Chapter 47: Within
Zan observed Gayle’s body language, the way she closed herself off with her arms and legs, how her bright eyes dulled and looked towards the ground, and just the timid air coming out of her that suffocated the surroundings.
“It seems like you knew her.”
“Or you are her.”
“Pfft.”
The absurdity of the statement at least made Gayle blow air out of her nose, brightening her dim mood even by a little.
“Those events took place before I was even born. Besides, what features do I have that resemble an ice dragon queen? Do you see my long, snow white hair?” she quipped.
“Maybe you’re not her. But it seems like a part of you lives through her.”
“...”
Gayle went silent.
Zan was perceptive but never tactful…and always direct.
A long moment of silence took place before Zan figured out he had said something that deeply affected her. He did not totally understand the situation nor the owl-eyed girl’s troubles and feelings, but the vague understanding was enough.
‘Shit what do I say to her now…’
While Zan was lamenting his skill with words and women, Gayle suddenly spoke. The voice she let out seemed to be stifled, restrained and reluctantly spoken.
“Do you know what it feels like to not belong? For no one to truly accept you?”
Zan pondered her words yet as deeply as he tried to empathize with her, he simply could not.
“No.”
“I don’t know what that’s like because I don’t care what anyone else thinks about me.”
Gayle heard his words and she simply smiled. Whether it was joy or bitterness in that smile, it was difficult to decipher.
“I’ve told you of my blood, right?”
“Yeah, what about it though?”
“How it’s the fusion between owl blood and blazing blood?”
“Yeah?”
“Then do you happen to know about the wars between the Western Flame Alliances and the Greatforests?”
“I don’t know.”
Gayle smiled again, as if reminiscing.
“In short, the empire of Agni was in a tumultuous time. A blood war between various clans of various bloodlines in an effort to rise above in status, the war, royally decreed by the third Mad Emperor.”
“Dragons fought phoenixes, fireborne turned against their flame elemental masters and lava elementals massacred their own salamander bloodlines. It became even more complex when sons fought fathers and daughters betrayed their mothers.”
“In that devastation, many clans found themselves in a state of decline while a few others were on the verge of collapse, even extinction. Those who found themselves in that state however did not pause to recuperate or to heal their broken families. Instead they turned towards the abundance of resources next to them. The flame alliances then pillaged and raided their way while thoroughly scarring and scorching the green, lush forests of Eok.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The flame alliances called it a conquest but we called that vicious attack an invasion. The “Invasion Of The Western Greatforests,” and in that invasion, was my mother who fought with valiance and valor. Although she fought hard, and fought with great foresight and wisdom, those around her were not the same. At her near end from fighting for her land, it was not her kin nor the blood of the forest that saved her, but an enemy sympathizer and deserter from the armies of Agni. That man was my father.”
“After the war, the alliances colonized the parts that they burned and called them the Greenfire colonies. I was born after mother healed her wounds but the scars left on the land, and the scars left in the minds of those who witnessed such savagery did not heal as easily.”
“A thousand of the fireborne died at her hand yet it was the single one that she nurtured that caused them to hate us.”
“While the citizens of Agni already detested my mother for being a great warrior who felled many of them, they also would never accept such a dilution to their blood. Even Conrad and those few only respect me because I beat it into them.”
Zan paused.
“Hmph. Screw em’ you don’t need any of those guys. Not your group nor those shitty people from the sides of your blood.”
“...I’m sorry.”
The youth at least knew when to say such a thing.
Gayle also took a moment of silence.
“You know…”
“I’ve long thought it over. Why should I measure my value by the opinions of those who would never accept me no matter what I do? Their judgment of me was made before I talked or even made a move.”
Zan nodded his head as if he was expressing his approval.
“But is it so wrong for me to wish to belong? Somewhere? Anywhere?”
“...”
Zan did not know what to say to console her, so he did what he knew and stayed silent. Unfortunately, that silence was slowly killing him…
“So uhh…”
“I don’t know what that’s like but I hope you find a place you’re looking for.”
“Yeah…imma head to sleep.”
The red haired youth awkwardly turned around from gazing at her, closing his eyes as he breathed rhythmically on the soft pillows.
Gayle meanwhile was still putting her emotions in order. Slowly her clenched fists started to unwind and the tight feeling in her chest started to go away.
“Hey umm…thank you for listening to me.”
Gayle fidgeted nervously but what met her was silence.
“...Hello?”
“Umm…h– hey?”
Gazing over at the youth she saw his turned back. Still, she waited for his reply that never came and in the next moment she heard sounds of light snoozing.
“Wha–!?”
‘Can you sleep on command or something…’
Gayle let out a sigh, relieving her tension.
Staring outside the flap of the tent and into the night sky, she used the stars to reflect and analyze her thoughts.
‘Why did I tell him all those things?’
‘..I told him so much that I didn’t need to.’
‘Well...it is the first time I’ve actually talked about these things to anyone.’
‘Or even held a conversation that long with someone who wasn’t my parents.’
‘...It was exhausting.’
‘But…I also feel less…weight on me?’
‘It was…freeing.’
Once again the girl gazed over, right at the stranger she had just shared everything to.
‘Ugh, I don’t even know his name…’ she sighed.
‘I guess…I kept these things in for too long, huh?’
The brightness of the stars met her in response. Despite everything, the altercation with the odd stranger was less exhausting than the discussion she just had with him. Slowly her eyes started to wander and waver. The chilly wind caught her tired body in its embrace and the dim light of the candle was blown out by its wise breeze. The two who considered each other enemies at one point, now laid just inches from each other, sleeping together in the same tent.
…
A brunette woman was walking through a long, bumpy hallway. It would have been quite a normal scene, if the four walls surrounding her were not made out of eldritch flesh from the distant cosmos.
The flesh in this section of the gargantuan monster seemed to be dead, unlike the “healing” chambers Zan was put inside of. This made it easier for Mila. Walking on a path was easier than having to make one herself after all. Though of course, the very hallway that Mila walked on was no hallway at all. Instead…another monster made this path by continuously devouring the flesh of the bigger one, opening a long pathway.
As the brunette walked through the pathway, it started to open up into a bigger and bigger space. The air around her also started to turn cold and frigid. Eventually the brunette no longer had brown hair nor olive skin, or even normal eyes for that matter. The healthy brown turned into a deathly white, her olive skin turning into a shade of gray, and her eyes totally transformed from light brown to all black. The sclera, the iris, the pupil, turned into a black hole that even light could not escape.
The pathway fully opened up and Mila was welcomed into a large, vacant space. To illustrate, it would be as if you opened your bedroom door and floated into the large emptiness of outer space. That was just how large the vacant space was that Mila entered into, and that was just how enormous the abomination in Mila’s basement was. It was impossible to see the other side of the wall through the darkness and pure length of the monster.
In the middle of that empty space however, there was a gargantuan, absolutely colossal, black heart. The heart was alien. It did not look like a human’s heart, a dragon’s heart, it did not look like a heart at all. Fortunately it was not beating, for the mere vibrations from its heartbeat could explode lesser creatures and trigger mini earthquakes.
Instead however, the enormous heart…was sliced into two. A perfect diagonal cut from one end to the other end like a large river splitting an area the size of a city. If the wielder of that sword slash wanted to, he could make it so that the slice was so clean you could put them back together. Yet…that was not the intention of the godking who slayed this eldritch beast.
Normally, those two huge pieces of flesh should have been subjected to gravity, but what held them suspended in the void were ethereal webs of silk. The weaves of soul-like beauty shone with a pale, luminescent glow like the moon and they stretched into the void as far as the eye could see, attached somewhere to the opposite end of the monster’s flesh. The same webs of silk that weaved the hearts suspended in the air, also made a bridge connecting each heart.
It was as silent as the void inside this large chamber somewhere within this horror’s body. But…in the next moment, a terrible quaking resounded through the void. One of the hearts had started to beat!? No…it was different. The heart closer to the unknown floor below, started to shake and rupture. From the enormous slash that had cut into the heart, skinny, long, black spider legs started to crawl out…