Renn ran without looking back, he ran as fast as he could.

When he finally stopped running, he found himself lost in the tall grass, not knowing where he was.

Hearing a rumble of thunder he looked up at the sky to find storm clouds gathering.

A tiny raindrop fell on his nose. He looked around, searching for a place to take shelter and luckily spotted the edge of a forest, where he quickly sprinted to.

Reaching the forest he found a large boulder with a spacious hollow under it, which also seemed to be dry.

Without hesitating any longer, he went into the hollow, finally sheltered from the incoming rain. He leaned against the wall and exhaled deeply. However, he could not relax, his thoughts constantly circling around his pathetic defeat and his stupidity. Angry on himself, he gritted his teeth, shouting again and again in his mind.

'Baraagrrr' A weird trumpeting sound erupted, culminating in a tigers purring.

Startled by the sudden strange sound, he looked to his side, deeper into a dark corner of the hollow.

Out of the dark hollow, a pair of curious golden eyes glittered against him. 'Young blood should not be grieving like old blood.'

The creature stepped closer, revealing its bizarre appearance.

Its body looked like a tiger and was striped from head to toes like one, but had an elephants head.

(similar to this: https://imgur.com/a/1OCmnH4)

Renn still remembered clearly its unique appearance! He had seen it run between the other creatures when they were running from the Death-bringing-shadow!

He was quickly on his tired feet and warily kept a close watch on it and tried to inch closer to the opening of the hollow, ready to jump out of the hollow any moment.

'Young blood, do not fear, for I don't mean any harm.'

Renn looked askance. 'How can I trust your words?'

It grinned and shrugged, which looked kinda weird. 'You simply cannot. But if I meant any harm, I would be a fool to attract your attention and even tell you the truth now.

Anyway, you really don't have to be afraid of me. I'm a Baku. I don't eat meat and most certainly I don't eat humans like you.'

'Then what do you eat? Grass?'

The creature halted before it suddenly started to make weird trumpeting sounds, mixed with the growling of a tiger.

Renn realised it was laughing. 'Why are you laughing?'

'Baraagrrr, you are some funny fellow, young blood. You don't know what a Baku is, don't you.'

Amusedly, it grinned and leaned forward before it continued to speak. 'A Baku, young blood, feeds off nightmares.'

Again startled by that weird answer, his face displayed obvious doubt. 'How can you feed off nightmares, if it can't nourish you!'

'Baraagrr' it laughed but turned serious afterwards.

'Young blood is always so ignorant. Nightmares have more substance than you think you know. They are full of fear, worries and anxiety! Ignorant as you may be, you still won't be ignorant enough to deny that fear, worries and anxiety wield power over one?

Oh, what power lies in the deeply buried anxiety of one's mind. Power so intense, only showing itself in the darkest nightmares. You won't find something more exquisite to devour, young blood.'

As the Baku spoke, Renn somehow felt, that a chord was struck deeply in him.

'Yes, exactly the fear you feel right now. That's the power I'm speaking of, young blood.'

Defiantly he looked at the Baku 'Ha, I don't fear anything! What should I even be afraid of?'

'Much and nothing, young blood.

Don't fool yourself.

Deeply within you, you know exactly where you're fear lies.

You fear to be weak.

You fear to be looked down upon.

You fear to be useless.

Because you know that you are different and you fear that difference.

You fear to be thrown away, outcasted by your wolf family, oh foolish young blood.'

The more the Baku spoke, the more Renn slumped down.

His throat tightened and he felt like suffocating. He did not say anything for a while.

'Foolish young blood, pull yourself together.' the Baku said caringly.

Realising how he had been overcome by his fear, he cleared his throat, before speaking in a weak voice. 'But Baku, what should I do?' He looked down to the ground.

'That, you will have to figure out yourself. But I will tell you this.

Overcome your fear. There is no other way.'

'But how?' he asked slightly whiny.

The Baku sighed. 'Young human, you are indeed young.

To overcome your fear, you have to face your fear.

Accept your fear and let go of it.'

Renn contemplated deeply over those words. After a while, which felt like an eternity, he opened his mouth to speak hesitatingly at the start, but resolute at the end.

'I...

I...

I... am human.'

The moment those words left his lips, he felt a great burden being taken away from him.

The Baku smiled contently.

Renn thankfully looked up to only find himself awakening in....

tall grass?

Bewildered, he looked around, but the forest or the boulder were nowhere to be found. He looked up to the sky, but contrary to the expected stormy sky, he couldn't find a single cloud covering the blue sky and he felt warm sunrays tickling his nose. He even touched the ground, trying to find some remaining wetness from the earlier storm, only to touch upon the dust-dry grass.

Confused, he wondered where the forest and the.... Baku? had gone. That thing was called Baku, right? He was no longer sure.

His memories slowly faded away more and more, until everything turned blurry.

Now he didn't even know what he was so confused over.

He shrugged and started to walk back to get home before his family worried. He didn't get why, but somehow a sentence was lingering around in his mind. He spoke it out loud.

'I am human.' Feeling a surge of joy, he repeated it. 'I am human.' Now grinning broadly, he repeated it again and again, while walking back to the main pack, mumbling exhilaratedly for himself.