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3D person POV :
A calm forest covered in a blanket of white snow could be seen stretching out in every direction
Within it, a pack of wolves was travelling along a little river in search of prey to pass this cold winter.
The leader of the pack standing in the front found a white rabbit venturing outside of its burrow. The wolf signaled the rest of his pack and encircled the little animal. The hunt was short, the bunny didn't have a chance and was now laying between a grey wolf's fangs, its blood dripping and tainting the snow.
It was while assembling the wolves that the leader found a problem, one of them was missing.
It howled into the air and waited for a response, but none came. All it could hear was the quick movement of air and the constant sound of water from the stream nearby.
Turning around it saw that another one was now missing, what was happening?
Sadly that was the last thought that went through its head before said head was cut off and put in a bag along with the rest of its body.
The shadow that just accomplished this feat in less than a second and escaped while managing to remain undiscovered was of course Matt.
Another five years have passed since his encounter in the jungle. His appearance was now well refined, his sharp jawline, purplish eyes and short brown hair mixed with a few strands of purple made him a charming young man.
His real age was soon to be sixteen but it was hard to recognise it with his mature and calm appearance.
The sound of his leather boots on the snow seemed almost non-existent and the white fur belayed coat that protected his leather armor and the well built body underneath from the cold blended in very well with his surroundings.
He ran to a pine tree under which two bloodied cloth bags like the one he was carrying on his shoulder were laying.
"This should be enough." he said
"Did you kill the alpha?". A voice came from behind the tree causing him to tense up momentarily, "You know that can be dangerous for their pack.The clan doesn't want them to die out. But I won't tell them anything if you don't want me to."
"Don't worry I won't endanger the animals of the dome Astrid. I saw that two of them seemed to be pregnant, they'll be able to re-establish the order within their pack very quickly." Matt, having quickly recognized her voice, answered and stared at her.
She had now completely matured, what was a pretty and fearless girl before had now bloomed to become a cold and thorny flower. Her blond hair now had a silver luster to it and her pale face that was always very cute even when she tried to act angry or crazy showed a much more charming and dangerous feeling.
Giggling lightly at his stares, Astrid took one of the bags laying on the ground and smiled sadly "Wolf pups huh. It's such a shame that the one Gormul gave me died soon after having been born."
"You know it wasn't your fault, it was born sick and there wasn't much we could do… And you know that the taming skills you wanted to learn aren't very useful anyways "
"I know. " she replied, "I just find it sad how nature acts."
"Nature is unkind, it treats everyone the same… I read that somewhere, it's pretty close to the truth, I mean… "
Both lovers walked side by side calmly talking about their lives, the column of grey smoke that could be seen in the distance seemed to be their destination.
Now closer to the origin of the smoke you could see a thick barrier of wood surrounding what seemed to be a hillside village.
"Open the gates!" a guard that stood atop a watch tower shouted out to his colleagues, causing a part of the wooden wall to split open and reveal neat roads and chatting village members.
Advancing through the street you could see and hear about the distinctive changes that took place in the village and the people talking about it.
"Since we found the gods library we have discovered a better way to farm our crops and build our homes, isn't this amazing?" a villager candidly said to his friend.
"Ey, that's not the most impressive thing, have you heard about the fact that they have planned our tomorrow ?" his drunk friend retorted, "The gods prepared our future eras and warned us not to make the same mistakes as the old ones! "
Even after a few years of discovering the cavern and the archive, people were still talking about the information that was stored in the PDA's.
Sadly after Matt told the elders about his experience, most of the discovered PDA were either broken from the water seeping into their hardware or had a high security level and were thus unusable.
To retrieve everything from the flooded cave, multiple warriors took turns in diving and collecting the tablets.
Apparently the elder chaman had a focus as he was able to access some of the records.
The rest were read and deciphered by Matt which propulsed his standing in the clan to the level of "Iektor" something like a professor.
The village implemented the knowledge it could use immediately in the following months, paved roads from the Roman era, Swiss weaved wooden houses and many other such infrastructure were built in an astonishing short time.
Some records weren't as precise which caused many prototypes to emerge in the village. Street lamps that were fuelled by animal fat, a dysfunctional sewer system and other civil engineering feats that couldn't be built yet.
This almost overnight transformation for a tribe that hadn't changed in decades transformed the hillside village into a beautiful developing city.
Stopping at the butcher and the tanner to sell their prey they then made their way to the dorms.
This was also a new feature in the village, currency. We used to work and store our resources together and only bartering rare resources. This started to get more difficult as the population of the village increased but was now resolved with the new knowledge that we had found.
You could say that the Valhalans were ushering in a golden age, it was not without problems however.
Some people were scared of the changes. A drop in temperatures occurred in all sectors of the dome which threatened a lot of the living beings residing within. And lastly the discrepancy between the previous birth rate and the current one made the elders anxious about these never seen before events.
Hope and fear were the theme of our current situation.
As Matt and Astrid entered the dorms the spectacle they were subjected to made them sigh. Two of their friends, Sarr and Yeri, were fighting over a necklace inlaid with a greenish stone.
"I found it so I get to keep it !"
"What are you talking about ? I'm the one that showed it to you !"
"Yeah well I found it in your hand !"
It still surprises me how my comrades could get into such a dangerous brawl for a simple necklace.
"Alright let's stop this here." Matt stated before revealing the necklace that was now in his hand, "I mean, if you fight for something at least make sure it doesn't get snatched by a third party…"
The room turned silent before the bystanders started laughing while the two that were still on the ground covered in bruises smiled wryly.
"Hey Matt. Can you please give me that necklace ?", Yeri sharmingly asked but soon noticed the cold smile on Astrid's face. She panickly tried to explain, "Wait Astrid it's not what you think, I'm-"
"Heyy, don't worry~ It's not as if you are trying to seduce my hubby~"
The room was now silent again, you could feel the looks of the other youngsters meaning to say "You done Goofed".
Astrid "kindly" helped Yuri on her feet and led her out of the cabin for a "chat".
All eleven of us are friends but an invisible hierarchy and untold rules were made along the years. If you want something done ask Bohr or Wilfys, don't flaunt in front of Falco or an argument is bound to happen, don't annoy Sarr or she will prank you to death, don't deny Matt's judgment as he's right most of the time and the most important rule, don't get too close to Matt especially if your a girl or you will be "punished" by the hunting dog...
'I know that Astrid is being a little too overprotective but I just find her too cute to stop her and since she doesn't hurt them that much…'
Our instructor Grimm came in at that moment "Hi there kids. I know that we let you function together as a group the way you want but please don't let Astrid free that much. I don't want another one of you to be transported into the healing hut covered in bruises because of her berserk situation."
It was obvious that he wasn't all that happy but since she was the strongest amongst us he couldn't complain all too much. We live in a primal society after all.
"Right, I came here to tell you that you should get ready for the coming of age ceremony since your birthday will be in three weeks."
"You still haven't told us what happens during the ceremony so how can we prepare ?",Falco went straight to the point, "And why do you always hide our seniors' ceremony ?"
I do agree with him for once, this ceremony always remains hidden, the little tournament that takes place before is used as a show for the entire clan but the main ceremony remains a mystery even though everyone in the clan went through it as well.
We don't really have a choice, we can only trust the clan and train for the tournament.