In the forest to the north of the small town, as the sky starts to burn red with the setting of the sun, a black bear speeds its pace once out of sight to the creatures it took delight in terrorizing. A bear, better than any other creature of the forest, knew the importance of enjoying life to the fullest. Where there is food, the bear will eat. Where there is no food, the bear will sleep. This holds true for any particular variety of bear, from the black bear to the grizzly to the polar to the dire to the owl to the koala. Bugbears may be an exception, but that would be on a case by case basis depending on how infected by intelligence they are. Generally when naming creatures by combining nouns and adjectives, or nouns and nouns, the sapient creatures would take the qualities of the names creature it is about to observe and apply then in sequence. For example, when put into common, the formal name of the grizzly bear would be the ‘horrible bear’ bear, while the colloquially shortened version would refer to the scene of carnage left behind when the bear in question is annoyed.

Further along in the metaphorical naming scale, the bugbear is a variety of goblin known for strength and laziness. It combines the traits of bears, wherein it wanders it's territory in search of edibles, consumes, and sleeps, with those of any bug, wherein it will hide from anything larger than it, come out in the darkness, and ruin any stored supplies it gets into with its filth. On the other hand, the black bear is named far more simply, for it's coloration. That could imply that the species had been discovered fairly early on, zoological speaking, before the need to differentiate between bears via temperament, but after the discovery that not all bears were the same. Likely, the first distinctions were between the black bears and the brown bears.

After peacefully encountering a group of humans in one of their dens, and having a great time with terrifying then without causing any injuries during the play-fight, this particular black bear felt the need to further differentiate itself from the common beast. Over the course of the fight, he had utilized the knowledge imparted upon him by that druid’s spell to listen to the humans talk to each other, as they used names and phrases to organize their actions. Through that, the bear had compiled names, and decided on ‘Berand’ for himself. He hadn’t taken any serious blows while in town, and had in turn only battered the poking sticks, or those who approached, with blunt paws rather than extending his claws. Until an expertly aimed blast of magic shot between two guards on either side of the bear and Berand himself, he has been enjoying himself immensely. Whomever it was that fired that missile, they had taken it upon themself to break up the scuffle like a parent pulling apart their cubs when they were making to much noise for them to continue ignoring and still manage to sleep. Bears were not highly noted for their eyesight, other than the owl variety, but from the center of the road, Berand felt like he should have been able to see the caster standing at the starting point for the spell, since magic had to start at the person using it. There was nothing there. Either the human was very good at hiding in plain sight, invisible, or good enough at magic to make it not originate from the source of its power. Any of those options would supply the person in question sufficient authority to make all the low powered peons sit down quietly and pay attention. The fact there was a second missile at all, which clearly could be identical to the original bolt, implied that more could come if the caster chose, so Berand had been pressured to beat a retreat at casual bear pace. At least the spell that gave him life allowed Berand to comprehend that kind of subtle intimidation and act appropriately, unlike a typical bear. A normal, non-magical creature would either be scared off by the first blast, ignore it altogether, or just decide that was a new priority target.

Really, it just made Berand angry. He understood that he was weak, whereas when he was a regular bear he knew he was strong. Magic was one of those things that set apart those with it above others who did not on the food chain. Bears were supposed to be able to eat what they wanted, do what they wanted, without things like thinking about the consequences getting in the way. When a mage uses it's magic to spray colors into a bears face and disorient them, they were perfectly fine with turning around and smashing whatever they were bringing with them but not currently using. Since the spellcaster would have to be within a certain range of the bear to use a spell, and no mage wanted to approach a bear, they would be able to get their vengeance and leave contentedly.

Berand himself was faster than the average bear, and as such was slightly more equipped to deal with any such wizard. They were limited by the power of their bodies, how long it took them to cast their spells, and how much foresight they were able to use in preparing the spells they have memorized. Were a bear to be within striking distance of a hostile sorcerer or the like, the act of making motions for spellcasting, in addition to how they would be forced to concentrate on what they were doing rather than paying attention to the world around them, renders them entirely defenseless against an incoming attack, and, for any human which did not specially train to be far stronger than human norm, a single swipe from a bear not playing around would be enough to disembowel, or at least damage enough for them to fall into shock, the offending sapient.

Unless magic got in the way.

Most magically inclined beasts were purely devoted to offense, channelling their inherent magical might to dealing as much damage as possible to whatever it faces before it can be brought down in turn, relying on the strength of its hide and size to deflect whatever death it's opponent is attempting to inflict upon it. In sharp contrast, a human would use magic to supplement it's defenseless hide with barriers of raw mana, imitate the defensive properties exhibited by the rare, and thus widely known, magical creatures that use such methods, such as invisibility from the invisible stalkers or illusory copies of oneself from displacer beasts, and, in the case of powerful wizards or average druids, transforming their very bodies into those of the creatures they would fight, which then have the protections offered by their other magical defenses. Once those with both sufficient mana and intelligence managed to get enough time to set up their magical defenses, they would be able to weather the fury of the less intelligent creature they were hunting and in turn demolish them. It was therefore in Berand’s best interests to gain access to some variety of spellcaster, so as to not be one of the weak any longer.

A powerful wizard was out of the question. Once a magic-user grew to the point that they are competent in their own right, with adequate defenses and formidable enough firepower to confront their doors without resorting to trickery and continuous retreat, they no longer have any actual use for the entirely physically based combatants that would be attempting to gain their aid. Rather, they would be as the invisible or distant caster who broke up a fight between bear and man on a whim, regarding such fights as mere distractions to ones of their power. Taking a mage with a small amount of mana and protecting them against random bears and what have you that may wish to eat them until they grow used to the power dynamic wherein the protector is the one in command, despite the wizard in question having grown to be immensely powerful, would be Berand's best path toward being able to do as he wanted, when he wanted, again.

That ability to enjoy life to its fullest was the prerogative of any bear.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Deeper in the forest north of a small town, closer to the plateau, there is a door of stone, carved out of a smooth cliff. Simple and unadorned, the entryway is camouflaged against the similarly colored rock it sets against, a slight crack and a small keyhole being the only indication that there is anything out of place at all. A tattered pile of rags comes downstream, dragging behind it a similarly sized muscular creature, like a somewhat more bipedal ape with the tail of a capuchin. Said creature is solidly sleeping, paying no mind to the rocks it is being dragged face-down across.

The pair move quickly against the current, the pile of rags effortlessly hefting the ape up the riverbank to the door, where they produce a key from within its tatters. Placing the metal within the stone, a hand is momentarily revealed in the sun’s dying light, the insectoid carapace catching and reflecting a few rays before retreating back under the cover of cloth. To the right of the door, the ape stirs, beginning to wake. With a click of its tongue, the hand shot out of the rags once again, gripped the ape by the foot, and casually tossed the creature through the stone entryway. Flying four and a half meters, the ape impacts with the stone wall opposite the open door, causing cracks to erupt from the point of impact. Knocked firmly back into unconsciousness, the creature falls flat back onto the ground. Ignoring its burden for the moment, the thing in rags closes the stone door and locks it once more before moving to the right side of the room to unlock the wooden door blocking the only other path. It grips the door’s handle, pulling the carved lump carefully. A sticky film clings to the palm, before being quickly absorbed into the creature’s carapice-like skin. Dry coughing noises come from the rags, laughter of the sort produced by a dessicated corpse that nonetheless had a stuffed nose and inflamed throat. Grabbing the ape by the leg with its still somewhat sticky hand, it pulls the creature forth into a two-directional hallway immediately beyond the wooden door. It pauses once more to lock the door behind it, and takes the path to the right, which immediately turns back to the left so as not to break through the cliff’s face and reveal the contents of the underground rooms to the outside. Twelve seconds pass by as the two pass under an iron chandelier with downward facing spikes topped with red flames, follow the corridor to the left past carvings of demons that have previously been summoned from the outer darkness in this place, and down further turns to another locked wooden door.

Grass grows close to this door, spreading from the inside of the room through the crack that allows entrance. The ragman pauses to drive a fist into the ape’s face before unlocking the next door, at which point it opens to a lush jungle. Ignoring its charge for a moment, the creature in rags quickly searches over the underbrush, counting plants. Sure of itself, they grab onto their lump on meat and dash toward the far left side of the room, where yet another door sits. Stopping three and a half meters away, the creature in rags throws the ape through the door, and a burst of magic erupts from the splintering wood. Simultaneously, five five-meter tall, four-headed flytraps burst from the underbrush. Tendrils pushing against the earth below them, they launch themselves at the creature in rags, snapping mouths at the morsel of meat that dared to dangle itself in from of them. The first to reach the much smaller creature engulfs the rags and everything within them in its maw easily, leaving the other four with nothing.

Moments later, the creature within the rags stomps down through the flytrap’s closed mouth, grabs through the hole with one hand, and throws the 4100 kilogram pile of plant matter at another of the walking pieces of vegetation. Ignoring the two mangled collections of cellulose, the remaining three attempt the exact same tactic as before, and are met with the same result. With one fly trap remaining, the last vegitable proves to be the least capable, as it is unable to even bite through the carapace of its ragged prey. It manages with its second mouth, but shortly after it meets the same fate as its compatriots. A pile of broken greenery is all that remains to show this jungle room had enough raw strength within it to demolish several small towns.

Walking through the splintered wreck, the creature in rags discovers its quarry is approaching consciousness yet again. It picks the thing up by the head, and smashes the ape’s skull into the stone wall to its right, leaving a deep impression in the stone. With that out of the way, it was free to enter the next chamber.

A small room, it seemed completely unnotable. However, the ragged thing walked straight forward, stepped slightly to the left, and poked gently at the wall immediately across from the door. With a snap, another burst of magical energy erupted from the wall, reaching in front of it and to the side, ripping the heat energy from everything in a cone ahead of it. Stone cracks and frost condenses on the floor, walls, and ceiling, and an illusion of stone wall fades away from the iron door. Pulling another key from its rags, the creature unlocks this door and drags its burden down along the straight corridor to another door of wood, which the ragged man simply opens. A library of sorts greets them, a fire burning to the left, and bookshelves lining the far wall from where they entered. Only pausing to mildly brutalize the thing it was dragging, the creature in rags goes directly to the third bookshelf from the left, and pulls back on the sixth book of the second shelf. Smoothly, the shelf swings inward, and the pair continue on.

In the center of this room is a stone table, leather straps on each of the four corners. Knives and other steel instruments line the walls, and a spiral of green stone reaches out in all directions from the base of the table. To the right of where the bookshelf swung open, a rotting pile of skins, their origins undeterminable but likely unpleasant, lies discarded, each covered in black boils, green pus, and blood. Again ignoring everything around them, the thing in rags moves directly to an unremarkable patch of wall, and pushes against it. The illusion falls away as the wooden door opens, and the next room reveals a storage room for horrible instruments of torture.

Past a rack, a wall of thumbscrews, and an iron furnace, the ragged man opens a spiked coffin, and walks into it. It pushes the stone wall revealed between two sides of inward facing skewers, and the door swings open to a corridor with another wooden door at the end. With a pause to stomp the ape’s head, the creature in rags unlocks the wooden door, and then the next wooden door to the right of it. This leads to a corridor, sliding around to the right, the left twice, a right at a crossroad, and an angled path upward to a stone wall.

“Vethivhira,” speaks the creature far stronger than its size.

Reacting to the command, the wall sinks down into the earth, revealing another vegetation-rich room. Knowing what is to come, the ragged thing hefts the ape as a makeshift club. From the left, passed a large stone skull carved into the wall, vines slowly drift closer to the newly made hole in the wall. To the right slightly, more emerge from a well supplying the fountain immediately to the creature’s left, and in front and above, an enormous venus flytrap hangs from the ceiling.

Deciding to be proactive, the creature in rags throws the ape at the plant on the ceiling, and the thing screeches like the five before never had, even as they were being ripped apart. Where the creature came in contact with the plant, black necrosis began to spread. A large spot, where the ape had collided with the living botany project, and veins of rot spreading through the nutrient absorption system. Putting that interaction off to the side for the moment, the thing in rags prepared for the inevitable rush of the remaining plants.

One bite and two crumpled piles of carnivorous greenery later, the ragged man burst through the next door through application of ape to door from a distance. Screeching from three different sources erupt from the room with the thing’s entry. Walking through the splintered mass, the pile of rags was greeted by the sight of three massive plant monsters huddling in a corner away from the unconscious beast that had thus far only been dragged through the dungeon. Bemused, the ragged man picks up the ape by the back of the neck, and lifts it toward the plants, herding them away from the left-most door. Once the flytraps were properly corralled, the carapaced thing taps on the door, pulling back as a blade from the ceiling drops down with immense force. With that, they simply push on the wooden door, and drag the ape into the room beyond. Now that it was on the lookout for such things, the thing in rags notices the grass it had been dragging the creature over turning brown and dying as the blades were passed.

“This outsider you detected may be a potent source of virulence. I hope I’ll be able to investigate it thoroughly before you need to dispose of it.”

The thing in rags spoke toward a black, hairy creature laying in the center of the room. Light from the burning torches ensconced along the left wall danced along characters rent into the wall opposite the flames, and shone off a suit of armor immediately to the right of the door the two had entered from. Such illumination allowed for any in the room to be sure the creature acting as the room’s focal point was indeed breathing. From the center of the fur, a high voice responds to the thing in rags.

“I imagine that you have adequately contained whatever sort of demon has invaded this plane? For some reason, I am unable to sense any sort of trapped entities in the containment circles at all.”

Standing fully, the creature in rags stands straight, gaining five centimeters of height. Glowing runes appear around the thing’s head, and with an underhand toss they loft the ape into the room. It hits the stone floor with a crash, and the pile of hair jumps to its feet, the two meter long wolf bearing its teeth and growling loudly at the thing that had just made noise in its home.

“It was exactly where you had sensed it, and none of the detection spells had come up with an overwhelmingly powerful aura. Following your guidelines, I followed up with the third level scroll to put it into a deep sleep, at which point I rendered the creature unconscious through more traditional methods. With the situation handled, I saw no reason to delay my report.”

A clawed, green hand came up from behind the great wolf, pushing it back away from the creature. Small, with a round head and sharp teeth, a green goblin stares with an unobstructed view toward the taller thing wrapped in rags. With downturned mouth, it gestures toward the wolf to lay down and relax.

“You said no overwhelmingly powerful aura. What kind of reaction did you get then? Without that information, I can not tailor the containment toward this… Thing.”

Pulling a hood of rags away from its face, the one in tatters reveals a male face, covered in lesions, scabs, and black boils. Sunken eyes look into the goblin’s eyes.

“Nothing. This outsider did not react to any of the identifications.”

“There has never been a neutral outsider discovered. Each of the four churches agree. Any of the things from beyond our reality are subject to the four forces.”

“Nevertheless, this one has no aura, and was subjected to the deep slumber. Temporarily.”

Pausing a moment, the goblin blinks.

“What do you mean, temporarily?”

Stepping closer to the fallen ape, the man in tattered clothing points to the unconscious creature.

“It will not be long now.”

Seconds pass in silence, other than the wolf, which only became more nervous as time passed. Its yellow eyes dart from side of the room to side, its every instinct instructing it to flee from this thing anathema to its nature. The ape began to stir.

“Ah, yes. The spell is only strong enough to last for several minutes. I understand fully now.”

“One moment more.”

Bringing his fist down into the creature’s face, the man with the circling symbols smashed its skull into the stone floor by several centimeters.

“It is continually impressive you manage to not kill creatures you do that to.”

“And if you would kindly watch again.”

Thirty three seconds later, the creature began to stir again.

“What fresh hell is this that we have stumbled upon?”

“Indeed.”

“I will be requiring your continued assistance for several more hours. The subjects can wait until this new outsider has been contained.”

“Of course.”