The Burning Fields; The Land of Demons; The Forever Fires; throughout history, the homeland of Demonkind had been known by many names.

* World Atlas: Cultures & Civilizations

Once upon a time, she was a slave. She was nothing. She had no power. She had no family. She had no choice. She was nothing. She was useless. Then one day she died. She died and someone was reborn in her body. The new person was called Useli. Useli was no slave. Useli was not powerless. Useli had a family. Useli was known as the Speaker, a title given only to her. Since the day she was reborn, Useli had seen some strange things. She had seen animals that could change into humans at will. She met rats who spoke. She had seen a flying pig. She had even seen a Grand Mage brought low. She knew she had not seen it all, but the Speaker thought she had seen enough that nothing else in the world could shock her. She was wrong.

She was very wrong.

The landscape in front of the Speaker was, for lack of a better word, shocking! It should not be possible, but her eyes were not deceiving her. Although she had never gone so far south, the Speaker had seen maps of the area and knew all the major landmarks. The Homeless Plains region was so huge most people divided it into three sections: the northern, middle, and southern section. Situated just south of the Great Kar Forest would be the Invisible Stream and the plains south of the river were widely known as the Southern Homeless Plains.

The southern section of the Homeless Plains was no more.

In front of the Speaker was not a plain but a dark and fiery wasteland filled with dark razor-sharp rocks and black lifeless soil. It was empty except for some unnatural bonfires that were burning at various places. Strangely, the bonfires had different colors. The Speaker had only known fires that were red in color, but some of the fires in the wasteland were burning blue and green. It was…impossible.

“At least we now know why we’re here! Guess it really was more than just an earthquake.”

The Speaker couldn’t help but chuckle at that. The one who spoke was Kinshra, the female Alpha of the pack. Although the Speaker acted as a liaison between the Creator and the Kin, Kinshra was in charge of all the females in the Werewolves pack and she was charged by the Alpha as the leader of their small group of six.

The Speaker could do nothing but shake her head in reply. When the Creator ordered the Speaker to go south and scout the area south of the Kar, she had been surprised. Several of the Kin thought that the order from the Creator meant that this earthquake was unnatural, but to the Speaker, it was just an earthquake. A big one, but what’s there to check on with an earthquake? The wasteland in front of the Speaker was the answer to that question.

“Should I go back to report?”

The harpy Momo was with them and she was the one who asked the question. When the Creator ordered her to come south, the Speaker wasn’t expecting any trouble and had thought of coming alone, but her mate was having none of that. The Alpha ordered Kinshra and a small team to come south with the Speaker. As the male Alpha, Treznor was the leader of the Werewolves and Kinshra had no choice but to obey even though she, like the Speaker, thought nothing of the earthquake.

“Not yet,” Kinshra said. “Let’s find out more first. At least Treznor wasn’t being overprotective this time.”

Everyone laughed at Kinshra’s joke. It was a well-known fact that the Alpha was very protective of his mate and the couple had endured some good-natured ribbing from the rest of the Kin on the matter. Treznor couldn’t care less for “gossip” as he called it, while the Speaker honestly liked the fact that her mate could be overprotective at times. It was a good change from her childhood. Seeing the sight in front of her, the Speaker couldn’t help but wonder if her mate may have underestimated the problem at hand. Still, laughter was a good thing, so the Speaker let everyone have their fun as the small group began crossing the Invisible Stream.

The Invisible Stream wasn’t small, but it wasn’t a difficult river to cross, much less for the group who were in their Werewolf forms. The group was going into unknown territory, so Kinshra wanted everyone in their more powerful form before the crossing. The Speaker understood why Treznor had ordered Kinshra to come with her. The Speaker and Kinshra were undoubtedly the most powerful females in the Kin, and the duo had a good understanding with each other. The Speaker liked to think things through while Kinshra preferred to just get on with it.

Their small pack got to the other side with minimal problems and the moment the Speaker stepped on the charred black soil…nothing! The Speaker was keeping an open mind, but she didn’t feel any different when she stepped on the wasteland. There was no feeling of unease; no sense of dread; no oppressive force of heaviness; it was just like setting foot on any other piece of land. She was a little disappointed.

The group did not have any specific location to check out, but the Creator had said “south,” so that was the direction the group opted to go. As they moved out, Kinshra sent Momo forward to scout but warned the young harpy to keep within sight of the group. The harpy needed no further invitation and immediately took to the air. After that, the Speaker wanted to check the various burning bonfires and Kinshra directed the group to the nearest one.

The group approached a few of them and found that the bonfires were burning without the need of any fuel. There were no logs or dried leaves; there was just nothing. Yet that didn’t stop the mysterious fires from burning fiercely. The fires were just burning off the land and the group felt strangely revitalized whenever they got near a fire. It was more than the heat of the fires; it was as if the bonfires were feeding them energy. The group went to a few bonfires and felt the same effect at all of them. As the group went farther south, night soon fell. The lack of light meant little to the group. The group consisted of five Werewolves and a harpy, and none of them needed light to operate. However, dusk did tell the group a few things.

The first was that the bonfires produced light as well as heat. Heat from fires was to be expected, but the light that was produced depended on the color of the flames of the bonfires. The various bonfires were a distance apart from each other, but the group could easily see blue, green, and red lights illuminating the flat landscape. It gave the land an eerie but colorful feel that the Speaker appreciated.

Another thing the group discovered was the lack of smell. Although the land looked like it had been burned to a crisp, there was a distinct lack of any burning smell. Even when they were near a bonfire, there was no burning smell coming from the fires. In fact, there was no smell coming from anywhere. A Werewolf’s sense of smell was far superior to that of a human and every time she entered the forest, the Speaker would be assaulted by smells from everywhere. In this land, however, there was nothing. It was as if everything, even the smell of the land, had been burned away. More than the charred landscape and strange bonfires, the lack of smell disturbed the group the most. It just wasn’t natural!

With all these new and unusual discoveries, Kinshra decided to call it a day and the group settled down for the night. It turned out to be a short rest as Momo returned later in the night with news that there was a camp of some sort in front of them. The break was over as Kinshra wanted to check out the camp immediately. Turned out the group wasn’t that far from the camp and they reached it well before dawn. It also turned out that the camp was more than a camp. It was a homestead, though the Speaker couldn’t really blame Momo for the mistake.

The house that must have been the dwelling of the owner had been razed to the ground and even up close, the Speaker could only see a few pieces of charred timber that must have been the foundation of the building. The charred timbers weren’t even what Momo had spotted. There was a small campfire outside the remains of the building and this was what the harpy had originally spotted. As the Speaker went through the wreckage of the house, Kinshra ordered the rest of the group to scout the area. The Speaker thought it was a good idea. The campfire indicated to her that this homestead wasn’t abandoned, so there should be at least some indication of people staying nearby. At the very least, there would be some charred remains.

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“What do you think?”

The Speaker looked up and saw that Kinshra had changed into her human form. Unlike the Speaker, the rest of the Werewolves couldn’t speak in their Werewolf form. The Speaker answered the question with a question.

“What do you think?”

“I asked first.”

“Well, I think it’s clear no earthquake caused this.” The Speaker pointed at the remains of the building and said, “Looks more like a flash fire swept through the area, but flash fires don’t cause the ground to shake.”

Kinshra nodded her agreement, but it soon became clear to the Speaker she was hoping there was some simple explanation for all the unknowns. “What about an earthquake that caused a flash fire?”

“Unlikely…,” the Speaker said. “…and the Creator probably wouldn’t have sent us here if that was all…”

The duo turned their heads sharply the moment the howl broke through the night’s silence. It was the howl of a Werewolf, and he was calling for help. The two female Werewolves looked at each other for a moment before going on all fours. Kinshra changed into her Werewolf form immediately and the duo began running toward the danger. Even in the dark, the duo had no problem knowing where to go. They went in the direction of the howl and even before they reached the location, the Speaker could hear the sound of battle. The duo ran faster and they soon saw it. Just when she thought the day couldn’t get any stranger…

The other three Werewolves had reached the area already, and they were currently in battle with a creature that was unlike anything the Speaker had seen before. The creature was red in color and it had a human body with two hands, but the lower half of the creature was anything but human. It had the long tail of a snake and was slithering across the ground instead of walking. The creature’s face looked almost human, but two big horns were sticking out from its forehead. To the Speaker, they looked like deer antlers. However, the creature’s appearance wasn’t the strangest thing; it was the fact that the creature was casting magic!

The creature was keeping the trio of Werewolves at bay by shooting out blasts of fire from its two hands. Using their superior speed and numbers, the Werewolves were trying to get close to the creature, but the creature showed intelligence by constantly retreating. It was only a matter of time before the Werewolves overwhelmed the creature.

“We need it alive,” the Speaker told Kinshra. “The creature may be able to give her some insight into what’s going on.”

Kinshra nodded in response and indicated to the Speaker to go to the left. She immediately took off to the right. Following the female Alpha’s instruction, the Speaker went to the creature’s left, hoping to flank the creature. The creature had some sort of ability to see in the dark because it immediately spotted her. The creature shot a blast of fire at her, but the Speaker easily dodged it. The creature was retreating even faster now, but the Speaker knew the battle was already over.

She was nothing but a distraction. As the creature was concentrating on her, Kinshra had managed to “shadowstep” behind it. Sometimes when they were changed, the Creator would give the Kin some special ability. For the Speaker, it was the ability to speak even when she was in her Werewolf form. For Kinshra, it was the shadowstep. Shadowstep was an ability that allowed the female Alpha to teleport herself over a short distance as long as the area she was going to was in darkness. When she underwent the change, the Creator gave Kinshra this ability and she now used it to get behind the creature. To its credit, the creature immediately sensed that someone was behind it and tried to turn around to defend. Kinshra leapt and knocked it to the ground. The trio of Werewolves in front of the creature took advantage and charged forward. Fear leapt into the Speaker’s heart and she immediately shouted to the trio to back off.

“NO! Alive! We need it alive!”

“WHAT?”

Everyone stopped. Kinshra; the three Werewolves; even the creature; everyone stopped. Then as if to prove she wasn’t hearing things, the creature spoke again.

“You speak? You…you can speak? What are you? What happened to me? What’s going on?”

The Speaker couldn’t help but rub her forehead with her hand as an aching headache suddenly erupted in her brain. She had been hoping to ask those exact questions to the creature.

“Hey! HEY! I’M SPEAKING TO YOU!”

Okay…how do you handle negotiations with a creature you have never seen before? How do you handle negotiations with it when you don’t even know what it is? How do you handle negotiations with it when it doesn’t even know what you are?

“Hey! Don’t ignore me! I’m talking to you! Don’t act blur! You spoke; I heard you! You understand what I’m saying.”

How do you handle negotiations with a strange creature that won’t shut up? These were questions that sprang into the Speaker’s mind as the creature stared at her. The good thing was that the creature could talk; the bad thing was that it seemed as confused about the situation as they were. So what does the Speaker do now?

She needed the creature to lower his guard first. She needed him to be more comfortable with her and she needed him to keep talking to get the answers they wanted. To get the creature to be more comfortable and less wary, the Speaker did the first thing that came to mind. The Speaker decided to change.

The Speaker gathered the power within her and relaxed. She let go of the power and the moment she did so, the change began. Her fur went first. The fur withdrew into her body and her body shrank. Her claws became human fingers and her wolf-like face contracted into that of a human. Before long, the person in front of the creature looked mostly like a human.

There were some differences the Speaker couldn’t change. Small patches of fur covered her body; her ears were protruding out on top of her head; and her irritatingly long bushy tail was still there, but she definitely looked more human in this form. The creature stared at the Speaker with huge saucer-like eyes and the Speaker had to smile. By now, the change had become second-nature to all the Werewolves, but the Speaker understood how it could still be shocking to people who are seeing it for the first time. Still, her human form should be more comforting to the creature. The Speaker walked slowly toward it and only now noticed that even the creature’s eyes were red in color.

“Noble creature, I am Useli, also known as the Speaker. What’s your name?”

The creature looked stunned for a moment, then its eyes widened and the Speaker noticed he was looking upwards into the sky. The wind was behind her and the scent told the Speaker that Momo was landing. The harpy had been flying above the battle as ordered and the creature obviously hadn’t spotted her. Momo’s ability to follow orders was one of the reasons they picked her for this mission. Another factor in her favor was her inquisitiveness…sometimes.

“What does ‘act blur’ means?”

“It’s northern slang for pretending to be confused,” the Speaker told the harpy quickly. She turned back to the creature. “Good sir, my name is Useli. I’m also known as the Speaker. What’s your name?”

“Apep…Apep Daybluff.”

“Good day to you, sir,” the Speaker said as she nodded her head in acknowledgment and encouragement. “You sound confused. Am I right in assuming that you were not born like this?”

Apep’s face went from shock to anger to confusion in the time it took for the Speaker to take a breath. Then he suddenly calmed down and looked around the group. “Did the fire do the same thing to you all?” he asked. “Did it change all of you too?”

The Speaker shook her head and answered. “No sir. No fire changed us. Our Creator is north of here and our change was done very differently. When did you change?”

“Creator? What’s a Creator? Were you all made by some mage? Wait! No, that’s not possible. I would have heard of creations like you before if that was the case? What was…?”

“Sir Apep, I have answered your question. You should now answer mine. That’s only fair. What happened to you?” The Speaker spoke forcefully and she was helped by a growl from Kinshra. The creature known as Apep Daybluff looked at the female Alpha before coming to a simple decision.

“You are right! We should exchange information. That’s only fair. There was an earthquake, then a wave of fire. No, it’s better to say it was a wave of energy. A wave of magical energy that was faster than anything I had ever seen. It just tore through the plains like…wildfire only it spread faster than wildfire. It…look I can’t explain what happened…it should not be possible, but it happened!”

“The earthquake came first? Did it cause the wildfire?”

“No! It wasn’t a wildfire, it’s just the closest thing I…it was a wave of energy that burned everything in its path, only it didn’t. Don’t look at me like that. I know I’m not making much sense, but the truth is that what happened didn’t make sense. The wave hit me and knocked me out. When I woke, I was like this, but everything else; the soil, the grass, my house…everything was just gone!”

The Speaker could tell that the fear and confusion of Apep Daybluff were genuine. He wasn’t lying. The Speaker pointed in the direction where the group found the burned homestead. “That house was yours?”

“Yeah, that was mine, but now... you found what’s left of it.”

“Hold on, you said you were knocked out. The earthquake was days ago! We hadn’t found anything alive since we came here. How are you still alive?”

Apep understood the Speaker’s question immediately and pointed at the nearest bonfire. “The fires are feeding me.”

The Speaker’s eyes blinked furiously at the news. “The bonfires are feeding you?”

“Yes! I just need to be close enough to feel the heat of the flames and any hunger and thirst I have just slowly disappear. They have been my food source since the earthquake.”

“We did feel something when we were close to them, but it’s not like our hunger and thirst disappeared.”

The Speaker nodded in agreement at Kinshra’s statement. She also vaguely had an idea of why. “Apep was changed by a different method of creation from the Kin. More importantly, he may have been changed by a different Creator. That may be why we feel different things.”

Kinshra’s eyes widened at that and looked at Apep carefully. She came to the same conclusion the Speaker had arrived at. “Red shin; flames; horns; you don’t mean…”

The Speaker could only nod and turned to look in the direction of Mount Morningstar. “The Red Creator; it must be responsible for all this.”