[Past].

Gabriel was a gruff man, white and wrinkled at the edges from age, but still just as strong as ever, standing tall, his grey hair still thick and curled. His shoulders were broad, arms well-muscled and scarred, and dark tan skin worn with much well-earned experience. After much consideration, the strong mayor of River's Bed had eventually decided to meet with the mayor of Virulent's Forest. Virulent's Forest, as the name suggested, was founded and now looked after by mayor Virulent, who seemed to be a rising power in the north.

Virulent's forest was recently founded in just the past 300 years by Virulent's father, Virulent The First. After his father's untimely passing, Virulent The Second now governed it as its mayor. Ever since the village was established, neighbouring towns had suspicions of it, for Virulent's Forest was nestled in the center of a large dark forest, then claimed by them, with no river being near, and yet they seemed to grow plentiful crops without the help of sunlight or water. Some said it was the town's way of showing off their spectacularly green thumbs; but others rumoured of an evil craft.

Upon meeting with Virulent The Second, Gabriel already knew what he believed in regards to Virulent's Forest. He was distasteful, that Virulent, and for that in itself was enough of a reason to dislike him. But he didn't dislike him for just that; no, he also disliked him for his pressuring, his threats, his secrets, and his mysterious, growing town. Gabriel knew that there was something going on behind the scenes that he just couldn't quite see yet, and he feared that it may in some way be linked to his two precious daughters.

And of course, Virulent had picked quite an ominous location for their meeting, in the Forest of Mother which sat full of tall, old-wooded pines in rows and rows between Virulent's Forest, River's Bed, and another village known as Jasper. It had been quite the walk for old Gabriel to travel in just two days, and he had ridden most of the way by mule, but now his mule stood hitched to a large trunk at the edge of the forest, for the mules were no good in dense forests like this one. The thick, snaking roots along the surface of the ground would trip them with certainty, and then he would have a lame mule and no way back home.

He had passed the town of Jasper on his way, which was a mighty town even larger and more advanced than Gabriel's own. The towns that scattered were more cities than towns, really, but saying 'city' would only give the wrong impression, as they were not surrounded with huge stone walls nor built with brick castles and marbled statues; no, the villages, though large in both farmland and populations, were small in heart. They lived quaintly and happily.

But now Gabriel feared for their safety and security alike. He wondered what tricks Virulent would have up his sleeve, and so the large Lycanthrope kept a long sword strung to his hip. He wore articulate tanned leather and large amethyst furs around his neck and legs. It wasn't cold out, not yet; he was merely preparing for the worst, and wanted all of the protection he could get. And so, over his leather and furs was a gleaming set of chainmail armour, a shirt and pants. On his head was the familiar golden crown of his mayorship, tucked neatly atop his greying curls.

Gabriel had never met Virulent, and had only heard of the growing rumours of what was beginning to whisper in the north. Truthfully, he was rather surprised to receive letter from Virulent's Forest, and a little frightened, too. The letter was worded almost like a threat, and was much too sly for Gabriel's tastes. He had left his home, his daughters, and his wife without knowing why. But he felt it was important to respond to Virulent's call, and he hoped that they could talk civilised when they met.

So now Gabriel walked with slow footsteps through a mighty, old-growth forest. The trunks of the trees were huge and tall, and their pine needles were long, scattering across the floor in deep orange mulch. Above the trees' leaves, the sun shown overhead in an early, gleaming light, scattering waving dapples of yellow across the shady forest floor. Gabriel wandered slowly and uneasily, half-expecting Virulent to jump from the shadows of bushes like an animal. He felt a bit heated under his skin, anxiety rolling through his chest, and shook out his chainmail and shirt with a low clinking sound.

After quite some time, he began to wonder if Virulent had ever intended to show, and if this whole meeting had been some sort of cruel prank. Then, suddenly, he felt selfish for leaving his family behind. But he knew that at home, his trusty village would keep them safe.

Eventually, his worries were put to rest as he caught whiff of something foul on the air, and then came Virulent. To a Lycanthrope, Virulent would smell foul for his translucent scales and strange, wiry hair, for he was not a Lycanthrope nor an Anthromorph at all, but rather, a Saurion. A Saurion resembled lizards or other reptiles, with triple jointed legs, tall hocks, scales, tails, and reptilian features, such as claws, hooks, and slitted eyes. Though, it was common knowledge that they definitely were NOT reptiles, as they had warm blood and mostly kept an herbivorous or omnivorous diet.

Gabriel had met many Saurions in his day, and all had been quite pleasant, religious fellows, albeit foul-smelling all the same. They were always quite smaller than the Lycanthropes and Anthromorphs, though not to be underestimated, as their angled back legs were full of strength and agility, and their claws and teeth sharp. Despite their features, they were very human-like, with ears that pointed up and a familiar nose, mouth, hair, and face, though with eyes a little too large. In culture, the races were all very different, and Saurions were no exception. Rather than charming farming, hunting, or art, they took to the waters, fishing, boating, and exploring. Many of them even had webbed hands and feet, adept for moving currents in rivers and creeks. Some might even say that they worshipped the water; they worshipped Mother Nature, though they did not believe that she was superior to them, and only worshipped her for the power, destruction, and bounty of the water that she had created. This could be compared to the Anthromorphs, who often believed them superior to other races and equal in power to Mother Nature. In fact, they loved her so, did not fear her, and noted that she would bow before them, and not the other way around. These were foreign concepts to Gabriel, who had grown righteous and Mother-fearing, just like most Lycanthropes, and also Felines. Though, Felines tended to live a unique way of life that surrounded Mother Nature; whereas Lycanthropes incorporated her wishes into their regular, daily lives.

Now, though, watching as Virulent walked on tall feet towards him, having appeared from quite the distance, Gabriel could only feel a shiver run down the base of his spine. He shook the feeling away with a subtle turn of his head, determined to be polite to Virulent, even if he was not to him. Gabriel did not hold high hopes for this called meeting. He watched as Virulent smiled a greeting and neared him, his thick tail swaying across the forest floor, uplifting pinecones and needles and twigs in a mildly destructive path.

"Greetings, Mayor Gabriel of River's Bed!" He said, pleasantly, lifting both sage, scaled hands in salutations.

"Greetings, Mayor Virulent, of Virulent's Forest. What extravagant wear you have for our meeting," Gabriel observed, a bit stagnant in voice. He eyed the Saurion's wear, which was a quite extraordinary, gleaming set of chainmail armour, which rested over only the finest burn-engraved orange hide. It brought out his reptilian yellow eyes, making them flash with colour under the dappling of the sun's rays overhead, and paired nicely with his muted sage-green skin. He, too, wore a crown upon his head, lined with shimmering gold and vibrant turquoise gemstones.

"Ah, yes," Virulent said, smiling further, "Only the finest for you, dear friend." His tail swayed, pushed as a gentle wind billowed through. Both of their hairs and coats curled one way, and then the next, shifting in the wind.

Gabriel gave a soft smile, on edge, still searching Virulent's eyes for any sign of his surely wicked plan, "I was beginning to doubt that you'd show!"

"Why, I'd never," Virulent hissed in jest, nearing closer, "I have very important things to discuss with you, my friend." Gabriel noted how animated he seemed, how he talked with his clawed hands. Virulent looked young, much too young for the age that he was. His muscles were strong, rippling, and his posture good. But it was a well-known fact that Saurions aged slower, their youth lasting, although their lifespans were not quite as long as Lycanthropes'. Virulent continued, "Your faith and mine are very similar, do you deny?"

"No, I don't," Gabriel huffed, "But what of it?" Gabriel wondered what Virulent was getting at; and he also wondered, once again, of the strange place he had chosen to meet him. Deep in a forest, away from either of their homes? Traditionally, meetings took place in a jolly hall or quaint home. Something was off, and Gabriel could keenly sense it, rightly unnerved. Something was hiding behind this shadow.

"Good, good," the Saurion's emerald tail swished, low to the ground and lined with trembling quills, "So I've meant to ask, how are your children?"

Gabriel bristled, "What is it that you want, Virulent? I've heard the rumours and don't quite believe you're up to anything other than ill intent."

"You judge me with strong haste," Virulent sneered, his demeanour changed and aggressive, "I'm here to seek a peace with you. A safety for your children."

Arms crossed, "...Go on."

Pleased, then, "Well, my own wife is pregnant now. A beautiful baby boy, we believe it to be. It would have been our third..." his features softened, "I wanted to offer you, Gabriel, a truce."

"A truce? I apologise," Gabriel spoke with exasperation, and a bit confused, "but I don't believe we've been at war."

"Not yet," Virulent said with seriousness, "But soon, a war is going to start."

The man shook his head, scoffing, "How can you be so certain? There are no tensions between any towns right now, as far as I'm aware."

"I know," Virulent hissed, "Because I will be the one starting this war. And unless you want your family to be on the wrong side of it, I suggest you hear what I am to say." Gabriel did not like his threatening tone, but fearing conflict with such a person, he remained silent, glaring. Continuing with satisfaction, Virulent spoke, "Living in the forest has granted my village security, but our resources grow limited. With my child well along his way, I must ask you to spare some of your town's resources. You can take this offer willingly, and our truce will hold strong; or you can deny me, and I will take those resources by force."

Gabriel huffed angrily, but if sparing some wood, clay, or marble would keep his family and village out of this war, then so be it. "What resources were you considering, Virulent?" Gabriel asked. His displeasure was present in his voice, and his words hung in the air with a stiff twinge.

"Your spawn," he said.

Gabriel bristled, coming to a strong stance at once, "My daughters? What ever!"

"If you've been any father at all," Virulent sneered, flashing pointed teeth, "Then you should be aware of your daughters' capabilities."

"I am quite aware," Gabriel growled right back. Though he did not have any fangs to bare, he held strength in his arms and protection in his metal armour. Every hair stood on end, hands in tight fists at his sides, a tremble rolling down his spine. All at once, Gabriel's heart was beating so fast, he feared he may collapse.

"Then you should also be aware of what an asset those girls could be in an army!"

Flabbergasted, "An army? An army?" He shook his head, putting a tense hand to his dark, furrowed forehead, "An army, my girls? You're a deviant Saurion, Virulent, and taint your race's name!" Virulent was displeased, growling. His scales gleamed like lit matches beneath the sun's moving rays, dappled across his skin in large spots, echoing from between leaves and dark pines overhead. The scales seemed to lift ever so slightly with a strong fury and ambition, like hair would with fear or frustration. His own wiry hair hung low across his face and pointed ears, almost as if it was wet.

Virulent growled, "Your girls are a prospect to me. Their blessings are from Mother Nature herself; they've been chosen. Imagine them at the top of the world, ruling every town, every village, with nobody to stop them. With that kind of magic, they would be untouchable. I don't intend to harm them, merely use their powers for my purpose; and then, they can safely return to you. You have my word."

"Yes," Gabriel said, bristling at every word, "My daughters were chosen by Mother Nature. They were chosen to fight against evil, such as you!"

"Oh, don't be such a fool."

"What is your purpose, Virulent?" Gabriel asked, glaring. Behind his furrowed eyes, gears were turning, and the pieces began to click together, forming a larger picture. Of course Virulent had been shady, and of course the rumours were true; a mighty threat was growing in the north, and now it was on Gabriel:m's doorstep.

"That should be obvious," he said, a sly smile creeping to his face. "Power over all." But even as he said it with confidence, that devious smile across his scaled face, Gabriel could see something beyond him, behind those large, slitted eyes. The Saurion was not being honest, and Gabriel could not place as to why. He thought it over for a few moments, considering any number of reasons why Virulent may have decided to go about taking over the continent- or whatever it was that he was truly trying to do. And then, puzzling it, Gabriel considered the immaculate grief he had felt course through Virulent as he had spoken about his children, unborn and never to be.

Virulent watched Gabriel's flickering, thinking eyes, and his ears twitched, eyes narrowing. He didn't quite like how thoughtful Gabriel was, and pressured further, "Time's ticking, Mayor. Make your decision, or I'll make it for you. Truce, or not?" His tail flicked behind him, aggravated like a cat, or perhaps a snake, with a gleaming grey spade-shaped spike on the end of it.

Having been watching the moss of the forest floor, Gabriel looked up at him, processing for a moment and then speaking with caution, "Is there another trade that we could make?"

"No." His response was quick, tart, and out of patience.

Gabriel sighed, flattening his fluffed hair with a sweaty hand, teeth gritted, "I'm sorry, Virulent... but I cannot give you what it is that you seek."

"So be it, then," Virulent hissed, tail waving, "I shall take it myself."

Gabriel was about to relieve himself of a sigh, a breath that he had been holding since he spoke. Though Virulent would surely make a ferocious enemy, Gabriel was confident in his village's ability to outstand him or reason with him. Before he could truly string the thoughts together, however, he was spilled of his blood.

Virulent took one pace back, charging up, and then pushed off with a strongly muscled leg and talons and atop of the tanned man in front of him. Gabriel, surprised, fell backwards onto the earthy ground, swept from his feet, air no longer in his lungs. He was frozen, shocked, and bitter; struggling to breathe, Gabriel lifted his hands to protect his face. But he was a bit too slow, a bit too surprised, and Virulent's dagger-like claws met Gabriel's face quicker than he could block. They dug deep, scoring his brown skin with a wet velvet, tearing through skin and bubbled fat with an audible ripping sound, as if he was pulling apart taut fabric at the seams.

Gabriel, having been too stunned to speak, now cried out in a fiery fury of pain, the metallic crimson pooling in his mouth, the foul smell of it filling his nose. The pain was immense and spreading like fire, hot like fire, painful like fire. He fought back with strength and determination, and also with a mind-numbing, heart-pounding fear. Though stronger, he was not nearly as fast. Gabriel landed several valid punches, giving Virulent a dripping nose and a scar across his shoulder to remember him by. In return, Virulent consumed Gabriel like a feral beast, pinning him down at the stomach with curved hind legs, long talons bending strong chainmail and piercing into the soft flesh of his abdomen, and then his flashing teeth meeting the metal of Gabriel's shoulder. Virulent struggled to bite through the rattling chainmail, hard and cold against his teeth, for his jaw was not as strong as his hind legs. Though, he did leave a mighty pressured bruise, dark purple and pink along Gabriel's neck and shoulder.

The Saurion's feet resembled that of a bird, with long, curled toes, and hooked talons like razors. They made the perfect weapon for grappling and slicing prey, and now, Virulent used them as such, holding Gabriel down at the hips and crushing his armour. The jingling armour reflected the spotty sunlight on them in a white gleam, and every little silver ring began to pull taut, bending ovally, and then snapping with a click in several places.

Gabriel called out with wildly thrashing arms, "Help!"

And Virulent snarled, "Nobody else is here to help you!"

"What is it that you are really seeking?" Gabriel asked as they spat, heaving gulps of air, his messy hair and face wrecked with roaring fear. Pine leaves were tangled in his hair and thick coat then, having been picked up from the mossy ground.

Virulent studied Gabriel's clothes, the fluff lining his neck and legs, and then the carved leather behind his chainmail, which was now ripped apart at his abdomen. Duly, he noted that the silver chainmail was short-sleeved, and his defending arms were bare. As Gabriel swiftly lifted a hand, pushing up in order to block his bleeding face and push Virulent backwards, Virulent lifted his maw from the cramped armour on his shoulder and instead flashed fang and incisors towards his arm, where he came down with force, the arm squelching and crunching between his jaws.

It spilled of foul blood, rolling down Gabriel's arm and pooling on his nice coat and chest. He cried out, the air knocked from his lungs with a sudden force of pain. The pain was throbbing and agonising, pumping through the length of his arm and then spreading throughout his body. His face was beginning to grow pale, his forehead shining with sweat, hair clinging to it wetly. Gabriel's body trembled as if ill with fever, which it then seemed to be, entirely heated like a coursing fire, welting up pink around his wounds.

Gabriel's voice was stiff, struggling to speak through his swelling cheek and blood, "Why? Are you going to kill me?" He coughed, spitting a bit of crimson along the grassy floor, looking up with tired eyes at Virulent.

Virulent let him take his broken arm back, and then chuckled dryly, "I intend on it, yes. And why is no concern of yours, Mayor."

"But," he coughed again, struggling, "My daughters..." Virulent could see the flashing pain taking over him, his eyes fluttering, his pale head rolling.

"Your daughters will fight for my cause," Virulent growled, glaring down at him, and thinking that Gabriel looked quite pathetic, all slimed up and bleeding, slowly loosing himself. "They will fight for Nautis."

At that name, Gabriel nearly lost himself again as he tried to sit up, eyes wide, but then groaned in agony, and collapsed back to the forest floor, a clenched hand to his reddened cheek. Sweat pooled along his lip, forehead, and beneath his eyes, which seemed to gleam underneath the sun's dispersed rays. His eyes were shadowed, harsh lines beneath them. Lines pursed around his lips as well, giving a pained, sickly expression. His stomach churned, head throbbing.

Mumbling now, he spoke, "You cannot work with Nautis. He is the very force that is trying to overtake the world after Mother Nature passes..."

"Oh, I know," Virulent gave a pleased, toothy grin, "And I will rule alongside him, and he will give me what it is that I seek."

Gabriel tried to mutter something else, groaning as he did so, but was cut off as Virulent's hind legs grappled his lame body once again, digging thick talons into his abdomen where his armour had been shredded, and then piercing his soft belly with an easy squish, like a knife through butter. Grabriel cried out, his screams echoing in the empty forest around them, but the agony of his heavy, pounding face, his arm, his shoulder, and his abdomen was too much to bear, and with the blood roaring, overtaking his senses and soaking him deep, his eyes fluttered, his head lolled, and the consciousness was taken from him as he laid, pale and red, on the soft forest floor.

Virulent bent down and crushed his neck in his jaws, and Gabriel was suddenly lifeless. Virulent, satisfied, pulled himself from the body and walked away, back in the direction that he had come, and back towards Virulent's Forest.

It was true. Gabriel had two beautiful daughters, both blessed with a magic gift directed from Mother Nature herself. Mother Nature had sent a dream to most of the people one evening, long ago, and she had shown them of her ill health; Mother Nature was old, very old, as old as the Earth itself, and her age had finally caught up to her. Like anything else, it would soon be her time to die.

Of the Gods on Earth, there were only two at any given time: one good, one evil. Together, they created balance, and in that balance, the sun and the moon rose and set. When Mother Nature were to pass, she had expressed fear of a certain God Nautis taking over her position and wreaking ruin from the top of the world. It was determined that she would use the last of her strength to gift powers to a select worthy few, in the hopes that they may band together and defeat him. That destiny had been given to Gabriel's young daughters, Adolpha and Danica, both gifted with their own set of unique capabilities. They were known as "the blessed ones" for their gifts. For Adolpha, this was sight; she could see more than what anyone else could see. For her younger sister Danica, this was the capability to heal almost any ailment. As soon as the girls were to come of age, they would be asked to leave their home and fulfil the destiny that Mother Nature gave them.

The worship of an evil God had always been unheard of. But now, as all of Virulent's Forest worshipped him for the capabilities he gave to them so freely, it was all too prevalent. It was true; a war was in the making; a war between good and evil, and it was starting right here in the middle of Virulent's Forest, Jasper, and River's Bed. The first blood had already been shed, the war's first life claimed, with many more to surely come.