Regali (A Walker Saga) by Jaymin Eve

worlds.
    “If we help you with your problem, would you consider leaving?” I knew it could be time-consuming, but I needed Ria.
    She pursed her lips. “I do not know if what you ask is possible. But, if the fringe are not exterminated then it would be impossible for me to leave.”
    So she was promising nothing.
    “Alright, then let’s get on our fringe-busting outfits and go do some pest-spraying.” Lucy jumped to her feet, her eyes bright, curls bouncing everywhere. She looked like the picture of health.
    Of course Klea and Ria had no idea what Lucy had just said, but they joined the rest of us on our feet.
    “First, we call a meeting of all the pack guards,” Ria said. “And then we go in with as much force as we can gather and take them down. Either they surrender or they die.” Her words were harsh, but her tone was still chilled out.
    Kind of freaky, the way she so calmly discussed death.
    “And I’ll deal with the Walkers,” Brace finished.
     
    Ria led us through the jungle. The plants simply parted for her as she walked. I couldn’t even imagine having that kind of power over nature. And it wasn’t just that. As she walked, she touched each plant and they curled around her. There was some type of love-love relationship going on there. No wonder humans were drawn to her. Her aura was so warm and inviting. All shades of yellow. After walking for a long time in the sauna of a jungle, we finally reached a reasonably large clearing.
    “This is the center of the packs ’ territories.” Ria sank onto the ground. “Please avoid that vine.” She pointed to a large mass of vines with small black berries. “It is a little temperamental.”
    Remembering the calia flowers, we moved as far from those brambles as we could before sitting in a semi-circle.
    “So how many different packs are there in Artwon?” Lucy asked, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees.
    “There are six. The leons.” Ria smiled at Klea. “The small cat people are the jags.” As she said this a pair of black-furred creatures swung into the clearing. They did look like cats with short coarse fur, whiskers and pointed ears.
    “The eaglets, flyers.”
    In they came, from high in the canopy. They were the strangest combination I’d seen so far. Standing as tall as a man, they had wings and arms. Their finger-tips had razor -sharp claws, and a mass of feathers coated their bodies. All the while with a human face … well, a human face topped off with a beak.
    “The slimes are the reptiles.”
    I pulled my eyes from the eaglets to see the slimes. They emerged from the bushes around us, and I had to suppress my shivers. They were built like snakes, with long slimy bodies that looked to be scaled, but they had human-shaped heads, and claw-like arms and legs. A long forked tongue emerged as they looked us over.
    “The munks are our tree flyers,” Ria continued.
    Their cooing noises preceded them as they swung in. They were monkey -like creatures … no, not really monkey. More like an ape and human had merged with each other. Short dark fur coated their bodies, which were the closest in shape to human.
    “And our most ferocious, the bera.”
    I almost got to my feet as the seven -foot-tall bera entered our clearing. They were the epitome of a grizzly bear, but with a humanoid face. Not many things I’d seen topped out Walkers in height and strength, but there was something scary about the bera.
    “This is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen ,” Lucy whispered to me.
    The members of the different packs started to move closer to us to join in sitting around the semi-circle. I couldn’t take my eyes off them, searching out each individual feature. Suddenly one of the jags let out a loud screech. I winced as its brethren followed its noise, and suddenly they surrounded Colton.
    Ria stood. “You’re a wolver?” There was a question in her voice as she faced him.
    He slowly stood also, his aim clearly not to startle the jags,