A few days after falling into Karathuum’s Catacomb and realizing that both me and my father needed to sleep in beds, Dad made himself a new bed out of materials we’d scavenged. There were oddly a lot of buildings to find materials in, most places seemed to be reminiscent of 18th century architecture that I’d read about previously. Again, no clue why I knew that, the actual memory of reading that didn’t exist, just the information existed as a result of it.

  Days were passing by a lot quicker now that we had established some kind of routine. Trapping always happened on the same two days, along with some less frequent chores. The day-to-day always had the same set of a few chores, like watering the garden for example. Washing clothes always happened at the same-ish interval, the same could be said for scavenging.

  Scavenging had become one of my favorite chores, exploring some abandoned buildings with my Dad was tons of fun. All the places we’d scavenged so far had been what seemed to be public buildings though, no private homes as of yet. Whenever we’d enter the buildings, we’d be real quiet for a minute. Dad said it’s because there can be monsters down there. What kind of monsters, I wasn’t sure. I assumed he was referring to creatures similar to the sand boar that he’d saved me from the other day.

  After a few weeks of this routine, something out of the ordinary happened.

  Just as we had prepared for bed, a loud explosion followed quickly by the crack of thunder rang off in the distance. I nearly jumped out of my skin at the volume of it, it had to have been really close. It came from the direction of a cluster of old buildings nearby, so it could’ve been anything. Either way, Dad said that we would check it out the following day. I also convinced him to sing me that song again, he said it was called “Silmi Liorad”, but he didn’t explain the meaning of the title very well.

  ***

  The following morning, we awoke early. We packed quickly and made sure that we had protection and sustenance. The strange occurrence the night previous had been weighing on both of our minds, practically begging for us to check it out. And that, we would.

  We arrived at the cluster of buildings a few hours before midday, giving us plenty of time to look for what had caused the sound. It was pretty obvious what direction we needed to go in from here out, the smell of burnt chemicals gave it away.

  After following our noses for a short while, we arrived at a building that I had never been in before. It was just what I’d been hoping for, a private home. The only problem was that the scent was pretty overwhelming. Dad had brought some face cloths for whatever reason, maybe he encountered stuff like this a lot? Either way, the face cloths helped a ton, letting my nose take a break while we searched around the home.

  I made sure to stay close to Dad while we walked through the house, I didn’t want to end up getting jumped by some “monster” while we were there. After all, I’d had my fair share of near-death experiences during the near month that I’d been with Dad.

  After looking around for a while and scavenging a few somewhat interesting things, we stumbled on what looked to be a kid’s room. It was a little girl’s room, to be exact. The room had a pale pink wallpaper with white flowers, I guess that was pretty consistent with what I was used to, stuffed toys were sparsely scattered around the room. In the corner was an empty bedframe and a dresser. I hoped this girl was my size, because I desperately needed a few changes of clothes. I’d been wearing the same one and half outfits for the last month, definitely needed a bit of a change of pace. Pants would be great.

  Dad said that I could take whatever clothes I wanted, but only a few pairs. I guess he didn’t want the laundry workload to increase by too much. To my slight dismay, there were no pants in any of the drawers, the closet didn’t have any pants either. I wasn’t too unhappy though, since I’d gotten used to the open feel of flowy clothing. After all, I’d been wearing what was basically a dress this whole time, so I wasn’t very adverse to the idea. To the contrary, I was kind of excited.

  I took the fancier pink floral dress from the closest. Well, I suppose I should say that Dad grabbed it for me at my request, I couldn’t really reach it. Along with that dress, I also picked out two more dresses that were more plain. A solid color dark red one and a diagonally striped blue and white one. One other thing stood out, a red hooded cloak of some sort. It wouldn't fit me well for another good bit, but I couldn't resist taking it. That met my limit for the amount I could take. I’d just have to cycle between the lot.

  After swiping a few other necessary pieces of clothing, you can guess what that means, we were prepared to continue our search of the premises. But before we left the room, my gaze met with that of a stuffed toy of some kind of bunny-unicorn combination. In other words, a bunny with a horn. Dad and I walked out of the room, but he went back in for a second after, telling me to wait in the hallway. He was soon back, and we continued our search.

  At this point, our noses were of no aid to us in locating whatever had happened. The smell was so strong throughout the entire building that you couldn’t really tell where it was stronger or where it was weaker. Even without our sense of smell, however, it was only a matter of time before we stumbled upon the scene.

  In the middle of what looked to have been a dining room, there were burn marks everywhere. A circle of the hardwood flooring had been burnt away, revealing the stone foundation underneath. Similarly, the ceiling had been burnt through, showing us the presence of an attic. The table was split in half, presumably by whatever had caused the other holes, and throughout the wood were these weird streaks of burnt material. I remembered something at that moment. Information once again.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Werewolf...” I said in my native language, whispering.

  “What did you say?” My dad replied in his own native tongue.

  I hesitated to explain my thought process at the moment. I mean how do I explain WRWLF explosives to someone who has probably never even seen an ion grenade before. Have I even seen one? Agh, it doesn’t matter. I’d have to keep my explanation simple. I was still learning the language after all.

  “Werewolf is a weapon that makes lightning and fire. This looks like werewolf.” I really boiled it down to the basics. I had no idea how to explain all the chemical reactions involved in WRWLF explosives in my dad’s language. The chemicals in the grenade combine and cause an immense amount of static electricity, forming what is basically lightning. The fire comes as a side effect, being ignited by the lightning and consuming the byproducts of the chemical reaction.

  Dad looked at me with a face full of both confusion and concern. He was confused due to the fact that I knew that, and also concerned that that kind of thing existed. Dad had come to find out that I was not a very imaginative kid. By that, I mean to say that when I said things, it was always serious. That fact only added to the thought of this kind of weapon being out there.

  “What is it for?” Dad asked me while cocking his head slightly.

  “Werewolf is for breaking defense and killing but with no pain.” The sentence somehow came out half-coherent. At least, I think it was pretty understandable seeing as I had only been learning to speak for a little bit. The truth of WRWLF explosives was not far off from that. The white lightning provides for armor penetration while killing more ethically than being obliterated by a more typical weapon. The fire, which originated as an unintended side-effect, actually turns out to work great at burning a hole into enemy encampments. The fire puts itself out pretty naturally after it runs out of the chemical fuel. That being said, WRWLF wouldn’t exist out here. There’s only one place that those grenades could’ve come from. My ship.

  “How do you know about this?” Dad’s question pierced my ears. I was expecting this question, which is why I thought I might refrain in the first place, but there was no getting around it and still dealing with the problem. I decided that I would answer to the best of my ability.

  “I... don’t know... how I know...” I spoke very truthfully, the best of my ability to answer turned out to be a non-answer, “I just... know it.”

  A moment of silence fell upon the room, followed by another statement by me.

  “Dad, will you help me find out why I know?” I asked him against my better judgement. I’d rather just not know, it pained me every time I’d try to think about it. I’d been ignoring the origin of the information I had as much as I could. My memory went far enough back to know that I wasn’t who I used to be anymore. I remember from when I woke up on that ship that I was shocked to no longer be a man, but I didn’t remember ever being a man. I wanted nothing to do with that past life, yet I just kept having foggy flashes of it. I needed to at least try to know.

  “Of course I will Kaelynn... You’re my daughter.”

  My eyes became teary once again, I’d been getting used to by now. I wanted to tell Dad that I loved him but I couldn’t muster the strength to let it out between the sobbing. Dad crouched down and brought my head into his shoulder. I cried there for a while, embracing my father to the best of my ability. I wished I could hug him forever. But his next question wouldn’t allow for that.

  “Kaelynn, can you take me to where you came from?” Dad asked slowly in his calming bass.

  “Mhm,” I sniffled after letting out the quiet affirmation.

  ***

  The building hadn’t been a far shot from the ship. They weren’t directly in any of the cardinal directions from it, but they were pretty much a halfway point from it to home. The path would appear like a diagonal from point A to B and B to C respectively.

  Before we had made it all the way to the ship, it could be seen in the distance. Panels had been torn off the sides and the ones that remained had collected rust already. The slightly-rich oxygen combined with some other gas in the atmosphere must’ve prematurely rusted the metal. The door could be seen clearly, it still remained partially open, allowing a small field of vision into the cabin.

  As we arrived at the ship, we went straight in. Light streamed in from the places where everything had been removed, obviously the place had been re-looted recently. The floor of the cabin was covered in all kinds of debris, but one objective was clear first. The weapons rack.

  I walked over to the place where the rack had been, hollow thuds followed every footstep from both me and my father behind me. The ship’s interior was so familiar, yet foreign at the same time. Regardless of that, I located the rack. The weapons rack laid on the floor in front of me, completely empty. It had two indentations where the metal had been crumpled on either side of the rotating compartment. It was as if a singular person had come and ripped the rack out of the wall with their bare hands. That shouldn’t have been possible, but there was a lot of impossible stuff happening recently.

  The only clue that the weapons rack had given me as to what had happened to the weapons was that an abnormally strong man, or creature I suppose, had stolen them. I considered if my Dad had done it, but not even he was that strong. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a blinking light.

  A small recording box laid on the ground nearby the rack. The blinking light indicated that a message had been recorded on it, and that it could be played back. I went over to the box and ordered the box to relay its message.

  A few seconds of silence, followed by some heavy footsteps, preceded a voice. “Who am I?” The robotic voice spoke out to seemingly no-one, but he was met with a reply.

  “You are RAIF,” an identical voice spoke, its audio was at a slightly different volume, indicating that it originated from a different place than the first, “you have one objective.”

  “What is my objective?” The first voice questioned.

  “This individual must be protected at all costs,” The second voice commanded the first, presumably showing an image of whoever it was talking about, “download the information located in the ‘important’ folder on my drive.”

  A few minutes of silence followed the command before the first voice spoke up again. “Finished. Thank you for your data.”

  No response.

  “I am Wraith, she is my objective.” The robotic voice repeated this line several times before stopping abruptly. Footsteps could be heard, growing louder as if the heavy object was approaching. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped, then the recording ended.

  The name sounded familiar for some reason, I felt some really strong emotion all of the sudden. I could not discern between joy, sadness, or fear. One thing was clear, whoever had the weapons, he was called “Wraith”, and Wraith was very powerful.

  I wouldn’t want to come across him.