There was a familiar, unpleasant stench in the air.

“Aye, I believe so. My unit will investigate the nearby wild zone’s woods, just ta make sure aye? The rest of ya lot will follow Ricko’s command until ya reach the fort.

Report back to Zicko and send a message to the main investigation unit at the capital.”

Mikah squatted down and furrowed his brows as he looked at the severed arm.

He touched the puddle of blood and sighed deeply.

“We might need a royal knight here.”

“R-royal knight? Aren’t the scouts supposed to be really strong? why suddenly?” One girl asked.

“Ya lads might not be aware aye? The south-easterns might be here.”

“South-eas- You mean pirates?!” The girl yelled.

Mikah nodded, got up and in one swift motion pointed towards Guardian “Everyone move out, unit 1 will investigate further, the culprits are most likely inside of the wild zone’s forest, the visibility there is currently incredibly low so we haf to move slowly.”

Rick, the temporary leader got up on his horse and yelled “As soon as the merchants are ready, we depart!

Captain, the rest of us will link with the second platoon and depart towards the pirate’s autonomous zone!”

“Aye! No fighting until the matter is clear, aye? We don’t have authority beyond the bridge of Black Vein.” Mikah responded.

Everyone else set out towards Guardian. We put the horses at a stable inside Edgetown and procured some equipment for a longer expedition.

We walked into the thick fog that covered the forest at the wild zone, it was quiet. Only the sound of leaves rustling in the wind.

There was a clear smell of dirt mixed with dried leaves and rotten fruit.

The tree trunks were thick and moist from the rain, the ground was somewhat slippery.

We walked deeper into the forest until we heard what sounded like laughter. The voice screamed loudly and in a very high-pitched, trembling voice, it laughed more before saying, almost singing “My a-rum! My a-rum!!”

The voice kept getting closer and stronger, the sound of something big hitting the ground over and over also started repeating.

“Reduce yar figure, that’s a Copape, we don’t have time for the beast right now.” Mikah pointed forward. I squinted my eyes but I couldn’t see anything except for the 2 large tree trunks.

We lowered our bodies and maintained a ‘small figure’. I've never seen a Copape but I heard they aren’t interested in smaller creatures that don’t threaten them.

As we passed by the tree trunks I saw earlier, the voices and sounds were now directly above us. Copapes have 4 limbs and they live in forests. Is it just a monkey?

“Wah-y!!?” The voice said quizzically from above.

I looked at Mikah and his face was pale, his eyes were wide open, I’ve seen this expression before, fear. “Wha-”

He put his hand on my mouth and a finger on his own to shush me. He signaled to us to drop to the ground.

We all immediately lay down on our stomachs, Mikah’s eyes glowed as he took a deep breath and blew out a smoke that resembled the fog around us, the smoke slowly wrapped around all 3 of us.

He grabbed a handful of leaves and mud and threw them into the air as well.

Mikah and the prince suddenly turned into dried leaves and dirt.

It felt exactly the same as the time at guardian with the orange dust, this strange feeling of mismatch between what I know is there and what I’m seeing. It was unnerving.

The ground shook wildly in front of us, I looked up and my body went cold, I wanted to scream.

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I held my breath tightly. Will Mikah’s Seal deceive it?! What is this ‘it’ anyway!?

In front of me was an enormous forehead, I had to strain my neck upwards just to see the creature’s eyes. Eyes? Where are his eyes? There were 2 gigantic dark holes above its forehead, I could barely see it up above but I’m pretty sure the corners of its mouth are widely stretched, is it smiling?

The round holes I assumed are his eyes didn’t really change shape to fit what a smile would normally look like on any living creature I’ve seen before.

There was some red liquid slowly flowing from the corners of its lips. Blood?

There was moss on its forehead, there were vines hanging down from the cracked piece of wood that looked like a nose.

I could see the mouth move from the upper corner of my eyes “My a-rum!! My a-rum!” I could feel my body vibrating violently. What is going on?! Is this really a Copape!?

Its forehead lifted off and instead it basically headbutted the ground with its cheek, I could now see, mostly, the entire face, I wish I wouldn’t…

There were at least 4 rows of teeth that looked almost like gigantic human teeth made of boulders, each one slightly bigger than a large horse.

Some of the teeth were clearly covered with the same red liquid.

The red liquid splashed out from the creature’s mouth as its cheek hit the ground.

It kept swapping expressions, its eyes curved to the center slightly and its mouth curved into a pseudo frown.

Wait, is this thing copying our expressions? I tried to close 1 eye and bite my lower lip, the creature squinted 1 eye and bit the fur on its lower lip.

It can see us… Why is it just staring and copying us? “No no! No no!!” It yelled out with the same trembling voice, I don’t know what’s going on but it sounded… Scared?

I looked to my right where Mikah and the prince were and it looked like the air was warping around Mikah’s location, it almost looked like something I read about in Jake’s notebook. A phenomenon that happened to the trailblazers when they tried to explore the south for the first time, they called it ‘mirage’, more specifically it looks like ‘superior mirage’.

Either way, the Copape wrinkled its wooden nose. The moss on its forehead that now looked somewhat like eyebrows shook a little bit and furrowed towards the center.

It started gritting its teeth.

The creaky noise from the rows of boulders in the creature’s mouth scraping against each other made me think my ear drums will blow up soon.

The red liquid seemed to flow out more now, it was also a slightly brighter color.

“No no! My a-rum! No my a-rum!” It slowly lifted its head and started making the sound from earlier which I now realized was just the Copape clapping its hands.

From above us dropped an object that looked like a bloodied helmet.

The 2 tree trunks next to us started lifting off the ground as the creature slowly walked away, making the ground shake with each step.

Mikah’s Seal slowly deactivated revealing our sweating, panting captain.

Red-hair’s face was pale.

“C-capt-”

“Just a Copape lad, those beasts are cowardly and are also afraid of the heat, they are quite playful and most of them aren’t very aggressive, no need to worry.

Ya aren’t a royal prince here, just anotha’ soldier, soldiers embrace death, aye?” Mikah said as he got up to his feet and cleaned his clothes from all the mud and dry leaves.

Red-hair looked at the severed head in front of him with a pained expression.

“Y-yes sir…” The prince answered, still struggling to get up on his feet.

“This helmet, I’ve seen it before, captain, is this a guard fr-”

“Aye lad, the guard from Edgetown.” Mikah finished my thought.

As we walked a little deeper into the woods, I could smell smoke, it was clearly due to a campfire, there was also a more disgusting smell in the air though.

“We’re closin’ on them lads, if they try ta flee I’ll follow them while ya lot will cover me, aye?”

“Yes sir.” We both whispered.

As we got a little closer, we could see 5 men, they had a strange mix of fancy and ragged clothing, one of the men had a missing arm, the wound seemed somewhat fresh, it looks like they made the campfire in order to burn the flesh and stop the bleeding.

It seems the captain was right, the guard cut one of the pirate’s arms and chased after them into the forest. He must’ve run into the Copape by chance. Unfortunate.

The unpleasant smell of burnt human flesh made me feel sick.

We kept observing from a nearby brush and I finally noticed it, it was the missing piece of the puzzle. Why would the pirates from all the way in the Pirate Bay go into Edgetown in the first place? Why would the guard attack them?

Behind them was a large leather bag, big enough to fit a human inside. Kidnapping.

I heard pirates kidnapped -mostly- females with desirable Seals and fornicated with them. The rumor is that pirates believe that you can inherit a Seal through genes somehow.

“Lifes lad, ya’re the key to this operation.” Mikah pulled out a large piece of cloth and poured all of our water on it.

“Ya know what ya do, aye?” He asked.

I nodded and took out my bow, I just needed a valid target for my Seal.

I shot an arrow blindly into the darkness above the group of pirates and it hit a tree.

“I can see it now, just give me the go sign, captain.”

He handed me the soaked cloth and lifted his hand to count to 3.