Chapter 75 - Humbled

Arya flicked a cigarette on to the ground and stubbed it out with her boot.

"Arya?" Kai said without moving. He hadn't seen her in so long and even though she had yet to turn around to face him, he knew it was her.

"Whatever your dad has sent you here for, the answer is no." She peered slightly over her shoulder in silent acknowledgement to his presence.

"I'm not here for my father. I wanted… no I need your help."

There was a long pause before Arya erupted in to laughter. Her head tipped back as the amusement of Kai's words took hold of her.

"You need *'my'* help kid?" She uttered in between gaps of her laughter. "Now I know I must be getting old. I think I'm going deaf. It sounded like you said that *you* needed something from *me*?"

Arya swivelled round on the log she was sitting on to face him. She held her stomach as though she was trying to suppress another laugh from escaping.

Arrow looked at her peculiarly. He didn't have her pegged as an eccentric type, but she was quite clearly mocking him. Arrow looked at Kai to gauge his reaction. His face was completely expressionless.

Arya wiped a tear from her brown eyes then looked back over at Kai. Her laughing came to an abrupt halt when she saw how serious Kai looked. "Don't tell me you were actually serious just now?"

Arya rose to her feet and her eyes shifted from brown to red in a beat. The air of dominance around her swept through the clearing in the forest. Where her presence had been completely erased before, this deep ominous wave suddenly surrounded her.

Arya put both hands in to her cargo trouser pockets and started walking towards them. "So let me check if I heard you right. Mr big shot here, who got the smallest taste of power under my instruction and then took off, is now back asking me for my help, *again*?"

Kai looked at her dejectedly. She wasn't wrong. He knew if he ever saw her again he would have to eat a serious amount of humble pie, but in the grand scheme of things, having to apologise for being the arrogant teen that he was as the time, seemed like the least of his worries now.

As a child he had begged her to train him and after convincing her do so, he studied under her for years until he taught her how to invoke his wolf. Then he took off as a teen.

"You're right. I messed up and I'm sorry, but I can't leave here until you help me."

Arya seemed slightly surprised at how forthcoming Kai was with his apology. She had felt sure back at the time that he would become as spoilt and entitled as most nobles she had the displeasure of knowing, back when she served Maddox, but it was now evident to her that he had grown up some, both physically and mentally. She cocked her head as she spotted the claiming bite mark on his neck. *'A dominant woman's influence?'* She thought to herself. Part of her still wanted her pound of flesh though.

"Don't you think you owe me something more than just an apology kid?"

Arrow could feel the hairs on the back of his neck start to stand up. She disappeared like magic in front of him then reappeared in front of Kai. Kai doubled over in front of her as she slammed her plam in to his stomach.

Kai grabbed Arya's arm loosely with both hands and wheezed as the impact sucked the air out of his chest.

"Kai!" Arrow called out. He motioned to intervene but the look Kai gave him stopped him in his tracks. He remembered he had promised Kai that he wasn't going to get involved but he didn't think that she was going to attack him, and at a speed that seemed almost godly.

"Arya..." Kai spoke between heavy breaths.

"Oh?" Arya raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought you would have fallen like a sack of potatoes by now." She withdrew her hand from his stomach and her eyes went from red, back to brown. "There's something's different about you."

"Wha...what did you do to me?" It felt like all of Kai's strength was pooling and draining out the bottom of his feet. He could feel his chest tightening as he started to feel unsteady on his feet.

"I severed your connection to your wolf," she said casually. Any sign of aggression in her had completely disappeared now. She flexed her fingers as a look of satisfaction crossed her face.

"You did what?!" Arrow asked.

Arya turned away from Kai and started walking back to where she was originally sat. As she did so, Kai collapsed unceremoniously on to the forest floor.

"Kai!" Arrow ran over to him and turned him over. He pulled up his t-shirt and examined his chest for injuries. There were no immediate signs of significant trauma on his body, but under his solar plexus were two red marks that were starting to turn in to bruises.

"What did you do to him?" Arrow asked aggressively.

"Relax kid, let him sleep it off" She flopped back down on the log and pulled another cigarette out from her pocket. "He'll need it, trust me."

Arrow looked at her unsure. He couldn't quite work out if she was now an enemy or friend. He looked back down at Kai. He at least seemed to be breathing fine.

Arya patted the empty space on the log next to her. "Come. Sit. You're his guard, right?" She said in a series of mumbles as she rested the cigarette in the corner of her mouth. "Perhaps you can tell me what's wrong with him?"

"You knew something was wrong?" Arrow laid kai's head back down on the floor, then started walked over to her cautiously. She was nothing like he thought she would be. From his understanding she had to be at least in her forties. Shifters didn't age quickly at all but she didn't look much older than her and Kai. With her green cargo pants and simple black vest top on, it was easy to see how physically fit she was. It didn't seem like there was even an ounce of fat on her.

"It's not exactly hard to tell that something is off with his wolf. I assume that's why he came to see me. No?" She offered Arrow a cigarette when he reached her, which he politely declined.

"Did you really sever his connection to his wolf?"

"Yes," she said again. She was now slightly annoyed at having to repeat herself.

"Why? Kai seemed to think that you could help him."

"Could...yes. But should I, is another matter."

Arrow sat down next to her. "His life could be on the line here," he added.

"Story of my life. Why don't you start with telling me what caused the disruption with Pax and *then* I'll decide if I want to help or not."

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Arrow explained all that had happened so far and how Kai was unable to shift after he tried to stop Rae from being taken away.

"Raeliana's alive?" She looked up at the sky as she thought. "Hmm… that would explain why we weren't able to find her body."

"Kai mentioned that you were there, after her family was slaughtered and that his father sent you to try and find him"

"He told you that?" Arya looked surprised to hear Arrow mention that. Kai very rarely talked about what happened that day. If he had mentioned it to Arrow, then she knew that he must be a close friend of his.

"I still remember his cold dead eyes looking back at me when I found him," she reminisced. "It's not the kind of face you'd ever want to see on a child." Arya took a long draw of her cigarette as she recalled the unpleasant memory.

"Thankfully it didn't stay that way for long, although it was obvious something in him had changed. I spent the next few weeks constantly being harassed by him to train him. The snot nosed brat was a constant thorn in my ass from dawn til dusk until I agreed. If he weren't Kaia's son, I would have sent him on his way"

"You knew his birth mother?"

"Yes. She was the reason I came to Galas in the first place." Arya tapped the end of her cigarette to release some of the ash.

Arrow looked back over at Kai still on the ground. He still hadn't moved at all. "Are you sure he's going to be okay?"

"Trust me he's fine. When the energy channels to your wolf is damaged severing the connection by hitting those chakra points on your chest is the only way that you can try and fix it. It will force a hard reset. It means I'll have to drill the invocation technique back in to him again." She smirked while she said it. "Not that I mind. I could do with a new punching bag."

Arya could feel Arrow staring hard at her whilst she talked.

"What is it kid? You're starting to freak me out with the way you're looking at me."

"Just who are you exactly? All the things you speak of, like *'energy channels'* and *'chakra points'*. I've never read or even heard of techniques like these before. If you're not from Galas originally, are you from Sirran?"

"Believe it or not, the world is much bigger than just Galas and Sirran kid." Arya rose up from the log and patted his head like a child, much to Arrow's frustration. Arrow had already told her his name several times, but she had chosen to ignore it. As much as he found her odd, his wolf seemed to like her.

As Arya stood up Dylan walked in to the clearing. He noted Kai on the ground and raised an eyebrow up at Arya curiously.

"I'm guessing your reunion with Kai went well then?" Dylan asked. He chuckled a little to himself as he said it. "Is there a specific reason why Kai is sleeping with the fairies?" Dylan knelt down just to confirm to himself that Kai had passed out and was not actually half dead. The latter could have easily been possible with Arya.

"Because it amuses me." Arya replied with a straight face. "Touch him and I'll lay your ass out right next to him."

"Fair enough..." Dylan responded as he stood back up.

"I'm guessing you're the one that brought him here?" Arya walked over to him and Dylan instantly started backing up to a tree as he saw her annoyed expression. "How many other people know that I'm here?"

Arya shifted one of her fingers into a claw and held it up against his throat.

"Nobody, nobody else. Seriously how many women are going to threaten to slice my throat open today."

Arya suddenly caught a whiff of something on Dylan.

"You reek of sex. I see some things don't change. Still sleeping with Beni's daughter? I have a good mind to let him and her brother know that you're here."

"You'd be that quick to throw me under the bus?"

Arya snorted in quiet protest.

Dylan sighed dramatically. "Right...I forget who I'm talking to. You'd probably be the person driving the bus in the first place."

Dylan smiled warmly at her. He'd grown a lot taller since he had last seen her. Even though she was shorter than him now, she was still just as endearing as he remembered.

"It's good to see you again master."

"Don't call me that, that was a long time ago." Arya hid a small smile and retracted her claw from his neck.

"Well, now I'm up to speed on the situation, I'm keen to get things moving. I feel like the longer you all hang around here, the more likely it is that more of you will suddenly start sprouting like weeds."

Arya walked over to Kai and started rolling up her sleeves. "Wake up sleepy head!" she nudged him with her boot. "I haven't got all day, so get up!"

Dylan joined Arrow and sat down on the log that he was sitting on. "Now this I've got to see," he said with a devious smirk on his face.