Chapter 23 Pack joins the Village

Shion sat next to a campfire, watching flames dance in the dark. She has waited all night for her friends and lover to return. Her grandfather had always said that it's the darkest when sun is about to raise, and he was right. Even with her night vision she had some trouble in seeing past the campsite, into the woods.

She sighed when she couldn't notice any signs of them returning. Instead, she decided to go back to Princess's tent. She slowly opened the tent and went in, trying not to make any sound. Even tho she suspected that Princess is going to wake up any time soon, she still was a little surprised when she saw Princess siting silently in her tent.

Shion smiled slightly and sat down next to her.

"Good morning Princess. Did your wounds healed up?"

Princess didn't say anything at first and just kept looking at her hands but then sighed and answered.

"Yes..."

"I am glad to hear that. Shiva's blood make miracles when it comes to healing someone."

Shion smiled again and chuckled slightly just to hear dry chuckle from Princess.

"I know. He saved me from death two times already. First time when he cured me from that illness and second now..."

Shion frowned slightly as she noticed Princess's somber tone of voice.

"Princess...Is something wrong?"

"Wrong? No...I don't think so. Besides the point that I made Shiva worry again and I almost died because of how weak I am compared to other ogres..."

"What?"

"You heard right..."

Princess looked up at Shion and frowned, tears threatened to fall from her eyes.

"I am weak! I did nothing but been nuisance to Shiva! He has to rescue me all the time! I cannot defend myself, not saying anything about others!"

Shion was lost for words until suddenly Princess broke down. She began to cry, realizing all of her frustration regarding her weakness. Shion didn't knew what to do at first but she knew she had to cheer up her friend up. She reached out towards Princess and smiled slightly.

"Don't say that to yourself Princess! You are not an nuisance to anyone. I know how you feel, back when I was younger I felt the same. I-!"

Just as she was about to touch her, Princess smacked her hand away and glared at her.

"Shut up! It's easy for you to say! You have everything! You are strong! Beautiful and sexy! You have Shiva all for yourself! So, don't try to compare me to you! I am not even worthy of his time..."

Princess cried more as Shion looked at her in shock from a sudden release of negative emotions. Shion took her hand back and looked away. Silence fell down on the two of them, Princess sobbed quietly while Shion looked back at her and sighed sadly.

"I know how you feel. When I was younger I thought that I am not worthy of anything. I thought that after mine parents died, others would thing of me as a burden. But someone made me thing otherwise..."

Princess calmed down slight and looked up at her.

"Mine grandpas. They not only made me more confident but also made me stronger. So...I want to help you. If you want I can train with you, make you stronger."

Shion stood up and went to the exit, but just before she left she looked back at Princess and smiled.

"I want to help you not because I pity you. I want to do it because you are mine friend and you are close to Shiva..."

Tears once again appered on corners of Princess's eyes.

"I am sorry...I shouldn't...H-He is your's partner..."

Princess of course wanted to be with Shiva, but she was mad at herself that she fell in love with her friend's partner. Shion chuckled once again and waved her hand.

"No problem. Remember that our marriages don't work like those in human kingdoms...And because Shiva is strong, no one will protest."

She winked before leaving Princess in her tent a little confused. From what she read in books when she was younger, marriage is a union of one man and one woman that love each other and live forevermore. But she overlooked a fact that those books were human ones, and their culture is different then theirs. As said by many ogres before, marriages of one man and few women while not so common are not something not allowed. Princess never had this talk about marriages with her mother as Princess was either ill or village was attacked short after she became healthy.

She looked down at her hands again after sorting all of those thoughts in her mind and sighed. Now it was in her hands to decide if she wants to be trained by Shion or not. Or maybe there was another way of becoming stronger...

Sometime later, when sun finally emerged from behind the horizon, other ogres woke up to work. Most of them went back to cutting down nearby woods and gathering rocks. Thanks to their work there was already quite big amount of space around pantry, kitchen and already finished blacksmith.

Shion watched ogres that slowly began to work on new houses where they all will live. Seeing it made her smile, they are starting over. She saw there also few goblins that ran around asking what do do. Few were send to bring water and other things. Goblins didn't want to just use ogre's welcoming, they wanted to show that goblins are not lazy as other races say it.

Shion decided to walk though where goblins were send to camp. When she arrived there she saw wounded goblins resting in tents that others brought or where given by ogres that wanted to help.

Suddenly she heard some goblin scream. When she arrived there she saw goblins running away from the forest line while few stood with their weapons that looked like nothing else but scrap. Shion looked towards the forest line and there she saw few Dire Wolves sitting calmly. She quickly got in between them, making goblins calm down slightly.

Shion bared her teeth towards those wolves but instead of attacking, wolves laid down showing submission. Her eyebrow rose, confused at why are they not attacking until she saw few other figures come out from the forest.

Shiva, Benimaru and Souei came back from their fight against wolves. Shion smiled wide and went to them.

"Shiva!"

She hugged him quickly and in response Shiva chuckled and hugged her back. She leaned back from the hug and looking around she saw big pack of dire wolves. But they were all in two different colors. Most of them were dark blue with bone wrappings around their ankles and the other, smaller group, was purple in color. But what was so special around them was that they had not four but six legs.

"Shiva, what's this all about?"

Shiva smiled down at her before looking at Benimaru and Souei.

"We have new allies. Gather everyone around, we have something to say."

About half an hour later, ogres and goblins were gathered together. In front of them stood Shiva, Benimaru and Souei together with the Dire Wolves. Ogres were talking among themselves while goblins were watching intensively, still afraid that wolves will attack them. With a hard clap, Benimaru took over everyone's attention.

"I am sorry to take all of you from your tasks. But I have something to announce. As some of you may know, we decided to take a revenge on dire wolves that attacked Princess and the little ones."

Murmurs erupted from the crowd but they disappeared when Shiva took step forward.

"We did attack them, and we are sure that wolves responsible for it were killed. But we also managed to do something else. We killed their alpha, freeing the from his tyrannic rule and those wolves declared me their new alpha."

Once again but this time louder, everyone began to murmur about this. Shiva sighed and frowned.

"Let me finish!"

Everyone became silent once again and meanwhile two wolves walked closer. It was Ranga and Rudra, both wolves that Shiva named. After he named them, evolutionary tree of dire wolves split up in two ways.

Tempest Wolves, one of them was Ranga, they are capable of possessing Lightning Manipulation and other related skills. They are known for their speed and agility together with loud howls.

And other were Blood Hounds, one of them was Rudra. She and wolves more attached to her became them. They are new species but from what Shiva already checked, they are much more physically stronger. Their both sharp and durable fangs are able to pierce Shiva's skin. Those hounds are also known for their keen sense of smell and special ability of Blood Hunt.

"I named them and now the serve me. So from now on, they will be living in this village if you like it or not. But do not worry, I will not allow them to harm anyone. They will take care of hunting, scouting and protecting our village when we are occupied with other tasks."

Shiva declared it to rest of the village which had no choice but to accept it. At first goblins were not so keen on this but the fact that they just arrived in this village and had no voice here, they had no choice but to accept it and to live with those wolves.

After Shiva made sure no one had any questions he let everyone go and his two wolves used this to do something. Ranga went to Shiva to talk.

"Master."

"Yes, Ranga?"

"I will go now to complete the task that you gave me."

"Ah, sure. Go and do it. Crush those that not follow you and come back in bigger force.

Ranga nodded and left the village with only few of his wolves. To clear up what is happening. Back in the ruined village, Ranga informed Shiva that there are more individual packs that might want to enter the forest. And so to prevent this, Shiva send him out on a task to submit those packs and make them join under Shiva's rule.

Meanwhile Rudra made her way though goblin encampment looking for someone. She ignored hateful glares from many goblins until she found him. An elderly goblin sat in front of a tent with younger one helping him.

Rudra approached them and was meet with a tip of rusted spear. She looked past it and saw the younger goblin glaring at her.

"Not a step closer!"

She looked down at his hands and saw them shacking, he was afraid of her just like every other goblin. Rudra calmly took tip of the spear into her mouth and with ease snapped it's blade in two, shocking young goblin. Rudra then walked up closer and sat down, calmly looking down at two goblins.

"I am not here to fight."

"Then what for!?"

"I came to apologize..."

Rudra laid down showing how sorry she was. Young goblin was confused but still mad while the older one was simply looking at her while Rudra continued to talk.

"I am sorry that one of us killed your son. I saw you crying while holding his body so I wanted to apologize. I can't imagine what I would do if one of mine children were killed..."

Young goblin was about to say something but older one stopped him and was one to talk instead.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because...I am truly sorry. And I want to stop this war between our kind."

"Is it only because that white kijin is you new alpha?"

"No...Most wolves didn't want to enter this forest. Previous alpha went mad for power and brought all of us into this war. We didn't want it in the past and we don't want it now."

"I see...Well, it want be easy to mend wounds between our tribes. But..."

"Father!"

Young goblin wanted to protest but in answer older goblin smacked him with his cane.

"But...It can be done."

Both him and Rudra smiled towards eachother and nodded.

"Thank you Elder. I will pass the word among mine brothers and sisters."

"And so will I."

After this, Rudra went back to her alpha's side. As she was walking away younger goblin looked at his father shocked.

"Why?! They killed Rigurd and many others!"

"Yes, they did. But they didn't want it and now they regret it. Everyone needs a second chance..."