Dreadwolf, Lord of Runes

Kane barely registered the elf's presence, or the fact he could understand her words. Instead, he stared into the mirror and touched his face with the dangerous, clawed hands at the ends of his newly furred arms.

Shock and a sense of dissociation flooded his mind as he looked at himself through eyes that shone with a terrifying red. Just like the rest of his body, his face was covered in fur, and his mouth and nose had extended into a menacing, wolfish maw.

"What the hell did these people do to me…?" he growled in Terran, Earth's common language, as the fury he had unleashed on Mána started rising up again.

But before he could spend any more time getting used to his new look, the elf in the room spoke up again. Her voice attempted to be soothing, but there was still an edge of urgency underneath, "I know this must be a shock to you, but we don't have time for you to get used to it right now. We need to leave!"

Finally registering the woman behind the mirror, Kane roared in rage, and scrambled to his newly transformed, wolfish feet. He staggered a little due to the unfamiliar body; a body that felt at least a head taller than his original one.

His moves were sluggish and slow, but he managed to grab the woman by her throat and slam her against the wall, mostly because she didn't resist or try to avoid him.

Only when he did, he realized that, no matter how hard he squeezed, the woman's neck didn't even dent. She looked at him with compassion and sadness, "I understand your anger… but what's done is done. Please, let me get you out of here, before anyone comes to check what's keeping their queen."

Kane panted with anger and narrowed his menacing red eyes, but he didn't let the anger overwhelm him. Instead, he spoke with the guttural growl that appeared to come with the new form, "Why can I understand you?"

Without even thinking about it, he had switched to speaking the elven language, and it unnerved him.

Calmly, yet urgently, the woman answered him, "That requires a long explanation we don't have time for right now. Please, we at least need to get to the car." She appeared to have no problem speaking, despite the hand around her throat.

Finally, he came to another realization, and looked at her suspiciously, "Exactly how strong are you?"

The answer came immediately, "I am a domain sovereign, the sixth stage."

Kane's heart skipped a beat as he didn't doubt she was right. He couldn't feel any power from her, but the fact she was fine despite having his hand around her throat, squeezing as hard as he could, proved enough to him.

Despite that knowledge, he didn't make a move, and neither did the elf. After a moment of staring at each other, Kane closed his eyes and sighed, before dropping her to the floor. It hurt his pride, but what else could he do? Keeping her like that just because she allowed him was embarrassing as hell.

He opened his eyes again and looked at the elf, who had put the mirror down next to her. She was clearly impatient, but he was surprised by the amount of compassion in her eyes. Despite the apparent time crunch, this woman appeared to understand his struggle, and didn't want to rush him too much.

"Can you turn me back?" he asked, a little hopeful, but not really expecting anything.

As expected, the elf shook her head, "No. And even if I could, I wouldn't. You're too important."

Kane snarled, his wolfish lips turning up to reveal his sharp fangs. He did it automatically, and quickly realized it was an instinctual reaction to his rage. At the same time, he poked his right index claw against the woman's clavicle.

"You people keep toying with me…" he growled; his red eyes filled with rage. "I suggest you kill me now, because if you actually help me escape, I will come back to raze this place to the ground!"

Surprisingly, the woman simply smiled sadly and nodded, "I know… but I've already thought of that."

Before Kane could respond to that mysterious non-explanation, the woman continued, "If it makes you feel any better, you still have your previous form. You have become a volfar, which means you have two forms, a beastly one, and a humanoid one. You can only keep your current form active for a limited time, so even if you can't figure out how to turn back right now, you'll automatically revert in an hour or so."

Kane blinked. Despite the situation and his mistrust of this stranger, he couldn't help but close his eyes and breathe a sigh in relief.

He was operating on adrenaline and survival instinct right now, which allowed him to somewhat ignore the changes to his body, but the idea that he didn't lose his human form was an immense relief.

"If that's true, then how do I turn back?!" he snarled desperately wanting to see his human face again.

"I am no volfar," the woman helplessly shrugged, before continuing with a pleading tone. "But please, we need to leave. Now!"

Kane narrowed his eyes at her, "Why don't you just drag me out of here? You certainly have the power…"

"First of all because that might create trouble," The woman began, before turning sad again, "And second of all, you've already been dragged enough… please… just trust me. Didn't Lady Mána mention me?"

Kane shook his head with a scoff, "She disappeared after we had sex. But that reminds me. Where is she? She probably knows how I can turn myself back… assuming I really can."

At the mention of sex, the elf woman turned scarlet red, and stammered, "R— Right… U— Uhm, I've no idea why she disappeared, nor where she is now. She's the volfar patron spirit, not the Bright Lady, so I can only talk with her through another volfar."

Seeing the confusion on Kane's face, she quickly tried to entice him with answers, "Look, I'll tell you everything I know, but only once we're underway! We need to get out of here before she wakes up!" she finished by pointing at a wall.

Looking over there, Kane finally noticed a second elf woman. She was unconscious, with her beautiful face distorted in pain and rage. This time, he quickly recognized her as the face that swam in front of his eyes multiple times. Immediately, he felt an ingrained feeling of fury and disgust.

He took a staggering step in that direction but was stopped by a hand on his furry shoulder. "There's no point," came the other elf's pleading voice from behind him. "She's even more powerful than me. There's no way you can harm her, even while she's unconscious. It might just wake her up."

But Kane shrugged off the woman's hand, and stepped closer to the elf on the floor while hearing a helpless sigh behind him. Once standing in front of her, he looked down and panted with rage as he narrowed his eyes. "I'm coming back for you…" he threatened, but then turned around without doing anything.

The urge to simply kick her around a little was burning inside him, but he realized that was stupid. He still didn't know who he could trust, but he knew it wasn't this woman on the floor, so he wasn't about to risk her awakening for some temporary pleasure.

"If you're supposed to get me out of here, I should probably know your name. Mine is Kane," he said to the elf, his voice still a guttural growl, but now sounding far calmer. He knew he needed help to get out of here, and with this woman apparently being the next step to Mána's plan, he decided to follow her lead for now.

"I'm Ella," she responded with a hint of relief, clearly glad Kane had apparently decided to work with her.

"Let's get going then," he nodded. "But since you haven't talked to Mána recently, I probably need to tell you we need to make an unscheduled, but non-negotiable stop," he continued, as the face of a certain catling swam in front of his face.