Year 397 Before the Ascension of the Celestial Monarch
The crying of a child was the only sound to be heard; it was a muffled cry, caught in the ragged breathing of a prepubescent boy who understood neither good nor evil, nor right and wrong.
He only watched with sadness and horror the corpse of his mother. He did not hug her; he couldn't, because now she was nothing more than an adulteress, a traitor to the clan.
Her body was hanging and scourged on a tree, just as dead as she was.
The son's weeping was not heard by the father, who looked coldly at the corpse of the woman who had once been his wife and the mother of his children.
"Let the rain wash away the impurity and the earth devour the sin, for divine forgiveness does not stand above mortal laws." His father then looked coldly at his son.
He was a boy no older than seven; he was delicate, with an innocent face so much like his mother's.
A cry of pain erupted from the boy's throat as his clothes were torn and his body was thrown into the mud.
"There is no blood that binds us, nor filial duty that moves my obligations to the gods and men towards you. So leave, before I sell you as a slave to the filthiest of rats that inhabit Ulster."
And with those words, the sentence was passed.
Uisuk was banished by his father, and with that, his entire life at his short seven years had ended, only to begin a new, much harder chapter.
.....
Blood flowed across the ground as if it were a small puddle. Masha was wounded, while Uisuk himself could barely react. The creature that had suddenly attacked him was gigantic.
A mass of flesh and bone had materialized in front of him with a savage bearing and an even fiercer presence. Using its claws as weapons, the creature in front of him could only be described as bestial.
It had the head of a wolf, but much wider and more voluminous than any relative of its kind he had ever seen, with bone spikes protruding from the sides of its neck and head. It was covered in metallic armor that partially protected the creature's body, as well as a metallic skirt that served as a loincloth.
Purple fur covered its entire body, appearing more reddish in some sections than others, while its weapon was its own body, brandishing its claws threateningly.
The gigantic werewolf stood over three meters tall, probably easily reaching four meters, effortlessly doubling Uisuk in height when standing upright, though not Masha.
"Puka aycha basura qurata apachiy utaq wañuy," the creature growled in a language unknown to Uisuk, making sounds that a Fey tongue could not imitate.
"What the hell are you?" Uisuk roared with anger, planting himself in front of the wounded Masha with a serious expression.
The creature bellowed again in anger, but this time moving at a speed greater than anything he had ever seen.
He barely managed to avoid the attack by kicking off the ground while using his two blades to block the blow, but he had to use all his strength to resist the impact, and his left arm simply bent in the wrong direction as he grunted in pain.
A guttural laugh emerged from the beast's throat as it struck an obvious mocking pose, licking its snout with its huge bulbous tongue.
"Shut up, you idiot, I don't understand you!" Uisuk roared with rage as he swung his remaining blade with all his might using one hand.
The beast dodged him easily, deflecting the attack in a single movement.
"Unpu," the beast said as it struck him directly in the chest.
The claws tore open his skin and broke his leather armor. Before his body could fly backward, the creature's massive jaw clamped onto his right arm, lifting him into the air as it gripped him with both arms.
Damn it, I'm going to die, Uisuk thought furiously.
The idea of dying didn't bother him as much as the fact that it was happening in such an impotent way, killed without even knowing the reason, by a mindless beast.
But at that precise moment, something changed. Suddenly, the space in front of him distorted and, before he could react, he watched, dazed, as his vision blurred while his mind lost control of his body, leaving him suspended in the air without knowing what was happening.
Dumbfounded, he looked at the previously empty space in front of him, where a mysterious and highly attractive figure had emerged.
It was a woman, quite tall—she stood over three meters, surpassing the beast by a head and looking absurdly imposing. She had hair as green as ivy and eyes as blue as a crystal-clear sea. The tip of her finger pressed against the air in front of her, causing the monstrous figure to writhe in pain as if an invisible hand were crushing it.
"Why is a Wolfen in these mountains? They shouldn't cross beyond the limits imposed by the ancient pacts," the woman growled with such an aura and pressure that even Uisuk couldn't stop all his internal organs from trembling at the simple invisible force she radiated.
The creature writhed and growled in a pleading tone using its strange language. The woman flicked her hand while muttering a small spell, making it so that even Uisuk could now understand the creature.
"The young lord of the Tupac Clan has ordered the restoration of the Phoenix Dynasty throughout the Mortal Realm. Soon, all mortals will kneel under the iron claw of the young master," the creature growled, to the surprise of Uisuk, who could now understand it.
"What the fuck...?" Uisuk grunted in confusion.
Even the beast itself was surprised by the fact that its words were now being translated for its counterparts and that it could understand them in return.
The beautiful woman's expression seemed thoughtful as she evaluated the creature. The Wolfen, as she had called it, fell silent; it knew its life was now in the hands of the woman in front of it and, with no intention of pleading, it simply remained silent awaiting the outcome, regardless of what it might be.
But at that moment, the woman's expression changed, turning cold. Suddenly, the Wolfen's body completely fell apart, exploding. But to Uisuk's surprise, it wasn't blood or flesh that dispersed in the blast, but rather gravel and dirt.
The woman's expression filled with anger as she slapped the air, shattering the surrounding trees and turning them into mere splinters. The only thing that remained intact was the polymorphic grass that Uisuk had been looking for.
Uisuk suddenly fell to the ground. His body, which had previously been out of his control, was his again, but despite everything, he was covered in a cold sweat that drenched every pore of his skin as he observed the figure in front of him with caution and desire.
Uisuk was young and immature, but also someone quite astute and of simple thoughts. Seeing a strong and beautiful woman, he couldn't help but desire her immediately and openly, admiring her curves and body.
Strength was an attractive thing in itself; just as women admire and desire men and warriors of great physical prowess, men desire that type of woman, although perhaps not as blatantly as Uisuk did.
After muttering something to herself, the woman observed Uisuk, who looked back at her dumbfounded, his gaze following her waist, thighs, and ass with large, wide, and pure eyes. It wasn't simply lust—although that existed with great intensity in Uisuk's eyes—but rather a desire born of admiration and submission, as if serving such a strong woman were a considerable achievement for him, like a knight serving a heroic king.
"Do you perhaps wish to keep those eyes?" the mysterious woman growled, still annoyed, but slightly amused by Uisuk's reaction.
"Yes, my lady. Please forgive my offense," Uisuk said with an embarrassed expression. After stealing one last look at the woman's magnificent body, he quickly ran toward Masha, who was still unconscious on the snowy ground.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Uisuk managed to detect that she was still alive, with serious, though not fatal, injuries.
"Boy, did you come here for that herb?" the woman asked suddenly in a somewhat mysterious and strange tone.
"Yes, my lady. But this herb is promised to someone else. If you will forgive my offense, I would like to ask you to yield it to us." Despite his words, Uisuk seemed to have given up on keeping the herb, prioritizing Masha's survival instead.
What had recently happened, along with his own wounds, was pushed out of his thoughts for now. The adrenaline in his body had been spent, and his system was pumping natural anesthetics to numb the pain and automatically stop the blood flow; for that reason, Uisuk was almost taciturn.
"Do you know who seeks it tirelessly, to the point that she cannot do it herself?" the woman suddenly asked.
A confused Uisuk simply replied: "I only know that the mysterious Witch of the Forest desires it somehow. I'm not sure if anyone else would want an herb like that."
Uisuk himself doubted that anyone else besides that eccentric witch would be looking for that plant.
"Well, you're in luck. I am that witch," the Witch of the Forest said with a smile as beautiful as it was deadly.
While a frozen and wounded Uisuk could barely react to her words, he watched as the mysterious woman suddenly approached the unconscious Masha. And before he could say anything, she kissed her lips in a soft, tender kiss.
A kiss that caused the blood welling from Masha's wounds to recede, while the color returned to her face.
But Uisuk's only coherent thought was...
"I'm so jealous."