"Alright. I think we'll stop here for the night." Dove comes to a stop next to a beech tree, and I climb up to the lowest branch. I sit down on it, my legs swinging back and forth as I take note of my surroundings. Phoenix jumps up onto one of the lower branches, though it's one on the opposite side and a bit higher than mine, and the bark beneath his paws begins to darken.

"Phoenix, tone down the fire. You're burning the branch."

"Fine. Ky, you find the food. I'll make the fire. Dove? How abo-." Phoenix is cut off by my brother.

"Wolf and I can find something to eat. We need to get more water anyways. You two can make the fire, and whatever you need to do. We'll meet up in an hour."

"That works perfectly," says Phoenix, though his tone is still one of utter grumpiness.

"Wolf? Ready?" Dove looks over to me.

"Yep!" I hop down, following him as we leave Ky and Phoenix behind.

"Where are we going?" I ask after a few minutes of meandering through the forest.

"Somewhere where there's water."

"Is there a river nearby?"

"Can you shift into your wolf? See if you can sense moving water." I nod, willing myself to burn. But I don't. I can't get the heat of the fire burning myself until I explode. I can't even get a spark.

"I-I can't," I say slowly, frowning.

"Go back to King Garonda XIV's castle when I was about to get shot," Dove offers.

"How are you saying that so casually?"

"I knew you'd shift before I was shot. Replay that scene. Draw upon that anger."

I take a deep breath as I close my eyes. My mind's eye goes back to King Garonda XIV lounging on the Amethyst Throne, a leg thrown over one of the arms. Me and Dove forced to our knees at the foot of the Amethyst Throne. Screech stepping back from my brother as Snappy pulls out an arrow and nocks it in his bow. Snappy pulling back the drawstring.

There's the spark.

I'm consumed in fire, and I explode. My fingers curl into my palms as fur bursts from my skin. My fingernails and teeth lengthen into claws and fangs. Bones snap as they reform into my canine skeleton, and I drop down to all fours.

"There you go, Wolf. Use that scene whenever you need to shift." Dove smiles. I nod. I turn my attention to finding a water source. What am I looking for, though? Or am I listening for water, or perhaps trying to smell it?

"Did you find anything?" Dove asks after a few minutes of me wandering around, though I stay close by. I shake my head. What do I look for? What are the signs of water? What does it smell like? I-I... I've no clue what to, like, try to find. I know it's water, but still.

"You can't find it?" I nod in reply.

"You hear the birds chirping?" Another nod.

"Listen past those, outwards into the forest. Block out those sounds. Listen for the trickle of water. The sound of water over rocks. Perhaps the crashing of a waterfall, or the dripping droplets of water in a slow-moving stream. The splash of an animal leaping into the water. Or even an animal lapping at the stream. Can you hear it?"

I close my eyes, imagining my senses spreading outwards in search of water. The chirping birds fade away as I catch hold of the slightest sound of a stream. I tighten my grip, and focus my attention. Where is it? Without letting it go, I start off in the direction of the water. Dove follows close behind. When I pick up speed, he races beside me, the backpack thumping against his back.

The stream comes into view. It's picturesque; crystal clear water bubbles across smooth rocks. Grass and other small plants grow along the edges of the stream. I lunge forwards, skidding to a halt at the side. Water laps at my paws as I greedily gulp down mouthfuls of water. Dove kneels to fill up the water bottles. I shift back after taking my fill.

"What to you think of Ky and Phoenix?" I ask.

"They seem nice. Phoenix's anger towards King Garonda XIV, though. He's angry at everything. There's gotta be a reason behind that-." Dove stops speaking when I cut him off.

"Phoenix said that when he sees King Garonda XIV, that he would give everything the King had done to him back tenfold. Do you really think they're on our side?"

"I think so, but I don't know for certain."

"So this has happened before?" I ask after a few minutes of silence.

"What has happened?"

"Me shifting into a wolf."

"Yeah. It has."

"We're destined to kill King Garonda XIV?"

"That's what the legend says, though it hasn't happened."

"Yet," I add.

"Yet," Dove agrees.

"How does it work?"

"I don't know. Whenever you get killed, the pewter pendant goes back to the Earth Tree, and time resets in some fashion. I can't ever find the pewter pendant; only you can. But what happens between time resetting and you finding the pewter pendant varies. It's never the same. Each... life, I guess you could call it, is different."

"How long is it until I shift?"

"It depends. It's never very long, but this time was the shortest by about a day."

"And we're going to overthrow King Garonda XIV?"

"Yes." Dove nods.

"I'm not even... We're really going to do that? It's... Just a few days ago... Just a few days ago I was working from dawn until dusk, just like everyone else at the White Tent Sea. Now I can shift into a wolf, and we're on the run from King Garonda XIV. I've gone from just being another person living in the White Tent Sea to being half of the supposed legend of the Wolf and the Dove." I curl my fingers into my hair.

"I know it's a lot to take in, but you've still got me." Dove offers a smile.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I couldn't. You had to be the one to set it off again- you had to be the one to go to the Earth Tree to get the pewter pendant. I could only tell you afterwards."

"This is... This is so much, Dove. Do you realize h-how, like, weird this sounds? How, like, unbelievable this sounds?" I get to my feet and let the water flow around my ankles as I take a few steps into the stream. My reflection stares back up at me as I lower my gaze to the ground.

"Believe me, Wolf, this took me a while to wrap my head around too. I know it sounds stupid, but we really are supposedly the ones who will bring King Garonda XIV down from the Amethyst Throne."

"Who said that we would? Maybe they're wrong, or they were just saying that."

"Arcane, the Midnight Wolf."

"Didn't Phoenix say he's dead, or that he doesn't exist?" I frown.

"But Ky said he does," Dove replies.

"Do you know if Arcane is real?"

"I know he's real, but I don't know if he's still alive. Arcane was this legendary creature maybe twenty or thirty years ago or so, just as King Garonda XIV was coming into power. He had magical powers, just like me and you, and he could heal anything so long as it wasn't dead. People came from far and wide for his help, and he healed each and every one of them."

"Healing magic like yours?"

"Yes, but no. I can only heal myself. Arcane could only heal others, never himself."

"So why did he disappear?"

"Whenever Arcane healed someone, he poured his magic into them, so he had to be careful not to overload them. Another magical creature named Freedom came to him one day after getting a wound on her shoulder. But as he was healing her, he did what he made sure he would never do- he overloaded her with magic, and Freedom was killed. Arcane was so shaken and terrified by his mistake that he banished himself to the top of Ragdon Volcano, and he hasn't been found since."

"So he's dead?"

"No one knows."

"What happened to Freedom?"

"She died."

"I know, but what happened afterwards?"

"Freedom had the ability to change emotions of those around her. The fragile peace that she was holding shattered when she died. King Garonda XIV secured his place on the Amethyst Throne a month or so after her death, and, well, the rest isn't hard to guess."

The air shifts, or something does. I scramble out of the stream, looking back over my shoulder as I reach my brother. Dove leaps to his feet. "What is it?" he asks.

"I'm here."

Thank you for reading this chapter and The King's Remorse! Please vote and comment!

Who's here?

Is Arcane still alive?

I know you don't have much information, but what do you think of Freedom?

Should Wolf and Dove trust Ky and Phoenix?

-Werewolf14-