Chapter 2: The Phantom Wolf

The next morning I woke up feeling refreshed, like the headache from yesterday was nothing but a nightmare. I got out of bed, put on some shoes, grabbed a towel with some clean clothes and headed off towards the bathing area.

Arriving at my destination I stumbled upon a sight that has become a norm for me. Little kids ran around the bath hitting each other with their towels as the elders tried to catch them and put on their clothes, or wash some of them. Good thing the elders were dressed, or I would probably get scarred for the rest of my life.

I laughed at the sight before me as I dodged one of the kids, before continuing my walk towards one of the available baths. As long as I have been here those kids have made trouble every day at the showers and with every kid that joined the orphanage the craziness would increase.

After heating up the bath which took a couple of minutes, I submerged myself in the hot war, feeling as if a weight had been lifted of my shoulders. After soaking in the bath for a few minutes I washed my hair with some soap and scrubbed the rest of my body the best I could. I rinsed myself off with a bucket of water before drying myself off with a towel.

When I finished drying, I put on some clean clothes and cleaned up my bathing area before heading off towards the mirror to comb my hair. The thing with my hair is that once it dries it's impossible to comb it or style it in some way. So, unless I do my hair while it is still wet my hair will look like a bird’s nest for the rest of the day.

Looking at myself in the mirror I observed my reflection. My hair was slightly damp was starting to stick out in different directions, meaning that it was starting to dry. Personally speaking, I would say that I had slightly above average looks but I wasn’t one of those pretty boys that all the girls chased around, hoping that they would get courted by them.

My hair was black and reached around the middle of my neck. What I thought was my best feature was my eyes. My eyes were a pretty amber color that apparently I had gotten from my mother, that’s what my father had told me at least when I asked him about my mom. As to what I got from my father would be my well defined jaw and the bird nest hair. From all the kids in the orphanage and from what I saw on the streets I would say that I was of average height for a boy of 12 years old. Also given that I worked in a blacksmith shop I had developed some muscles that made my body look fit, and giving me a more mature look.

When I was finally done with everything in the baths I returned to my room, hung the towel to dry before heading of for breakfast. Entering the cafeteria I noticed that my roommate, Lucas, was already sitting with Alice and Zoe and eating breakfast.

Lucas was a year younger then me, making him 11 years old. He short blond hair and greyish eyes with a few specs of green in them. Even though he was a year younger than me he was taller then me by half a head, making him one of the tallest kids his age.

I went towards the cafeteria lady and grabbed some food before joining the others at the table. “Morning,” I said, getting a few muffled replies back.I picked up my fork and took a bite out of my food, which sent shivers down my back. Yup, bad as always.

“So, how’s your morning guys?” I asked them, trying to start up some conversation. “Not much, just like any other day basically,” replied Zoe with an indifferent tone in her voice. “The only thing that was different this week from this daily routine is that two guards were found dead on the city walls. Apparently some beast killed them.” That got my full attention, I guess while I was sleeping yesterday most of the day they found the two guards that the wolf had killed.

I pretended to act surprised since I wasn’t supposed really know what happened yesterday, “Oh? Did they manage to find the beast that killed them? Did it get into the city?”

“From what I heard the beast wasn’t found and since there were no witnesses or further reports they stopped investigating any further,” replied Lucas with a bit of seriousness in his tone. I guess out of all of us he took things more seriously than us.

After that we just chatted about a few things, finished a our breakfast, and headed of our separate ways. “You should find a some sort of deserted area for when you engage against the wolf. If someone interferes with the process it could ruin the whole thing and cause a backlash that will harm you severely, if not even kill you. Besides, you won’t be in control of your body during that time, anyone would be able to do anything to your body.” Ennius’ voice suddenly sounded in my head. Honestly, until he spoke just now I had totally forgotten he was even there.

“Good morning sleepy head” I replied in a jocking matter, feeling the grin appear on my face. “Hey, watch your mouth kiddo! I might be dead, but I’m still your elder, also don’t you know you gotta respect the dead?” I just let out a slight chuckle, to get some muffled response about kids with no respect or something from him, which made me laugh slightly.

“Alright, I’m sorry, I just felt like messing with you a bit. As for the deserted place, I think I have something in mind.” I said as I remembered an abandoned area near the edge of the city that nobody had lived in for as long as I have been here.

I just received a “eh” in response from him. Seeing as the conversation was over I went to my room to get some stuff I might need before leaving. After I finished getting ready I headed out of the orphanage and headed off towards my destination.

Walking through the busy streets was brutal, people were rushing from place to place, shop owners were shouting all sort of things: sales, new items, rare items, you name it. After what seemed like ours I finally reached my destination.

The place that I had come to was some sort of old house with a small yard and well that was long dried out. The house itself looked really and gave of strange feeling as if it was haunted. Maybe because it was so old and worn out, that even some parts of the house were now just rubble and a bunch of debris.

I walked to an area behind the house just in case and sat down on a piece of stone, which was probably part of the wall before. “So, what do I have to do Ennius?” I asked, when I felt that I was ready to engage whatever was to come.

“You have to enter your subconsciousness and find the wolf. When you find him, don’t try to make a contact with him, beasts with ancient blood are always proud and stubborn, the chances you surviving are already almost non existent, the contact, is nearly impossible. Your only option is to beat him through willpower alone. However, before you start, here’s a word of advice. You are the owner, it’s your domain and you have the power and authority within, so use that to your advantage.” said Ennius, leaving me in confusion. What did he mean I have the power and authority?

I decided to ask him, “what do you mean I have the power and authority?”

“I’m sorry my boy, but that is the only thing that I am allowed to tell you at this point. This is something that you will have to figure out on your own.” With those words I felt Ennius presence disappear to the back of my mind, as if he were just observing. In which case, I guess he was.

Seeing as I wasn’t going to get anything out of him I tried looking for my subconsciousness, which apparently wasn’t as easy as the old man made it seem to be. In the first place, he didn’t even tell me how to enter it. He basically just said here's what you do, now go have fun.

I groaned in annoyance before continuing my attempts at finding out how to enter my subconsciousness. What was subconsciousness in the first place? If I’m right, subconsciousness is basically the true me. It’s where my true desires and emotions dwell. So, assuming all that, wouldn’t that make the subconsciousness my soul? In other words, I have to look into my soul and find the wolf’s soul.

It all makes sense now. I was confused when Ennius said that I had consumed the soul of the wolf, wondering where it went. I can’t believe I didn’t think of my own soul. Now the only problem is, how in the world do I enter my soul? Since the soul is my emotions and desires, if I concentrate on my emotions maybe I will be able to enter my soul.

I concentrated on my desire of wanting power to protect myself and the eagerness to live through all this. I thought about my mom and how grateful I was for the life that she had given me. Thinking about all this and looking deep into myself, searching for my true feelings and desires I felt something warm in the center of my chest, and a small spec of light appeared in my mind.

The feeling that the small spec gave off gave me confidence and comfort, joy and peace. This must be my soul! I concentrated on the small spec of light and watched it get bigger and bigger until a bright flash enveloped everything and all I saw was an endless deep blue ocean.

I floated forward for a while but at the end all I saw was water, an ever ending ocean. “Why is my soul an ocean?” I asked myself, not really understanding what it could represent.

“That's because an ocean is ever changing and always unpredictable just like emotions and desires.” I spun around to find an exact copy of…, me? What was going on who is this guy that looks exactly like me?

“Who are you and why do you look exactly like me?” I asked, with curiosity and a sense of awareness in my voice.

“Hmmm, that's hard question. Even I don’t know exactly who I am. The best that I can tell you is that I’m you. You could say I'm the inner you.”

I observed the me in front of me. He really did look like me and it does make sense if there was an inner me. There has to be some sort of representation of my true thoughts and feelings. Looking at the facts before me I decided that what he was telling the truth.

“So…, me, what should I call you? Since you're me, I'm assuming that we have the same name as well.” The other me just floated there lost in thought before replying.

Call me At. I know you like to go by your full name, so I'll just take your nickname. I thought about it for a second before nodding in agreement.

“So At, you think you could help me find the wolf?” I asked hoping that he could help me somehow , because I really don't want to fly around endlessly in the middle of an ocean searching for a soul.

“Sure, follow me I'll show you where it is.” I stumbled back in surprise before a smile spread across my face. I really didn't expect this kind of outcome. “Well, lead the way” I replied happily.

At just nodded before stretching out his hand in front of him. I just looked confused, not understanding what he was trying to do. I was about to ask him what he was trying to accomplish when a black door appeared out of nowhere. I just looked at the door not believing my own eyes.

If someone had told me a day or two ago that it was possible to enter your own soul and there you could summon doors and stuff I would probably think that you were crazy and avoid that area, just so that I wouldn't run into you.

After getting past the surprise I followed Ag through the black door, anxiously awaiting what was on the other side.

When I stepped out of the door I found myself in front of an entrance to huge cave. “Where are we?”

“This is where the wolf resides. If you wish to meet him you will have to go into the cave.” I walked up closer to the cave, trying to see what's inside, but the only thing I saw was darkness. Its as if I was looking straight into the abyss.

“I can't see anything. Is there a torch here somewhere?” Hopefully, I looked at At because I really did not wanna go into that cave blind.

“Yeah, here you go.” With a wave of his hand a torch appeared out of thin air in his hand. “Where do you keep pulling all this stuff out from “ I asked him, because there was no way he was pulling them out from nothing or in even simpler terms, creating them.

“This is your soul, you can do anything. There are some limits, but even then, you can do most things.” I just looked at him not knowing what to say until something Ennius had said flashed through my mind. “You are the owner, it's your domain, and you have the power and authority within, so use that to your advantage.”

It all made sense now. Since this was my soul I can think of something and it will appear. Just to test my theory out I thought of a gold coin being in my hand. Next thing I knew, I had a brand new golden coin in my hand. I thought of it disappearing and it was gone, like it was never there in the first place.

I smiled, feeling more confident than before at meeting the wolf. I looked back at At grabbing the torch from his hand. “Will you come with me?”

I was met with an apologetic look on his face that answered my question before he even spoke. “I wish I could but this is something that you have to do on your own.” I just gave him a small smile in return before facing the cave and walking off into the darkness.

As I walked further and further into the cave it felt like the temperature dropped with every step that I took further into the cave.

The cave itself seemed like any normal cave, with stone walls everywhere and few chunks of ore veins of different types of metals. After walking a bit longer I finally came into a huge opening within the cave. The opening was really large that I couldn't even see the walls of the cave. I walked a bit further until I was completely surrounded by darkness, only the dim light of the torch kept me from completely freaking out and running out of the cave.

“So u have come…, Reaper,” said an all too familiar voice. I spun around in the direction of the voice to find myself looking at two glowing red orbs. I stumbled back in fright, dropping my torch in the process and watching as the flame quickly went out. To say I was scared would be an understatement. At that moment I thought that I was going to shit my pants, and the funny thing was that I thought it would increase my chance of not getting eaten.

“Look at you, all scared and shivering in fright, to think I died to a weakling like you,” said the wolf mockingly, but you could still feel the anger and hate in his voice.

Snapping back to reality, I wished for light, hoping to get another torch. However, to my surprise the whole cave illuminated with light. The light was so bright that I had to close my eyes to not get blinded. After my eyes adjusted to the light I looked around at my surroundings, to find a rocky ground and a huge clearing that could easily fit at least 100 people.

As I looked around my eyes landed on the wolf. He was covering his eyes with one of his paws and whimpering a bit. I guess that the light had affected him somehow. “You bastard, you will definitely pay for this” raged the wolf as he looked at me before sprinting at me.

Not knowing what to do, I ran. “You can run, but there is nowhere you can hide,” shouted the wolf behind, causing me to increase my speed. What the heck was I supposed to do? There is no way that I can keep this up forever. Reasoning out with him at this point seems even more impossible than before, and the chance of me beating him in a fight is roughly the same. My only choice is to try and calm him down somehow.

I kept running for my life yet again. It's as if in the past few days all I have been doing is running for my life. My legs carried me around the cave as my brain worked in overdrive, trying to think of a solution. Finally, an idea hit me. This better work, I thought to myself before closing my eyes and imagining the wolf in a huge metal cage.

Bang! I heard a loud noise behind me as if something had rammed into a wall at insane speed. I turned around to find the wolf howling in pain. I let out my breath, that I didn't even know I was holding in. The sense of relief washed over me, knowing that my plan worked.

I walked up to the wolf slowly, trying not to agitate it. “Look I really don't want to fight you, heck, I didn't even want to kill you in the first place. So, can we just talk like intelligent beings?” I asked hoping that he would accept my request.

The wolf slowly got up, and looked at me. “And what do you propose, we make contact or something, because there is no way I'm making one with you. My pride won't let me no matter how much I want to live again.” I frowned at that, he really is stubborn and prideful. It will take a lot of work convincing him.

“Hey kid, since we're talking, you mind letting me out of this cage?” I looked at the wolf before breaking into laughter. “I might be weak, but that doesn't mean I’m stupid. I bet the second you are out of this cage you will attack me.” The wolf just grinned and chuckled. I guess you're not as dumb as I thought.

“So, how about it, do you want to make a contract?” I asked, hoping that he will suck up his pride and stubbornness and agree.

“And yet it's back to this again, look kid, the blood in my veins is that of Fenrir, the ancient beast that was said to have almost been the end of the this world. Knowing that, my pride just won't accept me sinking low enough to make a contract with a human, even if you are the Reaper.” I thought about what the wolf said. If I was in his place and had such noble and powerful blood in me, I would probably not want to make a contact either. It makes sense why he would have such pride. To have Fenrir as an ancestor isn't something simple.

Thinking about all this I tried to find some other way, after all there is always more than one solution to something. After some thought I managed to think of a solution.

“How about we make a deal? You make a contract with me and you can make a request that is either my power to accomplish.” Personally, I thought it was a good idea, but you never know it might just not be enough.

I looked at the wolf, trying to decipher what his answer might be. “Alright, I'll agree to make a deal with you as long as you promise to get me a body for my soul to transfer later. You see, I don't want to go to reincarnation straight away. As you probably know I'm only a pup, that's the only reason you even had a chance of winning. That's why I want you to either find me a body, or make me one in the future so that I can live as myself again.” I thought about his request and it seemed reasonable.

“How can I make you a body, and how will you transfer your soul into it?” I asked not really understanding how this was possible.

“The process of creating a body isn't hard, the hard part is obtaining the materials to create one. As for the soul transfer that's easy. All you have to do when the time comes, is to release my soul and make sure that it doesn't fly off into the underworld. Basically, you will have to guide it to my new body.”

Hearing the process, it seemed reasonable and something that I could accomplish. “Then we have a deal, as long as you make a contract with me, I promise to make, or find you a new body and guide your soul into it.” The wolf nodded in response, “I agree to these terms.”

When the agreement was set a small spec of light flew out from both of our chests, his shooting of and entering my chest and mine entering his. After the spec of light entered my chest I felt a slight bond form. My guess was that the contract had been formed and tied to my soul.

Seeing as the deal was made I felt more relaxed and at peace. I made the cage disappear, seeing as the wolf was of no threat to me anymore.” So what's your name, I don't believe we properly introduced ourselves.”

“Leidolf, it means descendent of a wolf,” said Leidolf before turning around and walking towards the middle or the cave and laying down.

“I'm Atilius, it's a pleasure to meet you.” With those words I turned around left the cave. When I came out I found At in the exact same spot. Seeing me he smiled and walked up to me. “I assume everything went well,” said At. I just nodded in response.

“I'll be going back now, I finished what I came here to do,” At just nodded in response and wished me farewell before vanish to who knows where. I closed my eyes and simply thought of leaving. When I opened my eyes I found myself by the old building. The sky was a getting dark and had streaks of red, indicating that the sun was setting. I got up and stretched, my muscles got really stiff sitting there for hours, on the sand position.

Grabbing my stuff I headed of back to the orphanage. “I can see that everything went well,” I heard Ennius’ voice in my head. “Yeah, I'll tell you all about it later.” Seeing that I didn't feel like talking about it at the moment Ennius didn't say anything else on the way back.

When I got back I went straight to my room and fell on my bed, not bothering to even take of my shoes. Even though I didn't do anything I was super tired, within minutes I could feel myself drifting off, soon sleep consumed me.