Blinking sleep from his eyes, Axel forced himself awake with a yawn as he pushed himself away from the Mountain Matriarch he’d been leaning against. Feeling him move, Drago pushed himself up as well, disturbing Ember from her nap on the Rockwolf’s back.
“Are you recovered, Child?” the Matriarch asked as Axel stood up and stretched, ignoring the gore that still covered the cave around them.
“I’m good,” he said with a nod. “Have you been waiting for us to wake up for long?”
“Not long enough for you to worry about, Little Pup,” she said with a light chuff, as though laughing at his question. “Come, it is time we end the Corrupted Shaman.”
“Which way are we going?” Axel asked as the large bear set off for one of the various openings in the cavern.
“We hunt our prey as predators were meant to,” the Matriarch explained. “By their scent, their fear, and their folly. Breathe deeply, child. Find the scent of corruption, you know it. That is what we follow.”
Taking the Matriarch's advice as an order, Axel bit back his disgust at the rank smell of the Kobold tribe that had only gotten worse in death and inhaled deeply through his nose, searching for that deeper smell of foul promises and corrupt deeds.
There, just under the rest of the disgusting smells, something familiar and terrible tickled his nose. Unbidden thoughts of Harn and the trip through the woods, the corrupted tree, and each of the dead Windy Hawks from the Carnix Cliffs came to the forefront of Axel’s mind.
“You understand now?” the Mountain Matriarch asked as she watched Axel’s face change in violent disgust. “The corruption cannot be allowed to remain in this world. It is vile. Wrong. A promise of false power and terrible change at the whims of those from Outside our world.”
“Let’s go,” Axel said as he settled his expression into a stern, ready one in preparation of what was coming.
Letting out a growl that Drago echoed, the Matriarch led the way deeper through the cave system, Axel close behind her as they hunted their prey.
Deeper into the cave, their group moved. With barely a glance one way or the other, the Matriarch led them down twisting passages, across narrow gaps, and deeper into the confining embrace of the earth as they searched for the shaman and the source of the corruption that it had come across.
As they moved, Axel found himself relying more and more on his Earthsense and his senses of smell and hearing, searching for gaps in the rock around them and listening for whatever creatures there might have been that would stop them. All the way, the smell of the corruption grew stronger and stronger, eventually overpowering the scent of the Kobold tribe’s filth that had been left behind long ago as it wafted through the cave behind them.
“It is here,” the Matriarch said as she stopped, her coat of thick brown fur standing on end as her lips pulled back in a snarl. “I feel the corruption is strongest in the next cavern. Ready yourself and your companions, Little Pup.”
“I’m ready, Matriarch,” Axel assured her as he formed the rock around him into armor and sharpened his knuckles with gleaming spikes of rock.
With a growl of his own, Drago gave his agreement to Axel’s words as Ember ruffled her feathers and Stuart squeaked fearfully.
“Then let us go,” the Matriarch said, leading the way into the next cavern.
Rising nearly a hundred and fifty feet at the highest point and reaching out nearly two hundred feet in all directions from the center, the cavern they stepped into was the largest yet. Empty of stalagmites and stalactites, the cavern reminded Axel of an old cathedral from the Middle Ages. The oddly square cavern with its soaring ceiling offered far more space than anything naturally formed could give without being changed or guided by the hands of people.
Resting at the far end of the room, surrounded by offerings of rotted food, bare skulls, and shiny, polished rocks and raw gemstones was a stone altar, stained with dark, splotches that Axel identified as blood when he breathed in their coppery scent.
Kneeling before the altar was the Kobold Shaman. Its feathered headdress swept along its scaled brow, framing its reptilian face and hiding the small horns that poked upward from its skull. Bowing and hissing, the shaman worshiped at the altar, giving its adulation, loyalty, and promises to the carvings of people with insectile wings, cervine antlers, and elongated, sharp ears that stretched outward several inches.
As the Shaman worshiped the altar, the scent of corruption swirled through the air, growing thicker as the altar glowed with an inner red light. The brighter the light grew, the more the Shaman changed, his arms growing thicker with muscle as his scales grew stronger and his horns and claws lengthened.
Seeing the growing corruption, the Matriarch of the Mountain let out a bellow of rage as her anger was made known through her words.
“Fiend! Traitor!” her words screamed through Axel’s head and stopped the Shaman’s worship. “I will not allow this vile corruption within my territory! You have been judged by the world and sentenced to death for your betrayal!”
Letting out a hiss, the Shaman stood, rising to stand even with Axel’s shoulder as it whirled to face them.
“My masters will be pleased when I offer them your meat!” the Shaman screeched before darting toward them.
“This fight is yours, Little Pup,” the Matriarch said as she looked back at Axel. “I must gather the power of the world to destroy the source of the corruption. Do not fail or our efforts will only delay the corruption’s growth.”
“Sic ‘em!” Axel ordered his pets as he charged to meet the Shaman. Letting out a howl of his own, Drago dashed forward, quickly pulling even with Axel as they prepared to face the Shaman together. Ember screeched joyfully as she took flight, passing Axel as a burning ball of feathers to swipe her claws at the Shaman’s eyes, missing as the Kobold ducked with a hiss of anger before returning her swipe with one of his own, hitting only air as the Burning Windy Hawk made use of her natural agility to dodge him.
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Letting out a snarl, Drago lunged forward, snapping his teeth around the Kobold’s other wrist and shaking his head enthusiastically as the crack of a breaking bone rang out and the Shaman screeched in pain. Kicking at the Rockwolf savaging his arm, the Shaman forced Drago to break away as Axel raced forward and sent a rock-covered fist rushing forward with all his weight behind it to crash heavily into the Kobold’s face.
Screeching in further agony, the Shaman flew back from the force of the blow, his headdress falling to the ground.
“How dare you!” the Kobold screeched as his tail lashed back and forth angrily. “I will make carvings of your skull and offerings of your meat!”
As the Kobold stood, his hands twisted in various shapes as the scent of corruption grew stronger about him.
“Ancestors! Masters! Give your descendant, your most devoted servant, strength to bring about your glory!” the Kobold screamed angrily, as the corruption within him began to leak through the miniscule gaps in his scales, wafting to the ground as red smoke even as the Shaman’s eyes began to glow with a swirling red, liquid smoke.
“That’s not going to be enough!” Axel yelled as he swung at the Kobold again while Ember dove for another swipe with her claws.
Growling, the Shaman dodged Axel’s punch with a barely contained sneer, lashing out with his claws as he dug bloody furrows across Axel’s side, shattering the rock armor with ease. Gasping in pain, Axel stumbled back as Drago raced forward, snarling in fury as the Shaman backhanded Ember from the air with contempt before kicking out and driving Drago to the ground with a pained whine.
Laughing, the Shaman raced toward Axel and swung its clawed hands at him as the Wolfman attempted to dodge the Kobold’s attacks and searched for an opening even as the Shaman opened bleeding lacerations across his body.
“Pathetic!” the Shaman screeched. “Not even worthy of my masters’ gifts!”
Growling in pained rage, Axel forced several spikes of rock to form, stabbing at the Shaman and forcing him to attempt to dodge as Axel went on the attack with several haymakers and hooks that connected with little effect on the Kobold.
Sneering, the Kobold prepared to swipe at Axel again as Drago crashed into him and knocked the Shaman to the ground. Taking the opportunity presented, Axel dove onto the Kobold, straddling him and forcing his arms to stay on the ground with his knees as he began to rain blows on the creature.
With another angry hiss, the Shaman bucked and managed to throw Axel off of him, rising into a kneeling position in time to receive a heavy cut across one of his eyes as Ember, screeching, made herself known in the fight once more.
Screaming in pain at the burning flesh and the loss of his eye, the Kobold swiped angrily with one hand toward the hawk as its tail flicked out with a whiplike crack to crash into Axel as he attempted to ambush the Shaman from behind. Gasping in pain at the feeling of broken ribs, Axel forced himself to keep breathing even as spots danced before his eyes.
Looking up, he was able to see as Drago and Ember worked together to force the Shaman off-balance once more before the Matriarch’s roar bellowed out again. Whipping his head toward the Matriarch, Axel watched as the massive bear, glowing with a multitude of colors, brought her massive, clawed paws down on the altar and shattered the stone, dissipating the corruption that had seeped into it.
“No!” the Kobold Shaman screamed in agony as the altar shattered. “How dare you!”
Looking back at the Shaman, Axel was surprised to see that he had stopped leaking corruption through his scales, though his eyes remained the same. Screeching in rage, the Shaman lunged, arms shrinking and horns receding, at Axel, madness growing in his eyes.
With a smooth push of his hand, Axel sent a spike of rock spearing upward into the Shaman’s chest as he impaled himself nearly halfway down its length. Snarling, the Shaman swiped weakly at Axel as he forced himself to his feet and watched as the Kobold Shaman finally died.
Groaning in pain, Axel took stock of himself and looked over Drago and Ember as Stuart finally poked out of his hair, nose twitching in fearful curiosity.
“We did it guys,” Axel said with a grin at his Rockwolf and Hawk. “Let’s get out of here and treat the Matriarch to some food, whaddya say?”
Snorting in agreement, Drago limped closer to Axel as Ember shuffled along the ground pitifully, one of her wings held awkwardly at her side.
“We’ll sort you guys out too,” Axel promised them as he turned to move toward the Matriarch.
Seeing the Matriarch of the Mountain laying on the ground worried Axel enough to make him move at his fastest speed to reach her.
“Matriarch?” he asked, reaching out and resting a hand on the bear’s shoulder. “Matriarch, are you okay?”
“Little Pup,” the Matriarch’s voice came tiredly. “Did you defeat the Shaman?”
“I did,” he told her, worry filling him at the Matriarch’s voice. “What’s wrong?”
“A price must always be paid,” she told him. “To call upon the world’s power to end the source of the corruption has only one price I could pay. My own life. Even now, I feel the world claiming its price from me, soon I will be no more.”
“No,” Axel begged as he heard the Matriarch’s words. “No, that’s not fair! Why?!”
“For my children,” the Matriarch of the Mountain said as though that reason was all she needed for doing anything. “For all the cubs I bore into this world and for the children who came to me in my hour of greatest need. I am a Mother of all of them and I will do what I must to protect my Children.”
“You can’t go,” Axel said as tears began to fall from his eyes and Drago whined pitifully, nudging the Matriarch with his head. “I don’t want you to go!”
“It is not a choice either of us can undo,” the Matriarch said, her voice growing weaker. “It will be alright, Little Pup. Others will be here for you, just as you were here for me. They will know of your deeds if they listen to the words of nature and the wisdom of the world. Just as you will always have allies against the corruption, so long as you listen to the world as well.”
“Tell me, Little Pup,” the Matriarch said, “can I give you a name?”
“I’d be honored,” Axel said, fighting back sobs.
“You have a name you are known by to others, yes? Those who live in cities, distancing themselves from nature? Tell me,” she said.
“Axel,” he told her. “They call me Axel.”
“Then I shall name you,” the Matriarch said sternly, raising her head to press her nose to Axel’s forehead. “May your nose stay sharp, your ears ever searching, and your eyes always seeking as you hunt your prey. Let your prey be fast and your enemies strong as you best them all and prove your name to them, Axel, Earthen Hunter Wolf.”
“I will cherish this name, Mother,” Axel said, latching onto the Matriarch as he couldn’t hold back his sobs anymore, holding her close. “Thank you.”
“Take my skin, Earthen Hunter Wolf,” she said as her body grew weaker and her voice came quieter. “So that I might protect you always.”
As he felt the Matriarch of the Mountain pass on, Axel’s sobs grew louder as Drago let out mournful howls, Ember screeched in grief, and Stuart squeaked unhappily and burrowed into Axel’s hair.
You have gained a Natural Name. Let all who meet you know it as your deeds spread wide
Skin of the Mountain Matriarch: The skin of the Matriarch of the Mountain, she wished to protect her final cub even beyond death. Can be worked into armored clothing. Contains the will of the Matriarch.