AznxStarrZ

Chapter 2 – My Cave Has Been Invaded

Why? Why does this always happen to me? I didn't ask for this. Yet it always happens!

I faced the monsters holding my possessions hostage. I sighed heavily. It's always a hassle to get my stuff back when the dungeon monsters take them. What's the point in them taking it anyways? Usually they would just take it and go, but today my temporary shelter has become home for a pack of Silver Wolves and Hunter Wolves. Even worse, I have no weapons on me. Nothing whatsoever.

I sigh again and take a lazy step forward causing the wolves to leap to their feet. They growled at me in warning, I ignored it. I continued to stride towards them. Eventually, a wolf launched itself at me. I didn't even glance at it as I simply thrust my arm on the underside of its outstretched forearms and swung upwards and back, effectively throwing it off without harming me or itself. I eyed all of the wolves in the cavern and deduced which was the pack leader with ease. I stood in front of it with an unwavering gaze plastered on my face.

The wolf had a beautiful golden brown pelt that seemed to shimmer because of the bits ice dusted on it. It eyed me with a dangerous glint reflecting in its pupils. I felt pretty calm at that moment. I didn't know why. I couldn't exactly fight a whole pack of wolves at once in their 'territory' and expect to live, and I couldn't transform because it would make me look like a tasty treat.

That's when I decided to do something absolutely ridiculous.

I positioned my fingers so that they formed a fox/wolf face and began waving them around in a hypnotizing manner. "I come in peace~~~." I chanted.

The wolves watched me with an eerie silence. Then, one by one, they began to howl. It sounded like they were laughing at me which kinda stung my pride, but it was also what I was aiming for so it's all good. When it ended, the wolves appeared to no longer deem my presence as a hostile threat, but rather as if I were one of their long-lost kin. I didn't really understand, but as long as they weren't going to kill me then I didn't care. They didn't even react as I took my stash of tools back and held out my weapon.

Oh well. Better for me.

I decided to go hunting for food since the wolves ate all my meat. I counted the wolves before I left. 15 wolves to feed. I grimaced inwardly and grabbed my long sword.

This is gonna be a long day..

Raven sat at the counter and absentmindedly twirled a pen between her fingers. She sighed in boredom and lay her head on the counter, letting the writing utensil slip out of her grasp. Then she heard Gaius trudging down the staircase in a very lazy manner. Raven lifted her head off the wooden structure and walked over to the forgery. She picked up a hammer and walked to the staircase where Gaius was standing half-asleep. She grabbed his hand and firmly pressed the tool onto his palm. Gaius' fingers quickly curled around the handle of the hammer and he awoke abruptly. His body filled with a shocking amount of energy and vigor that was not present just a moment ago.

"Raven! Good Morning~. How's the shop going?" He asked as he strode across the room to his beloved forge.

Raven gave him a pointed look that he may or may not have noticed and sauntered behind the counter again. She sighed again, only softer this time because Gaius was nearby. Still, he seemed to have heard it. Leaning out from his workshop area, he sent her a questioning look. Raven automatically pulled a stoic face, but Gaius' curiosity was relentless. She finally gave in to him saying she was just bored, even though she was secretly wondering how Micah was doing.

Gaius blinked and walked over to the store entrance. Raven watched in confusion as he nonchalantly flipped the 'Open' sign so that it said 'Closed' on the outside. Right outside the store seemed to be a customer, and Gaius gave him a merry wave and a smile. The person seemed mad that the store had been closed early and stomped off muttering under his breath. Raven stared at Gaius in shock, and then anger.

"You. You just made us lose a customer!" Raven was enraged now. After all that hard work just to keep the few customers coming back to the store, Gaius just had to make them lose one. She was just about ready to give him a full on lecture when he held a hand to her face.

"Relax Raven, I need to go get materials anyways. And also, I think you need to take a breather. Maybe some cool air will help you."

"But its summer right now."

"Then go to somewhere colder."

Raven scowled slightly. What was he hinting at? Oh, Right. Micah was living in Vale River wasn't he? But why does Gaius know that? She stared at him in wonder.

"I may or may not have accidentally caused a bunch of wolves to raid his sheltering place while I was out mining for ores?" He said with a nervous shrug. Raven gasped and darted past him, running towards Vale River. She didn't even realize that she was lacking any form of defense and weapon.

To say Micah was tired was an understatement. Who wouldn't be tired when they had to feed this huge mob of animals? And to top it off, they seemed to expect the same amount, if not more, every single day. Oh how he wished he had his kitchen. At least then he could cook something.

Then an idea came to him. Why didn't he just make his own cooking utensils? He already had a broadsword which could double as a knife if need be. There were plenty of ores to be found in this area, not to mention that there were the best materials known as platinum and gold. He was also sufficient in the forging area when he was back in the tree.

Hm, now that he thought about it, would the tree shrink again now that he wasn't there to 'bond' the races? Oh well, they were the ones to kick out the only person who had a chance to make the Sharance tree bloom.

Suddenly, he heard the wolves howling. He understood that some form of threat was approaching them, and that the wolves were making him go after it. He quickly grabbed his long sword and lithely scaled the cave walls to the entrance. He froze as he saw a shadow appear. Micah gripped his sword tightly and it made a slight clink. The shadow froze before ducking to the nearest hiding spot, which just so happened to be where Micah was standing. Micah fell back in surprise, but quickly recovered and maneuvered to swing his sword. Until he saw the long red locks of hair.

Micah sighed loudly, and Raven stared at him with shock. Micah got up and brushed the loose bits of snow off his clothes and trudged off, Raven trailing after him. Right before the two entered the main part of the cave, Micah stopped and gave told Raven not to show fear. They walked in and Raven was shocked to see a whole pack of wolves, several of them were staring at her like she was a rare delicacy.

"Just saying, I think most of them are female so they are quite competitive over the male members. That includes me as well, but I don't swing towards wolves. Imagine if we had kids, a wolf with wooly fur? A shaggy looking wooly? In any case, it would just be very wrong."

Raven blushed and whacked Micah on the head in embarrassment.

"I wasn't worrying about that." She defended.

Micah chuckled and continued walking towards an empty area in the cave. He sat down and patted the space next to him, inviting Raven over. She obliged, but received many deadly gazes from wolves in return.

"So what are you doing here, Raven? You couldn't possibly have come here just to visit me." Micah asked in a lenient manner.

"... It's Gaius' fault." Raven replied monotonously

"Huh?" Micah said in confusion.

"Gaius accidentally made those wolves raid your hiding spot." She looked away from Micah as she said this.

Micah's eye twitched. Gaius was the reason why he had wolves in his temporary home?

"That bastard." Micah ground out. Then he laughed. "Wonder what he did, haha! I bet he was mining too loudly and got them irritated."

Raven smiled slightly. This was the Micah she knew, he wasn't gone. Then she looked down nervously.

"So.. are you mad?" She asked quietly. Micah glanced over in question.

"About the Gaius thing? Nah. I bet he does things like this all the time. Wonder what else he's-"

"Not that!" She said loudly, shocking Micah. "Are you still mad about.. the village."

There was a pause.

Raven slowly turned to look at Micah and instantly regretted it. His eyes had turned deadly, an intimidating aura was emitting from him, making her shudder in fear.

"Raven. Although I still consider you a friend, do not mention them else I'll turn against you as well. This mess has brought too much turmoil in myself. If you wish to talk more of this then wait for my hate to die down." Then he took a couple of deep breaths and smiled brightly. "But anyways, how have you been Raven? Has the shop been doing okay?"

Raven sweatdropped over how quickly he was able to suppress his emotions. "It's been okay.. but Gaius closed the shop right in front of one of the customers before I left so I think we just lost one." She said with annoyance. Micah laughed loudly.

"Ah.. Too bad then.. but I think he'll come back." Micah said with a smile, which Raven returned.

They sat quietly for a while. Then Raven thought of something she wanted to ask Micah.

"..So how did you befriend the wolves?"

Micah blinked and positioned his fingers so that his ring and middle finger were pressed onto his thumb and his index finger and pinky were sticking up.

"I just held my hands like this and waved them around saying 'I come in peace~~~'" He said, demonstrating what he did. Raven giggled at Micah's face as he flailed his hands around. Micah smiled again and was happy to see that he still had someone he could spend time like this with. Then he noticed how dark it was getting.

"Hey Raven, as much as I would like to spend time with you, I think you should go home now. It's getting dark and I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."

Raven nodded and got up, brushing off the flakes of ice.

"I'll walk with you to the crossroad." Micah said.

The walked together silently to the entrance of Vale River. When they reached it, Micah felt a bit sad.

"It was nice seeing you again, Raven. I hope we can do this again sometime." He said with a halfhearted smile. Raven noticed this and her eyes softened. "Of course. I'll visit whenever I have time." Then she waved goodbye and dashed into the village, being as inconspicuous about it as possible.

Micah sighed lightly with a half smile and returned to his frosty freezer of a home.

So yeah. Um... Don't hurt me? O-o..

This chapterrr... I rushed it. I mean, I didn't even expect to get so many reviews and favorites so..

When I first saw that people were adding this story to their favorites and writing reviews, I was soooooo hype about it LOL.

Ah.. but yeah. This chapter is pretty delayed.

The problem with me is I'm more of a vocal storytelling person. Like I'll have plenty of interesting story ideas, but when I type it.. it just goes wayyyy off topic. If I say it out loud then it goes great, but not so much with writing...

The wolf idea was really irritating to me because I wanted to add wolves, but I felt it was kinda used a lot so I didn't really want to add it. I mean I love wolves but.. you know. And technically, Micah should still be able to beat them, but I felt like it would make Micah seem like an animal abuser? So I didn't make him 'take care of them'.

And as a sort of reply to the reviews I got. No, I am not going to make Shara be the 'villain' so to speak. There's a reason as to why all the villagers are so OOC like, and hopefully when I write it, it'll come out right. I am just like dying to tell you the reason, but I won't because spoilers are the worst thing to fanfiction kind.

However, in Micah's case, I want him to be OOC. I just thought, how can Micah be so cheerful in the game all the time when the other villagers make him do like, everything for them.

Um... I'm not sure when I'll post the next chapter. So just a heads up in case you're wondering where the hell the chapters are. Feel free to post those reviews saying stuff like 'Post more!' or 'Hurry up and write more!' because although a lot of other writers don't seem to like it, it sort of makes me feel like I have an assignment due the next day so I'll try to finish it faster.

Also.

If anyone happens to leave a hate review (for some.. otherworldly reason) I will not hate you for it. In fact, I think that I will laugh heartily at the fact that you would spend an extra minute or so writing a review for a story that you don't like.

Helpful criticism is welcomed with open arms because if you haven't realized already, I am a noob at writing!

So thank you for reading my story and/or rant at the end.

Leave a review/rating if you feel like it.

And!

Good bye~

**** IMPORTANT ****

I am changing my pen name XxZerohZeroh so make sure you note that for further updates!