Cain frowned, he was trying to get a good look at the figure on the tree. The figure had a pair of clean green eyes, with a little yellow in the inner iris. All Cain could see the figure was kneeling on the big branch. But still couldn't make the sense of it.

“What are you?” asked Cain.

The mysterious figure responded with nothing, nor his grip on the arrow, which was still firmly pulled.

The wolf shifted its gaze towards the figure, then, a sigh could be heard. The bow was lowered, and with a swift movement, the mysterious figure jumped down from the tree.

“A Jaguar?... Standing with two legs?... Whoa…” Cain was in awe after he saw the creature in front of him.

What was standing in front of Cain was indeed a jaguar-alike, standing with two bipedal legs, featuring close to human body proportion but with taller and broader muscular shoulder. The golden-colored fur that featured rosette patterns covered its body. And the head of a jaguar with two scars on its mouth. It wore a brown cloth and old leather armor on its lower body.

“Hmph, close, human,” said the jaguar, “my name’s Rugo, and I am a Jagupard.”

“Holy… he’s really talking…”

“Meip…”

“First time seeing a moasrahn, huh?” Rugo scoffed.

“Moasrahn… wait!? Moasrahn!! The extinct race!?” Cain couldn't believe what he just heard.

“Extinct, huh? Is that how human think about us? Heh, no matter,” said Rugo.

Moasrahn was one of the major races in Nazula in the past. They were the race of beast with similar figure to human with no less intelligence. Making them superior than human race as they had stronger physical built and slightly longer lifespan than Hodu tribe. But they had insatiable thirst for power and domination by nature, though only among themselves because they did not really care about other races. Their thirst for power became their ultimate fall in the end. A civil war took place among moasrahns across Nazula, moasrahns in Valvikr continent was the worst.

Finally, when their population became the lowest to the point the weakest human kingdom could finish them off, the leaders made a peace agreement and no more moasrahn’s blood should be spilled by another moasrahn to preserve their race. They also decided to live in seclusion, far from civilization such as in the forest and cut themselves off from other races. After 300 years of rare sighting, most humans in Valfikr thought they were extinct, except the local residence near the forest they lived in. But even the human there could not really investigate moasrahn there as they rarely saw them.

“Oh Goddess… a moasrahn!” said Cain excitedly.

“So, human, I revealed myself to you to thank you for saving him,” Rugo ignored Cain’s excitement, he looked at the Clastival Wolf.

“Ah, this wolf is yours?” responded Cain. His attention shifted towards the wolf.

“Mine? No, Hoarts belongs to us all, moasrahn,” said Rugo.

“So the wolf’s name is Hoarts…” said Cain.

The wolf growled at Rugo.

“As you wish,” Rugo slightly bowed his head to the wolf.

“What?” Cain looked confused.

“Come, uh… what’s your name, human?” asked Rugo.

“I’m Cain, and this is Beil.”

“Meip! Memeeip!”

“Huh, is he?” Rugo asked Beil

“Meip!”

“I see,” said Rugo.

“... You can talk to Beil??” Cain was puzzled.

“Of course I can,” Rugo replied, “come to our village, we want to thank you properly since your first step in the forest.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“A moasrahn village? Heck yeah!”

Rugo nodded. “Let’s go,” Rugo guided them to the said village.

Smile adorned Cain’s face, he couldn't hide his excitement along the way.

“Thank goddess I decided to follow the howl, otherwise I won't have this chance!” said Cain. He walked behind Rugo and Hoarts.

“Hoarts already knew when you stepped into the forest. When he sensed you’re close, he howled. Thankfully you came,” said Rugo.

“Ooh… nice ability,” responded Cain, “by the way, what’s a Kralv? Hoarts is a Kralv, right?”

“How do you know that word!?” Rugo suddenly stopped and turned around. He was aghast.

“I know from a book, why do you look so surprised?” Cain replied.

“It’s… it’s an ancient word of ours, supposedly only our kind knows about it,” said Rugo.

Hoarts looked at Rugo.

“Hrrh, fine…” Rugo sighed, “Hoarts permitted me to talk about it with you.”

Rugo breathed a long breath, he started walking again. “Kralv means Heart of the Forest, and Hoarts is the Kralv of this Barlth Forest. You humans probably more familiar with alpha of a horde term. But Kralv, is more than that, he is respected by every living being in the forest. Moasrahn is no exception. We even consider him sacred.“

“I see... but why? I mean, when I saved him yesterday, he was clearly had no fighting capabilities. Isn't that the opposite idea of alpha of a horde whereas the alpha is the strongest one? He’s respected despite how weak he is, well, no offense, Hoarts,” said Cain.

The Clastival Wolf just growled a bit, he seemed undisturbed by Cain’s remark.

“You don’t get the meaning Heart of the Forest, huh? What happens if your heart stops beating?”

“... I’m gonna die…” Cain paused for a moment, “oh… oh!!! You mean, if Hoarts dies, the forest is gonna die too!?”

Rugo nodded in answer. “He is the life of the forest, he has the highest responsibility in the forest, that’s why.”

“(That’s the reason why Gomara wrote that!... Gomara should had fair share of adventure too if he knew about it,)” thought Cain. “What happens if this forest dies?” asked he.

“Hmm… it matters a lot to us, we could always find another forest to live in, yes. But we’ve been here for hundreds of years, we call it home. For sentimental reason, of course we don't want to lose the forest. As for the animals and plants? they’ll lose their habitat, and I’m sure humans can't live without them. Maybe even dangerous beasts would raid that town when the forest no longer provides their needs,” said Rugo.

“I see,” Cain rubbed his chin, “(It’s a good thing I saved the wolf, whatever the reason the guardsmen want the money for, I’m sure losing the forest isn't worth whatever the coin could give them,)”

“Then why he was outside the forest yesterday? Wasn't that dangerous for a heart?”

“It was… my blunder as the guardian of Kralv, I thank you once again, Cain. But yeah, I’m still wondering why Hoarts stepped out from the forest like that, never happened before.”

“(Guardian, huh? So he is like Hoarts’s bodyguard,)” thought Cain. “Why don’t you ask him then? As far as I can tell, you can talk with animal and beast, right?” asked he.

“I did, Hoarts remembers nothing except being cornered by some humans and saved by you,” responded Rugo.

“Weird…” said Cain.

“We’ve arrived,” said Rugo.

They arrived at a different looking forest. It had taller trees, on the tall trees, wooden houses was built, varied in size. Wooden stairs and path on the branches made them connected one another. Sun rays from leaves gap made the perfection to the scene.

“Whoa… this is cool,” said Cain, he was looking over the trees.

Two moasrahn deer appeared from behind the tree. They were well equipped with leather armor and spears. They bowed their heads to Hoarts then nodded at Rugo.

“Standing deer…” mumbled Cain. Their large antlers became Cain’s focus.

Rugo spoke to the deer with foreign tongue. Then, both deer also bowed at Cain and stepped aside to give them a path.

“Come,” said Rugo.

They entered the village, many moasrahns started looking at what the guardian of Kralv brought along to the village. They spoke among themselves with the tongue Cain couldn't understand.

“I take their attention so fast,” said Cain.

“You’re the first human that came into contact with our village,” said Rugo.

They used a large flat stairway to climb the tree. When Cain looked down, he could see another compound of wooden buildings on the other side of the ground, he could see more moasrahn race variety, like rhinos and warthogs.

They arrived at a large tree house, with two moasrahn lynx stood guard at the door. When they saw Rugo, they immediately opened the door for them.

Inside the house, a wide hall presented to them. There were four figures sitting cross-legged there.

The hall was well lit, it has a lot of decoration and paintings on the wall. There were also varied weapons stored on the rack in each corner, from the shape alone, Cain could tell the craftsmanship was very different from human’s.

The sitting moasrahns were in the center of the room, a tiger, a bear, an alligator and a moose. They were big, Cain guessed they were about 8 feet tall if they stood up.

The moose waved his huge hand to Rugo, inviting them to sit. Hoarts walked ahead of them and sat near the four.

Rugo and Cain sat cross-legged in front of them, they sat on a large comfy hay-stuffed soft pillow, Beil sat on Cain’s legs. Cain’s awe to moasrahn became more controlled, but everyone in the room still could see his curious eyes stealing glance to whatever he found interesting, from the weapons, the tiger’s glimmering red eyes, and the moose's diamond antlers.