The Sangona jungle which covered a large part of the Southern country, Sylvand was arguably the strangest of the rainforests in the Empire. On the East side, it was bounded by the Herring Sea, and on the West side, the long Blackfolds Mountain range. The Great River, Altoru, and Mavo River flowed through the jungle, contributing to much of its lush nature and rich habitat diversity.

It was home to a vast number of strange magical and non-magical flora and fauna, most of which were unknown to humans. It was also the home to very unique kinds of creatures, what humans call ‘creature people’ because they were humanoid with animal-like features, yet, were magical, quite intelligent, and resourceful. However, most of them were not seen outside of the Sangona, due to their deep-seated mistrust and animosity toward humans, sadly, mutually shared by the latter too.

Enormous gray clouds were gathering over the Sangona. The dusk was deepening and the jungle floor was already pitch black. A troop of pygmy vanur (a small primate native to Sylvand) huddled on the wide-spread branches of a large tree, instinctively knowing that a storm was on the way.

[https://i.imgur.com/hxNVmjl.jpg]

A pygmy vanur (close up view); similar to other vanur species, when they agitated, the fur behind the head stick out as a defense mechanism

A sudden crash disturbed the silence, startling the vanurs who started shrieking and chattering. Eiden also had a jump scare, hearing something in the jungle that sounded like scolding him. He was surprised that the Sangona was completely dark because the village outside that he just teleported from, was still basking in twilight.

Eiden sat on the ground, which was covered with heavy undergrowth, hugging himself tight. Every little creek, chirp, and crack made his heart lose a beat. For ten long days, Eiden wandered around trying to find someone he used to know, and could trust. Then, he thought about the ancient jungle and the new acquaintance he had for a brief time.

It was a few days since Eiden was released from the infirmary. He moved to the guest quarters of Uncle's house to ensure high security due to his magically weakened state, and until his new house was prepared. Either due to his high-strung nerves or nightmarish dark and hostile dreams, even though it was nearly midnight, Eiden didn't feel like sleeping.

Luckily, the walk from his room to the open garden was short. Eiden stepped into the garden, inhaling a lungful of crisp night air, and absentmindedly walked along the tall hedge of yew bushes.

Just when he turned around the corner, he heard shouting. Something was running, then out of nowhere over the hedge, a fast-moving dark shape slammed, knocking the wind out of him. The momentum threw Eiden a few feet far onto the ground hard. Whatever the thing jumped over the hedge was now entangled in the yew and laurel bushes behind him thrashing around, making hissing and growling noises.

Before he picked himself up from the ground, a pursuer who came running, shot a huge magical net at them. Eiden countered the net with a blade of fire which slashed through it, sizzling and vaporizing the threads and the net fell apart harmlessly around them.

He immediately turned around to look at what was behind him. It looked like a strange creature that was hurt and bleeding, and broken chains were dangling around.

"Stop moving, you're hurt," Eiden tried to calm the creature down, by sending waves of soothing magic.

“Don't attack." Fearing another attack, he conjured a small blue globe of light which hovered in the air, illuminating around them.

"Evan?" he exclaimed, recognizing the leader of the swiftly approaching group of guards.

"You!! Get out of my way," Evan looked enraged. Eiden scrambled to feet standing between the creature and Evan.

"Move aside, that vile thing bit me," Evan snapped menacingly.

"No, you'd hurt him." Eiden knelt in front of the humanoid creature who was still weakly struggling, hissing and flashing its pointy teeth.

"Calm down, let me unstuck you." With a blade of magic, Eiden carefully started severing branches around it.

"Eiden, for the last time, Get. Out." Eiden didn't reply as he continued clearing branches. Big bully. Suddenly a hand clamped on his shoulder roughly pushing him aside. Arrh..

"No, Don't," he yelled, pushing Evan back angrily.

"What's going on here?" the booming voice of Lord Elvin stopped them at once. The guards who followed Evan slowly backed into the darker background.

"He's hurt." Eiden turned his attention back to the injured being, which was now on the verge of collapsing due to blood loss, and started healing his injuries

"Eiden, stop." Eiden looked at Uncle, surprised by the order.

"That's enough magic, you'll get tired." Uncle scowled at Evan as he turned to the guards.

"Take this person to the infirmary."

Eiden wasn't sure about their intentions with the creature, whom he recognized as one belonging to the creature people who lived in the ancient Sangona rainforests in the South.

"What were you thinking? going out in the dark at midnight."

He barely suppressed a shiver hearing cold anger in Uncle's voice.

"I'm sorry, Uncle, couldn't sleep," Eiden answered meekly. He started to feel the exhaustion settling in because of using both combat and healing magic regardless of his weakened state.

"Take the young lord to his quarters, and send for the healer," Lord Elvin ordered his guards.

Disturbed by last night's events and lack of explanations, Eiden was beyond frustrated. It was past lunchtime, and he was ordered not to leave the bed when he wanted nothing but to leave the bed. A distant sound of a door open and close alerted him. Finally, someone was coming.

"What happened yesterday, why do we have creature people chained?" As soon as Uncle Elvin entered the room, he questioned.

"It was a misunderstanding. The area was searched for some fugitives and soldiers thought the creatures had been helping those," Uncle explained but Eiden was doubtful.

"That's a stupid mistake. Everyone knows they stay clear from any of our people. He was hurt and so scared. There was not a tiny bit of dark magic in him. I want to see him." Eiden got out of bed.

"You're supposed to have bed rest, aren't you? What were you thinking yesterday? Could've gotten seriously hurt."

Eiden thought uncle was trying to evade his request.

"I had enough rest. Please, Uncle, I want to see." He sported an innocent expression, making wide eyes at his uncle.

"Alright, but only for a short time."

Eiden was excited to see the creature but worried he might be regarded with hostility because humans had hurt him. He entered the room alone, leaving the guards outside. The creature or the person was sitting on the bed.

"Hello, my name is Eiden, do you speak Terish? It's me, you met in the garden last night, are you ok now?" Eiden spoke in a softer, non-threatening tone. The person regarded him suspiciously.

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"Name is Clade, we speak Terish. Thank you for help," his voice was surprisingly deep and growl-like.

"I'm really sorry about your arrest, I'll tell my uncle to leave your people alone. He is currently overseeing government affairs. Did you know others get hurt as well?" Eiden explained to clear any misunderstanding.

While waiting for an answer he took time to have a closer look at Clade. His hair was rusty bronze colored with metallic sheen and the skin was a somewhat darker shade of green. The eyes had thick eyelashes and orange and green mixed-colored eyes resembled reptilian eyes. The most interesting feature was the tail which looked quite strong and probably used as a formidable weapon.

"No, haven't heard."

Eiden was startled and then realized that he must have been staring at Clade for a while. He cleared his throat, embarrassed but he was too curious to stop now.

"Are you like a lizard?" he asked.

"Please don't get offended, I'm just..I mean, I'd like to know."

"Sort of. My people are Cazard. Live in the jungle, and hunt and eat meat." Clade took some time before answering as if he didn't trust too much to talk.

"Ohh..do you live in trees?"

"Long ago. Have small houses now."

Too eager to learn, Eiden forgot that Clade was hurt by his kind not even a day ago.

"Why? To catch more of us?" Clade spat the words bitterly, catching Eiden off guard.

"Err..no," he tried to reason but Clade bared his teeth and hissed, making Eiden flinch and stop talking.

It seemed that they had remarkable self-healing properties, Clade was as good as new at the end of the week. Eiden expressed his wish to travel to the Sangona after he got the title, and sadly bid Clade goodbye.

Now sitting in the dark, he felt like the thought of coming to the Sangona was a very very bad idea. After all, Clade has a right to avoid any human, especially ones like Eiden who was clearly superior to them in magical strength and declared genocide on them a long time ago.

A flash of lightning brightened around him, followed by a loud rumble of thunder. No. No. This can't be happening, Eiden had heard it usually rains a lot here, but a thunderstorm! The wind howled as the tree giants groaned, all of a sudden, the jungle seemed to come alive.

Eiden found that he didn't care if Clade mauled him, but he was not staying in this ghost-infested jungle alone. Barely focusing on the magical thread that was used to track Clade, Eiden jumped to his feet and teleported away.

Among the different tribes of creature people, Green Cazards had been seen mostly in surrounding villages at the vicinity of the North and East borders of the Sangona, because they tended to live in less dense woodland areas at the edges of the jungle.

The houses of the Cazard people were simple. They were built around trees, as they preferred to sleep on tree branches when it was not raining. They usually picked the tallest trees in a groove and built a spiral structure around it from branches and thick creepers, then used clay and wood to fill the gaps to strengthen the walls.

Clade, who had been hunting in the daylight, hurried back to his new home. Cazard people weren't exactly devoted scholars, but, Clade was an exception. He often interacted with humans and exercised a passion for reading. He owned a collection of books and recently bought a Lumia lamp, a floor lamp with light-emitting crystals, which could be used for night reading. Curled up beneath the warm fur covers, he took a book and soon got lost in the adventures of the red-handed captain of a pirate ship.

CRASH.

Clade woke up with a start. There was pounding on the door. Lightly growling, he took a club and opened the door. The human who had been leaning on the door lost his balance and fell to the floor. Clade bent down fast and yanked the hood.

"Eiden?"

Clade closed the door and looked down to see Eiden who was drenched to the core and filthy from head to foot. Eiden gulped a few times trying to speak. His voice was husky.

"Hide me, Clade,”

Clade knelt by Eiden and helped him to sit against the door. And unclasping the wet traveling cloak, helped to remove the muddy garment.

"Stay," Clade commanded Eiden and left.

In the back of his mind, Eiden was still seeing the strange things with long, crooked arms that tried to grab him whenever he stopped. He curled up into a ball hugging his knees close to the chest and hid his face between them.

"Hey, get up,"

Clade grabbed him by the shoulders, hoisted him to his feet, and almost dragged him to the bathhouse. He assisted Eiden to get clean up, took Eiden to a warm bed, and covered him with a blanket. Clade offered Eiden a cup of something hot and cookies. Feeling a little better than before, he gladly accepted the warm cup and held it with both hands.

"What are you doing here?" Clade took a cookie while lighting a lamp.

"Ran away," Eiden mumbled. He stared at the cup, absentmindedly picking fur from the blanket. Outside of the cottage, the storm was raging. The wind was crashing on the walls and rain splattered noisily.

"It's a long story," he finally said.

"But I need to hide, not safe here," he pleaded. Clade plucked the cup from Eiden's hands and grabbed him by the shirt collar. His voice dropped to a dangerous low growl.

"Don't care who you are, safe or not, you humans spell nothing but death and destruction. Are you telling me now you brought that here?"

Eiden wasn't feeling strong enough to argue and he simply let Clade manhandle him like a ragdoll. He shivered as fur covers fell to the floor. Clade sighed and dropped Eiden, and tucked the fur cover around him.

"Speak clear. Not going anywhere until I know what's wrong or if my people are in danger," Clade snarled, baring his teeth. Eiden had retrieved the cup of hot chocolate and was now hugging it to the chest.

"My name's Eiden Northstar. My maternal grandmother, Lady Eunthae, was the Lady of the Dawn.”

Eiden started telling the story.

"So you ran away to avoid the wedding?" Clade interrupted.

"Noo, not like that,” he protested. He didn't mind the wedding at all. Eiden struggled with painful memories while telling what he heard.

"Then, I got a few things packed, and lied to my butler, told him, I'm going to study late, and got a bunch of snacks. And ran away. I went to my grandfather's house in the Moonstone Mountains. It's gone, half burned, overridden by weeds. I didn't know many Palace officials. There was an old master, a scholar, no one knew where he was.” Eiden couldn't hold back the falling tears anymore.

"I couldn't go to villages, already saw imperial guards were dispatched to find me. People can recognize me by my green hair, I can't do magic, not without proper precautions. I'm scared, Uncle won't stop until he finds me." Eiden hugged himself and sank further back to the fur covers.

"Why here? Barely know me, and crashed on my doorstep, with a murder plot at the tail?" Clade asked.

Eiden was embarrassed, but he had fair reasons.

"Thought you know something. Evan personally brought you to the Palace but you didn't tell them anything, and..and you get nothing by killing me."

"Did it occur to you that I didn't say anything because I know nothing?" Clade snapped making Eiden back a little more into the covers.

"I couldn't think of anywhere else. Besides, the Sangona is ancient and highly magical. I thought it would conceal me better," he squirmed, uncomfortably.

"I will leave tomorrow. There's another person I think is safe to check. But I don't know much about Soeriend, the country they live in. But I can find it, I guess," Eiden said, looking down at his empty chocolate cup.

"How did you find me? Moved away from the village, quite far into our territory after those idiots dragged me to the Palace," Clade asked. He had a suspicious look. Eiden bit his nails and thought Clade perhaps would kick his butt into the storm out there when he told the truth.

"Blood magic. Last time, I took some of your blood, from where you fell, and bled in the garden. So, I can come and find you after I get the title." Clade stared at Eiden flabbergasted.

"Err... I didn't mean any harm, I always wanted to travel but didn't get a chance. I thought you could show me around," Eiden hastily explained. They fell silent. Eiden was feeling hungry with the initial shock and fear were ebbing away, and he gobbled up all the cookies.

"You lived in the Palace all the time, other than forgotten time?" Clade asked. Eiden looked up to see Clade watching him closely, with a look that resembled sympathy on his face.

"I can take care of myself, I just need some time to lay low to plan my next move," he declared, straightening up his back and giving Clade a challenging stare.

"Who are the other people you are going to find?" Clade asked. An unspoken statement of 'You are not going to be my burden' with invisible glittering letters, hung in the air.

"My grandmother had this old friend, like a companion woman who worked in the Palace. I remember her clearly, she was very kind to me. If I can find her, probably she can tell some people who are loyal to my family. I don't know who to trust now. The palace was full of new faces. And Uncle didn't let me interact with most people.” Eiden thought Clade looked confused. A lifestyle like Eiden's must be strange to Clade.

"Do you know any place I can hide for a while? I brought some books and maps with me, so I can devise a plan,” Eiden asked.

"Know a few places, need to think about where to take. Don't want anyone to see you. You should sleep. Talk tomorrow," Clade said, with less hostility than earlier.

"Thank you, Clade, I'll repay you one day for helping me." Eiden felt much relieved and he was sleepy.

"Is it okay if I sleep here?" he asked, but he was reluctant to move elsewhere and didn't pay attention to an answer.

"It's so comfortable,” he murmured, yawned, and promptly cuddled into the fur covers and fell asleep instantly.