The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 138: Names?

Even if Ark was more indifferent to life than he was before, even he felt his heart ache a little as he watched Balan slump over on the ground, at the very least he was going to meet his lover once more. The humans that had started to cheer were all silent now. The ones who knew Balan tried their hardest to hold both their tears and themselves back.

The commander in black stared at Ark silently, his vision sometimes shifting to Balan's corpse. Regret took over him. If he had just let this matter slide, his closest aide wouldn't need to die.

The commander in black was shaken, but he knew that now was not the time to mourn, as doing something like that now would only have negative side-effects. He ordered a few men to take Balan's corpse with them, before he nodded at the King of the Forest. Just five minutes later, the human army was nowhere to be seen, and the once chaotic scene quickly calmed down and returned to normal.

All the magical beasts in the surroundings scattered, and the only ones left were the King of the Forest, her child, Ark, the cub as well as its mother.

Ark had no interest in socialising with the King of the Forest, and after using his telepathy, Ark left with his entourage. Such a sudden conflict had been handled, but Ark was a little tired as a result. Why did his life always have to be so annoying and eventful? Sometimes he just wanted to relax.

Everything he had been through had already started to gnaw at his mind, but constantly fighting for his life and defending the people he cared about was tiring.

Nonetheless, it was something he just had to do. In a world like this, survival was the biggest priority, it couldn't be compared to his previous life, were a lot of people could just live comfortably, and the biggest problems were not magical beasts as well as demons or humans trying to kill you.

Sure, people were murdered all the time in his old world, but that wasn't just an everyday thing or something like that.

After they had walked for a while, Ark killed a random magical beast, and they stopped for a break. Time passed slowly, and the smell of raw meat and blood wafted through the air. Ever since he had gotten away from all of his torture, Ark had started to eat meat raw, as it felt more natural that way, and he was a little more true to his instincts.

As he was eating, the small little cub cuddled a little with him, happy that he was able to win the duel effortlessly. Because of how it had lived up until now, bloodshed like that didn't even phase the little thing, as it had killed animals before, and didn't see any difference between killing and animal and a human.

As they ate, Ark pondered a little. He really wanted to find Thufrat, mostly to just tell him that he was safe, but also because he just wanted to meet him. The problem was that Ark had no clothes that he could use. If he wanted to find Thufrat, then he would need to head to a Torment of the Fallen outpost, but to do that, he needed clothes.

But in a forest like this, where was he supposed to find a set of clothes? Ark thought a little about it, until he got a pretty weird idea. Before he was able to think too much about it, he was distracted.

"What are you thinking about?"

The soothing voice of the mother entered Ark's ears, and he was a little entranced, it wasn't often that he could hear this voice.

"I'm thinking about a lot of things actually."

"Anything that's troubling you?"

Ark was a little touched by the question, but unfortunately, he wasn't really sure what he was supposed to say. Was he supposed to just tell them that he was able to shapeshift into a human, and that he wanted to find one of his friends? When he asked himself that particular question in his head, Ark kind of blanked. Why would he not want to tell them?

He had nothing to hide, and just because he could shapeshift into a different form didn't mean that he became someone else.

"Actually, there are several things that have been troubling me lately, what am I supposed to call you and your child for example? It feels kind of weird to not call you by your names."

"We don't have any names."

The answer to his question was short and to the point, and Ark wasn't too surprised. So far, he hadn't run into a single magical beast with a name, at least not that he could remember. He pondered quietly for a little bit, he needed to call them something, as it was way too awkward for him if he didn't, and he also felt a little distant seeing as he couldn't even call them by their respective names.

Since that was the case, Ark came up with a simple solution.

"How about I give you your own names then?"

As he said this, not only was the mother shocked, but even the little cub was surprised. Even if it hadn't lived for long, it knew about the importance names held for magical beasts.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, I wouldn't suggest it if I wasn't!"

Hearing this, even the mother began to grow a little excited. Not even the King of the Forest had a name, and was she and her child really about to get their own names? Names usually represented different things when it came to magical beasts, they didn't get them at birth from their parents like humans. Some did, but those were exceptions.

Normally, a name for a magical beast could be associated with royalty, strength, wisdom, or maybe a certain achievement. A title would usually be associated with the name as well.

"I'll start with you." Ark said as he looked gently at the small cub.

"Atar!"

Ark had no idea where the name had come from, but he just suddenly felt like it was very fitting, and he thus decided on this name. There was not much real thought process behind it. The cub was giddy with emotions as it heard its new name, and it couldn't help but bounce around happily after hearing it. As Ark had decided on the cub's name, he then looked to its mother.

"Ephine!"

Ark felt proud of himself, as both of these names had just shown up in his head out of nowhere, and he just instinctively knew that these names were suited for the two. As for the meaning behind the two names, Ark wasn't entirely sure, but he hoped that he would find out one day.

Before any of them could really rejoice over the situation, both Atar and Ephine started to get enveloped by a strange white light. This white light wasn't the same as the light Ark was enveloped by whenever he levelled up, as it had a burning radiance to it.

Nonetheless, as Ark saw what was happening to them, he was struck with fear!