The kesh hesitated, then let out a series of fluting hoots with answers from the tree tops around joining the chorus. Then he hopped lightly down to the forest floor and stood in front of Dominic. Even standing upright on his back legs, he wasn’t as tall as the lion, so Dominic lay down, bringing his head more into line with the monkey-like kesh. Instead of flopping onto his side in relaxation, though, he moved into a sphinx-like position from which he would quickly be able to rise if necessary.

  ‘We will not attack,’ the kesh promised, though eyeing him as if he didn’t quite trust the lion’s guarantee. Perhaps he was recalling the last time they had met under the banner of peace. Dominic didn’t exactly regret attacking the leader who promised to be a pain in his butt, but it probably wasn’t the best impression to leave on the more peaceful kesh. ‘Why did you want me here?’ the monkey-like creature asked warily.

  ‘It’s more comfortable for my neck,’ Dominic answered with a yawn. This one wasn’t actually meant as an intimidation tactic – he was just too tired to keep it in. The kesh tensed, though, so it probably ended up being one accidentally. ‘Tell me a little about how your group is organised. How did you become the leader? Are you the only leader or are there others?’

  Slowly, and needing several follow-up questions to get a full picture, Dominic was able to determine that the kesh had, as he’d suspected, a sort of clan-like structure. The group that had left had been two whole clans as well as some discontented individuals from the other clans.

  Five more clans remained, though one was very small as it had been the clan of the deceased leader and many of its members had needed to be killed or they would have intentionally jeopardised the deal with Dominic. Each of the clans was formed of a number of different families. The families each had a leader, usually a male, but one was a female. Among those leaders, the one who was the strongest became the clan leader. And then among the clan leaders, one would emerge as the overall leader.

  And, interestingly, strongest wasn’t necessarily tied to the individual’s ability to defeat opponents in battle. It definitely helped, but being good at politics was also another way of becoming the leader. At least, politics was what Dominic identified it as since it was about convincing others to follow along with ideas. Apparently that structure had been in place since before the System even came in and helped them do it better, which was also interesting.

  ‘And so that is how I became leader,’ Three-Spots – since the kesh did apparently have names based on identifying marks – concluded. ‘I was credited by the majority as being the reason for why your group did not come and slaughter us all.’ As it turned out, Three-Spots was the one who had spoken up and asked to take advantage of the deal when almost all the other kesh had decided to attack, lifting him in Dominic’s estimation.

  ‘Interesting, thank you for explaining that,’ Dominic said and then fell silent – as far as the kesh could tell, anyway.

  ‘So, what do you think Leo, shall we invite Three-Spots into the Pride?’

  The lion was quiet for a long moment, then he huffed. ‘Fine. I accept that your earlier points might have some basis in reality.’ A miracle! ‘But if it goes badly, I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’,’ he added. Dominic sent him a mental eye-roll. That was more like Leo. He turned his attention back to the kesh.

  ‘How would you like to become a closer part of the Pride?’

  ‘What is the Pride?’ the kesh asked.

  Dominic quickly explained the basics of the Pride and its benefits and watched as that wariness turned into thoughtfulness and then even a hit of eagerness.

  ‘So you are saying that if we become part of this ‘Pride’, we will not only be part of your protected group, but also gain extra benefits to help us progress faster while we are in the forest? And that fighting will help us get stronger faster as part of the Pride than not?’ he checked, zeroing in on the aspects best for him.

  ‘Yes,’ Dominic responded, ‘though you will be required to act in a manner that benefits the Pride too. Most of my Pride members hunt and contribute to the Pride that way, but as long as you find a way to help us, you do not necessarily need to be hunters,’ he told the kesh. ‘In fact, given the physical abilities that you have and that we don’t, you might be better suited to a different role. And with the benefits that being part of the Pride in this forest offers, hunting might not even be necessary.’

  ‘What role is this?’ Three-Spots asked more curious than wary now.

  ‘I’ll tell you more if you choose to join me in the Pride,’ Dominic told him. If the creature didn’t want to join them, he didn’t want to risk giving them hints which they would then be able to use against him.

  The kesh was clearly strongly considering the offer.

  ‘Is…is this offer for all of us, or only for me?’ he asked after a moment of thought.

  ‘For now it is for you and a small group of others,’ Dominic answered. ‘We will see how the integration goes and whether your people truly have something to offer to me and the Pride, and then rediscuss the issue later.’

  The kesh eyed him carefully.

  ‘I will need to discuss with the other clans.’

  Dominic pushed himself to his feet, his movement making the kesh flinch back. But all the lion did was stretch, feeling pleasure as the stiffness from lack of movement left his muscles.

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  ‘Fine. Once you have decided, bring any who wish to join the Pride to the clearing at the centre of the forest. But remember, not too many. I don’t want to see your whole group there. Ten at the maximum, I’d say.’ Then Dominic hesitated, remembering how Procyon and Sirius had revealed in the dungeon that they had no idea about counting. ‘Wait, can you count to ten?’

  The kesh spread the digits on his front paws out. He curiously had six finger-like digits on each hand-like paw.

  ‘One, two, three, four, five, six,’ he answered, closing one finger to his palm at a time. ‘Seven, eight, nine, ten,’ he continued, closing four more digits on his other paw.

  Well, that was a clear answer, and also very, very interesting. Dominic wondered whether it was partly because of the political nature of the clans that the kesh had a better sense of number than either the amesheks or lions – when deciding whether one party was stronger or weaker than the other, it was necessary to be able to identify the number and strength of the party’s supporters.

  But the ability to continue counting past one paw’s worth of digits was particularly impressive. Dominic wondered if they were already capable of basic arithmetic. If they weren’t right now, then they probably would be probably soon in the future.

  Either way, it just re-emphasised that it was better to get the primates on his side if he could.

  ‘Good. Make sure to come by the time the sun has reached its zenith today or the offer is withdrawn,’ he warned. In reality, it was more because he was planning on leaving by nightfall, but he didn’t want to tell the kesh that.

  With a few more short telepathic communications, the conversation was done and Dominic turned to leave. As he headed back towards the clearing, Leo started speaking.

  ‘I’m surprised you didn’t invite all these filthy primates to join us,’ he said with a contemptuous tone that attempted to hide his curiosity.

  ‘I was tempted,’ Dominic admitted, ‘though less for the kesh themselves and more for the mountain of Pride Points it would offer us. There are so many things we could use those on!’

  ‘So why did you not?’

  ‘Two main reasons. One, the fact that adding more beings to the Pride means that the Place of Power’s Prey Points are distributed among more creatures. I know that it’s recently doubled, but there are more than three times the number of kesh as there are of the rest of us added together. That would mean that everyone would be getting significantly fewer points now than they did before the Place of Power levelled up.’

  ‘I thought that Selessa indicated that the more affiliated members we had, the faster the Place of Power would progress and therefore the more Points we would gain,’ Leo questioned, apparently playing devil’s advocate again. ‘Perhaps the loss in Prey Points would only be temporary.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Dominic admitted, ‘but I’d like to see what changes there with just adding in a small group before adding in a larger one. Besides, I can’t say that I wouldn’t like our current members to grow a bit stronger before we add a whole chunk of outsiders. I would have thought you’d agree with that,’ he said pointedly.

  Leo huffed.

  ‘If it were only the females gaining power, then I would agree, but you’re sharing the power with all the males too, including protecting all of those juveniles, meaning that we’re also helping our rivals to grow too.’

  Dominic sighed. He was tired of that same old argument. Maybe it would help to not respond to it any more? Perhaps in this case actions would speak louder than words – if Leo could see that the males weren’t the same rivals they used to be, he might come around. Hopefully the compromise they’d come up with for Fang and Lionel would set a new standard going forward.

  ‘Anyway, my second reason is that I thought it would be better not to…dilute our core group too much and keep the lions the largest group,’ Dominic told him with a mental sigh. ‘Having the kesh as equals in the Pride rather than tolerated outsiders could…change things. Socially, I mean. I want to test the waters a little – see whether they will actually be as useful as I’m hoping they might be and that they won’t cause problems. Plus, it would work better as an incentive if it’s more exclusive, encouraging the kesh to work harder in order to be able to later join us too.’

  ‘Useful,’ Leo scoffed. ‘Though their little rocks can be dangerous, they are no hunters.’

  ‘Precisely,’ Dominic answered. Then, feeling his companion’s confusion, he expanded. ‘We already have quite a few hunters who are good in melee range. Both lions and amesheks are good at that. What we don’t have are crafters, or ranged defenders. Now, I don’t know if the kesh will be able to be crafters – they have more dexterous fingers than we do, but not all humans were capable of creating things either, and those that were had to practise to get better. But even if they’re only ranged defenders, that fills a niche which we were missing. With the albuhas as air-support, the kesh as ranged, and the lions and amesheks as ground troops, we have a pretty good start to an army.’ He stopped moving as a thought occurred to him. ‘Wait, what if the kesh were able to ride the albuhas and strike from the air….’ He went into a daydream of attacking an enemy from both ground and air and completely routing them as a consequence.

  ‘Why do we need to be able to fight an army?’ asked Leo. ‘You’re not planning on trying to conquer other Places of Power, are you?’

  ‘Not at this moment, no,’ Dominic answered thoughtfully as he started padding forwards once more. ‘But we may have to defend ourselves from someone else’s army. Actually,’ he said, a sudden realisation hitting him and again stopping his paws from moving further, ‘we’re going to have to do just that. Remember what the elves were talking about – they’re threatened by beasts. Unless there are very few elves, that probably means plenty of enemies – maybe enough to make up an army. And if we’re going to help them, we need to take an army with us.’ He turned around towards the kesh’s area. ‘Maybe we should invite more of them. I should have thought of this earlier.’

  ‘Wait,’ Leo told him as he started trotting back to where he’d talked to Three-Spots. ‘If you go back there, doesn’t that potentially weaken what you were saying earlier that you wanted? The idea of incentive.’ Dominic slowed as he thought about it.

  ‘Perhaps,’ he admitted, turning back towards the centre of the forest. ‘Alright, fine. We’ll go forward with what I was originally planning.’ Then he gave a leonine grin. ‘At least we’ll find out sooner rather than later if the kesh are any good as part of our combat strategy.’

  here!