The Mad Queen

Chapter Twelve

Creature: Lupine
Grouping: Landfolk
Gender: Male and Female
Physical Appearance: The Lupine live in the barren lands of the Northern Deserts. This means that their skin is often a dark olive tanned colour which comes not only from their exposure to the sun but also the mud and dust from their homelands. Their hair is often dark too as are their eyes. The men are huge and thick with strong muscles. The women are muscular also and lacking in feminine beauty. Both genders have savage appearances. Their skin is often tattooed or scared with various marks and symbols. Often symbols of how many they have killed. Their teeth are sharpened and faces mutated to look more like their wolves.
Magic: The Lupine has a special bond with the Desert Wolves also known as Kintara Wolves. The wolves themselves are incredibly powerful, some growing bigger than horses. The Lupine will bond with one wolf. Once the wolf has bonded, it becomes invincible. The only way to kill the wolf is to kill its Lupine. Its skin cannot be penetrated by any weapon and poisons have no effect. Not all Lupine have bonded wolves, however. In fact, it has gotten less common as the years have passed. Less and less Lupine are bonding with these creatures.
Physical abilities: Even though less Lupine are bonding with Kintara wolves, they still share physical traits with the beasts. Their muscles hold great strength. They can run at incredible speeds for many miles without breaking a sweat. Their reflexes are sharp as are the senses of smell, sight and hearing.
Weaknesses: It is hard to come up with weaknesses for these savages. They live so deep in the Northern Desert lands, that armies of any other race can barely survive them. Those who do survive and reach their cities are barely strong enough to do anything. Though they do struggle with food and water. There is not much that grows in their lands so feeding a nation is difficult, however, that does not seem to weaken their warriors in any way.
Other Facts: The Lupine are not ruled by a King or Queen. They are ruled by a Solavar (male) or a Lunavar (female). Though we do not know why they name themselves these titles. Their ruling system does not travel down one family line like our others. Instead, their rulers are whoever kills the previous ruler. However, each new ruler must have support from the people and high ranking Lupine members in order to stay ruling. They must maintain the support for as long as they can until someone younger and stronger takes control.

~The Creatures of Vivelle. Written by scholar Dominic Frey, Head of Creature and Magical studies during the reign of the Mad Queen Orianna and her successor King Niklaus.

We arrive at the arena. The carriage enters a large archway and veers off to the side before we enter the main area. My sisters and I all get out and walk over to were horses wait. There are six in total, all of them black beasts. Their fur glistens in the light as it ripples over their strong bodies. They are impatient and jumping around so much that the stable boys are almost being thrown off their feet. These are war horses. The biggest and strongest horse breed. Even though many high ranking soldiers own horses of this great breed, officially, they are all property of the King. Though these six are perhaps my fathers greatest pride. With their intimidating dark fur and huge build. They don't like to stand still either, always wanting to run or jump. They are extremely hard to control.

I am not worried as I walk over to my horse. He is one of the larger ones, standing far above me. He is a beautiful creature with his fark silky fur and flowing mane. He calms down immediately as I approach him and the stable boy looks relieved. 

"I've got him now," I tell him and the boy is glad to run off. "Hello, boy," I say to him as I remove the ropes that had been restraining him. He whinnies and I run my hand down his neck.  A stool is brought over but I don't need it. The horse lowers his body and I jump onto his back with ease. There is no equipment for me to use. No saddle or bridle. Warhorses don't like it so they are only made to wear it when riding into battle. He rears and I laugh as I clutch onto his mane and tighten my legs.