It was quite a sight for the towns people when, as darkness fell, Alfred came charging in still riding atop Arthur. This time, people moved out of the way not in fear of being eaten, but of being run over.

Wolf and knight came to a skidding halt in the centre of the small village, successfully drawing everyone's attention to the pair.

Grinning like a manic, Al sat up straight as he lifted the bag with the creatures head high for all to see.

"You do not have to live in fear any longer, for we have killed the beast!" He shouts far louder than is strictly necessary to be heard by such a small group.

"Is it true?" Fredric asks as he makes his way to the front of the gathering, looking up at the knight.

"Heh, see for yourself." Al says as he tosses the frozen bag to the man.

The man scrambles to catch it, somehow managing to look both relieved and disturbed as he peers inside.

"Thank you, thank you! How can we ever repay you?"

"Hehe, no need. Just doing my job."

A chorus of thanks fill the air as the whole town move in to praise the pair, though mostly directed at Alfred.

Arthur, annoyed at being ignored, gets payback by suddenly shaking his body, dislodging Alfred from his place and causing the knight to fall off to the side, landing in the snow on his back.

"Owwwww..." He groans, blinking as he stares up at the sky slightly stunned, legs still in the air as they rest on the wolf's side.

Arthur turns his head back, looking down at the other and huffing hot air in his face.

'Hmph, that's what you get.' He shifts, causing Al's legs to fall and join the rest of him in the snow.

Around them, the towns people shift back worriedly, unsure what to make of the display.

But before they can react any further, the scene is disrupted by slow clapping emanating from behind the group.

The sound brings Alfred out of his temporary stupor, sitting up quickly to look between the people at the source of the sound.

"Hehe. For someone who's been exiled, there really isn't a dull moment with you. Hm, Al?" A voice laughs behind the crowd.

"I'd know that laugh anywhere." Al scrambles to his feet, easily slipping through the crowd to see the other.

"Sadık! Dude, your just the guy I've been looking for!" Pleasantly surprised at the appearance of his friend, the knight runs up to the older man, pulling him into a strong hug.

"Hehe, good to see you too." He grins beneath his mask as Al releases him, "And I see you've found some..." He tips his head to look past the night to the wolf watching them, "Interesting company since I last saw you."

"Right!" Al slaps a hand to his face at having forgot the reason he was looking for the man in the first place, "Artie, come on over here!"

Sadık doesn't show it, but he's surprise when the wolf actually obeys his friend, eyes widening behind his mask, before he quickly covers it with a lazy smirk.

Standing before the pair, Arthur purposely towers over the stranger, ears back slightly in warning.

"Artie, this is Sadık, the guy I told you about."

The wolf cocks his head, curious,'This is the human you seek?' He questions, eyes narrowed as he leans in to sniff the other.

"Yeah. Sadık, Arthur."

'His smell is not from here.' Arthur huffs as he pulls back, having got all he needs.

"Well, Yeah. He's from one of the southern kingdoms."

"Wait," Sadık looks between the pair, "Al, are you... talking to it?"

"Well, yeah," Alfred gives his friend a look at says that this should be obvious, before he remembers he hasn't told his friend about anything yet.

"Right! I didn't tell you. Okay, so it's like this." He starts, about to launch into a full blown story of his journey since meeting Arthur, but is halted by the man holding up his hand.

"Whoa, hold it. This sounds like it's going to be quite the tale. Let's sit down for this first, eh?"

"...and then we came back here." Al finishes.

Sadık nods slowly, not having said a thing through the whole talk, listening closely to every word.

"That's..." he trails off, tipping his head back, he rocks his seat to be able to look out the window behind him in thought.

The surreal sight of a Giant Snow Wolf playing with several young children meeting him.

He sighs, dropping his seat back down and looking across at Alfred once more.

"That's quite the story. I don't think I'd believe it if I weren't seeing it for myself."

"So, do you think you can help us figure out what's going on?" The knight asks hopefully.

"Hmm." Sadık frowns, humming in deep thought.

Alfred sits patiently, waiting for the man to sift through his boundless knowledge, or so he hopes.

"What ever it is, it's definitely magic. Though no kind I've ever seen."

Al slumps in his seat dejectedly, hope crushed.

"So you don't know then..." He mumble sadly.

"Heh, I didn't say that." The masked man grins as Al snaps his head up to stare at him.

"I'll admit, I don't know what this is, but, I know where we can find out."

"Where?!" Al all but shouts, growing excited.

"Ah-ah-a," He tsks, waving a finger in front of the knight like a scolding parent, "Come on now Al, you know I never reveal my sources."

Sadık only grins wider as Al huffs, flopping back into his seat and crossing his arms like a kid.

"Sorry, Al. Nothing personal, it's just business. But since I like you, I'll just add this to your tab." Behind the mask, Al can see the other wink at him.

"First, let me have a look at that tattoo you mentioned. I might be able to match it to something."

Nodding, he quickly undoes his armour, pulling his under shirt off to show the masked man his side.

"See?"

"Interesting... There's no doubt that it's magical." The man nods to himself, memorising the image, now more set on finding answers than before.

"Alright, you've got me. Now I really want to know what this is."

"For business?" Al grins cheekily at him, Sadık returning the look doubled.

"Business is best when I'm the one in the know after all." He stands, moving back from the table, "Be back in a flash!" He waves as iron red flames sprout up around him, and an instant later both he and the flames vanish.

Still smiling, Al pulls the rest of his armour off, switching to dress in the only spare clothes he as, pulling thick furs on. By now, he's used to the Southern man's fire warping, so he decides to head out to join in the fun with Arthur.

It's near midday the next day by the time Sadık returns in a flash of flames. Considerably dirtier than when he left, and carrying the oldest looking book Al has ever seen. But the excitement on his face is plain to see even under his mask as he waves to Al, jogging over to the other, currently helping to muck out the stables. Inside, Arthur is happily lounging in the straw bedding.

"Alfred! It's... it's..." The man gasps, out of breath.

"Whoa, chill dude, take it easy. I haven't seen you this worked up since I met you."

"Oh, trust me, this is so much better than rare Aconite." He's so excited, Al can feel waves of heat rolling off of him, a result of his lack of concentration on his magic.

"Hehe, Alright. Let's go inside and talk." But the man rapidly shakes his head, pushing Al into the stables instead.

"No, no. Best you be with your wolf for this."

"Um, okay." He agrees, not having much choice as he's pushed in to sit with Arthur.

The wolf looks up as they enter, rolling from his side to be sitting up as Al is shoved excitedly to sit with him.

'Oh. Him again.' He glares.

"Be nice." Al scolds, even though Sadık can't hear him.

Grabbing a box, the man places it to sit between them as he drops down into the hay, gently placing the old book on the box.

"Alright, so, I looked everywhere for anything about magic relating to what you described. In every known Magia type there is; elementum, simul, variante, but nothing. Then! I got to thinking, what about the unknown kinds of Magia. So I started digging into the really old stuff, legends and tales of magic that existed long ago. Thats when I found this!" He taps the tome with the back of his hand to emphasise his point.

"What is it?"

'What's the stupid human saying?' Arthur huffs down Al's back, but he ignores him in favour of listening further to the older man.

"This, my dear boy, is the last remaining Noceum codex." At Al's blank stare he sighs, remembering that the knight isn't one for books, "This is a six hundred year old book detailing all Magia, an I mean everything. Simply possessing this book is a capital offence." That made the knight's eyes widen.

"Ah, relax. Your exiled, not like they're going to find out."

"Exiled or not, I still obey the laws!" Al cries affronted.

True, in the past two years he may have become a bit... lenient in his upholding of them, but he's never blatantly gone out of his way to commit an offence.

Sadık waves a hand at him, dismissing his complaint, "Oh, trust me. It's worth it."

"Fine," Al huffs through his nose, crossing his arms childishly, "Forgetting your in possession of an illegal book, what's in this Noeum thing that's so good?"

"The Noceum codex," he corrects with a frown at Al's poor pronunciation, "Is a manuscript of the collective findings of the Noceum order. And before you ask, they were a religious sect that was known for they're great skill in magic. Supposedly, the order was made up of five central members, each a master of one of the five key elemental magics."

"Right, so what's that got to do with anything?"

"I'm getting to that! Gods, boy, you have no patience. The orders goal was to gain control of all magic, and some of the stuff they did was pretty nasty. I'll spare you the detail. But, one good thing they did was record all their work, in books like this one. An in here, I found this." He carefully flips the book open to a specific page, turning it so Al can see.

"Uh!" Al gasps at the pages.

For in the open book, words in a language he can't read are scrawled this way and that. But this is not what catches his attention. What he stares at is the illustrations, one, a depiction of a tattoo just like his, though coloured purple and gold, and another, the image of a man and some sort of beast. It's clear this is about exactly what is going on with Al, now if only he could read it...

Sadık turns the book back around after a moment grinning, "Bet you'd like to know what it says?"

"Do you even have to ask?"

"Heh. Ahem. 'Domino bestia. Man, by blood and binding, shall connect and control the minds of the Wild. Unto his will, he may mould them, and by doing so, Shall become one with them.'"

"Eh, that's it?"

"Give me a sec. This is a very old language, it's not easy to translate. Now, let's see. It talks of a bonding Ceremony, after which that mark appears, called the mark of Binding. Those bonded are tied together through their magic and can take on the skills? No, more like attributes of the beast they bind with. This connection doesn't require conscious thought to be maintained and can apparently last your whole life."

"What?!"

'What? What is it?' Arthur is beginning to feel quite left out of the loop, only understanding half of the conversation, and not the important half.

"Let's see... An new binding symbol will form with each new bond, but only one bond can be maintained at time. There's a note on breaking a bond but, well..."

"Well what?"

"Let's just say these people really didn't care how they got their results. Trust me, you don't want to know."

"Okaaay, anything else?"

"Hmm. There's a lot of nonsense scribbled in the corners, but something about shared feelings? Or, emotions? Argh, it's not very clear and the wording is all over the place." He frowns, running his finger over the words as he tries to decipher their meaning.

"Oh! This might be interesting. Al, place your hands out to the wolf."

"He has a name you know, but like this?"

"No, palms up, yeah, now, close your eyes and try concentrating on him, focus on what his energy feels like." Al sighs, but does as told.

Arthur watches, now very confused.

'Alfred, what are you doing?'

"Focus kid, feel the energy between you."

"I don't know what your hoping for, you know I can't use magic." He quips still with his eyes closed.

"Just try. Come on, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Fine."

"Come on, Al. You can do it. Concentrate." Sadık urges.

Al tries, thinking of Arthur, envisioning him in his mind, focusing on the energy that he can feel sleeping within him, that connects them, and slowly, he can feel it bubbling up to the surface. He let's out a breath as he relaxes, and suddenly that energy is at the forefront of his mind, sitting at the tips of his fingers, making his hand start to tingle.

He snaps his eyes open and stares...

His hands...

They're covered in ice.

"Wha?!"

He looses his concentration, the energy, now not held in place, crackles as it bursts free, ice shattering as blue waves of raw power shoots out from him, freezing solid anything that they come in contact with. It only lasts a second, but the act was completely mind blowing to the knight.

And draining...

"Whaaa 'appennn'd?" He slurs, falling over, no longer having the energy to remain sitting up right.

'Al!' The blurry figure of Arthur jumping to his feet dances across his tired vision.

"Good news, Al! You have magic afterall!"

Sadık's deep laughter and Arthur's low growl are the last things he hears before he falls into the black of unconsciousness...

Authors notes: So that happened... Turkey with some good old exposition for the win.

Okay, bit of explanation: Magic in this world is divided into 3 classes; elementum, simul, variante. Which, if you know your Latin, like I don't, means; Elemental, combine and variant.

First, Elemental is classed as singular control of one of the 5 base elements; Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and the hardest of all, Energy. This class is extremely rare, so not many people have it.

Second is Combinative magic, this, as you might expect, is classed as magics that combine two or more of the base elements. This isn't as rare as pure Elemental, but is still quite uncommon.

And lastly is Variant magic. This is the most common type of magic, and is classed as any magic that is a lower variation of the base elements.

So, for example, Arthur's Ice magic is a Variant of the Water base. Meanwhile Turkey's Fire warping is a type of Combinative magic of the Fire and Energy bases, while the heat Al felt was from a Variant of the Fire Base.

Along with these 3 classes, magic is further subdivided into 2 main types of use; Internal and External. This is pretty simple, Internal is any magic an individual actively creates, while External is magic bound to an object or person which doesn't require the user to supply.

So, Internal would be Arthur's Ice magic while External is the type of magic Al relies upon in his sword and armour.

Okay, explanation over, I hope that all makes sense. This'll get explained more in the next few chapters, but I thought I'd lay it all out here just in case.

And to the anon who asked if our dear wolf and knight's relationship will remain platonic or become romantic? Well... *cue cheesy T.V ad voice* This is where you, dear viewer, come in! For just one review, you too, can have your say in how you'd like to see this story go! *end silly voice*

But really, at this point I could make it go anyway. I have plans, but I want to know what you guy's think.

Okay, Long authors notes is long, but hopefully slightly longer chapter makes up for it.

R & R people.

Until next time, stay awesome!