He sniffed in irritation when he heard one of the members approach him. There was some hope that he would be left alone at least for one day, but no, something always required his attention.
On the bright side, life had never been as easy as it was now.
“Lord leader protector alpha! There’s another that’s approaching the sacred land!”
He growled as he opened his eyes. It was one of the younger members of the pack. They always had the most ridiculous titles to call him, not that the older ones were much better.
It was one of the consequences of his actions when he convinced the pack to join him in taking Human Cal’s offer. Killing off all the dissidents, who happened to be the pack's oldest members, meant he was left with a bunch of whelps.
“Call me Leader. If I heard the rest of that nonsense, you can forget about your ration for a month.” He ignored how the whelp cowered at the thought of losing access to the powder.
“Yes, Leader! Do you want us to take care of it ourselves?”
He huffed in exasperation and rolled his eyes. The pack might be a nuisance, but Human Cal wanted them for some reason, so they existed for now. “No, I’ll take care of it. The same rules apply while I’m gone. Keep off the sacred land.”
“Yes, Leader!”
He left only when the whelp vacated the sacred land. He still didn’t agree with the tiny runt that found him when he was injured about Human Cal being a god, but he understood why she thought that was the case.
Human Cal’s land was... miraculous.
He felt himself changing by just standing on it, and that was just scratching the surface. Even though he couldn’t tell everything about what the land was doing to him, it was more than enough to decide to protect it with his life.
Human Cal's creation of the body of water fascinated and terrified him. At the same time, he knew he was witnessing something unbelievable forming before his eyes—not that he knew what it was.
He didn’t bother trying to differentiate between these lurkers. They all look the same to him. He tried to find out who this ‘help’ was, but none stood out to him in strength.
“I don’t really care for your reasons, but it seems I must let your group know that this is unacceptable in another way.”Twenty lurkers were before him, and he looked at each one to see if any wanted to step up to be the representative voluntarily. None did, so he picked one at random. “You. Return and tell the rest of your pack about what happened here. If this still isn’t enough to warn you all off, bring every single lurker so I don’t have to do this multiple times.” R�
The lurkers tensed and looked more than ready to act since it was apparent they were about to be attacked, but it was too late.
He let out a soft howl that resonated across the wasteland. He practiced it in his younger years when he wanted to be lazy. The haunting sound summoned shimmering specters that dove into each lurker, paralyzing them with fear but keeping them fully aware of what was going on in their surroundings.
He leisurely walked towards the lurkers, rolling his eyes at the fear emanating from their bodies. “What did you think was going to happen? I would give you another scolding and let you go? The owner of the sacred land dislikes any disturbance. There will be no second chances.”
His fangs shimmered with a faint silver light as his jaws parted. In a blinding flash, the ‘battle’ ended, nineteen lurkers lying lifeless in an instant. Only one remained, trembling—the one he had spared to carry his message.
“Don’t look so scared. You will live, but tell me you understood my message.” He was satisfied when the loan lurker looked at him with terrified eyes, silently signaling that it was received. “Good. Leave.”
He watched the lurker sprint away as quickly as it could. He hoped this was the end of it, but he understood the lure of the sacred land. This would be nonstop until most of these beasts were eradicated. At least, there was a use for these bodies.
He looked back at the wolf pack, who stared with hunger. Even with the plentiful nourishment available in sacred land, the whelps were always looking for more and more. There were bottomless stomachs with hunger that could never be quenched.
This thought would usually be tinted with derision, but he remembered being just as hungry when he was younger. Some things were just how nature intended to be until they became stronger and older.
“Have your feast and make sure there are no signs of them left!” He returned to the sacred land and lay beside the lake with the wolf pack’s ravenous feasting in the background.
He stared at them momentarily before glancing at the large rock lifeform Human Cal had created. It always felt like he was being watched, and he always took those feelings seriously. The rock lifeform was Human Cal's most mundane creation, but that still meant it deserved respect.
He gave the rock lifeform a slight nod before closing his eyes.