Hero Scout

Even if now covered in thorn and thistle, her favourite flowers having fallen into disrepair and her family beaten to the very brink of collapse...it was still home. And it would be exactly as it was one day, with the very first step being Tenko"s restoration of the warrior caste.

The first was where Elder had said, a brutally scarred female with a boney deer in her mouth. One surviving yellow eye went wide at the sight of Tenko, no words needing to be shared as Tenko blessed the wolf with the powers of the Moon.

"Swift travels, Tenko promises all will be well soon," Tenko had said, the werewolf bowing.

"Beware of Kragg, priestess. He has started his own pack, and beware of the unsouled too. They are not ours anymore, but puppets. Cut their strings without fear or be made one in turn," with that the warrior sped away, eager to deliver her kill to the starving ma.s.ses.

Pressing on Tenko discovered three more werewolf warriors, each with black fur and at various states of suffering. Some few had human arrows still sticking out of their side, others festered with boils, while all continued to warn of Kragg and the unsouled.
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And they came with her, no food to deliver, they instead would join her hunt.

As was fortuitous, for when Tenko was taken to Kragg"s lair she found herself already disliking the rogue warrior. She stared at a crumbling human fortress from some lost era, hunchbacked humanoid creatures with sinewy paws, long claws and disease-riddled snouts stalking it"s walls.

"Edgar herd Kragg speak many times about survival. Kragg wanted to lead the strong away, to survive somewhere beyond the Furbolg"s reach and grow anew. He would sacrifice all the young, the Elder too, but I do not think him outside of redemption. For all Kragg"s talk of flight, he and his followers have remained in this fortress for some time," Edgar grunted, Tenko nodding along with him.

"Tenko thinks a sneak attack is best, but Tenko doesn"t want what is best. We take the pack south, and attack from the direction of the setting sun, downwind too. Our aim is Kragg, we convince him and the fighting will end."

As was the werewolf way, there was no dissension. Her plan would either work her fail, but as Alpha, the pack would treat her commands as absolute.

"Raise some children, it seems they have already," Tenko murmured, having noted the traces of wolf packs in the area. While she hated to abuse her authority over wolves, werewolves being their collective older siblings in a way, they would need a.s.sistance from the children of the Night if they were to successfully infiltrate the enemy Lair.

Without a word her warriors left her, Tenko transforming into her humanoid form to better hide while she watched. A bit of mud and leaves obscured her white hair, her tiny frame fitting easily into a nook in a tree.

She saw in the keep a lumbering figure, far taller than a normal werewolf warrior and with thick black fur devoid of disease nor famine. Their leader, she a.s.sumed, and wielding a long human spear at that. Now, why would he do that when his claws would be so much more powerful? Why bother with something that would be likely to snap in his paws?

Before Tenko could decide what the spear meant, her pack returned with a dozen new members. The children, called wolves in the language of man, seemed hungry and eager. They too had suffered greatly in all this, and Tenko made sure to stroke each of their heads, asking the Moon for aid.

As was mother"s tendency, the Moon responded immediately to bless each of the children with a golden stripe. Their hunger faded, and their wits returned as the intensely salivating children instead became as focused as they had in their prime.

"We go now," Tenko said, morphed into her true form and slipped into the night.

The warriors and children alike made near no sound as they pa.s.sed beneath the bustling leaves of the empty forest. They found their first enemy children quickly, and discovered the rabid creatures tearing into each other in a frenzy. Shocked, Tenko had moments to decide as a dozen enemy children spewed forth from the forest to begin tearing into each other with abandon.

"Stop!" Tenko announced, the children ignoring her. Casting her moon high, she called for the Moon"s aid. The summoned moon turned golden, and those children turned rabid through starvation came to their senses. Intelligence returned to yellow eyes, shameful snouts glistening red pulled away from each other"s necks.

Some few continued to lay gla.s.sy-eyed on the ground, their lifeblood spreading in a scarlet pool.

The lost children all turned to Tenko, who could feel their hope, their terror and their deep desire to a good life again. It tasted like sour honey. It felt sad.

Tenko charged past, allowing the children to decide themselves whom they would join. Thankfully, not a one howled to alert the Lair, while some few actually joined her loyal children in the a.s.sault. Either way the rogue pack would have seen the golden moon, although perhaps would not know what it meant.

Her pack growing swiftly, Tenko built up momentum before she a.s.saulted the enemy walls. Launching high she scrambled up the crumbling stone, to appear before a snarling werewolf. He slashed, Tenko lunging forward to rip into his neck. There was no mercy, she rode his body off the wall and into the quart yard, slamming hard into the earth.

Unlike her, the warriors could regenerate given time, and so Tenko focused on victory instead of being gentle. To either side, the enemy werewolves were taken by surprise, her warriors able to take on one of the enemies each before enemy reinforcements arrived.

"Kragg! Tenko demands you return to the great pack, we have a plan!" Tenko roared, the enemy werewolves still rubbing their eyes snarled in return. But none attacked, the sudden return of their priestess was too incredible to do so as yet. Not unless their Alpha ordered them too.

"Come with us, priestess. We can raise many new pups somewhere safe, in a land where we can eat our fill," Kragg roared, his lumbering frame dwarfing the other werewolves, while his thick black fur was as shining and pristine as a warrior in his prime. Long dark claws, and a glossy wolf pelt unmarred by disease, Tenko would readily admit the warrior to be rather handsome for her species, if you forgot how he had abandoned a whole generation of pups that is.

"Tenko wants to know where you could possibly take her. Over the mountains into human lands? Deeper into the forest, where you will have to wage war to conquer another pack domain? Or would you have us dwell in the mountains and fear for our young every night?" she needn"t explain why these were all poor choices. If they had had a way to a land of plenty, they wouldn"t be here in this ruined keep.

"Perhaps war was not an option before - but with the priestess return? We are strong enough to gamble, it might work," Kragg said with hard yellow eyes. "And it"s better than doing nothing."

"What would be best is uniting the pack, and then beating both the Humans and the Furblolgs. We already have a home, Kragg, and once we take it back Tenko has connections with the human guilds too. If we work with them we can gain allies, wealth, medicine, and food, in return for our strength. Much better than a gamble that would likely end with our death, right?"

"You are not Alpha here, what I say is what happens," Kragg snarled, stalking forward one paw at a time along with his hard eyed followers. "Now join me, or be forced into submission. It is not your place to defy your Alpha."

Tenko growled, then summoned Mother.

The moon was summoned over them, binding Tenko in a silver bubble which snapped to her limbs and greatly increased her agility. Kragg charged alone, and alone Tenko charged to meet him. A wild flurry of slashing claws, Kragg"s strength, battle prowess, age, and increased level proving a near-immediate factor as Tenko was thrashed across the ground.

"Defend yourself! You have no regeneration, if you fall ill then you will likely die like the others," Kragg roared, angry to find his own claws soaked in Tenko"s blood. Knowing that already, Tenko gave no response as she launched back into the fight with a blur of speed, only to have her thrown into the air.

Noticeably he had not cut her, as would have been too easy. When she descended Kragg caught Tenko mid air and slammed her against the earth, a cracking sound announcing shattered bone. Through flaring pain she stood, bared her teeth, and readied herself to attack again.

"Kragg thinks this is a bad idea. Tenko should give in before she is hurt even more," Kragg said with shining eyes and took a step back as Tenko limped forward.

"If you are right, and Tenko is wrong, then it is better Tenko died here," Tenko said evenly. In such a case Kragg would become the undisputed leader of the packs, and by consuming Tenko he might grow in power too.

"Kragg does not want that, he wants the pack of old. Kragg cannot do that without a priestess," Kragg said carefully directing Tenko"s snapping teeth aside, although in such a way she was not harmed anymore. His initial strikes still pumped her blood into the ground however, Kragg eyeing her wounds with some concern.

"Everyone away, the priestess must not be infected!" Kragg roared, his warriors and lessor werewolves alike keeping their distance even as Tenko continued to pull herself towards him. Kragg continued to backtrack in a circle, growing increasingly worried with every pa.s.sing moment.

"Tenko wants us to be united, Tenko wants us to take our home back," Tenko gasped, a blistering cold spreading through her like a sword, her legs shaking as she struggled to hold up her own weight. Peering up at Kragg, Tenko found him staring at the wolf children and the golden lines down their forehead.

"Tenko used the [Golden Moon] to keep the children safe?" Kragg muttered, watching the great many children with golden streaks, "why not use it on your warriors? Or yourself?"

"We could fight, we chose to fight. The children knew no better, and it was the only way to stop them consuming each other," Tenko hissed, her vision fading.

Kragg nodded.

"Fine then, i"ll join you. But we were planning a raid on those who hunt our people, they have werewolves caged like animals in slave pens!" Kragg"s fury turned to concern as Tenko collapsed in a pool of red.

"Find Kenji, trust what he has to say. I need...I need to sleep...now..."

"Tenko? TENKO!"

Tenko"s vision turned dark.

And her consciousness faded.

Into an infinite black.