Chomp!

Hot flames flooded the area as his fur came to life and he continued to crunch down. Before I could I could reach for his jaw, Freki swallowed. He released flames into the air and shook himself free with a long howl.

“Wulf!"

The buzzing stopped and I realized what it was that bothered me. Freki continued to shake as his fur regained some definition, the shadows splitting apart to reveal finer details with the flames settling beneath.

The buzz was the connection; something wrong with the connection, but it was there. Until Freki took matters into his own paws and returned what the monster had stolen from him. The pillaged essence rejoined his and reassimilated into his core.

“Are you okay, boy?”

He smiled, exposing his fangs as he pushed his head into my chest.

“The monster acted weird at the end,” Alice commented.

“Yeah,” I said. “I think something about Freki’s essence called to it. Maybe like how we desire Keeper blood.”

“It didn’t agree. It looks like it kept consuming the rest of its kin.”

She kicked at a melting head and it burst apart, seeping into the floor.

“You don’t think we can scrape this off the ground and call it a day? They were made from Nameless’ blood, right?”

Alice chuckled and moved to scratch Freki’s head. The flame-happy devourer pranced around, crushing what remained of the monster beneath his paws, and growled playfully as he pushed into Alice’s palm.

I looked up, the sky was still the same–muted light that gave off the impression of well past noon.

Feels like we’ve been here forever.

“Why are you immune to its paralysis?” Alice asked.

I shrugged. “No idea. Probably higher constitution.”

She grunted and hopped onto Freki’s back. “I think it’s something else. You resisted Devon’s authority, and the Prime’s.”

“Then it's the different strain,” I said after hopping onto Freki. I grabbed his horns and he began galloping toward the tunnel from before. “A part of me gets angry whenever something tries to tie me down. It’s like I need to resist.”

Alice kept quiet as Freki entered the tunnel. I summoned a light orb and held it high, providing light but there wasn’t much need. The tunnel itself was short, and daylight shined through the exit.

As he pushed through the mountain, I took in the dead trees and the dried river bed about a hundred meters out.

“Look,” Alice said.

I turned around and noticed it was the mountain.

Oh. So we were inside it. No wonder the monster arrived so quickly.

My face darkened at another realization. “Do you think Nameless knows we killed the leader?”

“If it works like a summon, maybe. But I don’t understand how Keeper magic works.”

And I wasn’t any better. At best I understood it was fueled by life, and the flames I was used to summoning were a product of burning the essence and converting it.

Freki took us around the mountain. It was far wider than I gave it credit for and even with Freki’s speed it was nearly half an hour before we reached the front where the cave entrance stood. He carried us inside before we hopped off and unsheathed our weapons.

I crouched low and ran my fingers through the stains along the ground. Some of the green dust was shaped into bestial limbs, a paw there, a hoof mark over there. It looked like the leader had gone through and attacked the rest of the horde.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

We pushed into the tunnel and stopped just before the barrier.

I breathed in and then out.

Alice resumed her shift and growled. “No retreat. If he attacks we rush in, draw blood.”

“Agreed.”

I entered first, pushing into the void curtain and feeling the familiar stretching feeling. As I touched the ground, I let my mana run wild but the room was silent, except for the pops of electricity rushing into the stalactites above.

Alice appeared and held her axe ready but she relaxed some at seeing the relative calm inside the cave.

Nameless was still kneeling, with his head slumped forward. His arms were twisted far behind him but he didn’t move, once more a statue.

But the miasma around his mouth drifted upward as his voice shook the room.

“So you live. Nasty pests who don’t know when to die…”

He raised his head and glared with tear-stained eyes. It crumbled and lifted into the air with his breath,

“Don’t stare at me like that… You’ve won your useless bet.”

“So you’ll give us your blood?” I asked. He growled, but he remained still. Emboldened, I stepped closer. “We defeated the monsters.”

“You did… Aggressive little pups. Shouldn’t have expected anything less. You should present yourself. I’ll swallow you whole. Painless. More than you deserve.”

He sounds defeated.

His words lacked bite. Even the threat of eating us was more a grumble than an actual threat. But I took the warning for what it was worth and held back. For now.

“We found the city. The building with the statues. The other two statues were Grimms, right?”

“Grimms… Traitorous, backstabbing runts who served the city as its protectors. Should have known not to trust a wild beast.”

“I recognize the man. But who was the woman?”

Spit slammed into the ground as Nameless showed his teeth. “You are clueless, whelp. Can’t even recognize the witch in her glory? Or the coven on the murals?”

I grimaced but pushed on. “Does she have a name? Was she important?”

This time, Nameless laughed. A mirthless, hollow sound filled the room and petered out. He slumped forward and a drum pounded from inside his chest. It took a second to realize that his hollow laugh had become a true, rumbling chort.

A wet, green tear snaked down his cheek and he casually stomped the drop beneath his toes as he stood.

“I am Nameless. I have no home, no family, no kingdom or world to call my own. Abandoned by creation, and forgotten to time. Seek another fool to answer your questions little wolf!”

The air hissed as energy shot through the chains and into his massive chest. He grit his teeth and growled as his arms slowly pulled against their restraints and reached toward us with grasping fingers.

Alright, last chance before we fight.

I reached for my satchel and undid the latch, slowly pulling the rolled scroll from behind my back. His arms lifted into their air and he chomped through his lip, blood spilling down the sides of his mouth.

“Does this mean anything to you?” I shouted, cutting through the heavy echo.

The scroll unfurled to reveal the drawing and Alice summoned a light orb. Nameless froze, mouth dropping open.

“We found this inside the base of the statue. This is you, right?” I continued.

A gust of air pushed me back, and I blinked at Nameless’ fingers a mere pinky-width away from crushing my face. The pillars activated, the chains rattling as an unseen titan yanked the Keeper to the center of the room.

He slammed his fists against the ground and jumped forward, but the chains pulled him back and he tripped, crashing his chin through stone while he gnashed the air.

“Give it to me! I’ll kill you whelp! I’ll suck your marrow dry and eat your bones one by one! Give it to me now!”

I waited till Alice moved to the edge of the portal before waving the scroll. As he watched I placed my palm underneath and conjured a flame, lowering the temperature so that it was more a light show than an actual fire.

Nameless flopped forward and I almost lost grip of the scroll but the chains dragged him backward. He stabbed his fingers into the ground and pulled himself closer, meter by meter until the chains demolished his effort.

Still, he didn’t stop until I pushed the flames closer.

“This drawing means something to you; the little girl is important. You can have this, and we’ll leave, but we need something in return.”

“Give. It. To. Me!”

I let the flames reach the paper’s corner, and I could see it visibly darken–not by much, a mere deeper shade of pale brown, but it got the action I was looking for.

“Stop!”

“Are you willing to listen?” I asked, cooly.

He growled but relented, nodding slowly as if it pained him.

I lowered my hand and waved it, once more drawing his attention like a starving beast to food. “What is it that the Grimms take from you? It’s your blood, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And if we take that, you go back into your slumber?”

“Yes.”

“And this drawing is important?”

“Yes!”

“Then give us your blood and you can have the drawing. We’ll leave right away.”

The hatred in his eyes burned into my core and an animlastic snarl rose to the surface. Alice squeezed my shoulder and I shook myself.

What the hell? Why am I reacting now?

“You. Little wolf. Does it hurt to see me this way?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You want your pound of flesh? Then take it. Drain me dry, but touch the picture, and I’ll hunt you till the end of eternity itself. Not even death will greet you, not even when you’ll scream its name till your throat runs red.”

Again, a foreign anger clawed through my chest. It demanded a scathing reaction to the keeper’s words.

“Then we have a deal,” I growled.