Dear Wolf,
I sincerely hope you’ll attend my fourteenth birthday party on the fourth of December. The venue will take place in the Didot family’s main ballroom. I expect to see you there.
Yours truly,
Annabelle Didot
Wolf read the letter and suddenly felt nervous. It was as if the party was in three days, or even three hours, not half a year. In his nervousness, he read it several dozen times, and to his terror, the content remained the same.
What do I do? Calm down. Calm down first, Wolf panicked, then breathed in and out several times.
At least she didn’t ask me to be the head chef for the party. Wolf smiled mirthlessly. If he was a chef, at least he could skip the next question which popped up. What kind of present should I get her? She’s a girl. I’ve never bought presents for girls. Maybe I should ask Big brother?
But as soon as South came to mind, Wolf dismissed the idea. When he was about to enter Mage Academy, he'd asked South for advice on what to do with the homeless and the hungry, but the answer was… Bad. Bad is a good word for South’s proposal.
Since he couldn’t come up with anything, Wolf eventually decided to ask Wayde and Matilda for their thoughts. After reading the letter a couple more times, Wolf placed it back in the envelope and then stored it in his Ring of Holding. In his heart, Wolf felt this letter was one of his treasures. He just didn’t want to entertain and confront the important question - why?
With Wayde missing in action, Wolf dashed to Anna’s and Matilda’s room. He knocked on the door nervously, and after a couple of extremely long moments, Matilda opened the door.
“Hey Matilda. Is Anna in?” Wolf asked nervously.
Matilda blushed, carefully examining the floor tiles.
“She’s… busy right now. Can you come back in half an hour?” she whispered.
Wolf then lowered his voice. “Can she hear us?”
Matilda shook her head, showing slight confusion in her eyes.
“Great. I wanted to ask you something,” Wolf said, then looked left and right to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. “What should I buy Anna for her birthday?”
Wolf whispered the last bit as he stood up on his toes and leaned towards Matilda. Matilda was a bit short, but still good half a head taller than Wolf.
Hearing the question, Matilda placed a finger on her chin, seemingly deep in thought.
“Well, dresses and jewelry are all nice presents for a woman,” she began. “We’re already adults, so you can’t get her any toys or dolls. Even though I prefer getting a nice doll over yet another emerald necklace just because they match my eyes.
“Hmmm, she would love to get a ring from you,” Matilda said slowly, then her face turned stern. “But don’t buy it unless you’re serious about it!”
For the first time since the initial scream when Wolf had first laid his eyes on Matilda, the girl raised her voice. This time, however, she did it threateningly. After realizing what she’d said, Matilda blushed and covered her face with her hands in embarrassment.
Unless I’m serious about it? Wolf took a moment before finally understanding what Matilda meant.
“Um, Anna and I… We are… We’re just friends. Right?” As Wolf said this jumbled up string of words that could pass for a question, he started blushing.
“I don’t know what you guys are,” Matilda said. “Only the two of you know that. I’ve told you what you wanted to know. Now go away. If you want, you may return in half an hour and have a chat with Anna.”
With those words, the young lady gently closed the door.
A moment later, the door abruptly jerked open. “Also, thank you kindly for your help with the exam. Thanks to your tutoring I managed to place second in class, after a certain someone.”
Before Wolf got to say anything, the door closed once more. The young man, however, barely heard Matilda’s words of thanks. He was currently lost in his thoughts.
Only Anna and I know what we are? he thought and gulped. Well, I don’t know. We are friends, right? Maybe I should ask Wayde? He should know more about these things. Or South? No, definitely not South. He would just say that Anna is my whore. Gah! What should I do? Should I come back in half an hour or not?
Wolf just stood there with a stupid expression on his face, trying to figure out a conundrum which good old intelligence could never unravel. Like that, half an hour of his life passed. During those thirty minutes, Wolf simply stood in front of the closed door, staring at a particularly interesting wood pattern. The increased speed at which Wolf could solve magic related problems didn’t help him one bit. In fact, all it did was make him feel stupider.
Suddenly, the door opened, and Anna ran straight into Wolf at full speed.
Anna was a good head taller than him now. So the moment she bodily slammed into him, Wolf’s face was buried in Anna’s chest.
Wolf awakened his senses, stretching the moment and feeling everything even more clearly.
What he felt was a bra padded with socks pressing against his face as the smell of chamomile soap and the sweet scent of a young woman filled his nose.
Anna’s experience, on the other hand, was considerably less pleasant. She felt as if she’d run into a brick wall. Fortunately, Wolf was shorter than her, so she didn’t hit her face.
Unexpectedly, Wolf was so deep in thought and engrossed in processing these new sensations that, instead of Anna bouncing back, it was he that fell down on the floor.
The boy was so stiff that he fell down as straight as a plank. He didn’t even bend his knees a bit as he hit the floor like a block of wood falling over.
A dull thud resounded in the hallway. The chaperone and the hallway monitor immediately started running to see what was going on, and the batting of their footsteps echoed through the corridor.
Anna worriedly looked at Wolf. That sickening sound caused her to shudder and her skin crawl with goosebumps. Wolf’s head struck the tiles so hard she was afraid his skull had cracked.
Fortunately, the very next moment, Wolf got up with a vacant expression. He acted as if nothing had happened, making Anna want to scream at him for worrying her so much.
“Shrimp, why were you standing in front of my door?” she hissed, clenching her teeth in the effort not to shout.
Wolf frowned a bit and looked at her straight in the face. “Stop calling me that. I hate it when you call me that.”
Anna knew very well Wolf’s height was his sore spot. What she didn’t know was that because of Archibald’s magic Wolf appeared ten whole centimeters taller than he actually was. And even heightened, he was still a shrimp. Unfortunately, Wolf was painfully aware of the fact that his shrimp-like size was already inflated.
“All right. Now tell me, what were you doing in front of my door?” She asked seriously, while waving away the incoming chaperone and hallway monitor.
They were outside private quarters, and the rules didn’t require anyone to oversee them.
“Do you want me to give you a ring?” Wolf asked without thinking, and a moment later smacked his mouth so hard he almost knocked himself back down. What the fuck are you saying?!
Hearing such a direct indiscreet question, Anna blinked. A moment later her face turned crimson.
“Maybe? I— I need to think about this,” she stuttered in a fluster, then escaped back into her room and slammed the door in Wolf’s face.
Wolf stood there in a daze for gods know how long before heading back to his room.
Along the way he cursed himself for being stupid, and he cursed Anna for running away like that, leaving behind a single maybe.
Along the way, Wolf assaulted random, and completely innocent, masonry to vent his frustration. He felt like screaming more than once. But if he did, he could end up with a fine for disturbing the public order of the academy.
The bastards at the top did everything in their power to rob you of your hard earned Academic Credits.
Wolf opened the door to his dorm room with a bang, startling Wayde. The young man jumped from the couch, dropping the book he was reading. Wolf caught the title at a glance and under normal circumstances, he would’ve taken a moment to scoff at it. Now, however, he had better things to do.
“Wolf, you’re back! I wanted to ask you a couple of things!” Wayde said after recalling that his roommate rejected the concept of doors and instead used the common room door as a loud instrument for dramatic entrances or something you left wide open with a sign saying ‘burglars welcome’.
“I want to ask something first?” Wolf said weakly.
He opened his mouth, however, even before he got to say anything, his face was red.
Seeing Wolf in trouble, Wayde nodded. “Sure, ask away.” Not that I can know anything you don’t already know the answer to, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
“Could you explain some things about relationships between men and women to me?” Wolf asked seriously, with a face as red as humanly or elvenly possible.
There was so much blood in there that Wayde had a feeling that he could squeeze it out by pinching Wolf’s cheek.
“Relationships?” Wayde repeated, then paused for a moment.
This was a great chance for him! Wayde got up and walked over to Wolf. The youth hooked his arm around Wolf’s neck and tried to drag him away. He ended up nearly spraining his back, since Wolf didn’t budge.
“You found the right man to ask!” Wayde said boastfully, ignoring the soreness of his spine. “Now, listen…”
That evening, one thirteen-year-old shared his worldly wisdom and vast experience with the opposite sex with another twelve-year-old. Oddly enough, a good chunk of Wayde’s advice was decent. The other chunk, however, was... Well, it was what one would expect from two kids talking.
Deep down, Wayde wasn’t happy with what this conversation meant. Even though he had given up on Anna, that didn’t make this talk any less painful. Still, he could only do his best given the situation.
Suddenly, he remembered asking his mother about the whole thing with Wolf and Anna. The woman answered by quoting an old saying. “Bros before hoes,” she said seriously.
With those words in mind, Wayde continued talking, his greater goal being more important than minor setbacks such as this.
The next day, instead of leaving for a mission, Wolf went out shopping.
He went from one jeweler’s shop to another in search of a ring he would give Anna. Wayde had explained last night that ‘Maybe’ means ‘Yes and if you need a picture drawn I’ll beat you up’.
He said women were strange about this sort of thing.
Wayde explained that even an adamant ‘No’ could sometimes mean ‘Yes’, depending on the way the woman looked when she’d said it.
After going through two dozen jewelers in Nobles’ District, Wolf concluded several things. Price tags varied greatly. They went from a gold piece all the way to three to four platinum pieces.
The most expensive ones were inlaid with useless shiny stones and gems. To Wolf, they all looked way too gaudy, and in his mind they were a poor match to Anna’s natural grace.
Finally, in one shop, Wolf found a ring that was pleasing to his eye.
The band was very thin, made from mithril. The craftsmanship was exquisite and left an impression that the jeweler had taken two vines with subtle leaves, intertwined them and then turned them into mithril.
The ring was elegant, simple, the material it was made from was rarer, more durable and more expensive than gold. And most importantly, it matched really well with Wolf’s sword.
Well, something like that was important only to Wolf, but at the moment his opinion mattered. The ring was on the cheaper side, considering its quality. It cost only eighty gold coins.
“You know that thing’s price would be at least double if that style was popular,” the jeweler said dejectedly.
He had bought that ring years ago and it was collecting dust ever since.
“That’s the style used for engagement rings over in the elven lands,” the fat man explained. “I bought it from a merchant who went to the Empire of Elf years ago. A beautiful thing, it was. I thought I was going to make a fortune off of it, but nobody even spared it a glance because of how expensive, yet plain, it was.”
When Wolf heard that this was an engagement ring he blushed, but at least now he knew why he found the ring so pleasing to the eye. Over the years, he’d noticed that he had a tendency of being attracted to the elegance of elven items. Consequently, he found the ones made by humans to be too rough and boorish.
Wolf happily paid the gold and pocketed the ring.
On his way back to Mage Academy, Wolf hummed in self satisfaction. He was confident he bought an excellent gift for Anna and that she would love it.
The only thing he still hesitated about was whether to show it to Wayde. He wanted to brag about how fine his taste was, but the man hated elves with a passion and could probably recognize the ring’s style.
Eventually, Wolf decided against it. The merchant was kind enough to wrap it up nicely, and Wolf didn’t want to mess it up. He didn’t notice he was acting irrationally. With the help of magic, Wolf could easily recreate the packaging as long as he left it mostly intact.
Anna, Matilda, Wayde and Wolf gathered to enjoy their already standard lunch appointment at the cafeteria. Unexpectedly, Barbara chose to join them, even though their little study group was technically dismissed.
Over the course of the meal, whenever Wolf looked at Anna, the young lady kept blushing and avoiding his gaze.
Funnily enough, whenever she stole a glance at him, it was Wolf’s turn to look away. No matter how much he wanted, he couldn’t meet her gaze.
The others naturally noticed this strange atmosphere. Wayde and Matilda pretended they saw nothing and ate their food quietly. Barbara, on the other hand, started teasing Anna in a hushed voice.
“So, Lady Annabelle, are you planning to retire as a Mage and become a mother of a wolf pack?” Barbara whispered jokingly, causing Wolf to choke on a spoonful of peas.
As for everyone else’s reactions… While Wolf was attempting to suicide with his food, Wayde bit his lip and looked away. Matilda blushed and covered her mouth but failed to stifle a giggle. Lastly, Anna’s face turned a deep shade of crimson before she bolted up and ran away.
Dear Wolf,
I sincerely hope you’ll attend my fourteenth birthday party on the fourth of December. The venue will take place in the Didot family’s main ballroom. I expect to see you there.
Yours truly,
Annabelle Didot
Wolf read the letter and suddenly felt nervous. It was as if the party was in three days, or even three hours, not half a year. In his nervousness, he read it several dozen times, and to his terror, the content remained the same.
What do I do? Calm down. Calm down first, Wolf panicked, then breathed in and out several times.
At least she didn’t ask me to be the head chef for the party. Wolf smiled mirthlessly. If he was a chef, at least he could skip the next question which popped up. What kind of present should I get her? She’s a girl. I’ve never bought presents for girls. Maybe I should ask Big brother?
But as soon as South came to mind, Wolf dismissed the idea. When he was about to enter Mage Academy, he'd asked South for advice on what to do with the homeless and the hungry, but the answer was… Bad. Bad is a good word for South’s proposal.
Since he couldn’t come up with anything, Wolf eventually decided to ask Wayde and Matilda for their thoughts. After reading the letter a couple more times, Wolf placed it back in the envelope and then stored it in his Ring of Holding. In his heart, Wolf felt this letter was one of his treasures. He just didn’t want to entertain and confront the important question - why?
With Wayde missing in action, Wolf dashed to Anna’s and Matilda’s room. He knocked on the door nervously, and after a couple of extremely long moments, Matilda opened the door.
“Hey Matilda. Is Anna in?” Wolf asked nervously.
Matilda blushed, carefully examining the floor tiles.
“She’s… busy right now. Can you come back in half an hour?” she whispered.
Wolf then lowered his voice. “Can she hear us?”
Matilda shook her head, showing slight confusion in her eyes.
“Great. I wanted to ask you something,” Wolf said, then looked left and right to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. “What should I buy Anna for her birthday?”
Wolf whispered the last bit as he stood up on his toes and leaned towards Matilda. Matilda was a bit short, but still good half a head taller than Wolf.
Hearing the question, Matilda placed a finger on her chin, seemingly deep in thought.
“Well, dresses and jewelry are all nice presents for a woman,” she began. “We’re already adults, so you can’t get her any toys or dolls. Even though I prefer getting a nice doll over yet another emerald necklace just because they match my eyes.
“Hmmm, she would love to get a ring from you,” Matilda said slowly, then her face turned stern. “But don’t buy it unless you’re serious about it!”
For the first time since the initial scream when Wolf had first laid his eyes on Matilda, the girl raised her voice. This time, however, she did it threateningly. After realizing what she’d said, Matilda blushed and covered her face with her hands in embarrassment.
Unless I’m serious about it? Wolf took a moment before finally understanding what Matilda meant.
“Um, Anna and I… We are… We’re just friends. Right?” As Wolf said this jumbled up string of words that could pass for a question, he started blushing.
“I don’t know what you guys are,” Matilda said. “Only the two of you know that. I’ve told you what you wanted to know. Now go away. If you want, you may return in half an hour and have a chat with Anna.”
With those words, the young lady gently closed the door.
A moment later, the door abruptly jerked open. “Also, thank you kindly for your help with the exam. Thanks to your tutoring I managed to place second in class, after a certain someone.”
Before Wolf got to say anything, the door closed once more. The young man, however, barely heard Matilda’s words of thanks. He was currently lost in his thoughts.
Only Anna and I know what we are? he thought and gulped. Well, I don’t know. We are friends, right? Maybe I should ask Wayde? He should know more about these things. Or South? No, definitely not South. He would just say that Anna is my whore. Gah! What should I do? Should I come back in half an hour or not?
Wolf just stood there with a stupid expression on his face, trying to figure out a conundrum which good old intelligence could never unravel. Like that, half an hour of his life passed. During those thirty minutes, Wolf simply stood in front of the closed door, staring at a particularly interesting wood pattern. The increased speed at which Wolf could solve magic related problems didn’t help him one bit. In fact, all it did was make him feel stupider.
Suddenly, the door opened, and Anna ran straight into Wolf at full speed.
Anna was a good head taller than him now. So the moment she bodily slammed into him, Wolf’s face was buried in Anna’s chest.
Wolf awakened his senses, stretching the moment and feeling everything even more clearly.
What he felt was a bra padded with socks pressing against his face as the smell of chamomile soap and the sweet scent of a young woman filled his nose.
Anna’s experience, on the other hand, was considerably less pleasant. She felt as if she’d run into a brick wall. Fortunately, Wolf was shorter than her, so she didn’t hit her face.
Unexpectedly, Wolf was so deep in thought and engrossed in processing these new sensations that, instead of Anna bouncing back, it was he that fell down on the floor.
The boy was so stiff that he fell down as straight as a plank. He didn’t even bend his knees a bit as he hit the floor like a block of wood falling over.
A dull thud resounded in the hallway. The chaperone and the hallway monitor immediately started running to see what was going on, and the batting of their footsteps echoed through the corridor.
Anna worriedly looked at Wolf. That sickening sound caused her to shudder and her skin crawl with goosebumps. Wolf’s head struck the tiles so hard she was afraid his skull had cracked.
Fortunately, the very next moment, Wolf got up with a vacant expression. He acted as if nothing had happened, making Anna want to scream at him for worrying her so much.
“Shrimp, why were you standing in front of my door?” she hissed, clenching her teeth in the effort not to shout.
Wolf frowned a bit and looked at her straight in the face. “Stop calling me that. I hate it when you call me that.”
Anna knew very well Wolf’s height was his sore spot. What she didn’t know was that because of Archibald’s magic Wolf appeared ten whole centimeters taller than he actually was. And even heightened, he was still a shrimp. Unfortunately, Wolf was painfully aware of the fact that his shrimp-like size was already inflated.
“All right. Now tell me, what were you doing in front of my door?” She asked seriously, while waving away the incoming chaperone and hallway monitor.
They were outside private quarters, and the rules didn’t require anyone to oversee them.
“Do you want me to give you a ring?” Wolf asked without thinking, and a moment later smacked his mouth so hard he almost knocked himself back down. What the fuck are you saying?!
Hearing such a direct indiscreet question, Anna blinked. A moment later her face turned crimson.
“Maybe? I— I need to think about this,” she stuttered in a fluster, then escaped back into her room and slammed the door in Wolf’s face.
Wolf stood there in a daze for gods know how long before heading back to his room.
Along the way he cursed himself for being stupid, and he cursed Anna for running away like that, leaving behind a single maybe.
Along the way, Wolf assaulted random, and completely innocent, masonry to vent his frustration. He felt like screaming more than once. But if he did, he could end up with a fine for disturbing the public order of the academy.
The bastards at the top did everything in their power to rob you of your hard earned Academic Credits.
Wolf opened the door to his dorm room with a bang, startling Wayde. The young man jumped from the couch, dropping the book he was reading. Wolf caught the title at a glance and under normal circumstances, he would’ve taken a moment to scoff at it. Now, however, he had better things to do.
“Wolf, you’re back! I wanted to ask you a couple of things!” Wayde said after recalling that his roommate rejected the concept of doors and instead used the common room door as a loud instrument for dramatic entrances or something you left wide open with a sign saying ‘burglars welcome’.
“I want to ask something first?” Wolf said weakly.
He opened his mouth, however, even before he got to say anything, his face was red.
Seeing Wolf in trouble, Wayde nodded. “Sure, ask away.” Not that I can know anything you don’t already know the answer to, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
“Could you explain some things about relationships between men and women to me?” Wolf asked seriously, with a face as red as humanly or elvenly possible.
There was so much blood in there that Wayde had a feeling that he could squeeze it out by pinching Wolf’s cheek.
“Relationships?” Wayde repeated, then paused for a moment.
This was a great chance for him! Wayde got up and walked over to Wolf. The youth hooked his arm around Wolf’s neck and tried to drag him away. He ended up nearly spraining his back, since Wolf didn’t budge.
“You found the right man to ask!” Wayde said boastfully, ignoring the soreness of his spine. “Now, listen…”
That evening, one thirteen-year-old shared his worldly wisdom and vast experience with the opposite sex with another twelve-year-old. Oddly enough, a good chunk of Wayde’s advice was decent. The other chunk, however, was... Well, it was what one would expect from two kids talking.
Deep down, Wayde wasn’t happy with what this conversation meant. Even though he had given up on Anna, that didn’t make this talk any less painful. Still, he could only do his best given the situation.
Suddenly, he remembered asking his mother about the whole thing with Wolf and Anna. The woman answered by quoting an old saying. “Bros before hoes,” she said seriously.
With those words in mind, Wayde continued talking, his greater goal being more important than minor setbacks such as this.
The next day, instead of leaving for a mission, Wolf went out shopping.
He went from one jeweler’s shop to another in search of a ring he would give Anna. Wayde had explained last night that ‘Maybe’ means ‘Yes and if you need a picture drawn I’ll beat you up’.
He said women were strange about this sort of thing.
Wayde explained that even an adamant ‘No’ could sometimes mean ‘Yes’, depending on the way the woman looked when she’d said it.
After going through two dozen jewelers in Nobles’ District, Wolf concluded several things. Price tags varied greatly. They went from a gold piece all the way to three to four platinum pieces.
The most expensive ones were inlaid with useless shiny stones and gems. To Wolf, they all looked way too gaudy, and in his mind they were a poor match to Anna’s natural grace.
Finally, in one shop, Wolf found a ring that was pleasing to his eye.
The band was very thin, made from mithril. The craftsmanship was exquisite and left an impression that the jeweler had taken two vines with subtle leaves, intertwined them and then turned them into mithril.
The ring was elegant, simple, the material it was made from was rarer, more durable and more expensive than gold. And most importantly, it matched really well with Wolf’s sword.
Well, something like that was important only to Wolf, but at the moment his opinion mattered. The ring was on the cheaper side, considering its quality. It cost only eighty gold coins.
“You know that thing’s price would be at least double if that style was popular,” the jeweler said dejectedly.
He had bought that ring years ago and it was collecting dust ever since.
“That’s the style used for engagement rings over in the elven lands,” the fat man explained. “I bought it from a merchant who went to the Empire of Elf years ago. A beautiful thing, it was. I thought I was going to make a fortune off of it, but nobody even spared it a glance because of how expensive, yet plain, it was.”
When Wolf heard that this was an engagement ring he blushed, but at least now he knew why he found the ring so pleasing to the eye. Over the years, he’d noticed that he had a tendency of being attracted to the elegance of elven items. Consequently, he found the ones made by humans to be too rough and boorish.
Wolf happily paid the gold and pocketed the ring.
On his way back to Mage Academy, Wolf hummed in self satisfaction. He was confident he bought an excellent gift for Anna and that she would love it.
The only thing he still hesitated about was whether to show it to Wayde. He wanted to brag about how fine his taste was, but the man hated elves with a passion and could probably recognize the ring’s style.
Eventually, Wolf decided against it. The merchant was kind enough to wrap it up nicely, and Wolf didn’t want to mess it up. He didn’t notice he was acting irrationally. With the help of magic, Wolf could easily recreate the packaging as long as he left it mostly intact.
Anna, Matilda, Wayde and Wolf gathered to enjoy their already standard lunch appointment at the cafeteria. Unexpectedly, Barbara chose to join them, even though their little study group was technically dismissed.
Over the course of the meal, whenever Wolf looked at Anna, the young lady kept blushing and avoiding his gaze.
Funnily enough, whenever she stole a glance at him, it was Wolf’s turn to look away. No matter how much he wanted, he couldn’t meet her gaze.
The others naturally noticed this strange atmosphere. Wayde and Matilda pretended they saw nothing and ate their food quietly. Barbara, on the other hand, started teasing Anna in a hushed voice.
“So, Lady Annabelle, are you planning to retire as a Mage and become a mother of a wolf pack?” Barbara whispered jokingly, causing Wolf to choke on a spoonful of peas.
As for everyone else’s reactions… While Wolf was attempting to suicide with his food, Wayde bit his lip and looked away. Matilda blushed and covered her mouth but failed to stifle a giggle. Lastly, Anna’s face turned a deep shade of crimson before she bolted up and ran away.
