White Roses Dyed Blood Red

Dewy grass.

Gray skies.

Slight breeze.

The grass tickled her skin.

Time for a nightly run through the forest.

Yaorui sat up, on the soft dewy grass, the grey skies comforting her as the breeze pushed her towards the forest.

"On your marks," Her knees bent down as she readied to run.

"Ready," She calmed her breathing, bringing it to a stable pace.

"Set," Her b.u.t.t went up in the air.

"Go!" She shouted to herself.

Three pounding hearts joined her as she ran down the familiar path to the tree that was taller than the clouds. Her pounding footsteps were kept light against the moist forest floor. They avoided branches and puddles as if her feet had their own eyes. She went left, right, around, and straight, weaving through the trees as she had done so many times before.

Her necklace glowed against her c.h.e.s.t, its pulse matching perfectly with hers.

The four of them fought to lead, their positions changing at every second as they raced for the tree.

Wood ch.i.p.s flew behind them, and the leaves rustled, cheering them on as they raced past. Jumping over obstacles, sliding under and even flipping over some.

The closer she got to the tree, the more her thoughts strayed and the faster her feet carried her.

She ran by a puddle of water, Sun Long was talented in anything to do with water. Sun Long had a match with a Russian man, the man nearly died from dehydration despite being well hydrated.

"That was great! I haven't felt that good in a long time!" Ryder beamed, his golden fur still as shiny as ever.

"A steak for your thought?" Josie walked up to her.

"Something super weird happened today,"

"And what was this weird happening?"

"One of my teammates, Sun Long, he's a first-year, while he was fighting with another. His opponent suddenly collapsed from dehydration, which was weird because his opponent was well hydrated before the match."

Josie gave a look to her mate and Cole.

"What was that look? I've seen that look before when my mom forced my dad to tell me that boys didn't have cooties,"

"We thought that you were going to be the only one with gifts for a long while,"

"Gifts as in powers?"

"Yes, as in powers! Now let my mate finish her explanation,"

Josie rolled her eyes, "Your power may not be physical because it will vary depending on the host's health. The healthier you are, the more you gain,"

"I have been skipping meals recently to study, maybe that is delaying my progress?"

"You have already activated two," Ryder spat at her as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You activated them the moment you came here,"

"Then, what are my powers?"

"When you touch something, anything, does something happen? Like a rush of information?"

"Yes, but because I don't touch things that I'm not allowed too or things I don't own, I thought it was just past knowledge surfacing,"

"Well, it's not,"

"Then how come I don't know much about the staff?"

"Psychic abilities don't work in this realm, only Physical ones such as water bending. Telekinesis, Levitation, and a Mediumship are exceptions,"

"Mediumship?"

"The ability to communicate with spirits, another one of your awoken powers. Both of yours are developing so don't expect much,"

"That explains why I'm still studying. What about my friends? They're just as healthy as I am,"

"The powers need to be triggered by some sort of stimulation," Ryder answered.

"Now get on your feet, let's get started," Josie brought her staff over and placed it by her feet.

"Here we go again," Yaroui sighed and sprung into action.

Back and forth, her staff swung, fighting off imaginary enemies. The muscles in her body, flexing and relaxing. Blood pumping through her veins, her heart racing with every movement.

She raised her index fingers, tugged, and went skyrocketing into the sky, landing square on the tip of a tree branch. Her feet moved faster than she could think as they propelled her to jump off and swing onto another branch, eventually bringing her to the uppermost branch of the tree.

From there, she soaked in the glory of standing above the clouds as the winds roared around her.

With one last look of determination and a promise of return, she jumped down, using surrounding branches to control her speed of fall.

A final fancy flip in the air, she landed on her two feet. They dug into the Earth as they made contact with the damp soil.

She panted heavily, her c.h.e.s.t heaving. Her feet stayed buried in the ground, her staff held a ready just behind her.

Her eyes swept the forest for signs of trouble, her breathing relaxed and evened out.

*crunch*

Her head swiped left, and she raced off towards the direction of the sound. In moments, one tip of her staff was pointed at the neck of another.

Three wolves came up behind her, surrounding the intruder. She had already known the person on the receiving end of her staff wasn't one of the wolf spirits, they weren't that stupid.

The person in front of her fell to his knees, keeping his head up and neck stretched, not wanting to cut himself on the point of her staff. He wore sleepwear pants and no shirt.

His necklace hung around his neck for everyone to see. The gem pulsed just as fast as hers did. He wasn't this scared during the match.

"Sun Long," She said his name as if she expected him.

"L-Li Jie,"

She hummed, "Don't worry about your leg, it's still injured in the real world,"

"O-oh,"

"You're in another realm, that's Cole, Josie, and Ryder, Josie's mate," She pointed at the red, silver, and golden wolves surrounding him. "They won't hurt you unless your weak if you get hurt, expect to wake up with them,"

Ryder snarled at Sun Long, effectively scaring the living daylights out of the boy.

"Looks like we were right, one of your own had activated their gifts," Josie said.

Sun Long's eyes widened, his mouth opening and closing, he didn't scream in fear of getting his neck sliced. His reaction was expected, it wasn't common to see talking wolves anyway.

She lowered her staff and allowed the boy to relax.

"Welcome, you're officially the second human and first male human to step on this land," She smiled at him, fear still was apparent in his eyes.

"Walk around until you trip on something kid, don't leave the area, yea?" Josie ordered.

Sun Long nodded and got up, dusting his pants, he started circling the grand tree. His fear was still apparent by the way he kept looking back and the sweat raining down his forehead.

"Men these days, your generation is dreadful," Ryder snorted and stalked off.

"Let's get back to work, Iris," She nodded and followed Josie and Cole.

________________________

Sun Long's POV

He could feel the golden wolf following behind him, his fur shone even though there was no sun. He did his best to calm himself, or at least look calm by slowing his steps and controlling his breathing, but that did nothing for his racing heart.

He watched his senior sister training with the other two wolves. Her moves were quick and ruthless, she was not the type of person to play with her prey before killing them off. Each movement was deadly and straight to the point.

She was quick and light on her feet, it was as if she was floating.

What else was he supposed to expect from their team's star? She knew nearly everything about everything. Although she preferred to lay low, she was one of the most famous people on campus.

He looked down at himself. He was fit, you could see his abdominal muscles, though they weren't clear. He had lots of lower body strength from swimming. He was a good runner and was building his upper body strength since he began training with the team six months ago.

Seeing her practice now, he saw how she managed to progress so quickly when they trained as a team.

With the swipe of a hand, he slid his sticky hair out of his eyes and continued walking around.

The silver wolf's words came to his mind, ""Looks like we were right, one of your own had activated their gifts,"

Was that somehow related to what happened at the arena today? Assuming that gifts meant powers.

He remembered the searing pain in his t.h.i.g.h as his opponent applied pressure to it while holding him in a chokehold. He recalled his eyes locking onto a bead of sweat making its way down the other's forehead, then all the spots where his opponent was touching him kinda tingled. For a short moment, he felt like he could see inside his body, he could see the blood running in his veins and feel the saliva in his mouth.

Gross, yes, but it was cool.

Then BAM!

He collapsed and rolled off of him.

Ah~fvck, it felt like he had splinters in his face.

Unexpectedly, while lost in his train of thought, he tripped over something and face planted himself into the Earth.

He rolled over and sat up with his legs out in front of him.

"Walk around until you trip on something kid, don't leave the area, yea?"

Sun Long got on all fours and started patting the area where he tripped.

His fingers glided over something hard, and he immediately began digging. The golden wolf came up beside him, just as curious as he was.

Finally! He unearthed whatever it was that he tripped over. In his hand, he held a short baton-like handle. It looked like the grip of a sword, but without the blade part.

Speaking of swords, the handle of a bladeless sword grew veins, and a blue liquid flowed through them.

Surprising him, and not the wolf watching with uninterested eyes.

Then BAM! Again!

He was holding a glowing blue sword made of solidified water...he thinks.

He swung the sword at a rock and cut it clean in half.

W-what is this again?