Demon Wolf

Golden morning light pierced gaping holes in the tender white clouds. The heavens were peacefully violent, much like Hare’s Burrow. Temporarily, tranquility existed. But that quiet was fragile, as decisions of the greedy few could plunge the lives of Hare Tribe’s one hundred thousand members into chaos.

The volatile element rushed towards the stronghold, and Wolf observed the earthen ramparts before him. The walls stood eight meters tall. They had wooden bones covered by layers of baked earth. He could not estimate their thickness from outside, but to support such height, they must have been massive.

Locals need protection from neighboring tribes and Monster Beasts, which attack when their numbers inflate and food grows scarce. In his mind, Wolf compared Hare’s Burrow with Silver City, and the place where he founded his family won by a landslide. This hovel could not compare with the gleaming ivory bastions and hundreds of millions of residents of a metropolis spanning two hundred and fifty kilometers from end to end.

While recalling the civilization whence he came from, Wolf ignored the tumorous slums, which clung to the outer part of Silver City. He blissfully overlooked that rickety palisade circling the white walls like a noose, strangling the ancient city’s wealth and beauty.

Shifting his mind from the unpleasant details of his home, Wolf focused on the sky above Hare’s Burrow.

A thick pillar of smoke rose from the settlement. Considering the stronghold’s population, he expected smoke, and small grayish-white plumes met his expectations, rising by the thousands. However, several black columns heralding ominous changes attracted Wolf’s gaze.

As the group drew closer, he curled his nose. The odor was thin, but the man who incinerated countless bandits noticed the disgusting, roast-like scent of human turned to charcoal.

“I smell burned flesh,” Wolf said, further dampening the already dark mood.

“Warleader Fiona is returning!” a sentry shouted from the gate’s tower.

She was nervous. Everyone caught that tone. Connecting her high-strung voice and rising smoke, they confirmed a bloodbath had occurred last night.

All three guards ran down the left tower’s stairs, rushing into the seldom used bowels of the earthen walls.

Fiona drew to a halt, as did the rest of her party. They stood a hundred meters away from the wall. The warleader realized it was not difficult to enter Hare’s Burrow. But do we want to go there? Should we run or fight? It depends on how many elders Mona has on her side…

Fiona took several moments to think. She eyed Wolf before deciding her forces were not sufficient to storm the fort and kill the usurper. The beautiful male was an unknown. A wild card. There was no reason for a wanderer to risk his life helping them. Worse still, it was possible he would betray them in Mona’s favor if she made a suitable offer.

Just as Fiona wanted to order a temporary retreat, Hare’s Burrow’s gate opened. A stream of children, elderly and men spewed out.

“Warleader! Save us!” The one shouting was the sentry who first spotted Fiona.

Wolf tried to ignore the kept husbands wearing dresses and shiny pearls. Instead, he thought of this situation and how it reflected his father’s past. In wars and coups, common folk have little say in what happens. Soldiers must follow disagreeable orders or risk the safety of their families. However, if given half the chance, people usually make the right call, at least saving the young and the infirm.

Wolf glanced at the other sentry tower. He recognized the guards’ hesitation before one of them ran to join the fugitives. The other two remained. They gave their fleeing comrade a hollow gaze, but did not dare look towards their warleader. The sense of betrayal gnawed at their guts and pressed their chests. Fear gripped them. They had families, things to lose, and they could not risk them over empty loyalty.

Wolf imagined those conflicts while watching guilt ridden faces, tempted to awaken his senses and read their lips to see what they were speaking.

Demons really are manlings, he repeated his recent discovery. To strangers, we are demons.

Wolf wished he could see Fiona’s face. To know which thoughts rampaged through her mind. How would she handle a hundred noncombatants and the dozen semi-capable fighters? How would he?

For reasons he did not understand, Wolf believed he would try to protect them. No. I know exactly why I want to protect them. Before I had Sky, I would’ve left them behind. But now, my daughter’s father can’t ignore the helpless. If I did, I would be betraying my beautiful bundle of star-shine who’s awaiting my return.

“We can protect them,” Wolf muttered, even though that decision was not his to make.

Fiona glanced at him and nodded, taking his random outburst as the feather which tipped the scale.

Wolf’s declaration was not loud. The refugees running towards him did not hear him, nor would they believe a stranger’s word changed their fates. Instead, they assailed their warleader with chatter. After a moment of rambling, Fiona cleared her throat and raised her voice.

“It isn’t safe here,” she announced. “We will join the matriarch, tell her what happened, and decide on a course of action.”

That outburst of mixed cries taught Wolf about the Hare Tribe. They had eleven elders, including Fiona and the matriarch. Three of them died. The old matriarch faced ostracization and prosecution, as did Fiona.

They crippled half their combat strength in one go. The ones to benefit the most from this are Hare Tribe’s neighbors. Wolf considered the situation, recalling the books on leadership and political strategy he read back home. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they imprisoned the opposing elders and converted or bribed them to their side, but to slaughter them along with their clans just to buy loyalty of their enemies is a fool’s act. Why did the other elders cut the branch they sat on?

While Wolf exercised his mind, those exact questions beggared Fiona’s thoughts. She could not understand what Mona had done, why she destroyed their people, and what gave her the confidence she would survive without getting absorbed by the Bears or the Foxes? Being an elder, even a repressed one, beat dying or becoming another tribe’s slave.

And this is precisely why I suppressed her! Fiona wanted to scream. I should’ve killed the damn she-whore.

Still, she kept a calm front, leading her people into the forest. They would detour around Hare’s Burrow and head towards the Treasure Rift.

***

Mona sat in her room alone. Resting her mind as she sorted out last night’s happenings. She still wondered whether she was dreaming when Emma, her slave, servant, and confidant, tapped on the door and entered.

“Mona,” Emma said, closing the door shut. “A quarter of an hour ago, Fiona took some stragglers and fled towards your sister’s outpost. Should we give chase?”

“No need.” Mona shook her head. “They must fight through the Fox Tribe’s siege to reach Ronit. They either die and inflict some losses on the foxes, or they kill the foxes and suffer losses. Whatever happens, it’s our win.”

She smiled, enjoying her victory. “The foxes thought they were setting us up, preparing to devour us. They sent me the fifty blood crystals to bribe the elders, but I used forty of them to help my guards ascend a realm and reach Blood Saturating.”

Mona’s bodyguards were her trump card. She and Emma met them two years ago during a hunt. A peak Qi Gathering Monster Beast wounded those four wanderers. Even though they killed it, they were barely alive when Mona and her childhood companion found them. Mona offered them healing and accepted them into her household.

They performed admirably ever since. They remained in the shadows, diligently completing their duties, cultivating all the while. A perfect trump card, a honed black knife, ready for the Treasure Rifts’ opening.

Initially, Mona wished to explore the Treasure World, gathering resources and merit. However, she knew her sister would not let her. So, she started plotting directly against Ronit. Originally, she wanted to assassinate her in the outpost, and as her only living kin, she was naturally best suited to inherit the matriarch’s position.

It was a risky plan, but Mona had to take her chances if she was to advance her cultivation. Ronit and Fiona stifled her growth. She hardly had enough resources to pay her servants and feed her slaves, let alone pursue higher stages.

Right as she and Emma polished the details of Ronit’s assassination, a Fox Tribe’s messenger delivered a secret offer. Fifty blood crystals to pacify the elders and to ignore Ronit’s plea for help when the Fox Tribe assails the Treasure Rift.

Mona knew they thought her stupid. Following this plan would eventually lead to the fox gobbling up the hare. However, she and Emma came up with a plot of their own. And soon enough, the hare would swallow the fox whole.

 

Random Roll - TBH. I wanted a more dramatic escape, with refugees desperately fleeing, guards shooting them full of arrows etc. but they got a 00 on d100 for escape, and this was the best I could come up with as a perfect escape - the guards escaping with the prisoners.