The Divine Wolf... or?

"It\'s been quite a while since the last time I saw you buddy, what have you been up to?"

"Ah, when you were kidnapped by the kingdom, Alenia had to leave for Liverence, so I\'ve just roamed around in the meanwhile, waiting for either of you to come back."

Even though he had been through a lot, Ark felt a little bad for Thufrat, he had just been completely alone for all this time, and considering the fact that he was a dwarf, he probably had no one he could talk to. "Well now that we\'re reunited with each other again, I won\'t let you be alone any longer."

Even though it was a pretty normal promise, Thufrat was still happy nonetheless. He didn\'t know how well he would get along with Ephine and Atar, but since they were Ark\'s companions, he knew that they were probably good people. There was no way for him to know for sure, but he trusted Ark and his judgement.

"Now that you\'ve introduced yourself to my family, do you want something to eat, or have you already eaten?"

"Hmm, wait what!?"

"What did you say just then?"

"Hmm? I said that they were my family?"

"Wow, I guess you\'ve been busy while I was away huh?"

"What\'s that supposed to mean? Just answer the question old man!"

After laughing and joking with each other for a while, they all sat down to eat. Even though everyone except for Thufrat had already eaten, there was always room for more food, their digestive systems were excellent after all. A nice fire was quickly conjured in front of them, with nothing to keep it from going out of control except for Ark\'s mana manipulation.

A nice aroma wafted through the surroundings, and the jovial mood of Thufrat and Ark quickly infected Ephine and Atar. Soon, all three of them were talking about all sorts of things, from stories about what they had done during their many adventures, and even some stories about Thufrat\'s childhood.

Atar and Ephine didn\'t have much to add, but they chipped in here and there, and they listened attentively to all their stories, especially the ones that concerned Ark. The time they had in their human bodies was not infinite, and after an hour and a half, both Ephine and Atar needed to turn back into their original forms.

Thufrat was naturally shocked to see them suddenly turn into wolves in front of his eyes, but to him, this only meant that Ark had found somewhere he belonged, and these wolves seemed to know his secret.

Even though both Atar and Ephine needed to turn into wolves, Ark still had time in his human form left, as he hadn\'t used it earlier today. Since he still wanted to talk with Thufrat, he just stayed in his human form for now. Atar and Ephine didn\'t leave, as they could still listen to their various stories, and it was a good chance to get to know Ark a little more.

They didn\'t really know too much about him, as he usually didn\'t really speak about what he had been through, probably because he didn\'t want to think about it, and after hearing the stories, they could both understand why he didn\'t want to think about it.

Even though most of the stories were really exciting for Atar, Ephine looked at them from Ark\'s point of view, and most of them seemed to be pretty horrible. He had endured a lot in his travels.

When the topic of his kidnapping eventually came up, Ark\'s mood changed a little. Thufrat wasn\'t really sure about what had happened, but after Ark\'s brief explanation, his expression changed drastically. He would have never thought that Ark had actually been tortured during the time he was kidnapped, as if being kidnapped wasn\'t enough already.

After his explanation, the look in Ark\'s eyes dimmed considerably. Thufrat knew that he had stepped on a landmine, and that he had screwed up considerably.

Seeing Ark like this, Atar was beginning to get sad too. With a few steps, he arrived next to Ark, and cuddled a little with him. Ark smiled gently and patted him on the head. Seeing Atar like this, he stopped sulking. This wasn\'t the time to feel depressed, he was surrounded by such wonderful people, and all that torture was in the past now.

Like this, the depressed atmosphere gradually returned to normal, and the conversation that had died down flared to life again.

Ephine just watched from the side, and after seeing how close Atar and Ark were, she smiled to herself. This was her family, and she felt truly happy when she saw them both smiling together. Time passes quickly when you have fun, and soon, Ark\'s time was beginning to run out. Since it could come in handy, Ark transformed when he still had ten minutes left, since it could come in handy in the future.

Since there was still plenty of time left on the day, they all just sat down in the ground in front of the cave, and bathed in the sunlight for a while. The weather was really pleasant, and Ark just wanted this moment to last forever. Being surrounded by people he truly cared about, and that truly cared about him, and just relaxing in the sunlight was an almost divine feeling for Ark.

Feeling this happy was not something he usually did, but he was truly happy today.

Maybe god would just leave him alone for a while? He had been going through so many things, and he just wanted to spend some time with his family and Thufrat, and he just wanted to relax a little, was that too much to ask for? Maybe it was, because before they could relax for too long, the sound of footsteps were approaching them from quite close by.

Ark almost wanted to roll his eyes when he heard them, but since he wasn\'t in his human form, he probably didn\'t really need to deal with them, he would just leave it to Thufrat. Well, that was if he didn\'t need to help him out of course. Thufrat sat up slowly when he could hear the footsteps reaching closer and closer to their location.

He was quite annoyed, as this was the day he had finally reunited with his best friend, he didn\'t want some pesky humans to ruin it for him.

As the sound of a couple of branches getting snapped resounded through their surroundings, three humans slowly walked into view. Thufrat had a displeased expression across his face as he watched the three humans approach them, he had no idea who these three were, but he didn\'t like them. If others could look down on him before knowing him, then he could do the same too.

As Ark saw the three humans, he was a little flustered, what a coincidence!