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The sun above shined brightly on a lightly clouded sky.

Yet despite this, Enek felt like shit. His body hurt just about anywhere he could touch, and quite a few he couldn't. The feeling of being on fire and chilled like ice at the same time was not a pleasant one. He strained to sit up and take stock of his surroundings, the rolling landscape around him.

"Taeln, fuck.." Enek closed his eyes and punched his fist into the ground as the events from the past hour replayed in his mind. The rush of destroying a golem and finding so much treasure, followed by such a crushing moment that quickly followed. It was at this point that he noticed atop his head and wrapped around his body remained still the crown and cloak. He ripped them both off, throwing them to the ground in anger... Yet this eyes kept being drawn to the crown itself as he battled with an inner question in his mind. 'Do I take the crown and sell it off? I lost the rest of all that treasure, this will help to ease that at least. But it was this things fault in the first place, how can I even bring myself to carry it around?'

His partner was dead, or consumed, or whatever the hell that lich had done. Enek needed to get back to the town of Malas where they had set out from and warn the folks of what happened inside of Kings Rest. Every child is raised on old ghost stories of undead abominations like zombies, ghosts, and even a lich, so to have a real one not that far from town... His thoughts drifted as his eyes remained on that damned crown. Cursing it, its master, and now himself, Enek reached down and picked it up off the ground. He thrusts it into his pack and took a look at the land around him once more to gain a proper direction.

Rifling through his pack, Enek's salvation laid inside. Pulling out his map and unfurling it on the ground, he was able to pinpoint his location after cross referencing with local landmarks. The answer however was not a good one. The mountains to the north, the deep forest to the west, he was easily a good week or so out from Malas by foot. He sighed, gathering his map and setting his pack to travel.

Enek set out down a rough animal trail in hopes of finding a proper pathway. It was a warm day out, and all of his traveling gear wasn't making it any better. Raising a hand up to shade his eyes from the sun he noticed for the briefest of moments a shimmer of light running through it. A blue-white glow passed beneath his flesh and strangely enough the pathetic shade his hand provided seemed to be like that of a cool breeze. Shocked, he pulled his hand away and looked at it, the glow however had disappeared.

Putting it in the back of his mind and emptying his thoughts, Enek focused on the path before him. Though his legs carried him effortlessly, each step carried a new weight behind them.

===

Some hours of traveling later, the sun had already begun its descent, Enek's stomach made its presence known once more by growling at him. He glanced around at the forested terrain, picking out a spot to settle down for a rest and possibly the night. Clearing a spot and gathering nearby loose branches he made to start a small fire when despair hit him again. His flint stone at some point had become crushed, converting it into a fine gravel.

Enek slumped against the tree behind him as anger settled inside of him. The world was throwing as much shit at him as it could right now and he was done being upset, he was just angry now. He threw the remains of his flint stone at the unlit fire pit as the anger continued to swell up inside him. The words of the Lich Faust rang in the back of his mind... Magic.. He tried to clear his mind and focus on fire, just the single solitary image. With no basis to go off of, he had only old tails and stories of magic to go off of. How fire reacts to the world around it and the warmth it gives off, these were what he concentrated on. A strange feeling of the strength in his body flowed down to his fingertips as he gazed at the questionable sensation.

Before his eyes, in his outstretched hand, the answer came. It was small and weak, but a flame danced between his fingers. "Fucking hells.." He cursed out loud to himself as he turned his hand over to explore the fire. Warm, but not burning him, an unusual phenomenon such as this could only be explained with that one simple word... Magic.. Was it a gift, or was it a curse? Given by a lich, yes, but it would not be used for evil purposes. This, Enek solemnly promised to himself.

Playing with the limits of this new found power, he had gotten to the point of being able to ease the mental burden of having to focus so heavily beforehand and was able to achieve being able to simply snap his fingers to conjure the small flame. Loosing track of time however, the sun had set. The wilderness around him had plunged into darkness with only his small conjured flame and the stars above. He threw the flame into his makeshift fire pit, igniting the gathered wood in a way that no ordinary fire might have. Within moments the campfire was lit and staving off the darkness and cold around him.

Setting aside his gear, the backpack, shortsword, and length of rope, Enek was able to finally relax. His thoughts crept back to the events inside Kings Rest once more, forcing him to shake his head clear of them. He reached into his backpack and fished out one of his few emergency rations, a small sealed pouch of dried meat and gathered nuts. Normally pacing himself with such limited food, he hadn't eaten in well over a day. His belly full for the moment, the exhaustion of events finally caught up with him. As Enek leaned back against a tree his eyes slowly started drifting closed, the world darkening in his vision as he slipped off into sleep.

===

His dreams were interrupted by the snap of a twig, instantly jolting him awake. His eyes scanned his surroundings, the dim light of pre-dawn lit the area. He reached for and unsheathed his shortsword as he got to his feet. Paranoia began to set in as the only sound in the area was that of birds. Not entirely convinved he was safe from attack, but still tired from just having woken up, Enek slowly calmed from his defensive stance.

An unfortunate choice as out of the corner of his eye a large shape pounced from cover right at him. Turning just in time to put his arms up in defense as best as he could, he was face to face with a canine-morph.

Teeth bared and snapping for his throat, its claws dug into his arms as he held it back. Adrenaline filling him with strength and resolve, Enek shoved it back, putting more than an arm's reach between them. He raised his shortsword as he stared the beast down. Taking a moment to actually see his assailant, he noticed it was a she, and she had a fur print much like the shepherd dogs from his home. Standing roughly about the same height as himself with striking blue eyes, she might even had been considered cute, supposing of course that she hadn't been currently trying to kill him with razor sharp claws and teeth. Aside from wearing nothing but a leather harness, a strong indicator of perhaps a nearby tribal group, she had no equipment to speak of.

The moment of calmness broke as she pounced again. Enek however was prepared this time. While no great swordsman, he had once made a living off of body guarding, techniques for disabling and controlling were well known enough to him. As she leapt into the air for his chest, he ducked beneath her claws and raised his blade into her body. Though she tried to twist out of the way, the sword found its mark. A long cut from hip to knee opened up on her left leg, causing her to crash to the ground instead of gracefully landing as intended. She rolled into a ready stance, though clearly favoring the other leg now. Growling still, her eyes had lost the look of fury and instead were replaced with one of uncertainty.

Sword raised high in a two-handed grip, Enek slowly approached her. She responded with bared teeth once more before before springing forward and slashing with her claws. He dropped one hand from the grip and rushed forward at her as well. Caught by surprise that a foe would advance in the face of such an attack, the canine-morph allowed her arm to get caught by his hand. He applied pressure and twisted, halting her advance and sweeping her leg out from under her. She dropped to her knees with her arm still incapacitated and winced in pain. The sword's point was placed at her throat and the victor was decided.

The fight had left her eyes, she was beaten and hung her head in shame of defeat. She tilted her head and presented her neck to him as she stared down at the ground. Enek stared down at the beaten canine-morph but did not bring his blade down to end her life just yet. Being as close as they were he could see numerous other cuts along her body, as well as a rather skinny build. Apperently she hadn't been eating well either. This common thread between them prevented him from ending her life and he dropped the sword from her throat, releasing her hand as well as he took a step back. "Just, get lost. I'm not interested in killing you." The adrenaline rush subsided and his breathing returned to normal.

The canine-morph glanced up at him in confusion. She rubbed her neck and wounds, trying to rise to her feet and leave. As she put weight on the injured leg however, a whine escaped from her mouth. Grimacing in pain, she could only sit there in even greater shame, bowing her head again to the human that had defeated her.

Enek sighed once more as he looked at her and closed his eyes. Tapping into his new source of magic he tried to envision healing. The flesh and sinew mending back together, restoring to to proper health. He opened his eyes to a light green glow eminating in his palm and he gently placed it over her wounds.

She yelped in surprise, watching on in awe as the pain seemed to drain away at his touch. Hesistant, but curious, she ran her fingers through her fur where he had previously touched just moments before to find no wound at all.

He held the spell focus for a minute longer as he moved from just the wound he had caused, but each of the viable ones she had. Cautious as he placed his hand near her chest, her leather harness had shifted showing off her previously hidden breasts. Human and elven girls were one thing but he'd never even seen many of the 'beast' races, much less been with one of them.

Sensing his unease, she took his hand in her own shaky grip and placed it firmly on one of her breasts, squeezing his hand into it. Her heart was beating faster and hard with her own embarrassment to the point she was sure he could hear it. Even if he couldn't, he would definitely be able to feel it now. She was still completely unsure how this human male was soothing her wounds so, but the feeling was great enough that she would embrace him so instead of pushing him away.

Enek took a deep breath, glancing into her eyes then down at her chest. She was encouraging him! His mind raced and he swallowed hard, giving an experimental squeeze back.

She moaned at this, it was small and it was quiet, but it came out all the same. She bit lightly on her bottom lip at this as her eyes slowly closed. For the first time in awhile the pain in her body was gone, and replaced with some entirely else. This human impressed and interest her. She let out a deep sigh and came to a decision in her mind as she opened her bright blue eyes. "Alpha.." She said only the single word, unsure of many others in the human tongue but sure the intended message would get across.

Enek greeted her first words to him with a dumbfounded look. "Wha-? Me?" He blinked a few times, wrapping his head around this, the mood coming completely to a halt. He removed his hand and held them both up. "Look, I'm honored really but I'm not your alpha." A sheepish smile on his face as he slowly bent down and grabbed his things, backing away.

She growled playfully, her tail wagging as she watched him. She got up and tested her leg, finding it as strong and steady as ever. Even as he turned away to leave she followed behind him by a few paces. He looked back at her over his shoulder as he walked. "Er.. Stop that, I can't be your leader or whatever." At mention of this though the memory of sitting on the throne and looking at the spectral procession echoed in his mind and darkened his mood.

An amused grin rode on her face as she continued to follow behind him as he traveled along. He had beaten her fairly in honorable combat, spared her life, and even through strange mystic invocations healed her wounds. She was always taught at home to follow a strong leader, and a forfeit life belongs to the victor. Thus it was only natural she should follow him now, surely even humans followed this same principal, right? Besides, he had proved himself far too interesting to simply let leave, she would see where this strange new adventure would take her.