‘What is that wolf up to?’ Dante was confused as he continued to observe the wolf. He watched as it eventually approached the church he was using for safety. The wolf appeared to have dropped something from its mouth before moving away from the church. He thought he could see the wolf staring in his direction, upon making eye contact he felt a pang of regret hit him. ‘What was that? I don’t regret chasing that damn wolf!’ The wolf howled into the night sky before leaving.

Dante couldn't get the unusual interaction with the wolf out of his mind, he had a restless sleep throughout the night. He rolled around in his sleep, he kept seeing images of the wolf, it kept corrupting his dreams and causing him to have feverish nightmares. Images of the moment when the wolf's teeth sunk into his arm, the feral eyes that peered at him from the darkness. The howling and growling noises as they harassed him in his hiding place. The whimpering sounds they made as he punched, scratched and sliced at them. The dreams were recursive, on and on he kept reliving those moments.

Whenever he awoke from the feverish dream his mind wandered towards the unusual behaviour of the wolf that followed him, what nefarious intentions it might have. He couldn’t get rid of the thoughts that plagued him, what had the wolf left outside? Was it some kind of warning?

Dante refused to take the risk of leaving the building in the night, he wouldn’t be baited to leave the comfort and safety he had established within the church. He decided to wait the night out before investigating.

The light of dawn prodded Dante out of his feverish sleeping state, he got up from his sleeping bag and stretched out the aches of another bad night's sleep. ‘This time I’ll find food!’ He felt much more confident about today, regardless of the wolf's antics he wouldn’t allow his life to be ruled by the predators within the woods anymore. Today if he encountered them, he would be showing them that he couldn’t be messed with.

Dante made his way to the church door and removed the barricade he had set up. He had earlier spent a little time scanning the town to find any sign of the wolf from last night. He grabbed the door and slowly peeked out from behind it, seeing there was no immediate danger, he opened the door to the church wider. He looked towards the ground where the wolf had deposited something in the night. Whatever it was, it was still there.

Dante cautiously approached the package left by the wolf, he scanned his surroundings to make sure he wasn’t being observed. In preparation for any potential attack, he had already summoned his crystal claws, he would be ready for combat at a moment's notice.

He made his way closer to the mysterious package, his surprise causing him to trip on his own feet, he had a momentary stumble before he recomposed himself. ‘What is that wolf playing at?’

On the ground was a small bundle of brown fur, he approached closer and crouched over the bundle of fur. It was a dead Hare, it appeared to have been relatively recently hunted. ‘That wolf must have caught this last night, why would it leave it here? It was hunting me after all!’

Dante prodded the hare until he was satisfied there was nothing wrong, he began to pick it up to observe it closely. It was about 30inches in length, he hefted it and guessed it weighed about 5kg. He was already salivating at the thought of eating it. He tried to find if there was anything wrong with the hare, it didn’t have any obvious wounds. It appeared to be cleanly killed with a broken neck.

He sniffed it, it didn’t smell off. He was stumped by what this wolf was doing. ‘Is it playing with me? Trying to fatten me up?’

****

A hare that had been skinned and disembowelled had a stick shoved through it, the prepared hare was being held over a fire. There was an outrageously delicious smell that gently wafted over to Waya’s nose, the smell caused Waya’s mouth to salivate. She observed the hideless as he slowly rotated the hare above the flames, drops of fat sizzling as they fell into the fire. The flesh of the animal took on a glistening brown appearance.

Waya swallowed her saliva, she licked her chops, some of the saliva still dripped or hung from her mouth. She continued to observe, intrigued by this man's behaviour. She had never seen or heard of using flames to make the caught prey smell tastier. She didn’t have that much experience around the hideless creatures, spending more of her time wandering open planes and hunting through woods and forests. This was the longest she had ever observed one of them, she couldn’t deny the alluring smell of the food now that it was being held over flames. 'I wonder if it tastes different?'

Before she had a chance to realise it was happening, the enticing smell had drawn her towards the fire. She had stepped out from her hiding position and closed the space between herself and the hideless. Entranced by the smell of the food, her inhibitions were dulled and she was enticed towards the delicious parcel of meat.

The Hideless upon seeing her was startled and moved away from the fire, his hands that moments before were just pink stubs, suddenly had gleaming sharp red claws grow on them. He snarled at her to “Get back!”, waving his hands in her direction. Breaking out of her entranced state, she was already retracing her steps backwards. She crouched to the ground submissively, feeling embarrassed by her idiotic mistake. ‘How could I get caught out so stupidly again!’ She whined at her momentary lapse in judgement, tucking her tail between her legs and trying to avoid direct eye contact with the man but giving the occasional pleading glance.

****

Licking his lips at the enticing smell of the spit roasting hare, it was almost ready to eat and Dante didn’t want to wait too much longer. Lost in the thought of sinking his teeth into the hare, a black shadow appeared in the periphery of his vision. He scrambled backwards as he saw the Black wolf slowly approaching the fire. Not sure what to make of this new development and chiding himself for allowing this dangerous animal to get so close. He screamed out “Get Back!”

Dante waved his arms to try and ward the wolf away from the fire, he couldn’t let it have the food. This wolf wasn't going to get a chance to take back the animal it had left him. He felt relief when he observed the wolf slinking back submissively.

‘What a strange animal, I can’t get a handle on what is going through its head’. It didn't show any aggressive body language, the wolf's eyes just flicked between Dante and the hare that was cooking above the fire, a longing look in its eyes. He suspected it was drawn to the smells of his cooking.

Dante wasn't a selfish man, he didn't hold grudges for long and the pathetic look the wolf was giving him, cowering in front of him made him hesitate. The feverish dreams from the night remained in his head and kept him vigilant. It was the image of the tired and hungry wild animal that tugged at his heart, reminding him how hungry he was feeling.

He reflected on the fact that it was after a wild animal, a creature that was driven by its instincts, the fact that it had hunted him was just natural. He hadn't forgotten how just yesterday, his raging hunger had driven him to attempt to hunt a deer.

Thinking back to the night when he was hunted, how he must have looked like easy prey. You don't step into a hungry lion's enclosure and expect to walk away without a scratch, and he had done just that when he entered the woods, naked and vulnerable, practically begging to be eaten by the first predatory animal to cross his path.

He acknowledged that this ferocious wolf with the appearance of a shadow, now whining and slinking backwards, appeared to have left the hare for him. 'Oh bloody hell, am I really this soft?' Dante ripped off a leg from the hare and threw it at the wolf before taking the rest and running into the church before barricading himself inside.

Satisfied he was now safe, he looked at the spit-roasted hare. Drool leaked from his mouth, he ripped off another leg and sunk his teeth into the lightly charred flesh. Juices flowed into his mouth, fats ran down the sides of his face, rolling down his chin and dripping to the floor. He let out an orgasmic groan of pleasure as he chewed his first mouthful of food in several days. In future recountings of this event, he wouldn't admit it, but a few tears of joy leaked from his eyes. It was probably the tastiest thing he had in his entire life. Whether it was the fact that he hadn’t eaten for so long or something else, he didn’t care. He continued to stuff his face with the cooked hare, each mouthful that he swallowed slowly appeased the rabid hunger that had been stabbing at his stomach for several days. He finally felt relief from the pain of starvation.

****

The start of an uneasy truce began to develop between Dante and the Wolf, each day Dante set out to explore more of the town. He replenished his water from the river, satisfied he had enough to last him several days. Each Day the wolf would cautiously approach the church to leave him a small animal that he could cook in the morning. As the days passed by, the wolf grew bolder and approached Dante closer every time. He was getting better at skinning, disembowelling and preparing the different animals to be cooked, after cooking them he would cut off the wolf's share of the meat, tossing it towards the wolf while trying to maintain his boundaries. Each time, he would yell for the wolf to stay away and not come closer. But every time the wolf would test his patience, it would come closer than the time before until he had to stand up and chase it away.

He had been given rabbits, hares, snakes, squirrels and some other animals he couldn’t even name. These nameless animals had unusual characteristics that didn’t match anything he had seen before. One animal looked like a mink but it had two small black horns poking out of its head, it also had a forked tail and scaly legs. ‘This must be the mana causing evolutionary changes in animals right? I wonder what other creatures are out there and how mana has affected their evolution’ Thinking about the fantastical magical creatures his world had imagined and turned into different forms of media, stories, comics, animation and movies. He wasn’t sure whether to be excited or frightened. ‘If there are real dragons in this world because of mana, fuck this universe.’ Thinking of how magical creatures like dragons were portrayed as the absolute apex of many of the fantasy stories he had read, he almost broke out in a sweat just thinking about what he would do if he encountered something that remotely resembled one. Probably not a lot, just plead for his life or hope his death was quick and painless.

Despite his thorough searching of the town, he had not yielded much more in the way of anything useful. His time Spent within the town wasn't entirely wasted though. He had been diligently practising and using his mana, whenever he left the safe confines of the church he would maintain his mana claws. In the evenings he would try to grasp more understanding about the ways it could be manipulated and utilised, he hadn’t made too much progress, he was fumbling in the dark and exploring brand new territory. It didn’t go completely unrewarded though.

[ Mana mastery increased to 2]

[ Mana mastery increased to 3]

By this point, several days had passed and with his persistent use of his claws and evening training, the incremental bonuses from mana use had accumulated to the point where his 'mana mastery' had increased to 3 points. With his diligent practising with the unusual energy, he was now able to project tendrils of mana from his hands without them manifesting into his claws. He hadn't quite figured out where to go from there but he was making progress.

It was evening and he was doing his routine of practising with his projected threads of mana. He tried to remember how he had created the claws. If he could grasp how he did it, he could create a new skill. He kept thinking back to when he tried to hunt the deer, how he had to stalk up close before he could make use of his close-ranged claws. Then he also thought about when he chased the wolf, how he wasn't yet able to close the gap. 'If only it had a way to safely attack from a distance' He thought to himself.

Raising his arm and pointing It forward he pictured firing energy towards a target. The threads of mana just continued to gently laze around, rising and falling like the tentacles of a jellyfish. After several hours of this, he grew frustrated and bored.

Mentally tired from the training, and physically exhausted from the exploration. He began to get settled down for the night.

After he had drifted off to sleep, he was awoken in the dead of night by a desperate howling sound. He shot up and looked out the windows of the church bell tower, his mouth gaped open at what he saw.

The sight of the wolf rushing towards the church wasn’t all that surprising, it was the fact that several more shadows chased after the wolf.

'Those don't look like wolves!'