It was true that the shifters gathered here were famously disliked by the rest of their society. The most powerful shifters were the werewolves due to their massive numbers. There were enough of them that they had multiple packs. Their great numbers meant that they were always selected to be sent as representatives of the shifter population to any councils held at the palace. Such great numbers, in fact, that the greater public of the other races in the Shadeworld treated them like the only population of shifters in their world, or at least the only population that mattered; and they always stood as the representatives of their kind as well as directors on shifter trends and society. The other mammal shifters didn't have quite so many numbers, but they multiplied enough to hold their own from generation to generation. Besides, the second most populace shifter population, the fox shifters, got along well with the wolves and treated them as friends and allies. In recent years many of the bands of cat shifters had thrown their alliance in with them as well. The smaller mammals and the prey animals were mostly accepted by the big three shifters and treated well by them and together formed the bulk of the shifter world.
Then there were the misfits. And the other shifters that stood outside of mammal races. The reptiles, the birds, the amphibians were all looked down on by the werewolves and their allies. That's why these shifters had gathered here for this meeting. They were not such close friends to the wizards themselves to offer their allegiance to them in general, but they had many reasons to want to fight against the status quo. The snakes here, and the lizards and their brethren, were treated as ugly by other shifters and were mocked by the other species of the world. The amphibians were treated as a fun game to hunt and chase and mess with by the rest of their world. The bird types like the firebirds and cockatrices and even the plain little sparrow people were treated as hated nuisances by the rest of the world. The rat shifters were actively hated by all species, including the big three, and were treated as villains no matter where they went. Only in this new gathering of misfits had they ever found any peace or acceptance.
This alliance of undesirable shifters had readily banded together when the wizards had contacted different packs' leaders and lone shifters. Now here they were hovering on the precipice to put plans into motion and fight back as a unified force. Resentment had been growing so long that it almost didn't matter if the wizards were as friendly as they'd seemed and willing to chip in and help them move towards better standards of life, or if they had to go it alone as a newfound group. But they'd made the pact with the wizards, and the honor of shifters bound them to follow through on it. Even when they had so many new doubts about the honor of these so-called allies.
The shifter leaders, the crow and lizard man and snake man, huddled together to discuss the night's events. The promised weapons had been produced. On the other hand, their friends had shown new colors.
But still, they remembered the wizards they had met with weeks ago at the beginning of all of this. The wizards had acted so charming when they were trying to convince the different packs to join them.
This meeting had forced them to pause and reconsider. At the end of the day, the wizards might say nice things, but they were still a selfish group that had wanted to keep their own people to themselves and stay out of any other people's wars or problems before. Ever since they'd put up the Dome on their city they had closed themselves off from the rest of their world, and they had shown that maybe deep down they still put themselves first and were not the ideal allies to have for something as risky as what was planned. Nevertheless, the plan itself was a good one. All the shifters here had already decided it behooved them to join this movement.
There were still niggling worries about doing this, though. What if the wizards really did back out at the last minute and leave them to face the hangman's noose on their lonesome? What if they'd made a terrible mistake teaming up with them? But no, they'd come too far now. They had had a taste of more power and more respect. It would take much more than doubt of their allies' intentions to make them turn back from their course now.
So they made the agreement once again to fight with their uneasy allies.
Finally, Kraelek pushed the cart to the front of the line. The representatives from both sides kept a wary eye on each other as they both dived to retrieve their promised deliveries.
The wizards did their best to hide their grins as their dupes walked out of the valley.
Once the last of them had gone, Gruzelvelt smirked at the rest of his entourage and directed them back through the gate they'd erected to get there. He directed the rest of the elders and some of the more highly-ranked younger ones to continue with him to the Glosbe. The building stood at the center of the dome and was a spherical structure itself. Unlike the outer dome, however, which was decorated to help them blend into their
