The Master of Uradan

The smile of the moon overlooked the mortal world, mocking those poor humans sleeping in the middle of the desert.

Inside one of the tents, a young man and his family were currently all sleeping. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling of the tents. All he could hear was the quiet breath of his grandparents and siblings sleeping. His parents were both dead for a long time already.

Slowly, slower than he had ever been, he pushed away the sheets made of brown fur and stood up from his sleeping place. He moved like a ghost, like a shadow as he paid attention to all the rustlings he was doing.

He stuck his face to the skin of karags making up the walls and waited for a short instant. Nothing.

A step after another, with a slight pause between each, he left what could be called his room and walked toward the side of the large tents keeping away the coldness of the night. He didn't need to search for anything with his eyes, as he knew perfectly the position of his target: his family always put it there.

Reaching the place, he crouched down and blindly searched around with his hand for the pot in the darkness. It didn't take long before he found out what he was looking for, and after grabbing it, he opened it. He took out an item from inside and decisively enveloped it with a cloth the faster he could. He didn't want the smell to wake up his grandparents.

Before long, he was already outside. Before he had laid down on the fur to sleep, he had already prepared the clothes to protect him from the cold of the night.

The light of the moon shone onto him, making him hastily close the entrance. He stood there for a few seconds. As he heard nothing, he breathed in and out before moving.

The whole camp was asleep, and only a couple of the members were sitting near the big fire, supposed to take the guard. But since his tent was far from there, at the outskirts of the camp, no one could see him in the darkness of the night.

He delicately shifted his weight to his left leg, and carefully stepped on the rocks over the ground. He wasn't in a hurry, and he was taking all the precautions he could to not be discovered.

If someone suddenly caught him here, it would still be fine as he would simply tell some random lie like going for a night walk, or to pee, or whatever. However, if he was found out when he was outside of the camp, that could be more delicate.

Using the cover of the night and the shadows of the tent, he headed in the direction of the fence he could see in front of him. He gulped down. Now, the problem was the karags.

They all lay there and completely covered the ground with their huge bodies. No one was awake. The man cursed inside his head as he thought about the next action.

He could choose to slowly walk back to jump from the fence at the other side of the camp, where these stupid beasts couldn't be seen. But he quickly disregarded this idea. His target was just in front of him, behind the karags and the fence. If he decided to cross at another point, that would make him turn around at least twice.

He couldn't afford the risk. Thus, without any more solutions, and as he didn't want to cancel the operation, he calmed his nerves and concentrated his mind. He would go through the beasts still asleep.

His shoes touched the ground. First, it was the heel, delicately, then he replaced his body to follow the move. The snoring of the beasts made his chest pond on his chest, as the rocks were slightly cracking under his weight.

Under the coldness of the night, gradually numbing his limbs, his body couldn't help but sweat like crazy, further enhancing the freezing sensation the young man felt. He closed his mind. He ignored everything. What he was doing was for the clan. He must do it.

He was the only one seeing it, and he knew it was already too late for the majority of the clan. But he was too weak to help them, he was too fragile to kill this great enemy. Thus, his only way was the beasts.

The Blackwolf clan was mighty, and the old Garrold was a powerful rank 4 Beginner Warrior. He knew for sure that the dracasses would meet their doom under the hand of the strong members of his clan. But even so, he expected the beasts to at least have the time to kill someone.

But he couldn't be sure that the beast would be able to do it. That was for this reason he had already prepared everything. Even if all the beasts were killed like the ridiculous animals they were before they accomplished their task, they would still be useful.

He would use the opportunity to reject all fault so that everyone believed it was this despicable man that had tried to attract the pack of dracasses. The man couldn't help but smile at his ingenious plan, and the scar on his left cheek, growing up from the corner of the mouth to the base of his ear, deformed under the moonlight.

Abruptly, one of the legs of the karag near Guros swept the ground and dangerously approached his own legs. With fright, the man jumped forward. By luck, he had successfully evaded this damn animal, but that wasn't the immediate problem.

He landed against the ground, his foot ripped against one of the infinities of rocks there was all over, and under the shock, this one bumped into the back of another karags. Guros gulped down. He stopped to breathe and stared at the huge creature. He stood there like a stone statue, ready to flee at any moment.

Fortunately, nothing happened. He let go of a mouthful of air, and a cold white fog exited his mouth.

The rest of this small journey passed without any problem, and under the dark clothes covering the sky, Guros finally reached the fence. From these past few days, this time was the hardest. He shook his head and easily crossed the fence only used to fend off from the small animals like the fire snake or other.

He continued to walk, then as he thought he was far away, he accelerated his pace. Soon, he looked around him. He was in the middle of nowhere, only a small distance away from the encampment of the clans. Here would be fine.

He took out the cloth covering what he had taken earlier and prepared to put it on the ground. A slight smile appeared on his face. He was sure that the dracasses would come at some point, and it would potentially not be too long.

He crouched on the ground and unfolded the piece of rag.

"What are you doing here, Guros?" The loud voice made the young man jump from fright, letting the item slide from his hand and falling on the floor. He turned around hastily with a terrified face. He focused on the tall and powerful man standing there.

As he saw who the person was under the moonlight, he lost all strength. He felt against the ground full of rocks as his legs couldn't support him anymore.

"I asked you a question, Guros. What are you trying to do exactly?" The voice was irritated.

"C…Clan chief…I…" He couldn't find his words in front of his chief, and soon, tears filled his eyes. He knew he was in deep problems, but his first thought was he couldn't finish his plan to save his clan.

Darias frowned as he gazed at this pitiful boy. Since that day, he knew that Guros was up to no good, but since he hadn't seen anything, nor the guards reported anything, he had found it strange.

It was only a random idea he had this night as he couldn't sleep. He had decided to leave his tent, but the second after he had put a foot under the moon and strolled around, he had seen this young man suspiciously leave his tent.

He squinted his eyes at the item on the ground.. Whatever he had held a few seconds earlier should respond to his question.