the killing intent gone the elfs tensed bodies loosened as if they survived a deadly encounter with lady death herself.
Nonetheless Erisha immidietly rushed to Cain's side and tried comforting her little brother.
Cain at the embrace of his sister began to cry his eyes out as quietly as he could, not wanting to wake up Dawn.
Morning quickly came, not that someone could tell.
Erisha began to slowely awaken due to a strange sound.
She quickly opened her void like eyes and darted them around the room, looking for its source.
She laid her eyes on Dawn as he was sharpening his axe.
He had dark circles under his eyes.
It seems he did not sleep well.
Despite that his gaze was focused on the axe.
His actions were precise and used just the right amount of force.
He reapeted the motion a few more times then stopped.
He pulled the axe closer and inspected it.
He then nodded and layed the axe on to the wooden table next to him.
"How long are you going to watch me?"
Erisha has been caught.
"I apologize if my gaze has displeased you."
Dawn simply grunted in response.
Slowly Erisha rose and began to move towards Dawn with a stoic yet strange face.
Dawn's eyes locked on to the elf as he watched her every move.
Erisha on the other hand simply walked to her sword and picked it up.
She then grabbed a nearby wooden chair and pulled it infront of her, placing it near the table.
Now they were face to face.
Erisha pulled out her runed sword and placed it on to the table.
Dawn gazed upon the sword once again.
He had to admit that it was a work of art.
Without a word Erisha reached out her hand.
Dawn in response gave her the sharpening stone.
Cain's snoring filled the air as the two people that sat by the table refused to utter a single word.
Both looked calm and collected.
However Dawn could clearly see Erisha had some pent up emotions.
It was most likely due to the events that happened last night.
Suddenly the silance was broken by none other then her.
"Why did you go so hard on him last night?"
Dawn sighed.
"He is a fool-"
"HE IS A CHILD!"
Erisha's voice and face was distorted by rage.
Her body shook uncontrolably and the shadows around them began to swirl around and take the forms of tenticles.
Dawn however did not feel threatened at all as he didn't even bother looking up from his axe.
The reason soon became apperant.
Out of nowhere blue mist began surrounding Erisha.
It was the ancient force that compelled her to keep her promise to Dawn.
Just as she could not attack Dawn without a proper reason he too could not hurt the elfs.
The only exception to this rule was if one of the parties did so without the intention of harming the other or both agreed to end the deal.
"You shield him as if he was an infant. He needs to grow up for the sake of our safety and the journys"
"And you achieve that by scaring him to death!? By giving him trauma that will haunt him!?"
Dawn looked up from his axe and stared right in to her dark eyes.
"Yes"
"What?"
Naturally this earned a glare from Erisha as her grip tightened with enough force to break the sharpening stone.
The mist around her began reacting to her increasing animosity as it began to take the form of chains with spearhead ends that hovered near her in the air.
"During the time I spent with you I have noticed how you protect your brother. You shield him from harm which I understand, but you do not allow him to make mistakes."
"What does that have to do with anything!?"
"If you continue to do so he will never learn!" Said Dawn as he banged his fist against the table
"He will never be ready to stand alone in this world or in yours. I cannot allow that."
"Why!?"
"Because there will be times when you are not there to protect him! There may be a situation where he has to fight alone, where neither you or me will be there, where every mistake he makes will lead to certain death!"
Erisha remained silent after hearing his response.
She seemed to understand Dawns actions and the need for them.
To calm herself she slowly breathed in and out.
At the same time the shadows near them began to calm down aswell, while the chains around her also disappeared.
"Still I would prefer if you used a different method."
Dawn slowly rose with his axe in hand and responded with his back turned.
"I will not tolerate incompitance. If the need ever arises I will do what I must."
Erisha bowed her head as she admitted defeat.
"Where are you going?"
"Hunting"
Dawn was now outside the laier.
Since they could no longer continue their journey due to the possebility of Cain falling ill again Dawn took it upon himself to hunt for food.
Dawn moved through the thick storm looking for prey without success.
He was going deeper and deeper in to the forest which he would normally avoid.
But, with the snow storm happening most if not all of the animals and beasts left this part of the forest.
Only a few remained.
More precisly the ones that slept through winter.
These types of animals used to be found in caves and such, but since the war the animal kingdom mutated in many differant ways with almost no exception.
Dawn was looking for such an animal.
Over the years he studied the animals of this forest and documented the changes with in the ecosystem.
He also of course hunted these animals.
He walkedwith his eyes looking for prey and ears serving as a locater.
And soon he heard a faint sound.
Dawn darted his his dark eyes its direction.
Once he confirmed that the sound was infact snoring he dashed towards it.
With a sudden burst of speed Dawn ran through the frosty wood's, snow crunching under his feet as he ran.
He lived in this forest for 5 years now.
In that time he hunted all kinds of beasts.
Small, big, covered with fur or nothing at all it did not matter.
If it breathed it sought to end your life.
He rarely left the woods.
If he needed something from the outside he simply requested it from the black market traders or go to the nearest town.
During his stay he mapped almost every part of the forest and documented his encounters with the animals.
Soon he found what he was looking for.
Ordinary people wouldn't have noticed it, but he was far from ordinary.
To someone else it would have looked like there was nothing in front of them, but this was its disguise.
Dawn slowely backed away to the nearest tree and grabbed on to it.
With a single pull he pulled himself up to one of its branches.
Once on top he gripped his axe eith both hands and readied himself for combat.
He slowly raised his axe and jumped from the tree towards seemingly nothing.
Once he was about to land he suddenly stopped or more precisly something stopped him in the middle of the air.
Suddenly a loud roar was heard throughout the woods as Dawn's axe was ripped from his hands and rose up in to the air.
It was a strange sight.
From an ordinary person's view the axe was plunged in to thin air and the air was bleeding bright green blood.
With its disguise no longer hiding it the beast revealed itself.
As its disguise cleared a large bear showed itself to Dawn.
It was far larger then the one Dawn encountered by a frozen lake.
While shorter it somewhat rivald the size of the chimera he fought yesterday.
Its fur was white as snow with bright green eyes and claws.
It had green stripes on his body where a strange green gas leaked from.
The bear shook its head trying to get the axe out.
Dawn did not waste this chance and dashed towards the bear.
He laid several blows on to its face and body making the bear cry out in pain.
He then grabbed his axe and ripped it out of the bears head.
Blood began to pour out from the wound.
As it hit the snow below it melted right through it and even the earth below.
Dawn raised his axe, wanting to plunge it in to the bears neck.
However the bear bit on Dawn's axe and with its right paw slashed at Dawn's chest.
Dawn let his axe go and stepped back holding the wound that was inflicted on him.
Other then the pain, he felt the wound having trouble closing.
Just as he thought, this one was a poison variant.
Since Gaia was exposed to mana in the war with the demons the realm began to adapt to its presence.
Plants, animals and even humans began to adapt and mutate.
All living beings no matter how small or big developed their own unique ways of channeling and handeling mana.
For example the bear's fangs, claws and even blood were filled with acidic poison that not only served to weaken its enemy, but also to cause extreme pain.
The bear spit Dawn's axe out and growled.
It then stood up on its hind legs, breathed in and spat out a ball of acid towards Dawn.
Dawn rolled to the side avoiding the attack, but it didn't end there.
The bear repeated this attack over and over causing Dawn to run behind the trees for cover.
Each spitball melted through everything they touched.
He kept running until he noticed his axe on the ground.
He ran towards it avoiding the attacks of the mutated bear.
Once near he picked it up while still running.
However once he did a sharp pain came from his hand.
The mutated bear infused it with its toxic acid that now ate at his palm and the handle aswell.
Suddenly the bear stopped its attacks.
It seemed like it ran out of fuel.
Dawn took that chance as he ran towards it once again.
It in turn dashed towards Dawn aswell.
The two beings collided as Dawn's axe met with the bear's claw.
The result was the bear losing one of its paws and the axe succumbing to the damage it recived.
Dawn took a moment to look at the broken handle in his hand with an enraged expression.
Fueled with rage Dawn dashed towards the bear leaving behind a small crater in the snow as he aimed his fist at the bears jaw.
With a bang the jaw was dislocated in an instant and the bear staggered back a little.
Once the bear looked back Dawn was nowhere to be seen.
In its confusion the bear roared with all its might.
The green stripes on its body began glowing with a green light.
Suddenly a dark green mist shot out of its body in all directions.
Once it made contact with the ground and trees they melted right away.
Suddenly Dawn reappeared on top of the bear.
Pushing through the pain of loosing most of the skin on his body Dawn grabbed on to the bear.
The bear in response tried to get him off by shaking its large body.
With a loud roar of fury Dawn grabbed the bears dislocated jaw and ripped it off.
At the same time he plunged it in to one of the bears eyes.
The acid began to eat away at its face and skull right away.
Dawn then merged his hand together and began to pummel the wound on its head.
With each blow the bear shook as it cried out in pain.
But Dawn did not stop until the bear finally collapsed, but still alive.
"Haah, haah." Dawn was breathing heavily as he slowely got down from the bears back.
He was a mess.
The skin and some muscle on his body compleatly melted along with his clothes.
The bear was stronger then he expected.
No, that was not it.
It was he who has grown weaker.
It was a miracle he could beat the chimera.
Suddenly Dawn felt immense pain all over his body.
His skin was beginning to grow back.
In the midst of this he heard faint breathing.
Dawn looked back and saw the bear trying to get up.
It still wanted to fight and survive.
However its brain was damaged and half of its face was melting right off.
Dawn began walking towards the bear but, he suddenly fell to the ground while his face distorted.
The wounds on his body stopped healing.
Dawn knew what was happening and knew what he had to do to survive yet he hesitated.
He escaped sociaty to live in peace.
He did not want revenge for what they did to him.
He wanted to be left alone, but no matter how much he ran they followed him, trying to hunt him down.
There were many situations like this.
Laying on the ground, bleeding with a choice to make.
Survive or die.
Just then blue mist began to surround him.
From the blue mist, chains with spearhead ends formed and pointed at Dawn.
Dawn let out a small laugh and smiled.
"Your life is no longer your own."
With a small smile on his face he reached for the struggeling bear.
Once his hand was near Dawn closed his eyes.
From his hands blood like red mist began to surround the bear, much to its confusion.
He then opened his eyes.
His normally dark eyes were now glowing with a red color as the red mist became sturdy and tightened on to the bear, trapping it.
Just then the bear appeared to be ageing rapedly as the fleeting life energy was sucked out of it.
This process continued until Dawn's body compleatly healed.
The corpse was still intact however there was no blood coming out of it and it appeared to have aged drasticly.
On the other hand Dawn stood up with his wounds already healed, but that was not all.
Dawn no longer had white parts in his hair and his face was that of someone in their thirties instead of forties.
Dawn set his sights on his broken axe and sighed.
He then pulled out from his pocket a white paper with angel wings upon it.
Compared to the other papers Dawn carried with him this one was decorated with gold and was made from a rare yellow paper.
Dawn placed this on the bears aged corpse and said.
"Restore"
Just then a bright white light engulfed the bear.
The light was so bright it could be seen from the sky even while the snow storm was happening.
When the light disappeared, the bear returned to its original state, however instead of its fur being white, a brown one layed on the ground.
The spell "restore" could not only reverse the effects of aging but also mutation aswell.
This spell is most commonly used to reverse the mutation of livestock and crops, however if used on a person they will experience their entier being clensed causing insufferable pain that often left the victim insane.
Restore was a very powerful spell and the magical papers that could contain it were rare.
Dawn then looked at his body and sighed
"Looks like I will have to make a new coat." Said Dawn.
He then picked the bear up and threw it over his shoulder and began heading towards the nekromancer's laier.
Unfourtinatly for Dawn he wasen't the only one who was present during his fight with the bear.
From not so far on a snowy tree a shadow looked over the field where Dawn fought the bear.
It was a being of pure darkness with only his two round white eyes being differant.
Only its upper body could be seen as it stalked the unsuspecting Dawn.
Once it confirmed Dawn could no longer hear him the shadow climbed down from the trees.
The shadowy figure slithered towards Dawn's broken axe.
Once near it the shadow touched its remains, absorbing them in to his body.
He then looked in the direction Dawn went in and a wicked smile
It then disappeared in to the shadows with that same wide grin.