Lumina sat at a table in the Adventurer’s Guild. She had already looked over all the requests for her rank. Each and every single one was incredibly boring and involved menial labor. It had been two days since getting back from Alice Springs, and Lumina could already see most people’s souls around her whenever she closed her eyes. Along with her heightened sense after fighting Alice, she was also able to glean a little information on how someone was feeling.

  Although happy to have a new ability, Lumina struggled to sleep. Whenever she closed her eyes, she would find herself surrounded by hundreds of flames floating about. Each one representing the soul of another person. She was excited to have access to some form of her ability to manipulate energy, but it was a little excessive. She hoped that there was potential on or off switch.

  Lumina was waiting for Eldin to return with some food from their recent job. She had quickly learned that virtually every seller or merchant in Gildale were upping their prices only for her. As much as she enjoyed shopping, it was simply far more efficient and cheaper for Eldin to run about and buy supplies. While she waited bored out of her mind, she heard Stephen enter the guild.

  The knight’s typical debonaire smile looked forced. Closing her eyes, she could see a strong tint of yellow coloring Stephen’s soul.

  Lumina couldn’t remember what emotion went with what color. She was still trying to see if there were more colors yet to be discovered.

  Suddenly, his soul flame became a vibrant blue as it quickly made it’s way toward her and had a seat across the table. Yellow started to creep back into the blue, and an interesting gradient of blue, green, and yellow danced across the flame. Opening her eyes, she found Stephen sitting, staring at her.

  Stephen knew his time was short, he needed to find help and fast. Reports of loud howls and unrest on the outskirts of Gildale’s suburbs hinted that the Jackal would be striking soon. Potentially tonight. To his dismay, Raymi had informed him there were only a few adventurer’s ranked gold in combat. One of them gone on a job, and the other being Lumina.

  Thankful that at least one proficient fighter was available. He was even more excited when he saw Lumina. “How are you doing?” He asked trying to get a casual conversation started. His eyes occasionally shifting down briefly before focusing back on her face.

  Lumina wished she knew what each color represented, but for now she would put that thought on hold. “Bored. Hungry. Waiting for Eldin to return with some food since the vendors charge me extra.”

  Stephen was not oblivious to the issues that the populace of Gildale had with Lumina, it was simply that he had no way of controlling people’s thoughts and opinions. Even if he thought their actions were boorish and undue. His mind began thinking about how he should go about getting a date with her. That was until the most pressing issue trumped his one-track mind. “Right. I came over here to ask if you and Eldin would join me. It seems that the Jackal will make a likely appearance tonight from the reports of our guards.”

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  Lumina’s boredom was completely replaced with enthusiasm. “You really think that mystery creature is going to attack tonight?”

  Stephen reassured that it was likely and that he also wanted to get Eldin to join him as well. Their plan was to ambush the creature. All they needed was Eldin to return so that preparations could be made.

  Lumina sat on a lone stump in the middle of a field. Behind her was a farmhouse, in front of her was the forest line. She had been sitting on the stump for about three hours. She could clearly hear the various nocturnal creatures from the forest, but she had yet to hear a howl. Next to her was a torch. A simple stick wrapped at the top with oil-soaked cloth. While she hadn’t told Stephen and Rita that she couldn’t use magic, Eldin had given her the torch to light and throw in the air. She looked to the side to see if anyone else had shot a signal into the night air.

  Letting out a large yawn, she began to wonder if the creature was going to show up at all. Standing from her stump, Lumina unsheathed her sword and began doing a few practice swings. Anything was better than sitting around waiting for something to happen. A few swings in, a loud and long howl split the night. Lumina quickly set the torch alight with her spark kit and threw it as high into the air as she could. Within moments of tossing it, she picked up a shadow of movement. Her ears focused and she could hear the sound of something large rushing towards her. Her body tensed as she took a fighting stance and prepared for whatever approached.

  What appeared from the woods caused her to take a step back. An overwhelming feeling of terror washed over her as a massive 12 ft. wolf pounced into view. It’s fur an eerie shade of unnatural black that made if feel like it blended in darkness of night. Its eyes pierced directly into Lumina’s soul as she watched them burn with some sort of powerful energy. She could see the massive black and red soul flame of the beast when she closed her eyes. It snarled revealing a maw of razor-sharp teeth that twinkled in the dim torchlight as Lumina’s impromptu flare hit the ground.

  With unnatural speed, the nightmare-like monster initiated the assault directing its fury towards Lumina. Its sheer size and speed easily closed the gap as its large paw smashed into her shield. The claws of the wolf managed to wrap around and gouge away at her back as she was launched through the air.

  Lumina could feel the sharp claws dig into her, but thanks to her unique dress, they were not able to penetrate and lacerate her skin. She quickly prepared to land as she threw her shield arm out wide in an attempt to forcefully change her mid-flight position. Barely landing on her feet, she could feel the dull pain from the impact. Returning the favor, Lumina immediately charged back and began her attack on the monstrosity.

  Both combatants charging forward, Lumina feinted to the left drawing a counterattack. Anticipating the bite, she jumped over the creature’s head managing to get a stab on the creature’s flank before unceremoniously rolling off to the side after landing on it.

  Letting out a pained snarl, the monster jumped back and swiped again.

  Barely able to get on her feet in time, Lumina was able to get her shield up as she awkwardly jumped back to avoid the brunt of the hit. Honed claws screeched loudly against her shield as she was knocked off balance.