Esperanza and Estabon arived on Granada island via boat, the Mithran warrior still carrying the large red beast in her arms. His large stab wound was still open, bleeding freely even though it had been several hours and cure spells later. TK was unconscoius, but every few moments his face would twist into a grimace of pain.

" Why exactly are we here again? " Estabon questioned the woman.

Esperanza stepped off the boat and started walking for the priest temple. She hadn't stopped or turned her head even, yet answered,

" The priests of this temple can help. "

Estabon rolled his eyes and turned around, walking in another direction. He had decided to explore the island, never actually been here before.

She ran, full speed to the temple and kicked the large doors open. All eyes turned to the cat-like woman as she ran in with a beast dripping in blood. Most were so speechless their jaws hung open and didn't say a word. A man in a long white robe was the first to speak, his robe outlined with red, indicating him a white mage of the highest order.

" Obsidian..... What is the meaning of this intrusion!? Why have you brought weapons and..... Oh my..."

He had finally noticed that the red thing in her arms was a wolf type animal, covered in blood. Esperanza casted cure on him again to slow the bleeding, but it barely did enough to awaken Tak. He held a serious grimace on his face and looked around. He could tell by the white robes around the room and the type of building that he was in a place with white mages. He coughed up blood and spoke softly.

" I was.... stabbed... wound... won't close...," and as soon as he got his message out, he was out cold again.

The priest frowned and summoned two other priests with a hand signal. The younger man and woman came forth and bowed slightly in unison.

" You, fetch the blood sheet and the special mixture of altepa herbs. You, the transform and cursna scrolls. I've seen this type of wound before...."

The first returned with the sheet and herbs quickly, and Esperanza was lead to a small room, where Tak was quickly laid on the red sheet. The young female priestess gently applied the herbal remedy to the wound. They numbed the pain from the wound while slowing the bloodflow, but the wound continued to bleed a bit. The herbs effect would not last long.

" Yong, you know what's wrong with the wound if you know what can treat it. Why won't he stop bleeding? "

The high priest looked back at her and rubbed his bald head.

" It's a curse. Apparently he was stabbed with a cursed weapon, the effect has caused him to be unable to stop bleeding. The fact that he's still alive and breathing is amazing.... and....unfortunately.... " The priest stopped mid-sentence and thought for a moment.

" What do you mean unfortunately? Unfortunately what? " She curled her hand into a fist. She'd presumed the old man had gone crooked and wanted the red fur. She was wrong.

" We can't remove the curse as he is. Cursna's effects only work on humans and human type creatures. He is of the four legged. The transform spell must be cast in order to work. Come back in a day and night, and we'll see what we can do." Esperanza stared at the unconscious and grimacing red wolf, and walked out of the temple, covered in blood herself.

Well, I need to clean wolf blood off me anyway.....

Esperanza returned two hours later, slightly wet, having had nothing to dry herself with. Her clothing and her person had been wiped clean of blood, sweat, and other things she'd acquired during that battle from before. She slowly pushed one of the large doors open, producing a slight creek. She slipped in quietly so as not to produce the same shock as she had before. She walked quickly to the door containing the injured red wolf. She opened it, and found the room lit only by candles, and several mages gathered in a circle with the body of the red wolf laying on the floor.

All the mages had their eyes closed, and they were all holding hands with each other, except for two on each side of the High Priest, who rested their free hand on his shoulder. Apparently, they were about to cast one of the spells. The high priest was positioned so that she could clearly see over his shoulder into the scroll held in his hands, and he had just now began to read them loudly and clearly. As he read from it, the words written on the parchment began to glow, and the body of the wolf levitated from the ground, body at his side. The candles in the room were also affected, and glowed blue in color and seemed to rock back and forth in the dark room.

Esperanza watched in speechless amazement as the white mages/priests began to humm quietly and the High priest continued reading the incantations on the scroll. After about 5 minutes of reading from the scroll, Tak's body glowed a faint cyan, and then, the light seemed to grow and expand till it was blindingly bright, and all in the room had to cover their eyes.

A few moments later, the light faded, and Tak's body had taken a new shape on the floor. Esperanza could not see it however, the row of priests had prevented her from seeing anything on the floor. The high priest handed the scroll to a white mage, who just held onto it for the time being. He was handed back a different scroll, likely the aforementioned cursna scroll. His eyes darted over the scroll, as if he were skimming it, having practiced it before many times. He handed that scroll to another white mage and clasped his own hands together. He concentrated for a moment, and brought his arms down to his sides, but his wrists turned so that his hands were palm up.

He had his eyes closed, and the Mithran warrior moved around the circle, noticing that the old man had his eyes closed and was murmering something to himself. He raised his right arm quickly, and white energy in the form of bubbles rose from his feet to his hand, and then condensed into a brilliant, but not blinding light, which floated to the floor, touching Tak's wound.

The High Priest sighed, having been drained of most of his magical energies.

" The deed is done, you may all do as you wish. "

The white mages moved out the door past Esperanza, who waited for them to leave. When the final mage departed, and only Esperanza, The high priest and Tak were left in the room, the old man raised a brow and lit the lamp on the ceiling with a bit of black magic.

Esperanza cried out in shock, seeing Tak, naked and fully exposed on the red blanket, sound asleep. The wound was closed, but it left a large scar on the left side of his stomach in it's wake. Also, the hide from his previous form was lying next to Tak's body.

" He's..... human..... and....very..... "

" Naked? Hahah! I almost forgot, that happens with beast to human transformations. Yeah, you should probably leave while I get someone in here to clothe the boy. " The old man laughed and slapped her in the back with a strong arm, odd for such an old man. He hit her in the back so hard, catching her off guard, she stumbled out of the room. He closed the door behind her.

" This is officially the weirdest day of my life. " She proclaimed to herself, walking out of the temple.

Tak awoke with blurry eyes a few moments later, in no pain, which he found odd. He expected to feel a sting or something from a cure spell's unnatural healing. He sat up on his now human rump, and scratched the back of his ear with his foot. Something felt different however.....

He looked down at his feet.... to find them in human form! He gasped and looked around the room, stomping his feet on the ground to see if he was dreaming or something. No, this was no dream, he could feel the dried matt on his toes. He looked at his hands, which he found also to be human.

Okay.... I'm sitting here.... human... he looked down to find himself unrobed as most humans often appeared and naked.... so.... this is my body?!?! What the hell happened?!?!

Esperanza then entered, opened the door and closed it quickly, and Tak stood on all fours and charged at the old man, standing up on his human feet and pinning the old man to the wall.

" What the hell did you do to me? " he growled in an almost primal way. The young Mithran Samurai laughed and smiled warmly despite the ferocity towards her.

" What a nice way to treat someone who saved your life. Here tiger, brought you something. "

Tak stepped backwards, and the girl held out some clothing she'd brought the still naked Tak. Tak raised a brow and just looked at the clothing, and then looked at the floor.

" Oh, you don't know how to put on clothing.... Let me help you. "

Five minutes later of shuffling, and Esperanza was finally able to clothe the guy. She sighed and then laughed.

" Welll now..... that was .....That was a chore, wasn't it? "

TK blushed and laughed too. He'd never worn clothes before, having no need due to his fur, but it felt nice and warm. He liked it. Esperanza also handed TK a shield, and demonstrated how to strap it on his arm.

He copied her, and admired the decently sized shield. It was made out of fine Ebony, very strong wood with two metal circles reinforcing the shield. The lambda symbol was clearly printed in bright Crimson on the front. TK almost asked why she gave him such a nice shield, and where she'd gotten the clothing, but Esperanza spoke up faster than he could question.

" The old man outside made that armor of yours out of your previous form's fur. Odd how it didn't change with ya, but I guess it's a good thing. It's pretty damn resistant to fire too, and strong as hell. Oh, and the shield is just something I'd left here a while ago. Let's get the hell out of here. "

While they exited, TK saw himself in a mirror.......

<>

Not too shabby for a human. He chuckled inwardly and followed the girl out the large stone doors of the temple.