“All right,” Alex said as he saw that Amanda was ready to listen to his tale, “I shall begin. . .
Even before the time of the First Demon King, our people have already been living in the forest. We – the Werebeasts – along with the other non-humans and half-humans lived in the vast forest that was provided by the Earth Mother. Each race was given portions of the forest to govern, maintain, and protect. Of course, given that each portion was equally abundant to the rest of the forest, the races mostly only tended to themselves. But of course, that abundance was short-lived.“The Races started to multiply and we started to need more and more resources, and requiredmore land. That was when the races started to think about expanding. Although there weretensions, there wasn’t really any real threat by then. There were still enough spaces between the territories. I bet the gods have thought about that.&lThe Demon King wreaked havoc on the whole continent around the great forest during his time. It took the humans about a century to actually rebuild their cities and another 50 years for the cities to be the thriving and busy places that they are now. After almost 500 years, the humans have almost forgotten about the pain of the experience and it has only become a part of their stories, their legends, and the experience has been reduced to nothing but bedtime stories for children.Humans desired nothing but peace after the Great War. Although they had reservations towards the other races that joined the Demon King’s army, they were too busy rebuilding the lives that they had very little energy to discriminate against other races. But as the human cities improved, and their lives became better, their hatred towards the other races resurfaced, and from the moment their empires grew they have begun to treat the nonhuman races poorly.For decades, the nonh
“Have you come to give me an update in your research about the Ardwhatchamacallit?” theEmperor asked the steward as he entered.“Adhradh Dorcha – you really need to remember that name,” the Steward replied, “And yes, quite an interesting find indeed.”“What is it? Tell me!” the Emperor asked like a child.“Ok. This is really quite an amazing find and I am pretty sure that you will change your mind about the whole tale once you hear me out,” the steward explained.“Just say it already, don’t leave me hanging!” the Emperor replied like a child in tantrums.“Alright, here goes,” the steward replied and explained what he found out about the AdhradhDorcha and the Demon King – about what happened after the fall of the Demon King and the artifact that has been lost to the ages.The Emperor’s mou
“Do you have any news about the human soldiers?” The Werewolf elder asked the leader of thescouts.“Yes,” The scout leader replied and continued, “The scouts reported that the humans seem to be looking for some sort of a lost artifact. They said they heard the humans talking about the said artifact to from the time of the Demon King and that maybe-” The scout paused, hesitating to continue the report.“What’s the matter?” the elder asked, “carry on.”“Well,” the scout leader replied and cleared his throat, “They say that maybe we have the artifact and we are hiding it.”“Hmmm. . .” the elder merely hummed and remained silent for a bit, “Interesting. This couldbecome troublesome.” There was a long silence. The scout leader is waiting for orders. He knows that the elder still has things that he wants to say. H
The Human Emperor looked outside the window of his Royal Carriage as they went on their way to the Beastfolk settlements. After not hearing any news from the messengers he decided, against advice from his council, to personally meet with the representatives of the beast-folk and talk about what was happening. He jolted up and was taken from his reverie as the carriage suddenly halted to a stop.“What is the matter?” he called out to his coachman.“The convoys in front suddenly stopped, Sir,” the coachman replied, “It seems like we are metwith a roadblock,” “A roadblock?” the Emperor asked, preparing himself in case of an attack, “Are they, bandits? Or beggars?” There was no answer. The coachman seems to be talking with the convoy outside. He was forced to get up and go out of his carriage.It is times like this when he wished for the steward to be with him, but he left hi
Dimitri is troubled. The voices have started calling out to him again and he thought that hismother’s lullaby would drown it out. He could still hear his mother’s voice singing but the whispers have gotten even louder that he could hardly make out the song that his mother sings. The cacophony of whispers and his mother’s singing sounded like an orchestra of people playing different scores and Dimitri felt like his head is about to explode.He tried to cover his ears but the sound came from within him. No amount of blocking can silence the voices that come from within someone’s head. Dimitri tried to scream to drown the voices, but it was his own voice that was silenced and muffled instead. He decided that he needed help from his mother. He looked around but the whole place was black.It was not dark, it was pitch black. In fact, everything around him seemed to have disappeared, leaving him in an endless void – Alone with
“So, how did you get out of the forest?” Amanda asked Alex as he took a break from talking,“There should have been some humans who went after you, right?”“Yes,” Alex replied and continued his tale, “There were humans that we're able to catch up to our group. But they were nothing that the females of our tribes cannot stop.”Amanda noted the glitter of pride in Alex’s eyes. It was not the pride that comes from egoism; it was one that came from his faith towards his race.“No one expected for it to happen that night,” Alex went on, “I can remember playing with the others during the day. We were talking about our dreams. Dimi- I mean Dimitri made us loyal to him that day when he told us what he wanted for the village. We were all drawn by his dreams that we all swore our allegiance to him then and there.“No one could have predicted what happened that night.
Amanda woke up the next day feeling refreshed. She has found a new motivation and she would tell Alex about it. But she also has to look for the best opportunity to do so. She is still not really sure if Alex is really a friend that she can trust, or if he is just doing it for the sake of his Alpha.Of course, it also goes without saying that the plan might even offend Alex, the only prospective Ally that she has that is already close to the Ringleader. She needs to play her cards right if she ever hopes to have the chance to get away from this place again.The Harpy brought their breakfast in and they had a relatively quiet one that day. Amanda barely spoke and they only talked about the weather and what the plans for the day were. Then suddenly, a thought crossed Amanda’s mind.“Do you think Alex is really a friendly person?” Amanda suddenly asked the Harpy and her friend was caught off guard. It took quite some time for the quest
After their stay at the spring, the beast folk had an easier time through the Dark Forest. It seemed like someone was helping them and redirecting the rogue creatures away from their path. It did not take them another day to reach the bottom of the hill that leads to the abandoned castle. All of them stood in awe at the shadow of the building that loomed above them. Some of the beast folk only heard of the castle and never actually saw it.Now they stand in a daze as they look at every spire, at every inch of the outer wall, and at the grand keep that stands higher than the walls. Peering over them as if it is inviting them in. But they could also smell the scent of the creatures from the inside. It was mostly sinister, but they can also catch a hint of milder scents. Maybe there are some that they can speak with.It was Dimitri who first stepped towards the castle and everyone followed suit. The beast folk felt their hearts becoming lighter with every step