"What the hell is this?" said Lupos in a trembling voice that barely contained his rage. Lucio looked over at Lupos smugly unaware of the emotional turmoil he was facing. "I'm not surprised you don't know, it's magical beast that gained human form. They're really rare."

"What at you planning to do with her?" asked Lupos in a quiet voice. "Uncle says she can become my slave when she's more disciplined," boasted Lucio unaware Lupos' expression was growing more murderous by the second. "So we're just keeping her here until she learns her place and acknowledges me as her master."

Lupos turned towards Lucio with the intent of killing him before realising that it wouldn't help, as the second he did the guards would come running. Which wouldn't be bad by itself, he could deal with that, but his cover would be blown and he'd be unable to take his revenge on Mervyn.

Ignoring Lucio as he continued to boast he instead focused on the girl in the cage. "Hello," he said in mindspeak "can you hear me?" the girls face snapped towards him in shock "h...h..how can you communicate with me in mindspeak? Only magical beasts are meant to be able to do that!"

Lupos smiled gently "I was raised by a pack of shadow wolves. So I can speak to other beasts." The girl smiled slightly within the cage "don't worry, I'll help you escape tomorrow I wont let them keep you here." The girl was still smiling in the cage but tears were streaming down her face now.

"Thank you, but I have nowhere else to go. My pack was destroyed." Lupos looked at her sadly "the same as me, don't worry I have a friend you can stay with just be ready for tomorrow."

Without waiting for confirmation Lupos turned back to Lucio, who was just finishing off his boasting "anyway the girl is mine" he finished. Lupos just nodded cautiously "thank you for showing me this, but I must be on my way now young master or else my family will worry."

Lucio nodded and waved his hand "yes go on, I'll see you tomorrow." Giving a short bow, Lupos ran home at full speed determined to think of a plan to free the girl.

..................................................................................

Lucio's POV

The next morning Lucio awoke alone in his room and began to think about Gale. The boy was a mystery as far as he was concerned. Although his fighting seemed weak there was something wrong with it, like there was an underlying strength or like he was deliberately going easy on you.

Although the other boy had won the match yesterday he himself admitted to being useless in a straight fight, the whole thing infuriated Lucio. However there was one thing that puzzled him even more, yesterday when he had shown Lupos the wolf girl something had changed in his eyes, he wasn't sure what it was but it made him uneasy.

"Probably just jealousy over my rare catch" thought Lucio trying to convince himself. But, deep, deep down he knew that in that room when he looked at Gale he had a felt a primal sense of fear, the type prey feels when it was cornered by a predator.

"But that would be ridiculous," thought Lucio to himself "obviously I am far stronger, he even admitted it himself!" However, no matter how much he tried to convince himself he could not get rid of the deep unease settling in his stomach when he thought of Gale. Sighing to himself he put aside his feelings and got ready for training.

As he entered the training ground he saw Gale already there smiling pleasantly. Swallowing down his feelings of unease, Lucio went to greet him. "Good morning young master." said Gale with a slight bow. "Good morning Gale" responded Lucio still feeling something was wrong. He was just about to put his finger on it when Gale interrupted "young master if it's not too much of an issue I would like to ask we let our spirits fight today to give them some practice."

Lucio smiled arrogantly "of course but be warned my fyre heart won't go down easily. Even though you lost in the new student competition we won't hold back". "Of course," said Gale with a pleasant grin "How else would we learn?" .

Lucio smiled the feeling of unease flying away at the chance to prove his superiority over Gale. Smiling Lucio gave a piercing whistle to call out fyre heart. Meanwhile, Gale just sat there silently smiling as he looked at his own summons, Fenrir.

"OK we'll let the spirits fight until one concedes defeat by leaving the sparring area or is knocked out, understood?" Gale nodded. "Ok, let's begin." the two boys sat down at opposite ends of the sparring area and watched as the two spirits fought, however it was quite clear that Fenrir appeared to be on the losing end.

Contrary to Lucio's expectations, Gale did not look upset or even that bothered about his spirits loss but was instead laughing about it. Two minutes later when the battle was over Gale approached Lucio "Good spar but I guess your spirit's just that much better."

Lucio smiled arrogantly "of course it is after all i'm.." Lucio was about to say more when one of the families scholars burst into the courtyard "Young master?!? Young master are you all right?!?!?" Lucio looked at the scholar curiously "of course, what's wrong?" it was then Lucio realised what had been nagging at him.

All the guards were missing. "The wolf girl, she's escaped." Lucio turned to him a look of rage on his face. "Don't stand here then, catch her you fools send the rest of the guards after her!" the mans face went pale. "We can't young master....they're dead...they're all dead."

"What?" asked Lucio astonished. "How?" the scholar shook his head sadly. "They were poisoned, they've spent the last ten minutes in overwhelming agony. We bit off more than we could chew by capturing her. Apparently the creature who rescued her was the ancient snake at the heart of the forest, we didn't stand a chance."

Lucio stood there shocked unable to comprehend the tragedy that had occurred. However, if he had only looked behind him he would have seen Lupos looking solemn but with laughing eyes as he stared at the tragedy that had befallen the Illio family.

..................................................................................

Lupos's POV

It took all of Lupos' self restraint not to smile when he heard that the guards who had helped hunt the girl and her pack were dead. Of course the main perpetrators still remained, but the Illio family would get what was coming to them in the end.

Trying to look sad, Lupos approached Lucio. "My thanks young master for allowing me to train with you these past few days, but I am leaving now to help my uncle in the forest so will not be able to return." Lucio nodded weakly as Lupos gave a short bow and ran out the courtyard towards the forest letting out a wide grin.

..................................................................................

Hi guys hope you liked the chapter I decided to try and write in Lucio's perspective for this one to keep the surprise of how they were going to rescue the girl so I hope you liked it

PLEASE READ THIS

For an additional notice instead of posting a poll I figured I would just ask but if anyone has any ideas for what to name the wolf girl please leave it in the comments