Chapter 4

It had been many sunrises since last it bothered to look down on the intruder's grove, the place they made their territory, its secondary goal when taking the territories of the land. And take it had, many battles had taken place, many battles for its right to live over other Alphas, but, in the end, its right to live always shone through over its foes.

It ruled the territory on every side of the grove for many sunrises of travel around, so much territory did it rule that even the tusked packs respected its rule and very rarely attacked its pack as they knew the retribution which would befall them should they err.

Many of the other creatures of Grimm had not been as agreeable to the change of ownership such as the large arms, the scaly ones and the giant many-legs, these ones required significant effort to either remove or pacify, the fat ones were perfectly fine with this and continued on as they always have, roaming about entering and leaving territories.

The Alpha had found that while taking territories it grew faster than it felt was normal, it even confirmed this when it connected presences with a rival Alpha at the edge of its vast territory and exchanged senses and feelings until the other Alpha understood that there was no further intention to spread, it already had its target and even if it did continue spreading one day it would be to the north.

Time was on the Alpha's side but even so it acted as though it had none and entered every fight it could within its territory to further its understanding of combat.

The largest reason it stood there at the top of the mountainous ridge looking down at the intruder's grove was that it had found that the intruders had started to venture into the Alpha's territory more frequently of late, significantly more frequently.

Whereas when the Alpha first arrived here the intruders would enter the forest very briefly only to hunt the non-Grimm creatures of the forest then leave just as quickly and not return for many sunrises. Now, however, they ventured into the forest almost every day and sometimes even the smaller intruders would come, the loud ones which never seemed to do anything but make noise and run about.

The small ones would often be rounded up shortly afterward by the taller ones though, leading the Alpha to assume the taller ones were the Alphas and the smaller the lesser, a logical assumption it concluded.

But even despite the Alpha having to remain at a safe distance to avoid detection it began to learn things, things which it had never even considered. The first, language. The intruders used sounds which caused the others to react or do certain things, at first this meant nothing to the Alpha but after some time it began to see the correlation.

The second was weapons, instruments that were designed from the environment or somehow made of shiny stone which allowed the claw-less intruders to have claws anyway.

The third and final was that the intruders were not strong, they were not like the Intruder which seemed to share a species with them, they were inferior in every way even with the hazy memories the Alpha had from its days as a lesser Grimm.

The intruders were vulnerable, perhaps not universally, the Intruder had taught the Alpha that, but their species was not all as strong as the Intruder and when the Alpha learned this the last of the chilling effect in its spine when it thought of them went away and all that was left was the burning it had felt so scarcely since the first time.

This was a normal thing when seeing the intruders it had found when it conferred with the not-enemy border Alpha, the feeling was universal across Grimm, though it was not sure why it felt like this, just that it was fact, in fact, the other Alpha was somewhat curious why it had not already tried to destroy the intruder grove but it pushed no further as the intruders were not in its territory therefore it did not need to deal with them.

This revelation led the Alpha to start its observation in the first place, the intruders weren't going anywhere and neither was the Alpha, especially now that it knew.

Its first act was to allow the intruders to roam further into its lands before they met resistance, it had only taken a few hundred sunrises before the intruders became suddenly comfortable with wandering into the forest which was formerly so dangerous to them originally so letting them go further should make them even more comfortable.

This caused it to be able to learn more by listening in on more of the creatures though when it tried to get its pack to let it listen in through the presence it found that its pack suddenly became extremely unruly, to the point of the Alpha forcing its will through the presence.

By forcing its pack to follow its choice the Alpha was capable of making them get closer and closer to the intruders without them getting noticed, in fact, after having exerted its will its pack responded so well that it no longer needed to actively follow their actions to understand what they were doing, they were simply like another smaller version of the presence in its mind, always there.

Over the course of many sunrises the Alpha learned of many of the individuals inside the grove and even started to understand their language in a very rudimentary manner, though it was reasonably sure it could not replicate the sounds necessary for it to speak the language, not that it mattered.

During these sunrises the other Grimm in the area slowly became agitated, to the point of seeking out the Alpha and attacking it. These actions began to consume more and more of the Alpha's time until it decided enough was enough.

The fateful morning had started out simply enough, a morning hunting party headed out to the woods where they were promptly tailed and observed by a multitude of very well hidden pack members.

The hunters spoke to each other and made the occasional language based coughing sound, called laughing by them, as apparently according to them the something had something a daughter, it did not sound important but every tidbit would create better understanding so they listened.

A sudden scream that sounded suspiciously like 'Grimm' rang through the clearing and the party of hunters immediately zeroed in on the source of the scream, a high pitched intruder was staring down a giant many-legs which had just speared one of the Alpha's pack for getting in its way.

Feeling the burning again the Alpha began to make its way to the location from the cave it had been resting in before, while watching through its pack's eyes, it had watched another creature directly oppose its will.

In the meantime the screaming intruder had been desperately attempting to escape the larger creature with only a shattered trail of trees to speak of the effectiveness its strategy had shown so far.

With every strike the many-legs got closer to its target and also closer to the other group of intruders, this entire situation had the chance to lure out The Intruder but it also had the chance to only make it run further if it was still here.

Urging its pack to destroy the many-legs before the situation could spiral further out of control the Alpha pushed its well-honed body to the limit while following its pack in its mind and directing their actions.

The high pitched intruder finally arrived with the other intruders whom had begun shooting arrows at the many-legs to little effect, specifically no effect except for one individual that was consistently hitting the eyes of the large creature.

Just before the many-legs could crash into their lines and scatter them like dust in the wind its pack had coordinated enough to leap from the trees and both hold its claws closed as well as weigh down the large spiked tail it was constantly flailing around.

With the pack holding down all the dangerous parts of the many-legs the intruders leapt into action, their sturdier weaponry coming into play, a series of very strange looking implements ranging from long sharp edged to wood handled spikes which actually penetrated the bone of the creature.

The intruders swiftly began to injure the creature in joints and any remaining weak point whilst trying to keep their killing of its pack to a minimum due to the likelihood that if they killed too many the many-claws would begin wreaking more havoc.

Even as the pack and intruders cut and clawed the many-legs it continued thrashing, killing the occasional pack member and knocking aside the intruders constantly. The pack numbers were beginning to dwindle and the more dangerous parts of the many-legs were becoming exposed rapidly increasing the danger for anything nearby.

With a final slam the many-legs managed to dislodge the last of the pack on its tail and then reared back to pierce the intruder that currently had its weapon jammed into an eye socket as deep as it could get it.

With a loud sound of slicing the stinger found its home lodged in the wrong target, the last pack member had leapt into the way and the stinger of the many-legs found itself stuck at the same moment the Alpha leapt in.

Jaw open and claws extended the two giants crashed into the other and the many-legs was found wanting, the many wounds it had already suffered were too much and the claws of the creature could not exert enough force to prevent the huge claws of the Alpha from forcing their way under the plates in its tried and true method.

Seeing what could only possibly be their doom so far from their grove the intruders backed away until they found a spot where the previously felled trees created a natural barricade and proceeded to prepare themselves for fighting whichever of the Grimm juggernauts survived their strange fight.

Feeling its death approaching as the powerful claws of the Alpha slid closer and closer to something it couldn't just shrug off or heal the man-legs became desperate, slamming the ineffective Grimm covered tail into the Alpha repeatedly and trying to cut off the legs with its pincers.

Life ebbed from the great beast as the claws finally tore the mask off from creature it grappled, blood covered flesh showed only briefly before something overcame the Alpha and it bit into the flesh ripping and tearing and forcing the flesh down its throat by utilizing the before now unused muscles it had within.

Something inside of it was filling, what it was it didn't understand but it was a similar feeling it got from killing its foes, simply more… extreme, a feeling it didn't want to lose so it kept going, feasting itself on the gradually dissolving black flesh of its prey.

The taste was perfection and it lost itself in ruining the creature in front of it before more of the delicious being could disappear, so lost in its actions the Alpha forgot entirely about the intruders.

A precise arrow reminded it why it should not have forgotten, piercing its eye the wound dripping tears of blood on the non-damaged side of its mask, the teardrop shaped damage to its mask from when it first became an Alpha mirroring the effect but without blood.

Stopping and looking at the intruders it began walking, putting its claw partially over the eye without an arrow in it to prevent the affliction from being replicated.

A deep growl rumbled forth as the heat settled in its chest again, before it stopped, remembering briefly to not attack these intruders, they were the lure, they were necessary.

Its forward momentum halting the intruders looked on in confusion as the large beast which could likely tear them apart paused as if contemplating something before relaxing its muscles and turning to leave, a few pack members which had just arrived following in its wake.

The voices of the intruders followed the Alpha as it left, words of confusion but one word which stuck with it even as it arrived back at its cave to rest and recover, 'Saved us'.

The Alpha growled as an itchy feeling filled it… it knew the meaning of those words and it didn't like them one bit.