-Break-

“Hey Charles, where are we going?”

“Some place where you can rest.”

“But won’t we get in trouble?”

“Don’t think about that now just leave the rest to me.”

Following my words Charles slumps his head on my shoulder and when he does, I can still feel that he is hot. I need to move quickly.

After a little bit of walking, I stop and say, “The air here is pretty good and it is not too warm or cold. I think it will do nicely.”

Dropping Charles I say, “You can sleep for a bit.”

“But isn’t it still daytime?”

“Don’t worry about that just trust me.”

“Ok,” Charles says as he closes his eyes.

Sitting down next to a tree watching Charles I let my thoughts run wild.

He isn’t as alert as usual because if he was he would have definitely stopped me from doing this. In all honesty, staring at Charles right now is terrifying, the fact that this boy could be rendered so weak is shocking.

I guess in a way I thought him indestructible like my father, a boy with no limits whose strength and endurance knows no bounds. But now this has me feeling worried.

Will he get better? Will he wake up from this nap? Is anything I am even doing for him helping? What if a wild beast comes here? What if someone rats us out? What if the beastkin find us? Will I be able to protect us, protect him?”

As these thoughts flow through my head like a spiral, I say, “I wonder if this is how Mom and Dad felt.”

Whenever I went out and did something without telling them or got sick. Is this terror and fear something my actions caused them daily, if so I don’t know how they even ate or slept with this feeling.

The beastkin are right, we humans really are easily destroyed, broken, and killed, unlike how I once thought I know for a fact that none of us are indestructible. Not Charles, not everyone from the village, nor Dad.

But still, they were able to smile throughout it all, dad and everyone knew of this fear yet still went and smiled, so I guess I got to do the same. Looking at Charles I say, “I need to rest too because when he awakes I plan to greet him with my best smile.

-Break-

Hearing a sound, I open my eyes. Instantly a bunch of thoughts flood my mind; What’s going on? Did someone find us? Are we going to die? Am I going to die?

I shake, and shake, and shake as the fear and uncertainty of the situation start to take hold.

With my fist I punch myself in the gut, then bring my thoughts to order; I have no time to panic, I need to calmly assess the situation for not only my life but for Charles.

The first thing I do I stare at Charles and see that is fine, and seems to be breathing; that means he isn’t a point of worry now.

Using the tree, I am against as cover, I look out and see if there is anyone in our surrounding area; no one is in sight.

The noise I heard was like a scream, so someone must be close. If it was a scream it would have to be some sort of violence. The options are either one; two idiots got in a fight, or two; they got attacked by a wonderbeast, or three; they were found by a beastkin.

Regardless I must go and look out, and the best way to get that done is to climb a tree. Putting my hands against the three, I say, “It’s been a while since I have done this.”

With all the strength I can muster, I climb the tree in front of me. It is a lot harder than I remember but I am not as strong as I was back when I did it before but still, this can work.

On top of the tree, I jump from one tree to the next and as I do I scan the area and then move on to the next.

I keep doing this until I hear something, and then instantly I hide towards the source of the sound as quietly as possible.

And moments later I see what I have been looking for; below me, I see a group of dead men, and in the same area are beastkin with the same wonderbeasts that were there on the day of my father's executions.

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One of the wonderbeast approaches a man on the floor who is crawling away from it, but the wonderbeast can’t reach him as it is tied with some form of rope, Preventing it from coming closer to him, that a beastkin is holding in his hands a few feet from the wonderbeast.

The man with tears in his eyes says, “Please don’t kill me.”

The beastkin says, “You humans really are pathetic creatures. Today is the day celebrating the great priestess Brigit who cared for even the lowliest lifeforms, that is why we give you some form of leeway on this celebration, but to think you humans would use that as an excuse to slack off.”

“I am sorry, it was that man over there who told us it was ok.”

“That was your first mistake don’t take the words of a human over the words of a beastkin in this life or the next.”

“No, I am so-.” He is killed by the wonderbeast biting off his head.

As the beast eats his flesh, I see it make a motion as if it is about to turn its head to me so I instantly run away.

Φ As Charles runs away, the beastkin holding the wonderbeast, looks to where he was just standing, and says, “Everyone there may be some humans over there split up and go.”

“Why don’t we let the Merarks hunt by themselves?”

“SHUT THE HELL UP AND JUST DO WHAT I SAID.”

Φ Running from tree to tree I feel my beat more and more. Did they see me? Are they coming near here? It will be best to assume they might have spotted me, so right now I need to grab Charles and run.

Getting off the tree, I look towards Charles and pick up his unconscious body then begin to move away as fast as I possibly can. In the distance seeing a good bush, I run towards it and begin to hide.

When I walk towards the bush I am instantly assaulted by smells which almost cause me to scream, but I hold my nose and bear with it.

Looking towards the source of the smell, I see another smaller bush, so I run towards that and hide inside

This is good these smells would completely throw off the wonderbeasts. All I can do is hide.

As I sit and wait I hear foots around the area but the sound of them doesn’t increase, which means none of them are around me. It looks like my strategy has worked.

If Nero had been faced with most animals his strategy would have been effective, but unfortunately, he was faced with the wonderbeast Merark.

The Merark has no eyes, so to see it sends out a wave through air, earth, and sea, and then this wave bounces back to it granting it information of its surroundings.

So still on a leash, the Merark points the beastkin holding it directly towards Nero.

Still hiding in the bush, I begin to hear footsteps fast approaching me, I have been found out. The footsteps were just scattered a moment ago but now I can hear them moving towards me.

Crap, shit, fuck, no. Right now, I need to accomplish my goal, which is to make sure Charles is ok, so I will act as a distraction. If I climb the trees, I should be able to get a good distance away from them.

Looking at Charles, I give him a smile, and say, “Have a good life.”

Then I lunge out of the bush, but in that same moment, I am grabbed on the arm and thrown back into the bush.

Looking at who grabbed me, I see it is a beastkin, but one I recognize; Baine cíche. He looks at me, then looks at Charles.

Seeing him I am frozen in fear as the realization of my situation hits me, but as tears are about to fall from my eyes, he puts his hand over my mouth then with his other hand he puts a finger to his lip and says, “Shush.”

Then I hear a beastkin scream something in their unrecognizable language, to which Baine cíche turns around and responds in their same language. Then getting up he walks away.

Moments later I hear the other beastkin scream, then hear a sound as if someone has just been smacked. Then both of them and their wonderbeasts start to move away.

After I no longer hear their footsteps, I grab Charles and start to get the hell out of there.

What the hell was that? Why did he help us? How am I even still alive?

As my heart continues to beat louder and louder, I start to smile and cry, and then I say, “We’re alive Charles, We’re alive.”

-Break-

Location: Campsite

With Charles lying on the bed, I kneel down beside him and put my hand on his head.

“He is burning up, it seems it is worse than it was earlier. He hasn’t woken up despite all the movement we have done since he fell asleep and he has been coughing a lot more. Then to top it all off it is raining tonight.”

I rub my head frantically. “We survived dying yet, he still seems like he might die. What am I going to do, what am I going to do.”

“Human,” I hear a voice behind me say.

Turning around, I see Baine cíche, which causes me to jump back in terror.

Slowly I stand up and say, “Are you here to punish us for what we did today, if so I don’t plan on going down without a fight.”

Slowly he walks over to me, and as he does I enter an attack position ready to strike him at the drop of a hat.

But as he steps away from being in my range, he pulls out his hand and opens it while saying, “Here.”

In his hand is a small jar-like thing with small spherical objects in it. “Give this to Charles, and it should clear up his symptoms.”

He quickly walks up to me and places it in my hand. Then walks away, right out of the tent.

“Hey wait.” But he is gone before my words reach him.

What the hell was that?

Looking at the medicine in my hands, I say, “Should I trust this stuff? For all I know this could be poison designed to kill in a single bite.”

“No this should be fine, if he wanted either of us dead, he had the opportunity to do it today, I just got to trust him.”

Walking over to Charles, I open his mouth and put one in. As I do he starts to cough, so I say, “I know it is uncomfortable, but please if just for a few moments just bear with it.”

That night I didn’t sleep as I watched the unconscious Charles, and hoped and hoped and hoped, and as the morning came, and I opened my eyes, I saw him looking at me with his eyes.

“What are you doing?” he says.

With a smile appearing on my face, I hug him and say, “YOU WORRIED THE SHIT OUT OF ME.”

“That’s nasty.”

“IT WAS AN EXPRESSION!”

Name: Merark

Height: 220cm

Type: Wonderbeast, Carnivore

Description: A black and blue wonder beast which has a shark-like body covered in fur with no eyes. They are quadrupedal with two mighty front legs, similar to that of a lion, and two mighty back legs similar to that of a goat which grants them the ability to jump and stick onto different surfaces.

Fact: They have no natural habit and can be seen living in the ocean, mountains or forest.