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Elson woke to the sunlight flickering on his face, the sound of a horse trotting becoming clearer to him. His body bounced up and down steadily as he found himself on the backside of a moving horse. He opened his eyes to see the ground move by slowly. "Wha-?" he mumbled, trying to remember what had happened. He tried to move his arms, but found that they were bound tightly behind his back, as were his legs.

Memories from last night flooded Elson's mind as he started to struggle against his bonds. He looked up to see a cloaked figure navigating the horse, and Elson remembered that he had struck down one of them last night.

Angling himself onto his back, Elson threw his bound feet up and kicked his kidnapper on the side of the face. They both tumbled off the horse and onto the hard, unforgiving rocky dirt road. Elson hit the ground with a thud and wasted no time and wriggling out of the ties around his feet. He jumped up and was getting ready to run when the cloak figure had gotten in his way. The kidnapper had recovered from Elson's attack faster than he had guessed.

They stood a few yards from each other, unmoving, until the cloaked figure reached up to remove his hood. Elson now stared into the yellow glowing eyes of a wolfman, a being that he had never seen before. The wolfman threw down his cloak to reveal a body bulging with muscles, covered up by only a thin fabric loincloth that did very little to hide that fact that his attacker was undoubtedly male. The fur on his chest was painted to form a tribal symbol that Elson did not recognize. Other than the loincloth and bow and quiver strapped to his back, the only other thing that the wolfman carried was a long, strangely curved dagger dangling from his waist.

The wolfman raised his hands away from his dagger and almost in a submissive fashion. "Don't run..." he said.

Elson stepped back a step. "Y-you speak the elven language..?" The wolf nodded in reply. "What do you want with me?" Elson took another step back.

The wolfman stepped forward, and that's all the excuse Elson needed to dart off in the opposite direction at full speed. He could hear the pads of the wolfman thumping in pursuit closing in on him quickly. Elson tried to run faster, but before he could reach the edge of the forest, the wolfman had grabbed Elson by the ankle and hoisted him into the air so that he was dangling a few feet off the ground.

The boy trashed and kicked at the wolf ferociously, but his kidnapper skillfully blocked every kick with his other forearm. "Let me go!" Elson demanded as the wolf threw him over his shoulder and carried him back to the waiting horse.

"No," he said, dropping Elson and stepping on the edge of his tunic to prevent him from going anywhere. Strapped to the horse was an oddly woven basket, and Elson could see the strap from his satchel dangling from the lip under it's lid. The wolfman dove a hand inside and pulled out a small coil of rope. He unwounded it and bent down to tie Elson's legs back together, but the boy wouldn't stop wriggling. The wolf lifted his leg for a moment before he brought it back down on the boy's stomach, not too hard, but hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs.

Elson stopped struggling as he concentrated on breathing, unable to do much to stop the wolf from trying up his legs and thighs. When he was done, he lifted Elson back up and hoisted him back on the rear of the horse.

~*~

The day slowly turned to night as Elson's kidnapper continued taking him farther and farther away from his home. They rode in silence, neither one of them speaking to each other. After a while, Elson's kidnapper had slowed the horse down to a stop in the middle of the road. Elson looked around, wondering where they were and why the wolf was stopping before the horse turned and was guided into the woods. "What are you doing?" Elson asked, looking up to see the back of the wolfman's head. "The forest is dangerous at night."

"We'll be fine." He replied, keeping his eyes fixed on the surrounding woods. He navigated the horse through the dense overgrowth of trees, moss and weeds until he felt satisfied with his distance. After tying the horse's harness to a tree's low branch, the wolfman had walked over and hoisted Elson over his shoulder and carried his to a nearby tree. In a matter of seconds, Elson found himself tied tightly to the base of the tree trunk, hardly able to move his arms.

Elson sat silently, watching as the wolf picked off a few dead and fallen branches before throwing them into a pile and starting a small fire. They sat there in the cool night, Elson's eyes moreving with every shadow and the wolfman's ears rotating with every sound, but neither one of them showing any visual concern. Elson tried several times to go into a light sleep, but just couldn't slip into unconsciousness knowing that something could happen while he slept, so there he sat, wide awake, tired, and even a bit scared.

"So what's your name?" Elson asked, watching the wolf stare absently into the flames.

"Gale," he said after a moment, poking the fire with a designated stick.

"What do you want with me Gale?"

The wolf shook his head. "I don't want anything to do with you; you shoot my companion and kick me in head, you can imagine my disinterest in you. You are just a debt that I need to repay."

Elson shifted, feeling numbness crawl into his rear. "Who sent you and what do they want with me?"

Gale poked the fire again before feeding it a few more stocks. "Who I'm working for is none of your concern, as for why..." he paused for a moment. "He says that he can find a way to help the world with your abilities..."

Elson's heart skipped a beat. "Y-... you know about me...?"

The wolf nodded, looking from his fire only briefly before turning his gaze back down.

Elson was starting to worry now; no one except for his family and a few selected doctors knew of his condition, no one else. How this wolf knew about him made questions run through the boys head and his skin crawl. He needed to get away from this man as soon as possible. Elson concentrated on summoning his abilities to cut the rope, but nothing came more than a small useless spark in front of his face. "What the-...?" Elson tried again, but still only a spark of blue snapped before him.

"It's not going to work," Gale cooed, his eyes still fixed on the fire.

"What did you do to me?" Elson asked, frantically trying to summon more than just a small spark.

"Relax," he pulled his legs into his chest and rested his chin on his knees. "You're abilities aren't gone, they're just... suppressed."

Elson relaxed a little bit, but wasn't happy at the fact that his powers were gone for the time being. He wriggled a bit in his bonds, trying to get comfortable and maybe get some kind of sleep.

~*~

A twig snapping interrupted Gale from his light slumber. He bolted uptight, ears rotating and eyes peeled, listening and looking for anything that might present itself in the dark. As he listened, he noticed that he couldn't hear any wildlife; no coo of morning birds, no scurrying of rodents or any sound what so ever.

His ears and eyes strained to detect absolutely anything, but all that could be heard was the faint howl of the steady blowing wind.

Gale picked up his bow, quiver and dagger and crawled over to where Elson was tied. The boy gasped when Gale clasped his large hand over his mouth. Gale brought his finger to his lips before he started cutting at Elson's bonds with his claws. He made one quick swipe and the rope around the prince's legs fell to the ground. As soon as he was free, Elson brought his knee up hard to Gales chin, knocking him onto his back.

Elson took off into the woods, putting as much distance between himself and Gale as possible.

The wolf rubbed his jaw in pain as he slowly sat upright, dazed from the sudden blow. He got a glimpse of Elson running off with his hands still tied behind his back as he disappeared behind a tree.

Gale got to his feet and started off after him. He heard orders being yelled behind him as several royal guards emerged from the bushes, crossbows in hands and eyes looking around the old campsite. One of them pointed at Gale as he ran, alerting the others.

Thick arrows bolted through the air hitting trees and the ground around Gale as he dodged them. The wolf jumped over a fallen log, refusing to slow down. Gale had speed on his side, so the guards were falling behind him while Elson was getting closer. He could now see the boy fumbling over roots and sticks that littered the grassy ground.

In moments, Gale was right behind Elson, reaching out to grab his tunic when the boy turned around and threw a surprisingly skilled kicked at the wolf's chest. He stumbled back a few feet before he found himself standing ready parallel to Elson, who was equally ready for a fight.

Gale's ears rotated behind him to hear that the guards were getting closer, so he would have to make this fast. Taking a step forwards, Gale make a quick scan of his surroundings and without warning, Elson darted forward. He jumped and threw three kicks at Gale. As he blocked the blows, it wasn't hard for Gale to figure out that the boy had obviously had some sort of training in the past.

As soon as Elson landed, he wasted no time in in releasing a barrage of kicks at the wolf with one leg before the other. Gale knew that it would be more of a challenge than he had previously thought, but didn't bother in blocking, instead, he simply dodged all of the prince's kicks easily. He was almost having fun until he remembered that he had to be quick about the situation.

Grabbing his leg when Elson threw another kick, Gale kicked out the boys other leg out from under him and watched as he swung upside-down, hanging from his ankle in the wolf's grasp. The boy was about to kick again, when, instead, Gale kicked him in the head solidly, knocking him unconscious.

Gale carried the prince in his arms, hopping over logs and roots as he made his way through the woods. He was half way through a stride when he stopped as a thought struck him; he had forgotten his horse. He didn't personally care about the horse, but all of his belongings and Elson's satchel was on that horse, which was probably in the hands of the guards now...

He pondered... should he go back and get his stuff... or should he keep going on his way...

He cringed as he remembered that the poison he had been using to suppress the princes abilities was on that horse, and he had no idea how much longer they would stay suppressed without another dose soon.

Cursing as he walked up to a tree, Gale hung the limp Elson on a firm branch from the back of his tunic. He watched his dangle for a moment, making sure that the branch wouldn't give before going back in the direction of the campsite.

~*~

Elson awoke with the light pain of a headache and quite possibly a bruise on his forehead. He opened his eyes to see the ground slowly swaying below him slowly. He felt strain on the back of his clothes and looked up. From his tunic, he swung steadily to and fro from a branch on a half dead tree.

Struggling, he managed to twist off from the branch and onto the ground, but at the cost of a good tear in the back of his tunic where the branch had held him fast. He looked around for any sign on the wolfman, but he was nowhere to be seen. That's strange, he thought. Why would he leave me by my lonesome?

Not brave enough to question Fate, Elson began jogging off in the opposite direction of where he guessed the old campsite was.