*****
Arteria Blaze or Arty was thinking deeply over her plan on how to win over the small group of shape-shifting beings in that small camp and have them join in the rebellion to fight against the Mad King.
However, while she was thinking about it, she didn't realize that she was being approached closely by Lord Dark-grip until he called for her attention, which nearly got her jumping a bit in surprise and startled upon not noticing or even aware that he came near towards her.
She looked at him wondering what he wanted from her and he replied that he has an idea on how to convince the small group into joining the rebellion and have them ally with her for the fight against the Mad King. She gave him a questioning look and he gave a secretive answer that he knows someone among his group that's going to try to convince the shape-shifters into joining her cause.
Then Arty became curious about who is the person that Lord Dark-grip knows about and who he trusts to be able to convince the shape-shifting group into joining the rebellion group.
But then she remembered something and it was almost deep inside her mind that she couldn't be able to dig it out from the foremost thoughts in her head, however, before she could pull it out and find out what idea was on her head, Lord Dark-grip nodded to her as if accepting her silence as approval and he went off to talk with that person he trusted to convince the group of shape-shifters.
She knows that Lord Dark-grip doesn't trust her a little about knowing who his friend is, so she decided to secretly follow him without him noticing or being aware of it and that's what she did after she made up the fake pretense on working on something in her room quietly and it didn't take long for her to sneak out and follow behind Lord Dark-grip as he went to meet up with the person he trusted to convince the shape-shifters.
It wasn't easy because Lord Dark-grip was quite skilled into knowing who might be following him but Arty managed to hide enough of her presence while she followed him around from behind.
By the time that Lord Dark-grip stopped looking around to check if someone's following him or something, he moved to meet with his friend that he trusted the most and Arty followed behind him silently as she could until the two of them reached some sort of meeting spot where the person will meet Lord Eric there.
When he appeared, needless to say, Arty was very shocked at seeing who it is. She remembered now what it was she was trying to remember in her head and it surprised her once she sees it that she nearly forgot about it.
The person that Lord Dark-grip is meeting with is the only person in the story that he trusted about his true identity and being close friends with, though there is a deeper meaning into their relationship than friendship.
This person is a shape-shifter named Cayden--warrior Cayden. He was a former slave long ago but he was bought by Lord Dark-grip and then was freed by him, he pledged his loyalty into serving him permanently until the day Lord Eric dies.
Lord Dark-grip didn't want to have Cayden serve him at first, but then when the shape-shifting ex-slave saved his life from an assassination attempt before, he decided to have him as his personal bodyguard in secret.
Arty watched as Lord Eric Dark-grip talks to Cayden about what's going on and he needed his help into convincing the other shape-shifters into joining the rebellion of the Fiery Blade's wielder. Cayden nodded in understanding at this and accepted the task into convincing the group to join the alliance with Arty.
Arty followed the two of them as they went to the small campsite and Cayden approached the leader and spoke with him about the rebellion and the reason for joining it and the benefits from it, and it wasn't long before the leader of the shape-shifter group thought about it deeply before accepting the offer and decided to join in this alliance.
Arty never thought that her plan of an alliance with another group would work, with the help of Lord Dark-grip's shape-shifter who is his trusted partner. Even though she knows the real truth hidden beneath their relationship to one another, Arty made sure that she didn't show it or reveal that she knows about it. She was still surprised upon seeing another character early in the story, but she was relieved that the shape-shifting group is now joining the rebellion.
Still, she was very glad that the alliance with the shape-shifters paid off and that they are working together. Now, there's the matter about Arty dealing with the other task of making and getting an alliance with another group, which are the pack of beast-men warriors. She hoped that she'll be able to succeed on that matter as well.
*****
*****