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"(My horn! What the fuck happened?!)"

"Ifrit, is it about the horn?"

The hellhound turned his gaze away from the mirror to see Lilac, and she was quite surprised when she clearly saw a surprised wolfish look on Ifrit's face. Another thing that caught her attention was the condition of his slit eyes. They became more spherical, like a calmed cat.

"Lilac, do I look like a strange hellhound? Am I weird?"

"No, you're perfectly normal in many senses." Yet, in her thoughts, she said, "It's better to lose both of them for all of our safety."

"This is not good. Do I have to wait until it grows back? I can't stand being like this around...."

When Ifrit slowly and weakly went out from the medical center, Albreich reminded him about his tail, which he tucked it in before closing the door. The trader just made a sigh and said, "He takes that pretty seriously. Maybe cutting the horn hurts his feelings and pride, so just let him be."

"I feel sorry for him...."

"Ah, it's alright. He's still a young hellhound," he said. "He'll be out from it sooner or later."

As the day had a clear weather, the three of them started another journey to the region's border. Lilac had noticed that the hellhound's condition had been better than before, with many of his wounds closing up quicker than any normal humans. Yet, despite of being recovered, Ifrit had been in a bad mood and didn't want to read much of the books. He was only staring at the floor without doing anything. Lilac somehow knew what made the hellhound so stressed, and it was because of his new feelings he wasn't accustomed to.

Without trying to say anything, Lilac sat beside the hellhound and said, "Ifrit, it's only a horn. Will it grow back?"

Ifrit didn't immediately answer the question, but after a while, he nodded.

"If it can grow, why are you such in a foul mood? I don't know a hellhound can be in a foul mood...though, in your case, everything humans have can be yours, too."

"Hellhounds...take horns seriously," he said. "It's what to make us good."

"You mean good-looking, right?"

"I must study more of these words if we want to talk normally, huh?"

"Don't worry, you learn faster than most humans. But, why the horns?"

"It's something you won't understand, but you won't earn any respect with a broken horn. You will be seen as a freak, and this is the reason why we hellhounds preferred to be scarred instead of losing a horn."

Lilac just nod. Hellhounds normally didn't mind on having a broken horn since they were living for themselves, yet after awakening a kind of a feeling, Ifrit felt that it was very important to stay as normal as possible with a perfect set of horns.

Knowing how hard it was to cope with something very new like feelings, Lilac embraced the hellhound for the first time since they had met, and she felt the warmness unlike most humans she had ever bumped to. The warmness was like a fire burning in the fireplace, warming her in the middle of the cold afternoon. At first, Ifrit was overwhelmed by it, unable to do something for a moment, before in a soothing reflex, the hellhound closed his eyes and started to wrap his furry arms around Lilac, embracing her and causing her to gasp, as she wasn't prepared for it. Ifrit quickly released his embrace and with an embarrassed expression, turned to the front part of the carriage, leaving the confused Lilac behind.

"What's wrong with me?" thought Lilac. "Do I even feel his hug to be a passionate one? I was taken into his embrace, but that thing was a pure feeling of care. But, why am I so taken by it?"

At night, after taking a delivery job and selling some of the leftovers from the previous deliveries, they managed to reach the outskirts of a walled city. The city was seen at the horizon, and from Albreich, they could know that there was a place for the traders to make a camp, reserved to them by the people of the walled city, yet it was dark and Albreich started to speed up his horses.

"What's wrong, Albreich? We are okay on setting camp here."

"There are many bandits and raiders along the road to the city. They strike at night, or so what the traders said at the carriage station."

"Why do you even go if you know it will be a dangerous road?"

"This job is to deliver fresh crops, so if we delay, we won't get a full gold payment if they don't get fresh vegetables in the morning market. Now, we must take that risk."

"But if you hit somebody..."

"Don't worry, Lilac, it's not like I can't see things in the..."

The carriage suddenly hit something and made it tumbled. The interior was slanted slightly, and made Lilac wondered if they went inside something.

Albreich went down from the carriage to calm the horses while he said, "Please check the wheels. Something must've broken it."

Ifrit went down from the carriage while going to the part where it fell, with Lilac helping the lighting with a lantern inside the carriage. When they went closer to the part of the wheel, Ifrit saw that it was broken by something hard, as some part of the wooden wheel was like chipped.

"(Damn), something must've hit the wheel in the dark. Would you agree, Lilac?"

"Something rougher than the mountain rocks did this. Maybe it's a sheet of metal?"

"Can that be strong enough to make this damage?"

"We can't be sure before we saw where it hit. But in this..."

Suddenly Lilac saw a figure looming over her and in reflex, she screamed. Ifrit who was beside her turned to her, also by reflex, to saw that she was held by a man carrying a curved sword. Knowing that reckless actions could lead to Lilac's death, Ifrit slowly said, in a non-threatening tone, "Look, I don't want to make things hard, but put her down."

"You want her, Lycan, you must pay. This is our road, you got that? Everyone must pay, or else."

"Okay, but I don't like paying bad men."

"Pay or else, Lycan."

Ifrit sighed, he had no way to reason with them. He counted at least three to four humans were there, rummaging around their carriages. One of them was pointing his sword to Albreich, but the trader was perfectly calm, just like what Ifrit did. The trader made a wink and a small smile, in which Ifrit understood.

"(This may be the first time I help others)," thought Ifrit. When he turned to the one holding Lilac he said, "Okay, I'll pay you, (human), but can you wait for a moment?"

"Give us a sack of gold and you're good to go, Lycan. But, if you ever tell the authority about us, you'll be sorry."

"Yes...alright...(here goes!)"

Suddenly with a quick grip, he pulled out his long prehensile tail and with an inhuman movement made a quick spin with the demonic tail lashing out in strength similar to a whip, hitting the human's hand. Yet this movement gave a slight pain to his hurt parts, and he lost his balance for a moment before using his other leg to kick away the one holding Lilac. The woman stumbled front and fell over Ifrit, in which he set aside and in a quick succession pulled a pole and threw it to the one guarding Albreich, in which the trader turned to the stunned man and punched his face, splattering blood to his hand.

"Damn it! This Lycan is their brawler," said one of them while unsheathing his sword. "Kill him, now!"

Some other people came out hiding from behind the rock, but Ifrit suddenly ran on four to one of the unaware bandits and said, "(Surprise, motherfucker!)" before grabbing him and threw him to his friend. He also took a rock on his left hand and with a small spin he threw it to another, injuring his head. He was caught unaware by a stab from a tree branch by Ifrit, as he threw him aside to a rock, impaling him by the leg. When he was being ambushed by four men, Ifrit took a pole beside him and swung it in a big arc and a strong hit to all of them, where they fell and the pole broke. He didn't stop there, though. In a great stomp he broke a man's arm, prompting him to scream and yell in the most painful voice they could ever hear.

"(Guess that's done). Hey, Al, Lilac, are you two alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine," said Albreich while cleaning his clothes. "You give a lot of pain to that one. Maybe you want to ease up the brutality a little?"

"I can't help it. I'm a hellhound."

Albreich then saw a bandit tried to get away while crawling, but Ifrit shot a fire ball near him (he sensed him in the first place), before the trader pulled him back and said, "Will you stop this nonsense? I won't hesitate to ask that demon to kill you if you don't comply."

"No...that can't be possible..."

"C'mon, now. Where can you find a Lycan with horns and a prehensile tail like that?"

The man realized it too late.

"Oh...no..."

"Now, get off while you still can. He is still reasonable enough to rough you up a little, but I don't want things to get worse."

He nodded, and ran away from the group, leaving his unconscious friends behind. Albreich made a sigh and said, "Ifrit, come here for a moment?"

When the hellhound came, he said, "Now, can you help me carry this carriage from the back while the horses pull it? Before that, wash those grimes off your body first."

The hellhound did just that with the water from the barrel, but before he could lift the carriage, he saw Lilac near the door, completely distraught about what happened. He didn't want his friend and connection to the mortal world be like that after what happened, so he went inside the tilted carriage, and said, "Are you alright?"

Lilac didn't immediately answer him, but shook all over. With her being so near with a blade, Ifrit could understand why she was scared. He himself had a phobia with the blades, and it almost cost him his other good horn when it swung near him and he frantically dodged it.

Ignoring the pain building up at his abdomen, Ifrit sat beside Lilac, and offered her his clawed hand. Lilac reluctantly took the hand, and a sudden warm stream of heat went into Lilac, which surprised her. She was also dumbstruck by how Ifrit was smiling to her while in many occasions he never made a smile (quite particularly because he had canine features), and in some way her own canine personality wanted to embrace Ifrit, the hellhound, like how she loved another canine race. Lilac slowly put out her other hand, lost on the thought of breaking the forbidden love with a demon dog. Her own face almost got to Ifrit's snout when Albreich cleared his throat, taking both of them back to reality.

"When you're finished with the comforting, help me take this carriage to the city, okay? The gates will be closing soon," said the trader while taking something from inside his cupboard. "And Lilac, stay inside the carriage or you'll get hurt, okay?"

Reaching the walled city wasn't as hard as expected, quite partially after Ifrit's little 'intimidation'. The night wasn't all that old and the city wasn't sleeping yet, which mean that they were lucky to reach the place before the gate was closed for the night.

"Your group is the last trader to reach the wall," said the guard greeting them. "Okay, lads, close the gate!"

While they were walking, he started to say, "Lylla has been struggling to get brave traders to get deliveries in and out of the city, but those damned marauders are cutting off the supplies more than we can get. What's worse, the marauders aren't leaving any traces."

"Any traces?"

"Well, except a big lump of ashes, nothing's left. We thought they were blackpowder spilled on the road."

"Those are remains," said Ifrit suddenly. "It's the ashes of burned things."

They all suddenly turned to Ifrit.

"So, they destroy anything in their path after taking the goods? Wonderful idea, Lycan, but we haven't found any marauders willing enough to talk about their hiding spots. Well, now, I think it's not the time for you weary travellers to be standing around the wall. My men will help you fix the carriage house and take the goods first time in the morning to the market. You will get your payment from the vendor tomorrow."

"It's very kind of you, but I prefer if you leave the goods alone. I will take them to him."

The city was starting to sleep when they reached the inn. Buying two rooms for the men and Lilac were cheaper than the previous towns, but of course, the quality wasn't as expected.

In the small cobblestone walled room, both Ifrit and Albreich slept in beds laid across the room, and the place had no personal bathroom, yet for them, it was slightly larger than living in the carriage.

When Ifrit put off his jacket and shirt, Albreich scratched his head before saying, "We need to talk, Ifrit."

"What's wrong?"

"Are you in love with her?"

"What is that? Is that some kind of a feeling?"

"Yes, Ifrit, and it's not something you can have."

"And why is that?"

Albreich went silent for a moment, before sitting on the bed beside the hellhound, while saying, "Ifrit, I appreciate how you learn about feelings, but, there's one thing humans have and you don't, and that's the feeling of love. Right now, it isn't too late to stop thinking about loving Lilac, Ifrit. You and her are different races in different realms. There's no way a Lycan and a hellhound can be in love. You just can't."

"So, it's forbidden?"

Albreich turned his head to Ifrit and put his hand on his shoulder, where he could feel the warmth of the hellhound. "Lilac...is a mortal race and a Lycan, while you're a hellish being. This difference is enough to say that you both can't be together, even if you both are canine races."

"Oh..."

"Now get to sleep, we'll gonna have a long road ahead of us."

As the night went late, Ifrit was still staring at the star, wondering if what Albreich said about forbidden love was something he couldn't do. He watched the stars twinkling in the night where he slowly admiring their beauty, something he had never done before. He slowly thought about Lilac, seeing her smile and that memory was like something he felt important in his life, and this made him remember his brother, who he only knew when they were small.

"(Nergora...I don't know where you are, man, but I wish you're alright)," thought the hellhound. "(I don't know why I felt like I miss something, but, maybe you won't appreciate me with me being like a human now. Guess you won't gonna hear or miss me, so thinking like this is useless)."

And thus, Ifrit went into his bed and slept, without thinking about every problem he got that night.