---
He felt Miryam was calling him from the lair. <<"FATHER, COME BACK, FEEL LONELY. Don’t leave like mommy.">>
He says, "Little one don’t worry, I am coming back. When I am back, We will go on an adventure. I will find you a new mommy (no1). She will take care of you and me both."
An hour before dawn, while crossing fern lowlands, Kai sensed movement. A faint claw ticks, not directed at him yet. Galehorn snorted a warning to him.
Suddenly five silhouettes burst from the thicket, Jagged-Axe Hyenas, two star rank. Likely scouts’ tamed hounds of someone’s.
Kai didn’t slow. He clenched thighs, Galehorn surged. Blueloom rained plasma bead that exploded nearest hyena, +20 EXP. The rest scattered, yipping.
He didn’t want to brand these weak ones. His aura is precious. They aren’t useful to him.
Another kilometre, he broke from the woods into the prairie and angled south-east to return to the Mountain. By high noon suns baked the land, he rationed water, pushing mounts until day waned and basalt monolith pierced sky.
"Home."
As he climbed the secret fissure, the egg’s song swelled, <<FATHER! YOU BACK!>> Joy, hunger, relief all at the same time.
Inside the heart cavern Shadeclaw bowed, tusked boars, snorted greetings, Silvershadow materialised from pillar shadow. All is well.
Kai hurried to the egg pool, star-milk almost finished since his absence. The portion he left for refill is gone too. He thinks, "That is why the little one was calling for me." Runic veins flared bright azure in his presence.
He cradled the shell. "Sorry, little queen. I am back." He poured fresh milk, now only five hundred litres left of thousand. He needed a supply chain soon. He didn’t imagine that she would eat so much star milk. Her mother told that a thousand liters of star milk could last for years. Yet she ate half of them in weeks.
System pinged new information:
[Miryam Incubation 75 %.
Star-milk required to hatch: minimum 400 litres.]
Kai exhaled, "still a safe margin."
That evening he convened vassals in a central amphitheatre carved by nature. All his subordinates stood in front of him.
Shadeclaw – three-star panther-raptor sentinel.
Galehorn – two-star deer, speed courier.
Blueloom – three-star plasma artillery.
Iron-Tusk Boar pair – haulers
Moon-Wing Owl – scout
Silvershadow – four-star stealth assassin.
Slots 7/10; still space for three more.
He outlined his goals: defend lair, gather more star-milk, find some fungus found in luminous caverns east ridge, search for crystal deer herds, if a pack of Silvertail Wolf Clan wolves encroach, capture not kill, Kai wants info.
Shadeclaw thumped tail, oath through link. Boars grunted approval.
Kai distributed his unallocated stats at last: +10 Speed (to 220), +5 Stamina (205). The boost would help outrun wolves.
After the planning he sat alone by the waterfall veil. Spray cooled armour, mind replayed Luna’s laugh, Mia’s anger, Darius’s dying screams. Mission complete, yet the revenge wheel kept spinning, Roddick is next.
The tracker stone lay dull against his chest. But as the moon peaked, gem pulsed barely perceptible lilac. His heart leapt, ranging five kilometres radius but the lair lay many leagues from the valley. Unless...
He turned to the stone side, rune flicker faded. Maybe an anomaly or stone responding to Luna’s scent imprinted at gifting.
Still, hope revived.
Morning fourth day, Kai descended the mountain again. Once across plain he paused at black-thorn gate opening to wilderness. He looked back, Veil-Fall spire glinting gold; his empire embryo.
He faced forest horizon, tracker stone cool on chest, wings flexed.
"Silvertail Wolf Clan first," he murmured, "then we write a wedding that none can annul."
He strode into dawn, while he cracked his fingers, Monarch on hunt.
Kai left the mountain lair before dawn broke a second time. Blueloom circled high, Galehorn’s hooves hammered the scree path until lowlands opened. All morning he ran, punching through cedar belts, fording the ribboned Graylace River, always angling north-east, toward Silvertail Wolf Clan territory.
Tracker-stone against his chest stayed dark. She’s farther yet. Resolve sharpened.
By noon terrain changed, glacial outwash plains dotted with dead stromatolite mounds, each honeycombed by burrow predators. Cold wind tasted of iron and fir resin. Kai halted long enough to carve marks for Shadeclaw patrols, if vassals needed to trail him and foraged a patch of star-lichen. Into cube went two kilos, Miryam would relish those nutrient filaments.
Mid-afternoon the first sign of Silvertail patrols tracks of triple-claw pads six centimetres deep. He dismounted, Galehorn dismissed back to lair along link. Stealth time.
Sundown found Kai clinging to rim of Frost-Bleak Crevasse, a fracture canyon humming with geothermal vents. Two silhouettes loped along lower ledge. Silvertail scouts, three-star each, wolf-men draped in grey-white pelts, halberds strapped to backs.
Kai scanned. His Predator Instinct revealed nerve-cluster weak points at neck base. "Perfect." He murmured.
He dropped down with a thud. Reflex Mode on → whoomph, aura –200. Air split before scouts even turned, he landed behind, hooked left wolf’s jaw in elbow-lock, right foot sweeping other’s knee. One tried to howl alarm, but Kai pinched pressure node, the sound died with a squeak.
Thirty-second scuffle, dust settled. Wolves trussed in woven vine ropes he’d braided en-route. Battle ended, aura 3 100.
He dragged prisoners to steam alcove lit by mag-moss. "Name, rank, route," he growled.
First wolf spat. "Lowly ant will choke on dog bones."
Kai shrugged, lifted wolf by throat, his mandibles bared just enough. "Essence Eater works fine on live prey..." He sank his fangs millimetre into fur, aura flared black. Wolf whimpered.
"Wait! I am Sentry-Beta Talgin. Patrol Rim-line North Gate. Our orders is track runaway doe for heir Roddick."
Kai’s pupils narrowed. "Doe named Luna?"
"Yes!" Talgin’s companion hissed. "She was seized on moon eclipse, kept at Frost-Spire Keep until marriage posting next high-tide."
Frost-Spire, Kai recalled map marks of basalt fortress set atop glacier shelf, nine kilometres inside clan border.
"How many guards?"
"Outer keep is thirty warriors two-star, three captains three-star. Inner area... Sir Roddick, four-star." Talgin trembled. "Alpha Silverking absent on northern warpath."
Useful.