"Wait... I died?" Zaro looked at her confused.

"Of course not, but chances are you could end up being stuck with me here for a long time..." she said crazily.

After being chased by a war hawk he now had to remain inside a tree trunk for the rest of his life?! With some insane fairy?! This was completely unacceptable, Zaro got up and began walking around inside the tree trunk trying to find some sort of an exit. The inside of the walls was inscribed with writing, although it was almost unreadable, he could still figure out the meaning behind the words.

"Did you write this?" Zaro asked squinting his eyes.

"Of course not! I have spent decades trying to decipher these words! No matter how hard I try I cannot discover the meaning behind them..." the fairy flew onto the ground and laid on her back and sighed with her hand covering her eyes.

"I think I know what they mean..." Zaro whispered to himself but immediately startled the fairy.

"How... how can a pup understand the meaning behind these scribbles?!" she gasped with horror, "who even are you?!".

"That should be my line... there's no way I will remain here for the rest of my life... let me see..." Zaro squinted his eyes once more and slowly began deciphering the words one by one and soon he realized that it was something similar to a riddle?

"I think I got it..." he mumbled but despite how quiet he was the fairy seemed to figure out what he said.

"Yes! My savior! Now tell me... what does it mean?!" she sat forward and looked him straight in the eyes.

"At which hour a diamond begins to transf'rm, the crystal wedg'd in its heart becomes a heavenly existence known as..."

"What?"

"What is the answer?" Zaro asked confusedly.

"At which hour a diamond begins to transf'rm, the crystal wedg'd in its heart becomes a heavenly existence known as... an Imperial Core!" Suddenly the words had begun to light up around the walls of the trunk and revealed another set of words.

"An imperial core?" Zaro asked confused.

"It is the stage after the diamond core... of course, you wouldn't know considering you're only a wolf... next one!" Zaro sighed then continued to read the next riddle.

"At the starteth, the root yond beganeth changeth the t'rrain cameth to beest known as..."

"The spiritual tree root..." he fairy replied immediately causing the words to light up and revealing another question above, "could it be? This tree is the Spiritual tree root?" as she said that the words lit up and moved on to the next set of words.

"This... its trying to tell us its ident.i.ty!" Zaro exclaimed.

"What do the next words say?" the fairy said in a mannerly way, she no longer seemed impatient but instead looked rather sad.

"I did start this w'rld of mineth, these art mine own roots, taken hence from me by mine own owneth seedlings of life..."

"This is the root that created the world," she paused when she realized half of the words had lit up and then continued once again, "it is now clinging on to the little life it has left..." once again more words had lit up... "its trying to spread the message of its existence..." All of the words had lit up and the tree had begun to disappear slowly as essence particles disintegrated the tree like fire and then rose to the air.

Zaro looked at the fairy which was in tears now, "How did you know this?"

The fairy looked up at Zaro, tears scrolling down her cheeks then said helplessly, "for the past hundred years... it told me... yet I was only concerned about myself and always wanted to become stronger, I consumed its remaining power and before I could complete doing it... the tree enslaved me inside its trunk."

Zaro was confused but also delighted with himself, he, fortunately, knew what the words meant as it was the same writing used in his previous life! He easily solved the fairy's problem by just reading straight off the wood!

The fairy had now begun to cry relentlessly which put Zaro into an awkward spot... and with the tree now almost disappeared he was in the middle of the forest standing next to a crying woman.

Suddenly, a lot of creatures crept out from behind trees and looked towards the two in the middle once the tree had completely disappeared.

"Eh... fairy... don't cry..."

"Waaaaaahhhh" she continued even louder than before which startled Zaro.

He looked at her once more then slowly moved away from her as he didn't want the other animals to think that this beautiful being was crying because of him. He guessed that a fairy was a G.o.dly existence to the other animals and thus moved away as discreetly as he could.

Noticing him leave slowly the fairy cried out, "Don't leave me!"

"Then stop crying!" Zaro yelled furiously.

The fairy wiped her eyes then looked around at all of the animals before looking back at Zaro.

"Where is my home?" she asked almost crying again.

"I'll take you there! Don't cry!" Zaro suspected that she lived extremely close to the Spiritual Tree in her lifetime and even though he didn't know where she lived he knew that she would stop crying if he told her.

"Really?!" the fairy gasped and then hovered over to Zaro hugging him, when she moved away Zaro noticed several plants growing around the spot where she was sitting before. The other animals were all staring at them... or rather, her. This was very odd as it was some wolves, boars, rabbits and the badger-looking beasts which were not attacking each other but just watching them.

"Eh... what is your name, fairy?"

"Iona, yours?"

"Zaro, ahem, now can you tell the other animals to go back to what they were doing?"

"Sure?" the fairy looked over at the other animals which got excited when seeing her about to speak, "Animals of this forest... can you please return to your homes?"

Without hesitation, all of the animals pulled away and casually walked in separate directions as if nothing had happened. Zaro was incredibly confused as to what just happened then looked at Iona again.

"Let's head home!" she giggled.

"Eh... yeah... I don't really know where that is."

"But you said..." Iona lowered her head and the corner of her mouth began to twitch in disgust.

"I... I just didn't want you to cry anymore!" he yelled desperately.

"I'll shove you down into the hole with that dumb bird again."

"No please!" he begged while smas.h.i.+ng his head into the ground.

"Iona, don't treat your savior like this..."

"h.e.l.l no! I am gonna butcher this wolf for-" suddenly the two froze, Zaro was laying down in shock and Iona felt as if everything that existed was now stopping in motion. When Zaro looked up he saw an absolute beauty as if she had descended from the heavens with her b.u.t.terfly wings. She had s.h.i.+ning violet eyes and curly brown hair flowing down against her fantastic body.

Zaro howled and started slamming his back paw against the ground, "Ohhh s.h.i.+t!"

"Ausura! It's been so long!" Iona gasped as she too couldn't believe who she saw in front of her.

"Yes, I have spent several decades trying to pull you out... but luckily you found this valiant wolf.

Zaro blushed and moved one of his claws in a circular motion against the ground as he spoke, "It was nothing really, I wouldn't have done it without the help... but if you want you can pet me and we can call it even..."

Iona realized his intentions and whacked his head with full force, "you're so perverted... anyways, we must leave Ausura, I bet the village is waiting for us and we have so much to talk about!"

Ausura took a seat beside Zaro and began to pet him as she spoke, "The village was ravaged about thirty years ago by the Avians... we now all live in separate areas in the forest and some have migrated to the enchanted forests..."

"The enchanted forests?! But isn't that place nothing but death!?"

"We are prime targets for the avians... we can no longer live in this dimension unless we help nurture some beasts to protect us."

Zaro was listening diligently but it didn't look so as drool was falling from his mouth, he gulped and then spoke out immediately, "Nurture me! I will control this entire forest in the future to come!" he said proudly with his chest pushed out.

The two fairies looked at him and after some moments of silence they began to burst out laughing but then suddenly Ausura stopped and looked at Zaro seriously which piqued Iona's interest.

"Could it be that this puppy has some potential?" she asked curiously.

"Zaro was it? How have you consumed so many cores in such a short amount of time?"

Zaro laughed nervously, how did she manage to see that?! Without hesitating any further Zaro swallowed his saliva and faced her before speaking, "I... am just good at hunting?"

"Who taught you?"

"No one."

They both pondered for a brief moment and then Iona asked, "What core does he have the potential to achieve?"

"Peak of Emerald... he's almost at sapphire..." Ausura replied but remained in thought.

"What?!" Iona gasped in shock.

"Wait when can I form my core?!" Zaro asked without hesitation.

"Interesting, your core is actually quite special..." she stated which confused the other two.

"What does that mean?" Iona asked as she became much more curious.

"It's an enlightened beast core... which means that it will only awaken once it reaches a certain stage... so he might have the potential to transform himself into a stage beyond the diamond." Ausura speculated.

"Ha! So that means you can nurture me?!" Zaro giggled at his newly discovered potential.

"Perhaps... but you are a wolf... once you mature... you won't be yourself anymore."

"What?" Zaro looked at her confusedly.

"It's the fate of all wolves... they are created to kill and ravage... if I am to be honest, killing you now would be the best option."

*Silence*

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"..."

"..."