In stories, the aftermath of a battle was always filled with drinks, laughter, and glory. Heroes would be lauded for their courage, loved ones would reunite and the people would rebuild their home to greater heights. Somehow, the Speaker doubted this was what’s going to happen to Grasside.

A small non-descript village, the humans that used to live here had thought themselves safe from attack. Although the village was far from the city, it was still under the protection of the Duchy of Yachium and was also a poor village that had nothing to offer. Bandits and enemies of Yachium thought Grasside to be too insignificant to be worth attacking and they were right.

As the Speaker walked through the ruined village, she had to shake her head at the twin row of decrepit houses that was the sum of the village. They all looked like they would fall if a strong storm ever hit the village. The rest of the village was hardly better. The small stable was empty; the small field grew some vegetables that could never be sold at market; and there was no inn or tavern. Bandits would have to be crazy or truly desperate to attack the village.

This ironically made it perfect for the Kin!

The Speaker had been initially been surprised when the Creator ordered the Kin to attack new settlements and bring new animals and humans to it. After a short time thinking about it however, the Speaker decided that her surprise was unwarranted.

If she thinks about it, it made sense. The Creator would need to gather new material for creation and after the success of the attack on Silentree, it shouldn’t surprise her that the Creator now wanted the Kin to do it more often. Ordering the Kin to attack the humans, to take prisoners and plunder loot made a lot of sense if you look at it from the Creator’s point of view.

Unfortunately, that also left the Speaker with the unlikely, and unwanted, duty of selecting targets for the Kin. As the only adult former human in the Kin, she knew the location of human settlements better than anyone in the Kin. When she was just a human slave, the Speaker had accompanied her mistress throughout the lands under the Duchy. The small kingdom had been in conflict with their northern neighbour, the city-state of Yaslay, for decades so there was always rumours of incursion that they had to check out. That gave her knowledge of the outlying villages of the Duchy and how vulnerable they were. The Speaker wasn’t going to risk the Kin attacking a well-defended town or worse, the cities themselves, so the duty of selecting which human village to attack fell on her. It wasn’t something she wanted to do but the Speaker acknowledged she was the only one who had the knowhow.

The first thing the Speaker did was to draw a rough map of all the human villages near the Kar Forest and the Keg Mountains. After drawing the map and informing the Alpha and the Chieftain, she then suggested to them which targets to hit. She wasn’t a strategist or a tactician but both leaders knew she was the best the Kin got and as such all her suggestions were accepted. 

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All the targets the Speaker selected were small off-the-beaten-tracks villages like Grasside. Unlike bandits, the Kin weren’t looking for wealth; they were just looking for easy targets to take as prisoners. So the Speaker’s plan was simple. The Kin would spilt up into smaller teams and attack the villages; kill the adults; kidnapped the children; take away any animals the villages had; and then beat a hasty retreat before help could arrive.   

So far, the plan had worked beautifully.

The Kin had launched a series of attacks against the villages and homesteads with great success and minimum losses. The Kin had lost only a Werewolf and 4 Ratlings thus far which was nothing when you compared it to the many children and animals they had captured for the Creator. As for the Creator, it had created more flyers but strangely no new creatures. What new creatures would be made by the Creator was a source of much debate among the Kin, but nothing new had been created since the flyers and that was a cause of much speculation among the Kin.  Another strange thing about the Creator was something only the Speaker had noticed; the delay response the Creator always had now seems longer. Not for the first time, the Speaker silently wondered if the Creator was facing some issues with…

The Speaker’s musing was broken when she noticed that a Werewolf was waving at her. It was Kinshra, the female alpha of the Pack. Although she was the Speaker, Kinshra was in-charge of all the females in the Pack, so that made her the Speaker’s superior. The Speaker dropped to all fours and ran to the female alpha. When she reached the alpha, the Speaker made sure her tail and head were low, and rubbed her head against the legs of the standing Werewolf. A pat on her head was the signal for her to stand.

“What. Is. This?”

The Speaker stood and looked at where the alpha was pointing at. Before the two Werewolves was a blue banner with the picture of a two-headed dog on it.  “Oh, that’s the heraldry of the Duchy of Yachium,” she said. When Kinshra looked at her in puzzlement, the Speaker explained further. “It means this village is under the protection of Yachium. Humans use heraldry to show their allegiance and also to serve as a warning. The heraldry means anyone who attacked the village is also attacking Yachium as it is under the Duchy’s protection.”

“Heraldry?” Kinshra asked. “Not. Dog?” The Speaker could only shrug at that. She didn’t understand what Kinshra meant. The female alpha pointed at the heraldry again, this time at the two-headed dog directly. “Dog. Two. Head. No?”

The Speaker finally understood what the female alpha was asking about. “Oh no, there’s no two-headed dog. It’s just a symbol humans have and humans have many of those. The two-headed dog is to symbolise watchfulness and protection. The blue is to show…strength, if I remember correctly.”

“So. No. Two. Head. Dog?”

“No, it’s just a symbol. Why?” The Speaker asked.

Kinshra looked at the banner again and said. “Bring. Back. To. Creator.”

The Speaker’s eye began blinking furiously as she finally understood that Kinshra wanted. “Oh, you want the Creator to make two-headed dogs?”

The female alpha nodded her head. “Many. Dogs.”

That was true. A few days ago, the Kin had attacked a small village named Houndfall. As the name implied, the village breed hounds and now there were more than a few dogs in the tunnels. The Speaker had to admit the idea of two-headed dogs were intriguing. How would a creature with two heads work? Which head would be in charge? The Speaker then noticed that Kinshra and several of the Kin were looking to the west of the village.

The Speaker looked at the direction too and saw someone flying towards them. Her enhanced eyes let her see that the flyer had black wings. Black wings meant it was one of the Crowmen. Kinshra stepped forward towards the edge of the village and waited for the Crowman to arrive. The Speaker decided to wait along with the alpha.

The Crowman landed in front of the Speaker and immediately said. “Speaker, you must come back to the cave.”

“Why?” The Speaker was now anxious. “What happened?”

“We’re not sure but...” The Crowman said. “…cracks! Big cracks have appeared on the Creator.”

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