“With how large the known world is, it would not have surprised me in the least to discover that there are people out there who lived without any connection to civilization at large, and that’s just considering the world as we know it.

Nobody had ever successfully ventured past the oceans and returned, so for all we know there might be other lands separated from ours by the seas. Such lands would likely have their own people, their own culture and history. My greatest wish is that I might someday get a glimpse of what lies beyond the seas in my own lifetime.” - Alina Knizhnyycherv, Researcher of Therian Cultures at the Verozgrad University, circa 672 FP.

“Oh, you’re going to visit her tribe next?” asked Thelos with some surprise evident on his old, wizened miens. Kyara confirmed the matter with a polite nod from where she sat across the small campfire, which made the old boar look even more surprised. “I guess it’s a given since you’re traveling with her and one of hers all this while. Just rare to see someone actually intending to visit those wildlings.”

“Why’d you say that?” Cal asked with not a little curiosity. Given how Kyara had not reacted when Thelos had called her tribe “wildlings” she assumed that it was something said in jest, or otherwise something she would not contest because it was the truth.

“She likely told you how her people have some… instincts and predilections didn’t she?” asked the old boar once more, as he drank deep from his flagon of ale and gave a satisfied belch before he continued his words. “A bad habit to want to… play with their prey and whatnot?”

“Kyara did, yeah,” replied Kino before Cal could do so. Both Cal and Kyara nodded as well to confirm her statement.

“You might be wondering why such a predilection would lead to a tribe living in exile from others, would you not?” asked Rosalind from the other side of the fire with a gentle tone, almost like a grandmother asking if a child wanted bedtime stories. “I assure you, they had proper reasons for that.”

“At least half a dozen tribes had been… toyed by my tribe to the point of extinction in the past,” admitted Kyara with her ears almost flat against her head, a gesture that Cal had learnt by now meant a display of shame. “And that was just what history recorded. There are likely others from times before we began to take note of history as well. It’s one reason why we forbid our people to walk the world unless they have the instincts under complete control.”

“Even nowadays, their kind remained boogeymen parents used to scare their children to bed in the Isles,” said Dalorian as he pulled his wife closer to snuggle against her. “The infamy is probably less pronounced in the Empire, since they had grown separate from the tribes here for a long time, and likely nonexistent overseas, no?”

“It was a rather refreshing experience, yes, Guardian. Especially so for Ashani. Even in the Empire many still feared us when they learned of our nature,” admitted Kyara with a thankful nod to the old druid. “In Alcidea, nobody cared even if we displayed ourselves openly. It’s nice to just be considered normal for a change.”

“When you visit her tribe, there’s an easy way to handle them,” said Dalorian as he continued. The old druid had brought out an old wooden smoking pipe and stuffed it with some dried leaves Cal had not recognized, which gave off a sweet-smoky scent when he lit them. “Just display your power and make it very clear that you are no prey. That will easily make their instinct exclude you from their annoying predilection.”

“Just try not to kill anyone if you can,” added Kyara from the side. She seemed to be rather unconcerned with the possibility, now that Cal thought about it. “Some of the young ones could be rather stubborn and needed to have their faces ground in the soil a few times before they got things into their thick skulls. I guess that’s not something exclusive to my folks though.”

“You seem to know a lot about her tribe,” commented Cal to the old druid.

“Hard not to, as mine had been the traditional go-between for her tribe and the outside world when they still existed,” explained Dalorian as he puffed some smoke from his pipe and blew circles of them into the night air. “Me and my wife have taken over that role between us for the past four centuries now.”

“It helps that more of them have managed to control their instincts these days,” added Rosalind with a toothy smile beside her husband. Cal raised an eyebrow in question to that statement since Kyara and Ashani were the only ones she knew of. “Oh, you think there’s too few? Back then it’s already rare to have one who could every four or five generations. Having two within three generations was already an improvement, and Kyara said there were other youngsters who might add to that number, too!”

“Still hard to tell at their age, but yeah,” said Kyara with a smile. “Maybe in a few more centuries we’d be able to have that instinct fully controlled and be able to rejoin society once more, but given our history, we’re not taking chances for the time being.”

“What history? The bit where your tribe drove others to extinction?” asked Cal to the therian matron with curiosity in her voice. Kyara had not talked much of her tribe’s history in the past two years, and she had not pried either, but given that they were talking freely about it at the moment, there was no harm in asking, she thought.

“Nowadays most people only remember the fear, but back then, there was hatred on top of that fear linked to us,” said Kyara wistfully with a sigh. “Just as we drove others to death, so had those who hated and feared us almost drove us to a dead end. Only a few of our ancestors escaped to our current home and imposed an exile upon themselves and their descendants.”

“An exile we abided until this day and age.”