“Argh! Argh! Argh!”

Screams and laughter filled the air as the cubs ran for safety. Accalia, Thomir and Draug immediately ran to their mother but Lyno and Fenir were a little bit more unfortunate. The Big Bad Wolf placed himself between the duo and safety. The two cubs shared a look before splitting up. They ran to either side of the enemy and it was caught deciding which of the cub to capture. In a flash, the duo was passed the enemy and hiding safely behind their mother. The Speaker smiled as the Big Bad Wolf turned towards them and showed off his sharp teeth.

“Argh! Argh! Argh!”

Arms outstretched, the Big Bad Wolf slowly approach. The Speaker had to chuckle. Her mate, the father of her children, was a terrible Big Bad Wolf. As he got nearer, the Speaker told him as much. It was a mistake. The Speaker noticed an unhealthy glint in his eyes.

“No!”

Too late! The Big Bad Wolf tackled the Speaker to the ground. Lying onto of her, the Big Bad Wolf gave a playful howl and…

“Protect Mummy!”

At the shout, the five cubs jumped on the Big Bad Wolf and the Speaker’s chuckle became a laugh.

“Argh! Unfair! There’re five of you. I’m outnumbered!”

“You’re bigger!” Maybe it’s because she’s the only female of the litter but Accalia was always the most sharp-tongued of her children. “Get off Mummy.”

In response to the children’s response, Treznor laid heavily on the Speaker and…licked her.

“YUCK!”

The children got off their father and fled. Now it Treznor’s turn to chuckle.

“Works every time.”

“You know if you lick me more, the children may run further away.”

“I would but we have work to do.”

The Speaker couldn’t help but sigh. Werewolves has great sense of smell and like her mate, she had picked up the scent of the Chieftain a long time ago. Sometimes she missed the days when she was nothing but a human slave. She shouted to the empty air.

“You can come out now. We can smell you.”

The Chieftain fade into existence. The Werewolf couple looked at the young Ratlings and not for the first time, the Speaker felt a tug at the heart. The old Chieftain of the Ratlings died in the summer and the Ratlings had chosen a young new Ratling as their leader. Personally, the Speaker thought their selection was a mistake. The young Ratling was only made by the Creator a few winers ago and she would had been more comfortable if the Ratlings had selected a more experienced Ratling. However it wasn’t her place to question the decision made by another of the Kin and her doubts wasn’t shared by all.

“Told you before Shav, you can hide your presence but not your smell.” Unlike the Speaker, Treznor got along famously with the new Chieftain and the young Ratling had a rueful smile on his face.

“I know but I don’t get it. If I’m able to fade my body out of view of everyone, how can you still smell me?”

“I thought the Fox Mother gave you an explanation on that.” The Foxkin were the mages of the Kin and the Fox Mother was doubtlessly the most powerful mage the Kin had. Then the Speaker remember the argument the two leaders had. “You still don’t agree?”

The Chieftain gave a non-committing shrug. “Sorry to break into your family time but we have a problem.”

Treznor got off her and asked. “What is it this time?”

“What we feared all along had come to pass. There’s a fight between some Beastmen and Beastkin and this time, someone is dead.”

***

Beneath the mountain known Big Keg, there is a dungeon. Made by a small floating crystal, the dungeon was a series of tunnels connected to each other that went deep into the earth. Home to the small floating crystal known as the Dungeon Hive, the dungeon was designed to have a series of levels with the fifth level being it’s pride and joy. The fifth level of the dungeon was a huge cavern that had an underground forest within and the Dungeon Hive made its home within this forest.

As great as the underground forest was, there are tunnels below it. These deep levels were a series of confusing mazelike tunnels that befuddled almost everyone who entered them. Even the Bullmen, Kin who love mazes, do not enter them often. That’s a good thing for the Dungeon Hive for down in the tenth level of the tunnels, the Hive had built a huge circular cavern that dwarfed even the underground forest of the fifth level. In this cavern was the most ambitious creature the Hive had tried to made; the Dragon. The project was not going well.

“Can we make it bigger?”

“We can but should we?”

“Why not? Bigger is better right?”

“Right. Size matters.”

“Maybe but this is already taking way too long.”

“True. It’s been seven winters since we took the request from those Fire idiots and we’re still not done! Why don’t we just complete the dragon already? It’s almost finish anyway.”

“Come on you guys! We need to have some pride in our work. We shouldn’t just create a dragon; we should create a dragon that’s better than that red dragon the Fire Hive is currently making!”

“Enough with this stupid competition! Those Fire idiots only just started on their dragon and you guys know they only wanted us to start with our dragon first so that they could learn from any mistakes we made. There’s no need to be that kind to them. Some of us spirits actually want to start creating new creatures again and that’s something that we can’t do because most of our energy is spent on this dragon. Let’s just finish this and go on to new projects.”

As the spirits of the Hive argued, resting in the middle of the cavern was the dragon. The spirit that volunteered for the job of being the dragon was annoyed. Even though the final aim was to have a creature known as a dragon, until the connection with the Hive was cut, the dragon was still considered a Boss of the dungeon and the spirit within the Boss was still part of the Hive. That meant that it could hear the argument that was currently raging within the crystal; an argument that was disturbing it’s rest.

The dragon stood up and stared at the ceiling above with angry emerald eyes. Two enormous horns sit atop its head and the dragon took a deep breath through its two large nostrils. The dragon opened its long pointed jaw that showed off its numerous terrifying teeth and gave a road that echoed through the dungeon.

“Shut Up! I’m trying to sleep here!”

Silence greeted the roar before a spirit within asked something that had surprised all the spirits. “Where is the ‘we’ that follows your ‘I/we’?”