I started to blindly feel around in the dark, trying to find Cam. I too had questions, but something was seriously wrong. I could hear Tranquility doing the same, her hooves sometimes bumping into mine. Cam’s cries continued to get louder, bordering on full-on wails.

I found her first, my hooves brushing over her tail. I quickly swept her up into a tight hug, gently rocking her. Tranquility found me and started to rub Cam’s back. She buried her face in my chest and started to bawl. “Oh, sweetie…” Tranquility murmured softly, continuing to gently massage her back.

It took Cam a full twenty minutes to calm down, her tears matting my fur during that time, and even then, she was still sniffling, shaking, and tears sometimes slid down her face even after she stopped crying. Whatever that thing was, it scared her really, really badly. I felt a little angry at that thing, but I was mostly really, really worried for her.

“Are you feeling better?” Tranquility asked as Cam pulled her face off of my chest.

“N-no,” Cam whispered, her voice hitching. She leaned back aga inst me, not caring about the mats in my fur. I reached up and started to pet her, stroking the top of her head, trying to help.

“Can you tell us what’s wrong?” Tranquility asked softly.

“I’ll try…” Cam whispered. I nodded and started to rock her again.

“I n-need to explain something about the Wandering Wolves,” she began softly. “Our name implies a-a little more than what m-most would assume…” She took a deep breath. “We wander… reality… w-well, realities…”

“I’m not sure that I understand,” Tranquility murmured.

“You s-saw…” Cam said. “The other Wolf stepped through a rift to a-another dimension.” I gasped softly. I wasn’t sure what to think about that at first. I sorta froze up, which was the exact wrong thing to do. Cam noticed and started to cry again. We quickly worked to calm her back down, which took five more minutes.

“She’s strung really, really tight emotionally,” Tranquility murmured to me during that time. “She’s so scared…” I nodded and went back to nuzzling her.

After she calmed down again, I continued to rock her. “That was another Wandering Wolf?” I asked softly.

“I-It was,” she answered, shaking softly.

“It didn’t look anything like you,” I observed, causing another shudder to run through her.

“And that’s p-part of the p-problem!” Cam wailed, tears running down her face again. I quickly began to stroke her head again. “I-I’ll get into that later…”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Tranquility asked softly.

“I… I didn’t w-want…” she trailed off.

“It’s fine…” I said softly. “You can continue where you left off.”

“R-right,” Cam stammered, closing her eyes. “We w-wander dimensions… we’re supposed to be p-protectors of dimensions… k-keeping the realities separate, resolving c-conflicts that arise…”

“What do you mean by ‘supposed to be?’” I asked.

“I’ll e-explain soon…” she replied.

“You’re sort of the… guards of reality,” Tranquility said.

“Y-yes,” confirmed Cam. “That’s what we’re supposed to do. But… it’s n-not that simple. We have a… confusing society. There are ranks…”

“Oh…”

“Not all of us are Wanderers- t-thats what the other Wolf was- some of u-us are Civilians,” Cam explained shakily. “That’s the lowest r-rank. Then come the Laborers... they do menial tasks, like janitorial work and civil service… then the Protectors, the ones who g-guard the cities the Civilians live in. Then the W-wanderers, who wander around dimensions, mapping out unknown ones and k-keeping tabs on the known ones.. They generally find the p-problems f-first…” she trailed off.

“Cam?”

“The p-problems...” she whispered, pointing at herself.

“Cam!” Tranquility shouted. “That’s not true!”

“It is!” Cam wailed. “L-let me finish!” She took a couple more deep breaths before speaking again. “A-above that are t-the Warriors… they fight to resolve the dimensional c-conflicts. They’re trained t-to use their powers t-to…” she trailed off again, shuddering. “It’s not pretty. Above t-that is the ruling c-class, the ones who m-make the laws and r-rules. We c-call them the Den,” she said, practically spitting the name. “I don’t like them. A-above that is… the Alpha. Basically the k-king or queen.” She sighed. “We’re b-born into our r-roles and can’t c-change them, no m-matter what we do… we’re stuck where we are the day we’re born. Feelings don’t matter in the Wolves.”

“That’s so sad,” I murmured.

“What rank are you?” Tranquility asked.

There was a pause before she spoke again. “N-none of those…” she whispered shakily.

“Huh?”

“There’s a-another one…” Cam said. “Between the Den the Alpha. They’re r-really, really r-rare, and I’m one o-of them…”

“What are they?” I asked.

“Mages…” she whispered softly, holding out her paw. The same symbol that we saw earlier lit up again on the center pad, but glowing much less. “All Wandering Wolves c-can jump through r-reality, but M-mages are the only ones who have t-true magic…”

“You have magic?” I asked.

“S-sadly…” Cam confirmed, her trembling increasing. She extinguished the symbol.

“Why is that such a big deal?” I inquired.

“The second we’re b-born, we’re supposed to be taken to the A-alpha. M-mages all have golden c-coats, so it’s e-easy to tell that w-we are one,” Cam said. “W-we’re supposed to be the A-alpha’s little p-personal knights, ones who can d-do what he c-can’t. Because of that, we’re exempt from the r-rules of our society… Such as t-the one that we have to kill any species b-besides ourselves that finds out about us.” I gasped softly.

“That’s terrible,” Tranquility whispered.

“I know…” Cam murmured back.

“Then why are you here?” I asked.

“That’s a b-bit of a story,” Cam whispered. “We don’t h-have the time-”

“We always have time,” Tranquility whispered. “You can tell us.”

“O-okay,” Cam said. “I’ll make this really q-quick… I was born to C-civilians. My p-parents were poor… p-poor enough that they couldn’t afford a h-hospital room for my b-birth.” I gasped softly at that. Tranquility started to rub her back again. “In the end, that’s w-what saved me. T-the second they saw m-my golden coat, they made t-the decision to flee the city we lived in, t-the capital o-of our society: Paradise. They made an unsecured r-rift and j-jumped in, t-taking me with them.” She sighed. “It w-wasn’t for my sake. The Den t-takes the parents o-of Mages and… sees if they can p-produce more.” Tranquility’s ears went completely flat at that, and I paled a little. Cam shook again and continued.

“That d-decision could h-have ended very b-badly. An u-unsecured r-rift could have put them a-anywhere… but we ended up h-here. For the n-next two y-years, we lived h-here. I w-was taught what I k-know, and s-spent the time b-bonding with my parents. Then…” she shuddered. “The Alpha had o-one of his M-mages track d-down where the rift w-went… he came through. B-before I could react, he took my p-parents and t-tossed them back through the rift. He then w-went after me…” she stopped, taking a few deep breaths. “I-I lost it. I lost i-it c-completely.

“I killed him,” she whispered, fresh tears sliding down her face. “I let my magic l-loose and ripped him apart.”

Neither of us said anything. I hugged her a little tighter to my chest, while Tranquility began to stroke her mane. I didn’t know what else to do. I had just learned I was in the presence of a killer, but the way she reacted showed she was torn up about it.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

Cam nodded. “T-the Alpha knew the second he d-died. S-some sort of spell… it doesn’t m-matter. H-he stepped t-through the rift. I t-tried to kill h-him too… but m-my m-magic just s-slid off him… He stopped as soon as he s-saw me. H-he introduced h-himself as H-hawkeye and a-asked me w-why I-I killed his a-agent…” I could feel her breaths getting shorter and shorter, with little whines punctuating each one. I quickly began to rock her more. “I-I t-told h-him… n-not just w-why, b-but what I-I’d h-heard and w-what I thought… m-my magic s-spiraled out o-of control again, e-eating up a-anything in the a-area… c-creating the g-grove… H-hawkeye l-listened a-and when I w-was finished p-prommised to f-forget a-about m-me and l-leave me a-alone and n-now he’ll know a-and w-won’t b-be able t-to i-ignore m-me and the o-other M-mages w-will come t-they’ll k-kill y-you and t-take me and IDON’TWANNAGO!” she screamed, falling back into full blown wails. Tranquility took Cam from me and started to rock her, whispering soothing things and nuzzling her quickly. It only helped a little, her wails continuing. It took her a full half hour to calm down this time.

“I’m so sorry, Cam…” I said. She sniffled softly.

“W-we have to go,” she whispered.

“Huh?”

“D-did you not h-hear me?” Cam hissed. “He’s gonna come back. The other M-mages will b-be with him. T-they’ll kill you. They’ll t-take me. M-my s-stupid emotions have a-already cost us too much time…”

“They would do that?” I whispered.

“Y-yes!” Cam hissed. She struggled out of my arms and fell to the floor with a groan.

“Are you okay?” Tranquility asked.

“I don’t f-feel good,” she groaned. Nonetheless, she struggled over to the box and hoisted it onto her back. “It doesn’t matter if I-I’m okay!”

“Yes it does!” Tranquility said.

“We don’t h-have time!” Cam yelled

“Cam…” she said softly as Cam dropped the box, grunting.

"We have to-”

In that instant, the sense of wrongness returned, except worse than before. I felt as if I was being stretched in all directions, and actually floated off the floor a few scant inches because of the strange gravity. Cam gagged from the sensations, her eyes widening and pupils contracting.

In that instant, five cloaked figures appeared from black seams around our little camp.

Cam immediately reared up onto her hind paws and stuck out her forelegs. Light blazed from her paws, and a golden dome encased the three of us, and not a moment too soon. The five figures stuck out their paws, and multicolored lances of energy flew down their arms and off their paws, striking the shield. Cam grunted, but the barrier held. The cloaked figures dropped their paws. “Well…” one of them said, raising an eyebrow. “I thought it was impossible to withstand even two of those.”

“T-too bad,” Cam responded. “M-maybe it’s b-because I’ve been allowed t-to d-develop my magic to its fullest p-potential.”

“Or you’re lucky,” another said.

“Need help,” another added.

“We can provide said help,” all said.

“Not m-my kind of h-help,” Cam replied. “Our time i-is u-up,” she stammered, addressing Tranquility and I. “You c-come with me or die.”

“It’s not like that,” one of them purred. “You two won’t be involved in this anymore… that’s all.”

“It’s a l-lie,” Cam stammered. The figures raised their paws again and blasted the shield with the same attacks as before, causing Cam to cry out in pain.

“It’s not…” they said.

“Cam, get us out of here!” I yelled, jumping to my hooves. Tranquility followed, eyes wide. Cam nodded.

“Get close to me,” Cam hissed, tears running down her face. We ran over to her just as the figures blasted the shield. Cam screamed, and the shield dropped. The figures moved in, but before they reached us, Cam slashed at the air in the middle of us, creating a rift. I felt the same strange sensations as before, but this time, the gravity distortion pulled us into the rift, along with Cam’s box.

It felt… strange, that’s all I can say. I felt as if I was being pulled through a plastic drinking straw, but it wasn’t painful at all, just… disconcerting. I felt like I had been put into a vat of dry ice as well, with it being so cold it felt hot. The only gravity in the area was inside of me, as it felt like I was imploding. Time felt distorted, too, as it was like the jump took forever and yet no time at all. According to Cam, it took about half a second.

We dropped out of the rift in the middle of an ocean, except it was filled with some sort of purple liquid. We were surrounded by small islands, covered in strange foliage that I didn’t recognize, with strange leaf shapes (if they could even be called leaves) and odd, twisting stems. Cam waved her paw and changed the direction of our fall, causing us to plow into one of the islands. I landed hard, the impact jolting my head a little. Tranquility managed to flare out her wings and catch herself, while Cam didn’t make any attempt to catch herself and plowed into the soft sand of the island on her side, hard. I stumbled for a moment before steadying myself.

“Cam?” I asked. “Where are we?”

She gave no response. She just lay there in the sand, unmoving.

Author's Note

Suddenly magic doggos!
And so the main plot begins! It's... gonna be tricky to do well.
I really dunno what else to put in the authors notes this time.

~Pyrepinna