Renn and his brothers would often go to have all kind of wolfish fun. They would often cheekily scare innocent squirrels out of their high nests by climbing stealthily upon their trees or went to discover their territory. Except for certain places which were prohibited by Agacie, like going up the mountain, warning them against the Zhenniao, a true energy poison beast, which had its nest somewhere on the mountain.

She described it as a gigantic bird with a purple body and poisonous green feathers and a long crimson red beak. So should they ever encounter it, they should immediately run, not because of its strength, but because of its extremely poisonous feathers and body.

She laughingly told them, that even its shit could disintegrate stone.

Filled with fear and respect, they would never dare to openly approach the foot of the mountain, but stay rather under the cover of the forest, even though they would love, and perhaps die, to take a glance, so she showed them precautiously an image of it.

Agacie herself didn't see a Zhenniao with her own eyes, but her ancestor once did and she recognised its presence by sensing it.

(For curious readers similar to this: https://imgur.com/JTuCmK8)

While he and his brothers messed around, they trained him without knowing and strengthened him through various challenges they made up, of course enjoying themselves too.

Kaede would meanwhile be taken away by their mother, where Agacie would pass over step by step the knowledge and wisdom she got on the other hand by her mother and so on.

Since ancient times it became a tradition of the light wolves, to designate the female wolves as the wisdom keeper of the entire race. Even though the light wolf was scarce, it kept an incredible amount of wisdom throughout the millennia.

Since the sheer amount of every life experience would be an amount too great to contain for a single individual, only very useful and important memories would be inherited.

In this way, the days, months passed, until a certain night.

Agacie was sleeping with her children when she sensed an abnormality. Something, what felt unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. Many beasts she didn't notice on her territory were running, seemingly fleeing from something. Judging from some tired beasts, they must have been running for quite a while already.

She then felt, how a void of true energy expanded into the span of her senses, devouring more and more true energy into its embrace.

Suddenly as a burst of memories surfaced, letting her reliving an experience of a long-dead ancestor, in a different land, one she didn't recognise.

--------

Large, lush grassland and a blue sky spread as far as her eyes could see and all kinds of beautiful and colourful flowers were flourishing. She could feel the gentle wind caressing her fur and the bright sun bathed everything in its warmth, while butterflies and chirping birds were cheerfully flying around.

But suddenly the birds stopped to chirp and a sudden chill overcame her. The sky turned darker, the wind stood still as if everything and everyone were holding their breath.

A silence overshadowed the world, but not a peaceful silence. Not a calm, warm or comforting silence, no, it was cold, oppressive and just... dead.

A deadly silence.

Amidst the fields, she could see a shadow with an unnatural darkness. Even her sharp eyes could not discern anything, except for a figure surrounded by darkness.

Spreading a bone-chilling aura, the figure lifted an arm and suddenly all life around it started to wither. The aura spread unstoppably devouring every life, every energy it encountered.

She could feel how her energy senses were growing numb, no longer able to feel anything from this enlargening circle of void and absolute death.

Dead and dryly sucked birds fell from the sky and the sun itself seemed to lose its warmth.

Panic and deep fear filled her, as she fled as far as she could, fleeing from this darkness.

--------

Agacie found herself back in her cave and quickly woke up her children.

'Ma, what's the matter?' Renn asked drowsily.

'Listen carefully!' She said. Sensing their mother's seriousness and urgency, they perked up their ears.

'A Death-bringing-shadow is close and we have to leave this place!

We will go to the high plains of Xanten, where the main pack lives. We have to tell them and warn them.'

She quickly led them out of the cave and started heading north-west while carrying Renn on her back.

Even though since Renn grew up being fed true energy and was consequentially physically much stronger and faster than normal humans, he still was slow compared to the running speed of his much bigger wolf family.

He felt kinda bad, knowing that without him, they could travel much faster in their true energy forms.

Feeling his emotions, Agacie licked over his face.

'Silly boy'

While they ran, they also saw many other beasts running also away, he saw some old and new faces, like the squirrel he would keep nagging and a wood spirit tiger he had never seen.

Dozens of different beasts were running away in unison, driven by their shouting instinct to flee!

A loud majestic cry was to hear and as looked above, he could see the gigantic purple and green coloured Zhenniao with his own glittering eyes.