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Rodrig was startled awake by the sound of a ringing alarm. He grumbled and pulled the blanket over his head. The alarm stopped as he heard a loud yawn next to him.

“Time to get up. We gotta get moving. I’ve got a lot to catch you up on while we travel.” Jeremiah said. Rodrig didn’t recognize the voice at first. Then yesterday’s events rushed back to him and he immediately sat up. A sharp pain in his back told him not to do that again.

“Careful,” Jeremiah said as he came to his side. “Your injuries need to heal and sudden movements might reopen the wounds.”

Rodrig took stock of his body. He could feel the wrap on his ankle and chest as well as the bandage on his cheek. He winced as he pressed his hand against it.

“Try not to mess with that,” Jeremiah warned. “You’ll undo the stitches I put in it last night.”

Rodrig finally paid attention to Jeremiah and his big chest covered in black fuzz.

His heart skipped a beat and his little soldier jumped with excitement. Rodrig quickly looked away.

“I gotta go to the bathroom.” Rodrig said, trying to distract himself. He began to push himself up but the pain in his back and ankle made things awkward. He got himself onto his hands and knees and then with his good foot, pushed himself up. He started to step forward, limping as each step on his bad leg brought about a stab of pain.

“Let me help you.” Jeremiah said. “It’s cold out so you’re going to need a shirt. I don’t recommend you wear this one again though.” He held up Rodrig’s shirt from yesterday. It was ripped in the back and covered in blood. Rodrig couldn’t afford to buy a new one. He had spares but now that he had no source of income, every shirt would have to count.

“Maybe I can wash the blood off somehow.” Rodrig said more to himself than to Jeremiah.

“Do you not have another shirt?” Jeremiah asked.

“I have a week's worth of shirts and a week's worth of underwear but that’s about it.”

“That will do until we get to our destination.”

“Which is?” Rodrig looked at Jeremiah. Full bladder be damned, he wanted answers.

“Here, I’ll explain after we’ve had a chance to relieve ourselves. I’ve got to take a trip to the little boys' bush too. Use this to help you walk.” Jeremiah said as he handed Rodrig a branch that was about half as tall as him. It wasn’t fancy, but it would make a decent temporary walking cane while his leg healed. Jeremiah left the tent first, putting his shirt back on and stretched, his back which popped a couple of times. Rodrig grabbed his bag and fished out one of his shirts, shoving the ruined one in to try and mend at a later time.

When he stepped outside the tent, the cold morning air brought a shiver along Rodrig’s spine. The sun was just barely filtering through the trees but a dense fog obscured most of the landscape. Rodrig started to hobble his way towards some nearby trees. Jeremiah was right behind him.

“Do you know what a Sensitive is?” Jeremiah asked.

“I know what the word means.” Rodrig said.

“In terms of magic though?” .

“I don’t know anything about stuff like that.”

Rodrig stepped around behind a tree. Jeremiah stepped around another so that he was no longer in eyesight. He pulled out his dick and started releasing his bladder. He had to stifle a moan as he finally got a chance to relieve his overly full bladder.

“Sensitive isn’t slang for being a fa...” Rodrig was about to say the slur but remembered the warning he received last night about using that word. “About being into...”

“No, it’s not slang for being gay.” Jeremiah said. “There are two types of magical people. Adepts and Sensitives.”

“Okay. What does that have to do with me though? I’m not magic.”

“Are you sure about that? Have you ever felt a tingle along your spine like something was watching you even though nobody was there?”

Rodrig zipped up his pants and grabbed his stick.

“Everyone has had an experience like that.” Rodrig said, waiting for Jeremiah to step out from behind his tree.

“Want me to prove it to you?” Jeremiah said as he finally stepped from behind his tree.

Rodrig almost said no. He really didn’t want anything to do with magic. He just wanted a place to sleep and food to fill his belly. Anything more than that was asking for trouble. But there was a small part in the back of his head that just made him itch to know more. He wanted to trust this stranger, even though experience and common sense told him not to.

“Fine.” Rodrig said. “But no funny business.”

Jeremiah smiled and bit his lip as he tried not to laugh. He held up his right hand in the air, palm forward and placed his left hand on his heart.

“I solemnly swear that there will be no funny business coming from me.” Jeremiah said. “Now turn around.”

“What are you going to do?” Rodrig said, taking a step back. Images of his older sister sticking a worm down his trousers as a kid came to mind.

“I was going to use a bit of magic.” Jeremiah said, like it was a simple thing that happened every day.

“Are you a wizard?” Rodrig asked.

“Nope. Not that type of magic. Just turn around.” Jeremiah said before grabbing Rodrig by the shoulders and spinning him around. “Now stay there. Don’t turn around.”

Rodrig stood steady and still, ready for something to happen. At first there was nothing. He took a deep breath to try and relax himself. And then he felt a shiver run up his spine. Every hair on his body stood up on end as a strange pressure moved across his skin. It wasn’t painful, but it was intense.

“Stop stop stop!” Rodrig screamed. The sensation went away immediately. Rodrig held onto the cane with an iron grip. Jeremiah was right next to him a moment later.

“Shhh. It’s okay. You’re okay.” He tried to sooth Jeremiah. His hand was on his shoulder. Like that night at the bar. Rubbing and squeezing in a way that both soothed and enraged Rodrig all at the same time.

“What did you do?” Rodrig asked. He was breathing heavily as he tried to regain control.

“Nothing dangerous. I have a spiritual gift and your body reacted to it.” Jeremiah said. “Although I wasn’t expecting your body to react that way. You’re more sensitive than I thought.”

“But why?” Rodrig said between clenched teeth. “Why am I like this?”

“The simplest explanation is that you have an opening in your soul. Not like a missing piece but a spot where something more can fit. It comes with certain benefits like a heightened sense for things others can’t see or hear. But it also makes you vulnerable. Have you ever heard of demonic possession?”

“Yeah. At church when I was a kid. People who made deals with devils and demons or partook in sin. Evil gets in them and then takes over.”

Jeremiah rolled his eyes before he next spoke.

“Demons can’t possess normal people because there’s no spot in the soul for them to fit. But that extra spot in a Sensitive’s soul makes for a mighty fine vacation spot. Also comes with the added benefit of a usable meat puppet to wreak havoc on the mortal plain. Demon doesn’t care if its a sinner or saint, the spot will work either way.”

Rodrig was getting really tired of feeling terrified for his life. He clenched the walking stick as he tried to regain control of his trembling body. He wasn’t sure if the shaking was due to the weird tingling in his spine a moment ago or the fact that he felt like he was about to panic. It was getting harder to hold back from a flow blown meltdown with each new bit of bad news.

“But that’s why I’m here. To find you and protect you.” Jeremiah said. He began to usher Rodrig back to camp. “And then we will help you find a place to either stay safe or a way to seal the spot so you’re no longer in danger.”

“Is that why you sat next to me at the bar?” Rodrig asked.

Jeremiah looked surprised. Like that was not the question he was expecting. Then he looked away before clearing his throat.

“Yeah.” He eventually answered. “I was going to meet with you over a couple of nights and slowly break this information to you. Then convince you to come with me so we could keep you protected.”

“But then last night happened.”

Jeremiah sat Rodrig back on the folding stool.

“Yeah. That required me to move the time tables up a bit.” Rodrig said. His eyebrows lowered as he bit his lip. “We’ll talk more when we are on the road. Right now, I need to focus on getting us packed up. I don’t want us to be here in case the city guard has been sent to make sure we’re cleared out.”

Rodrig nodded but otherwise didn’t respond. Yesterday, his biggest fear was being outed as gay. Now it was becoming a meat puppet for a demon.

“By the way,” Jeremiah said. “I forgot to introduce you to Beatrice. Say hi, Beatrice.”

The donkey gave a loud hee-haw in greeting.

——

Jeremiah walked in front, guiding Beatrice down the well worn dirt road. She was pulling the cart that held the camping gear, bags filled with clothes, equipment and travel rations. Oh and also Rodrig who had gone silent after the packing was done. Jeremiah had done his best to lay out blankets so he would be comfortable. When asked if he was comfortable, Rodrig nodded but remained quite.

The road to the next town, one of four on the way back home, led through the woods. Most animals already wanted nothing to do with humans, so they were fairly safe to travelers. There was no animal dumb enough to take on a werewolf though. Even bears knew to stay away from an unknown shifter. It wasn’t the animals that worried Jeremiah though. It was the guards, soldiers or knights that might be sent to make sure that the duo was already on the road. Or criminals. Jeremiah was sure he could handle a group of cocky rogues on his own. Especially now that he has mastered the fused shift. But having to protect Rodrig at the same time wasn’t ideal. Best to avoid a fight all together.

After they had been walking for an hour, Jeremiah began to worry about his new charge. Rodrig had not said a word. When he looked over his shoulder, Rodrig was staring off into the woods. He didn’t appear to be staring at any one specific thing. It was the blank stare of one who was completely enthralled In their own thoughts.

“How are you doing?” Jeremiah called back. “Should we stop and let you stretch your legs?”

“I’m okay.” Rodrig said. Jeremiah began to pull over anyway. “Why are we pulling over?”

“Because I’m starting to learn that when you say, ‘I’m fine,’ you actually mean something else.”

Rodrig opened his mouth to argue but Jeremiah patted the back of Rodrig’s hand which had the amusing effect of making the younger man blush. He helped Rodrig to his feet and provided the former cadet his makeshift walking stick. They didn’t go far, just enough to stretch his legs and back.

“I’m surprised you’ve been so quiet.” Jeremiah said.

“I’m just trying to wrap my head around everything.” Rodrig said. “I feel like if I hear anything more, my head will explode.”

“Well this is stuff that you were supposed to learn over a period of weeks.”

Rodrig stopped and stood there for a moment. Jeremiah watched him and wondered what was going through that overstressed brain. But Jeremiah knew better than to push. Then a moment later he opened his eyes and met Jeremiah’s.

“May I ask you a rude question?” Rodrig asked.

“I’m an open book.” Jeremiah responded.

“What are you exactly?”

Jeremiah knew this question was coming. He thought about playing dumb. But he needed Rodrig to trust him. The quickest way for that to happen was to tell the truth. But he also didn’t want to scare Rodrig by going full wolf right in front of him.

“Before I answer, I want to tell you something else.” Jeremiah said. “I have a confession to make. That beast that was chasing you through the woods yesterday wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

Rodrig’s face grew pale.

“How did you know about that?” He asked.

Jeremiah leaned against a tree to try and look the least amount of threatening possible.

“I was watching you from the forest the day after we met. I was in the woods looking over the practice fields. The academy has really fallen apart by the way. How any of you were expected to become proper guards and soldiers under any of those tutors is beyond me.”

Rodrig stood there stiff, not taking the bait at the change of subject. His body was still and his hand clenched the walking stick. His eyes were wide open and locked in on Jeremiah.

Jeremiah knew that he had to break this news very carefully. Even without his ability to scent the emotions in the air, Jeremiah could tell Rodrig was scared.

“When you were taking your walk through the woods, I was watching. And then while I was watching, something took notice of you. A specter.”

“Like a ghost?” Rodrig screamed in a squeaky low voice.

“Yeah. It was coming towards you and the fastest way to get you away from said being was to herd you back to the school.”

Rodrig's fear turned to confusion and then realization.

“You herded me like a sheep?” Rodrig said. The fear had now turned to anger. “Do you have any idea how scared I was?”

“I’m really sorry.” Jeremiah said, bowing his head down.

“So what? You used some sort of magic to conjure a beast in my head?”

“No, the beast was real and completely under my control.”

Rodrig was about to say something else but stopped.

“It was real?” He said, his eyes darting around looking for the beast in question. “Is it here?”

“Do you know what a shifter is?” Jeremiah said, trying to regain a bit of control in the conversation.

“No.”

“It’s a person who can turn back and forth between a wolf.”

Rodrig started making a weird gasping noise halfway between a scream and a huff of air. Jeremiah thought maybe he was hyperventilating. He looked at Jeremiah with terror as the realization that the question shouldn’t have been what had chased him that day but who and Rodrig had already connected the dots to realize who that was.

“Are you going to eat me?” He whispered.

“No.” Jeremiah said. “That would be cannibalism. Being a shifter doesn’t stop you from being human.”

Rodrig had now backed up enough that he was near the cart. Beatrice leaned down and started nibbling on his hair. He gave a loud shriek and curled into a ball on the ground, tossing the walking stick as he fell to the ground. Jeremiah picked up the discarded walking stick and brought it over to the cart. He kneeled down so that he was right next to the shaking Rodrig.

“Would it make you feel better if I told you Beatrice was a normal donkey?” Jeremiah asked.

Beatrice gave an annoyed huffing sound.

“Your right Beatrice. That was wrong of me. You’re not a normal donkey. You’re an amazing donkey and we are all lucky to be in your presence.”

Beatrice flashed a smile with all her teeth. Rodrig briefly stared from behind his curled body but hid again when he noticed Jeremiah was looking back at him.

“I’m sorry I scared you so bad.” Jeremiah said. “It was the only thing I could think of at the time. I wasn’t going to hurt you. Nor do I have any plans to hurt you.”

Jeremiah waited patiently. Rodrig’ heart rate began to slow and eventually he uncurled himself. He still looked terrified, but it was under control.

“Do you need anything?” Jeremiah asked.

“I need help getting up. Pass me the stick.”

Jeremiah handed him the stick but also offered his hand, hoping to help him up. Rodrig took the stick but not the hand. Rodrig forced himself up. It was awkward and painful but eventually he was on two legs again.

“Are you going to bite me? Turn me into a werewolf?” Rodrig asked.

“No. That’s not how that works. I’m here to make sure to keep you safe until we can find you a permanent home. Some place where you’ll be safe from things that want to take advantage of your special situation. Somewhere you’ll feel wanted.”

Rodrig looked confused, exhausted and still terrified but at least he wasn’t running away again. Jeremiah felt sorry for the guy. He was still a kid in a lot of ways. Now he was being forced to leave his home, coming out of the closet and learning his supernatural original all at once. And it had been less than a week.

“I promise to you I’ll explain more,” Jeremiah said after it became clear Rodrig wasn’t capable of saying anything more. “But we need to get going. We’re still close enough where they could catch up to us on horseback.”

Rodrig finally nodded and made his way to the back of the cart. He threw the stick in the back and slowly crawled back to the pile of blankets. The two were back on the road after that.

---

Rodrig spent the rest of the morning watching his savior, who he now feared almost as much as his attackers. He inspected Jeremiah for any outward signs that might prove what he claimed to be. He didn’t look like he was hiding a tail. His ears didn’t look like wolf ears. But he was hairy. Far more hairy than any other man he had met. Rodrig then realized he was doing less investigating and more admiring and immediately went back to staring at nature. Jeremiah started chuckling about something as he walked in front with the donkey.

“What’s so funny?” Rodrig said, trying to distract himself.

“One more thing you should know about me, I have a really good sense of smell.” Jeremiah said, turning so his face was in view and tapped his nose. “I can smell certain things, including arousal and you’re sitting downwind.”

Rodrig’s entire face felt like it was on fire. He pulled up one of the blankets over his head and pretended like he was anywhere but here.

---

It was midday when they stopped for lunch. Rodrig refused to make eye contact or talk with Jeremiah. While there was still an underlayer of fear, there was a large amount of blushing too. Embarrassment Jeremiah could work with.

Rodrig was off relieving himself while Jeremiah took care of setting up some fold up stools for them to sit on while eating lunch. Travel rations again. They would be in the next town by night though, which meant they could stay at an inn and eat real food. In the meantime, Jeremiah needed to get Rodrig to relax a bit. So when Rodrig came back, he planned on doing what he did to get the other Sensitive’s minds off the doom and gloom.

He did a casual backflip.

It was easy when he shifted the muscles in his legs to have a bit more power. He waited until Rodrig walked around the treeline and hopped before spinning once in the air and landing on his feet. Rodrig’s jaw dropped open and stayed hung open.

“Pretty awesome right?” Jeremiah said, wiggling his eyebrows. The casual backflip was usually enough to make even the most scared and confused of Sensitive to break out of their funk. It had only not worked once. But his first son was a special case. Alfonse was not easily impressed.

“Buy...why did you do that?” Rodrig asked.

“Just to show how awesome I am.” Jeremiah puffed out his chest. Rodrig rolled his eyes but couldn’t keep a small smile off his face.

“Is that something shifters like to do? Show off?” Rodrig leaned against a tree.

“You were impressed.” Jeremiah said with a wink.

“No, I wasn’t.” Rodrig tried to cover his blushing face with the front of his hand.

“Your mouth was literally hanging open. Want to see it again?”

Rodrig was about to say no. But then paused for a moment. He looked to be deep in thought before turning back to Jeremiah and looking him over.

“I want to see...it. Not the backflip. The other thing.” Rodrig said.

It took Jeremiah to realize what he meant. Then it hit him. He wanted to see the beast. The wolf side of him was suddenly very interested in this conversation and sat ready to be called on. Jeremiah’s wolf could be a bit prideful and was ready to show off. Jeremiah knew that was a bad idea.

“Now is not a good time. It’s better to shift in places no one can see. The road is too public.” Jeremiah said. “But I’ll tell you what, I can show you. Come closer.”

Rodrig slowly hobbled forward until he was right in front of Jeremiah.

“You have to tell me what you’re about to do. I don’t want any surprises.” Rodrig warned.

“Of course.” Jeremiah said. “I don’t have to go all the way. I can control the shift to parts of my body. It’s actually how I did the backflip. Shifting the muscles in my legs. I can do that with almost any part of my body. It’s how I broke the chain from the shackles. It’s how I could see in the dark of the woods and it’s how I’m going to turn my fingernails into claws.”

“Cl-claws?” Rodrig said, his voice reaching that high pitched squeaky whisper he often reached when he was nervous.

“Don’t worry. I’m in complete control.”

Jeremiah pushed the wolf’s energy into his right hand. A familiar numbness filled his fingers as they reshaped themselves from the well-kept nails of a man to sharp black points. The hair on the back of his hand also shifted into a dark black fur. Rodrig’s eyes were spread open with what Jeremiah hoped was amazement.

“You can touch it if you want.” Jeremiah said, leaving his hand suspended between them. “Just try not to touch the tips, they’re sharp.”

Rodrig slowly moved his own hand forward. He brushed his hand against the black fur on the back of his hand. The wolf in his head gave a very happy growl. Then Rodrig turned the hand over. The palm was now blackened at the tips of the fingers and palm like a paw. Rodrig ran his fingers along the palm before placing his palm against it. He was comparing how big their hands were but Jeremiah really wanted to lace their fingers together. The wolf in his head urged him to do it but Jeremiah resisted. So it surprised him when Rodrig did it himself. Or at least started to. He was halfway through lacing their fingers together before he stopped and pulled his hand back.

“Does it hurt?” Rodrig asked. He was looking away now. His face was beat red.

“No.” Jeremiah said. His own mouth felt dry. “The part of my body that I’m about to shift always goes numb before it starts. What I just did was called a partial shift.”

“Is a full shift when you become the....the thing?”

“No, a full shift is when I turn completely into a wolf.” Jeremiah said as he started to shift his hand back. He walked away and started ruffling through his bags for the trail rations. “What you saw that day was called a hybrid shift. It’s where I combine the human and the wolf together to make something greater than the other two.”

“Why not stay like that all the time then?”

“Well, because it takes a large amount of concentration and practice.” Jeremiah had returned with the travel rations. He gave some to Rodrig who was now sitting on one of the folding stools. Jeremiah sat in the other and began to eat. “I’ve been a shifter for close to two decades now and I only just learned how to pull off a fusion shift with any sort of practical use in the last year.”

“Holy shit.” Rodrig said with a mouthful of travel rations. Then he remembered his manners and closed his mouth.

“Yeah. Turning wolf is not something that you just pick up and do. It’s like having a brand new muscle plugged into your brain that you’ve never used before.”

“But you can turn into a wolf?”

“Yes.”

“But it’s not the full moon. Can’t werewolves only turn when it’s the full moon?”

“That’s a lycanthrope. They are different from a shifter. But most people tend to lump us together as the same thing. Were being a shifter is a gift, lycanthropy is a curse. They are to be both pitied and feared.”

Jeremiah’s voice had turned from friendly to hard. Rodrid recognized this for what it was. A warning. Lycanthropes were bad news.

—-

The sun was starting to set. Jeremiah told Rodrig that they would be to the next town within an hour. Rodrig was only half listening. The other half was currently busy with mental self flagellation.

He replayed the moment in his head. The feeling of the fur on his fingers. The buzzing feeling as he touched his hand to Jeremiah’s. It was similar to the one from that morning, when Rodrig was turned around and Jeremiah did…something. But it felt good the second time. Not as intense. It tickled from his hand and up his arm into his neck. He wanted to lace their fingers together. But then came the screaming in his head. The sound of father telling him that he would not have a faggot for a son. So he pulled back.

“Druid’s Fall isn’t quite as big as Bright Rock,” Jeremiah was saying over his shoulder. “But there is a nice little cabin there that we can stay at. A friend of mine owns it. They even have a little warm bath house we can use to get cleaned up.”

“Warm bath?” Rodrig said. The idea of sitting in a warm tub after everything they had been through sounded divine and served as a great distraction from the guilt.

“Yep. Not to mention a nice fluffy mattress.” Jeremiah said, sounding genuinely excited.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get this donkey moving faster.” Rodrig said.

Beatrice looked over his shoulder. Rodrig didn’t know anything about donkeys but he was sure that the look he was getting said, “We’ll move as fast or as slow as I want, little bitch.”

“Never mind.” Rodrig said. Jeremiah laughed and rubbed his hand between Beatrice’s ears.

Rodrig was sitting there contemplating a nice place to sleep. Granted he had only camped out one night, which was nothing. Usually when they went camping for training, it was for a week. When his dad used to take him hunting, the camping trip could be for two weeks. But the bunks in the dorms weren’t incredibly comfy. In fact, neither were the beds back home. He wondered what a soft mattress felt like. Then he wondered where he would be sleeping after this. That brought a whole bunch of dread to the forefront of Rodrig’s mind. He wrung his hands together as worry turned to panic.

“Where are we going?” Rodrig forced himself to ask.

“My place,” Jeremiah said. “My pack owns a bit of land where we can keep you protected for the time being.”

“And after that?”

“It depends on what you choose. We’ll give you a few options and you’ll choose the option that works best for you.”

“I don’t want much.” Rodrig said more to himself than Jeremiah. “A place to sleep and food to eat. That’s about it.”

“That’s not much of a life.” Jeremiah said.

“Asking for anything more is just asking for trouble.”

“Well, I’m hoping that maybe we can show you it’s okay to dream a little bit bigger than just basic survival.”

Rodrig didn’t respond. There was no point. People like him didn’t get to be happy. Down at the bottom there were two choices. Survival and death.

---

Jeremiah walked alongside his Donkey while Rodrig brooded in the back. The Sensitive was a survivor. But having to survive like that from such a young age broke the part of you that’s supposed to dream for more. It didn’t take much for Jeremiah to figure out what exactly broke him. A closeted boy barely reaching adulthood enrolling in the academy with no family. At least, no family that would claim him. He wouldn’t have been surprised if Rodrig had spent some time homeless. But that was something they would worry about on a different day. For now, getting them home was the top priority. Then, they would work on breaking down the survivor and rebuilding the dreamer.