After what felt like hours of waiting shiro felt as though no one would come to help him, forcing him to pick and learn on his own. After a bit more deliberation shiro finally decides to go with the safer option since he was in unfamiliar territory without assistance and steps into the gate to camelot, the land of trees and the scent of home.
Shiro steps lightly onto the well trodden road immediately available upon entering the new land that was almost familiar to him before gathering his cloak around him and setting out at a brisk pace along the moonlight lit dirt road which he felt most likely led to a city of some sort. after hours of walking along the one road the sun finally begins to rise as shiro spot the first sign of civilization: a small farming village with an inn, black smith, cartwright, mill, and small wooden fort as a central area while the rest was a few miles of farm land, the breeze blowing through the grain imparting a small feeling of home as he recalls that he'd grown up in a place like this, spending his days helping his father harvest the wheat and tend the chickens until night fell and he joined his mother for a family dinner but try as he might he couldn't remember their faces. shiro eventually makes his way to the inn and has himself a pint with bread for just five Omnilium which he pays easilly by just laying his hand cupped over the bar and allowing a small sphere of the exact worth asked of him to fall from the palm of his hand. However, luckily for shiro no one was looking when he did this so he drew no attention to himself as a prime.
As the night wears on and shiro finds himself sated for now at least a man stumbles into the inn noisily, clutching a bleeding wound at his stomach as he whimpers out "t...the wolves...". The two men closest to him rush over to him and have him sit down, keeping pressure on the wound on his stomach while the bar keep's son rushes off for the village healer. After receiving enough healing to be in a safe condition the man is allowed to tell his tale while the barkeep allows him a free pint and shiro listens in closely, his ears swiveling towards the man underneath his hood.
"what happened Tom?" the barkeep asks the wounded man as he hands him his pint which the man accepts graciously, drinking about half of it before starting his story
"me and me lad Jim were out tending the fields... been a bad harvest wit us cause of the blight a while back. you lot remember... anyway... me son and i were tending the fields late trying to meet our quota for this year when right as the moon comes up, shining high in the sky, we hear a howl coming from the north end of the field so we looked and found three wolves. big as horses they were! they must have been starving something feirce cause they tore across the fields at us and i managed to get jim safe and chase them away but one of them got a good bite on me stomach... would have died if it weren't for Mortimer" the wounded man explains, gesturing wildly with his hands as his accent seems to be reminiscent of what some might consider Scottish.
"these wolves... what did they look like?" shiro asks quietly, all eyes in the inn turning towards him for the time as he looks at the injured man, his yellow, shining eyes frightening him to the point he actually fell out of his chair pointing as he stutters out in a frightened voice "y-y-you're o-one o-of them! you're a wolf!".
shiro just nods and goes over to the man, helping him up and back into his chair as he explains "i'm a lycan yes. i change into a wolf at will, i do not eat humans, no i am not one of the wolves that attacked you earlier, and no i do not lift my leg when i piss. anymore questions?" seeming to guess a few of the questions people have a tendency to ask when they meet a lycan. after a small moment of silence from the bar he asks again "alright now can you describe these wolves for me?".
Tom the wounded farmer nods and relaxes a bit before saying "aye. they were a bit bigger than horses, had snow white fur, yellow eyes like your's, and really painful teeth". Shiro nods as he says evenly "those were dire wolves not lycans. they probably ran out of game because of over hunting and came looking for food. i can lead them away safely for you but i will need a cow"
At this the villagers seem to get quite apprehensive about accepting his assistance however shiro soon reaffirms their willingness to help him by simply saying "it's your family or the cow"
After being offered a place to stay for the night at the inn Shiro retires to the small room containing only a bed, a desk, and a chair at the desk. Shiro flops onto the bed almost immediately, his mind still swirling with questions he wanted to ask, his feet weary from traveling along the road for the better part of the evening, and his eyes heavy with the exhaustion that all these things had brought upon him as he slowly drifts off to sleep, dreaming of his family.
Shiro wakes the next morning from a nightmare about what had happened to his family, their screams still echoing in his head as he heads outside and washes his face with some water from the well. As he cleans himself up a bit a knight from the local lord in charge of this small farming village with a small retinue of less than five spear men trailing behind his horse, gasping for air as their haughty master had been riding harder than most of them could run all morning.
"Morning farmer. take my horse to the stables and have someone bring out some breakfast for me and my men" the knight commands of Shiro as he holds out the reigns for Shiro to take, a smug smirk on his face. "Do it yourself" Shiro says evenly before going back to cleaning himself up. The retinue attempts to make small gestures of warning as the knight's face darkens and he grows angry. "How dare you speak to me in such a manner peasant" the knight calls out, rage evident in his voice as his face contorts to show it, his tone rising to a shout. "You should have paid more attention to who you're ordering around. i'm no servant to your lord, i'm no farmer, and i'm definitely no longer human" Shiro says evenly, his gaze turning deadly as he takes his cloak off, revealing his canine ears and tail, before setting it on the ground next to the well, prepared to fight the knight if he had to.
"I see, so you've come to the village to prey on the honest, hard working people here monster?" the knight asks as he draws his sword, getting his shield ready as his retinue backs off, knowing that their lord preferred to fight those he considered worthy on his own. "I was trying to keep a low profile... leave it to a noble to screw everything up" Shiro says with a sigh as his hands shift to claws and he eyes up the knight, showing no fear while the knight seemed too full of himself to fear Shiro.
The knight swings first, bringing his sword down in an arc to try and take Shiro's head from it's shoulders in one attack. However, instead of the knight finding triumph at his blade finding it's mark his wrist is caught and a knee meets his groin hard enough to make it easily felt through the thick leather and wool padding. The knight drops the sword involuntarily before following it himself while he cradles his groin with tears rolling down his cheeks and small barely audible cries of pain escape his through as Shiro just walks off, leaving him to his pain. However, despite his act earning him some respect amongst the retinue, which had smiled breifly at the sound of the strike and the sight of their master being forced to the ground, they still surround him, their spear tips pointed at him as one of the older, more veteraned states in an even tone with the corners of his lips still trying to show a small smile "i'm sorry sir, but you've struck a noble which is against the law. you'll have to come with us".
Shiro nods but requests in an even tone "that's fine with me but i'm needed here in the village to help with a pack of dire wolves that attacked a man last night. You may take me after i'm finished with my work. I'm sure that will give your lord enough time to heal to the point he can ride" as he gives the writhing lord a look, his eyes meeting the guard's in an unwavering gaze for a solid minute before he nods and the rest of the retinue lift's their spears. "What are you idiots doing?! arrest him! oh god it hurts more now..." the knight calls with a slightly higher pitched voice as Shiro grabs his cloak, gathers up some food and drink from the village, the townspeople showing him some small hidden respect at treating the knight in such a manner before he gathers a single bull from the pin and sets out into the woods in search of the wolves.
After a good few hours of following his nose towards the familiar scent of dire wolves he eventually comes across a cave with a white dire wolf resting in front of it however at the sight of Shiro it bolts to it's feet and growls, warning him away. Shiro removes his hood slowly to show his ears and a small smile as he says in a soft, friendly tone "it's alright friend... i heard you've been having some troubles with food so i brought you a wee something to snack on. Alright?" as he leads the bull a bit closer, letting it graze on some grass while he goes to the wolf, letting it smell of him before asking "mind bringing your pack out for this?". The wolf lowers it's head briefly in what could be considered a nod before going into the cave and coming out with two more. The three of them attack the bull almost immediately, viciously tearing into it and even eating some parts of it while it's still alive, their huge teeth and powerful jaws making quick work of it before they lay down and eat it comfortably, devouring everything until only bone remains while Shiro watches patiently. noticing that there are two females but only one male, and luckily the wolf that had greeted him had been female.
"You know you scared that human you bit last night. Now they're scared of you lot and they'll probably try to hunt you if i don't come back from your pelts. Mind telling me why you decided to attack them?" Shiro requests evenly of them once they're done eating. The female that had greeted him lowers her head briefly before going into the cave and coming out, dragging the body of a poacher with her. The corpse hadn't been eaten on at all despite the wolves' hunger and actually showed signs that the poacher had died of natural causes. "So humans had been taking your food from you so you wanted humans to give you some food in return? Makes sense, but humans can't understand you like i can so they thought you were attacking. Tell you what, how about one of you comes with me and helps me explain things to them?" Shiro suggests with a small smile before the wolves look amongst each other, seeming to converse wordlessly with each other for a while before the female that had greeted him walks over to him and nuzzles him.
Shiro gather's up the poacher's bow and quiver before taking the time to extract the corpse and it's clothing into omnilium, the process taking a while for him to get right but by the time he finishes he knew he could replicate it. "So what's your name girl?" Shiro asks softly as he holds her muzzle in his hands, scratching underneath her chin lightly as she looks at him with intelligent, blue eyes seemingly trying to convey her thoughts to him before he asks "how does Sapphira sound?" only for the wolf to lick him in response, seeming to give it her approval.
Shiro spends yet another few hours walking back with Sapphira right next to him the whole way however once he arrives at the village the residents are armed with farming equipment, terrified of the wolf who growls at the sight before Shiro gives her a small pet, silencing her gently before holding up the bow and calling out "these wolves are not hostile. There were poachers in their woods hunting their game to the point that they had begun to starve. Since humans were taking their food they felt that they should come to you asking for food, but when Tom grew hostile towards them they did what they consider to be defending themselves. If you simply allow them some food until they're able to hunt again then they'll refrain from attacking you. I assure you they are quite friendly"
It takes quite a while before the village puts away their makeshift weapons, trusting him warily as they take the bow off his hands along with the quiver however when the wolf nuzzles a few of them and just generally acts friendly towards them they relax quite a bit and agree to feed the wolves until they could hunt again. However the celebration is cut short by the knight's retinue surrounding Shiro again, the wolf growling at them until he comforts her with a small pet. "For striking a noble knight of lord Harriot you are under arrest" the leader of the retinue calls out, the knight astride his horse gazing down at him with a vile hatred. "Very well. My work is done so you may take me. I won't resist" Shiro replies evenly, allowing himself to be led away after sending the wolf off to tell her pack of the agreement that had been reached.
Shiro walks calmly between the spears of the retinue, his hands chained to the two men nearest him as well as binding his wrists, his cloak having been taken from him along the way and the she wolf silently following them through the woods as the men lead him to the capital city of the region. A large city with large stone walls, a black smith, armor smith, weapon smith, sprawling housing, guard quarters, military housing, guard towers, a small stone keep within it's own walls, a sprawling market, cart wrights, armory, and even various fountains dotted about it to serve as water sources.
The knight and his retinue lead him to the town center, forcing him onto his knees before the knight calls out in a regal and practiced tone "This man has struck me with his full force which as most of you should know is against the law and punishable by either ten lashes in public view or a week of imprisonment in a city dungeon. As you've probably guessed by the fact that we have taken him to the public punishing stage I, knight Richard Harrow, shall be punishing him with ten lashes in public view."
However part way through eyes turn from him to Shiro as he laughs out "oh kneeing you in the nuts was well worth the ten lashes if it means you can't be having kids with how you treat the common folk that work all their lives so you can live in comfort" earning a few laughs here and there from some less mature persons in the crowd which only enrages Richard to the point that he immediately orders Shiro's shirt removed and a whip to be brought to him so that he can, as he put it "punish this sodding bastard myself".
Shiro is offered a bit of sympathy by the retinue and the crowd as his shirt is removed, the older guard that seemed to be the leader of the retinue saying quietly to him "you're gonna want to bite down on this... but just know that a lot of people have wanted to do what you did for a long time" before allowing Shiro a small strip of leather which he takes, biting down on it as he nods.
The spear men vacate the stage shortly before Richard begins the whipping, bringing the hard, well used whip down on Shiro's back hard enough to leave long but shallow gashes down his back, taking time between each swing as he seems to not be able to hold back a wicked smile. Richard whips Shiro over and over again, going past ten and into the twenties before his men stop him, unable to do more than drag him away to places unknown before the older guard frees Shiro's hands, his back already starting to heal due to his lycanthropic nature plus a prime's tendency towards faster healing than most however the process is incredibly slower than before his arrival, leaving most of the whip's marks still bleeding while some had already started to scar.
"Sorry about that lad... he's a vindictive bastard but he's a good tactician" the older guard says evenly as he frees Shiro's wrists. Shiro just smiles a bit and hands him back the small strip of leather he'd bit down on through the whole thing. "I brought it on myself. Thanks either way though... My name's Shiro by the way" Shiro says with a small smile as he cracks his neck and rubs his wrists, seeming to now be bothered much by his back as he hops off the platform, wincing a bit before rubbing his knees and chuckling "that idiot took so long getting his jollies my legs fell asleep.". The guard just shakes his head and asks with a slight chuckle "not much phases you does it?" to which Shiro just shakes his head. "My name's Markus by the way. I'm one of the older guards around here" Markus says evenly as he offers his hand to Shiro which Shiro shakes with a small smile before asking "Mind buying me a drink? Sort of new around here so i don't have any money". The guard looks a bit taken aback for a while before asking quietly "you a prime? were you summoned here by Omni i mean". Shiro nods which makes the guard grow pale before saying "if we would have known you could have avoided the whipping" as he leads Shiro towards a small inn at the edge of the city named "The Dancing Oak" with it's sign depicting an oak treant doing a small jig. "Doesn't bother me. If I hadn't of let him get it out of his system it would have bit more than just me in the ass" Shiro says evenly as he puts his shirt and cloak back on before entering after the old guard and having all eyes turn towards him for a while, talk quieting down somewhat at the presence of a stranger dressed in such a way.
"Hey Jenny. Mind getting my friend and i some ale and dinner?" Markus says with a small smile after sitting with Shiro at a small table. A few minutes later a dark haired bar maid with green eyes and a soft face comes out from the kitchen and serves them some stew with a bit of bread and some ale as she says "sure Markus... so who's your new friend?". "Shiro. Just came to visit from one of the border towns for a while" Shiro says with a small smile as Markus lets out a small "thanks Jenny" and gets started on his dinner. "The name's Jenny and I'm Markus's niece. So how's it like out there on the border?" Jenny asks with a small smile and a curious tone to which Shiro replies quietly "quiet. There's some trouble with the local wildlife sometimes but it's normally easy to take care of". However, before Jenny can reply she's called away to serve another table, leaving Markus and Shiro alone to talk and eat in peace which they do, Markus fills Shiro in on the relationship between primes and secondaries, the politics of the verses, and just generally filling in the gaps on what needed be known which takes hours and by the time their done talking night has long since fallen. "Thanks for the information Markus. I'll come again some time and visit after I've made a place for myself" Shiro says with a small smile before getting up and going to walk away as Markus says a bit drunkenly "that's alright, but if you can't then Camelot always needs soldiers" before getting up and heading to bed upstairs.
Shiro sneaks out of the town to find the she wolf that had been following him nearby in the forest still eating on a deer carcass in a small clearing near the city. "Thought you were following me girl... You imprint on me?" Shiro says with a small smile to which the wolf just licks him as if giving a small "yes" before offering him one of the deer's legs which he takes graciously before sitting down with the wolf to eat it raw, eating together until falling asleep, his mind happy about making a new friend but a bit worried that Richard wouldn't take well with Shiro still being around however he resolved to handle it later since as of current, he was still trying to acclimate himself to this strange land he found himself in.
Shiro awakes the next morning, having curled up to sleep in the female's long, soft fur sometime during the night during his peaceful and dreamless sleep. While most people would write off a dreamless night as their brain being too tired to dream, a lycan always dreams as that's their wolf's way of communicating with them and for Shiro's wolf to have grown quiet worried him greatly. Shiro spends quite a bit of the morning thinking on what could make his wolf grow quiet before he remembers Omni's sentiments; that every prime should have a fair chance, and seeing how Shiro's wolf meant not only a lot sentimentally to Shiro, it also contained most of his power and despite Shiro's best efforts the closest to a howl he could muster was a pitiful excuse, not to mention his claws weren't up to what he'd had before coming here. However after another few moments of thought, Shiro remembers Omni's words about how the mystical substance he'd called omnilium could grant any of his desires if he just imagined what he wanted hard enough. Shiro hesitates before closing his eyes and imagining himself turning into a large wolf that was larger than Sapphira however when the process begins he's struck by a piercing but brief head ache painful enough to cause him to wince involuntarily, however as he massaged his temples he couldn't help but think back to how when he'd tried something much too advanced for himself his mother had hit him upside the head with a spoon until he promised to not try it until he was ready. So, taking his cues from his body as omni not judging him to be ready for his wolf he surmises that he'll need a bow to help defend himself until his claws could be brought back to their former glory and his howl could return to the thunderous roar that had killed an entire row of armored guards, and begins to imagine a recurve compound bow slowly forming in front of him on a quiver with a fair number of arrows bristling and ready to be loosed into the hearts of his enemies or as would most likely happen; his food. After hours of nonstop concentration Shiro finally manages to make himself a bow and quiver of bodkin arrows which met with his specifications.
Shiro smiles, laughing softly with joy at his new gift, crediting the creation of the bow and arrows as a sort of gift from Omni since while Shiro had made them Omni had told him how to do it. Shiro stands before putting the quiver on his belt behind him, the arrows positioned in such a way that he could take one, notch it, and let it fly in one fluid motion which he does, hitting a squirrel from a fair distance as he thanks his family for forcing him to learn the bow. Shiro collects the squirrel, removing his arrow carefully and cleaning it before putting it back in the quiver and letting Sapphira have the squirrel, the she wolf remaining laid down as she looks at Shiro expectantly until he hops up onto her back and rides her bare back as he lets her set the pace and asks "mind taking me to a small town?".
Almost immediately after Shiro's request Sapphira races between the trees, brown and green whipping past them as Shiro hold on for dear life while his companion expertly slips between the trees even at this break neck speed until they emerge onto the road, racing along it rapidly until the come across a small bandit encampment a bit farther along the road intended to act as an illegal toll gate with plenty of men with plenty of various pointy things to make people want to say yes all of which being enclosed in a resilient enough looking wooden fort to require a fairly serious force in order to dislodge them. "i see them girl... you go hide in the forest alright?" Shiro says softly as he dismounts and gives her a small pet before dipping into the woods opposite from Sapphira too far out of range of the bandit encampment to be seen. shiro spends a good hour sneaking up to a hill at the edge of the treeline to allow him to scope out the encampment's defenses while he hides, counting six men along the wooden palisade walls, two in small raised platforms, six sleeping in small tents intended for the night shift, and a newly built cabin in the center with a single guard outside, marking where they were keeping their valuables.
Shiro waits for the darkness of night, the camp illuminated quite well by the waning half moon which in Shiro's mind had been full not more than two days ago... the lycan doesn't dwell on such things for long since he had important business to take care of right now while his philosophical musing could wait till later. Shiro slowly makes his way to a vantage point just at the edge of the tree line, his furs hiding him as he notches an arrow, draws as he aims, and looses it all in one fluid, practiced motion before watching the arrow sail through the sky with the only thing of it that's visible being it's steel tip which buries itself in the throat of one of the men on the guard towers which while it served a much better effect was not what Shiro had been aiming for. however by the time the guard plummets to the ground outside the wall in front of one of the other guards, that guard is already having to deal with an arrow in his own throat. Shiro sighs, not liking having to kill but knowing that people like this didn't talk things out, although something odd had happened to his aim; it had improved quite significantly. Shiro remembered his previous time with a bow having been so abysmal he'd never have hit those guards let alone in such small vital areas however he doesn't dwell on it too long as he approaches the wall quietly, using his furs to hide himself in the shadow of the guard tower,
Once he finds himself at the wall Shiro collects his arrows carefully before he slings his bow over his back and changes his hands to claws before slowly climbing his way up high into the guard tower, rolling into it as he keeps a hand on his arrows to keep them from rattling or falling out. Shiro quickly spots the other guards along the wall and picks them off meticulously until the only guard left awake is the one at the door to the cabin. Rather than risk someone coming out of the cabin and discovering the body of the guard Shiro climbs down the tower quietly and sneaks over, using the shadows to his advantage before grabbing the guard from behind and muffling him as Shiro stabs him in the throat with his claws and drags the corpse away to somewhere it can't easily be seen. After that Shiro takes his time slitting the throats of the sleeping guards quietly and letting them die peacefully in their sleep.
After finishing his grizzly work Shiro uses his claws to slice the leather straps that worked as the door's hinges, bypassing the lock entirely as he moves the door out of the way only to come face to face with a rather large guard with a rather large axe. Shiro leaps back to avoid an axe swing at his neck, the bandit roaring a battle cry to try and raise his fellow bandits who all lie dead around the fort however the realization of this sends the bandit into a rage causing him to swing his axe blindly and as hard as he can at Shiro however with his opponent's lack of training and Shiro's amazing speed the axe man is soon falling to the ground, clutching at his trachea which still lies speared on Shiro's claws.
Shiro spends the rest of the night and the better part of the morning burying the dead with a shovel he'd found in the cabin, taking the time to gather the still usable arrows and clean them before spending some time making some more and refilling his quiver, opening both gates to the place to let Sapphira in who nuzzles him, sniffing at his new clothing, just some simple cotton pants, shirt, and a wool cloak with some proper leather boots and a small pack he can tie his bow to and store some of the supplies he'd gathered in, making him look like a respectable traveler rather than some wild man although the coloring still allowed him to blend in with the forest around him if need be.
Shiro puts a saddle that oddly fits the massive she wolf before mounting her after letting her get a good smell of his new clothes and the saddle. "Keep taking me to the town please... i'm going to get some sleep" Shiro requests softly before the wolf sets off slowly down the road again, letting Shiro sleep for a few hours before the calls of cattle awaken him, having ridden straight to a ranching town however at the sight of cows Shiro just smiles as he asks "you just wanted something easy to eat didn't you?" to which Sapphira just looks back at him with what could be called a smile for a while before Shiro dismounts and walks with her the rest of the way into town, taking her saddle off at the stables and letting her roam, some children almost immediately befriending her and playing with her while he heads to the inn and sits at a table with a content sigh as he listens to the local gossip and has himself another simple meal of bread and ale with some cheese and smoked sausage thrown in.
Shiro's sensitive ears are able to pick up every word said in the inn however rather than talk of unsavory bandits, strangers, or even sightings of what ever local monster was stalking the cattle the villagers seem to be stuck on one word "Vendriel" and while once or twice wouldn't mean much to Shiro but the fact that the entire inn seemed abuzz about it got him curious enough to call over the bar maid and ask as she refills his flagon "so... what might i ask is Vendriel?" which earns him a sigh from the barmaid who replies evenly "Vendriel was the local healer round these parts but after an... incident he locked himself up in a cave not far from here to study but he hasn't even come out for supplies in a week and everyone fears he's dead... but without a healer we can't live out here for much longer so the mayor's offered up a reward to anyone that can get the old magus out of the caves and back to his work".
Shiro nods and finishes his meal before getting a room for the night and heading upstairs, flopping into bed and attempting to catch up on sleep only to be woken in the middle of the night by a scream, the already loud sound made louder to the point it wakens him easily. Shiro hastily grabs his bow and quiver before sprinting outside to see a rather odd sight: farmers fight creatures that look like mushroom raptors however luckily they didn't seem to be as smart as their prehistoric predecessors or as deadly more just odd and creepy than anything else so the villagers manage to survive fighting with them although having the creatures scares them more than it probably should. Despite the villagers seeming to be capable of handling them Shiro still steps in and shoots a single arrow which pierces through multiple of the creatures showing that they're actually quite fragile as just that arrow seems to kill three of them however at that revelation Shiro puts his bow away and leaps into the fray, claws out as bits of the creatures go flying, scattering fungal chunks of gore around the battle zone which had slowly grown until they'd been fighting right outside the mouth of a cave. "i suppose i'll look into your problem with Vendriel... starting tomorrow..." Shiro calls out as he peers into the cave, a moldy damp smell drifting up to him which causes him to wrinkle his nose in displeasure.
After returning to the inn Shiro collapses into bed, still quite tired, his mind weary as it tries to calculate what happened but eventually his exhaustion wins out and he falls asleep mid thought about wanting to spend a night with one of the beautiful women he'd met on his short travels
Shiro awakes some time in the early morning, still groggy from being woken in the middle of the night to fight creatures the townspeople could have handled themselves, however rather than be upset he simply accepts that what had transpired could not be changed as he cleans himself up at a washing basin before heading outside to be greeted by his new found friend Sapphira. Despite having only met her recently Shiro couldn't help but have grown attached to her in the short amount of time they'd traveled together. "It's time for me to go girl. you wait for me here alright?" Shiro says evenly as he pets her gently while Sapphira presses her head to him as if regretting his leaving but knowing that he was going somewhere she could not follow. After saying his good byes to her for the time being, the townspeople await him outside the cave with food and drink, some light quartz, small crystals that gather light into themselves and glow in the dark to provide light without the use of a torch. and assurances that Sapphira would be taken care of should he not come back.
Shiro peers into the darkness of the cavern, apprehensive as he descends carefully, his movements lit by the light quartz tied to his belt. Upon reaching the bottom of his climb where he was unable to see from the cave entrance he finds that rather than the sound of his feet striking stone with each step the sound of dried moss rustling underfoot with his steps as though he were walking through short grass, his light quartz becoming somewhat useless as the large cavern he finds himself looking into is filled with glowing mushrooms in various colors, some rare few the size of small trees while others are no larger the knee high bushes. However, despite the wonderfully intriguing landscape set out before him, he was soon reminded of why he descended into this cavern by a large raptor-like creature leaping on him and pinning him from the brush, this particular one covered in the white and blue glowing mushrooms like the landscape around him rather than the red and white mushrooms of the creatures from last night.
Unlike the creatures that attacked the village the previous night this new breed had sharp claws and teeth that made it well suited for hunting prey however, fortunately the creature still suffered from the same stupidity that the creatures from last night did, rendering Shiro able to escape it's grasp and decapitate it with a swift swipe of his claws, it's skin parting just as easily as the previous creatures' did. As the creature's flailing carcass finally falls to the ground, stilling as it's blue, luminescent blood sprays onto the lichen that serves as this cavern's grass Shiro takes the time to examine it, seeing how it's body works by moving parts of it around and familiarizing it's scent from the blood that was pooling at his feet so that he could hopefully prevent future ambushes. After familiarizing himself with the creature's outside functions he takes a claw to it's stomach and cuts it open, looking at it's organs to find a singular singular lung, a normal digestive system, a rather large heart, and female reproductive organs. However, before he can investigate it further a pack of the creatures pins him and drags away the corpse before running off, seeming to have learned that he could kill them with ease so it was better not to mess with him.
Rather than hang around to find out what more lives in this strange mini ecosystem, Shiro rights his things and sets out again, exploring for roughly what felt like an hour however with the lack of sun there was no way to be sure as he eventually reaches a hut built into one of the largest tree-like mushrooms he could find. Rather than enter and be attacked by whoever might live here, Shiro knocks on the door however when it creaks open at the strikes he simply enters to find an absolute mess that looks to have at one point been an arcane study which had been abandoned. While he'd always been interested in mystical arts as a child he had never been able to study them well enough to put them to use. However combining that childhood want with the curiosity at what kind of studies could have been conducted in such and odd place such as this Shiro finds himself compelled to search through the old research notes he finds set before him.
After an unknown quantity of time, the curious lycan finally manages to piece together the story of how this place came to be from a diary found amongst a pile of research notes on plant growth without sunlight. The most recent entry having been dated a year ago by a man that went by the alias of Victor describes his lack of interest in cultivating the fungal land he'd created, seeing it as a failed experiment, so instead he set out to dig deeper into the earth along a pathway to the north he'd found that had collapsed, but he'd managed to get a glimpse of a strange creature just beyond it that he described as "a great dragon of crystal and magic that radiates a pure white light, the merest sight of which had soothed his aching joints which had been growing increasingly painful in his old age".
After making the discovery, Shiro stuffs the diary into his pack for later and leaves the mushroom home only to be faced with a larger variant of the raptors he'd been faced with earlier, this one sporting wicked looking horns and usable arms. Rather than back down and be forced to run, Shiro brings out his claws and growls at the creature, challenging it. The creature leaps at him suddenly , slamming against the door as Shiro rolls out of the way, slashing at the creature and expecting his claws to part it's skin just as easily as the others however, much to his disappointment, the creature's skin is more resilient than expected, resulting in the rather small cuts to only anger it further as it rounds on him and roars before charging, attempting to bite him but instead it's only able to get a mouthful of mushroom as Shiro had rolled out of the way again only to leave it chomping on one of the bush sized mushrooms which it rips out of the ground and hurls at the lycan, knocking him a fair distance. The disoriented lycan barely manages to regain his senses just in time to duck out of the way of the creature biting his head off, allowing him the chance to plunge his claws into the side of it's head. The creature roars as it whips it's head around, trying to dislodge Shiro's claws as the lycan crawls up onto it's back and slashes it's throat however, while the lycan is so focused on ending the fight and killing the creature, he fails to move his leg out of reach of the creatures jagged, sharp teeth which soon bite down, crunching through the bone and nearly removing the leg as it falls over, twitching as it breathes it's last.
Shiro cries out in pain as his leg is nearly torn off, the creature's last effort to kill him had finally resulted in a successful hit which put him in quite the bind as he now has to pry the creature's maw open. The process is slow and incredibly painful but The now injured lycan finally manages to free his mangled leg, his natural regenerative abilities managing to staunch the flow of blood but with how dulled his abilities had become he's unable to do any more for himself than crawl back to the mushroom house, bandage and splint his leg, and crawl into bed and rest until he heals.
The next few days flow together into one long mesh of nightmares and fever as the creature had done much worse than simply injure him, the creature's blood and saliva had contained a highly potent toxin which only Shiro's status as a prime and his natural poison resistance as a lycan had prevented him from succumbing to. However that did not mean he was completely out of the woods as while he didn't die immediately, the toxin still left him in with a high fever and with his leg in it's current state he was unable to care for himself as his mind produced horrific nightmares and his body slowly heals itself.
By the time Shiro's completely healed and free of his fever dreams he has no idea how much time has past and decides to look into that later as right now he was starving and dehydrated. After satiating his needs with the supplies given to him by the townsfolk, the weary lycan gathers his things and sets out to finish what he'd come here to do. After a small time of walking he manages to find the carcass of the creature that had nearly killed him, now reduced to bones which are being slowly covered by lichen however with his work nearly done Shiro doesn't give it too much thought and manages to eventually find the cave mentioned in the journal, the path now cleared of debris. As the lycan walks down the path the lichen underfoot begins to give way to various hues of crystals and gems until he finds himself in a small offshoot cavern where the corpse of a crystalline dragon resides with the sword that killed it still sticking out of it's head however, as the journal had described, the light and feeling of relief was still there, suggesting the the poor scientist had most likely found the dragon already dead. Yet something the scientist could not have found as it looked like any other crystal was a small scale at the base of the dragon's neck which seemed to reach out to Shiro's animal instincts.
The curious lycan slowly approaches the crystal, hesitating before touching it only for his body to be lifted into the air, white energy coiling around him and attempting to pull something out of him before he hears a small thud below him, the cavern around him having grown distorted and small coils of light and energy run through the crystals as the pain subsides and Shiro is left facing what looks to be the spirit of the dragon looking at him. The implications of this quickly panics him as he tries to run only to find that his body feels different and more like how he remembered it feeling when he'd let his wolf take over which only panics him further as he begins to move correctly, managing to glimpse how he looked in the crystals of the cave. What he sees causes his panic to stop and his fate to set in to his mind. Rather than skin and his clothing he sees in his reflection a white wolf made of energy, the spirit of his wolf. After a small bit of further exploration he finds his corpse, the husk that was left after his spirit had been removed by the dragon's scale. At the recollection he rounds on the dragon, his spiritual voice guttural and furious as he roars "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME SERPENT?!", his form wavering with the rage he now felt.
The spirit of the dragon studies him briefly before replying in an echoing, high pitched voice "I have freed your spirit from your body so that you may learn". The dragon's words shock Shiro into silence for a long period of time before he asks quietly "and what am i to learn from this?..." his voice having grown more human like at his lamentation of his fate. "Seek a spirit by the calling of Thrall. He shall teach you what you need to know. Which includes how to reclaim your body" the dragon replies before disappearing to leave Shiro to think on his fate.
After an unknown amount of time Shiro finally leaves the cavern and wanders the land in search of the one called Thrall, his mind racing at what waits in store for him once he finds whoever he was searching for and his heart aching to return to his mortal shell before it was too late.
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