After walking in the same environment for hours, everything becomes dreary. When you are so utterly bored, its the small things that you take notice of. Like, how you can't hear the birds chirp or the fact that the other five in our group don't seem even a bit tired after hours of speed walking. It even feels like they are purposely slowing down so they can match my pace. Slowly, I draw my weary hand and wipe away the endless stream of sweat that threatens to fall into my eyes.

"Break," I call out somewhat raspily.

We slow down until we come to a halt and I plop down to the ground, my back against a tree, I heavily pant and draw a wheezing breath.

"Are you guys superhuman?" I ask in an envious way.

The man laughs and says, "No, everyone grows stronger one way or another, as a contestant, you will have a system of getting stronger too, maybe one day you will be stronger than all of us put together."

I smirk at the thought, just imagining me lifting all of them with one hand while yawning cracks me up.

Today marks the fourth day since we left which makes me wonder how these guys travelled this distance in a day or two. I accept that I am not the fittest person around but I would say that I am above average, having completed a few treks at thousands of metres above sea level. So, not to flex or anything but I am not completely useless.

A few minutes later, I have recovered enough energy to start walking again. It is pretty weird that we have not encountered any monsters so far and the rest seemed to share my views. The atmosphere turned graver as we neared the city. The five quietly conversed with each other, their expressions turning heavier. After a few minutes, the woman turns around and says to me, "Can you complete the rest of the journey yourself, we feel something is happening in the city. We will be rushing there."

"Sure, just tell me the way," I say.

After telling me a couple of directions, the five start jogging and soon, their figures vanish. Wondering what could have happened, I slowly increase my pace, curiosity and a sense of danger wells up inside of me.

An hour or two later, I suddenly hear something, a low din of battle and screams reaches me. Startled, I quickly become wary of my surroundings. Choosing to climb up a tree to survey, I choose one which is rough enough to provide me with some grip and deftly I climb to the top of the tree. Dusting off my now rough palms, I survey the neighbouring ground. In the distance, I can see the dark stone of city walls and a mass of dots are arrayed in front of the gates moving erratically. It seems like there is a fight going on, which would explain the strange reactions of the group I met.

I decided to head closer so as to get a better vantage point which in turn would afford me a better view. The one aspect of humanity that is common to all of us is curiosity, it is present in every one of us, however much or little. It decides whether we head toward the flickering lamp even though we know that there will be a ghost behind it. Curiosity could very well get us killed, but it could help us too. No matter how much we force our curiosity down, it strikes back even harder.

My feet strike the coarse earth with a low thud, my eyes are wary of my surroundings, I spot the small wolf pup before it spots me. Immediately I crouch behind a tree, my eyes peeking around it. The pup slowly drags its tired body forward, its expression is one of sadness, its eyes are constantly twitching as if searching for something, maybe even someone. I sigh in resolution, I will have to kill it or at least incapacitate it, no sense in leaving a potential threat alive.

Slowly, which crouching I tiptoe toward the sluggish wolf, tears streak down my face, I almost don't recognize the 'me' of today, I would not believe it if someone told me I would be killing a wolf pup. I raise a curled up fist when suddenly, the pup loses its balance and stumbles, falling to the ground, almost dead. I stop my motion, I can't get myself to finish the task, knowing that I could get killed for this, I gently lift the limp body and carry it with me. The pup is not very big and I lift its upper lip to look at its canines, they are not very sharp, indicating that it should be about 4 weeks old assuming that this world follows the same rules of nature as my previous world.

I feel pity for the pup, its body is weak and starved indicating that it must have lost its mother. I slowly walk onwards, the wolf cradled in my arms. Approximately, half an hour later, I find myself much closer to the battle, the sounds are much clearer, the clash of metal against metal, the screams of pain and anger. Shielding the wolf, I bring him closer to my body, in the past few dozen minutes, unknowingly, I have grown fonder of the little ball of fur in my arms.

The wolf pup gently opens his eyes, and I almost drop him in shock. The pup is stirring and so I gently lay him on the ground and back away. While the pup might be harmless, I do not want to take unnecessary risks. The pup weakly stands on its legs, looking at me curiously. It does not look like it is afraid of me nor does it want to hurt me. Slowly, very slowly, I walk back towards the pup, my hands out in a placating manner. The pup seems to have caught the smell of something. As soon as I draw closer, the pup walks towards me, its nose in my direction, constantly sniffing.

As soon as I am a few feet away, I drop to the ground, sitting. The pup comes closer and inserts his nose in one of my pockets, drawing out the object that I had pocketed a few days ago. Quickly, almost hungrily, it eats the object, which looks like a glass shard. Suddenly, I feel something in me, a bond which I cannot explain. A bond to the wolf???...