“The battle may be over but the war is not, Octavius will not honor the terms of Lord Stone, you know this, sir,” Captain Korvax says to Koronos as they celebrate the victory of the battle back in the fortress mess hall with many the fighting men and as many people of the valley that can fit, the rest spills out into the courtyard of the fortress. “The only option is to fortify even more.”
“Or we can attack, we march on Castle Ridge. Now that their commander is dead and a lot of their men are with us now, the garrison there is undermanned, they are a soft target, and it will throw Octavius off balance. No one even thinks for a moment that anyone would dare attack an Octavian city,” replies Koronos to the captain as he takes a liberal gulp of his wine-filled goblet. “The nearest legion is weeks away, from what our spy can ascertain.”
The captain starts talking about the fight Koronos had with Lord Stone, and he doesn’t pay much attention after that because he is distracted. He’s felt her presence for a few days now, Shelove has been watching him and following him; she’s curious about him. She was watching his fight with Lord Stone from a cliff in the distance. He also knows she is in danger here, men will kill her because they fear her; and they should fear her because she’s a powerful animal that can easily kill a man and the horse he is riding upon, if he was on horse. Speaking of horses, that magnificent warhorse named Abyss that formerly belonged to Lord Stone is now in possession of Koronos and in his stables. “Enjoy, celebrate, captain. I want to take out Abyss for a ride and scout around a bit and I’m more comfortable out in the brush anyway.”
As Koronos takes Abyss through the high trails at the roots of the mountains, he feels Shelove is nearby. He knows she’s not hunting him, or his horse. That’s not why she is following him, she is curious about this strange man. She has senses far more acute than humans and knows there is something different about this ‘man-thing’; she can feel it, some power or aura radiating from him. His horse senses Shelove and gets nervous so he calms and soothes the steed, “it’s okay Abyss, she doesn’t want to eat you, at least not right now. Either way, I won't let her eat you at any point.”
His bodyguards are following him at a distance, which took some convincing and they are not comfortable with being 40 paces away from him and he often falls out of view on the trails. But he knows they will spook Shelove, and he won’t be able to get close enough. Being on Abyss won’t help him get close either, so he dismounts and slowly walks ten paces towards Shelove, he knows where she is hiding in the brush, a normal person wouldn’t know she was even there, but Koronos knows. Then he reaches out with his mind, “hello again, Shelove. Come out, I won’t hurt you, I want to help you because it isn’t safe for you in the world of men, but you will be safe with me, I can protect you.”
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She slowly moves out of the shadows; silent, huge and powerful. He can sense his horse is near panic at the sight of this huge predator, so he conveys, “calm,” to the horse. The enormous black pantera and Koronos slowly approach each other, ever so slowly he reaches out his hand to touch her on the nose, she’s never let anyone touch her before except for when she was a cubling, not man nor beast so she shies away a little bit, “it’s okay,” so he pulls his hand back to his side. He stands perfectly still, not in fear, not in a threatening way, simply neutral to demonstrate he is not a threat.
She slowly circles him without making a sound, she wonders, “what is this ‘man-thing,’ why is it so different, and why am I drawn to it? He certainly isn’t very much to eat, like all men, and probably wouldn’t taste very good anyway.” She’s never eaten a man before because she doesn’t like how they smell, so she figured they don’t taste very good either, also, there’s so little meat that it’s hardly worth the effort. The next thing she realizes is that his hand is on her shoulder. This is not so bad, it is kind of nice, even.
Koronos slowly pets her, “there, see, I’m not going to hurt you, Shelove. You should go back to the mountains, but if you’re really curious about the world of men, come with me and I’ll show you this strange world, and I’ll protect you.”
“Someday I may return, but I will go with you for now.” She conveys to him. “But I will never let you ride upon me like that silly undignified horse.”
He laughs a little bit, “It’s okay, Shelove, that’s why I have a horse. I would never expect you to carry me about, you’re far too prideful and majestic for such trivial things. You’re the queen of the mountains, where the wild things roam free and run like the wind.”
From a distance, his bodyguard's make the clearing and their eyes widen and jaws drop when they see the sight of this enormous black pantera being petted by Koronos, they are terrified, gobsmacked and awestruck at the same time.
When they pass through the small village that has recently popped up outside the fortress, the people gasp at the sight of Shelove. Some people fall to their knees and pray, they pray to him because the huge cat is walking alongside him like a companion. A feat beyond mere mortals. Word of this spreads fast across that land like a wildfire being blown by the breeze across the prairie, lending to the legend of Koronos even more.