Kanieta watched the elf turn and begin stalking through the dark forest. A slow smile spread across her lips as she lay across a tree's branch, looking down at him. Perceptive and skilled as he was, he was no match for her shadow magic. Not many were. It was one of the main reasons her clan was so feared despite being on the smaller side.

As the elf vanished from her sight, she hoped he would make it back to the fort with the information, but the odds of that happening were decreasing by the second. Kanieta could feel flashes of magic all over the forest, and they were growing closer. The Crescent Moon Faction had not missed their little intrusion, and they were searching for the culprits.

They had to know it was another faction of the Kin, but their search for her would soon lead them to find the Olimpians if they hadn't already, which was unfortunate. Kanieta, rather like Green. She got to relax and be herself around him. Though… admittedly, she probably had gone too far… But come on, I should get some slack. I never get the opportunity to let loose! Everyone around me is a fuddyduddy, and I never get to have fun…

Putting Green's problems from her mind, she stopped pouting, hopped to her feet, and leaped from her branch to a nearby one, her tails trailing behind her. Foot landing squarely on the limb, she used her forward momentum to crouch down on her leading leg, then pushed off with it, adding height and propelling her to the next tree branch.

The occasional cluster of leaves or branches would slap against her body, but there was never any sound. The slight drain on her mana pool told her that her silence spell was active, but more than one mage had died because she trusted her spell was still in effect on the sole basis of their mana being drained. There are many ways to circumvent a spell's effects, after all.

So Kanieta had developed a habit of performing small tests, such as letting twigs hit and break against her. It was true that the disturbances might be noticed by an enemy tracking her, but that chance was far less risky than assuming her spell was working and becoming overconfident when stalking a strong foe. It was one of the reasons traveling with Green was so easy. He was so clumsy that she never had to test her spell.

Hours passed as she kept a relaxed pace, the night quickly coming to an end as the dark woodlands flashed by. When she reached the river dividing the forest, she paused. Kanieta tried scanning the far bank for any watchers but gave up almost immediately, as she would never spot a single person in all that brush across the large river. Deciding to just go for it, she leaped off the old tree and into the open air.

Wind whipping through her hair, she sailed over the water. Her leap took her twenty feet out from the bank as she dropped the thirty feet from the branch to the water's surface. As the toes of her leading leg touched upon the waters of the river, it appeared as if the rippling darkness just under the water's surface flowed towards her and collected under her foot. The result was as if the rest of the river water became duller, as a blackness darker than any normal shadow solidified under Kanieta's foot.

Slowly, as if threads of moonlight were trying to keep her hanging in the air, her foot settled onto the water, the only thing marking her descent a single ripple rolling out from the sole of her foot. Leaping forward off her planted leg, the shadow platform under her foot vanished as if it were never there. When her leap ran its course, and she descended to the river's surface, the darkness of the river pooled under her foot again, allowing her to continue on her way.

Each bounding leap took her twenty feet forward as she traveled across the half-mile width of this narrow section of the river, and her feet soon landed on the northern bank. Three bounding steps later, Kanieta was running across the broad road of the tree branches that made up the Northern Forest once more.

She was hardly a hundred feet into the forest and had already spotted two watchmen and a patrol working their way along the banks of the river. Such dedication. And it was warranted. The patrols weren't looking for Olimpians. Those in the old fort had neither the need nor the means to send a force down the river and into the forest. And without Green, they wouldn't even know there was something to look for out here, which was the main reason I saved him in the tunnel.

No, they were looking for the Crescent Moon Faction. Pausing momentarily, she reached over to a twig on a branch, silently snapped it off, and let it fall before leaping to the next tree. Had to make sure my spell was working…

"Ahh!" Screamed a warrior behind her, "Something just fell on me!"

"It's just a branch, you fur-brain," said a scathing female voice, followed by a smacking sound, "Now shut up! You're making too much noise."

Kanieta's lips curled as she adjusted her spell, blocking out all sounds once more as she bounded away. It was a reasonable action. How can you check if they hear you if you can't listen to them?

As she traveled through the forest, Kanieta gradually came across more patrols and even some warded areas that would detect her presence if she passed over them. Not that it would necessarily be a problem if she was found by one of these patrols. She belonged here, after all. A few words and anyone challenging her would back down.

What would be a problem was if certain people found out that she wasn't in her tent at the center of the main camp of the Redtail Faction. Warning the Olimpians was a… secret errand she and the Elders had devised. And errand that they would in no way acknowledge their knowledge of if she was caught.

The horizon was just starting to lighten, sending light across the blue sky and storm clouds as she returned to the edge of the main encampment of her faction. Eyes skimming over those on guard duty as she circled the camp, she wrapped shadows around herself before moving and leaping down from a tree in front of the burly male bearkin she recognized. Kanieta was tall, but he was massive in every sense of the word.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Take me to Clan Leader Kanieta's tent." Her voice was distorted, becoming deeper and monotone, giving no hint of who or what sex she was.

The bear was startled at her appearance for a moment, then slowly processed her words and nodded his head in understanding. "Follow me, Shade." He rumbled in a respectful tone.

Following behind the man's plodding steps, she traveled through the camp after a brief stop for the bear to assign a new person to his position. Though slow, his gate was so long that he quickly traversed the distance from the edge of the base to its center as they wove through hundreds of tents on dirt paths beaten into the ground. The few on the paths in the early morning quickly moved out of their way, stepping to the side.

Walking up to the inner portion of the camp, they approached the only fortification of the entire place, which was a simple wooden palisade, or it appeared that way to those who didn't know better, at least. This inner section was filled with larger tents for the elders, clan leaders, and warband leaders of the Redtail Faction, and right in its center was her tent.

The guards gave one look at the bear-kin, then at her, before simply waving them both in. She was only a few steps past the gates and the wards built into them before she heard a loud voice.

Kanieta's ears twitched as she focused on the words, "—care what ritual or spell you say she is performing right now! You will take me to Faction Leader Kanieta now, or I will call into question her ability to rule in front of the assembly!" The threat was not minor, and she recognized the arrogant speaker, so she knew it wasn't idle either.

"I know the way from here, Hurring. You may leave." Kanieta said in the same distorted voice, flicking her wrist dismissively.

The bear ponderously turned, looking as if a soft wind would blow him over, though that was the farthest thing from the truth, and bowed to her. "As you say, Shade."

Once he rose from his bow, he started plodding away without looking back or giving the slightest indication that he knew who she was. I should make him a warband leader soon. He is too bright for his position. She thought to herself before turning and fast walking once she was sure no one was looking.

She was passing the tent where the loud voice came from, but she could not just drop her shroud of shadows and walk in. That would destroy all semblance of the facade their two factions were playing at. Picking up her pace, she darted forward, quickly passing a series of tents before darting between them as the first rays of light touched upon the camp.

As the light hit her shrouded figure, the mana required to hold together her spell sharply increased, and its effectiveness dropped. Her mana was burning away rapidly, but it didn't matter. A few more steps, and she darted to the side, entering the flaps of her tent.

Before the flaps of her tent fell shut behind her, she was dropping her shroud. Reaching to the side, she grabbed the intricately carved staff with a fox head and feathers on its top with rubies for eyes. It was the symbol of her position, and she was supposed to carry it around wherever she went. Doing that was tiresome, however, and whenever she could get away with it, she would drop it into someone else's care or leave it behind.

Sadly, this was not one of the times she could get away with it. Letting the staff lean against her chest, she reached over again and grabbed a shall to hang over her shoulders, covering her armor. Fingers wrapping around the staff, she spun on her heel and walked out of the tent. She held up her free hand, covering the light from the sun and sucking in a deep breath of morning air as she stretched.

She spent a long moment reveling in the new dawn's light as if she really had just come out of her tent for the first time all morning. Turning to her left, she plastered a fake smile onto her face. At the end of the line of tents was an old wolven man with a sour, pinched face. A face that twisted even more upon seeing her greeting. Shit, my smile must be more than a bit mocking… Whoops, guess I couldn't control myself. But at least I get to enjoy making him walk to me.

"Ahh, Elder Jolten, such a pleasure to meet you again. What brings you to my tent at such an early hour?" Kanieta finally said when he had walked close enough for a normal conversation. At her words and appearance, the haggard-looking brown and white foxkin standing behind the Elder had a momentary look of relief before a professional mask fell over her face, making it blank. "And Nareta, why didn't you have the Elder wait for me in comfort at the visitors' tent?"

There was an ever so slight rebuking tone in Kanieta's voice at the last sentence, causing Jolten's face to twist even more, which Kanieta thought was impossible at this point. "I'm sorry, Faction Leader," Nareta said with a bow to Kanieta, "But he refused to wait a moment longer and stormed out here on his own."

"I see," said Kanieta, "Well, Elder Joltan? You must have something important to discuss with me if you rushed to our camp in the dead of night and demanded to see me."

There was a flash of hatred deep in his eyes before his sour expression fell away and was replaced by a sickly sweet smile. "As a matter of fact, I do, Chieftain Kanieta." He rasped out while walking toward her. "As you may not know, the Olimpians broke into our camp last night."

"You must not have very good security if that is the case," Kanieta said, throwing out a jab as he took a moment to breathe.

The flames of anger surged in his eyes briefly before subsiding, "Ahh… Yes. And that is the reason I am here. We request that you come personally to inspect and strengthen our defenses. We wouldn't want our plan to be ruined by any more interventions by the Olimpians, after all."

The Elder, who missed his calling as a snake, had a smug expression as if he had actually achieved something. It was an expression that Kanieta wanted to smack off his face with the back of her hand, along with his head from his body, if that was an option.

"No, we wouldn't want that." She responded, her lips turning down slightly at the corners. "I will pack my things and travel there as soon as possible… To fix the mistakes you no doubt made to let an Olimpian ignore your defenses." Jolten's eyes squinted in anger at her words before he spun around and left without so much as a goodbye. So rude.

Nareta hustled up next to her and bowed low, speaking in a groveling pleading tone, "Chieftan, I am so—

"Enough of that," Kanieta said, groaning in her throat as she kept her face blank in case the Elder turned around, "He can't hear us anymore."

"Ohh, good. That was getting tiresome," Nareta's voice completely changed, taking on an upbeat and slightly mocking tone despite her still being bent over at the waist. You never know who was looking after all, "Did you accomplish what you set out to do?"

Even here, and with a Silence Spell, she would not directly talk about Kanieta's infiltration. "…Yes, but they noticed us getting out. Not sure if the information will make it back."

"That's unfortunate," Nareta said, finally coming up from her bow, but her head was still looking down. That did not prevent her from somehow locking eyes with Kanieta and making a face mocking the Elder that almost made her burst into laughter.

Kanieta could only grunt in agreement before saying, "We can't do anymore in this battle. Pull back any Shades tasked with disrupting the Crescent Moon's plans. We'll have to sit back and watch this one play out."

"'Kay, cuz," Nareta said, lifting her head, spinning about, and walking away. But not before she smacked Kanieta's cheek with the tip of one of her two gray tails.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.