Prologue

A taste of battle

The Pack Leader watched the curve of the mountain trail in anticipation, and yet worry was beginning to bubble up in the back of his mind, the lizards were late. Scouts had timed the back and forth of the material runs and the lizards should have passed by with their cargo half an hour ago. The wolf kin would overwhelm the convoy and take their superior weapons before laying waste to the mine in their packs territory. But according to the scouts the lizards deviated little from their schedule and so the Pack Leader was beginning to get nervous. He tried to calm himself, there was no way they could know of the ambush. His people were the greatest hunters, the scouts would not have been spotted and the ambush party was downwind, there was no way they knew.

His train of thought was interrupted by a shadow above quickly flitting across his vision. In his tense state of mind he quickly raised his head to evaluate the possible threat but lowered it when his subconscious recognized it as one of the many winged reptiles that soared the mountains updrafts.

Suddenly a terrifying thought blossomed in his mind, born from tension of his present circumstances and his suspicions. Could it be… He once more looked up and quickly realized the winged reptile was indeed circling their position. His revelation brought sadness and despair, they knew all along and there was no way they would let a chance like this go. The strength of his disrupted emotions was picked up the Pack Heart and soon thoughts of escape and urgency flooded the packs connection, but it was too late.

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From their left flank arrows speared into the fur of his beleaguered pack mates while lizard warriors charged them in a pincer movement from the mountain slope behind them armed with iron tipped spears. The numbers of both groups were similar but the lizards had the element of surprise and the terrain advantage. The wolf kin would stand no chance with their stone axes and spears.

The Pack Leader realized this and desperately tried to lead his pack to safety but the arrows had wounded and slowed many of the pack's members, he had no choice but to leave some of them behind. Luckily the wolf kin were nimble and fast and it looked like many of them would survive the ambush. But once again a silhouette overshadowed him from above, looking up the last thing he saw was a flurry of wings, a gaping maw of razor sharp teeth and large iron tipped claws descending upon him.

From the air three wyverns and a score of of smaller ones had descended upon the escaping wolf kin slowing their escape. After the lizard-kin caught up the three wyverns left to hunt down the last escapees. By the end of the day the wolf kin domain had been captured and its influence assimilated. The lizards domain was a little depressed, it had once used the wolf kin and had admired their bonds. But the lizards were its subjects now so it once again refocused on the task of nurturing the lizards.