CHAPTER 2 — A Baby Who Hunts (Age 0–1)
Kael learned to walk at three months.
Not shakily — but with silent, predatory steps like a stalking panther.
He reached out toward animals not with curiosity, but dominance. Wolves lowered their tails. Birds perched on his arm. A wild boar rolled onto its back in submission.
The clan elders were terrified.
"He understands aura," one whispered. "He is perceiving it… instinctively."
By age one, Kael communicated in short sentences.
"Too slow."
"Stronger."
"Again."
His mother tried to cradle him; he wriggled out.
"Mother. I must grow."
Arctus laughed. "He already thinks like a hunter."
But that arrogance — natural, unfiltered — unsettled everyone else.
Even as a toddler, Kael stared at the world with contemptuous curiosity, always searching for something more powerful.
Something worthy.