28 Completed (1/2)

The rest of the week passed quickly, I allowed myself to completely recover my strength before we travel, but that was really just an excuse to spend more time with Lili. I'm extremely grateful for her company, her energetic and positive personality made the week pass in what seemed like mere moments.

She cared for me as I recovered and we used the time to get to know each other, on the last night of the week, I sat near her on a cot in the cobblestone house and listened to her as she told me about her life.

Lili is the youngest daughter of Rodrick Moon Claw, the chieftain of the Moon Claws clan. Her clan, while few in numbers, was one of the most powerful clans in the beast tribe. The beast tribe itself is made of many different races and types of animal people, ranging from the cat people, all the way to the rabbit people. Their populace is one of the most diverse races that exist in this world.

The story of the Moon Claws begins on the demon continent, where their ancestors lived. Specifically, they resided in the harsh Itami Mountains on the southern part of the continent, these mountains are infamous for being completely inhospitable. They supposedly hunted snow mountain goats and snowshoe rabbits to survive but also lived on a diet of Aronia berries and an assortment of nuts they could collect. The only other animals that lived in the mountains were snow bears and moon wolves, I asked her why they never hunted the bears or wolves. Her response was interesting.

”The snow bears were said to take an entire party to kill a single one, and they usually traveled in groups of 3 to 4, so it was very dangerous to hunt them. As for the wolves.” She stopped momentarily to think, trying to collect the right words to clearly explain. ”You could say that they were sacred to the tribe, they were bred and the wolves accompany them were ever they went. There was an extremely close bond between the members of the clan and the snow wolves. A child would receive a snow pup at their first cycle and would grow up with it, but they would never receive another wolf, even if theirs died.”

A little perplexed by this I asked. ”Why's that? They use them for hunting, right? So wouldn't it make more sense to just replace ones that die?”

She shook her head and said. ”The bond between a snow pup and the Moon Claw ancestors was sacred, it was believed that the two's hearts were connected. So the bond between a Moon Claw hunter and its wolf was extremely close, and Moon Claws were probably the best hunters that have ever existed, they could hunt for weeks across the entire mountain range and find the exact prey they were searching for.” She then started talking about their history.

”Over time, surviving in such a dangerous environment made them extremely powerful. Their senses were heightened three times that of a regular beastman and they were much stronger as well. They were also one of the few ancient civilizations to have practiced magic, see they were very skilled in using light magic. They could imbue their claws with light, lining the edge causing them to be extremely sharp.” She showed her hand, then blades of light extended from her fingernails

”We still do something similar, but we don't actually have claws like them anymore, that's where they earned the name Moon Claws. Their claws and the moon were the only things that shone at night, and everyone knew to run if you saw their glow. They were fairly decent at light magic, partially because the clan would create lights that would join the night sky whenever there was an aurora borealis. Creating a beautiful display of natural lights and diverse miniature stars that joining the night sky for a brief moment displaying their might, showing their ranks and counting them amongst the stars.”

She propped her head up with her elbows and said while smiling. ”I think that was the most interesting thing that I learned, my mother used to tell us about them before we went to sleep. Our clan takes pride in our history, I doubt there's anyone in the beast tribe that doesn't know about it.

But back to history, eventually, the clan had a terrible famine that caused them to have to come down from the mountains. Most of the snow wolves died and had to be freed, so hardly any kept theirs as they descended the mountain. This is around when the demons were uniting all the other beast races against the humans and others. So to feed ourselves and help spread our name we drove back the humans, killing hundreds of them and conquering the demon continent for all beast races.”

I paled slightly, she chuckled nervously and apologized. ”Sorry, forgot you're human too.” I smiled and said ”That's really interesting, I never knew about you clans roots. Thank you for sharing their history with me, I really enjoyed it.”

She lifted her head smugly and grinned proudly. ”But of course, it would be a crime not to enlighten others of our incredible awesomeness.” I looked at her cringing playfully.

I changed the subject. ”I know about your clan, but I still don't know too much about your history.”

She jumped at the chance to talk about herself, but then again, I would probably do the same. ”Well as a member of the Moon Claws clan royal family, I had to meet a lot of high expectations. I'm ashamed to say, but I was actually not that kind as a child. I felt so powerless under all the scrutiny and high expectations, so I used what power I did have on those weaker than me.

My father was always busy taking care of the clan and my mother was always taking care of my older siblings, so I started lashing out. As a child I was arrogant and cruel, I would go around demanding things of other children and if a kid didn't give in, then I would threaten them by saying. ”My father's the head of the clan.” And I would threaten their parent's positions, this was very effective, but eventually, my father caught wind of it.

Even if they were busy people, they were loving parents that cared deeply for all of their children, father was wiser than I give him credit for, he knew that I was doing all of it for attention and because I felt powerless. So he sent me to train under one of his companions, I served in the demon army at the bottom of the food chain, doing all the grunt work, I was forced to learn humility and quite a few different useful skills.

I came to love the army, I met many different people and made many friends. But over the course of the war I would see many of them die. I've seen many of my comrades die before my eyes, and I was unable to do anything but close their dead eyes.” She said slightly emotional.

I had to force back my own emotions, war is too similar, its terrible for both sides. ”But I've learned to cherish their memories and not dwell in the past. There was a period of time where I lost myself to my rage, I killed hundreds of humans indiscriminately, but I found I hated myself more for what I did. So I learned to live with my pain and eventually It started to fade.”

I sit there quietly in my own thoughts, the memories of my friends flooded back to me. I gripped my hands and my nails dug into my palms, their memories filling me with sadness and pain momentarily. Suddenly warmth enveloped my hand and those memories retreated back deep inside me. I looked down to see Lili holding my hand in hers, looking at me with a worried expression. I smiled trying to calm her worries, I said.

”I'm ok Lili, really I am.” I changed the topic quickly. ”So how old are you Lili? If you don't mind my asking.” She continued to hold my hand while she looked away in thought. ”My birthday was a few months ago, so let's see..... about 36 cycles.”

My jaw dropped, I started to shake as started to mumble. ”Ww...wait..y..you're..”

She interrupts by saying, ”So I guess that would be about 18 years for you, beastmen count in cycles which happen twice a year.”

I released a sigh of relief and smiled to myself. She grinned playfully, and said while poking my cheek. ”What? You thought I was 36? Do you not like older women?”