Kev Desorithe stared up at the world ceiling happily, ke was one of the few Voth who had fortune to be able to enjoy it's beauty. Most either lost interest quite quickly in the expressive celestial expanse or were felt insecure at the sheer scope of it, but Desorithe would never be most ke told himself, the Great Mother saw kis faith and for it, she set kim apart even amongst her favoured, the voth. 

A movement to left kis broke kis train of thought, it was far too loud, that had been consciously done. Ke turned to glare at kis partner but the voth in question was staring of into the distance, pretending to be observing something.

Desorithe sighed, there were some amongst the hunters who took affection for the great ceiling for softness, worse they took righteous and proper devotion to the Mother for weakness and dependency but the Kev knew better, indeed ke did.

"We are done here, we continue before the trail cools"

Desorithe nodded and followed kis fellow hunter deeper into the green and further away from the tribal hunting grounds. 

Ideally ke might have liked to enjoy the radiance of the Bright Tortoise, watching it cause the world ceiling to shift colours until it crawled away beneath the horizon and night came. However ke had been given a duty, a hunt and as the Mother proclaimed all hunts sacred, ke would not defile this one with sloth. Ke only stopped to enjoy nature's beauty because time allowed for it, whilst Kev Soril, his partner, marked the way with a crafted scent ke had turned kis gaze to the ceiling's soothing beauty but now the time had come to move again.

Their progress was slow, it had to be, they were well beyond the borders of their tribal hunting grounds and danger lurked nearby at all times. Even so the humans they trailed were much slower and every rise and fall of the Bright Tortoise brought them closer. Half a day ago they'd found a fresh blood trail that smelt human. At first they had not been concerned since they wounds were obviously shallow but after a couple hours of following the trail they came across the scent of a goblin pack. Further signs told of a prolonged chase, a common goblin hunting strategy. 

Desorithe could barely restrain himself, if the goblins killed the men then the Great mothers providence would have been wasted. He could not bear the thought of failing his patron goddess and ke told Soril as much. 

His fellow hunter had answered coolly "If all it takes to hunt them down is a pack of goblins then they don't deserve to be hunted by voth." 

Perhaps Soril was right, surely the Mother would not supply unworthy prey. These humans would survive the goblins and if not then the mother had never intended for them to be hunted by voth ke assured himself. Still kis anxiety did not fade, even if the humans defeated the goblins an opportunist might take advantage of any injuries the goblins managed to inflict, what then?

Why herd men insisted on escaping had always baffled kim, they were fragile, witless, things that did not belong in the open, surely they were safer in the holding caves than they were out on their own. But the herd men were either too daft or stubborn to understand that they needed the voth. They killed themselves because they wanted to be free but what did freedom matter if you were dead?

Their first sign was that the goblins' hunt had come to an end was the scent of death. The air was heavy with it's fetid stench of rot, many had died here and many more would in time it seemed. A sniff was enough to tell both hunters that no human remains were close by but whether they had escaped, been eaten or carried away was harder to tell. 

What the scents did tell was that a good number of goblins had died, too many for whatever killed them to eat them all, the abundance of bodies attracted scavengers who were unwilling to share. Some died, more fled, the cycle continued until a victor emerged, some creature none of the others could kill, rather than eat it's fill and leave it left the long dead bodies alone preferring to target any creature desperate or foolish enough to covet it's hoard and so the pile grew.

Desorithe looked to Soril and saw the same hunger in his eyes. The desire not for flesh but in answer to the blatant challenge. Come and slay me you who dare the creatures boast seemed to say. Let us see which of us is truly the hunter. The urge to reply was strong but there was little need. 

"Hunters do not kill for sport" he said to Soril.

The quiet voth only nodded.

"We go around see if we can pick up the trail, if not..."

Soril clicked his tongue approvingly at the implication that they might hunt after all. Desorithe shared his sentiment, for the sake of mobility they'd eaten only dried meat since they started trailing the humans, once or twice they'd chanced upon on a stray foul or rodent but these snacks only served to whet their appetites for fresh blood. If they could come within sight of the humans then it might be safe to allow themselves a hunt. But as it was should the world ceiling weep even once they would loose all but faintest traces of their prey, perhaps if it wept long and hard enough even that would be lost too. 

The thought of failing was enough to keep them from succumbing to their desires. Once or twice Desorithe had come across a scent so irresistible it threatened to drive him mad with the urge to hunt. The song would pulse in kis veins loudly and drown out his thoughts but The Great Mother gave kim strength each time and he resisted the temptation. Kis comrade's fortitude came as a surprise to Desorithe, the other hunter had only been titled Kev for a year and by all accounts he was still green. Yet it seemed to Desorithe, ke had come closer to given in to his urges than kis younger companion. Despite kis great restraint, Soril, Desorithe had noticed, was one many of the younger hunters who admired the Kevesh Belmoth almost to point of worship, an act that made Desorithe lose the respect ke felt for the young one.

For sure the Kevesh was an exceptional hunter perhaps even the best like many claimed, perchance ke would even be the first male to master the song in living memory but ke was no Kulinesh. That so many would begin to treat kim like ke was, was heresy. Surprisingly enough the Kevesh himself did not seem to think ke was a god child or even act like ke was a leader although his influencts much. Many with far less influence than he had flaunted their power and tried to control the Hunt even though they were well aware that the Hunt knew no leader, not until the appearance of the Kulinesh himself, child and groom to The Great Mother. Worse the Kevesh's humility only served to convince others he would be a great leader and his supporters grew, along with the whispers that he was indeed the Kulinesh.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The duo picked up the trail again with little difficulty, leaving only wistful thoughts to the hunt that could have been. The freshness of the scents reinforced Desorithe's belief that they were quite close to the humans, he clicked his tongue in appreciation . Not only that, but the humans seemed to have been injured, nothing fatal but it was sure to slow them down. If nothing else attacked them the humans would found by nightfall. Success was near.

The reptilian humanoids stole deeper into the greenery, their moods haven been improved by their findings. It was not long before they came across what must have been the remains of a human camp site. A pile of ash near the center of a natural clearing, along with coagulated blood stains and flattened grass would all have made it obvious even without the help of their keen senses of smell. Desorithe was taken aback once more by how poor these humans seemed to be at concealing signs their passage even by the standards of their kind. Perhaps they believed that they were thought to be dead and so believed themselves safe. If so they were fools out in the open no one was safe. The earth protected its dwellers with narrow passage ways and numbered entrances but out here, every copse hid a predator and attacks could come from anywhere be it above or below. The humans would soon be taught a lesson for their recklessness, one they were not like to remember. 

-{-_-}- 

Kael's sleeping figure sat upright suddenly. He sniffed the air in search of a scent and became visibly more relaxed when he couldn't find it

'It must have been a dream or something else, there's no scent of any voth and my mark is still.'

He rose to his feet, despite knowing that it was just his mind playing tricks on him he couldn't help but feel uneasy. His eyes pierced the dark embrace of night searching for a trace of the phantoms that plagued him. Yet that is all they were phantoms, so his search revealed nothing. Bloke was keeping watch. It was always either him or Kip because no one could trust Barnel to raise the alarm and both Gerald and himself enjoyed the privilege of uninterrupted sleep. The older man had become withdrawn and fearful after the goblin fight. It didn't surprise Kael much at first but then he realized Bloke was afraid of him, and of course Gerald as well. Gerald said Bloke was afraid that he was going to be used as bait. In the event that they were chased by some beast beyond their power to kill what was to stop the two Deviants from running faster than the others could or purposely injuring them to serve as a distraction? 

Kael couldn't understand why he would still think that, shouldn't the chase with the goblins have proved instead that they could rely on each other?

Gerald simply shrugged and asked him.

"If it comes down to it wouldn't you sacrifice him to live? Don't get me wrong I think being with us increases their odds but he's scared, near powerless and thanks to deviations there is always going to be an us and a them, imagine how he feels... he'll get better after a while once he cools his head."

It was then that Kael realized that the whole team was on edge not just Bloke and himself  None of them were stupid enough to think fight with the goblins had been a success, even though Kip acted it.

'The goblins showed us how fragile we really are.'

Their first attack since escaping the voth was a near death experience, looking back all his fights since deviating had been close calls. All situations where one mistake at the wrong time would have changed the outcome completely. He shook his trying to think of nothing. Positive, he needed to be positive.

'There is a way to get stronger' Fragments voice interrupted.

'I won't do it, I... won't. Leave me.'

The voice in his head did not speak again. There were times when it almost seemed like demon conjured by his mind to drive him mad, it told him the strangest things but it was what it told him about his mom that he would never forget. It wasn't true, it couldn't be, it said that just to unbalance him, that had to be it. The alternative was too foul for him to contemplate.

'I didn't do it, I was a baby when she died, it wasn't me, it wasn't...'

Kael felt tears threatening to spill, he wiped at his face with a hand and looked at the stars. Trying to forget himself in them but it was no use, the same thoughts lurked at the back of his mind. Defeated he retreated further into his mind, into the black space where he simply knew things and he could feel black tendrils stretch and grow endlessly within him. 

His thoughts carried him to the knowledge of the hobgoblin. He buried himself in it, studying it, wondering how best he could integrate it with the way he was now while still fulfilling the images he had in mind when he first morphed his body. The hobgoblins bloodline was a let down to be honest, he had had high hopes for it seeing as it was humanoid and powerful but the it seemed it's abilities were primarily evocative all its other obvious gifts were either shared by regular goblins or made useless by the combination of Rufus' and his voth bloodline. Conversely the spider bloodline had proven to be a treasure trove, with some work it would be possible make his bones nearly as strong as it's chitin without loosing too much flexibility, not only that he could reinforce his teeth, claws and sting by replicating the spider's bladed limbs, best of all though promised to be the spiders multitasking ability, it's ability to co-ordinate visual input from eight eyes and manipulate eight limbs simultaneously was sure to help him handle his own heightened sense of smell better and to better use his tail in the middle of a fight. Unfortunately its eerie ability to climb walks and move soundlessly were both both lost. Even the goblin bodies he drained after the fight, provided some nice surprises, for one was the indomitable furnace that is the goblin digestive system , then came their absurd sexual drive were both ways in which they outshone humans. There seemed to be no gaps in the information their blood provided meaning either they had no evocative or transmutative abilities or perhaps they were not altered by despair at all. Maybe lesser goblins were ordinary goblins and hobs were their version of deviants? Something to think about. 

Kael spent some time building hypothetical anatomies within his mental space and contrasting their theoretical advantages only pausing occasionally to keep track of time. 

When he grew tired of that he picked up his spider sword and worked on his swordsmanship. Gerald had taken to helping him practice by dueling wooden sticks each evening before bed. Of the two Gerald was without doubt the better swordsman, speed and strength aside Kael was no match for Gerald in a contest of raw skill. The boy was unbelievably good, better than Kael at least would ever have believed. 

The boy monster performed parries slashes feints and thrusts, moving from one stance to another, ducking and sidestepping imagined attacks as he did so. Maybe he couldn't integrate bloodlines at the moment but he could still get better at fighting, still get stronger.

Unbeknownst to him, two pairs of eyes watched his every movement, assessing them for weaknesses and holes until finally they were certain he had no more suprises.

"Ke is weak and scared" Soril stated the obvious.

"It is not kis skill at killing that bothers me. It is kis appearance, ke looked like a Voth. Do you think he can smell us?"

"Maybe,... does it matter if ke can smell us? As long as he is weak we can kill kim as we please. It confuses me though that he doesn't smell voth but perhaps ke has scented himself. Do you think ke is from another tribe?"

"That might be it. The young ones will kill kim as well, it will be good for them."

"Yes someone as weak as kim should not have tried to steal our slaves. We will honour kim with death."

"It is as you say, still we should continue to stay upwind to hide our scent whilst we wait for the young."

"That won't work for long but I see no reason to disagree."

"Then we wait."

"We wait" Kev Desorithe agreed.