As the forest sped by under the power of his long legs, he kept his nose carefully pointed in the direction he could never, ever have gone before. He was driven by no need he had ever felt before. It wasn’t bloodlust, it wasn’t hunger, it wasn’t the want to fuck. It was... curiosity. An impossibly foreign emotion. He wanted to know what was in this direction not out of any desire to find easier prey or a new den site, but simply to know.

For the first time in his life, the King wished that he wasn’t the best of his species. He wished he was a pup again, a time that was so long ago that he had almost forgotten what it meant. He wished that he once more had someone to teach him. These feelings were so foreign, so disturbing, that he wished he could shove them aside and return to the simplicity of the Pack. He could still turn around, lead the Pack on another hunt. They would never remember that he had left.

But the curiosity, the wonder, the knowledge of what truly was would not leave him so easily. It would not be forgotten now that it had become in his brain. He did not turn around. He kept himself heading inwards, towards the thing at the epicenter of the protection. He fully acknowledged that there might be nothing there, but he also knew the world in the direction he was allowed to go. There was nothing there that could answer the uncertainties of his own mind. 

A strange feeling tore through his gut, bringing him briefly to a halt. It was a sensation he had long abandoned, when he had once faced his prey without the confidence that he could beat it, and survive even the worst it could dish out. But there was no reason for the feeling in his gut right now, no reason for the fur on his back to start standing on end. None, except the thought that maybe there was nothing in the world that could explain the strangeness of his own head to him.

He shook the thought away aggressively, and the dappled sunlight briefly flared against his orange undercoat. Then he was running again, lithe form dodging through the trees at a speed almost impossible to track. He did not slow again until the trees began to thin around him, and the pressure of the invisible ward against even his bloodlust free mind was growing intolerable, simply because of the size and strength of his body. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he panted, not from exhaustion but simply in an attempt to lessen the strain he felt, that was trying so hard to permit him from going forward.

But he was the King, unlike any in the pack, maybe unlike any in the world. No ward was going to stop him. Rather than trying to force his way through the ward he relaxed, shaking his head and stretching to relieve some of the tension in his motion-hard muscles. He moved perpendicular to the ward, with his nose pointed slightly in. And, slowly, he slipped further and further into the ward.

He came to a halt at the edge of the trees, focused on the thing he somehow knew made up the center of the ward. It was a space, carefully cleared of any vegetation except in regulated patches, with large structures that towered up from the ground, stone-like in size and build, but made of tree pieces.

Inside this village, two legged creatures walked. They paused, making noises at each other, and he stared at them, trying to understand their actions, even as he felt his heart rate speed up. These protected creatures were somehow different from anything that he had ever found before. They were weak, harmless looking, but the way they moved, the way they interacted with each other, the way they observed the world, spoke of the new thing inside the King. They, like him, and unlike his former Pack, were... intelligent.

It did not occur to him until he stepped beyond the edge of the forest that he may not be welcome at this place. He took a few paces forwards, feelers pressed tightly against his own back and almost vanishing into his dark fur, when a loud, foreign noise sounded across the clearing. Every single creature in the wood-rock place stopped, all of them looking about wildly. Some of the smaller ones were picked up by the larger ones, and hurried to the interior of the structures. He continued forward slowly, tail low but friendly, ears held forward attentively.

It was pure reflex that saved him from the thing that flew from the hands of one of the creatures, embedding its long, sharp shaft inches from where one of his feet had been moments before. The creatures were yowling, and more were drawing in on him. Some held more of the thing that had been thrown at him, others held sharp, wicked looking rocks that would surely cut through even his own strong fur to mar the flesh beneath.

The King whined, a foreign sound from his mighty chest, and dropped himself a little bit closer to the ground. He had not intended to challenge them for their territory, and as little as he wanted to submit to these strange, small, furless creatures, he would do it to understand their world.

The creatures circled him, but drew no closer, until another person drew close, a whiner pressing close to the furless one’s side. When the whiner saw him it dropped even lower to the ground than it already was, and let out its standard, keening cry. The furless one ignored its warning, barking a sharp noise at it. 

The King remained still, having no desire to frighten these strange creatures, and the furless one with the whiner drew closer and closer. It pulled another object into its paws, the thing long and thin like a vine. Around him, the other creatures did likewise. 

Suddenly, the vine was being thrown at him, and it looped around his neck, pulling tight. He howled ferociously, tugging against it, but other of the vines were joining the first. The King felt the bloodlust of his race suddenly pounding through every vein in his body, and the pressure of the ward grew to almost unbearable levels. But the things around his neck were hauling him towards the creatures, and the King would never allow himself to be captured. He let out a heart-wrenching howl, and none of the creatures were unaffected. Some of them felt their knees begin to shake, while others felt hands go limp, and the ropes drop to the ground. The King rose to his full height, and he pulled on the pressures inside of him. His feelers whipped out, whirling wildly and striking at the creature’s hands, brought to a stop only inches before they would have struck by the pressure of the ward. 

The pale orange chips in his body began to glow a fiery orange, and the wind began to pick up. Gouts of fire appeared within the wind that swirled around him, and more of the creatures panicked, racing away. However, others still held firm to the ropes, dragging him, trying to unbalance him. One of the furless ones barked a command, and the whiner leaped at him. The ward did not stop him from sending one of his feelers to intercept the whiner mid-jump, and send the creature flying limply away.

New ropes were flying around his neck and body, tring to tie him to the ground, and the pressure of the ward kept him from hurling the swirling mass of fire and air at any of the furless creatures. But the King would not allow himself to be imprisoned. He was the greatest of his species, and he would not submit to such humiliation. He reared against the ropes, and the chips flared even brighter, reaching an almost blinding light. Every muscle in his body began to bulge.

It was like the sensation of controlling the air or fire, but instead of being outside of him, it was resting in his chest. It ran through his body like a wave, and the pressure of the ropes grew tighter and tighter around his neck. He planted suddenly massive paws onto the earth, and pulled back with all his strength. Suddenly, the creatures found themselves on the reverse end of the dragging, and many of them let go of the ropes, yowling and holding injured paws carefully.

Suddenly free, the King turned, disappearing into the forest once more. He ran hard, relieving both the pressure of the ward, and the pressure within his own body, and slowly the glow in his chips faded. However, the changes that had overcome his body did not fade as the wind and flame had at the end of his talent. He had already been huge for his species, but now he knew he would tower over even the second largest in his Pack nearly three times again. 

Panting heavily and fearfully, more confused than he had ever been in his life, the King slowed when the noise of the village was gone. He lay down carefully, curling nose to tail and tried to make himself as small as possible