The wolves under the sand.

The endless dunes of the desert stretched in every direction under a merciless sun, waves of heat rising from the sand like shimmering ghosts. Golden grains shifted restlessly with each gust of dry wind, carrying the faint scent of baked earth and distant salt. Hannah adjusted Shu’s head slightly to the side so she could peer at the worn parchment map he held, her brow furrowing.

“You sure we’re heading in the right direction? All I’m seeing is just more sand,” she said, voice dry and edged with fatigue.

The map—ancient, creased, edges frayed from years of handling—promised a village lay just ahead. Yet the horizon offered nothing but more rolling dunes, unbroken gold meeting cloudless blue sky. No smoke, no silhouettes of rooftops, no sign of life at all.

Hanz closed his eyes, reaching out with his senses. He extended his awareness like invisible tendrils, searching for the warm flicker of human kantar, the subtle pulse of life. Nothing. Only the vast, empty hum of the desert.

He opened his eyes, placing a hand on his chin. “No signs of humans anywhere close.” He glanced at the map again. “The map may be pretty old. Some villages may be non existent anymore.”

Hannah thinks about it for a second then agrees saying “you have a point” she then turns her head to Shu saying “Shu what does the map say about where the next settlement will be?” Shu in response stares at the map and replies “about eighty kilometers from the village we are supposed to be approaching” Hannah's face falls as she replies with a tired look “that's gonna be a long walk.” Hanz simply nods his head in agreement as they keep on walking.

Shu stops walking in the middle of basically nowhere staring at the large expanse of the desert as he says “strange, thought we'd at least see some ruins or something.”

Hannah pauses and looks round, channeling her kantar into her eyes to enhance her vision as she looks through the sand she pauses and says in a shocked tone “uhm, guys you gotta see this, channel your kantar to your eyes for a sec” Shu and Hanz look at each other for a minute confusion evident on their faces they then shrug and do as she said and the sight they saw beneath the sand shocked them.

They saw a large underground city made purely of sand and rocks and the city was bustling with people who strangely looked normal. Hannah stopped channelling her kantar to her eyes blinking a few times to readjust to her normal sight as she says In a matter of fact tone “a clan of werewolves” Shu and Hanz almost as if in sync turned to her at the same time shock evident in their faces as they asked in chorus “werewolves are real?” Hanz gets a flash back to when he would watch werewolf movies in the orphanage during their movie nights, he always shrugged it off and thought of werewolves as a figment of the unlimited imagination of humans but they are actually real. Shu on the other hand scratched his head very confused and asked the reasonable question “why are werewolves living underground?”

Hannah opened her mouth about to give an answer but before she could, the clouds immediately turned dark and lightning tore the skies in two. The winds picked up gradually at first—whipping loose sand into stinging veils—then exploded into a full roar. A giant sandstorm surged across the dunes, swallowing the horizon in a churning wall of gold and shadow. The air grew thick with grit; visibility dropped to arm’s length in seconds. The temperature plummeted as the storm blocked the sun, leaving only the howl of wind and the crack of distant thunder.

Hannah gritted her teeth. “This has Shun’s work written all over it, dammit.”

She turned to Hanz and Shu, who had already raised their arms to shield their eyes from the blasting sand. “You guys should look for a nearby cave that looks outta place. We gotta stay with the werewolves for a while.”

Shu and Hanz nodded in agreement and channeled their kantar to their eyes, searching around for a nearby cave.

Although normally it would be easy to find, the sandstorm made things a lot harder. Even with enhanced eyesight that could pick up on X-ray waves, the swirling chaos obscured everything. Sand stung their skin like needles, wind shoved at them from every direction, forcing them to lean forward just to move. Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating the storm in stark white bursts, thunder rolling so loud it rattled their teeth.

After what felt like an eternity of stumbling through the blinding maelstrom, Hanz spotted it. He pointed, yelling at the top of his lungs so the others could hear him over the roar. “Found it, but it’s a bit far off from here!”

Shu and Hannah looked over to where Hanz was pointing and they spotted the cave, but walking to it in this storm was going to be almost impossible.

Hannah gritted her teeth in annoyance as she yelled “how the hell are we gonna get over there?”

Shu thought for about a second and his eyes lit up—he had an idea. He turned to Hanz and Hannah saying “you guys should hold on to me. I’ve never carried passengers before and at that on top of the current weather and it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”

Hannah and Hanz had no idea what he meant by that but he looked like he had an idea so they just decided to do as he said.

They grabbed both of Shu’s shoulders and nodded to him signifying they were ready. Shu in return then said with an almost excited grin “alright, here goes nothing.”

With that he took a deep breath and blew out a sort of red kantar mist which hardened just a tiny bit to become like a cloud beneath them. The cloud took off at top speed, shaking violently with the storm.

Just as they were about to reach the cave a massive bolt of lightning hit them causing them to crash land conveniently into the cave with scratches and small wounds which they easily healed with their kantar.

Shu grinned scratching the back of his head, his face rough with dirt and mud as he said “we made it.” Hanz got up next dusting the dirt off his clothes as he muttered “yh, barely.” Hannah who was already on her feet pointed a finger to her lips signifying they should be quiet before walking further into the cave. Shu and Hanz follow them in descending through a crude stair case made mostly from carved rocks and mud to fill in the gaps.

When they had gone so far down that the light of the surface could no longer reach them they enhanced their vision with their kantar and kept on walking. Upon reaching the bottom they were greeted by a pack of young men claws and sharp teeth ready with glowing yellow eyes. Before Shu and the others could move a muscle the werewolves jumped straight at them to attack but Hannah’s eyes glowed purple and a massive but weak wave of kantar hit all the werewolves causing them to fall down weakened and go unconscious.

One of the group members who was exceptionally strong, probably the group leader looked at Hannah shock and awe visible in his expression as he says weakly “impossible, the only person able to weaken us by their kantar presence alone is..” he then looked at Hannah’s face properly and realization dawned on him as he finishes his sentence “the great celestial khali.” With that he fell unconscious.

Shu looked at his mother in surprise and Hannah seeing his expression smirks as she said “a lot of stuff you don’t know about me kid.” Hanz meanwhile stood stunned, he remembered briefly in one of their conversations back when he was still training as a teen Hannah would tell him stories about some of her adventures one of them involving how she formed a contract with the werewolves. He then thought to himself “that’s the first time I’m seeing it in action though, I wonder what form of contract she made with them.”

With the guards unconscious the gang basically just casually strolled into the city, Hannah flaring her kantar so everyone would know who she was. As they walked down the streets everyone whispered and pointed at them.

Shu noticing this casually said to Hannah “looks like you’re rather popular among them”, Hannah in response just smirked saying “it’s a long story.” They then keep on walking till they reach a massive construct that is what would most likely be a castle and the guards not hesitating for a second let Hannah and the others in.

They appear in front of the throne room where a light skinned man with long dread locks and red glowing irises dressed in rich attire got up from the throne with a warm smile saying “if it isn’t the great khali, I thought you were wiped out when the bastard Shun took the throne and rewrite everything.” Hannah walked towards the man returning the smile back as she replied “it’s complicated but long story short I’m alive but I’ve lost a great deal of my powers.”

The king nodded understanding what little was left to be understood, he then looked at the two people beside her, the blonde spikey haired man that looks like he’s in his early twenties (being Hanz) and a dark haired boy with red irises that looked much like his (being Shu) and asked Hannah “acquaintances of yours?”

Hannah in response smirked placing her hand on Hanz’s shoulder saying “this is my student” she placed her hand on Shu’s head roughing it up a bit as she says with a proud smile “and this little rascal is my son”.

Upon hearing the word son the kings mouth went wide open asking “y..y..you have a son? Who the hell is the father.” Hannah seeing his surprised expression laughed saying “no father” she then places her hand on her chin saying “well if you want to be technical I guess you can say his father is the Enkairadion.” The king although confused just gave a sigh saying “I won’t even bother to ask any more questions, the works of the Enkairadion can barely be understood.” He then gestures for his servants who bring chairs for the group as he seats on his throne and asks “anyways, what brings you here?”

Hannah explains the situation to him and the wolf king nods saying “either way, you’re free to stay with my pack for as long as you need to, is the least we can do for you, after all I and my pack owe you so much.” He then calls for his servants again as he says to Hannah “my servants shall guide you to your chambers, where you shall sleep for the night.”

Hannah and the others were escorted into a massive room with three beds. Shu jumps straight into one of the beds, the bed bouncing a bit as he giggled saying “this is really comfy”, Hanz and Hannah meanwhile sat on their beds.

After relaxing for a while Shu got up and asked “hey mum, care to explain how you know werewolves?” Hanz hearing this stares at Hannah saying “yeah, I’m also curious to know.” Hannah seeing both of their expectant faces chuckles a bit as she sits on the bed saying “okay, now where do I begin.” She tilts her head to the side as she thinks then continues “well first off I guess I’ll start with their origins, werewolves are descendants from the wolf king.” Hanz hearing this states in shock saying “what do you mean?” Although he doesn’t say it out loud his confused cause by her logic he himself is supposed to be a werewolf too seeing as the wolf king is his father.

Hannah reading his mind sighs saying “well it’s not the way you think, the wolf king has a similar ability to Dracula in a sense of whoever he bites he passes a piece of his kantar on to and that person becomes a werewolf, the very first werewolves, the ones with red irises like the king you saw back there are among the very first werewolves ever created. But that doesn’t mean every werewolf with red eyes is among the very first set of werewolves, werewolves with red eyes are called alpha’s they are stronger, faster and generally better werewolves than any other species of them and they bear the burden of leading the pack. The second set of werewolves which are the ones like the guards we saw outside are called beta’s, they have yellow eyes and the classic werewolf traits,these are weaker versions of the alpha’s created by either when an alpha has a child with someone or when the alpha itself bites a regular human and turns them into a werewolf. Their eyes are yellow cause the wolf king’s kantar flowing through them is diluted with the kantar of their alpha.” She then pauses trying to get herself comfortable on the bed as she continues “the third set of alpha’s we have are the omega’s they are a tricky sub class cause depending on the situation they can be stronger or weaker than a beta. An omega is commonly known by their blue eyes which signifies that their kantar is much more malevolent than that of other werewolves hence the color blue because it’s close to the color purple of the original Creator of the werewolves being the wolf king.

A werewolf becomes an omega after they kill someone and devour them whole to absorb their kantar essence. Omega’s are usually alone without a pack because the act of not just killing some but eating them whole is looked upon as an abomination by any pack of werewolves.”

With that Hannah concluded her explanation of the werewolves she then looked up at the ceiling as she said, “as for how I ended up meeting the wolves and how they ended up making a contract with me, now that’s a long story, get comfortable boys cause this is gonna be really long.”