Bruno watched silently as his father struck the wood with his axe until it turned to splinters…and then struck it again and again. It was the break of dawn, and Bruno had been there for a while, contempting what to say.

  “Father,” Bruno finally spoke, approaching Alexander from behind. “That’s enough.” There was no response, other than Alexander’s heavy breathing. “You didn’t even sleep. I understand you need to get back in shape but–”

  “Sleep?” Alexander answered, his back still facing Bruno, then chuckled darkly. He turned around revealing his narrowed eyes and gritting teeth. “How am I supposed to sleep?! I lost my entire family except for you! I must shake off the rust and go after them!” He raised his axe once more,his paws shaking. Before he could bring the axe down, it slipped out of his paws and hit the ground. He took a moment to inspect his bruised, shaking paws before cursing loudly.

  Bruno ran up to his father and held him by the shoulders. “That’s enough! I understand how you feel. We must do this together, but first you must hold yourself together before you fall apart!”

  Alexander took a few moments to catch his breath and wipe his forehead, then let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry.”

  Bruno released his grip on his father’s shoulders, turning his gaze to the ground. “Don’t be. You did everything you could. Meanwhile, I…” Bruno trailed off. Before he could resume his speech, a scream echoed throughout the vilge, followed by commotion. His ears stood up on alert and so did Alexander’s. “What was that?”

  “Only one way to find out,” Alexander said, walking in the direction the scream had come from.

  “Father,” Bruno pced a paw on Alexander’s shoulder.

  “I’m fine,” Alexander said curtly. “Let us investigate for now.”

  The two of them walked until they reached a spot near the main gate, where countless wolves were gathered with a lot of murmurs. Bruno could already tell it was bad from what little he understood, and from the foul smell, but seeing the thing itself still shook him. There, on the wall, was the body of a wolf, massive cw marks cut into its torso, the corpse held in pce by a spear.

  Alexander covered his nose while Bruno averted his gaze. He noticed the other wolves giving him stern stares, and he groaned. “What? What is it now?”

  A wolf approached him, his eyes shooting daggers, holding a bloodied paper in his paws. “This was on the body!” He pushed the paper against Bruno’s chest.

  Bruno gred back at him, but he was more interested in the paper. He grabbed it and read it, his eyes widening as he finished.

  Let the dragon’s family out of the vilge and no one else shall die

  Bruno looked up from the paper, at the other wolves, unable to come up with anything to say. He gritted his teeth, crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it at the ground.

  “What is it?” Alexander asked, pcing his paw on Bruno’s shoulder.

  “They’re turning the vilge against us,” Bruno whispered in response.

  “It’s all your fault!” One of the wolves shouted, drawing eyes to him. “Your freak family and that beast brought nothing but death and misery to our vilge!”

  Bruno finally snapped. He was in front of that wolf in an instant, grabbing him by the fur of his chest, his eyes practically throwing sparks in anger. “Mind saying that again to my face?”

  The wolf was unfazed. “I’ll say it as many times as you like: you and your lizard brother–”

  Bruno lifted his fist, fully prepared to punch that wolf’s lights out, but Alexander held him by his arms. “Bruno! Cut it out!” He pulled Bruno away, then lowered his voice. “You yourself said they were turning the vilge against us. What you’re doing will only make things worse.”

  “He was my father!” The wolf that Bruno had tried to beat spoke, sobbing. “That…right there–” he pointed at the mutited body. “–was my father! He died because of you! Leave us alone already!”

  “That’s not fair, mate,” another wolf spoke, addressing the crying one.

  “That’s right,” a she-wolf in the crowd said. “The dragon saved many people from the fire.”

  “So?” The crying wolf responded, gring at the wolves that opposed him. “How many more should die until we repay him? Should we all die? I didn’t agree to this! My father didn’t agree to this!”

  Quickly, the commotion grew out of hand, until there was little that could be understood. Alexander and Bruno slowly backed off.

  “ENOUGH!” Akira’s voice thundered, and most of the commotion died in response. He gnced at Alexander and Bruno, saying with a hushed tone. “I will handle this. You two go. We’ll talk ter.”

  Alexander and Bruno nodded, wasting no time to get away from that mess. As they walked back home, Bruno was silent, lost in his thoughts. As much as he hated how that wolf had insulted his family, he still felt sorry for him.

  Alexander patted Bruno on the back. “I know how you feel. This is not fair. Not for us, not for them.” He shook his head.

  Bruno clenched his fists, more upset than angry, and said nothing, for his thoughts were too jumbled to form words. It was too much.

  “I apologize for keeping you waiting,” Akira said as he sat down.

  “No need to,” Alexander replied. “That couldn’t have been easy to deal with.”

  “It’s a pleasure to have you as a guest,” Mira added, smiling at Akira before taking her own seat.

  “I’ve wanted to talk with you since yesterday,” Bruno said, still standing up, his arms crossed. “It’s about time we get some answers.”

  “Bruno,” Alexander said in a scolding tone.

  “It’s fine,” Akira assured. “The kid is right.”

  “You said the kidnappers weren’t dragons. Then what are they?”

  “Draconivores,” Akira answered, resting his muzzle against his paws. “They eat dragons.”

  Bruno’s eyes blew wide. “Eborate.”

  “It’s exactly as I said. They consume parts of dragons in a twisted ritual in order to gain dragon-like powers.”

  “But…that doesn’t make sense. The only dragon I know is…”

  “I do not know for sure. Rest assured, I highly doubt they have Onyx, or else why would they go after you? They clearly knew Onyx was here and they’re trying to get to him.”

  “Then how do they have dragon powers? There aren’t exactly many dragons flying around these days.”

  “I’m not entirely sure, but I think even things like bones or broken and petrified dragon eggs can be enough to perform a ritual. I thought this ‘cult’ had gone extinct long ago, but apparently not. Obviously, having a whole, living dragon is something they could only dream of.”

  “Those bastards…” Alexander said through his teeth.

  “Another thing,” Bruno said. “How and why do you have the Royal Moon Sword?”

  Alexander seemed to snap out of his momentary anger upon hearing that, instead raising an eyebrow and looking at Akira, who remained silent. Mira seemed equally intrigued.

  “Are you of royal blood?” Bruno continued his questioning. “How come we never heard about that?”

  “Correct,” Akira finally answered. “I am indeed of royal blood. However, I’m a distant retive, so you can say my blood is…diluted.” He sighed. “I do not like to talk about this. I have no pride in my blood.”

  “But you have the Royal Moon Sword!” Bruno excimed. “The most powerful weapon the wolves have.”

  “And yet I can’t use it!” Akira shot back with a slightly higher, and more irritated, voice. “You saw what happened there, son. I can’t wield the full power of the Royal Moon. It’s too much for me to handle. In my younger years, I thought it was a matter of physical strength, so I trained…then trained…I pushed my body to its limit. Yet…even using a single Arc attack could knock the air out of me. I thought, then, that I was cking in magical prowess. So I spent the following years honing my mana skills. And yet, nothing changed. The sword’s appearance changes slightly with each new wielder, and yet, throughout all the years I’ve had it, nothing has changed about it.

  “I was ashamed of myself, of holding the Royal Moon Sword while I couldn’t use it. The sword chooses its next master until he or she dies, so I couldn’t just give it to someone else. There was even an assassination attempt against me, and the source was unknown. Or rather, it was covered up.” He chuckled. “Regardless, I decided to step away from the capital. Sometimes, I even thought of…taking my own life, so that the sword would be free and choose the next wielder, but I never managed to bring myself to do it. And this brings me here: an old wolf with a sword he can’t wield, awaiting the end of his time.”

  Bruno let the silence hang in the air for a moment before he spoke. “I…I’m sorry. I had no idea it could be like that.”

  “Don’t be. I just didn’t expect the vilge that I chose to be my final resting pce to attract so many…peculiarities. At first I was gd I could use the sword for good, even if not to its full power. However…I failed you and your brother.”

  So that day…., Bruno thought. When the fox and monsters attacked, he was fighting with his physical strength alone? He went against that fox’s terrifying magic with a malfunctioning magical sword?! And he’s still apologizing for failing?! He’s a beast! “I don’t bme you. You did what you could given the circumstances.”

  “What do we do now?” Alexander asked. “We must get Maki back as soon as possible, but we must also get rid of the threat because the vilge is no longer safe.”

  “The vilge will never be safe again,” Akira said. “The only way it could possibly become safe again is if we hand you over to the Draconivores, which I can never do in good conscience. Now factor in that we’re not even sure it was them who made the threat, and it becomes clear that safety is never guaranteed again, even if you surrender yourselves. Moreover, are they connected in any way to the fox with the blood magic? We don’t know that, either.”

  “They must be toying with us,” Bruno said, his paw on his chin. “They managed to sneak into the vilge and kidnap Maki. Then they snuck in again and killed someone just to incite terror and turn people against us. They could sneak again and take me and father. They don’t need any of these games.”

  “It’s natural to assume that,” Akira responded. “However, the wolf they killed had ventured outside the vilge st night. That’s how they got him. Poor man…” He shook his head. ”Even if we assume they can’t sneak into the vilge again, we can’t keep everyone locked in here forever. Wolves need to do trade, need to hunt. Life will come to a halt.” Akira leaned back, crossing his arms. “So, as I said, this vilge is no longer safe. And if you manage to save Maki, which I truly hope you do, our enemies may become even more hostile and could take it out on the vilge.”

  “There’s no way out of it, then,” Alexander said.

  “No easy way,” Akira corrected. “The vilge needs to be evacuated to the capital of Lunfric.” He scoffed. “As much as I despise the idea of going back there.”

  “How will you ensure the safety of everyone on the way?” Alexander inquired.

  “That's our main concern. I can’t do much on my own. Kumiko can help, although I’m not sure how much. You can help, but taking you with us will drive you further from Maki and from the rest of your family. We have magic users in the vilge, but not all of them are trained.”

  “And I can’t be in two pces at once,” Mira added. “There’s only a couple of other healers here, and I’m afraid they don’t have as much experience as I do.”

  Akira hummed, his eyes narrowing. “No matter how you spin it, we are in sore need of help.”

  “About that…” Bruno interrupted, clearing his throat. “I wouldn’t count on help arriving anytime soon. Kumiko showed me raven carcasses the other day and cimed someone was hunting down our ravens.”

  Akira rubbed his chin, frowning. “Damn. At least one of them must’ve reached the capital, but we can’t be sure of that nor can we wait forever.”

  As Alexander, Mira and Akira discussed further, Bruno was silent, lost deep in his thoughts. He plotted and analyzed the situation as best he could, until his silence was finally noticed.

  “Son?” Alexander said, waving his paw in front of Bruno’s face. “Are you still with us?”

  Bruno didn’t know how long his father had been calling to him, but he didn’t care. He chuckled. “Akira, I need your thoughts on something, and we need to speak with Kumiko as well.” He held his chin, his chuckling growing louder, almost lunatic in tone. “I might have a pn!”