The sun was just beginning to rise as he stirred from his sleep. He pushed the tent flap open and hopped out to get a breath of fresh air.

The forest was still alight with noises and commotion just outside of the barricades. He watched as the sun began to rise over the treetops and the villagers left their houses to start the day.

It didn’t take long for the first village to find the rat they had left the day before. A small commotion picked up as they dragged it inside the village and alerted Morgal.

He hopped over to the body to watch the dismantlement and break it apart.

“Good morning. What is this?” Egosum played it off as best he could when the old woman got closer to the corpse.

“The hunters dropped it off. Guess they felt bad after seeing how skinny we were before you got here. They should have done it much sooner.” She grabbed a short knife and grabbed its leg to get to skinning it.

“It feels like it was rolled down a hill a thousand times.” She shook its leg, watching the bone move in waves. “It's tenderized beyond belief. What did they do to this thing?”

She drew the knife down its gut and got to work skinning it.

“This is horrible. How lively was this thing for them to beat it so much?” The skin was finally all the way off as she yanked it off of its face with one rough tug.

“Looks like they kicked its head in a hundred times. Bless the moon, this is looking like stew meat.”

Egosum’s neck itched as he felt a little bit of guilt creeping up with each second ticking by.

“I’ll head off that way I think.” He turned and began to hop towards his tent with Morgal staring at him with a strange look.

‘I played that off pretty well.’

A cacophony of rustling and noise attracted his attention as he turned back to find the cause.

All of the beastmen in the clearing turned to watch the forest with fear plastered to their face.

Morgal froze in place as each second of rustling ticked by.

Finally, a furred hand pulled a clump of plants out of the way.

The tension that was plainly visible on all of their bodies began melting away before it grew even worse than before.

“The hunters.” One of the women clutched their child tight and whispered to herself.

More and more of the attackers began pouring out of the woods and stopping at the wooden barricade with confusion painted on their faces.

Egosum began to move to the entrance and started spreading out his Qi along the ground.

“What is this shit? A barricade?” The harsh and violent voice of their leader cut through the clearing, stealing everyone’s attention.

The group traced along the wall, probing for somewhere to get inside. The chest-high spikes did their job for a few minutes when they finally found the gap and converged on it.

“Morgal.” Punishe was the first one through, leading the rest of the pack in.

“What do you want?” The old woman growled as she addressed him.

“The same reason I was here before. We need more recruits for the hunters.” His voice was even and confident.

“It doesn’t matter how much food you guys give us; we will not go with you. It will be over my dead body.” Her face was puckered in with anger and disgust barely hidden.

Punishe looked confused for a moment before shaking it off and pointing to her.

“It is now or never. There are fewer humans than ever before, and I just need a few more soldiers to take the forest back for good.”

Egosum turned towards Thunkar's tent in hopes of seeing the boy rushing towards them only to be disappointed. His Qi had thoroughly diffused itself into the ground and sat only a few feet in front of their leader.

“We are taking them regardless of what you say. If it’s over your dead body, then that will just have to happen.” His face turned upwards as he had a vile grin on his face and he nodded back to the group.

The hunters behind him looked angry and reluctant at the same time. The influence of the pack bond was plainly visible from the toad's position and their leader's aggression was the only reason he could see for the conflicting emotions.

“Grab some of them already.” Punishe snapped at the hunters behind him, sending the beastmen forward despite the clear uncomfortable look they all shared.

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They flanked their leader on each side and the first wave of them walked ahead to capture the villagers.

It didn’t take more than a few seconds for a few of the attackers to reach their knees in the mud that quickly swallowed them alive.

Their startled shouts drew their leader's attention as he turned away from Morgal to see the issue.

A low growl escaped his mouth as he saw the trap in play and the toad sitting less than a dozen paces away.

“A magic fucking frog. Fantastic. You idiots. Pull your way through it and stomp that thing.”

“That won't work. I surrounded your group with my trap already. The only way out for you guys is back away from the village. Plus, I already called Thunkar for help. It won’t be much longer till he is here. ”HIs bluff seemed to give the crowd pause as their leader looked from side to side in worry.

His snarling took on a deeper and more vicious tone than ever before as he watched the hunters struggle harder and harder to get out. His face was scrunched up in bursting frustration when one of his eyes turned red causing him to flinch.

“You just popped an eye or something. That is quite embarrassing you know. You can stick around if you want to make your situation even worse if you would like.” Egosum egged the man on when he suddenly let out a loud roar and commanded them all to retreat.

They pulled their fellow members from the muck with much hassle and retreated away into the forest.

Sighs of relief erupted from all around him as the women that stuck around relaxed.

“Great, now he is even more determined to ruin our peace.” Egosum turned to Morgal who had slumped over on her cane.

“Well, sorry for trying to help.” Egosum went to turn and leave when the old woman stopped him.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. I really do appreciate what you just did for us. What you have been doing for us even. I just wish that life was easier sometimes. You did the right thing, now we just need to deal with the repercussions of it. He isn’t gonna give up any time soon. I will have to figure something out.” Her voice trailed off as she walked back to her tent to think

‘Where was that boy?’

Egosum looked back to the amphibian’s tent and saw Cinera and Coyotl already walking in his direction. With the group formed, he caught them up to speed and they walked over to the boy's tent.

The toad pushed open the flap and peeked inside to see if he was still there.

A young furry boy with linen pants on was rolling around the floor, snoring lightly like the village hadn’t just been assaulted by the hunters.

“Really? How are you still asleep after that roar?” His voice did little to wake the boy than to cause him to stir even more with his eyes tightly shut.

“Wow. Can you let me wake him up?” Egosum nodded his head to Cinera's request and watched as her mana began to flow outwards. A small ashen cloud formed in front of her before it began to hum lightly with energy.

“You aren’t gonna kill him with that are you?” The magic reminded him of the same attack that had killed the sloth’s moths a week prior.

“No, that is ridiculous. I figured out that giving my lightning magic a medium of ash lets it build up much faster thanks to watching you do yours. I just want some practical use, ya know?” She turned her attention back to the small cloud and sent it rushing forwards to the sleeping beastman.

It quickly collided with his arm, sending the contained lighting straight through his body and then to the ground.

“Yeow!” The strange shout partnered with the airborne kid drew some laughs from the onlooking amphibians.

“Owah Owah.” Coyotl’s signature call stole the boy's attention towards his tent's flap.

“What the moon was that for?” He rubbed his arm where a few patches of singed hair sat smoking.

Egosum nodded his head in appreciation before talking.

“I feel like that is an appropriate punishment for what you did.” The kid took on a guilty look as he was confronted.

“What I did?” He asked the group as they watched him sit back down and search for a shirt.

“You know what we are talking about.” Cinera cut in as she sensed some kind of opportunity.

“What? No, he doesn’t. What you did was sleep through an attack by Punishe and his hunters” The salamander slapped his arm as he spoke up, earning her a confused look from the toad.

“Ah! Oh. What happened? Why didn’t they wake me up?” He fired off multiple questions at once as he shot up off the ground and went to push his way out of the tent.

“I solved it. No one was taken and nothing else happened. he said the village will end up regretting not sending more hunters their way since they got the human number so low.” A deep growl reverberated in the tent as he spoke.

“That filthy liar! I knew he was lying all this time.” He huffed and puffed before calming himself down enough to speak again. “Those parasites were probably telling the truth then.”

The sound of his foot rapidly tapping the ground filled the air.

The amphibians looked amongst themselves before Egosum spoke up.

“What are you going to do about it?” The foot paused at the question.

“I…I…I’m going to go find out where the hunter’s camp is and I am going to kill Punishe.”

“Cool. I am down with that. I am tired of being called a frog.”

“But you are.” Cinera gave him the side eye.

“But I am a toad first and foremost. So tell me, what is the plan?”

The beastman looked at him with a hint of bewilderment floating along his face.

“You're gonna help me?” He sounded unsure with a hint of guilt hidden behind the cover of innocence.

“Well, we have been with you all this time and that sounds like a good learning opportunity for us too. You guys down?” Egosum turned to his friends who offered their own versions of confirmation.

“Then get on with it. What's the plan?”

“I was thinking we could wait for nightfall and then hunt for a beastman’s scent. If we can follow it for long enough, we should be able to find them.”

“And what makes you confident we will be able to find a scent trail if you haven't mentioned smelling one before?” Cinera cut him off as she began to poke holes into his plan.

“I have smelt them; I just try to avoid them the best I can. It is…awkward to meet them. They are essentially slaves to Punishe and I hate to see them like that.” He became quiet before speaking up again. “We will sneak up on their camp and find Punishe sleeping. We can do it then.”

“Kill him you mean?” Egosum egged the boy to confront the morality of what they were doing.

Thunkar looked the toad in the eye before looking back to the ground.

“Yeah.”

“Alright, works for me. Objections?” He turned to his amphibian friends and got no rebuttals. “Perfect.”

All they needed to do now was wait for night to overtake the world for their plan to commence.