"Not every living being is born with its Essence. The luckiest ones are born with Essence, the other Essenceless Elementals can obtain their Essence by doing something that makes them worthy of it."

-Bee May, the faery of knowledge

"The Plane of Creation is not really fair, is it?"

Little Wolf was surprised by his explosive growth, his pants now were shorts and his jerking was more a really short and tight gilet. Not only that! His senses were hyper sensitive, he could feel every smell, every sound, it was too much! He needed to leave, find a quiet place and find balance or he would go crazy! His two hearts and yes, now he was sure he felt two heartbeats were going crazy!

Little Wolf almost forgot to take clumsy Annabelle with him, he caught her in a princess carry and covered her mouth. Little Wolf was sure she would scream if he moved fast enought to not get caught. Clumsy Annabelle was so light and soft, it felt good to keep her close to his skin. He started to accellerate, jumped the wall and flew! Little Wolf moved much faster than what he could do before and his jump! Wow! He surpassed his favourite tree to hang on and landed on the ground, already inside the tree line and hidden to the village protectors eyes.

Little Wolf rested the shacky clumsy Annabelle to the ground and took a step back from her. With less chaos around him, with only the familiar smell of the forest around him and the sweet smell of clumsy Annabelle, he could finally focus. Little Wolf did what father Sidon taught him, when his instincts acted up, when he felt too much and could not concentrate, when he felt lost in a sea of informations. He just had to focus on a single point, see it, smell it, feel it, make it his, make all of his world be that single point then, he could slowly expand his senses to his surrounding but, now he had a point he could go back to when things where too much for him.

So, Little Wolf did just that, he watched clumsy Annabelle, smelled her sweet scent, he gingerly extended his clawed hand and slowly, he gingerly caressed her face, when he felt himself again he spoke.

"Ok, we are in the forest now, you said we need tree herbs for the elders back pains, where do we find them?"

Whispered Little Wolf only, his voice changed too.

His improvvise growth changed his voice to a deeper and lower voice the strangest thing was the jovial purr that followed his words.

Annabelle stood silent for a while and just watched the new Little Wolf.

"Are you ok Little Wolf? Is this new you normal?"

She asked.

"Mhh... Yeah... I have not let my self go for a while... I might have been pent up a little so, I've gone all out this time."

Little Wolf answered, the purr still present in his tone.

"Err... Ok?" said Annabelle. "Oh right the herbs, well they aren't really herbs: one is a root that we can find where there is no water and the earth is broken and dry, that root will be in the cracks. The other two should be found in the same spot, there are two plants that like to cleanse dirty still water, I need the brown leaves with a red heart from one plant and the buds of the plant that spreads over muddy water."

Little Wolf stood still and thought about his explorations inside the forest.

"Yeah, I think I know where we need to go, the dry earth its pretty close, the muddy stinky water is much farther though, it will take some travel time, even with my speed."

He said.

"So, lets get moving!"

Said Annabelle as she made him turn, she jumped on his back and got into a confortable traveling position.

The dry earth spots were easy to find even during the darkness, the dry earth meant that there was little water so no big trees would grow there and the moonlight made Annabelle's gathering job quite easy.

The swamp like zone was much worse, Little Wolf brought Annabelle there easily enough, the stink of still water and decomposing plant and animal life was easy to identify too. The tree canopy blocked the moon so, Annabelle had to work in the darkness, mostly trusting Little Wolf's sight and senses. He could smell the bitter sap of the two ingredients even in the middle of all those unpleasant smells.

Little Wolf gathering abilities were meager so, Annabelle had to follow him blindly and be guided to the exact point then, she would extract the ingredients with just her experience and her touch to guide her.

Time flew as the two moved around, then even more time passed as they collected what they came to get. It was getting late so they had to go back but, they both stunk after spending so much time knee deep in the muddy water.

Little Wolf did not care too much, they could wash in the river once they got back to the village, but clumsy Annabelle convinced him that they would be discovered if they came into the village stinky and muddy. And the foul smell of rot was making her feel sick, she could not wait that much time. Little Wolf brought her to a clean pond, where he usually cleaned himself of the blood from his nightly hunts. They shed their clothes in the dark, jumped into they pond and started scrubbing themselves and the clothes so that they would be just wet and not wet,muddy and stinky.

Little Wolf felt something was very strange, the forest was silent and there were no animals at all. While clumsy Annabelle was collecting herbs he checked around, everything smelled of dropper or... wolf? The smells were similar to what a wolf pack would leave, just much stronger and heavy? He was not sure but, he knew something big was going on inside the hardwood forest. His instincts told him the forest was dangerous, maybe not for him but clumsy Annabelle and her curse would make something happen, she fell into a deep puddle of muddy water twice in one single night! So he decided to bring her to his secret pond, it always calmed him, made him feel safe. It was dark and the only smell in the air was that of clean wood and clear water. His two hearts that were pumping hard all night long relaxed, all was good with the world. He was washing himself with clumsy Annabelle like they always did, even if it should have been total darkness, he could see her tanned skin, he could see the heat that her body emanated, he could smell that sweet smell on her.

Little Wolf's two hearts started beating even faster now, that smell, only that smell was important, he wanted that sweet smell, he needed that sweet smell.

Little Wolf was in a trance, following the thumping of his hearts and that strange sweet smell, he got closer and closer to clumsy Annabelle, the smell getting stronger the more he advanced. He embraced her, smelled her hair, her neck, her shoulder. He needed to know where that sweet smell was coming! Then, everything he saw became red.