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Fire From the Darkness CHAPTER 1

I hate drunks, the male thought as he walked into the Lion's Claw Tavern.

"Ale," he said in his deep almost growling voice as he approached the bar.

Everyone in the tavern stopped what they were doing and turned their eyes to a rather intoxicated shrew in the corner, as he rose saying, "Hey, who are you?" The other turned and the bar patron went white under his fur. "I know you, you're Firus Lu-"

Firus quickly took a knife from his belt and threw it at the man where it stuck in his throat, causing him to choke on his own blood. As the man fell dead to the floor Firus said "Anyone else know who I am?"

Everyone in the pub quickly turned back to his or her business.

"Here's your ale." Said the bartender cautiously.

"Sorry about the body," Firus said. He put ten gold coins on the bar and left, after retrieving his knife, mug in hand.

Outside, the town of Gryma was growing dark, since there were no road lamps. This was the way he liked it. Firus never liked going into a town, they were too populated, and too bright. But he didnt mind this town, for it was small and had few people. Maybe after I retire I could settle here he thought, even though he knew that in almost every case there was only one way to retire in his profession, Death. Firus was a Grey Wolf Lupanos with fur the color of light shadows and eyes as gold as the sunset. He was also a trained assassin, trained by the Neeg tong in the west. Even though he was a wolf and not a cat like most of their students, he was the best they had ever trained; and he loved the challenge of what he did. Some people said that the only way he could be beaten was if his opponent possessed some of the dead magic.

Only the Wol clerics had magic now and it was limited to healing. The Wols were a species from another world which they called something that sounded like Xiacanta, which meant "Mother of All" in their native tongue. They looked like they were part owl and part lizard, but they were entirely their own race. Nobody liked them, they were too different. The only reason anyone ever tolerated them was because of their healing magic, without it they would have been hunted ruthlessly even to the brink of extinction. The mistrust between the Wols and the rest of the inhabitants of the world was mutual, for the Wols didn't like the other races any more than the others liked them. In the past the Wols had played major parts in the Gate Wars, without them the world would be ruled by beings known collectively as Outsiders. Still few people trusted them and none blindly. Firus was one of those few who trusted the Wols for they had saved his life many times and when he had insisted on repaying them they simply said that they had healed him because they felt he had a purpose in this world. Whether the Wols agreed or not he felt that he owed them for saving his life so many times so he would run errands for them whether it was as simple as picking herbs or as complicated as killing someone who could pose a threat to the them.

Firus' mother had died when he was only six years old, so the Wols were the almost closest thing he had to family. Not that he cared about a family, he preferred to be alone for the most part, though he could think of a few exceptions, though he could only stand one person for more than a week or two. But nevertheless he still felt like he could trust the Wols with his life, gods knew they had saved it often enough.

There was one Wol in particular though that Firus knew he could trust, that was their leader, Tabol. Who was the kindest and most understanding of Firus' situation and temperament, which meant he knew when to stop trying to persuade Firus to do or not do something. But overall they were good friends, and though he would never admit it, Firus would die if it meant saving Tabol's life. He was very aware of this fact, and even though Firus didn't know it, was very touched by the caring this assassin, who sometimes seemed completely devoid of emotion, showed for him.

Firus was returning north to the Wols after dealing with the head of a group of rebels, which was attempting to rally the citizens of many nearby cities against the Wols and meeting quite a bit of success. They had been planning to raid the nearby city of Busta, a port town, which harbored many supporters of the Wols several of whom knew the location of the gate that the Wols had used to enter the world. The gate was located in the far north, even farther than the Wol city of Magga, which bordered the Great Plains of Ice. After returning, Firus would usually spend a day relaxing in the hot springs about an hours walk from Magga. After which he would usually take another mission or explore in the woods to the east near Gryma. It was the latter that he was returning from now, having received a message from the Wols about a new mission for him if he wanted it, and they said it was big.

All he knew about it was that it had to do with wild magic, which was enough to catch his interest. He had always had an interest in the wild manifestations of magic and how they worked. The Wols having not been on this world very long knew almost nothing about wild magic, for there was none on their world. So they were willing to help find and study any wild magic they could. They still knew very little about it since wild magic only lasted about a day or two before expending itself by, if it lost all energy, dissipating, or, if it gained too much energy, exploding with disastrous effects. They had, however, discovered a way to contain wild magic. By enclosing it in a jar made from special ash from the base of Mt. Hoka, it would neither gain nor lose energy therefore allowing them to study it at leisure.

As Firus was thinking about what the mission might be, he found that the sun had gone down all the way, so he decided he might as well set up camp since there was no inn in Gryma. Having finished making a fire and setting a pot to boil he decided to see if he could find anything to eat. While coming back with a handful of wild tubers, he could have sworn he saw movement in the forest around him, but as soon as he looked it vanished, replaced by a black lump.

"Come out Mew." called Firus.

"I've told you a hundred times not to call me that!" said the lump.

"I know, but you always blow your cover when I say it."

"Dammit."

As the lump stood up it was revealed to be a female wolf only slightly younger than himself. She looked like an ordinary Timber Wolf Lupanos but if you looked close enough you could see that her fur, while being the normal colors, actually had a slight tiger stripe pattern to it. Her eyes also betrayed her heritage, being slitted and a beautiful golden green. Her name was Sayuri, but Firus called her Mew sometimes because whenever something startled her, she would let out a tiny shriek that sounded like a kitten.

Sayuri was a friend from the Neeg tong's academy, she was admitted a year earlier but they graduated at about the same time. She was held back from graduating, because she was easily irritated and blew her cover when someone said something about her. Firus decided to take her under his wing and help her to graduate. Having trained her not to react when someone mentioned her, unless he used his little nickname for her, the masters decided that Firus' tutelage was better for her than their own. So she was allowed to graduate when he did, as long as he continued to teach her afterwards.

Firus gave her a quick kiss, "It's good to see you again. You might as well come back to camp with me," he said

"Okay, I'll be there in a second." called Sayuri as she disappeared back into the forest.

Firus sighed. It really was great to see her, but she had the annoying habit of following him sometimes.

"Ready," she said as she appeared in front of him, carrying a pack with a rolled up pallet.

As they walked back to his camp he asked her how long she had been following him this time.

"About two days" she said.

"Wow, you're getting better." She smiled at the praise. "You just need to remember to not move when your target is within ear shot." The smile vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

"Cheer up, you'll get the hang of it. Just keep practicing."

"I know, it's just kind of hard to stay still for so long."

Firus chuckled "I understand that." He made a show of looking about them to make sure no one was around. "Can you keep a secret?"

"You of all people should know that I can," she replied.

"Well, when I was learning the art of stalking, I had the same problem."

"What, blowing your cover when someone called you Mew?"

Firus roared with laughter "no, not being able to stay still when the person is near."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, you're actually getting the hang of it faster than I did."

This time it was her turn to laugh. "You speak as though we didn't graduate at the same time."

"Yeah, well that was one of the things that kept me from graduating even faster."

"Don't remind me." She said embarrassed.

They arrived at the camp just as the water was beginning to overflow the pot it was in. While Firus attended to the pot, Sayuri spread her pallet over a flat patch of ground. Firus began cutting up the tubers and adding them to the pot with some meat and vegetables he brought out from his pack.

"No onions." Sayuri said looking up from her pallet

"I almost forgot." Said Firus as he teasingly held an onion over the pot. Then he let go. Sayuri threw one of her own knifes at the onion; it went straight through without taking the onion with it. The onion dropped into the pot with a small splash. Firus quickly speared the onion with the knife he was using, and plucked it out before the water could take on the flavor.

"Just as I thought." he said, "You still keep all your knives a little too sharp."

"Nice trick." She replied testily, as she went to pluck the knife from the tree it was stuck in. "But you know I have trouble telling if they are too sharp or not."

"Well, that's why I keep telling you to travel with an onion. Watch."

He placed the onion on a stump nearby and threw a knife at it. It went almost all the way through but stuck at the last second and sent the onion flying back.

"Thats how sharp your knives should be. After all, you wouldn't want to leave incriminating marks on a wall, when you're trying to make someone disappear." He told her as he picked both the knife and the onion up off the ground. He took his knife out of the onion and placed it back on the trunk.

"Now, you won't eat until your knife sticks like that. Start throwing them at the tree to dull them. Remember how many throws it took to dull one knife to that level, and then repeat with your other knives. Just dont do too much damage to one tree. It doesnt have to stick that far in, just a little more than halfway." He sat at the fire and started stirring the stew. "Begin"

Later when Sayuri was working on her other knives, and Firus was adding a few spices to the stew, he thought he heard something else in the forest. He instinctively dropped to the ground and

"Sayuri, stop. Get low and be ready." He whispered. He got up and started to walk slowly to where he heard the noise.

Suddenly he felt a small gust of wind near his head, and heard a small scream of pain as a knife flew past him and hit the intruder in the leg, rendering him immobile.

"Nice throw," said Firus.

"Not really, I was aiming for his abdomen." She replied

Firus walked up to the would be attacker and found that he was lying dead on the ground. After he examined the stalker, he found that it was a male fox with a fairly recent cut on his neck that looked cauterized.

"Now why would he do that?" asked Sayuri.

"I wish I knew" he replied.

He bent to examine the knife he used to kill himself. He abruptly dropped it when it burned his hand. No wonder the neck wound looks cauterized, he thought. He looked at the pained appendage and found it unharmed. It's magic? Whats going on here? Firus thought to himself.

"What happened?"

"It burned me," he said. "But it didn't leave a mark. See?"

"Hmm. Either he heated it in a fire, and I see no ashes, or it's-"

"Magic." He finished.

"But how? No one has known how to do this kind of thing for over two thousand years." She asked.

"I don't know, but this can't be good. We've got to get to the Wols as soon as possible. See if u can pick up the knife and put it in a bag," he said as he rose and started to walk off.

"Where are you going?"

"To make sure the stew didn't burn, of course."

This is my first attempt to write anything so please keep that in mind when you vote and comment ^^. Also, I promise that this story will most likely not stay No-Yiff, it depends on the feed back i get.

And any constructive criticism and pointing out my mistakes (spelling, not italicizing for thoughts etc.) are most definitely welcome and most appreciated ^^.