Chapter 60

Ancient Enemies

(Ravena)

The entire scenario was a setup.

Just as Prentip, the wiseman of the tribe, had made himself vulnerable and everyone from the tribe had their attention set squarely on the anomaly before them. That was when disaster struck, in the form of the ancient evil.

A teratornis shifter, the largest of the great air-shifters and the natural enemy of the wolf packs had somehow settled in their territory unbeknownst to Erloche and the other royal guards.

Worse, this teratornis was a shaman shifter, one capable of calling down the rage of the heavens themselves to strike at the foes of their tribe.

The bird was not just big, but long. With wings that flapped and seemed to block out the sun. Somehow the bird more fell than flew, at least at first, seemingly capable of flight the same way a large ovular boulder would, but hen at the last minute while its wings called down lightning from the heavens, the anchoring bolt from the ground surged upwards and seemed to push the giant beast higher in the air.

Then as the giant fossil of a bird rose in the air, bolts of lightning arced outwards, striking and piercing the land. This of course was just a warning of things to come, as that is the exact moment that the rest of the pack of were teratornis, all of whom had been waiting in wait at the border of the territories between regions all took to the skies and made their presence known and felt.

It was a land grab, one that Ravena felt she should have been prepared for, given the unique nature of the lands. For the teratornis too relied on a balance of life and death, as their dual natures meant they could be sustained by either.

At first, such a dual nature was seen as a way to survive the apocalypse that was taking over the world. Using the shifting nature, different groups of people apparently fell upon the survival nature of their ancestors. In the case of Ravena, her ancestors had followed the path of the wolf, the human side able to survive in human lands, while their wolf side allowed them to adapt to and survive in the deep corrupted wilds.

But as with everything there is a cost, and that comes from the fact that while those of dual natures can survive anywhere. There is one drawback in that those whose natural forms are of being human, they just survive.

Meanwhile, those who are born as wolves, and later learn to shift into humans, they have a harder time living in the undying lands than their human brethren.

Yet, to be pack, that is to be an effective pack it require both types of shifters to exist. For whatever reason, two of the same state, that is two natural wolves, or two natural humans can never produce offspring together.

The curse.

Apparently, wolves are not alone in this, as the teratornis tribe often spoke of having the same limitations. Even going down to only being able to produce offspring that are of opposite nature of the state in which the child was conceived.

Yes, many studies were performed and studied.

While there were slight deviations, the hard and fast rules always applied. Opposites attracted, meaning the natures had to be opposite to conceive, and the child will be a direct opposite state of the mother when conceived. Thus, a female natural human wishing to have a natural human child would need to conceive as a wolf with a wolf to continue that process.

These thoughts and more raced through Ravena’s mind as she wondered why now of all times, would the teratornis make their move to strike at her tribe.

Yet, she already knew the answer, the minute she saw the fact that their sacred lands had doubled in size, it was only a matter of time before others would try to covet their lands. Lands that would be able to sustain twice as many pack members as before.

Crackle-pop, hiss.

Bolts of lightning struck out, in rolling waves moving in one inevitable arc forward. Ravena was powerless to stop the attacks, all she could do was look on in horror at the relentless waves of lightning.

Suddenly childhood fears came to mind, fears that told her to be afraid of the unrelenting storms and powers of the shaman. Powers that should be avoided at all costs.

Ravena watched as bolts of power struck out around her. Her fear rising so high that she didn’t even realize that she had reverted back to her mortal form. Suddenly she was the same child who got lost in the very same types of magical storms as a child. The same storms where she saw both her parents fall, as they used their bodies to shield her from the unrelenting strikes.

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True to form, Prentip went about putting up his own resistances. Waves of water and rain erupted, grabbing the electricity and forcing their trajectories to get rerouted.

Ravena watched as waves and currents of water were pulled from the impossibly humid terrain, lashing out, wrapping around obvious flight paths of the currents, where the energy was forced to be rerouted through the medium of water.

It wasn’t much, a token defense at best, but it was all the old shaman could muster up in defense for his tribe. Particularly as Prentip only had fractions of a moment to muster any form of defense, and looking at it, his defense was the equivalent of waving and splashing his arms around wildly, trying to create as much of a distraction for the lightning as possible.

Fortunately, his efforts were not in vein. What had started off as deadly strikes, now turned into debilitating bursts for the few royal guard members who had been caught unaware of the bursts.

The bolts piercing through the thick hides of the warriors, piercing through the thick patches of fur, striking the bodies, and then lingering just long enough to cause minor flames to spark on the patches of fur.

Fortunately, the royal guard were no strangers to the dangers of fire, going so far as to coat their fur in thick patches of unburnable chemicals. Yet, despite the precautions the bolts were still enough to cause near fatal blows almost instantly upon anyone who was struck in the maelstrom.

Still the waves of energy were unrelenting and all Ravena could do was feel herself inherently ducking down, trying to pose as small of a target as possible.

As she did, she could feel the world around her moving.

Sharp earthen spikes jutted out from the ground, swiping over and around not only her but others as well.

At one point Ravena was certain that she saw Erloche get impaled directly by a spike, as he seemed to angrily charge forward at the section closest to Prentip.

Unfortunately, Ravena had her own issues, as she could feel the slight unsettling tug of electricity pulling at the hairs on the back of her neck. She could even feel the way her hair was now being pulled upwards, a clear sign that she was about to be targeted by fiery bolts of lightning.

With nothing else to do, other than sheer preservation efforts in mind, she ducked, cowering low and placing her hands upon her head.

Once again, she was the frightened little girl who had to be held down in the fields while bolts of lightning erupted around her. It was over, all she could do now was pause and wait for fate to once again reunite her with her parents.

KRA-BOOOM!

Light erupted, as Ravena felt jolts of electricity course through and around her, tightening her muscles and forcing her body to shift into a pretzel.

Badump, badump, badump.

But even as the bolt of electricity passed, and her mind was able to relax enough to take in the state of her body, she noticed one important thing. She had survived. No, not only had she survived, but she had done so while being relatively unscathed.

The pain she felt, the coursing jolts of electricity within her body, were nothing compared to what she had experienced.

Then as she relaxed a little and tried to raise her head, she realized the reason for her survival. She was now encased in a layer of metal and stone that had seemed to form over and around her while she ducked.

How such a state was possible, she didn’t know.

After a few moments, she felt her body’s natural regeneration beginning to take over, as her body recovered from the bursts of electricity that she still felt coursing through and around her. Though now she knew them for what they were, minor jolts that did little more than cause minor burns and irritation to her muscles.

Breathing.

Deep echoing breaths.

As she breathed, she could hear the waves of her breath echoing and bouncing back towards her as she could now only stare on through the catacomb-like structure that had provided a protective wall around her.

Suddenly she wondered if the spikes she had seen going for Erloche, had been an attack at all. Maybe he too had a protective alcove made for him as well.

The only thing was, that even with the alcoves, there was not much the pack could do against the seemingly relentless barrage of lightning that was being hurled at them.

Then after a moment, the endless barrage ceased and let up long enough to show that only a dense fall rain remained, coating the world with a near draining and relentless cold rain.

Rain that was even now finding its way into nooks and crannies of the alcove that Ravena found herself hiding in for shelter. For a moment, Ravena feared for what would happen if a bolt managed to find her even tucked away as she was. Yet, this was when the endless barrage stopped.

For a moment Ravena held out hope that it was over, that a stalemate had been met. That or somehow Prentip managed to do the impossible and take down the famed thunder bird from the skies.

Unfortunately, though, the reason for the sudden ceasefire soon became apparent. The endless barrage didn’t stop due to anything positive like a stalemate or an injury to the enemy’s pack shaman.

Instead, the opposite held true, for now the rest of the other aviary pack members that had been apparently awaiting a moment to strike were now too close to avoid being hit by the very same lightning that had accosted Ravena’s pack a moment ago.

This meant that soon the enemy would be upon them.

For a moment, Ravena wondered what she should do. How could strike back against the pack.

By and large, most of the teratornis flock were not as intimidating as their aged shaman was. A shaman who had supposedly been around for hundreds of years, gathering power and perfecting their control and mastery over the elements of the heavens themselves.

Compared to the teratornis shaman whose wingspan was easily twice as long as a wolf shifter was tall, the others of her pack looked mediocre at best and like they would barely be able to carry a single deer with them.

Those thoughts of course were wrong, as Ravena had seen many of the junior members of the teratornis flock grab large, corrupted goats and deer in their clutches, only to fly upwards with them for hundreds of feet, before releasing the animals to their deaths.

Even the great leatherbreaker turtles were no match for the relentless efforts of the teratornis pack who would make easy work of the hardened shell casings of the massively corrupted beasts.

Still, when it came to a matter of prowess, strength, and agility, particularly when dealing with ground level predators, a pack of wolf shifters were unprecedented in their capabilities.

That was why even now, the teratornis that had come to apparently lay claim to the new land structure just hovered and circled high overhead next to their great shaman. For going closer to the ground would play into the strength of the wolves.

“Why have you done this? Why break the accords that we have all worked so hard to accept and protect?” Prentip asked, his voice booming as if aided by the very rainstorm that pelted at the flying buzzards even now. Each drop of rain hitting and seemingly freezing in place on the feathers of the flying beasts. Beasts who all began inching closer to the ground, the longer this went on and the more rain that froze upon their backs.

This was of course a trap by the great shaman of her tribe, for if the teratornis shaman wished to answer he would have to shift, at least partially in order to gain control over their vocal cords so that they could all communicate in the language of man.

For while all shifters could understand the languages of men, only those who took on the human form could speak in the language of men.

Of course, one didn’t get to be as old as the great teratornis shaman without learning a few tricks.

This was why Ravena was surprised, but not overly shocked to hear the great teratornis shaman speak out in her oddly melodic voice that spoke of power and grace.

“We do not break the accords, rather we just wish to show how vulnerable you are to having to care for not one, but two sacred lands. Let us claim the resting perch now, and be done with these trifles.”

“Be done? You come here, attack us, and then immediately expect us to accept the betrayal and loss of land as a given?” Prentip shot back.

“Perhaps, it was too much for us to expect you to listen to reason with just a minor demonstration of our resolve,” the teratornis shaman said, and as she spoke she rose higher into the air, before apparently round two would soon begin.