Chimera Rising: Beast King Ascension [How a human-turned-lion went from Zero to Absolute Ruler]

'Honoured Brother, have you made a decision?' Alwen predictably asked him as soon as he walked close enough for her to politely speak to him. Dominic saw Sylmar and Ilastir both gazing speculatively at the Pride members that padded past them, their eyes clearly lingering on the new storage devices. The Pride members headed off into the plains, dividing around Dominic and the elders as if they were rocks in a stream. Nyx and Sekhmet lingered in the area, though, and Dominic appreciated their supportive presence.

His gaze lingered on Sylmar and Ilastir. On one hand, Dominic couldn't blame them, but on the other, he didn't like how the Ilastir was looking at his Pride members – like he was considering how much more of a threat the new equipment made his Pride members. Sylmar's gaze looked more curious, so Dominic didn't have a problem with her. But Ilastir….

It was, arguably, a rational reaction since technically, now that their agreement to help the elves against the matriarch was coming to an end, they were just two parties of beings who might or might not be at each other's throats once the final pieces of armour were delivered. Knowing the threat the lions could pose was therefore logical. Dominic assumed that the elves wouldn't attack them even if Dominic and Leo decided not to protect the elves. Not with everything the elders and Berion had revealed about the true fighting power of their people – or lack of it.

'I have some questions,' Dominic said abruptly, finally answering the question Alwen had asked. His announcement served to attract Ilastir's and Sylmar's focus squarely onto him, so that was a benefit.

Alwen inclined her head gracefully. 'Then please, ask them.'

'You have spoken about your king, and needing to heed his call if he asks you to. Would you be able to swear to at least a period of time in my service? See it from my point of view – if we protect you against the dungeon beasts and then your king suddenly appears once it's all over and calls for you to serve him again, then where is the payment for our protection?' Dominic was uncomfortable being quite so blunt with other humanoids and sounding a bit like a mafia boss but perhaps spending time as a lion had changed him more than he had realised since he did it nonetheless. Ultimately, there was no point in wasting time by prevaricating.

Alwen exchanged glances with her fellow elders and they drew together into a tight circle, murmuring a few quiet words. Apparently they were controlling their thoughts too as even Dominic's Telepathy struggled to pick up what they were communicating. Then they broke apart, Alwen stepping forward once more.

'We have agreed that we could offer you a decade of service in all cases but a national emergency and in such a case, we would urge our king to offer you compensation for the loss of our service.'

Dominic nodded slowly.

'That seems reasonable,' he commented privately to Leo. 'Honestly, ten years is longer than I was expecting. I was thinking more like a couple of years, if that.'

'A decade is probably the elven equivalent of a couple of years,' Leo dismissed. Dominic thought privately to himself that the young lion may himself not fully understand the length of time that was. Longer than his whole life up until now, twice over. But that didn't stop the lion from having a point. 'More questionable is this 'compensation'. They cannot commit on behalf of their king, so they cannot truly promise us anything.'

'No,' Dominic admitted. 'And what does 'a national emergency' even mean? Heck, the arrival of the System itself probably counts.'

'That's true,' agreed Leo.

Dominic considered the points, then continued speaking to the elves.

'The time offered is acceptable. We would add stipulations that the national emergency cannot be directly linked to the arrival of the System itself, and that the king or a representative with authority speaks with us about it so that we can see if there's an alternative to losing your service. And though we recognise that you cannot promise compensation on behalf of your king, we ask you to guarantee that if your king doesn't offer us appropriate compensation, that you will complete the terms of your service either while helping the king or afterwards.'

The elders once more made their circle to have their quiet conversation.

'We agree to your amendments,' Alwen told Dominic after they had broken apart once more. 'Was that your only question?'

'No. I also wondered if you…worship any deities,' he asked slightly hesitantly. 'Berion talked about a Mother Terra? Is she, or any other deity of yours, recognised by the System?' After all, there was no guarantee that any pre-System religious practices actually linked to beings who might pose a threat to Selessa now. Though he probably needed a better excuse for asking such a question…. 'There were some names in the System store - artifacts and so on. Zola, Misha, do these mean anything to you?'

The elves looked a little surprised at the direction of his questioning, but not suspicious in any way.

'Many of us worship Mother Terra, the embodiment of life,' Alwen answered with a hint of confusion. 'Some of us worship other deities, such as the god of crafters, or the goddess of magic, but Mother Terra is the only deity that I could say more than half the population recognise. Misha…Zola…I don't recognise any of those.' She looked around the other elders but there were only shaking heads. 'No, it seems not. And I do not know what you mean about them being recognised by the System – the deities we venerate are the ones we have held in esteem since long before the System arrived.'

'And have you seen any signs of any of these deities since the System's arrival?' Dominic asked more intently.

'Honoured Brother, I do not understand your question,' Alwen admitted a moment later after exchanging glances with the other elders.

'Has anyone seen Mother Terra since the System arrived, for example? Or spoken to her? In the same way as before, that is?' Dominic hurriedly added in.

Alwen and the elders exchanged more confused glances.

'There are those among us who commune with Mother Terra on a daily basis through the use of the gift she gave us,' Melia answered instead of Alwen. 'But nothing has changed since the world transformed.' She hesitated and then continued. 'Except for the worse. Reaching Mother Terra has become more difficult since then. Our connection with the earth is…different. Harder to use.'

'And the other deities? Nothing from them either?' Dominic checked.

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'Nothing has changed that I'm aware of,' Sylmar contributed.

'Or I,' added Lystar.

Dominic licked his paw in an unconscious gesture as he thought.

'They don't seem like System deities to me,' he said to Leo. 'Perhaps they wouldn't pose a problem to Selessa.'

'We should try to get into contact with her,' Leo told him firmly. 'If we can't, we will move forwards as we see best. But if she can give us a response, that would be better.'

'Fine.' Dominic focussed on the elves again. 'Just give me a few minutes to do something with my companions. And then I'll give you a final answer.'

The elves didn't appear too happy to be put off once again, but Dominic refused to let peer-pressure cause him to make any decision that had consequences he didn't want. And frankly, they were asking him for help – if he needed them to wait, they could wait.

'Do you wish for any aid?' Alwen asked. Dominic shook his head.

'No need. Just stay here, would you?'

With that, he stepped a bit further away. Walking over to Nyx and Sekhmet, he brushed against both of them in silent gratitude for their presence which offered him an option here.

'Can you block the view of the elves from what I'm doing here?' he asked them both – the flat ground around the elves' forest didn't offer much opportunity for privacy otherwise.

'Of course,' Sekhmet answered while Nyx rumbled in agreement. The bulky ameshek turned so her bulky body was side-on to the elves while Sekhmet stood at right angles to her. Dominic then turned away entirely so he couldn't even see the elves' town anymore. His view was of the flat savannah plains, dotted with brush and a couple of short trees here and there. The only beasts in his view were those who were sworn to him, the force he needed to get home to the Place of Power – before the dungeons overflowed.

The reminder firmed his resolve to get this done. Pulling out three carcasses, he hesitated and then pulled out three more just to be safe. Surely that would be enough to give him a link to Selessa for a short time? Or at least grant her the power to send him a sign? He hadn't killed them with her in mind, but if he dedicated them and their Cores to her that should be enough, right?

Placing his paws so that he was touching all six carcasses at one time, he focussed both on dedicating the carcasses and Cores to Selessa and that he needed to speak with her.

The golden cloud rose around him as usual, his paws dropping through it to land on the ground. As had happened the last time he dedicated a carcass to Selessa, the golden dust didn't flow into his body, but instead sank down and into the ground, looking like multiple fireflies landing and then vanishing from existence. Nyx made a surprised growl as she saw the unusual sight, but Dominic feared that sparing the attention to explain anything would reduce the chances of connecting with Selessa.

A moment went past, and then another with nothing happening. Then, as was typical, just as he was about to give up on the idea that anything would happen, he felt a…presence descend on him. Even without Leo's sudden eager attention as a reaction, he would have recognised Selessa. There was just something familiar about her, the mix of playful and deadly that he remembered from the times he'd encountered her.

'Selessa?' he asked hopefully. There was no verbal response, just a sense of attention and impatience. Dominic interpreted that as them not having much time. Best he got down to business. 'Are any of the elven deities likely to cause a problem for you?' That, after all, was the key question.

The response he got wasn't as clear-cut as he would have liked. There was a sense of wariness, but also cautious hope.

'Do you think it's okay to accept them as vassals, then?' Dominic checked, hoping that this one would be more of an obvious response. Fortunately, it was. Although there was still some caution, there was also a sense of firm approval.

Though he wanted to ask about this 'seal of Holden' that he'd been marked with, and whether he should be worried about it, he felt the connection with Selessa weaken quickly. It was only a moment after that when his sense of her presence disappeared completely.

Dominic and Leo both sighed simultaneously, for different reasons.

'I guess we'll have to wait until we're back until we can speak to her properly,' Dominic said to Leo regretfully.

'At least we got a response to our question,' Leo pointed out. 'And who came up with the idea?'

'Yes, you're a smart lion,' Dominic sighed. 'Now, smarty-pants, let's go and finalise this alliance.' He turned to Nyx and Sekhmet, 'Thanks for the help.'

'Dominic, what happened there?' Nyx asked, her voice even more serious than usual while Sekhmet signalled strong interest in hearing the answer. Dominic breathed out heavily.

'Now isn't the time…I need to go accept the alliance with the elves. Can we talk about it later?' Nyx twitched her antennae in a way that indicated it made no difference to her. 'Alright, great. Do you guys want to be there for the official response?' he asked.

Receiving the agreement of both ladies, the three of them turned back and padded over to join the elders once more.

'We will accept your offer of service and promise in return to protect you to the best of our abilities,' Dominic told the elves immediately, not wanting to draw things out unnecessarily. He saw how Alwen's body language relaxed just a touch, as did Lystar's and Sylmar's. Ilastir's and Melia's, however, still seemed worried, the latter's eyes flicking to Nyx and Sekhmet briefly before returning to Dominic. The lion wondered why that might be the case, making a mental note to try to find out later.

'That's good. That's very good,' Alwen said, her tones betraying the relief she felt at his decision.

'Alright, how does this work? How long will your people take to be ready to go? We need to go soon if we want to make it back before the dungeons overflow.' Especially if they were going to be travelling with a whole load of very old and very young elves.

'They'll probably be magnets for every beast out there,' Leo moaned with annoyance.

'We'll just have to make sure that the most vulnerable are kept in the middle of the group. Like we did on our way down,' Dominic pointed out. The issue with that was that the whole group would then have to travel at the pace of the slowest members. Perhaps some of his new allies could become mounts? The ullas might be good candidates for that - they were large and strong and probably wouldn't even notice a few slim elves riding on their shoulders or backs.

'Not to worry – our people can be transported along with the Great Mother and her immediate descendents."

'What, like teleportation? I thought that wasn't working?' Dominic interrupted.

'This is something different,' Alwen clarified. 'It's a working which requires mages to be both here and in the new location. Your position of temporary liege lord will strengthen the sympathetic bonds on your side of space and therefore reduce the numbers of our people required to travel with you. Being a Respected Friend just helps further.'

Though he wanted to ask more about the 'Respected Friend' business, the mention of it reminded Dominic of something else he wanted to ask about first.

'The System talked about the Seat of the settlement when I beat the matriarch. What is that about?'

'It offered you the Seat?' blurted out Ilastir, sounding shocked.

'It did,' Dominic confirmed, his wariness growing as he saw the elves exchange meaning-laden looks. 'What does it mean?'