[b][center][h3]A Wolf's Descent[/h3]
[color=ff4500]Luna, the Twilight Queen
Level 5 Hero
30 Khookies[/color]
&
Ommok, the Sorcerer King
Level ? Hero
?? Khookies[/center][/b]
[hider=Summary]
A collaboration between Cyclone and Vec.

This post is chronologically placed a few weeks before Logos' invasion. (tentative - Cyclone went to sleep before I could ask about this.)

This post is narrated through three perspectives: Luna's, Ommok's, and Synnefos' (the wind djinn Ventus sent to spy upon Luna.) We start with Luna walking through the desert, following the river Mahd upstream. She's seemingly lost but uses the river as a guide in hopes of finding her way out of the desert, as well as using it as a source of drinkable water. We see her whining because she knew nothing about the land. She remembers back when she had just landed in the desert with the help of Ventus' wind.
[list]
[*][hider=Flashback Summary]
Not even an hour had passed and the Horse People of the Golden Barrens, in one of their routine travels down the river Mahd and towards the Vetruvian lands, found her. They quickly made their way to her and surrounded her. After a brief staredown, the riders start the attack on Luna. Unfortunately for them, she was far above their league in terms of fighting prowess and as such, after escaping their enclosure, she transformed into her [url=http://i.imgur.com/i5iUdPI.jpg]Bestial Form[/url].

Scared out of their wits, the riders ran for their lives and Luna, not wanting to make any unnecessary enemies, didn't chase them.[/hider][/list]
Snapping out of her daydream, Luna's brain registers the appearance of the Golden Barrens on the horizon. Thrilled, she quickly makes her way forward. After she entered the Golden Barrens, she suddenly felt the faint signal emitted by Ull'Yang's divine weapon and her first target, the Sunderer. She promptly changes direction, runs towards the river, crosses it and enters the Verdant Valley or Mahd River Valley, a known ogre territory.

The perspective changes to Ommok's as we see him traverse the forested areas of the Venomweald in a domineering fashion. Many artifacts were scattered all over the surface of Galbar and Ommok, having become attuned with magic after his meeting with Astarte and Zephyrion, had managed to sense the location of one such artifact. Surprisingly, it was located inside his own Venomweald. Ommok made his way towards a cave and entered it.

We change perspective once again, Luna's this time. We watch as she carelessly traverses the Venomweald. We see glimpses of what the deadly forest threw at her, but Luna, with a mixture of luck, wit, and strength, managed to successfully traverse the Venomweald and reach the cave Sunderer was at.

Returning back to Ommok, we learn that his extreme size rendered him unable to continue exploring the cave, even with the help of his magically infused Stone. Luck, however, is with Ommok's side as he senses a small, humanoid creature entering the cave - Luna. He slowly makes his way towards the incoming creature and once she came within the radius of his Stone, he immediately unleashed a mental attack that completely smashed apart all of Luna's mental shields ( mind you there were not many too ) and proceeds to bind her to his will.

After a few moments of struggling, he manages to materialize a tether and commands Luna to go deeper inside the cave, leaving him behind but able to watch everything that happened through her eyes.

Soon enough, the possessed Luna reaches the deepest parts of the cave and Ommok finally finds out what was the thing he was sensing all along - Yang'Ze's sleeping body, along with a strange staff levitating a few feet above his body.

Sensing faint divine ripples emanate from the body, Ommok orders Luna to reach out and touch Yang'Ze in hopes that the sleeping god would awaken and bestow boons or knowledge upon the Ogre King. Unfortunately, not only did the sleeping form not awaken, he didn't even do so much as flinch upon Luna's touch. Intrigued by the sudden turn of events, Ommok questioned wether the sleeping god was really as helpless as he looked. To test his theory, he ordered Luna to punch Yang'Ze, which she did...
[list]
[*][hider=Synnefos' Summary]
We also learn that Ventus' wind djinn/spy, Synnefos, had made good work of tailing Luna. He witnessed all the dangerous things that Luna did or would have encountered should she be slightly more unlucky and could only sigh at the werewolf's godsent luck. When he sees that Luna descended and entered a cave, he followed behind her in the form of fog, only to come across one of the most terrifying beings he had ever witnessed in his entire life. He witnessed as a hulking shadowy humanoid raised a stone that it clutched in one hand, and Synnefos saw what mortal eyes could not: a surge of magic pulsed out from the stone, smashing into Luna and shattering her meager mental defenses like glass.

Synnefos decided to flee. Ommok's eye had darted through the darkness towards the fog, and from that gaze, the djinni knew that he had been seen. It was unheard of for the creatures of flesh to so effortlessly detect a wind djinn when it meant to be stealthy, but then again, this creature was like nothing Synnefos had ever seen. It wielded magic that not even he could understand, it had the touch of gods upon it, that stone resonated with dark magics, and it was far too big to be one of the indigenous ogres...

As he retreated to tell the Vizier Ventus of what he had just seen, he could only wonder what sort of being had been lurking in that cave.
[/hider][/list]

[/hider][hider=Khookie Summary]No Khookies spent in this post.
+5 Khookies to Luna for this post.
+5 Khookies to Ommok for this post.

[b]Level/Khookie Standings[/b][list]
[*]Luna: Level 5; 35 Khookies.
[*]Ommok: Level ?; ??+5 Khookies.[/list][/hider]
Two pawed feet stirred the sand beneath them as they walked towards the north, following the river upstream. [color=ff4500][b]"Damned they be..."[/b][/color] Luna murmured as she took one step at a time. It was good that Ventus had the courtesy to drop her off somewhere near a water source otherwise, she was sure to have gone crazy due to dehydration. When she looked back at her meeting with the djinn lord, she could only sigh.

[color=ff4500][i]"If master's weapon wasn't so important for my survival, I would have readily shared the information with them. But..."[/i][/color] Luna's thoughts trailed off as she pondered the consequences. She was alone in this foreign land, with no friends or allies to help her. She knew nothing about the terrain or wildlife inhabiting the planet, something that had come back to haunt her not long after she had landed for the second time...

[hr][i]
Luna watched the earth below her move closer and closer as Ventus' wind carried her towards an unknown place. [color=ff4500][i]"I hope he doesn't leave me in some random place to die..."[/i][/color] she shuddered at the thought. The clouds parted and Luna was left breathless by the view.

A desert spanning the whole area beneath her and throughout all four directions, with a giant river passing through it and extending all the way from north to south, appeared before her in all of its exotic beauty. The sharp contrast between the barren desert filled with nothing but sand and the flourishing flora in the immediate surroundings of the river was unlike anything Luna had ever seen before.

She landed on a sand dune near the riverbank as Ventus' gale dissipated, displacing a few sand particles on its way. [color=ff4500][b]"What is this place..."[/b][/color] she could only mutter.

Dust rose in the distance, and there came a faint sound like that of rolling thunder. [color=ff4500][b]"Huh? What now?!"[/b][/color] She exclaimed. It wasn't even ten minutes after she had landed and her ears were picking up strange sounds. Her ears perked and she turned her head towards the direction the strange sound originated from.

[color=ff4500][b]"What is this?"[/b][/color] Her augmented eyes zoomed in, but the dust and sand particles didn't exactly make it easy for her to discern the origin. Luna, however, had heard a similar sound before. [color=ff4500][b]"...Horses?"[/b][/color]

Indeed it was the sound of hooves that she heard, and soon there came within sight a band of Horse People. Were it not for the felt cloths that they draped over their horses' backs, they might have appeared to be one with the beings for how effortlessly they rode. At a steady pace, the warband made south towards Luna on their journey towards the rich hinterlands of the Vetruvians.

As the marauders neared Luna, the sight of her piqued their curiosity and they quickly urged their horses into a gallop. They barked out speech to one another in a tongue like none she would have heard before, and quickly moved to encircle her. Each warrior had a stone-tipped lance and a bow, and all pointed their weapons toward their prize.

Luna was taken aback by the sudden appearance of these strange creatures. She cocked her head to the side as she looked at them, analyzing them. They were sitting on top of horses and seemed like they were actually able to tame them. That, however, was not the strangest thing. What really made Luna curious was the fact that they covered their bodies with animal furs! [color=ff4500][i]"Eek! It stinks! Ugh, why do they do this? Their furs are not enough to protect them?!"[/i][/color] Luna's sensitive nose was attacked by all kinds of foul smells, but she persevered.

As thoughts like those passed through her mind and Luna very much wanted to have them answered, she surprisingly found herself unable to understand their speech. The pointy sticks they thrust in front of her also did not help in figuring out their intentions and on the contrary, made her go on the defensive. Luna clenched and raised her hands in front of her head in a stance most suited for defense. [color=ff4500][i]"Seems like rashness is not unique to only those djinn from before..."[/i][/color]

The riders circled closer and closer, leering at this [url=http://i.imgur.com/vAUdYZx.jpg?1]strange creature[/url]. At last, one of them advanced to roughly seize her, brandishing the blunt shaft of his spear in case she proved defiant. Luna growled once menacingly, warning the man to not come closer, as her nails slowly started extending.

The horse whinnied at her growl and was off-put, but with a jab of his heel, he urged it onward. Seeing as the man was intent on advancing, Luna didn't wait for him to reach her and instead took the initiative. She extended her hand towards the shaft of the man's wooden stick and coiled her arm around it, tightly locking it between her armpit and elbow. With a loud shout, she exerted her strength through the spear with a dragging motion, resolved to throw the rider off his horse.

Although taken aback by Luna's strength, the rider was quick enough to release his grasp of the spear before he fell off his horse. Quickly, before she had the chance to impale him, he kicked his horse and reared it back. The riders from behind Luna quickly surged forward in hopes of taking her unaware; the Horse People were coordinated in their attempts, a result of them obviously taking many captives in past raids.  Unfortunately for them, Luna's sense of hearing was on a different level than what they could imagine and had detected the horses' movement the moment they surged forward. Taking advantage of the wooden rod in her hands, she knelt down and made a sweeping motion towards the incoming horses' hooves.

The shaft of the spear slapped against one horse's legs, and with a defiant snort, it raised a hoof to bring down upon Luna. To her saving grace the rider cursed and pulled his horse back, for they still wanted to take her alive and it would not due to have their prize trampled! Another one of the horsemen grew impatient and drew from his side a wooden club, and with it, he advanced to finally knock her unconscious since she seemed intent on fighting.

Luna smiled comically as the nervous rider pulled hard on the horses' mane. [color=ff4500][i]"These bipedal creatures are not actually that intelligent, are they?"[/i][/color] She joked to herself before swiftly lowering her body. The muscles on her legs bulged and countless little veins were engorged with blood, making them look like earthworms burrowing deep into her legs.

A second of silence followed before Luna shot upward, doing a backflip in the air and landing a few meters away from the group. [color=ff4500][i]"It seems like they won't back off... let's see if this will make them rethink that decision..." [/i][/color]

What she was about to do had been one of the gifts Ull'Yang had given to her back when they first met. The first time... Luna couldn't describe it for she knew not the words that could effectively portray [b]it[/b], or even if such words existed in the first place.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI9oibad5Rk]She just let go.[/url]

Bestial growls that soon turned into howling were let out by Luna as she rapidly started gaining mass. Her muscles rippled under her furred skin as they multiplied, coiling around her ever-growing skeleton that had soon reached the height double that of a regular humanoid. Once the dreary transformation ended, her lower body and extremities did not appear to have changed much apart from the extra muscle.

Her skull, however, had taken on a completely different form. Gone were her previous humanoid characteristics, replaced by a more bestial, wolf-like visage. A long snout sniffed the air and when she opened her mouth, a tongue the length of a human hand rolled out, dripping with saliva. Her four large canine teeth along with countless incisors and even more teeth, hidden deeper inside her mouth, gave her a frightening appearance.

Fur now covered her completely, from head to toe, much resembling the kind of fur she had prior to meeting Ull'Yang, albeit now giving her a much effective protection due to his divine influence.

Two eyes darted from rider to rider as Luna gave out a crude smile before letting out a deafening howl. She fell down on all fours and started to slowly approach the riders.

Without another thought, they fled. Their horses already were panicked, and so at an unmatched gallop, they retreated from the horrific monster that had been hiding inside such an innocuous form.

Luna let out a few more howls as the riders fled with their tails between their legs. She didn't really want to kill those strange creatures. Being alone and having almost zero information about her surroundings, she didn't dare kill anything that remotely resembled intelligent life. Who knew? Maybe they had some terrifying existence backing them up that, once finding out that she killed some of their own, might come after her.

As the riders faded into the horizon, Luna looked around. She quickly spotted the giant river from before, flowing a few kilometers to the east of her and thus, made her way towards it.

[/i][hr]
Luna snapped out of her trance-like state and returned to the present as her brain finally registered what her eyes were seeing; faint hints of light yellow, different from the sand's deep-gold, dotting the horizon in front of her. Luna rubbed her eyes in half disbelief and half excitement, wondering if she was being tricked by one of the many mirages deserts presented the weary traveler with from time to time. [color=ff4500][i]"Is... Is that grass?!"[/i][/color] Luna thought inwardly and started taking longer and faster steps. Soon enough, she had broken into full on sprint, running towards the grasslands of the Golden Barrens.

She followed the river all the way up north until she had finally reached the edge of the dreaded desert. Happy that she'd finally escaped, she glanced at the seemingly boundless grassland of the Golden Barrens in front of her. [color=ff4500][i]"Heh, you think you did a number on me, Ventus? You haven't seen nothing yet!"[/i][/color] she smirked and with renewed determination, started walking deeper into the Barrens.

However, she'd walked not even a few meters when suddenly a faint sound echoed in her mind. Different than what she'd heard back when those horse riders attacked her, this sound was more akin to a faint, yet rhythmic thrumming. She turned her head towards the river and to the thick forest that laid on the other side of it. [color=ff4500][b]"Master's weapon!"[/b][/color] Luna's eyes opened wide as she gave a toothy grin. She immediately started running towards the river.

Although the turbulent waters of the Mahd would certainly prove to be fatal to anyone striving to cross it, Luna did not have to worry about that at all. She gathered her strength in her legs and jumped once more, soaring over the river below and landing on the other side of the riverbank. Not wasting a second, she proceeded to enter the forested areas at the edge of the Venomweald.

[hr]
Deep within the jungle's depths, few beings stirred. Death loomed in the air, ready to descend upon the slightest movement. But there was a heavy tramping, and this creature extruded a terror and aura of domination so strong that the jungle itself contorted to allow his unimpeded passage.

Ommok walked through the dark understory, holding his Stone high as if it were a torch. His power had only grown with time, and with that thing as a conduit to his magic, few could resist him. It was child's play to break the mind of any but the staunchest of ogres, and plants and mindless beasts were hardly any more resilient.

So he forced the vines and carnivorous plants to twist out of his way and offer him a dark passage into the wood. Many strange artifacts were strewn across Galbar, and those that found their way into the Venomweald were rarely claimed. The jungle had holes within holes, and even if one had the patience to search its depths, they rarely had the bravery or wit to survive.

Ommok, however, was lord of this hell on Galbar. Since becoming attuned to magic, he had managed to detect one artifact in particular that radiated a power. Like a moth to a flame, such power called to the greedy king; it would be [i]his.[/i] It was only a matter of finding the signal's source.

Patiently, he walked. The immortal king had made many such journeys before, though usually, they ended in a place more dignified than a mere hole in the ground. A cave, however, was where he eventually found himself as he neared the source of the power that he had sensed from so far away.

[hr]
Once she had locked on to the Sunderer's signal, Luna had brought it up a notch and wasted no time with carefully traversing the Venomweald. She ran through the thick canopy with ease, leaping over fallen logs and boulders and passing by thousand-year-old trees that had grown to triple her height when transformed. 

Dense, forested areas like the Venomweald were basically her home turf; having spent the majority of her life, prior to meeting Ull'Yang, hunting in the forest had made her especially deft in navigating said terrain, even a forest which she had never seen before like the Venomweald. 

Granted, the forest seemed especially dangerous. There were times when she had to stop and take the long way around certain areas. At one instance, as she ran she suddenly came across a huge pool filled with green viscous liquid. All sorts of poisonous gasses lingered above the pool. Although she knew she had some resistance against poisons, she obviously had no knowledge of this specific poison and its potency. Luna carefully turned back, took another path and continued on her journey.

There was also a time where she was met with a group of plant-like creatures and had almost fallen prey to them. If not for her quickly activating Ull'Yang's symbol, causing the plants to burn and wither away, she would have probably been digested by them by now.

As she ran through the rainforest, Sunderer's signal kept getting stronger and stronger. [color=ff4500][i]"I'm almost there!"[/i][/color] Luna thought with a smile and ran even faster. She climbed up the tall trees and started leaping from branch to branch, her weight pressing on the fragile tree appendages for only a moment before she had leaped to another one. If she cared to look back, she would be surprised to see some of the branches magically coming to life, coiling around as if trying to grab something.

[hr]
The ogre king's corpulent form loomed over the entrance to the cavity, and he cast a shadow upon the darkness within. His greedy eyes stared into the recesses for a moment. He was huge, even by ogre standards, and so a task so simple as entering the cave and taking the artifact within was suddenly made complicated.

Without hesitation, Ommok stepped inwards or rather crawled. What would have been comfortable for the average humanoid was horrifically claustrophobic for him, and so he, at last, came upon a passage too narrow for him to squeeze through. With a roar of frustration, he [i]willed[/i] the walls of stone to crumble before him and make way. Yield to his might they did, yet he quickly realized that the cave system was more expansive than it had appeared. He would be using magic to bludgeon his way through an entire labyrinth of tunnels, and already the effort had fatigued him. Who knew how much longer it might take?

He sighed and rested within the depths. Time meant nothing. Even if it took ten years, he would work tirelessly to dig his way to the artifact.

When Luna finally reached her destination, the dark veil of the night had enveloped the whole of the Venomweald, not that it made much of a difference since the thick canopy blocked much of the sunlight anyway, giving the forest a perpetual eerie feeling to it.

The Twilight Queen leaped off the last branch and landed on the ground next to the cave silently, making sure to not disturb any creatures that might live near the place. [color=ff4500][b]"So this is the cave..."[/b][/color] Luna murmured as she stood before the entrance. She looked into the dark depths and could only shudder when a cold wind rushed outwards.

However, she could practically smell her master's [i]other[/i] body, along with the aura that Sunderer exuded.

Something was outside; he sensed it. It was entering the cave, for some reason or another. He reached out with his magic and felt the thing's breathing. Heard its heartbeat.

A solution had presented itself! How could he have not seen it earlier? He would simply have this one retrieve the prize for him, for he knew already that this being had a much smaller physique than his own. He rose at once, and slowly lumbered through the darkness towards the mouth of the cave.

As she was about to enter deeper inside the cave, though, Luna was stopped in her tracks. To her surprise, she detected a foreign presence coming from within the cave. [color=ff4500][i]"This... This doesn't feel like master's residual essence..."[/i][/color] The werewolf, although uncertain of this new variable that had just presented itself, decided to continue walking deeper inside the cave. She knew perfectly well that the Sunderer was her key to survival and she hadn't exactly come all this way just to chicken out at the most crucial moment...

Yet, she wasn't exactly ready for what she encountered after going deeper inside the cave. Instead of her master's weapon, she was met with a hulking mass shrouded in darkness. Myriads of thoughts passed through her mind but she was too flustered to think clear enough. The last thing she saw was the shadowy figure raising a giant spherical object above its head before her mind was brutally assaulted by an unknown force. Luna bled from all of her seven facial orifices before falling on the ground, unconscious.
[center][h3][b]≈≈≈≈≈[/b][/h3][/center]
The cool morning breeze carried a shroud of fog over the sickly green canopy of the jungle, but even from within that haze there were eyes peering down upon Luna. How hapless she was! As if completely oblivious to all the predators below that eyed her in the trees and even some of the carnivorous trees that might have devoured her, she pressed on. Fortune favored her or she had a wit that was not so easy to see, for she somehow avoided all danger as she traversed the Venomweald.

Synnefos swept through the air at a quick pace to keep up, but none batted an eye when they saw a small patch of fog drifting along. She had piqued the djinni's curiosity, to be sure; what item could she possibly be searching for in this untamed wild? The Vizier had been right to have him shadow her journey.

There, at last, came a point where she descended down from the canopy and into the understory below. Synnefos darted after her through the jungle's leaves and vegetation, and even so he almost lost sight of her. That would have been a grave failure indeed!

When she came upon some unassuming hole in the ground and entered it, Synnefos was then presented with a quandary. Dare he venture after her into that unknown crevice and risk drawing her attention (for fog did not often follow one into a cave) or stay outside and hope that she would return shortly?

Her having nearly evaded him mere moments ago was enough motivation for him to risk following her inside. The cavern had a chill to it and was damp enough, so in the darkness, he was not so easily noticed as he had initially thought. So it was mere feet away from Luna that the Vizier's spy followed, and with shock, he saw what happened next.

From the shadows leaped out a hulking humanoid larger than any other living creature the djinni had witnessed before. The being raised a stone that it clutched in one hand, and Synnefos saw what mortal eyes could not: a surge of magic pulsed out from the stone, smashing into Luna and shattering her meager mental defenses like glass. Ommok struggled for a moment as he forced his way into her weakened mind and then tethered her to his will.

Luna, meanwhile, had been engulfed by a spasm of movement. Blood seeped out from her face as it seemed that the reckless assault upon her mind had physical effects as well. But then Luna's visage relaxed and looked utterly at peace, as if in a sleep without dreams. And then Ommok had clutched the stone closer still and closed his eyes, and as he took full control of his captive she stiffened. With rigid and mechanical movements, she turned and began to descend deeper into the tunnels.

In a split second's decision, Synnefos decided to flee. Ommok's eye had darted through the darkness towards the fog, and from that gaze, the djinni knew that he had been seen. It was unheard of for the creatures of flesh to so effortlessly detect a wind djinn when it meant to be stealthy, but then again, this creature was like nothing Synnefos had ever seen. It wielded magic that not even he could understand, it had the touch of gods upon it, that stone resonated with dark magics, and it was far too big to be one of the indigenous ogres...

As he retreated to tell the Vizier Ventus of what he had just seen, he could only wonder what sort of being had been lurking in that cave.
[center][h3][b]≈≈≈≈≈[/b][/h3][/center]
A patch of fog drifted into the cave, and Ommok scowled at the djinn within. Fortunately, the thing seemed large enough to have the sense to flee on its own. Thinking that it had been no more than a stray elemental that had wandered into the cave by chance, the king focussed the entirety of his attention once more on Luna. As she navigated further and further through the tunnels, the tether that bound her to his will grew taut and thin. It took increasing exertion from the sorcerer king to maintain control but maintain it he did.

At last, she reached the end of the tunnel, and through her blank eyes, he observed the source of this power that he had felt. There was some strange humanoid resting in a meditative pose, and a strange staff suspended above its head. Both were statuesque in their utter stillness. Both exuded an aura of divinity, though it was weak.

Ommok had faced the Sky God and the Magic Goddess before and survived their power. He had no fear, simply disappointment. Where he had hoped for something to be freely taken, here it seemed like he had only found a sleeping god and a weak one at that. Still, perhaps there would be some boon to gain or knowledge to learn through awakening the entity and communicating with it. Through Luna, he reached out to touch the sleeping form of Yang'Ze. It did not twitch, and still, it did not awaken.

Ironically enough, the initial frustration vanished and his inability to awaken the dormant god only further intrigued Ommok. Was that meditating body really so helpless as it appeared?  Ommok willed Luna to strike Yang'Ze, and so she did.

[hr]
All sorts of ominous clouds were looming over Luna's spiritual sea. Deep red, purple and even black clouds filled the small space inside her mind, raining thunder and lighting on the ocean below that represented her thoughts and emotions. Filled with turbulent waves and strong currents, it aptly portrayed Luna's mind at that time.

Somewhere inside this fierce storm, a small boat drifted. However, the waves rocked it, no matter how many times thunder rained down upon it, the little boat neither capsized nor caught on fire.

Inside the boat lay a [url=https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/sleeping-wolf-5502246.jpg]small body[/url], curled up around a stone that shone a dim, golden light. On top of the stone, a peculiar sun symbol was carved, from which vein-like strings extended that covered the whole boat.

The small wolf slowly opened its eyes...