“Do we… Help it?” I ask, clearly not knowing what the proper decision here is.

“We are out of curatives…” Meuko says as she makes a sweep inside the bag with her hand.

“We cannot help this beast… It is an Abomination. Do you not see it?” Sylvar says, taking out his sword. I instinctively push his arm down with mine.

“Wait… This Abomination, as you like calling it, saved my life. It has not harmed us. Look at it… It can barely lift its head.” I say, taking a closer look at it. One head has its eyes closed, probably resting, while the other one licks the sleeping one’s neck. It looks at us and tries to growl… A faint sound of what can only be described as effort is the only thing coming out of its mouth.

“Volter, you do not understand… These things… They are monsters.” Sylvar pleads.

“Yes, I got it… The name explains that much, right?”

“It did defend us when it attacked the swarm of goblins.” Meuko says.

“You cannot possibly sugge-”

“Enough… You, my dear friend Sylvar, the one who has saved my life in the past two weeks more times than I can remember… You can understand why I want to repay the favor I owe to this creature.” I interrupt Sylvar with a strength of character I did not expect to use. Mainly because I can barely see straight. Suddenly staying still after everything we have been through… Not a good idea. I drop on the ground opposite the two-headed wolf, resting my head against another tree. I have no plans of getting back up.

“Meuko, you are hurt as well. Sit with me...” I say, my eyes almost closed. I have to stay awake.

“I am fine” Meuko says.

“We need to keep going. The Village is just in sight and we will reach it in a matter of minutes” Sylvar urges us.

“No… Meuko… I can see how bad your leg is…” I take deep breaths between sentences, trying to shrug off the pain. “Sylvar, you bring Julie without being seen, we help this… Something that still breathes, she also heals us and we go back. Meuko will draw too much attention. Anyway, I am staying here. Not that I can get up, even if I wanted to.” I might be somewhat selfish here, but there is a good reason for it.

“Fine. I have to make sure you do not fall asleep and get eaten by this animal… Julie would never let that one go.” Meuko says, laying right next to me.

“Do you know what that thing is called…” Sylvar says, taking a long pause.

“No… Care to tell?” I ask, moving my legs in a way that makes me feel more comfortable, almost like making sure the bed is nice and tidy when I sleep.

“I cannot say” Sylvar struggles to respond. He seems troubled. This is more difficult for him than I thought.

“It does not matter, Outsider. You could not talk about teleportation as well, if I remember correctly.” Meuko seems to think about what she said for a few seconds. I wonder what she is thinking “Just bring my sister over here. Volter needs her. He is the one with the grave injuries here” Meuko says, looking at me.

“That was not necessary, I think, but…” I look over at the dagger that is, as always, stuck inside my body. “Point taken.” The constant sharp pain is not as strong as it was before. I am either getting used to it or my body is getting numb. I need Julie… Now.

“You people… This Village is full of crazy people. Someone wants to kill me, others want to help monsters. I should just leave.” He mumbles to himself as he walks away, then speeds up.

“You think he means it?” I ask Meuko.

“No way… He loves us.” She responds.

“Definitely Julie.” I say, laughing weakly.

“There is her as well.”

“Meuko… Look.” I point towards the creature. The left head wakes up and starts licking the right one. They both nuzzle against each other. They look at us and approach us slowly. We stay quiet, trying not to scare them away. The creature rests in front of us, all eyes open but not doing anything. I inspect it, noting the various scars it has. Both heads have numerous scars, but they are all small. One, however… There is one scar that looks the same on both their necks, just below the jawline. Julie once told me about that. It is called an incision, some sort of deep cut that can be used to treat someone or extract a part of a body. She read it in one of the medical books that the Leader let her read. The only reason I was interested about that part is because it had to do with cutting. Meuko and I both offer them a portion of our food. As soon as we put the food on the ground, the Abomination gobbles it up. It moves closer towards us. I assume that means we are building some sort of trust between us.

“They have been through a lot.” Meuko says.

“So have we… So have you.” I say, gently shoving her with my elbow.

“I told you, I am fine. I am stronger than I look.” She responds.

“Somehow… I doubt it. You look like a beast. That move you pulled on that sorcerer… That cracking sound and the blood as you pulled its bones… Terrifying.”

“You gave me a good opening. I used it.”

“Still… I saw that leg when you pulled yourself off that rocky death trap you were in. You are strong… You are not invincible.”

“I know.”

“I know you know… Just let me worry a bit. I want to help you a few times as well.”

“That you did, Volt. Those goblins would have cut my leg off from below and slashed my throat from above… You covering me gave time to pull my legs.”

“You are welcome.”

“It is just… I am the one that ran around, trying to make sure you did not die pretending to be some kind of fighter. It is weird having you worry about me now.”

“Think about it like this… It is about time I started helping you out too. I did slash that hobgoblin pretty bad, though, right?”

“And I broke his bones like they were twigs…”

“That move you pulled. The one with the elbows. That was just...”

We keep talking for some time, mentioning not only the fight but Sylvar’s and Julie’s relationship. Apparently… We both want them to end up together. After a few minutes of conversation, I close my eyes, just to rest for a second… Next thing I know, Meuko wakes me up.

“Get your drool out of my hand.” She says. It seems like I slept on her arm.

“Let us get to work. I know Volter definitely needs it” Julie says. Sylvar and she came back with a lot of supplies.

“Anybody see you? Hi Julie” I say.

“I do not know. We were as stealthy as the Sun made it possible. It is still morning after all.” Sylvar says.

“All right, we have everything ready. First, we pull this knife out of you. My magic will close that wound. Ready? Sylvar, make sure you pull it out without causing more damage.” Julie says. She is definitely leading right now. Years of preparing for situations like these and treating quite a few injuries the Villagers have had over the course of our lives. This is the expertise that Julie has been training for.

“I apologise, my friend Volter.”

“Do not take too long, now” I respond.

“Bite” Meuko says, as she hands me a bandage to bite on. We do not want anyone hearing me and checking on us. After all, we do not want them finding the frightening creature.

Sylvar pulls the knife out in one smooth move.

Blood begins pouring out of the wound as I scream from the pain. The Monstrosity was startled a little bit, but it stayed near Meuko. It is not scared of us so that is a good step.

As soon as I finish howling, I spit the bandage out.

“Julie, do not be afraid of th-”

“I know, Volter, Sylvar informed me. He is angry.” Julie says as she puts her hand over my wound. The familiar burning feeling of my wounds closing makes me bite the bandage again.

“I noticed. I could not let this creature die like this.”

“I know you, so I am not surprised. You wanted to ride every animal that came through the village just because you thought you could become… What was it, Meuko?”

“A dragon rider. He kept that hidden from Alayne… Scared boy that he was.” Meuko responds.

“I see that you have not matured since then.” Sylvar chuckles.

“Nice way of saying I am as innocent and kind as I was growing up. I… Take it as a compliment.”

“I am next, sis.” Meuko says, resting against the tree and exposing the wounds in her leg. They sure are nasty. Those goblins used claws and knives to cut her flesh. They were trying to bleed her out. Julie cleans the herbs she gave us, meant to stop the bleeding. The mixture has turned into a pulp in some places and a weird… Sludge of blood and crushed plant in others.

“What did you do?” Julie asks as she puts both her hands on the numerous wounds of Meuko’s legs.

“She jumped. While having three goblins on top of her. Then she landed on an unstable rock hill. Right?” I say, looking at Meuko… Smirking.

“Right. It seemed like a good thing to do.”

“Then Sylvar covered us by going on a killing spree. That was pretty awesome...” I say, gesturing at Sylvar.

“What?” Julie says, closing up all the wounds Meuko had on her leg. Meuko does not scream or react in any major way. Should I feel bad... Julie puts her hands on my leg to cure the bite.

“Leave some magic for the creature.” Meuko says. This particular creature was now behind Meuko, clearly comfortable enough to rest between us.

“I merely did what I thought I had to. They were not in a state of fighting, mainly because of your idea to burn them.” Sylvar says, smiling back at me.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“You what? Are you insane?” Julie says, slapping me on my back as she heals me.

“Hey, stop it. Besides… It was the right call. There were more than fifty of them inside that place and they were waiting for us.”

“Let us not forget the sorcerer that ripped a tree out of the ground and almost broke Volter’s back.” Meuko adds. She needs to read the room… Or the tree we are next to.

“Volter.” Julie says in a sharp tone, slapping me harder.

“I got it, I got it. Sorry, it was the only plan I could think of.”

“Having me launch you into the air and hoping is not exactly a plan, is it?” Meuko enjoys making my life harder.

“I swear, this is the last time I use magic on you...” Julie says as she closes the last of my wounds.

“Now… The Abomination?” Julie says with doubt in her voice.

“Yes” Sylvar says. “Be very careful” He adds, pulling his sword out again.

“Oh, calm down… The heads are a bit unsettling at first look, that is true. But they are rather cute up close.” Julie says, slowly moving her hands closer towards the beast.

Both heads put their noses up and smell Julie. In what feels like an instant, the beast exposes the parts where it has been wounded, as if it can feel the nature of Julie’s intentions. I notice that the beast lacks any sort of genitals. I do not know every creature and its reproduction methods, so I might ask Sylvar a bit later. I do remember Dads explaining the whole genital thing to me when I was a kid. Weird conversation, that one. The one thing they wanted to make sure I knew was that I would not feel any shame for these natural things and would absolutely not shame other people. As if I could ever…

Julie heals the Abomination’s every wound, to whom the creature first snarls and wails but quickly nuzzles and licks. Julie has an interesting magic. She can heal every wound you have. Sometimes, it feels really calming and others it really hurts, like every fiber of your being is killed at the same time. The larger the wound, the more likely it is to hurt when she heals it. She cannot make scars disappear, though. If I remember correctly, it is because these are not wounds but new skin that has covered previous injuries. I wonder if she can get stronger, maybe able to remove scarring as well. Taking Modesta as an example… She probably can. All of us begin walking towards the village, making jokes and pushing each other… A familiar whimpering seems to follow behind us. We turn around to see the Abomination following us, with a rejuvenated step, if I might add.

“Okay, even I know we cannot bring this creature back.” I say, keeping my head low and knowing that Sylvar’s judgment is imminent.

“You go on, I will stay here with it, keeping it company. Just make sure to cover for me if the Leader asks.”

“What?” I ask.

“Well… If you stay, your parents will come looking. Meuko and Julie will draw too much attention with their absence… It is quite all right, my friend Volter.” He responds.

“Are you sure?” Julie asks.

“Yes, Julielle. I will see you all in the afternoon.”

Meuko, Julie and I went back to the Village, while Sylvar stayed with the Abomination… That man did not judge me. I cannot believe how easy it is for him to be so kind. I better bring him some food.

“We need to talk. All four of us.” I say right before separating with them.

“Right after we eat.” Julie says.

“Of course” Meuko responds.

“So, we eat at noon and then we visit Sylvar?” I ask.

“Let us do that.” Meuko says.

I did not have the time to rest. Before visiting Sylvar, I needed to make sure all my affairs were in order. I first visited Blago. I showed him the staff. He inspected it carefully and then shoved it somewhere inside his workshop. He told me he would take a look at it later. After that, I started explaining my lack of clothing. Retelling what happened was more of an attempt to request another set of armor, an attempt that actually took quite a long time to finish. He laughed hard, harder than I expected. He pat me on my back and sent me on my way.

“Look at my boy… Burning people, slaying hobgoblins. All that beating I gave you finally did something good.”

“I thought you just beat me because you enjoyed it.”

“Sometimes, sure… Joking aside… I will make you a good armor. The Hunters brought plenty of material for me to work with. Keep it hidden though. They will not like me wasting things on your ass.”

“Thank you, Blago. Also… Anything to cut stuff up? I only have this knife that a goblin drove straight inside my shoulders.”

“It did? You are one lucky kid, know that. I got you.” He said, sending me off and getting back to work. What is that man always working on? I have noticed that recently, when he hits some type of metal, the sounds are different. After visiting Blago, I spent time with my parents. They were less than excited to learn that I wanted to burn people, even if they were goblins. I was not paying attention when they were talking. It was something about needing to know what the right choice is and other random things parents say. I love them… But sometimes, they forget that I can take care of myself. After sitting through the entire lecture, we ate and talked normally… All things considering.

“So… Was it Travlon who stabbed you?” Dariy said.

“How do you eve-”

“Please, son. You have been giving him death stares all week.”

“So? It is not like I ever liked him.”

“You do also put your hand over the past knife wound every time you see him.” Ean added.

“I do not.” I exclaimed… Taking my hand off the spot where Travlon stabbed me. “Am I that obvious?” I sighed.

“You should work on your investigation skills. While doing that, you should also hope that Travlon has not picked up on your behavior.” Ean said.

“Start acting more friendly towards Travlon. Got it.”

“You? Friendly towards Travlon? That will stick out even more.” Dariy said, chuckling hard enough that he coughed all the food he had in his mouth.

“Calm down.” Ean said. “So, what are you gonna do?”

“I will go out again… For training, of course. I will be back by nightfall.”

“Of course...” Ean said while staring.

“Take care...” Dariy said as I walked out of the house.

I left out everything that had to do with a particular two headed wolf. I found Julie and Meuko waiting for me right at the southern outskirts of the Village. Julie is carrying a bag that I assume is full of food.

“That is for Sylvar?” I say.

“Of course.” Julie responds.

“And can I…”

“Not even as a joke.” She taps my hand off.

“We should not keep him waiting.” Meuko says.

After a few minutes, we reach the location we previously left Sylvar at. The only problem is… Sylvar is nowhere to be found.

“Where is he?” Julie asks.

“Probably killed by the Abomination.” Meuko chuckles.

“Oh, stop it.” Julie says.

“There are tracks of them” I gesture towards the ground. “Just follow these, I guess.”

“Before he gets eaten alive.” Meuko chuckles again.

“He is too thin to be considered a meal.” I say, laughing hard at the very notion of Sylvar dropping his guard.

“You two…” Julie says, following the tracks left behind.

“I do not see them anywhere… Do you?” I ask the sisters. We have spread out, looking for Sylvar.

“Stop it… That is dangerous… I said no”

That is Sylvar’s voice.

“Sylvar” Julie says.

“Wait.” Meuko says, running after Julie. I follow them, worried about Sylvar as well. I move through bushes and saplings, only to be presented with the weirdest image of Sylvar laughing and playing with a two headed beast.

“What are you doing?” Sylvar says, being licked in the face by two tongues. He playfully moves his hand through the beast’s mouth.

“What am I seeing?” I ask.

“Oh. Good to see you, my dear friends.” Sylvar says.

“Someone got a new friend.” Meuko says. The Abomination growls loudly as Sylvar begins petting its body.

“Are you sure it is safe?” Julie mocks.

“Why, of course it is. Wolves growling is not anything weird, actually. They do it quite often, even when they are comfortable.” Sylvar reassures us. He gestures at Julie to get closer and pet it. Out of excitement, or just plain trust, Julie does not spend any time making a decision. She moves closer to the Abomination, slowly extending a hand and allowing the beast to smell Julie. After making sure the two heads are comfortable, Julie starts petting them.

“What about a name?” Meuko asks. I was thinking the same thing.

“How does Monster sound? It is powerful, you have to admit.” I say, chuckling.

“Really?” Meuko says.

“What?” I rear my head.

“Rather unimaginative… Besides, do you plan on calling this beautiful creature Monster every time you are next to other people?” Julie asks. I am fairly certain she is mocking me right now.

“Other people...” I say, worried about this situation.

“The Hunters cannot know about this.” Sylvar says.

“And… How do we hide Monster? I am going with it” I say. Monster it is… For now.

“It cannot stay in the Village” Julie says.

“Even though we live in the southern border of the Village, it is still too dangerous for it” Meuko says.

“My parents do not allow animals.” I say. I start playing with Monster as well.

“Why are we hiding this from the Hunters again? Eadwald might understand” Julie asks

“Well… This Abomination is called a Blight Dog.” Sylvar says, sighing heavily. I think he really was not looking forward to this discussion.

“More like a Dog of Cuddles” Julie says, scratching both necks.

“Normally” Sylvar continues “Blight Dogs have immeasurable hate, along with the ability to use their saliva to spread diseases.”

“REALLY?” I say, pulling my hand away from Monster’s tongue. “How about you say that BEFORE I let it lick me.”

“Nothing to worry about, my friend Volter… See those scars” Sylvar points out the two similar scars that the heads share, just below the jawline. “That is where the gland they use for the disease spreading should be. However… Both of them are gone.”

“Why?” Julie asks. Meuko, Sylvar and I know why. Something really weird is happening.

“The goblins used Monster’s saliva- deal with it, Meuko, it is official- when they shot Hollis.” I say.

“That makes sense. That must be why my magic did not work.” Julie says.

“And that is why they were trying to get the egg as well. They probably did not use any more diseased arrows because they did not have the cure. They were being safe.” Meuko says.

“Your theory, Volter. It starts making sense now.” Sylvar says.

“What theory?” Julie asks.

“Sorry, Julie. We talked about it this morning. Let me explain.” I spend some time talking about past events and what I think about why those events happened. We also talk about the hobgoblin and its final words. During my explanation, Julie is focused on every word, like the world would crumble if she did not understand what was happening.

“Why would Travlon...” Julie says, having a bit of a problem digesting the whole… Incident, I guess.

“No idea… But I cannot think of anyone else who would stab me like that.”

“Then… There is the whole goblin incident” Meuko says. “They are not as… Feral as I thought.”

“True.” I say.

“We did learn they have their own motives.” Sylvar says.

“Did you see its hatred? It really hated us. Like… We have been doing something wrong for as long as we have been living.” I say.

“So… What do they want from us?” Julie asks.

“I do know one thing we can do to learn more stuff around here.” I say.

“No… Do not…” Meuko says.

“What?” Sylvar asks.

“He kept mentioning it as a kid. I thought he would have given up by now.” Meuko says, sighing.

“Oh… Vol, no.” Julie sighs.

“We never did actually try it.” I say.

“Someone… Explain.” Sylvar says, looking at us with a certain amount of expectation.

“We could sneak inside Alayne’s house and look at the boo-”

“No way” Sylvar cuts me off. “Absolutely not. He will burn us. Instantly.”

“Come on...” I try to convince everyone. “Julie can learn about her magic, we can learn about goblins. Do not tell me you are not interested about the gray ones.”

“I do want my magic to grow, eventually...” Julie says. Great, two more left to convince.

“You, my friend Volter, have a problem with knowing your limits.”

“That is why we are here.” Meuko says. Looks like we are going to steal some books.

“What kind of books are we stealing?” I ask.

“Who said anything about stealing?” Sylvar says. “We read the books right there. If they find the books on us… Being killed will be the least of our worries. The Leader is very strict when it comes to books. Even Julie cannot leave his house when she is reading those books and she is always supervised.”

“Sylvar is right. We should read as much as we can and then leave. We can always return if we need to.” Julie says.

“Worst case, Meuko just smashes Alayne’s face and we run” I chuckle.

“No” Meuko says.

“Merely a joke...” I say. I do hope she would be up for it if he tried to kill us.

“So… Do we move tonight?” Julie says.

“One question though… Who is watching the wolf? Wait, is it a dog or a wolf?” I ask.

“That is the thing with Abominations, my friend Volter. They are not one single type of creature. They are something… More.” Sylvar says, petting Monster. Sylvar shares the food Julie brought for him with the beast, as we all sit together and just relax… Something we have not done for a while now. I want to ask more about the Abominations, but we really need to have fun and relax now. Especially since we plan on entering the Leader’s home tonight.

“Double bite?”

“Volter, stop.” Meuko says.

“We should probably decide on a name a bit later.” Julie says, chuckling.

“Good effort, though” Sylvar laughs.

“So… Where do we meet tonight?” I ask.

“We are not going tonight… The Hunters will probably want to talk to us. Ask us what we found.” Meuko says, looking at me with disapproval.

“We are not stealing any books and we are not going tonight. This is getting more boring by the second.” I say.

“At least, Volter, you get to not be torn apart by Modesta’s magic.” Julie says.

“That means that you need to stay with the dog, sis.” Meuko says.

“No problem from me… Right, Monster?”

“Yes. Monster works.” I say, clearly celebrating.

“No” Meuko says.

“Do not encourage him, please.” Sylvar says.

“Off you go now, see you later.” Julie says, fully engaged with Monster… All right, I will try to find a better name. I do think we should not mess with perfection, though. We start walking off towards the Village, preparing ourselves to face the Hunters.