Murmurs filled the academy lobby as Rem entered, sliding her bow onto her back.

"How could this have happened?" a girl with tight blonde curls asked to no one in particular.

Clive scanned the room for a moment and then stepped forwards, “The only thing that makes sense is that there was a dungeon break close by”

The crowd of students murmured amongst each other before a boy wearing noble apparel pushed his way over to Clive. “A dungeon? Don't sensationalise things that can be more easily explain"

A boy wearing knuckle dusters squinted at the rich kid, "Oh yeah? I suppose those monsters just gathered here by themselves! You're an idiot, of course it is a dungeon break"

Clive rubbed his chin in thought, “What is worse, this isn’t the end of it, those bats carry a lot of disease, and lots of them are still loose, let alone the fang monkeys. And that isn't even mentioning the monsters that escaped the dungeon and didn’t attack”

The rich kid yelled back, “You are wrong! I was assured there were no dungeons here by the Maestro himself when I arrived”

Clive turned towards the crowd, “It wasn’t just the Maestro who stopped those monsters, many of the people here helped, so I don't see why you place all of your faith in one thing he said, just use your common sense”

“He's right, if we didn't step in when we did they would have overrun the school” the boy with knuckle dusters called out.

Clive glanced over at Rem, a plan seemingly brewing in the back of his mind, "And it was Rem here who stepped up first, she didn't hesitate and it gave us all courage to follow behind her"

The rich kid scoffed and swatted his hand, "You really think she had an effect on the outcome? You are delusional if you think that"

“It isn’t about whether you believe it or not, Rem stepped forwards like a true heroine” Clive glared at the crowd, “So you had better remember that and show her respect”.

The crowd looked over at Rem puzzled by his remark. Mutters travelled through the crowd as they put two and two together, that the rumors of a girl with a child were about her, and that this same girl was as brave as any one of them. Some within the crowd gave Clive a nod of respect and then smiled at Rem, while others nervously accepted that speaking ill of her would be inappropriate.

The boy with knuckle dusters, a girl with golden curls dressed in a mage robe, and a boy who looked utterly ordinary but who had thrown more stones than anyone else, all locked eyes with Rem, with deep earned respect.

Clive smirked as he witnessed his plan come together. Rem would not have to suffer whispers within the hallways now, and better yet, friends would seek her out. He was a good judge of character and he knew that she was a person who deserved at least this much.

The doors to the lobby slammed open, and the Maestro stepped through. His black cloak blustered in the wind as he eyed over the students in the lobby. The teachers behind him carried their wounded inside and towards the infirmary.

“I thank you all for remaining calm in such circumstances, none of you fled in panic and that is commendable"

The Maestro's eyes locked onto Rem, and then drifted down to the where the silver haired child should have been.

"Though I must warn some here, that trying to aid in a battle like that is not recommended”

The Maestro cleared his throat and scanned through the crowd with his eyes to heighten their attention.

“We were caught off guard, some of the teachers here owe are alive because you stepped up to buy time, but do not mistake my words of appreciation for acceptance!"

"I will not have renegade students in this academy! I expect you all to follow my orders in future, especially if they are for your own safety, are we clear!”

The students nodded and mumbled in acceptance.

“Good. Now, as you may already know we are late for the first day's orientation. In light of today's events we will delay it until tomorrow. I ask that you all stay within the academy today as the teachers and I aid the city guard in cleanup. You are all dismissed, return to your rooms”

The Maestro stormed off towards the infirmary, winding his way through the hallways and breaching through the door. A curvy woman with wavy honey brown hair walked over to him and rested a her hand on his arm.

“You okay? Saw you almost get hit by that orge”

“It was not almost, I think my shoulder was dislocated by the blast”

“Fortunately some of those kids bought us time” she said as she tenderly gripped his wrist. The Maestro gritted his teeth as she pulled at his arm and clicked it back into place.

A brawny man with short blonde hair walked over to the pair and gently caressed the small of the woman's back before turning to the Maestro, “Ogres aren't just big, they also augment their power with magic, you got lucky”

“It wasn’t luck. It was that orphan girl”

“The one that paid her own tuition?” the curvy woman asked.

“Yes, her name is Rem if I recall correctly. There were a few other standouts in the battle. I think I shall teach them myself”

“They impressed you that much?” the brawny man replied.

"It takes character to step up like that" the curvy woman added.

“Well, no point in us procrastinating in here, we have a lot to do”

The curvy woman turned to the Maestro “Latimer, I can stabilise these two myself, be sure to find the rest of those craw bats and burn their remains, we don't want a plague spreading through the city”

Latimer nodded and headed out with firm look on his face.

Waves of flames blasted out from the Maestro's hands, blanketting the academy grounds in clouds of smoke as crawbats were incinerated. His motions were practiced and as methodical as a gardener.

“Damn, the grass going to have to grow back… Its a damn shame”

As the flames danced in the reflection of his eyes Latimer looked back on what had made him become a magister. While most were born into it thanks to their nobility, he discovered his aptitude for magic amidst tragedy, and had it not been for one of his darkest days, he would have never have become a magister.

Just old enough to help out on the family farm, Latimer hacked and scraped at the soil with his hoe. The smell of fresh toil filled the air, and the soft breeze carried with it the scent of elderflower. He squinted up to see his father further up in the field, tending to the pigs. They snorted and swung their jowels side to side as they were fed vegitable skins and a handful of carrots. His father turned to him with a wink before they both got back to work.

CHINK

Latimer kneeled down and reached his hand into the earth, pulling out a stone about the size of a fist. He tossed it off to the side and stood back to his feet.

RUMBLE

The earth began to shake. Posts to the pig pen collapsed as the pigs began to squeel in panic. His father rushed to hold up the posts before he realised the danger his family was in. By the time his father turned it was too late. The ground opened up beneath Latimer, and he was falling into darkness.

He couldn't even remember hitting the ground but he awoke with a stiff pain in his neck and a sharp pain in his side. As he opened his eyes darkness surrounded him, the breath of monsters loomed all around him, and when he drew his hand back from his side it was covered in blood.

*Is this it? Is this how I die?* he thought to himself, his eyes wide with fear.

“Son, son, can you hear me!”

Latimer looked up in a haze and saw a small opening shining with daylight. His fathers voice sounded distant and strained somehow likely due to his concussion.

Latimer reached towards the hole.

"Father! Help!"

In that moment of desperation, it felt as though a thread of the universe had just been tugged, and rope whipped down in front of him.

RIIIEEEEK

The claws of a creature slashed at Latimer forcing him to leap into the rope.

"Pull me up!"

The rope pulled taught quickly before he was yanked at unnatural speed from the monster's and their grasp. The sound of commotion swelled below as the pit of wild beasts surged and tried to reach him.

Latimer zoomed out of the hole and landed to the side of it on his feet. He gazed at the rope in his hand and followed it hoping to find his father, but saw nothing but the ropes end laid on the floor a few paces away.

*Where did he go?*

“Dad! Daaaaad!!!”

“Where are you!”

The fields were engulfed in flames all around him, and flakes of ash fell from the skies. Monsters streamed through the farmland, their shadows chasing the townspeople in the smoke.

"Father!"

A beast with the head of a bull and an axe held in both hands stepped forwards through pillars of smoke just off to his left side. He had to run. And run. And run.

He ran until the smoke of his hometown no longer hung in the skies. Exhausted and in pain slumped down against the trunk of a birch tree, and tears welled in his eyes.

*Am I... Am I really going to die? Please, I need help. Please*

The sound of a twig broke beside him. Latimer turned in fright to see the menacing glare of a great wolf staring back at him. It towered over him with its steely glare, its fangs peeking out from behind its lips.

Latimer's abdomen clenched tight in fear and he began to shake as the beast sized him up.

The beast paused for only a moment by his side and then turned away, to disappear into the forests oncemore.

“No wait, don’t go. Help me… Help me! Please!”

Latimer recoiled at the bitter feeling the memory left behind, it was the day his family had died, the day his childhood had ended, and it was also the day he had first used his powers. A child's mind can at times be a powerful thing. It can conjure voices, hear things that aren't there, and grasp for things beyond its reach without any expectation of failure. He had never heard his father's voice that day, unless by hearing the whispers of the dead, and there had been no one to pull him from the dungeon's pit, other than a thread of magic pulled taught by his unwavering belief that someone would come.

And that damned wolf...

Nothing about the memory sat well with Latimer, he could barely restrain the bitter taste in his mouth as he recalled the first time he had seen a dungeon break. Hatred filled his eyes as flames poured from his hands and blasted through the cobblestone streets. The bat corpses fell away into flakes of ash and caught upon the wind.

Clive remained sat in the lobby, watching on as Rem stared out the window. He got up from his seat and sat beside her, “Hey, that was really brave of you today”.

“Uh, what was?” she stammered before correcting herself, “Oh, that. It was Subi, I wouldn’t be that brave without him”

“Subi? Oh you mean the little guy” he replied with an agreeable squint, "Where is he by the way?".

"I don't know, I've been waiting for him but he hasn't shown up yet. I think it is best I start looking for him"

"Wait, you mean he is outside?" Clive said with wide eyes as Rem nodded, "Then let's go!"

Rem moved around to the back by the kitchen and slipped out the back door with Clive following close behind. They quickly made their way to the back gate and slipped off into the streets. The pitter patter of their footsteps echoed out underneath them as they ran towards a breach in the wall and out into the forest. The guards hauled bodies into pires just outside the walls, their faces were gaunt with melancholy which left them far too distractible to notice Rem and Clive running past.

Clive jogged close behind Rem, “Poor guys, this must be a nightmare day for them, having to pick up the dead. They are probably asking themselves if they could have prevented it all by being better prepared”.

By the time Clive had finished speaking he turned around to notice that Rem was too far ahead of him to have heard.

“Subi! Subi! Where are you!?” she called out before coming to a stop in the middle of the woods.

Clive came to a stop next to Rem, “Wait this doesn’t make any sense, isn’t Subi a little kid, why are you calling out for him like that?”

Rem looked at Clive pensively for a moment, “Subi isn’t a little kid, Subi is special”

“What do you mean, special?”

Subi’s paw prints clopped along behind Rem. “Subi!” she turned excitedly with her hands wide and dived into Subi's plush fur, “You are okay!”.

Clive turned with his eyes wide “W-w-w-wolf!”

“No clive, this is Subi!”

“What the hell are you talking about, that is a great wolf! Why are you hugging it, get back!” he said as lunging forwards to grab her arm.

The great wolf sighed blinked before suddenly vanishing out of Rem's grip. A small voice called out from between Rem's legs “Hey kid, can't you catch a hint, I'm Subi”

Clive slapped his face and shook his head in shock, “Am I going crazy? I swore there was a wolf there a moment ago. Wait, why you are talking?"

Clive stumbled backwards his face pale as a ghost and muttered to himself, "I m-must have been bitten in the attack, there is no other explanation, I have to go to the medical room and g-get checked out for poisons. Or maybe I'm already there?”

“Hey, dandelions! Snap out of it!”

Rem pulled her wolf sigil from her shoulder and handed it to clive. “See this sigil, this sigil is Subi”.

“But its a wolf”

“Yes”

“Wait so I’m not crazy? And Subi is both a child AND a wolf? How is that possible?”

“Like I said, Subi is special,” Rem said proudly.

Subi turned to Rem “Maybe tell him how we met? Context should help him out here, I think”

“Oh right, yes!" Rem said as she jumped a little to reset herself.

"I met subi when he was a little puppy. He was starving and couldn’t fend for himself so I gave him some of my food. He always ran off, but whenever he got hungry he would find me again. And well he grew really quickly so when I didn’t have enough food to give him, but he took me out hunting. We lived that way for a while, and then one day Subi just magically turned into a baby by the side of the campfire. I was shocked at first, but he said he had tried for a long time to speak to me. He was so happy when he could tell me his name. Oh and then he told me that he is from another world, and that it was important to get strong so we could look after each other!"

Clive narrowed his eyes and flicked his focus between Rem's enthusiatic account of events and Subi's nods of approval.

"And well, it is important to be strong in your own way, because that is life. And so I wear this sigil because I want to remember in times of doubt all that we’ve been through and all we have learned together”

Clive was silent and simply stared at her and Subi, taking it in.

“That still makes no damn sense. But I guess I can see how you think it is normal. You got used to him bit by bit. But that doesn’t explain you Subi, how are you both a wolf and a little kid, even if you are from another world”

“Hey, I’m not just some little kid okay. I just don't have any other human form to turn into. I use it to conceal my real size when we enter populated areas”

Clive stood silently again and narrowed his eyes. “So you are a wolf of some kind with a special ability that lets you become human, and you mostly used it until now to conceal your true nature”

“Yup thats it kid. By the way you can’t tell anybody, you know this right? Rem sees me as cuddly in my wolf form, but I can assure you I am anything but if I am forced to be, understand?”

Clive swallowed down hard “Y-yes, I understand!”

... Later that day...

Rem sat herself on the side of her bed as Subi laid back on the pillow twirling a bit of string in his hands.

“Ah, I get it now. Rem is just really helpful, and Subi you looked out for her because she was an orphan and it gave you a purpose. It just so happens that you are a wolf, but it isn’t important because you are just like anyone else. And yeah, you are stuck with a tiny body when in human form. I can see how that would suck”

“Yeah, but my body is stronger now!” Subi replied with a smirk.

“Why is it stronger now? What happened?”

“When I entered the dungeon, I touched a crystal at its heart and it made my body stronger”

“Wait, at the heart of a dungeon? So it was an Abolat crystal? Oh no… You were the one that caused all the monsters to pour out of the dungeon!”

“Not caused, I just kind of accidentally sped it up, there is a difference between the two” Subi said as he twiddled his thumbs nervously.

“What kind of a difference?”

“The difference between laughing like a maniac and looking back in surprise. Look, I smelled a dungeon had opened up, I investigated. The monstered just followed me as I left is all”

“But then they attacked town!”

“What could I do? Plug up the entrance to the cave and shout you shall not pass? Sorry kid, not happening”

“Hrmm, I guess you are right, they really would have attacked either way. But I can’t say I agree with what you did”

“Not asking you to”

“Oh well, it is getting late, I guess I will get to bed for now and see you in class tomorrow”

“Mhm, later Clive, see you tomorrow” Rem responded sweetly.

As Clive shut the door, Subi leapt up to his feet and poked Rem on the shoulder.

“You shouldn’t get sweet on that kid Rem, I know you are young and everything, but people always have their own reasons for being nice to you. Don’t play into what it is they are after”

"No, he's nice. When you were away he talked to most of the students for me to make sure they would respect having you with me and not make a fuss about it. He's really sharp too, he understands things without having to explain it all that well"

"Yeah? Well... I still think he could have an agenda, best to stay a little cautious is all"

"Uhuh, I'll keep it in mind"

Subi popped into his wolf form and grumbled a little as he settled down to rest.

*Why does that sound like she has absolutely no intention in listening to me?*