Change

 

Change is the transformation of what was into what will be.

 

Change is ever-present. 

 

It can not be denied, no matter how hard one wishes for it.

 

For Change is Chaos, enforced by Order. 

Quote Origin - Unknown

 

*

 

Li’On Domain - Capital City - Golden Pride

There are many reasons as to why Golden Pride contains the adjective Golden.

 

For one, it is built/maintained and inhabited by the Li’On Pantheon, which is made up of the Divine Golden Lions. 

 

The second is that everything noteworthy in this Pantheon contained the Golden adjective while at the same time being made out of Gold. 

 

Then a natural question follows. 

 

If everything was made of Gold, where did all that Gold come from? 

 

Was it mined? Was it extorted from others? Or was it manifested into existence by the rumored Golden Flame that all members of the Li’On Pantheon possessed?

 

The answer was all three.

 

The largest amount of gold is unearthed by any species that could burrow and dig. But ordinary animals were of no use here, so a unique method was invented to empower a lesser species with the Golden Flame.

 

While it gave them strength, stamina, and endurance, this unique method branded them from that point as servants of Li’On, with no way to undo the work once branded. 

 

Any attempted removal would kill the branded individual instantly.

 

The second was the extortion from the lesser Pantheons located around their territory. It could not compare to what was dug out by the slave miners, but everything helped.

 

However, the third method is the most special.

 

Only those who have achieved Mastery over the Golden Flame could use its might to reshape ordinary earth into Gold, and when one succeeds, it no longer remains regular Gold.

 

No. From that point on, that forged Gold attained properties that could only be called magical, but the true Masters of the Golden Flame could use the existing Gold and empower it even further. 

 

If done so,  once the Divine Gold is created, it shines like a sun. 

 

It proved to be an excellent crafting material for a lot of tools, no matter their use. 

One tool created out of Divine Gold was a thick ring frame of about a meter in radius. 

 

The frame had to be thick to provide enough room for runes to be engraved upon it. 

 

The runes created a framework that when looked at separately, hardly did anything, but when observed as one complete manifestation, it did something mystical. 

 

Mystical, by all stretches of the imagination. 

 

To further enhance that mystical something, sand of the highest quality harvested from the southern beaches of the Li’On Domain was used and forged into the highest quality mirrors with the Golden Flame.

 

After combining the Golden Frame and the Mirror forged by the Golden Flame, an artifact of the highest grades got created. It only had one single purpose. 

 

To look into that which had happened. That which is happening, and that which was yet to happen.

 

Basically said, it was a Divine Scrying Artifact.

An Old Li'On stood before the Mirror Artifact. His Golden Mane had lost much of its luster, but it still had enough gold in its makeup to identify him as a Member of the Li’On Pantheon.

 

Alongside the grayed-out mane was an old shriveled face that exhibited the passage of Time. However, despite all the signs signifying his old age, his body exuded enough vitality to live for quite a bit more.

 

This Old Li'On waved his hands with purpose. His mouth uttered syllables with meaning. 

 

When he was done, the pristine mirrored surface of the artifact began to ripple, and a different image appeared inside it.

 

Inside the image, the Old Li'On saw grasses, bushes, trees, and animals. 

 

Nodding to himself, as the correct image had manifested, he began moving his hands once more. What followed was the scenery changing time after time. Only the background of the area stayed relatively the same.

 

It was as if he was looking for something specific, or maybe it was someone. 

 

Scrolling left and right, up and down, he nodded, and the image stilled once more. 

 

After a few more motions, the image zoomed in on one particular animal. 

 

It had black fur on the majority of its body. But on its head, back and tail, it possessed white fur. 

 

However, this specimen was different from the rest of its species. It was bigger, stronger, faster, and most of all, the white fur on its body spontaneously erupted in a white flame.

 

This was not the first time the Old Li'On had observed this species. 

 

Neither was it just a recent addition to his routine. 

 

No, he had been doing this for the last millennia. 

It was a tradition that the Head of the Oracles would complete one Future Scrying of the Li’On Domain per year. The tradition stemmed from long ago, so it was kept, but as it was a demanding task, it was kept to once per year. 

 

Almost millennia ago, he had scried that a Scourge of Li’On would appear, and it stemmed from the species that he was currently observing, the White Streak Fury.

 

He had no idea how or why it manifested as such, but the image of that demonic beast was still etched into his mind. The only succor to be had from that scrying was that it had yet to happen. 

 

So he sent some of the most promising youngsters to seek that beast before it became demonic, and they succeeded in a way. 

 

Of that, he was sure, but the report they had given him left a few questions to be answered.

 

It was those answers that he sought over the years that followed. The answers never reached a conclusion. But over the years, he had set a routine to scry the species just in case another demonic transformation was imminent.

 

When, after many years, nothing happened, he stopped. However, after a couple of hundred years passed, he received the news that the little beast had been expanding all over the continent, so he began his second observation.

 

Again many years passed, and nothing happened except the little beast reached the ends of the continent on which they all resided.

 

Now, however, something did change. 

 

The first appearance of the Sapient of its species had manifested.

 

Once he noticed the first of their kind, he poured all his effort to scry for more of them just in case. He did find them, and they were separate from each other, but they existed without a doubt. 

 

However, the spontaneous manifestation of the White Flame that emerged from their backs is what intrigued him the most.

 

Very few sapient species manifested an element as their Special Talent. 

 

Usually, the Special Talent is an extension of the species they were, like enhanced strength/speed. Sometimes they gained talents that complement their natural abilities, like the Cro’c’s that ruled the rivers with their bites that could bite anything, no matter the size or material it was made off. 

 

Fewer species manifest a Special Talent that enhances something their bodies naturally produced, like the Si Spider Pantheon in the northern continent. 

 

All their talent does is enhance the silk they naturally produced to unbelievable strengths. 

 

However, their Runic Spider Slik Weaving, learned after achieving a humanoid form, is what makes them so fearsome. Of course, the Li’On did not fear as all the others did. 

 

They belonged to the very rare few who manifested a Special Talent that connected them to an Elemental force. 

 

Their Golden Flame could destroy/forge/create anything if the user was competent enough.

 

Yet, now came the question, what did a White Flame manifested by the White Streak Fury do?

 

For a while now, the Head Oracle had been observing the individuals that gained Sapience and manifested the Flame. 

 

None of them had shown anything but powering and depowering the Flame on their bodies.

 

Like that, days and weeks passed, until one fateful day during his observation, he noticed one particular individual eating a Prairie Dog.

 

That was nothing unusual, as bigger bodies required more sustenance. So having their diet change was to be expected. But in this case, something different happened. 

 

The Old Li'On watched as something irritates the nose of the beast. It sneezed very hard. 

 

The sneezing action provoked something inside it. When it sneezed, a White Flame exited its nostrils and mouth. 

 

The White Flame did not trouble it at all, but it made no sense that it appeared that way. 

 

However, that was not what bothered this Old Li’On, because there was a similar phenomenon with the Li’On’s. 

 

Children, after their first gain Sapience, and gain access to the Flame, spontaneously summon the flame by some unconscious action. That is also one of the reasons as to why the children were kept separate from everybody else, with a caretaker tending to them until they gain control of the spontaneous combustion.

 

The reason was simple. At that stage, the flame only knows how to destroy.

 

However, as this Old Li'On observed the White Flame in question, a curious little debacle appeared. 

 

The embers of the White Flame did nothing to their surroundings. They destroyed nothing, bar the carcass of the Prairie Dog that caught on fire.

 

It was as if meat was prime kindling for burning. Within moments the whole carcass was engulfed inside the Flame. 

 

The Old Li'On watched a short debacle appear on the beast's face before it began to chomp on the White Flame with practiced ease as if it had done so many, many times before.

 

A few chomps later, all that was left was a few embers. 

 

Once it had eaten its fill of the Flame, the White Streak Fury stood up, stretched itself a few times, and continued its journey to wherever it was taking it, but the Old Li'On was not following its actions.

 

His mind focused on observing the last few embers that burned the last traces of flesh and blood the beast had left behind, and what he noticed was indeed a surprise.

 

His old hands flexed a bit, and the image zoomed in even more. And that was when he saw it. 

 

The Flame did not just vanish. Instead, it got absorbed by the vegetation near it. As a result, the vegetation began losing its brown coloring. 

 

In its stead, a green color emerged. Moments later, the Old Li'On observed the vegetation gain vitality it had not had before. It wasn't much, but there was no doubt in his old eyes. 

 

The White Flame had a reinvigorating effect.

 

“Fascinating.” The Old Li'On murmured to himself. “If this species somehow absorbed parts of our Golden Flame’s properties then this should be the first part. Destruction of flesh and distribution of what it transformed somewhere else. The question then remains. What does it destroy, and what does it transform into?”

 

More days and weeks passed as the individual who discovered this phenomenon began experimenting on their own.

 

They weren't experiments as per see, but they did learn to project the flame through its mouth on dead animals. When it did, and the White Flame began to burn the flesh into ash, the Old Li'On tried his best to understand what was going on, but he never succeeded.

 

The scrying, while mighty in its purpose, could not replicate everything. Its basic function would deliver an image of something and nothing else. 

 

There were ways to enhance said function, but usually, those features only got used for scrying the past. Those functions were sound and touch, but only when one scried to the future would one attain the full sensory benefits, like feelings.

 

Yet, even that could not compare to what one could sense if they were personally present, and that is what the Old Li'On was considering, but the next moment he shook his head. 

 

“No, I am too old for that.” He convinced himself. “I will have to delegate this to somebody else, and I think I already know the perfect individual for that.”

 

*

 

A few days passed when said individual arrived before the Golden Temple of the Oracles.

 

Pa’Li looked upon the status depicting Li’On’s of the past. 

 

Only those who attained the highest attainments in the Li’On Pantheon were displayed. 

 

What those were, depended on the times in which they lived. Some were great warriors who rose to the highest ranks during times of Warfare with the other Pantheons.

 

Some were crafters in both times of War and Peace. They were the ones who invented things that had changed their society at the core.

 

The rarest of the statues were those of the most famous Leaders. Leaders who had led the Li’On Pantheon through the harshest of times they knew.

 

Passing all these lifelike golden statues, he reached the end of the hallway. A guard stood at each end of the large door and exquisitely decorative engraved door made out of Gold. 

 

The engraving depicted the coming of the first Li’On as he left the Sun in the Sky and descended down to the earth. 

 

Pa’Li had no idea if it depicted the truth or not, but it was majestic when one looked at it.

 

As he reached the enormous door, he gave it a glance, as it was a door that an adult Li’On in his Primeval Form could fit through easily. 

 

“The Head Oracle has called for me!” Pa’Li announced with a steady voice. 

 

They did not display any hurry at his appearance. 

 

But inside Pa’Li, a disquiet feeling had manifested, ever since he heard the Head Oracle called for him.

 

The last time he had anything to do with Oracles had left him with a feeling of wanting to stay away from them. 

 

Waiting for them to open the door and let him inside, Pa’Li was very certain, he was summoned because of the past.

 

When the big door opened and let inside, Pa’Li passed quite a few columns made of white stone. All over them, there was Gold decorating and depicting something. At the end of it all, he saw an Old Li'On sitting on a throne, again made out of Gold, as if there was not enough of it already.

 

Once he stood before the old figure, Pa’Li kneeled on one knee and announced himself. 

 

“Pa’Li has come before the Head Oracle. What is it that you seek of me?” 

 

While Pa’Li was kneeling and speaking as such, actual worship and respect were not found in his voice. No longer was he a cub to be perturbed by all this grander. 

 

In the last millennia, he and his younger brother had grown in prominence as young bachelors of renown, Titles included.

 

“Pa’Li, do you still reject our Offer?” The Old Li'On asked. He knew the answer, but he still hoped it would change, after all, it was hard to find successors with talent. 

 

“Yes, Head Oracle. I do not desire the life of an Oracle!” 

 

“A shame, that is. Never mind that. I have a task for you.” The Old Li'On said. “ You remember your last assignment from your days in the Academy?”

 

“I do, Head Oracle.” Pa’Li confirmed with regret that he had foreseen that he would be involved yet again.

 

“Good, the assignment has to do with those little beasts. ” The Oracle declared. “ You and your brother have prevented my Divined Future from manifesting. However, there were consequences. Are you aware of them?”

 

“Consequences?” Pa’Li wondered for a moment. “I have heard that the White Streak Furries have spread into the continent, but that is all, Head Oracle.”

 

“That is fine. I did not expect you to know either. But your mission has to do with the few individuals of their species that have achieved Sapience.” The old Oracle mentioned.

 

Hearing it, Pa’Li was slightly surprised. A suspicion arose in his mind because of it. He looked at the serious face of the Head Oracle and spoke his mind.

 

“Could it be that their Special Ability has a connection to the Golden Flame?” He asked in a solemn voice.

 

“Very likely, but it is different from what you imagine.” Came the reply. “Currently. I have found four individuals that have achieved Sapience, and all four of them have manifested a White Flame.”

 

“White?” Pa’Li wondered.

 

“Yes, a White Flame!” The Old Oracle confirmed once more. “I have observed those individuals' actions and the Flame itself, but there are limits to what I can observe remotely. I need you to proceed and find one of those individuals and observe them in their natural habitat. If what you find out correlates with what I have seen, you will take one of them and deliver it to us in this Temple for further study.”

 

“Why me? I am sure there are others that would gladly accept a simple mission like this?” Pa’Li asked, but the question itself was a roundabout way of implying that he would like to refuse.

 

“It's simple. I need your Intellect. You, being connected to them, only eased the selection process.”

 

Buffaloshit, you just want to implicate me deeper with yourself. 

 

Still, this could be a good opportunity, as I am in need of some resources.

 

“Fine, I will do it. However, only for appropriate compensation for leaving the Domain on such a long request from the Head Oracle.” Pa’Li said.

 

The old Oracle looked at the determined gaze that would not budge and gave in to the demand of this bachelor Li’On, whose skills with the Golden Flame were bordering on Creation. 

 

Unlike his younger brother, who excelled in Destruction, few ever witnessed.

 

“Very well, you will set out as soon as possible!”

 

“Understood, Head Oracle.”

 

With that said, the old Oracle told Pa’Li everything he had observed so far, and he left the Temple to prepare for a prolonged research expedition.