Spectral tales

The Panther and the vampire

Undead city-Altraud
Inside the dungeon of shadows

The large panther pounced to attack Arya while they were regrouping but stopped midjump when it saw a wounded metallic Crow landing next to it.

The Crow had a claw-shaped wound on its chest and black smoke was leaking out of it. Horrified at the size of the wound it rushed back towards the crow and licked the wound, hoping that it would reduce the leaking of the smoke but it was of no help.
Remembering an event in its past the Panther glanced at Arya for a second and with a grunt ran back into the forest.

"Wait, where are you going? I need to kill you" Arya screamed and tried to rush after him but she was far too tired for that, her legs stumbled and fell face-first onto the ground.
"Learn to walk first, you can kill him later" Ervin mocked but still helped her to get up.

With the Panther gone, Arya and the others used the time to rest and restore their stamina. While they were doing so the pack leader Wolf approached the metallic Crow and licked its wounds to reduce the leakage of the black smoke.

2 hours later
The Panther returned while holding a bunch of black rose-shaped flowers in its mouth and fed its petals to the crow.
The Crow swallowed them and just a few seconds later the wound on its chest stopped leaking any smoke. The Crow tried to get up and thank its boss but it stumbled and fell.
"Careful!" the Panther exclaimed and helped it to sit. It then tasked the wolf to protect the crow and walked towards Arya while recalling its past...

32 years ago

The dark forest was a large forest that separated the Vampire territory from the Ancient Human City-Altraud.

At the centre of the forest, a tiny black panther hopped up and down to catch its mother's tail and with each try it neared the tail until it succeeded in catching it.

"I did it! Meow" the baby Panther exclaimed in joy and did a happy little dance while nibbling its mother's tail causing the mother to sigh at her child's never-ending enthusiasm.
"Alright, that's enough messing with my tail for today. I need to go to hunt so be a good Panther and play with the wolves" she ordered the baby Panther and went to secure some food. The baby nodded and after she left rushed towards its left to reach a small cliff.

At the top of the cliff, a small pack of 5 wolves rested along with their pups and when the baby Panther reached the cliff a small wolf pup spotted it. The pup jumped in joy and after receiving its mother's permission rushed towards the Panther with a small group of 3 pups following behind it. They howled in joy and played all kinds of games while enjoying each other's company.

The pups didn't know how to speak but with all the time they spent with each other, it was not difficult for the Panther to understand what they were saying so when a wolf pup discovered a group of humans in the forest, they followed it and found the humans fighting a 2m tall Crow.
The Crow fought with its full might but the humans quickly overpowered it.
One of the humans muttered <enslavement>, immediately after which a grey hue spread from his hands and covered the crow's head. When the hue finally dissipated the crow bowed its head to the humans and followed them out of the forest.

Curious the baby Panther and the puppies sniffed the area and found a baby Crow in the bushes behind the area where the big crow fought the humans.
The baby had covered its eyes with its wings and was shivering uncontrollably in fright. When the group approached the baby crow, it peeked through its wings and lost its consciousness out of fear.

Feeling a little sorry for the crow, the Panther took it to its mother and explained the situation to her.
"Why did the humans fight with the crow, Meow?" the baby Panther asked and the mother informed him that they fought to weaken and enslave the crow, to use it as a war asset.