Chapter Two

“Who is your companion?” asked Shiv.

Linia glanced at Love.

“You can tell him,” said Love with a shrug of her slender shoulders.

“I don’t know...” Linia narrowed her eyes and slid her gaze back to Shiv, who was beginning to feel left out and uncomfortable with this ambiguous exchange.

Love shrugged again. “If he tries anything, we can just kill him.”

Linia turned back to the even more uncomfortable Shiv. “Well, our companion, we call him Maru. He’s a fire wolf.”

Shiv made the connection instantly. “Prince Imaruheim Aganju of the Incendiors? Impossible!”
When the traditional Fairyland royalty was brutally massacred by Lady Vindemia almost fifty years ago, the Fair Folk immediately rose up against her. Fairyland had been peaceful for thousands and thousands of years, and the attack took all the land by surprise. Almost nothing could have held back the rage of the people of Fairyland, and a rebellion was born almost immediately.

Unfortunately, the plans for resistance were exposed by a turncoat, and all involved clan leaders were hunted and executed. Prince Imaruheim Aganju had been one of those announced to have been captured and killed.

“Apparently it’s not impossible, because he’s with us,” said Linia dryly.

Before Shiv could respond to her, Love said, “No, that’s good that he thinks Maru’s dead. That means the secret is well kept. Shiv, did you ever serve with him?”

Shiv shook his head. “No. I was with the lion-Beast prides in the Typhon Plains and never went near the Incendior’s volcanoes. I have a few friends who’ve gone exploring and run into a few Incendiors before, and they all say they’re rather pleasant folks.”

Love nodded thoughtfully. “And what became of your pride?”

“I don’t know. We had to leave our ancestral lands by Vindemia’s laws, and after that, most of us separated ways to avoid being captured by either her armies or bands of Indwellers. I only got caught last year because I wasn’t being careful,” said Shiv.

He felt a pang of loss as he spoke. He thought of his clan brothers, and the clear nights when they would hunt together by the light of the stars and wind-carried scents, and wondered if he would ever be able to hunt like that again. Probably not until Lady Vindemia was taken off the throne. And Shiv found it quite hard to imagine that it would be any time soon.

Soon, the three of them entered a small clearing in the woods. Moonlight streamed through the leaves, leaving pale mottled patterns in the forest floor.

“Linia!” a loud voice exclaimed, startling Shiv. A tall and lanky figure emerged from the shadows and walked towards Linia with his arms wide open.

Linia punched the young man in the chest and turned away.

“No ‘hello’? You left me for an entire hour,” complained the young man, clutching his chest.

Is that the Prince? thought Shiv puzzledly.

"No,” Linia said, pointedly looking at Shiv. “We have arrived with the package, so behave yourself.”

Package? thought Shiv with some puzzlement.

The young man instantly composed himself, as if just noticing Shiv, and smiled good-naturedly. “A pleasure to meet you, lion-Beast. I am Maru,” he said, holding out his hand.
Shiv swirled upwards into his human form with the crackling of reforming bones, and took Maru’s hand. “It is an honor to meet you, Prince Imaruheim Aganju. I humbly present myself as Shiv of the Plains Lions.”

It was Maru’s turn to blink, and he spun around. “You told him!”

Linia shrugged. “He’s all right.”

“I trust her,” called Love, who had wandered off to the side and was busy examining lichen on a tree trunk.

“You can trust me, Prince. I believe my own clan has been scattered by Lady Vindemia’s troops, and as one of the Fair Folk I have no desire to turn my own compatriots over to that tyranness,” said Shiv, eager to befriend the prince. He could hardly believe it; standing before him was a prince, and a supposedly-dead rebellion leader at that!

Maru looked at him in the eye, then said, “I apologize for my rudeness. A lot of my friends died because of one traitor, so it’s hard for me to trust strangers. And you can speak to me casually. I’m not the Prince of the Incendior Wolves anymore, because the clan no longer exists. And even if I was, you don’t have to speak to me that way.”

Shiv nodded with a slight warm glow of surprise. The Prince was nothing like the pompous, high-minded individual Shiv had assumed him to be, even though he knew Incendiors were known to be pleasant.

“Alright, let’s get going before Kuma wonders what was keeping us and sends out the entire House,” said Linia.

"Yes, we should go. We have a long way of travel,” said Love, falling into her Beast form— a large slender scarlet-orange fox. Her ears, paws and the tips of her snout and tail were the deepest black, like pitch or ink, and she moved with catlike grace.

Meanwhile, Maru dropped onto all fours, shifting into his Beast-form by the time he hit the ground. He was a formidable creature, an enormous black wolf with irises like scalding coal: an imposing image of a fire prince.

Maru crouched low to allow Linia to climb onto his back.
“Alright, we are all set to go,” Maru barked, and set off into the trees. Shiv fell into his Beast form once again and followed his rescuers.