I wake up in the morning with a large amount of leaves covering me from head to toe. I sit up stretching out my back. The familiar pain from my back still causes me issues. I stand up and look around. It looks like Lupa didn’t go to sleep last night. The entire area surrounding me is covered with leaves. It comes up to about my waist. I mentally scold myself for falling asleep while there could be soldiers still out there searching for me. Since nothing happened last night, maybe they decided to look someplace else. I start walking back toward the farm as Lupa pops up out of the leaves.

“Good moooorning!” She says somewhat happy and full of energy. I am in no mood to deal with her right now. I keep walking as she starts to follow me. After a couple of minutes of walking, I pause realizing that we are father from the farm then realized. I try to judge how far we traveled last night. Looking back on it now, she did run pretty fast. Faster than any horse could travel. After several minutes, I guess it will be a couple of hours before we get back to the farm. I find the nearest stick and hit it off a tree. This frustration has been building up in me for a while. After the stick breaks in half, Lupa looks concerned at me. “Are you okay?”

“I am fine. Just didn’t expect to be kidnapped.” I start to walk to the farm again. At first, Lupa doesn’t start to follow me right away. However, she slowly does after I pause to indicate that she should follow. We start walking as an idea starts to form in my head. Maybe I could convince the soldiers that Lupa was some crazed animal. That she threatened me within an inch of my life. She must have a bounty on her if a group of soldiers were searching for her. Maybe this will work. However, I need some information on Lupa before I turn her in for anything. I know some basic things about shapeshifters. Like how they have three forms and supposedly eat babies. I shake my head knowing only story tales that the church told us. My back starts slightly burn, but I ignore it for now.

After walking for a while, I look at Lupa gesturing her to come up to me. She makes her way up to me as I start talking to her. “So, what are you exactly?”

She pauses and looks confused. “I’m Lupa? I already told you that.”

“No. I mean, what are you? Mage? Shapeshifter?” I say testing her to see if she will lie again.

She makes a face then smiles. “Oooh. I am what you people down here call a shapeshifter. We are called Gifted, where I come from.”

I make a face at that. “Gifted?”

She nods. “Oh yea. We are the lucky ones that carry out the Sister’s messaged.”

“Sister’s messaged?” I look at her to elaborate more.

She pauses and laughs slightly. “Oh, I am sorry. I didn’t know that you didn’t know about the Sister. I know down here all of you guys worship the Brothers. Right?”

I frown slightly as a small ache comes from my back. I nod thinking back to the time I spent in the church. The Brothers were said to be the first children of some unknown power. The planted the first seeds within the Green Belt to make it what it is today. People pray to them for good harvest and protection of the weak. They can all die for what I care. I snap to attention. “Um.. yea. They do.”

She smiles more and holds a necklace that I didn’t notice before. It looks like a teardrop wrapped with metal vines. “The Sister protects all life. She loves everyone and everything. We try our hardest to only kill when it is necessary. She bestows the lucky ones with some of her power to protect the world. So, I carry out her mission whenever I can. I was lucky to be made a Gifted.”

“You know that it’s hogwash, right? There is no such thing as a Sister or Brothers.” I say as the pain in my back flares up again. She looks really hurt by this.

“There is a Sister. If there wasn’t one…” I cut her off before she can continue.

“You know what shapeshifters really are? You guys are made when a monster decides to have a child with a human. It is not natural. You are only monsters. You are not chosen by any Godlike being. They are not real.” I say as the pain in my back burns like fire. Lupa seems to be holding back the tears but shakes her head.

“… it’s okay.. You can think that. I am sorry..” She sounds really hurt by this, but I couldn’t care less at the moment. It takes all of my power to get to the nearest tree and relax against it. As I touch the tree with my hands, I grip it tightly. After a few minutes, the pain in my back goes away and I straighten myself. I look at Lupa who is looking still hurt/concerned towards me.

“… Are you okay?” She asks. I am somewhat amazed at the fact she hasn’t left yet. I was blatantly being an asshole to her.

“I am fine.” I start to walk toward the farm as Lupa grabs my hand. She looks worried. I frown and remove my hand. “I am fine. Let’s go.” For the first time, I hear Lupa sigh. She nods and follows me. It takes another hour before getting back to the farm. As we approach the farm, I can smell smoke coming for its direction. I get this sinking feeling in my stomach as I know what I am about to find. We break the from forest and find the entire farm burned down. I feel a rush of emotions seeing the farm. Some I really don’t understand. Oh well, I guess there is no going back now.