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"This is how ii all began..." It was the end of another long day in the forest. Kinnison had just finished setting up camp in the forest near Toto Village and was getting ready for a good nights sleep. Shiro had already found a comfortable spot near an adjacent tree and was sleeping like a baby. Kinnison sat down nearby and relaxed. The life of a wilderness man can be pretty exhausting. As he sat back, Kinnison began reminiscing on the past, all the way back to the his earliest memory when he was found abandoned near Greenhill and was taken in by a man. "What was his name again?" Kinnison wondered. "Oh yeah, Chelios." Kinnison had a lot of fond memories of his life in Greenhill, but the memory that stood out the most was the one that changed his life forever. He thought back to the first days and smiled as he prepared to go to sleep... Kinnison was just 3 years old when he was found, abandoned, just a few 100 yards outside of Greenhill. A man, about 40 years old, found him alone in the plains. The young Kinnison was crying. He didn't remember anything before this point. The man asked where his parents were, but Kinnison, in shock and barely able to speak anyway couldn't answer. The man took Kinnison back to Greenhill, hoping he would be able to find his parents. He was unsuccessful. He took Kinnison home and began to care for him, thinking that he would try to find the child's parents the following day. The man looked for weeks but never did find Kinnison's parents. After a little bit of thought, the man decided it would be nice to have someone else around the house for a while. He decided to raise Kinnison as his own child. The man introduced himself to Kinnison as Chelios. He was a great step father for Kinnison at first. He fed and clothed Kinnison, and took care of him as if he were his own child. he even planned to enroll Kinnison in the Greenhill academy as soon as he was old enough. Kinnison really looked up to Chelios, even though Chelios tended to have a short temper much of the time. But Chelios was a hunter by trade, and that is where the problems started. At the age of 10, just a few months before Kinnison started at the academy, Chelios decided to withdrawal Kinnisons application to the school. Chelios thought that he would be able to save money on Kinnisons education and simply teach him the trade of hunting. That evening, Chelios told Kinnison about his decision. He also told Kinnison that the next morning they were going out so Kinnison could learn how to hunt. Chelios then handed Kinnison a gift. It was a brand new bow with a quiver of arrows. He also handed him a small, object. "What is this?" Kinnison looked at Chelios quizzically. "That, my boy, is a Great Hawk Rune" Chelios answered. "With that attached you will be able to fire multiple arrows at multiple targets with pin point accuracy. After we eat, we're going down to the runemaster to have it attached." Kinnison wasn't really looking forward to his new training. He never liked the idea of killing anything and when it came down to it, he didn't know if he could. After going to the runemasters shop, Kinnison laid down in his bed and was about to go to sleep. He was having trouble getting comfortable. The rune that had been attached to his right hand had a strange burning sensation. Chelios assured him that it was just a side effect and that it would go away, but regardless, it was going to keep him awake for a while that night. Kinnison was laying down in his bed thinking about the next day when he heard Chelios leave the cabin. That was unusual, Chelios normally doesn't go out this late, he thought. But less than an hour later, he heard Chelios return. The next day came sooner than Kinnison wanted it to. He had gotten next to no sleep, even though the burning sensation in his hand had subsided. He couldn't stop thinking about what he was going to be asked to do the next day. Chelios woke Kinnison bright and early as always. He had already gotten everything that he needed prepared and he was ready to go out on the hunt as usual. He handed Kinnison his bow and his quiver of arrows and the two began their trek into the forest. The two walked the forest for a few hours. Everything seemed more quiet than normal. Finally, Chelios spotted an abnormally large Wild Boar. His eyes glistened with excitement. "OK boy, here's your chance. Just look at the size of thing. You take that down and we won't have to worry about eating for a month. Go ahead now, just like I taught you. Load your arrow in, aim and fire. It's that easy." Chelios whispered instructions to Kinnison. Kinnison pulled an arrow out of his quiver and began to place it in his bow. His hands were shaking tremendously. He looked at the Boar, slowly raised the bow to point it towards the animal. His hands still shaking he pulled back on the bow string. "I can't do it" Kinnison said loudly as he lowered the bow. Just as he spoke the boar took off running into the foliage, out of danger from the hunters. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T DO IT!" Chelios screamed at the frightened youth. "You had the bow loaded right and your aim was true, all you had to do was let the arrow fly." "I can't kill an innocent animal like that" Kinnison replied. "Oh, I get it. You want me to show you how its done first. Its not that bad, let me show you. Chelios walked a little further into the woods with Kinnison following closely behind. They walked into a small clearing in the forest and Chelios once again got an excited look on his face. "Look over there boy. One of the traps I laid last night actually snagged something." Chelios sid excitedly. Kinnison glanced over to the crude trap, a bare animal bone in a cage set up so that the slightest movement of the bone will seal the cage. In side the cage, a small white wolf pup. The poor creature was sound asleep, probably worn out from struggling to escape the trap. "This one will be easy" Said Chelios. "No need to waste an arrow on this one. I'll just lop of its head with my sword here." Chelios walked towards the sleeping animal with his blade drawn. He quietly released the lock on the cage and opened the cage door. The animal was obviously exhausted. It never moved a muscle while Chelios did all of this. Chelios raised his blade and began to strike the sleeping wolf when Kinnison suddenly threw himself between the falling sword and the wolf and screamed. "STOP!!!!!!!!!!" The wolf sprang to its feet, awakened by the scream of the terrified boy. Chelios pushed Kinnison out of the way and slammed the cage door shut once again to prevent the animal from escaping. "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU BOY?!?!?!?!" Chelios screamed back towards Kinnison. "Do you know how rare white wolves are? The hide of this beast could fetch a pretty penny at the trading post. Why the hell are you stopping me?" "Please, don't kill him. He's just a baby. It's not right." "You've got a lot to learn about right and wrong boy. Right is being able to feed your self everyday. Right is to exterminate beasts like this so that they don't attack humans. Just tell me what isn't right about killing him? "It just isn't" Kinnison said. Chelios turned away from the boy and started walking away. When he did this, Kinnison bent down to release the wolf from the cage. Chelios then turned around, dropped his sword and ran towards Kinnison. He grabbed the boy, just as Kinnison released the lock on the cage and began beating on him. "You ungrateful bastard! I'll kill you. I take you into my home, treat you like my own son, and this is how you repay me?" Chelios continued to beat on Kinnison with his fists despite Kinnison begging for mercy. It took a few moments,, but the wolf finally realized that he had been released from his prison. The wolf exited the cage, but instead of running off into the forest, he turned to attack Chelios. The wolf pup latched onto Chelios' leg and bit into it hard enough to draw blood. Chelios immediately released his grip on Kinnison and turned to face the enraged wolf. Realizing that his sword was on the ground about 30 feet away and that his bow had fallen to the ground during his scuffle with Kinnison, Chelios decided against fighting the wolf and ran away instead. The wolf gave chase to the end of the forest clearing but gave up and allowed the frightened man to get away. Meanwhile, Kinnison was still on the ground. He was crying. "What am I going to do now? I have nowhere to go." The wolf walked back over to Kinnison and sat down beside him. He then began to lick Kinnison on the side of his face. This made Kinnison stop crying, at least for the moment, and laugh. "Thank you wolf. Thank you for helping me You should be going now though. You need to find the rest of your pack." Kinnison struggled to his feet and began walking deeper into the forest. After about 15 minutes Kinnison stopped to rest. When he looked back, he realized that the young wolf pup was still following him. The wolf pup sat down next to him once again. At this point Kinnison tried to chase him off. "GO! Get out of here! Go find you friends. At least you still have somewhere to go." Kinnison began crying again. The wolf began walking away from Kinnison and Kinnison decided to go in the other direction. Kinnison turned back to see if the wolf was still following and when he turned back around he was almost face to face with the same wild boar that Chelios tried to convince him to kill a little while ago. Kinnison screamed. The boar was definitely not in a good mood. The boar scraped his feet on the ground as if preparing to charge at Kinnison when suddenly out of nowhere came the same white wolf put that had been following him. The wolf latched onto the boars neck and wrestled him to the ground. The wolf then stood in front of the boar growling at it, finally scaring it back into the forest. "That's twice you've saved me, I guess I owe you don't I?" The wolf just sat in front of Kinnison and looked at him. It was then that Kinnison noticed something. It's almost unexplainable what happened when the two looked at each other, but it was at that point that Kinnison realized that the wolf wanted to be with him. "If you want to stay with me I would like that wolf. I promise I won't chase you away again. But if you're gonna stay with me, you're gonna need a name. How does.... Shiro sound? Is that OK with you?" "AWWOOOOOOOH!" The wolf howled into the sky. Kinnison then walked off with Shiro following right behind. After reminiscing about the events that led him to Shiro, Kinnison looked over at his sleeping companion. He stood up from where he was sitting, walked over to where Shiro was and laid down right next to him. "Good night Shiro" Kinnison smiled as he he quickly fell asleep next to his best friend. Shiro opened one eye, and nuzzled himself closer to Kinnison before he went back to sleep as well.
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