SECTION 4

  Part I What creature is this?

  8/9/1385

  Draxson Pov

  The battle truly began when the wolf went on the defensive for its kin.

  The dark purple fur wolf glowed in its presence and many bright light orbs and rays radiated from the wolf as she snarled back at us defending her allies. I stared back at the wounded and bleeding wolf and roared back at the snarling beast as I charged to impale it with my spear. I missed by mere inches as the wolf faded into a bright specter, and the phantom jumped behind me and bit my calf. I cried out in pain and dropped my spear when my leg was bit and gushed blood. I turned to attack the wolf. Sopheia blocked a lunge from the iridescent wolf and slashed through light energy that was supposed to cut through the wolf's midsection. The wolf rematerialized and slashed at Sopheia's legs before I speared its front left paw to the ground, and Sopheia kicked up and tossed me a shield so I could pin the wolf the before it once again turned into a phantom of light and became unstuck. We continued like this for a few minutes before Sopheia and I began syncing our attacks, slashing, bashing, and kicking at the constantly phasing out and dodging Massive purple wolf. The wolf appeared behind us after it phased through my shield and body, leaving a tingling, numb sensation. Thus, the cycle of occasionally landing a strike for another half hour occurred until the fight finally ended. Sopheia and I trapped it between our shields, and a Frost and flame spell dome emanated from them.

  With the wolf finally subdued, it snarled in its wavy light form until it faded into a corporeal form and stopped Barking at us. I nodded at Sopheia, And we released our shields and elemental domes. The ice and Frost barrier between the shields gave me an idea for my last crystal, which I would work on later. The wolf lowered its head and gave a silent bark before a tingle formed between my mind, Sopheia's, and the wolf's. Light letters appeared before our eyes, and barks entered our minds until they became words. The letters in front of us said the same thing in our minds: the voice was feminine.

  PHANTOM WOLF: Hello travelers, I submit and rest my case and fight against you. I have an offer for you, but I have a few conditions. First, I plead that you restore my brothers back to good health and promise to leave my kin and pack alone. In exchange, I would be willing to join your team if you would have me. If not, I will go once you heal my brothers, and if I find you messing with them again, I and my pack will Exterminate You. What is your course of action? What is your choice? Will I join you, or shall we part ways?”

  I contacted Sopheia on the mind link and asked if she wanted the wolf to join our party. "would you like her to join us?" I asked before a tingle ran through my mind as Sopheia responded, "Yes, absolutely. We should let her join us, and I'll heal her brothers." "Yes, we accept you into the team, and we will heal your kin," replied Sopheia and I. "Then it is so," Replied the wolf. The mental connection broke off, and a final message spread before us. PHANTOM WOLF WOULD LIKE TO JOIN YOUR PARTY. DO YOU ACCEPT?

  YES OR NO?

  We channeled energy into the text together, activating the acceptance of a new team member. The words disappeared as they said, "PHANTOM WOLF HAS JOINED YOUR PARTY."

  After Sopheia healed the bleeding neck of one of the wolves and the various cuts and scratches on our new party member and her brothers, we shared a meal. We moved on with Phantom and her brothers, who didn't join the party but were accompanying us for the time being. Our new party member, whom we call Phantom for now, the name she let us call her, walked slightly in front of us, leading the way through the forest. She gave one of her echoey barks, signaling that she wanted me to open "that Pisonic speaking ability." She called. My "short-range limited telepathy." she meant, anyway, that was our agreed-upon signal for me to establish a connection with her mind so she could tell me something. Sopheia and I had something similar: when we wanted to talk privately, we'd usually send small pluses of Majic energy toward each other and talk mentally. I established a connection with Phantom and awaited her statement.

  Phantom: Draxson, we must detour east a bit instead of continuing north.

  Draxson: Why?

  Phantom: I'm sensing some dark forces and large monsters less than a kilometer ahead, past the furthest trees from us. Unless you want to fight a Drought Golem or some Grim Bears, we can continue, but it usually takes me and the other 30 members of my pack, to even take down at most 2 Grim bears and about 20 of us for a Drought Golem. You would not like to make your first run-in with a golem, let alone a mixed group of golems and bears with just the 5 of us. It would be ill-advised.

  Draxson: Thank you for the warning. Should we start moving east now or return to where we came from before going east?

  Phantom: No, that won't be necessary. I'll just be scouting them out quickly. I'll be right back. Keep this connection open if you can while I investigate the situation.

  Draxson: Ok, are you taking your brothers with you or going alone?

  Phantom Transformed into its ethereal form while responding to me without turning back.

  Phantom: No. I will be going alone. My brothers haven't matured enough to become their luminescent wolf forms yet, so they will stay with you, waiting for me.

  Draxson: Well, see you; give me a shout if anything is amiss.

  She replied with a beam of light that flew at me, stopping a few feet from my face and transforming into another majic light message that read.

  "Yeah, will do". We watched Phantom run off past trees, and after a few minutes l, we saw her emerge from the trees less than a kilometer away, running towards us at full tilt, reaching us less than a 1 minute later she reached us and frantically spoke in my mind.

  Phantom: We need to go now. One of the dire bears had already reached its final form, the "Void Bear," it spotted me with its light sense and started siphoning my energy. The whole group of monsters noticed, and they will reach us shortly.

  "Okay, let's go," I said. We need to get away from here and head east. Phantom says some dangerous monsters are coming, and we wouldn't want to fight even one or several of them." I took Sopheia's Left hand in my right, and we ran east for 25 minutes before Phantom spoke to me again.

  Phantom: We are almost out of their range, so we will need to stop for a moment while I prepare for us to teleport about two and a half kilometers from here. Then we can rest after.

  Draxson: copy that. Thanks for the guidance.

  I relayed Phantom's message, and we stopped running and gathered our breath while waiting for Phantom's spell. "How are you holding up, Sopheia?" I asked in between labored breaths. Sopheia took a breath and exhaled before replying to my question. With evident exhaustion in her voice she said. "I'm doing ok, but if we have to keep this up for much longer….inhale…..exhale…. I'm going to lose my lunch." "Sorry about that. The spell will activate in less than a minute, and you might want to numb your senses because teleportation isn't going to do good for your digestion on top of already being queasy." the words appeared as if an invisible pen had written them in the same curly letters made of light Phantom had used before. The words manifested line by line, disappearing after about 5 seconds before the following sentence appeared in the place of the previous.

  I wondered how Phantom could do that; I made a note to ask her about it when we camped for the night. I want to learn this spell or understand the wolf's abilities. With no warning of the signs that the spell was activated, I didn't know what was happening when light emanated from Phantom more than usual and started to glow, surrounding her in bright blue and purple liquid as light covered her and as she disappeared into light particles Sopheia and I were surrounded by light blue, black, and dark red liquid and enveloped ina like manner as Phantom . I felt Tingley everywhere as I became drowsy, and the light particles I assumed I was turning into started flowing from me until I lost consciousness for a moment. I regained consciousness in what I thought was about a minute later. I reappeared in a swirl of Drak red and black liquid and colorful particles surrounding and flowing into me as the majic liquid dispersed unto and colored the ground Black and red around my feet in a half dozen centimeter radius.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  We were in a large clearing about 15 meters from the closest trees. I felt dizzy as I stood and noticed light blue liquid in the corner of my eye, and I turned and watched as Sopheia emerged from her cocoon of Light blue and grey liquid, falling to her feet as the last particles of light flowed into her. She shined a bright blue for a moment before she opened her eyes and took in a deep breath before stepping forward and swaying side to side, stumbling before she fell to the ground and sat on her knees. She held her hand to her mouth, trying to hold herself back from throwing up her lunch. I stepped forward, dropped to one knee, and placed my right hand on Sopheia's back to comfort her. She spoke after a moment. "I'm fine, just feeling verrrry dizzzzeey…" she said before her stomach ejected the undigested contents of her stomach.

  "Bleh." Stated Sopehia when her vomiting ended, and she began coughing, "*cough* *cough*. Oh, that surprisingly tasted good going back up, and now I feel weird, and I'm very hungry now. I'm feeling a bit tired as well." said Sopheia before she fell forward. I caught her by her stomach with my left hand and supported her so she was upright again. "I got you, Sopheia," I said, holding her in case. She fell forward again. "Thanks, Draxso, and that would have been gross to land in my puke." "Not a problem. I didn't want you falling in either," I replied, helping her stand up again with her left hand in my right and keeping my other hand on her back as we rose from the ground.

  "That was disorientating. I don't like that spell; Phantom was right; I should have numbed my senses more before we vanished and reappeared here." Phantom reached out to us and Facilitated a connection between our minds. When I established my telepathy between the three of us, I felt dizzy and nauseous, and a headache started to form like it usually did when I was stressed or tired. Still, it was worse today with the disorientation of teleporting and the exhausting run for little more than a 4th of an hour. "Are you too alright? "asked Phantom in our minds. Phantom looked left and right at me, Sopheia, with worry since Sopheia was holding her hand to her mouth, looking like she needed to hurl again, and was holding my left hand to my forehead, casting a Frost spell trying to combat my headache. "Yeah, I'm fine," said Sopheia out loud. I' ’m just feeling a little sick because I didn't use enough majic to brace myself. But I'll be okay in a few minutes," Sopheia said after taking her hand off her mouth, and we all began talking telepathically.

  Sopheia: What kind of spell was that? And how did you do that?

  Phantom: That was a Light Warp Planar Shift spell. It's a type of teleportation spell all my kind that you humans call Phantom Wolfs can develop as they mature. It works by using the Majic particles in the area you designate to Light Warp and using the corresponding color of majic from your location to fuel the Shifting. The spell also works faster with the support of the majic of the shifted person. The second part of the spell turns your body into light particles to allow for near-instantaneous travel to the designated shifting spot. The iridescent majic that my kin and I use makes the shift into light particles and travel until we run out of light majic without losing consciousness so we can change course if necessary. The colors of the majic liquid you were encased in were of the following elemental powers: dark red for Dragon flames, Light blue for Ice majic, grey for the Majic energy in your magical artifacts, and Black for DARK majic or an untaped variant of Fire majic; Probably explosive majic, lighting, or some other Dragon power. I don't know all the color correlations, but I can tell you that green is natural, brown or medium gray is for earth, and stone is central. Mine was purple, dark blue, and white that blended the others, purple being Phantom majic, dark blue for the ethereal color-controlling majic I use, and white for light majic.

  Anyway, that is enough about the spell; for now, I can tell you more later.

  Sopheia: Thank you for the information. That's one helpful spell. Can I learn to cast it?

  Phantom: Possibly. It takes a delicate balance of light, dark, and color-shifting Majic to cast it. If you don't have one of the spells, you could imbue a majic cultivation support crystal or get a scroll. We Phantom Wolfs have multiple major pools in our bodies that we lose and gain throughout the day. It's a complex situation, so I can tell you about it later in exchange for your help cultivating my Frost majic and if I can get some training with those majic soldiers. I would like to fight them again; they were exciting.

  Sopheia: Sure, I can help you with that.

  I waited until they were done talking before I made any statement.

  Draxson: So what did you want to tell us, Phantom?

  Phantom: Yeah, about that. I was checking in on you two to see if you're up to moving for a few more hours. My lighting and color sense tells me it's about 15:40, and the sun will set at about 18:20.

  Draxson: I think we……..

  Sopheia interjected before I finished my sentence.

  Sopheia: Yeah, I can keep going. We need to find a town to refresh our supplies and get rid of our extra gear.

  Phantom: Okay, Draxson, how about you? Can you continue

  Draxson: Yeah, I can keep going. Are you sure you want to keep going, Sopheia?

  Sopheia: Yeah, I can keep going. If we don't find a town by tonight, we'll carry this gear tomorrow and go through our supplies faster to keep up with the additional weight. If you're worried about me collapsing from exhaustion, you don't need to worry because I'm fine. I'll be fine. So, let's get going.

  I replied aloud after Phantom said we should continue east in an hour. "Okay, then we'll do that. Let's make you and Phantom's brothers something to eat."

  As if summoned by my mention, the two smaller Deep purple and black fur with Light blue accents and streaks akin to lighting bolts appeared like Sopheia, and I did with the exception that their fur began fading. They also didn't glow as bright, and there was a lot more density to the majic fluid encasements, and it spread a meter around their feet. IThemajic levels in the area significantly drop upon their shifting over. It's probably like Phantom said that it takes more majic to transport them since they're still maturing. I also noticed that upon their arrival, the tendrils of many-hued light that flowed from Phantom flickered and disappeared, leaving Phantom less ostentatious. I also observed that the fur of phantom and our other companions were all a dull grey now. Odd. I thought. The magic from other-like creatures may be drawn upon to compensate for the lack of energy. Either way, I'd ask Phamtom about it, but I needed to plan what to make for our meal. I set my backpack down away from all the colored snow. I unrolled my cooking utensil bag along with my sitting pots down on a leather roll. I tossed a few sticks together for my fire before sparking a bright fire and suspending a pot over it with a stone base.

  From my cooking satchel, I retrieved two jars of cooking oil and one pouch of sizzle powder for bursts of much-needed energy for our continuous endeavor through the woo.d In addition, I took three-fourths of dried butter encased in dried strawberries; they are usually a snack or dessert when paired with milk and honey. I fetched a small jar of salt and parsley to conclude the foraging of my spices and the like. I detached a smaller bag from my main travel pack filled with dried and wrapped meats. I pulled out the last of the ice boar meat and set it on a cutting board of Blister wood from my home village.

  (it was called blister wood because of the splintering phenomenon that occurred when the fortified tree's branches were improperly cut by someone or any other creature was tearing through the tree. The splinters from the tree would extend out from the tree and stab and infect anything unprotected with the splint aliment. But it was a fickle nature tree because when a dead branch was carved correctly out, the Armour or instrument made of the blister wood would so much as be scratched by anything less than a blade of pure titanium. Oh, how I wish I had some, for they make an excellent sheath for blades and fantastic hilts for any blade, and oh, how fabulous of Armor and shields it would make. But Alas, I don't have such fine instruments yet, and I don't have the funds for them now.)

  The cutting board endured well under my knife's sharp slashes on boar meat. I made any cuts in the flavor board's top layer. I repaired them with sizzle powder to fill in the scratches and coat my knife when I cut over the board again.

  The flavor board was made of delectable oak that repaired any scratches with the seasonings and foodstuffs pressed into the cuts a blade made on it. It was my favorite way to slice my meats, fruits, vegetables, and the like while imparting them with the rich flavor-enhancing umami the flavor board harbored in its fibers. As of now, it was the only power-boosting cooking equipment I owned. It was a gift from my mother, who made it for me, and another for Sopheia to help with cooking on our adventure. I missed my mother, even though it's only been a week. I will write a letter back to her soon. I thought to myself as I finished chopping my onions and prior cabbages for the soup. With my preparations made, I looked over my cut and seasoned pork, cut vegetables, spices, and other seasonings. I was content with everything I needed for roasted Frost boar soup. Behind me, Sopheia tapped my shoulder. Extending something out to me in her other hand. I turned around and accepted her small parcel of fruit powder for a mango and lemon elixir. No majic included, unfortunately.

  For now, I wouldn't have access to any more majic ingredients past today until I restocked with the money from the equipment we sell when we eventually find someplace to sell it. "Thanks, Sopheia; I'll be done in about 30 minutes. Could you please prepare a blanket to set our utensils and bowls?" I said while I held the package in my hands, smelling it. "That wouldn't be a problem; I can set that up right away, Draxson," Replied Sopheia in her lovely singsong voice. She gathered the above supplies from a bag and set them on a blanket in preparation for our last meal. After another round of giving thanks, I turned around and began pouring water into my heated pot. The water advances to a boil when it enters the pot as I mix the soup's vegetables, broth, and seasonings. I let the broth cook for 5 minutes before adding the meat, which instantly dropped the mixture's temperature to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit before raising the temperature to compensate.

  Twenty minutes later, I had Frost Boar soup resting for a minute after being removed from heat and set on a small metal slab. I grabbed the small bottle of regular honey and glazed the meat on both sides as it soaked in the soup's juices. I grabbed a large pot of clear liquid from another fire, poured some into a large bottle, and then set it down to mix in the soup's broth.

  I poured the broth into the clear liquid, and as I emptied the contents of my first pot, the color of the larger pot's contents shifted from clear to red and was stored when it reached the brown color of the mixed-in soup. I only had a gallon of the stuff, but it sure was handy in cutting back on supply consumption. It was a type of substitution that copied the make-up, whatever it was mixed with. How else it works or how exactly it's made.

  But I did know it was made from a costly blend of five of the best ingredients in the world, one from each of the five common ingredients: vegetables, fruit, meat, carbohydrates, and usually fine blends of spices or sugar flower nectar.

  I didn't know where or how I would get it without consulting the chefs at Sopheia's home. Either way, I would use some of it to duplicate the elixir and make the rest of the soup needed to feed all of us, restore our much-needed nutrients, and hopefully cure whatever Phantom and her brothers were suffering that caused them to lose their colorful presence.

  Ten minutes later, I was sitting with Phantom, her brothers, and Sopheia, eating my bowl of boar soup and the occasional compliment of juice from my cup. I chatted with Sopheia about what ingredients to get when we restock our supplies. As Phantom ate, I watched the color and wisps of majic return to her fur and the surrounding area. The food slowly restored her brothers to their full beauty of color as we neared the end of our meal. When they finished their portion, the two half-restored wolves sat down and released a short, echoing bark in contentment as colorful ribbons of iridescent light flew from their faces and paws as slow-rising smoke would.

  As a peculiar development, the majic in the area thickened the longer the wolves glowed with radiating color. Interesting, I thought before Phantom's brothers approached me and began licking my face.

  I was shocked by the sudden gesture but overcame it momentarily and gave them scratches on their heads. A moment later, they backed up and Yelped what I took as thanks and joy. Phantom said thank you in another shocking development and wrote it in the air.