Wolf in The Desert of Ice

Future

Exactly five minutes had passed,

The two teenagers stood outside the cave holding a few things: some clothes, a bag with some dried meat, waterskins and a rusty scimitar that Shiek had hidden in the deepest part of the cave.

"Good, at least you know how to follow orders," The general said, apparently pleased. "Now, it is a two-hour walk from here till Hvall, so take that time to ask any questions you might have. After we get into the base, you won't be able to speak to me as freely anymore."

"What do you want us to do?" Shiek asked, tying the scimitar to his back. "First of all, your blade goes to your side, second you (pointing at Shiek) will be trained to fight by an old friend of mine, as per deal you will follow her around so you will need to know how to fight, you are going to act as her bodyguard," He said walking up to Shiek taking the blade from him and tying it to the boy's side.

"Meanwhile, Missy, you will learn how to be a proper magician, and you will be the standing mage of Hvall. You will help it go from a military base to a common village"

Oki looked dumbfounded by this. "But why? Why would you build a village in the desert? Aren't you afraid of the beasts beast?"

The general, at this point, started walking, " Beasts have grown restless since the war, many towns to the west have been destroyed by beastmen hoards. Due to the lack of standing shifters and their discrimination, our military power has decreased substantially. Because of this, now all people of age 18 to 21 have to serve the army. Unluckily Shifters rarely make it to the end of their service, "Accidents" plague them while in the army. This is a dangerous situation. The once famed Stronhorn clan, the pillar of our defence line against the beasts, has fallen. Its head right now is a youngster by the name of Eric, with a handful of old loyalists following him. Basically, we need more shifters in the army. We need them to survive, so the king sends me to build a shifter safe haven so that we can re-establish the Stronghorn's clan as the authority in defending the empire from the beasts. To do that, I need a strong leader to inspire the shifters and a magician to keep the town's folk In check. Does that answer your question?"

  "Why do you need shifters to fight for you?" The general sighed at Shiek's question. "Have you ever been attacked by a beast boy? You lived in the desert a long while, no. But to me, you seem to be doing pretty well. You know why that is? Beasts fear shifters. They do not approach a shifter by their own volition. Meanwhile, Shifters instinctually know how to communicate with beasts, you can negotiate and deal with beasts without bloodshed. You are also built to fight. Most Shifters resemble predators, Beasts resemble prey, you are made to keep them in check". "Having a battalion like the Stronghorn tribe in our army meant that the beastmen were less likely to attack. It also meant that we could negotiate truces. Still, since the rebellion, many of the Stronghorn tribesmen left to join Atyer, the tribe now is too weak, the beasts no longer consider them a threat. this, along with our military also recovering from  the shifter insurrection, has left us vulnerable to attacks from the beasts."  The rest of the walk was silent. Both Shiek and Oki were given something to think about.

After little less than two hours in front of the trio, Hvall appeared. From the outside, it was a dozen buildings surrounded by a wooden palisade. Flowing beside the small settlements was the only river of the desert, known only as lifeline. 

As they approached a man standing outside the palisade noticed them, He screamed something to his comrades inside before starting to come the trio.

"General, are these Markus' killers?" The man shouted while approaching them, "No Leif, I found these two somewhere else downstream, She is a mage, and he is a promising fighter. Bring him to Bull. He'll train him right" As the man got closer, he looked at the party. The young woman was beautiful, unlike the women of  Reynir she was tall with short black hair and almond-shaped eyes, a foreign beauty

. Meanwhile, the boy, one look and he already knew what he was, a shifter of the wolf tribe. "Disgusting," he thought to himself; he knew what the general's mission was, but to bring in one of Atyer's tribe, he couldn't believe the general could fall any lower. Both of them had fought during the Shifter insurrection. During those times, he admired the general for his fighting prowess. However, now even after what the white-haired Moonfang tribe had done, the general still brought one under his roof. "Pitiful, the once-great general now brings the enemy's spawn to train, how low have we fallen," he says out loud this time,

"Stand down, soldier, he is not the enemy's spawn. The enemy is dead. You should do well to remember that," The general replied coldly. "Now bring him to Bull and go back to your post. Am I clear?"