Thimble kingdom was a wonderful and horrendous place.
The beautiful and colorful lights that glittered throughout the city, the vast mineral reserves, their near monopoly on magic, and the large snow-covered mountains where the dragons dwell. Truly, a wonderful place.
A lack of farmland, wide internal strife between the wizards and the Draconic tribes, the widespread poverty of common folk, the cold of winter, the droughts of summer, and the complete lack of hygiene. Truly a horrid place.
The heart of Thimble kingdom was the sapphire fortress where the royal family dwelled, and surrounding sapphire fortress was the Vale, a wide stretch of valley underneath the mountains.
The vale contained the majority of the farmland present in Thimble kingdom.
Further north of Vale was the Einde, the end of the world., and the mountains simply grew more untraversable the further north you traveled. Nobody had ever seen the end of the mountains, and it was uncertain whether they ended at all.
This is where the dragons lived. Alongside the dragons, drakons, an older, stronger, and more primitive species also inhabited the Einde, along with wyverns, who were weaker than the dragons, and more beastly than the drakons, a lesser species, barely qualifying as a draconic species at all.
The mountains of the Einde stretched around the vale, enveloping thimble kingdom as a defensive cocoon. There are only two mountain passes to enter or exit Thimble kingdom. Eastgate, the more well-trodden path had a brick road, inns, and even lanterns.
Westgate was a bit more destitute since it passed through the western marshes. Creatures of all sorts inhabited the western marshes, alongside all manners of bandits and tribes.
There is a small section of these marshes that has recently become infested with wolves of all sorts, despite the fact that wolves had disappeared from these marshes 5 years ago.
Our squadron had departed to investigate this phenomenon. We even had a wizard in our ranks.
Although Westgate is far more dangerous than Eastgate, it's still a well-known path, and thousands traverse it every year. The creatures that inhabit the swamps are dangerous, but nothing a couple of soldiers cannot handle, let alone a squadron with a wizard.
Thus, our group made good time until we entered the section of the marsh that allegedly contained the wolves.
According to reports, a frost wolf had been sighted amongst the forest wolves, so our group proceeded with caution.
As we proceeded through the mist, a figure appeared a short distance away.
There was a small cabin in the marsh.
There was a porch in the cabin.
There was a chair on the porch.
There was a boy in the chair.
The boy in the chair and the chair on the porch and the porch in the cabin and the cabin in the clearing and the clearing in a marsh and the marsh down in the valley-oh.
I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that.
"Who are you?"
"What are you doing here?"
The boy had learned to speak fluently at the tender age of 2. For the next eight years, the boy did not speak at all.
Whatever speech the boy knew was garbled over the years.
Thus, facing the men with spears, the boy simply howled at them.
"HVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!!!"
(The 'h' is silent)
From that moment onwards, the boy would be known as Hvid.
The soldiers, noticeably spooked, brandished their spears and proceded towards the boy.
The boy smiled with an evil grin.
The soldiers reminded him of his parents.
The parents who never loved him.
The parents who tried to kill him.
This marsh was his dominion.
The boy, despite his primal nature, had never killed a human before.
However, he had no qualms about doing so.
This marsh was his domain.
Humans could enter.
I will not let them leave.
Wolves came out from the mist, as though appearing from nowhere.
There were 27 soldiers and a wizard in the marsh.
There were over a hundred forest wolves, 7 frost wolves, 9 inferno wolves, and a thunderclap skywolf in the marsh
What followed was a massacre.
The boy had never faced humans before, thus he underestimated their strength.
A frost or inferno wolf could compare to an average soldier, while the forest wolves were just there to make up the numbers. Although a single skywolf could annihilate the squadron, the skywolf present was a mere cub, thus unfit for fighting.
There were drastic losses on both sides. Nearly all the forest wolves were killed, along with 2 frost wolves and 5 inferno wolves. 18 of the soldiers were also killed. The remaining forces on each side were heavily injured and on the brink of death, unable to fight further.
The boy, confident in his victory, had not made a move.
The wizard had.
And that caused the death of the wolfpack.
Although soon after, the trees came alive and the soldiers were wiped, the damage was done. Forest wolves would never again inhabit the marshes of Westgate. Ashamed by this, Hvid decided to change the narration style to the first person in order to prevent such a thing from ever happening again.