A wet tongue slid past Dante’s face, he felt pressure on his chest. Opening his eyes, Dante was greeted with the sight of two white paws pressing down on his chest. He started to blink away the sleep in his eyes before looking up to see a black-furred wild animal standing above him. He lifted his hand, pushing Waya’s muzzle away from him. “Knock it off will you, we haven’t known each other that long.” his groggy crackling voice admonished the wolf.

Rolling onto his back before slowly sitting up, Dante wrapped his arms around his knees. Holding himself in a seated position. He looked back at the wolf who stared at him expectantly. “I thought I fed you enough last night…”

Waya just kept staring at him with anticipation, a little drool slipping out of her mouth. “Alright, alright!” A thick cut of cooked steaming venison appeared in his hand, he tossed it to the side.

He laughed at the sight of Waya dashing over to it. Devouring it almost instantly. ‘Hungry little thing aren’t you! You also seem to be better already.’

Dante looked at Waya, really looked at her. Her deep black fur and her accented white legs and paws, her deep intelligent amber eyes. She looked young, he didn’t know much about wolf anatomy but he would have guessed she was still a pup. He wasn’t sure if mana, evolution or anything else would affect the development of animals and how fast they matured, but on old Earth, she couldn’t have been more than a year old. She should have plenty of room to grow.

Waya looked nothing at all like the grey wolves, not taking into consideration the colour of her fur. Her feral features were sharper, more pronounced, she looked more dangerous. Once Waya reached maturity she would be a fearsome opponent to contend with or a formidable ally. He hoped to maintain the latter.

He stretched his arms out, making a garbled howl. While stretching, he felt his aches and pains slowly dissipate, the sounds he made confused Waya.

Dante stood up and walked over to currently placid wolf, he reached his hands out triggering a brief flinch from her. Seemingly still not quite used to this new dynamic. He showed his palms, gesturing that he meant no harm. She relaxed, appeased by his gesture.

Reaching out again, he wanted to check the condition of her wounds which he had generously applied the medicinal salve to yesterday. Miraculously she had almost completely healed, all her cuts, contusions and other small wounds had sealed back into fresh pink scars. Given the source of the medicine and the weird and wonderful things he had already experienced, Dante honestly was not all that surprised.

The medicine appeared to be incredibly potent and effective, a suitable gift to someone like Dante who in almost every encounter since arriving in the Ascended universe, had ended up grievously wounded ‘Thanks F, I owe you one. Oh, wait… you have me doing a life and death mission, and decided it would be appropriate to dump me in the middle of the woods to get eaten by wolves. Nevermind.’

Despite his misgivings about F, he sincerely did appreciate the gift. It also gave him some hope that just maybe, he would be able to end a fight without having to spend ascension points to recover from his injuries.

The safety net that the system provided proved to be invaluable, it had already saved his ass several times. In each instance where he had survived his fights to the death, he had received enough experience to pay for the recovery of the wounds he received. However, he was certain that the system wouldn’t stop him from getting killed. If he died, he died. No continue, no extra-life, there would be no coming back.

He couldn’t help but notice that he was losing significant progress due to the wounds he kept receiving. You would think he would just be thankful that the system helped him to recover and move on, happy that he could live another day. But the lost progress was starting to piss him off.

It didn’t help that despite the system assisted recovery, he still always felt like shit afterwards. It seemed the recovery only went as far as to take care of the most essential injuries during the healing process.

Dante stepped away from Waya, satisfied she was recovered enough to travel, then asked out loud “So, what now?”

****

Yesterday was probably one of the strangest experiences Waya had gone through in her entire life. Dante, the man she saw as being a ferocious combatant, capable of rendering his opponents to pieces. The same man that before a few days ago probably would have killed her at the first opportunity. This man was now showing her his tender and caring side, showing genuine concern for her wellbeing.

From the moment she woke up from her injured state, he had spent time with her. Talking, feeding and scratching itches that she couldn’t quite reach like between her shoulder blades or behind her ears. The whole time she didn’t feel intimidated by him, sure some of her instinctive reactions were in place. She would flinch when he moved too quickly, only for him to communicate his intent, conscious of her well being. ‘This is the man that fought off a whole hunting pack of wolves barehanded?’

His actions were strange and sometimes even comical, she couldn’t make sense of his body language, it didn’t fit most of the conventional standards within wolf society. The noises he made and his constant talking, making words at her that she didn’t understand. She played along though, talking about her fears for her missing brother. How she was forced to integrate into the Grey wolf pack against her will. She apologised for hurting him and biting his arm, then complimenting how tasty his blood was.

When they fell asleep next to each other, it reminded her of time spent with her brother, how they would keep each other warm at night. They would talk and stare at the points of light in the sky, wondering between them what the light was. Maikoh told her that each light was one of their dead descendants and that their father was up there, waiting for them to join him one day. She desperately hoped her brother wasn’t already up there, she had so much she wanted to do with him. They also had to get revenge for their father.

Her thoughts slipping into the negative, she started to growl which caused Dante to stare at her in concern. Catching his stare, she became aware of her behaviour. She yipped and turned her head around in embarrassment, not wanting to meet his eyes. ‘I must look like such an idiot’. She felt Dante’s hand gently pat on her head. He spoke some calming words and she started to relax.

“I need to find other people like me.” Dante asked out loud.

He stood up and picked up a partially burned stick from the fire pit. He started drawing with the burnt end of a stick onto the wall. The man drew strange shapes that started to become coherent representations of things she recognised. 'Is that supposed to be me? It’s not very flattering.'

Waya watched as Dante drew a crude approximation of a wolf, then a picture that somewhat resembled the hideless. He pointed at himself, then pointed towards the woods. ‘What? Does he want to leave me?!’ The thought that all her efforts to gain the man’s assistance were for nothing, Waya started whining in concern.

Dante looked towards her waving his hands. “No, no, nothing bad...uhhh”.

More images started appearing on the wall, they looked to be similar to him, the images were separated from the crudely drawn man and wolf. He started pointing at himself, then at the group of people. ‘Ohhh, he wants to go to the hideless. It’s just like I thought, the reason he came here in the first place was that he was looking for them!’

Waya barked in excitement telling Dante “I know where they are! I can take you!”

Dante grinned thinking that she understood him. “I can’t believe how smart you are! You understand me don’t you?”

‘What about Maikoh, what do I do?!’ Waya started to worry and walked in circles. Thinking up a plan, how to stay close to Dante yet find her brother.

‘It might be dangerous, but I can lead him back through the forest in the direction Maikoh was supposed to travel. There’s hideless in that direction, I can try and trace Maikoh’s path while I'm at it.’

****

Dante watched as Waya barked, pointed her head out the doors then took off at a run. With his enhanced attributes he easily kept pace, it felt like a light jog to him.

He was not entirely accustomed to his heightened senses. His eyes were fooling him. As he watched Waya running, fur rippling in the wind and her swift light-footed pounces over obstacles. To him it was almost too slow, his enhanced senses seemed to distort his perception of time.

The pair ran to the edge of the woods, he looked back at the time-worn abandoned town. He had spent 11 days exploring every building, getting familiar with this new world and his abilities. Dante was ready to leave, happy to move on from this place with a companion and a goal in mind. He felt a pang of loss, the sentimental side of him that hungered to return to normality. There was no turning back now though, that part of his life was long gone.

‘I’m going to meet up with people again, I hope they can shed light on what’s going on.’ His worried thoughts caused him to feel like he was missing something, something important. This new world, as brutal as it had been to him so far, was full of excitement, adventure and opportunities to get stronger.

One thing he knew for certain, he felt like he had reason to exist, a reason to be. ‘I have to get stronger, I need to find out why our world was transported here, why so much time has passed, who was responsible. I have to make them pay, I have to help F with his request, I have to get my memories back. I have to explore this world, this universe, uncover its secrets. I have so many questions. There’s so much to do!’ A mixture of emotions filled Dante up, but most of all there was a feverish anticipation to chip away at the mysteries of this world and universe, becoming stronger along the way.

****

They had only been running for a few hours, Dante recognised the trail they were running through. It was the route he had originally travelled in order to reach the town. He was being led back to where he woke up after the battle with the Grey wolf back. ‘Did she understand me? Or is she leading me to the pack?’ He shook his head thinking it didn’t make sense, he would place some trust in her and see where it led him. He felt that he had the strength to easily fight off the wolfpack in the event that she decided to betray him.

While following Waya, the clues he had picked up on the trail, his ability to distinguish the species tracks and trace their individual paths had improved his tracking skill.

[Tracking increased to 5%]

Eventually, they reached the place where he had woken up, the ground was heavily disturbed, in fact thinking about it, the whole way back something had been nagging him. He had noticed several other traces of passage through the way he had come. Some he attributed to the Kobolds, but there were other wolf tracks too. ‘What exactly happened here?’

Dante started to look around to try and piece together the events that had transpired in his absence. Amongst all the disturbed patches of ground and various wolf prints. He saw several massive paw prints, kneeling next to them, he placed his hand against the prints to try and get an idea of scale. His hand was swamped by the large pawprint. He tried picturing the beast that made these, the image he had in his mind made him shiver. ‘Fucking hell, this thing must be over two meters high!’

Thinking back to the wolves he had fought, if he compared their size to this print, two meters seemed about right. ‘This world is scary.’

Waya seemed to be restlessly sniffing around as well, she barked at Dante then took off again heading upstream.

****

‘The Alpha has been here, he brought the pack with him as well? Why does it look like a fight broke out?’ Waya had seen the tracks that indicated a large pack of wolves had passed through this way, their scent still lingered in the air.

She had to find her brother, so she decided to follow the route they had discussed when they had split up.

Waya rushed up the stream, with Dante trailing behind her. She looked back at him and his face was starting to take on the feral and vicious look he wore when he was fighting. She could smell her brother's scent faintly in the air, he seemed to have passed through quite a few days ago. There was also the smell of something else in the air, the faint metallic smell of blood. Worried, Waya began to run even faster, not concerned that she might draw the attention of any other wolves that might be waiting, ready to ambush.

Panting heavily, steam rose from her body as the air began to cool. The sun was beginning to dip from the sky and evening was settling in.

She stopped for a short break, Dante slowed down as he began to approach her, his face frowned deeply and he then sped up and ran ahead. Waya trotted after him, exhausted from her desperate run to find any trace of her brother. ‘What has he noticed?’

A thick smell of rusted metal lingered in the air, it started to get stronger and harder to tolerate. The smell of rot and pestilence was lingering in the air. ‘Oh no, no! Maikoh!’ Waya paid no heed to her exhaustion and ran to catch up with Dante, she wanted to see the source of this smell. She couldn’t bear the thought that it could be her brother. But she had to see!

Dante halted in his tracks, he appeared to be hunching over something. She slowed down with hesitant steps, not sure if she wanted the answer. Making her way towards where Dante was crouched, the thick sickly smell of death grew stronger. The shape on the floor started to become more apparent, dark fur, a wolf...she stopped. ‘Oh ancestors above, not my brother!’ fear gripping her heart, she made the last few steps forward.

A twisted dark grey-furred wolf corpse laid before her, a contorted look on its face. It looked as though something had crushed it, squeezing all its insides out. The corpse was a husk of its former self, practically skin and bones, the remnants of its blood and tiny pieces of flesh.

Looking around she couldn’t see anything that might resemble the the contents of this wolf's body. Relief and fear washed over her. It wasn’t Maikoh, but she had no idea what could do this to a wolf. She looked up to scan her surroundings, dotted around the forest floor were similar corpses of wolves. All their insides were forced out of them, blood and pieces of flesh littered the forest.

Waya looked at Dante, he was sweating profusely. His eyes bulged. “WAYA, RUN!!!”