Story From The Elders—
Long ago, we were not what we are.
We were mindless. Savage creatures driven by primal desires, we were everything the Olimpians call us now.
All we did was consume and breed, trapped in our own minds.
And if we were left to our own devices, if we were left to run rampant, we would have consumed the world and then ourselves.
No matter how hard it might be for some, or how loudly they righteously shout and scream, we can never deny one fact. A fact that we must be grateful for because, without it, we would not exist.
The Olimpians are the reason we exist.
Our ancestors threw their bodies against their walls for generations, dying by the tens of thousands. And with every generation, we evolved.
As we changed, we regained what our oldest ancestral memories tell us we once had, along with so much more. With our growth, our expansion, we must fight against those we left behind and those who thought of us as beasts.
Neither of them understood we had a civilized society nor what we have become. The former through inability and the latter through ignorance. But one day, we will show them our strength and earn their respect.
No matter how we change, we will never forget the history that defines us. No matter how dark and ugly that history is. Our debts.
But it's just that. Our history. A past that we have moved beyond and overcome.
Remember, and have empathy for our ancestors, for The Lost Tribes to the west. And understand why the Olimpians treat us the way they do. They do not yet know what we are.
**********
Kanieta watched the elf turn and begin stalking through the nighttime forest. A slow smile spread across her lips as she lay across a tree's branch, looking down at him.
Perceptive and skilled as he was, he was no match for her shadow magic. Not many were. It was why her tribe was so feared despite being on the smaller side.
As the elf vanished from her sight, she hoped he would make it back to the fort with the information, but the odds of that happening were decreasing by the second.
Kanieta could feel flashes of magic all over the forest, and they were growing closer. The Crescent Moon faction had not missed their little intrusion, and they were searching for the culprits.
They had to know it was another faction of the Kin, but their search for her would soon lead them to find the Olimpians, if they already hadn't, which was unfortunate.
Kanieta, rather like Green. She got to be herself around him. Though she might have gone too far… But come on, I should get some slack. I never get the chance to let loose! Everyone around me is a fuddyduddy… I Neve get to have fun…
Putting Green's problems from her mind, she stopped pouting, hopped to her feet, and leaped from her branch to the next, her tails tailing behind her.
Foot landing squarely on the limb, she used her forward momentum to crouch down on her leading leg, then pushed off with it, adding height and propelling her to the next tree branch.
Even with the occasional bunch of leaves or branch slapping against her body, there was no sound.
The slight drain on her mana pool told her that her silence spell was active, but more than one mage had died due to trusting their spell was still in effect on the sole basis of their mana being drained.
There are many ways to circumvent a spell, after all.
So Kanieta made a habit of performing small tests that might be noticed by an enemy but were far less risky than assuming her spell was working and getting overconfident, letting her walk into a trap. It was one of the reasons traveling with Green was so easy. He was so clumsy that she never had to test her spell.
Hours passed as she kept a relaxed pace, the night quickly coming to an end as the dark forest flashed by.
When she reached the river dividing the forest, she paused. Her eyes scanned the banks for any watchers but gave up almost immediately. She would never find a single person in all that brush.
Making up her mind to just go for it, she leapt off her tree and out into the open air.
Wind whipping through her hair, she sailed over the water. Her leap took her twenty feet out from the bank as she dropped the thirty feet from the tree branch to the water's surface.
As the toes of her leading leg touched upon the waters of the river, it appeared as if the rippling darkness just under the water's surface sucked towards her and collected under her foot. The result was as if the rest of the river water became brighter, as a blackness darker than any shadow solidified under Kanieta's foot.
Slowly, as if threads of moonlight were trying to keep her hanging in the air, her foot settled onto the water, a single ripple rolling out from the pad of her foot, marking her descent. Then she leaped forward, and the shadows under her foot vanished as if they were never there.
When her leap ran its course, and she fell down to the river again, the darkness of the river pooled under her foot once more, offering her a platform to leap off of.
Each bounding leap took her twenty feet forward, quickly taking her across the half-mile of this narrow section of the river. Landing on the banks of the northern side of the Northern Forest.
Three leaping steps later, Kanieta was running across the broad road of the tree branches which made up the Northern Forest.
She was hardly a hundred feet into the eastern side of the forest and had already spotted two scouts and a patrol working their way along the banks of the river. Such good workers.
They were not looking for the Olimpians. Those in the fort had neither the need nor the means to send a force down the river and into the forest. And without Green, they wouldn't even know there was something to look for out here.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
No, they were looking for the Crescent Moon faction.
Pausing for a moment, she reached over to a twig on a branch and snapped it off, letting it fall, before leaping to the next tree. Had to make sure my spell was working…
"Ahh!" Screamed a warrior behind her, "Something just fell on me!"
"It's just a branch, you fur-brain," said a scathing female voice, followed by a smacking sound, "Now shut up! You're making too much noise."
Kanieta's lips curled as she adjusted her spell, blocking out all sound — how can you check if they hear you if you can't hear them? — as she turned and bounded away.
As she traveled through the forest, she was gradually coming across more patrols and even some wards that would detect even her presence if she passed over them.
It wouldn't be a problem if she was found by one of these patrols. She belonged here, after all. A few words and anyone challenging her would back down.
What would be a problem was if certain people found out that she wasn't in her tent at the center of the main camp of the Red Tails faction.
Warning the Olimpinas was a… secret errand the Elders had given her. And errand that they would in no way acknowledge giving her if she was caught.
The horizon was just starting to lighten, sending light across the blue sky and white clouds as she returned to the edge of the main encampment.
Eyes skimming over those on guard duty as she circled the camp, she wrapped shadows around herself before moving and leaping down from a tree in front of the burly male bear. Kanieta was tall, but he was massive in every sense of the word.
"Take me to Clan Leader Kanieta's tent." Her voice was distorted, becoming deeper and monotone, giving no hint of who she was.
The bear was startled at her appearance for a moment, then slowly processed her words and nodded his head in understanding. "Follow me, Shade." He rumbled in a respectful tone of voice.
Following behind the man's plodding steps, she traveled through the camp. Though slow, his gate was so long that he quickly traversed the distance from the edge of the base to its center as they wove through hundreds of tents on dirt paths beaten into the ground. The few on the paths in the early morning quickly moved out of their way, stepping to the side.
Walking up to the inner portion of the camp, they approached the only fortification of the entire place, which was just a simple wooden palisade, or it appeared that way, at least. This inner section was filled with larger tents for the elders, clan leaders, and warband leaders of the Red Tail faction, and right in its center was her tent.
The guards gave one look at the bear-kin, then at her, before simply waving them both in. She was only a few steps past the gates and the wards built into them before she heard a loud voice.
Kanieta's ears twitched as she focused on the words, “—care what ritual or spell you say she is doing right now! You will take me to Clan Leader Kanieta now, or I will call into question her ability to rule in front of the assembly!" The threat was not a minor one, and she recognized the arrogant speaker, so she knew it wasn't an idle threat either.
"I know the way from her, Hurring. You may leave." Kanieta said in the same distorted voice, flicking her wrist in a dismissive gesture.
The bear slowly turned, looking like a soft wind would blow him over, though that was the farthest thing from the truth, and bowed to her. "As you say, Shade."
Once he rose from his bow, he started plodding away without looking back or giving the slightest indication that he knew who she was. I should make him a warband leader soon… She thought to herself before turning and fast walking once she was sure no one was looking.
She was passing the tent where the loud voice came from, but she could not just drop her shroud of shadows and walk in. That would destroy all semblance of the facade their two factions were playing at.
Picking up her pace, she darted forward, quickly passing a series of tents before darting between them as the first rays of light touched upon the camp.
As the light hit her shrouded figure, the mana required to hold together her spell sharply increased, and its effectiveness dropped. Her mana was burning away, but it didn't matter. A few more steps, and she zipped to the side, entering the flaps of her tent.
Before the flaps of her tent were finished falling shut behind her, she was dropping her shroud. Reaching to the side, she grabbed the intricately carved staff with a fox head and feathers on its top. It was the symbol of her position, and she was supposed to carry it around wherever she went. Doing that was tiresome, though, and whenever she could get away with it, she would drop it into someone else's care or leave it behind.
Sadly, this was not one of the times she could get away with it. Letting the staff lean against her chest, she reached over again and grabbed a clock to hang against her shoulders.
Fingers wrapping around the staff, she spun on her heel and walked out of the tent. She held up her free hand, covering the light from the sun and sucking in a deep breath of morning air as she stretched.
She spent a long moment reveling in the new dawn as if she really had just come out of her tent for the first time in the morning.
Turning to her left, she plastered a smile onto her face. At the end of the line of tents was an old wolven man with a sour pinched face. His face twisted even more upon seeing her smile. Shit, my smile must be more than a bit mocking. Whoops, guess I couldn't control myself. But at least I get to enjoy making him walk to me.
"Ahh, Elder Jolten, such a pleasure to meet you again. What brings you to my tent at such an early hour?" Kanieta finally said when he had walked close enough for a normal conversation. As her words and appearance, the haggard-looking brown and white fox-kin standing behind the Elder had a momentary look of relief before a professional mask fell over her face making it blank. "And Nareta, why didn't you have the Elder wait for me in comfort at the visitors' tent?"
There was an ever so slight rebuking tone in Kanieta's voice at the last sentence, causing Jolten's face to twist even more, which Kanieta thought was impossible at this point.
"I'm sorry, chieftain," Nareta said with a bow to Kanieta, "But he refused to wait a moment longer and stormed out here on his own."
"I see," said Kanieta, "Well, Elder Joltan? You must have something important to discuss with me if you rushed to our camp in the dead of night and demanded to see me."
There was a flash of hatred deep in his eyes before his sour expression fell away and was replaced by a sickly sweet smile. "As a matter of fact, I do, Chieftan Kanieta." He rasped out while walking toward Kaneita. "As you may not know, the Olimpians broke into our camp last night."
"You must not have very good security if that is the case," Kanieta said, throwing out a jab as he took a moment to breathe.
The flames of anger surged in his eyes for a moment before subsiding, “Ahh… Yes. And that is the reason I am here. We request that you come personally to inspect and strengthen our defenses. We wouldn't want our plan to be ruined by the Olimpians, after all."
The Elder, who missed his calling as a snake, had a smug expression on his face as if he had actually achieved something. It was an expression that Kanieta wanted to smack off with the back of her hand, along with his head from his body, if that was an option.
"No, we wouldn't want that." She said, her lips turning down slightly at the corners. "I will pack my things and travel there as soon as possible… To fix the mistakes, you no doubt made to let an Olimpian in."
His eyes squinted in anger at her words before he spun around and left without so much as a goodbye. So rude.
Nareta hustled up next to her and bowed low, speaking in a groveling pleading tone, "Chieftan, I am so—
"Enough of that," Kanieta said, groaning in her throat as she kept her face blank in case the Elder turned around, "He can't hear us anymore."
"Ohh, good. That was getting tiring," Nareta's voice completely changed, taking on an upbeat and slightly mocking tone despite her still being bent over at the waist. You never knew who was looking after all, "Did you do what you sent out to do?"
Even here, and with a silence spell, she would not directly talk about Knaieta's infiltration.
“…Yes, but they noticed us getting out. Not sure if the information will make it back."
"That's unfortunate," Nareta said, finally coming up from her bow, but her head was still looking down. That did not prevent her from somehow managing to lock eyes with Kanieta and make a face mocking the Elder that almost made her crack up in laughter.
Kanieta could only grunt in agreement before saying, "We can't do anymore in this battle. Pull back any Shades on disrupting the crescent Moon's planes. We'll have to sit back and watch this one play out."
"Kay, cuz," Nareta said, lifting her head, spinning about, and walking away. But not before she smacked Kanieta's cheek with the tip of one of her two gray tails.