The sun began to cast a golden hue over the distant mountains, as the open fields and dense forests lit up with the morning light. Lukas Rhoan, still a pup, stumbled clumsily as he ran, his paws far too large for his small body. He was already visibly larger than the other pups, though his mind was still immersed in the playful antics of youth.
Surrounded by three Canis dirus (Aenocyon) wolves, Lukas rolled on the ground, mentally laughing as the other pups tried to topple him. It was a friendly contest, but he knew he had the upper hand. His muscles, though not yet fully developed, already showed a strength the others couldn't match.
- Lukas: "You'll never catch me!" Lukas growled playfully, dodging a leap with surprising agility.
The other pups laughed back, pouncing on him, but Lukas merely twisted his body and flung them aside with a spin that was shockingly strong for his age. Still, there was no malice in the game, only the pure joy of youth.
On a nearby rock, the pack's elder, a gray-furred Canis dirus (Aenocyon) with deep, knowing eyes, observed patiently. His days were numbered, and he knew it. The energy of the pups, which had once filled him with hope, now seemed like a reminder of his own diminishing strength. His roar, once capable of silencing any commotion, was now a shadow of its former power.
The commotion grew as the pups encouraged each other, shouting and running circles around the elder. He decided to intervene. Lifting his head, he let out a deep roar that echoed through the valley.
- Elder Wolf: "RAAAARRRR!"
For a moment, the sound made the pups pause, but only long enough to glance at each other before resuming their play as if nothing had happened. Lukas noticed this. He turned his gaze to the elder and, for the first time, saw the fragility in the curved back, the subtle tremble in his legs. The old one's roar no longer carried the weight it once did.
A mix of sadness and something else—something primal and fierce—rose within Lukas. He stopped playing, raised his head, and took a deep breath. The group of pups fell silent, sensing that Lukas was about to do something.
With an instinctive impulse, he let out his own roar.
- Lukas: "RAAAAAARRRRRGH!"
The sound reverberated through the valley, a wave of raw, vibrant power that sent birds in the nearby trees scattering in panic. The roar echoed between the mountains and across the plains, as if the valley itself were responding to this new voice.
The pups stood frozen, stunned. Even the elder, who had never heard such power from a pup, regarded Lukas with respect—and perhaps a tinge of fear.
But the roar didn't stop there. Its echo traveled beyond the pack's lands, reaching far more dangerous ears.
In the shadows of a distant forest, a pair of yellow eyes opened. A massive Arctotherium angustidens, one of the largest bears ever to walk the Earth, lifted its head. The roar had awakened something in its primal hunger. Slow but deliberate, it began to move toward the source of the call.
Lukas, still unaware of what he had unleashed, looked around. The pups appeared awestruck, and the elder simply shook his head, as if recognizing something that Lukas himself could not yet understand.
- Elder Wolf: "You are not like the others," thought the elder, without "uttering a word".
Far away, in the shadows, the predator advanced. The echo of Lukas's roar had marked the beginning of something far greater than he could imagine.