“Didn’t expect to find thieving rats this far from the city.”

Dreiki ducked on instinct, the large hand of the herbalist swiping right over his head. He pinched the metal sand in his pouch and lit it up in a brilliant flash!

He imagined his blood igniting in a burst of power, and his fire magic coursed through his veins like fuel. This spell was still a little out of his depth, but it’d allow him to run twice as fast for the next few minutes. He could only do it once a day without hurting himself, and there wasn’t a better use than right now.

He ran as fast as possible hoping the xio would be too blind to follow.

“Sorry! I’ll repay you later!” Dreiki yelled. He didn’t know what else to say. He prayed their old age had slowed them down enough for him to escape with the help of his spell.

After a minute or two in full sprint, the spell left his body and a wave of lethargy hit him. He leaned on a tree, doubled over and gasped for air. Between his sleep deprivation, the lack of food in his stomach, and the taxing nature of that spell, he was already exhausted.

Then, when it couldn’t get any worse, that feeling of being watched overtook him once again-tingling his skin like maggots wriggling in the dirt.

Bent over as he was, he saw its legs first. Hand-like feet with coiled black toenails. Some of its joints were broken, puffed, and purple. Lacerations lead up along its legs to its slender skeletal body. Its skin looked like it was shrink-wrapped to its bones. A gaping abyssal black hole in the center of its chest where its rib cage had splayed open like the mandibles of a spider.

It towered over him, and as Dreiki looked up to meet its grinning eyeless face his heart had stopped beating as if it was trying to hide. Dreiki couldn’t move, only letting out a strangled breath that had been intended as a scream. The creature turned its head, raising its long finger to him, painting its digit down his cheek and wiping sweat from his skin. It gripped its finger and bent it backward.

Crrruunch! Crack! Crack! Crack!

The sickening sound of its finger breaking knuckle by knuckle until it rested in its mangled state. Its grin spread so wide its cheeks split open in vile ecstasy of its own pain. A hissing cackle escaped its gaping maw, and as Dreiki blinked, it vanished as if it had never been there.

Dreiki remembered to breathe, almost choking. What was that? He thought to himself, replaying what had just happened in his head again and again.

He had to make sure Ezo was safe!

He sprinted the rest of the way. What was that thing? What did it want? Why did it break its finger in front of him like that? Why was it laughing? The questions racing through Dreiki’s mind blinded him, and it was too late when he noticed the trap in his path.

Kchink- CRACK!

A shooting pain ran up Dreiki’s leg.

His hunting trap!

He tumbled to the ground in a flurry of leaves and mud.

“Caught ourselves a Noxa!” Dreiki heard behind him.

“He actually ran into it! What an idiot!” Another from the side.

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Dreiki sat up, trying to reach and unlock the trap’s mechanism. It had broken his shin the moment it clapped down over his leg.

A rock knocked the color out of his vision for a moment as it bounced off his skull. A warm trickle of blood began to stream from his temple to his jaw.

“Tsk Tsk, little Noxa! Not only did we find your camp, but you ran into the one place you shouldn’t have. I didn’t think it’d work so soon. I figured we’d have to chase you into it, but you’ve just got bad luck, huh?”

Dreiki glared at their leader who stood so smugly over him. The leader snapped his fingers, wordlessly commanding the tall lumbering member of their trio to bring the struggling Ezo along in its arms.

“Leave them alone!” Dreiki shouted.

The leader pressed a knife against Dreiki’s neck, grabbing at his hair and yanking it, “Bite your tongue before I cut it out for you,” he hissed through his teeth.

Dreiki froze up, the cold iron of the knife digging into his skin.

“Good lad. Got a set of horns on you, huh? So you’re half of us. Guessing your mum dumped a failure like you out in the woods before leaving to have someone else’s kids.”

His lackeys cackled behind him.

Dreiki grit his teeth. He wanted to spit in his face, but knew he’d die soon after if he did.

“That drake was our pet, and you tried to steal it. For a minute, we thought you were more of a vulture looking for a free meal. But it was all bandaged up when we found it again and you’d never do that to a meal, would you?”

Dreiki had put on his poker face. He didn’t want them to know he cared about Ezo, or they’d use it against him.

The leader smirked at him, “I bet the thing was your only dear friend in life, huh?” He laughed, joined by his entourage. “Poor little Noxa has to steal a half-dead drake with broken legs to get something that won’t abandon him, huh?”

Dreiki had to think. He had to figure out a way to escape with Ezo.

“Do you know how embarrassing it is for us full-bloods to have been duped by a weasely little rat like you? We were so close to getting that drake to obey us, and you ruined it,” He spat. “Didn’t even recognize me and tried to bite me when I found it.”

“Good boy, Ezo.” Dreiki couldn’t help himself.

“Oh, so you’ve named it, have you?” A smile curled across the leader’s face. “Well, ‘Ezo’ is useless to us now, so we might as well butcher it.”

“Ha! That’s a good idea. Make him eat its eyeball or something!” The short xio exclaimed from behind.

The leader showed his fangs. “Since the little Noxa loves this thing so much, we might as well stuff its tongue down his throat too!”

The big one laughed. “That’ll be the only kiss this little Noxa ever gets in his life!”

Every time they called him a Noxa, Dreiki felt a hit to his stomach. It was a social class given to outsiders. As if his mother didn’t risk her life every day for bastards like these.

The short one squatted down next to the bear trap with a whistle. “Weak bones huh? Sit tight will ya? I’ll put some ice on it!” He snickered, hovering his hand over Dreiki’s leg. A biting cold wrapped over his leg instantly, binding him to the trap. “He won’t be getting out of there now. Slippery as he is, he’s not gonna be strong enough to pry it open.”

The leader let go of his hair, taking a confident stride over to the big lug who carried Ezo.

“I’d ask your name, little Noxa, but I don’t actually care.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Ha! Noxa got all mad! You gonna cry?” The short one jeered, followed by the big lug’s approving laugh.

“Oi, Brutak! Hold it out for me, I’m gonna gut it!” The Leader commanded.

The big lug, Brutak, held the sickly bat drake out by the scruff of its neck.

“Stop!” Dreiki clutched the trap’s jaws, desperately trying to pry it open, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Look! He’s crying! Prepo, look, he’s gonna fucking cry!” the short one said with an exaggerated cackle.

“Shut up!” Dreiki screamed with his entire chest.

“Shut up!” The leader, Prepo, mocked. “Scio, hold its legs.”

“You got it, boss.” The short and stocky Scio jogged over, snatching at Ezo’s legs as it lashed out. “Oi! Brutak, don’t let it fuckin bite me!”

Brutak wrapped his massive hand over its muzzle.

Ezo quickly ran out of stamina, resorting to a desperate, muffled cry for help. Prepo took only one devilish grinning look back to Dreiki, and for a moment, Dreiki could see that monster again.