“Wait... You want me to stay... here?” Hati asked, perplexed. “But there’s no food in these plains! I need to go to the forest!”

“Not here here, silly,” Riala said. “In town!”

“Town...?” Hati said in wonder, looking over at the walls. “Oh... I’ve never seen a town from the inside!”

“Riala...” Berla said, “he’s a beast...”

“So?”

“They... I mean...”

They kill and eat people, I thought, finishing Berla’s sentence in my mind. After spending several hours out here, talking to a beast, and seeing how well Hati and Riala were getting along, I could imagine that she didn’t want to say this to his face. When she looked down at her missing leg though, Riala seemed to grasp what Berla was trying to say.

“But he isn’t bad!” she said adamantly. “Just because some beasts are bad, doesn’t mean they all are! Right, Lilly?”

Uh oh...

Your own words coming back to bite you in the ass is the worst. I believed it was narrow-minded, and borderline idiotic at times, to demonize an entire group of beings for the actions of a few, or even the majority. Not because the guilty ones don’t deserve it, but because the chances for all of them to be bad were relatively low. No matter what happened, I would always be open to at least the idea of some of them being good. A few hours ago I probably wouldn’t have applied this to beasts yet, but now I wasn’t so sure anymore. And this philosophy I had once explained to Riala, albeit while talking about humans. Like the ones who had been chasing and trying to do god knows what to us. I had to give her that, I couldn’t disagree with the sentiment.

“You’re right, Ria. It doesn’t,” I said.

“See?” Riala said proudly while beaming at Berla.

“But...” I continued, “that doesn’t mean everybody would accept that idea. We talked about it, remember? The people need to understand and accept our actions. Not to mention, maybe Hati wouldn’t even want to stay here.”

Help me, doggo...

Upon hearing his name, he looked away from the walls and to me, with what looked like a somewhat excited expression on his face.

“Can I see a town if I stay here!?”

You didn’t listen, did you...? Ugh...

He was acting like a child. He hadn’t been able to tell us how old he was, or when exactly he had developed a human-like conscience, but if I had to guess, I would say his mind was less developed than Riala’s even. Maybe this would change over time, seeing how the leaders we had talked to appeared much more mature, but for the time being, we were dealing with two kids who were getting excited about an idea. Kids who are both able to kill someone in a second...

Technically, this really wasn’t the worst idea ever. If we kept him around, we could presumably still learn a few more tidbits about beasts, and we wouldn’t have to fear him running into the moderators. However, even putting aside the fact that some people would undoubtedly react negatively to a beast in town, there was also the remote possibility that Hati was acting right now, and we didn’t really know what he would do. He did seem nice and relatively innocent, but he was still a beast.

“That’s stupid,” Riala said with a pout. “You should be able to do what you want if you’re the boss. You can just convince people, can’t you?”

“I don’t know Ria...”

We could certainly try, but how would they react? Especially the Fighters...? Killing this type of creature was essentially their main purpose after all. Would it be like when Berla first heard that Tomar had a voice in his head, talking to him? Then again... He doesn’t have his beast aura right now... nor the eerie, black fur and red, glowing eyes...

“Erm... Lilly...?” Aelene said.

Oh... I almost forgot she was here, given how quiet she was the whole time...

“Hm?”

“That... ‘He’... is still a beast, right...? You can’t seriously be thinking about inviting him into town... What about the gods? And Celeth?”

Oh dear... I thought, kind of having forgotten about that part. Beasts attacked humans, but to a priest there was even more to it. Celeth, one of their gods, had supposedly been killed by beasts, which made them evil incarnate. Curiously, Lilana had been mostly silent the entire time.

‘Celeth is alive, so that’s not much of an issue...’ she said in my mind, ‘but the priests don’t know about that yet. And beasts are said to be impure.’

Despite her apparent reservations, she hadn’t said anything herself before Aelene did. Actually, she rarely spoke up in general, and usually just let me do my thing, seemingly trusting my decisions. This was probably good, because I really hated the idea that someone or something was discriminated against just because of stories people mostly made up.

“Hm. Say, do you think everything that was written about the gods and their past is true?” I asked her.

“Well... certainly not everything. Why?”

“I believe that almost everything that was written about beasts is incorrect, and that it was just based on prejudice and assumptions. They kill humans, yes, but they don’t usually do it with ill intent, and we also kill them. What about that makes them evil?”

“Lilly, the gods marked them for a reason. They declared them as evil after the death of Celeth.”

Huh? “Marked” them? Lilana never said anything about that...

‘Oh! I didn’t mention that!’ Lilana said when I inconspicuously signaled for her to tell me what this was about. ‘Beasts were apparently not always black, they became tainted as punishment for what they had done.’

Ah, alright. That sounds like complete nonsense.

“And after everything you’ve heard and seen today, do you still believe that to be true?” I asked Aelene. “This ‘mark’ makes them stronger in a way, doesn’t it? And it makes humans fear them. Does that sound like punishment to an evil entity?”

“... Now that you mention it... I guess it doesn’t...?” Aelene said with uncertainty.

“But more importantly, the event that supposedly triggered this is a lie. Celeth is alive and well. The others here have seen him in Cerus.”

Aelene’s eyes widened and she looked around the group, who all nodded, confirming my statement. Her eyes settled on Reurig, perhaps knowing him from the temple as well.

“It’s true,” he said. “Celeth and Gallas appeared in Cerus a few weeks ago.”

“He’s alive...?” Aelene asked. “But then...”

“But then this whole story falls apart,” I said. “Maybe something did happen between the beasts and Celeth, but he wasn’t killed. That shows how faulty the literature is. At least in parts. I mean... the death of a god would be a major event, but apparently it was completely made up.”

“If that’s true, it’s really unfortunate,” Aelene said sadly. “I always liked that story, and how Celeth sacrificed himself for us.”

‘So did I...’ Lilana said in my mind.

“So did I,” I repeated, “but we know it to be false. I’ve also experienced beasts a few times now, and if you don’t end up as prey to them... they’re very different from how they’re described. They are basically... just animals. Like deer or boars. With the difference that they hunt and eat other animals.”

“Hm... okay. I see your point,” she said.

Well, that’s one citizen I kind of convinced that beasts aren’t necessarily evil...

“What do you guys think? Especially you two,” I asked the others, and Berla and Reurig in particular. “You’ve experienced him with and without aura.”

“Honestly,” Berla said, “if I were to meet him like he is right now, I probably wouldn’t be too worried... It’s more that I still know what he is.”

“Same,” Reurig said.

When I looked at Tomar, he was staring at Hati and Riala intently, seemingly deep in thought, and it took a few seconds until he started speaking.

“We want to change the world...” he said quietly. “Maybe beasts should be a part of that.”

“Hm? What do you mean?” I asked.

“They’re scared of us,” he said, turning my way. “And they think they need protection from humans. While we’re scared of them and hide behind walls. That seems silly, doesn’t it?”

“Yea, I guess it does. But we are mostly talking about wild animals here... They aren’t all as intelligent as Hati, and you can’t calmly discuss this topic with them.”

“Maybe not... But I kind of want to try. Right now, Alarna is relatively safe with the ‘blessings,’ but what if we could do more? And Hati could help us.”

We both looked at the wolf again, who seemed to listen intently to our conversation.

“Would you like to stay here and help us?” Tomar asked him.

“Do you want to talk more?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.

“That’s part of it, but we might also want to test more things. And you could help us interact with other beasts.”

“Hm... Okay!” Hati said, with basically no hesitation at all.

“Yay!” Riala said as she petted him again. “I need to show you to sis! She wouldn’t believe me that beasts are fluffy!”

Tomar had a warm smile on his face as he watched the two.

In all honesty, I had almost forgotten what our plan here was. I had proposed to take over Alarna to get rid of the king and the High Priest, so we could live in peace, and I had mostly acted to accomplish that goal. Sure, if the people’s lives changed for the better, that was great, but it hadn’t truly been my primary goal, it was more a means to an end. Tomar was different though. He had become an adult, saw how messed up this world was in parts, and decided that he wanted to change something. He probably wasn’t the first one, and given humanity’s track record he wouldn’t be the last one either, but we were in a unique position to actually accomplish something big. And while I was more worried about keeping the good will of the citizens, he was evidently still focused on the bigger picture.

I still wasn’t certain this was the best plan, but it did have its perks. Especially if we wanted to go further. And the last time Tomar decided to invite someone to join us, he had brought Berla into my life. I almost want to thank him for that... Nah, that would definitely be too corny.

“Well, I guess that’s decided then,” I said. “I’ll start working on my speech...”

We had to tell the people something, and it would better be good. If Berla and Reurig were anything to go by though, maybe it wouldn’t actually go all that badly. Without a beast aura, Hati apparently seemed like a normal animal. More or less. And living behind walls, without any domesticated animals, maybe the citizens would actually even be more curious than scared. I was a little worried about the Fighters, but we’d see how it goes. With that, I looked towards the town walls and got ready to head back, in this rather curious group.

A former “Mad Calling”, two former “criminals”, two former “deserters”, a former “con woman”, a former beast... Anyone feel like there’s a pattern here...?