A Chance Encounter

His new ability to speak human languages would open many doors for him, but to keep it he would have to go face to face with death. He couldn't help but be exited, his dreams were one step closer to reality. His human voice was raspy and difficult to understand, but it worked. The first step to blurring the line between beast and man had been made. The pulsing of his markings interrupted his train of thought "It's time to leave'.

He was probably the only wolf in the world that had the body and knowledge to speak as a human could. In spite of this achievement, his true test lied just ahead. He would not reveal his abilities to just anyone. He needed to transform back into an adult wolf while keeping his new throat genetics intact.

He took one last look at the markings that lit he cave walls and set out. As soon as his nose poked beyond the cave, the suns rays blinded him for a moment. As his eyes recovered, the scene faded into view with a flash of white light. The sight of the forest sitting quietly before him was breathtaking. 'Beautiful'.

For the first time since he his rebirth he truly appreciated the experience of witnessing the sights, sounds, and smells of the forest. Some plants shimmered in many colors as if flaunting their beauty, while others gave off a gentle glow that seemed to pierce the forest air. These plants have been absorbing the bodies fallen beasts longer than any of the living could remember.

The trees had canopy like leaves that let off a warm green glow and had trunks that towered over the forest floor like pillars that stretched on forever. Their shade encompassed the forest as far as the eye could see, only pieced by the sun beams the slipped that between their leaves. Like shining spears piercing the dim forest, with swirling dust occasionally hanging within their light. This... was the forest.

'I'm grateful that I get to live among this beauty, I never would have seen any of this back on earth'. Rikura's mind flashed with images from his first life, untill the moment of his torment and demise. In his first life he did not have the strength to decide the outcome of his reality, this time he was starting to see the path he must take.

With his new perspective, every experience so far was like new and felt refreshing to his once weary mind. The first time he came to this world he was weak and traumatized, but exited to experience the abilities he didn't have in his old one. In his current life, he realized that there was peace in his heart.

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Now, he would truly put his life on the line. The size of a direwolf gave him an advantage in changing the smaller parts of his throat before he ran out of breath. However, he wouldn't reveal his abilities just yet. Many in the cave of wolves had yet to earn his trust.

The main problem was that he would not have the help of the Cave of Ancestors if he made a mistake when changing back to a fully grown size. If he made a mistake he would die a long, painful death. 'I can do this'.

He knew better than to let doubts cloud his mind. One of the first things he had learned in this world was that if he hesitated, he would die. Doubt and fear are the enemies within. If he stopped and let them affect his actions, then that would be the end of his story.

Belief is a powerful force. But doubt easily clouds the mind. A thousand mindsets of belief can be undone by a single doubtful lie. He knew he could succeed, with this knowledge he had the power to avoid being tricked by doubt's deceit.

He took a deep breath. He knew the he would never feel ready, and thus he was always as ready as he needed to be. No amount of wasting time waiting for change would help. Change was forced. He silenced every voice within his mind, clearing his mental state to a near blank slate.

He began to meditate, sending the energy he built up in his markings to sense everything down to the smallest detail. It was succeed and live, or fail and die. 'I CAN DO IT' . He knew everything he needed to know. He started the transformation.

It was a strange feeling to transform without the resistance of the cave for the first time. It was like a weight had been lifted off of his body. Transforming in the cave was like running with weights on all four limbs. Now that he was outside the resistance was similar to walking against a light breeze.

It wasn't long before he realized that something was very wrong. While transforming was physically less difficult, the skill he needed to control it was on another level. In the Cave of ancestors transforming was like the pressure of an entire ocean surrounded every part of his body, but the resistance was even for every muscle, tendon and bone.

Just now when he tried to change everything's size, they changed like nothing with drastically different levels of resistance. The challenge was far greater than he had imagined. The first few seconds nearly cost him his life when his brain became so much smaller than his skull that it almost disconnected from his body.

Now that every part of his body changed sizes as easily as breathing, he only had a second to react. The changes that happened a moment ago taught him everything he needed to know. Now that he knew the resistances of every part of his body he would have to adapt. He had one last chance to make sure every part of his body got the right amount of energy it needed to change to the right form.

There was no other path than forward. This situation was caused by his arrogance. He had assumed that the cave only created a resistance to transforming . His father probably waited to teach him how to change outside the cave until he had returned with a body that could handle his qi.

He felt his focus slipping, his body was barley holding on from his mistake a moment ago. The shadow of death loomed over him. 'This is bad.' If he lost consciousness now he would die. Suddenly time seemed to stand still. He realized that he couldn't die here. 'Who will protect them if I'm not here'?

He put himself in the place of his mother, of experiencing the pain having just lost his only son. The pain that would have been hers filled his heart alongside anger and self hatred for almsot hurting her so deeply.

Tears filled his eyes, both from the pain and self hatred. His anger instantly built up to its limits and kept going until it exploded.. It was difficult to maintain his reason with a heart filled with such deep anger. Sheer anger and mental intensity became the force that kept Rikura conscious. 'No more, I've been hurting people my entire life' He recalled the faces of the beasts he had slaughtered, of the mother waiting for a son who would never come home, and of the people who were his responsibility to protect.

'I CAN DO IT'. His focus became like a laser, he forced himself to stay conscious as he pictured the pain in his mothers eyes.

His body was no longer held up by just his muscles and bones, the sheer force of his mind kept his legs firmly in place. He would not fall. He wouldn't let it happen. His focus became so deep that time seemed to stand still once again. He let out a scream in his mind as he held his position untill the final moment of his transformation.

'Its finally over' He thought as his vision blurred and the ground quickly approached his face. 'Mother?' He thought drowsily. He shot up from his sleeping place. He was surrounded by darkness and the ground shook beneath him. He seemed to be in a cart or wagon. He stayed as still as a statue and focused on his hearing.

It wasn't long before a timid voice pierced the silence. "Hyun, how long until we get back to the village"? "Not long, why? Are you afraid of our little friend in the back"? "We could just leave him here and forget we saw anything". "Fool, how would that look too our friend if he was awake? Picking him up in our cart and just leaving him on the side of the road?". "..."

"Besides, we don't attack them and they don't attack us, we basically have a truce with these wolves". "Hyun don't you see, that's the problem. What if they decide to attack our village once they find our scent right where one of theirs up and vanished"? "... fool"

'I don't fully understand their intentions, but they don't seem to be bad'. This truce was news to Rikura, however he had only been conscious for the better part of a week. He needed to escape, he hadn't planned to reveal himself to the humans just yet. He was still inexperienced when as a wolf.

No matter how much qi someone had, all it took was one mistake to receive a fatal blow. That is, unless they had a technique for strengthening their bodies or absurdly dense qi. Even then they would have to see the attack coming

He had planned to watch the humans from the shadows, observing their traits, and eventually revealing himself to those he could trust. Yet his own arrogance led to being captured by two unknown people with yet-to-be revealed intentions.

He felt so stupid he had a headache. The best thing to do was to hide the fact that he was awake and let them talk without knowing he could understand them... 'Wait, how can I understand them"? His headache intensified. He was so caught up in the situation he had missed the most glaring question.

"Hyun, stop. We can do this, Guava, your children, think about it, they could all die" Unexpectedly the man with the gruff voice began to yell. "What did you want me to do Yuze, leave him there to get eaten by whatever creature comes along"!? There was a moment of silence before he continued.

" Im sorry for yelling at you Yuze, your right" the man sighed. "lets stop and find a place to hide him, at least that way I can return with a clean conscience." More silence followed. "Hyun, I didnt meant o-""Its ok, just help me carry the body ". "Ok" .

Hearing this, his ears perked up. 'Interesting'. He had an idea, It was a bit of a gamble, but he was confident. He began to draw out qi from his inner core, me made sure to only draw out little by little. This was if one them was a cultivator they wouldnt sense it and assume he was about to attack.

The shaking beneath his feet crawled to a stop. "One, two- " A flash of blue light ripped through the tarp that covered the back of the cart. Before either of the two realized what happened, Rikura stood in front of them with a gleam in is eye.

For the second time that day he uttered the word "Hello"