Aric’s blood went cold. He almost forgot to breathe. The sound of his beating heart was suddenly so loud it might have been exploding with each beat.

  Then his instincts kicked in and magnified his perception of the things around him. They were in a forest… and inside a forest, he didn’t even need to manifest vines to see what was far from him, hidden.

  Had he heard the creature in front of him right? Tainted Ones. Demons? What were demons doing in the Purified Zone? And if there were any demons in the Purified Zone, why hadn’t he seen any? He kept scanning through the woods.

  This didn’t make any sense. Aric’s mild panic episodes snapped his concentration at least thrice before he managed to catch his breath and think clearly.

  The Bone Tiger was speaking in the Old Tongue… which meant there wasn’t an ounce of lies in its words. Everything coming out of the Three-Cut Bone Tiger’s corpse was the truth and nothing less.

  Aric wasn’t sure just how lenient the nguage of the Consteltions was on individual truths. Did it muffle words that were factually fraudulent, or did it only muffle words when the person speaking knew of their falsehoods? Or perhaps it operated somewhere in between…

  There were incidents when fraudulent words failed to leave the mouth of the one who uttered them but Aric wasn’t sure to what extent that worked. The fact that he could analyze this scared him as well. He’d never been one to ponder the rules of the ancient tongue… and yet he felt like he was missing something.

  The boy shook his head, shelving the theories. There were much more pressing matters at hand, and his beating heart and barely contained shivers reminded him of that.

  “I haven’t seen any demons in the Purified Zone,” the boy said sternly, biting down on his jaw to stave the shivers that threatened to grip his body—an inherent fear of death pguing him.

  The creature simply shrugged, “That’s because they have a leader. One that controls Tainted Aether.”

  ‘An Enthrall?’ Aric’s heart sank even more.

  Among the race of demons that hounded the Valerian Continent, there existed a certain type of demon that was known to possess the power to control others. Not only was this type of demon extremely dangerous but they were also intelligent—and rare.

  ‘Why would an Enthrall be here?’ Aric struggled to understand.

  If an Enthrall truly was involved, then it was possible for the abomination to order the other demons into hiding. Aric’s mind split into different trains of thought, some watching their surroundings, peering over different parts of the woods at the same time, while others tried to understand why Aric was finding himself in a situation so dire.

  The hairs on his back stood… ‘This feeling…’

  [ It feels oddly like the day Darth hunted us. ] his guardian confirmed with a growl.

  The Tiger noticed Aric’s expression and sighed, “Cut my tail and carry it with you back to the human vilge. It will keep them away.”

  Aric nodded, then looked up into the sky. Time had gone by. Their conversation had dragged on too long, so he stood up. His knees quivered… but he didn’t give in to the petrifying fear that threatened to hold his body down.

  The beast stared at him with an odd expression. Its dull starry eyes sparkled with curiosity, “I smell your fear.”

  Aric bit back the urge to say ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

  Enthralls were the stuff of nightmares. These stories even parents were afraid of telling their children about for fear of them never sleeping peacefully again.

  “It’s foolish not to fear one of those,” Aric retorted.

  Even then, the beast’s expression didn’t change, “But you’re the Protector. Now that I’m dead, I can tell you didn’t fight me with everything you had. What reason could you have to fear Tainted Ones?”

  “I’m not sure what you’re talking about but I’m nowhere near that kind of strength,” the boy countered. The Bone Tiger looked even more confused. Aric could tell it was very curious, “I don’t know how else to expin it to you. Can— Just tell me the answer to my first question so I can return to the human town.”

  “Why is the Protector afraid of the Tainted Ones?” the beast asked.

  Aric wasn’t understanding anything it was saying now. Who wasn’t afraid of the Tainted Ones? “Everyone’s afraid of demons.”

  “Not the Protector. The Protector is the perfect weakness of the Tainted Ones. It is Tainted Ones that should fear the Protector,” the beast was getting frantic now.

  Scarlett nded next to the boy with a curious expression on her face, “Did he tell you why the woods were so empty?”

  Aric turned and nodded.

  “Demons, isn’t it?”

  “How did you know?”

  The girl looked around with a strangely calm expression. In truth, Aric could see how she’d tied a cloth tightly around her palms. He saw the knives in a chain of sheathes on her thighs. A pair of especially rge daggers rested at her hips, quivering in response to her contained fear.

  “Ever since you started talking to that beast, I’ve noticed how quiet the woods are… and yet, I can feel countless eyes staring at me. Their gaze is foul… and primal. I’ve felt this fear before and that time, a High-Level Demon was involved,” the girl expined, “Alistair, we need to go.”

  Aric turned to the beast, “We’re running out of time.”

  The Bone Tiger furrowed its eyebrows in an expression of silent anger, “You’re still too ignorant, Protector.”

  The next time Aric spoke, his voice had gone up, “I, of all people, in this world, know my ignorance. I’m curious because of that very reason and I’m doing everything I can with each passing day to learn more. You think I—” the boy bit down on his tongue and fought the question that nearly escaped his tongue, “Just answer my question and let us be on our way.”

  There was a moment of silence before the tiger’s expression softened, “That’s the face I’ve been looking for. What a chilling expression! Hone that rage every time you tap into the Dance of the Tiger. I will tell you what old Gufangr was so obsessed with. I will tell you what a Tamer is.”

  The air went silent and Aric held his breath in anticipation. He didn’t want to miss a single word, so he gave the creature all his attention.

  “A Tamer is a human with the power to command Beasts.”

  And just like that, the beast's eyes went dull and its head crashed to the ground, lifeless and unmoving. The woods went silent and eerie all at once, holding their breath as though to honour the passing of a great beast. Aric was frozen in pce, too shocked to understand what had just happened.

  ‘That’s it?’ his thoughts echoed.

  “I waited all that time… for that,” the boy breathed. Scarlett had never seen Alistair look the way he did now. He looked just about ready to kill the beast in front of him, despite it being dead.

  The boy walked up to the Bone Tiger’s head and put his hand on its head, “One sentence. That’s all you used to answer my question. What the hell am I supposed to do with that? How does a human even start to control Beasts? You’ve left me with so many questions and no answers. Who are the Higher Ones you spoke so much about? What did you mean by demons have to fear the Protector…? Hey… Speak, Tiger,” the boy yelled.

  In his mind, he added, ‘And why the hell did you keep calling me the Protector? I’ve never heard that phrase in my life. If I was this ‘the Protector’, I would have saved Jared all those years.’

  Scarlett pulled the boy from the aether beast and did the st thing he would have expected.

  SMACK

  Aric gripped his throbbing cheek on instinct but the pain came much ter. What came first was the echo of the powerful palm striking his cheek, resonant and loud in the quiet eerie silence of the darkening forest.

  ‘Did she just… sp me?

  ..................

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