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"I'm sorry, by the way," Elson said, breaking the silence between himself and the wolf as they marched onward down an old dirt road.

Gale looked over his shoulder. "For what?"

"Killing your colleague back in Mary's Garden..." The boy kicked a stone. He wasn't really sorry; the two did attack him for an unknown reason at the time, and all he was defending himself, but now that they were (willingly) traveling with each other, Elson felt the need to level any uneven ground.

The wolf shrugged. "Eh, I didn't really like him anyways..." he said, though there was a hint of annoyance in his voice that made Elson not say anything more.

For the past two days now, they've been walking along the same road; eating whatever Gale hunted and seeing nothing but open fields for miles. There was once or twice that Elson would see a cottage on the horizon and have a glimmer of hope that whoever was in there would let them stay for a night, but every time they drew near enough, Elson would start to hear the terrible groans and moans of corpses inside.

The encounter in Haulburry still lingered in his stomach, making him grateful that he was still alive and that the wolf saved him. He felt like he owed the wolfman, but didn't know how to repay him. He didn't seem too interested in gold, or fame, or, really, anything for that matter, leaving Elson only to his guesses as to what the wolf liked. There had to be something.

"Gale?" Elson said.

The wolf's right ear rotated in the boy's direction, but never turned his head. "Hm?" he grunted.

"What is it that you fancy?"

"Silence." Gale said without a moment's hesitation and his ear swiveled back to his front.

Elson sighed. He didn't understand why, but it felt as though the wolf didn't favor him in any way. He thought of the reasons as to why this might be so and then wondered why Gale WOULD like him. So far, Elson has kicked the wolf in the face (several times,) nearly got him killed in Haulburry, and then threatened to overpower him with his abilities. Not exactly the princess's most... attractive, attributes.

No, to the wolf, this was just a job and a shot at a better world, but the question was, is Elson ready for it? He's never seen daylight outside of Mary's Garden, didn't know about the dead returning from their graves, and from what Gale tells him, the country's government has been fighting with militias and terrorist on top of that. As if one problem wasn't big enough.

Elson still didn't really know how he could help in these times of need, he was still, in fact, learning his own abilities and feels as though he's far from discovering all the possibilities he could unlock. Was he ready for something like that? The weight of his abilities and the world destroying itself? Was he ready to be in the front lines trying to save people?

"We're almost there." Gale said, interrupting Elson's thoughts. "My employer had set up a camp one days travel from your father city, but seems how we lost the horse," Elson flinched at the memory of the horse being torn apart by the undead. Blood was everywhere; soaking into the sand, spattered across the buildings, and sewn in his mind forever. "It's obviously a longer trip... in there, I'll hand you over to one of the traveler's and he'll be able to take you to my employer a lot faster than I can. Then I can take my pay and get the hells out of this country."

Elson looked up to the back of the wolf's head. "You're leaving me?"

"Yep," he replied, almost in a satisfied tone. "My only job was getting you out of the city and into my employer's forces. That's it."

"Oh..."

Gale peeped over his shoulder for a brief moment to see the boy hanging his head. He almost felt guilty for saying that, but then remembered that this was just a job, nothing more. Besides, the boy was over eighteen years of age, he should be able to take care of himself.

He immediately thought of how he stupidly wondered into Haulburry with no knowledge of what was inside. That was a mistake that cost them Gale's horse and stuff in the basket, including what little money he actually had. Well, it didn't really matter because the boy wouldn't be alone, he would be going with travelers that know their way around this world, leaving Gale the one to be alone...

The wolf shook his head, that's what he wanted; solitude. Freedom from this cursed country and live a happy life somewhere else. Maybe even get mated if he's lucky enough and doesn't get killed with this ignorant human.

Coming into view on the peak of the horizon, Gale could make out the distant tents of his employer's men. Heatwaves distorted his vision, but as they drew closer, he could make out the unmistakable banner of his employer's crest; a rising sun with crops and people burning under it inside of a yellow colored shield shape.

Gale felt relieved for a moment, almost wanting to start running towards the campground, but a ping of fear rattled his insides as they drew closer, Gale could start to see the flicker of flames that covered the top of the tents and banners, but no smoke rose from the burning fabrics. He could smell fire and death, even from this distance. "No," He mumbled before he started running for the campsite.

"Hey!" Elson called, obviously oblivious as to the situation. "Where are you going?" But the wolf just kept running. "What's wrong?!"

~*~

Elson jogged down the dirt road in halfhearted pursuit of Gale. The wolf had taken off at something he saw in the distance, but wouldn't tell the boy what was wrong. Gale was already on the edge of Elson's vision, seeing something that the prince obviously couldn't see. Something must have been wrong, Gale didn't seem like the person to fret about something that wasn't important, so Elson wasn't sure if he liked what was going on.

As he went on, he started to smell the faint scent of smoke, which is probably what Gale caught a whiff of long before Elson due to his enhanced senses. Getting closer, Elson could start to see what looked like fire on the horizon, and Gale nearly reaching it.

The boy slowed to a stop, bringing his hand to his brow to shade his eyes from the noonday sun. The wolf was still running, not stopping or looking back to Elson to see if he was still there, focused intently on the fire ahead. That must have been the camp that he was talking about; it had to be, it was the only thing that Gale seemed to care about.

He stood there, watching Gale run on and contemplated if he should try to catch up. He shrugged and resumed his normal walking pace in the direction of the burning camp. He wasn't nearly as fast as Gale, and even if he had managed to catch up, he wouldn't be much help tired. He thought about summoning a nimbus to fly him over, but decided against it; keeping a cluster of his power like that and lifting himself off from the ground for that long a distance would wear him down faster than sprinting.

He walked a couple steps before he thought he heard the faint sound of someone yelling. He looked around, seeing another small cottage in the distance ahead of him, but it was too far away to hear anything that was below trumpet's pitch, so he disregarded it as imagination and continued walking.

But as he went on, he was sure he heard someone yelling something, and something that sounded like heavy raindrops and weeping, but still he saw nothing.

Turning his head out of curiosity, he immediately wished he hadn't; a few thousand feet behind him were hordes of undead running in his direction with an orange figure at the front, as if trying to get away. As Elson looked closer, he noticed that the orange figure was actually a foxman, taking on the same species category as Gale, only this one wore peasants cloths; a white, loose (and ripped) shirt with brown fabric pants, and bore no shoes.

He was running at full speed, panting and waving his arms at Elson, yelling something that was now very clear to the gawking boy; "Run! Go! Move kid!"

Snapping back to reality, Elson turned and began to run. He looked ahead for Gale to try and warn him, but he saw nothing but the burning camp behind the wavering heatwaves. Gale would have to wait until Elson could reach him before they could worry about finding somewhere safe.

He looked back over his shoulder to see the fox and the undead getting closer. He had no idea that they could be that fast, being dead and all, and Elson didn't think that he would be able to make it to Gale before the undead reached him.

He ran past the cottage. "Hey!" the fox yelled at him. "Stop!"

Elson slid to a stop and turned around to see the fox pointing at the cottage that he had just passed.

"In there," he yelled, getting closer. Elson looked at the camp behind him. It was getting closer, but he didn't know if he would make it or not. He looked back to the cottage; if he hid in there, the mass number of corps would tear that building apart with a few minutes. "Hurry up!"

Elson cursed under his breath as he ran for the cottage. The fox got there before he did, holding the door open while he vigorously motioned the boy to hurry up. He kicked a few of the undead down while he was waiting for Elson to slide in, and slammed and braced the door with a wooden beam when they were both inside. "What now?" Elson asked looking around.

The house was old and empty, possessing only an old wooden chair and table that had become black with rot and decay. On the other side of the room was another door. "I'm thinking," the fox said, sounding like he wasn't much older than Elson himself.

Soon, all that could be heard was the screaming and bounding of the undead outside, whaling at the walls and doors to try and get in. They tried to crawl in through the already broken windows, but the windows were high enough that the corpses couldn't lift themselves over, but the door had already started to groan and crack under the weight of the thrashing undead. "Can you think any faster?"

The fox looked at the door on the other side of the room and jogged over to it. He placed his ear up to it, as if making sure that it didn't lead outside. "Over here," he said, looking at Elson with his bright green eyes. He opened the door to reveal a staircase descending into darkness. "It's a cellar."

"How is locking ourselves in the cellar supposed to help us? Who knows what's down there?" Elson protested.

"If there was any undead down there, they would have come up because of all the noise," he said, explaining it as fast as he could. "And do you have a better idea, because I'm DYING to know!"

Elson thought about it briefly until he heard a board on the door fly off and several decaying hands reached out to grab the air. He turned back to see the fox's tail disappear into the darkness behind the door. He sighed, praying to God that this fox doesn't lead them to their doom.

Closing the door behind him, Elson nearly tripped as he tried to descend the stairs in pitch darkness. "Hey," Elson whispered. "Where are you? I can't see a bloody thing."

"Right in front of-" the fox started, but never got to finish as Elson tripped over an absent stair and fell onto the fox, making him fall over and they both toppled down the stairs. The ground was hard cobblestone, making their fall hurt all the more when they reached the bottom. "... Owwww..." The fox groaned as he slowly sat up. His green eyes flashed as he blinked, and being the only thing visible to Elson. "Can you get off my tail?"

The boy didn't even realize that the fox's tail was under him until he felt it trying to wriggle free under his chest. "I can't see anything..." Elson said again as he sat up and held a spot on his forehead where he hit the floor.

"Here," The fox said, tapping the boy's shoulder with the back of his hand. "Hold onto this."

Elson reached up and felt the warm fur of the fox's hand and then felt him place something even furrier in the palm of his hand. From the twitching that came after words, Elson guessed that he was holding onto the fox's tail. It was kind of like holding onto a cat's tail, only thicker and with longer fur.

He felt the fox stand up, and for a moment or two, Elson let the fox lead him around the dark and void room. Occasionally, the fox would say 'watch your step' when there was a gash in the cobble below or a fallen beam that obscured their path.

"What do you see?" Elson asked, tripping over a gash that the fox hadn't warned him about and accidently yanking his tail. The fox yipped and reflexively snarled. "Sorry," she said, still holding the fox's tail as he brushed himself off.

The fox sighed. "I see a whole lot of nothing." He said, standing still. "There's some old wine, some rotted books, and this big bookshelf over on the wall, but I don't see any way out of here..."

"Well what did you expect?" Elson asked. "This is a cellar, not an underground passageway."

He felt the fox shrug. "It was better than staying up there." He said, and soon after, he heard the door upstairs finally give in and dozens of running feet stopped inside the cottage. Some of them had already began pounding at the door leading to the cellar, but it wasn't enough to do much more than rattle it.

"Well it won't be much better for long if they keep at that door, and there's too many out there to wait for them all to leave." Elson said, reaching up and grabbing the strap of his satchel that hung around his shoulder and torso. They were both quiet for a moment. "What's your name?"

"Alistair," the fox said, though Elson could tell that he wasn't facing the boy's direction. "You?"

"Elson, it's a pleasure to meet you. And thanks for warning me." Elson said and felt Alistair's tail start to lead him in a different direction.

"Eh, it was nothing. Couldn't let a good lookin' guy like yourself get ruined by a bunch of uglies like them!" the fox stopped walking. "I found a way out." The fox said, before he started grunting with strain. "Here, help me move this!"

Elson let go of the fox's tail and put his arms out in front of him before he slowly started walking forward. His fingers touched something soft and warm, and didn't know what it was until the fox said 'that's me.' He felt a little embarrassed for touching the fox without knowing it was him, but he really couldn't see anything, so how was he supposed to know?

Taking a few more small steps forward and around Alistair, Elson finally found what felt to be like a wooden, hollow box. Moving his hands up and down until he felt shelves told him that this was the bookshelf that the fox was talking about. Finding a firm place to grab, Elson readied himself to pull.

"Ready?" Alistair asked.

"Yeah."

"Push!"

~*~

Gale slowed to a stop as he neared the burning camp. The yellow/white stripped tents turned black under the fire that clenched them, the banners shriveled and spewing embers into the air. The campsite wasn't very big, Gale guessed about a little over ten people were sent by his employer, but the wolf couldn't see any bodies. Were they undead now? No, the flames were only a few hours old, and it takes people at least five hours after death to come back. So where was everybody?

He started to walk into the camps boarders when he felt that he was forgetting something important. He stopped, thinking to himself for a moment when he realized that it was awfully quiet, spare the snapping and crackling from the ablaze camp. He turned and realized that Elson was nowhere to be found. "Elson?" The wolf called, straining his ears to hear anything.

He stood there listening harder and harder until he thought he heard the faint words 'In there! Hurry up!' but didn't recognize the voice that it belonged to.

Jogging back to the edge of the camp, Gale cupped his large hands over his eyes and squinted to see a large mass of undead (not as many as there were in Haulburry) and an orange figure running not very far in front of the corpses towards Elson. Gale was about to take off in Elson direction when the boy started for the cottage, where the fox was waiting for him.

Gale didn't like Elson going with someone strange (which was strange coming from the one who kidnapped him) but he knew that he wouldn't be able to get to the boy in time and that fox seemed to be the only one who was able to help him. But how was he supposed to get to them? As soon as the door to the cottage closed, undead swarmed and circled around the small building and fought mindlessly to get inside. Gale was just glad that the walls were solid stone, but the door didn't look like it would hold.

The wolf had to think of something, but there was no way that he could get through that many undead. If he had more arrows and noise, he might be able to distract them enough to get most of them away from the cottage and get the two out, but that seemed a bit too time consuming and farfetched.

He held his forehead in his hands, trying to think of something before that door burst open and all hope of saving the country dies with Elson. He should have never left the boy, he knew that now, his selfish want to get out of this country had caused himself and the one possible way to save people to get separated. He cursed at himself as no ideas came to mind. "C'mon Gale," he said to himself as he began to pace. "Think!" But still nothing came up.

There has to be another way in there, there just has to be, but all hope of finding it was lost when the front door of the small cottage gave in and the undead poured inside.