The trek through the forest was mostly uneventful. Animals would scurry away while insects would cling to the dirty and bloodied fur of the beast-kin. The only exception being a human and a little tiger girl by the name of Lin.
The children are in high spirits as Valen continues to feed and play with them. Using his powers, toys would be created and given to the children, while food would also be provided only to them as well.
“We are almost there” bellows Breon as he remembers the landmarks which surrounded the village he grew up on.
The procession continues with an increased gait as civilization looms over the horizon.
"Just over the hill," Breon says, a tired smile on his face.
As the group comes to the top of the hill, they are met with a large village surrounded by spiked walls. At the entrance of the village, a massive 8 and a half foot bear of a man stands. Light brown fur glimmering in the sunlight as a massive warhammer rests on his shoulders. Surrounded around him are guards and hunters, ready for any assault that may come to their home.
As the large, bear of a man stares at the group, a smile quickly forms on his face as he notices another Bear-kin, whose looks are similar to his own.
Looking back to his defenders, a smile on his face,” It seems little Breon is coming to visit,” turning back towards the procession walking towards the village,” and he brought a lot of friends.”
Garren lowers his Warhammer to the ground and starts walking towards his son.
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Valen watches the reunion of a son and father. The children look astonished at the sheer size of the man as much as him. Muscles the size of Valen's waist wrap around the smaller bear-kins shoulder and with a loud yell, the guards and hunters move towards the former slaves and start taking the heavy supplies from them.
The children watch astonished, as Garren gives his warhammer to his son and proceeds to pick up a cart. Planting it on his shoulder, he starts to head towards the town, its weight resting on his massive muscles. Valen continues to walk with the procession, many looks being directed his way.
As they finally enter the town, Valen notices something that he was not expecting. The smell of the town is very crisp and clear, trees and grass can be seen spaced frequently around the wooden homes, and the road inside is well walked on, but quite dry thanks to being on a slightly higher elevation.
As the procession comes to a stop at a massive storage cabin, a tall but old Bunny-kin women start's to give orders. As she directs the new arrivals, the two Bear-kin walk upwards towards a large wooden home at the center of the town.
With a curious look around, Valen leaves to explore the surroundings, Lin following behind. As they walk away, the penetrating eyes of a Panther-kin stare at his receding back.
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“Centurian, what happened here?” Wukong asks the old centaur.
"Well, it's clearly a burned camp," the centaur explains as they trek into the destroyed orc camp.
“Not that you old geezer,” Wukong admonishes, patience wearing thin.
"I was under the impression that a large number of orcs were transporting beast-kin. What I find is a destroyed camp covered in orc bodies that are mutilated, burnt, and stripped of possessions."
"A powerful mage would be my only guess," Centurian answers as he trots around." It is clear that flame magic was used considering the condition of the corpses" Centurian points at a burned corpse," as you can see, a powerful fire attack was used that both burned and destroyed these bodies." Centurian continues to trot around the camp." The sheer destruction of this camp and the lack of beast-kin corpses show a large group of fire mages where here with great control of their magic. Unfortunately what species they are is still unknown, but they are powerful."
Wukong stares at the desecration of the camp until he notices a corpse with its armor still on. As he beckons his Elkin to move towards it, he finds a truly disgusting sight.
“Centurian, what happened to this orc” Wukong beckons, as the old centaur comes nearby.
Gorz’s body lies still on the ground, his armor still covering his arms and legs, but his chest is a garbled mess.
"Wukong," Centurian says, fear evident on his face."The presence of tusks show that this orc is a powerful mage, and this armor is rune-crafted as you can see from the inner lines of the metal." A nervous frown descends the centaurs face."The presence of such high-quality armor means that our orc here is part of a high ranking clan."
“I don't care about who or what the orc is,” Wukong interrupts,”I want to know what caused the chest of this orc to be burst open. I can see his heart a few yards back,” Wukong point a bit further behind the corpse.
“I do not know, I have never seen or heard of magic able to rip apart an armored chest before. I can only imagine it would have to be a powerful enchanted weapon, possibly even an artifact.” The Centurion explains, uncertainty still present across his face.
A silence permeates the clearing as these two stare at the corpse.
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“Well then, the scent is fresh now, so we no longer need to follow a bunch of scratch marks on trees. Order the men to mount up and we head out immediately.”
“Yes general,” Centurian replies as he goes to gather the others.
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"So tell me, Breon, how did you escape these slavers," Garren asks his son as they sit at the village head’s home.
“Well, we were rescued by Valen.”
“Ahhh, you mean the same one who was surrounded by children?”confusion evident on his face.
“Yes father, that man took on the whole camp on his own. Granted, I was asleep until I heard the loud explosions, but what I learned from a Panther-kin by the name of Saria is that he took out the patrol and worked his way towards the center.”Breon explains as he sips tea from his cup.
"Saria is that vixens child isn't she," Garren says, a contemplative look on his face.
“Vixen father?”
“The current head of the panther-kin is actually Saleve, and she is a fox-kin. Her husband is the former head of the Panther-kin, whom she has forced into submission.”
“And they follow her?”Breon asks, a confused look on his face.
"She is a black furred fox-kin, a rare color mind you, and she sneaked into the head of the panther-kin, knocked him out, and dragged him into the center of the village." Answers Garren, a smile forming on his lips."But there is more to that story."Garren continues.
“When she kidnapped him, she tied him up and stripped him of his clothes. And then she rode him till morning.” A great big smile covers Garren’s face while his son looks amazed.
“She raped him?” Breon says
“If he didn't enjoy it, they wouldn't be married, now would they?” the father answers with a laugh.
Moving his head side to side, Breon looks at his father," and how do you know such things," Breon asks his father, a curious look on his face.
"I was at the wedding, and Darius got really drunk and told me the story."Garren answers" But that is history, they have two twin girls and I think a young fox boy who shares his mother's fur color”
“Now then, back to the matter at hand, you said he took out an entire company of orcs on his own?” interrupts Garren.
"He probably would have if Leona did not interfere." Sighing loudly"Apparently Leona forced him to free her, and the first thing she did was walk into the center of the camp and gut a orc," anger starts rising in his voice,"She wakes up the whole dam camp and then she almost gets killed by the orc commander," anger rising in his voice," only to be saved by Valen who uses some extremely loud and powerful weapon to rip out the orcs chest,"taking a deep breath, Breon takes a drink of his tea and looks at his father."she was so angry that her kill was taken that she immediately attacked Valen,"his anger slowly receding.
A silence permeates the air as Breon starts to calm down.
"Like you always say, father,"pride is stupid" and now I understand why."
Looking down at his son, a mixture of emotions crosses Garren's face, only to be interrupted by his wife Belinda.
“Oy, Breon, who the hell is this Varen guy?” She asks, annoyance clear on her face.
“Errrr, what happened mother?”Breon asks, a nervous smile on his lips.
Glaring at her son, Belinda moves her eyes towards her husband,”The damn kid went and almost gave Daria a heart attack.”
"What happened dear," Garren asks, a curious look sent to Breon.
“Apparently he is walking around town and notices Daria butchering an animal. As she pays him no mind, Varen summons a dead Bone stalker corpse right in front of her.” Belinda shakes her head, an amused smile forming on her lips.” I was able to hear her scream from the other side of the village.”
Slowly looking around, Belinda finds an open seat at the table and sits down.
“When I came to the butchery, the guards were laughing as they stared at the corpse of the beast. My god Garren, you said before that you killed two of those things, I never knew how fearsome those beasts are. Their sheer size even matches your own”
As Garen listens to the conversation, an interested look don's his face.
“Bone stalkers are extremely resistant to piercing and slashing weapons, only blunt weapons like my hammer can even penetrate their armor. This Valen just gets more and more interesting as I hear about him.”
Garren, realizing that no stalker corpse was on any of the carts, turns to his son,”Breon, how or even when was he able to bring a corpse of such a large beast into town”.
Looking up at his father Breon contemplates how to answer. “ It seems that Valen has some item that lets him store and summon anything he wishes. It is rather convenient, might I add”
Garren stares at his son, a serious expression on his face."An enchanted item that can hold objects like that is worth extreme amounts of money. An item that can hold a barrel's worth of supplies is a treasure that would be owned by the heads of clans. An item that can hold the corpse of a Bone stalker is an item which Kings would go to war over"
Immediately a pale expression covers Breons face as he stares at his father." What should we do,"Breon asks?
“Well, first we have to tell him not to use the item,” his father answer.
"That will be a problem" Breon retorts," he does not speak common at all,"
"He doesn't?" a surprised look forms on Belinda's face." how am I supposed to yell at him if he doesn't even understand the language?".
"Well, we can deal with this tomorrow morning, it is getting late," Garren turns to Belinda,"How are the new beast-kin doing?"
A solemn nod comes from Belinda,”They are still in low spirits, but having a safe place to stay and food to eat is a good start. Food is no longer an issue for a few days considering the size of the Bone Stalker that that kid dropped off.”
Slowly Belinda gets off the chair,”I will go and check on Zalena, I can only imagine the pains she is going through right now.” Belinda walks towards the steps and climbs to the second floor.
"Father, who is Zalena," Breon asks, a curious look on his face.
"Well, I found myself another wife last year." A toothy smile spreads across Garren's face.
Breon stares at his father with a blank look,”You got her pregnant didn't you?”
A guilty look crosses his fathers face," Well, Belinda is getting old, so she wanted help with managing the town. Getting Zalena pregnant was not what I wanted. You should know that us Bear-kin live up to a good 400 years and we are also extremely infertile as well. A child every ten years would be lucky for us," Garren explains." I merely Just got very lucky with Zalena,"Garren winks at his son.
Breon sighs at his father. The same one that has lived for over 200 years and has traveled the world on his own.
"I will introduce you to her later," Garren says,"but in the meantime, take the guest room and go sleep" As he starts walking towards the stares, Garren turns towards his son," and don't mind Leona, I will handle her later," and with that final farewell, Garren climbs the steps of his home.
Breon stares at his father's retreating back, a soft smile forming on his lips.
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"UUGHHHHHHHH," Zalena groans."The stupid kid is kicking again" she yells to Belinda who slowly massages her face with her hand.
“Don't worry dear,”Belinda soothes,”In a few weeks you will give birth” Balinda answers as Zalena groans again.
"When I finally give birth, I will make Garren pay for making me go through this," The Deer-kin promises, fury present in her voice.
Slowly the pains die down and Zalena’s expression finally relaxes.” So our town has grown a lot larger hasn't it?” Zalena asks.
“Yes, over fifty refugees in all were saved by some weird troublemaker of a man,” a smile forms on Belinda's lips as she remembers the stalker corpse.”Overall our town can support twice that many, we merely just need to build more homes for them,” she explains.
With a near silent squeak, the door shifts open as their husband enters the room.