Gate to the unknown

The dawn of the nightmarish night had arrived. Sounds of birds chirping could be heard from where Arche was.

Yet he was woken up by a single sound that stimulated him.

Cluck!

Waken up, he ventured towards the source of the sound. He hoped that it was a chicken.

There it was. A single rooster. Stood atop a big rock. Embraced by the sunlight that penetrated through the tall trees.

Without any unnecessary movements, he hid in the bushes.

Swoosh~

Silence fell.

Shht!

He shot the rooster. With what was left of the needles and the energy he had recovered.

He shot. He scores-!

Then, he decided to take on a dangerous mission. He went to the water stream. A place where he was watched and where he fought.

He went there to pluck and wash the chicken. After he had finished, he headed back to the cave where he'd be having his breakfast.

After a quick breakfast, he packed his belongings and ventured away from the conflict. He knew that if their scout didn't come back for a long time, they'll send much more capable personnel.

Not knowing where to go, he then stumbled upon a green midget. It was armed all over its body with run-down armors.

With Arche's naturally curious nature, he followed the midget. Then midget had stopped. So did he. He saw what seemed like a wheelbarrow, filled with bright red fruit. The wheelbarrow was guarded by four of those midgets.

[Those fruits look juicy] thought Arche with saliva coming down from his mouth

Greed and gluttony consumed him from the inside. Then with stealth, he pricked one with his last remaining needle. But it was a dumb move. The other four took notice of him and ran toward him.

Surrounded from the front, he took a stance with his spear. The first one came with a small sword in hand. He moved to his left and left a hole in their head.

He didn't know why. The rest of them had done the same as the first did. In doing so, they left him with a wheelbarrow full of fruits.

After he had gobbled down most of them, he stuffed his pockets with the remaining ones and headed off again. Sometime later, he heard the sounds of a scream and headed towards the source of it.

He found a village that was being attacked. He decided to help them… …at least that was what he decided on. But the scenes from before were still vivid. It triggered his trauma of last night's events.

[ … ]

He tucked his tail and ran away.

No longer wanting the images of last night, he headed north. Where there shouldn't be any settlements.

After hours of aimless wander, he decided to set camp within the forest. Next to him was a grassy flat plain.

When sunset arrived, the plain was not so plain anymore. Structures appeared on the sunset-orange horizon. He had a moment of thought,

[Should I… …well whatever, let's go there]

Once he had decided, he headed towards the erected structures with his spear in hand. Upon arriving, he saw that there were 8 tall pieces of stones forming a rectangular shape. In the midst of it, a statue of a wolf was erected there.

It was not strange if he thought there was a ritual performed here. Since he was still in the northern part of the North Srimecasa continent.

Wolves were common and could be found anywhere in the wild. Furthermore, some people worship the father of all wolves, Fenrir.

Along with that, the stones were carved with words he could not fathom with his head. Surrounding the wolf statue, there was a grey circle along with the unknown words.

Without a moment of notice, the grey circle lit up and blinded Arche. It moved him.

The moment he looked up, there it was.

[R-Red sky-?! What's going on? Where am I?]

[…What about my surroundings? Nothing but my reflection… …Is that a shrine?] he squinted his eyes

When he took notice of the gate, he took the spear that was teleported with him and headed towards it.

[Should I run below it?]

He lamented over the choice. Eventually, he crossed the gate. But before he entered, he noticed the same unknown words.

The same words that were engraved in the stones and on the circle. He took a quick look and then stepped through the middle of the gate.

When he entered, he was greeted with a bright blue sky with the sun dazzlingly shining. Lush forest with what seemed like infrastructures in the corner of his eyes. He later passed out.

He had finally woken up.

[A wolf… …A WOLF?!?]

When he realized the absurdity of the situation he was in. He quickly got up and trudged into the corner of the bed, confused and scared.

The white and pristine wolf went out. When it came back, it brought a bigger wolf. Around three times the previous wolf's size.

The huge wolf looked at arche and talked.

"You, boy. How'd you get here?"

[ …a talking… …wolf?]

"Ah, my fault, let me change into my bipedal form," said the wolf.

"W-Who are you? W-W-Where am I?" said Arche while he shriveled in the corner.

"Hm… …you can call me Fen, I'm the chief of this wolf village, what about you?" responded the wolf.

"My name's Arche Ch-, Arche, my name's Arche," responded Arche intending to not mention his family name.

Fen noticed it but he didn't pry, he asked the other wolf in the room if they could bring in a chair that he could sit on.

"So, I'll ask you again, how did you get here?" Fen asked with two of his hands under his chin

"Um, I'm not sure, maybe it was the structure made of stones," said Arche.

"Hm?"

Fen's eyes showed a hint of glittering light.

"Were the stones engraved in letters?" asked Fen.

"Yes, they were," replied Arche.

"With a stone statue of a wolf in the middle, whilst the statue was encircled by a grey circle?" asked Fen.

Arche nodded in response

"Seriously? HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, to think those kinds of structures were yet to be demolished," laughed Fen with his right arm covering his eyes.

"Does Mr. Fen know something about it?" asked Arche as he got closer to Fen.

"Yeah, those kinds of structures were one of the many structures that were formerly used as shrines,"

"Shrines?"

"Yeah, some fanatics worshipped us beastmen and made shrines to give offerings,"

"Then the one I went to?"

"It was ours, that's probably why you got teleported here,"

"I see,"

[But that's not enough reason why. There must be another factor on how this human got here] Fen wondered in his head.

"Well, we'll leave that aside. Why don't we tour our guest here around the village?" proposed Fen to the other wolf.

"Yes, sir," replied the wolf.

"I'll be going now, also turn to your bipedal form," said Fen as he waved goodbye.

[Let's head to the library first, I need to find the cause of entering, or else our village is doomed] said Fen as he turned back to his wolf form and ran towards the library.

At that point, the other wolf had introduced themself as Zen, he's in charge of the village's clinic, where Arche was carried into. Zen, as per instructed by Fen, turned into his bipedal form and went out with Arche.

They first went to the bakery situated just across the clinic. Next, Zen guided Arche to the training grounds as he assumed from the spear Arche brought with him, that he was a trained warrior.

Zen had made the correct choice. As soon as they had arrived, Arche was no longer anxious but ecstatic.

As Zen was about to guide Arche to the ground where spearmen were. Arche seemed like he was more intrigued by the opposite side.

On the opposite side, there were bipedal wolves doing something Arche had not known. Zen explained that they're exercising their magic.

"What's your magic Arche?" curiously asked Zen.

"I don't know," shyly said Arche.

Zen then smacked his right fist to his left pal, as if he had an idea.

"Arche come with me, we'll find out together,"

Zen then brought Arche to a dark and gloomy room, with a single transparent crystal on a pedestal smack dab in the middle of the room.

"Where are we?" asked Arche.

"This is the room where we identify everyone's magic, we have the 4 main elemental abilities, then it branches down, as well as the two others, which are dark and light," said Zen.

"So, we're going to identify mine?"

"Yes, now put your hands on the crystal ball"

"Are you sure it's safe?"

"It's fine, here I'll go first to prove it to you"

To prove that the crystal ball was not at all dangerous, Zen put his hand on the ball. The moment that Zen had put it, the ball lit up.

The pristine color of white was resounding throughout the room. The color indicated that Zen has the light attribute of magic.

Zen explained to Arche that his healing magic is a branch of the light attribute. Then it was finally time for Arche.

This was a life-changing moment for Arche, who knew nothing of the world of magic and could now embark on it.

Sweat dripped from his body. He walked slowly towards the ball. The moment he placed his hands on it, the room was lit up. But it was with a color not known to Zen.