Chapter 9

Vorbuk lay there on the floor of the room Leo had paid for the night to rest in. The prince was fast asleep, but he could feel something in the distance outside that was familiar to him. His curiosity had reached the peek inside of him. Slowly he stood up and wanted to leave the room, but the door was closed.

"Damnit!" He shouted inside to himself as he pondered how to get outside.

A heavy sigh left him as he paced around the door repeatedly trying to ponder up an idea to leave. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down and think, but the moment he opened his eyes he found himself jumping slightly in surprise at what he saw.

His paws had begun to fade into black smoke. He could see right through his own body!

"What the hell?!" Vorbuk yelped slightly at the sight. He slowly and carefully inspected himself. Suddenly realizing something that he had forgotten about himself... He was a Shadow Wolf!

I guess one of the abilities should be obvious... He thought to himself as he slowly tried to clear his mind and try out the first ability he realized he could do. His massive wolf form slowly faded away into darkness. A massive group of black smoke slowly faded into the shadows, seeping through the cracks in the building and fading away outside the building until it was on the street in an alley before slowly reforming itself. The smoke slowly formed back into a massive wolf standing in the alley, Vorbuk.

"That.. was.. Awesome!" he shouted excitedly as he looked at himself. For a moment he had forgotten why he had left the building to begin with and mesmerized at the new ability he had figured out he could use. He could think of many ways it could be useful in the future, but for now he simply had something else on his mind to figure out.

Quickly he ran towards the direction the feeling was calling out to him from. It took him a half hour to reach it, but eventually he found himself standing before a large building. There was something strange about it. The building itself looked like it was abandoned, but he could feel something inside of it calling out to him. He could not make heads nor tails of what the feeling was. The feeling was familiar, but at the same time it felt dangerous.

"What is this?" He asked himself as he pondered the idea of going inside.

"I would leave it alone if I was you." A voice sounded out from behind him.

"What?" Vorbuk asked as he turned to look at who was speaking to him. The only thing he could see was a female panther with a local companion collar around it's neck. The panther was staring at him as if it had nothing but pity for him.

"The one in that building has lived for hundreds of years. It's a spirit... so I guess in a way it's not technically alive... Anyone who bothers it is known to perish. Leave it be." The panther stated to him.

He looked at the building again then turned to look at the panther. He was going to speak to her, but noticed that she had suddenly vanished without a sound. The sight of her disappearance was enough to make his heart shudder in fright for a moment. The words she had spoke to him only made his curiosity rise even further, but at the same time she had told him to leave it alone so he debated for a moment on leaving it alone like she suggested. Though, he did not.

Vorbuk used his smoke form to enter the building from the crack under the door. Forming in his solid wolf form just on the other side of the door as he looked around the building.

"Beast, I told you to leave!" The panther's voice rang out in the air around him sounding annoyed heavily with him.

"I was only curious because something about it feels familiar to me!" He called out to the voice trying to reason with her.

"Of course there would be a familiar feeling!" Her voice roared.

"What do you mean?" He asked her calmly. He hoped that his calm tone would soothe her to relax with him. The last thing he wanted was to fight a black panther!

"The spirit of this place is a shadow spirit, just as you are a shadow wolf. It has been trapped here for hundreds of years. Mortals are wry of this place and refuse to enter. Those that try usually perish due to attempts to abuse this place. It is the only place the spirit can rest, it has been entrapped for so long that the idea of the building being destroyed is uncomfortable. Try living in the same place for so long that its the only thing left for you to have, only to have others try to rip it from you."

"You're the spirit... are you not?" He asked her.

"Sigh... You are correct. I am the spirit of this place. The Black Shadow Panther. I have seen hundreds of years on this earth. Entrapped to guard this place." Her voice had a deep pain in it as she spoke.

"Why can't you leave this place?" He felt even more curious. If she had been guarding the place for hundreds of years, then he assumed something had to be holding her back.

"When my master perished the contracted binding us as companion and master forced my life to fade away with his. That is the downfall of being a mortal's Companion through a contract. To sign a contract you've got to have a soul willing to die together when the time comes for them. I had signed myself to the magician who once owned this place. The day he faded away was due to a curse caused by someone from the Ethiadan Kingdom. The mortal wars between the kingdoms has been something that has always went on between them. Though, Ethiadan has always been a kingdom full of darkness as their Royal family is something very... dark... I will not speak more of them to you! You're best not getting involved with Ethiadan!"

The panther slowly formed in front of Vorbuk at the top of the staircase in front of him as she glared down at him. Her form was black as night, yet she was clearly able to be seen through as though she was a ghost judging whether or not to tear him apart where he stood if he made the wrong move in front of her.

"Wolf, whatever you may be called, the night my master died he sealed my soul to an object in this place and asked me to guard it after my death until the day the one deemed worthy to take it over arrived. Only when that time comes can I leave this place behind and move on. My soul has grown tired of being in this place. Gladstone has evolved so much over the years I've been here. I can say I am proud of how far I have seen the mortals come all this time, but at the end of the day I simply wish to rest... I am so tired..."