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Chapter 1

Peter

Dante raised his thin sword into the air above him, the metal glowing in the orange light of the sunset, and swung it down towards me.

Luckily, I was quick enough to bring my own sword up and block the wolf's attack, which wasn't difficult because my sword was thicker than his, even though it had a shorter length so it could be used by members of smaller species. The blades rang against each other and sung almost like a pair of church bells.

But, before I could take pride in blocking his attack, Dante drew back his sword, only to swing it at me once more. This time, he attacked my right side.

I moved my sword barely in time to block him again, but Dante already launched another attack. Only now, I failed to meet his weapon with my own.

Dante's sword tip now rested less than half a finger's length away from my throat. As I looked down, I saw the fur on the front of my neck prickle from how close the sharpened point was to actually cutting me.

I lowered my sword and embraced bitter defeat.

"Better," Dante said, not pulling his sword away from me, "but you're still dead,"

Finally, the wolf drew his skinny blade back and held it down at his side. I could tell that he was being honest in saying that I had done better, since his breathing was heavier than usual, something that had never happened before during our other practices.

"What's my record now?" I asked, realizing that I was out of breath myself. "A minute?"

My panting friend gave a weak shrug. "Give or take. But you still haven't beaten me,"

"We'll have to change that, won't we?" I said, showing a smile.

"If you're up for one more turn," Dante said, wheezing for another breath. "But just one more. It's almost dark and I need to fetch us dinner,"

"Sure you do, old man,"

I moved back into a defensive stance and tightened my grip on the handle of my sword.

Without warning, Dante lunged forward and swung his sword at my left, slicing through the air that continued to grow cold as night crept closer.

I blocked the attack, but was soon met with a second that came from my right side, which was given a little boost of speed by Dante taking a step towards me.

As I deflected his sword and took a step backwards, I realized what Dante was doing. He was trying to make me back up against a tree and accidently corner myself, trapping me within his swing range. That was why he had been quickly advancing toward me.

A third strike came from above me and I blocked it just before sidestepping the gray wolf, pushing his sword away as I did so. As he started to recover, I tried to tap the flat side of my sword against Dante's right hip, hoping to make contact.

Sadly, Dante took a step to his left, probably realizing that he didn't have time to block my sword. He then gathered himself, turned towards me and raised his weapon.

Again, Dante took a large step forward while he attacked. I was barely fast enough to counter before he took another step and swung once more, bringing the tip of his sword to my chest, where it lightly brushed against my tunic.

I had lost again.

I lowered my sword, admitting my loss, which caused Dante to pull his sword away and sheath it. "I'm going to sit down for a minute and catch my breath," he said, panting. "Then I'll get us dinner,"

"Okay," I said, sheathing my sword.

Dante found a tall tree nearby and sat down, pressing his back against it.

I sat to his left and, after crossing my legs, tried to catch my breath as well.

For some reason, I found myself staring at the part of the wolf's head where his left ear used to be, which now held a tiny reddish-pink scar with no fur. It was hard to believe he didn't always have just one ear, since I had already gotten used to seeing that wound. But I still remembered how he had lost it, when a mercenary group called the Talth had killed Esme, his oldest friend. Osric, the leader of the northern Talth, also killed Rhona, another one of Dante's friends. That had sent Dante over the edge and we hunted down the mercenary leader. Dante killed him, of course, but got his ear chopped off while he was fighting Osric, which, to be honest, wasn't the worst thing that could have happened to him. Although, I dreaded what would happen when Derek, the leader of all the southern Talth, heard about Osric's death.

During the days after Esme's death, I was really worried about Dante. He had lost his best friend, so it was understandable that he would have been upset. But, other than the night that Esme was killed, Dante hadn't seemed all that depressed. His eyes weren't even red when he came back from hunting, which would probably have been the best time for him to cry without me being able see.

"Hey, Dante?" I asked, after managing to make myself stop looking at the furless spot of flesh on my friend's head.

Dante turned his head, breathing much more slowly now, and his right ear flicked. "Yes?"

"Are you still sad about Esme?" I asked, fearing for the first time that Esme's death might not have been a good topic to discuss as the words left my mouth.

The wolf blinked and thought for a moment. "Well, yes. Esme was my friend, but, after I was done stabbing Osric in the face, I felt...assuaged, like a river washed away my fury and grief. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that you're feeling okay. You know we can talk about it if you want, right?"

"I know," Dante said, lifting a hand up to pet the scar on his head.

"Or about Rhona and Capres,"

"Capres," Dante sighed. "I keep forgetting about him,"

William Capres was the current ruler of Tynas, the second most northern Capital in Alpis. He held a deep grudge against the Southern Kingdoms for winning the Yurl War, especially since he was second-in-command of the Northern Kingdoms during the war. It also didn't help that the Southern Kingdoms had been taxing the North ever since, driving many commoners out into the streets to become beggars. So, it wouldn't have been very difficult to convince the rest of the Northern Kingdoms to join him in declaring war on the South once again, which was what he was currently doing. And, if the Northern kings and queens didn't join Capres, he could have crushed them with his own army, which had more than doubled in size when he killed Lant Ulpis and took the entire Ulpis army under his command.

"Where did Queen Santel say he was again?" I asked. "The Danil Kingdom?"

"He was going to the Danil Kingdom," Dante said, lowering his arm back down to his side. "He's probably gotten there by now, since we left the Iron Pass over six weeks ago. I'm sure Danil agreed to join him. He knows Capres has more men,"

"You think they've left Leler yet?"

Dante was quiet for a moment, considering his answer. "Maybe. Depends on how long Leler took to get his army ready for war,"

"How long did Santel say it would take for them to get to her?" I asked, not remembering what Dante had told me on the day we left the Iron Pass.

"Six months," Dante said, his breath finally becoming normal again as he stood up and drew his bow. "So, in November, five months from now. But they could get there sooner or later, depending on the weather in the Fanged Peaks,"

"Fuck," I said, trying to figure out all of the dates.

"It'll probably be hard for them to travel through the Peaks, since they have supplies and practically three armies to move, which is good for us. And who knows how long it'll take them to travel over Owl's Overwatch? But, even if they get to the top of the Peaks and convince Santel to join them, they still need to win over Yurl and Talis. It might be a long time before Capres reaches the South,"

"Hopefully," I said, wishing that Capres would catch a cold in the Peaks and die. It would save a lot of lives.

"I'm going to go hunting now," Dante announced. "I'll be back in a little while,"

"Okay," I said. "Bye,"

"Goodbye," Dante replied, turning to walk into the woods.

Honestly, I wasn't worried about Capres catching up with us that much. We had arrived in the Talis Kingdom not long ago and were just a few days away from reaching Owl's Overwatch. Then, after crossing the mountains, we were going to be in the South. After that, it might have taken us a month or two to reach Lowpive at most, since the Southern Kingdoms were all smaller than the Northern ones, even though the South had a higher population.

Then again, Capres was still going to eventually arrive in the South and kill thousands of people if he had the chance. And, even if Dante and I reached Lowpive before Capres entered the South, we would still have had to somehow avoid all of the fighting from the upcoming war. On top of that, I somehow needed to escape my father, who would surely have had knights watching me day and night once Dante received his reward. Let's just hope Capres falls off a cliff or something before anything happens. That way, Dante and I can just leave with our gold.

_ _ Dante returned much later, right after the sun had set and grey lifeless clouds rolled in overhead. He was carrying a dead wild goose, which he soon began to cook over a fire that he made with the help of a spit he fashioned out of sticks.

While the goose cooked over the fire, I asked him, "Will we stop in any of the Southern Capitals before we get to Lowpive?"

Dante continued to turn the dead bird and didn't look at me. "No. There's nobody I can buy bullets from, so it's pointless to stop in any of the Cities. Why?"

I shrugged and said, "Other than Lowpive, I've never been to any of the other Capitals in the South,"

"Oh," Dante said. "I forgot you took a ship to the North when you ran away,"

"Yeah,"

"Well," Dante said, "we can visit them once I get the reward and when you escape from your father. Then again, we'll probably have to wait until Capres' war on the South ends. The last thing we need is Capres looking for you and blackmailing your dad into surrendering,"

"I don't think he'd use me for blackmail," I said.

"You don't?"

"No. He'd probably kill me just to piss my dad off,"

A silence passed and I knew Dante agreed with me, but the thought was likely too troubling for him to say it out loud.

"So," I said, deciding to move past the uncomfortable silence, "you don't even want to stop in Ernal?"

Dante's one ear twitched and he finally glanced up from our dinner, looking at me as though I just said that I could piss gold. "Why would I do that?"

"I mean..." I said, trying to gather my thoughts. "You haven't seen your family for a long time and your dad died last year, so you don't have to worry about him anymore. And you told me that your one brother was really nice to you. Don't you even miss him?"

Like me, Dante was a prince, the youngest son of the King of Ernal, Leonard Seril. Seril had apparently been very sick and spent most of his nights screaming inside his palace. Dante said Seril also ate less than he used to and grew a temper. And, when Dante was only seventeen, King Seril found Dante playing with himself while looking at a painting of a naked male fox. That was when Seril started beating Dante, usually while he called him a faggot. Dante said his mother knew about the beatings, but didn't do anything because Seril was a king and had the power to do whatever he liked. The rest of the Seril Family didn't help, either, except for Dante's brother, Aaron. Aaron had been training to become the Seril Family's Chief Apothecary and tended to Dante's wounds every time their dad beat Dante. The two brothers also talked a lot, bonding over their favorite characters in books. Dante told me that they always spoke to each other, even when they were feeling depressed.

Dante blinked, staring at me for a moment longer. Then, he looked back down at the cooking goose. "I have no desire to see my mother again,"

"But what about Aaron?" I asked. "I'm sure he misses you,"

Dante was silent.

"Come on, Dante. At least stop by so you can see Aaron. Think of how happy he'd be to see his little brother,"

"And what should I say?" Dante demanded, gazing up from his bird. "Hi, everyone! It's been four years and I only came back to see Aaron,"

I had no answer.

The wolf looked back at his goose, not speaking another word on the matter.

Feeling kind of guilty for getting under his fur, I tried to change the subject. "So how much longer will we be in the Talis Kingdom?"

"Probably only three or four more days," Dante said, his tone somewhat lighter than it had been a moment ago, which made me relieved.

"That's good,"

Neither of us spoke before dinner was ready, or while we were eating our cooked goose. In fact, when Dante spoke to me again, we had just finished eating and a few droplets of rain began to sprinkle down from the gloomy clouds above us.

"Shit," Dante said and opened his knapsack to search for something.

"What are you looking for?" I wondered.

"Your parka," Dante said. "Here it is,"

In one motion, the gray wolf pulled my tiny white parka out from inside his bag, holding it in front of himself like it was a bed sheet that he was about to fold. I had almost forgotten that we still had it, since we had put our parkas away after Dante killed Osric.

Dante stood and approached me, handing my parka over. "Here. Your makeup will start to run soon and the stains won't be as noticeable on the parka,"

"Oh," I said, remembering that most of the makeup for my ferret disguise was white, just like the parka.

My hands gently took the parka from Dante and slid it over myself. "Thanks,"

"You're welcome," Dante said, just before taking a seat beneath a tree and re-tying his knapsack.

Once the parka was over my tunic, the rain began falling even harder. In a matter of heartbeats, my makeup and what was left of my ferret-scented perfume washed away, leaving behind countless white and pink stains on my parka. As Dante thought, most of the stains weren't very noticeable and were only visible when looked at closely. In a certain light, it could have looked like I had eaten some berries and accidently gotten their juices on me. Now, aside from the new stains on my parka, all that remained of my disguise were the gloves I was wearing that covered my webbed fingers.

Remembering that my tail also had makeup on it, I stood up and looked over my shoulder, seeing how my tail was its natural brown color again and that a small white stain formed in the dirt where it had been laying.

Deciding not to stain the back of my trousers, I walked over and sat next to Dante, wrapping my arms around myself in an effort to keep warm, since the rainwater had already soaked through my parka and began to chill me.

"Here," Dante said, untying his cloak. "Sleep in my cloak,"

"It's fine," I told him, trying not to shiver from the cold fabric of the parka that now wetly clung to my fur.

"Please," Dante said, sadness filling his eyes. "It's the least I can do after smashing your makeup jars,"

I wanted to remind Dante that he had paid for the makeup, but, since I still felt guilty for asking him to visit his family, I took the cloak and put the gigantic hood over my head. "Thanks, Dante,"

"You're welcome, Peter. Sleep well,"

"You too," I said as I glanced over at the fire and discovered that the rain had already put it out, causing rivers of smoke to rise from the blackened logs.

I then leaned back against the tree and tried to fall sleep. But before I could doze off, I found myself listening to the soothing sound of rain tapping against tree leaves and mud, which reminded me of a quiet drumbeat.