You've always been cautious of overstepping your bounds as the leader of the Mustelid Corps. Part of why you were chosen, Captain Inoktuk, was due to your prudence. The Council has always trusted you to make the correct decision when the time to choose is upon you. We continue to trust in you to do so, so, for the final time before you are taken from your position due to inaction and continuous seeking for the approval of the Council, you are trusted to make all decisions relating to the treatment of the burgeoning Empire of Keel and keelish. You must merely report to us your choices, and if there are changes that need to be made, we will speak with you about them. Until such a time, know that you speak with our authority, and time is of the utmost essence.
As a favor to you, we give the approval you so desperately want. The choice to grant some of the nearly spoiled stores of leviathan blubber to the Keel as a payment was brilliant. Now go make more decisions.
-Missive to Scout Captain Inoktuk of the Mustelid Corps from the assembled body of the Council of the Union.
I strode from working with Ytte into my home. Sybil and my children waited for me, their voices excited and playful, and as they noticed me walking in, Ragzak started to walk towards me while his sisters seemed to come to the conclusion that they needed to stop him. He fought to steady his stance but before he could begin to walk forward, the little females crawled forward and wrapped up his legs. His plans thwarted, Ragzak whined, then snapped. He bent down with his mouth wide open and tried to bite Thia's head. Though his rage and desire were plain, he was far from coordinated enough to strike her, and with alarming coordination, Hashthi and Thia both rolled, making Ragzak fall.
Before his head could crack against the ground, I darted forward and caught him while also pulling my daughters up. Despite the slight potential for danger, I just found myself laughing as I squeezed all three tight and scratched my jaw along theirs. There was some measure of competition between them, but as I hummed with [Cultivating Presence] draining the reserves from my sonilphon, all three drew calm. I rocked each as I walked towards Sybil, who'd stayed laying on the bed as she watched me with our little ones. Her tail twitched across the bed, her scales making a pleasant sound on the furs as she rose to greet me.
"No, rest, my mate." I stepped forward and deposited our daughters on one side of her and our son on the other. "Have you eaten your meal yet today?"
"These ones eat whenever there is food in the room," Sybil chuckled while she rolled over to better serve as a wall between the warring hatchlings, "while I have yet to eat a full meal today. It was my understanding that we were to take our meal all together, is that not correct?"
I laughed as I nodded. "That is, indeed, correct. And then, we can speak about whatever you desire."
***
After a pleasant, relaxed meal with my family, I allowed myself to take my rest, and sleep quickly found me. As the oblivion swept my consciousness away, I found that I was in my occasional semi–prophetic dreams. A mountaintop, flat and covered with deep snow, but on every side lashed formless clouds. I swore I could see the forms of my people fighting there, their enemies varying in size from as small as a transformed rat Beastkin to the size of a fully grown ufudoluk with the indlovu city established on its back. On my right, my people fought and conquered, leaving hundreds and thousands of silhouetted masses of corpses. They grew larger with every victory, both in numbers and stature. I could tell that each victory fed their paths, Keels growing in number until the hordes were filled with them.
My people swarmed over the continent, subduing everything in their path. There wasn't a single challenger that could stand before them, from the largest of thrashing shadows to the most inconsequential of the wisps that drifted between their feet. There wasn't a single creature that could stop their passage.
On my left, though, my people were slaughtered. My dreams always showed me the dead bodies of those I loved, but seeing the tiny forms of what I couldn't help but know to be my struggling children immediately made me heave. Their cries filled my head, resounding back and forth as I was forced to watch everyone I cared about sacrifice themselves for the benefit of my children. Their little bodies didn't have a prayer of survival as their every enemy found them. I couldn't close my eyes, and was forced to witness their agonizing deaths.
"Nievtala! Why do you force me to suffer like this!" I demanded at the skies, to receive no answer but the continued sound of combat all around me. To one side, the cheers of swarms of Saharliard filled the air, on the other, sworn oaths cursing every one of my people's existence. Lost in my frustrations and anguish, a voice that wasn't Nievtala's rang in my head like hers.
Choose. Your people, or the rest of the world? Which will you prioritize?
"Of course I choose my people! Why would I choose my death? The agony of my children?"
Must the path that is followed only be one of blood? Or can a path of companionship be followed? Can the Saharliard stand for something different?
"If it was possible, perhaps, but when the world itself fights to eradicate us, we can't hold our arms wide open for those who hate us to bury their spears in our chests without resistance!"
There is another way. You need only cast off your dedication to Nievtala. She is what guides you and your people to combat, and war always ends in death, that of your enemies or your followers. Instead, turn yourself to accept the guidance of the other Gods and Goddesses. You can even embrace heresy, to throw off every god as the Hordes do to the north, or love the God of Humanity? Find one of the lesser, forgotten Gods?
"And turn away from the one who helped me survive the humans in the first place? As if me screaming the name of their unknown god would have brought me any mercy or chance for survival! Instead, you'd have me turn away from the one who's allowed me to reach this point and survive! What do you have to offer except for vague threatenings and varying paths that don't lead anywhere?"
Nothing answered me, and a swift wind rose up. I blew me from the peak, and I fell.
With a gasp, I sat bolt upright. As I gathered myself, my mate woke without moving and looked at me. With a subtle sign of her hands, she asked why I was so afraid.
"There's so much to do. And so little time." Looking out the cracks in the window, I saw that the first light of morning hadn't made itself known yet, but I wouldn't be able to sleep. I stepped out of my room, ready to start doing things again.
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