“Dad! Dad, look how fast I am!” Maria yelled as she sped off after the other kids.

Matt sat under a wooden pavilion along with every other parent as they all watched the kids run around without a care in the world, as kids should.

No words needed to be exchanged as they all felt the same heavy weight having been lifted, and suddenly it was okay to relax, although Matt didn’t dare to. He didn’t want to miss a single second of his little girl, happy and healthy.

The children ran through a forested area, and they lost sight of them. A habitual tension went through the group, but it was quickly taken care of.

“Don’t worry, the older kids are gonna keep an eye on them.” Lydia assured walking in carrying a massive pot twice the size of her torso.

Matt stood up quickly and offered to take it for her, but a sly smile passed over the bright-haired woman as she handed it off, and Matt quickly understood why.

It was heavy, he struggled to even hold it. Thankfully, she quickly guided him towards a table while trying to hold back her laughter.

“How are we going to get them to come back?” Another parent questioned.

“That’s the easy part,” John replied, walking up with his wife, Nala, both carrying large bowls covered in foil.

Placing the bowls on the table, John went ahead and removed the lid and foil, revealing a large spread of breakfast foods, the aroma of which reminded the parents of their own stomachs.

“You should keep in mind that their senses are going to be heightened. They won’t realize it themselves yet, but-” John was interrupted as the group of kids barreled out of the tree line, sprinting towards them.

The parents stared at the quickly approaching group of ravenous children in silence, until one by one laughter spread among them, a mix of exhaustion and nerves coming to the surface as they all finally breathed a sigh of relief.

This wasn’t a dream. They had simply woken up from a nightmare, and now it was time to live again.

The atmosphere around the tables under the shade-shelter had changed, the heavy air now a distant memory as people joked and ate together.

“So, when do we get to turn into a wolf?” A young boy asked John.

“Well, you’ll turn into a wolf when you’re older. Right now, you’re just a pup.” John smiled warmly at the little boy.

Lydia turned to see Matt focused on the topic discussed and leaned over to him.

“They’ll go through their first change around puberty. They’re lucky, though, used to be a hard process to learn, taking years for some to get it right, but now we’ve got help on that front.” Lydia explained, several other parents leaning in to listen as well.

Lydia turned as if having heard someone approaching and waved at a young woman walking down the hill towards their little gathering.

“Speak of the Apprentice and she shall appear!” Lydia proclaimed loudly in greeting. “We were worried you’d miss breakfast.” Lydia added.

The woman had light brown skin and wore a loose tank top showing off several large scars, some marking her face as well, although it did little to detract from her attractive features.

“So was I. I swear I had an easier time getting through my AP Physics class than a page of that scribbled mess.” The young woman complained, reaching up a black scaled arm to massage a kink out of her neck but froze as she noticed the two dozen people staring at her.

“Uh, hey, I’m Tessani Brahma. I live down at Eve Valley.” She introduced awkwardly with a wave of her hand, a ripple flowing over the scales all the way up her arm to where the prosthetic connected to her shoulder.

“Your arm is awesome!” A little boy said with awe in his eyes and the blunt honesty of a child.

“Thank you!” Miss Brahma replied, leaning down to the boy, offering a handshake with the limb, the boy marveling at the robot arm.

“We were just talking about how much of a help you are when it comes to the first change, although this batch is still a ways away from that,” Lydia explained.

“Always glad to help.” Miss Brahma replied brightly.

A man sitting beside Matt cleared his throat and tapped Matt with his elbow, suddenly making him realize he’d been staring quite intensely for almost a minute.

“Ah, Uhm, Matt Jones.” Matt introduced himself awkwardly, bumping the table he was sitting at as he stood up.

“Nice to meet you Matt, you can just call me Tessa.” Tessa greeted with a warm smile, the moment broken when Lydia snorted and rolled her eyes at Tessa.

The two of them sat down awkwardly to continue their breakfast.

***

Blood dripped from my mouth as my jaw ached and my body felt weak.

I looked up and saw a specter of the past crouching over me in the dark abyss.

“What exactly was your plan here?” Se’Am asked, crouched down beside me as I laid bleeding on the floor.

“To. Disarm. Him.” I grunted out as blood ran down my chin and my eye had swelled shut.

“How, by breaking his hand with your skull?” Se’Am laughed.

“Wish-I-had. Thought-of-that.” I huffed out, grinning up at him with what I had no doubt was a bloody grin.

“The trick is to not get hit, or have you already forgotten that?.” The memory of my friend joked before being wiped away by a jolt of white hot pain piercing my skull to the bottom of my soul.

“Gram,” growled and clenched my hand around the hilt of my blade, the movement making the hand gripping the back of my neck tighten its grip.

In a smooth practiced motion, I sliced the under and upper side of the wrist, severing the tendons responsible, and fell to the floor, impacting the ground with a crash, losing hold of my blade.

I gasped and coughed, crawling to my feet as the four-armed behemoth swore and cursed at its now useless hand.

We were surrounded by a sea of shrouded bodies, their eyes glowing with hatred and animosity. The stage the behemoth had chosen to revel in its victory and parade its prize.

I charged the behemoth with a feral roar, and it moved to meet me, its body bent over as it reached down towards me.

“GUNGNIR!” I bellowed as a long javelin shaped piece of obsidian manifested itself in my hand before I snapped it in half and jabbed the pieces into the giant’s knees.

It howled in pain and fell as the tensioned muscles keeping it standing were severed and shot up through its thigh like a rubber band being cut.

I turned to the crowd, their silent gazes boring into me, but as they stared into me, so too did I stare into them, and I saw what had become of them.

Once terrible existences rivaling that which would be called godlike, now little more than wisps of their former strength, their years of captivity having worn away at their selves until little more than hate remained.

They were pitiful, and the proof was in the fact that they sent a brute. Their own skills long since eroded past the point that they could field anything else.

“And yet, these beings you pity almost brought about your downfall, a downfall by a brute, no less.” Lilia’s voice echoed out and the crowd split, revealing her form in shadow.

“Do you never tire of haunting me with her face?” I asked disdainfully.

“Poor little Titan, so far from home and all alone, so easily manipulated by a pretty face... Or have you chosen to forget that as well?” the thing wearing her face asked mockingly.

“Your little impersonation trick is getting old... When I find the part of you anchored in here, I’ll enjoy watching it burn.” I retorted before turning around to leave, knowing that this was a waste of time.

“But that would require you to face your past, wouldn’t it? I wonder what you’ll do once she wakes. Will you run away and forget about her too? Coward.” It taunted.

I halted and clenched my fist as runes spread out from me covering every surface for miles, revealing the huddled masses lending the imposter the weight to manifest like this and with a thought, those same runes ran up their forms and ignited them like a gas, burning what remained of their existence.

Its face seethed as it looked at me, its ability to speak and retain its form slowly fading away.

“Crawl back up here again, and I’ll go looking for it.” I warned as I severed the anchor tethering this part of my domain to reality, leaving me suddenly in one of the countless dark tunnels I’d dug throughout the Eve Valley.

I fell to my knees as my stomach churned and I dry heaved from what was no doubt a serious concussion.

Every suffocating thought sent my world spinning, my domain slipped out of my control and began to affect reality around me randomly, twisting and tearing at the fabric of the Materium, to the point that I felt it cry out like the whine of metal getting torn.

In a last ditch effort to regain my composure, I slammed my fist against the stone shattering my recently healed bones once again.

But it worked. The pain pulled my mind into a more primal state and my hurried breathing eased.

I needed to get my head right; I needed to deal with the issues stacking up around me; I needed distance.

Will you run away and forget about her too? Lilia’s voice echoed in my head, not by some insidious efforts of the imposter, but through my own treacherous psyche.

I felt a shadow approach behind me.

“This is neither the time nor the place.” I snarled over my shoulder at Garmr’s approaching figure.

His eyes met my own, and images flashed before my eyes, images of Sanguinares approaching the Oleson pack’s territory. The words Devos and Apprentice of the Titan echoed repeatedly, distorting and changing.

“Where are they now?” I asked, and Garmr bristled with violent anticipation.