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Keil was sleeping soundly. He was dreaming about something nice and comfortable, when he was partly awoken by a shout just outside. A little annoyed, he turned around and started to drift away when more people started getting up, running around, and calling out. Keil sighed, he should probably head out and see what was going on. He sat up and stretched.

He was about to move the covering to his stick hut when he remembered something. His fur must look awful. He quickly rand his hands down the rough areas to try and smooth it out just a little bit. There, now he looks half decent. After all, the leader of a wolfen pack can't look too lazy to keep up his appearance. Laziness is weakness and weakness gets challenged. Not that he suspected any of his packmates would challenge his authority, but there was still no need to take chances.

Feeling satisfied with his appearance, he pushed away the covering and stepped out. His fellow wolfen were running around the camp, their fur still disheveled after just waking up, and looking frantically for something. He grabbed his second in command, Tharren's, shoulders, "What is going on here?"

"The Sleeper is gone!" Tharren told him.

"Gone? What do you mean he's gone?"

"We don't know. There wasn't any scent of others by his hut that we could tell. We believe that he has awaken and walked off on his own."

Keil stepped away and approached the hut that The Sleeper was staying in. Sure enough, the doorway cover was pushed away and it was completely empty. He turned around and called out, "Everybody stand back and keep still!" When they were out of his way, he got down near the floor and sniffed at the ground. "He was stirring around quite a bit inside of his hut before exiting." He followed the scent over to Nari's hut. "He approached this hut..." He sniffed again and then turned to the owner, "and he entered it. Nari, do you know anything?"

Nari shook her head, "No. He must have entered while I was asleep. I was awakened this morning by a cold wind blowing into my hut through the uncovered doorway. After I woke up, I noticed that he was gone and I alerted others."

Keil nodded and resumed following the scent. "He went to the stream, then he started back toward the huts...but then it stops and starts heading into the forest." He turned to the rest of his pack. "Stay here, everyone," he instructed. "He could be very nervous and it might frighten him to see a large group coming after him."

One of the wolfen, whom everyone calls Lu, steps forward with a pleading look in her eye. "Sorry, Lu." He said softly. "I'm going alone. I will bring him back as soon as I can, I promise." She hung her head in silent disappointment.

So he turned around and walked into the forest. He was for the most part following The Sleeper's scent, but he knew where he was headed. He was also following the all-too familiar increase in energy in the air. The sleeper was headed toward Vannah's Tree.

Questions surfaced in his mind. What will he be able to tell us about what happened. Why would he go to The Tree first thing upon waking up? Did Vannah call for him? If so, why? He kept pondering these questions, trying out possible answers, but he knew that he would just have to find him. Looking down at the ground, following his footprints, he could tell that The Sleeper was tired and weak and walking with uneven and staggering steps, but the farther he went, the stronger he became.

He saw the outer wall of branches out of the corner of his eye ahead of him. Not even looking up, he just continued walking it opened up around him. He had been this way so many times that he already knew how it worked. He had tried to get in to see Vannah quite often since that once long ago... All the spectacular sights that this special forest had had now become a normal thing for him. He was no longer awed by its sight. The fact saddened him a little bit.

He walked past all the brilliantly glowing plants, living trees, and all the other beauties of this magical forest. He had no time to stop and appreciate them. He wanted to meet up with The Sleeper as soon as possible. Upon seeing the large cliff, he knew that he was only a few minutes away. He stepped over the cliff, but instead of the vines forming solid ground where his feet were to land, they were a foot lower, causing him to lose footing and stumble. He was still safe, but he got the message. Vannah knew that it was he that was coming. He made his way across the deep chasm, watching his step a little more carefully.

When he finally reached the inner wall, he stopped. He had only been inside these walls once and that was many years ago, as a pup. Ever since then, he has tried to get inside and meet with Vannah again, but she never opened the wall for him again. Smelling the air, he could tell that the scent of The Sleeper was indeed at the tree beyond the walls.

Keil slowly approached the wall. Not expecting anything, but hoping with all his heart, he stretched out his hand and gently touched the wall. Nothing happened. He curled his hand into a fist and slammed it against the wall. "What the hell is going on?" He shouted to the air. "You called me to you once before. Why are you ignoring me now?" When, obviously, no answer came, he reached out and grasped one of the branches of the wall with the intent of ripping it out, but he instantly stopped when he saw that several spear-like sticks thrust through the wall and stopped just inches from his hand. He gently let go and the sharp sticks retreated back into the wall.

Feeling a little silly for his outburst, he backed away and sat down on a rock. He guessed that he will just have to wait for The Sleeper to emerge to talk to him. He waited for almost an hour before he heard movement beyond the wall.

/. /. /.

Verik opened his eyes. He was slumped against the tree where he first touched it. Was that for real or was it just a dream? He felt a strange tingling in his chest and looked down. There was a long light-blue streak of fur in the same place that Vannah had shattered the crystal against him. Well, it definitely was not a dream, but what did it all mean? Vannah said there would be an evil coming, but she did not give any more details. Verik guessed that he would just have to wait and see and the path would become clear in time.

For now, all he needed to do was to head back to the camp he woke up in. He stood up, a task that was infinitely easier than earlier, and walked over to the wall around the same place that he entered. He smelled something in the air. Something familiar. He sniffed again and recognized what it was. It was the smell of someone from the camp. Just like the other times before, he touched the wall and it opened up. He quickly scurried through the wall and when he emerged on the other side, he was face to face with the other creature whose fur as black as the night sky and his eyes a bright yellow. Startled, he jumped back, the fur standing up on his back, and threw his hands up, claws extended, ready to strike. The other one backed up a few steps and smiled. "Whoa, hey there." He said. "Calm down. I'm a friend."

Verik's fur relaxed and settled into their original position. He lowered his arms and resumed a non-threatening position. "I'm sorry. You just surprised me." He took a step forward, but he still kept his distance. Despite what Vannah said, he still could not help being cautious. "I recognize your scent from the camp I woke up in. Who are you?"

He nodded, "Yes, my name is Keil. I am the leader of our pack. And what about yourself?"

Verik heart sank at this. "I was hoping you would be able to tell me that."

"Damn." Keil cursed. "So you have no memory of what happened to you?"

"No. I can't recall anything from before I woke up earlier. I do know that my name is Verik."

"Well, at least you know that. The only thing I know about you is what was obvious when we found you."

A fly buzzed in Verik's ear. He raised his hand to swat it away, but he hit his horns instead. Reminded of the strange and disturbing features on his face, he asked, "What am I?"

Keil smiled comfortingly. "You're a wolfen, just like us. As for the horns and the...scales. I have no idea. They started appearing after you were found." He turned around and gestured with his hand to follow. "Come with me back to camp and I'll tell you everything I know on the way."

Verik quickly got to Keil's side, eager to hear whatever it was he knew.

Keil began, "It was four years ago..."

/. /. /.

Four years earlier.

_ _

"...but I'm telling you, this is the best group of kelderan we have seen in a while. It would make for a perfect hunt tomorrow."

Keil and his nephew Lyan walked side by side into the sunset, doing the weekly routine inspection of the borders of their land. Keil nodded, "And where is this hunting ground you speak of?"

Lyan hesitated a little before answering him. "It's...in Sunrise Valley."

"You know why we can't hunt there." Keil sighed, "We just hunted there last week. If we hunt in one place too often, the prey will--"

"The prey will get scared may not come back, yes. But this is only one time. Surely that would not be enough to scare them away permanently."

"First of all, we don't know that that. Kelderan are very unpredictable and extremely fearful creatures. For all we know, that could be enough to make them relocate. Second, if I did decide to go against the rules, then that weakens the strength. Once broken, they never come back as strong. The pack might start to ask, 'if we did it then, then why not now?' Anyways, the answer is no. We have stuck with the rules this long and have lived perfectly fine. I am sure we will find adequate prey the Southern Forest."

Lyan crossed his arms and sighed, "Sure, whatever you say."

Both of them continued along their borders. Normally Keil would do it alone, but Lyan was the one who would take his place as leader if he dies. Keil thought that it would be beneficial if they did more things together so he could get familiar with a leader's work. Decision making was going to be difficult for him. The main problem was` that Lyan thought too much in the present and not enough in the future.

Though it was not important right then. He was still the leader and would be until he died or passed the position on himself...or he got challenged and lost. He had no intention of dying any time soon, Lyan was far from ready, and the only ones that had any kind of chance at beating him in combat were his closest friends that would probably kill themselves before challenging him.

Keil lifted his head, closed his eyes. All the many noises of the nature around him sounded like music in his ears.

"What are you doing?" Lyan asked with the slightest edge of contempt.

Keil opened his eye to look at him. "I'm enjoying nature. When you take my place, you are going to start to love these border checks. Being a leader can be quite stressful. It's nice to have a few hours to yourself." He closed his eyes again and inhaled through his nose. The many scents flooded his senses; grass, flowers, insects, small rodents, and--wait. Was that blood?

He stopped suddenly and gestured for Lyan to freeze as well.

"What is it?" Lyan asked as stopped and started sniffing the air.

Yes, that was definitely blood; but it was so faint. Where was it coming from? Putting all his concentration on the scent of blood, he was able to find a general direction. It was coming from somewhere over the hills to his left. "Come with me! I smell blood, wolfen blood, from this direction." Keil took off running in the direction of the scent.

­­It was obvious that Lyan did not smell anything, but everyone knew that Keil had an incredibly strong sense of smell. When they reached the top of the hill, he looked around. He still couldn't see the source of the scent. About a mile down, he saw another hill and started toward that one. They were definitely on the right track. The scent was getting stronger with every step.

"I'm starting to smell it too!" Lyan called out between tired breaths.

They reached the hill, but this one was really steep. Climbing up was an arduous task, especially at the speed they were going. Gasping for air, they finally reached the top. Now he could see them. Down the hill and another half a mile away, the ground was covered with the bodies of ten wolfen. He could not tell from here if any of them were alive, but none of them were moving, that was for sure.

Not giving time to rest, he got up and started the descent down the other side of the hill, which was less steep and easier to maneuver down, thankfully. Lyan followed, but he was weaker than Keil and was falling behind. At the bottom of the hill, the ground was all flat and even, allowing to sprint easily over to the wolfen.

When he arrived, he noticed that these wolfen had been attacked by something. Something large. Most of the bodies had large claw marks or teeth-holes in them. He sniffed the air, trying to find signs of life. It was hard to find any over the overwhelming stench of blood and death, but he was able to distinguish two--no, three survivors.

Lyan caught up with him and dropped on all fours in exhaustion. "What the hell happened here?" He asked between breaths.

"I have no idea, but there are three survivors here. We need to find them now!" He started checking all the bodies. One after another, all of the bodies were mutilated. Finally he found two wolfen right next to each other that were still breathing very lightly. "Hey, I found two of them over here!"

"I found the third one. What do we do?"

"We have to take them back. Take the one near you, I'll carry these two." He bent over and picked one up gently and hoisted him over his shoulder. He put the other one on the other side. Pushing out with his legs, he stood up, but it was too much for him. The running and climbing he did to get here exhausted him too much for this. "Shit!" Keil growled as he put one of them down. "I'm too weak to carry the two of them. We'll take these two back to camp and send others to retrieve the remaining survivor." The sound of distant thunder made him look up. The sky was completely dark with clouds covering it. It would most likely rain really soon. "We need to hurry! Rain will make the climb up the hills near impossible. Let's try to be over them before it starts.

They both started back towards camp, struggling with the injured wolfen in their arms. They made it down the first hill when Keil started howling into the night sky, trying to get the attention of their pack as soon as possible. Lyan realized what Keil was doing and joined him. A little more than halfway to the second hill, their packmates howled back. Lyan laughed with relief, "They're on their way." The continued forward until they reached the base of the first hill. They tried to climb, but their bodies were just too tired to carry themselves and the survivors up the wet and muddy surface. They set the wolfen gently down on the ground and sat there resting and wating for their pack.

Just a minute later, their pack ascended over the top of the hill and came down to join them, Tharren leading the way with six others behind him. When they reached the bottom of the hill, he saw the two survivors, "What happened to them?"

Keil stood back up on his feet. "They were attacked by some large creature, maybe an hour before we found them there were only three survivors. We only had the strength to bring two of them with us. Tharren, you and two others swiftly head over that hill and retrieve the third survivor. There should be seven dead and one injured, but alive. The rest of you, bring these two back to camp."

An hour later Keil, Lyan, and their group arrived at their camp. By then, the rain was now pouring hard. Just a little while after they put the survivors in shelters and settled down, the three others that were sent out returned, but they didn't have anyone else with them. "We arrived at the scene of the attack, but the survivor was gone." Tharren told him.

Keil scowled, "Gone or dead? How many bodies were there?"

"Seven. Just as you said. However, there was the scent of human female arriving at the scene and leaving. We believe that she might have taken the last survivor."

"A human? Why didn't you follow her?" Keil demanded.

"We did. Well, we tried anyways. The downpour of rain already washed most of the scent away when we got there. We followed it as far as we could, but we were just too late. Their scent was completely gone."

Keil was clenching his fist in anger, but then relaxed and let out a sigh. "I guess it is beyond our control. Once the weather clears up, I will take a search party out and try to find her. But for now, we need to take care of the two that we rescued."

/. /. /.

"And so we looked for the third survivor, but we never found her. We assume that she's dead. Just about a week later, strange growths started appearing on your body. Horns started forming. Your fur was falling off on your snout and hands, and your skin replaced by scales. For the most part you seemed healthy. None of us had seen anything like it, so all we could do was watch and wait.

"The second survivor did not have any changes like you did and she was only unconscious for six or seven days. However, she hasn't spoken a single word since she woke up. It seems she isn't capable. Thus, we do not know her own name, so everyone calls her Lu. You, though, have been asleep for four years now. We kept sustaining you, but we thought you would never wake up."

"Hm...well, now I understand what she told me." Verik mumbled thoughtfully.

Keil looked at him, "What was that?"

"When I woke up, I heard a voice calling my name. I followed it to this big tree that was surrounded by a thick wall of branches. When I got there, I met someone there."

"Vannah." Keil said the name with a little bit of annoyance and anger.

"Yes, you know her?"

At this, Keil chuckled. "Well, you would have to be living as a hermit in a cave to not know who she is. She's the protector of the world!"

"Anyway, she told me that it is for the best that I do not remember my past. Now that I know what happened, I understand her meaning. I would be devastated if I remembered my past."

Keil shrugged. "Maybe. But I, for one, would rather feel the hurt of losing someone that I know and love, then to never have known them at all."

"Well, I don't really have a choice here." Suddenly Verik remembered Vannah's warning. "Oh, there was also something important that she told me. The reason she called me over there was to give me a warning. She said that a great evil will be coming and that if we don't stop it, it could be the end of the world."

"A great evil, hmm?" Keil stroked his chin. "Can't say that know anything about it. Maybe the Elders know something."

"The Elders? Who are they?"

"Oh, sorry, you wouldn't know about them. There are a group of old wolfen that live in solitude from the rest of the world. They use magic to observe and gain knowledge from this world. We call them the Elders."

Verik nodded. "Then it would probably be wise to go see them."

"The Elders' Fortress is about a day's journey from here, so we'd need to prepare. I'll make further plans when we reach camp." Keil stopped talking, they both heard the sounds of life through the trees ahead. Keil laughed, "Speaking of which, the camp's just ahead. You ready to meet the pack, because every one of them, especially Lu is extremely excited to meet you."

Verik grinned, "Of course."

To Be Continued...