Chapter 12

Perspective on all protagonists

The dark figure was hard to make out in the trees, but its presence was unmistakable. As the hackles of his thick fur rose Ivan lowered his stance creeping slowly towards the shadow. Dammit! He was alone this time and his bones still creaked in protest at his every moment. He let low humming growls slip past his lips. He could only hope he was intimidating enough. The figure slumped the tree no longer holding it. Ivan got closer to see the figure had horns perched on its head. It seemed fragile.

In front of the figure he could see that it was a small boy, he looked exhausted but uninjured. He sniffed the boy as he shivered out of fear. Docking his dead to the side Ivan dropped his bloody catch to the floor. The boy’s eyes widened as he looked towards the small deer. Edan had forgotten in his sheltered little forest that there were things out there that actively hunted deer. He looked at the giant wolf with blood mixed saliva.

The wolf stepped back from him lowering its head as it began to violently shake. He knew there were people with powers much more complex than his own in this world, but he was shocked by what he was seeing. The wolf changed slowly; in vulgar detail, each hair sunk into its pores, each claw shorted to nails, each tooth lost its point as the jaw pressed back into a human face. Soon a human stood tall in front of him stark naked.

A blush rose to Ivan’s cheeks as the other small boy stared at his body, he rose a hand to the back of his neck while the other he used to cover his member. When the boy attempted to stand before collapsing once more on his feet Ivan remembered what he changed for in the beginning. He ran towards the boy and hauled him onto his shoulder, he secured the boy as he squirmed on his shoulder before reaching to pick up the dead deer by its hooves. He dragged the deer along with them as he walked, the small boy beating at his back and kicking at his ribs. His kicks were considerably harder than his punches.

He was greeted with fear-stricken eyes as he immerged before the others realised that it was Ivan coming back from the hunt. He dropped the deer in front of the fire before slowly pulling the boy from his shoulder and securing his wrists to the ground.

“who is that” Rylee was not in a good mood today, it seemed like their words were a sneer. Everyone seemed to inspect the boy paying no heed to their naked comrade. Addie rose from her spot taking care of Fenya’s wounds to slowly moving towards them. She gasped as the boy’s shadow quickly moved in front of her, it was the timidest shadow she had encountered but it held such light, it seemed free. Every person watched Addie closely waiting for her word. She held her hand out in Lilina’s direction and the child quickly ran to grab it.

“It’s alright, he’s one of us, let him go Ivan and put on some clothes Rylee just finished sticking some together,” Ivan nodded heading in Rylee’s direction as they held out clothes to him. “let’s hope you’re the last one, my name is Addie, the brute who carried you hear is Ivan, the fired-up one is Rylee they are nonbinary please don’t forget that the unconscious one is Ade, that girl over there is Fenya and this little one is Lillina.” Addie pointed to each person as she said their names and all, but Ade gave a small wave. “we all turned up in the area in a couple of days and walked here, none of us know why we are here except that we are all supposed to be together, I was the first to get here, I believe that you are also one of us.”

“Don’t worry we won’t hurt you, come on legs get you some food and water, you look beat,” Edan looked up at Ivan as he helped him to his feet patting lightly on his head. Ivan kept a hand around his waist as he brought him closer to the water using his own hands to cup water into Edan’s mouth. Ivan laughed when Edan pushed his hands away after taking a few sips spilling what was left onto the soil. “Feeling better are you, this water is real strange,” a blush rose to his cheeks and a defiant pout on his lips formed.

“Don’t touch me, you don’t even know my name creep,” Edan yelled it knowing he was not fooling anyone, after all, no one in the herd ever found him intimidating. “It’s Edan by the way,” his head fell, and his voice went quiet as he slowly rose on wobbly feet before moving over the fire. He was driven here as it seems all the other people had been but why. He had heard about before from the merchants at the trade stall, they talked about an abandoned wreck of a town with free-flowing healers’ water. A promise land.