The Evolution Chronicles

After the little Werecat calmed down, he finally introduced his friend to Mian, who he saw as his older brother.

"Mian, this is Arc. You two are really similar." Flare stated with a toothy grin.

"He's like... me?" Mian asked and his ear twitched as he studied Arc, who looked as if he was going to have a panic attack. "But... He's a dominant." Mian concluded with a confused expression on his face.

"Well, he is a dominant, but his fur looks like yours, and his attitude is also kind of similar, I guess." Flare scratched his head as he turned to examine his friend.

"Ah, well..." Mian coughed awkwardly, "Nice to meet you, Arc. I hope we can get along." Mian extended a hand to the boy, who seemed startled, before accepting the hand and shaking it as if he himself was being held and shaken.

"I hope we can get along as well." Arc smiled up at Mian before retreating behind Flare. He still felt out of place in the patriarch's study, after all. It was just that the sudden surprise that Flare had seen, with Mian's return had stolen the spotlight from Daven for a few moments.

"Now that that is out of the way, I'm glad you two have been able to reunite. Flare has been moody ever since you left, Mian." Daven said with a soft smile.

"I'm sure he was. That's why his name is Flare, after all. A hotheaded bundle of emotions." Mian grinned as he took a seat on one of the chairs that were in the office.

"Hey! That's not true!" Flare used his elbow to poke Mian in his side as he sat beside the older demi-human.

Dion who had been watching the whole thing from his spot on another seat, spoke up, "And is that supposed to help us change our minds?" He asked with a smile. He was referring to how Flare had immediately refuted the fact that he was a hothead.

The bundle of yellow fur turned to glare at Dion before scoffing and settling into the seat he shared with Mian.

"Now that we have handled all that, let us get to business." Daven said and stepped around his table to take a seat on another chair that allowed him to face the others and put them in his line of vision. Arc looked around nervously before giving up and deciding to settle in beside Flare.

"How has everything been going, Dion? I got the message that we were to hold on, but we have been waiting for quite a while now." Daven asked with a frown.

Ever since a couple of months ago when Malim had received the order from Sir Delk to stall the final battle, the man had sent out letters to inform every major power that was involved in the fight against the Henshaw Dynasty.

As the closest pack to the dynasty, Daven was rightly worried about how that stall would affect them in the war. If the Henshaw Dynasty decided to attack, then they would surely hit the Zelan pack first before the rest of the forces would be affected.

In order to calm Daven down, Malim had ordered that the joint army of the forces against the Henshaw Dynasty should be relocated to the Zelan pack's lands. That way, when they were ready to strike, they would already be close, and also, they would be ready if the Henshaw Dynasty did strike first.

"Sir Malim told us to let you know that the time is near. He himself is not too sure when that time is, as he is acting on behalf of Sir Delk, but he said to know that the time is near. Perhaps within the next week or so." Dion replied with a serious face.

While he spoke, Flare and Arc both turned to look at each other with strange looks on their faces. This was a very important meeting that they were sitting in. They listened with rapt attention as the meeting proceeded over the next hour.

"I am honestly not so surprised to be honest." Daven chuckled when he heard that a secret faction existed in the Henshaw Dynasty that intended to topple its current rule. "With how terrible they are, I'm sure there are more than just a few people who hate the current king. Also, who's to say that there are not people not interested in having a demi-human as the love of their life? I'm sure they hate the king's guts."

Dion and Mian exchanged a look at Daven's words. A look that he noticed.

"What is it?" The man asked with a quirked brow. He was interested in knowing what they had yet to tell him.

"The leader of the secret faction is one of the princes of the dynasty." Mian revealed. "And he apparently has a demi-human lover."

If Daven was shocked, then now, he was stupefied. Even Flare choked on his saliva. Although he was young, he understood all that was being said. He understood how much of a twist it was for the king's own son to be the mastermind that controlled a powerful faction that stood against the rule of his own father.

"Hmm, who would have thought." Daven said in thought. "How exactly did we come to know about this?" He asked.

"Well, a couple of their soldiers were in Kraetor when he attacked it to free the city back then. After seeing what we were capable of, they decided to tell one of the leaders of the mercenaries sent from the Central Continent about it. From there, we made contact with the secret faction, and then they shared some information with us." Mian explained the short version of the story to Daven, while Dion nodded his head along with Mian's words.

"And I believe that to show you their sincerity the you guys and the prince had some kind of meeting, yes?" Daven asked.

"Exactly. We needed to make sure that it wasn't some kind of plot from the king, so the prince and his lover came to meet us in a location that we had picked. Things kicked off from there." Dion said.

The three continued to speak for a while more as the two boys got their patriarch up to speed on the events that had taken placed while they were out of the pack's territories.