Next Day

At the Ironblooded mansion all the butlers and maids were hard at work to repair and clean the home. But it was hard with the horrifying mess Lilly left behind. Lots and lots of blood and organs in the corner, while in her room there were scratches and claw marks everywhere along with her blanket and sheets on her bed were shredded.

As the maids continue to clean the police comb through the area and the building and they noticed it's like a rabid animal came through and ripped apart the unknown soldier, he's hardly recognizable from his whole head caved in along with his upper half being available. While the rest like his lower half have been spread everywhere in the hallway.

Juniper herself checked this situation herself when she was informed from both Head Maid and Head Butler of the Ironblooded household. She walked through the house and saw the bloody mess done by Lilly and by the pissed maids and butlers, but the gory mess done by Lilly and she almost pucked from the mess Walter left behind. But she understood why, he said those men were going to do vile things to his Mistress and he snapped, the same can be said for Head Maid Yukiko, she electrified, frostbitten and roasted a man on the front porch.

After looking around and talking to the last of the building staff Juniper was told by the maid that saw Lilly she saw her top Shadow all covered in blood, organs and bile. She said Lilly looked completely different then she ever saw her before, the maid told Juniper that Lilly's eyes changed color and looked like an animals eyes instead of her normal cold blue eyes. Lilly was about to attack her but she saw Lilly crying almost trying to hold herself back from hurting her, she said in a saddened voice apologized and dashed out of the nearby window and dashed toward the Colakal Forest.

A large forested area next to the rural area in this section of Arcadia, Juniper remembers a few dangers there lurk there but she might be able to find her. Juniper has a couple of old friends that reside in this forest and they can hopefully help her find Lilly.

While Juniper was able to find what she can in the Ironblooded household but unfortunately now she's going to search for Lilly and see if she can help her. Juniper thought this was connected to that feeling she had the day before with Lilly, a primal feeling like an animal was around her. And the mess in the house is definitely like a rabid animal was loose in the house.

Juniper decided to call in a search team for Lilly and hope to find her soon since she's been the this forest for a day or little less. She hopes to find her soon because Lilly is like another daughter to her along with being her sons best friend since childhood.

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The Night Before

Lilly is running from tree branch to tree branch until she loses her footing and falls to the ground. She doesn't know where she is but all Lilly knows is that she ran far, and far away from hurting her staff of her home. She managed to look up and saw where her position was, she was in a forested area with trees all round her and it was dark and she could barely see anything but at least the moon peaking through gave her some light.

But suddenly Lilly had a sharp pain go throughout her body and mostly in her head. She looked at her hand and her veins looked inflamed and her vision was blurry again along with her eyes turning back to blue, but it eventually went back to gold like before. While Lilly was writhing on the ground in pain, large grey wolfs started to surrounding her growling with their ears back.

Lilly suddenly shot up and painfully yelled as loud as she could, just hoping this pain will end soon.

But that was only the beginning. The forest was filled with yells and soon louder yet deep wolf howls along with a lot more howling from other packs coming to the noise.

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Back to the next day, well evening, Juniper was with her Praetorian Guards along with a squad of soldiers along with rescue services and a medical team were with the Empress.

Juniper: "Lets wait here, I'm going to call an old friend that lives around here, he's also the guardian of this forest."

Juniper looked in her back and pulled out a large horn, she took a deep breath and blew into the horn making a very loud noise.

(For reference imagine the Horn of Gondor from the Lord of the Rings)

Juniper blew into the horn again and waited. After a few minutes she heard loud and thunderous foot steps coming toward her and her team. Everyone besides Juniper were fearful of what's to come and it sounded big but they all heard a loud and low pitched wailing sound.

The thunderous stomping got closer and she say an Ent, a being made all out of wood and foliage but has a noticeable face and eyes. This thing stood around 16 feet in height and it looked it had a big mossy main of hair with jagged wooden teeth. It's limbs were long yet sturdy.

The being loomed over the team but lts gaze landed on Juniper.

"Juniper.... It's good... To see you... Again."

Juniper: "Good to see you as well Mesa, it's been many years since we last saw each other."

Mesa: "Yes... The last time... Was when your son was small... How is the young man?"

Juniper: "He's doing well actually, but he's out of Arcadia at the moment."

Mesa: "Is he now? Such a shame... but this is not about him.... It's about his friend... She's here..."

Juniper: "Lilly is here, where is she?"

Mesa: "Hmmmm, that's the hard part.... She's different then the last I saw her... She's changed... And into something wild..."

Juniper: "So you have that feeling as well? Something was happening with Lilly but she said she'll handle. But this..."

They suddenly heard howling all round them, the soldiers and other team members were on alert while Mesa looked around.

Mesa: "The wolves of this forest... Have been acting strange.... Somethings got them riled up beyond normal..."

The group were suddenly surrounded by a large number of wolves and what's stranger this doesn't happen, sure they do go in large packs but not this excitingly large where the numbers alone will overwhelm a group of full grown and trained men. From what Juniper counted she spotted around at least 30 to 40 wolves around them, this definitely isn't normal. They heard roaring that wasn't a wolves howl but the Arcadians knew this roar. This belonged to a tamable beast known as a Cold-One, they can be war mounts or animals that help in fields or as common go round mounts like a horse. Juniper is actually working on making a calvary unit comprised of Cold-Ones and a armored rider.

Wild Cold-Ones were in the extremely large pack as well, two species working together is normal no doubt about that but if it's two different predator species this can't be able to happen sense they'd just kill one another either for food or territorial reasons. But no here these two are working together as one cohesive unit. They all heard another roar but it was a louder and deeper wolf howl, suddenly all the Cold-Ones and Wolves all stopped, almost like an order was given.

Juniper: "Okay what now?!"

The loud and low howl was heard again but then an extremely large black wolf with glowing golden eyes stood up on a boulder staring down the Arcadians but it specifically looked at Juniper. They could feel it's primal gaze glaring upon them with it's maw open showing it's teeth. Juniper can tell this wasn't a normal wolf either, this thing stood at a might 7 feet in height.

Mesa: "It seems we found our culprit."

Juniper: "More like it came to us. But why does it feel familiar?"

The Praetorians and the soldiers went in front of Juniper and told her to stay behind them. But the large wolf disappeared just as it arrives. But out of nowhere something grabs Juniper by the shoulder and dragged at a high speed, Juniper tried hitting the Wolf but it didn't do anything, she can here the yells of her soldiers fading while getting farther away from them. Not to mention she's getting dragged into a deeper and darker part of the forest.