At the heart of the Whispering Ash Woodlands, an ancient wood spire weaved together to form a paradise city walled from man, blood kin, and treasonous magical beasts. The barks of the ancient trees eddied and twisted as they stretched upwards. They met once again at the top forming green leafy domes spongy enough to absorb rainwater and sunlight.
Nestled at the base of this particular tree grove the ruins of an ancient city. The creatures of the city long faded, as did its majesty. The homes they hollowed out from the ancient trees' barks were empty, and even their names lost to history itself. No one knew how the paradise spire came to be, and what race it did the house, but all who came across it thought the grove was a gift from Gaia. Evidence that Gaia loved Beast kind dearly before the fall. It was revered as a holy place by most beasts, magical or not. Even the humans dared not trespass or touch. After all, who would dare incur Gaia's wrath?
Long fang and five other Umber wolves raced through the outer fringes of the Whispering Ash. The background blurred into a faintly recognizable melange of white, green, brown, and ash, as they traveled towards the western borderlands. The air whistled as they galloped. They trampled shrubs, splintered trees, and crushed all beasts who stood in their path. Today was an important day for Long Fang and his pack.
Though it was scarcely dawn, and he had until midnight before the new clan members arrive, he still wanted to be prepared. Humans were many-faced. They were swayed by the simplest things and could be loving friends or villainous foes, depending on how you handled them.
Long Fang wanted the humans scared, cowardly, and so afraid that they might just listen to him, instead of forcing him to deal with them and miss the coming of the blessed. His black sheeny face tightened as they emerged from the forest, and onto the grasslands, the human town of Ashwood sat.
Long Fang and every member of his pack were Umber wolves. Descendents of the God, Umbra, or so the legends say. They made the Ash their territory and the spire their home. Long Fang and the pack elders deemed the legends.
Even if the local beasts claim that death and destruction awaited those that invaded Gaia's Sanctum, they shrugged it off as just superstitious pandering; nothing like the tales of their species' birth. They saw little sense abandoning a naturally guarded fortress with only narrow paths leading and out.
Umber wolves were the second largest of their species. They boasted of immense physical strength, speed and were a meter and a half tall. They had fierce, faintly ever-glowing eyes and wild colorful manes. Though they all possessed mana cores, only a handful of them had elemental conduits. Long Fang, their leader, was one of such wolves. Naturally, he became alpha when he grew strong enough.
The wolves ran past the farmlands at the outer edges of the town and through its enormous wooden gates. They stopped when they reached the town's square. The town of Ashwood descended into a panicked frenzy. Store owners ran, leaving their goods unattended—screaming children scattered in every perceivable direction, trampling store goods, panicked adults, and each other. Brave guardsmen reached for their blades on their hips, while prudent ones turned tail and ran. "The Umber wolves have come to town," they screamed as they ran. Long Fang was pleased to see the human so scattered and afraid. It would make forcing them to submit that much easier.
Long Fang opened his mouth and spoke,
"Bring me your leader," he growled at a pink-nosed kid his glowing eyes touched. He was covered in scrapes and bruises from when he fell behind the stampeding crowd. The kid wet himself and could only shakily point in the direction of the brunette clad in leather armor approaching the wolves with a retinue of armed guards. Some held halberds and spears, others bow and arrows. They had clearly planned to receive wolf neighbors. She held a bow herself and approached the wolf with an indifferent smile.
"I am the leader here- well, technically, my father is. He is not much of a fighter, so here I am, Wolf, how might I be of service."
Long Fang smirked. He liked her pluck. Maybe there was hope for a peaceful resolution after all. He raised his head, puffed his chest, and his voice boomed with command.
"I am here to offer you peace and a promise of no bloodshed while you travel our woods, provided you stay away from it for the coming month-"
The smile on her face soured, and then turned to outrage, "Your woods?" She scowled.
"No human can enter Whispering Ash until after a full month has passed, after tonight." Long Fang continued to speak without pause.
"This is absurd, I won't let you do this." she protested. The people around her nodded in unison and backed her with their mumbling support.
"That was not a request, human." The biggest wolf in Long fang's retinue snarled and bared his teeth. He inched closer to the defiant humans. He was 2. 5 meters all, where long fang was 2 and the other three even smaller. The woman shrunk back in fear and hurriedly unsheathed her dagger. Her hands and feet wobbled, and she fell to the floor. A few of her loyal pike men abandoned their weapons and ran for their lives. Chaos descended upon them, and Grey mane's hind legs flexed hard, ready to pounce and finish the job.
"Grey mane!" A smaller wolf with slightly red-hued mane spoke. "We are here to sue for peace, nothing else."
Grey mane looked to her and then to Long Fang's cautionary glare- you aren't alpha anymore, it said. Grey mane lowered his head, "I apologize, Alpha."
Long Fang spoke without turning back, "I think nothing of it." His eyes were glued to the humans who protested. A violent rage boiled within him, and like Grey mane, he wanted to kill them all there for spitting in the face of his hospitality, but he held back. A brow twitch was all that escaped his steely face.
"Hear me, human leader cub. A blessed comes to the Whispering Ash tonight. He will be wild the moment he arrives, and will attack anything that is not a wolf. I ask this of you because we want you to be safe," he said to the leader cub as she dusted herself and got up to her feet.
"I don't know who this blessed one is," she started, her voice slightly shaky, "but he doesn't sound like our problem, he sounds like a wolf problem. The people of this town have been through enough!" Her voice grew fierce.
"We need the woodlands to survive. Our hunters, and adventurers rely on it to survive as you do too. With winter only a few months away, we won't survive if you don't let use the forest."
Determined to fight for her people, she added, "and it's not your forest, this town has been here for hundreds of years. If anything, you are the invaders."
Long Fang's patience was wearing thin. Not only was this human testing him, but she also had the audacity to lay claim to what he conquered by right, she didn't know her place.
"Enough whelp." A blood-curdling aura escaped his razor maw. "I found the hierarchy of the Ash in chaos. The strong preyed on the weak, and you humans did absolutely nothing to correct this imbalance." He stamped his paw on the cobblestone floor, and darkness spread through the cracks covering most of the square.
Most of the human leader's cub attack force turned tail and bolted, those that remained, quaked and a few even wet themselves. The wolves took several steps back from their leader. All except Grey mane could withstand his aura without pause. He smiled and briefly looked to the scared claw gash on his right shoulder. He remembered their battle all too well.
"I crushed the Vermin that polluted the land and made the forest prosper. I am its ruler." His voice thundered. "The woodland beasts and blood kin received their orders the same as you did. They didn't refuse me and neither will you." his voice thundered, as he spoke.
The human leader cub froze in place. Sweat dripped down her forehead, and her mind broke from the terror. She wanted to run away, protect herself, something. She could only tighten her grip around her dagger as she stood firmly rooted on the spot where dark tendrils bound her feet.
"We…will stay out the forest," a single teardrop rolled from her sweat-soaked cheeks. "I promise to keep every person man, woman and child from this town out of the forest"
Long Fang smiled. "Was that so hard." He recalled his mana. "I didn't want to have to do that but you didn't leave me much choice."
She didn't respond, still visibly trembling from the altercation that shook her very soul. Long Fang saw this and then he looked at the townsfolk white faces, then turned to his wolves, who were almost as pale.
"Vanmerk, Gallick, Marya, stop your sniveling. We have three more towns just like this one. Don't dawdle!" Long Fang snapped at his betas. He turned to the leader's cub, "We are leaving. I am glad we reached an accord without Grey mane beheading someone. Don't go back on your words and we won't on ours."
The wolves positioned themselves around Long Fang, and they raced out of the town. The leader cub bow, which she clutched so hard it visibly cracked, fell to the floor. Relief washed through her, and her knees gave out.
"Lady Mera!" A partly recovered gentleman called out and rushed to her side. "Are you okay?"
"Of course not!" she pushed him away, her face still dripping with tears and sweat. "Don't you understand? Our weapons were nothing but playthings. They cannot protect us!" She flung her dagger to the side. He is free to do as he pleases until we can get a knight from Brightmont down here."
"How long will that take?" The man asked.
"Too long"
***
Seth fired another shot at the target Germo carved into the large tree, west of the clearing where they camped for the night. He frowned. He didn't remember being so bad at archery. He'd consistently missed the tree three times in a roll.
The first two shots weren't even remotely close. Germo just laughed hard and told him to continue practicing. "You'll get a feel for it and your body will remember," he said, with his largest indulgent smile. When he walked back to the group setting up a tent and chatting, he heard the man mutter. "Gods, what kind of borderlander shoots like that? I know blind folk with truer aim."
Seth knew Germo was right. His aim was terrible, or so he wanted everyone to think. If he was going to hunt and see what abilities this blood core of his held, he'd have to learn to come up with excuses to venture deeper into the woods alone during their journey.
Fetching a whole quiver of arrow seemed like a good enough excuse to start with. He kept firing at the same slow and uneven speed that an awkward lad, who had never held a bow in his life, would. Sera nearly laughed herself unconscious at his performance. "You'd think he'll hit a shot after emptying the entire quiver." Brick chortled, Ren joined, and even the reserved Raylee chuckled a bit.
Seth found it rather stereotypical that they laughed at him simply because he was a borderlander, but he didn't show his anger or displeasure. If he did, he would have to explain why he could hear them chuckle and sneer from the other side of camp.
So, instead of complaining or look even the least bit offended when he approached the camp, he just smiled sheepishly and asked Germo for permission to fetch his the arrows. The man nodded, and almost ecstatically, he sped off towards the direction of the forest, close to the road they would be taking towards Acerno, to fetch the healer Germo had in mind the day before.