"Safe is boring? Easy for you to say," Robin muttered, his voice muffled by the thick furs of his bed. "You're the one with the six-foot spear and the muscles that can crush a tree."
Lunara, who was halfway out of the yurt's flap, paused. She turned back, the morning light catching the silver of her hair. She didn't look like the cold warrior who had dragged him out of the woods today. She looked… well, almost playful. She reached up, absentmindedly scratching the base of one of her ears, her tail giving a light, rhythmic thrum against the leather doorframe.
"And you're the one with the 'physics' magic," she countered, a small smirk playing on her lips. "Wash up, Robin. You still smell like the South Fence, and if we're going to see the Shaman, you should at least look like a person and not a mud-golem. I'll be outside. Don't take all day; I've seen pups groom themselves faster than you."
Robin sighed but smiled as she disappeared. The "rigid" warrior persona was definitely cracking, replaced by a sort of bossy big-sister energy that made the terrifying situation feel a lot more like home.
He stood up, his muscles screaming in protest. The fence repair had taken a toll.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[PHYSICAL RECOVERY: 85%]
[NEW TRAIT ACQUIRED: 'STURDY BACK' – 5% INCREASE TO STAMINA RECOVERY AFTER MANUAL LABOR.]
"Great," Robin whispered. "I'm becoming the world's best supernatural handyman."
He found a basin of water near the hearth. He scrubbed the dried clay from his arms and face, noticing that the scars on his ribs were now nothing more than faint silver lines. The healing power of this world was incredible. He pulled on the leather tunic Lunara had given him. It was a bit snug across the shoulders—apparently, Lunara had been a very athletic "yearling"—but it felt good. Solid.
When he stepped outside, the village was already humming. The sun—the pale one—was high, and the air was crisp. Lunara was waiting for him, sitting on a flat stone. She was busy with a comb made of bone, meticulously brushing out the tangles in her long, silver tail.
Robin stopped, mesmerized for a second. It was a remarkably domestic sight. She noticed him and quickly tucked the comb into a pouch on her belt, though she didn't look embarrassed.
"Ready?" she asked, standing up and stretching. The movement was feline, graceful, and highlighted the sheer power she carried.
"Ready," Robin said. "So, about those eyes I saw last night. Near the fence. You think it was just another Sable-claw?"
Lunara's expression shifted, the playfulness vanishing for a serious flicker. "I hope so. But Sable-claws don't usually hang around after a pack-leader is downed. They're cowards. If something was watching us… it was something smarter. That's why we're going to the Grove. The Shaman, Mother Kaia, sees things we don't. And her apprentice, Mina, has been complaining about the 'song' of the forest changing."
They began to walk toward the eastern edge of the village. As they passed a group of younger wolf-girls practicing with wooden spears, one of them waved.
"Hey, Lunara! Is that your pet?" the girl shouted, laughing.
Lunara didn't even look back. "He's a squire, Tali! And if he hears you, he might just build a cage you can't get out of!"
She looked at Robin and winked. "Don't mind them. They're just jealous because you don't growl when you're hungry."
"I might start," Robin joked. "It seems to be the only way to get respect around here."
The path to the Elder's Grove was beautiful. The trees here weren't the "muscle-trees" of the deep forest, but massive, weeping-willow-like structures with leaves that looked like spun silver. They hummed. A low, literal vibrating sound that Robin could feel in his teeth.
"The Spirit-trees," Lunara whispered, her voice full of genuine reverence. "They are the heart of our territory. They filter the mana from the air. Without them, the forest goes wild. The beasts go mad."
As they reached the center of the grove, the humming grew discordant. Some of the silver leaves were turning a sickly, oily black, dripping a sludge that sizzled when it hit the moss.
"It's getting worse," a soft voice said.
From behind a particularly large tree stepped a girl. She was much shorter than Lunara, maybe five-foot-six, with floppy, light-brown ears and a tail that was short and fluffy, like a pom-pom. She wore robes made of woven grass and flowers, and her eyes were a soft, wide green.
[TARGET DETECTED: MINA]
[SPECIES: LUNAWOLF (SHAMAN APPRENTICE)]
[DISPOSITION: ANXIOUS/CURIOUS]
[BOND LEVEL: 0% (STRANGER)]
"Mina," Lunara said, stepping forward and placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. "This is Robin. The one from the star-fall."
Mina's eyes went wide. She practically hopped over to Robin, sniffing the air around him. "Oh! You really do smell different! Like... like metal and cold wind. And coffee? What is coffee?"
Robin blinked. "Uh, it's a drink. Keeps you awake. How do you know what coffee smells like if you've never had it?"
"The forest tells me scents," Mina said, her ears flopping excitedly. "But the trees! Robin, the trees are crying. Look."
She pointed to a gnarled root. The black sludge was pulsing.
"Mother Kaia is in a deep trance trying to hold back the infection, but she can't find the source," Mina said, her voice turning sad. "It's like something is eating the roots from the inside, but it's not an insect. It's... a bad thought. A rot of the spirit."
Lunara looked at Robin. "Well, 'Builder'? Any ideas? Or do we need more levers?"
Robin walked over to the root, kneeling down. He didn't touch the black stuff—it looked corrosive. He pulled up his system interface, looking for anything that could help.
[SYSTEM SEARCH: ANALYZING ENVIRONMENTAL ANOMALY...]
[SKILL DETECTED: 'LOGICAL DEDUCTION' (PASSIVE)]
[OBSERVATION: THE BLACK SLUDGE IS NOT NATURAL. IT IS A CONCENTRATED BYPRODUCT OF EXOGENOUS MANA PARASITISM.]
"It's a parasite," Robin said, standing up. "But not a physical one. Something is 'plugged' into the root system further up the hill. It's taking the good energy and pumping back this... waste."
Mina gasped. "I knew it! I told Mother Kaia it felt like a straw in a berry! But she said I was being too imaginative."
"Wait," Lunara said, her hand dropping to her spear. "If something is 'plugged in,' that means someone put it there."
"Exactly," Robin said. "Is there anything up-current? A spring? Or a cave?"
Mina nodded vigorously. "The Whispering Grotto. It's where the main root of the Mother Tree drinks. But it's been blocked by a rockfall for weeks. We thought it was just the weather."
"Rockfalls don't happen in the dry season," Lunara muttered, her eyes narrowing. She looked at the drooping silver leaves. "Mina, stay here. Keep the shaman safe. Robin, you're with me. If there's something in that grotto, it's going to find out why you don't mess with the Lunawolf heart."
The hike up to the Grotto was steep. The atmosphere between Robin and Lunara was tense, but not in the way it had been before. Now, there was a sense of partnership.
"Hey," Robin said, catching his breath as they climbed a ridge. "Back there, with Mina... you seemed different. Softer."
Lunara didn't look back, but her tail gave a little flick. "Mina is like a sister. She's the heart of the tribe. Most of us are claws and teeth, Robin. Mina is the one who remembers the songs. If we lose the trees, we lose her. And I won't let that happen."
She stopped suddenly, pulling Robin behind a large rock. Her ears were flat against her head.
"What is it?" he whispered.
"Scent," she hissed. "Not Sable-claw. Something... rancid. Like old meat and wet copper."
They peered over the rock. The entrance to the Whispering Grotto was ahead. The "rockfall" Robin had heard about wasn't a rockfall at all. It was a barricade of jagged stones, held together by a thick, pulsating web of the same black sludge they'd seen on the roots.
And standing guard were three creatures Robin hadn't seen before. They were humanoid but twisted. Their skin was the color of a bruise, and they had no eyes—only large, vibrating nostrils and mouths filled with jagged, yellowed teeth. They carried crude clubs made of bone.
"Void-touched," Lunara whispered, her grip tightening on her spear. "They haven't been seen this far south in a generation. This is bad, Robin. This is very bad."
[NEW QUEST: THE GROTTO PURGE]
[OBJECTIVE: CLEAR THE VOID-TOUCHED AND DESTROY THE MANA-SIPHON.]
[WARNING: VOID-TOUCHED ARE BLIND BUT HAVE ENHANCED HEARING.]
"We can't just charge in," Robin whispered. "There are three of them, and if they're blind, they'll hear you coming a mile away."
Lunara looked at him, her golden eyes flashing. "I am a silent hunter, Robin. I can take one before the others react."
"And then the other two crush your head while you're recovering your spear," Robin countered. "We need a distraction. Something loud."
He looked around. The hillside was covered in dry, brittle shale.
"I'll go around to that ledge," Robin pointed to a spot thirty feet to the left of the guards. "I'll start a slide. When they turn toward the noise, you hit them from the right. Use the wind—it's blowing toward us, so they won't smell you."
Lunara looked at him, her expression a mix of concern and admiration. "You're putting yourself in the open. If they catch you, you're dead. You can't fight them."
"I'm not fighting them. I'm the 'loud thing,'" Robin said with a nervous grin. "Just make sure you're fast."
Lunara reached out, her hand lingering on his shoulder. Her claws were retracted, her palm warm through his tunic. "I am always fast, Robin. On my signal."
She vanished into the brush, moving with a silence that seemed impossible for someone her size.
Robin waited. His heart was a drum in his ears. He counted to sixty, then began to crawl toward the shale ledge. Every movement felt like a mountain moving. He reached the edge, looking down at the blind guards. They were twitching, their nostrils flaring.
Now or never.
Robin grabbed a large, unstable boulder and shoved it.
The rock tumbled, triggering a cascade of shale that sounded like a building collapsing. The three Void-touched shrieked, a sound like metal grinding on metal, and turned as one toward the noise.
Schwing!
Lunara appeared like a ghost from the shadows. Her spear pierced the first creature's chest before it could even scream. She didn't stop to pull it out; she used the momentum to kick the second creature off its feet, her powerful digitigrade legs sending it flying into the rock wall.
The third one, however, was faster. It swung its bone club in a blind, savage arc.
"Lunara! Left!" Robin yelled.
She ducked, the club whistling over her head, and she swept her tail—hard. The silver-grey limb hit the creature's legs like a lead pipe, tripping it. She recovered her spear in a blur of motion and finished the job.
It was over in seconds.
Lunara stood over the bodies, her chest heaving. She looked up at the ledge where Robin was crouched.
"Good distraction," she panted, a fierce, adrenaline-fueled smile on her face. "But your 'loud thing' almost got my ears ringing."
Robin scrambled down the hill, his legs feeling like jelly. "Is it done?"
"The guards are. But the barrier..." She pointed at the black, pulsing web.
As they approached the entrance, the black sludge began to ripple. A voice—low, distorted, and echoing from within the cave—spoke.
"The star-fall... the wolf... you are too late. The root is tasted. The Weaver knows you now."
The black web suddenly burst, but not outward. It imploded, sucking the air into the cave.
Robin and Lunara stood at the mouth of the now-open grotto. Inside, the water that should have been crystal clear was a swirling vortex of ink. And in the center of the pool sat a stone pedestal that hadn't been there before, glowing with a faint, sickly green light.
[BOND INCREASE: LUNARA 15% (BATTLE-BROTHER)]
[BOND INCREASE: MINA 5% (FAITH IN THE STAR-FALL)]
"The Weaver?" Robin asked, his voice trembling. "Who is the Weaver?"
Lunara stepped into the cave, her spear leveled at the pedestal. "A myth. A story mothers tell pups to make them stay in the light. But if the myths are coming to life..." She looked at Robin, her golden eyes full of a new, sharp fear. "Then the forest isn't the only thing that's going to rot."
She walked toward the pedestal, but as she reached out to smash it, a small, black spider—no larger than a coin—scuttled out from a crack and vanished into the shadows.
"We need to get back," Lunara said, her voice urgent. "We need to tell my father. This isn't just a blight, Robin. This is a declaration of war."
But as they turned to leave, the system in Robin's head chimed with a sound he hadn't heard before. A sound of warning.
[LONG-TERM GOAL UPDATED: THE WEAVER'S WEB (1/100)]
[WARNING: YOU ARE BEING TRACKED.]
Robin looked back at the dark cave. He felt a cold shiver down his spine. He had come here to survive, but it seemed the world had a much bigger role for him than just a builder.
"Lunara," he said as they stepped back into the sunlight.
"Yeah?"
"I think that spider... I think it's still watching us."
She didn't laugh. She just gripped his hand—hard—and pulled him toward the village. "Then we'll just have to make sure we don't lead it to the pups. Come on. We're running."
End of Chapter 3.
Current Bond: Lunara (15%), Mina (5%).
Next Objective: Report to Chief Fenris and the impending Council of the Tri