"Alright, I think that's everything." Alfred nods at the supplies and armour set out on the only table in the hall.

'Oh good, so now we can leave?' Arthur huffs from across the room, annoyed that the knight is taking so long. He'll never understand these humans, why are they so weak that they must wear the skin and fur of others? Or strengthen their hide with metal? Though, he can at least appreciate the boys plan to bring food.

Food is always good to have.

"Well soooorrrryyy. But some of us don't have a massive fur coat to keep warm out in the freezing cold." He snaps back, quickly getting annoyed with Arthur's general attitude.

Arthur, he's learning, thinks he's better than him in all ways, better than anybody really, especially humans since they're so weak, or so he thinks. Just because he has armour to protect himself, furs to stay warm and a sword to defend and attack with, all humans must be weak because they don't have these things naturally. And, yeah sure, on their own, most people wouldn't stand a chance out here, but if humans were so weak then they would have all been kill long ago. What Arthur doesn't understand is the ingenuity of mankind, the ability to survive in places were they would normally die is what makes them great, at least, that's what Alfred thinks.

He sighs happily as he pulls his armour on, having spent most of the day repairing the piece the wolf broke before, and grabs his sword. Not the Sky Blade from before, that's beyond his skills to fix, but one of the many others he has stored in the tiny armoury. He looks his sword over, an Earth Blade, not his preferred weapon of choice, but he's still pretty handy with this one. He'll just have to remember that he'll be slower, but hit a lot harder. Sheathing his sword, he moves onto packing the supplies he gathered into a sack. Food rations are of most importance, now more than ever with Arthur's ravenous hunger, water, bandages made from some old cloth he found lying around, what little coin he has, the emerald horns and most importantly, his map.

Slinging the bag over his shoulder he turns back to Arthur.

"But yes, we can go now."

'Finally.' He drawls, standing and following Alfred out.

Normally it would be a two day ride to the nearest town, but sadly, Al's horse, who he'd had since before his exile, died four months ago, the cold was simply to much for her. Now, it's a four day walk at best through the snow.

He shivers as he pulls his fur cloak closer around him, the ice cold wind whipping about him, numbing his face and hands. Did he mention he hates the cold?

Arthur, thanks to his thick fur, is completely unfazed by the freezing temperatures. Even as they walk, it's clear the wolf is far better suited for these climates than the knight, who's iron clad feet sink deep into the snow as they walk. The wolf's paws, despite being larger and heavier, don't sink to even half that of Alfred's.

Arthur smugly walks ahead as Al struggles onwards. But by his eighth fall flat on his face, the wolfs pleasure quickly turns to annoyance.

'How can you be so useless?' He asks as he pauses, looking back, tilting his head as he watches the knight pick himself up once more.

"Shut it. I hate this place. I'm not made for snow like you." He snaps, angry at both himself and Arthur's condescending attitude.

The wolf cocks his head more at this.

'Then why are you here?' Arthur's voice is surprisingly gentle and full of curiosity as he asks this, catching the knight off guard.

He huffs as he knocks more snow of himself and continues trudging forward.

"Because I fucked up." He mumbles, not wanting to talk about back then.

Arthur pauses and sends him a perplexed look.

'You mated, upwards?' He asks, voice full of confusion, not knowing such a feat was possible, or how that relates to him being here.

Al spins around to give the wolf an equally bewildered look.

"What? No! It's an expression!" He exclaims, waving his arms about trying to convey the meaning of his words, though Arthur only seems to become even more confused by the wild movements.

'An expression?'

"Yeah, it means I messed up."

The wolf frowns at him, 'Then why didn't you just say so?'

"Because! Argh," He sighs, turning back to his endless trudging, "forget it."

The wolf watches him for a moment before shaking his head and following on, thinking to himself how strange humans are.

After nearly a week of walking through the endless white expanse, the pair finally see the edge of town. Arthur, though not liking the openness, was impressed that the knight could navigate his way here. As a wolf, Arthur was able to follow the faint smell of the human settlement, growing stronger the closer they got, but the knight found his way here by only that small piece of what he called a map. As the outline of the town appears on the horizon, Arthur breathes deeply, taking in as much of the scents from the town as he can. Many of the smells are completely new and bewildering to the wolf. He'll never show it, but he's a bit afraid of this new place, a human settlement, he's never been this close to one...

He remembers the warnings of his pack about the dangers of humans.

His pack...

No! He shakes his head and marches forward, determined not to think about that anymore, and almost walks straight into the knight. Alfred turns to look at him from his place in the snow.

"Alright, you wait here." He gestures to the ground as he says this, as if giving a dog a command.

Arthur snarls at that, he is no dog.

'Why?' He snaps, glaring suspiciously at the knight, but the bond they now have tells him the answer even as the boy attempts to explain himself.

"Dude, your a massive wolf. The people in town will freak if they see you walk in there. Just stay here and I'll go look for the guy."

It's a good argument he knows but...

Arthur glances around at the open plains of white. To stay out here alone... if he still had his pack...

He huffs and glares harder, using his size to tower over Alfred, trying to make himself look as intimidating as possible.

'No, I can't trust you.' It's a lie, but he'll be damned if he admits how he really feels.

'How do I know you won't just run off, or rally the other humans to attack me unawares?'

He watches the knights mouth open and close as he tries to formulate a response. So he lets out a low growl, showing his teeth a bit, just enough to look dangerous as he continues.

'How do I know you don't intend to break our deal?'

A threatening step closer is enough to get the response he wants.

"Okay! You can come, geez. I wasn't trying to get away or anything, I just didn't want to freak the towns people out. But, fine. Don't blame me when they start screaming and running at the sight of you, or try to attack you."

'Fine.' He huffs, backing off.

"Just..." Alfred looks him up and down thinking, "stay behind me. And don't do anything threatening. So no growling, or snarling, or glaring, or showing teeth, or anything like that, got it?"

He relaxes his face and dips his head in a nod, which seems to satisfy his companion, as he turns and resumes their walk to town. Arthur hopes the knight can't tell how relieved he is to not be left out in the open.

As they make it into town, he stays close to his human, keeping only a half step behind. The other humans all stare at their approach at first before fleeing into there dwellings, terrified. Screams go up and children as snatched by there parents and pulled away, within seconds the town is completely empty.

This doesn't last long as mere moments later, men dive out there homes, with any weapon they could find. The pair pause in the middle of town as they are confronted by the gathering of frighten townsmen. Pointed at them in shaking hands are a few swords, but most of the objects are unknown to Arthur, and that worries him, not knowing how dangerous they might be.

He wants to stand tall and growl and look as intimidating as he can, but...

Despite his large size, he tries to hide behind the knight and he hates himself for it. In the forest or the mountains he'd have no fear in meeting these people, their he would know the terrain, know how to hide when needed, he could plan how and where to attack from, but here...

Everything is new and unknown to him, he doesn't know where is safe, he can't hide himself in the snow and watch now that he's been seen.

As much as he hates it, Alfred is his only defence here.

From amongst the crowd, a tall man calls out to the knight.

"Al? What is this? Why did you bring that beast here?!"

Arthur thinks the man sounds a bit hysterical, but he can't be certain. He's only really had Alfred to learn human expressions off of, which isn't much. There also not speaking Wolf, so he can't understand what there saying, they could be threatening him or completely afraid. Just in case, he drops his tail and lowers his ears a little, just enough to look like he's not a threat, hoping that these humans can read his body language to know he doesn't mean them any harm, like Alfred told him.

Alfred steps forward, raising his arms out the the group.

"Chill guys. I promise you, Artie ain't going to hurt you. He's cool."

"Artie?" The man asks, looking confused.

The knight nods a bit too enthusiastically, "Yeah! See he's, uh," he looks back at the wolf and, probably seeing the worried look on Arthur's face smiles as he looks back to the men, "well he's a friend."

"That beast, is... your friend?"

The group look between each other, lost for an explanation.

'Alfred what are they saying?' He tries not to sound to worried as he asks this, but he's pretty sure the knight can already tell how he's feeling.

Alfred turns his head to smile at him whispering, "Don't worry." Before looking back to the group.

"Yeah, it's a long story. Look can you put the weapons down? Your kinda making him nervous."

With a look of mass confusion, they all slowly lower the objects in there hands, and Alfred smiles as he feels Arthur breathe a sigh of relief down his back.

"Al, why are you here, with uh, Artie was it?"

"Mhmm. Actually, we're looking for Sadık, have you seen him around?"

"Oh, you just missed him. He left about a few days ago."

"Aww, damn."

Arthur watches curiously as the pair talk. The other humans, apparently having now deemed him not a threat, stare at him. He want's to snarl at them, to make them go away, but he's worried that doing so will agitate them into attacking.

Everything is interrupted however, by a piercing screech from the sky, acting as a trigger for all hell to break loose.

The men all suddenly snatch up their weapons, and group together, forming a tight circle facing outwards, objects raised at the sky.

Alfred too, seems trigger by the call as he draws his sword and looks up to the low clouds.

And Arthur thinks he knows why. That screening was definitely the call of an Aigiddyrn, aerial hunters that like to sweep down from the clouds to take small prey. Though, small is relative here. Arthur knows he has nothing to fear from it, he's much too large, but the humans are definitely the right size for it.

Another screech, and the beast drops down out of the grey clouds directly above the group of men. The beast, all grey skin, long thin legs and taloned claws reaching down attacks the humans. It's large leathery wings flapping as it flies around them. It cries out another trilling caw from it's large teethed beak, as the humans fight back, one managing to land a hit to its legs, but not enough to break its tough hide. The creature swipes the weapon aside with one leg while grabbing at the man with the other, talons sinking into his arm and pulling him off the ground.

"Move!"

Alfred shouts as he dives for the pair, the group quickly parting out of his way. Arthur watches as the knight charges, jumping up and swinging his heavy sword at the Aigiddyrn's leg, severing it between ankle and knee.

It screeches in pain this time as it flies up, now no longer weighed down by its prey, black blood seeping from its severed leg, it flies off into the clouds. The man drops into the snow and grunts as he sits up, watching the beast fly off. The group falls silent as the fight ends.

"Dad!"

The quiet is broken by the cry of a young girl running out to latch onto the injured man, a woman quickly following her.

"Alecia! Get back inside, it's not safe!" She cries as she joins them, desperately grabbing at the girl.

"No, it's fine." Alfred assures them, "That thing won't be coming back here anytime soon."

"You saves me, thank you." The man says awed, offering his hand in thanks.

The knight beams, "Just doing my job."

Arthur is surprised by the way these humans act, relaxing now that the beast is gone, much like a pack would after an attack, but really, he couldn't care less about all that. There's something he's much more interested in.

Alfred blinks as he watches Arthur move through the group towards him. Though the others may not see him as an immediate threat anymore, he's still worried that they may attack him. But before he can warn Arthur to stay back, the wolfs purpose becomes clear. They all stare as, without a care in the world, the wolf snatches up the severed piece of leg and eats it.

"Eewwww!" The little girl voices all their thoughts.

"Hahahaha!" And Alfred can't help but laugh.

Alfred sips at his broth, listening to Fredric.

"So, that beast has been terrorising the town for a month now?"

"Yes."

The older man nods as he leans back in his seat. After the attack, Alfred had been invited in to the man's home for saving his life. Sitting down together, Al explained why he's here and how he met Arthur, in turn, Fredric explained about the creature and its attacks. From what he's been told, this creature has taken to attacking the town and taking children away. So the men banded together to fight it, but they're no warriors, so they had little success, some have also been taken or killed as they tried to defend themselves.

Al glares angrily down into his bowl, hating that he's been so close yet knew nothing about this. Strictly speaking, the town isn't under his care, since he's in exile, but he hates not being able to help when he's so close, especially since these attacks started just a day after he left the last time he was here.

Outside he can hear Alecia giggling as she plays with Arthur. After some more reassuring that Arthur won't harm anyone, the girl's curiosity got the better of her and she immediately ran up to him. Al was surprised by how gentle the wolf was with her, sure he knows Artie wouldn't hurt her, but he expected the wolf to growl and push the girl away.

Looking out the window, he can see the girl sitting on the wolfs back, playing with his fur, the girl's mother standing close by watching them play. Arthur doesn't seem too bothered, in fact, Al's pretty sure he's enjoying himself. Watching the pair, Alfred blinks as he suddenly has an idea.

"Thats it!" He shouts, slamming his hands down on the table as he stands, his broth sloshing in the bowl as a result.

"What?" Fredric asks, startled by the knights sudden movement.

Alfred grins widely at the man before diving out the door.

"Artie! Your still hungry, right?"

Surprised, the wolf snaps his head up from where Alecia had been pulling at his ears, causing the girl to stumble backwards, but Arthur catches her by moving his paw to balance her, electing another series of giggles.

'Yes, why?' He asks confused before brightening, ears perking up, 'Do you have food?'

"Nope, but I know where to find some."

Arthur tilts his head at this, behind them Fredric comes out to see what's going on.

'Find some? You mean go on a hunt?'

"Yup!"

Both the family look between the pair confused.

"Alfred, who are you talking to?"

"Uh? Artie." He says this like its the most obvious thing in the world.

Fredric looks at him like he's lost his mind. A reasonable assumption, given that neither he nor his wife and daughter or anyone else for that matter can hear Arthur.

"Your talking to the wolf?" He asks slowly, worried about the boys mental health.

It's one thing to think that the knight had somehow tamed the beast, which looked to be the case when the creature obeyed him before, but after his tale and seeing him talking to the beast, he's not sure what to think anymore.

"You really can't hear him, huh?"

"Hear him?"

"Yeah, Arthur's voice, it's like I told you. I thought no one could hear him talking when we got here. Man, I really wish Sadık was here, he'd know what's going on." He shakes his head then smiles, "But that can wait, because we're going to help you out first."

"Alfred, you've already helped, the beast is gone."

"But we need to make sure it stays gone. So here's the plan." He turns to Arthur, smiling widely as he explains, "We go track it down and kill it. That way, the town will be free from any chance of it coming back, and you get a meal out of it."

The pair consider this. It's a solid plan, with the creature dead they won't have to live in fear anymore, and, remembering how Arthur gobbled up the leg, he's sure the wolf will be more than happy to eat the rest of it.

Arthur's eyes sparkle as he licks his lips and Al doesn't need anymore to know he's in.

"You would do this for us?"

"Sure!"

Plan decided, they spend the night in town, Alfred in Fredric's home while Arthur, due to his size, is forced to spend the night in the stables. Come morning, the pair set of to track down the Aigiddyrn.

Authors notes: So this time we get to see things from Arthur's perspective for a bit. He's a lot more unsure about all this than he lets on. And not being able to understand anyone who isn't a wolf or Alfred doesn't help, to him, it's all just noise, so Alfred really is his only way to understand what's going on. If he had a pack he'd be a lot more confident but, well... I'll just leave it at that.

But now we have a direction, killing monsters and find out what's going on between them. And they now have the towns trust with Arthur so woo. And yeah, they're looking for Turkey. I just like the idea of Turkey being the one in the know, so he'll turn up at some point.

R & R people.

Until next time, stay awesome!