By the time Leor realized he had fallen asleep it was already morning. He opened his eyes to see the soft red light of the Beastial morning sun shining through the crack in the large boulder at the cave's entrance.
Leor quickly looked around the small cave for the leader, checking to see how the powerful Beast had fared through the night. When his eyes finally landed on the creature he was stunned. The broken jaw was pulled back into place, and giant scabs were covering most of the large wounds on the creature's body. It was an impossibly fast rate of recovery. If the Beast was able to continue healing at this rate, he might be fully recovered in less than a week.
The large Beast leader was curled into a ball in the corner of the cave, the thin female canine snuggled up against his legs. The beasts slept late into the morning. Maybe to let their leader recover, or maybe that was just their custom. Either way, Leor was forced to wait a long time for them to start the day. He used his time wisely however, and got in a second meditation session to train his will. If things continued at this pace, he would rise to the rank of Adept before he even figured out what the Beasts wanted with him.
The female was the first to rise. She woke the others and signalled something to them, which led to the wolf and the lion heading out into the forest alone. When they returned, they carried with them the bodies of four small corrupted forest critters.
That was much more meat than last night, when they had only cooked a single large rabbit. Leor was hopeful that he would finally get a chance to fill his belly. He was wrong however. The leader awoke and consumed three of the critters all on his own, leaving only one to be split among the rest of them.
Leor was forced to make due with a single bite of meat once again. By now he was starting to think that they were trying to starve him on purpose. After all, the powerful Beasts would have no trouble hunting all the game they wanted. They could probably catch a hundred critters for each meal.
With a dull ache in his hungry stomach, Leor had had enough of this. Now that the leader was back, he could at least try to demand some answers from the beast. When they had all finished their food and it appeared that they were getting ready to set off, Leor rose to his feet and turned to stare at the intimidating Highblood Beast. After working up his courage, he opened his mouth and spoke loudly to the injured Beast.
"I need to know what this is all about! I've never done anything to offend any of you, and I have cooperated with you thus far, so tell me… Why have you captured me? And where, exactly, are we going?"
Most of the Beasts completely ignored Leor's words. It was likely that they could not understand human language at all. Only the Leader and the female turned to face him, staring at him silently for a few minutes before the female gestured towards the leader's jaw and shook her head.
Leor looked at the leader again before realizing what she was trying to tell him. "Are… Are you telling me he can't speak, because of his injuries?"
The female nodded to Leor's words, then bent down and carefully wrapped the large cloak around the leader's healing body. Apparently it was time to go. This time they allowed Leor to walk on his own two feet, even removing the binding from his legs. They still refused to remove the binding from his arms or return his sword to him, but it was progress at least.
By now they had travelled into the deepest interior of the forest, dozens of miles from the ancient city where Leor had first arrived in this world. If the Beast were bringing him back to their permanent camp, it would make sense for it to be quite far from the city. Afterall, the deadly dragon that made its home in that place probably had a territory of at least a dozen miles from the tower where it nested. It would not be wise to set up camp anywhere within the territory that creature might patrol.
The day's travelling was quite uneventful. The cloaks they all wore did quite a good job hiding the presence of their users, and the Beasts seemed to know these forests well. Aside from the powerful wolf, which Leor suspected was a Dire-Twisted tier defiled, that had tracked them down when they were still quite close to the ruined city, nothing else went wrong.
By the time the sun was getting low in the sky once again, the group finally reached their destination. It had taken roughly two days of nonstop travelling, and at the swift speed of the Beasts which was quite impressive. They finally passed through the far edge of the great forest, entering a wide open plain. At the center of the plain stood a great mountain, so tall that a cap of snow rested at the peak.
The group set off into the plain towards the mountain, and as they got closer Leor began to see the signs that someone had been living in this place for a long time. There were dozens of plowed fields with some type of strange plant that Leor had never seen before growing in them, but as he passed by more closely he realized that they were a type of spiritual plant! He could feel the powerful natural energy in the plants even from a distance, they contained the type of energy that could help a Beast grow stronger.
As they got closer to the mountain, Leor finally realized exactly where he was being taken. There, at the very base of the huge mountain, built into the side of a steep rock cliff, was an ancient elven stronghold. The style was quite similar to the ruins of the city that Leor had seen when he first arrived in this realm. The entrance was made up of a massive green door, with large engravings all across it in a language that Leor had never seen. He could guess by the looks of them though that the engravings were likely designed to strengthen the doors against willpower attacks. The doors were wide open at the moment, as dozens of Beasts moved in and out of the large entrance. Some carried farm equipment to work the fields, others carried the corpses of slain critters, while more still had backpacks full of wild vegetables and herbs that had probably been collected on the mountain.
But the thing that was most striking to Leor, was that every single one of them was a humanoid. There was no mistaking it now. Such a thing could not be a coincidence. This group of Beasts must be in possession of some form of high class special knowledge or technique that allows them all to achieve the humanoid form. It was the only explanation for how so many Beasts had done so.
As Leor's group stepped through the threshold into the mountain, he got a glimpse of the massive interior of the fortress. It would be more appropriate to call it an underground city than a fortress. Miles of earth had been excavated inside the mountain's interior, all hollowed out to create room for the rows of hundreds of elven buildings that had been built inside. High up in the interior above the rooftops, Leor could see thousands of Elven light stones lining the ceilings, enough to keep the fortress interior well lit at all times, day or night.
This stronghold must have been built around the same time as the ancient city, but for whatever reason, the stronghold wasn't infested with defiled creatures. Or maybe it was, and the Beasts cleared them out? .
Either way, it explained how the Beasts had been able to survive in this place. A mountain fortress like this was the perfect place to hide from the defiled monsters of the outside world. This far from the ancient city, the corruption in the air was much weaker. Leor was itching to get his hands on his stone tablet and attempt to portal home. Perhaps here in the fortress he would have more luck.
As they reached the interior of the city, the Beasts brought Leor through the streets toward the largest building at the center of the mountain fortress. It looked like a city hall. The decorations on the exterior were much more fancy than the other buildings, and the windows had been crafted out of ornate colored glass of all shapes and colors, creating a scene that resembled a garden of glass.
The leader of the small group of Beast stepped up to the beautiful wooden door of the building and knocked his large knuckles against it five times. Leor's eyes opened wide as the door was opened by the most ancient looking dark elf he had ever seen. The old elves' features were so wrinkled that it looked like his skin might fall off his face. But more important than that, was the young woman standing behind the elf.
The girl was of average height, just a bit shorter than Leor himself, with light chestnut hair and a rounded youthful face. Her most striking features were her bright yellow eyes, the telltale feature of the noble families of the realm of light.
"Alina!" He cried out, attempting to rush forward even with his arms still bound, but the leader of the Beasts reached forward to stop him. Turning to face Alina and the dark elf, the leader held out one hand, palm up, as if asking for payment.
"Leor! W-why have they tied you up? You foolish Beasts!" She gave the Beast leader a frustrated look, but he simply shrugged his heavily scabbed shoulders and pushed his palm forward once again.