"-and that's how you carve the rune Vark for justice. Any questions, young cub?" I o the words of Shaman Urtaine, a young brown-furred male furbolg and my current teacher for runes and glyphs, in this case, the Ursine runes.

  Oakpaw couldn't do all of my educatioe being my principal tutor. He was very knowledgeable in many subjects but wasn't knowledgeable or profit ihing, nor did he have infiime to tend to me. So, I assed along from one shaman to another like a hot potato. Not that I wasn't given appropriate lessons, but it was amusing to imagihem doing that.

  It wasn't unusual per se. It was normal; even apprentices for shamans weren't exclusive to one individual. It was a unal effort. But usually, their apprentices weren't me.

  They didn't have the less-than-intact human mind from another reality full of desperation to survive and thirsting for knowledge to do the previously mentioned and whose shamanistru had begun seven years ago, making it close to y pert of their lives.

  It was a bit too much for some to handle, and it didn't matter that I wasn't a super genius. I was diligent and curious. Death had never felt this tangible, and I didn't want t every bad habit from before… Well, I tried, at least. The ck of brain rot divertissement helped on that front, and it was bonafide magic. Having crete power wasly intoxig, but it was close to that category.

  "Yes, I have a few, teacher," I said pensively, my paws moving to a bear totem I had carved two days ago and the one I would use as a training dummy, my future vas for my rune carving.

  He motioned for me to go on, and I happily plied.

  "Is that why Yor is only engraved with Vark on ons?" I asked. The sed represents an idea of justice, while the first did the same for tenacity. It wasn't hard to uand why they worked together.

  "Yes, without them, even the most sturdy ons of our warriors shatter before our foe; a strong body and spirit, if betrayed by a trusted one, lead to a downfall." He nodded again, a pleased smile of sharp teeth on his muzzle, "But that's not their only use-"

  And the lesso on.

  Runes were a fasating subje which I was deeply ied because they acted as the foundation of a lot of stuff. From entments, rituals, alchemy, and spells, they were pre-made magic given shape, meaning, and purpose.

  To say they were important would be an uatement. We used runes from other alphabets like Kalimag, but Ursine dominated. However, both held a lot of simirities sihe tter was an adaptation of the former to provide flexibility in exge for potency. It was one of the greatest gifts of Ursol to us.

  Shog to no o was a, among the oldest of Azeroth, and the base of our spoken and written nguage.

  So yes, it ilr for furbolgs. And being a full-fledged magic caster wasn't necessary to use them; we all had mana, no matter the quantity or the talent to wield it. A bit of training with an appropriate educatios you use most of them. It meant our craftsmen worked closely with us, closer than most, the beekeepers too, though they weren't the only ones.

  A roof leather chest piece or rust-resilient ax head did plenty for the tribe. It was an iment, only for a little time and admittedly more or less expensive and rare resources.

  It wasn't Frostmourne, but there was no need for that. A tool that could be used for a dozen geions if taken care of before only needing to be recycled at the end of its lifespan was well worth it.

  Ultimately, the lesson ended after another hour, and I was left colleg mushrooms in temporary living branch pack baskets.

  I was a bit far from the vilge, but there you got the kinds I wanted, both to eat and brew. Then I felt something, and my cws on their way to cut the stem of a puffy e ball-shaped mushroom froze.

  The aral spirits stirred suddenly, and my head so the distance where their urgency pointed. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath while cyg my energy, and listened. A sed ter, I could hear and sense beyond my fleshy body.

  ~Go!~

  ~A cub of a wandering one is soon to die.~

  ~Fast, time is fleeting.~

  ~She had given birth and was captured with her daughter in her weakened moment by a traitorous satyr out of ht!~

  ~A dark veil had kept the lost ones hidden.~

  ~The fiend murdered her mate.~

  And I looped out the drowning chorus of voices, calming my breathing as best as possible. I hadn't expected things to escate this quickly or to escate at all. And the glimpse I got from their perception, as fusing as it might be, showed it was bad.

  Hearing the aors' whispers aing glimpses of visions wasn't out of the ordinary here, for me, at least. I was close to our burial ground. It lets us jump over usually obligatory steps, but to be this loud. It wasn't normal.

  This was bad.

  I grimaced, torn on what to do, but this pse didn't st long. It erilous. I would have to go alone, but oher paw, it won't be the case for long sihe spirits won't stay silent. They would warn my fellow shamans, and if it were something I couldn't do, they wouldn't act this way.

  I utting a lot of trust in them. My aors, they may be; this was an immense leap of faith.

  Reag my clusion, I was already sprinting on all four. The newborn cub and her mother weren't of the tribe but were furbolgs. Their potential death wasn't so much the cause of my choice. I won't cry over every tragedy.

  No, it was the circumstances, aing them suffer and die without even trying to save them was beyond unsavory on my tongue. Letting one of those degee freaks harm a defenseless cub and her postpartum mother in our territory was uable on every level.

  Luckily and wly, where the aors pointed me wasn't that far. The satyr was right in the middle of our territory. It was in the dire of an area where the patrols of the two ursa totemics managing this territory were less frequent due to the terrain.

  It was a wetnd thanks to the rivers, a pce the two huge furbolg managing it hated to be deep withio their weight and bulk. It's a clever pce to hide if you know what to do.

  Minutes passed, and runni like ay—an agoniziernity that finally ended as I he wetnd. The humidity from it made the nearby area perfeany fungi. Taking a short breather to cool down, I began to study my enviro.

  My senses of smell failed to deteything. Still, it was expected here from the overp odor of flowers and mud and actual magical solutions against it, making it obvious something was out of pce. But if there was ohing that wasn't perfectly hidden, it was three distinct life forces, yet I couldn't tell mubsp;

  They were muted, and it wasn't exclusively because they were underground; I reed it was something else… a ward and the dark veil mentioned. It oorly done or had been damaged if the aors se from this far.

  Pg a paw on the ground, I focused, expanding my sense in the soil through the thousands of roots to better uand what I was w with. I o be quick, but blindly rushing in was a no.

  'Oyr and the mother and daughter duo…' I frowned but leased with there only being one of those despoilers, though the mother felt wrong and the newborn was extremely weak and a bit off. It greatly displeased me, however, but at least the two were alive.

  Rapidly advang to the entrance–learned from the vegetation and the smell–it was a small hole in the roots of a rotting tree, a burrow. It was a dangerous pce to hide with high ces of colpsing and flooding, paradoxically making it good as ursa totemics couldn't go in.

  Pg my mushroom basket with half was now to be posted. I rapidly devised a basi of a as my eyes nded on one particur mushroom. It had a beige, fat, stubby base and a ft of pale purple flesh adorned with bright yellow dots. If oo look closely, one would notice hundreds of pores.

  I smirked—a devious idea had fshed in my mind.

  "Hehehe… And the air should be too humid for any fgration…" I hat after taking four of such mushrooms, my mana from when I plucked them to avoid any explosive act was recharged by me with bonuses for what was to e. Their abilities to self-fertilize were utilized in full force here.

  I stepped in. It was a short walk, and I was found immediately, a furiously hissing mase voi a heavily ated Darnasian apanied by the clip-clop of hooves. The smell of blood hit me, but it wasn't just furbolg blood.

  "First, the dumb mut woke up, went on a rampage, vitiated my precious seals, nearly ripped off my arm, almost killed the primary sacrifice, and now you unintellige dare e into the domain of Lord Delmax?" The male satyr, 'Lord' Delmax, came into view and openly ranted, a pathetic sight and dispy if I ever saw one.

  His body was ohinner side and unwashed; mud and blood caked his fur while his left shoulder was badly mangled, hastily put bloody bandages hiding the ugly, deep bite wound.

  And he was marginally taller tha bigger, big differe the biggest satyr, but I didn't let my guard dowo this. Size fic casters was sedary.

  We stared at each other for a terse sed, and a pleased smile grew on his face, fangs showing as he seemingly cluded I rey material—a wrong clusion. A horrifically wrong one I was going to fix immediately.

  "Truly, I'm thankful, my furry little pest, you alleviate a great burd-" And I threw the mushrooms in his general dire–puffshrooms was their name–and harmlessly bounced off the walls, ceiling, ground, and his body each exploding into a dense cloud of beige spores.

  He coughed and cursed, rage all over his face, his cwed hand glowing with ghoulish green energy for a spell I reized and khey were in love with drain life. But it was useless and too te.

  I rushed to him as his cough grew in iy and force, yet ever quieting, barring the wet noise from the blood that was added to the mix.

  I bet it was likely from the mycelium growing in his throat, nose cavity, and lungs, tearing away his delicate alveoli for the st by their sheer bulk. He wasn't poisoned or envenomed. Puffshrooms aren't toxid require precise ditions to develop, but magic helped smooth out the tter.

  The spores thrived in the enviro with my mana, blog and pushing away everything in their path. In anything with lungs, it was devastatie it only being seemingly harmless fragile mycelium that wouldn't survive for long.

  But it wouldn't kill fast enough. The surprise factor won't stay for eternity either, and as much as I loved the sight of a filthy satyr clutg his throat with wide eyes filled with utter terror, inprehension, and fusion… You don't py around with them.

  Kill first and question never.

  'Hmm. It's going to be my first kill of something sapient.' I briefly realized as I swiftly put a foot on his sternum, causing him to stop rolling as I put two-thirds of my weight on that single point, the bones uraining.

  I grabbed under his with my left paw, perforating the skin with the cws as I got a hold of where jaw boendons, and surrounding muscles held it to the skull. My right paw at the same time went behind, cws scraping the skin and skull, the goat horns only solidifying my grip, my death bear hug.

  The supposed 'Lord' squirmed with all his

  might; screaming wasn't possible, but I knew he was trying just as he tried to cw at me with little success with his cute, sharp nails he called bsp;

  He hyxiating, too. I gri his state. At best, he was making scratches. It was as if he fot he could do magic, the wonder of panid why Miel hammered it in me.

  Good, I wasn't going to let him remember.

  I don't want to know what an ageless warlock pull out of his ass in a pinch. I didn't o experie to know that.

  Then, I wordlessly began to twist his neck at an upward angle, all the while hauling the head. Both as were done in parallel as I used weight, strength, and teiques for maximal efficy. Ursa totemics were not mindless beasts, brawlers using cws and fang they may be; they knew how to fight. By being tutored under one, I wasn't only taught to bite well.

  In a short moment, my effort bore fruit with a satisfying sound. It was a mix of wet flesh twisting, skiending before tearing, and snaps from breaking the cervicals and ribs echoed iunnel as the body below me went limp.

  The Fel mana that had gathered iyr's hands vanished as I let go of the barely attached head by fleshy ribbons and fimentous mycelium, and thanks to those clogging everything, there was barely any blood.

  I couldn't ponder how I felt after my first kill or how little I did that a loud bestial below reverberated in the air. I might have broken whatever he did to keep the mother down as the near-headless satyr words fshed in my head.

  It was why she felt wrong, one of my greatest fears as a furbolg, corruption.

  "Fuck!" I jumped off the corpse and hastened myself to the end of the tunnel.

  The end wasn't far, and as I reached, I saw the glow of Fel energy painting the rge room in baleful green light from their source mana crystal and glyphs. Kools, and fsks ents were strewn around, as was a makeshift bed. Cw marks were present, too, messing up some of the stuff.

  Whatever this ritual went over my head as my eyes locked onto the female, her naked body covered in burns aions. Yet this was nothing pared to her eyes betraying any ideas of higher thoughts and her wide open frothing maw of fangs above a cub almost rivaling her in injury in a no way better state.

  Toothless and cwless, weakened newborn oh door wailing and filing meekly at mother on her way to devour her cub. I profoundly hated this sight ated not having tortured the satyr, but this was a useless thought.

  "Hey!" I yelled, attrag the two's attention and the mother's aggression as she rushed at me on all fours. A root pushed from the ground under her feet, and she stumbled, rolling in a heap of uncoordinated limbs until the wall stopped her. After that, I willed hundreds of smaller roots around her neck, muzzle, arms, and legs.

  'It should be enough.' I thought running to the newborn cub, the roots were the metaphorical pilr of this house that was the burrow, and why I didn't directly strahe satyr aside from the fat ce it wouldn't work. He could suck the life out of them and had demonic fmes.

  Croug down, I frowned. Suppose there was a silver lining: the utation in her and her mother, who were remarkably intact. Though that was the physical part, her mana was impure, but with my current skill, I 't execute the first step to purify her without risking damaging her mind or, worse, her soul. Less be said of the tter beyond the ck of resources.

  Furbolgs knew of their weakness, after all. But that was of no impact when taken alone and helpless. And by a certain point, it bees nigh impossible.

  So, I went in with what I knew best: restoratioly cradling her, I noticed how incredibly light, fragile, cold she was, trembling too. She was sick, starving and dehydrated. It was exceptional she wasn't a corpse yet, but she was on her way if I didn't intervene.

  I pced a finger pad on her forehead, her wide eyes staring at me in fear, but as I forced her into slumber, they went unfocused and disappeared under her eyelids. I immediately went on to quickly and profitly heal her wounds.

  Then, as I was stabilizing her, my ears swiveled at the sound of roots tearing apart. It all happened so fast. My focus was almost entirely on the cub, yet it remaieady as I nearly knocked off my feet. The following burning pains on my back of cws ah in iher did ge that fact.

  I reacted purely out of instinct. Roots far sturdier and rger than the one I used before surged from the ceiling and tched oher, killing her instantly by brusquely tugging upward as her momentum and the strength of the pnts did the rest.

  "Fuckfuckfuck…" I muttered, turning around–the sharp pain on my back was merely an afterthought–I stared at the body. A few moments passed, and aruck me.

  Then I looked at the ceiling, where water began trig down. It was stable enough, but it won't be for long. This was why I didn't use bigger roots to tie her up! I hate this type of bullshit situation. Whatever your choice, it's the wrong one.

  "I hope this works…" I securely held the sleeping newborn close to my chest as I willed the roots to let go and pced a paw on her mother's wrongly angled nebsp;

  However, first, I eled a purifying spell, my mana c through the warm corpse, overp the flecks of Fel in its wake. It was a bit like matter on antimatter, and small lesions and scar tissues formed in the process.

  All of these mostly went away for the former iing the tter due to Nature and Life mana and my ck of care from my rushed teique—a problem for me to fix ter.

  This emergency sing process took a minute and a half. I wasn't done, but it should suffice. If it didn't, then that would be a problem for ter. Water was already at my knees. Her head would be uhe muddy water if her body hadn't beeed.

  Onto my idea…

  If ical death was reversible ba Earth in many cases, it should also be here with magic. It was more than a theory. I tested with success on varying occasions on prey, but I never did so on furbolg and even less under pressure.

  With that in mind, I went to work. I wasn't unfamiliar with spine restru for the same reason. However, a bad fall of my little sister was all it took, among other cases close to that, to familiarize myself with them regarding furbolgs.

  Here, it was only a matter of reorienting the neck. After, it was far more straightforward: muscle tears were fixed, nerves reected, and veins and arteries tied back. As for the little bone splinters, blood, and such tissues, I guided and accelerated their resorption process. It's a rick for injuries that leave tissues where they don't belong.

  "Now, to restart your heart," I said, loincloth wet and fur drenched from the rising mud. My free paw, glowing a vibrant green with glimmers of red, palmed her upper back, and I flushed my mana through her skin straight into her heart and diaphragm in quick bursts; the ehing from the beginning seriously started to burn my mana reserve down.

  The results were greater than I expected, and she took a big breath, coughing all the while weakly standing up, allowio step away in case she was still feral. At least it meant I healed her well.

  "Wh-what…?" She whizzed weakly, and relief flooded my system, but I didn't dare go closer.

  "e, we must go out!" I loudly called, attrag her attention. Her eyes locked on me, my back then at her cub, areme guilt and horror fshed across her fad impregnated her smell to the point even in our situation, I could smell.

  Oh, by the Bear Lords, she remembers it, poor her. Well, it's not my problem, and I wasn't a therapist, but I don't foresee good mental health without serious support. Still, the sigh of it all, I hated it. Fug satyr… I had been far too kind.

  "I'm fine, and so is your daughter! Unless you want to waste my effort reviving you by being buried and drowned bato a corpse, follow me!" I called out with more force, luckily snappio reality.

  She took a step and nearly fell. Tired of waiting, I grabbed her rger paw and guided her as she followed. She nearly fell multiple times, either from exhaustioions, injuries, or altogether, but with my support, she soldiered on. It wasn't very gentlemanly, but this silly cept did for furbolg—too plex and useless.

  And with effort, we mao get out to be met oside with an ursa totemic, a shaman with a few warriors, and around a dozen visible armed kaldorei women on sabertooth panthers.

  There was a moment of heavy silence as they all stared at us. I avoided the nervous awkwardness of direct frontation by sitting on a nearby log, voicelessly tending to my wounds, the sleeping cub still in my grasp. The mother was to the side and frozen in pce, unsure of what to do and terrified, most likely.

  "They need help." I broke the silen Ursine; some night elves transted what I said to their fellows, and then I crified, pointing at the two I saved, "Light case of Fel touch, and below, there's a failed demonic ritual or something of that nature."

  *

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