Renra gulped loudly as he and the other villagers looked fearfully into the thick jungle as if waiting for the monster to attack. Renra seemed to notice Jasion’s worry and patted him on the back.

“It was probably nothing, let's carry on with the festival,” he said obviously trying to hide his fear. Jasion sat down at the feasting table with the rest of the nervous wolfkin who all were now doing their best to lighten the mood. After only a few minutes it seemed that all the villagers had just forgotten about the ear-bleeding scream that had just shaken the entire jungle. Many of the wolves gathered around Jasion to ask him questions about humans, many of the women were prodding and poking at his red hair.

“Do all humans have such bright hair?” One of the girls asked. Jasion looked at her and smiled. He only just realised how fascinated they probably all were over his hair colour since every single one of the wolves had either oak brown or coal-black hair.

“Not all of us, but there are a few like me,” Jasion said as the younger girls ran their fingers through his hair. Most of the men and boys were less interested in him and were busy playing with the dragon as if they were all giant children. But Jasion could not blame them, dragons were probably a much more interesting sight to them than a human.

Something felt off though, the villagers all looked happy, but he could not help but feel that they were hiding something. As the night progressed the villagers were either asking Jasion questions, playing with the dragon, or dancing happily around a large bonfire.

“So how many humans are there?” A young man asked as he ate a piece of bird meat. Jasion snapped out his suspicious thoughts and contemplated the man’s question.

“About 60 million in the western Empire alone, only about 20 million though in my city” the villagers all looked at him in shock.

“Did I say something wrong?” Jasion said, just as the wolves erupted into a mountain of questions.

“How many kids do your females have then?”

“How can there be so many of you?”

“How do you get enough food for that many?” and many more questions if that sort erupted amongst the crowd. Haunily quickly noticed he was being overcome by questions and ran to his side.

“You look tired? I will show you where you will be sleeping. But first, let us take a walk” She said grabbing Jasion’s arm and dragging him away, much to the disappointment of the crowd.

Haunily and Jasion quickly disappeared into the forest as the tribe carried on their party. Haunily was walking briskly through the forest, her arms crossed behind her head in a relaxed position. Jasion was trailing behind her watching her tail sway casually from side to side, her ears were lazily flopping around on the top of her head. Jasion smiled, she was a weird person or well wolf person, but then again, everyone in the village did as well. The demi-humans were vastly different from the amazons, rather than being bloodthirsty, cannibalistic, sadistic, and overly sexual, these wolves were much gentler, kinder, caring, and happy.

Haunily glanced over her shoulder to see if her new friend was following her. She smiled to see Jasion in his smart black suit, black trousers, and fiery red hair blowing slightly in the warm wind. He was not as handsome as the other men in the village, but he was slightly cute, and much more fun and interesting. She had not talked to him much, but after seeing him getting overwhelmed by the villagers’ questions she saw the perfect excuse to take him away to ask him some questions of her own.

“How old are you?” She asked, turning around, and beginning to walk backward with her hands behind her back.

“About 20 now, I forgot when my birthday was, I know it is…” Jasion thought for a second, he could not remember his birthday was.

“There 100 days in a month so… I think it is something like the 39th or 49th of April,” He said as he walked over to her. She smiled, her long grey cloth skirt and top shinnying in the moonlight.

Something Jasion had not noticed until now was the difference in clothing from the amazons and wolfkin. He found it hard to believe that even though the amazons were the ones that looked the most like humans, compared to the wolfkin they had little to no humanity.

“So, what is your family like?” Haunily asked her ears still happily flopping around slowly on top of her head.

Jasion looked down miserably. Back in the city, the only family he had ever know were a group of older boys who took him under their wing in exchange for him to help heal any of them that had gotten wounded. He liked them, despite the way they treated him, after all his parents to his knowledge died when he was young and not wanting to go to a work camp, he was much happier to join the thieves.

“No, not really,” Jasion said not wanting to tell her about his thieving past.

“Sorry… so what was your home like?” Haunily asked as she moved out of the tree line. Jasion eyes widened, and he darted towards her. Haunily could feel herself slipping. She turned and saw a deep valley below her. Jaison wrapped his arms around her and caught her just before she started to fall into the dark abyss. He pulled her away from the valley and quickly glanced over her to make sure she was not hurt. She blushed slightly when she saw the genuine concern on his face, but quickly regained her composure.

“T…Thank you, Jaison,” Haunily said as Jasion let go of her and allowed her to walk again on her own. She gave him a friendly punch in the arm and turned to walk back to the village.

“Let’s go, I heard they caught a Tonhgla in the woods and will be serving it tonight,” She said as she happily skipped back towards the village, Jasion close behind her.

“Just don’t fall any valleys alright?” He said jokingly as he gave her a friendly punch on the arm.

Jasion gazed around the forest, taking all the beautiful plants that were hidden away in the thick foliage of the bushes and trees. Jasion stopped though as they passed a large opening in the trees. A large Tonhgla was standing still eating a lush green plant of a nearby tree. Jasion smiled and put his hand onto Haunily’s shoulder, bringing her to a stop.

“Wait, there is something I want to do,” Jasion said as he walked over to a nearby tree. He took position behind the tree and peeked over at the Tonhgla.

He focused hard and started to imagine a bow. He put out his hands and started to think of every little detail that went into making such a weapon. Black mist formed around his hands and much to the amazement of both Haunily and Jasion and large black hunting bow appeared in his hands. He tested the strength of the sting by using his index and middle finger to pull the thin but sturdy thread back to his chest. Happy with the strength of the bow, Jasion then imagined a single arrow. Considering arrows are much easier to make than bows a long black arrow appeared thanks to the help of the mist.

Haunily was not sure what he was doing, but the determination on his face made her happy. Jasion took in a deep breath and loaded his arrow onto the bowstring. Remembering what Kalani had taught him about posture when hunting he straightened his back and took a proper firing position. He aimed the Tonhgla. He took in a deep breath. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears. The twang of the bowstring sounded, and the dark arrow cut through the air and into the neck of the Tonhgla, killing it instantly.

Jasion smiled to himself, thinking of how proud Kalani would be to see him now. He thought for a few seconds about how Kalani and the girls had to be doing, he hoped that the amazons were taking good care of them. Jasion glanced back at Haunily who was happily watching him. He was happy to have someone like her as his friend, wait do the wolfkin even have a concept of friendship?

“Hay Haunily do any of you wolf kin have a concept of friendship?” Jasion asked as he let the bow turn back into the black mist. Haunily looked slightly confused at him.

“What is friend?” Haunily asked, her tall ears flopping to the side. Jasion thought for a few seconds about the best way to describe the concept of friendship.

“A friend is a person you like and want to help as well as have fun with,” he said scratching the back of his head. Haunily nodded and then smiled happily.

“So, what are we then?” She said, trying to hide her excitement.

“I like to think we are friends, or at least become friends,” Jasion said as he started to walk over to the dead Tonhgla, summoning a knife into his right hand. Haunily followed him, a large grin on her face. She was happy to have a new thing called a friend.

“Here as a sign of friendship, I want to give you something” Jasion moved over to the Tonhgla and began to skin its soft, fluffy green hide. Haunily could see he was struggling to skin the animal. She went to his side and helped him to gut and skin the creature. Once they had taken the fur off the creature Jasion handed it to her. Haunily buried her face into the soft green fur.

“Thanks,” Jasion said.

“No, thank you,” Haunily said as she hugged the fur into her chest. They got up and started to make their way back to the village, deciding that they should probably leave the Tonhgla to the wild animals in the area.

Jasion and Haunily talked nonstop about the difference between the amazons and the wolfkin as they reached the village. But something was not right when Jasion brought up the topic of how amazons sacrificed people in mass to appease their gods. Haunily looked down disgracefully as the word sacrifice was mentioned.

The wolves were all in high spirits. Jasion quickly noticed though despite all the happy faces there was a group of 3 males sitting dismally in the corner. Renra seemed to notice Jasion’s curious gaze and quickly walked over to distract him. Jasion noticed that the 6ft wolfman was holding a light brown coloured cup.

“You look tired my friend, drink this and have a good sleep,” The wolfman said with a kind smile.

“The drink is drugged,” The demon said from within Jasion’s head.

“What kind of drug” Jasion whispered to himself as he took the drink and put it to his lips, but not daring to let the tainted liquid between his lips.

“Just a weak sleeping drug, I could probably use magic to stop it from working. I say you have the drink, pretend to go to bed, and observe what the people of the village will try to do” Jasion agreed with what the demon said as he quickly chucked the drink down. He spent a few more minutes talking and chatting with the natives before he slowly started to act drunk and make his way to bed, guided by Haunily.

He took note of his surroundings as he entered a dark wooden hut. He allowed Haunily to guide him to a bed of what looked to be Tonhgla fur, he was starting to wish that he could just fall asleep on such a soft and gentle-looking bed. If only his life could be so simple.

He faked falling asleep and waited for the sound of the door opening and then shutting as that would signal the wolf girl leaving. As on que the sound of Haunily leaving quietly so she wouldn’t disturb him made him smile. She was a good person, he wished he could fully trust her. After about an hour or two partying outside died down, only the distant sound of the wind filled the night air. he could hear the door to the room he been taken to squeak open. light port over his face but only for a split second as whoever that it was confirmed he was asleep and disappeared outside.

He opened his eyes slowly, checking the room he dove down to the ground and turned into mist. He snuck outside and onto the roof of the hut. The wolves were already gone, Jasion could quickly tell which direction they had gone due to the footprints in the dust. He was about to set off after when he noticed the only remaining wolf, a crying Haunily.

Still, in mist form, he glided down to the side of Haunily. Once he was at his side, he turned himself back into his human form and prodded her the side of the head getting her attention. She jumped as she notices him and try to speak but her croaky voice was unable to make words from the river of tears that all spilling down her face. Jasion manifested a knife and placed it on the space of the table that was between them.

“Now tell me Haunily, what is going on, and don’t think you can lie, I have my ways of telling if someone is lying to me,” Jasion said as he moved to crouch down in front of her.

“T…This isn’t your problem,” She said as she looked sadly into his eyes.

“The giant is our problem, you should just-” Jasion cut her off by firmly knocking her on the top of her head using his knuckles.

He then started to piece together everything that happened so far, Haunily had shuddered at the very thought of sacrificing someone, then it clicked. Jasion Remember the sound of the monster and the fact that everybody seemed unnerved by the creature but at the same time, they quickly go back to their normal routine, something that was incredibly unusual.

Jasion realised something that he wished she only saw sooner, whatever the source of that monstrous howl came from had to be something dangerous, something that had to be appeased through sacrifice. His suspicions were only confirmed as he looked back to see the depressed-looking face of Haunily looking down at the ground, an ocean of tears starting to pour from her eyes.

“I’m sorry, the villagers and I really didn’t want you to know about the monster.” She said quietly, not daring to look him in the eyes. Jasion narrowed his eyes and summon his black mask onto his face.

“Let me guess you sacrifice people to the giant,” He said dismally. Much to his disappointment, his fears were confirmed when Haunily nodded in response.

“Which direction,” He asked as he glided over to Haunily, planting a gentle hand on her head. He knew what direction they went, he just wanted to see if Haunily was willing to accept help.

“Please, just let us offer the sacrifice and act like this never happened, everyone will be safer the–” she was cut off as Jasion slapped her across the face.

“What is wrong with you, you can just let one of your own die so easily” Jasion’s anger was beginning to get out of his control, he could remember the feelings he felt the night Ulana was murdered, the feeling was something he never wanted to feel again.

“I am a medic, not a great one, but a medic non the less, so tell me is that monster harmful to the village”.

“Yes, but it also protects us from any outside threats,” Haunily said, as her teary eyes glanced up to look at him.

“Does the monster kill people?” Jasion asked his golden eyes turning a deep shade of red. Despite knowing the creature excepted them as sacrifices he was at least hoping it would have just kept them as slave labour rather than food.

“Yes…” She whispered.

“Then I deme it a disease and as a medic I have a duty to get rid of the disease, and I swear once I dispose of the disease, I will find a way you and your people can protect yourselves,” Jasion said running his fingers through her long hair and rubbing her ears slightly.

“I’m sorry for yelling, and the hitting part,” He said as he made his way in the direction of the wolves, hoping he wasn’t too late.

“Let me come as well” Haunily yelled after him as she grabbed the knife from the table. Jasion smiled to himself. He liked her determination.

“You find and tell your people to come back to the village, I’ll take care of the giant” Jasion said as he made the demon use his time to stop. Time stopped and Jasion summoned the demon to his side.

“what do you need my child,” The demon asked as he summoned a chair from the mist and sat it down in front of him.

“I need you to teach me how to use the green flames,” Jasion asked bowing to the demon. The demon smiled and began his lesson.

They spent maybe what would have been 8 hours or so in real-world time but to the outside world, it was only a few seconds. Once Jasion had gotten used to engulfing his hands in the flames and dispersing them, happy with his progress he unfroze time. He turned himself back into the mist and made his way towards where he believed the wolves to be, now and then stopping to make sure he was following their tracks and that he wasn’t following someone who had just spilt off from the group.

Soon Jasion found his targets. They were at the foot of a large mountain that had a wide opening of a deathly dark cage sitting at its peak. Jasion’s eyes were quickly drawn to a sight that made him sick to his inner core. A young wolfman was tied to a large pole as the other wolves all cowered behind some nearby bushes, hoping that the monster will accept their sacrifice. He despised this site, he hoped Haunily would arrive soon and tell them to get back to the village. As on que Haunily arrived, she quickly made her way to her father. Even though Jaison couldn’t hear what they were saying he could tell the conversation was about as Haunily started to point and gesture back towards the village.

The wolves were not budging though, they were simply too scared to disobey their monstrous master that was upon the mountain. But despite this Haunily was insistent on bringing them and the sacrifice back to the village. Jasion smiled, he was happy to see Haunily was the only one out of the group that had any sense of bravery. He was proud of her.

The loud sounds of roaring and growling filled the night as the giant made its way from within the cave. Its skin was a sooty grey, its singular eye darted around the area as it searched for its sacrifice. Jasion started to think to himself. He hadn’t seen the wolves alert the creature to its feeding time in any way, so how was it able to sense they were there?

“It’s there because it can probably use earth magic of some kind, giants aren’t good with magic, so it is probably an easy-to-use one like root. The root magic is just magic that means he can use things like tree roots and vines to do things, nothing too special really, but still effective.” The demon of the mask said as if it was reading Jasion’s mind.

“Wait for a second, did you just read my mind,” Jasion asked, jokingly. The demon paused for a second before mumbling out a very un-convincing no.

Jasion put to the side the demon's obvious mind-reading trick started to scan the area for any potential places to launch an effective attack. He spotted a large peak that overlooked the cave, the perfect place to launch an attack. He turned himself into the black mist, quickly making his way to the top of the overlooking peak without being seen. He examined the giant carefully. The tissue on its neck looked to be weak, as did the heels of his feet, perfect for someone to cut and kill the monster quickly.

Jasion put out his hand and summoned a circle of fire around the beast, stopping it just before it reached the sacrifice. The creature recoiled. The ground shook, the ground cracked as large vines and tree roots ripped out the ground. Before the vines and roots could start to make a defensive shield around the monster, but its efforts were in vain as Jasion was already at the monster’s heels, a black knife forged from the black mist in his hand. He cut the heels on the monster clean open.

The monster rolled to the side in pain. The creature claps on its back and started towards the devilish creature that stood on its chest. Jasion raised the knife towards the monster’s face as he approached, and with the help of the black mist turned the knife into a long, well-balanced sword. The creature swung its arm at Jasion. Jasion leaped over its fist and thrust his sword into the creature’s throat, sliding along the soft flesh, and allowing its green blood to gush out. Jasion watched sadly as the giant’s life drained from its depressed eye.

“My apologies, I honestly thought you were going to kill me for a second when you swiped your fist at me, but then again you are much slower than me,” Jaison said as he turned away from the creature.

Jasion jumped back quickly as a tree root shot out of the ground. If it wasn’t for the demon’s mist making the sharp wood pass through him without harm, he surely would have died.

“Fucking Giant” He mumbled, stepping out the way of the wooden root.

He went to make his way back to the wolves who were all watching him, looks of amazement across their faces. But something wasn’t right. Jasion turned and looked toward the monster’s cave, there had to be people inside, or at least he hoped. Jasion sprinted into the cave and started to look around as his mask helped him adjust to the new darkness. He glanced around the cave, a feeling of dread coming over him as he took in the piles upon piles of bones of all kinds of animals that flooded the floor of the cave. He scavenged and looked around for a few minutes but ultimately stopped as he couldn’t find a living soul left.

“Ha,” Jasion giggled. This feeling of sadness was a familiar one. It was the same feeling he had gotten the day he was walking across the battlefield just before he met Pelana.

“To your left,” the demon said, making Jaison stop in his tracks.

Jasion’s head snapped to the side as he saw a small sub entrance to what looked to be a cage. He quickly approached the cage and glanced inside. It was hard to see as the darkness of the cage was darker than the main part of the cave and the outside night sky combined. His eyes quickly landed on two-winged humanoid creatures cowering in the corner, their wings I should say like that of an angle as the wings joints came from their shoulder blades. Only bare rags clothed them. The first of the winged creature had dark grey hair and large raven-like wings, the other had deep blond hair and large white angel-like wings.

“They are members of the Angelic race, an arrogant and stuck-up people, best we leave-” Jaison ignored the creature as he swiped his sword and cut the cage open.

“You’re a fucking idiot you know that,” The demon said as Jasion took off his jacket and threw it to the girls.

“I know” He whispered back to the mask. The two girls’ wings moved to the side and revealed their faces. They were both extraordinarily beautiful. The girl with the white wings had deep green eyes, and a curious sparkle in her pupils, the raven-haired girl was much the same except for her deep blue eyes. The blond-haired girl’s hair was long enough that it flowed down to her hips, reminding Jasion of Pelan’s hair. The raven-haired girl on the other hand shorter much more well-preserved hair than her counterpart.

“Who… Who are you, why are you helping us?” The raven-haired girl asked defensively.

“I am a medic, and currently you are my patient,” Jasion said outstretching his hand to them. The blond-haired girl smiled, finally, their torment was over.

“That sounded really shit” The demon snickered.

“Yeah, that sounded better in my head,” Jasion said awkwardly.