A Village Looms Before You

As the female creature leads you deep into the woods, she shares a bit of information with you. "My people and I," she says in that same husky voice, "are known as wemics. To you two-legs, sometimes liontaurs. We being not much different from centaurs with four-legs, yes? But not made of horse and man as them." As she rambles on in broken common, you come to realize that she had been leading you to a village of sorts. The path the shamaness had taken eludes your memory, as if she had intended you not to remember all along. It is not long before you realize that you are standing in the middle of an enormous village, at least in proportion to yourself it is. The treetops loom with fort-like huts perhaps thirty to fifty feet above the forest floor. Other forts line the forest floor made of animal hides covered in camoflage designs. Many wemics traverse the maze of trees surrounding you. Some, like her, have no hair upon their human and lion mixed heads. It does not take you long to denote them as females. Others walk about with long shaggy manes of pitch black, obviously the males. All of them glide past silently on padded feet and stare in amazement at your presence. Though, you note a respected head bob given to the shamaness. To each you notice her nod her head back with a smile that stretches into her whiskers.

When the two of you reach the center of the village, she stops your casual stroll by sitting back on her haunches. Moving her humanoid hand in an arc out and around to encompass the area she looks down at you with a smile. "Welcome to the Nelriad Pride, my friend. Feel free to walk as one of us and meet whomever you wish." With that said she drops her arm. "If you need me, I will be in my home with my family," she adds pointing up to a rather elaborate fort that towers higher than the rest. She then stands up on her four legs and walks to the base of her home's tree. With a powerful leap the wemic shamaness springs into the air and lands gently upon the catwalk. Before disappearing through the animal hide flap, she kicks over a rope ladder with a hind paw as an invitation to you.

Chieftain's House

After your visit with Da'erz and her family, you take the time to investigate the land that the Pride calls home a little further. There are many of these enormous and interresting creatures roaming the area. Each one of them views you with the same sort of curiosity as you do to them. You find it difficult to see the other tree forts, having to tilt your neck back to strain for a better view. However, when you turn about to take in the sight of the ground huts a rather peculiar vision catches your attention. Sitting on a pelt outside of one of those ground huts is a human woman. She looks up at you with somewhat cautious eyes, a little more wary than the wemics around you. Then another creature approaches her. Another male wemic, but a rather odd looking variety, for this wemic is colored of the purest white. An albino? The two duck into the hut through an animal skin door flap. Perhaps if you knock, or scratch?, they'd be happy to tell you their tale.

N'rill and Julia