The Trouble with Cultures
Its been while but here is a story to read!
The Trouble with Cultures
Lego was tending to the kingdoms people softly nodding while tapping on a tech pad bored at listening to the issues writing each complaint, advice, and suggestion giving each notice varying levels in priority. Lego yelped out as the pad was yanked from the paws and subsequently bapped with it.
"Don't 'uh-huh' me Mr!" Lego looked up bewildered at first before straightening up staring up at a glaring blue snow leopard. "What do you think you are doing?"
"Uhh... Listening to the people?" Lego tilted his head looking to the side seeing several guards and a few distressed villagers. "what has happened?"
"Your distracted fluffy but miss-labeled a few concerns and now an altercation has broken out between several werewolf tribes. You have your little brother and my pandy stuck in the middle of it!"
Lego gave a few nervous chuckles before getting off the throne happily clipping his modest crown to his belt loop heading up some stairs to the side of the room. After climbing several flights of steps Lego heads into a cobblestone hallway the tapping of his claws hitting stone echoing down the way before halting and turning looking around before feeling around on the wall. After finding the one stone that felt more plastic tapping on the square box a few times. Lego stepped closer as the panel lifted revealing a metallic inside. The middle panel contained a camera with a screen underneath followed by a numpad. Lego leaned in letting it scan his eye before tacking at a few numbers.
Lego stepped back as part of the wall start to lift ears twitching at the soft crunching and creaking of stone lifting stepping through once it was high enough. This room was comparable to entering a new world, the room was sanitized, pure metal, and full of technology that gave steady beeps and pings, screens crawling with information and data. This room was completely different to the medieval castle it was housed in.
On the far side there stood a chair with a built-in tech pad. In front of the chair were several screens and keyboards that gave specific data on each screen. The center screen was showing live feeds from two different cameras. The feed from both were similar but appearing from different angles. The scene was focused on two werewolves at each other's throats. Voices could be heard in the background but were somewhat garbled.
On the left screen was a map of Ichla'eon and the surrounding areas. There were two dots that corresponded to where the camera feeds are. On the right screen was bio-signatures. The console displayed life signs, heart rates, and current person conditions. Lego hopped into the command chair tacking a button pinging the two "dots".
Aither, a red panda and wolf mix, along with Vin, another Tescorosso mixed with deer, were dealing with an issue between two werewolf tribes. Vin, who was six, was assigned as Alegeharias diplomat to the werewolves and had to call in for Aither to assist with the situation.
Aither belonged to the Alegeharian knights, he was 21 years old and oversaw the other Knights. It was unusual for him to be called for altercations but because of the situation and how it could directly affect ties with Alegeharia it was seen best for Aither to respond. Aither arrived on scene to see two werewolves viciously going at each other biting at the others neck. That's when the ping from the futuristic communication system that was hidden in Aither and Vin's ear buzzed making them flick their ears.
They exchanged a look signaling to each other and the hidden cameras that they recognized Lego was at the chair and started their individual duties. Aither looked over at the two fighting werewolves, drawing his sword flipping it with expertise to have the hilt point up before rushing in hitting one square in the chest to knock the were off guard, succeeding watching the giant were slide into the crowd clutching at his upper chest. Aither looked back at the other were who was starting down the pointed end of the sword snarling some as their fight was interrupted by an outsider.
The bigger were next Aither was all gold with orange eyes that were glaring at the hybrid panda. "This mud-blood wants to get in the way of the challenge" The werewolf was addressing the packs that had gathered around and growled "How many more moons must past before we cut ties with the domestic?" Aither gathered the gold one was one of the chiefs and did not support the Alegeharian and werewolf alliance.
The other were wolf was still recovering from the hit to his chest having lost his breath temporarily barking back at the chief. "This mud-blood is of royalty and must be shown respect! They have been kind and honorable to us and have earned back what they give. A fight here is an act of disrespect to the Alegeharians." The werewolf was the chief that had been working with vin for the past several months. "Back off Goldy, take your hot blood elsewhere."
The Golden one snarled and lunged towards Aither and the allied chief clawing at everything that stood in his way. Aither picked up his sword blocking a few attacks before having to dodge and get out of the way trying to get behind the rebellious werewolf that was landing claws onto the allied one.
The allied chief growled and slid back under the barrage letting his arms take the sharp claws. He pushed forward having enough slapping away the arms before clamping onto the rebel chiefs neck with his maw holding on tightly.
Aither managed to get behind the golden one, sheathing his sword before climbing the scruff on his back pulling out a dagger to pierce through the rebels' eye ending the short-lived fight.
Lego had left the Command chair during the talking to make popcorn coming back to it to watch the fight occur huffing when the fight ended before his pop corn watching the health monitors closely while recording the name of each were that was present for records. "Hey Vin, there are a few werewolves I do not recognize can you get their names info for me?"
Vins' ear twitched still not used to the new comms before responding. "Yeah I can get that big bro." Vin went over to the werewolves that he didn't recognize himself to say hi. Before he could utter a word, he was swept up into a bag and hauled off by the unknown group.
Lego gasped watching Vins' camera go black. "Aither forget the chief right now there is a unknown pack making with Vin right now!"
Aither turned to where vin was last standing then looked around seeing a werewolf moving area from the scene rather quickly taking off in that direction trying to catch up to the pursers.
Vin was barking in hopes that Aither could hear him squirming and wriggling about trying to cut a hole in the sack with the hunter's knife that was given to him by Lego. The knife was unfortunately not sharp enough to cut through the material which made vin squirm more and curse at Lego for such a dull blade.
Aither could hear faint barks and started to follow the trail of tiny yapping hoping to catch up the cubnappers quickly. He followed the rogue pack into the deeper part of the forest cursing sliding to a halt realizing where they were. The light and peaceful air of the region changed into a dark and cool area. The air felt wet and heavy but still made the hybrids fur bristle as if there was an electrical charge in the air. Just in front of him was a darker forest then behind him. In the dark forest Aither could make out shapes that did not belong to the pack moving about. He checked his pockets looking for something pulling out several pitons driving into the tree outside of the dark area before moving forward and anchoring another piton into decaying tree.
Aither ears perked hearing a groan of pain from the pain only confirming further where he was. The area that the wolves had high tailed into was known to the Alegeharians as the forbidden forest. It was a forest born from evil. The dead are known to live within the forest, the trees are alive and move creating ever changing mazes and fog makes it hard to see even for the most talented scout.
Attaching a rope that came in a reel on his belt to the pitons, would allow him to get back into the safe forest. Lego had created this rope using his angel spells to protect it from the darkness of the forest, it was untested however so Aither was taking a gamble venturing deeper into the forest trying to find Vin.
It was evident that the wolves also knew what this forest was finding claw marks on tied down trees. Aither was surprised at the intelligence of the pack as he followed their bread crumbs to their hideout. In a clearing where trees had been cut down there was a rudimentary outpost made of cursed logs and tree branches. It had boulders pushed around the base of spiked logs. Aither scouted around climbing some the trees to get a higher view. From above the hybrid could see a fire pit, several tents and a natural grotto or cave. Aither wasn't sure which one it was but figured it would possibly go underground where they could hide captives.
Aither noticed a tower on one side of the outpost that looked to accessible from the outside by the trees. He took shelter in the tree he was in currently shifting on the branch to sit. From there he took off his dark red patrol crap and lifted his olive drab hood. He tightened his left sleeve attaching a gauntlet on top. The gauntlet was of a black leather with silver spikes on top. Underside was a mechanism that stored a blade. Aithers' normally open jacket was closed shut for what was about to happen and buttoned tying the sheath of his sword to his leg to keep it from bouncing around too much.
Aither got onto his paws keeping low as he crept out on the branch jumping over the next one running to the thicker end and holding to the upper part of the trunk sliding himself over to the other side of the tree repeating the movement till he was next to the tower. He kept close to the trunk watching the movement of the post. It was bit darker here but Aither wasn't sure if it was due to the magic of the forest or the time of day. In the tower were two werewolves that seemed to be conversing.
It took some time before one of them and headed into the now clear cave. Aither rolled his eyes wondering just what was so important. Aither crept over the branch flexing his arm to activate the mechanism of the blade hearing the oiled clicks jumping over to the tower arm extending landing on top of the werewolf thrusting his bladed arm into the neck of the beast the tip parting the flesh with a soft "snk" sound. Aither got up but kept low moving off the fallen beast flexing his arm again to re-sheath the blade.
He peaked over edge of the towers wall looking for more guards or possible combatants before climbing down the ladder creeping around the outpost. Aither checked the entrance keeping to wall sniffing the air trying to find vin through the varying scents of rock and fur.
After figuring there were 5 weres in the cave and several others in the system he finally found vin and started making his way into the cave using the scent as a guide. Aither found the first werewolf dispatching him silently holding onto the limp body to prevent a falling sound guiding the dead gently to the ground before moving into the narrow halls.
There was not much light in these halls, the only thing preventing silence was the steady drip of liquid hitting the rocky ground. The air smelled damp and the narrow hall was no place to get trapped in. Aither didn't care for being so exposed pulling out his dagger standing up now and breaking into a sprint using the slick ground to slide under the incoming werewolf slicing at the ankle with his dagger, twisting his body around using his claws to help with halting the momentum lounging towards the crippled were piercing its skull and pulling it quickly to the side to dislodge it not only from his blade but cracking the werewolfs' neck. Aither huffed softly before moving on deeper into the cave system.