16 ASTRAL GREENWOOD

Claude was always a dreamer. But never so lucidly. Never so clearly and immediately after the shutting of his eyes. Which was saying something.

It felt like only seconds ago he was bleeding— dying. His feet hurt, heels busted and broken from falling onto armored snake heads. Fingers bruised and numb from climbing trees. Stomach burning with a dark spinning heat.

He hoped Ursula was ok. Hell, she could've still been in the river.

Or time could be running differently.

He wasn't anywhere familiar…..

A green holographic image blinked to life, hovering above his face as he opened his eyes to black starlit skies.

[Welcome to the Astral Greenwood! Explore your strengths and find your kin.]

It was midnight. But both the sun and moon hung in the sky. Asteroids danced across the black expanse between, sending atmospheric disco-lights down to the ground around him.

Winged beasts darted around overhead on the hunt of things below.

He didn't think he'd see it so soon.

"This is the Astral Realm. This place is where newly Reborn individuals learn more about their Class, abilities and train. Before the Global Magus Enclave enforced academies in every established nation, this place probably saved lives….." Claude thought.

He sat up then, feeling pieces of grass stick to his naked skin.

He was naked all over. No clothes. Just himself and his newly Reborn power. Surrounded by beings of the wild.

Something rustled in the bushes beside him, letting out a wet snort.

Claude spun around to face the threat, mind still fresh off the snake battle. He had no spear, deciding to ball up his fists instead.

The antlers rising above the bushes swayed. The movement reminded him of a man settling into his fighting stance.

The buck ran. But not towards Claude. Instead, it turned heel and sprinted off into the woods in response to a symphony of territorial growls.

He didn't know where they came from. Sound worked weirdly. All of his senses were off center…..

But he wasn't focused on that for very long.

He'd done it.

The System Screen bloomed as if it responded to his thoughts.

It had.

It was beautiful. Green as the grassy meadows surrounding. Lined with vine and flowering artistry marked by paw print and fang. He'd seen a few System Screen's. Ronin's was blue and marked by legendary swords cloaked in lightning. The Dominator's screen was shattered like glass and held together by symbols of whips and chains. Claude wasn't familiar with the design of his own.

But it didn't take a genius to guess….

DING

[Congratulations, ?????! You have been Reborn. Due to your inherent empathic disposition, understanding of worldly fauna, and physical prowess, you have awakened the Class of….. Beast-Tamer. With this Class, you've gained the starter skills, (Beast Trait), (Wild Call), (Aura Manipulation), and (Nature Element Manipulation)! Furthermore, you show heightened understanding of the Canine Species and as a result have awakened the, (Canine Affinity) Passive Skill. Expanded information on Class aspects and Skills can be gained at a later time. You are experiencing a System Lock until your current Quest is Complete! Congratulations on your Rebirth, ???!. Remember, you are in control of the beasts…. do not let them control you. There are worse fates than death for the Beast-Tamer.]

Ominous messages aside….

"Why does my own System not know my name?"

A question he'd have to get answered when he escaped his dreams. Until then…..

He explored.

His walks were hesitant at first. It felt like only seconds ago he was in more pain than he'd ever felt. He…. He was dying. A snake that strong had no business being in that area. Not to mention the lizardmen, and the…..

He cringed and stopped the uncomfortable thought chain.

It didn't matter. He was fine currently. Better than fine. He felt stronger than ever. He felt like running— but he held that in.

The forest was massive. And wasn't all forest.

Patches of jungle and valley and desert all blended into one collection of untamed living.

In the sanded lands to the east, beyond the shadows of tree and vine, he could see camels, massive monitor lizards, anubian jackals and serpents. The land was breathtaking. Its own world of beige and crystal under sunlight, but somehow he could see it all. He could see wild dogs giving birth and vultures feeding on the cubs that didn't make it. He could see winged serpents riding sandstorms created by dinosaurs at war.

It went that way for every deposit of unique land.

Even the jungle he stood in.

It was more colorful than the other nightly lands. Flowers glowed like stars steeped in cosmic dyes. Lightning bugs fluttered their wings in the floral luminescence. Deer danced in the shadows, frantically fleeing predators.

"OAAAHHH!"

To his left, far out, a massive stone-ape wearing bark armor smashed a panther with his oversized fists. The feline splattered. The stone-ape picked up the remains, stripping off the pelt like it was a banana peel before fitting it over his face as a mask. The beast beat his chest in triumph. It sounded like gunshots.

Claude only stopped watching once he realized he was beating his own chest and huffing like an ape.

Immediately he thought back to the pouched-lions, climbing the trees and feeling their loss.

"Our instincts blend so easily…." Claude whispered to himself before wal—

He stopped. Heart racing in his chest.

A werewolf stood in front of him.

Inches away.

Studying him.

Expressionless.

The thing was massive. It almost felt like a statue.

On all fours it still towered over him. Its arms were longer— bigger than its back legs, giving it an apish or hyena-like stance. Knuckles like stone dug into the damp earth. Fur like black grass blew in the wind.

Its snout hovered over his bald head, sniffing as sabered fangs reflected moonlight.

Slowly, Claude backed away.

As he did, the rest of its face revealed.

The top of its wolf-like snout glowed an ominous shade of blue, each side of its face split by a glowing red line of flesh starting at its nose.

Claude stopped again. His more human mind, taking over.

"Wait a minute... you're not a werewolf."

The beast huffed casually. Almost as if he was saying, "Obviously."

He'd just never seen one in person.

"A dinopithecus… terror-ape…. primal-mandrill. You're smaller in the books." Claude kept his voice quiet. Terror-ape clans razed entire cities if a local looked at them wrong. They stole children and raised them into brutal wyld-men for even less.

His silence didn't seem to matter.

"RAHHHHHH!!!" The ape screamed. They didn't roar like some mannish beast. They blew out your eardrums with high-pitched psychotic wails. It felt ironic considering the blue-red glow of their snouts signified the presence of an overflowing magic blend of testosterone.

Claude fell back, hugging his ears.

When the screams grew distant enough he opened his eyes and picked himself up off the ground.

The blue-red glow was all he saw in the distance.

Dozens of them. In the jungle trees above. A terror-ape clan in the flesh. In the astral? Either way…

They hooted and screeched, waving him over.

"They want me to….. oh." His brain put the pieces together. "Astral Greenwood…. Find your kin. Subdivision. This is where I learn what kind of beast-tamer I am."

The terror-apes waited impatiently.

"Suddenly I wish I read more on beast-tamers. But there are no well known ape-based heroes with my class. Not a good sign. But it makes sense…. if our instincts can blend. Aligning with the apes would make me maliciously aggressive at times. Easily triggered. Overtly primal. Not to mention the mating urges and the fact that getting one in New Gloria isn't cheap or likely possible. But I would be strong. A stone-ape companion would make me something like a tank. A terror-ape tame would make me some sort of pack hunter-type. But still…."

Claude remembered his, (Canine Affinity), skill. No use wasting something like that.

As if the terror-apes could read his thoughts, they threw handfuls of dung on the ground in disappointment and ran off screaming.

"I also don't want to do that… like ever." Claude thought.

He continued his trek through the jungle. A tyguar pair leapt from the trees, landing soundlessly at his side.

Claude walked slow, letting them rub themselves against him as they let out purrs that shook the ground. They weren't as big as the terror-apes. On all fours they came up to his stomach but were as long as two of him from head to fin-like tail. Their webbed paws stamped the earth as the moon danced on their hybrid coats. One was black. The other was a reddish orange with a false-mane.

"Sisters."

In the river running beside him, six cubs swam like the fishes. Their second set of nostrils on top of their snouts spit river water and snot.

"Mothers." He corrected himself.

The idea was there.

"Felines are one most dominant species on earth. There's hundreds of variations— more than canines. More than apes. Almost more than birds. But to make the most of our team-up, I'd have to be larger— a matching physical specimen, like my dad would say. feline based beast-tamers are probably great assassins with high strength. Not to mention, water element manipulation would probably be more appreciated for the strongest feline types."

The tyguar mothers licked his hands and ran off to dive in the stream, clearly understanding his denial.

His fingers bled from the hardness of their tongues.

"Also don't take no very well." Claude noted as he licked up the blood.

On his way out of the jungles, a light glimmered, just below the trees beside him. It looked like one of the stars had fallen. Bright, fiery and cosmic in its brilliance. The colors waxed and waned like the moon, shifting from bright reds and blues before settling into a smooth purple, like a jungle flower.

At the same time, a mantle-cat stepped out into the clearing, long legs built for speed seemed to move slow for the first time. Its black streak of dorsal fur once stood on end. When the colors changed it lay flat. Its yellow eyes flashed a matching color.

The starlight beacon suddenly gained shape— turning into the form of a young girl no older than himself.

She held her hand out to the cat— both in a trance. In a world in worlds, their own shared space where a new connective language was being etched in their minds for the first time.

It was….

Beautiful. Intimate. Primally profound.

A boar flew from the underbrush behind him. The mantle-cat hissed and took off so fast, Claude thought it teleported.

And it wasn't alone.

The girl followed. They shared a glance as she dashed past him.

"I didn't know the Astral Realm was a shared space…" Claude commented before leaving the jungle.

His light wouldn't find a match there.

Between the jungle and the next untamed grove, he waded through a marsh full of crocs and padded through a massive clearing that spanned a mile.

Light rains dotted the grass with water droplets. Massive species of hawks flew overhead, watching him with eyes that pierced deeper than spears.

He did have a bird at home. A hawk. An old breed. But Ray wouldn't hurt a fly unless it was hand cooked and killed eight times over most days.

The flock dove and ripped into the next plot of land.

The northern woodland.

Where he was raised. Where he knew most. Where he felt most comfortable.

As he stepped past the bordering oak trees, flowers bloomed and thorns dotted the bushes like natural regalia. Bramble crowns and pollen jewels.

Miles ahead, an owlbear slept out in the open knowing there was no one brave enough to disturb her slumber.

Closer, near the rivers, honey-skunks and foxes hydrated and cleaned themselves with the deer, momentarily at peace.

They didnt run down and pursue him like the others.

The forest knew him.

It knew his heart.

So when they came, he wasn't surprised, even if he never heard them. Even when they came from behind him, speaking to the fact that they'd been following him since he awakened in the realm.

A pack of canines.

Probably the largest pack he'd ever seen.

Well over thirty. They demanded a wide berth.

The pack was various. Bone-crushing dogs, mastiffs, war-hounds, pitwolves, coyotes, dire-wolves. They were all seated behind the alpha.

Neither a matriarch or patriarch. The others weren't her kids.

Claude was sure of it for one reason.

The alpha was a wolf.

An old breed.

A symbol of the OldWorld's perseverance and enduring nature. Even now, two thousand years after the arrival of the Tangents, pieces remained.

Like a wolf on the hunt. Running forever.

She looked like hell. If hell was graceful. Scars gave her snout a striped design. One of her eyes was clawed out— the other burned a wild shade of yellow. She wasn't built like the other canines. She lacked the grotesque musculature of the Tangent-born— she wasn't build to fight and terrify monsters. All she had was her strong long legs and thick silver coat.

Obviously, it got the job done.

Claude kept his eyes away from her own, as to not challenge her. Her position was already decided. She wasn't alone. They were on her turf. This wasn't the kennel where he had to establish that he and his father were alphas.

He was just a boy with some power— a boy in a dream.

He bowed— making himself smaller and less threatening to the canines. At the same time, he slowly held out his hand, offering his scent and signature.

One of the dire-wolves— a young male giant was eager. He got up with his tail wagging. Claude thought of Frosty.

The alpha female nipped at the air in his direction.

The dire-wolf youngster whined and sat back down, deciding to sneakily play with his bone-crushing neighbor by licking his nose.

The alpha she-wolf walked over to Claude and sniffed his hand.

Her nose was wet. Her touch was gentle. He could smell the cold air of winter on her.

After a while, she walked past his hand and began sniffing his legs and ears.

When the she-wolf began to lick his arms and legs, he only then noticed the scars there. Deep gashes where the shard blast of the trees ripped him apart. It gave him tiger stripes— setting him apart from his canid brethren. Even still, the she-wolf cleaned his wounds like the mother he never had.

In time, instincts drove him to drop to a knee.

The she-wolf snorted in his face. Claude looked up into her eye.

It wasn't yellow anymore.

Instead, it shined as green as the forest trees and valleys of grass. The same went for the others.

And as Claude looked deeper, in her reflection he found his own eyes doing the same.

His senses magnified. Not just of his nose and eyes and ears, but his mind. Every acute facial reaction of the canines told a story. Every breath. Every impatient and excited step. Everything was spoken word even before the howls of celebration came.

And then, as quickly as it came, it was gone.

The forested world collapsed like it was made of dust. The pack took off, deeper into the sands of a fading reality.

All around him, life crumpled and lost shape like water over paper mache structures. Within the dust folds, the animals fled as if home was still somewhere he just couldn't reach.

In the distance the desert landscape was all that remained. It spread like wildfire. Golden tidal waves under scorching sunlight rippled and knocked him off balance as it swept under him.

Suddenly the moon was the backdrop, and the desert was infinite.

Lights like illuminated souls populated the sands. He remembered the purple shape of the girl. If he focused, he could see her straight blonde hair and regal disposition. Nose held high even in her pale nakedness.

He stumbled. Looking too long beyond what normal eyes could see made him queasy.

But his curiosity held his stomach.

More lights shined. But still, scarcely little.

The Astral Greenwood was a public domain where all beast-tamers found themselves.

But only three other lights shined. "Are these all the Beast-Tamers in the world…?"

A red light. It looked like a floating drop of blood. Scorpions and snakes spiraled under its glow. Tainting and poisoning it with their power. Even when he focused he couldn't see who the power rested within.

Then there was a yellow light, mottled and spotted with blues. A dead frog collected the sands beneath the light.

Before he could look into the other, the earth split and a pyramid pushed to the surface.

Twin sphinx's lay at rest, bordering the doors leading inside. Smooth sanded stone studded with jewels and runes. They flashed under the sun a single time before the door slid open.

He half expected a horde of mummies to spill out.

Some sort of new quest given by the Astral Greenwood to test the worlds newly awakened beast-tamers.

He readied himself. Still warm— still terrified, from the plated-snake war he endured only minutes ago.

The sand was hot on his bare feet. The grains clotted his toenails.

"Focus."

"Yes, focus…." From the shadows of the pyramid a voice boomed in response to his thoughts. Immediately after, the dead frog in the sands came back to life— tainted and wrong. Perverted in its new existence.

Claude shivered as the magic of necromancy darkened the sands with markings and sigils around the frog.

"Hm….. yes. Focus. But not on what you will do in combat, it will only grant you failure. It's….. inconsequential. It's inevitable. It will end in death. It all ends in death….. THE end is death….. and what am I, if not deaths king?"

A god exited the pyramid doors.

And not just any god. One that the powers that be had been trying to erase from history since the Reclamation Era over a thousand years before Claude's birth.

He was horrifying— a giant, at over twenty feet tall. Claude never realized how large the pyramid was until it was his backdrop.

His skin was black and dusty like centuries old leather soaked in fading berry dye. But it was so thin and dry, Claude could see every single muscle fiber pop and bulge as he headed down the steps. Rags wrapped his limbs. Priceless glimmering jewels shuttered with every step, repelling the sand with their expensive aura.

He wasn't human. He was some weird humanoid undead giant jackal.

Claude was told it was symbolism. The gods of his pantheon liked both animals and symbols.

The jackal was a perfect symbol for death and desolation as they roamed deserts feeding on the rotten.

Only there was nothing rotten in the Astral Greenwood.

Just Claude, the newly Reborn beast-tamers, and Anubis, the Sunlandian god of death….