"There is no doubt in my mind that you are an excellent warrior and a valuable asset to your people. However, your position and your talents are not a good match, they are wasted on each other. If there is one right thing you will ever do in your position as king, it'll be to dismantle your current form of leadership, and help your people put those more suited for the task into power," he said finally, before gesturing for Avankor and the others to leave.
With this, the entire room was left in silence, some doing so in self-reflection, whilst others remained quiet solely due to lack of words.
"Havon, wait," a voice called out as Lucius and the others were trying to pass through the crowd that had collected at the door.
Lucius turned around and found Shaviki walking towards him.
"Ahh, thank you for everything, Shaviki. Truth be told, I think you're the only one who deserved their position in this council," Lucius said as Shaviki approached.
"Will you be returning?" Shaviki asked, a worried expression on his face. No doubt he knew that without Lucius here, the survival of his den was reduced to nearly zero.
"There are a few ties I have here, although I won't be returning, rest assured I will be sending you supplies. And you don't have to worry about repaying me, Sherlin is already doing so," Lucius replied. However Shaviki's worried expression did not soften.
"Is something else the matter?" Lucius asked.
"My son. C-can you take him with you?" Shaviki replied, and before Lucius could even say anything he added; "He can be a part of the trade deal between you and Sherlin."
Though it seemed cold for a father to trade his son away, Lucius understood where he was coming from. Even if a new council came into power, it would not change the way his son was viewed, some things just couldn't be solved in a short time.
"You'd dare offer that bad omen in exchange for all he has given us? My father has already embarrassed us enough, I expected more from you Shaviki," the chief shouted in indignance.
"If we are trading members, then I would be a better fit. We have cheated him enough," he added, now in a softer tone.
Words could not describe the expression that the chief had on his face. He seemed to regret being born a Chames, chained by his duty to the den, he couldn't leave with Lucius.
"I will take him," Lucius said finally. After seeing the state Alpha was left in due to his mistakes, he had more sympathy for Shaviki. Even if it would complicate things, he was now more willing to go through with it.
"If that child leaves with the outsider, then he is banished from the den. Do you understand that Shaviki?" Shavril shouted.
Shaviki thought about it for a moment, before nodding his head.
"Then I disown him. Yes... I disown my son," Shaviki whispered to himself, the tears on the rim of his eyes threatening to fall.
Lucius understood that this was no easy task to carry out. With this, Shaviki's family would be completely destroyed. He would be left alone, something Lucius had recently come to fear.
"Come," Shaviki called out towards the crowd, and a moment later, an albino Chames squeezed through.
Shaviki whispered something into his son's ears, and the two looked at each other for what seemed like the last time before the latter left with Lucius and his group.
Lucius was uncertain how things would play out in the Chames' den, however, he knew that whatever did happen would be for the best.
*
Once the group had finished with their business at the Chames's den, they shortly returned to the Zeldrave's den to drop off Avankor -who had a few outstanding duties to complete as King- and Trel -who Lucius had instructed to go make sure Alpha was fed- before the others ventured on to the clan lands.
"Okay, listen up. I'll only say this once," Lucius began, as he had the group stand at attention at the fringes separating the dark forest and the clan lands.
"We will be doing some resource gathering, that is all I am expecting of you. If you see any danger, alert me and I will take care of it. You are not to engage in battle understand?" Lucius ordered.
"Your den has lost enough, and frankly Avankor is the only Zeldrave warrior worth anything in battle, so nobody try to be a hero. You'll have your work cut out for you as is," he continued. To which the warriors nodded their heads in understanding.
"Okay, I'll give each of you a specific resource to look for as we move through the forest, and you'll load it onto the cart," Lucius said as he used Elmando to morph the nearby mushroom's into a cart.
After this, he gave each of the 4 warriors under his service their specific resources which were primarily; herbs, two different types of rocks, and whatever branches had fallen to the ground.
"Zhayen, I want you to watch me over the next few days and learn what you can. Though your father has entrusted you to me, I'm not sure where your talents lie yet, so try your best to show me what you're good at," Lucius whispered to Zhayen as the group began moving.
Lucius used Elmando to move the cart along, making it bigger as they passed more and more mushrooms. He also threw in whatever materials he thought would be useful, which were mainly odd-looking plants, vines, and rocks too big for the warriors to carry themselves.
After three hours had passed, the group was starting to tire, however, Lucius gave them no rest. The cart -which at this point was the size of a garbage truck- was only quarter-way full, and Lucius wanted to minimize the number of times he would come back here.
Plus, he was using this as a training exercise for these warriors, something they apparently needed a lot of.
After another hour passed, productivity was starting to take a heavy decline, so he reluctantly decided to allow them a few moments of rest.
"We can rest here for an hour," Lucius ordered, as they came by a stream. It had been a while since he had drunk water, and even though it seemed he was specially adapted to survive long amounts of time without it, he was beginning to grow thirsty.
