Alongside those who are sinful.

Chapter 10

They had spent three days in total with Kasma, learning his language bit by bit and word by word. It was a difficult language for the human mouth to speak, with many syllables and sounds proving tough or even impossible to pronounce.

Dietrich could tell Kasma to eat some meat, or even a vegetable. He could say "Hello, my name is Dietrich Fischer" to Kasma in Thrask tongue and the felid was able to understand him.

It was the little phrases and words, greetings and goodbyes, which led Dietrich to grow a small fondness for Kasma. It was not anything driven by desire or an ulterior motive, but a sense of curiosity and familiarity when being near the felid.

There was so much to learn and understand about him and his species and Dietrich had been left dissatisfied with his inability to study new topics during the war.

He understood that beneath all of the violent actions, bloodlust, and lethal abilities lied an inquisitive and calculating mind. He had once thought about what his future would have held if Germany did not wage war.

Perhaps he would have studied science.

Maybe he would have been an engineer or a doctor.

But the more time he spent thinking of what could have been, he realized that he would have been was bored.

He was having way too much fun as a sniper to regard what could have been, and quite frankly, he wasn't particularly interested in being anything else.

But, even in the absolutely psychotic job that he held, it appeared that his calculating and inquisitive mind might have a chance to appear and flourish after all.

"Such a twist in fate that allows me to do both of what I want!" Thought Dietrich. He watched as Kasma danced small wisps of flames around the tips of his fingers.

For quite some time, he had been displaying many of his magical capabilities, the most interesting of them his abilities with flames. He had produced a magical smokeless fire, which gave them warmth and light, and a way to stealthily cook the meat that they had which already wasn't.

The flames flickered and licked at the edges of his fingers with the movement of the air around them in the forest. It was dark out, with the moon shrouded by clouds. The only source of light was a small fire in which the five of them were basking.

Dietrich was laying on his side with his rifle resting against a low hanging branch of a tree that they were nesting under. The group had decided that the new location was to be their temporary home base.

It was a nice place, only half a kilometer from the bandit camp and a little up the mountain ranges which surrounded the area. They had bedded down beneath the great and old tree, which was growing over a partial slope on a hillside.

Hudson, Hiroshi, and Katya also laid around the fire, with Hudson already sleeping next to his flamethrower. Hiroshi had doffed his foliage, and presently shared the same state as his former Marine adversary. Katya sat and was braiding her hair into a single rope, though she had stated that she was going to sleep soon after.

That left Dietrich and Kasma to stay up if they wished. During the past few nights, Dietrich had noticed that, primarily, Kasma was subtly nervous when the sun went down.

No one else seemed to notice, or if they did they never brought it up, but Kasma would peer around, his yellow feline eyes darting all over with the natural sounds of the forest. His ears would move seemingly on their own, shifting to better hear every branch shaking or twig snapping.