Bears and tall terrors
In Jasper, in the Leader's den
"Have any Royal Messengers arrived, dear?" asked Winston one afternoon.
"No. But who have you sent messages to?" said Eve, curios.
"We've sent a message to King and Queen Bear." replied Tony, sitting down. "They must be on high alert, two monsters already have plagued our territory, and they must be on guard if anny disappearances happen. The Archmages must be told so they could head to the Bear Kingdom immediately."
"They're very old friends and allies, Eve. We must be united against these monsters."
"I agree, Winston, dear."
Just then, Ithilden stepped into the den.
"Any news, Winston?" he asked.
"No. Not yet."
"We actually have an idea. You mentioned that the Bear Kingdom is on cliffs and mountains and is quite compact."
"Yes, I did. Why?" replied the wolf, curios.
"We could try to move the pack there. We've assembled a set of spells and enchatments which could at least warn us wherever are humans, demons. Here, because the dens are spaced out, it would take very much energy to set it up and keep active. The Bear Kingdom, however, seems way more convenable for this plan."
Winston was silent. Tony replied:
"It isn't a bad idea. Just hope that the King and Queen Bear will agree. Though I think they will, we were allies for very much time. We helped each other on quite a few occasions."
"Excellent. We could try talking to them too, but I think it would be better if you would make the first step, and maybe introduce us. You're the ones on good relations with them, not us, after all." said the druid, with a smile. "We shall await your answer. Good day to you all!" he added courteously and left the den.
"We maybe should sent a messenger maybe." shrugged Eve.
"I think we could ask them to teleport us." replied Winston. "Sure seems faster. It's already been five days since the last monster was killed. And only Fenrir knows when the next monstrosity will appear." he finished, shaking his head.
"Well, I guess it would be a good time to introduce the Archmages to them." replied Tony. "Seems like they'll be with us for quite a bit."
"I hope their portal will be safe..." sighed Eve.
"It's in their interest to be safe, dear, because they'll be coming with us. Should we go ask them now?"
"Don't see any point in waiting." shrugged Tony.
A few minutes later
They gathered Kate, Garth, Lilly, and Humphrey, explained what they wanted to do and arrived at the Archmages' treehouse. Kate howled.
Lara opened a window and shouted:
"We're coming down!" And indeed, in a few seconds, they were all down.
"So, what do you got for us?" asked Ithilden.
"We sent messengers yesterday to King and Queen Bear-" began Tony.
"Oh, we know about that." interrupted Shalidor. The wolves stared at him.
"We tagged the birds." chuckled Mithrandir. "We wanted to know where they are, and sadly, they got killed by some eagles, right at the entrance."
"Dammit!" said Kate, angrily.
"Well, we thought about you teleporting us to the Bear Kingdom. It would certainly be faster and time is quite important for us right now, we don't know when we might be struck again." spoke Winston.
"I also thought that we could maybe lose the trace of the monsters." said Garth. "They wouldn't know where we are."
"But the summoner would. We're not dealing with just anything, it's an extremely powerful demon. And it's tracking us, for sure. We can do nothing against his magic. Unless we kill him, his spells can't be broken." explained Fannaeras.
"Ugh, great." mumbled Garth.
"Anyways, quite luckily, we could see through the vision of the birds, so we know the approximate coordinates of one of the entrances. So, we could teleport there, that's great luck. If they would've got killed earlier, we couldn't have teleported so close."
"Good. Can we go now?" asked Humphrey.
"Now?" asked Kharazim.
"Well, what's the point in waiting?" asked Lilly. "Sooner we're protected, the better."
"Makes sense." shrugged the monk.
"Fannaeras, you making the portal?" asked Ithilden.
"Yep." said the blood-elf and quickly made it. They all jumped in.
They climbed out to find themselves once again in a forest. Through the trees, though, they could spy amazing looking cliffs and mountains, which you could feast your eyes on for hours. The splendid waterfall only added to the place's beauty.
"Wow." said Lara.
"Wow indeed." replied Ithilden.
"Alright, as there's lots of patrols, I think we should first go in alone, get their Royal Majesties to come down for a private word, and then you guys come in. Don't want to get attacked by the guards." explained Kate.
"Fine by us." said Shalidor. The others nodded and the six friends backed off slightly and behind some bushes.
The wolves hurried up the mountain. Arriving, they immediately bowed deeply.
"Your Majesties." said Winston.
"Ah, Winston. Rise, rise, please." replied King Bear.
"Welcome, old friends." said Queen Bear added, and hugged the wolves. "You must be tired after your journey-"
"Forgive me, your Majesty, but we must talk to you in private urgently. Also, we should introduce our new friends." said Tony.
"Of course." replied the King. He motioned for Louis, his Chief Advisor to come, and they all went downhill, where the Archmages were waiting.
"There have been very troubling times since of the end of spring." said Eve.
"Troubling, meaning...?" asked Queen Bear, interestedly.
"Meaning horrifying creatures and monsters, who would stop at nothing to murder us all." replied Ithilden, emerging from bushes. The bears prepared to attack, but were stopped by Kate and Humphrey.
"They're the friends we wanted to introduce." spoke Kate.
"They have protected us so far and managed to rid us of two beasts already." added Garth.
"We would like an explanation. It seems... more complicated than we thought."
The Archmages explained who they are, what they had come for, what they had faced so far, and the relocating of the United Pack.
"Well, Archmages, we accept the plan, for our own safety is in the game." said King Bear.
"We're glad we reached an agreement so quickly." replied Shalidor, bowing his head.
"You said there's no problem with the food." said Fannaeras.
"There is not. The hunting grounds are very large, and can provide even more variety of game." said Louis.
"Very well then. We shall get to work with the teleporting immediately."
"We shall see you soon." smiled Winston, and jumped into Fannaeras's portal, leaving the bears to announce their people what was to happen.
Around sundown
The Archmages arrived in the Valley with a variety of crystals and stands, for they needed to make a much stronger portal for the whole pack to go through. Ithilden and Lara removed the treehouse, for they would place it in the Bear Kingdom. After a half hour of setting, careful positioning, powering, the portal was opened. The Pack was announced, and they all agreed, some more reluctantly than others. Not all of them approved fully of the mages, but accepted their help nonetheless. And nobody chose the option of not going, and also leaving the Pack.
The crystals shined brightly, and all reflected into one another, making a large portal. The Archmages were helping powering it up.
"Go through, everyone!" shouted Kharazim, while holding crystals steady.
The wolves all went through, saddened by the thought of leaving their ancestral home, but some of them quite excited to live in the Bear Kingdom. After everyone left, Ithilden made another portal for his friends, the others being tired out because of the power required for the portal, and they also left the territory.
In Bear Kingdom
The wolves settled in quickly, the Royal Family having prepared the dens for them, the pups being the happiest to make new friends in the bears. Stinky was very excited to meet his childhood friend, Brent. Lara and Ithilden settled the treehouse, and after some rest, the Archmages powered one again in a large cave, the centre which powered all the protective magic surrounding the most territory it could be, while in the limits of normal magical energy. Now the Pack and the Bear Kingdom all went to sleep, glad they were safe from the evil who was lurking outside the magic shields. The starry night was a splendid sight to see, the silver eye of the sky haning solely, watching the world.
In the summoning room
The demon kneeled down once again in his circle. How many times would he still have to do this? He decided to send something more stealthy, considering the Archmages' change of location. They must've put protective magic, that's why they went on those mountains. He raised his hands and spoke:
"Wherever you go, I will be there too,
You can never escape me.
I am always watching.
When you see my faceless face,
Out of the corner of your eye,
You'll start running.
And you'll be afraid to look back. "
Fire burst out on the circle, and it opened. Out of dark woods, very long hands and legs appeared and what got out at least looked like a human. He was dressed elegantly, but was 8 feet tall. No expression was etched upon his face, for he was faceless, completely white.
The demon rised.
"Well, Slenderman. Your purpose is to kill them." He showed him a projection of the Archmages. Slenderman only nodded very slightly. "You can do whatever you want, as long as they're dead. Any questions?" The monster was silent.
"Then go." replied the summoner and opened a portal. Slenderman went through.
He saw that he was in a forest. He dissapeared, leaving no trace of himself behind.
That night
A child, about 11, came running throught the dark forest. He managed to escape his abusive father who has been living with the past year after his mother and siblings died in a plane crash. He was finally free of daily torture, incessant beating and yelling, crying himself to sleep every night, he was finally free. But what would he do? He never saw any relatives, his father never let him outside. He wandered through the forest, being the only place he knew, besides his home.
His mother took him one day out in the Park with his siblings, and that was the best day he ever had. He would use the memory in the darkest of times so he could see hope for his future. This was the only place he could think of. The moon was hanging high in the sky, giving a silver aura to the dark forest, sneaking through thick foliage and and branches. He slowed his run to a walk.
But suddenly, out of the corner of his right eye, the child saw a white face, just... watching him, from a distance. He quickly looked, but it wasn't there anymore. He quickened up his pace slightly. He saw it again, but on the left, behind a bush. He was starting to get scared. He quickened up his walk to a jog. He heard footsteps behind him. Nobody was there.
His breathing was faster, and found it hard to look again. He saw the face again, but this time closer. His vision started to blur slightly. He managed to spy his form, a very very tall man, with very long limbs. He turned his eyes away from him, but he was there too! He turned right, left, the man would keep disappearing and reappearing everywhere he looked, but closer, and his vision got blurrier. "What is this, what is this, who's watching me, please, leave me alone..." he was thinking wildly. He started running. He could hear footsteps distantly behind him, but didn't look.
He then started pleading out loud: "Leave me alone, please, PLEASE!". His vision started to clear slightly, but then it started blurring again, and the sound was closer. He tried to sprint faster, but couldn't. He heard the footsteps fade, and his vision got clearer.
He stopped, panting hard. "I got away, I got away... he left me alone somehow..." but then he looked up and his scream died in his throat. The man was right in front of him, and placed a hand on his throat. He lifted him up, and the boy could see almost nothing else, but the man's face. He had no face. Just a white head, with no expression etched upon his face. His vision got from blurry to black, and he had seen his last, as he blacked out, still staring into the empty face...