-Break-

The next day

Location: Campsite

Φ Opening my eyes, I get up and look around the room, where I see that Nero has completely moved his body to the corner of the room.

Getting up I walk over to him, and ask, “Are you ok Nero?”

“Forget.”

“Forget what?”

“FORGET WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT!”

“The crying or the panicking?”

“ALL OF IT.”

With a smile, I say, “I didn’t know you could make such expressions.”

“Erased them from your mind!”

“Sorry, but I have engrained them within me from now until the day I die.”

“I hate you.”

“Good for you then.”

Gritting his teeth out of anger in front of me, Nero lets out a sigh turns around and says, “Still thank you.”

Looking at his back, I smile and say, “Accepted.”

“Hey Mariana, there is something both me and Charles have been keeping from you, but it might be a bit hard to believe.”

“Well, I have seen a clown with giant white wings before so not many things can faze me.”

-Break-

Location: Far east of the River Lúide, inside a nearby forest

Φ With sweat trickling down her face, Mariana says, “This whole thing is still a bit unbelievable.”

“Is it really, there is no other way Charles could have survived without the support of a beastkin.”

“Not that, I mean the fact that you wanted to not escape especially when you have a trump card such as this.”

“It is not that I don’t want to escape it is just that there are so many hurdles that it is impossible.”

“Like what!?”

“First is the fact that we really have no idea what the layout is around the plantation. I have talked to many throughout my last year here, and still, I have barely been able to figure out the size of the plantation, while there are some campsites I do know a bit about, I also found out that there are large sections of the plantation, I literally know nothing about.

Second, there is no way I would be able to outrun any of the beastkin, let alone those shark-like wonderbeasts, and even if I did outrun them this is Victoria a continent which I have no clue about. For all I know I could be running from this plantation directly to another beastkin settlement.

Third, I lack serious information. Dónal has become more and more, tight-lipped so it has been a struggle to gain anything from him, which causes a giant issue because all the other beastkin speak in their stupid language and I can’t understand anything they say.

Fourth I don’t even know where the fuck I would go if I escaped, from what you said the islands of Molstoria are being invaded, and Terrafide has also been invaded, neither of our homes is still here.”

Looking at her I see she has a really upset expression on her face, so I say, “Sorry I didn’t mean to remind you.”

“No, sorry. In all honesty, I thought you were really dumb, so the fact that your brain actually works makes me feel like a bad person.”

“IS THAT REALLY THE REASON YOUR UPSET.”

“YES IT IS.”

Walking over to us, Charles puts his finger on his lips and goes, “Shh.” Then he goes back to where he was and kneels down.

Whispering to me, Mariana says, “Is everything alright with him?”

Whispering back, I say, “He is excited to see Dónal again.”

Mariana has an uncomfortable, but familiar look on her face, and then she says, “I don’t really know how to feel about that, the beastkin are monsters.”

“Don’t worry, I understand you. But having a beastkin that is found of him only benefits Charles so even if something happens to m-.”

“Destroy that thought. I can guarantee you that there is no chance of your death.”

“well thank you for tha-.” Suddenly a scream appears in the force, causing me to say, “Again!”

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“That wasn’t me?”

“Then who was it?” I say while turning around.

“I am going to go see.”

“But it isn’t safe.”

“Still, I would better know what I am dealing with.”

Mariana runs into the forest, and moments later me and Charles follow behind her. After a little bit of running, I see Mariana over the injured body, of a three-eyed owl, the same one that stopped me.

Running over to her, I say, “What happened?”

“It seems something hit it out of the sky, and it fell down here.”

Looking at all the blood it’s lost, I say, “It had to have been here for a few hours or so, there is no way it could have lost so much blood otherwise. If it wasn’t a wonderbeast it would have been dead.”

Mariana says, “It should have healed already then since wonderbeasts can repair injuries way faster than normal animals.”

Staring directly at its wing, Charles notices something then moments later he pulls an object out of it and, then he says, “It was stuck in its wing.”

Looking at it, I say, “It is a sharp nail, but the tip of it is sort of rusted.”

Mariana says, “It might have had some poison on it.”

“Poison?”

“Yes, certain ones can rust metals, that must have been what caused it to heal slower than normal.”

“But wouldn’t that mean someone intended to shot it down?”

“Maybe they were trying to catch it.”

“Wouldn’t that mean someone could be searching for it as we speak?”

“We should probably go then.”

“Help me,” an unfamiliar voice says.

In that moment both me and Mariana stop, and look towards the owl, and then from its mouth comes, “Help me.

Instantly both me and Maria jumped backwards and screamed. “Did that wonderbeast just talk?”

“Owls aren’t supposed to take, that is human territory.”

“We need to run now.”

“Right.”

Immediately both me and Mariana turns around and run away. while running, I say, “Charles are you following us?”

“Yes,” Charles says, running up beside me.

Turning my head to see him, I notice he is holding the wonderbeast in his arms. Seeing this instantly, me and Mariana stop then moments later, we start screaming, “Charles why did you take that with you.”

“We were running away from it specifically.”

Looking at us with innocent eyes, he says, “It said help me.”

Mariana says, “If a demon asked you to help it would you!”

“What’s a demon?”

Putting her hands, against her face, she says, “Of course you wouldn’t know.”

“Charles just throw it on the ground, and let’s go.”

Looking at me, he says, “No.”

“Why!?”

“I like it, its colour is the same as my hair.”

“Argh, Whatever fine.”

Sitting down, I say, “Let’s find out what this is about.”

Placing the wonderbeast in the centre Charles, sits to my right, while Mariana with a worried look sits to my left.

As we look at it, Mariana says, “Now what the hell is this thing? Is it an animal or maybe it’s a baby beastkin.”

“That would make sense, what if we have just kidnapped a baby.”

“Yet again, Nero, Charles, I think we should run.”

With his face puffing up, Charles says, “No.”

Mariana had a thought pop into her head at this moment; how adorable,

“But still that doesn’t change the fa-.” My words are suddenly interrupted as the wonderbeast says, “Hatarnas.”

This causes Mariana to freak out and hide behind Charles while saying, “It is muttering the language of demons.”

But in that moment my eyes are wide open, as I say, “Did you just say Hatarnas?”

Mariana says, “You’re also a demon, Nero? A blood demon!”

“It is not some demonic language, Hatarnas is an old saying in my clan. It means forgive through everything, not everyone knows evil from good.”

“Wait, but how would this wonderbeast know this?”

“I don’t know, maybe it has been around one of my clan members.”

Suddenly from the wonderbeast's third eye, a ray of light comes out and flashes on the ground.

“Ekk, It is summoning more of its demonic allies,” Mariana says while the light goes on the ground.

As the light hits the ground, from it an image appears, one of people. “Wait why are the people in this image moving.”

“Wooo,” Charles says.

Mariana still scared, says, “I told you it’s some sort of demon magic!”

Looking at the moving image closer, I say, “These people are wearing clothes from my clan!”

“Wait then are all these people you know?”

“No I don’t recognize a single one of them, but these clothes are definitely from our clan.” Looking at the image closer, I notice that a man is wearing a bracelet that looks familiar, so I say, “That’s old man Leo’s bracelet.”

“It probably just looks the same,” Mariana says.

“No it is his for sure, his late wife made a bracelet in a specific pattern for him, he always keeps it on his at all times.”

Charles says, “You just said old man, but he looks young.”

“I know what I said. But without a doubt that is Leo’s bracelet.”

Mariana makes an expression as if she is thinking over something, and then moments later she asks me, “Nero when you were brought here did they make you stand in front of a three-eyed wolf?"

Thinking back to the day I got here I remember what she is talking about, so I say, “Yes.”

“Maybe and this is just speculation, but could these three-eyed wonderbeasts record information.”

“Yes, now that I think about it, the beastkin said something along the lines of Omega wolf record his face, so maybe they can store things they see a project them later, that’s how it probably said those words.”

Charles asks, “So it isn’t speaking.”

Mariana replies, “Probably not, it was just repeating words it has saved probably. Maybe because it usually hears people say help me in bad situations, it said help me when it was in a bad situation.”

“But still how would they have images of my clan from so long ago.”

As we all fall quiet mulling this over, Mariana says, “Now I may over thinking this, but maybe the beastkin spend wonderbeasts like this around the world to record the different types of people and report back to them. Molstoria where I am from is surrounded by islands and incredibly dangerous to sail through. So unless you know where you're going it is a real arduous task.”

“But if they used these wonderbeasts to pinpoint your island's location, this wouldn’t have been an issue.”

“That could mean wonderbeasts like this thing are responsible for all of us being here.”

As me and Mariana stare at the wonderbeast with contempt, Charles picks it up and hugs it saying, “Don’t do anything mean to it.”

“We won’t.”

“But in all honesty Charles, we can’t exactly let it go now, that it has seen our faces.”

“Then let’s keep it.”

“We obviously can’t do that. The beastkin could find it.”

“But I would like to have it.”

As me and Mariana look at each other, I look at Charles and say, “Sorry but it just isn’t worth the risk.”

Suddenly from its third eye it starts to project a different image. The image is of a rather beautiful room, with a small seven kids inside it, and a woman at the front of the room holding a cane, with a large black rectangular object on the wall beside her.

Then she says, speaks, and as she does the owl repeats what she says. “As nobility, you will be starting your lessons today, this will include, the learning of basic information about our history, the learning of the saviour's song, and of basic military information, everything young men like yourselves will need. Each and every one of you has been supplied precious Omega wonderbeasts to keep a record of the lesso-.”

Suddenly the light vanishes, and the injured wonderbeast looks at us with docile eyes.

“Hey, Mariana.”

“Yes, Charles.”

“Is this what I think it is.”

“Yes your right, this is hope.”