The plume of Yoki, by the end of it all, had risen to be so great that the castle had almost come down atop her head. If the Silver Eyed Slayers hadn't currently been entrenched in fighting among themselves the Empress of the West-though, really, a better title for her now was simply Empress as there was no one left to stop her from expanding beyond the West-was certain they'd be drawn in for miles like moths to a flame. Though whether that would be to worship the God which had ben birthed in the bowls of her ruined castle or slay him before he could wake was still up in the air.

After 12 hours of bathing in Yoki that pure I'm almost sad it's over. The font of primal power may have been cut off now that the man's transition was complete, but she still had its source. And that fact alone was enough to keep Riful happy. At least for the time being. He survived. Good. She could feel his heart beat, strong and steady at rest and much larger than a Human's. Seems he's in his true form, though. And that he's on the larger end of what's possible for our kind, like that man in the North was. I'd better go make him resume his human form before he wakes up because if he makes a sudden move while he's that large I really will have to find another set of ruins.

It was bad enough that she was already on Witch's Maw Two. If this kept up, she'd actually have to change branding and it had simply been too long for that. She'd have to admit she was attached to the name.

Down four flights of stairs saw her to the bottom floor. Riful turned the corner and walked three doors down to the entry hall. Immediately grateful she'd just happened to leave him in the castle's largest room.

His paw was the size of an average hut and Riful had to physically clamber atop it in order to get through the door. Though it sported thick pads which marked it as belonging to something most at home on all fours it looked closer to a human hand than anything else and ended in sword-like claws. Wicked and curved. Riful admired them a moment before she turned to see the rest of him.

It seemed her theory had been correct. Her new friend had the same horn, plated skin and coloring as that woman and his body was covered in the teeth-lined maws of the rods, some containing hungering voids and others darting yellow eyes which spun wildly in their sockets and, in his unconsciousness, saw nothing. His head was wolf-like with two crushing mouths, three eyes beneath its horn, but his torso was closer to a human's than a hound's. His chest broad but not barreled. Powerful none the less. A triple crest of spines like daggers ran along his back, ending in a mess of long trailing tails. How many of them there were Riful couldn't tell, but certainly more than one.

The rumble of his sleeping breaths shook the room like thunder. Rubble knocked loose from the ceiling, clattered to the floor. She reached out with her aura and lightly brushed against his. Rousing it. Inspecting, while taking great care not to present herself as a threat to be lashed out at. The man's aura was as black and as cold as a winter night and eddied with currents that even his transformed flesh could barely contain. It responded. Twining around her. Curious. Making no effort to resist. Compliant to her wishes as she coaxed it back into his other form. Shifting, before her eyes, once more into a man.

"Seems you trust me already, deep down. A part of you must recognize me as the one that helped you. That's good." Gently, Riful rolled him over so he wasn't lying face down on the floor. His ragged bangs fell across his face, features smoothed over now that the pain of the change was over and the foreign flesh had been absorbed into his. Lightly, not to risk disturbing the sleeping behemoth, she ran her fingers through his hair. "You're perfect! My Thousand Eyed Emperor!"

He twitched beneath her touch. Shifted on the flagstones. Stirring.

He's going to wake up any minute now. And I'll need to start work on tying him to me once he does. Clothes will be a good start. And telling him about how that woman tossed him aside. Yes, that will be more than enough.

Nothing of Dauf's would fully fit him. But for the time being it would have to do.

So hungry.

Where was he? What had happened? His stomach felt like it had been hollowed out with a rusted-out razor. So empty for so long it had started to fill up with blood.

I've never thought about eating insides before now but they'd really hit the spot. So soft. Warm and bloody.

He'd only seen Isley and Priscilla eat once but it had been more than enough to sicken him and scare him witless for a good while. Now, the memory made him salivate. The blood in the snow. The stench he'd thought, then, was fowl but now smelled better than even the most sumptuous feast.

Wouldn't even need to cook them. No spices either. Just raw. Raw and screaming. Still trying to crawl away.

Where were these thoughts coming from? He'd never thought this way before. Until now, they'd have seemed wrong in the extreme. Concerning. But he was too focused on the hollow feeling in his gut to care.

Awareness was slow to return to him. Stretched out on his back on a stone floor. Unclothed. But he wasn't cold. Wasn't bothered the way he remembered that he should have been for sitting there as naked as the day he was born. He was the Alpha. Let him be seen.

That's…an odd thing to think.

He'd never thought like that before. The last time he'd been awake, however long ago that had been (he really couldn't remember), he'd likely have set out in search of some way to cover himself. But the notion of doing such a thing now seemed like little more than a pointless waste of time he could be spending doing something else. And addressing himself as such, as what he was, felt right.

King.

What's wrong with me?

Nothing. Nothing was wrong. All of this was far too right. And why wouldn't it be?

It's wrong because…

There were reasons. He knew there were. Something about clothing and its place in civilized society. His brow drew together.

Because…

Raki reached for the things which had once made so much sense to him only to have the words shatter into senseless letters which slipped through his fingers like sand.

I don't remember.

Or, at least, he didn't remember what element of it had made all of the disconnected notions of 'this is good' and 'this is bad' make sense.

Don't eat people.

Wear clothing.

Contain your pride.

Why should he? It didn't connect, for some reason, with his psyche and Raki couldn't for the life of him figure out why.

He could smell stone and earth and water. Could hear the wind and the distant dripping and the far-off twitter of birds beyond the stone walls of the room around him. Could sense something with a deep purple aura from just off to his right. His conscious mind didn't recognize it, but for some reason it felt familiar and didn't raise his hackles. Not safety, exactly, but not a threat. Raki turned his head.

Blinked once.

Twice.

He knew that the Awakened Being was considerably more than she appeared, his mind supplied images of red eyes and flared ribbons though where it had gotten those he didn't know, but her outward appearance still pulled him up short. A girl, fifteen maybe, with long dark hair spilling down her back and large brown eyes. She'd wrapped herself in a dainty dove grey dress which fell to her knees. A set of folded fabric, clothes he assumed, were in her arms.

"Hi!" She chirped. "Happy to see that you're finally awake! My name's Riful. What's yours?"

That name sounded familiar. He could swear that he'd heard Isley mention it before but the context evaded him. "Raki."

"Raki." She repeated, smiling and skipping over to him. "Glad to finally have a name to attach to my new friend."

"Friend?" he accepted the clothing she handed him but made no move to put them on.

"Of course. We Awakened Beings have to stick together. Especially in times like these." Riful dropped onto the ground beside him. "And we're the same, you and I. We're both alone. Me because my mate was slaughtered. You because you were cast aside by that woman you were with."

Priscilla. The name resurfaced from the murky depths of his thoughts. He'd thought of her like a friend. Like a sister. And yet she'd abandoned him. She'd used him. Like a tool.

A snarl rose up within his chest. A powerful, terrifying sound from deep inside him. One of anger. One of hurt. A light touch against his arm sent him whirling but Riful didn't flinch in the face of snapping sharpened teeth. Her expression one of sympathetic pity. It poked at his pride uncomfortably even as it settled the destructive impulse.

Her fingers traveled down his arm. To his wrist. To his hand. Her grip a gentle reassurance. "I won't ever do to you what she did. The only thing I want form you is your company." Moisture beaded at the corner of her eyes. She looked away. Acting on some impulse left over from his human life, he brushed away the forming tears.

Never could put forward anything like a tough front when faced with women crying.

Maybe it was pathetic.

"I don't exactly have anywhere to go." Clare. His mind supplied that name next. They'd promised…something. To meet again? That sounded right. But why? Had she kissed him? Something about another warrior. About finding him later. It had been seven years now. She'd abandoned him to.

Just like his village had.

Another snarl threatened to tear free but Riful throwing her arms around his shoulders banished it. In its place, a grunt of surprise. "Thank you, Raki!" She pressed her face into his neck. Clinging to him. "I know we don't know each other yet, but it really means the world!" Her warmth and the softness of her skin igniting another hunger he couldn't remember ever having felt before. Waves of heat coiling in his belly. Urging him into a hunt of a different sort.

Mentally, he slapped himself and heard something growl behind his better impulse. Get ahold of yourself! She was helping him and his benefactor deserved better treatment than that. Especially when he still had near to no idea what was going on or how he'd passed out Human and woken up as an Awakened Being. If only to ensure she'd keep helping him. Isley would tell me to get my head on straight before I do something stupid. I should follow that advice. His fingers toyed idly with the strap of her dress. He forced his hand further down her arm before they could go further. "Why?"

Riful pulled back to peer up at him. "Why?"

"Why help me? We don't know each other. Awakened aren't known for being selfless and you have no connection to me. So why?"

"Because I'm tired of seeing young Awakened Beings, still unused to their new bodies and new lives and not quite possessed of a full grasp on how to defend themselves from the dangers of this world, butchered for doing what is natural."

"Eating humans is wrong." The words rang hollow, without real reason to connect them.

"The fact that the phrase 'eating humans' just made you drool tells me you don't really believe that." Her tone was indulgent. "You still have an echo left of who you were, but that won't last forever. And once it's faded you won't be so confused anymore. In the meantime, don't you worry about a thing." Gently, Riful patted him on the cheek and smiled. Raki mulled over the impulse to bite. "I'll take care of all of it."