Chapter 29

Giddoni,

It was good to hear from you. Your mother was worried about how you were being treated in the Red Abbey, given your origins, but she has been consoled by your positive words. I do not believe you were entirely truthful about how you are being treated, but I appreciate the calming effect your words have had on your mother. After all, she has never been to the capital, and doesn't understand the view that the locals have of our rural lifestyle. I appreciate the extra hard work you evidently are putting in to be treated as a near equal to those of the "blooded" Viertaal families. 

As a note that may cheer you, Varali has been working herself to the bone in the hopes that she may join you in the Red Abbey sometime next year. She's a fiery girl, that one. I hope you still care for her the way you did, because if not… I'm not sure I'll still have a son this time next year. 

Fare well, work hard. You've already made me and your mother proud, so just keep working.

–Letter from Village Chief Farat to his son Giddoni, first year student at the Red Abbey

Percral's pack had, once upon a time, comprised of about a dozen keelish in total. Now, the pack numbered only eight. His pack hadn't been the one that had suffered a casualty in the first "hunt", the one whose leg had been broken, so the pack had been able to work together with him and the other smart spawnling. Their first unprotected hunt, however, had not gone smoothly. They had been confident that they would be able to hunt anything they came across as easily as they had dispatched the Toothy Bullfrogs in the sandy arena. They'd struggled to reliably catch the frogs, so they'd ranged out into the jungle without any real plan in mind, so far as I could tell. That was where they had experienced their major loss.

They had heard something off in the distance and decided to investigate. Unfortunately for them, however, the sounds had been the howls of wolfstags, and a pack of the wolfstags had engaged with the keelish in a way that the reptiles hadn't seen coming. 

With only three wolfstags as their foes, the keelish had suffered four casualties, among which was Percral's intelligent Beta. In the end, the spawnlings had dispatched two of the wolfstags before the last fled. The pack had eaten their fill and then returned back to the den, nursing their wounds. Percral couldn't understand what exactly the wolfstags had done to them, but it seemed they were elemental wolfstags, either flaming or voltaic since the survivors all had minor burns. Ideally they would be flaming, but I was reasonably sure that our prey-to-be was voltaic, which was considerably more dangerous, considering the electrically inclined wolfstags were no longer among the "lesser" elemental family of mistral, wave, stone, and flaming, instead among the "high" elemental family of voltaic, glacial, gilded, and infernals.

What was worse, and I wasn't going to explain to Percral, was that those they had preyed upon were definitely not fully grown. A full grown wolfstag, regardless of all the other physical differences between elemental families, was at least waist high on a human, so three or so feet tall. If Percral's pack had stumbled onto three full-grown wolfstags, then they would have been slaughtered to the last, and that wasn't counting the added danger of the electrical magic that voltaic wolfstags could bring to bear. I wasn't too sure that I would want to encounter any of these wolfstags.

Then again, if I was to prey on the more highly evolved "higher" elemental wolfstags for my [Quest], then I would see greater benefits. Additionally, my pack would probably exhibit a greater possibility of developing magical capabilities, which would greatly help us diversify and continue to grow.

Then, the thought that I needed to work on getting the pack all to grow to the level of acquiring [Exceptional Individual] crossed my mind, and I realized that casualties may be necessary to ensure that we all could grow to the level that would be necessary to fulfill my goals. And, if some inconsequential spawnlings died on that path, then their bodies would form the bridge necessary to reach across the gulf of intrinsic inferiority. I would thank them for their sacrifices, and move on.

"Percral, thank you for telling your story. Welcome to you and yours. Please, eat your fill." I noted that there had been one new "follower" listed in my [Status] after my conversation with Percral, but that wasn't unsurprising. It would only be a matter of time before all eight considered me to be their Alpha above Percral. After nodding and walking away, I could hear the ravenous chomping of teeth into the python's corpse as I approached Sybil. She turned and looked up expectantly at me as I drew near.

"Yes, Alpha?"

"How many of this new group do you want to stay with you during the hunt today?"

"Three." Her response was immediate.

"Ok. I do need all of you to eventually accompany us on our hunts, on a rotation at least. This for the next week, until you all have participated in a hunt of at least three different prey."

"You wish… to develop the… bonds between us? I am… working on that… already."

I had thought of this, since I couldn't very well explain what the [System] was and expect it to be understood. "Well, Took, Oncli, and I will always be hunting, to say nothing of the other hunters. I need to work well with all the members of the pack, and have them look up to me and respect me individually."

Sybil thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "Wise. We all… need to… work together. I will… make sure… that happens."

"You are included within those who need to be rotated within the hunts, you realize that right?"

A slight irritated twitch of her tail. "Yes." She bit the response short, and I grinned back in response. She didn't smile, but turned back to her task at hand, discussing something to do with expanding the den once again with Etra and Cree who listened and haltingly replied. It seemed that those two had evolved somehow, even without participating in the hunt, so while I idly listened about where to move the dirt, I began to think about what exactly would be necessary for each member of my pack to become "Exceptional Individuals" soon. 

The earlier the better, as I'd come to learn, so I began to mull over the possibilities beyond bringing each of the pack out on hunts. After a while I chuckled and happily went back to the python's mountainous corpse. After all, I still deserved a meal, and while there were other options, I knew what the path of the Keel was: slaughter and conquest.

So slaughter and conquest I would.