The Evolution Chronicles

Crown Prince Alaric sat down on the sill of one of the larger windows in his father's study and stared out into the distance while slowly swirling the wine glass in his grasp.

"Cousin Adam has gone missing." He spoke up, addressing his younger siblings that had gathered in that corner of the large room with him. They were holding one of their usual meetings to discuss the various affairs that directly concerned them, and the disappearance of their cousin was one such matter. It had already been a week since the messenger bird to the Belmun pack had been sent out. It never came back.

"Father is not happy." One of the other princes present spoke up. His name was Silveros, a name gotten because of his sparkling silvery eyes, and he possessed the signature blond hair of the Henshaw bloodline. He was the second child of King Fredrick Henshaw, preceded by his older brother, the Crown Prince.

The current reigning King of the Henshaw Dynasty had five children. Those children consisted of three boys and two girls, of which the girls were the youngest.

"I told you. It was only a matter of time before those animals found out about the drug, and now we've lost little Adam." Princess Vera complained with a soft pout present on her lips. "If you want to deal with the animals, you do it the hard way. There is no need o games and tricks!"

"Big sister, those aren't animals. They may not be like us, but they are obviously a step above animals no matter how you look at it." Princess Lena, the baby of the Henshaw Dynasty complained about the way her sister referred to the demi-humans.

"Baby sister, you should watch what you say about those creatures. They are nothing but mistakes born from crooked evolution. Also make sure never to say that before father. He is sure to frown upon that." Alaric scolded Lena.

"You can't say that, Alaric! Big brother, tell him that the demi-humans are more than wild animals." Lena turned to the third son of the King, Brendan. Unlike his siblings and father, Brendan sported the same silver hair that their mother had. His eyes fluttered open momentarily, revealing his sharp, bottle green eyes for a short instant, before they closed shut. With that simple gesture, he had expressed his stance to remain neutral in the argument.

"You meanies!" Princess Lena squinted her eyes before sitting back down with crossed arms and a cute pout. She leaned against Brendan, despite the fact that he had just chosen not to support her. She knew that he supported her, but he had simply chosen not to voice his thoughts, lest a heated argument might break out between the siblings.

Brendan lightly nudged Lena with his elbow but kept his eyes closed. They were quite close among the five siblings because of the similar mindset that they shared. Brendan had already made it clear that he would not be partaking in this discussion, but no one minded that.

"Do you think Little Adam was captured or..." Princess Vera trailed off. There was a lot of bad blood between the demi-humans and the Henshaw Dynasty, so the chances of the demi-humans torturing one of the direct relatives of the current ruler of the dynasty was quite high.

"There is no way to tell, but there is a high chance. We will have to wait until the task force we sent out to the Belmun pack gets there before we can find out anything more. Hopefully, Adam is just being a little rebellious. If not, then we will have a serious issue on our hands." Alaric's face looked grave.

If Adam had been captured by the demi-humans, then there would be two major issues. Firstly, it would mean that the demi-humans would be in possession of a high value member of the Henshaw Dynasty. If it were just a simple soldier, then it would be a small matter, but Adam was directly related to the King of the Henshaw Dynasty.

Secondly, not only would the demi-humans be in possession of an important person, this capture would also mean that the drug upon which countless hours of sweat, blood and sleepless nights had been spent, would have been all for nothing. The drug would be utterly useless if it was of no effect on the target audience it was made for.

"Do you think father is aware of this?" Vera asked.

"Of course he is!" Silveros suddenly exclaimed. "How can our wise father not be aware of this? He is King for a reason, otherwise the Council would have done something about it long ago." He proudly concluded.

Even though the King was known to be all powerful and great, in truth, he had a council of advisors that took on the major roles of managing the Dynasty. This council was known as the King's Circle. 

The King's Circle consisted of highly knowledgeable individuals that had carried out patriotic acts or had proven their competence and ability to handle great and important roles and decisions in the absence of the King's words.

"Enough." Alaric's voice silenced his siblings' bickering. "Father is already aware of this, and has provided the taskforce that is on its way to the Belmun pack with stellar equipment. In fact, a General is also part of the taskforce!"

"A General?!" Lena sat up quickly with a gasp when she heard that. A General was the equivalent of a dominant demi-human in the lower tier of the rank. Such an individual was a force to be reckoned with on their own, not to mention when they were accompanied by several other highly trained warriors who were strong in their own right. 

From what she had heard from her own sources, over half of the members of the taskforce we're strong enough to rival high ranking demi-humans. Such a talk was enough to decimate a small sized pack if given the right resources and equipment!