Meat!

Gray Sky continent, Welkrich country, Altus forest.

In Welkrich country Altus forest was well known for its dangers. If you weren't a cultivator you wouldn't stand a chance of surviving after stepping inside. The Altus forest made up a little under half of the country so its size could be imagined.

What made this forest so dangerous was that it was teeming with millions of magical beasts. No one had ever even seen the true depths of this forest not even the strongest cultivators of the country.

Deep within this infamous forest in a rather large cave, a rare scene was taking place. A large white wolf was lying still on her side with a face filled with concentration. Her fur shimmered with energy, and her purple eyes surged with a black light while her paws suddenly burst into flames.

The flames were gray in color and they seemed to flicker in and out of existence, leaving one to question what they were seeing. The she-wolf looked toward her stomach with a worried expression.

"I hope I can keep this concealed they can't find my child they can't!" With a thought, the wolf raised a raging cloud of gray flames that filled every inch of the cave even shrouding her own body. She didn't spare any energy only focusing on concealing the cave and the child in her stomach.

After these preparations were complete, she began the arduous task of bringing a child into the world. She fought through many hours of pain all while maintaining the barrier. Finally, her efforts were rewarded when her child finally entered this world.

She quickly blew a gentle flame onto her child, cleansing it of all the blood and waste. With a worried expression, she spread her senses scanning it from every angle. What she saw only frightened her further. 'why does he have a mortal beast's bloodline aura!?'

'She burst into a panic, had her injuries affected her child!? Where she and her husband truly not meant to be like they said?' She could only guess at the reason. While she was in the throes of panic, the young wolf cub finally opened his eyes.

Suddenly a cold wind swept up in the room. Energy from the heavens and earth swirled toward the cub's body. The energy was absorbed hungrily into the young wolf's shiny black fur. His silver eyes shone with an intense light as his body unconsciously absorbed energy.

Snapped out of her scared state by her son's changes, she sprang into action. Unleashing her full strength to increase the power of the barrier left her even more exhausted but she had to contain these events. Forcefully unleashing so much power, caused her shimmering fur to pale further.

The she-wolf could contain his weak bloodline aura with ease, but this sudden energy vacuum her son had created couldn't be held back. The influx of energy flooded the forest's inner rim alarming every magical beast within.

The Weaker beast cowered in fear while the stronger ones salivated with greed as they roared hungrily in the sky. The strong beast all had one thought, whatever was causing this had to be a great treasure. The wild energy absorption taking place in the forest didn't just incite the greed of the many beasts living there, however but also the humans in the nearby kingdoms.

The she-wolf also knew what was taking place better than anyone, but she couldn't stop it. Forcefully doing so would surely injure her child, and although this wasn't the outcome, she predicted it couldn't be helped. "Who asked you to be so strange son?" She smiled bitterly.

She still knew that they couldn't be discovered so with haste she thought a solution. 'If I can't keep him from absorbing energy, I'll just widen the vacuum.' With a low grunt, she stood firm.

"AWOOOOO!!!"

The gray flames on her paws reignited, and her purple eyes began to glow fiercely. Using her own energy, she enlarged the whirlpool of energy and spread it across the inner rim. This allowed her to successfully mask their location from greedy eyes.

Looking at her son's dazed figure she pondered. 'He has a mortal beast's bloodline and yet he needs this much energy, something isn't right.' From the moment she sensed a mortal level bloodline aura from her son she felt strange. Although non-pure-bread beast would almost never have the same bloodline level as their parents it wouldn't fall much lower and in some rare cases, it could even surpass them.

Her son should have belonged to the former but instead of either, he was a much weaker beast than she could have imagined. What made the situation stranger was the phenomena he caused; it simply wasn't something a mortal level beast could do.

Thinking so much wasn't doing her any favors, so she decided to refocus on their cover and wait for the turbulence to pass. Over time, the phenomena had come to an end and silence one more reigned within the cave. The she-wolf didn't relax however, constantly pouring energy into her concealment barrier waiting for the storm brewing outside to pass over.

***

Shouts and roars rang out ceaselessly in the inner rim as both magical beast and the humans fought tooth and nail for this treasure. Now that the treasure had been born its energy absorption had ceased thus leading for fights to the death the breakout everywhere. The people and beast nearest to the perceived treasure when it began absorbing energy where the first to be targeted.

For those individuals this was almost certainly a death sentence, everyone suspected them, so they had no choice but to either flee for their lives or stay and fight. Both actions left almost no room for reprieve especially for the weak.

The chaos drew on for quite some time, but the supposed treasure wasn't found leading most to believe that it had been claimed. The search slowed to a crawl and finally stopped just as the sun dipped below the horizon.

The true cause of these events wasn't aware of the mayhem and bloodshed instead, his large silver eyes stared inquisitively at the white wolf laying down before him with sparkling purple eyes. 'Wow, so big and pretty!' With youthful wonder, he attempted to climb his mother's large face to get a closer look at her eyes, but it was no use, he was just too small.

The she-wolf looked on at his efforts with amusement filled eyes. "It isn't time to play yet little one, aren't you hungry?" The cub's ears perked up instantly and he nodded his head readily as his small pitch-black tail waved unconsciously.

"You can understand me, son?" Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor when the little cub nodded back again. Beast born with a mortal bloodline usually wouldn't have much intelligence they usually ran on instinct alone, which made her son an anomaly. She didn't know what to make of this, so she didn't bother she just motioned him over toward her.

Strangely enough, the young wolf didn't move low barks came from his maw as he attempted to try and speak. He tried with all his might, but he just couldn't get the words out. Suddenly a purple glow formed in his eyes as he stared at his mother no longer trying to use his voice.

Watching her son amazed her and when she saw the spark in his eyes and that familiar tug on her mind, she was amazed. 'Soul communication already?' She couldn't be bothered to think more she simply allowed herself to connect with her son hoping for a pleasant surprise.

The young wolf seemed excited; his tail waved with more frenzy than before.

"Mother… Meat… Please!"