Quietly, Etasose sat and stared out to the horizon. She sat on the highest point of the temple, staring blankly outwards as she waited for her mother’s return.

“Nolkonoe, when is mother returning?” she asked, looking back to the four quiet clan leaders. None dared to speak. The guilt of leaving this young, eighteen-year-old girl’s mother to die hung over them like a guillotine.

“She… won’t be coming home,” Pycleia said quietly.

“That fucking idiot!” the Lead Forger Ases wailed as she began to punch and kick the wall of the temple. Tears poured from her eyes.

“She betrayed us!” she screamed. Nolkonoe snapped around, grabbing Ases, she turned her to face her. Throwing a hand back, she threw it forward again, landing a harsh slap onto her face.

“Don’t you dare!” Nolkonoe screamed, readying herself to skin her alive. Pycleia stepped between the two women.

“Calm yourselves, would she want this?” Pycleia said, looking back to see Etasose beginning to process what they had just said.

Tears burst from her eyes as she began to shake her head. Sprinting to her side, Nolkonoe wrapped her arms around.

“Don’t worry, I’m here my girl,” she said in a motherly tone as she cradled the crying girl in her arms.

Cluupyte stayed silent as she stared out towards the horizon in silence. Ases yelled and screamed in anger while Pycleia and the recently arrived Klipesia began to comfort the lead forger as she cried and screamed. Nolkonoe and Phukomeia (who had arrived with Klipesia) did the same to the sobbing Etasose.

Cluupyte’s eyes widened as saw a small cloud of sand begin to form on the horizon. For a moment she watched as the cloud got larger and larger, getting closer and closer. Turning to the others, she leapt into action and grabbed her war spear.

“Desert claimers! Five of them!” she screamed. All stopped as they heard her say this. Leaping into action, the warriors grabbed their weapons.

“Get the warriors ready for battle! There is a horde of Desert Claimers!” Nolkonoe screamed down to the tribe.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Etasose got to her feet.

“Stay, we’ll deal with this,” Nolkonoe said, but Etasose had already taken her war spear and stormed off.

Archers lined the walls of the village, their arrows aimed down to the approaching Desert Claimers. Etasose, the clan leaders, and their respected heirs stood along the battlements as well. All were ready for the attack. But no attack came. The Desert Claimers stopped not far from the gates. Upon the head of what looked to be the lead creature, lay the lifeless body of the Chiefess.

A tall, pale figure stood on the head of the creature. Picking up the body, the creature began to walk towards the walls, the Desert Claimers slowly walking behind them. The figure reached the side of the wall and stopped. Looking up, they could see its blank face had no expressions. Within a blink of an eye, it was gone.

“Etasose,” a deep voice said. Jumping, all turned to see the figure standing over Etasose. Nolkonoe only stared blankly at the creature, but she soon realised what it was. Throwing herself to the ground, she bowed to the figure.

“Bow your heads! Do you not realise who this angle was sent by?” Seeing the actions of Nolkonoe, the others quickly followed. Only Etasose was left standing.

“That knife belongs to me,” Etasose said, too overcome by seeing her mother’s body to care for the consequences of her action.

“It does,” the figure said, offering the knife out to Etasose.

“Would you care to come down with me,” the figure said. Gesturing to the Desert Claimer. Etasose thought for a moment, but then nodded.

“Yes,” Etasose answered quietly. Nodding, the angle placed her hand onto the shoulder of Etasose. Blinking, Etasose found herself standing Infront of the Desert Claimer which her mother’s body lay on.

“MUM!” she yelled, sprinting to the creature.

Stopping, she saw now how pale her mother’s skin was. There was no need to be told, she could tell from a glance her mother was dead. Before tears could sweel in her eyes once again, the figure stood before her. Her mother’s headdress sat in the hands of the figure. Raising the headdress into the air, the figure made sure the tribe could see her as she placed the crown onto the head of Etasose, the new Chiefess. None needed the figure to speak as they knew what this motion meant.

Lastly, the figure handed Etasose her mother’s knife.

“Etasose, queen of the Desert Ghosts,” the Figure said before fading into the air. Staring upwards, Etasose watched as the mist that made up the figure of the creature dissipated.

Rumbling surrounded her. Jumping, she looked forward to seeing the Desert Claimers had lowered their heads to her. The new Chiefess straightened her back as she stared at the body of her mother. Never again would she allow this. Never again would she allow someone so precious to her to be harmed.

Staring back to the battlements, the Chiefess locked eyes with Nolkonoe. Both knew if her mother was there to see this, she would be beyond proud.

Phukomeia wiped a few tears from her eyes as she finished her story. From this simple gesture, Charlie could tell that this was an emotional talking point for her.

“Now the Chiefess keeps the knife here. Ready for when she must make her own sacrifice. But hopefully, that day would never come,” Phukomeia said, turning to see a stunned Charlie.

“Amazing…” he muttered, not even knowing a hint of this before.

“It’s also one of the reasons the Lead Forger hates Etasose. She loved her mother, and when she made her lone stand, she felt betrayed by her. Since Etasose looks so much like her mother, she reflects that same feeling of hatred and betrayal onto her,” Phukomeia explained. Again, looking to Charlie, she could see the mixed sympathy and depression on his face.

“You said the Lead Forger had a son?” Charlie said, knowing how rare men were in the tribe, yet never had he heard of a man of such a high status as to be the son of a major Clan Leader.

“He fell madly in love with a woman from another clan. So, he left our clan to go and chase after her. But she was an Amazon, as thus rejected his feeling because he was, as she put it, ‘average.’ Depressed, he came home and married a woman of the tribe. Since his leaving though a year before, the tribe treated him like an outsider.

Expect his mother and sister of course as well as the Vulture he married. But then we had a bad season of crops, so the Chiefess chose him as a sacrifice to the Goddess of rain to come and fertilise the fruit trees, as well as make sure you arrived safely. Since he was a member of the tribe that was considered a new blood, the tribe had no calms with sacrificing him.

His own wife rode him the night he was killed and sacrificed. And all this was the night you were attacked by desert crawlers and were delivered to us. The Leader Forger now has a renewed hatred towards the Chiefess, and a distain for you and the Vultures. Especially the Vultures since she sees us as betraying her son, even though he was more than willing to sacrifice himself for the benefit of the tribe,” Phukomeia explained, sending shivers down his spine at the thought that the rain that night was brough about by them sacrificing some man in a bloody ritual to one of their pagan Goddesses.

Noticing again he had stopped his work, Phukomeia placed a hand onto his head while gently swaying her tail in front of his face.

“Sit back if you want, I’ll continue to work. You deserve some rest,” she said, smiling at him and using her tail to push him back and away from the coins.

“Its fine, I’ll just be a little taken back by hearing all this,” Charlie said, pulling his legs into his chest as Phukomeia kept her tail wagging in front of his face to keep him distracted.

Glancing slightly over her shoulder, she watched as his eyes fixed onto her tail as she swayed it across his face. Smiling widely, she remembered how when they were children, they played like this. Nolkonoe would always yell at her after for exposing the tribe’s secret, and then she would yell at her again for having to make her use some difficult magics to erase parts of his memory.

Her smile faded. She wished he would remember those days, but the incident forced Nolkonoe to wipe his memories back then. Quickly snapping her tail, she made him jump. Laughing, she returned to counting. Poor thing. He had been through hell and didn’t even know it, let alone remember it.

Pushing the thoughts aside, Phukomeia continued to multitask by hitting and playing with her tail and Charlie, while counting the coins and placing them into the piles. Almost as if it was instinct, Charlie played with her tail as it wrestled around with him.

Towards the edge of the village walked the Chiefess and her group of warriors. Together with the Chiefess they joked and laughed about the fear they had seen on the face of the Region Lord. Silence flooded over the group though as they noticed a group of Huntresses passing them. A passing Ourupadia and Chiefess locked gazes.

Stopping, the Chiefess grabbed the arm of Ourupadia.

“What?” Ourupadia snapped, trying to yank her arm away from the Chiefess, but soon she found that her arm wouldn’t budge as the Chiefess’s grip was too tight.

“The only reason I didn’t skin you last night was that I came to my senses and saw him there. To make it clear if you didn’t get the idea last night, he’s mine, don’t touch him,” Letting go of her shoulder, the Chiefess went to walk away but was stopped by Ourupadia grabbing her shoulder with a strong, vice-like grip of her own.

“I wasn’t trying to seduce him. And I meant what I said. I’ll become stronger, and I’ll beat you,” Ourupadia retorted. Scoffing, the Chiefess turned and the two locked gazes again. Both the groups of friends took a few steps back as they saw the women glare at each other.

“I like to see you try. Do you think you have what it takes to care for him?” the Chiefess said, turning to face Ourupadia, slapping her hand off her shoulder as she did so.

“I did better than you when we were kids, what will stop me from taking care of him now?” Ourupadia said, now not having Charlie around she could afford to let her competitive side out.

“Take that back, or I’ll shove this spear up your ass and make you into dinner,”

“Oohhh my, cannibalism! Weren’t we going to stop that now? Only leave it for the evil was what you said to the tribe?”

“Well, I did say we can still cook and eat pigs, and I think you look enough like one that I could pass you off as a nice obese hog,” the Chiefess responded, taking a step closer to Ourupadia. Ourupadia did the same, challenging the Chiefess to stand her ground.

“At least I didn’t get the man I loved almost eaten by Desert Crawlers and then force Nolkonoe to wipe the memory of him getting his leg eaten by a desert crawler, and then the process of Nolkonoe having to care for him for an entire month back in his homeland while she used dark magic to give him a new leg,” Ourupadia said, but the Chiefess was silent as she placed her hand onto her knife.

“Walk away now, or despite what Charlie may think, I’ll cut your head off and use it as a piss pot,” Ourupadia moved to get a knife of her own, readying herself for a fight.

A wrapped around the hand of the Chiefess. Throwing her gaze behind herself, she looked to see Cluupyte holding her hand.

“Come, we’re leaving,” Cluupyte said, snatching the knife from her hand and dragging her away. Pycleia appeared and snatched Ourupadia away as well.

But all there knew, was the battle between two wolves was only just beginning.