First Impressions

After taking the canister abruptly from Renat—the brown wolf was strong but had been caught off-guard—Alaron made his way into the room like the lowly assistant his was portraying.

Lowering his eyes, the Guardian used his peripheral vision to survey the room while waiting to be acknowledged.

The laboratory was large, probably the largest in the entire building. Water was boiling over the two fireplaces, making the room overly warm.

Two wolfish abominations and one lizard were in the room along with a thin woman who had her back to Alaron. Because he could only see her from behind and her hair was completely tucked into her white cap, the Guardian could only hope the woman was the one they sought.

She was tinkering with something on one of the many tables, humming softly to herself as a diversion. The tune, Alaron quickly realized, was both beautifully melodious and hauntingly familiar. It was Mairwen's favorite song.

'Dania! Who else would be up here singing a song from the royal court of Valiant?'

Unlike Alaron, who found the song made him long for home, the trio of abominations found the lilting tune grating. Perhaps they had been hearing it for months for the tallest of them growled and covered his ears.

"Not that blasted tune again. You are trying to drive us insane!"

"And this room is far too hot," the smaller of the two wolves panted. "I am going to melt in this heat!"

"Shut up, both of you," the third snipped at them. "I'm tired of listening to you both complain."

Dania did not turn around, merely spoke calmly over her shoulder. "If you do not like the conditions that I require to do my work, you are welcome to guard from outside…"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" The lizard spat. His saliva which now slicked the floor smelled almost as bad as the abomination's skin.

The brunette poured one vial into another and shrugged slightly. It was a non-gesture that neither confirmed nor denied the other's claim. If she was trying to drive her captors crazy, it was working.

One wolf lunged forward, but was stopped by her smaller counterpart when they noticed they had company.

"What do you want?" The larger wolf revealed her large teeth in a threatening snarl.

Alaron shrank away. "Delivery," he mumbled.

"Over there." Dania pointed reflexively before pausing.

Turning around, her eyes locked with the white-haired Guardian, turning from a blue-grey to an almost iridescent purple.

Alaron was instantly taken with them. Although he had seen the same strange transitions of color in her sister's irises, the long auburn hair of Dania gave the woman a familiar, yet completely different look. She seemed almost as otherworldly as the Fates themselves.

Within her bland expression there was an almost imperceptible question. While the abominations did not yet seem to realize that he was not supposed to be there, the female scientist certainly did. Without a word, she inquired why he was there.

In response, Alaron's silver eyes flashed. If Dania was startled by the sight, she didn't show it. She gave a slight nod. "Actually, put the water over here. I will use it straight away."

Alaron walked slowly toward the woman and set the water next to the scientist on the table.

"Did you bring an army?" she whispered.

Alaron was slightly startled by her words. He had expected many questions, but not that particular one. "I am the army," he responded with a slight grin.

"Then you better get out of here while you can. I cannot have another death on my hands. Please leave!" Her hushed tone sounded hopeless. She turned back to her experiments as if they had no more to say to one another.

Feeling a challenge, Alaron could not help but rise to it. "Just wait a moment and you'll see I am more than..."

"No talking to Dania, lackey! You do not have Sir Taran's permission!" The larger wolf surged forward, and grabbed Alaron by the arm to force him out. It was then that she noticed the strange container he had brought.

"That's not the regular vial of magical water." She turned and peered into the Guardian's face. "And you are not any of the lackeys I have seen before." The wolf pressed her snout up against the man's nose and released a low growl. "Who are you?"

Dania opened her mouth to come to his defense, but Alaron held up a hand. Before the wolf could react, a rope was wrapped around her snout, muffling the cry of confused outrage that rose from her chest.

"I am no one. This is all a horrible dream. Really you just need more..." Opening his hand, Alaron blew some dust in the wolf's face, the small particles entering her nose. "...Sleep," he said gently.

Her eyes opened wide and then lolled back into her head. Down to the floor she went, a light snore vibrating her nose and the cord around her mouth.

The other two abominations watched her fall to the floor, trying to comprehend what just happened. When they looked up, they found the lackey-assistant was replaced with a man in a cloak. Where his face should be, only a void remained. For a moment, the confusion paralyzed the abominations. What was happening?

"I hope you have enough sleeping powder for the whole camp." Dania glared at her captors. "Or at least enough for those two."

"I am afraid you will be disappointed." The Guardian responded.

"A spy!" Coming to their senses, the lizard and the larger wolf both ran at the cloaked figure simultaneously. Unfortunately for them, their movements were uncoordinated. They rammed heads while Alaron leapt safely away and used a rafter to fling himself across the room.

Rather than let the Guardian fight the battle alone, Dania burst a glass container across one of the abomination's faces.

The lizard hissed as a beaker full of acidic chemicals filled his eyes, blinding him. He stepped backwards, slipped in his own puddle of spit and crashed into one of the tables.

'She did a nice job, but that's going to cause a problem,' Alaron winced.

On the bright side, the impact knocked out the abomination, but the joy at this development was short lived.

"Dania, are you alright?!" a panicked voice asked through the door. As Renat would never ask such a thing so loudly nor with such a high timbre, obviously someone else was there.

Alaron needed to dispatch the final wolf before he could sound the alarm. Fortunately the smaller furry abomination seemed to have gone feral. Calling for reinforcements through the door was not on his mind as his eyes darkened into impenetrable voids. "I'll finish you myself..." he growled softly.

From his cloak, the Guardian pulled two bolas and swung them at the monster's feet and face. Each hitting their mark, the weapons spun around the wolf's body, simultaneously silencing and immobilizing their victim. Pouncing onto the wolf's back, Alaron was on him at once. With a chain, he wrapped the mongrel's neck and pulled tight, cutting off the creature's breathing.

Tense seconds passed as the abomination writhed against his bond. The paw-like hands raked against the stone and air, trying to wrest the Guardian from his back like a rider from a bronco. Yet Alaron held fast.

Narrowly escaping a close call with one of the better aimed swipes, the Guardian twisted the chain, bringing the wolf's neck close to breaking. At last, the creature stilled. Adrenaline surged through the Guardian as he released the chain and felt the soft rise and fall of the wolf's chest against him.

He lowered the wolf and saluted the downed enemy.

Dania cocked her head, studying him for a moment. "Are you always so dramatic?" she asked softly.

Pushing back his hood, Alaron grinned. "You haven't seen anything yet."

"Dania?!" Another cry filtered through the door.

The two exchanged a glance. Dania pressed her lips together. "Yumeto, is that you? I thought you had gone."

"I forgot the message ball that I was tinkering with, but the brute at your door won't let me through. What happened in there?"

As the door rattled slightly, Dania's brow knit, sure that the man's trouble to free her had been for naught. When the talkative scientist came in, they would both be caught.

Unlike the brainless abominations, Yumeto would raise the alarm immediately. He was too close to Taran to let something like this pass even if Dania begged him.

She braced herself before realizing someone was off. Yumeto was still outside the laboratory. Why hadn't he just barged in like usual?

In answer to her unspoken question, Alaron nodded. "My man is out there preventing entry. I would appreciate it if you could put Yumeto off and send him away. I would hate for anyone else to end up like…" he motioned to the incapacitated abominations around the room, "…this."

Dania pursed her lips and nodded. But instead of walking swiftly to the door, the brunette moved toward the broken table, shuffled around the lizard and picked up a shard of glass.

Closing her eyes, the woman brought the clean, sharp edge to her right palm.

And cut it open.