After a series of the weirdest dreams he'd ever had, Kingsley had woken up in a secret laboratory. The first and second dreams had been pretty bad. He didn't feel like the second one was bad while he was dreaming, but that's what made it worse. It'd been fun, hurting people. Innocent people, girls, kids. That wasn't him.

What was him was running through lush jungles, dripping with life, thick snakes too large to be real, leaves broad enough to be a surfboard. Insects glittered like jewels. Waterfalls poured over rocky cliffs, and he knew which ones to jump from to plunge into the deepest, coldest pools. It was never alone, either. Only the Executioners worked solo. The Soldiers and Warriors stuck together, ran together, fought together, hunted together. Side by side, astride wargs that were were under them and also them. Even after they'd adapted, traded the dirt paths for sidewalks, it was the same feeling of together. The Hunt. The Pack. They kept packs of cigarettes from the Death Clan temples, the sacred smoke full of Fear and Visions, they dressed the same and hung out on street corners, and when challenged or just bored, they fought. That was the second dream. It stayed with him like a hangover, but was the killing at the end of the hunt that bothered him more than anything. It had all been people.

The first dream he'd just been scared. He didn't remember who he was then, either, but all there was to replace it was a nagging patch of nothing, like he wasn't even important enough for that. They'd told him only a few of them would survive, and they had to do whatever it took. He'd gotten scared. He'd screwed up, and gotten killed right off.

He'd liked the second dream better, and felt guilty about it.

The third dream felt like the first friendly voice he'd heard in a long, long time. It was young, like him, bright and tough and felt like a mate he'd grown up with, but when he reached to grasp his hand and hoped to remember a name, his grip had filled with a long, sharp point of light. The glow faded, and there was gold, and red.

He'd woken up in a bed which looked like it was from the Alien movies.

A pretty blonde girl had escorted him out of the secret lab, explained about where he'd be bunking, and dropped him off at a seaside cave. He was trying to stay positive, he'd been told he would have an adventure, and he was defo having one. He just wasn't expecting to have one that was like, so...complicated.

Right now he was mostly feeling alone.

The walls of the cave were rock, and in that were more glowing rocks, but he thought he heard a sound like the panting of a friendly dog, and a tail thumping against the ground.

"Yo, hey, anyone here?" Kingsley asked, giving the cave a nervous whistle.

But the cave was small. He could walk across it in a few steps. Ocean wind made a haunted noise outside the entrance. Part of the cave that was different from the rest, covered in leaves, same as the jungle from his dream. A crook, with roots wound through the shelves, and near there the thumping got louder. In each of the shelves was a glowing slab of rock.

"Man, if I pull on this and it's like, straight out of Jumanji-"

He reached to where the thumping was coming from, and all at once in his hand was it, him, a handsome red and gold spear that wasn't heavy at all, and was probably the most mad awesome thing he'd seen since coming here.

He got the impression of a kid his age, flexing their hands and looking at claws, but there was nothing to flex, there was nothing to look with except his eyes, and Wagura found himself long, and straight, and true, reshaped to only claw and fang.

"Woah," They said at the same time.

"Okay," said the friendly voice, "really weird doing this from...the other side? I'm- you're human, right?"

"Yeah, dude, I'm human. You're from War Clan, right?"

There was a long pause, and then an uncertain, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Kingsley said, more excited, "Me too. For, I don't know how long. It felt like a while. Dude. You're my partner, right?"

If Wagura had a tail, it would have given him a hopeful swish. "I'm here to help your pack. I'm Wagura."

"Wags, my dude! Me too! Can you like, read my mind?"

"I can," Wags realized, "Brother, can you read MY mind?"

Kingsley thought really hard. Bro! I totally can!

If he could have taken him by the shoulders, he could. Instead he gave the spear an excited shake. Both of them perked up, the mutual excitement catching, and both of them thought that maybe...everything was going to be okay.