"Saviors"

"Dealing with manipulation is all about reading between the lines and recognizing the lies for what they are."

In an unknown location and time:

"Hehe... Fools... change they cannot... fate... unknown!" cackled the voice while laughing as he observed the entire faction of celestials' chase after Rogen.

Location: River of Greed, Steven's location

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

"Hello mate! Need some help?" asked the captain with a friendly smile, as he looked at Steven in the water.

"Yeah! I would appreciate it!" nodded Steven with joy, as he thought he had finally found some light in the darkness.

"Well then why don't we help you up?" said the captain while smiling even more, to the point, it felt creepy. Steven should have listened right then and there to his instincts. But he was just too damn exhausted from floundering so long in the river.

"Uh... yeah... like I said thanks!" said Steven while looking at the man helping him with an odd expression. Yet when Steven wanted to figure out why this person was so weird, he was pulled up by a man with a green mohawk.

"Welcome on board! Now why don't you tell us why you were in the river of greed, young boy?" chortled the captain still smiling in a creepy way.

"Uh... well I was being chased by some obese lizard and a gigantic moose that wanted to eat me, so my only option was to jump into the river and swim to the other side," quipped Steven with a confused expression.

Why did this man want to know why he was in this river? No, more importantly, why the heck does he have such a creepy smile. As Steven was thinking this, the captain eyes quickly flashed with joy, but he quickly dampened it, and returned to his normal creepy smiling expression.

"Oh! Interesting! Remarkably interesting! Well, I can guess you're very tired! Why don't you go into one of the available cabins and take a rest?" offered the captain pointing into a certain direction of the ship.

"Yeah now that you mention it, I am pretty tired. Thanks, I appreciate it. If you don't mind me, I think I'll be going then." muttered Steven as he started to walk to the cabins, not wanting to look at that man's creepy smile anymore. As Steven found a cabin that was not occupied, he entered the cabin and closed the door behind him. He then proceeded to fall on to the bed in the cabin as he was exhausted.

"Ahhh... even though it's only been like a day since I haven't been on a bed, it feels like it's been ages," yawned Steven as he slowly fell asleep. Although Steven had some questions regarding that strange man, he was too exhausted to think about them.

So, he decided that after he woke up, he would properly process everything that had happened in the last day. Simply because what he had experienced was simply too much for a normal human brain to process. Steven had experienced so many life-changing events all in the span of one day, that he was mentally and physically exhausted.

"Captain, don't you feel like that boy was somewhat... strange?" enquired the man with the green mohawk, as he clearly felt that there was something different to Steven.

"What does it matter to us Colin, we don't need to concern ourselves over such matters. You and I both know; we don't have the time to question such things. Now before we get caught in the wave of greed, tell the men to prepare the ship. We need to arrive at the harbour as soon as possible," commanded the captain while looking at the wave of greed with a solemn expression.

"I... understood captain, I'll inform the crew," obeyed Colin with a confused expression, as he genuinely wanted to know what was going on with that boy. But he knew like his captain said they did not have the time, nor the need to know it. As Colin was walking to the other crew members, he heard his captain's voice once more.

"Colin, don't get attached again. I don't want something happening like last time! Understood?" warned the captain while still staring at the wave of greed.

"I understand captain! You don't have to worry. It won't happen again." reassured Colin,

"Good... good," said the captain with a slight smile, which was much more genuine than the one he had previously shown to Steven.

After a day had passed the sunlight which expressed the start of a new day slowly crept into Steven's cabin. "Yawn... mhmm... that was a good sleep! Damn I haven't slept like that in ages," yawned Steven while slowly stretching himself in his bed.

"Now that I'm awake, I should try and process everything that happened, before deciding what to do next," thought Steven as he was now fully awake and much more capable than before to think about the events that had transpired.

"Well, where do I start..." While Steven was gathering his thoughts about his experiences, somewhere not so far away something unexpected was happening.

Location: Unending Primal Forest, in front of the river of greed

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

"Flaven, what should we do now?" asked Barion, as he was concerned something had happened to their target.

"Panto, run back to the tribe and inform the ancestors about what happened and ask them about what we should do next," commanded Flaven to the panther with bright purple markings all over its body, in front of him.

"Yes sir!" as Panto received his order, he prepared himself to run to the tribe.

"No need!"

Just as he wanted to run, he heard a profound and old voice.

"An... Ancestor!" whimpered Panto in shock as he hurriedly bowed in front of one of his ancestors.

"Ancestor!!!" the sound of hundreds of beasts reacting like Ponto, could be heard as they all also bowed down to this revered ancestor of theirs.

"No need young ones! You may rise!" said the ancestor that had the appearance of a human, but still had certain features that showed he was a transformed beast.

The ancestor in front of them was a transformed fox. He looked like a handsome and healthy looking fifty years old. The only difference to that of a human was that he had bright orange hair that was even sparkling and that he had animalistic pupils.

"So Flaven, tell me what happened?" asked the fox ancestor as he smiled at Flaven while squinting his eyes.

"Gulp... Uh... Yes ancestor... uh... well," as Flaven was trying to explain to his ancestor what had happened, he was internally extremely shocked. Why was an ancestor here? Don't they normally never leave that cave?

As Flaven was thinking about this extremely strange event, he did not notice that behind the fox ancestor, there were also other transformed animals, it was just that they had not revealed themselves yet. But if Flaven knew, he would have gotten a heart attack, not knowing how to process what was going on.