The Way Back.

"Food, you say?" Seth stared at the furry mass of fluff who had just sent him a thought transmission of some sort that left him speechless.

("Food") The wolf cub nodded her head slightly, unfortunately that didn't help Seth decipher what it meant at all.

"You mean me?" He asked, entirely unsure why he was having this conversation in the first place.

("Already") She replied

'Not one to speak much…' He was already getting lost trying decipher one-word replies.

"You already had some food?" He asked the 'small' cub, she seemed to understand him but wasn't one for words.

It nodded in reply, still leaving Seth without much idea what It was talking about.

'Food? What on earth is it talking about…' He looked at the hand it bit 'It's not talking about my bones or something right?' He became slightly worried, but as he observed his hand, he realised the spirit energy surrounding it was slightly weak, he was already low, so he didn't notice the small difference at first but when he thought about it, it was definitely weaker than before.

"Are you okay?" Chris asked worried, all he saw was Seth getting his hand bit and then talking to himself leaving him confused and worried that Seth had gone insane.

"Yeah, don't worry it's fine" He replied without much zeal, he was too focused on sensing the newly made connection between him and the now white wolf cub in front of him.

[ Name – ????

Race – ????

Level – 1 (0 points)

Health – 100%

Mana – 100%

Stamina – 100% (14)

Current Status - Normal

Titles: None

Stats:

Strength – 12

Perception – 16

Intelligence – 10

Soul Strength - 17

Agility – 12

Dexterity – 8

Mana – 32 (??) ]

To his surprise, he could see the full stats of the wolf like they were his own, not just that, looking at the stats he was pleasantly surprised at how high they were, at least compared to his when he started and for a normal human, it had to be noted that most human adults that were level 1 had stats under or around 10, the Mana stat varied based on lineage and other variables but Seth's starting stat of 50 was considered incredibly high, most humans having in the rang of 15-25 max, so this wolf's stat was above average.

'I can't see Silva's stats, but I can see this wolf's stats. I wonder what kind of connection this is… it's not a contract like a summoning skill, it feels like she's become something like kin… I'll have to ask Silva later on if he knows anything' He could only rely on someone who would know more than him.

He turned to Chris who was still looking worried and asked: "Does she not have a name?"

"How did you know… never-mind, no, the wolves don't get given names until they've matured in the village." He replied, he didn't feel like trying to pry.

"No name huh" He looked back at the small wolf that was sat patiently with her tail slowly banging on the ground looking slightly excited "That's a pain, should I give you one?" He asked her.

"Wait, you can't, that's against- ". Chris knew the general rules when it come to raising the wolves, he didn't want to go through the trouble that came from ignoring the rules.

"Rawr!" The small wolf let out a small but ecstatic bark before he could say any more.

"Alright!" Seth said with gusto, entirely ignoring Chris; He knew he couldn't ignore this little wolf after feeling this connection, so he decided he'd go the full way and take it with him even if others said otherwise, after all while he had Silva, he'd much prefer to have some company for travelling.

"A name huh…" But soon his mind got stuck.

'Why do I have to name something again, I'm terrible at thinking of names…' He looked the wolf up and down taking in its appearance for inspiration.

Pure white fur tipped with an ice blue colouring that even dyed its eyes a crystalline blue, its appearance was certainly unique, and a few names popped up in his mind immediately.

'I could just use Snow, but that's a bit too bland…' Another name beginning with E and ending with A that was related to ice popped up, but he shoved that out of his mind quickly.

'Skadi? It has an S at the beginning, but no that's too grand…'

("I swear if you name her with something starting with an 'S' I'll have more than a few words of complaint for you") Another voice chimed in his head, that of Silva, he was clearly watching everything carefully and understood Seth's poor naming sense was planning something stupid.

"Fine" Seth huffed in reply 'What's wrong with naming schemes?' he asked himself but moved his thought track elsewhere.

"Lucia" He spoke, letting it fall on the wolf's ears before they perked up and her eyes seemed to sparkle.

[Name – Lucia]

"Seems you like it, great" He smiled slightly, it wasn't a name to do with snow or ice, but 'light' works, right?

"Haaaah, the little cub that took interest in basically nothing is acting like this… I can't wait to see how Reece and Alpha will react" Chris said with a palm landing on his face, he knew the line had been crossed already so he couldn't do anything else.

"Anyway, Lucia, can you take us back to the village you came from?" Seth asked her, since Chris said they worked with Ghost Wolves to navigate this forest he assumed she could take them back.

("Village?") She asked him with a confused tone.

"Um, well the place you came from, your home" He tried to be more specific for her.

("Home?") She reacted to the word and started looking around, after pacing around for a little bit she laid her head on the floor and whined slightly.

("Lost") She said with regret.

"Wait, you don't know the way back?" His hopes had been destroyed immediately; this little pup was as lost as them.

"It's fine Seth, she hasn't been trained yet, so she won't be able to find her way" Chris said while slightly chuckling at the pair who crouched on the floor depressed.

"Why are you laughing, aren't you lost as well?" Seth asked with slight spite, he hadn't been too worried about being lost before but after getting his hopes up it still made him a bit disappointed.

"I never said that you never let me finish" Chris replied with a smirk, he walked on over to one of the trees and looked directly upwards, he seemed to be looking for something as he kept moving his vision from tree to tree, more specifically branch to branch.

"You know a way?" Seth asked after walking over and standing next to him, he was looking up as well, but he had no idea what he was looking for.

Lucia also followed after them and sat next to Seth with her head up for no reason in particular, only because the other two were also doing it.

"There, see that?" Chris pointed at a branch on a distant tree, if you looked carefully, you could see something hanging on it and flapping in the wind.

"Is that a piece of cloth?" Seth said though unsure, it was green in colour, he wouldn't have noticed if Chris hadn't pointed it out.

Chris nodded "So you can see it, it's made vague in colour, so most people won't notice it even if they knew what they were looking for, it took a lot of practice for us to spot them with ease" speaking with praise he started walking towards the bottom of the tree that the cloth was tied to.

"So how does that help us?" Seth asked with doubt in his voice.

"It's very simple, just follow the direction of the branch the cloth is tied to is facing to the next piece of cloth, repeat this and you'll make your way back to the village eventually as long as you're careful, there's a new cloth every 10 or so trees." Chris explained, making it seem simple.

"Oh, I see, wouldn't it be easy to get lost again though?" Seth replied.

"You just need to be careful; I can guide you back anyway, anyone on guard duty knows how to do it with a blindfold on!" He said while laughing.

'Uh, I don't think you'd be able to see the cloth with a blindfold on' Seth retorted in his head.

"Well lead the way then, we should keep moving we've stayed here for too long" Seth reminded Chris that they weren't exactly in the clear.

"Yes, you're right let's go" Chris almost appeared as if he choked on a fly, he had pushed the events of before in to the back of his mind for a second but they quickly caught up to him.