FSE

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The cracking and popping of a campfire seeped into Matt's dreams, slowly pulling him from a peaceful slumber. Sleepily opening his eyes, Matt rolled over and looked up to see a face comically grinning at him. It took a moment for the teenager to realize who it was, but once he did, his eyes snapped open. now wide awake, he scrambled backwards only to feel the cold touch of stone at his back. His vision was having a hard time adjusting to the dim lighting in the cave, and his words stammered.

The person sitting across from Matt with a grin on his face was the same wolf-like boy he'd met in the forest. The young wolf crouched as if to pounce, his tail wagging behind him as he spoke with excitement, "You're up! You were sleeping long enough - I didn't know if you were going to wake up or not, but I'm glad you did."

The wolf-boy stood up and walked closer to Matt, placing one hand on his hip as if evaluating him, and leaned down close. A bit too close for Matt's liking as their faces were just inches apart, the golden eyes of the wolf gazing into his blue. The wolf-boy seemed comfortable with the situation, but Matt was squirming nervously a bit of a blush forming on his face. The teen silently wished for the inquisitive wolf to back away.

After what seemed like minutes under the scrutiny of the wolf, the wild boy smiled and placed a hand on the teenagers head ruffling his hair a bit. An act that made Matt freeze, and his blush deepen.

"I like you," the wolf-boy said with a confident smirk sitting down right in front of Matt cross-legged. Placing a hand on either knee, his tail swayed behind him happily as he kept on looking over Matt, "You are different from other humans."

"I'm not sure how, but you feel special," he said thinking aloud. The entire time Matt is too confused, disoriented, and out of his comfort zone to really even think yet alone talk. The wolf pointed to himself "I'm Tierie."

There was silence as the wolf -Tierie- looked at Matt expectantly for a moment. The teenagers head hurt, and when he realized he was not in immediate danger he began to look around, eyes breaking off of the Tierie only offering the wolf a slight smile. They were in a cave. It was dark, and the light which was there was dim. He could not see the entrance, or light of the outside. They cave circled around them and the only exit, or rather the only way out, was through an opening just past the wolf-like boy.

He'd been resting on a cot of grass and pelts. Under the stone floor, his body was aching a little from not being used to sleeping on the ground. The cushioning wasn't the best either. The teen was too used to his own soft - at least compared to this- mattress. Where was he and how was he going to get out?

A low rumbling growl brought Matt's attention back to the younger wolf that was sitting with him. When Tierie knew that he had the attention of the human back a happy smile spread across his face showing off his sharp canines.

"Are you hungry?" he asked. "You should probably eat a bit before the others know you are awake. Tarven has some questions for you, but I," he pointed to himself with his thumb, saying 'I' proudly, "convinced them to leave you be until you woke up." Tierie nodded happily at his accomplishment obviously a bit proud of himself. Matt's eyes fell to the tail behind the wolf's back. It was moving happily and Tierie almost reminded him of a dog. He sure had the features, and was friendly enough. Silently Matt hoped that the rest of the people here were as friendly as this guy.

"You stay right here then," Tierie exclaimed, getting up, "I'll be right back. You pretend to be asleep until I get back," he instructed, as he began to leave the small enclosure. Giving a short look over his shoulder before he disappeared into the cave he whispered, "That means you lay down!"

Then, Matthew found himself alone. Heeding the person's instructions the boy laid back down on the mat of straw and fur. The grass was long dead and pokey, but the numerous pelts of animals made up for it with their furry and snug embrace. It really smelled in the cave. Like wet dog. Perhaps it was because now he had time to think that he is now just noticing this, but the cave was warm and he had dried blood on his face. His clothes were stained as well, and most of all he felt dirty here. This was not what he was expecting when Nashiri led him out into the forest.

That's right, Nashiri! Guilt started in again, and his stomach tied itself into knots. He clutched his tummy. It hurt. The fox got hurt because of him, and now he didn't even know if he was alive or not, or even what happened to him. Guilt was blended with worry and concern. All his thoughts would let him think about was the mangled arm, and just thinking about it made Matt's own arm start to tingle and hurt. Of course the pain wasn't real. Though for Nashiri it was.

Eyes screwed shut he tried not to think about it, and as if on cue he felt a hand on his shoulder and a happy voice announced the arrival of food. The act made Matt want to lash out at the boy, but instead he rolled over and smiled weakly at Tierie. How could he be so happy when Nashiri was out there, possibly dead? Though the smile faded when he saw what the wolf brought back for him to eat. Not necessarily understanding what humans normally have the guy brought back with him a skinny looking leg of something. Matt did not know what, but it was still bleeding and shredded. It already had some chunks taken out of it, and frankly there was not much meat left on it.

Nonetheless Tierie waved the piece of raw meat in front of Matt proudly, like he was doing something nice. Confused when Matt did not take the opportunity to eat, the boy sat with the teenager placing the prized leg between them, "What's wrong?"

It was exactly as the teenager expected, Tierie did not know the first thing about humans. Perhaps that is why he is so interested in them and it was probably this interest which fueled the guys liking of Matt. "You're not sick, are you?"

The question hit Matt, but before he could say or even do anything he felt the wolf's hand on his forehead. "You don't feel warm..."

Matt was not going to open up to Tierie. He felt horrible, but it wasn't sickness, it was not anything that the wolf could help cure. Instead the teen shook his head, "I'm fine," he tried to convince the wolf, "it's just I can't eat raw meat," he said gesturing to the leg between them. That only made poor Tierie look even more confused. It was like he had never heard of that before, and it caught him off guard.

The wolf moved to say something but Matt cut him off, "Besides I'm not very hungry anyways," he said eyeing the meat.

"You can have the thing." Matt gestured towards the leg, and it seemed that Tierie didn't have to be told twice. Smiling broadly he nodded enthusiastically with a small "Suit yourself" before taking and ripping into the leg. The teenager watched the wolf eat, gorging himself on the meat, blood dripping from his chin messily and sloppy noise coming from him. Tierie sure could eat, and fast. Maybe it was part of growing up in a pack of wolves? Matt remembered a documentary about wolves he watched some years ago. Details were hazy, but food was a competition to get. Then he outright refused the gift? Had he offended Tierie? The guy didn't look so.

"You never told me your name," Tierie said with a mouthful of food. Bits flew towards Matt and the teen tried to avoid all of them. After that sentence the wolf went back to eating, but eyeing Matt expectantly.

"I'm, uh," the teen rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, "Matt." he introduced himself with an almost shy smile.

"Nice to meet you!" more food flew, and the wolf grinned at him happily. Matt tried not to be disgusted by the half-chewed food that he saw with the smile, or the blood flowing and around Tierie's face. The wolf was obviously oblivious to how awkward he was making Matt feel. Swallowing the wolfish boy actually took a breath and wiped his chin with his hand, "I've always wanted to meet a human."

"W-why is that?" Matt found himself asking. The energetic wolf had him curious.

"Well," the wolf began pausing a moment to think, "it's kind of like how you are not allowed to eat raw meat." he waved the leg, now mostly gone only about a couple bites left and the wolf could easily finish that off, "I'm not allowed to see humans."

It was the simplest explanation that the wolf could think of at the moment that Matt might understand, "The wolves are not allowed near the human world. This is because Tarven says humans have weapons that could hurt us in our natural form."

"I'm not as old as Tarven so I still can't transform into a human guise." he said sounding almost pouty about it, "This is as close as I can get." He grinned, looking over himself like he was dressed in fine clothing, "But it's still not right. You humans don't have tails, or sharp claws." he informed Matt grabbing one of the teens wrists to hold close to his face. Golden eyes observed it closely, trying to take in every last little detail about it. A sniff, and then a curious tongue licked the palm. The action was met with a tug from Matts end, trying to get his hand free from the wolf's grasp, but the grip only tightened, "You taste different too."

The observation was noted, and Matt noticed the hand holding his wrist felt warmer than usual. The skin felt rough and a bit dry. Claws jutted out from the fingertips. Overall Tierie had a good start, but it wasn't really complete. Giving up on pulling away from the wolf, the teenager let the wolf sniff and observe his hand some more. The wolfish boy seemed fascinated with Matt's fingernails and paid extra special attention looking at them.

"It's like you haven't seen a human before." Matt commented

"I haven't." Tierie said flatly, "I've only seen Tarven's human form, and so I tried to copy it. He is the only wolf who has been to the human world and back from our pack. But now, I have an actual human in front of me." He sounded more than overjoyed about that fact. The wolf had completely forgotten about the food he brought, caught up in the excitement of examining the human.

The wolf looked like he was going to go on, but he was interrupted by the sound of Matt's stomach growling. Even though the teen was disgusted by how Tierie ate, he still was hungry. He just was not going to eat raw meat like the wolf expected him to.

"So you are hungry." he exclaimed, bouncing up to his feet, "If you won't eat meat, then I know a couple places in the forest that has wild berries and fruits." He said, tugging Matt to his feet.

"If we hurry out, we can avoid Tarven altogether." Tierie continued, grip tightening even more on the human as he led the way out of the little chamber and into the cave.

The cave smelled even worse of wet dog and wild animals, of blood and sweat, and even the faint stench of sex wafted about the air as well. It was dim, the darkness offset by little fires here and there dotting the cave. Wolves, both the feral kind and humanesque -like Tierie- were lounging around lazily. Though some, the smaller ones, were quite active pouncing on each other and rough housing, rolling and tumbling throughout the cave. Little growls and barks could be heard throughout but they were all in good fun.

Tierie led Matt quickly out of the cave, and even at the fast pace set Matt could still feel the eyes of the wolves on him. Daylight greeted him as they came out, and almost blinded him. Closing his eyes tightly he only opened them a bit when he dared to face the sun's light. The light stung his eyes a bit, but he gradually got used to it and eventually his vision returned to him.

It was almost sunset. The sun was hanging low in the sky, painting the sky all sorts of oranges and blues. It looked almost as if the sky was on fire as the red-hued clouds passed overhead. A violent purple was the sky, but it was strangely peaceful. The cave was set in a small clearing in the forest, a circle of trees surrounded them almost perfectly. Boulders taller than three people combined stood at the perimeter, attentively guarding the cave itself. The rocks were a greyish hue, and had moss and some vine-like plants growing over them.

Being dragged out of the stone circle Matt took his first steps into the forest once again, "How long have I been sleeping?" He asked, fearful that he had been out days. However to his relief the wolf assured him that he only lost his afternoon.

There wasn't much to see in the forest. At least not at the pace he was being dragged along at. They stopped at a couple berry bushes along the way, Tierie explaining to Matt which ones were safe to eat and which were not. Some of the berries were sour tasting, others sweet, but Matt did not get his fill before the wolf dragged him onwards promising even better food in the future.

The path they took was not any trail, and Matt seemed to stumble awkwardly as he tried to avoid roots and other menacing looking plants. The wolf guiding him seemed to take no notice of the foliage they were walking through, but the human had some difficulty.

"Here we are," Tierie announced bursting through a small bush and looking proudly up at the tree that he dragged Matt to. "This is a special tree, with a special fruit. You can only find it here, as Tarvan created it."

The tree was not all that different from the other ones in the forest. It was normal height and width, but its leaves, instead of being green, were red, and the fruit hanging off its branches were red as well. The fruit looked like a cross between a pear, apple, and pineapple. It seemed to have the general shape of the pear, but exterior of the pineapple with some thorns sticking out dangerously. It grew from a stem, like an apple, and even had some leaves off of it as well.

Tierie carefully picked the fruit, "This is called Aniverm. Its said to grant those who eat it strength, and knowledge of the hunt. An animal eating this could easily become like me." he said, hinting at the fruits and Tarvens amount of power. "A demon." He grinned loving that sound, "In fact feeding this fruit to wolves is how Tarven made our pack." He nodded affirmatively.

"Try it." He quickly broke open the fruit with his claws, cutting away the harder surface to reveal the inside which looked much like an apple's.

"Is it safe?" He asked looking at it suspiciously, "I don't want to become a demon." Matt sounded worried.

"Turning humans into demons would be quite the feat." A new voice joined them. Standing paces away from the two was a cloaked figure. The cloak covered all the features of the person, and seemed to squirm and sway in the wind... that is if it was windy. The cloak moved on its own, and seemed to be blacker than black itself, made from the darkest shadow turned to cloth. However, the voice was not dark. In fact it sounded sort of sad. Definitely female. "I doubt that the fruit would have such power."

Tierie immediately went into action, shoving the fruit into Matt's hands and turning towards the figure, "You're not welcome here," He snarled trying to sound as vicious as possible, displaying his sharp teeth and holding his claws in front of him.

"I didn't come here for you, wolf," she said a hand reaching into her cloak only to pull out a small vial of red liquid. Uncorking it, the woman began to pour the foul liquid on the ground. The earth itself began to bubble where the liquid touched it, and red turned black as it began to rise up, building itself from the earth its consuming. It began to start forming itself, a leg protruding from the mass and the beginnings of a hand jutting out as well. It was a horrifying sight to behold as it rose more and more, slowly defining itself, "I'm here for the boy," she pointed to Matt.

Tierie growled some more before launching himself at the cloaked woman. However he did not get close. The wolf froze in midair and was suspended there the moment his feet left the ground. "Now, now," she said coyly, "let's not waste my time fighting. Come with me, Matthew, and I won't hurt your friend. Deal?" She asked, now offering her hand to Matt.

"What do you want from me?" Matt asked looking from Tierie to the forming blob and back to the witch.

"Your potential," She said. "You have great magical potential. I just want to release it. Now come on."

The urge made Matt move his feet. He eyed the forming black mass suspiciously, more and more human-like arms were jutting out from it now and it was starting to form a face, but the face itself looked like hot wax. Melty, the form had not solidified yet, and it seemed to be a cluster of random body parts. Though what made Matt stop his advancement towards the woman was the ghastly blob was reaching for him, and it let out a hollow sound akin to a moan and a scream as it reached trying to grasp the boy.

"Come," She urged again, her words getting harder and harder not to follow as Matt thought about the safety of Tierie. The wolf had been so nice to him. Taking another step forward, Matt reached out his hand towards the cloaked women's nervously.

Before he could reach her a low threatening growl froze him in his place. He heard a soft thud as Tierie was released from the spell cast upon him, and walking between Matt and the cloaked figure was the giant wolf which he saw yesterday. Matt could hardly believe his eyes when the wolf gobbled down the forming black mass with a single chomp and swallow. That finished it looked at the woman and snarled, "You are not welcome here, witch."

"Tarven," she sounded delighted to see the wolf again, "you haven't changed a bit," she said as if they were old friends catching up. The shadowy cloak somehow seemed less dark in the presence of the dire wolf. It was almost as if Tarven's very presence vanquished the dark aura surrounding the woman.

"You've unleashed dark magic upon my lands." The wolf did not sound happy, "You will leave and take your shadows with you." the sentence was punctuated with a growl and then the wolf leapt for the woman. Claws reaved through the cloak like it wasn't there, but to the dissatisfaction of those there the witch disappeared simply into thin air.

A chilling laugh filled the air. It was the woman's laugh, "You will have to try harder than that, Tarven," The voice mocked the giant wolf. "I'll be back for him." It was at the end of that sentence which made Matt shiver. Coming from the trees were more and more shadow-like creatures. Five, six, seven, ten, fifteen... Matt soon lost count as they started to swarm.

"Tierie, get the boy out of here." Tarven commanded as he fended off some of the closer shadows.

Not having to be told twice the wolf grabbed Matt and hauled him over his shoulder. Tierie was stronger than he looked. The wolf boy took off running back towards the den. The shadows gave chase, but Tarven was holding them off the best he could eating them and ripping at them with his claws. The wolf was a fierce fighter, but still some got past him, and those that did were running at Tierie.

The younger wolf found himself weaving through the trees, his grip on Matt tightening as he ran, jumping over some of the lunging shadows and sidestepping every so often. The shadows ripped and grabbed at Matt and one actually succeeded in grabbing hold. The human hollered and struggled trying to get it off, the hand pulling him towards the shadow while Tierie was pulling him away. It became a tug of war between the wolf and the shadow thing.

Back and forth Matt was being pulled, one side not gaining any more than they gave up. A growl came from Tierie as he dug his feet into the ground pulling on Matt trying to get going again. More and more shadows joined in, grabbing at Matt and tugging them their way.

"No!" The wolf yelled tugging even harder. A ripping sound could be heard as Matt's shirt was being ripped from the shadowy hands grabbing onto it, and his pants being ripped off him by the wolf. More and more fabric gave way to the struggle, and suddenly a louder rip came and the shirt was destroyed. Pants were in disrepair, having nice claw marks down the side of each leg followed by blood from the wolf's claws digging into the human's skin. Both tugging parties flew in their respective direction and Matt was left in the middle.

Jumping to his feet Matt winced as he felt weight on his wounds, but he did his best to hobble to Tierie who picked him up again and once more they were off. The shadows were in hot pursuit, coming even faster now that they almost had their target, but the wolf reached the clearing first. Flying past the circle of stones, the wolf entered the clearing before the cave. The giant stones stood there, and the shadows stopped at the edge of the stone, afraid or unable pass the rocky barrier. Hisses and moans came from beyond the rocks as more and more shadow creatures lined up at the rocks, an invisible wall keeping them at bay.

Setting Matthew down, carefully propping him up against the mouth of the cave. The wolf then turned around and stuck out his tongue and made faces at the creatures just trying to get them roused up, and the tactic worked. More frustrated sounds came from the creatures and they started to pile against the wall which held them back. However, there was no getting through, "Good luck getting us now," he mocked. "Tarven set up this barrier and he is the most powerful demon I know."

Turning triumphantly Tierie came back to Matt and looked at his shredded clothes. There shirt was barely clinging to him, and his pants were now shorts. Trails of blood ran down Matt's legs and the wolf looked at him apologetically, "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"That is ok," Matt tried to reassure him, smiling at the wolf before gesturing to the shadows, "At least they did not get me."

He actually sounded relieved, but he was more worried now than ever. What happened to Nashiri?

"Can you walk?" Tierie asked.

Trying to get up, Matt braced himself against the wall. Pain shot through his legs as he supported himself more and more. Legs shaking from the pain he took a couple clumsy steps, using the rock wall as a crutch.

"Yeah," He confirmed through gritted teeth. He could walk, if only barely.

"Great!" The wolf sounded a little too happy as he began to led the way back into the cave, "Follow me."

He kept a slow pace, looking over his shoulder every now and then to see if Matt was still following. They made their way slowly through the cave. There were fewer wolves in the cave than before, and the ones who were around were sleeping off a late dinner. The smell of human blood, of Matt's blood, mixed with the scents around them allowed them to stir from their sleep. Curious eyes were watching the human almost trying to judge if they should eat him or not. However no such move was made on Matt. The other wolves simply stared.

The cave is bigger than Matt first imagined. The winding tunnels that Tierie was leading him through were maze like, and alone the teenager knew that he would be completely lost. Luckily he had a guide. Moving water echoed through the cave soon enough. The air started getting damper and more humid. Steps echoed with a wet sound now, and dripping water made a tune all its own, playing its melody in the silence of the cave. This water was deep in, and it was simply amazing to Matt how easily Tierie led him here.

As they walked further Matt began to notice something incredible. His legs were not hurting so much with each step. In fact the bleeding was slowing down. It didn't completely stop, nor did the pain go all the way away, but it was enough for Matt to stop grimacing with every step and to walk away from the brace of the wall.

"What is this place? My legs are already starting to feel better," amazement filled his voice.

"Ahead are the hot springs that Tarven created," Tierie said with a firm nod, "they allow bathers to heal at a faster rate."

Tarven created the tree, the barrier, and these healing springs. He must be a powerful wolf. Just Matt had no idea how powerful. He wondered how someone could create all these things. Tierie seemed to admire Tarven quite a bit. The wolf was always talking about him proudly. Matt smiled wondering if something else was there besides just admiration.

Ahead a comfortable steam rolled through the cave, and the wolf kept leading the way until eventually they was at the edge of a raised stone platform. The platform was actually a pool and steam rose from it in a regular rate. A little waterfall coming from overhead fed the pool more water while at the other side it drained into another pool which drained into a small stream leading further into the cave. The water itself was clear and pure, one could see to the bottom provided they had enough light to do so, but it also was warm, heated by source underground the warm water poured from the falls into the pool below.

"Alright," Tierie said happily turning towards Matt. Hands gripped the shirt and pulled it free easily enough, the fabric tearing more in places when Matt tried to resist.

Next were the pants, but as his hands reached for them Matt stopped him, "I can undress myself," he said finding the wolf a little too eager to see him naked.

"Well, hurry up then," Tierie told him, pulling on the fur around his own waist down revealing what was hidden underneath wasn't exactly human. For the most part the wolf looked human, until one got past the fur cloth that he wore. Matt couldn't help but to look down at the bits he never seen before and they looked different from him. A furry sheath and balls hung from the wolf's lower regions, a setup much like a real wolf would have. Discarding the fur loincloth the wolf started the pile before jumping into the pool.

"Come on, the water feels great," the wolf-boy encouraged Matt to undress faster.

It was the call which snapped Matt from his ogling. The water had sufficiently covered the wolf up to his waist. Undressing the rest of the way the teen found him being watched much like he had just watched the wolf. Matt could feel the curious eyes roaming his body and centering on the all too human bits below the waist.

As Matt hurried in, the warm feel of the water immediately relaxed his muscles, and immediately the bleeding stopped completely. The pain went away and Matt grinned at Tierie, "This is wonderful!"