Silas POV

“Don’t say that.” Rosewyn’s voice became hard like I had hit her in the gut.

What had I said to upset her? This wily red-headed woman had crawled into my lap under the influence of Dust Horn venom. Her blue eyes held so many secrets with the way she was looking at me. I healed her wounds from the rock slide, but she was at the mercy of the goat venom’s influence until Emera returned with the remedy. Rosewyn had said so many odd things in the last few minutes that I wasn’t sure what she was thinking. Not that I understood at all to begin with, but this woman looked like I had harmed her by speaking. “Don’t say what?”

“The ‘H’ word,” Rosewyn whispered.

What ‘H’ word had I said? Does she mean hybrid? Why would a word she uses to identify herself bother her? She was a hybrid in all senses of the word. Her abilities reflected both of her parents' races, which was quite astounding. When elves reproduce with other races, they usually only favor one parent’s race. This must be why the Gleaca Council banned folk hybrids. Their abilities were truly unpredictable. So why would the word hybrid bother her so?

“Hybrid?” I questioned her, hoping to confirm my suspicions.

Rosewyn began trembling in my arms. I could feel her magic intensify with her. She must be getting ready to shift from her human form. Rosewyn rolled away from me as painful groans slipped through her lips. I watched blood trickle down her face as wolf ears sprung up on her head. Her face took on a wolf shape as fur sprouted up across her body. A blood-red tail grew out of her backside. Her body was halfway between wolf and human she lay there crying out in pain. I knew healing magic would not affect her the way she was now. Her eyes had darkened like her mind wasn’t present in the moment as she looked up at me.

A roar escaped her mouth. “Why do you want to hurt me, elf?” A voice coming from Rosewyn cried. The voice was unlike what I had come to know as Rosewyn’s voice to be.

The large version of Rosewyn struggled to gain her balance for a moment as she tried to stand. A feeling of danger-filled me. This creature before me didn’t seem to be the girl I called Red anymore. Was it because of the Dust Horn venom? Had her mind become so clouded that she thought I was dangerous? It would explain her sudden transformation into this form. Her magic was triggered by emotion, so by me saying ‘hybrid’, I caused her an intense hurt. The creature before me growled and snarled.

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“You don’t know what that word means to me. It’s a burden to be an illegal hybrid. One of the few cross breeds who are considered a dangerous monster.” Red glared at me as she approached me. “You spent the last few days getting under my skin by stalking my every movement. Every argument has added to my frustration like a bubble waiting to burst until now.”

Her emotions had caused her to transform into this weird wolf form. I hadn’t meant to cause her so much distress. Her magic reacted to the word ‘hybrid’ because of her status in society. Research is only a success if the subject can be studied in a natural state, not under duress. How had I not seen her struggling? “I-”

“Fuzz face, even under the goat’s venom, I am keeping myself from falling into a frenzy mode. A frenzy that would likely hurt or kill you,” Rosewyn hummed. “I am…holding myself together.”

Was this why beast hybrids were outlawed? Looking at Red, she appeared unhinged, yet she was holding a conversation with me. If she could control her ‘frenzy mode’, couldn’t others? The answer was too complicated to figure it out now. I am not sure what to do now since I don’t know Red well. If there was a way to help her, I have no idea what that may be. Emera would know. She could talk Rosewyn back into her normal form.

Rosewyn stood above me as I stayed on the ground, looking up at her. She seemed wild and sad at the same time. A silence hung between us. There wasn’t anything I could say to her that meant anything. Any apology I could offer wouldn’t end her trauma. It would likely only make things worse if I understood her correctly.

An arrow zipped through the air directly into Rosewyn’s shoulder. She grunted before becoming dizzy and collapsing on top of me in her large form. Her body flattened me to the ground. My head slammed into the rocky trail causing a cloud of dust to fill the air. All the air was knocked out of me from the weight of her body on mine.

To make things worse, the woman shifted back into her human form on top of me. Her body lay bare on top as she remained unconscious. Rosewyn's clothes were in tatters in the dust from her first shift. Her breath was small and shallow. I could feel every curve against my body. Something about her was appealing, but I knew that thought was fleeting at best. I decided not to move. Emera was on her way, and I didn't want to violate Rosewyn.

”Silas, what are you doing?” Emera asked as she rushed to Rosewyn's side. She rolled Rosewyn off of me and covered her with a blanket. Pulling the arrow out of Red’s shoulder, she quickly bandaged the shoulder before heading back at me as I sat up.

“I said something to upset her. She turned into a weird walking wolf and yelled at me. You shot her with a tranquilizer, and she fell on top of me. I chose not to touch her. Does that satisfy you?” I chose not to wait for her answer as I got up to start cleaning up our resting site.

Braxton walked up to Emera with a pot of what I assume to be the remedy for the poison. Part of me was relieved to see Red get what she needed. The other part wanted to rid these mountains of the damned goats. Yet, I learned more about Red today than I had in the last week. Red’s power was wild and ruled by emotion. Her magic item channels her emotion into power. It must be the key to her controlling herself, unlike other documented hybrid disasters. I need to learn everything I can about that item to help her.

One thing floated to the front of my mind. Red said her name was Rory Bishop and she was influenced by goat venom. Could that be significant or was she just word vomiting? Bishop is a common name among humans. Still, the name Ramire Bishop might be related if her name was Rory Bishop. What a twist of fate all of this might be if there was a connection between Red and Ramire Bishop.