After The Fall

Sol yanked his eyes open and sat up only to feel a strong aching pain around his neck and head. Almost instantly, images of his final moments cross through his mind, flashing before his eyes in forms or memories.

While he fell from the cliff, the breeze rushing through his face threatened to make him lose consciousness but he knew he needed to hold on a bit longer if he was going to survive this.

As he delved deeper into the darkness surrounding the waterfall, Sol was soon able to see the flowing river below and without hesitation, he activated the barrier ability of his pendant. 

Sol's body was covered in a sphere of transparent energy. He smashed into the flowing river and lost consciousness as soon as he hit. If it wasn't for his pendant he wouldn't have survived.

Pendant 

"My pendant!" Sol muttered in shock as he reached for his neck and was relieved to find it still there.

"Don't worry I couldn't even get it off your neck," a feminine voice said.

Hearing this, Sol pushed all his thoughts aside and decided to inspect his surroundings. He was in a cave, and it was raining outside. Not far from him was a small campfire and beside it was Katherine who was gazing at him begrudgingly.

It took Sol a few moments to process what was going on and remember what he did to Katherine during the last encounter.

"You survived?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hearing this, Katherine's face turned red with rage, but she did well to stop herself from pouncing on Sol. 

"Well, I'm not the one who got turned into a porcupine by tiny three-foot-tall green dwarfs," Katherine sneered.

As soon as she said this, Sol's face turned red with embarrassment, and wanted to defend himself, but even he felt ashamed of himself. While on earth he had read a lot of fictional books involving numerous races and the goblins are the race he looked down on the most.

To think he would be chased down by them and get badly beaten up left him. 

"They are more coordinated than you think," Sol said in defense, but Katherine's response surprised him.

Katherine nodded at his words and rose to her feet. Sol sat there and watched her catwalk in his direction and finally settled down beside him.

"While I ran I came across a lot of corpses on the way," Katherine began with a low and sad tone. "A friend of mine was amongst them,"

"She said they were ambushed. The elves in this groove forest are working with the goblins and everyone else," her voice turned shaky.

"They are hunting us down. They plan to wipe out the new generation of the alpha races," Sol spoke up and this was received with a look of shock from Katherine.

It was clear to her that Sol knew more than she did.

Instinctively she leaned towards Sol and grabbed his arm. Her gaze was stern and expectant, and it met Sol's gaze.

Sol recounted his encounter with Lukas but left out the part of the system. He told Katherine about Lukas's race and how he is related to Lyra.

"You mean the Shape-shifter Dorothy had in the cage?" Katherine was stunned by the revelation and Sol nodded in agreement to her words.

He could perceive Katherine's fragrance and could feel his body getting hot, but he did well to maintain the indifference on his face.

"We need to warn the family heads about this," Katherine said with a frown.

"We need to survive first," Sol said with a shoulder shrug before grabbing her hand and pushing it away from his arm.

Sol tried to get up, but he felt his body ache badly, and he decided not to do that. He sighed and touched the pendant on his neck with a strange look in his eyes.

"So why did you save me?" Sol asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Katherine paused momentarily to ponder on his question before answering.

"I hate you. I hate what you did to me, but we need each other to survive," Katherine said. "You have already proven to be far stronger than everyone thought," 

Hearing this, Sol sighed as he muttered some words in his head.

'Danger can unite even the worst foes.'

"I'll work with you since we all need to survive," Sol said in a low but decisive tone.

His gaze shifted towards the entrance of the cave and wondered how Kevin was doing. Personally, Kevin had never put in much thought into his relationship with Kevin, but he had grown fond of him over time.

His friend was like a clueless puppy still understanding the world. His innocence was something rare amongst men and for some reason, Sol cherished this quality.

"That pendant, you said you got it from the prime shifter…" Kathrine spoke up with jealous eyes pinned on the necklace dangling around Sol's neck.

"What about it?" Sol asked with a raised eyebrow. It was clear to him that Katherine knew more about these things than he did.

"Before I answer, I need to ask you a question first," Katherine said with a stern look as her eyes shifted to Sol's. "How did you bind yourself to a living artifact? For most people, it takes decades to get a living artifact to submit, yet it took you less than a day,"

"What?" Sol was confused by her words, and the genuine shock in his gaze left Katherine deeply confused.

Does this really mean that Sol knows nothing about all of this or is he messing with her on purpose?

How can he know so little and still succeed in binding himself to the living artifact? 

"Could it really be luck?" Katherine asked with a look of disbelief in her eyes.

While she was confused, Sol was left in a pool of his confusion as well. He had questions in his mind ranging from what was a living artifact, and what does it mean to bind to it?