Way of the Knights

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"Who are you" The pale young boy asked with a horrified tone.

"I mean you no harm, young wolf." Raven said in a placid tone. He removed his grip on the young wolf's wrist and kept a safe distance.

There was a complicated expression on the young wolf's face when he heard his words. He felt that doubtful and highly skeptical about the true intentions of this man. For one, he had never saw him before, and two he's different from the rest of them, he's sure about it.

Seeing the skeptical expression of the young wolf, Raven smiled and waited for him to calm down. He did no effort to hide the fact that he saw the young wolf's transformation into a young lad. 

'Should I believe him?' The young wolf warily gazed and thought, his subsequent thoughts became  incredibly chaotic as many memories surface through his brain. 

'No! I can't risk it! He's stronger than me, that's for sure but if I try really hard, then maybe I'll be able to kill him. Transforming into a human is the only happiness that I can get from this life, if the other humans knew that I am a beast in hiding, they would spare no efforts to hunt me down. I don't want to die on the hands of humans, I don't want them to hate me.'

Thinking up to this point, a determined expression surfaced on the young face of the wolf. He slowly backed away without breaking any eye contact at Raven. The latter watched this spectacle with an interested expression in his face. 

As soon as the young wolf arrived at a safe distance, the young wolf transformed into a shadow of it's former self. It then ran with a much faster speed and disappeared on Raven's vision. 

Raven allowed the young wolf to flee. Well, not really. It's not like the young wolf really escaped. It just transformed for a while and circled around him, planning to ambush and kill him. 

One won't just leave someone, specially if that someone found out their deepest secret.

The plan was a little naive, but this allowed Raven to have some initial impression for the young wolf. From what he could tell, the young wolf isn't some bloodthirsty beast who wanted to kill humans. Or at least, that's what he's hoping for. The young wolf also doesn't have much experience with fighting as well. He figured that he must've resolved to kill in order to remain his secret hidden. Raven had no idea as to why the young wolf wanted to live with humans so bad but he's sure that there must be a deep reason behind it.

Raven wasn't on a rush to move on, once again he had no clue as to where he was and what kind of world this is. It isn't his style to blindly charge onto something after all.

He made sure to take in whatever his eyes could see. He also made sure that he's keeping attention for any ambushes of the young wolf.

Raven was walking alone in middle of a vast forest, he wasn't able to see the end on sight just yet and he wasn't aware if he's even going in the correct direction. 

*Rustling*

Raven's ears perked up, he could feel movements behind him. The sounds of bushes rustling was very faint, almost seemed like it was just the wind that caused it. But Raven felt the irregularity behind it. The young wolf was on the move.

His nails lengthened, a fierce expression surfaced on the young face of the wolf. With a deadly precision, he aimed at the head of Raven, taking advantage of his ignorance about his presence.

Unfortunately, his thoughts are a little too naive as Raven merely tilted his head and easily caught the claws of the young wolf.

The young wolf was badly startled, 'How did he know?' Was his only thought as he felt his body being lifted off the ground and he felt a painful sensation on his back. It turned out that Raven borrowed the momentum of his charge to slam his body onto the ground.

The young wolf groaned in pain, next he found out that he being lifted by Raven using his neck. The young wolf opened his eyes and happened to make eye-contact with Raven at this moment. He saw the chilling coldness of his gaze, shivers ran down his spine as he realized that he had been too naive to think that this guy was an easy target. He was a Silver Moonwolf, it's in his blood to be a hunter, but he had never expected that he was the prey this time around, this left a bad taste in his mouth.

"So, the young wolf came to play once again." Raven said with an amused tone. "You attempted to kill me twice by now. I'm stronger than you so killing should be justified, am I correct? Young Wolf?" Raqven tightened his grip on the young wolf's neck.

The boy squirmed in pain, his pale hands grabbed Raven's arm, using everthing that he could to free himself from the choke and escape as far as he could. The boy tried to morph his hand and lengthen his nails once more but Raven seemed to know that this process required a steep focus from him and tightened his grip to break his focus away.

Breathing became harder for the young boy, he puched, kicked, smacked and did every single thing that seems logical to free himself but Raven's grip was like an iron cuffs. A deep sense of helpness and bitterness surfaced on the heart of the young wolf. The boy was about to give up any resistance and accept that his life came to an end, when Raven suddenly released him.

The young wolf was surprised, his body slumped onto the ground and he broke into a fit of coughing and panting.

Raven watched this process and waited patiently. Eventually, the young wolf calmed down and looked up to him with a complicated expression.

"W-why did you let me go." He asked after calming down.

"I need you alive that's why." Raven replied non-chalantly.

"What do you want from me? I don't think that I have anything of use for you." The young wolf reasoned.

"That's not true." Raven shook his head and replied, "I'm guessing that you already knew that I'm not a local of this place, correct?" 

The young wolf nodded in confirmation.

"I needed someone to guide me, and since you're the first local I saw, then you should do."

The young wolf was stunned beyond words. Never in his wildest dreams that he would meet an eccentric human like this. He truly was different from the others, if the locals witnessed his transformation, they would without a doubt hunt him to death, but this guy had the chance to kill him but released him because he wanted a guide.

"Y-you want me to guide you?" The young wolf repeated, just to make sure that he wasn't just hearing things.

"Yes." Raven nodded, "Depending on your sincerity, I might consider keeping your secret with me."

"If I do become your guide..." The young wolf glanced at him warily and continued, "How can I make sure that you won't go back on your word?"

"It seems that you don't remember the situation that you are in." Raven's eyes narrowed, "This is not me negotiating with you. At most, I could just find another local, preferably a human at that, to be my guide, and I could just finish you off right now. This is me giving you an additional leash on your life."

Raven's words might be poisonous and vile but he had no other choices, he's in a foreign land. He could not afford to show any weakness because it would just be the root of more complications.

The young wolf shuddered in his place, he had no doubt that this guy was telling the truth. Raven would truly end him if he didn't dare to follow his instuctions.

"I don't have other choices, do I?" The young wolf asked. 

On the smallest chance that his pitiful apperance could change Raven's mind, of course the young wolf would not want to miss it. In all honesty, he would much rather not be acquainted with a human like this and instead go away as far as he could.

Raven shook his head and looked at him with a plain gaze. "No, you don't."

His reply made the young wolf despair but also helpless. In the end, there was no escaping this situation. 

"I'll do it. I'll tell you everything that I know. I just wish that you would spare me afterwards, I don't wish to die just yet." The young wolf asked.

"Acheive it using your actions." Raven plainly said, "I don't mind sparing you but that's on the premise that you don't lie to me. What's your name?"

"Elyion." The young wolf replied. "How about you Sir?"

"Raven." He replied.. "Now, Elyion. What can you tell me about this place?"