The Shadows Book One: The War for EarthEnd.

Prologue.

Liki Wolfspirit.

(This story is based on a multidude of seperate role-playing stories I did with a few deticated players of a now discontinued MMO that was known as Earth Eternal. In no way do I claim the game or its other personal relatives, just my personal character Liki Wolfspirit and this story. Additional Characters with names I have been given permission to control by their original creators. This story has really become a very immense tale that if I would be to put them together, I imagine they would make 4 books. This is a beginning to that process, but only of course for fun ^^. Note that none of the rps were ever actually completed, this story series uses peices that were already done and beyond that to complete the tale ^^)

It was a really dank night in the basin. Foggy too. Tetrin nudged his way through a large brush, his red otter eyes peering out into the distance. His whiskers twitched as he sniffed the fogged air. If it wasn't for the fact that the basin was a holy place, Tetrin would be more nervous then he was now just trying to stay hidden from his master. He wasn't afriad of any monster or some evil thing jumping out at him, like much other Beasts of the Earth were in Europe and America. Here in Africa there was little to be afriad of.

For the last five years Tetrin had been there, learning under his master about the world and all it's wonders. Many times though, the young otter believed that it was not the best way to learn, he wanted to go to these places he was researching through text. To touch, hear, see and experiance first-hand a wild wolf, a wild lion, a bird of prey. To feel just about any animal at all and compare it to its bipedal counterparts.

Tetrin knew most of the ancient names of the animal people known as Beasts. His race, the mysterious Aquari, evolved from otters. The ancient Borian race, trees that grew intellegent and their branches became arms and hands and thier roots feet. The proud Fangren race, evolved from wolves and dogs. The noble Cripican race, evolved from Deer. The dexterous Feline race, evolved from cats and lions. The sharp witted Foxen race, evolved from foxes. The cunning Actavians, evolved from smaller birds, and the incrediably intelligent Noctari, evolved from owls. Then there was also the wicked Anubians, who knew no boundary and killed all who stood in their way in their conquest for land. All walked up-right mostly, though quadrepedal evolved animals could also run on all fours and Aquari could swim very quickly. Noctari and Actavian had traded their wings for hands in their own evolutions so they could no longer fly however.

There were few other species of Beast that he did not know the ancient names of, but they were there, he was just not learning about them in his studies yet. It was not enough to satisfy him to just learn one race of Beast at a time. He so wanted to become a Dream Weaver, to become immortal like so few before him and to weave the dreams of others and walk the lands, taking in the stories and experiances and events to pass on to others through word as legend. He prayed to the Earth Goddess Gaia so many times to earn that right. He knew the current Dream Weaver was a Otter by the name of Arin. Each time, before he would go to bed, Tetrin would pray that Arin would visit him in his dreams, to tell him he had a chance to reach his desire.

But each dream, no matter how hard he prayed or even since he'd done so for the last six years, no one would come.

Tertrin stepped out from behind the brush then, his fine brown otter hair flat on his face. He wore a simple set of white clothing, a shirt and a pair of shorts. His feet remained bare, being that Beasts perferred walking barefoot on the Earth.

The fog parted slightly to show him a small pond that glittered slightly in the night air, almost seeming to glow. He smiled for the first time that day. His own favorite thinking spot. He would come here about once every three days to relax before returning back to the camp and his bed. The constant studying of races of Beasts would take it's toll on him, in his family's continuous efforts to make him become a lore keeper like most Aquari, he would come here to his secret pond to bask in its glow and think about what he really wanted.

He didn't want to keep books and records of the history of the Beast races, he wanted to observe them, to follow some of them throughout the adventures they'd have fighting the greedy and power hungry Anubians, or fighting the corrupted Rotted with the Borians that tried to remove them from their Great Forest in Europe. Let the Noctari and their great understanding of magic and elements take on the task of collecting past informations as far as he was concerned. Merlin believed he was so great, the old coot was so full of himself Tetrin thought.

King Arthur hadn't been much better lately either, becoming somehow corrupted he searched for a way to conqer the elemental realm, unleashing a kind of havoc upon Europe the likes no one had ever experianced before. The elements themselves battled each other across the Kingdom of Anglorum as the King continued to try and force his way through the Portal of Elements with many methods, each time cuasing one element or another to leak through. While one end of Anglorum suffered from drought and extreame heat, the other was iced over and snow fell constantly, while in the middle it flooded and rained all day.

It wasn't until the King kidnapped a strangely gifted girl from the nearby Mushroom Isle that he finally broke through, only to be nearly destroyed by the power he tried to wield for himself. Amazingly, the girl's equaly gifted family rescued both her and the King, sealing the portal once more and saving the kingdom. Tetrin didn't really know all the details of the family, besides that their power; as individuals- was bested only by Merlin's, he had only been born about ten years after the event.

Tetrin sat down at the edge of the pool, putting his elbows on his knees while dipping his feet in the water and resting his head in his webbed hands. He stared at his relfection and mused over his extreame knowledge. He knew so much about events, yet he knew so little about how to handle something like them. He really wanted to experiance something for himself.

He continued to muse until he heard the light sound of footsteps behind him. He lurched out of the water, making plenty of noise, and instantly knew he was busted. It had to be his master, finally having found out that he was not in bed and looking for him, furious and steaming from his otter ears. He shivered as the brush before him shuttered to reveal a otter.

Tetrin closed his eyes and expected the slap of a lifetime from his master, but instead he heard the Beast move past him and sit down, the water stirring. He opened his eyes and looked to his right, staring stupidly at the mystery newcomer that was now casually humming a wistful tune while swinging his webbed feet in the water and using his arms to hold him while he stared up at the sky through the fog. This was not his master at all, but a traveler who must have just been passing by when Tetrin panicked and made noise. Now he was lounging in the water like he and Tetrin had always been doing it together. Tetrin guessed him to be about fifty years old, based on his slightly drooping whiskers and the lighter shade of hair that he could see on his face and slightly showing legs. He was wearing a simple robe that was colored blue with yellow stripes running down it. A hood was flat against his back and his arms were covered by the robe's long flowing sleeves. Tetrin noticed how the Aquari's eyes shined a bright blue, a sign that this Beast had the ability of using magic.

The blue eyes moved away from the sky to stare at him then, and Tetrin only continued to stare back with his own red colored eyes but stayed standing where he was. After a few seconds the older otter smiled, and eventually Tetrin found himself smiling too. The robed Beast patted the ground next to him to invite the fourteen year old over. For some reason Tetrin could not help but do so, sitting down and dipping his feet back into the water.

They sat there for a long moment for the mystery Beast brushed off his lap with his hands a moment before saying with a surprisingly crisp voice for someone who looked so old, "I take it you're a student from the lore library of the basin?"

Tetrin nodded, "Yeah...Though it's not what I want to do at all with my life..." He stared at the water for a moment before he turned his head back and asked, "Who are you?"

The Beast smiled, staring into the young otter's eyes a moment before answering, "I am Trip."

"Trip?" Tetrin quivered his whiskers in surprise, "That's not a common Aquari name."

Trip chuckled, "That's the trouble with us Aquari it seems, we all seem to believe that everything should remain the same as long as it never hurts anything. Names never hurt no one so why should there be any odd ones?" He asked the same question that Tetrin had heard a few times from his master when the reviewed important names in a species history. It was considered odd and wierd and just plain rude to not name your child after someone else who already exsisted and make up a new one for themselves, at least within the Aquari culture. From that point on it would be pushed on someone to follow the path the person they were named for took before them. In Tetrin's case, that meant being a lore keeper.

"You learn a lot about how foolish each Beast race can be when you have time to mingle with each one, to spend some time with them and listen to their stories. Yet you'll learn also how they manage to look over their differences at key times and develop deep connections." Trip continued, now nearly talking to himself.

Tetrin stared at the water again. Trip was talking exactly what he was wanting to experiance. The older otter noticed this and thought for a moment, "I know a few good stories I could tell you from a very special person who knew another very special person."

Tetrin looked up, now incrediably interested in the subject, "Who are they?"

Trip smiled, "Well it's a really long story, I doubt I could tell it all in just one night, but it has a little to do with that family that stopped King Arthur in Europe. You know about that right?"

"Yeah of course, it was all the news to my master, he stayed up for two whole nights writing the scriptures for the history books. Then made me read them until I memorized them." Tetrin said with annoyance, wrinkling his whiskers.

Trip laughed, "Well that event's only about two percent of the entire experiances that led up to it, and it's a very good tale about bravery and the relationships that the characters forged to each other, and all in the middle of it is a very brave and pure Fangren who was the last of the nearly vanished organization known as The Shadows."

"The Shadows? What were they?" Tetrin asked, "I've never heard of them before."

"That will be explained along the way with the story and the beginning of this tale. It starts during the time of the War of EarthEnd, when the Fangren was only ten years old."

Tetrin's eyes widened, "That long ago? That was over forty years in the past. This will be a long story."

Trip laughed again, "Like I said this will take much more then just one night to tell, but it gets pretty graphic at parts and there's love interests and some sexual things that tie the story together actually. I hope you're mature enough for that stuff becuase I ain't skipping them. If I did you wouldn't have any clue as to how these Beasts really could trust and interact with eachother."

Tetrin's eyes gleamed hungerily. Being a student at a male only school when he was fourteen, it was really lonely and hardly any time for himself except at the pond. At times he heard the other boys giggling behind a building, or running off into the bazin together and not coming back for long times. At times he wished he could find someone here too, but he'd rather a female, but the situation was starting to get to him at the school slowly. He could handle it, but probabaly not without being aroused by it at the same time.

He nodded, "Yeah I can handle it."

Trip smiled and began, "All right, the story begins really at the Fangren's home in Rome, just about a year after he was born in fact. His name was..."