Caeden stood at the entrance of Snake Town, trying to stifle his growing annoyance as he watched Kama scan the ground between it and the Wizard’s Wood. The cheeteng did well tracking Ava into the village but seemed to have great difficulty picking up her trail back out again. If she had indeed left it in the first place.

He had thought that she would make a beeline for the Wyvern’s Jaw and the Fire Spirit. This town was way off course and a strange detour, if not an extremely dangerous one. Foolish girl, what was she doing here? He knew his foul mood came from the trepidation he was feeling for Ava’s wellbeing. The worry gnawed at his peace of mind. Though jaded in her perception of how people viewed her, she was incredibly naïve about how the world truly was. There were rumours about this place.

The sight of Ser Morley and a nervous Guard-Captain did not ease his anxiety. The guard dropped to one knee and bowed his head. The movement was so stiff and awkward that Caeden was certain the man never had cause to use it before this moment.

“Prince Caeden, this is Guard-Captain Naetin. He has confirmed that girl’s presence here,” Ser Morley reported.

“Please stand, Guard-Captain and tell me what you know,” Caeden prompted.

The guard shuffled to his feet. “Aye, I’ve seen the girl. Thought she was some fancy elf before I saw the fangs. Said she’d come for provisions, but she was looking for information at the inn.”

“Then we need to speak to the innkeeper,” Ser Morley interrupted.

“Aye, unfortunately, Hestrin ain’t at the inn this morning. Slipped out from under our watch sometime during the night. Curse that brainless idiot, I warned him,” Naetin muttered angrily under his breath.

“Where is he then?” Caeden stressed, alarm ringing in his mind.

“My guess is he’s at the wizard’s cabin with the elf girl, Yer Grace. My family had an agreement with him before he – got cursed. A pact that was passed down from generation to generation by way of a mark. It did something strange and then disappeared after the girl finished her business with my brother. He confirmed that she came for the parchment and key that the wizard left behind.

“He’s been obsessed with finding hidden magical treasure, damned fool. Never thought he’d be reckless enough to act on it. Whatever’s in there was never meant for him,” the guard sighed in frustration. “If you please, Yer Grace. I will take...”

Two menacing hisses drew their attention. The guard-captain reached for the sword on his hip and Caeden stayed his hand. Both Kama and Ava’s Saber cat were locked in a stare-down. Their ears pulled back and flat against their head, fangs bared, backs arched, and tails erect. Each was ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

“Beast!” Caeden called in relief.

Beast’s ears lifted at the sound of his voice, and he risked a quick look in Caeden’s direction before focusing on Kama again, but the tension in his stance was lost. Kama straightened onto two legs and eyed the sabre cat inquisitively as it loped to Caeden. He brushed against Caeden before grabbing his cape in its mouth and pulling on it.

“You are familiar with this creature?” Kama asked.

“This is Ava’s – pet, the one we’ve been tracking. Beast where is Ava?”

The sabre cat tugged on his cape again.

“He is asking you to follow,” Kama said.

“Guard Captain, I need you to round up your guards and follow us as soon as you are able. If your brother somehow caught up in something nefarious, it is expected of you to do your duty.”

“Aye, Yer Grace,” Naetin turned on his heel and rushed into town. Caeden ignored the crestfallen look on the man’s face.

Caeden, Morley, and Kama followed Beast. The Saber Cat was agitated, his impatient and distracted gait seemed to indicate that he was distraught.

“Calm friend. We will find your companion,” Kama cooed soothingly.

Only Beast’s ear twitched in response, but the cat’s body seemed to switch to a more focused nature. The Saber cat was hunting.

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“You – can understand him?” he asked Kama.

The cheeteng chuckled softly, “Oh no, my prince. We lost all kinship with our four-legged brethren when we began walking on two and started communing with the elves and orcs. But some feelings are shared across all living beings.

“We have only heard stories about this creature as children, my people will be most jealous to know that I have not only seen one with my own eyes but have hunted with it as well.”

They walked in silence, and it was not long before Beast stopped short and bent low behind the brush. Kama followed suit, ducking behind a tree and watching the scene before him. Caeden crept up behind the cheeteng, trying to minimize the noise of his armour. He looked back and saw Guard-Captain Naetin signal his guards to move to the surrounding area.

Caeden gazed passed Kama’s shoulder. There were five men camped around a fire. Four were sitting, tying ropes into knots. The fifth stood at the base of a tree, looking up at it with hands on his hips. From the apron tied around his neck and waist, Caeden judged him to be the innkeeper. He squinted to see what the man was gawking at and spotted Ava’s limp body lying across a tree branch. The satchel that housed the Frost Spirit was still in her possession. He sighed with great measure of relief.

There were a few signs of failed attempts to get at her. A ladder was placed against the trunk, far too short to reach her position and there were a few broken branches further up, either dangling from the tree or lying scattered on the ground. She seemed to have chosen a good spot to perch.

“You think a hybrid would fetch a good price at the market?” Hestrin yelled to the cohorts behind him. The question held a great measure of doubt.

“Fern’s breath Hestrin. What are you involved in?” Guard Captain Naetin whispered behind him.

“That ain’t no gods damned hybrid,” Hestrin’s cohort replied, his brows furrowing as he concentrated on knotting the rope in his hands.

“Oh aye, yer an expert on hybrids now, are you?”

“You forget I’m from Elwood? That kingdom’s a beacon for orc raiders and pirates. After every sacking, there’s always some woman with an abomination growing in her belly.

“They’ve got claws, you know. And a tail, wings, and horns as black as night,” he motioned above his head to indicate the curve of a hybrid’s horns. “With eyes like red obsidian. You don’t even need to be in the same room with one of those things to feel its malice. The only things in common she has with hybrids are the fangs and the colouring on her head, and even those are wrong. So, aye, she’ll fetch a good price, ‘cause she ain’t no hybrid.”

Could it be? Caeden had never seen a hybrid before. But like everyone on Archaicron, he had heard stories of the demon-cursed spawn sired from the union of two races. They were the monsters that parents used to scare their children into behaving. When Caeden first laid eyes on Ava, her appearance and her behaviour went against everything he had heard of them, and he thought the rumours false. Faulty stories born of traumatised minds and embellished evermore as they passed from one telling to another.

Ava moved, pushing herself up along the branch into a sitting position. Caeden noted no visible injuries on her body as she plucked something from her back and threw it down at Hestrin.

“Ow, you damnable pest! You could’ve poked me eye out,” Hestrin yelled back at her, cupping the side of his face, and checking his hand for blood.

“That was my objective,” she stressed between clenched teeth.

“Ah, the fair maiden’s awake,” his cohort purred, the only one in this group besides Hestrin who seemed to have a voice.

If Caeden's initial assessment of the situation was correct, that one was the true leader of this merry gang of ruffians, the other three were his lackeys and Hestrin was the one who scouted out their targets at the inn. All of them utter scum.

“Come down and let’s have a chat,” he continued sweetly.

“Why don’t you come up and if I don’t like what you have to say, I’ll push you back down again,” Ava sneered.

“Mouthy one, aren’t you? No worries, they’ll teach you proper manners at the market. The bold ones always break first,” he said cheerfully.

Beast’s ears flickered and bent lower to the ground. Caeden recognized it for what it was. He was communicating with Ava. She knew they were here, and Caeden immediately understood her tactic. She was serving as a distraction, drawing the bandits’ attention so the guards could ambush them from behind.

Caeden signalled for Naetin and Morley to move forward, he followed and then Kama. Beast stayed hidden in the brush. It was good that he did, having him in the fray would cause more confusion among the guards who were unaware of his tactics.

“Be gone imbecile, I will go nowhere with the likes of you!” Ava yelled.

“Now, now. It’d be in your best interest to be nice...”

Caeden grabbed the man by the hair and ripped his head back. Before he could reach for his sword Caeden brought Ava’s blade up to his neck.

“I think you have that backwards,” Caeden whispered as he unsheathed the man’s weapon and threw the blade apace from them.

He kneed the man in the back of the legs and brought him down to the ground to secure his hands. A terrified shriek echoed through the forest and Caeden scanned the area for its source. One of the lackies had slipped through their ambush and now had the massive sabre cat on top of him, hissing menacingly into his face. Kama was quick to assist, turning the bandit on his belly and tying his hands. Blood stained the shirt where Beast clawed into his shoulders.

Caeden straightened when Ser Morley came to take the man from him. The tree rustled above him, and he spotted Ava jumping to a branch of another tree close by and hopping down to the ground. Her movement through the trees and the weightlessness of her body as it landed seemed majestic to his eyes.

Beast rushed to her, a long and odd chirping sound emanating from his throat, and she grabbed his large head in a hug.

“I thank you, Prince Caeden,” Ava sighed. Her voice was thick as she attempted to rein in the flood of emotions coursing through her eyes.

Caeden could only nod in response, the scathing scolding he planned for this moment dying in the face of her efforts to hold back tears.