The Spirit Wolf's Treck

[Shiro]

Shiro exits the cave containing his body to find himself faced with an odd sight: everything from the cattle to the great trees at the edge of the forest seemed to radiate an energy, causing the landscape around him to appear blurred as he slowly pads along down the road into the town, the people having grown strange to look at as rather than looking human their spirits were on display in their stead yet they still sounded the same as he listened to them gossip between one another.

"That man still hasn't come out of the cave has he?" one spirit asks another, the two of them appearing to be doing laundry however the activity is difficult to gauge as Shiro's mind was still unaccustomed to viewing things from this new perspective. "No... he's been in there for a week so he's probably dead... that wolf of his still won't leave and our elder said that we'd take care of it if he didn't come back... even if he was a criminal" the other spirit replies, her voice sounding older. While he'd been planning to simply walk by, he comment about his criminal status intrigued him enough that Shiro sat down nearby to listen to their gossip, his ghostly ears perking up with interest. "Mother you know as well as I do that that man was no more a criminal than I am. He not only helped us defend our town but he even went into a monster infested cave just to try and help us. That doesn't even come anywhere near what that poster described" the younger woman replies, causing the spirit wolf's tail to wag slightly in reflex however it stops when the older woman says "bah. He was probably just trying to go into hiding. I hope he did die down there"

While her rather hateful comments do anger Shiro, rather than strike at her he simply gets up and continues walking into the forest, growling to himself "criminal? i didn't break any laws though!... none that I know of anyway... wait... what about that knight?... Richard or something like that i think... he did seem pretty pissed at me... damn it! Did he make something up?! He probably did didn't he?... oh well... i guess i'll just have to deal with it when i'm out of this mess". As the frustrated wolf growls and mutters he fails to notice how the energy radiating from the trees grows more and more sinister the farther he goes until he's surrounded by dark, malevolent energy and utter silence which is soon broken by a great echoing roar that seems to have two voices, one extremely high pitched and one extremely low pitched, both sounding out at the same time "I SMELL LUNCH".

Something in Shiro told him that he was on the menu in this place so rather than just sit around waiting to be eaten he bolts through the trees at full speed, terror fueling his legs to carry him to safety, his instincts guiding him to what appears to be a camp site with a powerful spirit residing inside of it. His hopes of this place being a safe haven are soon dashed when a great mass of dark energy emerges from the trees, seeming to suck the energy from the spirits it touches as the two glowing red orbs that seemed to work as the creature's eyes round on the terrified wolf as he huddles against what feels like a protective warmth. The creature charges at the wolf only to be rebounded by a sphere of energy with a shriek of pain as part of it dissipates from the main mass, showing what could be equivalent to a wound before it slinks back into the brush. A large humanoid spirit with a green main body of energy that radiates a comforting and friendly light asks in a deep but even voice "well little wolf... it looks like you're safe for now. That demon won't be coming back for a long while. So tell me spirit, what brings you here?"

"i come seeking the one known as Thrall" Shiro replies after taking a moment to calm himself, composing himself to regain his spiritual appearance as a regal wolf rather than a terrified prey. "Well then you're in luck. You have found him" Thrall replies, his spirit seeming to smile as he asks "now why would you be seeking me little wolf?"

"My spirit was ripped from my body by a treacherous serpent without warning. I was told to come to you for learning and that by learning what you have to teach i could be returned to my body. Will you teach me what needs to be learned?" Shiro explains, ecstatic to have found Thrall so soon after he had begun his search but apprehensive at what lessons lay in store for him that the serpent had required him to be reduced to but his spirit and told to be taught by the great shaman before him in the shamanic ways of nature and spirit magic

[Proto Man]

Thrall smiled at the spirit wolf that sat before him. It had been so long since his treks in the Spirit Realm had resulted in anything more than run-ins with corrupted dreamers or fel creatures. The thought that this being before him had been sent to find him was also a pleasant turn of events. The last time anyone had sought him out in this manner had been ages past.

“You seek to walk the enlightened path?” Thrall inquired as he sat down before the wolf, which gave him a prompt nod. “The Spirit Realm is not like anything you may have experienced in your previous world. It is a place where the landscape is a canvas,” the green-skinned humanoid waved a hand, and as the wolf watched in awe, the environment around them changed. The campsite and the surrounding forests fell away to reveal a flat plain dotted with bushes and the occasional gum tree. “We are not in one of the traditional verses but rather in an amalgamation of magic and energy.”

“Is this not the realm of the dead?”

“Not quite,” Thrall replied as he brought his hands together. Between the wolf and the orc, an ethereal figure of a man appeared. “Often people will enter the Spirit Realm to seek power or knowledge, and often, they lose themselves. There is a lot of energy and magic here…both positive and negative. Negative emotions can consume those who are unaccustomed to a world such as this.” As the wolf watched, the ghostly form of the man writhed and twisted around as red-tinted vapors consumed him.

“How do you avoid such a fate?”

“I was trained as a shaman when I was younger,” Thrall replied as he dismissed the ethereal image. “The same set of skills applies here. You can also say this about individuals who spent there lives as monks or students of the arcane. Those kind of paths lend themselves to the proper level of focus and self-control needed to remain whole and sane of mind when you enter the Spirit Realm.”

“Why do such a thing? If this place can be so dangerous, why would anyone come here?”

A laugh escaped the orc’s mouth as he lifted his fist into the air. High above the pair, the sky light up as several stars began to swirl around. The wolf watched in awe as the concentrations of light danced about—leaving behind glowing trails of dust as they drew various shapes in the sky. “This place offers a realm made purely of dreams and inspiration. It allows the savvy a place to experiment and test their limitations.”

“Can you teach me how to survive here?” The wolf asked. “I need to return back to my body, and I was told you knew how to do that.”

Thrall nodded his head as the scene around them shifted back to his campsite. “You must harness the potential of the Spirit Realm. You will face challenges... there are predatory dreamers who will seek to destroy you. You must not allow them to succeed, as your physical body will endure any pain your spirit endures.”

“I…I think I understand.”

“What is your name, Wolf?”

“Shiro.”

“Well, Shiro, I wish you the best of luck. This is not Azeroth, but I believe the core meaning of the phrase remains the same…May the ancestors watch over you.”

[Shiro]

Shiro smiles at the orc's blessing as he walks away and leaves the safety of Thrall's company behind. Despite not having been raised to be religious there had always been the odd shaman passing by through his home town that weaved many a fantastic tale about the spirit world and how the ancestors watched over us all yet, before being set in his current predicament, there had never been any proof to support their tales. It takes a while for him to realize it but as his mind wanders the landscape changes around him to fit what little memories he was beginning to regain.

The first things to form around him is the dirt road underneath his feet, followed by the sparse trees that border it on either side which had been planted by a local fruit orchard rights owner roughly about the same day Shiro had been conceived. As the nostalgic wolf's gaze trails along the trees phantoms of himself playing with other children amongst the trees begin to form an play out, their features blurred so that there was no way to recognize them or tell them apart from each other except for the one with the black hair and piercing silver eyes that had been replaced after an event that was just tantalizingly out of reach in the recesses of Shiro's mind. After a time of reminiscing about the memories of his childhood amongst the fruit trees the wolf's gaze turns where the town would be located, the simple thatch, wood, and mud brick buildings of which springing up along with the potato and wheat fields that dotted the landscape around it where the orchards ended. Each step the ethereal wolf takes towards the town floods his mind with memories of his time spent as a teenager assisting the blacksmith as an apprentice since his father had strong armed him into picking a trade to learn other than farming. Strangely no matter how much he tried Shiro couldn't coalesce his father's facial features yet he was able to conjure forth the rest of him, rendering him a highly detailed man with a blank face everything from the folds in his cotton shirt to the stone buckles on his shoes where visible on the phantom that appeared to collect the fifteen year old Shiro. "c'mon lad, I need your help with the wheat" Shiro's father calls, the outline of his jaw moving as his deep voice sounds out the order yet without a mouth present on the blank slate that was present instead of a face that was the only way it could be told the phantom Shiro's mind labeled as his father was speaking. "I'll be there once i'm done here alright dad? i've been working on this all day and i want to finish it" the younger phantom of Shiro replies with an oddly happy tone as if he was pleased to be doing something more than just care for crops and the chickens all day despite having been forced to learn a trade other than agriculture. "You've got an hour boy" the phantom of his father replied before leaving, the landscape changing once again so that the etheral wolf could see his old home from where he was seated in front of the blacksmith's shop. His old family farm hadn't been anything particularly special; they grew wheat and potatoes for their local lord like all the other farmers in the village however due to his father's military service they were allowed to keep chickens for their own profit and/or food which afforded them a bit of extra leeway in how comfortably they could live.

Rather than explore his old home, the ethereal wolf watched himself work for no more than a few more minutes before his fifteen year old self calls out "all clear Gabriel" only for a rather tall teenager with a deep tan and an ever present smile pops his head out from inside the building. Gabriel had been the blacksmith's son and a rather close... friend of Shiro's or at least that's what the townsfolk thought they were. In actuality Gabriel had been Shiro's first romantic interest and while the two had never gotten physical in their relationship they had still remained together. While most in the town would have found it odd that two males were together very few would have brought it up to either of the two's parents yet Shiro had always guessed that at some level his father had known that he had no real gender preference so long as he was happy with them. "Sorry to cause you so much trouble-" Gabriel begins apologetically before the fifteen year old Shiro cuts him off with "it's no trouble gabe. we've just got to be careful about who we let know".

The two talk for a while however the memories are too fuzzy for him to actually be able to hear what exactly is said, Shiro's memory is clear enough to remember the two of them parting with a secretive kiss in the alley as the sun was setting before they each head their separate ways, Gabriel's phantom disappearing as there was no memory of what he did after that. So, left with no other option, the curious wolf follows his younger self back to his old home only to find his younger self caught by a few guards under the command of the local lord which had been all but forced to reduce taxes to keep them at a manageable rate so that the townsfolk could afford to live relatively comfortably at the expense of the lord missing out on more money that he could horde.

"So this is Kuro's pup? To be honest i figured he'd be somewhat taller considering who the father is but i suppose the bitch's blood runs strong in him" the captain says in a mocking tone while his two cohorts hold Shiro's arms still, binding him in place while he sneers down at the teen with piercing yellow eyes which Shiro now knew to be the eyes of a lycan. "i heard he hasn't even been blooded" one of the guards holding his arms comments, causing the captain to chuckle and retort in a threatening tone "now we're going to have to fix that aren't we? you're in luck lad for i'm one of the most practiced people at this sort of thing". Thinking back, Shiro could recall his exact thoughts at that moment as he watched "Blooded? Are they going to kill me? Is gabe alright? What does my dad have to do with this? What's with this guy's eyes?" However all those thoughts still as the teen begins to feel something in the pit of his stomach; a great rage building as now that, in his current form, Shiro could see the aura of his teenage self change and grow, taking on wolfish features before he lifts the two men on his arms up and slams them together, the sickening crunch of bone sounding before they drop to the dirt. The commander's face grows terrified as he backs away, tripping and cowering on the floor while the teen reflexively opens his mouth only for his white hot rage to swirl at a point in front of his mouth, slowly forming a white orb of condensed rage after a few seconds only to be fired at the guard at point blank range, the ensuing blast to his unprotected head taking the front half of his skull off, exposing his brain, sinuses, and the stump of what used to be his tongue as he writhes violently in pain for a few miliseconds before stilling, unable to let out more than a choking gurgle as a death rattle while the teen that killed him passes out and collapses.

The landscape around the astonished wolf fades as his mind races to comprehend what had just been shown to him. After an unknown quantity of time Shiro realizes he remembers the exact process he went through to create the attack, but he doesn't trust himself to do it under current circumstances so he starts with the simplest step and closes what could be counted as his "eyes" for the mass of emotional energy that made up his spirit. The wolf reaches out with his will to draw upon the energy of what's around him, gathering it within himself and seeming to be able to tell that it was working by the odd feeling he was replicating from the memory where he did it reflexively, however, rather than take it a step further and form the attack the cautious wolf chooses the safe method and disperses the energy as he sighs reflexively.

However one benefit that can be applied at the current point in time does result in the wolf's experiment as his brain finally begins to process that in this realm power of will is the best weapon one can have as it is literally what shapes the world around him. With the new trick and new things to ponder brewing in his mind, Shiro sets out again into the unknown to continue the search for a way to return to his body before it's too late

[Shiro]

After what feels like years of walking that could have merely been seconds in this place the landscape around Shiro stops changing to fit whatever his mind happened to prefer at the time. Instead of the green and browns of the forest the landscape began to grow more sinister, the trees around him beginning to lose their leaves, their bark changing to varying shades of black while the land he walks upon goes from green grass and dark topsoil to ankle deep water with red mud underneath. While the landscape change is very subtle it doesn't take much to be noticed and attempted to be changed back only for confusion and apprehension to set in where contentedness and laxness had been as the wolf trudges onward through the eerie swamp he'd found himself in. Things don't take long to grow strange as Shiro begins to see things at the corners of his vision from wisps to vile and terrifying creatures peeking out at him with hunger filled eyes from behind the twisted and unnatural trees that dotted the marsh. "What hell have I found myself in?..." the wolf muses quietly to himself, giving voice to his growing concerns as he begins to notice laughter, faint at first and just at the edge of his hearing but slowly growing to the point he can recognize it as a vile portent of misery and evils that he was much looking forward to avoiding.

Despite the hellish landscape the wolf never turns to go back from whence he came or stop trudging onwards through the mire, keeping his senses out in case one of the creatures he's seen attempts something. Yet, despite all the danger and oddity around him something compelled the wolf onward through the mire, a growing feeling that, if he could make it through this swamp, then he would be one step closer to returning to his body. However, despite his apprehension the oddities around him become mundane enough that he relaxes his guard for mere seconds before he comes across a dark entity, standing in the mire with glowing red eyes staring at him. Rather than lunge at him or attack him in some way the entity merely stares at him with it's piercing globes that Shiro's mind equated to it's eyes, the water around it not showing a single minute ripple as it keeps it's gazed fixed upon him, never seeming to disappear behind him as more and more of the entities begin appearing before the wolf only to follow him like the first after he passes them.

After hours of trudging through the hellish landscape and being followed by the dark entities, Shiro comes across a small island, just big enough to fit the home and it's garden of odd, tomato-like plants sporting eyes as fruits that follow him as he approaches the door. As the weary and uneasy wolf reaches a paw up to scratch at the door a large orb of red energy is fired at the creatures, splitting before impact into the perfect number of smaller orbs to blast a hole where each entity's heart would be, causing them to dissipate and bleed into the water, turning it black where they were standing. At the sudden and rather unexpected attack, the already weary and hyper alert wolf yelps and cowers against the door, only for it to be opened causing him to fall inside, dragged farther in by the owner of the cabin, and the door to be shut quietly. "Who are you? Why are you here?" asks a feminine voice from underneath a mask, the owner of the cabin being dressed in knee high boots made for traversing the swamp, loose leather pants, a shirt woven from black vines that hid her features rather well, and a flat mask made of what looks like bone with it's only features being two holes revealing blue, humanoid eyes. "M-my name is Shiro... i'm trying to return to my body" the wolf replies, unable to keep the fear from worming it's way into his voice as he cowers into a corner and hopes that what was done to the entities that were following him wasn't done to him. "why were the pursuers after you?" the woman asks gruffly only to be met with a question and a genuine look of non-understanding. "Pursuers?" The wolf replies only to cause the woman to make a sound of annoyance as she looks out the window to find it lacking in anything other than the swamps to look at.

"this your first time here?" the woman asks evenly, her voice gravely as she waves her hand over the window only for it to disappear. "y-yes... how did you know?" he replies only to be jabbed at with the cane of the woman's staff, which was a simple wooden rod with a crystalline and silver cap, causing him to grimace in pain as he's pressed against the wall. "anyone who's spent any longer than five minutes here knows about pursuers. They're beings of dark energy and act as a sort of white blood cell for this place, taking things that aren't supposed to be here out forcibly. They get confused sometimes so it's good for spirit walkers to be able to defend ourselves. Why were they after you?" the woman replies, fielding her own question in response to his as she keeps him pressed against the wall. "i don't know!" the wolf replies, angry at his treatment along with the simmering anger of his situation rising to a head as he growls out "some ass hole dragon decided he wanted to be especially dickish to the next person to walk into his cave and rip out their spirit. I was that person and i've been trying to find a way to get back to my body but the best answer i've gotten was to find my own way without any explanation other than that i had to harness the power of this place. I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT TO DO!" shouting the last part at her, his spirit flaring before launching an orb of it from his maw at her reflexively like he'd done in the memory out of anger, sending her skidding along the floor a couple of inches as she blocks it with her staff only for it to dissipate before any real harm is done.

"a-are you alright? i'm sorry... i didn't mean to-" Shiro begins only to be silenced by a whack with the woman's staff. "Apology excepted, and you've got enough skill to be able to go back to your body if you're able to control that. Hit me with it again if you can" the woman replies as she extends her hand. Shiro does as told, closing his eyes as he reaches out and calls upon the spiritual energy of the world around him, collecting it in a baseball sized orb in front of his open muzzle after a couple seconds before firing it at her without hesitation. Rather than block with her staff again, the woman catches the orb, holding fast and not budging a centimeter before crushing the orb of energy in her hand and chuckling out "not bad for a novice. When you return to your body, come to me every other night and i'll train you."

"O-ok... but how do i do that?" Shiro asks, not really sure what she meant but the fact that she had requested he come back gave him a bit of hope. Rather than reply the woman just hits him in the side of the head with her staff.

Shiro awakens in the cave, clutching the side of his head as he curls up in the fetal position and mutters "ow... could have warned me first...." yet despite the pain he can't help but smile at the joy of having returned to his body and being able to cradle his head with his own flesh and blood hands. However his joyous reunion with himself is cut short as one of the raptor creatures nips at his ear only for the lycan's hand to grip it's neck as he mutters out "i'm not dead" shortly before cutting it's head off with his other hand.

It takes a while to collect himself and get used to walking on two legs again but Shiro is soon able to walk out of the cave, climbing all the way out to the surface and smiling up at the warmth of the sun hitting his face only to be tackled and licked joyously by sapphira while he hugs her and laughs. After their joyous reunion, the two of them look around only to find the town abandoned with a good number of live stock left for the dire she-wolf although an equal number of cattle carcasses lay scattered about showing that she'd eaten well while he was underground. After a bit of searching, the two of them manage to gather up some supplies that had been left behind and pack them away for later after getting a good meal, the lycan's journey having hungered him greatly as he'd most likely been in that cave for more than just a couple hours.

After their scavenging and meal, the two of them set out on the road again, heading farther towards into the plains with Shiro's mind broiling with concerns and questions that he couldn't answer as the two of them begin their journey again unaware of what had transpired while the lycan had been traversing the spirit realm