Commander Evar felt a sharp sting under his elbow. He blamed Saer for it till he saw both of his hands hanging in air like tree vines.

A small snake dangled on his elbow by its fangs. Evar shoved Saer down and plucked the snake from his hand. Despite of being separated, its fangs were still dug in his skin like thorns. Evar pulled the fang out and stomped the crawling snake.

Its head bits squished out from both side of head and only the body with living reflexes wriggled. Revenge aside, Evar was in more pain than the snake. Evar could tell where the venom had reached just by the burning sensation spreading through his veins.

Saer somehow brought air in his squeezed windpipe. There were cramps on his neck but he was fine with it. He touched his pocket then took out the broken shell.

Pearls were also eggs. Saer was surprised thinking he was warming them.

Crushed snake from the shell which he had non-deliberately warmed didn’t cause any motherly stress to Saer. His eyes were fixed on stiffening Evar.

Commander Evar couldn’t take a step further. The arm which had been bit turned brown but the brownish tone didn’t resemble to rotting skin. It was similar to tree bark. And with venom travelling in his veins, he was becoming a wooden sculpture. He had his mouth open when he became a statue of wood.

Saer still had doubts so he picked Evar’s sword and diced him into pieces. He didn’t mercy any chunk of wood he considered big. Not only because of anger. Fear had big part in it. Saer didn’t know if they could regenerate or not so he kept on with his own doubt killing method.

When he got tired, he saw the hourglass. First he overlooked it but came back to it with a heavy concern. No sand was left in its upper portion. Clueless, he flipped the clock upside down, hoping it would work and restart the procedure.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The foolish act didn’t reward him. Saer started to panic after noticing movement in Wernh’An body. Saer knew when people behaved like this. Even Saer moved his body to comfort while he was about to get awake every morning.

Saer had failed to reduce his power already. There was no way he could let himself down anymore. He ran to take his escape tool while hoping Wernh’An was still many seconds away from opening his eyes.

He hasted his way to the uncomfortable bed and placed the tool on Wernh’An’s eye lid. Saer put his hand over Wernh’An’s one eye and popped his right eye with the jab.

Saer flinched hard when he heard Wernh’An groan because of the pain.

What am I doing? Saer beat his own head from the tool.

Saer put his tool under Wernh’An’s right eye and scooped the eye out. Wernh’An was much louder this time but Saer showed no interest in it. He was just amused by the red eye which he was holding between his fingers.

A shock wave threw Saer back. He was very near to lose the eye.

Wernh’An was waking because of the sudden pain so Saer picked the fallen eye, rubbed off dirt and stuffed it inside his pocket. He saw Wernh’An touching his eyes only to find empty sockets.

Scared to death, Saer loosened the horses. Wernh’An also heard the movement around him. He fell and tapped on ground to find his staff.

“Godfreed!” Wernh’An spoke when he felt Godfreed’s body by his hands. He also crawled on Commander Evar’s bits.

“Who is there?” Wernh’An yelled at Saer, who was already on his horse.

Why didn’t I break his staff? He compensated the guilt by Wernh’An’s eye. The staff was on the other side of bed so he refused to take any chances. Wernh’An was still not in his full strength.

“Who is it?” Wernh’An’s empty sockets looked straight at Saer’s direction.

Saer waved the rein and the horse galloped away from Wernh’An.