1 Prologue

Ylphasia - a land of magical creatures and beautiful scenes.

If one stepped into an airship to overlook the land, it would be the most amazing of sights. Patchworks of colors, and different levels of growth and decay were perfectly divided by lines as though one realm could not leech into the other. Each connected like one mismatched, but gorgeous array of colors on a quilt blanket.

Depending on the territory, it seemed that some had ever-present weather like snow and rain, and others looked as though they were covered by some kind of thin veil of darkness - but they were all ruled by the same sun and moon cycle.

If strangers traveled far enough past the mountain range where the Werewolves lived, they would find a barren wasteland sitting in a giant blemish that dotted the planet like a bad clogged pore.

That was where the humans once lived - well - the last large city of them, anyway. What remnants of life that once scurried about in the destroyed and decayed city had now ceased entirely due to over-hunting.

In fact, according to old history the humans wrote themselves - the planet was once called 'Earth', and they had only thought of the newly dominant life forms as myths and fairy tales. Honestly, it was best that way, so no one crossed the threshold to try to speak to mankind under any circumstances.

Until one day, it couldn't be helped any further.

Reports around the world interrupted every program as a news caster spoke from Germany who reported live, the first Unicorn caught and shown to humanity. She had been found in the Black Forest, and although she tried to talk to them, they couldn't understand her. The poor beauty had only been trying to run from being hunted by another mythic - a Vampire.

Once there was profit and curiosities to be had, humans went out to find their own mythical pet to sell or exploit.

It was horrid.

For whatever reason they could not understand when the magical souls asked the humans what they thought they were doing - so to the wild creatures, this "mankind" was more of the 'man' and none of the 'kind'.

The fact that they kept their brethren caged, prodded them to do tricks, or coveted a wolf-pup they forced to be their companions and to never let him shift into their human shapes, stirred a deep hatred between those with magical blood, and humanity.

When they were kept as pets, naturally they would need care and help - and so some of the better humans tried to learn how to heal the poor captives when they were injured or worse. What started as altruism morphed into experiments for money and power. Soon those pets turned into stock to be traded for large sums of cash.

The humans then found a way to harness the magic from the blood of the mythics in saturated little bits. They placed them into crystals, or infused them into items. At the start things were harmless, like umbrellas that repelled rain, and doors that could be enchanted to not allow unwanted guests in. Or the favorite of the young ones -- toys.

After that it evolved into harnessing magic for basic utilities like lights, heat, and even water. Next it was protecting their homes and crafting large barriers using runes and enhanced weaponry.

Then, the worst happened -- they discovered how dangerous magic can be when combined with potent elements of the earth - like Uranium, Thorium , and the absolute most deadly of them all: Plutonium.

Now the realm of "higher beasts" (as they liked to think of themselves) were lobbing fireballs of doom against one another until it started to eat away at the earth, and the rest of the little cockroaches who were left behind.

Even if humanity was protected in their weak little magic shells and the use of the bare concepts of what magic truly was, the rest of the earth was not.

Fed up with it all, each faction of mythological beings took it upon themselves to cleanse the planet of the small clusters of mankind still huddling out there. Some of the factions hunted the dwindling populations and treated them like livestock.

Some of them felt for the good, kind humans who wanted nothing to do with any of the troubles the others caused. Even more surprising - some of them even allowed a few humans to marry into their ways and they bred many offspring that were half-breeds.

It didn't last long, though. As the Vampires, Ghouls, and Demons delighted in the slaughter of the little mortals as they tried to run.

"The fear makes the meat taste better" they'd often say.

"They'll replace themselves soon enough. They breed like flies," others would laugh when confronted about over-hunting them.

"Have you ever eaten one? They're delicious," the demons especially would argue when anyone suggested trying to protect what wild humans were left.

Nothing the 'Temperates' said to the 'Ferals' ever got through to them, no matter what the argument.

"If you eat them all, you'll have none later..." some would say casually at a delegate dinner.

"They don't reproduce as fast as you think they do..." many would warn.

"Try rations instead of free-for-alls..." friends advised.

All great ideas, that fell upon deaf ears who only longed to satiate their hunger. In fact, the subject got so bad that it too led to a war between the once peaceful factions.

Werewolf, Nymph, Fae, Protean, and Chimeran kind all allied together to try to stop the Vampires, Ghouls, Demons, Sirens, and even Mermaids from gulping down every last human. They'd even take some in, or stop the 'Ferals' in their territories.

It worked well for a long time -- until those who tracked and ate other living creatures started to run out of food from their ferocity and unending hunger. What made it worse was that with humans finally dying out, the hearty consumers started to prey on the lesser wildlife.

As realms weakened and food began to dwindle, the diplomacy they all at least attempted to keep, even when thinly veiled, ceased entirely. Then, they started to cross boundaries and make dark deals with those who had no problem selling out a few of their own to keep peace in their realms. Or, the 'stronger' creatures would find it acceptable to hunt on the 'weaker' one's lands. Whatever the excuse needed, it was used.

With many kingdoms running out of options, choices had to be made.

Everyone had to follow one path to go down, or another to climb up.

All had their own stories to tell, but this book is exclusively about the choices Metas and Myranda made for the future of the Lycan Kingdom, and it is also the start of many chain reactions to come.

so the start of many chain reactions to come.