Arnel look out at the endless plains and for the first time in a long time wonder about his future. It was a strange feeling. When he was a human, he was a Guardsman of Yachim. He had a duty. He had purpose. When he became a mutant, that didn’t change. He was a servant of the Creator and a member of the Kin. He still had a duty and a purpose. Now he had neither.

Thinking about the future made Arnel feel the hole in his heart. Arnel could still feel it; the place in his heart where the Creator used to be. It was similar to feeling he had when his parents died; only more intense, more personal.

When he felt the destruction of the Creator, he didn’t know what was going on. He only felt a deep sense of sorrow, loss and rage. The rage quickly overcame him. Arnel’s heart aches with the memory. The memory of knowing there were enemies before him and that he must destroy them. When the rage faded, when he came back to his senses, he was covered in blood. Arnel remember screaming, and he was not the only one.

Arnel wasn’t the only one who was overcame with the feeling of rage; the destruction of The Creator affected all its creation. In a way, the rage came at a good time. From what he could piece together, the maddening rage drove the Kin crazy and the humans were unable to cope with their new-found ferocity. The Kin overwhelmed the human line and broke their defenses. From there, it was just a slaughter.

Remembering the incident made Arnel turned his head back to the city. Arnel was standing on the walls of the city and from his vantage point, he had a good view of what reminds of the city. The sight made him sigh. The shock had wear off already but that didn’t change the fact; city of Yachim had been destroyed. From his vantage point, Arnel could see several members of the Kin pulling away the dead and he try his best not to think about what the Kin was going to do with all the dead bodies. He knew that some of the Kin have a taste for humans and the Alpha largely accepted it but for Arnel, it is a case of out of sight out of mind.

It was one of the reasons why he was on the walls. He had no wish to be down there in the broken city. Arnel turn back to the plains. It was called the Homeless Plains and old legends had it that the vast grassland could lead everywhere. It was a vast plains that one could lose himself in forever. Arnel smiled. That didn’t sound so bad to him.

Without his tie to the Creator, there was no reason for him to stay with the Kin. With his abilities, he could go anywhere and more importantly, be anyone. His smile grew wider. As the only mutant ever created by the Creator, Arnel did not know what his future holds and that…that’s exciting.

***

The Speaker looked up at the huge hole above her and couldn’t help but shudder at the power it took to create it. She half-wonder about the power the humans who made the hole had, and how they came up with such a plan. The hole above her was not only huge, it was also long enough to reach the surface of the mountain. From her position in the underground forest, the Speaker could look up and see the open sky. As if in mockery, the sky today was bright and fair. The opposite of how she felt.

“It’s amazing isn’t it?”

The Speaker didn’t need to look at the person speaking to know who he is speaking for. Several of the leaders of the Kin had rushed back to the mountains the moment they realized what had happened but most of them had left when they realized there was nothing they could do here. The Speaker elected to stay and her mate reluctantly allowed it. The Fox Mother remain behind as well.

“What is amazing? The fact that the humans could create this hole? The fact that the Creator is destroyed? Or the fact that we weren’t here to defend it?”

The Speaker knew she was being snarky but she did not care. The Fox Mother felt the same.

“Maybe all of it, except for the last. I am glad me and my children weren’t here for the battle.” At the Speaker hot gaze, the Fox Mother could only shrug. Her Foxkin spoke of her behalf. “The humans created this hole to gain access to the forest. They defeated the Porkasus, they managed to destroy the Creator, and they were willing to sacrifice their own to destroy it! Do you really believe we could have done anything to prevent this? Just look at the area around us?”

That was something the Speaker couldn’t argue against. Currently they were standing in the clearing where the Creator used to be, only the clearing was now at least five times bigger than before. Whatever the humans did, they did not take any chances. The explosion destroyed everything in the vicinity, including the humans. The Kin found several human bodies around the clearing, burned beyond recognition by the blast that they use to destroy the Creator. Even the Porkasus was severely injured. The flying pig was now gigantic, no doubt having been changed by the Creator to help defend it, but even that improvement was not enough.

“What do we do now? Without the Creator…”

“We live.” The Fox Mother said. “The Creator is gone but we are still around. The Kin must survive.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“Speaker, it will be anything but easy. However we have everything we need to succeed. We have secured the city. We control the Great Kar Forest. We own the Keg Mountains, and we had destroy the human threat. We already have safety, now all we need to do is to grow.”

“Grow?”

“Yes! To grow as a people, to be a race respected and feared by the humans, and to be a kingdom known throughout Ioplon. That was what we set out to do in the first place right?”

“That was when we still had the Creator! Without it…”

“We are still here. With or without the Creator, the Kin is still here. We are the legacy of the Creator. We must survive and you need to help.”

“Me?” The Speaker couldn’t help but laugh. “I was the Speaker of the Kin, the bridge between the Creator and the Kin, and now the Creator is no more. I am nothing now. Without the Speaker, I have no place in the Kin!”

“So make a place for yourself.”

“Easy for you to say! You are the Fox Mother, the mother of the Foxkin. A Unique of the Creator. What am I?”

The Fox Mother smile at that question. “You are a mother, a mate to the most powerful leader within the Kin, and a teacher to countless children. You may not think so Speaker but in many ways you are more unique than me.”

The Speaker just scoff at that. She was feeling less than amazing right now and nothing the Fox Mother could say was going to change that. For all her anger and sadness however, a small part of the Speaker knows that the Fox Mother was right. The Kin must survive.

They are part of the legacy left behind by the Creator and as its Speaker, ensuring the Kin’s survival is the least she could do to honor the Creator’s memory. The Speaker look at the hole high above her and she can’t help but think of her cubs. Her children, and the other children of the Kin, must have a future and for that to happen, the Speaker must help. She will in time. Right now though, she just wish to mourn.