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The Badger and the Wolf

Aldric was looking at the lake water, where he was dipping his feet into. The badger's dreams have gone haywire in the last few weeks as he dreamt constantly about the green eyes in a reflection of his. Those eyes, they were not his, they couldn't be, but the face was. As if it showed him another life. Another world even. One completely different to his own, a world and a life in which only animaran existed. "How annoying, I can't see any further than a mere window," he said quietly into himself and laid down on his back. It was a rather cloudy day, but that he loved the most.

The summer had come, soon he would be on his way for a journey every shaman had to do in their lives. He got up and took his staff as he focused on the training he had so far. His feet dug a bit into the dirt and soon enough he could feel himself covered in the earth and rock around him, forming something akin to an armor. He stopped his focus and let the armor dissolve again. The following moment he made a small dance-like movement and the dirt formed a scythe-like top on his staff.

"You are going to cut grass with that thing?" someone said from the forest around and Aldric identified it rather quickly. Haidon, another shaman apprentice like himself, was looking at him with some interest. The wolf animaran was slightly taller than Aldric, who himself was however already larger than a human.

"At the very best I don't have to cut anything, but it is still better to know a few ways to defend oneself against threats," Aldric replied as he swung the scythe around rather graciously, as he held enough control on its elemental fragments to ignore the weight. "So, what are you up to? Also seeking some solitude to collect your thoughts?"

Haidon laughed a little bit into himself. "In a way, I was going to swim a bit in the lake and I saw you here and wanted to say hello."

"Oh well, hello to you, too," Aldric replied as he stepped a little bit to the side for the wolf to enter the lake. "I am a bit hungry, so I go to look for some fruit, and am not going to disturb you."

"Not that I really mind you around, Aldric," Haidon said with a very confident tone, which was followed by him seductively stepping into the water with showing his body a bit more consciously than usual.

Aldric didn't really notice that at all as he went just straight into the forest and let Haidon standing with his confident expression having been replaced with surprise. Though he had a better eyesight than a mole and equivalent to a human, Aldric sometimes skipped details around him and looked more into the greater picture of things. This however could lead to some problems, as he didn't see the chestnut on the ground which his foot now made contact with. Jumping up from the pain, he lost equilibrium and fell down on his right arm. But instead of caring long for it, he noticed a lot of chestnuts lying around and he got an idea of using them. Carefully he collected two dozen of them and put them on a pile of leaves. A movement of his hand later the leaves turned into a small bag for him to carry the chestnuts around.

He then sniffed around for another ingredient around himself and he found it rather fast. A few careful steps with the wind blowing in the opposite direction of his he looked upon a rather unaware hare. Remembering how feline and canine animaran usually did it he jumped straight for his prey, only to miss and bury his nose into the dirt as the hare jumped away while he body was still mid-air. He rubbed the dirt of his nose and took another look for the hare, but the little animal had escaped his sight and he got a bit disappointed.

"Mushrooms should do, I guess," he said to himself and started picking some of them from the ground, carefully differentiating between poisonous and edible specimen. He collected a lot of them in fact, as he was a better scavenger than hunter, so he had enough to make something out of it as he returned to the quiet spot at the lake. He assumed that Haidon would have been done with his swimming sessions, but the badger soon learned that Haidon was a rather endurable swimmer.

The wolf noticed the badger with two bags at the side of the lake and swam back to him, coming out of the lake with the water dripping from his body, as if he was a soaked cushion. He shook himself rapidly to dry his fur and ended up with Aldric getting half of it on his own fur.

"Well, I was about to cook some stuff, so how about we eat something together, my friend?" Aldric suggested as he put the bags down and looked at the wolf eyeing for something more suitable for a carnivorous diet. „I tried to get some hare, but I am not that good at catching them."

"In that case, I may just grab some hare and two pans to cook all this stuff," Haidon suggested as he put his loincloth back on and went back into the forest in direction of the settlement.

Aldric meanwhile used the time the wolf would take to get cooking utensils and a hare for collecting some firewood in order to already start the flames before Haidon returned. It took him much less than ten minutes to find the wood, some herbs that created an easily inflammable substance, and a stick to rub on the other dry wood.

Haidon returned ten minutes later with a pan in his right hand, and a hare in the other, as he saw that Aldric had started the fire already and had assembled two objects that appeared similar to chairs, but made out of earth and grass to soften the surface. "Seems, cozy."

"Well, why not having some comfort and fun? And thanks for the hare, which we now need to prepare actually," the badger noted as he took the small leporine animal and a knife he had in a sheath with him. It took him a while, but soon enough Aldric had the meat prepared in the fun and added the chestnuts and mushrooms to it before he looked around and took a few herbs to carefully mix them in.

"Quite eager to cook, aren't you," Haidon asked with very soft and kind voice as he watched Aldric holding the pan above the fire and turning the food with care around. "I guess with your travels drawing near it's better to."

"Not just for travels, also to experiment with ingredients and create wonderful tastes out of them to share with others," Aldric stated with a rather friendly smirk on his face.

"It's actually the first time I cook for more than just me, so I hope our tastes are not too different. In the meantime, just relax a little bit, I and enjoy the scent of my work."About fifteen minutes later Aldric took a look around and took a larger branch from dead tree and concentrated a little bit. A moment later he had two wooden bowls ready and filled them with food, mostly the hare for Haidon, while he himself took the chestnuts and mushrooms.

The wolf finished his meal quicker, but his expression was looking extremely pleased as the herbs gave the meat a rather nice aroma and taste, which he hasn't experienced before. "You know, if you can cook like that, maybe we should do this more often."

"We do hang out together though. Last week we were fighting with quarterstaffs, swam against each other, practiced dances, and the same also the weeks before ever since we became shamans," Aldric noted as he was still busy with the chestnuts after he finished he mushrooms. "Or we just talked. Most of the other apprentices are bit dense at times."

"Yeah, well you know I think it has been fun with you as well. A reason why I kind of like the shaman lessons more than what I would be taught as a warrior," Haidon replied as he stood up and looked at the sky. The sun was already setting, so he decided that it was a good moment. "Say, how about we spend the night out here together?It's rather nice with the setup we are working with here."

Aldric looked around and he gave the wolf a nod. "Well, life is short, so we should enjoy it to the fullest."

Haidon made a wolfish grin, literally and figuratively, at that remark, because he saw the badger doing exactly what he hoped for. "So, how about we go for a swim together?" Before even waiting for a reply from the badger, he dropped his loincloth and jumped right into the lake water. Being rather dumbfounded for a moment Aldric slowly got up and unbuckled his belt that was adorned with turquoise and carefully put his own loincloth to the side as he went into the water himself.

The two animaran were rather casually and didn't compete with each other in terms of speed or endurance, as usually Haidon was the one to be the victor of those challenges, while Aldric just wanted to swim a little bit. Haidon, being a bit more open than usual around his friend, tried a few times to dive under and scare the badger, but Aldric just laughed all the time he tried rather than being shocked for a few moments.

It already was night time when the two stepped out of the water and shook off most of their soaked fur dry before they put their clothing back on, sat down at the fire, and let it do the rest of the job.

To Haidon this was the best moment to grasp to speak with Aldric about something he had on his heart for a while now. He got a bit closer to the badger and gave him a big smile. "You know, before we both are on our way into the world in a few months I wanted to tell you something," he said as he crept a bit closer to Aldric's ear and whispered, "I love you."

"That explains the recent change in your scent when I am around you,"

Aldric noticed as he gave the wolf an innocent smile. "And, I can say that I am feeling close to you as well. I love you, Haidon. And I am really glad that we got to know each other as we still were growing up, so we could forge such a bond as we grew to adults. As I said, life is short,"

"So let's make the most out of it," Haidon finished for the badger as he took the initiative and put his arms around him. He started grooming his lover at the cheek and ear area, but soon proceeded close to the muzzle and nose.

Aldric enjoyed it very much as he started to connected his own tongue with the wolf's and went over his cheeks and ears as well before they eventually started giving each other kisses on the muzzle with their tongues. Aldric's hand gently went over Haidon's chest over a black spot of fur, which Haidon had on several spots of his pelt. It then trailed to the back and started going over the fur of the wolf's back and over the tail.

"Ah, yeah, that's the spot," Haidon said into the badger's ear as he played around on the white stripes that went from Aldric's cheeks over his shoulders to his back, while his muzzle and tongue started going deeper into Aldric's and his hands were wandering more delicately on his lovers body, who gladly returned the favor.

Fionnbharr opened his eyes and fell on his back in embarrassment. He had seen something that was certainly not what he expected when he began training his abilities with Aldric.

"What's the matter, Fionn?" Aldric asked as he looked at the mix of surprise, shame, confusion, and amusement on Fionnbharr's white face. He was training the prince's magic abilities as it became clear the young albino badger had an exceptional potential for magic, even for a badger.

"I have seen things, that I, actually," Fionnbharr was now chuckling a little bit as he looked into Aldric's eyes. "Actually this may be worth to research a little bit. I need to keep in mind to use my abilities with some other people to see if I can confirm my suspicions."

Aldric was looking a bit wondering at his prince at the sudden swing from

embarrassment to excitement. "Fionn? What did you exactly see, if I may ask?"

Fionnbharr looked around and as he was sure nobody could listen he told Aldric the details of the visions he had, much to his own amusement as the shaman got slightly flustered when he heard about the details.