“Life is good.”

The Speaker silently thought as she basked in the early spring sunshine. Winter was just over and the first signs of spring were just making their presence felt. Passed the dreary winter but before the busy spring; this was her favorite part of the year. The Speaker always thought this period of the year as a time of renewal and loved the anticipation of seeing the blooming leaves of the Great Kar.

Spring was in the air and as the Speaker opened her eyes and looked up at the blue sky, she saw the sunlight shining through the leaves of the oak tree. Her smile got wider and she snuggled up tighter to her mate.

Winter was only just about done so the ground was still wet but neither the Speaker nor her mate was bothered with that. She and her mate, Treznor, had spent a season confided to the tunnels of the Creator and today they intend to enjoy a lazy afternoon for themselves under the sun. At least that was the plan.

Treznor caught the scent before she did and growled as he turned towards it. The Speaker sighed and looked in the same direction. Flying through the air towards them was a harpy. With her Enhanced Sight, the Speaker could see that the harpy was carrying something in her claws. Her mate moaned as he saw the harpy changing latitude and looking to land before them. The Speaker gave her mate a playful slap on his chest before getting up.

Her mate was having none of that. With a firm arm, the Alpha grabbed the Speaker around her waist and pulled her back towards him. The Speaker chuckled but didn’t fight him. Instead she turned around and licked her mate’s neck. The Alpha enjoyed that.

“Seriously?” the harpy screeched as she landed in front of them. “You two saw me coming and couldn’t stop touching each other for a few moments? I’m a child you know! And licking? I know that’s normal when you are all furry but you two are in your human form! NO LICKING WHEN YOU ARE HUMAN!”

The Alpha growled again and this time the Speaker gave him a sharp elbow. Pleased or not, there was no need to scare children. “Good day to you too Moro, what do you have there?”

Unlike her older sister Momo, Moro was slightly more flighty and it took her a moment to understand what the Speaker was talking about. “Oh this,” the harpy raised her claws showing her prey to the two Werewolves. “Momo caught a rabbit earlier today and I thought I’ll catch one too and we can show them to the Creator together. See if it wanted to do something new with them?”

Her mate scoffed at the small animal in Moro’s claws but the Speaker smiled in appreciation. “Good thinking Moro, I’m sure the Creator would love them. Maybe the Kin will get new members after all this time.”

“Don’t know why you all still bother?”

It was the Alpha who said this and the Speaker natural response was another elbow. This one was hard enough to get a grunt out of him. Though she was nowhere near as strong as the Alpha, the Speaker was also a Werewolf and she was strong enough to get the Alpha’s attention.

“What? It’s true.” The Alpha protested. “It’s been over several winters since the Creator created anything new! All it does now is dig and create new floors!”

“That doesn’t mean it would never create something new again.” As the Speaker of the Creator, the Speaker felt she had a duty to defend the floating crystal. “We just need to keep on trying and one day it may be…inspired to create something.”

“It is lazy.” The Speaker turned sharply to face her mate. She heard a growl and realized it was coming from her. She didn’t care and the Alpha put up both hands to calm his mate. However he did not back down and instead choose to defend himself. “It’s the truth. The Creator hadn’t created anything new since the big fight against the humans and that’s not likely to change.”

The Speaker turned away from her mate. He was right and she knew it. Only 6 winters ago, she had arrived in the Great Kar as a human slave in the service of her mistress, Kyla Sacredhunt. A High Mage working for the city of Yachium, her former mistress was sent to the Great Kar Forest in search of a dark mage but what they found was something greater than any mage. The humans she was with were all killed but for her…somehow the Creator saw something in her that it liked and stopped the Werewolves from killing her. Brought to the Creator, the Speaker found that the Creator was a floating crystal with 5 lights surrounding it. More importantly, the Creator had the power to transmute living creatures into other forms and it chose to change her in more ways than one.

Before the change, she was just a lowly human slave. After the change, she was the Speaker; a Werewolf of strength, power and some influence. More than that, the Creator had given her something much more important. When it changed her, the Creator gave her a family. The creatures changed by the Creator were called the Kin and they were now her family. In more ways than she could count, the Creator had changed her life and the Speaker couldn’t help but feel she owned it everything.

She wanted to defend the Creator but that didn’t mean her mate was wrong. 5 winters ago, misinformation, revenge and a thirst for power led the humans of Yachium to launch an attack against the Creator. A powerful Grand Mage led a force of over 300 men against the Creator and after some difficulties, the humans were destroyed. However, the Creator had been different since the fight. It no longer created new creatures but instead focused on creating new floors and levels deep within the mountain that was Big Keg. Occasionally, it would still create a new Werewolf or Ratling when the Kin bought a wolf or rat to it but it no longer created anything new.

Why that was the case was something the Kin had debated on at length. The Speaker believed she knows the reason. To the Speaker, it was as if after that big fight, the Creator felt that there was nothing the humans could throw at it that could endanger it. If she was correct, the reason why the Creator no longer created anything new was because it no longer felt a need to do so. It felt safe and no longer felt the need to create new defenders. Naturally, the Speaker did not say this to the rest of the Kin.

The Speaker wasn’t exactly displeased with the contentment of the Creator but like the rest of the Kin, she did feel that life was missing something when no new creatures were made by the Creator. She still remembered the excitement she felt that day when the Creator created the Harpies, the Tengu, the Angels, the Pegasus, and the Porkasus. 5 new creatures all in one day! The Speaker would love to have another day like that but since that big fight, the Creator had not created even one. Still, the Speaker did not think it was their…

“What is this?”

The Speaker looked up at Moro and felt it. The ground was shaking. The trees were moving. The whole forest was shaking.

“MORO, FLY! IT’S AN EARTHQUAKE!”