*Five Months Later*
"Are you sure?"
An inaudible response followed and Amari had to lean closer to hear Felaud's response.
A few seconds later, Felaud's voice became audible. "No need to strain yourself to hear, Raion'shalang. You may come and listen."
Amari sighed in relief. He looked at the pups who were still sleeping and then at his parents who wore worried looks on their faces.
"What's happening?" He asked, chewing on a thumb.
Reida gave Felaud another look, to which the larger wolf nodded.
She breathed, "Well, some issues have arisen with other territories near ours. Their leader has a grudge against us and demands the leaders of this region to deliver us to his doorsteps."
Amari blanked out.
"Tell me you aren't considering it!"
Felaud sighed, "It would be the safest thing to do. Worst case scenario you and the pus will have to live with Tamira if our plan fails."
"And... what if it doesn't fail?"
Then his father's bright yellow eyes brought forth a small storm of shadows that swirled at his feet. Reida looked away, but Amari saw a similar pool below her.
"If it succeeds, that's one less region taking up space."
Amari shivered a bit. The pool of shadows had disappeared but he still felt a vague presence bolstering his parents.
"Okay. I'll try to follow your instructions. Just tell me what to do and I'll do my best to help."
He didn't try to be stubborn. If they wanted to it would be so easy to leave him in Tamira's place without a word. Arguing to help them fight on the front lines was pointless, especially because he would hinder them.
"There's actually something you can help us with. Would you like to try?" Felaud asked out of the blue.
"Sure what's it?"
"Well, we doubt you'd have a good affinity for our spells, but there are definitely a few you can learn. You don't have any spells anyway, so I'm asking you now, do you want to learn?" The wolf stood up as he spoke and stared deep into the boy's eyes.
Amari jumped up, falling to the side and almost crashing into the five sleeping pups. He barely held himself in time.
"R-really?"
"Yeah, I don't see why not?" Reida answered for Felaud, helping Amari regain his footing.
"Okay, when do we get started?" he asked, making Felaud lean back uncomfortably.
"Calm down, boy. We'll start in the morning when the pups are awake so we don't have to teach twice. Just go to sleep for now."
"Uh-huh, okay!"
He scooched back to his side of the den and looked at the wolf family as he did so. They looked normal without him in the picture. Sure, they accepted him as a son and brother. But none of the other demon beasts did.
'I'm sure half of them consider me a source of energy for their next evolutions, and the other half just think I'm a pest of some sort. Well, I can't really blame them, can I?'
His mind drifted off to the wolf pups. They matured a lot in five months.
At first, they were just hairless, blind, deaf balls that curled up and slept every day for two weeks. They looked like little pugs rather than fierce Shadow Dweller Wolves.
Truthfully told, Amari was almost convinced that there was some infidelity just from this fact alone. Then he remembered the sleepless nights he had because of Reida and Felaud's rendezvous.
'Definitely no infidelity there....'
When their ears and eyes opened, the mischief began. Amari's mind wandered back to the time that Filten snuck out of the cave to explore the outside world.
'I was lucky back then. Reida would have killed me if it was anyone else.'
Amari felt lucky that she was so merciful. That was the most angry he'd ever seen though. People often said that maternal instincts overcome everything else and they were right.
Well, five months in, they could go hunting with his, Reida's or Felaud's help. It was cute to see them struggling to bite through small animals with their mostly immature teeth.
Amari on the other hand had grown from looking four to looking seven in just five months. He still didn't know how this weird ageing system worked.
The night passed and morning came.
"How do you think we use our shadows?" Felaud asked preemptively.
Everyone stood in front of the cave, listening to the lecture. From Reida and Felaud to the five pups; Zaltan, Riux, Tamara, Amira and Filten.
Each pup was named after someone except for Zaltan. Firstborns were meant to be christened independently of their parents or other benefactors. Amari named Amira. No one knew why he gave her that rather than a R-name, but they chose not to ask.
That didn't matter now, though.
Currently, a small wisp of shadow stood in front of everyone... except him.
"Well, I don't know. Don't you just command them to come?"
The seven Shadow Dwellers gave him funny looks simultaneously, and Filten, the youngest of this litter of pups burst into small giggles.
"Big bro Raion is so silly!"
A red tinge spread across Amari's face and he put his head down.
Felaud cleared his throat, "Now that's enough, Filten. You have to remember that your Big Brother isn't exactly like us."
He just cleared his throat while reprimanding the adorable pups. Amari almost burst into tears when he realized the wolf also held back laughter.
Reida shot him a dirty look and his amusement seemed to dissipate that instant.
"Is there something on my face that's funny?"
"Uhm, well. That's not true, I was just clearing my throat" he said, trying to defuse the situation. Reida didn't say anything and just kept the dirty look. He sighed and stepped away, feeling embarrassed.
"Raion. While to your kind it appears that the initial instinct is to control, we Demon Beasts don't operate like that. Rather than command nature's forces, we choose to live in coexistence with them."
He raised a paw and a small shadow wisp followed it.
"To you, it looks like I'm controlling it, but in truth I'm actually asking it to help me with my cause. Nature has no issues with anybody. Anyone can ask nicely enough and nature will reciprocate kindness,"
"That is our way. The way of balance and equivalent exchange. Do you understand?"
Amari nodded slightly. He raised a hand and tried to visualize a shadowy aspect of nature.
'Well, here I am, Nature. Sorry for my force use earlier. That's the way I'm used to it. I'll try to cooperate with you from now on. Okay?'
Then he opened his eyes. Four big shadow balls appeared in front of him.
[You have learned a new skill: Basic Shadow Manipulation].
[Achievement Unlocked: First Element!]
[Reward: Shadow Element]
[Most Spells and Skills of this element cannot be learned in this region. Move to a new region to learn race-appropriate skills]
Amari's eyes glanced at all the messages on the screen, stunned. His eyes then shifted to the four shadow wisps.
Felaud cleared his throat.
"Well, good. Now that we're done with the basics, how about we move on to a little something called the Shadow Movement?"