Jasion watched the busy amazons from the tree line. It had been 1 hour since he had escaped the elves. He had found his way back to the amazon camp with the help of the masked man, now he was watching them carefully as they prepared to set out to hunt down Jasion.

“You should kill them, otherwise they will be a nuisance in the future.” The masked man said, manifesting next to Jasion.

“No, there is no need for the bloodshed, at least not yet. I will wait for them to leave, slip in, get my dragon, tell Kalani my plan, and then disappear into the night.” Jasion smiled happily to himself as he thought of how amazing a city where everybody of every race and species could thrive together. He knew it sounded like a fairy tale, but by this point, he had little to lose.

“Ok then here is your first lesson for the day. Focus on feeling exceptionally light and the magic I have placed in you will do the rest” the masked man nodded as he faded into the air. Jasion did as he said, he panicked slightly as he felt himself fall from the tree, he was standing in. Despite what Jasion expected, rather than hitting the ground and breaking every bone in his body, he opened his eyes to see himself to be a weird black mist.

“It will take a while to get used to it but when you are like this you can glide as quickly as the wind, if not faster. You can even go through cracks in doors, ceilings, or anything else of your imagination. But this takes up your magic energy or M.E for short, I will show you how to manage that later, but for now you have enough to get it there, do what you want to do, and leave before anyone even notices you.” The demon explained. Jaison did not understand him fully but being the overly trusting person, he was he went along with it.

It took Jasion a few minutes of gliding about franticly, but he soon learned how to control his movements. Jasion used the mist to climbed back into the tree. He watched as Kalani and the other Lamia waited around the medical hut, each looking like they had just seen a monster. Jasion could understand their fear though as he saw Pelana exit the hut where all the hunters usually met. Pelana was dressed in red and black body and face paint, she wore a red corded grass top and large leaf skirt, large purple feather headdress proudly sat upon her head, the same headdress she wore the day they met on the battlefield all those many months ago. Her red eyes and indescribable look of hatred burning bright within them.

Pelana stood before her fellow amazons as they gathered on the edge of the forest, ready for the hunt.

“Sisters, the one to bring my mate back to me alive will be highly rewarded, when I decided to make a child with him many years from now, I promise you may have one with him as well!!” Pelana yelled, the mask translating her words to Jaison automatically.

Jenkari and Tanua appeared in similar outfits to Pelana, they made their way to the head of the enormous hunting group. The warriors charged off into the thick jungle, screaming war cries as they trampled over the underbrush. The amazons disappeared into the night, but despite the darkness of the forest consuming them the sounds of the waring amazons rang out through the night. As soon as the sounds of the blood-thirsty warriors faded Jasion made his move. He moved swiftly through the abandoned camp, stopping now and then when the mist moved too fast, causing him to lose control. It was like he was riding a bike for the first time.

He entered the medical hut and the demon quickly taught him how to turn back into his physical form. As soon as Jasion did so his young dragon was the first to notice him. The little furry blue guy leaped out of Kalani’s arms, causing her to also notice Jasion as the little hut sprinted towards him. Kalani’s face lit up as she slivered over to Jasion and wrapped her arms around him. The other three Lamias soon joined in with the hug each crying slightly.

“Thank the Mother you came back, Pelana just led the amazons on a hunt to find you, she was talking about cutting off your arms a legs band eating them and keeping you as her body pillow,” Kalani said through her steam of tiers. Jasion gulped, it seemed Pelana’s threat from when they were going into the jungle to look for things to hunt was not a bluff.

“I need you to do me a favour,” Jasion said smiling as kindly as he could at the Lamias.

“The night Ulana was killed I was scared and distort, I still thought I could help people by just being a pacifist. To put it simply I was wrong…” Jasion said as he stared down at the ground, gathering as much strength as he could to say what he wanted to say next.

“I have something now that can help me save people, and I mean really save people. A power that I can use to build somewhere where the Lamia the amazons, all the other races can live in peace and prosper.” Jasion eyes narrowed, a serious look on his still innocent-looking face. Kalani gulped nervously as the dragon gently nuzzled into Jasions chest, the dragon could sense his sadness.

“Ulana’s sacrifice opened my eyes, if I want to help people, I will need to make a place where people can live alongside one another without anyone having to be hurt or killed… And those who insist on harming others will…” Kalani cut him off, she knew what he was going to say next, and she knew it would hurt him. Tears in her eyes Kalani embraced him, she pulled him in and planted a gentle kiss on her lips.

“If you leave, the amazons won’t stop hutting you, they could seriously hurt you” Jasion walked over to the table where his medical case was sitting. He clicked the case open and pulled out a medical scalpel knife. He turned to the Lamias, took in a deep breath, focused on his free hand, and stabbed the knife into it. The mist moved aside, and the knife went straight through, much to the bewilderment of the girls.

“You should be careful; you don’t have much magic left at this point.” The masked said to Jasion. He did not answer it as he smiled at Kalani.

“This power is something I will need to learn how to use and fight with, but once I have done that, I swear I will come and get you all. I will take you to a safe place away from the harmful grip of the amazons.” He said, stroking the dragon that was happily nibbling on his finger. Jasion gently patted Kalani on the head.

“I’ll be back I promise and when I do, I will take you and the girls to somewhere you can all be safe.” He said as the little dragon jumped up onto his shoulder.

“just keep on the amazon’s good side in the time I am gone” Jasion finished as he walked to the exit of the hut, he stopped and jumped though as Kalani planted a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Wait,” She said quietly, a terrified look on her face.

“Run” She whispered firmly. Jasion gulped and without thinking rushed outside. He could feel his legs beginning to buckle under him as his eyes met with the fiery demonic ones of Pelana.

“Jasion,” She said happily as she walked over to him, gently wrapping her arms around his chest, Jasion wanted to run but an indescribable fear was holding him in place. He looked down into her eyes, he could instantly tell she was using the transfixed eyes on him.

“I am so glad you are here! I thought you had tried to escape” Pelana buried her nose into his clothes and smiled.

“But after the dragon attack and you hiding with that Lamia I have memorised your scent, so despite it being so faint I could quickly smell you out!” She said planting a kiss on his cheek.

“We will go back to my city, you can have your little medical shop to help people, and each night we will lye together in my finest bed with Tanua and Jenkari by our side.” She planted a stern kiss onto his lips. She reluctantly let his lips go as she carried on speaking.

“I will build you a paradise by my side, as my pet, my lover, my husband,” She said kissing him again, and again reluctantly she parted their lips to speak.

“At first I thought it was just our bed covers that smelt of you but when I sensed the scent on the move, I knew it had to be you.” Her eyes were wide, a psychopathic look in her red eyes.

The demon of the mask gripped onto Jasions shoulder, making him come back to his senses. Jasion narrowed his eyes at her, gathered all the courage he could. He turned his torso to mist and moved out of Pelana’s arms, once he had moved out of her grip, he turned himself back to his fully human form. Pelana looked at him with a mix of shock and amazement.

“Wow looks like you learned some tricks, probably from the same place you got those fancy clothes,” She said still beaming her sadistic smile.

“So Jasion, tell me what happened,” Pelana asked stepping closer to him an emotionless, terrifying look on her face, even her deadpan eyes gaze off a sense of fear all on their own.

Jasion complied with what she asked and explained the mask, the elves, and (in hindsight he should not off) told her his plans to build a city where all the different races could combine and live. Pelana gazed downwards as he finished what he was saying. He could not see her face, but he could feel an immense sense of danger reeking out of her.

“Sorry but I plan to leave tonight. I’ll be back, I promise” Jaison said as he started to walk past Pelana, ready to turn himself to mist at any second she may try to grab him. Jasion felt something cut swiftly past his cheek, the slight trickle of blood dripping from his face and onto his hand. He moved swiftly back. Pelana’s knife was slightly bloodied as she stared him dead in the eyes.

“What did I tell you would happen if you tried to leave,” Pelana said calmly as if she was talking to a disobedient puppy.

She leaped at him again, her knife aimed for his leg. Jaison just managed to step out the way as he saw her knife flash past him. As soon as he moved out the way though, Pelana was already pouncing at him again.

“Is there anything I can do?” Jasion asked the mask as he just barely dodged another of Pelana’s attacks.

“Come on Jasion I am going very, very, very, extremely, easy on you right now. If you submit now, I will only break your legs and nurse you back to health slowly.” She said as she pounced at him again, this time cutting his trousers (pants for Americans) leg slightly. He tried to turn into mist and escape but as soon as he made it to the edge of the forest a wall of white flames erupted in front of him. He could try to fight her but that would end in his mutilation.

“Let me take control for a second, it takes some time to learn this, and it will take a lot of energy out of you, but it can also get you out of dangerous situations like this.” The mask said, without hesitation, Jasion agreed. Jasion was taken back as everything around him froze.

“What’s this?” He asked looking around at the statue still amazons.

“I placed us into something call a slip, a place where time works differently to your world, so let’s leave now and get out of here before we run out of magic and the amazons destroy us” with those words Jasion gave one last glance to Kalani before he disappeared off into the forest.

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, now and then stopping to turn himself into mist if he needed to get over large obstacles like rocks or trees. He did not know how long he was running but with every step, he could feel the energy draining from his body.

“Shit it looks like we have run out of energy, and magic. We are about 200 or so miles from Pelana, all thanks to the help of my powers” the mask said, the last bit he said smugly.

“Holy fuck 200? Really?” Jasion said as he collapsed to the ground. Catching his breath.

“Don’t underestimate my power, and if you get stronger yourself you will be able to use more of my power” The masked man said manifesting Infront of Jasion and helping him up. The masked man helped him through the jungle until they reached a large village.

The masked man let Jasion go and disappeared into the air. Jasion could feel himself slowly falling asleep, before he passed out, he checked down his shirt to see the small blue dragon still cuddling into his chest. Time started again and all the pain and exhaustion that he felt from running such a long distance finally caught up to him.

“Hay demon, if the people in this village kill me or get me killed, I will fucking find a way to haunt you,” Jasion said as he collapsed to the ground, sleep taking hold of him.

The sun's warm light slowly crept into the village. The door of A small hut slowly creaked open and a 5’11, brown-haired, pale-skinned, and brown-eyed wolf girl slowly made her way out of her hut, starching her arms above her head. Her ears flopped to the side; her tail carelessly waggled from side to side. Her tail grew stiff, and her ears pointed up as she smelt an unfamiliar scent in the air. Her friend, another female wolf woman, came out from the neighbouring hut, and immediately caught the same whiff on the same weird scent in the air.

“Haunily do you smell that?” The woman asked the first wolf girl. Haunily nodded as other wolf kin came from their huts and immediately smelled the scent. Haunily sprinted off in the direction of the smell, the scent getting stronger with each stride.

Some warriors quickly caught up to her, her father alongside them. The wolves armed with spears surrounded her as they made their way towards the smell. They quickly arrived at the southern edge of the village, and to their surprise, a body of what looked to be a weird amazon like creature in black clothes lay on the edge of the village unconscious. Haunily moved forward towards the body, but her father put out his arm stopping her. Her father moved forward slowly. He leaned down and turned the body over and turned it onto it is back. The man shot back though as an incredibly pissed-off-looking baby dragon jumped out from under his shirt in a defensive stance.

“By the Gods,” The man said as he saw the sleeping man’s face.

“What is it farther?” Haunily asked her and the other warriors all on guard.

“Get a good bed ready, this man once saved my life!” The bubbly tall wolfman said as he smiled down and the sleeping Jasion. his soft-looking ears and tail standing excitedly on end.

It took a while, but the wolf's people manage to calm the dragon by offering it pieces of fish and offering some to the sleeping Jasion, to show they meant no harm. The dragon reluctantly let the wolfs take their master off into a large hut where he could sleep and be cared for by the Wolfen healers.

Haunily’s father being the leader of the village made sure to inform the villagers on how he knew Jaison, he told them the story of how he was found by him when he was shot by an imperial soldier and left for dead. Jasion had found him and cared for him until he could walk again, even going as far as to steal a device that specialised at healing blaster scorches on people from where they had been shot. Wolf kin have a strong sense of kinship and loyalty, so for someone who is not part of his tribe to save him, the wolf king felt as if he owed this human boy his life.

“So, this thing isn’t an amazon?” Haunily asked as she prodded Jasion’s sleeping face.

“He looks like a baby,” She said as she prodded his face a little harder.

The dragon was busy playing with some of the village children but as soon as it noticed her prodding him a little too hard in its opinion and leaped towards her legs, head butting her. She jumped into the air and landed in a fighting position. Her father's face palmed as he watched his usually calm and sophisticated daughter having a standoff with a harmless baby dragon. The wolfman jumped as he heard Jasion starting to stir and wake.

“Fucking hell” He murmured as he placed his hand to his head, he could feel a headache starting to form.

Jasion looked to his side to see a large man staring at him. Jasion jumped at the sight of the human-looking man, and he jumped again when noticed his large ears and a fluffy wolf tail.

“Hay, hay don’t worry I’m not going to hurt you Mr. Jasion,” the wolfman said jumping back and raising his hands.

“Who the fuck are you? How do you know my name?” Jasion said, but he quickly calmed as he saw the demon manifest next to the wolfman. He gave Jasion a thumbs up while pointing to the wolfman, before quickly disappearing again.

“You may not remember Mr. Jasion but a long time ago now you save my life, you truly are a good man,” The demi-human said bowing his head in respect.

Jasion looked past the bowing wolfman to see his dragon having a weird version of a Mexican standoff with a wolf girl. The dragon noticed his gaze and quickly pounced onto his chest, diving behind him and hissing at Haunily from over Jasion’s shoulder. Haunily noticed he was awake and was about to speak when her father quickly jumped up from bowing and escorted her outside. He soon returned though and smiled nervously at Jasion.

“Sorry about her, she is a little hyper at the moment.” He said sitting down on a wooden chair next to Jaison’s bed. There was an awkward silence as Jasion, with the help of the demon, quickly learned how to manifest his mask. He remembered the time when he saved a demi-human of the wolf tribes but to think luck would have it that it was this one here. Despite the hospitality so far, he knew from his experience with Pelana and the amazons that kindness could quickly turn sour.

“So, umm what brings you to our forest, my friend?” He asked scratching the back of his head nervously. Jasion sat up on the bed, the demon's mist wrapping around him fixing his clothes, much to the amazement of the wolfman.

“First what do you think of the amazons?” Jasion asked, not wanting to reveal any information yet in case he decided to hand him over to Pelana, which would be understandable since it looked like the girl, he saw is his daughter. Man’s eyes narrowed down in discussing hatred at the mere mention of the amazons the time being giving Jasion a slightly safe feeling of relief for the time being.

“They show up every few years now and then, they take our men… we never see what happens to them but the screams through the night give us a good idea and the fact we never see them again.” Jasion leaned forward and planted a kind hand on the man’s shoulder.

“The amazon queen Pelana is around 200 miles from here, I just barely escaped her, that’s why I was going through the jungle,” Jasion said solemnly.

He could not tell if telling the wolfman this was the right thing but Jasion knew from the little education he had at school about the outside world that Demi-humans are fiercely loyal, and since Jaison saved his life the wolf owned him. They talked for a while longer and Jasion told the man about his “adventure” so far. Jasion almost burst out in laughter at points as to how stupidly lucky Jasion was.

“How, and I mean how in the name of Nereta of the hunt are you still alive?” he said as he leaned back in his chair in shock as he tried his best to take in all this new information.

“Tell me about,” Jasion said sarcastically as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

“I know this may be a little bit of trouble but is it alright that I have something to eat and stay here for a while until I can find somewhere to go?” Jasion asked smiling kindly under his mask. The man quickly nodded and responded.

“Of cause eat, drink and stay for as long as you like.” The wolfman said as he and Jasion got up and left the room, Jasion’s small dragon cuddling into his chest.

They exited the room into a large well-built hallway. Jasion glanced down his left to see Haunily’s eyes peaking angrily at him from around a corner, he quickly noticed though that the gaze was not at him but more at the dragon that was attached to his chest which was returning her evil gaze in 10-fold. He laughed to himself as he used the demon's mist to make his mask fade into the air. He waved friendly towards the wolf girl, her ears pricking up and tail wagging as she noticed his gesture.

“May I ask what your daughter's name is, Mr …” Jasion asked gesturing towards the still hiding girl.

“Renra will do, as for her she’s Haunily or Hua for short.” The man said as he escorted Jasion out into the blinding sun of the day.

Jasion squinted his eyes as he got used to the sight of daylight. Once his eyes had adjusted, he started to take in his surroundings. The village was lively with wolf kin men, women, and children going about their day today. The hustle and bustle all stopped though as one by one the villagers all spotted Jasion. Before Jasion even knew it the villagers had surrounded him, sparkles of curiosity in their eyes. Jasion squinted as it was almost like they were giving off a holy light from how innocent they all were.

Renra quickly calmed his people and ordered some men to get a large feasting table together because he planned to have a festival to welcome Jasion that night. The villagers quickly set to work, making Jasion feel slightly embarrassed that they were going through so much effort for just him. Renra seemed to understand what Jasion was thinking and beamed him with a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry, we don’t get much to celebrate here so we make what we can out of what we have. If you need/want to wash there is also a lake down to the east of the village, feel free to use it as much as you want” Renra said as he disappeared off into the crowd.

Realising that he hadn’t washed in days Jasion quickly made his way towards where he thought the lake to be located. As he walked in the direction of the lake, he could feel the eyes of Haunily watching him, making him laugh to himself as he realised, she was probably eyeing up his dragon. He swiftly found the lake, his eyes relaxing as he saw the crystal clear and deep blue water. He looked behind him to see several pairs of wolf ears quickly duck down behind the thick foliage. Not wanting these understandably curious wolf kin to be watching him he took his dragon and placed him on the ground.

“See those lot over there, go chase them as much as you want,” Jasion said patting the dragon on the head.

The dragon seemed to understand and happily as well as cutely charged off towards the wolf's people. Jasion understood why they wanted to watch him, after all, he was the first human they had ever seen. He shivered at the thought of all the questions he was going to have to answer at the feast that night. He took off his black jacket unbuttoned his black shirt, and quickly undressed as he placed himself into the surprisingly warm water. He leaned back and relaxed as he casually sat in the water.

Haunily carefully walked over the edge of the thick, strong tree branch. Her friends had distracted the dragon so she could spy on the weird man he farther called Jasion and see if it is true that humans don’t have tails.

“Behind you” The mask whispered to Jasion. Jasion darted around and scanned his surroundings until he saw a figure sitting in the tree. He made himself into the mist and quickly moved to the figure's side. Haunily quickly became confused as Jasion disappeared.

“Boo,” Jasion said as he manifested behind her. Haunily jumped and rolled out the tree.

“Ah, shit sorry,” Jasion said quickly grabbing her before she could fall. Rather than thanking him for catching her, her eyes narrowed curiously at him.

“Do you have a tail?” She asked jumping around him to see if he had any visible tail.

“No?” He said as he turned to the mist and moved down to the ground. She sat on the side of the tree branch staring down at excitedly him.

“You humans are weird; can all humans use that weird power?” she said her tail wagging furiously with happiness, her ears pointing straight to the sky.

“No, just me, and if you don’t mind could you please leave so I can wash,” He said as returned to the water. She seemed a little pouty, but she soon left.

After a while of listening to see if anyone else was nearby, he carried on with his wash. His body was littered with many scars on it, he sighed that he couldn’t get rid of them all after he gained the power of the mask. Once he had finished cleaning himself, he lay there in the water and thought of how Kalani was doing, how the three Lamia was doing, he even wondered how Pelana, and the amazons were doing. He was terrified of the amazons, Pelana especially after all she was the strongest, but he couldn’t help but wonder how she was doing.

“Banish those thoughts of kindness from your mind, after all, you may have to fight her in the future,” the demon said, surprising Jasion.

“Wait can you read my mind?” Jaison asked slightly scared at the thought of his mind being read.

“No…” the demon said nervously. Jaison narrowed his eyes.

“So, you can, you little shit” Jasion retorted said jokingly. They sat there for a while in silence before Jasion decided to get out of the bath.

“Before we go back lest learning a few tricks,” the demon said as he manifested in front of Jasion. Jaison sighed, just wanting to get something to eat.

“Let’s start with some fire tricks,” the demon said, as he approached Jasion.

“Think of the feeling of heat and outstretch your hand, focus very hard.” The demon instructed and Jasion compiled. He closed his eyes and focused intensely on the feeling of being warm. He could feel something flickering out of his hand. He lost focus as he felt a tingling sensation at the tips of his fingers.

“SHIT!” He yelled as his hands became blazed with a green/purple and a little bit of blue, fire.

“Hey, calm down it won’t hurt you, just other people,” the demon said calming Jasion down.

“Okay, now I think we need to practice that a little more later, but hay at least we know you can do it now.” He continued. Jaison looked at his hands in fascination as he looked at the flames, despite the flames being so small and they could barely pass for a candle flame he was still amazed by what he had done.

“Now think of the opposite and the flames will go,” The demon said, and like predicted the flames snuffed out. The demon let Jasion calm down for a few seconds before starting his next quick bit of training. The demon first used the mist to summon a smart-looking suit and coat around Jasion.

“Okay, now put out your hands and imagine a dagger or some kind of weapon that you know how to make.” Jasion thought for a few seconds.

He knew how to make a knife since it was one of the things, they taught him at the military academy, they always said you should know how to make one since it will help you if you ever get captured by Orcs and they forced you to start working in one of their forges, but he never it would come in handy. Jasion put out his hands and imagined a sword, the mist quickly complied and after a few failed attempts he made a basic about 3ft long sword appear in his hands.

“Wow,” Jaison said as he admired the black shiny steel of the sword. Not need the sword at that moment he let it fade back into the black mist. Happy with his progress Jasion started on his way back up to the village.

He reached the village, making sure his tie and suit looked nice as he came into view of the excited wolves. He gazed around, not knowing where he should go while the villagers prepared for the party. His eyes quickly fell on the 5’11 Haunily as she was growling at his dragon. He smiled as he started to approach them.

“hay demon, got any clue on why the little blue guy doesn’t like her?” He asked the demon.

“Her body type is similar to Pelana if not a little smaller. She also has similar eyes; the dragon probably thinks she is Pelana” the demon said chuckling to himself. Jasion laughed along, finding it funny that this dragon thought that these two are the same, despite them being so different.

“Jasion!” the voice of the wolfman yelled as he came over, an excited look on his face as he waved. Jasion smiled as the man approached him.

“Come I wish to show you the village before it gets dark, and the feast begins.” He said as he gestured for Jasion to follow him.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity he felt fully safe, but that safety soon vanished as a noise sounded over the village, making his heart drop. The sound shook the village, it sounded like that of a Lion or even maybe a dragon.

“What the fuck is that” He asked.

“A creature we aren’t ready to face, a fucking creature like that.” The demon said quietly, sounding pissed.

“Just bloody say what it is,” Jasion asked he demon frustratedly.

“A cyclops.” Jasion shook as the creature's roar shook the forest again.