Mew!

Salem decided he would only punish those who went back on their word, it was time to start recruiting those from the dying Curon clan into his own forces. He had consulted the system on mounts for them and it was relatively easy to make a simplified version of what he had done for the centipedes.

Taking six wild elks they had found, two male and four female, he changed them with his bloodline. This method wouldn't be as intense, all he needed to do was change and breed them, the elves would be able to tame and train them on their own.

The change to the elks was the opposite of the silver demons, the elks had black fur with silver horns, eyes, and hooves. They looked elegant in their new form until one stumbled, it would take them a few days to get used to the enhanced body senses and slightly larger size, the change to their size wasn't as explosive which would be a good thing.

No one needed giant elks walking about the mountains, shaking his head, Salem let out the notice that he needed beast tamers, archery masters, and many other masters of all crafts to come to the palace.

The meeting of these masters was quick and to the point, they would be working in the academy that would be built once the materials were purchased from their neighbors. They were actually quite willing to teach the future generation, they would also be compensated for their services quite handsomely which would be needed to help their own families find a footing.

The next group arrived after the craftsman and teachers of the academy left, these were the warriors who had survived the assault from the undead. They bent the knee as soon as the words, "I need an army," left his lips. A young commander stood at the front, he was taller than Salem by a head and quite robust for an elf, this elf was Udein and he was to be named general of the elven armies.

Salem reached out his arm which Udein grasped with his own arm and looked into the bright green eyes that seemed to peer into his very soul, "I Salem Belegast hereby grant you the title, General Udein, and charge you with protecting our kin. What say you?"

Salem's voice echoed in the hall with power that seemed to shake the fabric of space.

"I Udein, son of Ulein, accept this responsibility and swear to defend our people and destroy our enemies. Living or Dead, they will fall beneath our feet!"

Salem nodded and smiled, the warriors behind Udein slammed their spears down in salute of their leaders' promotion. "Your first order will be to get trained, any weapons and armor will be provided by the palace. Find all the elks you can and feed them these blue pearls, take them to the stables first though and have them trained for your mounts.

There will be clans arriving at an entrance at the base of the mountains to the southeast, your first mission will be to ride out and bring them home, you have a week to prepare your mounts and arms for war.

My personal guards will meet you at the entrance with the wraith army to reinforce you. If you need aid before you get there, send back one of my crows, it will let me know if anything is wrong. Too long have our people been divided, I will make them whole once more."

Udein nodded and received the orders, it explained where the barracks was, along with certain secret tunnels that made their way in and out of the mountain. He ordered the men to go hunt the elk while passing out the blue pearls and the instructions to bring them home before feeding them.

Seeing everything was on schedule Salem summoned Jennah to the study room, he showed her the secret entrances and told her to take the other shades to collect more undead along with their apprentices, once they returned, they would begin using the soul energy in the tree to help advance them to the rank of squire.

She kissed him lightly on the cheek and ran out the door, excited to get back to work, the guards were warriors after all and they longed to hone their skills.

During the next week, all anyone could see from the palace were guards coming and going with thousands of hooded warriors arriving, no one knew who they were but once they left the palace there would be the Belegast crest upon their weapons and armors.

Most believed them to be hidden warriors that Lord Belegast had summoned from afar, and in a way, he had pulled these warriors to his side. They were timeless, they would be the cannon fodder for this small plane, and being undead he could use the corpses of his enemies to bolster his own armies. With the influx of undead, his skill in the <promote undead> ability grew to the next level, making it extremely easy to turn thousands of lesser undead at a time.

The upper undead was still difficult to change, having to go one at a time with each one, luckily his guards were now targeting the upper undead. They were shades, stronger and faster than before they were easily on par with the upper undead, the hunters had become the prey and the shades were ravenous.

Looking from the balcony of the palace Salem watched Udein gather his troops, he had spoken with the elf at length over the week, asking him questions about himself and why he wanted to be a warrior.

Udein had answered that he would always protect his kin, he knew not every elf was a warrior by nature, and that they would need protecting. Before he had become a warrior like his father before him, he had been fascinated with winemaking and would've pursued it if not for the undead coming to their lands.

His father had taught him how to be a warrior and leader, he was leading his troops when he saw an undead pushing his fathers' skills to the limit when another undead came from the side and wounded him, his father fell before he could get to him. He swore he would crush the undead commander, he wouldn't be able to forget that undead, it stood seven feet tall and wore red armor with a black hand imprinted on the chest.

Elves riding large black elks rode for one of the city gates, the force was twenty-five hundred strong, and a notice had been sent to Koftas that his army was going out to investigate where the undead was coming from, that was obviously a lie, but it served its purpose as Koftas wouldn't be able to hinder his armies movements.

Coming back from the memory of the talks Salem went to the warren, taking another glance at his elven warriors before he descended to his hatching mount.

The warren was cool and damp, a small stream had been made to pass through the center, Salem walked across the hard stone ground until he came to the nest, the guards and their apprentices were all here.

Today they would be picking their own mounts from the hatchlings, they all had a small basket of freshly killed rodents and other small livestock. The hatchlings would need to eat, meat being the mainstay of their diet. Coming up to the eggs, Salem took away the magic barrier and picked up the egg he had set aside from himself.

The guards followed his example and picked up the eggs they had selected earlier in the week, next came the apprentices, the first to choose out of them was the young boy who had been the first to advance into a shade.

Salem sat against the queen's carapace, with his full attention on the small egg in his hands, it shook a little here and there, he waited until finally a little silver and black head pierced the shell and let out a little, "Mew," cry as it had finally broken free.