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Coldera

Shun and Holo escaped from the capital city of Colderom, where the king’s castle is located, and where they had been held as captives for experimentation. Now, they both headed in the direction of Tilapia, a port city situated to the East of the capital. Tilapia is the second largest city in Coldera, while Colderom is the first. Of course, they did not know where they were headed and just aimlessly walked on. They both hadn’t a clue where to go or what to do. Holo had wanted to find his parents however he believed it would prove too difficult as he couldn’t even remember their faces. It was less of a goal and more of a pipe dream.

"Shun...I was just thinking...but aren’t people going to be alarmed at your appearance?!"

"?!" Shun showed a shocked expression on his face.

Holo crossed his arms thinking deeply while riding on top of Shun. His eyes then widened because he was struck with an idea, "I know! Let’s get a disguise for you and get some clothes for both of us!... Right, where are we meant to get clothes? And there won’t be any clothes fitting your size."

Shun then slowly stopped in his tracks and gently got Holo off his back. Just then Shun began to glow white and transformed into a human. His hair was of a medium length and coloured silvery white and his skin was a ghostly pale. He had quite defined and lean muscles but the most prominent feature of his face had to be his red crimson eyes. Holo hadn’t seen many humans, but he could tell for certain that Shun didn’t look like other ordinary people.

"Wait...you can do that?! Never mind that! There’s another problem."

Shun tilted his head with a completely straight face.

Holo pointed at him, "You’re wearing no clothes idiot!"

Shun looked at him with a confused look.

"Don’t look at me all confused like you don’t know what clothes are!... I guess we’ll have to steal some."

Even though Shun was completely naked and amidst the cold weather of Coldera, he seemed completely unaffected, whereas Holo was shivering and hugging himself as he traversed in front of Shun.

"Brrrr–We need to find some place to stay...we don’t have any money as well...we might freeze to death!" He hugged himself while shivering and chattering his teeth. He turned to see Shun completely unaffected.

"...I might freeze to death." Holo corrected himself.

Shun stared at him with a blank expression.

They both made their way out of the forests and found a small town in the distance.

"There! We can get clothes and shelter over there." Holo said excitedly while pointing at the village. "Gah!...you’re so right. Like hell they’ll give us anything for free. The people in this land are cruel, aren’t they?" Holo’s face became more serious.

"Ah! I don’t mean you of course! You freed me after all and you seem nice!" He gave a big grin to Shun. "Alright then! Let’s go and steal some clothes for both of us!"

By the time they had made their way to this small village, it had already become dark and nobody seemed to be outside their house, it was very dark but Holo could see perfectly as he had a very good vision even in the dark.

Carefully and quietly the swung the door open, which surprising hadn’t been locked, and explored this two-story house.

"Shun...you take the upstairs and try to find some clothes, I’ll search the downstairs. Maybe I can find us some food too." He had a mischievous expression on his face.

Shun went upstairs in search of clothes.

"Now...let’s see...ah! The kitchen." He found his way to the kitchen however there was barely any food and just enough ingredients for one person. Holo thought to himself that he can’t take this if there’s only so little. "Damm it....we’ll just get some food some other way. Ah! I know, Shun’s strong right? He can just hunt us some food. Hehe, perfect!"

Just then Holo’s ear stood right up, reacting to a scream that seemed to have come from an old man. "Eep!" He said while jumping.

"Gah! What are you doing in my house? Get out!!" He heard an old man’s hoarse voice frantically speaking from upstairs.

Holo then rushed upstairs to where the noise was coming from and saw Shun, who was half-dressed in simple brown trousers, waving his arms frantically at the elderly man.

"Ah...he seems to have found some clothes. Good for him. Wait! What am I saying? I have to sort this situation out!"

The elderly man turned to Holo, "And who are you?! What are you two doing breaking into my house?!"

"We’re sorry old man for breaking into your house! All we need is clothes and we’ll leave, promise!"

The elderly man surprisingly calmed down a little and looked at the skinny and dirty Holo, who was dressed in rags. He then thought for a moment and spoke, "It’s wrong to break into someone’s house and steal their clothes." He stroked his long white beard and closed his eyes.

"Yes, we know...sorry." Holo gave a little bow with her ears flopped down.

"So...ask for permission then." He opened one of his eyes while smirking.

Holo’s face immediately brightened up and his ears popped back up, "Really, mister?! Then...can we please have some clothes for both of us! Ah! And maybe let us stay here for a bit!" He wagged his tail from side to side.

"Haha...you really don’t hold back do you? Well, it’s fine if you stay here. I’m the only one here after all so it’d be nice for some extra company around."

"...Mister, aren’t you a little too trusting in letting strangers stay here?"

"Hey!...maybe, I am but you don’t seem like bad peo-ah! You have wolf ears! How neat!" He then turned to Shun, "...And you have quite the strange appearance with red eyes and white hair. So, tell me what both of your names are?"

"Ah, right! We should introduce ourselves, my name is Holo! This one is..." he tilted his head, "I don’t know actually...Hehe."

"Then why don’t you ask him? Hey, what’s your name?"

"Ah! You see he doesn’t speak...I think he’s a mute maybe?"

"I see...well we should call him something. I know! Why don’t you give him a name until you find out his real one? A temporary one?"

Holo’s forehead creased as he thought deeply. His tail was vigorously shaking as he was doing so. "A name that fits...Sorry, I can’t think of one!" He stuck out his tongue. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"No matter, I’ll just teach you both how to write and read. Then we can find out his name and you’ll both pick up an important skill, especially for a mute." The old man suggested while thinking to himself that neither of them probably knew how to write or read.

"It’s late now and I need some sleep. There are two spare rooms you both can use. Ah! There’s a bathroom as well if you want to clean yourselves up. In fact, make sure you both clean up, I can smell you both!"

"Yes, mister!"

"And stop calling me mister. I have a name, it’s Gyvert. You can call me Gyvert."

"Thank you Mister Gyvert!"

"Gah! Just go already." He waved his hand with an irritated face. Shun and Holo made their way out, and they both found clothes that fit them and washed up. Soon after they went to their rooms to sleep.

However, Holo decided to walk into Shun’s room in the middle of the night and sleep with him. He couldn’t sleep on his own in the dark, Holo felt scared. Scared that he would be taken away once he slept. He found comfort in Shun, who freed him from a life of torturous experiments. He felt safe.

Shun had woken up to see Holo curled up on his side, sleeping peacefully. It startled him at first, but then he smiled at the sight of Holo resting peacefully and drifted off into sleep himself.

Soon the sun came up and both of them headed downstairs to see some food set out on the table for three. They saw the old man sitting on a chair, "Both of you come and eat."

"How is there so much food?! Last I checked, there was barely any ingredie-"

Mister Gyvert gave a sharp glance at Holo, "What were you doing rummaging around my kitchen?!"

"Eek!" He hid behind Shun.

"Gah! No matter." He said while pointing a fork at them, "Both of you sit and eat. You both look too skinny!"

They both sat around the table and on it was a delicious-smelling meat as well as hot soup and golden-brown fluffy loaves. Holo ripped a piece out and ate it. It was airy, crunchy and tasted so warm.

Holo started tearing up once he took the first bite and tears soon began streaming down.

"Hey! Is something wrong?!" The old man quickly got out of the chair.

"Its jush sho’goof!" Holo tried wiping his joyous tears away but they just kept pouring out. "I’m sho happy righ’nowf!"

The old man sat back in his seat and smiled, "I see. Take your time eating Holo."

At such a young age he was taken captive and cruelly experimented on. He only ever knew the taste of nasty gruel with the occasional stale bread. This had been the first time that Holo had eaten a nice and proper meal.