It was cold. The snow bit into her bones with a ferocity that she hadn’t been able to get used to for three years. Growing up in Farryn, the city where it never snowed, where the weather was always calm, she marveled at the sight of snow when she first saw it three years ago. But life in the Redwood Forest was not meant to be a convenience and the novelty of snow wore off with time — but the cold didn’t get any easier to bear.
She shivered, hugging herself for warmth. She had always thought her life wouldn’t account for anything. Her parents never wanted her, so they gave her away like she was another’s problem to deal with. After all, the slum was the best place to dump children you didn’t want. She’d had to beg for scraps to eat while growing up, and also never had clothes that ever fit her frame. Nothing had gone right for her throughout her seventy-eight years alive.
Even Mehn Agrh’ur was a disappointment. That was the moment she had stopped dreaming big; the moment she became comfortable in her own skin. Comfortable having less. Being less. If there was one thing she wished she’d changed it was that.
Old Wen hadn’t helped matters as well. But how could she blame him? She’d be a hypocrite if she did. They had both become comfortable living as weaklings. Her life quickly became one of sacrifice and selflessness. But even this was an excuse at righteousness. An escape from reality.
She made taking care of the children at the orphanage as her only recourse. And in the end she paid the price for it. They all did — all three of them. They were weak and chose to stay so. Afraid of power, yet unwilling to do the work to gain it. Afraid even. But even fear was an excuse. Only when it became monetarily convenient did they decide to take a chance.
They should have done so sooner — damned the world and went for what they wanted! Her anger soared, providing a brief respite from the biting cold of the snow all around her.
There was one such person among them who did. Though a child he was. Even without the means to defend himself, he knew that power was what mattered in this world. And he trained hard everyday to make sure … no, to set himself on the right path to gain it. He was more motivated than they were. Yes, that was the word she had been searching for.
Motivation.
They lost their motivation. Looking back now, she hated herself. Who she was — a meek, good for nothing, who only knew how to beg. She clenched her fists and gnashed her teeth in her self-loathing, her body vibrating where she sat.
“Shh. Calm yourself, Tara. Farryn is but a tenday away,” Sheela said, hugging her and passing her some of her bodily warmth. “I know you seek strength, power to call your own. And it awaits you where we go. Only don’t die. We’ve invested a lot in you and I’d hate it if you died out there.”
Sheela kissed her on the head and walked away into the darkness. She was grateful for what Sheela had done for her. Grateful to the tribe who had taken her in. Tara watched her go. The snow and forest seemed to open a path for her to walk in — the fog, not so much.
The daughter of the Chieftain was one powerful Shifter no one messed with. The Midnight Jaguar in her blood held a depth of mystery and awe in the hearts of the members of the Fang. Sheela was beautiful — and bold. Her long black hair and tan skin added a sense of wildness to her beauty. Pale gold irises made her beauty even more striking. Though young, she was one of the smartest persons Tara had ever known — granted, she didn’t know many smart people.
The Fang.
Tara’s mind couldn’t help but go back to the day she opened her eyes to her new life. She had found herself in an open shed much like the one she was sitting in right now. Her body, bruised and battered by the river she was thrown into. Mere thoughts of the river brought up images of the canyon to mind. Her heart rate increased as panic set in. She felt the air struggle to enter her lungs. She took deep breaths trying to calm herself. The face of the devil who had stolen her along with her family away from their home assaulted her in her mind’s eye.
She forced the image away from her, concentrating on the trees outside her shed. The panic faded and she calmed at last.
The Fang were the people who had found her and taken care of her, broken as she was. But she soon found out they were more than normal people. They had secrets many hate them for. A secret some others would love to kill for.
The Fang and the four other packs in the Redwood Forest could shapeshift, turn into animals whose cores they had harvested and bonded with — the technique, a closely guarded secret of the pack. A secret they had promised to share with her one day. She just had to obtain a suitable magic beast core.
“Are you alright?” Sheela asked. When did she come back?
Tara nodded, swallowing hard. She tried to speak like she had so many times before — a reflex she couldn’t control — but no words came from the back of her throat. Why couldn’t she speak? Frustration welled up in her. She looked away from Sheela, guilt in her eyes.
Sheela wrapped her in a warm hug. “You’ll find your voice soon, love. Soon.”
Tara hugged her back, grateful for the warmth of another. The redwood forest can be cold at nights and that bleeds into the mornings — the season of frost just worsened it. The sheds didn’t provide proper warmth either. But this was a ritual everyone reaching their majority or in her case, joining the clan had to go through. They had to learn to survive on their own in the wilds.
Add the upcoming journey to another plane and their training for the past moon had taken on new dynamics. All the trainees had been in charge of tracking down prey and killing it throughout their journey. They’d had to learn to work together but that was no issue for her teammates — except her.
She was the odd one amongst them. The runt of the litter. ‘Not a drop of magic beast blood in her’ her bullies say whenever she was too slow or hesitant. She didn’t have their agility, sense of smell, or speed. Their primal instincts. They despised her because of this — the outsider, come to sully their legacy.
Amongst all her teammates, Sheela was the only person she knew. They had selected two candidates each from all five packs in the Redwood forest. An escort from each pack came with them on their journey, making their group a total of fifteen people. Thankfully, Sheela already had gone through her transformation to Shifter. She could protect both of them when necessary — a situation Tara wouldn’t like one bit.
There were others in the Fang that were eligible and should have jumped at the opportunity but didn’t. Which was odd. Why was she the one picked? Noelle, Sheela’s mother, had said it was because she was the most hungry for growth. Tara sighed.
She picked up her writing stick and wrote in the snow, wanting to know when they’d leave the forest and enter a town or city. She loved the forest, but she longed to see civilization, at least somewhere more civilized.
“A few days, Tara,” Sheela said. “That’s my estimation. Remember, I also haven’t been outside the forest before. But we’d be coming out in the City of Evergreen. It’s ruled by House Abdiel, the House of Crofting. They have the biggest arable lands in all the western region, perhaps in all of Vorthe.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Tara quickly wrote with her stick in the ground.
“You want to know how it’s a city when they are farmers?”
Tara nodded furiously. Writing instead of speaking was very frustrating. But the beautiful Sheela seemed to never mind. Her eyes sparkled with intelligence anytime Tara asked her questions. She would zone into her explanations sometimes, making gestures with those sexy muscular arms. Tara always wondered how someone so young got so strong and confident like Sheela, yet so caring.
Sheela was only twenty-eight years old, fifty years younger than her. Yet she was already stronger than Tara hoped to ever be once upon a time. The thought brought shame to her heart and color to her cheeks.
“Well, you should know that cities like Evergreen build their infrastructure to fit their needs. Therefore, they don’t build with stones and wood. They grow their homes!”
Tara reared her head back in shock. She had never heard anything like that before.
“They live in enormous trees. I know the question on your mind. ‘What about a fire?’”
Tara nodded again and Sheela smiled.
“Well, they’ve been doing this for almost a thousand years now and there’s been no fire in recorded history. At least, none we know of.”
Tara scribbled furiously on the ground again.
“Ah! If I knew how they prevented one, I would have already told you,” Sheela replied dramatically. “I do know that it takes a lot of vital aura to grow their trees. They come to our forest with special artifacts to feed off the vital aura in the trees.”
Tara sensed a bit of tenseness in Sheela’s voice as she talked about the vital aura. Perhaps, the Fangs and the other Shifter packs in the Redwood forest were not happy about this.
Sheela saw the look on her face. “Yes, we don’t like it when they do that.” She sighed. “But they have a royal edict to do so.”
Tara frowned, curious about the new word. Not even sure if she should ask because she didn’t like to seem illiterate. But Sheela could read her like a book.
“An edict is an order of sorts, a proclamation issued by royalty. The Abdiels already love coming to siphon vital aura in our forest, an order to do so just gives them more power to do even more.”
Weren’t the royals worried that this could destroy the forest? Tara wanted to scribble her question in the soil again when a loud horn sounded outside their camp and everyone started waking up. The camp got busy immediately. Even though she couldn’t see much due to the fog and huge redwood trees, she heard them and rushed to dismantle her shed.
“We’ll continue our discussion when we stop to rest again or when we get to Evergreen.”
Tara nodded and continued her work.
~~~
The City of Evergreen. Western Region.
It took the team two days to reach Evergreen. The gates ahead of them were covered in a verdant array of leaves and vines, it looked like the edges of a forest. Even the giant walls were covered in vines. They were almost as tall as the walls of Farryn if she could remember correctly.
Tara looked at her teammates, wanting to celebrate, and happy in her heart that she was in a city once again. But they turned their faces away from her in disgust. She clenched her jaw and looked away in annoyance. Soon, they’ll learn to respect her. Soon. She’ll make sure of it!
“Welcome to Evergreen.” Someone at the gates said. Tara immediately coiled away from his voice. She didn’t like it as it reminded her of him.
The man who spoke looked to be in his mid-twenties and clean shaven, handsome too — in an evil way. The sight of him made her skin crawl. She could feel the weight of his presence pressing down on her. He wasn’t doing anything to hide it. In fact, he wanted them all to know he was a Spirit Realm expert.
Sheela was frowning beside her. She too was uncomfortable. “I hope he’s not the guide they talked about,” she muttered.
What guide? Tara wanted to ask, but the void swallowed her voice. Frustration set in as she looked around for a stick to write with. Even if she had one with her, they were currently standing in front of the city gates and she couldn’t stoop down in the middle of the whole group just because she wanted to ask a question. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself.
Animosity from the rest of her teammates was one thing, animosity from their caretakers who escorted them from their homes in the Redwood forest was another. And she didn’t want to raise their ire.
“I am your guide to Farryn,” the Spirit Realm expert said, not looking pleased at all about it. “An inn has been prepared for you in the city. When you take a room, eat, rest, and on the ‘morrow, we continue to the Capital City.”
Sheela sighed wistfully. “I feel like I can see the future,” she whispered, “and it looks bleak traveling with him.”
Their guide scanned their group with sharp eyes and walked into the city gates after his short speech. Tara watched him go in his black leather cloak. Something about the way he walked reminded him about Rihal, Jerome’s tutor in the slum, and somehow she felt he must have heard Sheela complain. She shook the thought away as their group walked into the city.
A vibrancy of nature was what greeted her eyes as she walked into the city. The structures she beheld were no different from trees in the forest. Trees that looked like a mix between a house and a normal tree. The trunks had been hollowed out to make space for living arrangements, and doors and windows were carved into the barks.
All the tree houses she laid eyes on were a beauty to behold, many of them in different shapes and sizes.
“It’s like the people of the city decided to go crazy with their designs,” Sheela said beside her, looking just as out of place as she felt. And they all did look out of place with their leather outfits with lots of skin showing. Shifters were never shy of their sexuality and would even rather walk around naked in animal form, it was freeing to them.
The houses took on many forms, even some had animal forms. How they managed to grow the trees to take on these weird shapes, Tara did not know. The one similarity she saw amongst all the houses was their roofs. They all had crowns that looked like trees with branches extending, and filled with leaves and flowers — well, mostly flowers. Beautiful flowers that filled the air with a mix of nice fragrance.
The roads were filled with leaves and flowers blown off the many trees in the city as well.
“Here be your lodging,” their guide said when they reached an inn directly facing the gates of the city. The building was in the shape of a shapely lady carrying a tray above her head — the tray being the crown of the tree with vines spilling out of it. The inn was just a few hundred paces or so from the gates and Tara was glad for it. This way, they could leave the city quickly in the morning.
Someone coughed to get their guide’s attention. It was one of their escorts.
“May we get to know your name, my lord?” another spoke. “And we are most grateful to be guided to the Capital City by a lord of Vorthe. You are a lord, are you not? We can see the signs.”
Their guide scowled at that, menace rippling off him threateningly. Depending on how one looked at it, that question and everything said could be an insult to a lord of Vorthe. Tara had no idea how they figured out their guide was a lord though.
Murmurings broke out among their group. Tara wasn’t sure what to think. Why would Vorthe send a lord to escort them? The young man did look well groomed. And tall. Short black hair slicked back away from his clean shaven face. He was handsome, but his good looks were twisted by his disdain and cruel demeanor.
A loud chuckle sounded above them, feminine and sweet. “His name is Idrel,” a lady hovering above them all said. Tara looked up marveling at the sight. The murmurings increased. “And he’s not just a lord in Vorthe, he’s a royal!” The whispers and murmurings quieted in an instance.
“He’s being punished for crimes committed against a fellow lord, ahahah!”
End of Book Two