CHAPTER 2

As the sun sets, darkness slowly covered the land. The closing of windows, the loud slamming of doors, the wailing of young kids reverberated around this small village in the north.

The Moon shines brightly, illuminating the lost souls in the woods. The twinkling light of the Polaris served as their guide. A hope for solace in this cold and desolate place. The strays cheered as they saw chimneys blowing smoke out from one of the houses. Their eyes glows in happiness as they smell the aroma of delicious food.

Without wasting time, they run towards the houses in this small village. Hurried knocks echoed in the middle of the night. Inaudible voices can be heard inside the small brick houses,the pulling of something heavy can be heard. As if being angered by the residents, the knocking of doors became more forceful.

"What do you want?" A youthful voice sounded inside a small wooden house.

Sticky saliva dripping, twenty pairs of bloodshot eyes turned and swarmed the house where the voice came from. Not minding the risk, a fair skinned youth steps out and eyed everyone with disdain. He's long white clothing sways as the cold wind pass by. Crazed and hungry, the pack of mutated Hyenas attacked the youth.

And like a positively charged magnet faced with the oppositely charged one, the force of repulsion immediately broke the assaulters limbs. The remaining members of the pack rapidly fled. But like a deity purging its own ranks, Ice blades condensed in the air and one by one the fleeing hyenas dyed the snow red with their own blood. The night resume it's stillness.

The breaking of dawn signifies a new day. The people at the village woke up early and got greeted by a horrendous sight. Tall burly men carried big shovels and buried the bodies lying around. Women and children dances as they give offerings. As if this is nothing but a common occurrence for the tribe. The small wooden house is flooding with people, they are kowtowing facing a beautiful statue. Without a doubt, their God protected their village again against evil intruders.

In a place not visible to the naked eye, the youth's eyes showed a genuine smile. He is neither a demon or a God. He is just a snow fox spirit who miraculously cultivated his own body. Guarding and protecting the village is his only way of showing gratitude. He was once an abandoned kit, being left frozen, waiting for death. But a kind soul rescued and feed him until he became able to survive on his own. That little soul even named him 奕辰 (Yichen).

"A drop of water shall be returned with a burst of spring." the youth whispered.

*

The second and third squad of Eques Lucis have been travelling straight for the last two days. They may have strong physique but they also gets tired. Caius, the leader, decided that they will be having a stop at City F for the time being. They will stay there for a day and look for more information about the Faes dwelling in the North.

F city can be considered a well developed economic city. But it still cannot keep up with the passing of this chaotic time. A small branch of the Church have been placed there and it is guarded and managed by one of the units of Eques Lucis with the head of command Ender Sterling.

The news of Deca and Tria arriving at F City made a scare at the poor Head of command. What were those big shots going to do here? Ender's head is filled with lots of questions and possibilities. Including things, such as "Will there be a large scale attack happening here?"

"Do I need to devise an evacuation plan now?" He murmured.

"What are you mumbling about?"

Ender slowly turned his head at the door and he's eyes widen as he saw Sebastian smiling at him.

He and Sebastian are childhood friends, they even awakened together at the same time. The abilities he awakened are the abilities to shape shift into tiny furry ones, and the ability to become invisible. While Sebastian awakened both Earth and plant abilities. He is equipped with both attack and defense abilities, while he on the other hand is as weak as a pecking chicken. But Aside from being called cute, he's very useful when gathering Intel, making him the head officer of the Information gathering department of Eques Lucis.Well, that is still fine for his own ego. But heavens really does have a sickness called favouritism.

"How come you're already here? We've only received your message an hour ago and now you're here on the flesh?"

Sebastian chuckled and put his arm on Ender's shoulder.

"Why are you laughing? Does travelling from the capital to here only takes an hour?"

"Silly, We've been on the road for two days before we decided to call and make our stop here. But Returning to our hometown really brings back memories." Sebastian said and patted Ender's head.

"Watch your manners! We're not kids anymore, show respect to my cassock!" A look of displeasure surfaced on Ender's pretty little face.

Sebastian burst off laughing as he stared at Ender. Then like an actor peeling its own mask, he's eyes became cold again.

"This is nothing but a mere clothing, not really worthy of such respect." He's beautiful obsidian eyes are downcast. "Caius will talk to you later, we will need the detailed location of the Faes." Then he left, leaving Ender shock and speechless.

What is wrong with him? What did he miss? Sebastian was so passionate about joining the Church before to the point of dragging him along. He watched as Sebastian closed the door not even giving him a second glance.

*

Caius eyed his second-in-command as the other party acted like he was carrying the whole world on his shoulders.

"What happened?"

"I snapped at him." Sebastian sighed as he remembered the dumbfounded look of Ender.

Caius tap his shoulder.

"You better take a rest, you've been out of it since we returned from Erva city."

"I'll fill you in with the details after I'm done with my inquiry."

Sebastian nodded.

Caius left the room and headed to Ender's office.

He knocked twice and entered. What greeted him was an absent minded Ender. The F City's Head of Command is spacing out. He cleared his throat and that's when Ender snapped out from his reverie.

"Ah, you're here Leader! I'm sorry I didn't notice immediately. Please do take a seat"

Caius nodded acknowledging the offer given by the other party.

"Here are the things you asked. The detailed information about the place of the Faes." Ender handed a glowing empty map.

Caius took it, the moment his hand touch the empty map, a huge floating diorama appeared on its stead.

Ender started explaining.

"The Faes dwelling can be found here, it's in the northern artic area. Their territory covered most of the Western part of the North. The terrain of this place is truly terrible, easy to defend but harder to attack. The temperature is even at their advantage. We did not even manage to gather enough information, regarding the composition of their race. The most common Intel we have is, Faes specialized in illusions. A huge pack of artic wolves are also at their disposal. Even awakened ones."

Caius stared intently at the diorama.

"What is this red dot on the Eastern part of the North?"

Ender shook his head.

"Some lost travelers said it was a village. But when we get there to investigate, not even a single sign of it being inhabited."

"The climate of the North is dreadful and lots of unknown creatures lurks there. How did those travelers survived?"

Ender released an exasperated sigh. "We did ask them that. But the answer we get from them didn't give us an answer to that question."

Caius eyebrows furrowed.

Ender continued.

"All of them said, they just woke up at the foot of the mountain near the borders of F city. But that aside, the safest route to invade the Faes is taking the Northeastern path. The terrain is much more doable and for the last two years unknown creatures sightings have been cleared out to zero.

The Eques Lucis leader eyes filled with doubt and it became wary.

For a place to have no creature sightings would only mean one thing. And the opposite of it is safe.

Author's Note

If there are any grammatical errors please do point it out for me to correct. I would really appreciate it.

And by basis, all my characters specially on Eques Lucis are equal. No one is above the others not even My ML.

Happy reading😊