“Wow Asher, the way you showed the thief who’s boss was amazing! You even made that punch look like it was going to hurt but didn’t! Instead it stopped and your other hand hit him really hard!”

I exclaimed to my best friend. A short chuckle came from him,

“Did you like that Cato? It’s something called a feint, when you trick the bad guy to stop your attack, but then you surprise them with a different one. Anyway, look at this haul!”

Asher emptied his pocket to reveal a fat wallet with a bunch of money in it. With this we could go for a couple of days without going hungry!

“Not only that, look what else I got from him.”

Asher took out a shiny knife that looked very intimidating.

“With this it will be much easier for us to get money for everyone!”

Asher exclaimed and we headed back home in high spirits. We avoided most people and stuck to the darker paths, Asher says it’s safer that way – and he was never wrong. On our way we stopped by a small grocery store and bought some bread, ham, cheese and a couple of fruits. We walked for a long time and our home came into sight just as my feet began to hurt. An uncomfortable feeling appeared in my stomach.

“Will Mr. Walker yell at us again?”

I asked my friend.

“As long as we don’t let him know about the knife then probably not, we brought a lot of food for everyone, so he should be ok with it.”

Asher told me with a smile on his face. When he smiled I knew everything will be alright so I smiled in response and walked inside. The old door made a loud creaking noise as it opened,

‘Uh oh’.

Heavy footsteps came down the hall and I knew Mr. Walker was coming.

“Asher, do you have any idea of the time?”

“Yes old man, doing it at any other time would either risk us getting hurt or revealed.”

Asher made a wide grin on his face,

“Besides, look at the stuff we have for everyone!”

I knew that was the signal and I pulled out the bags from behind my back at the same time as Asher. Mr. Walker’s frown disappeared when he saw all of the food and just shook his head.

“Fine, I’ll let the others come for dinner.”

As soon as he said that all of the kids came running down the stairs and yelled in joy.

“Food, food, food!”

Came their chants and I felt really good inside, for helping bringing more food and helping Asher. Everyone got a slice of bread or cheese and ate with care, taking the time to taste the ham or cheese. We talked, played and before long everyone went to bed. I was going to as well but Mr. Walker told Asher to stay back. I wanted to know what was going on so I hid behind the wall and listened.

“Asher, we’re all thankful for the work you do but this can’t go on. Sooner or later you will get caught and then drag Cato down with it. I know it’s hard to get a job but at least try. Cato . . . his respect for you is unmatched - just take care of him.”

Asher started lectured again. ‘Why is that only he gets in trouble and I never do?’

I heard a faint whistling coming from outside before a loud noise shook the building. Several more whistles came after, followed by even stronger explosions, there was dust coming from the ceiling. Another whistle sounded but this time it seemed to be getting closer…

“Asher, get down!”

Mr. Walker shouted and fell to the floor. I didn’t know what was going on but since Mr. Walker said so, I had to follow. A violent noise rang through my ears and I shouted out in pain. My head felt light and something hit me in the back.

‘What’s going on? I need to find Asher; he would know what to do.’

My whole body burned as I tried to get up, but compared to when Asher and I tried to bully a bad guy that called out his friends and hurt us, it was nothing. There was a lot of smoke and breathing was really hard. I coughed several times before someone called my name,

“Cato! You’re alright thank god.”

My ears were still ringing so I couldn’t tell who it was.

“It’s me Asher, you remember me right?”

“Of course, how could I forget my best friend!”

I replied and felt him pull my arm.

“Follow me, we need to hide-“

“Spread out and search, you know who our target is, if you find the kids double check their names.”

Asher was interrupted by someone shouting. I had no idea what was going on,

“Asher, wha-“

I was cut off as Asher placed a finger on my mouth. I followed him behind a section of the collapsed wall. Both of us stood in silence.

“Don’t worry, everything will be alright - I promise.”Asher whispered to me while smiling.

Asher whispered to me while smiling.

“You check the west rooms I’ll take the north.”

A stranger’s voice echoed across the ruins. Footsteps grew louder, it sounded like the man was wearing heavy boots.

“Is- is he coming to save us?”

I asked Asher with a trembling voice.

“Cato listen, you’re a brave boy and that is a very, very bad person. I need you to cry right in front of this leaning piece of wall. Just draw his attention and don’t do anything other than a fake cry until I tell you to, okay?”

Asher faced me, holding both of my shoulders while making me do something strange.

“O-ok, I’ll do it. But after we leave okay?”

I didn’t like this place anymore and wanted to leave.

“Sure thing, now go ahead and distract him.”

Asher flashed me a reassuring smile and nudged me to go. There was so much smoke in the area that it teared up my eyes a bit, which was good. It helped me pretend cry so much better. I crouched in front of the tilted wall that reminded of a triangle, Asher was hiding inside of it.

Waaaaaaaaaah

I started crying as loud as a could, an occasional sob to make it sounded more ‘realistic’ as Asher told me once.

“Cato is that you?”

I heard Mr. Walker called out to me but I ignored him, my promise to Asher was more important.

“freeze!”

The sudden shout scared me for real and I cried even more. There were further footsteps but I ignored them. Someone stopped right in front of me.

“Leave the child alone, you came for me, correct?”

Mr. Walker spoke up.

“Who- well, if it isn’t Mark. The organisation has spent quite the while looking for you. Now why don’t you turn around, let me tie you up and tell the brat to shut up?”

The bad person’s voice rang through ruins. I was really scared,

‘Just what is going on? I don’t understand any of this!’

A gentle bird call came,

‘It’s Asher!’

It was the signal for me to stop crying.

“I’ll do as you say, just leave the kids out of this.”

Mr. Walker tried to act tough but even I could hear his voice shaking. I raised my head and saw him standing right in front of me, the figure approached us carefully. A crackling noise came from elsewhere

“Hey John, come to the west hall - I’ve found our target.”

crackle

“Roger that.”

A very raspy and robotic voice replied,

‘Did they bring droids with them?’

The bad person stopped a meter in front of Mr. Walker.

“Now turn around.”

The dust hasn’t fully settled yet and I could only make out his outline. As soon as Mr. Walker finished turning around with his hands on his head the other man lifted his arm and wanted to hit him!

“Mr. Walker turn ar-!”

I shouted to help him but something fell on top of the mean guy and he fell down. The dust cleared enough and I strained my eyes to see what happened,

‘Asher?!’

“Asher, what did you do?”

Mr. Walker turned around, grabbed both of Asher’s arms and looked at the person on the ground.

“I saved you old man, that’s what!”

Eagle twisted out of the man’s grip and looked around. Mr. Walker bent down and started looking for something on the other person’s body. I had no idea what was going on and just stood there confused.

“Tristan? Tristan wher-”

A new voice came from the corridor.

“Why you!”

Immediately two loud bangs rang across the room and hurt my ears. I heard a loud thud as something fell to the ground. The new guy was on the ground, he seemed to faint,

‘that’s good!’

‘I think’

“Mr. Walker!”

Asher screamed,

*cough, splash*

“A-Asher”

Mr. Walker sounded extremely weak but I couldn’t move, my body frozen and unresponsive,

“Take the radio and run with Cato,”

*cough*

“and my real name is-”

‘Mr. Walker’s true name? Why would he have a different one?’ Why did he whisper it to Asher and not loud enough for me to hear?’

There were countless thoughts running through my head but I just stood there, rooted in one spot.

“Mr. Walker…?”

Tears began to well up and soon enough I cried for real, bawling my eyes out. Between my gasps I saw Asher wiped his face and got up. He ran towards me,

“We have to get out of here, more bad guys will be here soon.”

“He- he, Mr. Walker is dead, isn’t he? He won’t be coming baaaaaaaack!”

I wailed out loud and wept even harder. Something hit me across the cheek and made it sting.

“Cato you have to focus and listen to me! Mr. Walker did his best for us to get away, so let’s do as he wanted okay?”

Asher asked while warmly looking at me. I sobbed several more times,

“Mhm”

********

‘...Dammit, why did I remember that now of all times?!’

I forced the swelling tide of emotions away and looked down. A beautiful beast laid before me, covered in countless scratches and bite wounds. Its chest, neck and front paw areas were bulging with muscle while the fur pattern was the most mesmerizing of all.

A rich and dark green ran across the top of its body and along the tail, while its underside was covered in snow-white fur. The same white also ran across the backside of its paws leaving the front for the green.

Its tail made up of the same black and green stripes running along until the very tip flared out with black fur, like a spearhead. Altogether it was nearly three meters long with the tail making up half of that length.

A short mane ran from halfway down the back to the top of the head. Two canines slightly sticking out.

‘Fuck! Even now I am powerless to save everyone! First I lost you, now I lost someone pleading for help!’

I punched a nearby tree to vent some of my frustration at my uselessness. Soft purring noises came from the cubs and I turned my attention to them.

They had the same pattern and build as their mother, only one of them had a blue one and they were both about ninety centimetres long and sixty centimetres high. I pulled two food rations out of my satchel and broke the seal.

Within minutes the food heated up and I placed it in front of the little ones. Both of them were wary about leaving the parent and taking the food but they eventually gave in. As they ate I sat down cross legged and focused my essence to stem the blood flow from my wounds. It’s the best I could manage given most of my time was spent empowering myself with essence.

Eagle came out of hiding and approached me.

“Here, let me try.”

He put his hand to my wound and a green essence started to seep out of him. I felt my wound close and the pain almost gone.

“Well, that went better than expected. Granted I couldn’t finish healing you as my essence ran out.”

I waved him off,

“It’s enough. Thank you.”

As I went around retrieving my throwing knives and dagger I noticed that the cub that used to limp started to walk fine and their wounds slowly healed.

‘That’s some extraordinary healing they have.’

I chuckled to myself and started to leave the grieving children behind. With their size they should be able to hunt just fine and with most of the wolf pack gone, there shouldn’t be any problems.

“Eagle, I’m heading back now.”

I weakly smiled and headed back. Thankfully I didn’t bother with stealth during my rush and the way back was rather obvious. I kept trudging through the dirt while suppressing the cursed memory. It took far longer to return but wasting essence at this point would be plain stupid, the only way to recover it is through sleep or boring-ass meditation.

The road came into sight and I stepped out into the open.

“EaGlE!”

Marden exclaimed once we came out onto the road. Eagle went on and started talking in more gibberish as I stood under the scrutinizing gazes of the other two.

In the end Eagle summarized our encounter. How I heard a strange voice in my head that drew me into the forest. He told them about the sense of urgency that overwhelmed me and me rushing head first into an ambush set up by the wolves. As well as us taking out half of their pack before the alpha challenged me.

In the end they were only somewhat satisfied with our story but let it slide. No more questions were asked as we traveled for a day and a half before arriving at the city of Iyamore.