When I rode in the company of the Imperial Chief Healer, the journey from Esulmor to Castiana took us six to seven hours. I didn’t remember exactly as my mind was elsewhere at the time - becoming a Guardian will do that to you. So, six to seven hours was the best guess I could make. Did that seem like a lot? Perhaps. I mean, I had no clue about the distance we traveled. We rode horses, not the cars I was more familiar with, and that had a bunch of dials telling you all kinds of shit.

On the other hand, you couldn’t have a fun conversation with the car. Not that I had one at the time. I was riding a heartbroken mare who lost her rider, and we were taking our time, riding only at a slow gait, no rush. Actually, nobody urged their horses desperately onward like we all did when we were fleeing from a horde of beasts and northern eagles.

Well, what I was trying to say was that I could get to Castiana a lot faster.

No, I didn’t ride a horse, nor did I have eagles on my ass trying to get rid of me for who I was to them, a lame chick. Whatever. This time, it was just me, running on foot with no one in sight, enjoying the freedom it brought. The jogging in the park I used to do back on Earth didn’t hold a candle to that. Vast meadows surrounded me, mountains and forests loomed in the distance, no remote noise of honking cars, just the chirping of birds here and there, the wind ruffling my fur; it was almost unreal.

And so, enjoying myself to my heart’s content, I raced through the grassy meadows along the road, finding the grass tickling my paws more pleasant than the sand and stones of the road.

Yeah, I was still in my full beast form, pushing myself as hard as I could, using the new rune, a guardian marking, as I called it. And I used it as hard as I could and as much as my body would let me, increasing my speed, agility, and strength by 8%. It may have consumed my mana faster than my body was able to regenerate it, but that was my goal. No, I wasn’t crazy, nor was I trying to kill myself. I was simply killing two birds with one stone by doing that.

First, I was using the rune to the best of my ability - meaning it was increasing my chance of getting a skill - and secondly; I was burning through my mana so that the lack of it would force me to use the one stored in my core. Yeah, now that I had taken [Beast Core], it was time to shake off my aversion to the thing in my lower abdomen.

Sure, it wasn’t necessary to deplete my mana completely so I could use it. But what could I say? I was still a coward, and this was just my way of delaying what I wasn’t looking forward to, in a sense, forcing myself into using the core. After all, I will eventually have no choice but to use it. That time was inevitably approaching, and so I enjoyed my run as much as I could, as long as I could, with everything I could, not excluding flying, or rather gliding.

With my speed, all I had to do was push myself off the ground with all my strength to glide a few meters through the air. It was so much fun that I couldn’t help the sporadic, loud yelps of joy. Admittedly, I startled a merchant on my merry way to Castiana. Not my fault, though. He was hidden behind the hill when I ran up the slope and jumped off the top of it. The happy yelps didn’t help, and for a moment, I feared the poor man had gone into cardiac arrest.

No shocker there. If I were in his shoes, riding peacefully on my carriage, just a few hours to my destination, I would most likely crap my pants if a beast like me flew over my head, screeching like it was gagging on the bones of its previous victim.

Well, it looked like the man would survive, so I went on my way. He was going to have an interesting story to tell and I had some explaining to do, at least to the guards at the gate. It would be awkward if they went on a hunt for a non-existent beast terrorizing merchants on their way to Castiana.

I was about a third of the way through, an hour of constant running, sweating like a pig when it happened. I ran out of mana. Well, not really, or at least not entirely. I wasn’t that crazy. However, I came to a point where I had no choice but to reach for mana in the core if I wanted to continue at the pace I was running, which I did.

Because of my mana, I knew exactly where the core was in my body even without skills like [Inner Perception]. I couldn’t see the details of my twisted insides, not without the skill, but it was absolutely enough to make me break out in a cold sweat just focusing on that spot that was lit up like a Christmas tree on my mana perception. There was no point in hesitating, telling myself I’d get over it, so I hit my mind straight away with [Indomitable Will]. Much calmer then, I reached for the mana in the core and pulled. It wasn’t a new feeling for me. I did it before. Still, it very well could have been my first time as a shiver went through me at the feeling in my lower abdomen, regardless of me being in my full beast form.

It worked, though. I had access to more mana and could continue my frantic pace toward Castiana. A bit of shy testing later, I found that I could either flood my body with stored mana all at once or draw from the core gradually. Me being me - meaning my bad tie to the core - I had to fight the urge not to go for the first option. One massive pull, opening the floodgates, so to speak, flooding my body with mana, and it would be all over. I wouldn’t have to deal with the core anymore.

But that was the opposite of what I was striving for, why I chose [Beast Core] in the first place. I wanted to learn how to work with the core, make it grow, and become a part of me. Well, in the sense of my mind, as the core was already part and parcel of me, unfortunately. Until now, it was just a useless part of me, a burden, and that was my goal to change, make it something that would help me fight and thus make me stronger. And so, instead of putting all this ordeal behind me in one big sweep, I went for the constant connection to the core, sucking the mana needed to run the rune on my shoulder.

If I had been doing that from the get-go, ever since I got my core and my freedom, I mean training the core, I might have made it all the way to Castiana now. Unfortunately, my core being as small as it was, a pea size, I made it halfway before I ran out of mana. Well, halfway, at least according to my estimates, and a cursory knowledge of the road.

It didn’t mean the end of my wild run, though, far from it.

All it did was knock me down from an 8% rune buff to 4-5%, where my mana regen was kind of in balance with its consumption. It might not seem like much of a difference, but it was noticeable. Anyway, I pushed on, just a bit slower, working my muscles and my body as hard as I could, sweating my ass off.

On the plus side, it was incredible fun.

***

I arrived in sight of Castiana, soaked in sweat, tongue hanging out, and out of breath, less than two hours later. Three and a half hours in total. Pretty good, considering it took six to seven hours on horseback, huh?

It had a few drawbacks, though. I could ride a horse up to the gate and, if everything was in order, even pass through it. Doing the same in my beast form would be asking for a lot of trouble. At the very least, I’d scare the hell out of ordinary people trying to get into the city. At worst, I’d be facing the city’s defenders.

Well, since I didn’t want to rely on the Castiana City Guards recognizing me, I shifted back. That was where the other drawback came in. Beast transformation may have changed my entire body, through and through, back and forth, but it didn’t get rid of the grime and sweat I had picked up on my mad dash from Esulmor. I may not have been covered in blood like I was so many times, even on my travels, but I was in no less need of mbath, a tool used as a quick bath, though.

Seriously, I didn’t even have to sniff myself to smell that I stunk like a pig. The only good thing was that it didn’t rain on the way. It would probably wash the sweat and grime off me, but smelling like a wet dog wouldn’t be a win. That was it, though. That was where my luck ran out. I still didn’t have my own mbath - the City Guards did not issue the tool - nor was there a convenient inn in sight where I could take a real bath. So, as uncomfortable and awkward as it was, I threw on my workout clothes and headed for the gate.

***

Elias Pichler was having a routine day of duty at the Southeastern Gate, otherwise known as the Esulmor Gate. That was because the road from it led, among other destinations further south, to the Esulmor Woods, where the beasts lived, dangerous beasts that a guy like him wanted nothing to do with. Fortunately, they kept to their woods, and the only ones who ventured to the walls despite the presence of the Labyrinth were the packs of iron-fanged wolves here and there, disturbing the calm flow that otherwise prevailed at the gate.

Because of the woods, this was one of the least used Castiana gates. The Old Road, once leading past the woods, now led right through them, through the territory of the Mossbears. And so those coming from the east preferred the eastern road running on the other side of Granora Mountain Range. Travelers from the south then took their choice between this and the South Gate.

As said, this was the least used of the gates.

That’s the way Elias liked it, no hustle and bustle. Not a slew of dealings with angry merchants from dawn to dusk.

The bastards were reluctant to let go of a single copper, so they were always furious when they had to pay the merchant entrance fee to the city, a fee which was one of the lowest in the Empire. A bit of wonder there, given the greed of their City Lord. However, the truth was that in this case; it was not only their captain who pressured him to reduce fees but also the City Hall, the artisan guilds, and every influential merchant. Despite his standing, the bastard couldn’t get his way this time, so the fee ended up what it was. Still, there...

“Elias?!” his fellow gate guard and a friend shouted his name for the umpteenth time, only getting through to him now.

“Yes, Brynn?” he asked, unperturbed, after brushing himself off.

“Ah, so you’re finally listening. Good.” The woman was too chatty for his taste. Nevertheless, they were friends - with occasional benefits.

“You were saying?”

She sneered. “I was guessing what shit you were thinking so hard about. The orders we got? I’m telling you, that Grey, she’s weird. Did you see her?”

Did he see her? Heck, yeah. She showed up at the Esulmor Gate several times. “Some weird kind of terran.”

“I don’t give a shit what she looks like. This is what, the third time she’s coming back from Esulmor? Only the nutcases go back there.”

True. Elias nodded. Nobody sane would just walk in those woods. Even the merchants, usually keen on saving time, prefer to drive around, avoiding contact with the mossbears living inside. “I heard she can talk to beasts.” Maybe there was something to that, her ability to reason with them. The beasts weren’t as stupid as a lot of people thought or wanted to believe.

“You’re saying she made friends there? Well, it wouldn’t be weird. She’s a shifter; she can turn into one. Did you see the match? Oh, you missed it? That was some cool shit. She almost ripped the gal’s arm off, and that one, in turn, fried her with her auras. Some say Grey actually died there, and Marcus brought her back.”

“He’s a good healer.” Elias never saw the man do shit like that with his own eyes. Still, he believed it was feasible with the lieutenant’s abilities. The same should be true for his wife, Janina. Knowing there were such healers in the corps gave him peace of mind and a restful night’s sleep.

“Traiana’s tits. Good? Are you kidding me? He’s fucking incredible...and handsome. Too bad he’s married.” Brynn paused for a moment to catch her breath. “So, what do you think of this Grey, Elias?”

Sometimes he wondered how her brain worked because she was bouncing from one topic to another faster than he could keep up. Well, about Grey, as long as the chick didn’t bring HIM trouble, he couldn’t care less. “That chick is trouble. You know Rayden’s pissed that more than half of us don’t wear shoes, right?”

“Guilty,” Brynn confessed, looking down at her bare feet and wiggling her toes. “Gets chilly at times. It’s fun, though.”

“Right,” he simply said, not understanding what was fun about that. Why would he stand guard at the gate all day without his boots on? “Anyway, I think she’s in a very different league than us.”

Brynn frowned, and then she nodded, strangely enough agreeing with him. “She’s got some balls; I have to give her that. Deckard’s Apprentice, mind mages, and now some lady shit.”

“Guardian,” he corrected her. “She’s a Guardian of a World Tree.”

“Yeah, that. I don’t know exactly what kind of tree it is, but did you know there’s one growing in Esulmor? Shit! Is that why she’s going back there? I bet that’s the reason. What do you think a tree like that looks like?”

“Beats me. Big?” Elias shrugged, then he snapped to attention, nodding his head to the road. “Heads up, that’s her, Brynn.” Just as they were told, Korra Grey showed up - only a few hours too early.

“Damn! Would you dare go outside Castiana in just your shorts and a shirt? As I said, she’s got balls.”

“Damn it, Brynn. Shut your trap for a minute! She might hear you.”

Brynn stuck her tongue out at him, showing her attitude, but she complied, and though she obviously had to force herself not to say a word, she just silently watched Grey walk toward them as he did.

Elias saw many warriors, soldiers, mercenaries, seekers, and adventurers, and they all had their own mannerisms. One look and, in most cases, you could tell what they were. The chick was neither. If he had to describe what she felt like to him, it would be a beast. She carried herself with the grace of a predator, watching them like her prey.

She got closer.

[Deviant: lvl 122]

“Hi, hello, guys!” Grey greeted them, scratching the back of her neck. Up close, she didn’t look that impressive. A plain shirt and shorts, dirty, sweaty, just like herself. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought of her as one of the terran refugees. Although even they smelled less than she did. ‘Damn, even those Iron-Fanged Wolves don’t smell like her.’

“Hi, I’m Brynn. We were told you were coming. Though not that soon. Why are you here so early? Did you run your horse? Where’s your horse, by the way? Don’t tell me you walked all the way?”

Elias couldn’t help sighing when Brynn opened her mouth. “Welcome back to Castiana, Grey. May I see your ID card?”

“Oh, the card, sure, here,” she said, and hastily took the card out of her spatial storage before she turned back to Brynn. Clearly, the chick had no experience using the ID card. “I don’t have a horse.”

“So, you really walked? Barefoot all the way from Esulmor? Although I find it nice myself. I have harder skin on my feet, though. But how did you get here so quickly?”

“I...I shifted into my beast form and....”

“Oh, of course. I should have figured; saw your match. I bet against you, though.”

Grey shifted her weight nervously. “You won some money then.”

“I did...”

“...and spent it on crap right away,” Elias cut her off, pointing to the Identification Tablet. “Here, put your hand down, Grey.”

“What for?”

‘Did she really have no idea?’ He wondered. ‘Whatever.’ “To make sure it’s you and not just someone with your ID card. Don’t worry. It just verifies the data on the card matches. Besides what’s embossed on the card, I won’t see shit...SHIT! Mana’s signature doesn’t match! The name doesn’t match! The class doesn’t match...Brynn!” He shouted at his fellow guard, who, despite her excited and chatty mood, had her weapon trained on not-Grey in a flash, just like him.

“Wow, wow, wow, guys,” not-Grey blurted, her hands flying up. Elias gripped the hilt of his sword harder. Luckily, the chick, or whoever she was, wasn’t completely dumb. It was not an attack but a gesture to show that she had no intention of crossing them. Smart move. He might not have liked fighting, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know how to use his sword. Besides, he wasn’t alone. Brynn was with him, and four others were already rushing out of the guardhouse.

“I-I can explain all that.”

Elias nodded. “Of course you can. Once we get these on you and take you to the interrogation room.” Magic shackles appeared in his free hand. He rattled them to make a point and watched not-Grey visibly shudder. Her demeanor suddenly changed, her stare sending a chill down his spine as the growl reached his ears.

“You are not putting those on me!”