A woman was hiding in the shadow of a tree close to the third werewolf elder"s mansion. She had dark gray skin and purple eyes. Her pointy ears were slightly visible within her purplish silver hair. She wore leather armor. From her belt two daggers were dangling, each on her left and right side. She had a bow and a quiver placed on her back."Hmm, there have been some movements here in the last few days. What is this elder planning?" She was trying to find a way to come closer to the mansion and eavesdrop for some information, but that wasn"t an easy task. The security was just too tight. The guards were wary all the time, even though they had to go through half a day-long shifts. The worst part was the patrols. Three groups were walking around the surroundings all the time.
"Tsk. I just can"t get any closer. Let"s observe from here for now." It was hard enough for her to come as close as thirty meters from the mansion. If she tried to get any closer, she would risk being exposed. That wouldn"t bring her a good ending.
"Hopefully, I could learn something from here." She thought. Her mission was to gather information from the werewolves, whatever it was. The gathering of information was a hard, but necessary job. With more information, they could take their opponents off guard.
"That job is boring me to death, why did I have to become a spy? It would be better if I was sent on the battlefield." Even though she was thinking like that, she was still proud of her job. She was one of the spies sent from Richard"s territory to monitor the werewolves. There were others here too, but even she wasn"t sure how many spies were around. That was to prevent them from leaking information if they were caught.
"Wh? The other elders?! What is going on here?!" Her eyes widened. She wasn"t expecting the other two elders to come here. They walked straight into the mansion at a quick and steady pace, one after the other.
"I have to go closer! Something big might be happening!" Even before she could move from her spot, she saw the guards in the surrounding to triple in numbers. That made her give up her idea. "Tsk, now if I move even a little, they would most probably find me in no time. Stay put, stay put." She repeated that in her mind, her mood ruined. "Let it not be a long conversation. I don"t want my body to stiffen up from not moving for hours." She prayed.
***
"For what did you call us here?" A tall elderly man asked with an authoritative voice. His left eye was covered with an eye patch while a scar ran from his patched eye down to his chin. His other golden eye reflected a piercing hue as he looked at the third elder.
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"Now, now, Joseph, don"t be like that. Let"s sit first. I prepared a good feast for your visit." The third elder stood up and gestured for the other two to sit.
Joseph was the first elder. By name, he should be the leader of the werewolves, however, he had to share his authority with the other two. This frustrated him to no end. And now he was called like some subordinate to come here.
"Hmph!"
He glared for a few moments but finally decided to sit down on a chair. The other elderly man who came with him had an amused expression. His lips slightly hooked in a smirk. His face was sharp and he had bulging muscles, much bigger than the other two elders. Though his posture was lazy, he stretched his hand and pulled the chair to sit on it, with crossed legs put at the end of the table. His manners weren"t refined at all. He was the second elder.
"So, why did you call us here? Can you tell us now, Fenris?" The second elder asked, with crossed hands on his chest. "If you don"t tell us soon, Joseph will start with his ranting again. Please spare my ears and get to the point."
"What did you said just now, Darion?" The first elder turned to the man who made fun of him, his face red from anger. "I dare you to repeat that!"
"Now, now, now, let"s not fight. I didn"t bring you here just to joke around. You should already know the news, right? That the humans are planning a crusade against the Shadow Lord." Fenris said, trying to smooth the conversation over.
"I know that already, what about it ?" Darion asked, though from his expression he seemed to be disinterested. Joseph still glared at him and that made him a bit annoyed. "Watched enough? I know you are jealous, but you can"t be like me." He waved his hand like shooing a fly. "Now, turn around, turn around, your ugly face is too annoying."
"You-" Joseph was enraged so much that he became speechless. His whole body trembled and he stood up from his spot, planning to start a fight on the spot.
"Can"t you be serious for once? Why do you have to make him angry like that every time we meet? Joseph, don"t listen to his words. You know that he is only provoking you. Nothing will come from this at the end." Fenris once again tried to smooth things over. Every time they meet, he had to be the peacemaker. That gave him endless headaches.
Joseph took a deep breath, trying to suppress his rage. Though he was impulsive, even he knew that there was no point in fighting. They had already fought more than once, and even though they could let off some steam, in the end, it was meaningless action.
"Tsk, boring." Darion was disappointed. He hoped to flex his muscles a bit. Even though both of them were equally powerful, their last fight was two years ago. He wanted to check if he could be the winner this time.
"Let"s get back to the topic. I want us to join in the war and attack the Shadow Lord from the back." Joseph declared. The room fell silent.
"What did you say?" A few moments later, the second elder reacted. "You want us to join in the war? Have you lost your mind?! Even if we attack together with those humans and combine our forces, we still can"t kill that vampire! Are you trying to kill all of us?!" He stood up and slammed his fist on the table, cracking it.
"Haa, calm down first. I know we can"t defeat him like that. Let me explain." Fenris rubbed his furrowed brows with his fingers. "This table costs money, you know?" He complained.
"Hmph, don"t play with me! Explain it or I will leave right now!" Darion grumped, irritated at Fenris.
"Fine, we won"t attack the Shadow Lord directly, for this we will call another Demon Lord." Fenris started to explain, as he waved his hand to gesture for the second elder to sit down.
"And who would be that kind to help us?" Joseph asked from the side, his suspicious eye looking at Fenris.
"That would be, of course, Roth." The third elder said, making the other two speechless.
"Are you talking about the bear-man? That big guy with a loose head that loves to destroy everything?" Joseph asked, making sure they were talking about the same person.
"Yes, it"s exactly him." Fenris nodded and smiled.
"You want Roth The Destroyer to help us out? Are you crazy? We should first see if he will agree to this!" Darion interjected, fully not believing that they were discussing that at all.
"He will agree." Fenris waved his hand, dismissing Darion. "We will swear allegiance to him."
"WHAT?!" Both elders stood up from their seats, their expressions warry. Was Fenris trying to trick them with something? "Why should we swear allegiance to the bears?" Joseph asked after a few moments of silence.
"That"s simple. If we don"t swear our allegiance to someone soon, there will be someone who will force us to in the end. The bears at least aren"t enemies with us. In fact, we are friendly with each other. What"s more, they hate Richard, too. The only thing stopping them from attacking him is that they need to cross our land and they aren"t many in numbers either." Fenris explained, fully putting his cards on the table.
"If we were to offer him our allegiance to kill Richard, he would most probably agree. What"s more, we will bring only our men to the battle, the only bear who would come with us will be him. That will be enough to convince him." He smiled, looking at the stupid expressions of both of his peers.
"I...I need to think about it." Joseph stuttered a bit, his mind in turmoil. "Give me a few days, I need to think it over carefully." Even though he wanted to oppose it, there were gains in the proposal. If they could take care of Richar that would be for the best, and about the allegiance...he was too proud to say it out loud, but it was a fact that they were in dire straits after Lance"s death.
"Alright, let"s meet in 5 days," Fenris said, looking at Darion.
"No need to meet. I will send someone to bring you my answer." Darion coldly declared and turned away to leave too.
The two elders left, leaving only Fenris in the room. "They took the bite." He smirked, satisfied.