The Origin

*Two days after treating the wounded wolf in the second research post.*

Aiden just stood there to inspect the guy. The claw marks over the left eye and a large scar over the neck. They were both there, yet the owner of the body was not a wolf, but a human being.

"You are that wolf, right?" Aiden wasn't too sure of his guess.

The guy was on his knee, like a knight at the ceremony where he was being knighted. He responded with a heavy voice, "Yes, my lord."

"And you can turn into a human?"

"Yes, my lord. That is an innate talent passed down by our family. We can gain knowledge of any species we have devoured. We can even shape-shift in them."

"So you have eaten a human?"

"Please forgive me, my lord. It was before the Lord bestowed his grace upon our leader." The man paused for a moment before saying, "If the Lord wishes, I will lie down my life as punishment."

Aiden waved his hand and said, "No need to do that. You can eat as much as you want to. As long as it is not my people."

"I wouldn't dare do that."

"Please stop talking like that." Aiden had goosebumps every time he heard him talking like that, "We don't talk like that. Talk like a friend, or talk like you talk to other wolves. Oh! You might be a Nekra, right?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Again?" Aiden frowned, "Call me Aiden. He is Robin. Call me by name. And what is your name?"

"My name is dffbskfhsei ksfhwislfnlius hsdkfskfuhsdku."

"Huh? What was that?"

"dffbskfhsei ksfhwislfnlius hsdkfskfuhsdku." He gave a silly smile and said, "My name doesn't exactly sound meaningful in human language. If my lo…" He stopped at mid-sentence, not knowing how to continue.

Looking at his hesitation, Aiden couldn't help smiling. But he did understand his intention. "If it is not much of a problem, I will give you one." Finding him nodding vigorously, Aiden said, "Your name is Laika."

"Laika?"

Aiden nodded, "It was the name of a great d… Well, it was the name of a great one of a species that related to your species. It was the first one to do something that no one on the entire plane had done."

Aiden could see that Robin was trembling on the side, trying his best not to ruin the atmosphere with laughter. Aiden ignored him and glanced at the man, only to frown, "Don't you like the name?"

"Aid…" it was like he was still too respectful to call his full name, but this time he got the words through, "I don't think I am not worthy of such a glorious name. It would be better if you give this name to the leader. In the entire pack, only the leader is worthy of such a noble name."

"Khuk...khuk… ahhhahah." Robin couldn't stop it anymore and burst out. "You have wasted such an illustrious name."

Aiden ignored his jab and looked at the guy "I give the name to you. Use it. If required, I will give your leader another name. It's not like your leader can transform, too."

"Our leader can shape-shift. The chief is the younger sibling of mine."

"Younger sibling? Isn't that one stronger than you?" Aiden was a little surprised. It was not like age represented the strength, but…

"Yes, the leader is strongest in the pack. The present leader is a lot stronger than the previous leader, even if they were partners."

"Partner?"

"Yes. In human language, that will be husband and wife. The previous chief had ruled the pack for a long time. It was just half a moon-year ago, about 3 years in human time, that the current chief chose the previous leader as a partner."

Laika might not be able to control the emotions of the human body, but Aiden felt he looked sad. "The previous leader wanted to hand over the leadership, but my sibling refused. They killed the previous leader, and now…"

"That wolf, the current owner, wanted to take revenge, but they caught your leader. Right?" Aiden didn't know whether the story was like a fairy tale or that their life was too similar to humans.

But something else made him more curious, "You are not from this plane. So how did you get here?"

"Lord Aoisora, Lord Bixi, and Lord Kuraokami. The three great Lords used to rule our plane." Laika tightened his fist and said, "Then the ice elf invaded us. With an army, they came to our Lord Aoisora. When the Lord refused to submit, they attacked our lord."

"Your lord? The one who gave you the totem, right?"

"Yes, my lord." Laika did not know that his way of speaking had changed, but Aiden ignored that. "She didn't just give us the totem but also protected us without asking anything in return. She was a noble lord."

"What did she look like?" Aiden wasn't sure, but he felt that Mraz might have some kind of blood relation with that lord, which he had felt before

"Her divine form was like a giant bird of ice."

"Something like this, huh?" Aiden raised his hand as the mana gathered and created a pure blue ice body with a long feathery tail made of ice.

"My lord." cried Laika. As the hovering ice bird spoke, "that must be my descendant."

"Wait a moment, there could be hundreds or thousands of birds that looked like that. How can you be so sure of that?"

The bird sneered at Aiden and said, "We phoenix is a unique creation of element. There is only one phoenix of each element. I, and I alone, am the only phoenix of ice in the entire creation."

"Every time I die, my consciousness returns to the primordial ice spirit to create a new body for me. Recreating a body similar to mine is contrary to the law of the world."

"And anyone who can take the form of me must bear the blood or essence of me. My essence resided inside its body so that one must be my blood descendant"

'How did such a noble being like you become an essence crystal on a primitive plane?' Even if he wanted to know, but Aiden felt it would offend him again, so he asked, "But didn't you say none of your descendants had awakened your blood?"

"It must be the descendant of one of the incarnations that came before this." Mraz sounded as though he had been a little embarrassed.

"You piece of a horny divine being, please stop using my essence mana and return." Aiden's choice of words made him a little unhappy, but Mraz still returned inside. Leaving behind two pairs of human eyes and a pair of wolf's eyes staring at Aiden.

"No question about it." That was the first thing Aiden said to Robin. But Laika was already touching his forehead on the ground.

"Sorry, my lord. We didn't realize that you were the ancestor of our previous lord. Please forgive us for not protecting the lord."

"Hey! Stop it." Aiden yelled as he was feeling uneasy about this kind of attitude. But it wasn't helping. "WE were weak, so we could not protect the lord."

"Stand up now! That's an order." Under the effect of Aiden's sudden scream, Laika did as he was told. "Just tell me what happened on your plane?"

"The Elven army invaded us. All the tribes fought against the army of dwarves, trolls, and goblins. They heavily outnumbered us, but we wouldn't have lost." even for Laika, the memory was too painful.

"But Lord Bixi had struck our lord. Things were quickly turning for the worse. However, we never left the side of the Lord. When the Lord Aoisora realized that the end was near, she opened the path to this plane."

"We didn't want to leave, but the lord forced us to. However, before the Lord could close the path, they stopped him. Lord Bixi, the jagged wolves that bear the totem of Lord Bixi, and a part of the army followed us to this plane."

"Bsdvednhcg, the leader of the jagged wolf tribe, attacked us. The previous leader died protecting the current leader, and they captured the current leader. We escaped protecting our lives. So the chief is trying to kill Bsdvednhcgn."

"That was some four-dimensional tragedy." Robin's sloppy mouth attracted some glare, so he explained himself, "Generally, these types of things happen between two countries, I mean, on the same plane. But to think all this happened between two planes, wasn't that one more dimension?"

Remembering that Robin was his totem bearer, Aiden felt embarrassed. He ignored him and asked Laika, "So, all of you are gathering because you want to join the leader and take revenge?"

The light in his eyes dimmed and Laika said, "it infuriated the chief. The leader wanted to disband the pack because we had run away."

"What did the wolf want you to do? Die while fighting a losing battle?" Aiden frowned. Aiden couldn't help but remember that stubborn and arrogant wolf.

However, when Aiden thought about his own past, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.

'I would have done the same if I had lost my partner in front of my eyes, and my friend ran away leaving me behind.' Aiden couldn't help but smile at his train of thought, 'I might have put slave tattoos on all of them.'

Laika, on the other hand, didn't expect such a response from Aiden. He looked at Aiden with expectant eyes, not knowing that his stance would change soon.

Aiden, however, cleared his throat and said, "If I were the chief, I would have the same thing. And I definitely would have killed it, whatever the name of that wolf is. But… your leader, he is just angry."

"My lord, our leader is…" Aiden raised his hand to stop Laika from talking, "I don't need to know, but I think you should help your leader."

"My lord…"

"Ahhh! Stop it. Just go." Aiden pointed towards the north and said, "he is in that direction. Make sure he doesn't die."

Laika hesitated to say something but decided against it. He went on his knees again and said, "I will do as you have said."

"And make sure you don't die too." Aiden smiled, "By the way, how many of you are here?"

"When we came here, there were at least 70 of us. But I don't know how many of us are still alive."

"About 27 or 28." Aiden pointed in a few directions and said, "look for them if you can. Now go."

And so they did. In a flash, he transformed into a wolf. The fur on his back didn't grow back, but it didn't matter to him. He led the group of four away.

"You don't look like the one who would do things with emotions." Hearing the words from Robin, he just smiled.

"No, seriously. As much as I have seen you, you are the type who will think many times before acting. And more importantly, never fight a losing battle. Then why?"

Aiden gave a pat on Robin's shoulder and said, "Let's go back to the stronghold."