He wasn’t sure what it was that first alerted him to the attack, maybe it was the soft padding of fifteen sets of paws, or a faint growl, or maybe it was Alice, normally a quiet child, as she began to cry in his lower arms, it did not matter, all that mattered was that was the wolfkin that slunk behind him, and prepared to pounce, thinking that his blind eye was their cover, but Gawain was ready.
As the first wolf sprung upon him, Gawain unsheathed his simitar with practiced smoothness, catching him in his stomach before his fangs could find his shoulder. The wolf’s momentum slammed against the blade of the sword, driving its edge deep into his soft underbelly with very little effort on Gawain’s part. He held Alice tightly to his chest as he drew two more of his swords.
“What is the reason for this treachery?” Gawain said, the Ogre’s voice boomed, the night rippling, but the rest of his army didn’t hear him over the sounds of revelry and songs.
A snarling voice responded, in the slaking, raspy way of the transformed beastkin. “You stall, we were promised blood, you take us from our homeland… then dawdle…”
Gawain turned toward the speaker, who had stepped forward, he recognized him by the white blaze on his chest. “General Aegnt. If you surrender now, I will spare your pack.”
The wolves howled in laughter. Then without warning, one of them lunged toward him, learning from the mistakes of his brother and aiming low. Gawain turned, slicing the head off the wolf with one clean stroke, far too fast to be dodged. The wolves were not laughing now. Their circle began to grow tighter, Alice screamed. Gawain tensed as struck out blindly to the left, the faint sound of paws scrapping against earth alerted him, and his simitar hit the attacking wolf with astounding force, severing his leg.
He limped backward, whining in shock, the wolves snarled, and pounced. The remaining dozen or so wolves each trying to maul the ogre. There was something of a frenzied state among them as they tripped over each other, weakening their numerical advantage. Gawain cradled Alice against his chest, his deadly swords striking out at his attackers with precision and force, befitting of his title, King.
A hungry maw dug into his side, unarmored in the compliancy of one who is surrounded by allies. Gawain shouted, and faltered, the wolves swarming him. He fell forward, covering the infant with his body. Fangs and paws dug into his back and limbs. Alice screamed, her voice unheard by all but her father. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t think beyond the exploding agony across his grey skin. It wasn’t a surprise when a howl echoed through the night. To any non-canine, it sounded like the triumphant hunting cry of a wolf. To a wolf, it sounded eerie, and uncanny, like the shrill notes of a hunting bird, morphed into the cries of their people.
The wolves stalled, and their ears perked up, they paused, as if deciphering its meaning, in a way, it was not too far off from the first meeting of an Orc and Ogre, or the Sol, Luna and Terra tribes, when they rarely interacted. The howl would have been the cry of a wolfkin, except, for some reason that none of them could place, it wasn’t.
Wolves are not cowardess animals, but perhaps, the same could not be said for the wolfkin of Aegnt. When the creature, the not wolf, barreled into their number, they scattered. Quilian was quite a bit larger than the other wolfkin, perhaps because he was not what could be called a wolfkin at all. He was tall, with greyish, almost silver fur, two large white feathered wings tipped with bronze shot out of his back, instead of front paws, he had two large talons, and instead of the thin, furred tails of the wolf, he had a feathered tail that spread out like a fan. Somewhere between a hippogriff and a bastard.
He stood over Gawain, his lips curled back in challenge, his fur and feathers plucked upward. Gawain looked up, his breath coming in heavy ragged gasps. He transferred Alice to his upper right arm, and the infant cooed sympathetically when she saw her father’s bloodstained state.
“Traitor.” One of the wolves growled.
“I cannot betray those to whom I was never loyal.” Quillian hissed back.
The wolves where bruised, and many of them bleeding, Aegnt knew that none of them wanted to take on Quillan, in any form, he was a warrior born, as many of half breeds had to be, unable to carry on their family names by their own blood, they turned to writing their histories in the blood of their enemies.
Aegnt sauntered forward, his teeth bared. “Mutt.” He growled, his tail low, revealing his own uncertainty about his actions. “leave to us our prey, go back to your deformed mistress.”
Quillian roared at the insult, jumping toward Aegnt, his muscles rippled, and half opened his wings causing him to soar farther than the other wolfkin expected, he had bristled to meet Quilian head on, but he realized his mistake and began to turn. It was already to late, as he landed behind Aegnt, digging his talons into his flanks and gripping onto him like a mountain lion. Aegnt growled and snapped behind him, the other wolves were stunned for a moment, before they made their decisions, the older ones, and the ones injured fled, while a two of the yearlings, who had been whelped on the warpath, and were eager to increase their standing in the pack and fuel their thirst for blood, stayed.
Aegnt bucked, trying to throw Quillian off him. The half-breed growled and lunged for Aegent’s throat. One of the yearlings yipped to his littermate, and they crept toward Gawain, still struggling to regain his footing. Aegnt dodged lightly and tackled Quilian, his wings leaving him slightly unbalanced as they tumbled. Quillan’s claws dug at Aegnt’s underbelly, but Aegnt was able to find purchase around Quillan’s neck. They rolled, neither getting the upper hand as they kicked and tried to get a stronger hold on the other.
One of the yearlings pounced on Gawain, his swords had been long since lost, but the king let out a strangled cry and grabbed the small wolf, his four arms gripped the yearlings throat from each direction and crushing. The other yearling barked and watched for a moment, before lowering his tail between his legs and fleeing. The wolf went limp of Gawain’s hands and he dropped it.
Quillian spread his wings as he rolled, the wing caught them and he dug his talons into Aegnt’s chest as he began to beat the air furiously. Aegnt realized what he was going to do and tried to release his bite on Quillan’s neck, but he was too late. Quillian took to the air. They lifted, Aegnt tried to howl surrender, but Quillian didn’t hear him, or he chose not to. Quillian floated above the campsite for a moment, his wings beating heavily. The rest of the army finally noticed the scuffle, the wolves silhouetted in the bonfire. Quillian let Aegnt drop.
The wolf fell, he screamed, not howled, but screamed, a sound unfamiliar to his beast form’s throat. He writhed in the air before hitting the ground and going still. Quillian spiraled downward. He regarded Aegnt’s corpse for a moment, the wolf had started to shift into his man form. It was an unnatural transformation, slow and stiff. Quillian looked away.
Gawain stood, Alice clutching to his chest, his shirt had been ripped to shreds, his grey skin was a patchwork of red, the bite in his side was the worse, it was far too deep, and was bleeding far too much, but Gawain stood, and he stood firm.
“Sir!” Quillian said, trotting over to him and quickly shifting to his man form, which didn’t change much about his appearance, except for the fact that he now stood on two legs, and his armor had materialized from H?mur’s space.
Gawain looked the half wolf up and down, it didn’t take him long to remember his name, beastkin rarely mated outside of their respective tribes. “Quillian. Where is the elf?” Gawain’s voice was strong, although it strained slightly.
“Aren? …With the others I suppose” Quillian asked, “He is not a healer, he isn’t even that good of a mage.”
“I do not need him to be a healer.” Gawain said,
“…sir.” Quillian said, looking once more at his wounds. It almost seemed that the infant Alice gave Quillian a somber, almost regretful look.
“Come along then boy.” Gawain said, his voice was beginning to falter as he began to limp in the direction of the bonfire.
After some raucous debate around the campfire, a young sliverling had been sent to check on to outcome of the fight, between the wolfkin and the mutt so that bets could be properly collected. The spiderkin cautiously walked closer to the tents, his eight legs carefully feeling along the ground. He smelt blood in the air, but that was no surprise. Before the silverling ever reached the tents, his many eyes widened and he scuttled back to the bonfire, shouting for a medic.Stolen story; please report.
It was not long after that the Ogre King came limping into the circle of revelers. There was silence, it is hard to silence a group as large as that one. It is hard to silence any group of soldiers, much less ones of this side of the Inth, but they were silent. Silent as the betrayal that had snuck into their ranks.
“Elf!” Gawain barked, there was no doubt in who he meant, there was only one.
Aren pushed his way through the crowd. The elf had short platinum blond hair cropped to his pointed ears, his blue eyes cut through the crowd and his silver skin glinted in the firelight. “M’lord?”
Gawain shoved Alice into Aren’s arms. Then, in a booming voice, he said. “I, King Gawain Alume, declare Erann’d Eithidien as the warden of my child, and the guardian of my throne until Alison comes of age.”
There was the sudden shout of protest from the braver of the crowd. Gawain roared at them, and they were silent. He turned to Aren, and put a hand on his shoulder, before whispering in elvish that Aren didn’t know he could speak.
“There are enemies in my ranks. Trust no one except the wolf and his muse.”
Aren didn’t have the chance to respond, because Gawain collapsed the moment he finished speaking. A goblin rushed past Aren, searching the King for a pulse, he didn’t find one, and loudly declared him dead.
Alison Hope did not cry. The Orc merely stared up at Aren pensively. The elf was suddenly aware of how adult her eyes looked. She had the eyes of an elder elf, someone who had lived far to many lives. Aren turned around, and walked away from the corpse of Gawain. He did not have time to mourn, not when he could feel Durn staring daggers into his back, and was certain that if he was not careful they would become iron and slip between his ribs. He tasted water on the air and wrinkled his nose.
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The new tunnel was built, but… now what?
The builders didn’t look tired, in fact they seemed more energized than they had before, she hummed slightly, what was the next project? Empress didn’t like how exposed her ((CORE)) felt, even with Guard keeping watch, she didn’t really have any defenses, she could make another room, but what was she going to use it for? The beginnings of a plan began to form in her mind, she mused for a moment, before turning to Builder “She tells you to create a Storeroom.”
Empress didn’t ((COMMAND)) her this time, she didn’t have the ((MANA)), and wanted to see if the leader ant would be able to understand her without it. Builder stared at Empress for a while, then she clacked at her crew and they began to dig, this time, instead of the straight tunnel, they began to expand horizontally. She giggled, her mind was racing now, Gatherer had begun bringing in all sorts of new things, she had been absorbing them all without a second thought, but now she would be able to keep them somewhere, did her ants need to eat? She paused for a moment, before deciding that, it was probably fine, and they would eat if they needed to, she would have a place to put food now at least. Next, she opened her ((MENU))
“SKILLS.”
MENU
STATUS SKILLS HELP LOCKED REPUTATION OVERVIEW
TOGGLE GAZE LV 1 RANK 1: You can adjust the amount of light you perceive with your primary sensory ‘organ’ to some extent. RARE
UNDERSTANDING LV 2 RANK 1: You gain a certain amount of knowledge and comprehension when you encounter a being or concept for the first time. RARE
UNPREDICTABLE LV 1 RANK 1: Due to not being a match for your species’ compatible alignments, you have gained the ability to adjust the alignments of your colonists.
Why where ((SKILLS)) called ((SKILLS?)), other than ((TOGGLE GAZE)) she hadn’t really learned them, she wasn’t sure if they had always been there, or if she had gained them somehow, she tried to remember when she had used ((UNDERSTANDING)) for the first time, it… couldn’t have been that long ago, but her mind drew a blank. Empress’s glow faded slightly.
“Help,” she said
MENU
STATUS SKILLS HELP LOCKED REPUTATION OVERVIEW
Edit Menu order:
Edit Menu color:
Edit Menu style:
Auditory messages: off
Volume: 100%
Brightness: 32%
If you need elaboration or assistance, say “Help (your problem here)”
Empress hummed. “Help Memory”
MEMORY
1 the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information.
2 something remembered from the past; a recollection.
She blinked, that didn’t explain anything, “Help… ((UNDERSTANDING))”
UNDERSTANDING
A skill some beings can gain at birth/emergence/spawn that allows them to instantly learn varying amounts of information about a concept, object, or being when they first encounter it, or learn more about a concept, object or being as they become more familiar with it, the amount of knowledge depends on the level of the skill.
Empress huffed and her light surged. It almost being stubborn.
CONGRATULATIONS UNDERSTANDING HAS REACHED LEVEL 3.
UNDERSTANDING LV 3 RANK 1: You gain some amount of knowledge and comprehension when you encounter a being or concept for the first time. RARE
Empress shot back, how had she-? Had using ((HELP)) given her EXP somehow? Was it because she had specifically used ((HELP)) on ((UNDERSTANDING))? Or did she gain it gradually, and it was a coincidence?
“Help EXP.”
EXPERIENCE POINTS
The numerical value of how much work must be done before one becomes significantly better at using a skill, when enough points are gained, a level is achieved Experience Points can be gained by either practicing the skill one wishes to level up, or through doing related tasks that may in some way increase the comprehension of the skill. Levels can also be bought or given by beings of high authority. EXP is added to a beings overall level when they level up a skill or do a significant task.
So then, did ((HELP)) count as a related task? Or did it give her comprehension? Could she level up her other skills in the same way? Would she gain EXP for ((TOGGLE GAZE RANK 1 LEVEL 1)) by just looking around? What about ((UNPREDICTABLE)), how was she supposed to level that skill? How did you buy levels? Empress hummed, and floated over to the moss node, she had another idea, something that had floated up from her ((UNDERSTANDING)) leveling. The moss hadn’t spread much, she could tell that it had spread which was good. Gardener was hard at work planting pads of moss around the hallway, and they had already begun to root themselves into the walls.
LUMMI MOSS Node LV 2
A special kind of bioluminescent moss that unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic.
Unused Stat Points: 0
Taste: 1
Toxicity: 0
Glow: 2
Spread: 2
Growth: 2.5
HP: 3/3
Alignment: BENIGN
EXP: 0/100
ASCEND CHANCE: .001
She blinked, how to do this? If she could give ((MANA)) to the ants, could she give it to the moss as well? Runner dashed past her with a green bough of a tree in her mandibles, and a moment later Empress absorbed it and felt the surge of ((MANA)).
Reaching out mentally toward the text box Empress pushed. She felt ((MANA)) swirl inside her ((CORE)) and slowly make its way to her ((GAZE)), and she focused on the link trying to force the unwieldly element to bend to her will. It was like ((CODING)) but instead of going through the ((MANA)) she reached out to ((THE SYSTEM)) her former fears completely forgotten. The text box glowed brightly as the ((MANA)) fed in to it, the light kept growing in intensity, a high-pitched whine filled the air. Empress felt her ((MANA POOL)) emptying and she was about to cut off the link when a small crack began to form in the corner of the box, it quickly began to expand, and the words began to shake on the grey backdrop. Then the box exploded in a raw surge of ((MANA)). Shards of grey glassy material shot throughout the hallway, vanishing before they contacted anything. Empress yelped and flew backward; the cavern was suddenly illuminated by the excess energy, the light seemed to be delayed slightly. Then it collapsed in on itself and the ((MANA)) vanished.
CONGRATULATIONS!! YOUR LUMMI MOSS NODE HAS LEVELED UP.
CONGRATULATIONS!! YOUR LUMMI MOSS NODE HAS LEVELED UP.
CONGRATULATIONS!! YOUR LUMMI MOSS NODE HAS LEVELED UP.
Empress blinked rapidly as her ((GAZE)) readjusted to the darkness. Three grey text boxes floated in front of her, each saying the same thing. It took her a moment to understand what they said and when she finally wrapped her ((CORE)) around it, she cautiously floated toward the moss node again, opening its ((MENU))
LUMMI MOSS Node LV 5
A special kind of bioluminescent moss that unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic.
Unused Stat Points: 6
Taste: 1
Toxicity: 0
Glow: 2
Spread: 2
Growth: 2.5
HP: 3/3
Alignment: BENIGN
EXP: 15/100
ASCEND CHANCE: .003
Oh. Empress bobbed up and down nervously, oh she did something.
The dungeon poked at the box gently, bopping it with her ((GAZE)), it wobbled slightly, but didn’t move. Alright then, it didn’t seem broken. She thought for a moment then divvied up her stat points
LUMMI MOSS Node LV 5
A special kind of bioluminescent moss that unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic.
Unused Stat Points: 0
Taste: 2
Toxicity: 0
Glow: 3
Spread: 4
Growth: 4.5
HP: 3/3
Alignment: ((BENIGN))
EXP: 0/100