We quickly learned that few of the shadow monsters were quite so desperate, or perhaps foolhardy, as to charge into the light of the fires at night. For three days, we passed through the Shadow Plains, as I thought of them, and we continued to run into more and more of them as we moved. Some seemed lethargic and imperious, others scrappy and aggressive. The scrappy ones didn’t come at night, instead rushing in while the light of morning hadn’t yet burned away the shadows cast by the small trees and scrub brush that filled the plains. The first morning, we’d lost another two keelish as a hunting pair struck when we’d been nearly ready to set out on our journeying for the day.
After that lesson, we redoubled our preparations for each night’s rest and made the frustrating decision to slow our travel even further to ensure the beasts couldn’t pick off any more of our number. The less anxious and desperate monstrosities instead seemed to be surprised at our unwillingness or gall to be devoured. They’d appeared just outside the light most brightly cast by our fires and looked in at the ripe buffet arrayed before them, just out of reach. Their groans and roars were almost plaintive, asking why we were doing this, how we could possibly deprive them of an easy meal. They also left without more than a couple more complaints back at us.
Once they were no longer so many unknowable enemies, I found myself considering them to be an interesting neighbor. They were strong enough to establish themselves as a peak predator, and they would bully keelish to death without regular intelligent ones being able to do anything about it, much less the painfully stupid ones like those I’d subjugated. A swarm entirely made of khatif would struggle to kill a single hunting pair, given their exclusive hunting times being only during the hours of night or early morning when they could easily escape.
These shadow beasts would possibly forever pose a threat to the Keel, but I welcomed their presence as a stone against which to hone our claws. That realization struck me with the strange semi-sacred feeling that I’d felt several times now. The First, Fourth, and Fifth of the Words had been cast into a different light for me, another possibility for me to understand my own creed by. Now, the Third spoke to me: I am the blade bared at the throat of those that oppose me. The threat of violence wasn’t merely a promise to engage in battle for the sheer lust of it. No, it was a tool, just as a knife, spear, or hammer.
I looked at the spear in my hand, so often forgotten. After Nievtala’s blessing, it had become much more comfortable in my hand, feeling as if I’d trained with a spear for years. Even so, I rarely, if ever used it. What use was her blessing if I constantly forgot about it? A spear would extend my reach and could help me to hold back something as perniciously deadly as the bite of one of the shadow beasts. If a spear was damaged, it was much more easily replaced than my all-too-often injured right arm. Nievtala had branded me with her spear of victory, and I consistently forgot it existed.
Just as I so frequently forgot that my spear existed, the mere threat of violence didn’t need to be followed with death or dismemberment. The fleeting feeling of greater understanding passed away like a fleeting breeze, and I redoubled my focus on my immediate future. Now that we’d established a sort of a plan to prove to the beasts that we weren’t prey, I felt we could fully focus on reaching our goal. Nievtra. Nievtala promised that finding the city’s ruins would allow me to evolve to Keel, and that could be my only focus moving forward.
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With my mind focused entirely on that goal, I found I allowed much of the more important parts of ruling my swarm to fall behind me. Shemira and Farahlia explained how they were recording my story and how the swarm had survived to this point and I dismissed them until later. Took brought to me stories of strange creatures that the hunters and she had slain and I expressed my appreciation. Brutus stood beside me and watched for any potential threat and I didn’t acknowledge him nor the rest of his guards.
I was forced to change when Sybil apprised me of things she did to force greater unity and obedience in the swarm and I merely flared my frills in acknowledgement.
“Ashlani.”
Her addressing me by name pulled me somewhat from my musing over what I would find in these mythical, forgotten lands.
“Yes, Sybil?”
“Now you finally look at me. I understand that the greatest possibility for our people is your evolution to this next tier of life. You brought so many of us to levels that we could never understand beforehand, and I suspect that, as you say, this evolution to Keel will be an even more impactful evolution than we have ever seen before. I believe that we will enter a new era once that finally occurs.
“That time is not yet.”
Sybil’s eyes met mine with a grim determination. I felt my temper flare at her underestimating what this would mean for our people and I growled low in my throat, the sound subconsciously amplified by a faint thread of magic from my sonilphon. Instead of unleashing the immediate frustration that filled me, I thought for a moment about what she’d actually said. Sybil wouldn’t doubt my words, she’d always been the greatest supporter and believer in my plan and path. Instead, she was asking me to remember that the present remained. I sighed and flicked my tail in frustration.
“You’re right. Is there anything that needs my immediate attention? We will continue to journey as fast as we can in the direction we believe to be correct, and my worry and frustration will not change that. Until then, I’ll make sure I don’t lose myself to any number of ideas, thoughts, or dreams.”
“No, there is nothing that requires your immediate action. However, I do believe that you should better understand some of the issues that are currently plaguing the keelish Alphas. The least intelligent and most instinctually driven of the keelish are chafing at being held back from killing the herds when they are being made to be hungry. The khatif Alphas are able to demand respect and obedience from the keelish in a way that the keelish Alphas cannot. Perhaps it comes from their mere existence at a higher tier of evolution, or perhaps it is something else entirely, but the reality remains that the keelish are growing more and more dissatisfied. They consider you to be the most powerful creature around, so they become more and more confused as to why you would remain in a position of relative hunger when there is abundant prey all around us and contained within the immediate access of the swarm.”
“And is that all?”
“Not nearly.”
I kept myself from sagging, standing tall and willing to accept the burden of leadership as it was handed back to me, its rightful place. Thus, I asked clarifying questions as Sybil led me to begin taking action to stabilize my swarm.