A Fateful Encounter

As the length of the road to Philade was very long, Brian had a lot of time to think. While enjoying the scenery, he kept thinking how great it would be if he could live with his family in a world such as this.

At this moment, he reaffirmed that dream in his mind, to create a peaceful yet immensely powerful world, fit for all to live in, able to be kept alive for generations to come. Others may have viewed as a lofty dream, one that could never be achieved.

"Why would you want to end poverty?" They would say, "When others are poor, we are rich, that's just how life is."

Brian knew this, of course, but he still tried. How many people have given up on a dream? How many people just accept reality, and no try to change it? Over a long period of time, anyone would have new thoughts, no matter how ignorant. The same applied to Brian.

He realized that the only reason people are not accomplishing their dreams is because of themselves. He determined that everyone wants to change the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves. In a sense, Brian was lucky, He had been exposed to a traumatic event when he was very young. As people say, distress and disasters force people to mature early.

Brian had been changed from a comfortable life to one of insecurity and looming danger in a very short span of time. He had realized at this point that unless you have the strongest body, the sharpest mind, or the biggest backer, people would always target you.

To achieve a peaceful life, one needs to be on top of the world. Because only if you are so high up that no one can reach you, will no one be able to pull you down, to suppress you. For his family, himself, all those others that were just living their lives, Brian decided that he would fight.

The life of Brian Wolf changed due to that incident, but had not seen the truth until today. Today, he reaffirmed what he wanted, but more importantly, he discovered why he wanted it.

Why? Because he wanted to be the big dog in a dog eat dog world.

---

During the process of which Brian was thinking this, a faint glow was shining from the jaded wolf fang necklace.

When Brian had finished and come to a conclusion that he would be top dog, the fang suddenly flashed. It had finally recognized its owner's dream.

Of course, Brian did not know this was happening as he was still deep in thought.

---

Settling down by the side of the road, Brian set up camp for the third time. He was used to outback living already. Set up tent - sleep - wake up - travel, rinse and repeat. That was Brian's life these days.

Tonight though, Brian felt something special. He knew something was going to happen, but he could not pinpoint what. All he could feel was a tugging on his necklace, which he reasoned was his mind playing tricks on him.

As Brian finally lie down, convinced nothing would happen, a howl rang through the night sky. This howl sounded neither coarse nor rough, as one might have thought a howl would sound. Instead, it sounded like the most beautiful of music ever to grace the Earth.

The howl resonated deeply with the land, the sky, with nature itself. And this resonance was also felt by Brian. Without a doubt, he thought, I have chanced upon something amazing, spectacular, breath-taking. He had no words to describe it. The sound, majestic as a king of the night, put Brian into a trance. He glanced towards where this sound was coming from. This beautiful melodious sound was transmitted from his West, upon a cliff.

Up on that cliff he saw the majestic, royal figure of a wolf, its back arching, head up in the sky, as if saying "Come at me, I'm not afraid." It was, by itself, standing up against the world. Something amazing, something beautiful, something that only fate and destiny could arrange.

This wolf made Brian feel proud for some reason. Maybe it was because this regal creature's name coincided with his, or maybe it was just that he was so proud that he could just hear something so amazing in his life and that something this... this... astounding could be a creature that walked the Earth like him.

As if destined, this wolf turned and saw Brian. To be more precise, it saw the necklace dangling around his neck, as Brian was playing with it before he went to bed, it was currently hanging outside his shirt. The wolf immediately pounced of the cliff, moving so quickly yet silently. Like a shadow, it immediately arrived before Brian, and surprisingly bowed its head.

This scene perplexed Brian and he couldn't even speak. Just think, a creature unafraid of the sky, challenging the land, taking on the world, had bowed down to him.

The jaded fang was now shining insanely bright as it felt the proximity of this wolf.

For some reason, Brian had also knelt down, and as he brought his head closer to that o the wolf, he felt a bond instantly created. On an whim's decision, he tore the necklace of his neck and pierced it into his hand. With fresh blood still dripping, he painted, with the fang, a symbol on his head.

It was surprisingly detailed.

Brian had always had good dexterity, and loved art. The symbol that he had draw was a wolf. Not a whole wolf but the face of one, like an insignia. This art may have taken others minutes, but it took Brian seconds.

Brian loved drawing because through his drawings was the only way he could see his parents again. He drew every night, every day, 24/7, or at least close enough.

After drawing the symbol upon his own forehead, he then went ahead and did the same to the wolf's. As soon as the symbol was drawn onto the wolf's head with Brian's blood, the fang suddenly flashed and then it all went dark.

---

As the first rays of light shone upon Brian's dace, he immediately saw that wolf from last night. Due to this, he ascertained that he had not been dreaming. This was a new experience for him. He had not had any friends back in Bridney, so this bond that he was feeling with this wolf was something new.

"This bond is not friendship," Suddenly a new voice traveled to his ears. He was shocked and looked around, searching for this voice.

"You idiot, the great me is down here," the mysterious voice sounded again.

Following this instruction, Brian cast his eyes down and saw that wolf from last night.

"Yes it's me, I know, I can talk, big deal, now why do you have that necklace and who are you?"

this sentence stunned Brian, as this talking wolf would first ask about the necklace before about him. This clearly meant that the wolf viewed the necklace as having more importance. This stunned Brian.

'Damn, I thought my status was higher than a necklace.' This thought went through his mind.

"Ummmm... If you could speak, why didn't you speak last night?"

"Because of your necklace. It put me in a weird state. Anyway, hurry up and answer my question!" The wolf was obviously getting annoyed.

So Brian told the wolf all about him, from who he was to the incident that left him with the necklace.

"Hmmm... I see. Boy, that necklace is extremely important. Keep it on your person at all costs. Do not share it with anyone, not even that sister you seem to love so much. You are an interesting one, how 'bout I tag along. Hmm.... let me check your skill... Oh, what is this? Wow, it really is that! Haha, I haven't had this much fun in ages, not since I just ran out of the palace."

"Palace?" this word ha caught Brian's attention.

It seemed his perceptiveness as well as all his other cognitive abilities upgraded. It was a really weird feeling, almost like as if one was... thinking better is the closest term Brian could get.

"Uh, yes. Well you will know about it anyway. It seems you have already discovered your new cognitive abilities. For some reason, that insignia you drew on our heads last night caused a bond between our minds. Probably because we are from separate worlds but have that necklace of yours acting as a catalyst, our minds were merged once you opened your mind to me."

"Merged?" Brian instantly thought of the horror films back in the day of depression where people got their heads chopped off and then sewed together.

"No, not like that. It's on more of an abstract level. Like, you can tell what I'm thinking and I can tell what you're thinking. Stop trying to get my opinions, I will share them with you anyway."

Seeing that Brian was using more attention to get into his mind rather than listening to him, he got a little bit annoyed.

"Now, back to your question on castle. I will now share with you my memories. Be prepared, there's quite a lot. Also, before that, you should know I have a human form."

"Human form?"

"Could you stop asking so many questions, my memories will tell you all." the wolf was very definitely irritated now.

And with that, Brian took his first dive into another's life.