‘Well this is no good.’

  Looking at the childlike figure in front of him, Thita couldn't help but be indecisive on what to do. It was undeniable that the boy in front of him wanted to kill him and there didn't seem to be a quick way to reason with him.

  Still, the idea of fighting the boy didn't seem that ideal and ethical considering that his opponent looked so young.

  ‘He is just one opponent and he doesn't seem to possess nor the strength nor the decisiveness to be able to cause any serious harm. There is no reason to fight him if I can just bypass him.’

  With blood still dripping from his injury, Thita calmly came to a decision. He wouldn't fight. There was no reason to fight at least.

  Relaxing his grip on his pocket knife while continuing to stare directly in the boy's eyes, Thita spoke.

  “I understand your reasoning but I am sorry. I won't let you kill me.”

  Finishing his sentence, Thita began walking towards the boy, which took a reluctant step back, without taking his eyes off the target. The boy's sword was raised and his eyes remained determined despite his instinctive reluctance.

  “Stay back! I won't… we won't allow you to leave! I won't let you kill us!”

  Hearing his determined words, Thita spoke to him calmly.

  “I won't kill you or your kind, kid. I will just go back the way I came from and so will you. So please understand, I am not your enemy.”

  After the last word left his mouth, Thita pushed forward with speed which caused the boy to place his sword in a defensive position, ready to take on the incoming hit.

  The hit never came since Thita wasn't headed towards him, but instead passed right next to him, using the element of surprise to trick him into defending and not attacking.

  Passing the boy which realized Thita's intentions a bit too late, Thita kept to running away from the boy and towards the exit.

  As Thita began getting further away from the boy, he suddenly heard a voice coming from behind him.

  “Reynaaa!”

  The voice of the boy was loud and full of concern which took Thita by surprise since it didn't take long for him to realize the meaning behind it.

  Still, he didn't stop running with his guard up as always, with this time though, being certain that something unexpected will happen.

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  Seeing the light from the entrance of the cave in front of him, Thita knew he was close to the exit but as he ran, he suddenly noticed a fleeing figure in front of him running just like him, towards the exit.

  The figure, as if hearing his steps, turned around without stopping revealing the face of a girl who looked no older than 10. Both her eyes and hair were the same color as the boy with her clothes also being as dirty and simple as the boy. She also appeared to have pointy wolf-like ears similar to those that the boy had.

  Despite all that though, her expression was nothing like the boy's, since hers was filled with only fear. She seemed terrified with her expression turning even more terrified as she noticed how close Thita was.

  ‘Turns out I was right, it wasn't just one. Still, she doesn't seem that much of a threat just like the boy. Maybe I can just walk past her just like the boy. Yes, that seems reasonable.’

  Ignoring the girl, Thita kept running trying to get past her and leave. But, for some reason he couldn't.

  ‘What? How can she keep up this pace? My running right now is faster than the average male my age and yet I didn't even manage to close in on her. This is impressive. Way too impressive.’

  The girl's speed was noticeably fast, taking Thita by surprise. Despite that though, he decided to continue his plan of escaping the cave without fighting even if it ended up with him leaving after the girl who appeared to be named Reyna.

  ‘Yes, that seems like a plan. She doesn't seem willing to fight either way so letting her leave first hopefully won't change much.’

  Having his face hit by the incoming sunlight from the sun which was about to set at any moment, Thita felt relieved since in a sense he had escaped the cave even if that didn't guarantee his safety.

  Stepping on the grass and stopping his movements, Thita quickly checked his surroundings trying to see if there was any enemy around him. Surprisingly though, there was none to be seen. Even the girl who was running in front of him was nowhere to be seen after he lost sight of her when she left the cave first.

  ‘Come to think of it, I couldn't hear neither the boy nor the girl back in the cave and even when I was looking at them, I couldn't hear any sounds as they ran just like the wolves I fought the other day. This might be troublesome considering that I have no means to detect any of their race if I don't directly see them. So I can't single out the chance that there might be even more hiding just out of my sight or behind the surrounding trees.’

  Taking a look behind him inside the cave and noticing the boy who was running towards him with hurry and a desperate expression, Thita made up his mind and began running once again. This time though, he was running towards the town.

  ‘There's no good staying here either way. If more of them attack me, then so be it.’

  Picking up the pace, Thita couldn't help but look behind him one last time out of curiosity without letting his guard down as always.

  The boy was now out, looking around him as if trying to find him or someone else. He wasn't alone though, since moments later, wolves made their way towards the cave. The wolves didn't attack the boy though, neither did they seem bothered by his presence and instead headed towards the cave.

  Not all of them though, entered the cave and some, those who looked the strongest, stayed outside, close to the boy and following his lead, they also began looking around.

  ‘Huh, would you look at that? Turns out the boy's race is not only similar to wolves, but also coexists with them. Well, nothing surprises me at this point. At least, I now know that I made the right choice. Running away turned out to be correct at the very least.’

  Turning his head and facing forward once again, Thita made his way towards the town. Unsuccessful in terms of completing his quest, but with newly found knowledge.