It'd been a couple of hours since Noir left and Aragami was working hard. After bandaging his arm, he waited for a bit to have the painkillers take effect and sprung up to work again. First thing he did was to scout the surrounding area for threats and debris of the camp that Noir scattered, all while the female Hound followed him.

  After climbing to the crown of two trees to recover tent tarps, he found a small clearing with an abundance of shade. There was also a spring a couple of paces away, so water would be no problem.

  Using two sticks, a tent tarp and a couple of ropes from his backpack, he even made a primitive sled with which he dragged the wounded Hound to the shade. There he created a den for them.

  When everything was set and done, he prepared some water for the Hounds to drink and checked their wounds. The nanites seemed to be working, as the skin on the male's side was intact and there was no sign of any scar or pus. His magical energy seemed to be in disarray in comparison to the female, but for now he wrote it off as a result of an injury. That, however, didn't stop him from keeping an eye on the mana.

  The female protested in the beginning, not letting him touch her, but after a while of back and forth he gave her a quick look around, disinfecting one ugly gash on the back and let her go. She still followed him, although with a greater distance in between them.

  Not knowing what to do with his time, he decided to drag the bodies from the sunlight, so that they hopefully wouldn't start rotting before someone comes to check out the area. As he pulled a body of the cat-thing (he refused to call them by their names, even racial one) through the forest, he wondered what the members of Raaketig party were doing. Are they coming to look for him? Or did they get caught up in something? What if the wormhole collapsed onto them and crushed them? What if…

  A loud crack from behind snapped him back into reality. He dropped the corpse, causing the blood to slowly spill on the ground, and took a defensive stance, just to see the female Hound pulling another corpse behind him.

  The sight of her dropping the leg she was pulling and looking him in the eye was the last straw. He braced himself off his thighs and laughed; the stress, uncertainty and every other feeling of the last two days spilled out uncontrollably in the form of pure laughter.

  All the while the female Hound stood there, her ears turned toward him to study these new sounds. "Oh my god." he sighed out loud, immediately looking around for some disturbance in Mana around him. 'I have to be careful with talking, but experimenting a little bit should be beneficial, right? I mean, how much more ground could I accidentally destroy?'

  Deciding so, he kneeled down, and started to talk to the female Hound.

  "Thank you. I needed that." Nothing happened, and the Hound turned her head toward him, studying his voice.

  'Should be safe to continue.' he thought, and while still paying close attention to his surroundings, talked to the Hound.

  "Hi. Hi beautie. How are you?" He squatted down and extended his right slightly open, as you'd do with a dog. "We didn't start off the way I'd want to, so let's start over."

  He talked in a calm manner, baby-talking, slowly gaining the canine's trust high enough that she came close enough for him to touch her.

  "Who's a good girl? Are you a good girl? I hope you are. My good hand is at risk." he tried touching her, but was met with a low growl and so he quickly got the idea.

  "I wonder if you want to make friends with me. I hope you do." Aragami was talking for quite a long while now. His throat was sore and his legs hurt from squatting for so long, but he didn't move for fear he might miss the opportunity.

  "I wonder if you want to be friends with me, or if you're just using me to help your other friend back there." Up until now, he was pretty much talking for the sake of talking, saying whatever came to mind. But as the time flew by and the pain in his legs grew, he started contemplating, or realizing he was voicing his thoughts aloud.

  To his surprise the canine's head turned aside, towards her fallen companion, before turning back towards him and rolling to one side with ears perked up and her tail completely still.

  "It almost seems like you can understand what I'm saying." He tried to laugh it off. Surely, he's gone crazy. Talking lizards with armor? Magic? Talking tree and mist? Yep. There surely are a couple of screws loose somewhere.

  But his thought process was interrupted by a strange sound. One he'd not heard since he came here. A soft woof. He looked around for the source of the sound just as the she-hound in front of him moved.

  Coming a step closer to him, her maw opened just a little bit, and she barked at him. Again.

  A couple of thoughts flew through his mind, before one insane settled in. "Wait, you can understand me?" he asked more out of whim than an honest question to which he was answered by another bark.

  He fell on his butt, trying to comprehend what was happening. "If you can understand me," he said, laying his words carefully, "spin around twice."

  To his amazement, the Hound simply spun around twice before gazing directly into his eyes. A small whirlpool of Mana began to materialize close to the tip of her snout, which worried him a little, but he stayed unmoving, trying to prove he can be trusted.

  The small whirlpool eventually unwound itself, revealing a narrow string of Mana that flew towards Aragami. He watched in fascination and prepared to grab it in midair, but halfway in between them, the string broke apart and slowly dissipated, as if someone tore it into small pieces.

  Both him and the Hound stared at each other, before the she-hound slowly sat down and stared at him.

  Almost instinctively, his hand found the crystal Noir gave him and knocked at it.

  'What is the problem?' Noir's voice sounded in his head again. It was almost instantaneous, as if he'd never left.

  'I… I don't know if you'd consider it a problem, but… something just happened. I'm not sure what it was, but I feel like it was important.'

  'You'll have to give me something to work with. I thought you knew that.' Noir's reproachful words struck him as guilty, so he quickly reformed his thoughts before trying again.

  'There was a magic phenomena I can't quite place. And I think she's the one responsible for it.'

  'You have my full attention. Please explain.' Noir's voice turned completely serious. Sensing the tone in Noir's voice, Aragami quickly retold what happened with the string earlier, including what he saw and felt.

  **'Is that truly what happened?' **Noir asked, his voice completely neutral.

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  'Yes'

  **'And did you communicate in any shape or form with her before that happened?' **

  'Yes'

  **'Fuck. Thellia will eat me alive.' **Noir sounded tired and annoyed, but he quickly asked another question. **'Please tell me, did you talk to it? Even a single word in your language will help.' **

  The question sounded really weird, almost fishy, so very slowly, Aragami spilled the colors. 'Yes… I…I did talk to her. And not just a couple of words or sentences…'

  **'Thank the heavens.' Noir sighed, all the seriousness dissipating from his voice. 'I'll tell you what to do now, okay? Bring the Hounds together and stay with them. I'll ring their creator to take a look at the damage… Thankfully, you talked to them, so the damage shouldn't be so bad. I'll get back to you as soon as I find her.' **

  With that, Aragami could feel Noir's presence disappear from his mind. He sighed, and while bracing his knees, he stood up. The she-hound kept on sitting, staring him in the eye, as if she expected something from him.

  Sighing again, Aragami set to lift up the body he was carrying prior to this. "Good thing this is the last pair." he thought aloud before turning to see the she-hound. "Let's bring them to the camp and take a look at your friend, okay?" The Hound huffed softly, before running over to the second body and dragging it behind him.

  'Yup. I'm definitely naming you. And I might even name your… friend? brother? Whatever.' he threw away the thought as he focused on the way forward.

  Arriving at the camp, he threw the body atop the pile next to a tree and went to help the she-hound with the other one. After that, they walked over to the den, where the other Hound was still asleep.

  Aragami sat down near a tree, his back against the bark and waited. The hounds laying together in the den, the she-hound looking at him. He checked out his left arm and tried to relax until the laws came in. His throat was sore, but the little bit of water was intended for the Hounds to drink. 'I'll have to go get some more after all is said and done.'

  Ten minutes later, he was just trying to kill some time when he noticed something. He couldn't see it, as it was in the forest… He could just… feel it. It was slowly heading towards them. And it didn't seem friendly.

  He slowly stood up and stretched himself, while keeping his eyes in the direction of the thing. He walked over to the Hounds to check on them, just to find them happily sleeping. Smiling to himself, he picked up the machete from next to the den, and headed just a couple of steps in the direction he felt the thing. He then sat down next to a tree and pretended to relax while still keeping an eye out for something just out of sight.

  **'I'm back.' **Noir's voice sounded loud, as if a gunshot had gone off in his vicinity.

  Aragami flinched in surprise before yelling back on Noir 'Fucking hell! Could you not let me know you're here more peacefully?!'

  'I could, but that would defy the purpose of why I did that.' Noir sounded proud of himself, which infuriated Aragami a little, but before he could retort, Noir's voice shifted, as if he wasn't talking to him, but someone else instead.** 'Is that good enough for you?' **

  Aragami was about to ask who it was he's talking to, before something came out of the bushes. Slowly venturing into the open, there was a snow white hind(female deer) with a silver and gold necklace hanging on its neck in front of him.

  Mesmerized by the sight in front of him, he heard a voice, however unlike Noir's neutral tone, this one had a clear feminine side to it.

  *"I suppose you were telling the truth this time around. You found a being that might be worth the while." *

  He looked around in confusion, looking for the source of the voice, before his eyes fell on the deer once again. 'Surely not…' he thought to himself, throwing the idea out the window. It couldn't have been the deer that said those delicate words just now.

  To distract himself, he called to get Noir's attention once again and hopefully get some answers. 'Hey Noir! What is going on? Did you find the one who created the Hounds?'

  **'Eeh. Yeah. I found her…' **He sounded weird… as if he was unsure how to handle the situation?

  **'I guess I should introduce the two of-' **

  *"No need, old man. I am more than capable of introducing myself if I want to!" *

  Noir was cut off mid sentence and Aragami was baffled. There were two reasons for his bafflement, first one being that someone would even dare to cut Noir off like that.

  The second part was about who exactly was it that cut him off. He stared at the deer as it adjusted its posture to appear as majestic as possible, and spoke in a scornful tone:*"I am the Great Spirit of Life, Guardian of all the beasts native to the land, the one that drove away the Fire Dragon Daisimuss, Patronic beast of the Treants, deity of the Sl'ankhoo, the one that regals with absolute power, Thellia!" *

  The whole display was magnificent. The white fur of the deer reflected sunlight in such a way one would think that the fur itself is shining, the majestic tone and choice of words. Everything was absolutely perfect. Until Noir spoke up, that is.

  **'Yep. That's Thellia. She takes care of the forest and only the forest in my brother's stead.' **

  The reaction was instantaneous. The deer's head swayed sideways as the self-proclaimed deity shouted out loud.* "Shut up old man!" *before her body went completely still.

  Aragami sat there for a short time, before a single confused "Huh?" sounded on the clearing. He called out to Noir about what's going on, but the only answer he received back was quiet.

  After a hot minute of trying and tapping the crystal multiple times, he finally got a reply.

  **'Hold… Hold on a minute, will you?' **Noir's voice sounded as if he'd been running for a while. **'We'll get back to you in a - OW! SHE BITES!' **With that, the connection was cut off again, leaving Aragami more confused than he already was.

  As soon as Aragami processed what happened, he started laughing uncontrollably at the bizarreness of the situation.

  'Yes, yes, very funny. Now listen closely, I don't have much time.' Noir's voice brought him back to reality. He tried to suppress his laughter and succeeded to some degree, so Noir resumed talking. **'I don't want to deal with Thella's tantrum, so I'll dump her to you. I've managed to get her to teach you how to take care of the Hounds, as well as how to heal them. You'll have to do her a favor in the future, but that's a whole lot of ‘not my problem’.' **

  That snapped him out of his laughter. He was thankful for the help, but he couldn't help but wonder what kind of favor would the spirit demand, but Noir still continued.

  'I've managed to talk her into letting you name them, but you have to understand something first. Naming a certain creature makes it stronger in one way or another, but it also creates a weakness. If you know someone's true name, you can, with a help of a certain not-so-legal ritual, gain control of them, essentially making them slaves to whoever knows it. I would recommend you pick a name that sounds easy to pronounce, but is difficult to write.'

  Noir trailed off for a minute before continuing.** 'She might ask to borrow a part of your body the same way I did. I've placed a couple of barriers in your eye to prevent her from seeing anything you might not want her to see, but other than that, I have nothing prepared. If she tries to take control of your body without your approval, just shout out loud at her in your language. That should deter her from trying anything more.'**

  By the time Noir finished talking, the white deer began to shake slightly. If his intuition was correct, whoever was chasing after Noir was about to get here, which was confirmed by Noir just a second later.

  **'Fuck. She's fast. I'll go for now. When she leaves, just give me a heads up using the crystal and I'll show you something that is beneficial to both of us.' **With that, he once again withdrew from his mind and disappeared to who-knows-where.

  Sorting out his thoughts, Aragami waited for Thella to come back and inhabit the deer. He didn't need to wait for long, before its head swung to the side and a voice of the self-proclaimed deity resounded across the clearing once again.

  *"I can't believe he'd disrespect my introduction like that. Damned old man. I don't care about seniority, if he keeps on taking away my creations and reputation, I'll drag him to some remote cave and seal his ass for all eternity…" *

  Aragami did his best to contain a chuckle as - If his intuition was correct - Noir was much stronger than Thella, which would make it very hard for her to even catch him, no need to talk about sealing him.

  To his luck (or acting skills, he really wasn't sure) it seemed like she didn't notice as she turned in his direction and with an entitled demand in her voice, she finally addressed him directly.

  *"So. You are the reason the old man broke the agreement he had with the other laws… You sure don't look worth it, in my humble opinion." *Thella stated matter-of-factly, before stopping, giving him the opportunity to defend himself.

  Aragami had a feeling she wanted him to defend himself, so instead of answering, he put on the best poker-face he had and simply stared into her eyes without saying a word.

  This earned him an amused* "Hoho"* from the annoying deer in front of him, before she moved on, coming to terms that she won't get him to argue with her. He could see why Noir didn't want to deal with her, and if he didn't have to, he wouldn't. But he needed to make sure the Hounds were okay and sort of wanted to get her recognition so he would, hopefully, have an easier time dealing with her in the future.

  All he could do now, was to just sit there quietly, with a poker-face on, as an albino deer continued to throw not-so-subtle insults in his direction as it slowly made its way to the temporary den he'd made.