“We are approaching our destination.” The headmistress called out. Lira looked up rubbing her sleepy eyes, she had been resting her head on leon’s chest, not a worry in the world. And when she opened her eyes she was surprised by what she saw.

Standing there in front of them, at the end of the worn path they were on was the remains of a city. Tall buildings reached up to the sky, gotic peaks of church spires soared.

And not a soul moved.

The cobbled streets were in disrepair, and the wrought iron fences were bent and twisted.

The place felt, unclean.

The look of it all snapped her wide awake.

“Here?” she asked, the headmistress not pulling her eyes off of the city smiled at the sound of slight fear in her voice.

“Yes here, this was once a great city you know, but a plague ravaged it, a terrible terrible plague. Now it lies in ruin, a testament to the frailty of human society.”

“You could look at it like that.” Leon nodded, “I however prefer to think of it as a testament to the ingenuity of humanity.” everyone looked at him. “Well think about it, even with no one here to repair anything the city still stands, defiant in the face of a nature that would tear it to the ground.”

“I never would have expected you to be an optimist.”

“I am full of surprises.” he said with a laugh. “So, does our dilapidated city have a name?”

“Larkin.” everyone's face flushed when she answered, the blood draining away making them all as white as ghosts.

“You don't mean...” Krya said, looking at the city with a renewed horror.

“Yes, I do, everyone stick close.” they had to leave the horses behind, they refused to follow them into the abandoned city, honestly Krya couldn't blame them.

As they entered the city the desolation was oppressive. They had been walking along for almost an hour without the sight or sound of anything besides themselves when Leon heard a sound.

It was a soft click, but it was enough of a warning to him. With a quick movement he grabbed fluffy by the tail and dragged the wolf back. Krya and Lira who had been sitting atop the wolf almost fell off with the speed of movement.

And it was just in time as well.

A golden wall of energy sprung up, dividing them from the teachers. Everyone held their breath, there was no way this was the end of this, it was clearly an ambush.

Two shadows descended from the roof tops and walked over towards the four of them. “Fluffy, guard them.” he said, placing himself in front.

Leon could see them now, black skin tight suit, with armored plating over it, and a full plate helm. The armor glowed slightly, covered in runes and etchings. Krya didn't wait, she threw a fireball right away at them, but they simply walked through the fire like it was nothing more than a warm breeze.

“They have magic mitigating runes!” she shouted out.

“Then we will just have to do this the old fashioned way.” Leon growled, his eyes turning red like the fires of hell were burning within them.

He rushed the two of them, one looked to be a female, the other male, he could tell by the size and width of their shoulders and hips.

Leon lashed out before either assassin could do anything, planting his foot in the male’s torso.

The collision was spectacular, the assassin was hit with such a force that he folded over in half at the waist. He flew backwards, rolling end over end before coming to a rest, but in no time he was back up.

the assassin pulled out a long serrated dagger, and lunged at Leon, who slapped the blow away with the palm of his hand. Leon didn’t just stand around to see what would happen next; his fist came in from the exposed right.

He thought he had a solid blow connected with the assassin's head, but much to his surprise its hand shot up and redirected the force that was in Leon’s punch.

At that point the other one joined back in the fray.

Leon fended off the two of them, they were faster than any human should have ever been, if that was even what they were, he couldn't tell with the full helms that they were wearing.

A solid kick landed in Leon’s gut, pushing him back two feet, and causing a small amount of blood to leak out of his mouth.

“Leon!” Lira shouted when she saw the blood, she might not be able to fight but she could still be of use, healing, a shield something. With desperate movements she started casting a spell.

The assassin turned its attention to Lira, tossing a throwing blade with practiced ease, it would have found its mark had fluffy not slapped it aside with its tail.The assasin turned its attention to Leon and arced the knife with a fluid motion that was to smooth and powerful for a human, and possessed a speed that even would have taxed Leon. He dodged the blade by leaning back and threw an uppercut in retaliation, the assailant saw it coming and reacted, causing the majority of the force to dissipate as only part of his fist connected, it was still enough to cause the assassin’s head to rock back.

It was then that Krya struck, jabbing the long staff into the stomach of the assailant, and and calling out some archaic words a twisted black fire erupted, shooting through the male assailant’s torso and ripping him nearly in half.. The assassin fell backwards, still trying to move and get to them, even without the bottom half of his body.

There was no way these things were human.

With a low growl fluffy slammed its massive paw down, crushing the head of the downed assassin. Blood stained the wolf's white fur.

Only one left.

Leon turned his attention to the last one.

The woman didn’t stop to mourn her fallen comrade, she just rushed forward with determination ,but instead of targeting Leon like she had been doing she aimed for Lira.

With a gravity defying leap that allowed her to get over Leon with such grace in seemed otherworldly. Leon watched in horror as the blade fell down arching for Lira’s neck.

It never found its mark.

Fluffy jumped in front of the blade with a vicious snarl.

There was the sound of a whimper, and with a roar of rage, Leon forgot everything else as his mind focused on one thing:

Kill.

The world slowed down as rushed forward, he watched as the blood arced from the blade as it was pulled out of fluffy’s side, and quickly went in for the throat, like he was going to allow that to happen.

The bricks cracked beneath his boots as he pushed off with all his strength, he blocked the way of the blade, and he barely felt a thing as it slid into his shoulder. He grabbed a hold of her by the neck, slamming her into the shimmering barrier of light.

There was a soft hiss as the back of her head simply vanished as she came in contact with the barrier. She struggled briefly, but soon stopped moving altogether, and when she did the barrier disappeared.

The teachers rushed in, but the four of them paid them no mind.

They had more important things to do right now.

Krya held the wolf’s head close to herself, softly comforting it while Leon looked at the wound in its side.

He pulled off his robe, opting to wrap it around the wolf, in an attempt to stave off the bleeding. He didn't really care that all of his wounds were also bleeding, it really didn't matter to him right now, the wolf had saved both Lira and Krya’s lives when he could not.

Lora finished her healing spell, pressing her hands up against the now blood soaked robes, a soft light enveloped the wolf, and it looked like it started to breath a little easier.

“Who's a good wolf?” Krya asked softly, fighting back her tears, the wolf licked her in the face, wiping away the blood, and leaving a long red smear on her face.

Leon stepped back and looked at Krya and fluffy.

It was a good wolf indeed.

Much to Lira and Leon’s surprise a bright light enveloped both Krya and fluffy. Leon was about to dash forward, but was stopped by Lira holding him back.

“What...”

“They are melding, like you and me, don't interrupt this...” so this is what it looked like, they had not seen it, they had simply woken up this way.

The light spread so that it was hard to make out the shapes of the two of them inside. But when the light faded, everyone was shocked into silence.

There in Krya’s arms was not a wolf. Laying there with her head on Krya’s lap was the form of a naked girl, with dark skin, white hair, blue eyes and a fluffy white tail. Atop her head was a pair of wolf ears. She even had markings of blue on her skin where the direwolf’s patterns were on its fur.

She looked over at leon and smiled. “Rub my belly?” she asked with a small laugh.