"NOOO!" Siegfried roared, jerking upright. Haylee fell back in surprise. The dangerous combination of fear, anger and despair in Siegfried's odd-coloured eyes had shocked her to the core.

He was breathing heavily, his gaze finally focusing on the fully healed shapeshifter. "Haylee," he shouted, barely able to restrain the relief in his voice. Before she could respond, Siegfried rushed forward, hugging Haylee into a bone-crushing embrace. He buried his face into her neck, mumbling a "so glad, you're alive."

Haylee was entirely overwhelmed by Sieg's impulsive behaviour. It was such an unusually open and emotional response from the usually more stoic warrior. "It's okay, Sieg, I'm okay," she sweetly cooed into his ear. "There is nothing to worry about. I'm here, and nothing will hurt either of us here." The young woman was straddling his waist now, caressing his hair with slow strokes, trying to calm him down.

Siegfried just held her tight, breathing in her musky, floral scent. He knew he had to say something. Explain something. But words eluded his mind as he sat there, the beautiful cat-girl in his lap. He felt shame and frustration, equally to fear. Again, he was not able to defend those he held dear. Again, he had to be saved. And Haylee gave her life for him. She did not know that a miraculous healer would appear. She threw her life away knowingly to save his. Why, he couldn't fathom.

Siegfried focused his unsettling gaze on Haylee's eyes. But other than most, his companion did not flinch. She did not even blink as she stared into his odd-coloured eyes— her own, bright-green eyes, full of sympathy and appreciation. "I…," Siegfried started weakly.

"Take your time, Siegfried. If you want to tell me about your dream, I will listen. If you cannot, then I'll wait." Haylee knew that this was not just about any bad dream. Not with how deeply it managed to affect him.

Not once in his life had Siegfried shared this story with anyone. Not even Bolverk, who he loved like a father. But, somehow, he wanted Haylee to know. The warrior took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "When we were still children, my sister and I were living in the slums of Nemeah." His voice was still a bit shaky, but the more he talked, the easier it got. Siegfried told Haylee of the day he woke up from sleep with a blindfold on his eyes. Emotions welled up again when he came to the part with his sister, Katharina. How the devil started to torture her, just to break Sieg's spirit once and for all. But it also felt liberating in a way.

"At the end, I was knocked unconscious. I woke up in the little shack that we called home. My wounds had been healed. Broken bones mended. It was as if it never happened at all— not even a scar remained. But Katharina was gone. I've searched for her, always."

Siegfried stopped when he found that a single tear dropped from Haylee's eye. It ran down her delicate cheekbone and died on her trembling lips.

Her honest sympathy didn't shame but elevate him. "After that day, I started to train like a madman. I wanted to become stronger than anyone else, so I would never have to just watch a loved one getting hurt again. That might also be why I never let anyone come too close to me, apart from Bolverk, maybe. Because I was afraid."

Siegfried laid a hand on Haylee's cheek, brushing away another tear. When he looked into those emerald-green eyes, there was no doubt in his mind. "I've not known you for long, Haylee, but the pain I felt when I thought you died was real. And it told me that I failed at shielding myself from loving you."

Haylee touched Siegfried's cheek affectionally. "You're a smooth talker if you want to be." She smiled through the drying tears. "And it didn't take more than being stabbed by a giant claw to get you out of your shell," she laughed.

Sieg loved that aspect of Haylee. The carefree, mellifluous tone of her giggling was always honest and contagious. It was balsam for his shredded mind.

Calming down once again, Haylee fixated Sieg's odd-coloured eyes, a fond smile still on her lips. "I would be glad to be the one to go that way with you, Siegfried." She leaned her forehead against his. "And we will make you strong enough to protect those you love." She gave him a peck on the cheek and a coy wink before she stood up. "But right now, I would really like to know what happened after I passed out. I already met Ryden, but I thought we should go over our situation together."

"Right. There are a few things I'd like to ask him, and he also needs some information from us, I think," Siegfried replied as stood up again. "I'm good to go, thanks Haylee."

They found Ryden still training his martial arts on the plateau outside the cave. "Good form," Sieg called out.

"Hey Siegfried, everything okay on your side?" The handsome, blonde man wore a concerned frown on his face. "I heard you shouting, but Haylee was already in there with you, and it didn't look there's any danger, so I stayed out to give you some space."

"Thanks, everything's fine, just a nightmare… Now that we got some time— care to sit with us, Ryden?" Sieg motioned at the space in front of him while sitting down on the flat rock surface.

"Sure, I'd say we get Haylee up to date first," Ryden answered.

After Ryden and Siegfried briefed Haylee about the recent developments, the cat-girl shook her head in astonishment. "I still don't get how you were able to bring me back if it was that bad. I should have been dead."

"You were not, but as said, it was close," Ryden answered. "I'm not able to bring back the dead— no one is. But as long as your brain doesn't stop working, I can heal even life-threatening injuries, provided I got the time and energy left."

"And that punch you threw against the clawbear?" Sieg interrupted. "You cracked his skull open like an eggshell, while my blade didn't even scratch the chitin."

Ryden licked his lips, thinking of how he could best explain it in a simplified way. "Basically, you could say that I have a lot more control over my own body than others have. That's also how my healing works— in a very simplified manner at least. I can overuse my muscles briefly like I did back then. The problem is that our bones and flesh are not made to withstand that kind of power. When I threw that punch, the bones in my hand and arm were crushed on impact. I can heal myself nearly instantly and mute some of the pain if I know it beforehand. But it has a limit. After healing Haylee, I won't be able to perform such a feat again without enough rest in between."

"Thank you, Ry," Haylee said and bowed her head. "Thanks for saving my life. What can we do to make up for it? Siegfried said you need some information."

"Yeah, there is something that you might be able to help me with," Ryden nodded. "I'm searching for the man who taught me everything I know. My mentor, Cain. About a year ago, he suddenly vanished without a word. I found traces leading close to the forest. It's a vast area, but there is one place in particular which I can't check myself—"

"The City of Nemeah," Sieg interrupted.

"Correct. Cain told me once about an acquaintance in the city. It would be risky for him, but it's a possibility. I know the city is enormous, but Cain's sticking out like a sore thumb in any crowd." Ryden chuckled in fond memory of his friend. "He always wears long, brown robes with the hood up and hides his face behind a plain wooden mask with two holes for his eyes. I only saw him without the mask once, and he surely wouldn't take it off anywhere near other people."

Both Siegfried and Haylee took a moment to contemplate, but ultimately, Siegfried shook his head. "It's true that the mask alone would have spread rumours around the citizens and especially the Guard of Nemeah. But I've never heard of anything the like. There are about ten million people in Nemeah, so if he somehow managed to sneak into the city, there is still the possibility that it just didn't reach my ears," Siegfried explained apologetically.

"You said he had an acquaintance inside the walls," Haylee remarked. "Did he mention any specifics about him?"

"Her," Ryden corrected, "and the only thing he talked about was her remarkable shapeshifting ability. She should be able to alter her outer appearance into almost any human form you could imagine. Means that even if you did see her, you would have never known it's her." Rydens tone was dejected, and he did a double-take when his new companions broke into grins.

"That's Eurydike!" Haylee exclaimed excitedly. "There can't be a second woman with that ability, I'm sure of it!" Her smile fell quickly when she contemplated what that meant for Ryden. "But I'm afraid she never met anyone like that in the past year. I would have known for sure if she had— we keep no secrets from each other."

Siegfried threw a discreet glance in her direction. He couldn't imagine someone like Eurydike to be that open with anyone, but he kept that thought to himself.

To their surprise, Ryden looked more relieved than discouraged. "That's fine actually, thanks a bunch," he replied gratefully. "At least I know for sure that Cain is not in Nemeah. If he was, I would have had no chance to follow him anyway. That's actually the best outcome I could have hoped for. Now I just have to continue my search through the forest."

Ryden observed with delight how his new companions shared his relief. People who cared for others like that were a rarity in The Wilds, but it was something he could really get used to. "So, what's your story? The squad being sent after you seems to be high grade. I know they kill anything that is more than just human on sight, but they normally don't care about two individuals outside of their walls."

The warrior and cat-girl exchanged a look, thinking about where to start. There was no reason to hide anything before Ryden, and at the very least, he could provide them with more information about the denizens of the outside world in general. Siegfried started with the general lack of knowledge about people who went through sudden evolutions, the information kept hidden by the Red Brigade and the lies they spread through the population instead. At several points, Ryden scoffed or shook his head in disgust, but he never interrupted Sieg. When it came to their decision to gather a force from outside to oppose the Red Brigade, the healer was absorbed in his thoughts.

Ryden tapped his knuckles against his lips in an unconscious gesture while Haylee and Sieg waited patiently.

"I've travelled non-stop for the past year through The Wilds," Ryden started. "And your plan to rally others under your banner could work, in theory," he stated cautiously. "But to be honest, I don't see how you could manage such a feat. No offence, but you are hardly able to survive out here, even if you avoid the more dangerous parts of The Wilds."

"We can manage it," Haylee stated firmly before Siegfried could get a word in. "As Siegfried already said, he just came to his newfound ability. The reason Eurydike is betting on him is his potential," the cat-girl explained. "You have seen that he can regenerate his own wounds quite quickly, right?" Ryden opened his mouth to argue, but the energetic young woman didn't let up. "And that's where you draw the wrong conclusion, just like the enforcers did. Sieg's ability is shapeshifting, not regeneration."

Ryden forgot to close his mouth when the ramifications of that information hit him. "Impossible," he mused silently to himself. "A shapeshifter can only shape the mass that is already there. Even if someone could shape freely, he could not close a wound with flesh that was ripped out of it. He would have to take it from somewhere else in his body, opening a new wound instead," he concluded, still mumbling more to himself than Siegfried. His eyes focused on the tall warrior again. "Show me. Show me how you shift," he requested.

Without skipping a beat, the tall warrior raised both hands, and his organic blades shot out of the palms. Ryden's eyes widened like saucers as he took in the surface of the sharp appendages, tapping his knuckles against the flat of the blade. "That's enamel," he whispered, clearly in thought once more. "Can you show me your teeth?" Siegfried frowned at the strange request but complied nonetheless.

Ryden took his time, examining each tooth until he finally seemed to be satisfied. "You were right," he admitted. "It should not be possible, but you can somehow shift something that should not be there." The healer shook his head in wonder. "The enamel that coats your blades is a material that is only present on our teeth. Normally you should have to shift all the enamel from your teeth to that blade, but nothing is missing. You just shifted mass that should not even be in your body," Ryden marvelled, clearly at a loss.

Neither Siegfried nor Haylee had a real grasp on the scope of the potential, but the trained physician saw exactly what Eurydike had seen in the young warrior. "It could really work." Ryden could still not keep the amazement from his voice. "If you get a better grasp on your shapeshifting, and we find out how you manage to shift more mass than your body should hold, it could work."

Haylee grinned proudly, satisfied that Ryden came to the same conclusion as Eurydike. "Hey Ryden, if you are searching for your mentor, we could stick together a little longer, right?" she asked, hopefully. "We have no fixed destination right now, and travelling The Wilds would be safer together than alone, right?"

Ryden eyed her up with a smirk. "You mean safer for you. I'm not the being hunted by a death squad of enforcers," he shot her down at first. "But as a physician, I could not live it down if I didn't take the chance to study Siegfried," he quickly added when he saw Haylee's smile drop. The healer snickered at the quick change of facial expressions. The way she wore her feelings on her face really was endearing.

"We would be honoured if you decided to stay with us, Ryden," Siegfried stated.

"Sure, sure, but first of all, I need to take a very long nap now," Ryden yawned. "Keep your eyes peeled, and don’t try anything that could kill you until I'm awake again, okay?" he jested with a wink.

"Have a good rest, Ryden. I'll try not to get myself killed," Sieg responded. And silently, he vowed to do anything it would take to become stronger.