The End of Eternity

. . . Heroes!

It was night and Zephyrus watched the wolf secretly with his one eye. The wolf slept next to Davena, with her hand hugging him. He could see the traces of tears near her eyes, it had been gross. If she had not fallen asleep, he was sure he would have witnessed some act of zoophilia. He needed to escape from this madness, he stood up slowly, making sure to produce as little noise as possible. Distancing himself from the camp where his companions slept, he felt relieved. He was not comfortable at all in the presence of that red, scary thing.

His steps led him to the place where they had met the cadets. In fact, he had planned to lood them the moment they died, but he would have had to share the loot. Now, he had all the loot for himself. He searched the bodies and hurried in the direction of Castelo di Montagne, with his pockets filled with coins. He wanted to drown his misfortune in a cup of ale, he urgently needed to relax. Yes that would be the best course of action.

Arriving into the city, he almost did not recognize it. The district near the south gate looked like a garden, weird creeping plants creeping up along the walls of the houses and even along the inner side of the outer stone wall.

"They are making this part of the city a garden or what?" Zephyrus searched with his eyes for the tavern he knew should have been near the south gate. He found it and entered the inn, it was time for a party.

* * * *

Mei stepped on a road and took a deep breath. They tried to avoid people as much as they could, but closing on the city, it was no longer possible. She thought about her future options. She had many questions in her head, but was it even safe to ask? It was clear the wolf could understand every word and she had to admit she was afraid of his reaction. She tried her best to keep her hands from trembling in the wolf's presence. It was no surprise Zephyrus ran away during the night. He had been considering to run away too, but her previous experience discouraged her. She used to be an assassin, would it be her occupation again? She hated that work, but what else could she do now?

People of The Imperium Argentum had been using people from the west as slaves, it was way too easy to end up as a slave here, because she was a young girl from the west. She had been able to escape such a fate in the past, hunters lived a lonely life, but how could she work as a hunter now? It was too dangerous. She decided to get closer to her current companions. She was too afraid to make some contact with the wolf, but she could try it with her.

"Davena?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you want to go to the city? Isn't it dangerous for us?" Mei tried the most cautious approach she could think of, one wrong word and her head could be flying. The wolf shook his head and shoved his teeth.

"We are going to find out before we enter the city, one of the farmsteads outside of the city should be an ideal place. We may be able to go in after consulting the guards." Mei gave Davena a dull stare. It appeared Davena got the massage.

"Why not? Some people were using tamed animals before, they kept moving through the city and no one made much of a fuss over it."

"And he. . .is . .. your tamed pet."

"Of course, sit Marius!" The wolf sat immediately. Davena seemed to be in a good mood, Mei knew better than trying to dig up Davena's past and decided to proceed in casual conversation.

"Is Marius his name? It may be suspicious. . ."

"You are right, I have to rename him. It could cause trouble not to do so. What name do you like?" Davena pulled the wolf's tail to get his attention. He growled and kept walking. Mei's heart sank into her belly seeing it, she had to know him well to be able to do this.