Ari

Blood seeped into the moss. The fresh kill steamed against the cold air.

Ari: “How many cousin?” Ari said bent over sniffing at the fresh kill.

Oso: “Many, a pack. They are a clan”. He was smaller than Ari. Her size dominated his. Making him always speak to her with subservient body language. His panting puffed steam from his mouth.

Ari: “You found this one alone?” she said turning its body over. She tasted its blood. She never liked human meat. But any meat was good while warm.

Oso: “It strayed from its clan. I have been tracking for hours”. He had his head planted to the ground when speaking to Ari.

Ari: “How far?”.

Oso: “They crossed the river. Soon to breach our Ulfin wood by dawn”. His panting had slowly begun to calm.

Ari: “Gather the Schnell Clan,” she said pressing down on the face of the human. Its skull began to grind and more blood poured out of the wounds that scared its unrecognizable face.

Oso: “Send word to Droen?” Oso asked shaking the dripping blood coating his body. It had accumulated from carrying the dripping human.

Ari: “No time. Go,” she roared.

The roar shot through the trees surrounding the two. Birds took flight from the treetops.

He took off at extreme speed. Almost like a jack, he hopped over fallen logs and rocks. Oso was Ari’s fastest scout. Once she got word of the smoke pillar from across the river she had sent him immediately.

Ari knew his travel would be swift. All those who worshiped the Mathan Valley were gifted ease when traveling its dense terrain. Especially with all the wet fallen leaves of late Autumn.

All the followers had to do was maintain the natural order of the Valley to gain its boon. This meant no Humans. Their kind weren’t welcome.

She looked down at the human. She huffed. This was not the right time. Her people had much to deal with as it is. Bjorn was coming. They didn’t have time for Humans.

Ari sniffed loudly. She could smell intruders.

Bodies suddenly began to circle around her. Dozens of bodies.

She looked up from the corpse and saw a clan of wolves slowly accumulate in her view.

Several of the gray wolves had their heads low to the ground. They approached so quietly. Ari shouldn’t have been caught off guard by them. But she had been distracted by her thought.

The wolves circled closer and closer around her. The forest floor was dead silent. She had encountered them many times before. But never this close.

Ari: “Damn beasts!” she roared to them. They didn’t flinch.

Her judgment was clouded. Eight moons ago she faced wolves. The wolves reminded her of that night. It was a memory of blood and screams.

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The circling beasts panted and drooled. They never once let down their gaze from Ari.

She flashed her eyes about the group. She had a duty as the champion of the valley to uphold the natural order. She knew she could not kill the wolves. It would break the valley’s balance. Her people had lived with them in peace for generations. But it was always a tenuous relationship.

She could still hear the screams of her past.

She roared again. Again no flinching from the wolves. She was a mountain in size compared to any of the wolves. But not compared to their entire pack.

They crept in closer and closer. Their hot breath touched her now.

One leaped at her. Ari jumped out of the way. She could feel vines erupt from her back and wrap around a nearby tree. The vines rocketed her to the treetops away from the pack of wolves.

She looked down and saw a blood bath. The wolves immediately began to dig into the flesh of the dead human. The meat ripped into thin pieces like the bark of a tree. The forest was flush with wet noises and low grunting.

Damn savages. They know only bloodshed.

Ari clung to the treetop. Her vines wrapped tightly at the branches. They always sprouted whenever she was in danger. Her body was attuned to the valley, knowing when danger was imminent. It was a part of her gift from the God Mathan.

The tree ached and groaned as she swayed from her impact. Dead leaves fell in a large wave with the force.

Ari left the south edge of the Ulfin Woods. Soon she found herself ascending the western mountain paths of the valley.

The mountains were the reason her people were able to live so solitary from humans. The mountain passes were nearly impenetrable for the idiot humans to pass.

Her kind ruled the valley for as long as the valley remembered. It was safe from humans. Except for three crucial entry points. This new clan of humans was coming from the southern entrance to the valley. Which was seated at the edge of the Ulfin Woods.

She climbed the mountain pass. It would take hours to reach the peak. But much less time to reach the cliff face she was aiming for.

There Ari sat atop a ledge that looked over the Rekka River. The river curled off into the horizon. The leaves and foliage that covered her back rustled in the cold breeze of the mountain.

Her eyes darted across the landscape. There they were. A mass of black and white. They were only a small spec in her view. Truthfully she could smell them more than see them. The humans wreaked of black char and death.

They marched northward towards her valley.

She was its protector. Its patron. They were invaders. Humans. She could smell their number was small, only a hundred. She could smell something unnatural about them. It was too far of a distance to tell what it was.

She grunted and turned back to the wood. The sun was setting and she needed to find her tribe.

There was going to be a battle.

The blazing sunset dwindled in the sky. The tree canopy barely let in any of the pink and yellow light. The smell of ash became intense in the air. The white and grey flecks started to coat bushes and trees. Glowing specs of light drifted lazily about. They would land on dry brush and set it aflame. The Ulfin forest was cast in a dark orange glow.

Ari stood atop a felled pine tree. Its trunk was wider than any a human would bare witness to seeing, being too big not to harvest for their greed. She was thus several feet higher than any of her people who sat before her.

Thirty of her clan Schnell warriors waited in attention to her. They were a collection of male and female fighters. They growled and huffed collectively to rouse spirit. The cold air pronounced all their noises with puffs of steam.

The Schnell clan was that of Oso’s people. They were much darker compared to Ari’s chestnut color. The Schnell’s were the only clan this far south to call upon. Hence the meager thirty fighters. They were however smaller and nimbler than her people and could therefore take advantage of climbing the trees in battle. Something Ari could only do with aid from her god’s gift.

They stood in attention. Oso stood below Ari facing his clan with her.

Ari: “We face a human clan. They number a hundred. You can smell them. You can hear them”. She paused and looked about the warriors.

Ari: “You cannot fear them. They wield steel and fire. They take from us what is ours. Our home”. The fighters began huffing and cheering to each other. They were primed for battle. Devotion to Mathan Valley was accomplished with the thwarting of humanity. They were to become zealots this night.

Ari: “We will strike the humans and show them who the protectors of Mathan are”. The crowd roared.