The Shadows Book One: The Legacy of Man and Machine.

Chapter One - Lost in Memory.

Liki Wolfspirit.

"Wolff!!! Wait for me!" The Foxen yelled as he struggled up the rocky pathway.

The Fangren above waited with a grin for his friend, until the Foxen reached him and leaned over with his hands on his knees.

"What...are we doing up here...anyway?" He panted.

"Just exploring." The other answered and jumped up to the next ledge again rather easily compared to his friend.

"There's nothing up here." The fox groaned, his black fur mangled from sweat. The Fangren's gray fur was white and shiny though. He was more used to this than the fox.

"Not necessarily," He grinned, "We're up here aren't we? We're something to discover for someone else."

"Don't talk like that Wolff..." The fox mumbled. He was very afriad of getting lost in the mountians someday, even though he had lived in them for his entire life.

"All right sorry. But look, this is good for you. Do it more often."

"I'm from a royal family...I'm not made for this...stuff..." The Foxen's family was that of Rockfort, a nicely sized town placed in the middle of the mountains. His family ran the town.

"And I'm from a poor family." Wolff (Author's note: pronounced Volf, Wolf is a German name ^^ and I added an extra f to...um, make it look cooler? XD) returned, "I suppose that makes me unable to be your friend."

"No...but that's much different from being made to go hiking..." He groaned.

Wolff smiled, "Come on, just a little more. Who knows, we might find something."

"I seriously doubt that very much..." The Foxen grumbled and began to climb after the Fangren, but as his feet pressed against the rocks, they suddenly gave way and he began to fall.

He screamed, and Wolff grabbed his arm before he vanished into the sudden void. Wolff was very strong, and easily pulled him out of the hole.

"Are you all right?" He asked soon after, worrying himself over the fox.

"I'm fine..." He whimpered, "I told you we shouldn't have come up here..."

"You're right...maybe we should..." He looked down the hole and stopped a moment, "Hang on."

The wolf leaned a bit over the space, "I can see the bottom."

"Wolff...Don't..."

"Aw come on, you didn't get hurt, and even if I hadn't caught you still wouldn't have." He jumped.

"Wolff!" The fox scrampled to the hole and looked down it to have Wolff's nose touch his. He was standing up right in the hole, which was only about three feet deep.

The Fangren smiled, "See, it's like a tunnel, we should see where it goes."

"No!" The black fox continued to whimper, "Let's just go home!"

"Whatever, baby. I'm going in to take a look. You can either try to get home alone or come along with."

The fox whimpered again, but he had little choice, and he dropped down into the hole with the wolf, who began leading him down into inky blankness while holding his hand.

It seemed like they were walking for a long time, and he was beginning to get worried, when suddenly a small light appeared up ahead.

"Look! There!" Wolff speed up and the fox struggled to keep up until they entered a much larger space, lit by an odd kind of object with flashing lights that also made odd noises. All along the walls, there were even more objects of strange making.

"What do you think it is?" The fox asked, staring at the large glowing object in the center of the room.

The wolf was busy looking at a picture on the wall nearby, it was faded and the person in the picture looked like nothing he had ever seen before. "I don't know..." He turned his gaze to the object in front of him, a small little ball with a pin on top of it. It looked like a pinnapple. He couldn't get at the fruit though, it was locked in some strange see through container made of glass he couldn't break even as he pounded on it.

"Hmm...This is strange." He moved on to the next object, a long barrel with a big hole in it and small pointed thing resting beside it. This was also in a container he couldn't break.

"Hey! Look at me!"

Wolff turned to his friend, who was by the larger object in the room. He had found a large shiny hat and had tried it on, it was connected by long ropes to the object, and was now dancing funnily. The ropes jingled and made clanking noises that added to the humor.

"Hah! That's great!" Wolff laughed.

They shared a good laugh, until the sound of humming overtook them and the froze up. Both of them stared at the large object in the middle of the room as its humming increased. A few lights were flickering, and large screen popped into life and lit the room completly, showing the figure of the fox on it as a green outline. Small bars began to appear on the screen next, and began filling up as the fox screamed in agony and the hat on his head started making a loud buzzing noise.

"AHHHHH!!!! WOLFF!!! GET IT OFF!!! IT'S HURTING ME!!!"

Wolff launched himself at the hat, his claws gripping the edge and pulling as hard as he could, but it seemed to be glued to his friend's head now!

He grunted and howled in rage, pulling with all his strength and using his freinds body as a leverage, but it wouldn't budge.

"GET IT OFF!!! IT FEELS LIKE IT'S DRILLING INTO MY SKULL!!!"

Wolff swore loudly, discovering that was exactly what the hat was doing. The ropes on top of the hat began to glow brightly and light traveled from his friend's head to the humming object it was connected to. Images flashed on the screen nearby, colorful images of their hometown and the mountains. They were his memories.

The object's lights shined and blinked rapidly as more images flashed and the fox continued to scream in pure pain and the wolf snarled at the hat as he continued to try and pull. A bright light had filled the room and the cieling was starting to cave in as the hat and the Foxen was screaming as loud as he could. The previously unbreakable glass became cushed under the rocks and the small pinnapple fell the the ground and the pin fell out. It rolled away toward the entrance of the room before suddenly exploding and closing up the hole and accelerating the cave in.

A rock struck the two of them and Wolff was thrown off and knocked out, the fox was also out cold, but the cave in continued and the drill-hat kept digging into his head. The object in the middle of the room continued to flash its lights and work whatever it was doing to the fox even as rocks covered them completly.

-Fifteen years later-

One-Eye leaned against a tree, panting in fear. His one eyeball frantically looked back forth through the forest around him, while his Foxen ears twitched while trying to hear something not there. That was why he was named One-Eye. He only had one eye and he had no idea what happened to the other. A healer had simply closed off the space of his eyeball, so that he didn't need to wear an eyepatch or anything. His black fur had simply grew over the empty eye socket.

In short, he looked freaky, he knew that. But he wasn't a freak either.

"Why did I come out here?" He mumbled and held his head in his hands.

One-Eye was though, someone evil, he knew that too. He didn't want to be...but he was...different...a Knight of Darkness and a member of the Knights of the Eight apparently, though he was nothing like them. They were all dark and menecing, while he wanted to be nice and loving.

How had he been flung into this situation?

For his entire life, One-Eye remembered only parts of his memory since he was a teen. Every moment, whenever he would get in trouble or something hurt him, he couldn't remember running away, he couldn't remember fighting either, he would black out and then wake up later on, either somewhere safe or with a dead Beast at his feet. Whenever he would see one of the other Knights of the Eight, the same thing would happen, he would lose conciousness and wake up later on, sometimes realizing he had been out of it for over two weeks!

What was he? Was he a Beserker? No, he would remember that...

He didn't even know where he was now! He had woke up here, standing in the middle of the forest! He remembered in had been in the Borian City of HeartWood, he had been admiring the old human relic, the Eiffel Tower; one of the few things that had survived their own destruction. The City was actually built on and around that relic, the trees made to grow wooden platforms for buildings and create walkways to and from each other and the tower by the Borians, the tree people of the Great Forest. It was a marvel of engineering and magic, and he was in awe of the sight...when he saw...something, and blacked out again.

That's it! He remembered, he was in the Great Forest, on the west end of Europe!

But why was he out in the forest now? It was dangerous out here at night. The Great Forest held many monsters and feral animals, one of which was the carnivorious BloodPetal, a plant that slept and gathered sunlight at day for its energy, then broke free of the ground at night, its roots becoming feet, and hunted for more...solid food...specially something that sqruimed and breathed. Other than that, there were also wild wolves out here.

One-Eye's ears twitched again once more, as he heard a small crunching noise nearby. He jumped, for some reason he was very strong and athelitic; again he didn't understand how or why. He took shelter in the tree branches and froze, trying to stay silent.

A few moments passed as the crunching was growing louder, and a small group of travellers entered below him.

"Liki seriously, this is pointless!" Blackpaw argued as the trio of Beasts stopped in the forest, "I can feel it too, but I don't think this guy is going to stop running from us you know. If we chase after every person who emits distress, we won't find the more important ones." The Fangren stretched almost lazily, his teen body lean and muscular. Blackpaw was fourteen years old now, growing up quickly and nearly as tall as Liki already. His training in the Shadows went fairly well, he could now feel and use them, but Liki was still far ahead of him in power and they were both discovering things about the Shadows neither of them had known about before. He was handsome too, he'd already had a few females hit on him. He wasn't interested in settling down though, not until Liki and Kaz were. They were his family, and no matter how much the two lovers annoyed him at times, he wasn't going to leave them alone. Blackpaw now wore the outfit of a Shadow, the same as Liki.

Liki sniffed the air as he felt around the area around himself with the Shadows. He was now eightteen, he had went from being four feet tall to a near towering five foot seven inches as he grew up, his power in the Shadows accellerated as he tought Blackpaw and discovered more uses for them, along with the Shadow Creature's somewhat given help. He believed there was much more to find. He still wore his own tan outfit, he had to get it magically grown as he did though. That wasn't cheap either.

"Blackpaw, there's plenty of time. You're only fourteen now, you're too energetic." Kaz said as he smiled. Kaz was also eightteen as well. His Druidic magic had grown in power and he could now command the forces of nature somewhat. He was now no longer an all healing druid like the 'medics' in a city. He was more suited for battle now. His height showed much of his Feral linage, he stood six feet five inches tall, his height was enough to usually intimidate anyone into whatever the druid wanted them to do. Kaz's wardrope had also changed, he now wore a full set of leather armor, but that armor was covered with leaves to show his druidic nature. He had effectively changed his life as a Half-Feral, no one could tell he ever was one once as a child unless he told them.

"Energetic? I'm not the one who went for "double-doses" with each other in bed last night!" Blackpaw barked, and the other two Fangren blushed and coughed in embaressment. Kaz and Liki were very much in love now, their understanding for each other went even deeper through the years and unfortunately for Blackpaw, who had to stay with them in the same room of whatever inn they stayed at or slept near them in a camp in the wild, there was absolutely no privacy for the teen and the lovers. Unless Liki and Kaz somehow managed to seperate themselves, Blackpaw had to indure the noise of humping and moans. For a teen, that can be difficult. Sometimes, he would get involved with the two and there would be no worry, but mostly, he would try to ignore the noise of their mating and fall asleep to it.

Kaz called 'double dosing' his term for fucking Liki and then Liki fucking him afterword, then going another round soon after before finally becoming exhausted.

"All right all right." Liki sighed, "Let's not get all upset again." Liki told the teen. He remembered how he had become himself. When he had been thirteen, Blackpaw had been only nine. Needless to say, Liki didn't treat Blackpaw very well during that difficult time, not horrible, but not as nice as he had during EarthEnd, and he and Kaz actually had a small break in their relationship when things went a bit rocky while they were growing up. Puberty was, in all terms, a bitch.

Things were more like were back in EarthEnd now though. He and Kaz were more in love than ever and Blackpaw was still the 'kid'.

The gray Fangren sniffed the air again, and whispered, "He's right here somewhere. Do you smell him? He's in the trees..."

Kaz and Blackpaw sniffed the air a bit, the young teen was the first one to nod, "Yeah...I smell him...he smells odd..."

"I agree...he's strange..." Kaz murmered.

Liki stared up into the trees, the Shadows could feel the emotions venting from whoever was up there. Fear...sorrow...and he could somehow feel a bit of anger hiding within...anger and hate and rage.

"Something tells me we're not going to be dealing with your average person." He said and took out a throwing knife and pointed up into the air at the canopy.

Blackpaw and Kaz stood by while Liki called out, "I know you're up there. We only want to help you. You saw us in town and you suddenly just ran. It's dangerous down here at night!"

"I know that!" One-Eye called back, surprised and unable to stop himself from talking. He longed for conversation, no one ever talked to him.

"Come back with us!" The Fangren called again at his voice.

One-Eye paused, unable to speak. Looking at the Fangren, some part of him kept telling him to run away. He kept thinking he shouldn't go, but he wanted to. He forced himself to ignore his brain and clawed his way down the tree. He covered the blank side of his face with a hand, afriad that his freaky disposition would put off these three Fangren's and approached slowly. He only stood five feet four inches, a bit small compared to the Fangren in front of him.

"Um...hi..." he whispered softly.

"Hello," The larger of the tan clad Fangren smiled, "I'm Liki, what is your name?"

"Liki..." One-Eye looked away a moment, whispering to himself, "Why does that feel familair."

Why does it make want to run too?

"I'm uh..." He said louder, covering his eye still. Saying his name would probably give him away.

"Is something wrong with your eye?" The even large Fangren beside Liki asked.

"It's...um..." He sighed and slowly moved it downward, only the larger black wolf reacted to it. The two tan ones merely grinned.

That made One-Eye a bit more confident, "I'm called One-Eye...you can guess why." He said and smiled faintly.

"It's a good, unique name." Liki commented with a kind voice.

The Foxen was taken aback, "I've never thought of it that way."

"How did you lose your other eye?" The smaller of the trio asked.

"I don't know..."

"Why did you run from us? Did we do something to upset you?"

"I don't know...." One-Eye continued to whisper, but still Liki only stared at him intently, "Why are you staring at me so...hard?"

"My magic lets me tap into your head and I can feel your emotions." Liki said, "I can already tell much about you that you haven't told us yet. For example, I know that you believe you have a bi-polar disorder, and that you think that whenever your personality changes, you lose conciousness and wake up in strange areas."

One-Eye stared at him, and Liki continued, "Also...I can sense...something else, but it's buried deep..."

The Foxen stayed silent a moment, but he couldn't help but ask eventually, "Can you help me?"

Liki smiled, "Of course. Come back to HeartWood with us. We'll try to help you fix your problem."

One-Eye nodded, and he smiled, "All right..."

The City of HeartWood wasn't grand or large like Camelot or EarthEnd. Even Bremen was bigger. However, HeartWood was very beutiful, it attracted attention becuase of the Eiffel Tower mostly. It was a city created out of the trees, the Borian people were able to coax the trees of the Great Forest to grow how they wanted. From those trees, large branches extended out and flatenned themselves, so that buildings could be constructed on them.

The Royal family of HeartWood even had a castle sitting on the wood.

The city had three different sections of itself. The residential, where there was housing for the citizens and inns and was the biggest part of the city. The trade district, the castle itself overlooked the market street where all trade was completed. The last part was actually on the ground, underneath the Eiffel Tower, and was a general area for just about anything. It was closed off at night though while any dangerous creatures were out.

Borians were a people that were not truely Beasts, but had been accepted as such over time. A Borian's skin was like the bark of a tree, their eyes all a pure green, and they wore no clothing. Besides for those differences, there was nothing that made them different from any other Beast. They had no source of true reproduction, but about four times in a Borian's life, a seedling would grow on their body to later fall off and plant itself in the ground. In ten years time, that seedling would grow like a tree into another, adult Borian. The seedling would be very vunerable before that though, so they had a nursery of sorts where they took the seedlings to grow safely.

Liki, having only spent a few days in the city so far, had decided awhile ago that the reason HeartWood was not very popular, was becuase Borians were just a little odd to get used to. Along with that, the Borians had an enemy they were at war with, and had been for a long time. The Borian people were at war with Rot.

It seemed logical to Liki at first. Being people that were still pretty much trees, rot was something they probably did not want to get. However, it wasn't a simple ailment they were at war with.

To Borians, rot was not just a illness, it was a corruption. To the south east of the Great Forest, was an area that was once also a part of the forest, but was now a dark and disgusting place known as DeadWoods. In the DeadWoods, the plague of rot ran rampent.

Liki realized, that to a Borian, rot was like becoming undead. A rotted Borian was aggressive, almost mindless, and just a tad more powerful. It was easy to tell a Rotted from anything else though. A healthly tree-Beast had shiny bark and their eyes stayed bright green, a Rotted had a sickly dark skin and their eyes turned an inky brown.

By asking around, he understood how the rotted came to be. DeadWood had a sanctuary deep within that had once been used as a sanctuary for seedlings. The source of the rot came to be from a certain seedling that had been coruptted by a dark power, which once it grew and became a Borian, began to spread it's curse through the sanctuary.

That had been five years ago, and for the these last five years the 'Rotted King' DreadBark, stayed safely deep within the sanctuary, while sending all the other seedlings he corruptted out to the forest beyond to spread the rot.

At this time, the Borians had called upon the Beasts for assisstence. If a Borian was killed by a Rotted, they became Rotted. If a Beast was killed...well, they were dead but at least the other side didn't get yet another soldier.

So, the Alliance of Beasts began to aid the Borians, who for that exact reason, stepped back. For the last half year, the rot had been halted where it was, neither advancing nor declining. However, no Beast had been killed yet at that border defense, it held nicely. It seemed a never ending stalemate.

But, as such, HeartWood was not a very popular place to visit. Until the Rotted was destroyed, the look of Borians seemed more concedded and selfish, as they let other species fight thier war for them.

Liki could tell better though, becuase of his magic. These people were kind, and they meant nothing wrong by their problem. It wasn't their fault.

If Liki knew how, he'd help.

First though, he had this fox to take care of.

Liki looked at the one eyed fox that was staring at the cieling as he laid on the extra bed in the room. The fox had to share with Blackpaw, much to the young wolf's teenage annoyance.

He was still tapped into the Foxen's mind, but all he could sense from the young fox was the hope that Liki could truely help him. It surprised him really. The fox was about nine years older than him, yet his mind felt like it was literally missing over fourteen of his twenty seven years, as if he had never experianced them. He wanted to dive in more, but it was all locked to him under a deep emotional barrier. Until One-Eye started to open up to him as a friend, it was all locked to him.

It was at that moment that he stopped trying to look into the fox's mind that Blackpaw burst into the room, Kaz was behind him, "Liki! Come outside quick! Someone's in trouble!"

Liki rose, as did One-Eye, and followed his student outside where a crowd had gathered around two other fighters.