"What can you say about the corpse, Private Corpus?" Commander Gideon Sfaira asked, staring at the woman's body lying beside a tree trunk.

The katona trainee stiffened, and his eyebrows creased a little. "What do I think?” You're the commander. Why are you asking me? he wanted to ask, but instead, he answered, "It's most likely an attack from a murklin, Commander. Our team searched the area and there are no signs of a wild animal roaming around. And the corpse doesn't have any animal bite attack."

The commander chuckled. "Good answer. And yes, it's an attack from a stupid murklin, who can't hide its footprints." He ambled near the corpse and inspected it a little more. "If you look closely at her rolled eyes, her pale and wrinkled skin, and her dry lips, you'll think that it's an attack from a cerise."

The trainee squinted in its direction and nodded. "I only know that a murklin did that because there's been news about them killing here in Fract and cerise doesn't go here since they hate us, mortals, the most. But I don't really know the difference."

Gideon straightened his back, not piercing his gaze on the woman like it would disappear if he did. "It's really hard to know the difference. But once you saw an attack from a cerise, you would know." He patted the trainee's shoulder and said, "Let's clean the corpse and send it to Banhar."

"Yes, Sir!" He saluted.

The trainee and three others did what the commander instructed. It wasn't the first time they encountered an attack from a murklin in this part of Fract. In fact, this was the exact location on the island of the mortals with the highest number of corpses. It was the poorest and most isolated, too.

"Commander..."

On his way back to Banhar, Gideon saw his sergeant, one of his katona. "Sergeant Kento, did you do what I told you to?" he asked without looking at him. He continued walking while the katona followed from behind him, his head bowed down a little.

"Yes, Commander. But some tribes kept on insisting that it was not an animal attack. Some are speculating that it's a murklin's attack."

Gideon stopped on his track. "These mortals really like getting on my nerves, aren't they?"

"I'm sorry, Commander. Someone must be leaking the information about them."

Smiling, he finally faced his sergeant. "Don't worry about it, Sergeant Kento. Whether we do something about that someone, another one will surely appear. All we have to do is do our job and let the higher-ups do theirs."

When he turned around, his smile faded. Even as a commander, he couldn't possibly act and do everything he wanted. He needed the higher-up's order before acting out. That's what a katona should do.

No matter how frustrating this field of work was for him sometimes, there was nothing he could do. He needed this position to fulfill his goal. Without this title, there would totally be nothing he could ever do. Avenging his family was his final and ultimate goal. No one could stop him.

"Come on," he called the sergeant. "There's a lot of cleaning up to do."

*

After breakfast, Finn went back to taking care of her sister. But this time, he was also tending to the woman he met in the woods that morning.

The woman hadn’t regained her consciousness yet, and Finn would check on her from time to time, afraid that she wasn’t breathing anymore. The last thing the family needed was a funeral and people gossiping about them.

“Who is she?” Carl asked, pertaining to the sleeping woman. “Is she your wife, kuya?”

Finn waved his hands in the air, like he was driving away some flies. “There’s no way that beautiful lady is my wife.” He stopped waving his hands when he realized he looked a little too defensive. “I met her in the woods this morning. She lost consciousness, so I had to take her home.”

“Nanay must be so mad, then. No wonder I heard some noises when I woke up this morning.” Finn only nodded. “Just ask the woman to marry you, then.”

Charis giggled a little, joining in the conversation of her two brothers. “I was about to say that, too.”

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Finn pouted. “Ate! How can you joke about my marriage like that? I don’t even know the lady. For all we know, she’s already married or she already has a fiance.”

Charis tickled his side. “Are you disappointed?”

Finn scoffed. “Of course not!” Charis and Carl continued teasing their brother. “Can you two please stop? It’s not going to happen. I’d rather just stay home here with you for the rest of my life.”

“But you have to marry and have kids, Finn,” Charis said. “You can’t stay here and be stuck with us forever.”

“What are you saying? I can’t do that. I can’t leave you three alone. I’m content with just the four of us. Aren’t you happy with just us here?”

“Are you?”

Finn was tongue-tied. He wanted to say that he was happy, that he was willing to be with them until his last breath, but no words came out of his mouth. He didn’t know back then that he wanted to do something. He wanted to get out of this hellhole with his family, and leave everything and everyone.

Slowly opening her eyes, the woman roamed her eyes at the surroundings. She sat up abruptly, making Finn flinch from his seat. He approached the woman cautiously, reminded of their first encounte. The woman wasn’t friendly.

She even growled at me, for pete’s sake! Who does that? Finn said at the back of his head.

“Are you okay?” asked Finn with the calmest tone he could mutter. He pulled Carl away from the woman as he ambled near her, still cautious.

The woman stopped and stared at him but spoke no word. She looked at him from head to toes, like she was assessing him. And then her eyes stopped at the necklace he was wearing. But Finn seemed to not take notice.

“You’re at our home. You’re safe now. No one’s going to hurt you.” And Finn knew that no one really hurt the woman. At least that was what he believed after tending to the woman earlier. She wasn’t really injured or bruised. He thought the woman was ab-sed in some way, maybe verbally.

Still not speaking a word, Finn took the opportunity to sit at the cot. But he was stunned when the woman attacked him. Before he could protect himself, the woman was already beside him, only she didn’t attack him. She was only holding Finn’s necklace.

Finn sighed as he calmed himself and let her play with the necklace. After all, he promised that she could play with it once she came with him. But the woman wasn’t saying anything, not even her name, and she was aggressive too. He couldn’t stop himself from putting on the wall between them. What was he supposed to do?

“So… ahm…” Finn searched for the right word. “What’s your name? Are you lost? Or is someone chasing after you?”

Again, no answer.

“What if she’s mute, kuya?” asked Carl. “And deaf. Maybe she can’t hear you.”

Thinking of another approach to talk to the woman, he took off his necklace and put it away from the woman’s reach. She tried to touch the necklace, but Finn stood and put some distance between them.

The woman took it negatively, so she started growling at him again. That frightened Finn. Not for himself, but for Charis and Carl, who were with him at this moment. If this woman attacked, Finn could definitely defend himself, but he was afraid that it could hurt his brother and sister in the process.

He changed his plan. “Wait! I’ll let you play with this, okay?” He dangled it in front of her. “Unfortunately, I can’t give this to you. This is the only memento my father left me. But I’ll let you borrow it for a while.”

The woman seemed to understand him, and stopped growling. Her eyes were still fixated on the necklace. She was so fascinated with the thing that she could see nothing but the tiny stone.

Aside from the necklace, Finn couldn’t think of anything else to talk to the woman properly. But like what he said, this was the only thing his father left him. He couldn’t give it to her. And now that he knew that the woman wasn’t deaf, he spoke.

“I’m letting you borrow it for now, okay?” He handed her the necklace carefully, but the woman grabbed it in his hand and started playing with it.

Finn sighed. “Now, it's your turn. I let you borrow the necklace, so answer my questions, okay?” The woman didn’t take her eyes from the necklace. “What’s your name?”

No answer.

“What are you doing in the woods this morning?”

Again, no answer.

“Did you get lost in the woods? Or is someone chasing you? Do you need help?” When the woman didn’t answer, he continued, “I’m going to take back the necklace if you don’t answer me.”

The woman hid the necklace behind her.

“Good. Now I’m certain you can understand me,” said Finn. He looked back at his brother and sister, who were just watching and listening before looking back at the woman. “We made a deal, right? And a deal is only possible if the two parties agreed and complied. I’m done with mine, so it’s your turn.”

It took the woman a while to answer. Finn thought that she was having second thoughts answering him because she was afraid, and he understood. The woman must be in a trauma.

Finally, she muttered, “Chase…”

“So, someone’s chasing you?”

But instead of answering him, she went back to playing with the necklace.

Finn sighed before slumping on the chair. It made a soft creeking sound. After hearing the woman’s answer, he could only think of one thing.

It had been going on in their small town. Everyone was talking about it, so he couldn’t help overhearing.

There was something in the dark, particularly in this area, particularly in their town. Someone or something was lurking in the woods to find its prey, food, or whatever that creature called it. And it was preying on young women like this woman.

Finn hadn’t seen one, but it was there, hiding in the shadows, waiting. No one had seen it and lived to tell the tale. But everyone had a name to call it.

Murklin.