He was jolted from a dreamless sleep. The only reason Nafan knew that time had passed at all was the fact that above him, the visible moon had shifted halfway across the sky. Numb, it took him a couple seconds to realize that something was moving inside his shirt.

Alarmed, Nafan lifted his head and saw with a flash of alarm that there was a dark figure beside him, reaching into his garments.

Khyriel?

That was his first thought, but as he opened his mouth to speak, that thought turned into a gasp of pain.

The figure cursed and pulled his dagger back out of Nafan’s chest. It was a deep voice, hoarse with dismay, and as they got up to leave, Nafan saw a string of coins in their hand.

Gritting his teeth, Nafan managed to scramble to his feet. He took a couple steps after the figure, only to stop when he saw two other dark shadows join it. They turned their heads and glanced back, eyes gleaming in the faint moonlight.

“Hey, foreigner.” One of them cackled at him and lifted his string of coins. “This isn’t worth anything to you, so we’ll be taking it.”

Clutching his stinging chest, Nafan huffed and glared at them, but he knew better than to speak. He was outnumbered, and their dialect was local. He would be considered lucky if they decided that they didn’t need to kill him…

The pain in his chest rose to a sharp peak and Nafan cringed, both eyes closing. In that brief moment, a blood-curdling scream pierced the darkness.

Ice-cold shock shot through his veins and he snapped open his eyes to see a black mass of shadows on the ground. The screaming grew and was joined by frantic shouts, then garbled to an abrupt halt. Horrified, Nafan stumbled to his knees and stared at the massive shadow that had fallen over the men. It hovered over the dark lumps for a moment – then, it turned its head, and he caught a glimpse of vivid blue in the moonlight.

Although he really shouldn’t have, he grew weak with relief. It wasn’t a tiger, or some demonic beast, but just a wolf. Groaning, Nafan sat down properly and eyed the shadow. It remained still, its blue eyes gazing back at him. There was a small flash of white in the shadow, he noticed. It flicked back and forth several times – its left ear. He recognized the mark with a jolt.

Is it him… that pup…?

After a long period of silence, the wolf turned its head away and began slipping back into the shadows.

Immediately, Nafan fell forward and let out an exaggerated cry of pain, clutching his chest. He moaned a couple more times, then lay down on his stomach and fell silent in the grass.

It took a couple minutes. The beast approached in utter silence, but he felt the air shift as it came close. Breath held, Nafan remained still. His thick hair covered his eyes and he snuck them open slightly to spot a glossy black nose. It nudged forward, blocking out the rest of his vision for a moment as the cold, moist skin brushed against the tip of his own nose.

Warm, pungent breath washed over his face. It smelled of blood and grass, and it took all of his willpower not to cringe away. Then, to his surprise, the beast whimpered. It was a tiny sound, barely audible and slipping out only briefly in a breathless pant, but it was close enough to his head that Nafan could hear it. Just as Nafan began to feel a growing flash of excitement, he felt a warm, rough surface brush his cheek. A tongue.

“… Please don’t eat me.”

There was a prompt growl, and a sharp weight dig into his back.

Grunting, Nafan winced and gasped in hasty apology. “Wait, wait, I’m hurt, I’m actually hurt, get off –”

The weight disappeared, and with a relieved sigh, Nafan sat stiffly up. Wincing, he pulled apart his garments and reached inside to retrieve the book that had probably saved his life. The dagger had gone right through its thick leather covers and pierced through his skin, but it was only a minor cut.

“Ah… shit,” Nafan sighed, flipping through the damaged book. His wound hadn’t been serious enough to stain any of the inner pages with blood, but some parts had been ripped by the dagger. Hopefully, he could still decipher what was written. “I’ve kept this in pristine condition for so long…”

The wolf was still standing in front of him, but Nafan was surprised by how calm he felt in its presence. He kept an eye on it in his peripheral vision while checking the damage of his book. Its fur was jet black and slightly shaggy, its claws long and untrimmed. The fur around its muzzle was slicked back with some sort of fluid – blood, Nafan realized with a slight internal squirm.

Impatient, the beast uttered a low growl. At that, Nafan looked up and met its blue eyes with a sheepish smile.

“Come on, do you take me for an idiot? I know it’s you,” he said, hoping his casual act was convincing enough. In reality, he wanted to throw his arms around the beast, drag it down to the ground, and roll around with it in joy.

The beast growled again and stepped backwards, stomping its paws irritably on the grass. Smiling ruefully to himself, Nafan looked away and pulled his tunic off his left shoulder to examine the cut in his chest. By the time he looked up again, the wolf was gone.

In the near distance, he saw an upright figure walking through the grass. It went over to the bodies of the three men and bent down, then returned a couple seconds later with a tell-tale glittering chain in its hand. As the figure passed through a ray of moonlight, Nafan glimpsed blue eyes and pale skin, and he couldn’t resist the relieved grin that stretched at his lips.

“I knew it.”

“Shut up,” Khyriel growled, dropping his chain of coins into the man’s lap and averting his gaze. He was carrying two other chains, significantly shorter than Nafan’s. He tied them together before tucking it into his black garments. Then the boy crossed his arms and stood in front of the man, eyeing him down with an irritable glare. “I saved your life. Is that all you have to say?”

The boy looked different like this. Without makeup, in dark garments and black stockings, there was no way anyone could mistake him for a female. A leather choker strung with three yellowed fangs was strapped around his neck, and two pheasant feathers fluttered from just behind his left ear. just behind his left ear, were two striped feathers – one light grey, one black. It was a traditional lycan outfit, Nafan realized with immense pleasure. He never thought he’d see it in real life.

“You didn’t save my life, you just murdered my attackers and gave me my money back.” Nafan pointed out, casting the three shadowed corpses a wary look. Well, he wasn’t going to be able to sleep now.

“No, I saved your life.” Khyriel repeated stubbornly, squatting down in front of the man and baring his sharp teeth in a venomous glare. “I could have killed you. But I didn’t.”

“Right. Fair enough.” Chuckling nervously, Nafan pulled one copper coin loose from his strand and threw it at the boy. “Is this what you want?”

Khyriel caught the coin between his teeth, then lowered his head and shot the man a distinct look of dislike as he thread it in with his other strands of coin.

“… I’m sorry about last night,” Nafan said after a while, rubbing the back of his neck and offering the boy a rueful smile. “I don’t remember what happened.”

“Me neither.” The boy shrugged, looking unperturbed. “The last thing I remember clearly was drinking with you and Tianxi-xi. When I woke up next to you, I would have bitten your nose off, but my body felt strangely peaceful.”

Peaceful, huh. Not sure what that meant, Nafan allowed himself a small sigh of relief. At least the boy didn’t sound angered by what had happened… assuming something actually had happened. Defeated by his curiosity, Nafan met the boy’s wary gaze and asked tentatively, “And… and your insides, did you… have to wash a lot of stuff out?”

As the words left his mouth, he cringed, prepared to be clawed in the face – but to his surprise, he heard a hoarse laugh.

“You fell for that?” Khyriel smirked and licked his sharp fangs. “No, there was nothing. I just said that to get Tianxi-xi out of my hair. She’s always trying to figure out where I’m going next.”

“Haha…” Relief flooded his entire body, anesthetizing the pain and making him utter a shaky laugh. So nothing had happened…? Phew… “What’s wrong with that? She sounds like she cares about you.”

“It’s none of her business.” Khyriel shrugged, but he averted his gaze and narrowed his eyes somberly on a patch of dark grass nearby. “Besides, she’s helped me enough. I don’t want her to get in danger because of me.”

“Why would she get in danger because of you?” Nafan queried, brows furrowing in faint confusion as he read the boy’s face carefully. He didn’t understand yet, but he thought he could see fear in Khyriel’s eyes.

“And here I thought you knew everything,” the boy growled, lowering his head and casting Nafan a dark glare. “I’m a lycan. I’m not supposed to exist anymore.”

Not ‘supposed’ to? Nafan’s thoughts started whirring and he frowned, only to have his thought process interrupted by a sudden irrepressible yawn. Along with the airy feeling came a sharp sting, and with another flinch Nafan glanced down at his cut. He hadn’t brought any medicinal supplies, and it was too dark to find any nearby. He’d have to wait until they hit the next town to do anything about it…

“Hey.” Khyriel’s gaze had also been pulled towards his wound. “Do you always do that? Sleep out in the open?”

“Hm?” Nafan lifted his head to look at the boy as he pulled his garments back together. “Only when I can’t find a town or an inn.”

“Dumbass. You’re an easy target. You’ll be killed,” Khyriel said disdainfully, sitting down on the grass in front of the man and leaning forward.

Nafan froze as the boy came close to his throat, but all Khyriel did was sniff him a couple times before pulling back.

“How much farther do you need to travel?” the boy asked in an almost grudging voice.

“I’m going to Zhao,” Nafan confessed, rubbing his throat. It tingled strangely, propagating shivers all the way down to his fingertips.

“That’s far. A lot of soldiers are being dispatched there to fight the Qin, and a lot of fugitives are escaping the opposite way. It’ll be full of bandits and suspicious people,” Khyriel said, narrowing his eyes at the man. “You won’t make it.”

“How about I hire a bodyguard, then?” Nafan mused, tucking his notebook into the right side of his garments this time. He didn’t want to get any blood stains on it.

Catching his drift, Khyriel tilted his head, blue eyes glistening in the moonlight.

Glad that the lycan was tame enough to listen, Nafan held out one finger. “I’ll pay for food and lodgings,” he declared hopefully. “And I’ll pay you an additional silver every time I make it safely to the next town.”

Khyriel pulled his head back, nose crinkled in a look of distaste. “Travel with you? Tianxi-xi called you a pervert.”

“Seriously, what have I done to make you two think that?” Nafan chuckled abashedly, patting his shirt where the coins jingled dully. “Besides… I know you’re a lycan. If you don’t keep an eye on me, you might have to kill me.”

“Alright,” Khyriel sighed, getting to his feet. Nafan barely had a second to celebrate before the boy pointed a finger at him with a hefty growl. “Say your final words.”

“W-Wait!” Shocked, Nafan fell back in the grass with a nervous chuckle. “I was joking! I never saw a lycan today, or ever, okay? You’re just a normal man, I swear!”

 Khyriel stared hard at him for a while before the deadly glint in his blue eyes finally faded. Then, the boy lowered his hand and dropped back to the ground with a huff. “Deal, for now. I’m suspicious of you, anyway. How do you know so much about the lycan?”

“I’m… a doctor,” Nafan said, trailing off lamely when Khyriel gave him a murderous glare. “I-I know, I’ve said it before,” he defended himself hastily, as the boy bared his fangs. “I’m a lycan doctor.”

“Hmph.” Khyriel paused, disbelief flashing through his face. Then he turned away, eyes narrowed in a look tinged with suspicion. “I don’t believe you. Humans don’t know anything about us. Ying Ji is the only human whom I’ve heard my clanmates speak about –”

“Ying Ji?” Unable to stop himself, Nafan broke out laughing. Muffling himself quickly as Khyriel fluffed up in an indignant scowl, he lifted a hand and waved it apologetically. “You mean King Zhaoxiang of Qin, right? You should address him properly, not by his birth name. He was the most powerful emperor the Middle Country has ever seen.”

“He’s dead, it doesn’t matter,” Khyriel muttered, looking abashed anyway as he glanced away with furrowed brows. “Anyways, aside from that guy, the lycan don’t acknowledge anyone else.”

“Are you sure?” Nafan said dubiously, calming down once his wave of astonished giggles had passed. Taking a small breath, he returned the boy’s angry glare with a patronizing smile. “I think I can name at least one other human who was acknowledged by the lycan. Perhaps… a doctor who helped care for the sick and wounded?”

“We know how to take care of ourselves. Don’t treat us like primitive beasts!” Khyriel snapped, lunging forward and grabbing the front of the man’s shirt.

Wincing, Nafan grabbed the boy’s wrist – at the same time, Khyriel, perhaps realizing his mistake, widened his eyes. But even so, the lycan pulled his hand away too late. Pressing his fingers down quickly, Nafan immobilized his wrist and lifted the boy’s limp arm up to the moonlight for examination.

“Hmm, you say that, but you don’t take very good care of yourself,” Nafan murmured, squinting intently at the faint bruises on the boy’s hand. That merchant from last night had stepped on him pretty hard, from the looks of it – but apart from some local swelling underneath the skin, it didn’t look like it would be a problem. “Don’t you think that maybe there are people out there who know more about the lycan than you realize…?”

“… You’re wrong,” Khyriel growled, his voice thick with venom.

Surprised, Nafan glanced at the boy and released his hand. “Eh?”

“If you knew anything about the lycan, then you would have killed me by now!” Khyriel snapped, flexing the fingers in his hand as the feeling started returning to him. He cast Nafan a dirty look, then rose to his feet and turned away. His eyes, despite being such a pretty blue, glinted murderously in the moonlight as he glared back.

“I’ll guard you, as promised. But don’t act like you know anything about us ever again.”