“You are much more energetic than usual.” Alena said, glancing sideways at Krez, who was sitting next to her in the truck. “I would even go so far as to claim that you have never been this lively since we picked you up in that prison.”

  Krez only snorted disapprovingly.

  “I mean, you even warned the Eltaran before we left. That is a more active engagement than ever before.”

  The wolf-kin didn’t answer and only grunted in annoyance.

  “Ah, come on.” Alena said with a lighthearted chuckle that others didn’t even know she was capable of, “You don’t have to hide it. Do you really think I don’t notice the nervous fidgeting of your hands? The slight shuffling of your feet? The irritated twitching of your nose?”

  “Okay, I get it. Damn, can’t you just leave me alone?” The Zulbano cursed, his voice a deep growl.

  “No chance.” Alena giggled, “I don’t know why, but I really enjoy seeing you getting pulled out of that deep hole you’ve hidden your mind before.”

  “It’s not like you to be so cheerful.” He growled irritatedly as he looked out of the window, observing the trees rushing by, “Where is that mask you’re always wearing?”

  “Tsk… it’s not a mask.” She scoffed, “Niu is wearing a mask, one that allows her to transform into her other persona, Happy. I respect that and am even somewhat jealous of her. Being able to force oneself to walk through the world with lighthearted optimism isn’t easy.”

  Krez didn’t respond and Alena kept her eyes on the road ahead. She steered the heavy truck along a narrow dirt track through the thick forest. Checking her map, she noticed that they still had at least half an hour to go.

  “My brother, Sevastian, and I have been part of many teams and worked with lots of different people. Sevastian is a cheerful person not unlike Happy. He always was the one to break the ice and form a sense of companionship with the others. I took up the role of the mature sibling who keeps a calm head and doesn’t get emotionally involved. That way it was much easier to make necessary decisions and complete missions professionally.” Alena explained absentmindedly, “I never was one for socializing and making friends. As such it wasn’t hard to get lost in the role I chose. It wasn’t until I met Robin and the others that I realized how deep I had fallen into the hole I had dug myself. For the first time, I wanted to become a part of the team myself - in this case a small group of lunatics ”

  “Hmpf.” Krez scoffed, “And today is the day of your great breakthrough? Laughing and giggling like a human pup?”

  “No, dogo, no…” Alena chuckled again, “But you are such a lost cause that it practically hits me in the face like a sledgehammer what would happen to me, if I do not allow myself to look for a bit more fun in my life. With only you around, who is there to judge me if I seem crazy while testing to express myself?”

  Krez didn’t respond to that, but Alena noticed that he also didn’t scoff or waved her off. Maybe her words reached him to some degree.

  ‘I really hope he finds his way back,’ she thought, ‘I refuse to believe that there is a point of no-return somewhere in the depths of our minds. There must be a way out… always!’

  The truck continued to rumble through the forest towards the marked square on their map, indicating the area where the armor plates landed. It was a long while later, before Krez sighed and broke the silence.

  “Its paws and claws…” he said, still looking away from her and out of the window.

  “What?” Alena asked in confusion.

  “You said I’m fidgeting with my hands and shuffling my feet. Its paws and claws, not hands or feet.”

  “Huh, if you say so.” She shrugged, “Aren’t you drawing an unnecessary line between yourself and other humanoids? Why bother?”

  “Because we are different.” Krez stated, “And that’s also why you don’t have to put in so much effort to help me. I’m fine as I am. I know what I have to do to fulfill my role.”

  His voice eventually dropped to a whisper, but with her mutated senses Alena could hear him just fine.

  “So, why the nervousness then?”

  “There are others here. Other Zulbano.” he muttered and Alena saw him clenching his hands, or claws at that.

  “Do you think they are your chance to get home?” She asked, “You want to meet them?”

  Krez began to laugh loudly, a deep guttural laugh.

  “My chance to get home? Sure, why not. But you are right, I would have loved to meet them.”

  “Why? From what I understood you’re what they call Bultaz. Would they even hear you out?”

  “You still don’t understand anything, human.” He shook his head, “They could give me the death of a warrior. A worthless warrior I may be, but at least I could die through the claws of my own people. They would understand my wish.”

  Alena didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure what to tell him. Death obviously wasn’t the right choice but she had the feeling that he was actually looking forward to regaining some of the honor he believed he had lost. Who was she to tell him off?

  Before her mind could linger much longer on those thoughts, the truck’s comm crackled and Robin’s voice interrupted her musings.

  “Alena, Krez, do you read?”

  “Aye, hey Captain!” She said after pressing some buttons.

  “Alena! Have you arrived at the target area already?”

  “Not yet, we still have about 10 minutes left. Everything good on your side?”

  “Yeah, more or less.” Robin said, “The Eltaran have finished their counting… There are two soldiers missing.”

  “Shit!” Alena cursed, “The Zulbano?”

  “Yeah, we checked some cameras. With their damn cloaking technology it is hard to tell, but we believe that there are at least two wolves on the hunt.”

  Next to her, Krez began to squirm in his seat, not able to remain calm any longer. She could see the fight he was having in his mind.

  “Be careful out there.” Robin continued, “We think Krez’s idea has some merit and one Zulbano will chase the pilots while the other may come for the commander. But we can’t be sure, so keep your eyes open.”

  Alena glanced at her co-driver who had fervor burning in his yellow eyes. Blood dripped from his clenched claws and she felt him shivering slightly.

  She let out a deep, sad sigh and shook her head.

  “Thanks, Robin. We will stay vigilant. Take care and don’t let them bite you in the arse!”

  “Roger, Robin out.”

  Alena turned the comm off and checked the map to guess their distance from the transport with the pilots. It wasn’t too far away. She stopped the truck and turned to Krez.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “You have to go, don’t ya?”

  The wolf-kin stared at her intensely, his chest heaving with heavy breaths.

  “You are a lost cause, you know that? Is there anything I can say to change your mind?” She asked, knowing she had already lost the fight.

  “Please, Alena…”

  “Fuck…” She cursed loudly and punched the steering wheel a few times before she calmed down. “Will you just stand there and let them kill you or will you at least fight back?”

  Krez’s eyes widened in shock, “Of course I’ll fight back! That’s what makes this my last chance to be a Zulbano once again.”

  “Damn, this isn’t right.” Alena complained angrily, “This is stupid!”

  “Just start collecting the armor plates.” Krez said, his voice now a bit softer, “Before I engage the hunter I’ll inform the other humans that they should send someone to pick you up.”

  He hesitated for a moment and then held out his claw for her to shake.

  “I thank you for everything you’ve done for me. You’re surprisingly likeable for a human.”

  At that, Alena tilted her head and slapped his claw away.

  “Fuck you!” She cursed and stepped on the pedal to turn the truck around, “If you want to get yourself killed, fine! But I’m not letting you go there alone. I’ll stand at the side of this oh-so-holy battle of yours and watch – don’t you dare to slack off or I’ll kick that wolf’s ass myself and then you can forget about getting any honor back in this life!”

  ***

  Krez wasn’t sure what to make of this human female. She was annoyingly persistent at pestering him with her ideas of a broader mind and optimistic nature. Normally she was detached and cold around others of her kind and yet, he saw her dropping that act more often when they were alone.

  If what she told him was the truth, did that mean she was fighting for him, trying to ‘fix’ him, just for her own sake? To prove herself that a change is always possible?

  ‘Humans are strange. Hadn’t my father also said so when he came back from his trips to the Civilized Territories?’

  He grunted in annoyance and looked back out of the window, observing the trees of the dense forest flying by quickly.

  ‘Whatever it is with her, at least she partly understands me. Even if she doesn’t like it.’ He thought and clenched his nervously shaking claws again, ‘We’re getting closer!’

  Krez finally was getting his chance to become a real Zulbano once more. He would die, yes, but he would die as a proud member of the clan.

  In his mind images of other wolf-kin flashed. A small pack with just a few members that looked fondly at him and encouraged him to do the right thing.

  ‘Mother… Father… Brother…’

  The image of the three happy Zulbano changed into that of a wide plaza with many people standing in a wide circle. They were howling and growling. In the middle of the circle, three dead Zulbano lay on the ground, a hole in their chests where their hearts had once been.

  ‘The Alpha has bluffed!’ Krez whined in his head, trying to chase the gruesome vision of his dead family away, ‘He must think I’ve died on my last mission. He has no reason to punish them…’

  He growled. Krez knew that it was just wishful thinking. Killing his pack wasn’t about punishment, it was about ending a line of weak blood. Ending those that were connected to the fallen Bultaz who failed even the second chance he had gotten to prove his worth.

  Before his thoughts could spiral even deeper into the black hole in his mind, the young wolf was pulled back to reality when the human announced their imminent arrival.

  “We’re already on the right road.” She said, “We could catch up with them any minute now if they are already under attack by the Zulbano. If not, this will be just a long and boring trip until we reach Delta Falls.”

  She knew as well as he did that there was little hope for the latter scenario. The Zulbano were on the hunt and these hunters always caught their prey.

  They were going fast, too fast to be honest, to catch up with the Eltaran’s transport. The human skillfully steered the heavy truck over the bumpy dirt road and before long, Krez noticed signs of combat. A broken tree here, a burned trunk there.

  A few turns later, they finally saw the vehicles of the Eltaran. There was a bus with many black spots left by energy projectiles that failed to penetrate the transport’s armor. Though, its rear axle was missing, laying a few meters to the side in the forest.

  A second car had crashed into a tree and was burning brightly. Five soldiers, Eltaran as he assumed, stood back to back in a circle and watched their surroundings vigilantly. Two more lay on the ground with bleeding holes in their bodies.

  Slates of stone circled around them while the ground seemed to rise and fall like small waves of the ocean. Manipulating the environment was not something normal G-Anomalies could achieve, Krez knew as much, proving the superiority of the Eltaran in this field once more.

  When the group noticed the approaching truck, one of the men waved at them with relief on his face and shouted something. The others got distracted and also looked over.

  “A mistake…” Krez muttered and no sooner had he spoken did the air next to a soldier shimmer and a furred claw reached out to pierce the man’s chest. A torrent of stones flew towards the hunter but despite the shaking ground the wolf-kin skillfully dodged and disengaged before vanishing into thin air again.

  “Shit!” The female next to him cursed, “Krez, if you want to fight him, do it now! I’ll not stand by and watch these men die.”

  “Alright.” He said and opened the door, then he hesitated a moment to look back at the human– Alena was her name.

  “Thank you.” He finally growled and jumped out of the truck. He barely heard the human curse at him and then open a comm channel to give her team an update before his attention was drawn back to the battlesite.

  The Eltaran reacted with shock and panic when they realized that another Zulbano had arrived.

  He chuckled. That was right, his people were feared everywhere. Now was his chance to become a part of them once and for all.

  He ignored the Eltaran and threw his head back, howling a loud, long challenge to his kin. Then he rushed into the forest and away from the battle. The Zulbano would follow him. He knew it.

  Maybe the captain of his temporary crew wouldn’t be too upset. In the end, Krez would buy the Eltaran time to flee. Even if it was only a matter of time, before the hunter would catch up to them again. But maybe he could make a difference.

  After a short sprint through the thicket of the forest, Krez came to a clearing. He slowed down and walked to the middle. The nervousness came back, but so did the anticipation for a battle.

  Not long after, he heard a growl behind him and the air shimmered once before another Zulbano appeared. He was decked in full battlegear, with a personal shield for energy and physical attacks each, the wide, advanced cloak that allowed him to become kind of invisible and an assertion of weapons. This wolf was a hunter. A hunter that has long earned a name.

  “Who are you, whelp?” The Zulbano asked while he crouched down to clean his bloody claw in the grass. Other than that, his brown fur was spotless. Though, Krez couldn’t see much of it since the wolf had its hood still up.

  “Bultaz.” Krez growled, defiance in his voice.

  “Ahhh…” the other one sighed, “There aren’t many of your kind around. Especially not in this system or any other close by.”

  Krez didn’t answer but took a fighting stance.

  “You once have been a Bultaz, or so I have heard, but you failed even your second hunt and got caught by the humans.” The Zulbano spat to the ground, “Now it seems like you’ve even teamed up with them. You are no Zulbano. You are not even a Bultaz. You are a pathetic creature that once had the name Krezolgok.”

  “You’ve heard of me?” Krez’s eyes widened.

  “Yes, we were told to put you down if we manage to meet. We need to root out the weakness in our ranks after all.”

  Krez gulped heavily and tried to steady his beating heart.

  “Why have you called me here?” The hunter asked.

  “To fight.” Krez said, happy that his voice remained steady.

  “To fight?” The Zulbano laughed, “Why? For what?”

  “For honor.” Krez growled, “I have missed many chances, but at least I want to die like a warrior.”

  The other wolf inspected him from under his hood.

  “Hmpf. So there actually is some of our blood left in you.” He finally nodded and took off his cloak. Then he touched the shield devices and turned them off.

  “Fast Claw is the name. I’ll grant you your wish and take your life in battle.”

  Krez exhaled nervously and bowed his head, “Thank you.”

  Fast Claw fell into a fighting stance and a smirk crept on his furry face, “Let’s see who will last longer, you or your human friend!”

  Seeing the puzzled look on Krez’s face, he chuckled, “What? Did you think I came here alone? No, little whelp, while you were wallowing in self pity, your human friend has probably reached the afterlife already.”

  Anger, shock and panic overcame Krez and before he could even think twice about these surprising emotions, he rushed forward claws raised.