Out of Silvermoon marched the few hundred warriors. At the front of the march were the 3 Haven boys and Stanis, followed closely by Sofia and Silvermoon's other powerhouses. Just minutes prior, Stanis had seen Silvermoon's strength first-hand. Once the talks had finished, the whole village had moved with a frightening dedication, each and every person immediately packing up their items and getting ready to jump ship. Of course, such dedication was something Stanis had seen before but never on a village-scale, and it was also this which had shown him why Silvermoon had been Haven's strongest resistance for such a long time.
He had been surprised when Sofia had revealed where she was from because he had never heard of Silvermoon before. It was through the trio's comments that he had realised how small of a village she was from, which only made her origin more confusing; why would a powerhouse, such as herself, restrict themselves to such a small pond when there was a whole sea to swim and grow in? But whatever doubts and questions he had previously had been washed away; he was now certain that Pete's idea to include all the smaller villages was the right one.
Stanis relaxed as the conversations around him grew more casual. Time ticked away and before night had even fallen, the entire Silvermoon cohort found themselves staring at Yora's defences. Stanis guided the group past the traps and defences, telling them to be careful as they traversed the field. He was inwardly proud as he heard and saw the awe of the people around him despite not having done anything himself.
On the other hand, it was he who was aweful as he came to the wall. Sitting on the walls were the disembowelled cannons he had seen last time, only now they were ready and watching the fields with wide, vicious mouths. Patrolling the walls were close to 200 more warriors than last time, obviously an effect of his warning. They quickly let him and the Silvermoon warriors through without any complication, much to Stanis's joy.
Following this, after quite the wild goose chase, Stanis found Richie and handed over to him the responsibility to find accommodation for the Silvermooners. It was then that he heard from Richie that two other villages, albeit smaller, had also migrated to Yora. Richie also told him about the upgrades they had made to the defence and offence during the time Stanis had been away. Stanis felt a rising joy as he listened to Richie list activity after activity. They had actually listened to him instead of ignoring his warnings. It was a social power that he had never truly enjoyed with other humans, trust to the point where they believed your word without proof.
Eventually sick of Richie sucking up to him, Stanis left the portly man to his own work and walked towards the forges. He was allowed in without question and immediately saw the change in atmosphere. The multiple blacksmiths, who had, in the past, been forging quite creative, but also decadent, works of metal were now creating cruel and vicious weaponry: minimum on design and maximum on practicality.
He visited Rikkey and her team, and had a little chat with Kevin as they watched the blacksmiths hard at work. While the multiple other blacksmiths were creating high-quality weaponry for the whole village and the newcomers, Rikkey and her team were solely creating a set for him. After seeing Haven's true dark side, he had hoped that Rikkey had initially overestimated her guess as to how much time his armour would take to be ready. It was, however, while watching the blacksmiths at work that he realised that they would keep true to their word, but also not a moment quicker. In fact, he found himself happier about such a fact as he looked around at the parts they had already made.
It was as the Moon was high in the sky that Stanis finally left the forges. He headed towards the market which was still burning with life despite it being the dead of night. Throughout his time at the village, he still hadn't caught sight of a single Jaguar. It was earlier when he had been talking with Kevin that his worries had been washed away. According to him, the Jaguars had actually responded to his call immediately, coming to the village within a day of the event in the hall. But since he had already left by then, they had decided upon staying in the forest they had stayed in before. ‘And thank goodness for that,' Kevin had commented, ‘You would not believe how big some of them are now, we would just get crushed by walking on the same street as them'.
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While Stanis didn't believe Kevin's exaggerations, he was also sure that Serb and Niss weren't that far off Kevin's descriptions either. In fact, if it turned out that the Jaguars hadn't had such an extended competition and training period like he had, it was more likely that tens of the Jaguars were already Mosyte rank. And to celebrate all of their rises to such power, Stanis knew that there was only way they could, and would, all celebrate. This was why he raided the market of all its strongest alcohols, ordering several strangers he saw on the street to help carry them.
They staggered out of the village walls, simultaneously creating quite the comedic sight for the guards who manned the walls. They passed the river and the fragile-looking bridge which had been there since Stanis had first arrived at Yora. It was only then that Stanis gave them back their freedom, although many of them still stayed with him past that, after all, they already knew what kind of a night it would be if they stayed around.
The Jaguars all roared and made way for Stanis as he walked through their midst. Looking around, Stanis realised that every single Jaguar he saw was tier-three without fail, and yet he couldn't find a single tier-four. This perplexed him until he reached Serb's cave. Around the cave stood tens of Jaguars, each with rich, bronze fur that stuck to their bodies. They were over 3 metres tall and had long tails. More importantly, however, they had claws that scraped against the stones below their paws like knives against butter. Worse still were their mouths which housed the maws of true monsters. In the centre of the Jaguars, most tyro Mosyte and some medial Mosyte, stood Serb and Niss, the strongest and only two adroite Mosytes in the whole pack.
The two of them were slightly larger than the Jaguars that surrounded them and had sleeker fur. But the main thing that separated them from the other Jaguars wasn't anything to do with their appearance, instead having to do with the authority they stood with. Before, they had been at the peak of the Jaguars and had stood and moved with knowledge of that. Now, they possessed true power and therefore moved in a subtler, but also more tyrannical way.
"Stanis," Serb roared as he came close enough. "Drinks," he roared next as he saw all the alcohol that trailed behind Stanis.
Stanis chuckled and threw a bottle to Serb, who immediately swallowed it. Niss did likewise, and before any talking could be done about serious matters, the whole forest devolved into a raucous party. The few men and women who had tagged along with Stanis quickly found themselves regretting, and also simultaneously thanking themselves for the decision they had made.
It was only hours later that Stanis cleared the alcohol from his bloodstreams, finally coming to as the sun was high in the sky. He looked around and saw Jaguars and the occasional human sprawled across the forest, hanging off branches and felled on the muddy sod.
He eyes the few remaining bottles before pulling himself away. Looking around, he noticed that Serb and Niss were no longer anywhere in sight, in fact, nothing had been in his sight for the last few hours. Shaking his head, he walked into Serb's cave and eventually found Serb collapsed on the ground with Niss lying over him.
As he walked over, Serb groaned awake and immediately went on defence. Stanis waited a while for him to actually wake up, by which time Serb dropped his defences and gestured Stanis closer.
"That's good stuff," Serb said. "But I guess we can't live in our own little worlds forever. Come on then, let's get to the real stuff,"…