[quote=@Shoggothought] "The Wolf! By all the gods!" The Ferream screamed as the creatures brought them the carving. "Hmm...It is as we thought. Descendants of an Ashen King." The Philosopher observed. "Marsh! Marsh! We must bring him! He must see this!" The Choirman screamed with excitement. "And sacrifices! We shan't forget the sacrifices! Two Illis!" The polyposide stared down and spoke "Of course, sacrifices, there always are." The happy Ferream continued his joyous bantering and responded to his comrade's with a cynical glare. "Quickly, my brother, we must go forth and return to our homelands! Our most blessed and holy Marsh must know of this!" "Well, let us go than. Such news should seldom be kept internal for long." The Ferream quickly drew a arrow pointing west and a picture of a Polyposide sitting on tall pedestal near five other slightly shorter pedestals and quickly ran off with his companion. [b]The Settlement: [/b] The day was loud with laughter and chaos that rang about across the rolling dunes and the ministers sat in their tents idly preparing their speeches for the daily feast. Suddenly, two frantic Ferream ran quickly into the tents and demanded to speak with Mr. Marsh. After a short while of guards hassling them, the panicked Ferream managed to get into the tent. The tent was large and dark, so much so that they could barely find their way around the tent. Their wandering was than interrupted by the voice of Marsh calling out from his podium in the dark. "What is your business here, my inferiors?" They bowed and spoke. "Glory to thee, O frontiersman of the Void, Ode to the Nightwalkers." "What of them?" He responded, surprised of the subject matter. "We were dropping off the souls of the Illis, and there I had witnessed with my brother a power struggle between them." "A power struggle?" Marsh asked with intrigue. "Indeed so. They sat around in a circle as two fiercely argued. After a while, they began fighting physically. O what a dramatic scene! One eventually slew the other after a rather long fight and it seemed if though he was now regarded as the leader!" "After this..." Marsh uttered with excitement. They continued. "After this he stood up and announced his victory. But this was short-lived. The crowd quickly noticed us and this sparked a riot. We were stuck in the middle of a crowd of these strange beings, half of whom seemed like they were trying to attack us, the other trying to protect us." "To the point, my child." Marsh said eagerly. "Well, in short, one of them, seemingly an heir of some sort, had regained control of the disorderly mob and asserted his authority. He than used the method of pictography to communicate with us. We told them of our glorious city and they responded. The creatures are sending men to see our city." "Glorious!" Marsh screamed. "We must give our warmest welcome, for they are men of the gods! The gods are with us, my friend! Tzeentch, to Oxameter, to Khorne! But remember, we must keep them from the merchants. If former reports are correct, they are the souls of the Illis, and thus may hold bitterness to their former masters." The two Ferream bowed and spoke quietly. "Great My lord, I- He was interrupted by a Polyposide running into the tent with a Choirman. The Polyposide fell down panting and uttered out "East forest.....Carvings....Ashen Wolves." "What is the meaning of this? You interrupted a meeting!" Marsh spoke angrily. The Choirman helped his friend to his knees and responded "My lord, we have come across a settlement of Wolves! Ones of the Ashen King!" "By the gods!" Marsh spoke to himself. "Quick, you must bring me to theses wolves. I shall gather the sacrifices. Take me to them. I must see them with my own eyes...and make it quick. We are expecting visitors..." [@Raindeer] [/quote] Technological advancement. Basic tools: Done. Rock shaping: 0/2 The hounds stared at each other in confusion as the strange creatures started making loud sounds among one another, doing their best at trying to understand what was going on, with no luck. They quickly gave up and just watched the thing play out. Some of the Ashen that had watched the creatures kill one of their own ventured over to the corpse and investigated it nervously. The young males looked down upon the carving into the ground of an arrow that seemed to depict one of the creatures upon a strange form of tree with shorter ones near it. Very strange. The two young males pondered between one another. "Could it be the way to their Alpha?" "Or their dens? Do they want us to follow them?" "The Alpha would kill us if we left the younglings unwatched. We must wait until he returns with the rest." "True. Let us get back to what we were doing." They wandered back to their experiment and after a brief moment realized that the one handed to the Alpha had been thrown into a tree. And remained in the tree. What could the one made out of stone do if their scales could dig into trees? "We must make more of these. They could be useful for hunting. Or defending ourselves." "We can not use scales if we wish to make more. Stone will have to do." "We have to shape them somehow. Finding rocks that fit is hard." "We will find a way." The two nodded and sat down with the rocks they had left that seemed to fit and returned to their duty. [quote=@Diehard243] [color=004b80]The Ashen & The Soruli[/color] Mica made a soft sound of discontent in the back of her throat as the leader of the purring creatures began sniffing at her, her light blue eyes giving looks toward Cor's tall white frame next to her as she steps over a log that is fallen along the path. "Why does he sniff me so much?" She ponders aloud, letting out some low cawing sounds. Cor makes a cheery laughing sound, his eyes curved upward, "Perhaps he enjoys the smell of darker hair." He gestures to his own white furred body and Ima's cream one as they follow him. Another sniff from the large creature behind her, taking in the subtle scent of berries clinging to her fur from her earlier gathering. Thankfully none of the following pack see the look of annoyance that crosses her face for a moment before Cor reaches over to touch her arm, softening the expression. "He does not bite." Cor noted, his hand pulling away from her arm after a moment of cooing to her, "I know you do though." Mica makes a tiny squawk of surprise as he says that causes Ima's clucking chuckles ahead of them, her taloned finger moving to poke at Cor's pale side. "You are the one that cuddles and constricts like vine upon wood when we sleep." Ima keeps his dark eyes of blue focused on the path ahead and the potential dangers that may arise, commenting with calm clucks. "You both use my body to rest your own upon regardless. Aside from weight, I do not complain." The conversation lulls into a casual kind, almost treating the hounds following them like little-kin they are leading along. Stopping to occasionally pick fruit to feed them or pet one or another as they walk. The thrumming of drums is soon heard, a heartbeat running on its own time through the rainforest. A clearing could possibly be seen coming into view beyond the trees, filled with the colors of the different Soruli and their activities at the base of some massive tree. Ima turns, raising his hands to halt the following clan-members and gives a few soft chirps toward Mica and Cor. "I will go and inform the rest of their arrival and how they should be handled. All who are not occupied may be extra help in caring of these new friends." Cor and Mica nod their heads in unison, turning to begin the distraction of petting and grooming again until he returned. [/quote] The Alpha grew more "gentle" with his sniffing of the female when her sounds of discontent were released, but not before fully taking in her scent and memorizing it. The hounds happily followed their friends and continued their purring the entire way, growing even more intense upon being given food or affection in form of petting, which was returned with gentle headbutting and licking of hands. As sounds of unknown origin came closer they grew somewhat cautious and their purring stopped as they tried to figure out what creature it came from, but kept following the birds out of curiosity. A clearing opened up before them, which was filled with more birds and massive tree. They looked at the tree in awe looked at what the birds were doing, intrigued by their actions. The Alpha sat down and held his eyes locked at the dark female, only having looked at the tree and the surrounding birds for a short time. When grooming and petting was once more started, he gently nudged the female in an attempt to keep her focused on him. The purring was once more growing louder among the hounds. [quote=@Shoggothought] [b]Eastern Woodlands: [/b] "Around here somewhere, my lord, if my sight proved reliable." The Ferream said whilst wandering the eastern forest. Mr. Marsh nodded in his extravagant robes and sat back down on a wooden throne carried by four Illis. "I thank thee for thy direction, and thy philosopher comrade." They continued searching the region until the Philosopher came across the carving of the wolf he had seen previously. "The carving! We are in the right place, my holiest and most blessed lord! Here lies the home of an Ashen wolf." Marsh stepped down from his throne and observed the carving. "And you have witnessed these creatures?" He spoke. "Yes, my lord." "Than we shall wait for them." [/quote] The hounds were resting in their dens while the younglings were playing near the dens, chasing each other around while growling. The adults quickly came out of the dens when they could feel the scent of the past visitors once more. The younglings ran inside the dens while the two young males that had the most knowledge of the creatures (Even if that was very little in itself) stepped forth towards the scent. The males moved towards the location they had met the creatures last time, and just there they were, but this time there were more of them, including four creatures they had never seen anything like before. Most noticeable was the leader that had thorns upon it's head. The other adults had picked up the newly made stone-sticks and formed up behind the two males. The younger one stepped forth and drew an arrow towards the odd, new creatures and tilted their heads in questioning.