Chapter author: YouAreNowIncognito

“I see you back there” Delmar said and froze. He didn't even bother to turn around to look at the white female wolf hiding in the woods.

“Will you stop following me around?” Not a noise. Delmar sighed. He closed his eyes and searched for her mind. If she didn't want to come out and explain herself he might as well take a trip into her mind and find out what she wanted out for himself. Her mind was like a light wide open palace and he just strolled in.

Why did he stop? Is he going to attack me again? Wait… something's not right.

The wide open palace suddenly threw him out, closed its doors, locked them tight and turned off the lights. Damn busted! He thought. It was impossible to get into her mind again. He was a bit surprised since no one had ever locked him out like that before. Whatever he thought and started running. She probably won't follow me into the city, I could probably get rid of her there.

He was starting to get quite annoyed by the female wolf. She had started to stalk him some days ago but she held herself in the background. At first Delmar thought his imagination played tricks on him but after a while he was certain he was being followed. Every time he tried to attack her or approach her in some friendlier manner she ran off. She didn't answer to any of his questions and now she had obviously built a mental wall around her mind.

Outside of the city in a small hovel he had hidden away some clothes and cloaks. When he got there he shifted to his human form. Delmar found a long scarf he wrapped around his neck and up over his head like a hood. Sure he had a human form but it didn't mean that he could walk around without disguise. His skin was still blue and his ears were wolf ears. Sure folks these days were too busy looking at their digital devices to actually look up at other people but you couldn't be too careful. He started to put on some shoes before he changed his mind and threw them out in the forest. He wanted to hit the wolf lurking around but she was too far away so he just threw them in her general direction, then he started walking bare footed towards the human city.

Delmar hadn't been in the city for a while but nothing had really changed. There were screens everywhere on the buildings but the humans walked around either with their nose in a hand held screen or with augmented reality glasses. No one paid any attention to anything. It was quite a sad sight. Not that Delmar cared for the humans nor their society as long as they stayed within their cities he couldn’t care less. Sometimes he found some religious fanatics who had sworn to live a life without the screens to serve the gods. Then he usually played his mind games on them for fun. He told them he was an angel of wrath sent by the gods. Then he sent the humans out on ridiculous quests to please the gods. Sometime he even appeared to them in one of his true shapes, the giant titan form, to convince the humans that he was indeed a real angel of wrath. It usually amused him. But this time he didn't feel like playing with the humans, he just wanted to get rid of that annoying wolf.

“Delmar? What are you doing here? You know you shouldn't come here” suddenly he stood eye to eye with Reed Johnson, the general of the second division of the military Chemical faction of the element shifter society. Delmar and Reed knew each other since they were kids. Delmar considered him to be his utter worst enemy and arch-nemesis. He stood there with his stupid smirk and his stupid perfect human form. The only way you could actually tell he was a shifter was the fiery glow in his red eyes, which could easily be mistaken for contact lenses, and a big red glowing mark on his back, disguised by his clothes.

“I'm sorry I understand if you don't want a dog on your territory, cat.” Delmar said sarcastically. In his animal form Reed was a puma. He and Delmar had several brawls the past years. Delmar had lost them all. Reed grabbed his shirt and pushed him up against the wall. He was a head taller than Delmar and bigger in every way.

“This is not about my territory, this is about you being all blue and those stupid ears you got. If you can't resemble a human properly you shouldn't be here.”

“Oh no, how terrible. The gods are gonna kill us all just because I take a stroll through the city…” Delmar rolled his eyes. “Seriously will you let me go?”

Reed laughed at him.

“If I ever see you here again I'm gonna crush you. weakling.” he emphasized the last word. Then he let Delmar go. Delmar grunted, then he started to walk away without looking back. His legs walked a bit faster than he wanted them to, almost sprinting. He wasn’t afraid of Reed, of course not. It was just that… just that... Delmar sighed. He didn’t want to admit it to himself but he knew that he didn’t stand a chance against Reed and his flames. He was there to get rid of the female wolf not to pick a fight with a fire shifter.

He didn’t want to go too far into the city and he didn’t want to run into that stupid fire shifter again so he took his resort on top of one of the lower buildings. Even though the building wasn’t high it was placed on a hill. From there he could see most of the city down in the valley. The sun was starting to set and the lights of the city were lit one by one. The human race’s society had some beauty to it, he had to admit that. He sighed.

“Why won’t they accept me?” he sighed again and spoke with a silly mannered voice:

“No, sorry Delmar you are just too weak to join our fancy club.”

“You low power element guys shouldn’t almost be allowed to be called element shifters at all. You can’t shift properly. Look, you're still Blue.”

“It’s not our fault you’re weak.”

“Are you talking with yourself again?” Delmar turned quickly around surprised by the voice. It was the white female wolf. How the hell did she get up on the roof? He thought and shifted back to his wolf form.

“Oh, it’s you” he said carefully not to sound surprised. “Why are you following me?”

“Well, let’s just say that I’m drawn to the cold.”

“Seriously don’t give me that shit. Just leave me alone”

“Aaaand I’m watching you so you won’t attack our pack again” She smiled. It was an innocent true smile.

“Yeah? And how would you prevent me from attacking you?” He returned that smile with a cruel, grim one.

“Well I thought that since Sillof has beaten you, and I have beaten Sillof, I should technically be stronger than you.” She smiled that smile again.

“Sillof was lucky that time” Delmar grunted.

“And I might as well be lucky. I strongly believe I would beat you in a fair fight”

“I don’t play fair”

“Of course you don’t darling. My name is Angi Frost by the way.” She walked down to him and sat down beside him.

“I wasn’t asking.”

“No but i thought since I’m going to be around for a while you might as well know my name. Maybe we should just be friends instead of threatening each other?”

“Don’t you get it? I don’t want you around, I don’t want any friends. I prefer to be alone” he growled.

Her smile disappeared and turned into a curious look instead.

“If you don’t want any friends then why is it so important for you to be accepted by ‘them’?”

“I don’t want their friendship I want their respect”

“What are you going to use their respect for if you don’t want to be their friend?”

“Well I just…” Delmar didn’t have a good answer for this. She did have a point there. Deep down he did actually want to be the other shifters’ friend, at least from the start. Long ago, he was rejected by his old wolf pack because they thought he looked like a demon and after that he wanted to find others of his kind who could accept him for who he was but when he found other shifters they thought he was weak because of his element. So it begun, his long hunt after other shifters he could defeat to prove them wrong.

“Never mind you wouldn’t understand.” he said.

“Who are these people you want respect from?” she asked kindly.

“No one.”

“Is it others like you? Why won’t they respect you?”

“Go away."

“You said something about them thinking you are weak. Is that the reason?” Who the hell did she think she was? Following him around and asking him questions like this. She put her head on his shoulder.

“Alright I can see that I'm bothering you. Maybe I should just be quiet for a while?” she whispered softly.

Delmar rose in rage. Whatever her game was he was not going to play it. He wanted to attack her, give her a lesson about what happens if she keeps following him around like this, but there was something with her eyes and the kind way she was talking to him. No one had ever done it since he was a small pup before his appearance changed and anyone could tell he was a shifter.

“For the last time, leave me alone!” He jumped down from the roof. As soon as he hit the ground he turned back to his human form again. He put the long scarf in place again and then he started running.

The white wolf stood on the roof looking at him, as soon as she almost couldn't see him anymore she jumped down and followed after.