“You’re an incarnate?” I ask, flabbergasted. Finding one, so soon?

He nods, and walks over to the large ax on the wall, pulling it down. He throws it down to me, and then points to his neck.

“That once tried to carve through my damned neck.” He says, then opens his arms wide. “All this armor you see, I’ve taken from other Incarnates. They aren't so rare a breed as you might imagine when first coming to Panargia. That being this continent, which is itself the entire world because unlike earth with pangea, it never split apart. You can even see some of earth’s features on the map if you look hard enough.”

“If you’re an incarnate, then why do you live in a cave?”

“That’s because of the Kingdom of Rallagh. The king’s a nasty bastard, a real piece of work. Incarnates were supposed to spawn only into ‘civilized bodies’. Some fucker corrupted it, and now we get placed into other things as well. Some are lucky, born beast-folk. The rest - like us. Everyone’s found eventually, on behalf of the curses.”

“That doesn’t really explain much.” I ask, and I sit down on a nearby pile of cloth. “Why the hell are we pulled here?”

He shrugs his shoulders, a human gesture that looks wildly out of place on a werewolf.

“I couldn’t tell ya mate. I still don’t know the answer. When I got here, I spawned way further north, and I was nearly killed a few times since, ya know.” He says, looking down, then back to me. “Eventually, this magic women, this fox women figured out I was an incarnate, then brought to the rest of ‘em.”

“Rest of them? There was more?”

“Honestly, mate, shit-tonnes. Back then, the King harbored them. I thought it was mighty kind until he asked us to kill. We became soldiers, and we didn’t bat an eye. There’s a certain thrill, a certain feeling to being what we are. It makes us want to fight, to kill, to gain power, even if we never wanted to do that before.”

“Back then?”

“Yeah. That didn’t last long. Eventually, some cunt got the king’s ear, and he purged the incarnates. Couldn’t tell ya how many died, but that creepy bastard used them against each other. Set up a tournament for glory, or sent them to a dungeon on their own. Anything, mate, anything.”

“So how did you get out?”

“I ran. Into the wilds, into the north. Avelihn followed me, turns out they austed her too. Not sure why, but she told me the creepy guy had convinced the king they were cursed demons that would take his power. Didn’t help with the curses and all.”

“Is that where we are, the north?”

“Ah, course mate. You don’t even know where the hell you are. No, this is a forest, south east of Rallagh, the capital.”

Creepy guy sure sounds a lot like the fox-skeleton man that visited me earlier, but I don’t say anything about it. Better to keep my mouth shut and just get as much information from him as possible.

“So what am I? Am I not the same as you?”

“No. I don’t know the half of it, but… have you ever heard of dire creatures, in fantasy books and the like?”

I shake my head.

“They’re like, special versions of the creature. Wolfhearts are better versions of us werewolves. I’m not sure how it works.”

“You said the pack wouldn’t follow me. Why?”

“These lot, I brought back from the brink. When the king started purging the incarnate, he first starting sending them out to clear as many monsters as he could. Didn’t matter the type, he wanted them gone. Showered gold on the Incarnates, made them think they were valued. Made them stronger, too. Gave them the rush of battle. When they were done, the werewolves were finished. I survived, and I had a kid with a female, which, let me tell you, is not that fun of an experience. We found others, and over the last twenty or so years, I’ve been moving them from hideout to hideout.”

“How do you move the forges around?”

“We don’t. Those are new.”

“Then why?”

“Ah, that will be better explained if you follow me.”

We walk down the steps together, and I see quite a few werewolves watching me. I don’t know if they’re afraid, or weary, or worried I’m going to kill him. He takes me through a few dimly lit caverns until we reach a large hold with a ladder protruding down into darkness.

“This is a dungeon. A small one, sure, but one that’s managed to keep off the radar of the king and his goons. We’re crafting. Crafting to take it and retrieve the treasure inside.”

“Dungeon? Like a place to hold prisoners?”

“No, not exactly. I don’t know why they exist - Avelihn never told me if she knew, but the system creates these things, and fills them with monsters. You go in, you get something. This is fairly weak, and I don’t expect it to hold much, but this world is more technologically advanced than you might thing. When I got here, I was expecting swords and shit.”

He laughs. “No, unfortunately, that was a pipe dream. They’ve got fully automatic rifles.”