Chapter 2.

The Encounter.

…The gargoyles had followed the Alpha closely…

The forest was too restless, in a silence that perhaps stray tears could recognize. Mateus didn't know who the leader of the harpies was, or if it was a woman. He hadn't paid much attention to the Alpha's chatter. Perhaps, he had mentioned it, but his stone ears had decided not to listen.

He began to circle the pack's territory, now dominated by the harpies, who celebrated their dominance over the pack. Each member had been pushed to the limits of submission. 

They didn't dare raise their faces, were unwilling to move, only knew how to remain silent. It was somewhat ironic that after so many years, the wolves, always proud, now seemed to lack it.

But none of the stone warriors dared to comment. Shrouded in mist, the Alpha appeared in his human form, and then one of the harpies, perhaps the chief, the leader of all, looked down on him from above, and with a deep contempt that could be felt in the air, said: ¿Is this how you return? ¿Without your beast form and without hope?

You return as a broken man, ¿Are you perhaps seeking a quick death? Those words echoed in each of the stone warriors who had identified the woman. She was the leader of the harpies, the one who, when the Alpha told her he had come to claim what was hers, looked at him with disdain and extended her sharp claws, seeing him as a sacrifice, but above all, telling him: This forest is no longer yours, much less them...

By "them," perhaps she meant the pack, her own people, her own race. Then a young harpy screamed when she noticed a stone statue among the trees near the pack. 

It seemed no one remembered seeing them before, and then, their leader made a disdainful gesture, perhaps dismissing their own worth and claiming they were ruins, for this forest was filled with useless remains, until the Alpha corrected her, saying they were the heralds of his return.

And that was the signal they needed to begin moving, their robust, hulking forms, which made even the members of the pack tremble; each of the gargoyles who had come emerged with voracious energy and eyes like glowing embers in the gloom of doom…

And the harpies, who had strutted in their victory, were now dwarfed by stone warriors twice their size and ferocity; Mateus, the leader of the Stone Legion, also descended into the trees with wings spread and a presence that dominated the entire place. It didn't matter what the Alpha was saying to save his pack, because at this moment the only thing on his mind was that the harpies had to die...

Chaos broke out because the force was overwhelming, and there were three species fighting for territory: one invader and two in alliance. But the destructive force of the gargoyles influenced the harpies to lose control of their hands in this first confrontation, and sparks of redemption began to appear in the corners.