‘Living on my own seems to be a short-lived project’, Dawn thought fatalistically. Faced with five black wolves, or rather beasts, - the red eyes were a dead give-away here - she held no hope of getting out of this encounter unscathed or even alive. ‘Well, it was nice while it lasted,’ she thought, feeling numb. She stood rigidly, keeping her eye on the beasts.

When the first black wolf finally pounced on her, she lifted her knife and fell backwards with a yelp, bowled over by its weight. Desperately, she tried to keep the beast’s muzzle away from her neck. More by accident than design her knife found its way directly into its throat, biting deeply. The dark beast gave a gurgle, the big body growing slack. Dawn lay wheezing underneath the heavy body, slowly realizing she miraculously had killed the beast. She was unable see the beast’s companions covered as she was by the corpse. Gathering her strength and pushing the body up and to the side, she rolled sideways to free herself.

Panting, bloody knife still in her hand she sat up und looked around frantically. Clumsily she leapt to her feet. The beast’s companions were crouching in a half-circle in front of her, maybe as surprised as herself that she had been the winner of the fight against their leader. Slowly, crouching down almost to the ground and snarling, the wolf-beasts advanced.

Out of the corner of her eye, Dawn noticed movement from the side. Turning slightly, she tried to see if there was another beast on her left side, but astonished, she beheld the rapidly approaching form of the ghost cat. It jumped on the back of the beast closest to her and bit down on its neck. The beast went down yowling, Dawn heard a crack and the body slumped, neck broken. The other black wolves had to split their focus between Dawn and the cat now.

Stunned by the unexpected assistance but slightly recovered, Dawn advanced grimly on the dark wolf on her right. No choice now, she had to keep fighting.

This time she wasn’t so lucky when the beast pounced on her. It gripped her right arm in its muzzle and Dawn screamed as the teeth closed on her flesh. It hurt! The knife fell from her hand and she went down on her knees. Almost paralyzed by the pain, she grabbled around with her left hand on the muddy ground, trying to find her weapon. At last she got a grip on it, slicing her left hand in the process. The beast’s jaws were locked on her right arm in front of her throat. Trying to keep the wolf away from her, she started to blindly stab her knife into its body. Once, twice, several times. Snarls and yowls filled the valley around her, but she was unable to register what was happening apart from her own desperate struggle. Finally, the beast slumped, vanquished.

Gritting her teeth, Dawn rescued her arm from the beast’s deadly grip. She looked around, afraid of finding the next wolf waiting to pounce on her. A dozen paces away from her she saw the ghost cat engaged in a struggle with the last two of the dark wolves, keeping their attention. Both wolves and the ghost cat were bleeding, she saw.

Dawn was exhausted and in pain, her right arm bleeding freely, but realized she had to make an effort to aid the cat. Trying to catch her breath she cast Nurture on her arm. The bleeding slowed down but the deep wound was still far from healed. Nevertheless, Dawn started limping towards the fight. She was slow and clumsy now, distracted by pain and exhaustion. Trying to think, she activated Shadow Play, hoping to escape the notice of the dark beasts until she was closer. With an effort she broke into a stumbling run and half jumped, half fell on the dark wolf nearest to her, blindly stabbing her weapon into any part of the beast she could reach. It growled, turned its head and tried to maul her, but the cat chose this moment to bite down on the side of its neck and with a snarl ended the beast’s life.

Dawn lay panting, spent and dizzy, as the cat continued the fight with the last enemy. One to one, there was never any doubt about the winner and shortly after, the ghost cat annihilated the last beast.

The cat dropped down on the ground next to Dawn, bloody and obviously exhausted. Slowly, the ghost cat started to lick the jagged wound on its flank. Dawn said, “Well, obviously you’re a bit more than just a neighbour now,” and cast Nurture on the cat. The jagged ends started to heal, parts of the wound scabbing over fast. Dawn looked at her own arm, grimacing at the sight. That didn’t look good. Once again, she cast Nurture, this time on herself, and observed as the wound started to heal itself. The bleeding stopped, but Dawn was still wounded and in pain.

Dawn looked at her feline ally and asked: “Why did you help me?”, not really expecting an answer. The cat just watched her and blinked its yellow eyes.

Dawn rose slowly on shaky legs and went to the creek. She carefully washed the blood off her right arm, ruefully examining her torn and bloody shirt and wet and muddy trousers. “This life is kind of hard on my clothes”, she sighed. She collected her pot, filled it and drank a few mouthfuls of water directly from the creek. Blinking, Dawn saw she had a notification and looked at it.

Level up x 2!

Nature’s Shadow Level 4

You have 4 free stat points to distribute.

New general skill:

Knife fighting Level 1

Astonished, she called up her status.

Status screen Name Dawn Trakam Path Nature's shadow Level 4 Exp 110/400 HP 82/100 HP Regen 1.0 HP/Min MP 48/120 MP Regen 8 MP/Min SP 70/100 SP Regen 10 SP/Min Stats Stats Strength 8 Willpower 11 Vitality 10 Perception 13 Endurance 10 Intelligence 12 Agility 13 Wisdom 8 Dexterity 10 Charisma 7 Class Skills Nurture Level 2 Shadow Play Level 2 Dark Sight Level 3 General skills Cleaning Level 1 Sewing Level 1 Climbing Level 2 Knife fighting Level 1

“Fighting beasts obviously gives a lot of experience,” she told the cat. “Level 4 already! Nevertheless, I’d rather not have to fight a pack of dark wolves first thing in the morning and unprepared.” The ghost cat looked at her unimpressed, tail flicking lazily.

Dawn thought for a moment, then put two of her free stat points in strength and two in vitality. If she had to fight again she could use some more hit points and strength.

Looking at the cat she cast Nurture once more, and the wound in its flank closed up almost completely. Almost there, she thought. Slowly she approached the feline. “Better now?” she asked. “Thank you for helping me, I wouldn’t have made it without you. I’m no match for a whole pack of beasts. And I can really use a friend. But, you need a name now. I cannot keep calling you cat all the time. So,… I will name you Ankou.”

Ankou just blinked his yellow eyes at her. Dawn got a sense of amusement from the cat and looked her over critically. “Whatever! I don’t know about you but I need some tea. Come along if you like,” turning around she started back up to her shelter, not even surprised when the grey cat stood up and started to follow her.

An hour later, after a breakfast of hot tea and baked potatoes, Dawn lay on her bed and cast Nurture on her arm for the last time. She observed with satisfaction that the wound had healed, only white skin denoting where it had been. Ankou lay spread out on the rock beside her firepit, his wounds healed now and his grey pelt gleaming. Dawn had offered the cat some potato but he had only sniffed it contemptuously and turned his head away, obviously not tempted. ‘Well, I’d rather eat some of mother’s beef stew, too,’ Dawn thought.

It was still raining and Dawn’s bedding had grown decidedly damp. Groaning, Dawn stood up. ‘No rest for the wicked,’ she thought. She had to find a way to keep her shelter dry. Bundling herself up in her dark green cloak, she once again found her way down to the creek. Keeping a sharp lookout for beasts this time, she started to cut herself some green branches, stripped the leaves off and began to braid a rough mat. A long time later she regarded her finished product doubtfully. Far from perfect, but maybe better than nothing. And it had given her the general skill improvisation, that was a plus. She returned to her shelter and tucked the mat in a small crevice on the side, keeping it in place with some rocks she put on the ground on both sides.

Ankou watched her antics doubtfully for a while, then stood up, stretched himself lazily and sneezed before he bounded down the slope and vanished like a ghost down the valley.

‘What now?’ Dawn asked herself. She had a lot to do and didn’t even know where to begin. Food was the most important point, she decided. If she wanted to try fishing, she would have to throw together some kind of fishing line and hook. A basket for bringing her loot back to her shelter was a necessity too, and she needed some more fuel for her firepit.

“Living alone takes a lot more work than I ever imagined,” she said to herself. Resigned, she went scavenging once more.