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The massive gates lifted into the air, revealing the interior of the city, busy with life. Humans moved back and forth, between the many tall buildings crowding the area. Verik could hear them talking, but it all blurred together into one unintelligible noise. Watching this, he began to miss his forest already.

Once the gates were completely opened and secured, the humans around them walked forward, slowly. The two soldiers that stood by the opening suddenly drew their swords and pointed them towards the wolfen, worried looks covering their faces.

The soldier on the right turned his head over to the one on the other side, but he kept his eyes fixed on the pack. “Go find the captain and tell him to bring a squad over here!” The other nodded and swiftly disappeared into the crowd.

The human that was in charge of group the wolfen met outside of the city walked forward and began talking to the soldier in a hushed tone. About this time, several of the humans in the city noticed everyone standing by the gate and froze. Some of them dropped what they were holding in surprise. Apparently, none of them were expecting to see a pack of wolfen entering their city.

Many of the men reached down and pulled out small knives that hung around their belts. Families moved their young to stand behind them, fearing for their safety, but most of the kids peaked out with looks of awe and amazement.

A few minutes later, everyone could hear the loud clanking of metal and moved to either side of the road. A group of six spear-wielding soldiers appeared and headed in their direction. In the lead, there was a soldier with a more gold-colored armor with red clothes underneath. He must be the captain, Verik concluded.

When they got close, the soldiers positioned themselves all around their pack, their spears at the ready. The captain walked to the front and nodded to the humans that were escorting them, “Thank you for your help. You are free to go. We will take these wolfen from here.”

The other humans backed up through the gates and left the city without a word.

“All right,” the captain called out to his men, “Let’s move!”

The soldiers in the rear, shoved the wolfen forward and pointed their spears at them and began to move, forcing them to keep moving to avoid the sharp metal points. Verik, yelled back at the humans, “Hey, lighten up back there!” Turning to the captain in front of him, he growled, “We are friends of the king, not prisoners!”

The captain, without even looking back at him, said, “Friends of the king? I have heard nothing of this. As far as I know, you are just beasts that we cannot kill.”

“We helped slay the demon on the mountain. Did you not hear of that battle?” Verik explained, beginning to get exasperated.

Emmaline grabbed his arm and looked him in his eyes. Speaking in the wolfen language, loud enough so the whole pack could hear, she said, “Keep calm and collected. They’re trying to provoke us.”

The human shrugged nonchalantly. “I have heard of the battle, but I do not care. It is not my job to. My job is to get you out of the common streets and protect the people of this city.”

Verik closed his eyes for a few seconds, resisting the urge to snarl at the human. “We’re not a threat, captain. We are here so we can help each other.”

“That’s not up to me to determine. Now, keep moving.” After a few seconds the gruff human added, “You should consider yourselves lucky not to be led around in chains.”

“Somewhere out of the way, until we decide what to do with you.”

“Who is ‘we’?” Verik asked, frustration leaking into his tone.

“Enough questions.” The captain barked. “Keep quiet unless I speak to you, otherwise you’ll be wearing a muzzle.”

Verik opened his mouth, hundreds of angry words threatened to spill out. Luckily, he had some self-control left. Balling his hands into tight fists, he muttered in his language, “I’d love to see you try that.”

The rest of the walk was unnervingly silent. All of the citizens of the city were completely silent as they passed, staring at them as if they were monsters. Verik didn’t blame them, though. Looking back at his own packmates, he could see in their faces, similar emotions. They had been taught that the other were dangerous since birth.

That would soon change, though. With Verik and Emmaline able to speak the language, they would be able to communicate to the people. If that isn’t enough to break the barriers between them, then at least they will see in the battle to come that they are their allies.

If they managed to survive throughout everything, he had no doubt that they would coexist happily for a long time after. Knowing what he knows about humans, peace wouldn’t last forever, but at least the seeds will be planted because of what has happened now.

Keil, who looked unusually happy, barked to the rest of his pack, “Everyone, keep your heads up and your tails high. Look confident, but unthreatening. Even though we are treated as prisoners, that doesn’t mean we have to act like it.”

“Stop talking!” The captain ordered.

Verik’s tail twitched in annoyance and he relayed the human’s instructions to his leader. In response, Keil lifted up his head to the sky and unleashed a loud howl from deep inside of him.

The captain whirled around and began to shout something at them, but the rest of the pack, Verik included, joined in, drowning out his angry voice. The humans started at the unexpected sound of their song.

When the captain drew his sword and placed it right against Keil’s neck, Keil ceased his song, but didn’t shift from his confident posture. “We’ll stop. I wasn’t aware that singing was a crime to you humans.” Keil said sarcastically and then motioned Verik to translate.

“Just shut up and follow me!” The captain commanded.

Within a few minutes of silent marching through the city streets, the large castle directly in front of them, standing many times taller than the largest tree in the forest. Verik had seen it in the distance several times now, but now that he was so close, it seemed much more imposing.

There was a shorter wall, standing about three times as tall as the average wolfen, separating the castle from the rest of the city. There were two iron-lined wooden doors that were as wide as the road that lead up to it. On the top section of the wall, there were several more soldiers stood with bows in their hands, watching the area below.

The captain called out to them, “You have your orders?”

“Yes, sir.” One of the wall soldiers nodded and then looking somewhere below on the other side of the gate, he instructed, “Open the gates! They have arrived!”

Verik huffed. So, they actually were expected. The gates were quickly opened and they were marched through the courtyard. Verik looked around in amazement at the enormous courtyard. Several smoothly carved stone paths branched out moving throughout the area. Many large trees lined the paths, giving the comforting illusion of walking through a forest.

Many small pools were visible off a several side paths, he could see through the clear waters at several colorful fish swimming around. Keil leaned over and muttered quietly into Verik’s ear. “I’m actually quite impressed. This definitely was not what I was expecting inside a human city. Honestly, I was imagining something more…dismal.”

“I know what you mean.” Verik responded. He was surprised, himself, just by the sheer size of everything. As they walked by rows and rows of trees and other neatly groomed plants, it barely seemed as if they were getting any closer to the castle.

Gerrin walked up to behind Verik. “I underestimated the size of this place. Maybe, with their help we can actually save our packmates.”

Verik nodded. The more time he spent in this place, the more his doubt was letting up in his mind. “We still have to convince them to help us in the first place.”

“That’s true, but I bet we can convince them one way or another.”

“Just don’t try anything rash without consulting Keil, first. We don’t want to risk cracking our already fragile relationship.”

“I know that.” Gerrin said and continued looking around. “I wonder how difficult it was to create this thing. The amount of time and resources required to make it had to have been really substantial.”

Emmaline’s head dipped down and her eyes closed in concentration. A couple seconds later, she looked up. “It took about four years of continuous hard work for the castle alone to finish construction. This courtyard was another project. Having the fully grown trees transplanted here, it was another couple years before all this was complete.”

“How do you know all that?” Keil asked, impressed.

She gestured over to the human captain leading the way. “Got it from him. He knows quite a bit of the history and details about this place.”

Gerrin nodded and smiled. “I’ve always loved that about you. Can’t hide any secrets from you.”

“I never invade privacy. Unless I am asked, I will never delve deep into people’s minds.”

“Of course you don’t. I knew you pretty well. You may not have your memory, but your personality wouldn’t change. You are one of the kindest creatures I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

“Uh…thanks.” Emmaline cleared her through and averted her eyes. It was subtle, but Verik could tell that she was definitely uncomfortable with Gerrin’s almost flirty tone.

Gerrin continued speaking, apparently not noticing her reaction. “What would possess them to create this thing? I mean, it’s definitely impressive, I’ll admit, but it seems a little excessive.”

“Everything about this area was designed with defense in mind. The size of the castle alone, strikes fear into the minds of enemies considering invading. All these trees are groomed in such a way where warriors and archers can hide and ambush enemies marching in. If they make it into the castle, there are many more defenses.”

“It doesn’t seem like all of this will be of much help when the enemy attacks from the sky.” Gerrin pointed out.

“That is there weakest area. They have several offensive contraptions up on the towers, but nearly enough to fight off an army.”

Several minutes later, they finally arrived at the castle. In front of them there was about thirty feet of water following the castle walls around and out of site. A large draw bridge from started lowering from the walls, forming a bridge above the water.

Once it was down, the walked across it and into the interior. Once they were inside, the room they were standing in was a large, mostly empty hallway. There were several doors on each side with torches lining the walls between them. The torches were unlit, as most of the light in the room came from two tall windows on both sides of the gate they just entered.

Up ahead was a large set of colorful purple doors with gold-lined designs all around it. “That’s the throne room.” Emmaline explained. “The king is in there now.”

Instead of heading to the throne room, the captain lead them to one of the doors on the right. Opening it up, he revealed a smaller room with several chairs and tables. There was nobody in the room and a thin layer of dust covered the surfaces. This room wasn’t used for much.

“You all, wait in here.” The captain instructed in his harsh, gruff voice. “The king will be notified of your presence and will send for you when he is ready. I will transfer the prisoners to the dungeons where they will wait until further notice. Several guards will be posted outside these doors. If you attempt to leave before you are called, your actions will be considered hostile and we will deal with that appropriately. Am I clear?”

As Verik translated his message to Keil, Emmaline spoke up. “Excuse me, sir. I have an important request, if you would be able to spare the time to listen.”

The captain scowled at her, but waved his hand, signaling her to continue.

“Thank you, sir. This prisoner of ours,” she gestured over to their captive demon in the stretcher, “is actually one of enemy, unlike Myorakk over there. We can use him to discover much useful information about our enemy. However, I strongly suggest that we keep him sedated, as he is very violent and pretty much insane. If there is a master of herbs here, I believe it would be in our best interest to keep him sleeping until we can find a place for him, if you would be willing to let me transport the demon to him.”

He seemed to like the way she addressed him, because he actually let a little grin show on his lips. “That should be fine.” Turning to three of his followers behind them, he commanded, “You two, take the stretcher and go with this creature,” he pointed at Emmaline, “to the herbalist’s work room.” Pointing to the third, he said, “And you go with them. Make sure she stays in line.”

“I won’t cause any problems, sir.” Emmaline said calmly.

“You better not, otherwise my soldier won’t have any problems driving his spear through your heart. Isn’t that right?”

The other soldier nodded. “None at all, sir!”

Emmaline smiled and dipped her head. “I completely understand.”

As they began to walk away, the captain turned back to Verik. “Now, do you understand what to do?”

“Yes, we do. We will wait for the king.” Verik said, trying to hold back the frustration and impatience. He had urgent matters to discuss with the king. He wanted to explain that and tell the captain that they needed to speak with him right away, but he knew that it would do no good.

“Good, no hand over the demon.”

Verik looked over at Myorakk. “I’m sorry, but you will have to be held in their dungeons until the king will hear your story.”

Myorakk rolled his eyes and hissed exasperatedly. “I’ve already spent the last several days in a cage. What’s a couple more?” He grumbled to himself.

“As I said earlier, I will make sure that you are out as soon as possible.”

“Whatever you say.” He sighed and stepped up to the captain, who pulled him away from the doorway and shut the door, leaving the wolfen alone in the dusty room.

Keil sat down on the floor and everyone else followed suit. “Well,” he said, “now we wait.”

To Be Continued...