“Hey! Hey! I’m talking to you!”

Okay…how do you handle negotiations with a creature you had 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 didn’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 are questions that sprung 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 seems as confused about the situation as they were. So what does she do now?

The Speaker decided she needs 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 answers the 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 of course. Small fur covered her body; her ears were protruding out on top of her head; and her irritatingly long bushy tail was still there. 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 the all the Werewolves but the Speaker understood how it could still be shocking to others. Still, the Speaker believed her ‘human’ form should be more comforting to the creature. The Speaker walked slowly towards it and noticed that even the creature’s eyes were red in color.

“How do you do? I am called Useli, also known as the Speaker. What’s your name?”

The creature looked stunned for a moment, then it’s eyes widen and the Speaker noticed he was looking upwards into the sky. The wind behind her and the scent told the Speaker 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 instead of her sister or one of the other harpies. Another factor in her favor was her inquisitiveness.

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“What does ‘act blur’ means?”

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

“Sir Apep, I had 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…look, I can’t explain it. What happened…it’s 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…look it was a wave of energy that burned everything in it’s path but didn’t. Don’t look at me like that, I know it doesn’t make sense but that’s the truth. The wave hits me and knocked me out. When I woke, I was like this but everything else, the soil, the grass, my house, was destroyed.”

“That house was yours?” The Speaker pointed in the direction where the group found the burned homestead.

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

“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 are 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 us. More importantly, he may have been changed by a different Creator. That may be why we feel different things from the land.”

Kinshra’s eyes widened at that and looked at Apep carefully. “Red shin; flames; horns; you don’t mean…”

The Speaker could only nod and turned to look at the direction where Mount Moringstar was. “The Red Creator; it must be responsible for this.”

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