Chapter 1- The Evolutionary Compound

  Savage Lands – The High Evolutionary’s Compound, New Men Regution Hall- Oct 21, 2008 (Morning)

  Red Lion-

  Red Lion breathed deeply of the vapors that the pod was producing for her. Her mind had been sluggish tely, and the Great One had prepared this treatment to fix her. She didn’t much like the smell of the green gas, but the purple gases were quite calming. So the entire experience wasn’t that trying, save that she was enclosed into a bck metal pod that prevented her from moving anything.

  The pod pumped another batch of the gases into it, for her to breathe, and a moment ter the seams lifted away to allow her to leave the pod.

  She was greeted not with the sight of the Great One upon exit, but rather one of his male assistants. “Step into the golden circle.” Spotted Wolf told her.

  A part of Red Lion wanted to cover her nakedness, but instead, she did as instructed and took a series of steps to enter the marked area of the floor. A hum preceded her getting bathed in green light. Spotted Wolf maintained his station at the workstation, pressing what buttons he needed to complete his work.

  As he did Red Lion looked around the room. Her nose could tell that the Great One was still here somewhere, and she hoped to y her eyes on him.

  “Stand still, so I can get a proper reading.” Spotted Wolf scolded her.

  She sighed in defeat and did as instructed. After a moment the light faded and the man moved on to another workstation, leaving Red Lion in her nakedness. Assuming that he was done, she moved to where her robe had been id out on the chair beside the pod that treated her.

  As she got dressed, Red Lion paused when she heard the heavy footfalls of one of the people's knights entering the Regution Hall. When she looked to the chamber's main entrance two of the people had just entered wearing full pte armor. One was of ursine birthing with his ft snout and tusks and the other looked a shaggy and darker fur version of Spotted Wolf.

  “Is it her?” Sir Hogg asked while drawing his morning star.

  The bck-furred wolf sniffed the air twice before saying. "It's not her, she smells fine."

  “What’s going on?” Red Lion asked the two knights.

  “Reports of an imposter have been circling. A female that smells wrong, like she is not one of the people.” Sir Hogg answered as he stowed his weapon back on his belt. Then the two knights left without another word to her, their footfalls heavy to her ears.

  Red Lion was able to finish getting dressed without anyone else bothering her. As she moved to leave the hall though, she was stopped by the Great One. “Feeling better I hope?” His digitized voice was even more calming than the scent of the purple gas.

  He wore a suit of red and silver armor, far more advanced and from fitting than that worn by the two knights. It moved as if the armor was his body, but that couldn’t be, as Red Lion could smell the scent of his body underneath the armor. He was also different from all of the people, his face cked the snouts of any of the kin, and he didn’t have any fur or tails like the rest of them. honestly, his features were quite pin, but that could also be because of the full suit of armor he wore.

  She bowed to him saying. “I am Great One, thank you for treating me.”

  “Of course. You, New Men are all my creations, and are like my own children. What kind of father would not take care of his children? Let me know if anything else feels wrong to you. Now if you will excuse me.” As he spoke to her, Red Lion felt as if he was distracted by something.

  Still, she bowed to him and stayed bowed as he and two other of the people left the hall. As she did she thought. ‘Perhaps I should help him? The two knights spoke of a possible imposter, my nose is strong, stronger than Sir Hogg's, maybe I could locate this female?'

  So she also left the hall, once out into the main courtyard she looked around. Red Lion knew that their compound was quite rge, so she looked for a pce that had a good view and open air. Many of them lived on the first three floors of the facility. The top three were reserved for the Knights and the Great One.

  Many of the walls and ceilings of the lower floors were slowly removed to allow the people to feel more like a vilge or hamlet rather than just a rge metal tower. Mirrors had also been installed to reflect light back down, so too did they not only have the shadow of the top floors.

  Red Lion then saw the stairs that led to the upper levels. They had wide ndings that the Knights and the Great One would use to announce things to the people. ‘There would be a good pce to catch a scent on the wind.’ She thought, before setting off to the location.

  She got about halfway there, when something cold reached her nose. Red Lion sniffed twice more to locate the source. The cold scent was off to her left. ‘But all that is down there is the ke’ She thought as the oddity grabbed her attention, so she followed it.

  The scent trail led her all the way to the ke that the people used to settle their thirst. And beside the ke was a pile of clothes. Red Lion walked towards the clothes, she saw that they were a brilliant white shirt and trousers, before picking one of them up and sniffing them.

  The smell from the clothes was simir to Spotted Wolf's and Sir Fang's, but still, it cked something. The more she sniffed it. She felt that this scent reminded her of something. Then someone emerged from the depths of the ke.

  Red Lion could see that her nose had been right, that a female wolfkin of the people had been bathing in the ke, she was amazed that her fur was as red as hers. Red Lion didn't think anyone else among the people had such red-colored fur and hair. She then brought one of her hands up to block her view of the naked woman, before saying. "Apologies I was following an odd scent and it led me here, I didn't intend to peek."

  The female wolf chuckled but said nothing back. After she came ashore she gestured for the shirt that Red Lion was still holding. Guessing the woman's intention, she reached over to offer the woman back her shirt. As she did something fell out of it.

  Red Lion looked down at the small bck metal box. It hit the ground and bounced to nd upside down from how it nded. Once it did, a green hourgss crystal was projected from a panel on the top of the box. The lion woman and wolf woman share a look before a voice was projected from the image.

  “Greetings. Wolfsbane have you been discovered or have you made a friend?”

  ‘Wolfsbane, none of the people have a name like that.’ She thought, then the wind shifted and she smelt the wolf woman, and she realized that she was the odd cold scent that she detected earlier. "You, you're the imposture that everyone is talking about." Red Lion snapped as she pointed at the still-naked wolf female.

  "Ah, discovered, that makes more sense since you can't speak in any of your variant forms. I will inform the others… rescue is on its way."

  The wolf woman, this Wolfsbane, roared at Red Lion in a rather primal way. While she was stunned by the sound, the impostor moved. Much quicker than she thought possible, as Red Lion gathered back her wits, the wolf ducked in low and picked her up.

  Red Lion was spun in the air before the wolf threw her into the ke.

  The feline woman struggled and tried to remain atop the surface, but she had never liked water. So while she swung her arms, and kicked her legs, all it did was push the water around her, as her weight dragged her down further and further into the ke's embrace.

  Then something grabbed her by the fur of her neck. The pain from it made Red Lion sh out at whatever held her, but what the feline woman struck was as hard as the earth itself, and more durable than the compound's protective wall. then another thing grabbed one of her filing arms, then her other.

  It was then that Red Lion realized that the impostor must have some accomplices because clearly two of them must be restraining her. Then when her head broke the water's surface Red Lion came nose to nose with a stone bird of the people.

  “Oi, stop that. Swimming is hard enough without you trashing about.” The stone bird ordered her. The feline woman, stopped trying to swing her arms about, as the two of them inched their way to the shore. Then the stone bird suggested. “Kick your legs, it will help us get ashore faster.”

  Red Lion did as the bird woman suggested, as they neared the shore she spotted a gathering of outsider primitives. Half of them were dressed like some of the trespassers the knights would find from time to time, wearing only animal hides to cover their privates and feet. While the other half wore clothes simir to the peoples’. She found it odd that both groups consisted of a pair of men and women. Usually, they only encountered male trespassers.

  The two trespasser-like primitives were both yellow of hair, and carried simple primitive weapons, crude knives, and a simple great lizard tooth spear.

  The man among them civilized pair, had long dark hair and brilliant glowing gemstones for eyes. He wore dark-colored schor's robes and bore no weapons to protect his frail form. While the female one wore treated blue leather like the scout squires did. She also had a well-forged short sword stashed in her red sash belt.

  Red Lion coughed and spit up water once she was on the shore. She was surprised when the stone bird strode up to the primitives and said. “She heavier than she looks, just like you guessed, Nath.”

  "It was easy to deduce based on the amount of sonic dispcement that was generated from their strides. Just like those from Asgard, they have denser muscles and heavier bones to allow for greater striking power. I am guessing these new type beast-men are superior warriors than what you've encountered before." The schor expined.

  As Red Lion fully recovered, the female yellow-haired primitive stated. "They are less animal too. My link isn't reaching them like it does Wolfsbane."

  Then a short primitive, wearing only white colored pants ran up to Red Lion and demanded. "Hey, where is my shirt? Don't tell me you lost it in the ke."

  Then the stone bird lifted another arm and offered the shirt that Red Lion had still been holding on when she was thrown. "Chill, I grabbed it." It was then that Red Lion realized that the stone bird had not two arms, but four.

  “Ahh, it's ripped." The short one compined, before trying to put it on. Red Lion was further stunned when she saw the massive shirt, suddenly glow and shrink to fit the small primitive's frame.

  “How can a primitive make such an amazing article of clothing.” The feline woman blurted out without thinking.

  "She speaks." The yellow-haired man muttered.

  “Better English than you.” The short one snapped at him. as she tugged and straightened her top, so the tears didn’t reveal her petite breasts.

  “Ahhh! I thought that we would get to see Nath use some of his magic on her.” the stone bird compined.

  “Primitives, is that what you call everyone outside of your vilge?” The schor asked her, ignoring their back and forth.

  “What do you call them?” Red Lion asked him instead of answering.

  “It depends on their race.” He answered her.

  “Race.” She muttered confused. Then a shout from above them made everyone turn around.

  “Intruders by Small Lake High! Rally the knights!" The voice shouted from the middle of the stairwell leading towards the restricted levels.

  “How can they see us so far away?” Stone bird asked. She was using a pair of her arms to shield her eyes while trying to see who shouted.

  "Half of the critters in here have senses either as good or better than mine. That's why I was taking a bath. I hoped it would lessen the outside smell off of me." The short primitive expined.

  "And that one does seem to have a bird's head, and birds are known for their keen eyesight." The schor added.

  The walls and foundation of the Compound groaned and shook. Red Lion stood up and looked around before asking. “What was that?”

  Before anyone could answer, a volley of spears could be seen flying towards them. “Their fast.” The short one muttered a second before Red Lion could hear popping and stretching come from the little girl.

  Stonebird knocked three of them out of the air but missed a pair of them. One of the missed grazed the metal cuff on her arm, while the other actually found purchase and dug a couple of centimeters into the woman’s exposed abs.

  The scout in blue leather drew her weapon and deflected the spear like it was nothing. While the female trespasser met a spear head-on with hers, the feline's mouth dropped open in surprise, when the steel spear of the people's snapped and broke on the impact.

  The men had the opposite effects. The schor wrote a letter or two into the air. Causing the spear that would have impaled him, to just stop. Like the spear stuck in a patch of fog. The male trespasser was impaled and shoved back, his body sliding along the sandy shore of the small ke.

  Then quiet scout answered her question. “The rest of our comrades.” She spoke not with words from her lips, but somehow straight into Red Lion’s brain.

  The groaning could be heard again, and much louder this time, before a section of the Eastern Protective Wall was just ripped out of it. The hole was near the third floor, where the ceiling of the restricted sat, and was wide enough for a half dozen of the people could fit through.

  A moment ter a primitive man flew through the hole in the wall. he wore an odd cloth suit of bck cloth and a red cape. As he flew quickly through the air, he fired beams of bright light from his hands. A second ter Red Lion could hear screams coming from the residential block of this level and possibly on the second level as well.

  Shortly after the missing part of the wall flew in, level like a stage. Atop it was another half dozen primitives rode through the air like it was the most natural thing. Behind it was another primitive, one that wore purple armor and a red suit and helmet. His armor wasn’t as protective as the people’s knights, but when she looked at him, he seemed to glow somehow. As did the wall section that flew through the air.