The Shadows Book Two: The Legacy of Man and Machine.

Chapter Two - Twisted Soul

Liki Wolfspirit.

The crowd outside the inn was huge and going wild over whatever was happening in the middle. The sound of clashing and ringing metal could be heard over their cheering or jeering of the combatents in the middle.

"What's going on?" Liki asked over the noise.

"There's was some yelling," Blackpaw explained, "And the next thing I know, there's a huge fight going on! I think it's a bounty hunter, he's wearing a bounty hunter's uniform."

"A bounty hunter?" One-Eye whispered, shivering, "Ohhhhhhhhh, those are the worst of the worst possible. Killing for money..."

"Agreed." Kaz nodded, arms crossed, as he was using his superior height to look in on the batter over all the Beasts, "I see a Feline female, I guess around maybe sixteen years old, fighting a large male Fangren maybe thirty or forty, somewhere in between."

"If he's in the employ of the Kingdom, we can't do anything. He has a license to do what he wants to when he hunts targets." Liki stared ahead blankly as he spoke, letting the Shadows give him a feeling of the two combatants. The feline he felt was confused, not scared, but simply confused. There was also a bit of anger in her, directed more toward herself for some odd reason.

The Fangren he felt a sense of smugness. Clearly, he had been a bounty hunter for a long while to have become so adapted to fighting in public areas with huge crowds around him. He had experiance over the Feline, and it wouldn't take long for him to win by wearing the feline girl out of energy.

Blackpaw was just as concentrated beside him, "That cat has no idea why she is being attacked...or at least, she has done nothing wrong to deserve it."

Liki nodded, but unlike his student, his abilities were a bit stronger. Buried under a lot of emotion and dark thought, there laid a root cause in the Feline's mind. She believed herself quilty of something, but it was something personal and complex that she held dearly.

"Actually, I feel a root cause, it's buried though." Blackpaw continued then, surprising Liki.

He's catching up to me again, gonna have to get on the ball once more...

Balls... Liki looked over at Kaz, already formulating what tonight would be like with One-Eye hanging around them now as well, and-

"Liki! Focus!!!" His student barked and Liki jumped in surprise.

"What!?"

"I swear, you've developed a libedo of enormous proportions." Kaz whispered beside him, grinning. Blackpaw always yelled at him like that when his thoughts strayed toward sex when it wasn't appropriate.

"Like yours is no better." Liki jeered.

"Hey," Blackpaw started again, staring behind them, "Where'd One-Eye go?"

One-Eye was already at the edge of the crowd, watching the two fighters with his one field of vision. His fists were clentched up and he was trembling, as he felt something inside him bubbling. It was the same something inside him that was telling him to stay away from Liki. Yet he ignored it.

Here though, watching these two fighters go at it, it was taking him over...

He gasped and held a hand to his eye, cringing as voices whispered in his head. Among those one stood out.

Kill him...Kill the bounty hunter...gotta save the girl...

"N-no!" He whined outloud to himself, "I won't!"

If you will not...

One-Eye screamed loudly, as he lost himself and fell unconcious. However, his body stayed standing, and now all attention was focused on him. His eye had went from a dull red to bright blood red, glowing lightly; a universal sign of that he knew how to use forms of magic. His stance was now more rigid, and he simply issued a feeling of dread.

He stepped foward, into the middle of the crowd, as the two fighters standing there had paused to stare when he had yelled. His voice was low and dark when he grinned a toothy grin, "Then I will for you..."

He raised his right hand, and in a cloud of black smoke, a long sword appeared.

One-Eye jumped at the Fangren, swinging his blade above his head.

"He's attacking the bounty hunter!" Kaz shouted as the crowd instantly reacted with loud booing noises.

"Well, priase him for taking action at least." Liki groaned and took his two daggers in his hand with a sigh. "Guess we gotta help him."

It was then that One-Eye's voice, now dark and low, sounded over the shouting of the crowd.

"Let the Darkness of Night overtake you!!!"

A large piller of black flames shot into the air from the middle of the conflict, swirling around.

"Get down!" Liki barked and flung his palms at the ground. A blast of unseen energy whamed Kaz, Blackpaw, and the nearby citizens on the head and slammed them against the ground, just as the black piller arched around and hit Liki full on.

The Fangren brought his arms in front of him, pressing against the magic with his own barrier of invisible Shadows at his front. He grunted lightly, taking a step back as the pillar pressed harder on his resistence.

It keeps getting stronger! Liki worried, but he kept a calm control as he placed a Shadow Ward around his leg and kicked upward with it. The pillar was diverted into the air and flew up into the tree canopy, creating a small hole that let in an amount of light from above once the dark flames finally dissapated fully.

Liki twirled his daggers in his hands, his arms and leg shimmering as he deactivated his Shadow Ward. The Shadow Ward worked like the Shadow Cloak, except that it didn't turn him invisible, it repelled other forms of magic by pushing out along his body with a high intense volume of the "Condensed" or invisible form of Shadows. It could not be used for as long too, as the amount of Shadows gathered around his body to protect him put a heavy pressure on him, feeling like he was deep underwater and eventually exhausting him by the feeling of near-crushingness. He remembered sometimes when he had to protect his head, his ears would pop.

Blackpaw and Kaz got up slowly, rubbing the back of their heads.

"Why do you do that?" Kaz asked with a groan, "We could've got down in time."

"Can't take that chance love." Liki grinned at his mate and helped him up, seeing the druid's instant blush at the word. Blackpaw coughed loudly, staring at what was ahead of them. The crowd had ran off in fright as Liki had deflected the pillar.

Liki turned his head back to see, and was instantly hit with the most incrediable feeling of dread and evil as he saw One-Eye advancing on a slowly retreating female Feline wearing blue armor. Behind the fox, the Fangren bounty hunter lay twitching and dieing in a large pool of blood.

One-Eye just...Excuded an aura of evil and hatered now, a large sword in his hand that gave off black smoke did not help the image. Along with the eye that was now glowing bright red rather than a calm dull red, he wore a sinister grin on his muzzle as he continued to take steps toward the cat girl in front of him.

"Why did you help me and then turn around start trying to grab me!?" The cat yowled.

The Foxen was chuckling evily, "Darkness...everything to be is an upcoming disaster. A world of chaos without order, or a world of order without chaos, one cannot exist without the other. It just so happens that I like the chaos, and even chaos goes against chaos. So I killed your attacker and now I'm your attacker. That's Chaos. That's the very meaning of it pretty kitty..."

Liki wondered what he was talking about, when the feline shouted, "Stay away you freak!"

"What?" One-Eye laughed as he took a step foward. The feline took a step back.

"I just saved your life dear," He grinned maliciously, "The least you could do is give thanks."

It was then that Liki realized One-Eye had the front of his pants open...he was intending to rape the feline.

"One-Eye! Back off!" He barked and sprinted at the Foxen.

One-Eye turned with a audioable sigh, "More chaos for the better of me then-" He froze when he saw Liki running toward him, and suddenly he dropped the black sword, which vanished in a poof of black smoke just at it clanged on the wooden platform. The Feline was already gone, dashing away.

The fox, however, was now the one taking steps away from Liki, who had stopped in a moment of utter confusion at his sudden change. It was an ironic circumstance.

"It's you!" The Foxen pointed and tripped onto his rumb, partially crushing his own tail, "Stay back! Stay back!"

"Kaz," Liki said as he stared at One-Eye, "Check the bounty hunter." The druid was already kneeling and checking over the Fangren's wounds as Liki waved to Blackpaw. His student came up beside him.

"Shadow Barrier. Around him." Liki said and held out his hand.

"Right." Blackpaw agreed and put both his paws on Liki's. Blackpaw pooled his energy into Liki, who used his student's and his own while focusing on a ten foot radius around One-Eye.

"Stay away you Shadow fr-" One-Eye was cut off as the air shimmered with a similair shine of the Shadow Ward. The Shadow Barrier would keep out anyone and keep in anyone as well. The only things allowed to pass through the barrier were Liki and Blackpaw, and air.

"That'll hold him till he calms down..." Liki said, and apparently that warned One-Eye to his situation, as he stood up and suddenly felt the wall behind him. His fists started pounding on the wall, making the invisible box he was trapped in wobble slightly and shimmer. A few citizens were returning, seeing the crazy fox trapped and the situation apparently resolved they gave a few cheers.

Liki only continued to watch One-Eye fruitlessly pounding on the wall, yelling feverishly and his one bright red eye wild in fright. It seemed One-Eye was scared of him, and not just weary, absolutely terrified of him. But that hadn't been the case before.

Kaz was thinking the same thing, as he stood up from his work on the bounty hunter who was now sleeping in the numbness of druidic magic, wounds sealed. He stepped up beside Liki.

"He changed...that wasn't the same fox that was sleeping in the inn that came out with us."

Liki nodded, "I agree...something is up with him...this isn't just some bi-polar disorder. He downright has two different minds living inside him, and only one can be in control at a time...and it appears that this one had met me before and is deathly afriad of me..."

One-Eye was slowly lossing energy in his fright, scrampling from one end of the box to the next. The trio watched until he finally came to a rest at the wall closest to them, his eye staring at Liki and he kept mouthing the words 'stay away' until it closed and he hit the ground and passed out.

Liki releashed the Shadow Barrier at that point, and he stepped foward and picked up the Foxen.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Kaz whimpered lightly as Liki turned back toward the inn with the fox in his arms.

The rogue grinned, "You know me love, I can't just ignore this. I'm too curious."

"But you're not a cat." Blackpaw grinned himself and giggled.

Liki entered the inn with the others behind him, and to his room where he laid One-Eye on the bed there. He sat down and stared at the fox intently.

"What are you going to do?" Kaz asked.

Liki grunted, "Try to get inside his head."

Blackpaw's eyes widened, "But we haven't even perfected doing that to each other yet, who knows what'll happen if you try it on a non-Shadow."

"I won't go too deep, just enough to fish out some truth. If One-Eye's 'good' half doesn't remember most of his life, I'm willing to bet that this 'bad' half has the gaps." Liki reached out his paw over One-Eye's head, closing his eyes and focusing, ignoring the continued argument his student was trying to give until he slipped away into One-Eye's mind.

Liki found himself, or rather, his mind self, inside a dark and endless space. The space of what was One-Eye's apparently very empty head.

"Well..." he commented and looked around himself, "It's certaintly not very colorful...a good contrast from Blackpaw's..."

He started walking, with no real clue what he was looking for or if anything was in there at all. He kept walking and walking, but all he was getting was more black spaces and this soft blowing wind that ruffled his fur and ears.

"Who are you...?"

Liki turned suddenly, to discover a small fox boy of about ten years old standing there, arms held behind him nervously as he looked up to Liki with his red eyes. His black fur nearly hid his figure completly from sight. For some reason, the boy had no clothing on at all as well.

"One-Eye?" He asked, but instantly knew that couldn't be true, the boy had two eyes.

"One-Eye?" The Foxen repeated and gave a silly grin, "Never heard of em."

Liki smiled at the simple innocence. It reminded him of Blackpaw back in EarthEnd, before the white wolf started puberty and it all went to hell and the innocence turned into raging hormones. Except he knew what it was like to go through that so he tried to be understanding toward Blackpaw and not upset him anymore than he already could become.

"I'm Liki...Do you know where we are?" Liki asked.

The fox boy shook his head, "Na-uh, you're the first person I've seen for a long, long time."

Liki blinked, "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Um..." The boy put a finger to his chin as he thought, "The last thing I remember was having a rock hit me inside a cave."

"What?" Liki balked, "What an odd thing to remember. Did you survive?"

The boy giggled, "I'm here ain't I?"

"Yes but this is-nevermind." He waved his paw, and asked something different, "What's your name?"

"I'm Folvar, the child of the Hunti family of the Midlands." The Fox said it proadly, and Liki knew why. The Hunti were the royalty of Midlands, not as richly as those of New Badari or Heartwood, but still the leaders of the country.

Liki thought a moment until he asked, "Was anyone else in the cave with you when you got hit with the rock?"

"Hmmhmm, my best friend Wolff!" The fox said cheerfully.

"Is Wolff here too?" Liki continued.

Fovar nodded, "Yeah, he's up ahead. Wanna meet him?"

"Very much."

Folvar walked past Liki and walked foward, as Liki followed. The fox made a sudden left turn, and Liki stopped in confusion. Folvar looked back at him and giggled, "What? There's nothing over there. I've looked."

Liki shrugged and turned to follow again, and did not question the fox when he suddenly made another right to continue in the same direction as before, then another left.

As Liki followed through on the last left, his eyes widened when a huge colorful room filled with many objects of strange design appeared. Folvar walked in nonchantly as Liki tiptoed in behind him. The Fox waited by a door in the room as Liki slowly approached, and opened it while saying, "Wolff! Look! I found someone in here finally!"

"Another Beast?" There was a gray and white furred Fangren lifting weights in the room, toned and muscular and looked to be about two years older than the fox. His eyes were also a red color as they examined Liki in the doorway. Like Folvar, he was also not wearing any clothing. He stared at Liki a moment before lifting his wieght a bit.

"Heh, it's an adult too. Knew there had to be one in here somewhere."

"Do you know where we are?" Liki asked.

"I know where we ain't and that's home." Wolff replyed pointedly, lifting his wieght as his muscles flexed in his arm. Folvar sat on the ground there and began to calmly play with his fingers idely.

"How long have you been in here?"

Wolff shrugged, setting down his wieght and looking at Liki again, "Five years? Ten years? Twenty? Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that I had a rock fall on me and that's the last thing I remember."

So... Liki stared piecing things together, These are two seperate entities that are living in One-Eyes head...one of them is a fox of royalty, and the other is a more rougher Fangren with muscles to rival a Feral...

"What were you two doing before the cave-in?"

"Exploring the mountians of Midlands, we found a cave with some interesting things inside. We were messing around and we probably shouldn't have been, one of the objects started drilling into Folvar's head with some steel cap thing and making a lot of noise. It caused the cave-in. Me and Folvar woke up here in this place and been here ever since."

"No food? No water?"

"Don't need em," Wolff shook his head, "I haven't been thirsty since being here and the only way I can hear my own stomach growl at me is if I growl and pretend it is."

He certiantly has the attitude of a twelve year old... Liki grimiced, good thing he had patience through Blackpaw.

"I assumed it was a long dream me and Folvar were sharing up to this point, or a kind of afterlife that is greatly dissapointing, but with you here I'm thinking it's something different."

Liki nodded, "I don't think you'd believe me if I told you."

"Try us." Wolff glared.

"All right." Liki sighed and started, "I believe you two are trapped within the manifestation of both your bodies put together, and ever since that cave-in you've both been living in the same body and sharing it without knowing so. I came into that persons mind to see if I could fix the problem. Folvar, I believe, is this person's more passionate side, and when he is in control, the person you are sharing is calm and nice and caring, and when Wolff is in control, the person is quick to anger, has a temper, and tends to hurt others."

Wolff and Folvar stared a moment, until Wolff was the one who said, "I believe you."

"You do?"

Wolff chuckled, "The moment I saw you everything in me just froze up a moment and I felt a fear the likes I've never felt before..."

Liki remembered how One-Eye had been acting toward him back on the plaza.

Folvar added, "When I saw you, I instantly believed I could put my faith in you to save me from anything..."

Liki then remembered how One-Eye had been when they had met in the forest.

Yup...his two seperate personalities in a nutshell.

"Well then, if that being the case I guess I can blame Wolff for what has happened to One-Eye."

"What?!" The adolecsent shot up and barked, "I don't even know a One-Eye!"

"One-Eye is the name of the Foxen who's body you two share." Liki stated, and Wolff's expression changed, "I don't know what happened with your cave and after the cave-in, but the two of you are sharing the same body right now."

"If that's true, why haven't we grown up at all?" Wolff growled lowly.

"I assume becuase you're constantly switching control of the body somehow. Or perhaps it is simply impossible for the two of you to grow up in a body that is not yours. One-Eye is about twenty five years old, yet he acts like Folvar and at different, so far very random times, switches into a completly opposite personality. It's impossible to tell when he'll be all calm and nice one moment, and trying to rape a feline the next."

"Rape...a...feline...?" Wolff whispered, shocked.

"Wolff?" Folvar whimpered, apparently knowing something.

"Have something to say?"

Wolff shuffled, "Just before Folvar came back...I...I was masturbating to the thought of raping a feline girl in black fur with blue armor...I never obtained a climax though becuase I simply lost the desire for it." He looked up to Liki with a pained expression, "Don't tell me that I was actually controlling this One-Eye and making him try to do that..."

"I'm afraid you were..." Liki whispered and Wolff hit his wieght bench with a loud thud.

"Oh Gaia..." He whimpered, "What have I done?"

"I stopped One-Eye from doing what you were cuasing though. Upon seeing me while you were controlling him, he became terrified of me, that's probably why you couldn't reach your climax, but you were not aware that he was now being terrified of me, and since you and him are the same person, but you could not see me, you were denied complete control somehow and this tells me that he does have a bit of his own control, just that your whims can influence him. However," Liki looked at Folvar, "He doesn't do this when Folvar is the one in control. So Wolff, do you have any idea why you're scared of me?"

"I don't know..."

Liki grumbled and reached a hand foward, he knew what Wolff was probably truly frightened of. Wolff looked up and flinched, eyes widening slightly like something just shocked him. Liki's hand started glowing purple in Shadows and Wolff jumped up and scrampled to the other side of the room, looking at the Shadows with horror.

"Stop that!!!" He yelped pitifully and Liki lowered his hand, Wolff slid down the wall of the room, quivering.

"I know now, I had a dream that included you...I was hunting you, I was told to kill you and I fought you in Camelot in a inn. You beat me by tieing me down to a table with...that," He pointed with a finger at Liki's hand, "stuff and left me there, it didn't let me go for two days..."

Liki remembered that incident, and realized that it had been a Foxen he had tied down.

A Foxen with one red eye...

Apparently, Folvar and Wolff did hold One-Eye's memories, except here inside the mind they shared, they got them as dreams. And the reason 'good' One-Eye did not fear him was becuase 'bad' One-Eye was in control when he first met him. Whenever one or the other was in control, they lost the memories of eachother and vice versa. So, since Folvar had no previous memory of meeting him, he did not react in fear like Wolff did, and therefore, One-Eye was not afriad of him while Folvar was in control and was when Wolff was in control.

If the connection was true, the way to fix that was talking to Wolff and getting the Fangren boy to like him here, so that in the outside, when he was in control, he wouldn't be scared.

"Look Wolff, I-" Liki took a step foward and Wolff cringed.

"No! Stay away from me!"

"Wolff!" Folvar cried and stood up, fists clentched, "Get a hold of yourself, this isn't you, you're never scared of anything!"

"This is different!" Wolff whined, "Slithering tentacles wrapping around me, holding me down against my will trying to rape me!" He cringed, trying to hide his face from Liki.

Liki found himself grinning, the boy was afraid of being raped by tentacles.

"Wolff you know that's not what they were doing, the only way they'd do that is if I told them too, and even then they probably wouldn't unless you'd enjoy it."

One of Wolff's watery eyes looked out at him and he sniffled, "Really?"

Liki nodded, "They won't work for evil purpose, they have a mind of their own and are made to do good, not evil. They held you down becuase you were attacking me." Liki was interested to find out who had ordered Wolff to attack him in his dream that caused One-Eye to do the same, it was likely that whoever told Wolff in his dream told One-Eye in the real world. But he figured that would be pushing the boy even more out of his trust, so he would take this slow and steady, and try to stabilize One-Eye's personality between the Fangren and Foxen that was sharing his body.

Wolff turned so his back was to the wall, slumped and staring up at Liki. "Show me them again..."

Liki raised his hand slowly, his hand glowing purple and a visible stream of Shadows inched out slowly toward Wolff's face. The Fangren swallowed and whimpered constantly, fighting his urge to curl up and hide, until finally the tendril reached him and gently rubbed along his muzzle.

Wolff blinked and eventually began to murr silently as the tendril continued to rub his muzzle, a grin starting to play across it slowly and he relaxed as it continued to pet him.

"There," Liki grinned as he saw Wolff's tail starting to wag between his legs, "They're not so bad are they?"

"No." the boy murred, "I guess they're not."

Liki chuckled and the tendril vanished, and he crossed his arms, "So now that you aren't afraid of them, I don't have to worry about One-Eye being scared of me no matter what personaility is in control. Now, as for the other things. I'm going to leave a bit my own mind behind, as a watcher of sorts to keep you both in check, mostly Wolff becuase I haven't had any problems from Folvar's side."

Folvar giggled and Wolff looked ashamed.

"First things first, Wolff, you need something to find release on, I'm sure your adolescent hormones rage guite often and we can't have you causing One-Eye to try and rape anymore felines, so from now one feel free to fantasize about me and I'll get you that release in the real world."

Wolff instantly stiffened, his sheath seemed to plump up as he said, "You're...gay?"

Liki nodded, "Bi acutally but I have a gay mate so I'm not opposed to it."

Wolff blushed, "I'll...keep it in mind...what...what is One-Eye doing right now?"

"He's sleeping." Liki giggled, "Wore himself out being scared of me earlier when you tried to rape the girl. The only thing you'll give him and yourself by trying to have sex with me here and now is a bad case of blue balls. Becuase from what I'm getting so far, if he can't reach a climax, you don't reach a climax."

Wolff whimpered again, his sheath deflating noticably as he remembered what he had done.

"Also, I don't know what all temper flares you're having, but when you're in control Wolff, One-Eye becomes really mean and particually evil. He nearly killed another Fangren before trying to rape the feline too." Liki could imagine the huge arrows with the words 'quilt' written on them stabbing themselves into Wolff's backside as he said the words.

"I'm a stupid pre-teen, I can't help my thoughts, I'm just...full of energy and there's nothing I can do to dispell it here except think about killing someone in the most horrible ways possible. Folvar hasn't started puberty yet, he doesn't have that problem, if I could I'd let him keep control all the time, but I don't know how it switches from me to him at all."

"I think it's simply the position One-Eye finds himself in at certain times. The Feline and Fangren were actually fighting eachother and he wanted to help."

Folvar spoke up, "That was me! I imagined that...I wanted to help but I don't know how to fight, so I stopped imagining it."

Liki agreed, "Wolff does however, so he took control, and subsequently began to imagine attacking Fangren, which thereby caused One-Eye to do so. I bet you also imagined sending out a pillar of black flame that burned everyone else around you while you gravely wounded him too. Didn't you?"

Wolff shuffled and Liki clapped his shoulder, "Don't worry, I stopped the flames. What I'm getting at is this though...be careful what you're imagining all right?"

Both the boys nodded solemly and Liki rose up, "I'll leave a small piece of myself here so that I can get back in here if I ever need to, but I'll come talk and hang out awhile, perhaps after having some real company, you won't have to imagine the real world so much, and One-Eye can start become more balanced in his personality. But Wolff."

"Yeah?"

"For now, just try to relax and sleep alot so that Folvar keeps control. And Folvar, if you find yourself imagining something really bad and you need to fight or act, that's when you should have Wolff take over and tell him the scenerio so he knows exactly what he's imagining."

Both of the boys looked at the rogue.

"That's confusing." They both said.

Liki nearly fell over, "Just, keep doing what you're doing but tone it down a bit!"

"Okay." Both of them laughed and Liki vanished, but he left behind a small outline of his figure, the small hold he kept on One-Eye's mind so he could instantly return to that exact location.

Wolff sighed, "Wow. What did we get ourselves into huh?"

"All those things we imagined since being in here, were actually being done by the body we share." Folvar whispered.

"Those dark evil knights killing people...all the times I imagined of killing someone and dreaming of it..."

"My nightmares of being alone in random places..."

Silence followed a moment.

"Holy crap...We're a twisted up soul...sharing each other's thoughts and memories and actions without even realizing it." Wolff stated.

Folvar actually grinned, "If it's any consolation, I'd have never thought of anyone better to be stuck in this with than you..."

Wolff grinned, "Me too. Well, since One-Eye...or we...or whatever, is asleep, I'm going to take a nap and hope I don't dream up riduclous stuff and make us do it..."

"Me too." Folvar got up and passed through the faint standing image of Liki, "Good night Wolff."

Wolff chuckled, "At least now we'll know what time of day it really is, next time he comes back." The Fangren curled up on to floor and started to doze off as his fox friend giggled and left the room.