In a fantasy world dominated by elemental feral wolves as the governing species, join Raven and his band of misfits to fight for righteousness to reign over the once peaceful kingdom of Aria, now clouded with corruption and bloodshed under the rule of an ex war general from a neighbouring land.

Raven, who is the last surviving rightful heir and Waterwolf, and one of the last living wolves of his rare Bloodline, embarks on a journey to fight the darkness inside himself and to tame his inner demons. Join this in depth world overflowing with history, lore, religion, functional power systems, action-packed battles and an all time favoured: dragons - as predatory beasts and keepers of the balance

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Chapter 1: Waterwolf

Raven sat crouching in the shadows of an alley, watching a merchant selling meat from his stall. He felt the burning hunger within his gut, for he hasn’t eaten in many days. The dried meat hung on the carts wooden poles on thin rope, there it gently swayed in the wind and its delicious scent flared in Raven’s nostrils. He stayed in the shadows carefully planning his actions and playing every possible result over and over in his head, he was a good strategist and the patience to go well with the trait. The merchant turned his back and bargained with a customer, Raven got to his haunches and was ready to jump. Just as he was about to dart towards the cart, a garbage bin fell over behind him and he got a fright and gave a low yip.
“Stupid rats” he hissed with his young but sturdy male voice.
He strained his attention back to the merchant and his cart and focused his mind back into planning strategies. The scent was stronger now and his mouth began to water and stomach ached, his mind was dazed and needed the nutrition. The merchant walked towards everybody walking by in the busy road telling them of his great bargains in the shopping district of the strangely larger than average village called Deeproot village. The village was about 15 square kilometres and great stone buildings flourish the village, but the greedy mayor doesn’t want the village to have the title of city because taxes will rise for him and the villagers.
Raven’s endless patience disappeared and he jumped up in a flash and charged out of the dark alley towards the merchant cart, he sidestep the villagers as he hastily ran forward but couldn’t dodge a oddly large wolf and slid underneath the wolf’s waist without thinking, while he was sliding on his side he immediately got up and smiled proudly at himself and jumped up as smoothly as he could, careful not to break his luck streak. He aimed his muzzle at the biggest piece of dried meat hanging on one of the poles and gripped it tight in his jaw. The rope didn’t snap as he planned it would and he swung forward and back again trying not to lose his grip on the mouth-watering meat. The merchant cursed and the villagers stared at the thief making a fool of himself, as Raven swung back he managed to tip the cart and the roped snapped, Raven fell to his back and closed his eyes with the body-to-earth impact. He opened his eyes and saw the broken cart and the merchant struggling to get his leg free from under it. The villagers went into a mild riot, gasping at what happened.
“Thief, call the guards” yelled a female wolf between the villagers.
“Not good” Raven mumbled with the meat in his jaw.
Raven got to his feet and started running towards the alley hoping to hide in the shadows again. Two guards’ saw what happened and chased after him into the alley, Raven hid behind the garbage bin hoping not to be discovered.
“Come out thief, we know your there!” demanded one of the guards.
Ravens mind raced and tried to think of a plan of escape, but the scent of the large chunk of meat distracted his thoughts. The two guards walked towards Raven, pushing over the bins as they slowly paced forward. With every crash of a bin Raven grew more anxious. He was trapped in the dark alley, there was a wall at the end of it and was too high for him to jump. His mind went into a chaos frenzy of plans and ideas but nothing logical came to mind. But then it hit him, why does the answer need to be logical? He scoped his surroundings and saw a small ravine of water running in a trench just on the other side of the alley. Raven dropped the meat, smiled and casually walked out from behind the garbage bin, the guards saw him.
“There’s no escape wolf” yelled the second guard and chased forward towards Raven, with the first guard following.
Raven stood his ground proud and mighty facing them, he told himself to focus as he briefly closed his eyes. The water from the drain overflowed and streamed towards him in a narrow stream. He opened his eyes and gave a sigh.
“I guess this will do” he hissed.
The water levitated into the air and formed a whip shape. The two guards stopped in their tracks and gasped in horror.
“He’s a waterwolf” gasped the first guard.
“We should have figured, his fur is blue” replied the second one.
Raven smiled proudly “Blue? I prefer you call it azure. Now get away from me or you will be sorry” he said dryly.
The guards stood their ground staring blankly at Raven.
“Very well” sighed Raven.
The spectacle of water shifted in the air and moved towards the guards in haste, the water whipped the guards and they yelped in pain.
“Is that all you got” hissed the second guard and charged for Raven.
The guard pounced at Raven and with a glint in his eye the water spectacle gripped the guard’s leg in mid air and slammed him to the ground, unconscious. Raven smiled proudly at his magnificent ability, and stared at the first guard expecting him to do something. The guard just stared at him in horror.
“You want to say something?” Raven asked as he directed the water spectacle to the remaining guard.
He frightfully shook his head. The water spectacle was right in the guards face when it suddenly dropped to the ground. Raven flattened his ears and knew that wasn’t good. The guard saw his confused expression and smiled.
“You reached your limit, ey waterwolf?” he smiled sardonically.
“Uhm... got to go” Raven said with a nervous smile, picked up the meat chunk and ran and jumped onto a garbage bin to gain more height. As he flew over the guard, he snapped at Raven’s paws but missed. Raven stopped by the alley exit and looked back
“See ‘ya” he said with a mischievous smile and ran into the streets.
“There’s the thief again!” yelled the merchant who got to his feet “Get him!”
Raven ran as fast as he could, avoiding the villagers as he did, he heard yelling behind him and when he turned around he saw four guards led by the guard from the alley.
“You won’t get away thief, you’re going to rot in the dungeons for the rest of your life, I’ll make sure of it!” yelled the alley guard hysterical with anger, he wanted revenge for being made a fool of.
Raven directed all his power to his legs to make the quickest getaway he could manage. This is a normal day for a thief, he thought to himself sarcastically. He wasn’t as stealthy as he wanted to be. In the previous village he collected his loot with pure efficiency and no commotions. But in a way he enjoyed the uproar, to cause a riot in a greedy village like Deeproot. The guards started to catch up to him, not surprising because it was a wind village, windwolves, and they are known for their great speed. Raven felt like he was cornered and started to fear the worst. One of the guards caught up and was snapping at his haunches, making him stumbled a bit. His mind was racing, thinking of possible ideas and outcomes, playing each tactic in his head. He was proud of his tactical thinking trait but even that fails him in tight situations like this, then he gives his body over to his instincts. He was getting annoyed and frustrated by the guard snapping at him. He saw three crates piled on each other and thought of a small plan. He ran for it and in a huge leap jumped on top of it, as his back paws touched it he kicked it backwards behind him and the crate flew into the face of the guard who pounced after him. The guard yelped and fell to the ground. Raven laughed proudly and continued running. The guards behind him grew in numbers and he knew he’s going to be in trouble. He reached the village square and stopped by a huge fountain in the middle of the square. He was totally surrounded on all sides by the guard wolves.
“This aint good” he hissed and dropped the meat.
“We got you now thief, surrender yourself calmly and you won’t get hurt”
“What makes you think you can hurt me” Raven bluffed.
“I take it you’re not willing to give yourself up calmly, well this makes it more fun for me” Laughed the alley guard dryly.
“What? No wait...” Raven replied worryingly.
“The one who pins him down gets a reward for his family” said the guard proudly.
There were whispers between the guards and they accepted the challenge. Raven stood there in horror with his mouth hung open. One guard pounced at him and he dodged him smoothly. Another came and snapped at Raven’s neck but missed when Raven shoved him sideways. They started coming in pairs and Raven used their weight against themselves, pushing them into each other. Raven was quite the talented duellist but he knew he couldn’t keep this up for long.
“I’ll take care of him, move out of my way” grumbled a wolf as he emerged from the crowd. Raven stared at him blankly.
“I would be afraid if I were you, waterwolf” threatened the old wolf.
“Are you going to give me a reason to be afraid, gramps? Replied Raven smugly.
The wolf growled but then smiled darkly “Oh how you going to wish you never said that” he said and whipped his muzzle, as he did, a ripple of wind shot towards Raven, and in a fright he ducked to the side and heard a rough slice, he looked around and saw a deep chip on the fountains wall.
“Wind elitist” Raven growled.
“Did I forget to mention that” the old elitist growled and the guards laughed.
Raven knew he was in serious trouble; he tried to manipulate the fountain water but was unable to.
“Are you ready to die now” asked the elitist coldly.
“Die? You can’t kill me, isn’t that against the law?” Raven asked confused.
“Not when you have the proper authorization. See you in hell waterwolf” he growled and let out another wind blade.
Raven hardly dodged that one and the wind elitist started to get agitated and sent one blade after another. Raven managed to dodge them by chance and began to feel more hopeless. Then his sight shot to the meat and he got an idea. He dashed to the meat and started ripping at it and swallowing the pieces almost whole.
“Awh look at that, he wants he’s last meal before he dies” mocked the old wolf, and the guards laughed.
He was finished with half of the meat and the elitist got annoyed because he got ignored by the thief. He growled and shot another wind blade at Raven, the blade cut him on the shoulder and he gave a painful yip. The elitist chuckled with pleasure and the guards stared at him with fear as they noticed his enjoyment. Raven shook off the pain and blocked it from his mind; he continued to ignore the old wolf and stared into the water. He concentrated and managed to make ripples in the water. He turned to the elitist and gave a proud smile.
“Now you’re going to be sorry gramps”
“Oh?”
With that Raven levitated a large pool of water and formed it into a spear kind of shape.
“I thought you said he reached his limit” barked the elitist at the alley guard.
“He did” mumbled the guard in defence “It’s the meat”
The old wolf snorted in disgust and gazed at Raven again.
“I guess this is a duel now, waterwolf. And as a wolf of pride I’m suppose to give you my name before I kill you”
Raven smiled at the old wolf’s nerve.
“I’m Roshak, wind elitist and 3rd in charge of the Deeproot guards” He said proudly with his muzzle slightly lifted.
Raven rolled his eyes.
“Well... and you are?” asked Roshak agitated.
“Raven, water uhm... enthusiast I guess, no title” he said sarcastically.
The guards stared in amazement and whispered amongst each other.
“Looks like you’ve made quite an impression on the guards, but I’ve never heard of you. You famous?” Roshak asked dryly.
“Well...”
“Honestly I don’t care, you’re going to die here anyway” Roshak interrupted.
Raven laughed smugly a swerved the water figure at Roshak, knocking him over with a splash of water. He got up angrily and growled, sending blade after blade at Raven. Raven shot a water blade at each of the wind blades to counter it. Roshak knew he won’t get through to him with an amateur trick like that. He bowed his head and blew to the ground; a small whirlwind formed by his paws and slowly moved forward, growing in size. Raven stared at it amused. Roshak stopped blowing and gave Raven a dark smile, Raven shrugged his shoulders.
“See you in the afterlife” Roshak said with a dark voice and gave a howling blow towards the whirlwind making it grow in size by tenfold, the devastating wind moved quickly towards Raven as he watched in horror. Before he could do anything, the whirlwind dragged him inside, swirling him around and tossing him out into the fountains statue. He hit the statue with his back and gave a loud painful yip and fell into the water. The water was running out of the fountain, running between the guards’ paws and covering almost the whole town square.
“This is the end of you” hissed Roshak “guards finish him”
“We will rather bring him in” Said one of the guards.
“I said finish him” Roshak barked angrily.
The wolves stared at Roshak with disbelief. But two guards walked towards Raven’s body, ready to finish him. They stood over his body and Raven slowly opened his eyes and gave a low growl. The one guard took a grip on Raven’s throat. Raven’s mind rushed but his body was unable to move; he felt hopeless and was ready for death to take him. He gave a low yip as the wolf’s grip tightened over his throat and just when the wolf was about to snap, something extraordinary happen that made all the wolves watching, gasp in horror and watch in utter disbelief. Ravens body disappeared in the water.
More whispering went on amongst the guards.
“Where’d he go? Is he a demon? Did he die?” the crowd went on as they looked around confused.
Roshak heard the commotion and turned around; he was walking away so he didn’t see the strange phenomenon. He didn’t notice at first but when he noticed Raven’s body was missing he shook with anger.
“Where did he go!” he barked hysterically.
“He... he... disappeared into the water” muttered one of the guards.
Roshak’s dark gaze shot to guard and he charged at him, knocked him over with his large grey head and pinned his paw in the guards’ neck, making him struggle to breathe.
“You let him escape, didn’t you?” he hissed furiously as he put more weight onto the guards’ throat. The guard kicked around helplessly, unable to breathe at all now and no possible way of escape. The others watched in horror and were too afraid to help their defenceless friend.
“Roshak, stand down” came a voice from behind him.
“Who has the nerves to command me” he hissed and swung his muzzle around, worry filled his eyes and he immediately let the guard go.
“2nd seat, I’m sorry... my anger got the better of me” Roshak cowered.
The black wolf with purple ripple marks on his fur stared at Roshak in disgust and snorted.
“I’ve been watching from the hall balcony, I’m amazed an old fool like yourself didn’t recognize that waterwolf” Said the black wolf calmly.
Roshak lowered his ears and cowered to his knees.
“You should have killed him when you had the chance”
Roshak’s ears shot up “you’re not mad that I tried to kill him?”
“I’m angry because you couldn’t. That waterwolf has the power to bring down the New Country”
“You don’t mean... is that...” Roshak muttered.
“What are you still doing here you old fool, track him down and kill him, all of you!” ordered the black wolf.
Roshak dipped his head and got up.
“You heard the 2nd seat, do as you’re told” he barked. With that order, all the guards scattered in all directions, looking for the blue thief.

Raven crawled out of a sewer gasping for air as if he was drowning; he laid on his side coughing water out of his lungs for a while. When he got to his senses he struggled to get up and only managed to sit, slouching forward a bit. His body ached from the battle with Roshak, and his mind was dazed, he had no idea what had happened to him and how he got there. He shook his head and looked around, he was in another alleyway.
“Over here, I think I saw something this way” yelled a guard from the streets.
Raven heard and went into a state of panic, he knew there would be no way he could defend himself in the state he is now. He threw his body to the corner and cowered in the shadows, he was relieved when the guards ran past the alley. The streets of the market district were in a slight chaotic state; everyone was suspicious and kept their eyes open for anything peculiar.
A cart stopped in front of the alley.
“Why did we stop dear?” asked a male voice.
“I think I stepped in something, just hold on” replied a female voice.
“Make it quick then, we have to be in the next village before sunset”
With that Raven’s ears shot up and a glimmer of hope ran through him. They were travelling merchants who went from town to town selling their merchandise. Raven knew they were his only hope of escape from the troubling village. He got to his feet and limped to the cart, he was just at the alleys end when he heard more guards coming. He slumped his weakened body to the shadowy wall and stopped breathing, just to be as stealthy as possible. The guards stopped by the cart and asked the merchant couple to check the cart thoroughly.
“This is the third time in the last hour you guards ransacked our cart, what’s wrong with this stupid town” The female nagged.
“Let the friendly guard do his job, dear” replied the male and smiled foolishly at the guard who rolled his eyes. The female gave her mate a dark look.
“This cart is clear, let’s move on”
The female shoved the male swiftly on his side “Kind guard?” she growled.
“Let’s just keep moving. Help me pull”
Raven swung his muzzle around the corner and checked if the coast was clear. He could only see one guard but he was questioning a villager. He took the chance and jumped as quickly as he could under the large blanket of the cart that protected the goods. The cart started moving and he felt a sense of relief.
“Help me pull” demanded the male.
“I’m pulling with all my strength you moron” snapped the female.
The male stared at her confused and decided to drop it. Raven heard their spat and smiled softly, glad that the couple are too stubborn towards each other to notice the extra weight on the cart. Raven was exhausted and in pain, he struggled to fight the sleep that was consuming his body but the gentle rocking of the cart added to the struggle, and soon he was fast asleep.

The air grew cool and Raven woke with a breeze on his fur.
“Wake up scavenger” hissed the female.
Raven’s eyes shot open and he saw the couple staring at him angrily.
“Think you can steal from us, do you?” she snapped.
“No... No... I just wanted to get out of that village” he mumbled.
The males eyes grew big “are you the thief the guards were looking for?”
Ravens ears dropped and he avoided eye contact.
“If anybody finds out he used our cart to escape, then we will be culprits. He’s in pain, end him quick” barked the female.
The male growled at his mate “Don’t you speak like that, you hear me?”
The female gave a low growl. “Get out of here, thief. Don’t tell a soul we let you go” whispered the male.
“Thank you” Raven said with admiration to the male merchant. He jump off the side of the cart and looked around as he limped ahead. The cart was standing on a crossroad, Raven recognized it. They travelled a good few hours so he knew he would be safe from the Deeproot guards. He looked as the merchant couple started their journey again, appreciating their unwilling help. Raven picked up his pace and went into the forest, not really knowing where he was going, but with one thing on his mind – survival. He walked a considerable distance and heard a stream, so he decided to head towards it. He got to the stream and looked into it; he couldn’t see a reflection due to the strong current. He walked a few metres away from the rippling stream and started to dig a hole. When he was done with the small hole he paced back to the stream and concentrated his mind into it. A small stream of water flowed through the air and filled up his hole. Using his ability again in his weak state strained his body even more and he shook as it hurt him to the bone. He limped back to the hole which was now filled with water and he stared into it.

A light blue muzzled young wolf looked back at him with keen light ice-blue eyes. Black crescent moon markings went over his eyes and darker blue hair spiked between his black ears and ran down his back that formed a darker coat over his light blue fur. He had a larger black crescent moon marking on each of his shoulders and there were a black wavy ring around each of his legs. He had a sleek slender young body with a luscious blue tail with a black tip, he was nearly fully grown but smaller than an average male wolf.

He gave a soft proud smile at himself in the reflection and then sadness filled it. The thought of his mother came to mind, he wondered what happened before, when the guard had a grip on his throat and it suddenly felt he was drowning, and then he woke up in an alleyway.
“Mother... is this your curse I bear now?” he whined as he saw his tear ripple in the puddle. He lowered his muzzle to the water and softly blew at it; he looked at it confused because nothing happened. He tried again. When he blew at the water on his fourth attempt, the water shone a bright blue colour, like water in the clear summers moonlight. He smiled at the sparkling water.
“Here comes the fun part” he whispered sarcastically.
A quantity of the water levitated out of the pool and Raven closed his eyes, ready for what’s to come. The water hovered over his wounded shoulder where Roshak had cut him with his wind blade and in a painful whine it settled on the wound. It was slowly healing Raven’s wound but looked liked it was causing more pain than healing. He tried to hold his painful whines in as his mind cowered at the thought of the terrible pain. Suddenly the water dropped to the ground and he gave a sigh of relief, he gasped for air and looked at his shoulder, it was completely healed except for a small scar.
“Now for the finale” he laughed darkly.
The rest of the water from the puddle, which was majority of it, elevated from the hole. It hovered over Raven’s head. He breathed in all the air he could get into his lungs and blew it towards the levitating water. The water went from a sparkling blue colour to a shockingly bright light-blue colour. He whined at the sight of it and closed his eyes, and then it dropped onto his whole body.
Quite a distance away a pair of ears shot up at the sound of a deathly painful howl that filled the sky, curiously she walked towards it.
Raven lay on the ground whining and gasping for air, he was wet to the bone and in total shock. He laid there for a short while and then growled as he struggled to his feet. He shook the water off his coat and trembled in the cooling air, night was arriving.
“I hate water element healing” he growled softly. He casually walked to the stream while stretching his legs and then drank a lot of water, for a waterwolf gain a more than average percentage of their energy from water. He drank longer than intended to because of his great thirst. When he was done he could think more clearly and scoped his surroundings, he was still hungry. The piece of meat from the village didn’t satisfy his hungers. When he thought of the meat, the memories of the day flushed into his head all at once. He felt a new hate, a hate for Roshak. He felt foolish because he hated him more due to the fact that he destroyed his meat rather than the little detail where he almost got killed by him. The thoughts lingered at the back of his mind, while finding a safe den to spend the night was now his top priority. He walked next to the river while looking for a place to rest; he wanted to stay near the water because a waterwolf always feels safer near water, with reason of course. A river is like endless artillery for his kind. He walked for what seemed like hours. Night arrived and the darkness was at its peak, Raven couldn’t find a decent place to rest so he decided to spend the night at the base of a great oak tree under the moonlit sky. He patrolled the radius of the tree to make sure there’s no one that will threaten him. He couldn’t find anyone but he kept having an unnerving feeling that he’s being watched. He decided to sleep with one eye open just in case, to settle the unnerving feeling. He dropped down and quickly forgot about his anxiety. Little did he know of the bright yellow eyes watching him from within the bushes.