'I hate this stupid place', thought Ryan as he ran from a creature that had started chasing him out of the blue.
He felt the urge to curse the world he was stuck in as loud as he could but since he didn't want to attract more monsters he kept his snout shut and ran for his life.
From behind he could hear the branches being jumped on and a high pitched screeching. When he had first heard it he mistook it for a large bat but then stones started being thrown towards him. He only saw the figure of what seemed to be a monkey before he began running, Ryan wanted to turn around and see what type of monster he was really running away from but he quickly rejected the idea since the monkey's speed was terrifying.
He had ran as fast as he could and yet based on the noises from branches the damn monkey was nearly on top of him.
After running for what felt like hours, Ryan figured out that he had been tricked by a freakin primate, the whole time he was being led to some sort of cliff. He quickly stopped and took a glance downwards. Below him the forest continued as far as he could see, glowing lights of different colors attracted his attention but he quickly shook his head and turned around ready to run the other way.
Suddenly from on top of the tall trees, a creature jumped down and landed in the ground with a heavy thump. The beast quickly stood straight up and smashed his hands on the ground and growled. It was the first time that he had gotten a good look at it, the monkey seemed to resemble a Mandrill, but it had large bat ears. The thing that scared him the most was that the monkey was ripped, and it began showing its giant fangs as it walked closer to Ryan.
He quickly began running to the left, the monkey immediately followed but made sure to flank him and keep him at the edge of the cliff. After running for a few seconds Ryan found that there seemed to be a wall of stacked stones that were placed there. He stopped and began running the other way but the results were the same.
Ryan sighed and looked down trying to see if he would survive if he jumped but he quickly scratched the idea when he was reminded how far down the fall was. He looked at the monkey who seemed to be having the time of its life.
Ryan's fur began rising up and he bared his fangs "Don't start partying yet you stupid butt-faced monkey (look up Mandrill and let me know if you get it). I'm not willing to let myself die so quickly."
Though he wasn't sure if the monkey understood him word for word as soon as he had finished talking the beast gave a loud screech and jumped at him. Ryan also ran towards the creature and tried to dodge him by jumping towards the left and escape the trap that the monkey had led him to.
Sadly the beast seemed to have understood what Ryan had planned. With surprisingly fast movements the monkey had gotten ahold of his tail and was now lifting him by it.
Ryan yelped in pain as he felt as if his tail was being separated from his body. Meanwhile, the monkey was laughing and pointing at him. Ryan tried to bite the hand that was holding him but sadly he couldn't reach. The monkey used his other hand to grab hold of the rest of his body and slowly brought Ryan closer to his mouth.
Meanwhile, Ryan was doing his best to break free 'Oh shit, Oh shit, don't tell me that the way I'm going to go is by being eaten alive as if I were some burrito.'
When he was about to enter the dark and smelly tunnel he heard a quick swoosh. It sounded like the noise that cars made when they sped past you. The monkey stopped for a second and suddenly it's head fell off, the body turned limp and soon followed with a big thump on the ground.
Ryan quickly got away from the corpse and took cover behind a tree as he looked into the forest trying to see what had killed the monkey. He felt a chili breeze hit him, and suddenly he was able to smell a new scent that he hadn't smelled before. The worst thing is that the smell seemed to be coming from behind him.
He immediately began running the opposite way to get away from whatever was behind him. He took several turns to try to confuse it in case it followed. When he was out of fuel he laid next to a tree and tried thinking of ways to get out of such a hell-like place.
"Not bad, for a pup you sure have a lot of energy don't ya"
Ryan froze and slowly looked up to find himself looking into a pair of eyes that seemed to have a white glow in them.
He stood up and tried to run away but suddenly a wolf began to materialize itself out of thin air. Ryan quickly looked back at the branch he had last seen the beast's eyes but found that it was now empty. The body started forming itself around the glowing eyes and after a few seconds, the form of a dark gray wolf was formed and solidified.
This process reminded Ryan of the Tree Clan leader who could transform into smoke. He sighed and took a deep breath 'well running away is no longer an option'. He began preparing his body to show that he was prepared to fight if needed. Through bared fangs, he asked the wolf in a loud voice "What clan are you from and what is it that you want from me?"
The dark gray wolf yawned and laid down "Easy, I'm just here because I got curious. This is the first that I've seen or heard of such a young pup being able to enter the Advancing Realm. Exactly how old are you, one or two moons?"
Ryan looked at the wolf in confusion "Moons? How much is that?"
The strange wolf tilted his head "You know every 29 moons there is a large moon. That big and full moon that illuminates everything at night."
"Oh then yeah that's about how old I am. Now, answer my question and tell me what Clan are you from?"
The gray wolf shook his head and yawned once more "I don't know anything about these Clans that you speak of. My name given to me was Slip. Pup this is just some advice but you might want to watch your tone and manner of speech when you talk to me. I like you but I will not be spoken to in that way, talking to me in such a way is the same as looking down on my Lord's army."
Ryan was about to apologize since the last thing he needed was to offend the beast in front of him, but the words of Slip took him by surprise "Did .... Did you just say army? And you said, Lord? Who are you."
Slip looked at the young pup who seemed to have gotten interested, 'As I thought the mention of our mighty army has him wanting to be part of it hehe, now to make sure that he joins my group.'
Meanwhile, Ryan was trying to figure out if the wolf was telling the truth, 'He said that he didn't know anything about clans. His name is also simple and the thing that interests me is that Lord he mentioned and his army. Could this wolf perhaps gotten tamed by a tamer that the clan members had mentioned last time? Could the army be full of humans or is it one purely made of horned wolves?'
"Umm Slip first of all thanks for saving me from that monkey. The thing I wanted to ask is if the army that you spoke of is one that is made up of only horned wolves. If it is then how many wolves are in it and what are your plans."
The grey wolf looked at him for a second and began laughing loudly "Just what are you haha, are you some sort of spy or something."
Ryan shook his head quickly 'Idiot why the hell did you ask for all that'.
He took a deep breath and continued "No sorry, I was just curious about someone saying that they had an army. The only time that I've heard that word is when my clan talked about humans. I thought that only humans were able to get enough people to actually count as an army."
Slip nodded and stood up "Well that is true, unlike humans most of the other races are unable to be in large groups without trying to bite each other's throats. The thing is that the army that I'm in is composed of many different beasts and monsters and the only reason that it's possible is because of our Lord. Have you really not heard of him and our great army."
He shook his head as he tried to remember anything that he might have forgotten "No I haven't, my clan hasn't talked about anything like that."
"Hmm that is strange, even if you are a pup the wolves you are with should either be part of our army or be the hunters for our meals. It's possible that you could be in a section of the continent that we have yet to invade. If that's true then it's a shame since I won't be able to get you and have the army train you, I was even thinking of making you part of my group. Do you perhaps know where exactly you are living at the moment?"
Ryan froze for a bit "Invade? What do you mean by that? Why are you invading? What's the end goal?"
Slip looked at the young pup in confusion "Well we are taking the land from the detestable humans of course. As for what our goal, it should be clear, we will make our Lord leader of everything so that we no longer have to worry about being hunted down. My Great Demon Lord will take control and enslave all the humans so that we can live the lives we deserve. Now stop asking stupid questions and answer my earlier question do you know where you live?"
Ryan looked at the gray wolf in shock 'Did this monster just say Demon Lord? There's a freaking Demon Lord what the f*ck is wrong with this world. The demon has a freakin army that is killing humans? You stupid old man why the hell aren't you doing something about it? What happened with all that 'your children' crap that you talked about on our second meeting?'