Excerpt From The Mad Scholar's Wall—

We had no choice. Areekail's words filled us with an unending need to escape, and if we did not move as fast as we could, our hearts would explode in our chests from fear.

My vision tunneled, and all I could see was where I would take my next step as I fled. Every breath burned in my throat, and I could hear its ragged hitching despite the pounding of blood in my ears.

I do not remember running through the citadel. Only a few flashes of crumbling stone remained in my mind, one of the few points in my life I have no memory of.

As I ran from the once stunning stronghold, conscious thoughts returned to my mind. I could not stop running, but I could now look around with clear eyes.

Standing on the walls, covered in damaged and dented armor, were elves standing in ranks, looking towards the fortress's center. Their weapons were clutched in their right hands as they lifted them silently into the air. Still positioned at the base of the walls were the elves we had marched with, doing the same.

When we finally neared them, after traveling the miles of the inner grounds, I could make out their solemn faces.

Then a crack sounded, and the ground lurched.

Falling to my knees, I looked up at the faces of the elves, who suddenly had eyes filled with relief.

They looked behind me to what even I, a pure human, could feel was a welling of power.

Scrambling to my feet, I staggered forward with my group passing the elves standing silent guard at the open gates.

Some shot looks at us, their eyes filled with guilt rather than a yearning to run before they turned away.

Hundreds of feet from the massive walls, we could finally come to a stop. I was filled with disbelief when I turned around to face the cracking and shaking reverberations echoing our frantic flight.

As far as we could see, a canyon hundreds dipping to thousands of feet deep stretched to the horizon.

There was no sign of the last elven army or their crumbling city.

**********

Looking at the sky, I closed my eyes as I enjoyed the rays of the sun warming my cold body. It caressed my skin, and I could even feel the first ticklings of warmth through my armor.

What was left of the stone wall I was sitting on was doing its best to rob me of any heat, but my ass was already so numb I couldn't feel it.

Minutes passed as I ignored everything happening around me. Then a voice broke through my first moment of forced bliss since… I was in the medico ward.

Mood crashing to the dark depths of the dead, I opened my eyes and focused on the one talking. “—ays to come and join her," said a beastkin in a polite but distant tone.

As I stood, the woman — and the tails, ears, and claws aside, she was a woman — appeared to be a fox beastkin like Kanieta. Though she had two tails and was a different color, her shoulder-length hair and tails were gray with white streaks running through them before turning all white at the tips.

While her clothes were tight enough to hug her figure, there were so many layers of cloth that seeing anything but the general outline of what lay beneath was impossible. There were plenty of hints, but teasing hints was all there were. Which suits her.

I followed the swaying hips until they stopped, and I had to walk up next to them. Looking past the gray beastkin, I saw Kanieta walking away from a group of older, scarred men and women beastkin.

Just from looking at how they moved and constantly scanned the area, I could tell they were strong warriors. If the deference those around them gave as they passed or issued orders was any judge, they were also respected. Which usually goes hand in hand with competence… Stupid powers and competent leadership. Feck.

Giving a slight nod, I acknowledged Kanieta. She was someone of status, after all.

If there was one thing I know about people of power, it was to never disrespect them… when you are surrounded by their bloodthirsty subordinates. Behind a closed door or at the top of a cliff, where you could shout insults at them before disappearing, was an entirely different matter.

Even with my… most sincere and flamboyant greeting, there were still some growls of annoyance and creaking of wood and leather as the nearby beastkin squeezed the hilts of their weapons.

Not that I cared. I was still of half a mind to try and kill her. Or see how far I could push their hospitality until they killed me just to spite them.

I was, if only for a moment, important to them. Who else would they find that would be able to relay a message to the legion and have it be as trusted as me?

There weren't enough scouts in the legion to make a proper patrol, left alone to find another living one among all the prisoners in his cluster fuck. And that wasn't mentioning all of my recent achievements, adding weight to my words. So fuck'em.

Then again, I was an elf. My word isn't worth that much… pretty easy to replace too.

She did kill Bark, though… I thought, causing a spike of pain in my heart. Maybe not directly, but it was all the same. Anyone could tell she was in command. Squinting my eyes as I glared at her, a flare of anger rising within me, I wondered if I could kill her and get away. But if what she said is true… Bark would rather die than be the cause of so much death. She didn't like to see anything in pain… I forced myself to relax as my body unconsciously prepared to lunge forward. Sighing, I flexed my hands, telling myself, She wouldn't want me to wallow.

Anger still smoldered inside of me, but it was tamped down by even more regret and grief. Everything was intermingled. I just didn't know where to start. Not to mention I was just too damn tired and positive this wasn't the time or place to look into those feelings. Even a narcissist would have to admit there were bigger things than one person's feelings going on.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Sighing, I shoved my thought away and did my… duty. Why am I doing this?

As Kanieta and the two burly beastkin behind her stopped before me, I saluted her fist to the chest and even went so far as to give her a light bow at the waist.

"Ohh, Ancestor! You're a stunning picture of beauty and elegance. To be in our presence is a gift in itself. This unworthy one is humbled to be in your presence and given this most important of tasks, which came directly from your seductive lips," I said right as Kanieta opened her mouth to speak.

I heard a snort of amusement to my side and looked over in time to see the other fox lady smooth her face into indifference, but her eyes danced with teasing mockery as they looked at Kanieta.

Around me, louder growls sounded after a silence settled over the area. It wasn't an awkward silence. I knew those quite well.

No, this was the silence of subordinates waiting to see if they should be offended on their leader's behalf. An offense that usually took the form of physical abuse.

The growls and grunts of anger from the dozen beastkin watching the spectacle grew louder as Kanieta said nothing. It got to the point a tiny shiver of fear ran down my spine as I realized I might have gone too far.

"Quiet!" Kanieta shouted, cutting off the growing noise of the on-lookers. "If I take offense to something, I will handle it myself!" at her words, she threw a look at me, her eyes filled with the knowledge of what she almost let happen, then looked at a vaguely familiar large bear of a beastkin, who was so large he coul— …Oh. Duh. The bearkin's fur looked weird, as it was slightly singed and sticking up at random.

"I didn't even do it…" He grumbled, but thanks to his size, his grumble was so loud I could hear it ten feet away.

"But you let it happen!" She said with righteous indignation before quickly changing her tone to innocence, "Besides, you act like I caused a bolt to hit you." She was the picture of virtue for a second before softly adding, throwing another look at me, "And I have other plans for you."

The hair on my arms stood on end, and my instincts told me I needed to run to escape the coming storm. I stepped to the side and noticed that I wasn't the target of the boiling rage.

It was the… now suspiciously taciturn… maid? What is she… Next to me. Now that I looked, she was too perfect. It's an act! I mentally shouted my scrutiny of the woman rising. I watched the fox woman whether Kanieta's rage like it didn't exist. Like she had felt it many times before.

With everyone's attention focused on the gray fox woman — who I no longer wanted to be next to — I shuffled to the side a few steps, putting some distance between us.

"Yeah," the bear said, in mock belief and understanding, "The only bolt that missed. Right."

"Hush," Kanieta said, waving off his, in my opinion, reasonable suspicion.

Blinking, I looked past Kanieta as something strange caught my attention, "What happened to your tail?" I blurted out. Instead of a rich red tail with a white tip, the white was all gone, like it was cut off. I even saw what might be the flesh of the last few inches of her tail.

I hadn't noticed before, as I was focused on her story. And now that I thought about it, her tails were surprisingly still the whole time we talked. Not that I knew her long enough to be a judge.

Beastkin society was not something I knew. I have, however, lived with women my whole life. Bringing up how bad they currently looked or, worse yet, a bad hair day was not something that went over well… the few times I had done it.

Mentioning a beastwoman's tail seemed to go along those same lines.

The stiffening of Kanieta's shoulders and how everyone was now either looking away hiding their smirks or looking at me with looks of horror-filled interest and most of all, the snort of juvenile joy from the gray vixen next to me told me it was the correct assumption.

Opening my mouth to backtrack, Kanieta turned and smiled at me. It was cold, and the sympathy she had in her eyes when she found me next to the medico ward was gone.

"Oh? Is there something wrong with one of my tails?" I kept my mouth clamped shut, the question was a trap, and everyone knew it. "I'm sorry that while enacting my strategy to undermine the Crescent Moon Faction and taking a fortress that hasn't fallen since its founding millennia ago, I couldn't protect my tail from getting burned. That's such a failure on my part. Ohh, how can I even get out of bed in the morning? And thank you so much for feeling the need to point it out to me, as I am just incapable of noticing it myself."

No one said anything as Kanieta sucked in air after her rant, the silence becoming more awkward by the second. No one would be stupid enough to tal—

“Well… you didn't notice for almost a minute." The maid said finally in a dry, indifferent tone. "Who knows what you will notice or need to have pointed out."

"Is it my fault your fire only burns what you want?" Kanieta snapped back.

"My fire?" The untrustworthy maid said, shocked, "Who said it was mine? Who knows how many traps and spells were cast last night?" Kanieta just continued to look at the other fox with a flat face. "And if it was mine, I would only retaliate after an unprovoked attack."

Kanieta turned to me with a huff and flip of her fiery hair, making her hair land so it would block the other beastkin from her sight. At that moment, the gray fox stuck her tongue out and made a mocking face, which caused me to burst out with a small laugh.

I saw Kanieta track my eyes and squint at me in annoyance before moving on without saying anything.

As if none of the last few minutes had happened, Kanieta straightened her back, and an almost noble air formed around her.

"Do you remember our message, Scout Green? Why we had done what we have?" She waited a moment after I nodded before asking, "Will you deliver the message?"

I considered what she asked. Seconds ticked by, but I had already decided. I would do my duty… like always. I was just making her sweat.

Finally, I said, "Yes."

"Good, Kanieta said, breaking out into a smile that lit up her face. "Then, if you would be so kind." she gestured down the street with her arm, and the wall of beastkin stepped apart, creating a path.

Walking down the street, I moved through the immediate gathering of beastkin. Minutes passed as I kept up my relaxed stroll, finally arriving at the back ranks of the formation of beastkin blocking the street.

"Move your asses, fur brains!" Shouted a deep voice. Like a wind blowing through the grass, the beastkin parted.

As I walked into their formation, it closed behind me after a few feet. I was in my own little bubble.

The beastkin gave me looks as I passed them, but few were filled with rage or scorn. Most had looks of curiosity.

Step after step, I passed through the ranks of beastkin until suddenly, I was standing in the open.

There were ten feet of space before the first rank of beastkin and those captured in the battle. Hundreds, maybe even a couple thousand, of exhausted and wounded legionaries filled the street.

Even now, they stood firm, with those in the best shape standing at the edges, protecting those in the center.

None had weapons, as the beastkin had clearly taken them, but they were still alive. Sill ready to fight.

Closing the distance, I casually looked to the roofs of the adjacent buildings and the alleys, seeing more beastkin standing guard. They silently stood, eyes locked on me as I moved.

Stopping a body length from the line of legionaries warily watching me, I turned to a centurion I saw in the line and smiled. "Your lucky, Centurion. The beastkins are going to let us go to deliver a message and as a political statement."

“…Crows, take us," He said in despair and disbelief after only a moment of silence, "the savages have learned politics. How will we kill the cretins now?" As he voiced the word politics, it was filled with so much venom that it sounded like the curse it was. The statement caused a ripple of laughter to flow through the ranks as they released the stress of their impending deaths.