Just a few short moments later, the elders came inside the strange pyramid-like structure and were followed by one werewolf each who looked to be between the ages of 15-30, which was still classified as a pup in their society. Terra noted this and said nothing as he waited for all the elders and cubs to enter and take their seats. Discipuli entered with an elder who resembled him to a degree and they were the last ones to enter and be seated of the pairs. All the elders looked at the door though, and that was when Terra noticed that the chief elder and Lupus had yet to arrive. They only needed to wait a few more minutes before the chief elder came in dragging Lupus by his still scorched tail in his wolf form. The elder took the last open seat and set his son at his feet before turning to Terra and nodding his head in respect.
"Terra, you have helped the Sharpclaw clan by ridding it of one menace and disciplining the most destructive pup of the clan. For these services, we will grant you two favors or wishes, provided that the pack can help." The chief elder said this as he sat in his seat, and it felt as if he was an advisor to a king or emperor with his tone. "Ask, and if we agree to it, it shall be done as you ask."
Terra smiled sadly and bowed to the elders before he spoke. "I wish to have three or four companions that I can trust to have my back. I will only take volunteers who meet a certain criteria. This is the first thing I wish to ask of the clan. I hope that they can accompany me until I learn of my origins, my purpose, and about my people, or until they see fit to accompany me on this possibly life long journey."
The elders nodded as they expected this and they signaled that they agreed with it. The chief elder noted this and asked Terra, "Do you have any in mind that you would like to have accompany you? What criteria will the others fall under?"
"I wish to see if Luxa would like to accompany me, as well as Discipuli and Luxa's brother Fetus."
A few of the elders stood up in rage. One of them pointed an accusing finger at Terra and shouted, "He wishes to weaken our clan so our enemies can destroy us! He's a spy for the other clans!" This accusation didn't sit well with a couple of the elders, other than the chief elder, but the others sprung up and joined in with the first to accuse the stranger with outlandish claims.
"Really?" Terra's calm voice held an edge that caused the accusers and the ones who had thoughts of joining in shiver as if they were before an apex predator. "If I were truly wanting to weaken your clan, would I have kept Lupus alive? Would I ask the elders for their permission to bring one of the strongest warriors, the best hunter, and the best tracker to help me discover something that could take several years, if not my entire lifetime?" The orbs held some red in the center of the otherwise jade green spheres as he stared down the accusers. "Often the first to accuse has a reason, and I believe your reason is that you are wanting to divide the pack so your original pack can destroy them. This was the condition to return, was it not?"
The one who accused first paled in fright before regaining his composure. "You accuse me of helping the enemy of the only clan that took me in when I was cast out? How dare you!" It was rather easy to see the gears turning in his mind as he spoke. "You have no solid evidence of that, even if that were to be true, which it isn't." He glanced at the other elders, only to see that they were now questioning why they took him in, if what the stranger had said was true, and what it would mean if it was. "Y-you'd really believe a stranger's words than me? You've all known me for many years! Why would I lie to you?"
The chief elder smiled in a sad but strangely happy way as he said, "Sometimes a stranger can point out things we can't see because we get blinded by the masks and lies of a seemingly close friend. You have been in charge of the defenses for a while, and we've had several close calls with enemy packs since you took charge of that. So it's natural to see that what he is saying could hold some truth. I'm sorry old friend, but we must treat you as an enemy spy until we are sure that you are not."
The elder looked taken aback as he stumbled backwards a bit before he could control himself and speak again. "D-didn't I already go through that when I first arrived? Why do I need to go through that again?" His voice shook despite his best efforts to steady it, or at least hide it behind his feelings of surprise. "Haven't I already proved myself to be loyal to you?"
Terra just smiled at the elder and chuckled. "I meant it to tease you, but it looks like what I said was actually true. Go figure I'd pick the spy at random." His light tone helped calm the elders down, but they still glared at the spy/elder from time to time. "My reason for wanting to take Luxa, Discipuli, and Fetus is to give the pack the chance to grow stronger collectively without relying solely on a handful of people who can die suddenly from assassins, poison, or a new disease that they don't have an immunity to. Your pack is already weakening itself by relying so much on Luxa and Fetus to hunt for you. Discipuli has hidden his powers and talents from you because he could see what was happening with the sole hunting pair of the pack. If they were to leave or die, your pack would struggle to survive until a group of natural hunters from the young pups would appear and take on the responsibility to hunt, and if they were smart they'd train up others to hunt when they are injured, worn out, or sick. That is the way a pack should hunt and be, but our sentience has made us more reliant on a select few to help us achieve our goals. That is why I am asking to take them for a long deserved break from the restraints of the pack while the pack learns to be more like their ancient counterparts, the wolves from the planet Earth, as the humans called their home planet."
The glares stopped as thoughtfulness overtook the elders. A couple of the elders turned to the pups sitting next to them and discussed what had just been spoken of, and soon all the elders were conversing with the younger generation for their opinion except the chief elder.
Lupus still laid at his father's feet without moving, but he was awake and he pondered on what his opponent-turned-hero had just said about what the pack was doing. He took a long deep breath to prepare himself before speaking up. "I believe that we should trust the stranger and let him give Luxa, Fetus, and even Discipuli the break they deserve as thanks for serving the pack so selflessly." He closed his eyes and curled up a bit to prepare for the kick, but it never came. Instead he felt his father's hand patting his head. His eyes opened to see his father smiling at him like he used to before he took advantage of his father's kindness.
The other elders had paused in their discussions when Lupus had spoken, and now they looked to the chief elder to voice his thoughts before they would share their thoughts and encourage their successors to voice their opinions as well for the council to hear the thoughts and worries of the pack. Lupus's father nodded to his son before looking at the young man before him. "I agree with what my son has said. I can see that while we will be weakened in the short term, but in the long term it is better that we let them go on a long break while the pack relearns the way of the ancient wolves from Mother Mystim's databases and integrates them into our packs ways. Perhaps this will strengthen us immensely, but we won't know unless we try it out. What are the thoughts of the elders and their potential successors?"
A messenger ran into the hall before the reply could be heard and stood there panting for a moment before she straightened up and delivered her message. "The Shadowpaw clan, the Thunderhowl pack, and the Steelfang clan have been destroyed by a spaceship! We have reason to believe the other packs and clans have been destroyed as well, and that the ship is coming for us next."
The spy elder seemed to collapse when he heard that those packs had been destroyed, but all the elders seemed to know that he came from the Shadowpaw clan since they smirked as he straightened a bit at the name of that pack. The room was dead silent though at the revelation when they heard the full message. The room was so silent you could clearly hear the pups being evacuated from the village. The successors were sent to flee as well after a moment, while Luxa and Fetus were brought in to be near Terra and Discipuli so they weren't accidentally evacuated with the rest of the young pups.
It only took a half hour for all the cubs to be chased away from the village. The group and the elders had watched as a few of the older pups had to physically drag their sobbing younger siblings away from their teary-eyed parents as they tried to suppress their own tears of grief.
Only fifteen minutes after the cubs had been all chased out of the village to survive, the low but bone shaking rumble of a destroyer class space vessel shook the ground as it drew closer. The adults had already wiped the tracks the young ones left behind as they fled to safety to make it harder on the invaders to completely eradicate their entire clan. As the vessel came into view, the clouds overhead started to drop their tears as if already mourning the members of the clan who would die and to make it harder for the killers to track down those who would be the remnants of an otherwise erased culture.
The ship was strange. It looked similar to the vessels documented in the human database, but it was much more bulky and disjointed looking when compared to even the old corvette class civilian craft prototypes that were popular among the humans and were still somewhat popular with the rich and the middle class citizens of the galaxy. The strange carapace was glowing dimly through the heavy rain in a strange yellow green that made any who looked at it think almost immediately of radioactive waste or puke. All the werewolves were on edge as they stared at the ship that hung over their village like an executioner's blade over a sentenced criminal's bare neck. Luxa glanced around the group and noticed that Terra was strangely calm, as if all this was a normal day in his life. She was a little puzzled, but she dismissed it as he was probably just internalizing it all so well that she couldn't read if he was feeling differently as he stared at the monstrosity hovering about a kilometer from the tip of the stone spearhead shaped building they were peaking out of. The elders stepped out and sealed the door using earth magic as a large military grade transport craft started to descend from the belly of the ship. The transporter was like watching a small metal box with a pyramid shaped cockpit on one end fall in slow motion as it approached the village. The elders had made sure the group inside the building could watch from the inside, but they didn't know if the kids had already fled from there or not since they were almost singularly focused on the strange craft that was coming down like a submarine gently diving deeper into a trench on the floor of a lake. As the transport set down, the ground gently shook for a moment before the hatch flew into the ground like a spear from one of their festival games in the past. A small cloud of dust rose around the base and seemed to greet the invaders with a wild and frenzied dance of excitement. A meif'wa female was at the head and she rode a mechanical lioness that was only distinguishable as mechanical by the steel plating that made up its body. A young humanoid creature with emerald green skin and tusks jutting roughly out of his mouth rode out on a lioness whose plating matched his skin color, and a coal black werewolf rode out just after him on a similarly colored lioness. The orc looked uncomfortable as he rode out of the craft, whereas the werewolf and meif'wa were both riding the mechanical beasts as if they were real and it was a natural thing. The elders stared at the strange sight of the werewolf acting a bit like a meif'wa but their breath was stolen as well as their gaze by the fourth member of the crew. A tall and well muscled young lady rode out on a rose quartz colored lioness. Her pointed fox ears added to her charm that came with her modest height and older sister-like appeal that her body had. Her hair and the short fur lining her bare arms and what could be seen of her legs was an off white that resembled a light pink as it caught the dying light of dusk as the clouds broke just as swiftly as they had appeared and opened. Lastly a humanoid with skin colored similarly to Terra as it was bone colored, but it was if the bones were bleached and not gently aged like Terra's. This figure was male and had the pointed ears of a vampire, but his smile was creepy with his visibly elongated fangs that spoke of starvation that bordered on going rampant. If you ignored the clear warning signs, he was actually a very attractive example of vampiric beauty in the galaxy. When the vampire threw a wink at one of the female elders, Luxa scoffed and rolled her eyes as the elder bowed her head in obvious embarrassment or shyness from his attention. The group couldn't hear what was being said with them being sealed off from the pirates, but Terra used some magic-like ability he had discovered when he was deafened on a hunt to listen in to what was being said outside the walls.
The female meif'wa dismounted from her mechanical mount and frowned at the chief elder. "This village seems a lot emptier than when we flew over it just yesterday. I wonder why that is." She narrowed her eyes at him as if she could force him to tell her the reason.
"Yes, I wonder why as well." The chief glared back and seemed to be content in giving no grounds to the invaders, no matter what they tried.
The meif'wa snorted and turned to her crew. "Chaos Pride! Search the buildings, find out as many clues as you can to see if our targets are here or just made a pit stop here before heading off." The four figures nodded to her before rushing off as she turned back to the elders who still stood there without moving. "We are just looking for three people we have reason to believe are part of your pack, little werewolves. Their names are Luxa, Fetus, and Discipuli. Oh, and a traveler born on this primitive planet we believe goes by the moniker Terra, rather than his birth name. It would be helpful if you could give us all the info you have on those four, but especially the one called Terra. He's our client's most desired target of the four, though the client won't tell us why that is." She smiled at the elders, and while her smile was kind it held smugness and a clear hint of mocking as well.
The spy among the elders spoke up before the chief could lie to her. "Terra actually was among us for a time. He even beat the pride of the elders in a fair duel using strange techniques. He disappeared shortly after the fight, even though we wanted to reward him for discipling the proud pup before he irrevocably tore the pack apart from the inside. I must admit I am partly to blame for the pup's pride and arrogance, but I didn't think he'd become that full of himself." He paused to take a short deep breath before he finished what he wanted to say. "So I'm sorry miss, but you won't get anything about him from me and possibly not from my fellow elders either."
The elders were stunned but nodded almost as one as they agreed with what he had said. A sigh escaped from the meif'wa as she gently shook her head as if she were tired of something. She whistled loudly and suddenly the sound of snapping wood and roaring fires were heard from the houses. Some of the elders flinched from the whistle and the sounds of their village being destroyed, but each of them still stood firm and glared at the meif'wa as their only reaction to what was going on. An eyebrow rose up slowly and her face held surprise and even some respect for the elders who were still standing firm when most of the other chiefs and elders would be on their knees begging her to stop destroying the village and promising to spill all they knew of her targets. Her smile turned genuine as she dipped her head in a bow of respect before releasing yet another whistle that was shriller and longer than the previous one. Almost immediately the harsh sounds stopped, including the sounds of fire. The four invaders regrouped behind their leader and stared at the elders with respect clear in their eyes as they gazed at them.
The fox eared girl spoke up to break the tense silence that had settled in since they regrouped a few minutes ago. "Hey cap, these elders are stronger and prouder than the last few wimps we had to interrogate. I didn't really find anything other than the home of Luxa and Fetus. Their scent was all over in there but no adults. Even Terra's scent and a bit of his blood was dried into a stain near the fire. Guess he almost died and our intel on Luxa proved true since she brought him back to heal. I didn't destroy her house out of respect for her and her strength, but I made a little mess of the herbs in there since this brute kept trying to come at me." She glared at the vampire who was shamelessly staring at her with his lust clear in his eyes and pants.
The meif'wa, now identified as the captain of the group, sighed in frustration and slight exasperation. "Well Jules, now I get to neuter you for good. I warned you but you clearly didn't think I was serious when I said it." She turned to the vampire who had paled even further and ignored the sadistic grin on the fox girl's face as she stepped forward and neutered him in front of the elders and threw the now limp sausage into the pink flame the vixen held gleefully in her outstretched hand. "Try screwing around with her again, and I will kill both of you if I find out." Her threat was met with quick nodding from the poor vampire and a pale vixen who numbly nodded along. "This is only because you didn't clearly turn him down, so he was led on like a little toy by you Miranda, so that is why you both will die if you keep leading him on."
Miranda, the little fox eared beauty, nodded and cleared her throat as her blood returned to her face to the degree that it flushed from seeming embarrassment or possibly shame about the situation. "Yes captain. You have my word that I will not lead the vampire on anymore as that is too cruel to him." She performed a military salute and stood at attention before coming back to herself and dropping the obvious military instincts with a mumbled apology.
Terra turned to the others of the group and relayed all that he had heard and sensed outside and continued to do so as he continued the observation of the situation outside the spike of stone. There was mostly silence outside as the elders set up a barrier to discuss their options and what to do once they got the permission of the invaders they didn't doubt could destroy them if they tried to resist or flee from their village.
Luxa spoke up first as the group had their own meeting to discuss things. "Alright. So these invaders are strong and dangerous. They want us and they have destroyed the other villages since they got what they could from them and it wouldn't work for them if the other villages banded together to push them off of the planet." She glanced at Fetus and saw he was clearly worried. She continued to look around the group and studied their expressions. Discipuli looked like he was wanting to go out there and fight with the invaders if he could and Terra? Well Terra was being Terra with his blank face and slightly furrowed brow she still couldn't quite yet read.
Discipuli nodded to show he agreed with what Luxa said before speaking up. "How strong are they?" He turned to Terra as he asked the question.
"They could easily crush us if we tried to fight them head on. Our only chance would be a sneak attack from behind, but I doubt that would work since one of them can manipulate the ground with his earth magic. Our best option is to go out there and turn ourselves over to them in exchange for the safety of the village and it's residents." Terra's analytical words made the mood of the group sour, but they could see how his words made sense. Noticing this Terra smiled. "Oh come on. I said we might be able to attack them and catch them off guard didn't I? The invader doesn't know we're in here, so maybe he can't sense anything about the spire that doesn't touch the ground. Then again, he is in a lot of pain right now…" Terra glanced towards the vampire and shivered slightly in sympathy for the poor guy.
Luxa seemed to understand who he was referring to and smiled at the chance to escape. "Alright. Let's take a vote. All those for fighting things out first, please raise your hand." The vote was unanimous for fighting the invaders first and talking second. "Let's go get those fools!"