Bomond opened his eyes in response to Emojen grabbing him.

“What’s wrong, Bommy? Are you alright?”

Bomond nodded slowly and opened his eyelids. Not trusting his eyes, Bomond compelled his sight to focus on the now-dead worm held in Emojen’s left arm. She had secured it in the crook of her left elbow, pressing it to her torso. Bomond looked at the gleaming white blood that had now congealed around the top of the worm where Emojen’s knife had struck. He couldn’t help the sadness rising in him.

‘Over a worm. Pathetic,’ Bomond felt disgusted with himself, but he couldn’t will away the pangs. Even now, with everything on the line, Bomond couldn’t bring himself to do what he needed to do without hesitation. A small part of him had hoped that seeing Emojen hunt successfully would have given him the courage he needed. But as usual, it hadn’t.

All of Bomond’s successful hunting-kills till now had come by way of arrows. Even archery had taken years of practice for him to get over his hesitation to kill animals. He had never killed an animal up close. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. He had never killed an animal for meat except from a distance with a bow. The hypocrisy never failed to spur his revulsion. He had no problems eating meat. He loved it. And now, Bomond hated himself more than ever before. This one time, he couldn’t afford this putrid weakness.

His self-loathing spell of contemplation was broken as he caught Emojen’s words. “...it’s heavier than it looks,” Emojen said as she handed over the worm for Bomond to check.

“What…?”, Bomond had missed most of what Emojen had said.

“Just hold it for a second.”, ordered Emojen. Bomond steeled himself as his right hand left the falx at his waist and received the worm from Emojen. She had needed two hands to hold the worm, but Bomond found that he could manage to hold it with one hand. Reflexively, he extended his elbow to keep the worm’s body as far away from him as possible.

“Yeah, yeah! You’re big and strong. Stop showing off, Bommy”, Emojen complained as she rolled her eyes, a move she had perfected over years of experience submitting Bomond to different forms of condescension.

“Wait..what?”, Bomond enquired, but she had already left him to check up on some plants she had spotted. Realization dawned on Bomond. Emojen thought that he was holding the worm in one hand to display his physical prowess. ‘Thank the stars’, thought Bomond. She didn’t know him as well as she kept reminding him. A strange feeling of relief and disappointment merged within Bomond at that realization.

As he stood there silently, minutes passed before a smiling Emojen returned with several twigs and leaves in her clutches. “Look, Bommy! I found basil, curry leaves, and cilantro.”

Another memory rose in his mind as Bomond used his left hand to open the satchel he carried on his back and retrieved two small bottles. “I have salt and pepper”, said Bomond, and a crinkled nose was Emojen’s response.

“Well, excuse me, but I don’t want to be baptized with a bland experience. This is going to be the most important day of my life, and I am going to enjoy it,” stated Emojen as she accepted the salt and pepper from Bomond.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

She looked at Bomond before inquiring, “Anyway, since you planned this, I guess you have the heating rocks with you?” Emojen phrased it as a question, but Bomond knew better. He took out a blue, metallic rock from his satchel and showed it to Emojen.

Since the Flame-Rain had stopped, the pair soon managed to prepare for Emojen’s best meal ever. She tore out a large palm leaf from a nearby tree, the largest they could find. She placed the leaf on the ground and added the basil, curry leaves, cilantro, salt, and pepper onto the leaf. Using water from her pouch, she made a basic paste out of all the flavoring ingredients on the palm leaf. Then the paste was added on the worm.

Meanwhile, Bomond set out to create a hunter’s fire. After collecting the necessary fuel, he set the heating stone on a bed of dry leaves, twigs, and branches. Bomond had the marinated worm skewered through a long branch they sliced out of a small tree. After making a makeshift stand comprised of two pairs of Y-shaped sticks embedded in the ground on either end of the heating rock, he placed the worm-on-a-stick half a foot above the heating rock.

When ready, Bomond uttered, “Ignite”, and the heating stone did its work. In an instant, the rock began to blaze a glowing red. The vegetation around it ignited into clean yellowish-blue flames. Both Bomond and Emojen waited as the flames began to heat the worm above. They focused eagerly, and for a while, nothing happened. Then, without warning, the worm began to glow in a mix of reddish-silver light, Immediately, Emojen used her knife to lift the glowing worm and put it on the palm leaf.

This was it. Bomond’s eyes twinkled as Emojen willed herself to calm down. Their hearts were clearly thumping as Emojen muttered something under her breath, which Bomond couldn’t catch. ‘Probably a prayer of some sort,’ thought Bomond.

“You can do this, Emojen. This is what we have been waiting for. The first step to a new life. Eat it all.”, urged Bomond.

Emojen looked at him with a steely glance and, with her shoulders squared, used her knife to cut a piece of the worm and bit into it. After a moment of utter silence, she began chewing. Her eyes widened, “At least it tastes great. Just like chicken, Bommy.”

Bomond kept quiet, merely gazing at Emojen wide-eyed as she began to eat more of the worm. Soon, the fleshy part of the worm was over, just as Emojen declared herself satiated beyond limits. Yet, nothing had begun to happen.

‘Was this normal?,’ wondered Bomond. All accounts he had read, everything he had been told, indicated that the transformation happened after two or three pieces of an invested worm had been consumed. Emojen had eaten at least a dozen. He didn’t even know that she could eat so much. Soon, Emojen’s face shifted from expressing satiety to displaying consternation.

“Why’s it not working, Bom…,” shouted Emojen just as she began to convulse. Bomond watched her body wracked with powerful fits. She began to shake uncontrollably. This was far more violent than anything Bomond had expected. He rushed to Emojen and wrapped his arms around her torso without thinking. She could be livid later if she survived.

But even Bomond couldn’t stop the quivering Emojen. He held on with all his strength, but it was pointless. Bomond tried to look at Emojen’s hands, but there was no indication yet. The brutal convulsions continued for what seemed like hours, but in reality, was about a dozen seconds.

Then, just like that, Emojen stopped shivering. Bomond quickly laid her back on the ground as gently as he could. She had lost consciousness. He was panting and exhausted as he collapsed on the ground next to her. It had taken a massive toll on him. Yet, he had enough to jump back up as his eyes fell on an unmistakable silver sweat that began to seep out of Emojen’s skin. It was beginning.

With an excited roar, Bomond threw away his exhaustion and knelt down next to Emojen as the sweating increased and began to coalesce. The silver drops started surrounding Emojen and hardened. In a minute, Emojen’s whole body was encased in a bright silver husk.

For a few moments, Bomond found himself too fascinated to move. Then he touched the husk with his hands, and felt its rigidity. It was like touching metal but also like touching hard clay at the same time. A really weird sensation. Out of curiosity, Bomond took out his falx, and using the sharply pointed hilt, he tried pricking the husk carefully.

It didn’t make a scratch. He tried harder, and nothing happened. Bomond had the urge to use the blade to test the husk but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He decided to wait beside the cocooned Emojen.

He thought about his real reason for doing this. He hadn’t told Emojen about it. He couldn’t let anybody know. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her. He simply did not have the courage to let anybody even guess anything of the sort.

Bomond’s ruminations were shattered when a shrill screeching broke the silence of the forest. He immediately turned in the direction of the sound, further up the mountain.

Then his mouth dropped, and his eyes widened, but he couldn’t speak, and neither could he believe his eyes.