Our boy certainly grew up, didn't he?

Took a while, if you ask me.

He's a Fire Spirit, Pres. Give the kid a chance.

Look at his academic record, though. He had that big brain, and a degree in biology, and where did that get him?

Relax. He found success elsewhere. Fire Spirit is as Fire Spirit does.

Whatever you say.

**2034**

     The blazing city lights were basically muscle memory by now. The intricate grid of the streets of New York were practically engraved in his skull like ancient carvings. Walking through Times Square, screens advertising Heathers: the Broadway Musical, The Princess Bride, and Bendy and the Ink Machine the Musical all vied for attention. Any newcomer would have bridged on sensory overload, but as a poet once said: if you play-act at butchery long enough, you get used to the screaming.

     By day, Sabre Wilk - or "Hello, my name is Sabre Wilk" as customers knew him - worked as a barista at Coffee Project NY on 5th Street. By night, he could be spotted slipping through the stagedoor of the Lyceum Theatre to appear in the revival of every teenager's favorite raunchy cult classic, Be More Chill.

     Being an actor in New York was hard. It was Isaac Newton's law stating that an object in motion must remain in motion; constant bustle, constant competition, constant running. It's not like the speed slowed once the curtain went up, either. It was an unending sense of c-c-c-c'mon, c-c-c-c'mon, go, go.

     These objects in motion were soon going to become acquainted with their external force. The constant performances, the meet and greets, the pouring of coffee and delivery of muffins would all come to a screeching halt. But Sabre didn't know that yet.

He sized up his apartment building. It was a brick building on the outskirts of the big city, maybe fifteen stories high. Sabre's combat boots scuffed along the concrete as he approached the buzzer to punch in the code. Once inside, he stepped into the elevator and leaned against the silvery wall. The surface chilled his back through the thin material of the studded baseball shirt he wore.

Stepping into his apartment, he exhaled peacefully. His eyes went straight to the window that made up the opposite wall, looking out onto the city. New York had owned his heart ever since his parents first took him to see The Lightning Thief on Broadway.

When he'd told his parents he wanted to pursue theatre, Mr. and Mrs. Wilk nearly fainted under the weight of the realization that their darling son might be gay. Gasp! But that was in 2019 - times were still a-changing back then. Now, twenty years later, in a much more accepting world, people were too afraid to make times a-change at all; why try to make things different when global warming might melt the Earth before there's even time to do so?

On a side note - his parents had every reason to be afraid. They weren't wrong to assume that Sabre swung both ways.

Anyway. He got some ramen from the fridge and set it under the faucet, turning on the hot water. He collapsed into his beanbag chair with a sigh, and his eyes naturally fell on a framed picture that took up one-third of the furniture he owned. A woman smiled broadly, clinging close to the arm of a man much taller, but no older, than her. Helena and Andrew Wilk. Sabre's mom was still alive. His father, though, he couldn't be sure - the relationship between the father of the Wilk family and his only child had always been a strained one.

     That was when Sabre caught something out of the corner of his eye. Smoke? No, he couldn't smell anything burning. He turned his head and nothing was there.

Flash!

Shhhhing!

Darkness.

Something sharp struck the back of Sabre's head, and when he came back to consciousness, he could barely see the walls of his apartment. When he tried to breathe, it was as if he were inhaling an assortment of cotton balls and firecrackers. A coughing fit prevented him from focusing on anything else until a loud ringing finally got his attention - sharp and absolute and digging into his skull like a power drill. Tears burned at Sabre's eyes, but they became nullified by the brutal burning sensation that dragged itself along Sabre's chest and out into the open air surrounding him.

Sabre hadn't felt any agony that held a candle to this before.

Or at least, he thought he hadn't.

A silence of the most deafening proportion vacuumed the world around him of its life. It was, in the most honest, dictionary-defined sense, darkness.

     Then, a pinprick of light.

     Sabre nearly had a heart attack when he felt something cold being pressed to the open palm of his hand.

But then...it felt soothing.

"Wh-where am I?" his voice cracked.

"Shush. Close your eyes and let me help you."

     He hadn't realized that his vision had returned. With much effort, he turned his head to the side. A young woman, maybe recently out of college, had taken Sabre's hand in her own and was tending to what must have been a wound.

     "Who are you?"

      "I told you to close your eyes," she responded calmly. She was soft-spoken, like that of a nymph. "The Shadowsayers depleted much of your energy."

Shadowsayers? Sabre thought.

He finally got a good look at his surroundings. The house looked as if it were a hollowed-out tree; oaken bark climbed the walls and towered farther than Sabre could see. The ground was earthen; a lava lamp burnt bright orange on the far end of the room - fire probably wouldn't be the safest source of light, Sabre realized. To his left were shelves upon shelves piled high with elixirs and jars of various herbs, some of which Sabre couldn't name. Some of the substances even provided their own light, bioluminescent substances that flared pink and blue and green.

The woman tending to his palm wore a mild and focused expression. A strand of her auburn hair fell into her eyes as she worked; she quietly brushed it away with a freckled hand. Her circular glasses reflected the scarlet light of the lava lamp, making it nearly impossible to see her eyes through the otherwise clear lenses. Her gentle touch guided Sabre's hand back to his side. "You really must be more careful, Mooncryer," she said in barely a whisper.

      "I had no choice. I- wait. What did you call me?"

     "Mooncryer."

     "What the hell is that?"

     "That's you, Sabre Wilk."

Sabre paused, his mouth agape. Then, he chuckled. "Okay. Okay. Good one. Alright." He propped himself up with his good hand. "Did that Iconis kid put you up to this?"

     "I'm not sure I understand."

     "This is obviously a joke, though, right? Damnit, I told River I was sorry for being judgmental towards his mom-"

"This is not a joke, Mooncryer. Shadowsayers attacked your apartment in New York not two hours ago. It alerted the Healers of Therian, and you were brought to me to be put under my care."

     "Who are you to take care of me?"

     She rose gracefully from where she was kneeling. "You may call me Althea," she said. "I am a Healer of Therian."

      "What-"

Althea moved to her bookshelf to examine the spines, searching. "Fourteen years ago, Mooncryer, you had your Awakening as a Therian, am I correct?

     "I don't know what that means-"

      "On that full moon. You became the Wolf."

      "What? N-no I'm not, I don't know what kind of drugs you must be high on, but-"

      "Sabre, let me see your palm once more, please." Althea approached him again, reaching out her hand.

     "Yes, see?" She traced her pointer finger along the scar that ran down Sabre's palm. "You are the Fire Therian."

     "S-Stop using that word-"

     "You have the power to shift into the form of a wolf."

"I do?"

"It has just been...repressed inside of you all this time. Ever since that night - your Awakening - you have held this power."

It all came back to him. That night when he was five. The burning - much like the pain he'd felt today. His panicked mother carrying him to that old man who had looked at him so fondly. Seeing he had claws for fingers and fangs for teeth. He hadn't experienced that in years...

Althea sighed. "It will take training to control it. But I do believe that, since you were exposed to its power once more today, and since you are older now, it will be easier to channel.

Then he remembered the forest. Naticook Forest. Its odd blackness, and how its only residents were bats and the trees that looked burnt by the darkness itself. Sabre had not laid eyes on Naticook Forest for maybe ten years.

"As a Therian," Althea continued, now kneeling again as she was before, "you will rise with three others of your kind to fight the Twilight that is plotting to envelop our world as we speak."

"Is that the darkness that was in the forest?"

Althea nodded calmly. "It used to only reside within the boundaries of Naticook's trees, but then..." she looked off. She seemed solemn, lost in a memory.

"Yes?"

"That is a story for another day, Mooncryer," she said gently. "For now, we must get you accustomed to our world, and trained for when you must save it."

No pressure, thought Sabre.

~

The land of Therian was made up of four realms; one for each element. Althea brought Sabre to the Fire Realm first, since he belonged there. The world they were currently in was a lush forest; there were foxes darting about the trees - one whom Althea stopped to pet for a moment - fireflies lighting up the dusky air, and even house pets, like kittens and dogs. Very few of them walked around in their human form.

"Which realm are you part of?" Sabre asked Althea while they walked.

Althea rolled back the silken sleeve of her blouse to reveal a long, green, sparkling scar twisting along her entire forearm. "Technically, Healers of Therian do not belong to any one realm," she explained, extending her arm. "But I identify as both a Healer and an Earth Therian - a rare case. That's why I'm set on domicile, Earth-based missions similar to your own situation."

"If you weren't an Earth...thing, would you not have to be stuck here?"

"That's correct," she nodded. "There aren't any others like me. I'm...different, and I don't think a unique case like mine is held at a standard as high as your traditional Healer."

"That's kind of..."

"Lame?" a humorous smile tugged at the corner of Althea's lips. "Very much so. It's the only case of prejudice you'll find here. But I don't mind. It's very much out of my control, and I find it a hopeless venture to worry about the things I can't change."

That was when they reached a barrier of light. Of flame, Sabre realized. But Althea stepped through it without hesitation and prompted Sabre to do the same. Holding his breath, Sabre followed. It felt like stepping into a warm bath.

The Fire Realm was a village of stone, one you'd expect to find stocky dwarves bustling about, carrying loads of lumber from the forest and heaps of metal to the blacksmith. Torches burned, propped on the exteriors of each of the compact homes that packed the streets. It's like New York, Sabre thought, just on a smaller, more peaceful scale.

As much as Sabre wanted to explore, Althea quickly and quietly led him to the opposite corner of town, bringing them both to a grand staircase that shimmered and sparkled in the torches' glow.

At the top of the staircase was what looked like a fortress, a large mass of concrete towers and turrets with flags hanging off all of the walls. The flags pictured a symbol similar to the yin-yang circle.

"This is where you will complete your training," Althea told Sabre, leading him up the steps. "This is where every Therian starts out - unless of course, their skills come naturally to them. But that is a very rare situation." She pulled open one of two gilded doors signifying the main entrance.

The Training Center was a towering room, grander than Carnegie Hall. Its large center was accessible to many different stories that went as far as the eye could see. Sabre was quick to figure out that each level was marked by difficulty. On the very top level a spotlight was visible. Many, actually, flashing different colors onto the roof of the center like some sort of concert arena. The hall echoed with cries of effort - including the occasional roar - and metal clanging; it reminded Sabre of a gym. Except...the place actually looked nice. And there were real animals instead of humans just acting like animals.

Flights of stairs led to each level. Coming down the steps on one flight was a man in human form with a white towel on his shoulders. A sheen of sweat glistened off of his pale skin, and his messy, platinum-blond hair had been swept back into a ponytail that was now falling out. He wasn't tall, per se, but his black muscle tee seemed to have been made solely to frame his thoroughly-toned arms.

Oh my god, it's Rich from Be More Chill, was Sabre's immediate thought. But then he got a closer look, and realized that this man had much more of a connection with Sabre than setting fires and burning down the house, woooah.

The piercing blue eyes were still there. The only difference was the sharper angles of his face; his cheeks were once rounded out, as a pretentious six-year-old who spent his days searching for every excuse he could to get attention. Except for that, Sabre recognized this person down to the jagged blue scar that crossed his collarbone.

"Leviathan?"

At the sound of his name, Levi turned his head. He looked Sabre up and down. "Damn, is that you, Sabre?" he asked, approaching him and smiling more genuinely than Sabre ever saw him smile when they were in school. Levi took Sabre's hand into a handshake that was a little too rough for Sabre's liking. "That's a name I haven't heard in a while. I've been wondering when you'd show up." His eyes looked past him. "Oh. Well, aren't you easy on the eyes," he said, regarding Althea, Sabre now invisible.

But remember, this was a world rid of toxic masculinity. Levi walked over to Althea and gave her a warm hug. "'Thea, it's been forever. How are you?" he asked, pulling away so she could answer. Althea shrugged, grinning. "It's been quiet around the Earth Realm without my number one customer," she said. "You've obviously been more careful lately."

"Or been getting stronger," Levi responded, preening like a proud lion. "Or, they're just going easy on me. Or all of the above. No matter what it is, I'll have to find time to visit you soon. What brings you here?"

Althea regarded Sabre, adjusting her glasses. "I was assigned Sabre as my charge. I'm showing him around."

Levi smiled at Sabre. "They gave you one of the good ones, Sabre. 'Thea's the best of her kind."

Althea blushed. "More like the only of my kind..."

"Hey. You know that you're just as good as any of the full-time Healers. Better, even."

She smiled, but changed the subject. "Do you want to show Sabre around? He's probably going to be spending a lot of time here, and you know the place better than I do."

"Sure thing," Levi said. "I'll see you later, okay?"

Once Althea had left, Levi lost his gentle demeanor. He wordlessly led him up the steps that he had just recently descended. Sabre was the first to speak.

"You two seem to be pretty good friends."

Levi's eyes softened ever so slightly. He shrugged. "She feels alone enough, someone's gotta be there for her, you know? She was my Healer when I came here, just a couple months ago, actually, and we've been friends since. I just want to be there for her."

"That doesn't sound like something you would ever say," Sabre said, speaking his mind.

"People change, Sabre," Levi said, a hint of defense in his voice, his stone exterior returning once again. "Besides, it's not like I'm great friends with everyone here. I like the people I know I can trust."

"Well, do y-"

"And no, I don't trust you," he said. "We were 'friends' before, but I don't know you now. So don't expect me to just be nice to you because we have history or whatever."

"Dude, we're damned to work together on this mission thing. That's why you're here in the first place. What are you gonna do if-"

Levi cut him off with a snide chuckle. "I don't care. It's every man for himself."

He clearly knew who he liked in this world and who he didn't.

Every man for himself. Sounds like a great mindset to have when you're saving the world.

"So you got here a couple months ago?" Sabre asked, trying to lighten the newfound tension. "Did the Shadow things attack you, too?"

Levi nodded. "Yeah. I had no idea what was happening at first, because my parents couldn't have known. I'm assuming you don't know what's going on either, but...this place is easy to get used to. Now, since there's literally no power struggle here, I own the Training Center."

"You? Of all people?"

Levi shrugged. "There really wasn't any competition, no legal shit to work through. It was an easy win."

Sabre didn't want to pry further. He actually didn't want to talk to Levi anymore, to be honest. So he just nodded his head.

As they circled the different levels, they passed various rooms with training equipment of all varieties and intensities imaginable; some had flamethrowers, some had ropes and spikes, and there was even a room stocked with squeaky toys and feathers - most likely for the smaller cats and dogs. Cute. Although, one might have mistaken the center for a hub of BDSM rooms if it wasn't for the animals training there.

"This is where you're going to find your itineraries for training and stuff," Levi said once they'd reached the fifth floor. He pulled open a door that had a strange symbol above it; it looked like the silhouette of a scorpion, but it glistened in a metallic shade of red. "Fire Therians only. You're on your own."

Sabre peeked in. Red banners hung from empty spaces on the wall; the rest of the perimeter was lined with lockers.

"Your training slot's almost here. Your mentor is going to meet you here in about five minutes. I'll see you around, okay?"

Sabre did his best to offer Levi a friendly smile. No point in making the rivalry worse, right?

Once he was left alone and Levi had gone off to supervise another area of the Center, Sabre stepped into the locker room. It was cool, as if it was air-conditioned and the rest of the Center wasn't. Lights shifted. The atmosphere brightened just a little at its newfound company.

Welcome, Sabre Wilk.