"No!...PLEASE...NO"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

(My mind.....it... it burns.)

"Gyahhh!"

As an intense scorching pain, unlike any other, burrowed into the deep recesses of my mind, the last thing I saw were those glowing crimson eyes coming from within the black warped void; After that, nothing.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere in the middle of a mountainous forest, draped in a pure white powdered snow, 3 men were digging a few shallow graves.

As the wind picked up, it began to howl through the leaves of the tall trees and thick bushes scattered among the forest. The piercingly cold wind stabbed at the men's uncovered faces, stinging their eyes and nipping at their ears. The pain from the cold at first was bearable, but now after several minutes of being exposed, each of the men could feel their limbs quickly becoming numb.

"We need to hurry up! I'm starting to lose feeling in my fingers. If we don't finish soon, I'll probably lose them to the cold."

"Don't you think I know that? it's not my fault they put up so much of a fight."

"I know, I know. I'm just saying I don't wanna attract anything dangerous, so we need to hurry."

"So why don't we just leave then? who cares if we bury them or not?"

"You know exactly why. The last thing we need is for an animal to eat one of these corpses and become a magical beast! if that happens, then we're all screwed."

Beneath the men's feet, there were three bodies lying naked and exposed, covered in blood and dirt. Each one stripped down for their valuables leaving nothing left. One man, one woman, and one child.....all dead. A few feet away stood a smaller than average horse and attached behind it was an old rugged covered wagon. The three men digging the graves were bandits, they had been on their way to god knows where when an easy target appeared.

A small, worn out wagon being driven by a young man drew a path towards them. It seemed that the young man had lost his way as he was asking the three men for directions when suddenly, they attacked him. With an opportunity like this just falling into their laps, they just couldn't resist and although it was a surprise attack, the young man wasn't too bad a fighter and fought the men for several minutes, before finally being overwhelmed. Afterward, they discovered the woman and the boy cowering under a thick fur in the back of the wagon. Seeing the pair, the bandits obviously couldn't leave any witnesses.

"Tch, not much we can sell."

"Well, at least the guy's sword is pretty decent; It should get us 10 or 11 silvers, it's not bad."

One of the bandits quickly became excited thinking about future possibilities.

"11 silvers! We could live for a few months off of that, that's plenty of meat and wine if we spend it well."

However, the other bandit's thoughts were elsewhere.

"Forget that, I'm gonna hit the brothel! For that kinda money, I can get at least three high-class whores and some wine or maybe one that's a real beauty, hahaha."

The three men broke out in laughter, feeling absolutely no remorse for the brutal crime they just committed, their morals all but gone long ago.

With the wind scrapping their exposed flesh, the three men snapped out of their fantasies.

"Cmon, let's finish this."

With only one shovel that they took from the wagon, the men buried one body after the other. One shoveled while the other two were forced to use the end of their swords, making them work harder as well as take longer; They soon began to cover the last one.

Suddenly they heard a terrifying ghoulish scream.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

It was the most horrible shrieking scream they had ever heard in their entire lives. Sounding a hundred, no, thousand times more wretched than a pig being slaughtered. The three men were shocked and their faces instantly became pale, not just because of the scream itself, but from where it was coming from.

Right in front of them, in the last grave they had almost filled in. The young boy they had almost entirely covered in dirt and snow, the young boy they had just killed by strangling, was suddenly releasing the most horrid scream in the world. All three felt a prickling on their skin as the hairs on their necks stood up one by one. After what seemed like forever, the ghoulish screaming finally came to an abrupt stop.

"Ki...Kill Him!"

"I...I already did, how?"

"It doesn't matter just kill'em!"

Hearing his friend yell at him snapped him out of it and he quickly went to finish the boy off. Raising his sword above his head and ready to strike, it was at this moment that another surprise happened.

"AAAAAAOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWLLLLLLLL."

A wolf's howl echoed throughout the forest.

Hearing this noise, the three men froze on the spot and exchanged horrified glances with each other. Panic appeared on each one of their faces, they knew exactly what that noise meant.

Wolves always moved in packs of at least 15 deep and they were always lead by an alpha. A single adult wolf would grow between 145 to 165 pounds, with a length of 5-7 feet and a height of 4 feet. A fully grown man with no training would not survive an attack from a single wolf. A bandit with some training wouldn't fare much better, maybe they could take 1 or 2, but an alpha was an entirely different thing altogether. An average alpha's weight was easily 4-5 times bigger. An 800-pound wolf is already a monster requiring a group of skilled soldiers with heavy armor and powerful weapons and usually, a Mage would provide support, but even that wouldn't guarantee their victory, let alone these three bandits.

Looking at the situation, there was no time to hesitate.

"Forget the boy, it's time to go now."

The men quickly ran towards the wagon, hoping to flee before the wolves arrival; They knew if they didn't leave in time then they wouldn't leave at all, they'd simply be a meal for the beast. But before they could even reach the edge of the wagon, the brush could be heard being stirred up. Immediately after, several wolves leaped out, pouncing on the horse as well as one of the bandits.

Something had attracted them here, whether it was because of the boy's screams or because of all the blood from earlier, it didn't matter at this point, the only thing that mattered was survival.

The man that was pounced upon immediately had his throat ripped out, killing him instantly. The wolf's attack had just happened too suddenly, there just wasn't any time to defend himself and so like a flame to a candle, his life was extinguished.

Three wolves had already torn into the horse, ripping into it as though its flesh was made of paper, easily rending its meat from the bone. The horse's cries were terrible and in a panic; The horse tried to kick them off, causing the wagon to overturn in the snow. With the weight of the wagon being so heavy and now unbalanced, it dragged the horse to the ground, causing the wolves to finish the horse off even faster. Seeing their friend, as well as the horse dying almost instantly, the two bandits turned a complete 180 in the opposite direction to flee. Running towards the graves, the two bandits noticed something amiss; The young boy was no longer there.

Looking around, one of the bandits spotted the boy up a tree, surprised, the bandit nearly fainted. The boy who they had just killed moments ago was now alive and up in a tree, all before the bandit could even tell what was what. But the bandit had no time to understand nor care in this type of situation, the only concern he had was survival. Looking around, the bandits were quickly being encircled by the wolves, it was now clear as day, there was no chance of running away. The last two bandits took defenses stances. With their swords drawn, the two knew they were in a terribly desperate situation.

"We can't run and we can't fight either."

Panicking, the other bandit shouted towards his friend.

"THEN WHAT DO WE DO!"

Looking again at the boy in the tree, the calmer bandit made a quick decision in his heart and in a low voice he said.

"The boy, I don't know how he's alive but he's got the right idea. If we both run at the same time and shimmy up the tree, we might just be able to wait these beasts out."

The other bandit reluctantly nodded as the idea was a lot better than facing this pack of wolves, especially since the alpha had yet to show himself. Any chance at life was all he could ask for at this point, so the bandit looked at his calmer friend and asked.

"When should we move?"

As the wolves nearly finished encircling them, the bandits knew their opportunity was slipping away.

"On three....one....two........THREE!"

As the bandit shouted out, the two moved instantly for the tree and as soon as they did so did the wolves. As the wolves were pouncing towards them, fangs beared and claws drawn, the calmer bandit grit his teeth and made his move. With a slight side step, he tripped his friend and then leaped toward the tree with all his might. The fallen bandit couldn't help but look at his companion with utter terror and dismay. Being betrayed at this moment and under this pressure, the man crumbled in despair. Seeing this, the wolves pounced on the fallen bandit and tore him up before he could even scream.

The last surviving bandit made it partly up the tree, but even he wasn't quick enough as a single wolf had still managed to gnaw through his thick leather boot, tearing into his foot. With fangs piercing deeply into his foot, the bandit couldn't help release a cry of pure anguish.

"AAHHHHHHHH!"

With a few forceful kicks, the bandit finally managed to wrestle his bloodied foot from the beast jaws and climbed a little higher up. While resting his back against the tree, the bandit let out several heavy breaths, trying his best to calm himself. Looking down he saw his companions, as well as the horse being consumed rapidly; sounds of bones crunching and flesh being torn from the bodies were quite dreadful to listen to, let alone seeing big puddles of blood gushing out rapidly. As quickly as the blood puddled, it was then just as quickly lapped up by the wolves tongues.

As the bandit tried to calm himself and catch his breath, it was an almost impossible task while watching this terrible scene play out before him. It was at this moment that he suddenly heard a creaking noise above him. Quickly taking a look up above, he spotted the boy bouncing up and down on a branch.

"Tch, the kid's crazy."

With deadly wolves below and an annoying kid above, the bandit quickly lost his patience.

"Hey! you little bastard cut that shit out or I'll feed your scrawny butt to the wolves."

Although the bandit said that, in reality, it would be way too much trouble. First off his foot was still bleeding and he was in excruciating pain, secondly, after killing the kids family then digging graves and then the situation with the wolves, he was mentally and physically exhausted. If he then had to climb up and kill the kid it would be just too much; Plus, he doubted whether he could actually even climb again with the way he felt.

But before he could even shout again, he suddenly heard a snap and then silence. With that, he finally felt relieved. Letting out a sigh of relief, the bandit looked up once more, only to have his heart feel as though it were leaping from his chest. Before his eyes, the boy was rapidly falling toward him. Suddenly appearing right above his head was already frightening enough, but what the boy had in his hands simply turned the bandit pale. In the hands of this small boy was a thick branch, that's what the boy had been working on. The bandit's instincts told him the situation was dangerous and with everything the bandit could muster, he tried to move out of the way but it was already far too late. The boy had appeared too fast and with a large swing, the boy abandoned all his strength and struck the bandit on the top of his head.

*CRACK!*

Following that, the bandit dropped from the tree like a sack of potatoes, breaking several branches on the way down. By the time the bandit landed, he was covered in wounds from head to toe. There was no doubt he had several broken bones.

Seeing their food get away, only to have it fall face down in front of them, the wolves began to release howls of joy right before they quickly tore into him. The bandit had no time to react and died just like that.

While the wolves devoured the bandit, the young boy regained his balance on the tree. His legs seemed to crumble and he abruptly sat down trembling all over. The young boy looked around in every direction, seeing nothing but a frozen mountainous forest as far as the eyes can see, as well as the huge bloodthirsty wolves, the boy couldn't help but feel fear.

Out in the distance, the boy could see a huge silver wolf, almost 4-5 times bigger than the ones below him. It was standing tall and proud on top of an even bigger boulder. For a brief moment, it seemed as if the huge wolf glanced at him, but then it looked away as though it wasn't interested. The boy figured it was simply his imagination and tried to calm his nerves, but then the Silver wolf looked to the sky and released a powerful and long howl.

"AAAWWWOOOOOLLL"

With this powerful and domineering howl, it seemed as though all of the wind that blew throughout the forest was the breath of the silver wolf.

Looking down below, there seemed to be a reaction as all the wolves' ears immediately seemed to perk up all at once. Like an army of organized soldiers following their king, the wolves all began to move in synch, carrying off any meat that was left. Just like that, the wolves dashed deep into the forest, disappearing like a ghost in the night.

After some time, the young boy finally calmed down.

"Who....where am I?"

But before he could even begin to answer any of these questions, the young boy felt stinging and numbness all over. Looking at his body, only now did he notice he was naked and he immediately began shivering. Now that his adrenaline was wearing off, his body was feeling all the pain from the cold. Looking closer, his toes and fingers were turning blue, he had no time to ask questions and had to get some warmth immediately or he would die. Looking around he noticed the overturned wagon, covering it was a leather top and he remembered that inside was a big fur that his mother had used to hide them both.

After climbing down, the boy quickly jumped inside the wagon and dove under the fur, wrapping himself in a cocoon. As his body started to slowly warm up, memories started coming back making him want to cry.

"Mother, father, they're both dead."

But before the young boy could continue his grief, like a bolt of lightning, his mind flashed causing him to shake uncontrollably. Memory after memory began to flood into his mind, like little needles they stung his brain with each recollection. Thousand upon thousands of memories shook him to the core, nearly shattering his psyche into a million pieces. Soon, thoughts began to appear in his mind one after another. This wasn't his body, those wolves were not from his world, he had died in his own world, killed by a monster with crimson eyes and somehow he ended up here in the dead body of a small child. As this mind-warping experience hammered his psyche again and again some of the child's memories started fusing with his. Not a lot of memories but still some were taken in by his mind. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the memories came to an abrupt stop. The boy's eyes became unclouded and clear as a calm focused look washed over his face, two words slipped past his lips.

"I remember."