The Tree Race
-Summary-
In this world existed different races, known and unknown to each other.
Some were at war, some were neutral, and others were prey to all other races.
In the world of the Tree Race which ruled the jungles, forest and served nature, a war had occurred.
The war changed everything for a certain clan which once stood as the strongest among all the clans, The BlackWood Clan.
They had lost, their allies, chief, armies, cities, and clansmen in thar war, with their only hope of survival and vengeance being on the bearer of the clan's source of life, The LifeRoot.
Being left to live as a human, Yves BlackWood begins his life in the cruelest way possible.
He is sought to be killed on his entry into the town of Bluebird, however, he is saved from such a dreadful fate, by Edward Miller.
Living as a woodcutter working for Edward, he lives an introverted, and wild life away from civilization in the Whitefur Forest.
At age 17 he finds himself taking over and reforming a band known as the Gobblers, in order to fulfil Edward's wish.
Now known as the Cloaked Knight, he leads the the Masked Knights to fight against the world of crime, aiming to restore the human race to the peaceful state it ones was.
However, Yves later discovers his origins and is forced to dedicate his life to seek revenge for his parents, allies and clan as a whole.
On the night of his ceremony to be initiated as a Chief, his LifeRoot is fully awakened and he is granted a system to lead him in his path for revenge.
Having to live as a leader of an uprising band of bandits, Chief of clan seeking the heads of the rest of its race, and a system which seeks to push him to his limits.
Yves BlackWood is faced with countless life and death situations as two races sought to have his head.
How will he survive? Living a life as a hero and villain at the same time.
-Chapter 1-
Jungles and forests have been ruled by the Tree race for ages, they kept their relationship with the humans peaceful and their only enemies were those who ruled the waters,the Mer race.
The Tree race had their source of life emanating from the life roots of their clans as without their life roots, they would turn into natural trees.
After the destruction of the first life root to be destroyed in a battle, the Chiefs of the various clans of the Tree race came to, an agreement to refrain from large scale battles and wars among themselves.
The agreement was a good idea, but they knew themselves and so decided to make one clan ensure that the truce was observed throughout the next generations.
The BlackWoods were the strongest of all the clans, earning the respect of most of the clans since the race respected strength above everything and no one dared go against them, not even the troublesome and hot-headed RedWoods.
In the period of Chief Loghark of the BlackWoods, thousands of years after the said agreement, a war ensued and this war change everything.
The RedWoods Chief's reason was simple, he wanted to expand the territories of the tree race, to aid in the gathering of more trees to help in their war with the Mer race which meant, the tree race had to wage war with the humans as they would not give up their lands through any diplomatic process. Somehow Chief Rotnal of the RedWoods, obtained the support of the majority of chiefs except three chiefs including Chief Loghark, who suggested that they sought the support of the humans to help against their war. However,they disagreed which was an issue as they needed the support of them especially the BlackWoods, but instead of trying to convince them, they devised a plan to destroy all of them to the extent of destroying their life roots as they had thoughts about using their lands to boost their armies.
The Life Root was a strange existence and it chose to live in the chief and it's descendants meaning the Chief's death, was the death of the clan unless the chief had a descendant with a sub root in it.
Chief Loghark was first attacked and he won the battle easily without the aid of his generals, but he knew the battle was just the opening prayer for the main event and he had to prepare for war, since the truce had been broken.
Preparing for war, he contacted his two allies, WhiteWoods and YewWoods making a decision to join forces to battle against the remaining 11 clans of the tree race, allied with the RedWoods.
The three agreed to send all their families to a rural safe haven belonging to the WhiteWoods, Whitefur Forest.
Loghark's wife had been assassinated by a special type of tree race trained for such tasks by the RedWoods, to aid in their dirty plans. Thus, causing Loghark's rage to descend upon them but he had his son who was born a year before her death, to keep him moving.
Knowing the outcome of the war, he entrusted his son to his two Golden Generals, Tuark and Liama to watch over him in the Whitefur Forest being supported by a hundred elites and 3 thousand tree folks able to put up a fight.
5 years, for 5 years the war went on and the three were clearly on the losing side, at their last line of defense in the BlackJack Jungle of the BlackWoods. The three chiefs died by the most cruel way for a tree to be killed as it was the way criminals were put to death among the tree race, being burned with fire.
The only ones left to represent the three clans were in isolation in the Whitefur Forest with a few in number each, the news of the fall of the three chiefs and their armies reached the Golden Generals and wives of the two other chiefs through the winds.
Now, the wives of the two chiefs were yet to deliver as the seeds in them had not formed yet, making them able to be in full spirits and that caused them to make the greatest mistake of their lives.
Liama, who had also lost her husband a Sliver General of Loghark in the war, joined hands with the two wives to enact revenge for the deaths of their loved ones.
Tuark was strongly against such a decision and no matter how he tried, they would not change their minds. He trusted the three chiefs to do enough damage for it to take the other clans about 80 to a 100 years to regroup, from his calculations and he believed they did just that.
A year later, they gathered a capable army and launched an attack on the AshWoods in which they won as they were at their weakest after the war, however, the next clan was prepared and ready for them.
They fell and died in the same way as the three chiefs, finally ending the war as they thought their only problem was dealt with, now creating a path for them to go ahead with their plans after recuperating.
Tuark could do nothing about it, he didn't need the winds to inform him about their deaths as all the WhiteWoods and YewWoods in the forest had become natural trees as this was the sad fate that fell on the tree race when the life root was destroyed.
Left with the few members of the BlackWoods Clan and the Chief's son to take care of, Tuark began to build a strong defense in the forest in order to protect the clan.
The tree race through countless evolutions had achieve humanoid forms, however, they didn't have what humans had which was a tongue, making them only able to speak through the winds.
Wind manipulation was a basis for every tree race member and was only used for offense, when one studied it to a higher level, the children of the tree race knew wind manipulation from birth and when they cried they would cause little raging windstorms to erupt around them.
However, this wasn't the same for Yves, the son of Loghark.
Yves had something most tree race wished for, a tongue and his cries were more ear piercing than raging windstorms from other children his age.
Finding out about this, Tuark came up with an idea, he would want Yves to be like his father Loghark who loved and respected humans as he saw them to be kind beings.
He made the hard decision to send out their source of existence into the open world but it was a huge gamble they had to make. The others didn't try to go against him even though, they knew the consequences of him dying but they were ready to take such a risk also.
Tuark took Yves by the hand and led him to the edge of the Whitefur Forest, where he would leave the BlackWood Clan and live among the humans. Yves was too young to understand the gravity of the situation, but he could sense the tension in the air. The other BlackWoods were watching them leave, their eyes filled with worry and sadness. Some of them were whispering to each other, making plans for Yves' future.
Tuark knelt down and hugged Yves tightly, whispering a few words of comfort in his ear although he knew he wouldn't remember his words until it was time.
Blocking the memories of Yves which was quite easy, not because he was powerful though that was another factor, it was actually possible because the life root was yet to achieve sentience and when it did, even a chief could not wipe it's memories as it was a very powerful existence.
Knowing well that Yves wouldn't forget his first name, he left him in the care of two treemen who would send him to the outskirts of the city, leaving him in the hands of fate until the time was right.
