Novaris. Sax. 905. AGC.

  Nodel. Waning Crescent ??. Day 27.

  Entering the treehouse, everyone made their way towards the gym. Their hope was that the wolf had woken up and they could speak with it. Or maybe it would be aggressive, at which point they would knock it out. However, there was little hope of talking, as they had seen how the other victims had behaved. Either way, they were going to move the treehouse by the end of the day, as they needed to get back to the city. So far, the plan was to assess the wolf's condition and then proceed from there.

  The party stopped outside the door as they got ready to enter. They were already geared up, and though not at full power due to their travel, the wolf wouldn't present much of a problem. Even if it was a Low C Ranker, the creature was at a different level than the aberration. Even that particular aberration wasn't the strongest type of C Ranker there could be. Finally, when everyone was ready, Lili opened the door, and they quickly barged in, closing it behind them.

  It didn’t take long to find the wolf, considering it was not where they had left it. The large grayish furred creature was on the far end of the room. Not long after spotting their guest, their guest noticed them as well. The creature's upper body, which was the werewolf, turned to look at them. Its appearance hadn't changed since the cave; it still had a humanoid torso, clawed hands, fangs, and plenty of grey fur, with its now-visible eyes glowing a faint red. Of course, instead of humanoid legs, its body seamlessly merged at the waist with that of a large, grey-furred wolf. And like they had seen in the cave, the merging happened around the shoulders of the wolf, which gave the entire body a bit of a curve where the merging occurred, almost like it had been extended on both ends to make sure everything attached properly.

  Like the party had experienced back at the cave, when they saw the other creatures moving about, they stopped for a few seconds and just stared. They knew the entire thing was incredibly horrid, but there was something despicably interesting about seeing such an ungodly creature move. For its part, the wolf also stared at them, which they weren't sure how to feel about. They had hoped it would charge and attack or do something else, but the staring continued on both sides.

  As the staring continued, the moment grew tenser and tenser, both sides clearly expecting something to happen. The party had arranged themselves with Lili, Rose, and Tesilim up front, while Jasmine and Alyx were slightly behind and to the sides. Drex had still not been summoned since Tesilim had decided to do so when he made it back to the city.

  With the werewolf acting so passively, the party lowered their weapons. No doubt the werewolf, seeing that they hadn't acted, was also unsure of what to do, which on its own sort of told the party that it had some semblance of thoughts.

  The staring contest finally came to an end when, to everyone's surprise, the werewolf spoke, its voice growly and rather deep.

  “Who are you?” The words easily reached the party even though they could tell there wasn’t much force behind them.

  Hearing the wolf, the party exchanged glances, and finally, Lili, as the original quest taker, was pushed to talk.

  “That’s a good question, and I will be happy to answer it, as long as you tell us who you are first,” Lili stated confidently, and the wolf just stared at them, then at his clawed hands and lower body.

  Meanwhile, while the party watched the wolf, they all had a quick telepathic conversation.

  “What the heck was that!?” Tesilim asked, questioning her choice of words.

  “What?” She replied, genuinely confused.

  “Out of everything you could say, you say that!?” Rose added.

  “Yeah, I thought it was good,” Lili answered.

  “Why?” Jasmine asked, also unsure of Lili’s words, but genuinely curious.

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  “Well, because it will give us a good idea of what's going on in its head,” Lili replied confidently.

  “How!?” Tesilim, Jasmine, and Rose asked simultaneously, but got a response from the gnome instead.

  “Because it will let us know how he views himself. Currently, we aren’t sure who is in control. Their soul seems stable enough, having mixed rather well, but things tend to be tricky mind-wise. It has hesitated so far, but this is probably due to the sudden change in its body dynamics and the events it has suffered. What we need to know is if it's more beast than elf, a weird mix, or purely bestial with just the ability to speak.”

  Hearing the gnome's response, got everyone to quiet down, though it was mainly the fact that the werewolf started talking again.

  “I, I am a wolf,” It said gruffly and with certainty, but paused, seeming to think on what he just said.

  “No, that’s not right. I was an elf, and then I became a werewolf,” The werewolf started again, the words still growled but sounding much more refined as it paused to look at its hands and body one more time before looking back at the party finishing its answer and sounding a bit confused, “Now, however, I am something else, something new, I am not sure what.”

  “I see. Do you remember your name?” Lili asked, getting the wolf's attention once again, its whole body slowly shifting. The creature was clearly still trying to figure out how to move.

  “My name was… Is Jalil.”

  “Okay, Jalil, do you remember what happened to you? Do you remember your past?”

  “I do, at least some parts of it; my mind is foggy, but things are slowly coming back.”

  “Alright, that’s good. Maybe talking about things will help. Why don’t you start telling me things about what you remember?” Lili asked, moving towards the wolf and starting a telepathic conversation with the team.

  “Alright, guys, weapons away. Looks like things are working out rather well here. Give me an hour with him, then come back. We should hopefully be good by then,” Lili told them as they watched her move towards the werewolf, and honestly, they had all mostly relaxed by then, so it wasn’t a problem.

  “Sounds good!” Tesilim answered.

  “Sure. Hey, Jasmine, want to get in the tub?” Rose asked, and her friend nodded.

  “Hey, make sure to help him move around so we can leave today,” Alyx told her.

  “That’s part of the plan,” Lili replied.

  After everyone left, Lili spent the following hour speaking with Jalil as they walked and eventually jogged around the large grassy room. Their conversation began with the wolf discussing its flashes of memory, but as they continued, more memories began to return. Eventually, the ex-elf was able to recall all his past, remembering Wildwood, his sister, and even Lili.

  This led to a discussion about what exactly had happened in the forest. The thing was that there wasn't much to his story. He had come out to the forest like usual to spend time as a werewolf. Things had gone alright at first, with him deciding to stay out a little bit longer, something that turned out to be a mistake. On the day he was going to head back to the city, he was ambushed by the thinman and most of its aberrations. Of course, he tried to fight back, but there was only so much she could do, and eventually, they were able to subdue him. Something that had confused him since it meant they held back while he was fighting to kill.

  Sadly, in his werewolf form, he wasn't one much to think about things, and he hadn't thought about the fact that aberrations like to conduct experiments. If he had, then he would have tried to escape instead of staying to fight. Eventually, they were able to subdue him, and everything had gone dark until he had woken up again inside Tesilim’s tree.

  Their hour of chatting passed quickly, and eventually, the party returned to the room as it was time to discuss what to do.

  “So, Jalil, what is it you wish to do?” Lili asked.

  “Wait, I get to choose?” The wolfman growled in surprise.

  “Yes,” Everyone said at once.

  “Really?”

  “Yes, what did you think we would force you to do what we wanted?” Lili asked.

  “Honestly, yes. I figured I didn’t have a choice in the matter after everything that has happened to me.”

  “Well, you do, you are a victim here, and we want to do whatever helps you the most, within reason,” Jasmine told the wolf, with a big smile.

  “Though, honestly, we aren’t sure if any of your choices are good. Bringing you back to the city will single you out immediately, and the guard or guild will be on you. This will complicate things for us, but it's not a huge deal,” Alyx calmly stated.

  “That will also probably have you moved elsewhere, for rehabilitation or otherwise. Honestly, I am not sure, since it will be up to Amphis, and she is rather fond of beasts,” The redhead said, voicing another obvious concern.

  “You could stay out here in the wild and live life as you were. The problem is, you might end up fighting other adventurers,” Tesilim pointed out.

  “So, what is it? We need you to choose a path for now; we can work things out later, but we have to start making our way back to the city,” Lili spoke up once again after the party had spoken on the topic.

  The wolf had gone quiet, listening to their explanations. Watching him, the party did feel bad about forcing him to make a choice, but they didn’t want to dally. They wanted to get back to the city and place the horrors they had seen behind them, at least as much as they could. There was also the fact that they had to speak with the guard and the guild.

  Thankfully, the wolf had reached a decision.

  “Do you guys know about the nature spirit near here?” The wolf asked them, and they all smiled in turn.