Novalyn decided to take a slight detour before heading straight to Camel Hump Valley. Perhaps a foolish one, but one she would never come to regret.
She wanted to experience the Beastworld in its rawest form, before she was besieged by responsibilities.
She teleported a day's journey away from Camel Hump Valley and began to walk or rather float through the jungle. Qilins didn't like crushing life beneath their feet, and so instead of walking on the ground they walked on the air above it. This way no plant, insect or animal would be harmed where they traveled.
Tall trees with giant trunks resembling Kapoks from their size, their branches embracing one another creating a canopy of emerald above. Bright colored flowers in neon pinks and purples dotted the underbrush.
The air was fragrant and not too heavy or humid.
Novalyn walked through the jungle a smile on her lips, marveling at the beauty of her new world.
After a hour the peace was broken as a siege of growls littered the air.
[Warning: Ferals and Rootless approaching fast. ETA: 3 minutes]
She could run or teleport to any other known location, but something stopped her...an instinct that spoke of a hidden chance in the danger. Air walking up into the canopy, Novalyn waited for the approaching dangers.
A feral crocodile beastman burst through the brush looking around, "Where did the female go?"
A pack of rootless wolf beastman burst through, transforming into their half beastman forms... No clothes on their bodies, dirt and debris clinging to them. It wasn't just that they had gone wild, they'd given up at any form of humanity.
The last a vulture feral approached the scene immediately making eye contact from where Novalyn was suspended above faintly glowing.
She had not shifted yet and so she was in her human form. Round, plump curves long curly golden hair falling down her back.
The vulture blinked before shouting, "There she is!"
He surged forward only to briefly pause when she spoke.
"Violence is not needed. I will come down peacefully."
Pure black eyes narrowed and a cruel smirk came upon the vulture's lips, "Such pretty words for just another spoiled female."
With a sigh and a wave of her hand she sent out a Divine Judgment Energy Surge. Immediately the charging rootless and ferals froze in place suspended in time, a black percentage above their heads. Some were indeed too far gone, their evil acts outweighing the hardships they lived. But the crocodile beastman and two wolf rootless had 50 and below %. With a flash she used Essence Reading ability and saw that unfair and disheartening circumstances and a descent into madness was what brought their evil percentages up.
[What punishment will you give those with no remorse?]
"Disintegrate them."
She would not torture them as they had done others, she would merely wipe them off the surface of the planet never to be seen again.
[The four others?]
Novalyn pitied the feral who never knew a parent's love. The crocodile beastman had often killed, as painlessly as he could, females who had been tortured by other rootless. His heart grieved even though he was never even considered by one female he came across.
The remaining rootless low ranked wolf beastman were twins that had been accepted begrudgingly by a female. But when winter came and the female ran out of food, they refused to allow themselves to be eaten for the betterment of the female. So she broke their bond.
Novalyn looked to the remaining males, the others having turned to ash on the wind.
"Can they be regressed to childhood? Their past memories erased?"
[The only way for them to be given a fresh chance is for you to become their mother and bare them.]
She never expected to become a mother before she even got a husband but her heart went out to them and to others like them.
"I'll do it."
Golden light surrounded the crocodile and wolf beastmen and they became starlight that rushed towards her engulfing her with their glow.
A new sort of weight was now in her. She rested her hand on her stomach.
"Will they all be born at the same time?" She was curious because one would be born in an egg and the others not. At least that's how it had been in the stories.
[They will be your sons. They will have your essence and will be born in half beastman form rather than animal forms, on the same day.]
[Secret Side Quest completed: Adopt abandoned beastman 3/1. Reward: 3000 points and new title]
[Congratulations Novalyn for gaining a new title, Mother of the Abandoned]
Novalyn gave a bittersweet smile. She would protect her boys no matter what.
For now it was time for her to arrive in Camel Hump Valley.