It was a long time before anyone moved. Selena seemed to lose her demeanor, perhaps realizing that the tides have turned. First it was her and her soldiers against a boy and now it was herself against the full power of the forest, gigantic black wolf and all.

Hefring coughed, still gazing at Selena. "What now?" he asked.

"What?" Selena replied as she jerked out of a trance.

"What do you plan on doing? You have to realize that if you flee, bad things are going to happen." Hefring said, "You can come with me back to the Keep if you want."

"The Keep?" she asked. Then realizing what he was talking about she continued, "The Keep over the caves where you live?"

"Yes I live there. Unfortunately so does my master. He will probably kill you, but it's worth a shot isn't it? I don't want to see you die out here. I am curious as to why you're here and how you learned of this place." Hefring explained.

He looked down and examined the earth beneath his feet. Spotting a decaying leaf laying on top of a rock, he reached down and picked it up.

"It will take the rest of the day to get there if we run. I wish Ajax stayed around, he lets me ride him sometimes." Hefring continued. He ran his fingers along the stem of the leaf and started pulling sections out, dropping them by his feet.

"Ajax…?" Selena said quizzically. "He lets you ride him? Is he more than just a wild wolf that ate too many deer?"

Hefring laughed. "I've known him as long as I can remember. He saved my life when I was a toddler." Hefring paused then continued, "There is more too him than meets the eye you know. Those caves you are looking for, well, he guards them."

Finished peeling the flesh off of the leaf, Hefring rolled the stem between his fingers and when he accidently dropped it his gaze returned to Selena. "Well?" he asked.

Selena strode past him, walked past the tree, down the embankment and onto the path. Hefring followed and faced the direction she was looking - away from his home.

The woman replied as she shook her head, "I…I can't go with you. You said you're master will kill me. I'll take my chances in these forests now that your pet has gone."

Not a second after the words came out of her mouth a huge exhale of hot breath blew against Selena's back, making her jump a few steps forward.

"I am no one's pet."

The sudden sound of the voice startled Hefring. It was omniscient as it came from their minds not their ears. The tone was deep, so deep that Hefring could hear the voice long after initial contact, as if it was vibrating through his very thoughts.

Soon after he heard the voice in his head, Hefring felt another swath of hot breath blow against his back and head. He realized it did not have an unpleasant aroma, which was unexpected coming from an animal that ate mostly flesh.

Hefring turned around. He wasn't surprised at what he saw, as he was very familiar with whom the voice belonged too. "You never fail to impress me my friend" he thought as he took two steps and laid his hand on the towering wolf's nose. Ajax was lying down in the forest behind them, snaking his head sideways so that it could fit between the trees.

Selena's reaction was not so relaxed. She let out a loud gasp, took a step backward and tripped over a rock, falling on her backside.

"It can talk" Selena directed towards Hefring then looked towards Ajax. "You can talk"

Hefring laughed at her antics and Ajax let out a curious snorting noise as he slowly shifted his weight so he could look at the source of the voice. Without letting the woman return to her feet, Ajax leaned his head in and forced her gaze with one of his large black eyes.

Hefring knew what Ajax was doing. He had seen it before. Ajax would surround the victim's mind and destroy their mental barriers before examining their deepest thoughts. The act alone is harmless although the end result usually included disembowelment or decapitation from the wolf. Ajax is in no way an animal or a beast. He is a creature of magic and intelligence and he is easily angered when related to "unintelligent" and lesser beings. Thus the interrogation.

Hefring noticed the expression on Selena's face. Her eyes were closed but she was obviously in discomfort, eyes flashing around under their lids and a slight grimace surrounding her mouth. The woman continually impressed him. Most people collapse and break under the pressures of Ajax's mind but not her.

Hefring always took Ajax's ability to communicate and use magic for granted. Only recently had he questioned the wolf about it. Ajax didn't know the specifics of the origin of his unique abilities but he offered two theories. One related to the Keep where he lived. With the naturally occurring magic emanating through the caverns he might have gleaned some of its power, having made his home above it. The other theory included various far-off places and the option of him not being a native to this land.

"Whatever the case" Ajax said in that not too distant memory "I have always had a stitch in my side, an unspoken urge to protect this place. The magic that resides here is too powerful to risk getting in the wrong hands."

Like Selena.

"Hefring!"

The voice jolted Hefring out of his reverie, and he noticed that both Ajax and Selena were looking at him. She had survived after all. Part of him expected her body to be lying on the ground, torn to pieces.

Hefring suddenly felt a presence in his mind and recognized it as Ajax. Before the wolf could project anything Hefring thought – thus talked – "She passed then. Are we going to bring her back to the Keep?"

"Yes Hefring I think we'll bring her back with us. She is not as evil as you might think and besides, we have to deal with her somehow." Ajax replied.

"Ok but let's not dwell on it now, I just want to get back home." Hefring replied, picturing his comfortable cot, "You think you could help us out, I'm pretty worn out."

"Help you out! What do you think I've been doing you helpless cub." Ajax exclaimed as he rolled onto his back and laid his head upside down on the path. He snorted at Hefring, blowing him in the face with his breath and Hefring could sense that he was amused.

"Your ambush was funny" Ajax continued.

"Ok ok, enough of that" Hefring retorted. He looked back at Selena who was staring at Ajax's upside down face. She might have found the scene funny, with Ajax's legs sticking up in the air and all, but this was the same wolf who, moments before, bit a man in half and threw him through the forest.

She must have noticed Hefring staring at her because she turned to him and asked, "Is he going to let us ride him?"

"No" he said.

"Is it because of me?" she asked.

Hefring hesitated and looked back at Ajax, who found it in himself to send another gust of breath in Hefring's direction.

"Yes" he replied.

Hefring looked up through the trees and located the sun and determined that it was a little past midday.

"Just enough time to get back" he thought.

"Ok. We can get back to the Keep before nightfall if we hurry" he directed towards Selena. "I want to try and find my bow and quiver though, they're still over by the ambush site."

Hefring turned towards Ajax who was still in his awkward position in the path, however now his eyes were closed.

"Ahem!" Hefring exclaimed in an exaggerated tone.

After a slight hesitation and when he realized Ajax wasn't going to move he wound up his leg and kicked the wolf square in the nose. Ajax gradually opened his eyes and squinted at Hefring then he opened his maws and yawned, sending a deep howl through the forest, and slowly flipped back to his feet and stood up. Hefring walked past the lumbering wolf and beckoned Selena to follow him. He continued down the path towards the barricade he made the night before. "Only the night before…man it's been a long day." He thought.

As he turned a bend in the trail he recognized the site instantly. There were two pools of blood on the ground, one from the man Ajax killed and one from the man Hefring had shot in the heart with an arrow. There wasn't a body but he didn't question it, thinking Ajax took the liberty of disposing it into the woods. To Hefring's right, lay the tree where he was perched in. It was blackened from the fiery explosions sent into it by Selena. The forest surrounding the tree was black as well. "Good thing this forest stays wet most of the year" Hefring thought. If the forest was dry, the fire would consume everything in its path in such a rage not even Ajax could stop it.

Hefring spotted his quiver in the tree, still stuck between the branches where he winched it, pulled it out and slung it over his shoulder. His bow was not so fortunate. Hefring found it close to the base of the tree and it was charred and burned through. He cared more about the quiver for he had just made the arrows recently and he had several other bows back in the Keep so he left it were it lay and walked back to Selena and Ajax who were waiting for him on the trail.

"Just the quiver" Hefring muttered when he got there. Then he realized he had not eaten since the day before and that his pack was a decent run from his location. "I'm hungry" he said aloud then asked Ajax, "Can you lure in a couple rabbits so we can get something to eat."

"No. Home is just a few hours from here if you run. And I won't just lead an innocent creature to its death. If you need energy take it from me." Ajax returned.

"Fine" Hefring said. He approached Ajax and laid a hand on one of his paws. He extended his mind to the wolf's and felt around his conscious until he found it. There was a huge store of energy inside of Ajax, nearly unlimited in amount. The source of this energy was a mystery to both Hefring and Ajax but, again, they blamed it on the magical caverns under their home.

Surrounding the source of magic, Hefring urged it forward, into himself and felt as it replenished his own energy store. He beckoned to Selena to come closer and he grabbed her arm when she did. He transferred his energy to her and then filled it up again with Ajax. Soon both Hefring and Selena felt good as new, ready to sprint back to the Keep.

Hefring leaned down and started stretching his legs, mentioning Selena to do the same. It was still a long run. While he was in one of his exercises, Hefring remembered to question Ajax about the body. "Did you move the body of the man I shot with the arrow?"

"Yes, I flung it into the forest for the forest beasts to devour. I did the same with the other nine men I killed for you." Ajax replied.

Hefring sighed. He had a very simple mission – kill the eleven soldiers who are approaching the Keep, but he had failed miserably. "One killed and one prisoner" he thought, "without Ajax I would have probably gotten myself killed. Not very good if you're trying to prove you can survive by yourself."

Hefring motioned Selena forward. "You lead" he said.

And off they went.