Indigo felt her ears twitch nervously as she crept silently back into the village, hoping to avoid attention.
Not silently enough.
Dagger, a fitting name for the chief of the Dagga clan, loomed over his daughter with a disapproving look on his face, his one black ear and one brown ear bristling with fury, while his tortoiseshell black & brown tail swished violently from side-to-side.
Indigo felt her own fluffy tail stiffen with anticipation, and her ears laid back on her glossy black hair.
"Indigo!" He yowled, raising heads from all over the clearing. "What have I told you? Absolutely, no going outside the grove!"
She could feel her claws slide in and out of her paw-like hands. Her ebony tail twitched. "Father, I-"
"No mewling from you, kitten! To the healer's hut, for a nice long meditation on what you've done!"
Indigo drew her tongue over her undergrown fangs and sighed, obeying her father, and her chief. Reluctantly, she scrambled past her bristling father and entered the healer's hut.

Indigo, despite her lover for her foster-mother the Healer, had no love for the hut.
If you could call it that.
A hole in the ground, covered by a couple of planks of wood, was not hut, and Indigo, wild as she was, was no rabbit.

Today was shaping up to be a normal day for Shane, or as normal as days can be for a half Dagga. People who don't know him stare at his abnormal hands and feet, turning a blind eye to his furry ears, wondering why an outsider is wearing the Dagga guard uniform. As he found himself slumbering to work after another restless night, he began wondering what he would be tasked with upon his arrival. Is there a mission that involves exploring beyond the grove? Maybe someone has gone missing, and the guards have to investigate! Or maybe its patrol duty like every other day.

Shortly after making it to the barracks, Shane noticed the lack of other guards. There might be a new bug going around that has everyone sick. Actually, it turns out that today is "Let's all get in before Shane does so he get's left with the boring job day". It even says so on the calendar, but he pretends not to notice and heads into the captains office.

"Reporting in, Sir". Shane addressed the captain and began awaiting orders. The captain rose from his seat and looked Shane in the eye. When he first started working here, the captain's black hair and dark blue eye's were a little intimidating, but I guess that's worn off now. The captain crossed his arms and shook his head before continuing to announce "Only in this village, can the last soldier to report in, still be early. Your to head to the North-West Lookout at the edge of town, and keep an eye out for trouble. Oh, and a young girl with dark hair". Shane looked puzzled for a moment.

A young girl with dark hair? His facial expression suddenly snapped back into being serious. Thanks for being so vague, he thought, but didn't have the guts to say out loud. "You look confused. Or is that the face of curiosity? If you need to know, your looking out for Indigo, the chiefs daughter. The chief informed us that she has a habit of leaving the village, so for her own safety, you are to pinpoint any escape routes and report them to me".

So basically Shane isn't a guard today. He's a stalker, great. "If I see the girl performing suspicious activities, do I investigate, or stay at my post? Because if she is trying to sneak out of the village without being seen, staying at the post after spotting her won't turn up anything. She will move out of sight before trying to leave". The captain took a brief moment to think. "Whether you do or not is up to you. But be warned, if you decide it is better to follow her, stay hidden and do not let her find you. Dismissed!".

It wasn't until he was out of hearing range of the general that he let out a huge "Whaaat?". Just to confirm, he is to stalk.. The chief's daughter!? Ok, maybe stalk is the wrong word. How about.. Conduct surveillance. Better, but still, that was unexpected. I guess today could either be really boring, or really interesting.

Shane makes his way up to the North-West post with his favorite snack, beef jerky, and prepares for the long stakeout. He reaches the lookout post and is somehow bewildered by it. It's a tree with the word 'Lookout' carved into it using what seems to be a knife. "I guess I'm hiding in plain sight then, huh?" he mutters to himself. Shane climbs the tree, using the Tanto in his right hand as an anchor to lift himself up, and grabs branches with his left. After reaching the highest branch of the tree that will support his weight, Shane settles in for a long watch over the peaceful woods surrounding Dagga village.

After her last escapade, Indigo was raring to do another.
A day had already passed, and she was let out of the Healer's den by a reluctance father.
On, she knew it was foolish, putting herself in danger of bears, wolves, and the only creature still seen from the dark side of the old war, Changelings.
But all the wildlife in the grove was the same. She knew practically every blade of grass, every tree by their spirit, every non-edible animal by name.
She needed something new.

Despite being inside a perfectly safe sanctuary of a grove, the Dagga Clan was smart enough to take precautions. The only exit, a magical, ordinary-looking tunnel, led up and out of a hollow tree. It was guarded by a big tree that said lookout on it. The forst problem was always taken care of: Indigo had long ago asked the trees and plants not to rat her out, and they, good friends, agreed. In turn, the trees asked any animals that might be interrogated to remain silent as well, and so, the only witness would be whoever was in the lookout tree.
To ensure that she would be hard to see, and even better, to be recognized, Indigo decided to try out her special cloak. She had a little trouble finding it, since the fur it was made of was not only rainproof, but had a shifting color, hard to look at, a disturbance in the air.
Almost invisible.

And so, she set off, keeping her ears at the ready, her claws unsheathed for silent prowling, and sticking to the shadows.

It had been a few hours now and there was no sight of anything. Shane had come to a conclusion. You wouldn't believe this, but lookout duty... Is boring.

Shane started to chew on his jerky, and noticed some faint howling off in the distance. Shane focused on listening for the howl and analysed it. 'Judging by the tone, it must be a forest wolf. It sounds distressed, as if it's calling for help'. He wanted to go investigate, but his orders were to keep watch for Indigo. But doesn't this count as 'trouble'?. Shane started thinking out loud. "I want to see what's going on, but if I do, there is a chance that 'she' might come while I'm gone. Considering there is an even bigger chance that she wont come at all, or at the very least, doesn't come this way anyway, wolves it is. Even if she does come, all I have to tell the boss is "I didn't see her" and that's that".

Finishing his jerky, Shane leaped towards another tree outside of the village wall, sinking his Tanto into the bark, then releasing and dropping onto the branch below him. He then jumped from tree to tree in the direction of the wolf calls, which were starting to get quieter by the second. At last he found the source of the howling. Much to his surprise, there was a dead wolf, and another in serious pain. When the living wolf noticed Shane's presence, it stopped trying to call completely. He hated the idea of leaving the wolf living in so much pain, that he decided to take his Tanto, and say "I'm so sorry" to the wolf.

Then he put it down.

Shane stood there, with a tear running down his face, wondering what attacked the wolves. The wounds on the wolves were like nothing he had ever seen or read about. Bears normally leave multiple slashes, and other wolves would leave smaller slashes or bite marks. However, these wolves just have chunks of flesh missing. Is there something the Dagga don't know about prowling the forests?

Shane either needs to find the attacker, or head back to the village and report the incident.

Indigo had no sooner clawed her way up a tree than she heard the howls.
Wolves.
Being a Dagga, she had no fondness for the hunters, but she didn't despise them, either. But these actually sounded, well, distressed. She was taking an enormous risk, but Indigo immediately dropped down from the tree.
Bears didn't attack wolves.
Those weren't the sounds of rage, intense fighting, either; it was no pack dispute. Besides, the trees whispered otherwise.
Could it be, a changeling, transformed into some horrid beast?
Or the true form of some horrid beast altogether?

Indigo stopped, her pace slowing and her tread more cautious. Her nostrils flared, and she could scent Dagga, and the putrid scent of death.
Was that the lookout?
Had they attacked the wolves... or are they victims too?
She slipped her jacket back on, and peered through the undergrowth.
Her breathe came sharply as she took in the sight, and Indigo widened her eyes. The wolves lay ripped up upon the ground, the calls had ended. The ground was trampled to the earth, and a Dagga clan member stood holding a weapon in his hand.

The danger was unknown. And perilously close to the Dagga's secret entrance.

Shane looked over the two dead wolves, and carried them to the base of a nearby tree, laying them side by side. He then removed his hood, as to not block his hearing, and took stance where he had found the wolves. Shane started sniffing for a scent, but the odor of the wolves was too strong for his nose and couldn't find anything else. He therefore gave up tying to find a scent and searched for footprints. Trying to determine the nature of the attack was proving to be hard given the abnormality of it.

After a quick look around, the only traceable footprints were those of Shane, and the wolves. Shane quietly muttered to himself. "Whatever it is, it's doing everything to hide its tracks. The attack seems recent so I need to find a lead quick or I'm not going to get anywhere. It attacks close to the village, but doesn't come close enough to be seen.
The village? No. The only Dagga that would kill a wolf is a hunter, and they don't leave corpses behind in the wild. It's definitely a creature. Aggressive and intelligent." Shane gives off a sigh. "But nothing like that lives around this part of the forest. Nothing we have encountered anyway. It's not like I can just go back and say a creature killed some wolves today without finding out what it is."

"I can't go too far from the village because technically I'm still on duty". Shane took out his Tanto again and climbed up a nearby tree in order to get a better view of the nearby surroundings. "It might come back. If it does, I can't let it see me. But what if it doesn't? It will get away. I'll wait ten minutes. If it comes back, I'l find it. If it lives around here, I'l find it later. But if it just runs away, it might not come back. Or it could just be moving on to somewhere else. I can't help the feeling of being watched though...".

Indigo immediately whipped around and placed her back to a great oak as the Dagga started dragging the wolves a little bit away, for fear he might catch a glimpse of her.
She wished she could get a closer look at his face. She might know him; the Dagga village wasn't that big.
But obviously she couldn't confront him. It would make giving her another punishment way too easy for her over-protective father. Indigo stayed against the tree for a while, as the Dagga muttered something incomprehensible. A few minutes later, a tree rustled, showering a light amount of leaves onto the ground.
He had climbed the tree.

"Great Groves! Now I can't investigate those wolves," Indigo hissed under her breath.
Suddenly, she felt like something menacing was watching her. A dark, impenetrable gaze.
Her body went rigid for a second, before swiftly facing the direction the sense seemed to be coming from.
Underneath the tree her fellow Dagga had went up, was something dark. It stayed for only a moment of a moment, and the only thing about that beast Indigo could lock her eyes on was the most prominent.
Glistening, intelligent, evil eyes.
And then it was gone.

Indigo didn't hesitate to leave, and as such, was bounding across the forest with haste, towards the Dagga's village.
She just hoped the beast wasn't fast enough to catch her, noisily as she was travelling. And just as much, she hoped that the beast couldn't climb trees, for the sake of the Dagga up there. Because a Dagga is a Dagga.
And despite what other Daggas might think, one shouldn't wish another harm.

A shuffling sound came from a nearby tree, catching Shane's attention. He stabbed the tree on which he was standing with his Tanto, and used it as an anchor to lean around the tree without falling off the branch. Shane tried to see what was making the noise, and caught a brief glimpse of another Dagga, running away very quickly. The Dagga had dark hair, with a bit of purple. Probably Indigo. But Indigo wouldn't do something like this.. Would she?

As he lost sight of her through the trees, the one he was currently standing on shook a little. Shane looked down to see a huge black creature, emerging from the base of the tree. Shane didn't move a muscle, in case it heard him. It was like a giant canine with fur darker than night, teeth sharper than a blade, and each claw was larger than Shane's hands. The creature turned in the direction it last heard movement: towards Indigo. Shane had to kill the beast or lead it somewhere else. He still had one jerky left in its wrappings. He could unwrap it and throw it in the opposite direction, but would the smell be enough?

The beast started lumbering away but immediately stopped upon hearing Shane snapping a thin branch of the tree. Before it could turn around and identify the source of the sound, Shane hurled the branch away, making another sound further away. This would give the beast the impression that whatever was making the sound was running away, and hopefully it would follow. Shane observed it as it investigated the second sound, and noticed that it doesn't leave foot prints. Was it a shadow being?

Shane unwrapped the jerky, and threw his beloved snack out into the depths of the forest, bidding it farewell in his head as it flew. When the jerky landed, the beast turned its nose, caught its scent, and followed the jerky, giving Shane a chance to escape. He slowly and carefully climbed down the tree, making sure he made no sound. Upon reaching the bottom, he faced the direction the beast had gone and slowly backed away, keeping an eye out in case the beast came back. When Shane reached a safe distance, he turned to the village and headed back swiftly to report an evil beast prowling the nearby woods.

Today was definitely not boring.

The instant Indigo stepped into the village, she sensed that no one had noticed her disappearance, but the lookout post was empty. So it was the lookout I saw...

He must have followed her, or heard the howls and got there before she did.
But she was glad he wasn't here right then, because normally, getting in the Dagga village was much harder than getting out.
The village looked the same as ever.
But Indigo could feel the newfound dread whistling among the trees.
She could still see that beast's eyes.
Boring into her own...

~Indigo's perspective continued in Dagga Village~

In a slightly panicked state, Shane rushed to the captain as soon as he reached the village. Barging in, he panted while the captain looked at him with a surprised expression. "Your back early, did something happen?" the captain enquired. After catching his breath he replied to the captain "There was a massive beast that looked like a giant wolf but worse out in the forest! There was another Dagga too but I couldn't see them clearly, they ran away just before the beast came out. They must have seen it as well".

The captain sighed. "What you saw was a over-sized wolf, and the Dagga was probably Indigo. She probably knew you noticed her and ran from you, not the wolf. Go to your post and don't come back until sunset". Predictably, the captain didn't believe him. At least, not the part about the beast. Shane had to convince him. "But what if it comes near the village? It could-" He was cut off by the captain. "It is a wolf! If it comes near and threatens the clan, we will kill it! But it is just a wolf, and wolves do not come near. I will not hear any more of this! Now leave!".

Shane was left no choice but to go back to his post. But before doing so, he went home first to pick up a trowel and some leather strips. On the way back, he snatched a rock from the floor and put it in his pocket. When Shane made it to his post, he climbed to the very top of the tree, and looked for the sun. It was a third of the way down. This gave him a few hours to go back into the forest. Shane's Tanto isn't just for fighting and climbing, but can be used to trace where he has already been. He follows the marks left on trees where he had been when following the wolves howling. After a few moments, he finds the wolves. From behind a tree, he takes the rock from his pocket, and throws it in the distance. Half a minute passes and the beast didn't show any presence.

Shane moved over to the dead wolves, and started digging a hole with his trowel. He made two holes, and lay the wolves down, giving them a burial. He then found four sticks, and tied two of them together with his leather strips to make a cross. He drove the cross into the ground, adjacent to one of the wolves, and repeated the procedure for the other wolf. Shane took a few steps back, placing himself before the two graves.

He knelt down on the ground, put his hands together, and prayed for the wolves.

Indigo had managed to come into the village unnoticed, so her father must be organizing some ritual or other. She set her sights on the Healer's hut.
Never going in there voluntarily, unless Dagger ordered her too or the Healer needed a helper, Indigo's foster-mother was surprised to see her climbing through the dank entrance and asking for advice.
"Healer, where can I find scrolls?" Indigo asked.
Healer looked up from her sorting of poison ivy, her paws protected from the itching aspect by their layer of fur. "Well, I haven't seen scrolls for quite some time. And seeing as they're made from trees, you won't find any in the village. My best bet is in the underwater city of the Namud Clan, or, even better, the home of the Hawks."
"Thanks."

Indigo packed her special jacket, a small meat-cutting knife, some food, and some herbs.
She needed to know what that beast was.

Having finished burying the poor wolves, Shane returned to his duty: keeping watch over the village. After such a traumatic day, each step he took felt like a lifetime. With the lookout now coming into view, Shane was reminded of the conversation he had earlier with the captain. 'It is just a wolf, and wolves do not come near' Echoed in his head until he had climbed the tree and resettled on his branch.

"I guess it isnt a problem for us if it doesn't come back, but the fact something like that came into existence is a problem for everyone".

Indigo had left the village immediately after making sure everyone thought she was still in it. She looked cautiously around, and kept her ears perked, but for a while nothing was disturbing her nice long walk.
Her first target was the Hawks' village or whatever it was; though she couldn't be sure of her welcome, Indigo knew for a fact it might not be very friendly, it having been centuries since the clans last contacted each other.
Centuries since the Shadow-War.
She needed to find scrolls or history books on the war, because if that creature was what she though it was, the clans were going to have to start talking to each other again. In order to stop the shadows from rising up once again.

With time pressing on, Shane began reconsidering what he was doing. 'Why am I working for these Dagga?' He thought. 'The other guards mistreat me, and my boss ignores and yells at me. Things can't stay like this forever. Surely...' He took another look above the trees, and even though it was early, decided to call it a day.
Shane dropped down from the tree, and spotted another Dagga approaching. It was a guard. "Is something going on?" It wasn't normal for someone to come to Shane. Even in emergencies, Shane was never given a role in helping. The Dagga looked Shane right in the eyes, indicating something serious. "I'm here to collect your weapons. For today's failures, you have been excluded from the guard. The captain says not to bother coming back".

Shane was taken completely by surprise. Although it was usual for such failures to be treated harshly, the decision was made rather quick this time. "I see" He reluctantly handed his weapons to the guard, who suddenly grabbed his top right torso, and ripped the badge off his jacket. "You won't be needing this any more either" He aggressively stated, before turning his back and leaving.

Bewildered by what had just happened, Shane stood still, not even knowing what to think. He recollected himself and decided to head back home, and give some thought as to what his next move would be. There's an evil being wondering the forest, and he is no longer tied to the village by 'duty'. This one bad ending could in fact lead to a bright new beginning.

Today was far from boring indeed.

As she traversed the strange, unknown parts of the forest, heading for the snowy mountains where the Hawks would most likely have made their home, solitary and with a good view, unpredictable winds to have fun in, and who knows what other perks that would be great for a winged clan.
Even as she enjoyed dodging branches and leaping over hidden rabbit-holes, Indigo kept her eyes open. The shadow beast was no doubt still out hunting, and when she last saw it, Indigo noticed that it produced no smell, and hardly any sound.
A predator to be reckoned with.
But now, she kept up the trek, wary and listening for warnings in the rustling language of the trees as well.