I smiled at my brother who was sleeping soundly on the bed, drooling with a look of indignation on his face. His crimson eyes were shut, his brown hair covering his face like a dirty tarp.

Fond memories of our early adventures came to mind, reminding me of his often brash nature and blind trust. He was a very simple man, in that if someone hit him, he would hit them back twice as hard. If someone gave him something, he would find a way to go above and beyond to repay them. Whether that be kindness or revenge.

Cliche, am I right?

As much as I liked to tease Ash, I truly did love him. He had gone through my s#^$ and never mentioned it once, helping me cope in a way that not even healing magic could have helped.

He had been there for me when I was at my lowest. He was there when I would wake up, whining mournfully from an all too real nightmare that left the smell of burnt flesh in my nose for days. He was there when I was in trouble, swooping in, and pulling me out of danger. Always sending me waves of comfort and affection, he made me feel loved. Worthy. Ash would always try and reassure me that he would always be there, no matter what. I knew it was a childish promise, but hey. There's no shame in that, because... (spoiler alert) My brother is in fact, a child.

I shook my head, turning back to look at my notebook, a sketch of one of earth's steam generators detailing its process with sets of formations replacing the circuitry. Diagrams and measurements with material lists and possible rune placement decorated the page like stickers in a scratch n' sniff book.

Seriously. There was so much stuff in his reptile brain, it would have been a crime not to use it at least some of it.

I flipped to a new page, the tips of my paws splotched in ink. I began drawing Ash’s pulley design, sketching it carefully. It was a simple process of just two wheels and a chain, linking them together and using a togglable trigger as an activation sequence. Not too complicated when you think about it. Very quickly, I finished its basic design and moved onto enchantment.

Almost 5 minutes later, I stepped back, looking at the detailed sketch in frustration. I had been thinking solely on the massive mechanical elevators I had seen from Ash’s memories, never even considering a simple pulley. The thought of how I hadn’t even made the connection made my head hurt.

Ugh… It's far too late to be having those kinds of thoughts.

Trying to distract myself, I took tolerance measurements, labeling each material, trying to think of what I would be using for the wheel and chain for the pulley.

Probably elmwood as the wheel. That stuff was really good at channeling mana for pieces of dead organic matter. I could also use arachnid string for the chain too. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Throwing mana conductive dust into the air, I absently drew runes with my paw, painting the formation I was making with practiced ease. I put in the runes for Create:Wind:Mold:Contain (type:water):Siphon Ash’s mana:Divot, 3 inches (Leftmost surface, X-axis)

The runes coalesced into a formation, my favorite mana generator fueling the process. A ton of mana erupted from Ash’s body, drawn into the formation. The leeching rune would have actually killed most spirit beasts below level 5. For Ash though, he just rolled over in discomfort, mumbling in his sleep.

The benefits of having a spirit for a brother I suppose.

I smiled in amusement as the Siphon Ash’s Mana rune filled itself up, glowing softly. The rune depicted a small monkey, crouching on all fours, scratching his head dumbly. I always got a kick out of seeing the oh-so-specific rune.

A mold of wind popped out of thin air, my paw grabbing my water skin enchanted with space runes that ingeniously integrated a pinprick of a perma-portal, connected to a nearby lake. The water skin also had destruction runes made with Ash’s fire mana too, if only to get rid of the unwanted bits that came through. But that was less impressive.

I poured the water in, watching as it made the shape of a tape measure, floating there. I flash froze it with my heat mana, studying it closely as the formation faded, and the ice tape measure fell to the ground. Brief panic sent my little heart racing.

I lunged, catching it in my jaws before It could hit the ground and shatter. My head silently whirled at Ash, making sure he didn’t wake up. Luckily for me, he didn’t. I sighed in relief.

I grumbled at my stupidity, clinking my claws together in abandon. I closed my notebook on the desk, grasping the icy tape measure that didn’t seem to hurt me one bit. I watched the stars reflect off its surface, painting the room in a faint white glow.

Looking up, I admired the distant giant fireballs from a distance. It was funny because both my brother and I preferred the open sky over a roof. It made for a few funny incidents where giant birds would come flying in, thinking we were tasty snacks. I had to install wind formations powered by my brother who probably didn’t even realize that every time he walked into the treehouse, his mana would constantly be siphoned into the formation, providing us cover without reducing our visibility.

I sighed, looking back at the materials list for the pulley. I really wished I could just make the stuff out of metal, but I didn’t have a furnace yet. I’ll cut some elmwood down tomorrow so I could tick that part off the list. As for the spider silk? I’ll just make Ash go gather it. Heh.

I flopped onto the bed, curling up with my tail over my eyes, falling asleep to the sound of my brother's breathing.

The next morning, we got to training. I was used to his antics enough to know he would probably try to whack me with his staff since I teased him about it yesterday. We were currently sparring near some of the more open woods, my claws against his staff.

Ash seemed distinctly frustrated while I danced around him, predicting his every move and shifting my body accordingly.

“How.” He thrust the heavy stick of wood in my direction as I dodged out of the way, freezing the air around his body.

“Are.” He said with a shout, swiping me overhead while I ducked under it, trying to tackle him to the ground only to find he was somewhere else.

“You.” He threw the staff at me from afar, its weight increasing and decreasing drastically and suddenly to create the effect that he desired. The speed and power of the weapon changed, winds carrying it forward into my face as I threw myself aside just in time.

“Doing that!” He yelled, thrusting his hand at the staff, forcing it to loop back into his hands. He crouched in a defensive position as I charged.

“I’m just-” I said in between tackles, tearing my teeth into his arm that he raised to block. I injected him with my frozen mana, trying to slow him down.

“Using my-” I threw him back, his arm swinging as both of us managed to use attacks at the same time, with my heat blasting him in the face, and Ash knocking me upside the head. Both of us were sent flying, crashing 10 feet away.

“Perception skill…” I said with a groan as I laid there, trying to get up. My expression was ever so slightly ugly, my feet now under me as I shook the dust and dirt from my fur. Ash stood up as well, cradling his bleeding arm and burnt face with a frown.

“I really need to get me one of those. It would be so useful.” He said.

The skill I was using was called thermal scanner, allowing me to get a 360 view of my surroundings, giving me the ability to feel minute changes in heat. It wasn’t actually heat vision, more like heat radar.

“You know you only get 12 specific corruption-based skill slots. You should choose them wisely.” I said in a solemn tone that I rarely took on.

“Yeah, I know. I don’t even know where to begin with these things though! A perception skill seems like a good place to start… Besides, what am I supposed to do? Ask Viralya?” He said with a snort.

“Aw come on.” I grinned at him. “Mother isn’t that bad, she’s just got her own stuff going on.” He rolled his eyes.

“Uh-huh. I bet she’s also deliberately avoiding us so we can ‘find our own way’ again. Her whole better mentor promise seems kind of like a scam.” He said a little bitterly.

He was… Right on some fronts, I suppose. If I was in his fur, I don’t think I could understand what Viralya had been doing. But her subtle praise and frequent visits as well as social engagement… That was probably more than most had ever seen from her. let alone experienced.

But he’s right. There is no way she’ll help him.

I debated it with myself for a moment. Ahhh. Screw it.

“Here, y’know what? I’ll try and help you get down the basics.” He gave me a massive grin.

“Really? Wait you really mean that?! That would be so aweso- I mean… Helpful. Yes, helpful!” He said excitedly. His attempts at concealing his word choice was… Cute.

I smiled evilly. He won’t think I’m so ‘helpful’ when I send him off to gather spider silk.

The rest of the morning was spent teaching Ash how to circle his wind mana, simulcasting his Psychic mana to enhance his brain and help him read the images the wind sent back to him. He used the advanced form of shape of wind that let him imbue simple commands to send the mana back and forth, taking different frequencies of each object relative in space.

He would figure it out in a week or so. In the meantime, I had elmwood to gather, and new ideas to sketch!

I hated this. These stupid webs will be the death of me. I swear it.

I swiped at the stuff with my staff, gathering some of it into a sack at my side. It was sticky enough that I had to use my translucent wind mana to coat my staff, not daring to let any of this crap touch my weapon. I smiled slightly at its greenish silver glow, a notification popping up into my memory to review.

*You have exercised this skill thousands of times! Shape of Wind VI becomes Shape of Wind X. Shape of wind now allows for you to condense the air around you so much, that it forms a substance similar to aerogel! Create this substance in small amounts and manipulate it in whatever fashion your imagination can spark.*

*You have exercised this skill tens of thousands of times! Shape of Wind X becomes Shape of wind XX. The wind generated by your mana can now follow basic commands directed by the caster!*

Wind from the spiders' cave/lair entrance ruffled my hair, curling around my cheeks playfully. I smiled to myself, destroying as many webs as possible before any of my 8 legged friends noticed. I started to make a game out of the process, sweeping my staff back and forth dramatically, vaguely recalling this motion was meant to be used with old-fashioned brooms.

Now all I needed was some cartoon dust and a modicum of trash and I’ll be the picture of a Hollywood set!

Ah, look! There’s the trash that needs taking out! How convenient! I said jokingly as the webbing gave out metallic ‘twang!’

The twangs increased in volume, dozens of hairy legs plucking them like harp strings. By the time my sack was filled, they arrived. Dozens skittered out of the darkness, spikes of armor plating the front few while the ones in the back had scythes for legs. Unlike most spiders, these guys were like ants. They were similar to a hivemind, all working together as one entity. They moved like puppets, hundreds of tiny black eyes staring at me with hate.

I booked it when I saw that frightening sight, sprinting out of the cave and jumping into the trees.

Nope. Nope. Nopity Nope. Not doing that. I said in my head. Those things were disgusting. I wasn’t going to fight like, 32 unknown spiders! For all I know, they were spirit beasts! I didn’t have the chance to prod them with a Psychic tendril, so how would I know? Actually, you know what? I don’t want to know.

I wasn’t scared of spiders actually. I was just unnerved by all insects, arachnids, and arthropods. They unnerved me slightly. Like a slight nudge in the back of my mind, reminding me of how fantastically flammable their skins are. So yeah. I didn’t like small insects.

Giant ones? Now that, I was scared of. I wanted to curse Cinder. He had sent me to this cave, asking for a sack's worth of webbing. I knew that he would probably ask for more though. He always needed more, and I was in no mood to come back here. Ever.

After a few hours of running and checking to make sure I wasn't being followed, I eventually returned to a vacant treehouse. I set the giant sack at the bottom of the tree, stretching as I considered what I wanted to do today.

We had stitched up that giant snake from earlier back together before letting it go into the wilderness like professional animal handlers… Well, monster handlers, but the details are irrelevant. It was probably long gone too, so I couldn’t practice my culinary skills.

Back to monster thwacking it is I suppose.

I sprinted back into the woods, looking for a predator I could test my mettle on. Maybe I actually could get a meal out of today!

One battle with an oversized panda thing later, I was sprinkling hard-earned salt from a rock deposit onto my meat. I was using a low burn smoker, skewering the meat on a stick I had carved to perfection. I was careful not to start a fire, adjusting the blackened logs accordingly. I waited in anticipation, stirring the hot coals. It would take 6 or 7 hours for the meat to tenderize, but it would be so worth it.

Of course, I wouldn’t actually be just waiting 6 to 7 hours. Give me a break okay? My attention span changes like windy weather on a Sunday morning!

I absently used True Fire Creation to funnel the heat around the meat, careful not to oversaturate it. The smoke was riddled with herbs and spices that not even Cinder would turn down if put in front of his snout. Even if he didn’t actually really eat in the first place... I knew he ate sometimes though! He always ate his prey after going on his ‘hunts’.

Something about respect and appreciation for the earth. I could understand that I suppose… But anyway!

I took out my staff, grasping it in my hands, just taking a moment to feel the smooth wood. I ran my fingers over the rigid grain, my mana making it in tune with my channeling habits. I felt its weight, its density at my touch. It smelled very faintly of honeyed wind and rich earth. Its entire structure was laced with strong wood mana with hints of death still residing within.

I raised my arm, thinking back to my fight with Cinder as I imagined his punchable face sitting in front of me. I opened my mind to mana, disregarding the senses I had been born with. I saw the ever-shifting wind mana above me, whispering into my ear, at my beck and call. The ambient mana lay like a massive mismatched tapestry before me, just as seemingly infinite as the sky itself.

It was a little disorientating to look at still, but I was used to it. That's not what I wanted to focus on though.

I breathed in, syncing myself with the air currents blowing playfully above my head, clenching my staff.

I started the exercise, thrusting my staff forward mindlessly, almost mechanically, but not quite. My form seemed to flicker, changing to suit the currents around me as my mana waved like a flag in a light breeze.

This, believe it or not, was the ‘second stage’ of my staff technique. Or so I was calling it.

I called it the Shifting Breeze Staff Technique, and it was actually listed as a skill by the system!

*You have delved deep into the recess of your mastery of the wind, making insights and connections only you could really make. From studious training, practice, and one too many desperate situations, you have developed the Shifting Breeze Staff Technique. Using your own technique to your advantage, you have created a technique based on your own body weight. You capitalize on sudden speed and power from your sudden decreases/increases in mass, artificially pushing back against gravity with raw wind power. This technique is staff-based and has a 50% reduction in its efficiency using other weapons. (For developing a Martial Technique yourself, you have a 75% increase in teaching capabilities)

*Studious sparring and effort have borne fruit! Shifting Breeze becomes Shifting Breeze XII*

*You have taken your Shifting Breeze staff technique to a whole new level! Using otherworldly knowledge and years of practice, you have evolved your technique! You specialize in adaptability and lack of rigid form! Although this stage has its faults, you have capitalized on the playful and intangible form of wind, mimicking its finicky nature!*

I had no idea what most of that meant. I mean, I understood my technique perfectly, but the way the system phrased it? Nope. It flew right over my head. I had to fetch and read the system notification out loud to Cinder, so he could explain it to me. It was surprisingly hard to read the system alert out loud. The system never really sent words per se, more like transplanted memories. Made it hard to translate a conjecture of feelings and images into words.

But I got my explanation in the end... at the price of months of teasing.

The thought of Cinder’s smirk broke my concentration, my focus on the winds around me fading. I grumbled, setting my staff on the ground and collapsing on my back, groaning in frustration. I stared up at the blue sky, a perfect replica of my homeworld, the wind blowing the long hair out of my eyes.

When the system had called this technique flawed, it wasn’t kidding. Not only did it take enormous amounts of concentration to activate the second stage, but it also made you lose focus on the world around you. It forced you to plunge deep into the winds of change, making you lose your ability to perceive the world around you. Part of the reason I wanted a perception skill so bad. Shame I hadn’t even thought to try and develop one until now.

The flaws were glaring, and its actual usability wasn’t the best but… I liked it. I wanted to develop it into a genuine skill. It would just take practice and time… Lots of time.

The smell of the smoked meat brought me out of my musings, my thoughts turning to my next meal. I got up quickly, sending a gust of wind into the heated coals, giving them the oxygen they so craved.

Oh well. I’ll focus on my perception technique instead!

A massive boulder sat in front of me, its black sheen almost vibrant among the dull brown elmwood trees. I struggled with the splinter stuck in my mouth, trying to use my claw to pry it out. After 5 minutes though, I just sent a sizable amount of heat mana through my canines, kickstarting pyrolysis despite the splinters' transparent nature. I absent-mindedly spat the warm slag onto the ground. Stupid elmwood

I wrinkled my nose at the smell, suddenly feeling the need for one of those mints I had seen in Ash’s memories. Note to self: figure out the chemical synthesis of mints

I picked the elmwood branches back up, trying to figure out if it would be enough.

Ehhh… I should probably get more… Just to be safe. I thought.

I circled around the clearing of dirt, smiling fondly at the two tiny scratches on the otherwise perfectly smooth rock. A sciorp scuttled beneath its hole 50 feet away, its tunnels stretching deep into the earth while it sunk deeper into the earth. I looked in its direction, smiling. Those little buggers always buried themselves under elmwood trees, giving me insight into where the otherwise hidden dull, and plain-looking trees were.

I walked up to the elmwood, standing on my hind legs to reach the lowermost branches and snapping them off. I couldn't use mana to grab these things due to their high sensitivity to mana. It was almost impossible, as any mana traveling into it would just go out and exit the other side... Also, I didn’t want to climb any trees.

3 branches later, my mouth was jam-packed full of wood, fresh splinters lodged into my gums. I decided to ignore them.

My mind went to enchantments, thoughts of zapping Ash with an extra-large lightning rod filling me. Could humans survive a direct lightning strike? Probably. They were fragile, but they weren’t that fragile. At least... I'm pretty sure they aren't

I almost missed the distant talking, my imagination enrapturing me completely. Soon though, the voices were loud enough to snap me from my reverie. My red form dropped to the ground immediately, scanning them with a trained eye. I spat out the sticks, my ears trained forward, my eyes wide open.

There, just 200 feet away from me, were a couple of golden blurs that came into focus quickly.

Sun foxes. I thought grimly. They were talking loudly, not seeming to care if a nosy creature overheard them. I didn’t dare activate my perception skill, the fear of being noticed by someone particularly good at mana sight staying my paw.

I pricked my ears up, trying to hear what they were saying.

“-so filthy here! Just look at the mana quality here! You expect me to stay here for an entire night? Bah.” #1 said.

“Oh quit your whining. You know as well as I do we need her help.” #2 said.

“Yes, yes, I understand, believe me! I just want to know why we can’t just use a few of our space mages to teleport us in! Three high leveled Foxkin could surely break this flimsy excuse of a barrier!” The first one said.

“Do you think we would be trudging through here if we could? Whatever that [email protected]%&$ put up around this cursed forest, it makes it nearly impossible to even use mana. Especially spacial mana.” The third one said.

Wait, what?

“Well, did you try breaking it open? We could have cast a spell through if we created a rift.” #1 said.

“We’re here to ask for her help, idiot! Do you think she would take kindly to someone breaking her home defenses down? Although she’s a traitor, she is someone who is regarded highly by the elders. She is stunningly skilled with mana control, and could probably wipe the floor with us, would we end up battling.” #3 said.

“I just can’t understand how anyone would stay in this miserable place! It reeks of Juriya’s influence!”

“Just... please contain yourself when we see her. She most likely already knows-” The voice faded into the distance, my ears no longer picking up their location. I didn’t make a sound. Those were Tribesmen. Solar fox tribesman. The clan that had ostracized me.

So… Some sun foxes were going to mother for help? They seemed pretty young… If those sniveling bastards were going to mother of all people for help, then things must be getting desperate…

I have to see this… I tentatively put a paw down on the leaves in front of me, listening to the tiny crackle they made. I waited, wondering if they could hear me from here. If their levels were high enough, they could totally hear me from 450 or so feet away without a problem.

Another step. Maybe they couldn’t distinguish me from the rest of the forest? I hope so.

I took another, relief becoming prominent as I slunk forward, going slightly faster than the speed the idiots from earlier were walking at.

My tail swished in anticipation, thinking of how awesome it would be to watch Viralya beat their noble butts. The thought sped me up, my red form performing a light jog.

Minutes later, I heard them once again, and I quickly slowed down. I padded forward, my pawsteps as light as a feather as I put all my energy into not making a sound. My heat mana boiled beneath, matching my excitement.

But before I could get close enough to peer in on their conversation, my instincts began to scream at me, alerting me of a threat coming at me at unimaginable speeds.

Now, when one's instincts that have been honed through more than one life or death situation tell you to duck, you duck. When those very same instincts, that were forged through tens of thousands of years of evolution, passed down through the ages, from ancestor to child tell you to duck, you duck.

I threw my head down, my ears flat on my head as a small rock seemed to careen over my form, shooting at faster than sound speeds. milliseconds later, I felt the air crack, the space that carried it shattering into millions of tiny pieces. My ears bled as I struggled not to cry out, clenching my jaw shut. My eyes reddened with blood, the pain locking me in place.

There was no time. I felt a shadow begin to shift over me, a nearby tree falling in my direction. My muscles struggled as I fought a silent battle, knowing the tree above me could very well kill me.

I leaped out of the way, shooting into the air towards a nearby tree, forcing myself to bite down onto a sturdy-looking branch that wouldn’t falter under my weight. My teeth clamped down, digging into the branch as I hung there, panting as quietly as I possibly could.

Silence.

I felt my fur bristle, anxiousness prominent in my mind.

Almost five minutes later, when nothing seemed to come for me, I sighed again in relief, eyeing the ground. Thoughts of landing, only to be peppered to death by those miserable idiots encompassed my mind in a rare fit of fear. My heart rate sped up before I calmed it just as quickly.

Well… Maybe I’ll just wait a little longer…

It had been 15 minutes and nobody had come to kill me. What the hell?! Did they just shoot at me and leave!? Did they think I was some particularly strong roach who smelled disturbing enough to squash?! Was it my heat mana!?

Well… Jokes on them! It takes a lot more than that to kill a cockroach! Those things are super hard to kill, always seeming to adapt and survive wherever they went. Did you know roaches are actually one of nature's most prominent recyclers? They can chew up virtually anything, excreting it back into the soil as nitrogen, providing nutritional fodder for plant life! Did you know some species of giant cockroach can reach 2 feet in length? For reference, that's about as long as your average desk lamp!

Quit stalling! I thought to myself with a mental growl. I looked down, salivating in a foxy gulp. I wasn’t afraid of heights! I was a noble fox! Not some cat ruffian who couldn’t climb down the tree they had gotten themselves into!

I closed my eyes, praying this wasn’t some sort of ambush. I unclenched my jaw muscles, falling down the ground with a graceful ‘fwoosh’. I landed quickly and quietly on all fours.

My ears perked up, my eyes scanning the brush. I waited, wondering if I was dead meat.

5 seconds…

10…

20…

Okay. I was probably going to be okay. A small smile lit my face, padding off in the direction of the sun foxes.

Was it a horrible idea to try and eavesdrop on them still? Absolutely! Was I still going to do it anyway? Of course! There was a reason I always never quit even after my experiments blow up in my face.

I headed for mothers’ cave, far more carefully than before.

I reached it within 10 minutes, seeing the outline of three golden tushies standing a respectable distance from mother. I slunk down, my ears up and my eyes peeled. I couldn’t get close enough to hear what they were talking about, but I could figure what was going on through their body language.

#1 wasn’t talking much. His shoulder muscles were tense, his teeth pulled back in a slight snarl that showed agitation.

In comparison to #1, #2 was a total chatterbox. She seemed to be the calmer of the bunch, gesturing with her paws and explaining something to mother.

#3 was clearly content to just nod along, interjecting occasionally like some kind of butler.

Mother’s foxy eyes were narrowed slightly, her whiskers twitching in an emotion I couldn’t identify.

I watched a little while longer, the discussion heating up as mother asked a question or two. At one point, #1 shouted something in rage, something I could barely make out as a “How dare you?!”

Oh boy. These idiots had it coming.

Sure enough, mother's mana presence suddenly picked up, and her overwhelming power began to choke the forest itself, nevermind the surrounding creatures. I found myself crashed to the ground, pawing my head at the indescribable headache that assaulted me, and disappeared just as fast. It left me flailing and gasping, struggling to regain my bearings

I opened my eyes again, seeing the three in a similar state, slowly wobbling up. Mother didn’t speak past that, but her attitude certainly did. #1 was quivering, his mind half broken. #2 had snapped as well, yelling at mother in what sounded kind of like disbelief. It wasn’t as loud as the obnoxious #1 though, so I couldn’t make out her words.

Mother huffed, walking back into the cave. I thought for sure that would be the end of it, but surprisingly, #2 picked themselves up and followed, leaving both #1 and #3 behind.

I steadied my breath, my meditation skill halfway activated to soothe my mind. #1 was left in a slobbering mess. #3 wasn't much better, as it appeared he was only just holding it together. I stared at both of them for a second, wondering what was going to happen. The answer to my questions came in the form of mother walking back outside, picking up #1’s limp form with the wind before stepping back into the cave, leaving behind #3.

But not before turning around and looking me dead in the eye across her clearing, silver mana gleaming in amusement.

Well, S#$&.

I had been having a bad day. Actually, ‘bad day’ would be an understatement for how horribly everything had gone wrong.

First, my tribe had been dealing with goblin invasions. Nothing too serious, just something that we used to train a couple of inexperienced younglings.

Then came the hobgoblins, which led to many a death. Those nasty things were rather intelligent and were considered a bad sign. A very bad sign really because it meant a goblin king or a goblin queen was on their way. A very bad sign indeed.

But that wasn’t the worst of it, no. If it had just been those annoying buggers, I wouldn’t have come all the way out into the cursed forest of Esemar to see an old hag for help.

No, the worst was when the local sirens, just west of our glorious land, decided it was the perfect time to invade the golden prairie. The goblins were a distraction, a nuisance none of the elders could bother to deal with.

The sirens, for all their charm and… reputation, were actually quite deadly. They evolved from the rainbow serpent tribe after all. Such beings were expected to be powerhouses.

So here I was, me Eishilya, with these miserable whelps, talking to the only spirit beast on the continent who could possibly help. Viralya, the death whisperer.

I stared at her, gulping while my luxurious golden tail swished in abandon, her red fur setting me off ease. It smelled of blood and betrayal. Her silver eyes seemed colorless, lifeless. Like all the youth and vibrance had been sucked out of them.

“Ah… Well yes.” I stammered. “I apologize for Lucinya’s idiocy. He is rather… Daft sometimes.” I was tripping over my words. Oh kankaar take my soul. I thought with clenched teeth.

“Ah, do not worry about him. He’ll be fine in the morning. The other one is tough, he can take it.” The death whisperer said, her words laced with inherently powerful mana that made my head spin.

I found myself nodding in agreement, resigning both of them to terrible headaches, without question, that they would have come this morning. Well, it wasn’t like I didn’t have a matching headache myself…

“Ahem… As I had been saying, we are having trouble with a surplus of sirens who thought our furs looked rather shiny and have been poaching us like… Simple animals…” My voice shook in rage. I just couldn't even fathom... How dare those fools…

I calmed myself down quickly, not willing to erupt in anger again.

“Oh? Is that all?” She said, her voice almost bringing me to my stomach.

“Yes… We just need you to eliminate… The siren leader and royal guard and you will be… Rewarded… With the… The land we spoke of… Before...” I choked out.

“Well. I suppose I haven’t had a good fight in quite a while. It will be a good chance for my younglings to see the devastation one with enough power can cause. It should be sufficient motivation.” She said.

I sighed in relief, already looking forward to going home and- wait did she say YOUNGLINGS?! Does she have CHILDREN?! I thought in a panic.

No-no-no-no I have to inform the council about this. Viralya having children?! Plural!? The thought boggled my mind. This was of top importance! I couldn't let her get away with this! They must be killed immediately! They...

I froze before I bolted out the door though, looking at Viralya’s predatory smile that sent chills up my tail.

“Oh did I say I wasn't supposed to? My apologies. It seems I’ve had a long day and am in dire need of rest.” She said while walking back a bit, amused at my expression of horror.

“I do hope the more private parts of this conversation do not escape through… Loose lips, shall I say? My pups are very important to me, you see- and I can’t have anyone telling certain people that the great Viralya has kids, oh no. That would be a disaster.”

“You-you wouldn’t. You’re bluffing.” I said in a stammer.

She brought down one of her ornaments from a shelf I hadn’t even noticed. My eyes caught the bird's skull of a once noble creature, fire and life magic still brimming from every crevice within its very bones. A phoenix.

I understood the subtle threat readily enough. She showed it off to me, smiling politely. I stared at it in shock as she seemed to give it a good lick, cleaning the bits of dust that had gathered onto it. Her examination now done, she put it back on the shelf.

“Now. As I was saying before, I would love to do as you ask. I have a tad bit of a quarrel with their leader as well, you see. But…” Her eyes flashed.

“I am not interested in worldly things such as land. What I want…” She licked her chops. I shivered.

“What I want is claim over her core.”

“But- but that's- that's rightfully ours! You can't take what belongs to the tribe... Ah...”

She was snarling, her mana exploding in intensity as I felt it dig into my flesh. I tried to protest, my jaw trembling as I gathered my courage to speak up. The air around me snapped and my fur bristled in terror.

“Ah… I’m sure I can… Renegotiate on… The councils' behalf…” Oh kankaar forgive me...

“Excellent!” The air gave an excited clap. “I have changed my mind about that land. Let us discuss our new terms then, shall we…?”