"Everyone has a place, a niche that they fill. Many despair upon learning that the elves are longer lived, orcs are stronger, dwarves more resilient and so on. It is only natural to wonder how humans even exist if every other race seems superior. Time and again, on world after world, it has been proven that our place, our strength lies not in our bodies or even our minds. Our strength, our place, is in how we constantly push forward, in an unrelenting advance in science and culture. While other races have always been content to accept the status quo, humans have never and will never settle with 'good enough'." – Dr. Laura Goodwyn, professor of multi-realm human cultures addressing the United Nations General Assembly.

Two days after the little accident in his workshop, Kurt was putting everything away in his mostly repaired workbench. He had spent most of his free time inspecting all the enchanted tools he had for any signs of damage. While he hadn't found any, it was still a good idea to check.

The big surprise was finding that his enchanting plate was still serviceable though he was going to replace it with something a little higher grade. He also had to replace the safety box that he had swept everything in to.

"Ugh, what a fucking mess." He said while unscrewing the drawer glides that had supported that box. It had expanded enough to break the wooden drawer it was in when it was explosively pressure formed. The result was a lot of sharp corners and splinters that seemed to always find a way to poke him.

"But it did its job." Kristi said as she held the free end to keep it from sagging and falling on him. "I don't think it's fair to ask any more of it. But I am surprised you had such a system in place."

"Yeah, my uncle is the one that helped me make this." Kurt said after shoving all the pieces into a bucket. "Well, he told me how to do it since it wasn't exactly him crafting it at that point."

"What was it made of?"

"Just some mild like eighth inch steel." Kurt said with a sigh. I had been meaning to make a better one and even have all the parts."

Kristi looked up from her sweeping. "What stopped you?"

Kurt smiled. "Well, you see, I had to go down to one of the bi-monthly interrogations in Lansing." He said, remembering the day semi-fondly. "Turns out more than one person wanted to interview me that day and I ended up coming home with a guest."

"Val?"

"Yeah, Val." He confirmed. "There we go." Kurt finally untangled the mess of twisted drawer slides and splinters before throwing the tangled pile into a garbage can.

Half a second later the person in question poked her head in. "What about me?"

"He was just telling me that you are the reason he almost died the other day." Kristi said with a wink to Kurt. "Apparently he didn't make a better safety box because you needed a place to stay."

"Ha ha, very funny." She said and stuck her tongue out. "But seriously, what did I miss?"

"Well, I was about to make a better containment box but got distracted when I got this job." Kurt said. "Had the parts and everything."

Val and Kristi looked at each other before turning to Kurt. "No time like the present. I say we order out for dinner, and you can get that wrapped up."

"Works for me." Kurt said and led the way out of the room. The girls followed after him, curious about where he was going.

Instead of going to the stairs or even the unfinished room downstairs, Kurt walked across the lower living room to the door on the far wall that nobody had opened. Val had almost put it out of her mind after his initial warning not to poke around and Kirsti just followed her lead.

"Wait, do we finally get to see what is behind the door?" Val said, suddenly excited.

Kristi leaned around to see him reaching for the knob. "Oh, I had kinda forgotten about that." She said. "What is in there?"

"I called it 'the vault' when I built it." Kurt explained. "It is equal parts funny and depressing." He opened the door to reveal a rectangular opening. The opening looked like a door frame that was lined with thick steel plate. The plate was nearly an inch thick and eight inches across, wrapping around the concrete opening. Kurt stepped in and reached over to the wall. He tapped a button on the wall and lights snapped on overhead revealing a short concrete stairwell and a room.

The room was lower than the basement, needing two steps to reach the floor. It was all concrete, twenty feet long and fifteen wide. It was fully enclosed with the exception of a vent on the ceiling and a drain in the floor. A strip of LED lighting ran down the center of the high ceiling, casting its brilliant white light evenly across the room. The lights also showed the sole contents of the vault, sitting on the floor.

Kristi stepped in with Val right behind her. "You called it the vault; I assume it was to keep valuables in here."

"It was meant to keep things I didn't want ever getting out." Kurt said.

Val was walking along the walls, trying to look like she didn't want to open the large box in the middle of the floor. "What runes are carved here?" She was running her hand over the inlet concrete.

"There are several in the circle, most to strengthen the walls and deal with ambient humidity but its general function is to cause the entire space to implode if broken" Kurt said.

"Implode!" Kristi looked shocked.

"Yes, and quite violently." Kurt confirmed, giving her a sad smile. "In case I ever lost control and started going feral. But then you came along, and other things happened, so it's no longer a concern."

Val turned back to him. "You would suicide like that? Buried under tons of concrete and earth?"

Kurt didn't like to think about it, but it was the reality he faced at one time. "Yeah, I liked the thought of terrorizing the countryside even less. Remember that until Jay recruited me, I was pretty much planning on spending the rest of my life alone for the most part."

"Dude, that's fucking depressing." Val said while Kristi looked like she wanted to cry. "But while we are on the subject…" She then leaned in. "What is in the box?"

Laughing while Kristi chastised Val, Kurt turned and went over to the box. "It's what I was talking about earlier, my containment box." Kurt opened it to show the heavy-duty, spring-loaded lid that revealed the absolutely empty box.

"That's it?" Val asked with an annoyed look on her face. "That's all you kept in here?"

Rolling his eyes, Kurt hefted the box and took it back out of the vault and into his shop. He had already carved the runes in the outside of the box but hadn't inlaid or activated the enchantments and that's what he planned to do.

Kristi came up next to him as he set the box on his bench. "So, what makes this one better than the last?" she asked then flicked it with her finger, getting a deep ringing noise.

"Well, the last one was eight-inch mild steel, and this one is three-eights AR five hundred. It's generally considered bullet proof and is used for targets. This one is also much larger so if I need to, something big can go in unlike my last box which was a bit small." He went fishing in his cabinet for his spool of gold wire. "The last one had copper for the inlay and for this one I am using gold."

"That makes it stronger?"

Kurt nodded. "Its strength is proportional to the base material and amplified by the inlay material along with the inscription. The last one was able to contain the explosive yield of a brick of C-four. This one should be able to contain a thousand pounder. Plus, the magical containment will be much better."

Val was pulling up the stools. "How much better?"

Thinking for a minute, Kurt based it on the previous issues. "That explosion from the other day would probably not have even registered. It might not have even made noise." He knew that he was pushing it with his old containment box considering the work he had been doing. At the same time, it was pretty standard for most enchanters, he was just being overly cautious now and over building the box.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Both Val and Kristi watched as Kurt inlaid the gold wire onto every side of the box and both parts of the top. They then saw him pull out the now battered enchanting plate and set the box on top.

"Doesn't it have to fit on the plate?" Kristi asked. "I thought that was a limit to how big you could make something.

"Nope, think of it like a focus. All it does is amplify the base circle and make it easier to push mana into it. Technically, I could put this under a car and do an enchant on the whole thing as long as one part was touching it and I had the energy available." Kurt explained while positioning the box on the plate and casting the two magical circles that sandwiched the box between them.

Several minutes later, Kurt had a brand new and much improved containment box. He inspected it with his lenses and other measuring tools. It indeed was far superior to his last one, having a significantly larger capacity to absorb magical energy and physical damage.

"And here we go." Kurt showed off the box. "This one isn't going in a drawer since it's so big. Instead, it will be the drawer." He held it up to the spot where the last drawer had been and also the empty slot next to it.

Val looked excited. "Aha! that's why there is that goofy handle on the front."

Kurt smiled and nodded while he went to find the drawer glides that he had bought for the task. It didn't take him long to find them and get them attached to the box via the predrilled and tapped holes in the steel. Roughly ten minutes later he was back in business with a new containment box built into his bench.

"So, what's next?" Val asked after he dusted his hands off.

"Tonight, I am thinking dinner and we all snuggle in for some movies then tomorrow we go find some material for magical batteries."

Kristi looked at him like he was talking in tongues. "Why do you need batteries?"

"I actually want a couple banks of them. One that will store energy for enchanting and one as a failsafe." Kurt was pulling up his tablet to look at places to order food. "The other bank will be my failsafe for things that don't fit in the box. Half the reason I needed to use the box was because I didn't have anywhere to shunt the energy."

"And if you have a bank of empty batteries, you can use them to drain the excess mana from a potentially explosive failure." She finished. "A clever plan for dealing with larger items."

Kurt passed the tablet and menu for a Mexican restaurant over to her. "Yeah, just needs more monitoring and it's an active process. With the box it's pretty much sweeping it in and running away. With a bank of batteries, it will need me to direct the energy to flow before the siphon spell takes effect."

"And when the siphon takes effect, then you run?"

"Very fast and very far." Kurt said with a chuckle.

Val was tapping her order into the tablet when she suddenly stopped and looked up. "You don't need your vault anymore, right?"

He couldn't think of any reason that he would. "Not really. Why?"

"Why don't you make that your enchanting room? Move your bench in there and all our gear. It's definitely big enough and it looks like you meant to put a vault door on that frame."

"Alright new plan." Kurt said. "Dinner, movie, bed, then tomorrow we see if Penny and Jay can get us a suitable door on that thing while we go find some materials for batteries." He grabbed Val and pulled her in for a kiss. "Thank you, Val, you beautiful and brilliant woman."

"Hmm what about me?" Kristi asked with a smirk.

Kurt turned to her. "Oh, you get yours after you help me move my bench down there." He said with a wink and got a snort of amusement in reply.

They finished their orders and sent Val out to pick it up while Kurt and Kristi surveyed how they could move everything. It was a hot debate if they wanted to take everything out of the benches and lockers first or just pick them up with everything still inside. In the end, Kurt lost the argument, and they decided to empty things before moving them. It thankfully wasn't nearly as tedious a problem as it would have been without the storage rings.

*****

"Oh, were back." Kurt said as he awoke in the forest.

"Indeed." His wolf said and they began the trip to the cave. Kurt was wondering why he didn't appear there but decided he didn't really need to know.

Kurt followed along. "By the way, the last time I was here, I didn't have any problems in the real world. No thrashing or moving in my sleep, nothing. Why?"

His wolf didn't even stop as it answered. "Two things. This is the real world and because I quit trying to take over your body."

"Hold up. What!?"

"Yes, that's why you would react in your body. The reason your visits were so short was because that was when your subconscious forced me out and woke you up. Your women waking you likely helped the process, but they also might have interrupted your subconscious, and I would have won."

Kurt stopped in his tracks. "You have to be fucking with me."

The wolf mirrored him and stopped, turning to face him before speaking again. "I am not. But I realized that the struggle is usele…Hueeeeeeeee."

The giant wolf stopped mid-word as Kurt slammed into it. He trapped his hind leg while getting his arms under its front legs and his hands around its neck. Using his startling speed and momentum, he bowled the wolf over onto its back and pinned it.

Kurt barred his fangs and growled, pinning the wolf's head to the ground and looked into its wide eyes. "You tried to kill me. You tried to use my mates against me!" He screamed, spittle flying as his jaws snapped, a hairs breadth from his wolf's throat. "WHY!"

For his part the wolf didn't even try to struggle. It knew that it was in a bad position and that Kurt was stronger. It knew everything about him after living in his head for the past many years. It also knew how badly it had fucked up in ever thinking it would end up winning the struggle.

"BECAUSE HE COMMANDS IT!" The wolf howled. "Because the Avatar put forth the curse on us! He is the reason we fight every day for our sanity, the reason we struggle with our two halves."

"What. Did. He. Do?" Kurt growled every word like its own sentence.

His wolf looked scared but at the same time… proud? "It will show you. But not today. Just know that he made sure only the worthy could claim his mantle and that we would never be tools of the gods again."

Kurt considered the words, and he briefly thought about forcing the issue. He also had no reason to believe the wolf was lying. He could smell its fear, and he could even feel in his blood that it had bowed to him as the superior entity.

"We shall see then." Was all Kurt said and climbed to his feet once more to continue his trek to the gallery. He noticed the wolf following behind, keeping a steady distance but never taking his eyes off him.

When Kurt reached the gallery, he went to the next panel in the row while his wolf went and sat in the corner. He wondered what he would see that night but didn't have to wait long as the section lit up with its strange back lighting.

The panel that lit this time showed the village, now with some different architecture but still easily recognized as rural. The scene then panned out and he saw a larger, walled cluster of buildings. It looked like the early stages of a walled city with smaller towns around it. He got the distinct impression that there were no werewolves in that city, they remained in the villages, at the edge of civilization and the wilds.

The next part showed that the cities grew and developed, sprawling and pushing everything out. The scene them zoomed back in to the edge of a village as the sun set and those lycans among them took their positions between humans and the darkness.

Monsters came, but they stayed back, keeping away from the boundary of light that was guarded by wolves. Occasionally a group of wolves would break from the boundary and attack a particularly dangerous monster or large groups of them.

"They are culling them." Kurt muttered. He knew that the wolves were acting as a sort of defense and prevention force. It made sense, it was easier to deal with problems before they became problems.

The third panel showed the monsters in much decreased numbers. They barely even ventured out of their holes or the safety of the shadows. This caused the humans to venture further afield thinking it was safe, only to be ambushed by the monsters that remained.

That was when he saw the Origin stepping out from the buildings. He had with him a host of wolves that moved through the village. The villagers showered them with gifts and praise as the passed, offering thanks and gratitude at every chance. The procession moved through the quaint streets until it reached the edge of the small village.

Kurt then saw the Origin, at the head of his army, step from the light into the darkness beyond. The scene then stopped there, fading as the wolves followed him and moved into the trees. All the while the villagers watched, and the city remained blissfully unaware.

Turning to the next panel, Kurt watched as it lit up and displayed the next scene. He felt the wolf come up to him and sit beside him. "Now begins the hunt." It said.

"Hmm?" Kurt asked as the first panel lit and he saw the wolves sweeping across the countryside. They organized like an army but moved like a wind moves through the trees. They were rigid where needed but flowing everywhere else as they hunted the monsters that dwelt in the darkest places.

"The first hunt." His wolf said then explained. "Or what is known as the first hunt. It was when the Origin led us from our towns and villages to take the fight to the monsters." He paused as the scene depicted several packs of werewolves encircling a mass of undead while their alphas took down a lesser devil.

"It was our shortest campaign, lasting only a few decades." He continued. The last scene showed what looked like an old map of the known world with a line of stylized wolf heads acting as a front as they swept across the land, pushing back against the dangers of the dark. He tried to get an idea of the region but only came up with somewhere in southeastern Europe or west Asia due to the inaccuracy in the map.

"Was it successful?" Kurt asked after the last scene faded and the next panel failed to light.

His wolf shrugged. "For a time. Understand that the monsters were here before us and will be here with us as long as there are places for them to come from and ways to get from there to here. There are some that manifest spontaneously even. Others still are summoned to this world by various means, pulled in from their home realms by the ignorant and the malicious peoples of this world."

"They will keep coming back then." He sighed.

The wolf nodded. "Yes, but this was more of a tone setting mission. It established that we guard the humans and that we of the blood will hunt that which harms them. This was his declaration to the higher beings that if they wouldn't do anything to protect mortals, then we would"

Kurt turned to the wolf, having had his fill of watching the scenes. "It never ends does it?"

"No, it is part of life." His wolf said. "The constant ebb and flow. If anything, I think it was better when we had the monsters."

"Why is that?" Kurt asked.

His wolf nodded to an earlier scene where humans stood along lycans. "Because it gave them something to fight and a clear place to fight them. The monsters were always on the outside. After we drove them from the lands, the monsters started coming from within."

Kurt knew exactly what the wolf was talking about. He had seen humans do horrible things to each other and he knew that there was no stopping the sufficiently deranged and determined. "What about the other races? The elves, dwarves, fey, and the rest?"

"They came to this land the same time the humans began the first of their civilizations. They may have been more advanced, but they also knew better than to mess with the natural order of the world. Many of them knew firsthand what happened when another group 'helped' you up."

Kurt didn't have any more questions. Well, he didn't have any more questions that he needed to know about at the moment. He already had a lot to consider and not just from the gallery but from his wolf as well. He bid farewell to his wolf and felt himself be pulled upward to consciousness, back to his part of the real world.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.