As the herd of powerful elephants drew closer, Rui slowly let go of their stealth technique, showing himself to them and only them, alarming the therianthropes who rode atop the elephants.
"Who goes there?!" they spoke in their native language, conveying the aning of their words through nonverbal communication. "How dare you enter our territory without our permission!"
The elephantine therianthropes retained only the flap-like ears of the elephant species, while others had managed to gain nascent tusks unlike those of an elephant.
"My na is Rui Quarrier Silas Kandria."
They froze at these words, understanding the aning of his words in their head, staring at him with a hint of disbelief as they studied his features, realizing that he matched what they knew of the description of the most powerful warrior of human civilization.
"Are you..." They hesitated. "Are you truly the Dawnbringer of the Lost Continent?"
"Yes," Rui replied with a calm tone, pulling out the amulet of the Kandrian Royal Family. "I am the one they call the Dawnbringer. This here is the Omni-Martial, Amare. We have co here to seek an audience with the Gajanan Clan of Kiriket and to speak with Lord Vakratunda. We apologize for infringing on your territory without permission, but unfortunately, we had no other ans of communicating with you in absolute secrecy."
They hesitated.
They weren’t supposed to recognize such pleas as valid under normal circumstances, but they were faced with a warrior who had defeated one of the top ten most powerful warriors of the entire world. On top of that, for such a powerful individual to make his way to their territory on foot in a rather humble manner for soone of his station.
On top of that, they could understand why he had done things the way that he had. As mbers of the Harmonist Faction, their day-to-day lives over the past year had been tense with the War Coalition growing more and more aggressive with each passing day over war with the Lost Continent.
Despite their lower ranks, they were aware of the tensions that existed between the Dragon Emperor, who sought to improve it by consuming the Dawnbringer, who had shockingly divulged an extrely powerful Authority of Alpha that could be used against them.
As for whether Rui truly was who he said, they couldn’t be absolutely sure yet. However, it was supposed to be impossible to infiltrate Kiriket, and yet he had done it rather smoothly, which lent credence to his power that they could feel standing right in front of him.
"...Very well, Your Highness." The man at the head of the squad that had co to intercept him acquiesced to his request. "Follow us, we shall lead you to our clan and to our leader."
Rui heaved a sigh of relief that they were reasonable; he would be in trouble if he had to engage in more distasteful ans to get what he wanted. He didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with the Gajanan Clan.
As they followed the elephants through the Gajanan Clan’s territory, Rui and Amare took in their environnt. For the first ti since entering Kiriket, they found the environnt to be actually soothing. The Gajanan Clan had avoided infesting the area with excessive fauna and making the entire region much calr and serene.
They enjoyed coming across the elephants native to the tribe, peacefully munching on the food that was plentiful around them. The air was harmonious, and even the chirps of birds in the morning took a more relaxed path.
There was a perfectly balanced ecosystem and biosphere, making for nature at its finest. Rui found it to be just as enjoyable and nourishing as even the best of West Genora.
"Harmonist Faction indeed..."
He could understand how they differed from the rest of Kiriket just by looking at how they kept their territory. He had to admit that if he were a therianthrope, he would probably enjoy that region more than any other.
Just based on this alone, he knew that the War Coalition couldn’t be allowed to subsu the entirety of Kiriket.
Soon enough, they arrived at the Clan itself.
They found themselves gazing at a vast expanse of buildings made from flora, similar to that of the elves, except, unlike the elves, who ensured that their residences were made within trees as they were, the Gajan Clan was not averse to manipulating the wood into whatever shape they needed, building living hos, houses, and massive bio-skyscrapers that reached incredible heights.
"Wow..." Amare’s amber eyes lit up with amazent as she studied the entire city. "I’ve never seen a civilization like this!"
A city built from flora, wood, and leaves that resembled a tropolis in many ways. It was a rather bizarre fusion of different elents that Rui didn’t even know could go together. And yet, it seed to work out just fine for the Gajanan Clan that resided in the city of forests.
Most of the people within the nation, from what Rui could tell, were actually human with no features.
Which made sense, considering that only pathwalkers adopted animal traits, and pathwalkers accounted for a very small part of any species. It was impossible for all mbers of the species to beco pathwalkers. These donned clothes were fashioned from cotton and other flora-derived products, unlike the clans of the continent that were of a predatory species, or at least those that weren’t of a herbivorous species.
"Welco to Minala, our nation within Kiriket. This is the City of Ceraph, an outpost city at the edge of our nation." The leader of the squadron dismounted from his elephant as he walked over to Rui with a serious expression.
"Your Highness, I have spoken to the leader of our people, and he has requested you to maintain your stealth. He apologizes that he is unable to give you the grand welco that soone of your stature deserves, but unfortunately, the situation among us therianthropes on this continent is too intense for us to welco you openly. It might trigger a civil war right away if the Dragon Emperor discovers that you are here."
Rui nodded. "I actually appreciate that. I did not co here for a banquet, unfortunately. Perhaps after we have solved our mutual problems in this continent, then we can have a banquet of celebration."
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