Taking a deep breath, Clay felt the cold winter gust, freeing his nostrils. He liked the winter, it cleared his mind, cleansed his body, while the silence was a bliss–

“I hate the winter!” Mia screamed in frustration, while she trampled through the ankle deep snow and shivered from the cold wind. Looking at her, shook Clay his head helplessly. So much about ‘blissful’ silence. “It’s not far until home, stop complaining.”

Rolling her eyes, she snorted but stopped complaining anyway. Turning back around, Clay positioned the deer that laid over his shoulder in a more comfortable position. Since winter, it only got harder to find any quarry. Another two months have passed since the meteor crashed into the Moon.

A lot has happened since, and it didn’t make Clay happy. Feeling inside him, he could feel the never ceasing river of essence flowing around his heart. Since the blue moon formed (Mia named it) was the amount of essence in the atmosphere steadily rising.

It was hard to notice, and the effects weren’t immediate, but over time it became clear that this steady increase in essence came from the blue moon. This was good in the sense that Clay didn’t have to worry about killing other beasts to absorb their essence, or more specifically, couldn’t.

In the beginning he was still able to absorb at least a fraction, but these days he couldn’t absorb anything. Not that it mattered now that he had an endless supply of essence to refine. Well, there was one little inconvenience: he was unable to use his aura to sense his surroundings.

Or to be more specifically, it was far harder. Before the blue moon came, he could easily spread his aura several meters wide, but now he struggled to even reach the ten-meter mark. Only when he condensed his aura to form a shield was it strong enough to ignore this weird foreign influence. In the past, it was like his aura only had to push the air away, but now this air was more like water.

But even worse was the fact that he couldn’t sense the aura of other beast anymore. The essence in the atmosphere masked their lower aura and made it impossible to distinguish them. Losing this aura sense was comparable to losing one of his eyes, he relied heavily on it after all, but he managed to do without it over time.

Well, not all was bad, as the new reliance on his shield and the endless amount of essence, allowed him to indefinitely keep his shield up, that included his sleep. By now, it became like second nature for him to guide his aura.

The few times he had to fight, it also proved very useful, as it straight up absorbed a lot of the power form attacks, leaving him with only mild injuries that he healed in seconds. He felt quite invincible over the last few weeks to speak the truth, not that he complained.

The biggest challenge these days was to find enough heart blood for Mia, which she still somehow needed. His previous assumption that she just needed essence seemed to be wrong, there must be something different about heart blood that her body needed. The fact that heart blood somehow expired over time didn’t help, storing it longer than a few days was impossible, not to mention that even during that time it loses much of its potency.

He also found out that not every animal had this heart blood, he could only recall fighting animals that already… mutated, for lack of a better word. He knew that some smaller animals like squirrels and especially insects rarely mutated, but were not all that uncommon. There must be a wide variety of factors that influenced this mutation, but from Clay perspective, it appeared like it just came to chance in the end.

The deer over his shoulder wasn’t the first he had caught, and he knew for a fact that most of the others he killed had heart blood. On the topic, he found out that the heart actually underwent a considerable change to store this heart blood. If one would compare both hearts then it would become pretty obvious that the mutated one, was considerably larger and had a slightly different structure, that one would overlook at first notice, but was definitely there.

The problem was not only the lack of heart blood, but also the wide variety of inconveniences that came with Mia’s poison. While Clay spent more time around Mia, so did the poison inside his body accumulate. In itself, that wasn’t a problem, but after it accumulated above a certain threshold, it became one. He would struggle to breath, his body weakening, unable to muster any strength, and his head would feel like it was underwater, perceiving everything under a thick veil of cotton.

Only after he cleansed the poison with the help of his own heart blood, vanished the various ailments. His own symptoms and those of Mia were actually quite similar when she didn’t get enough heart blood, something he had to look deeper into in the future.

The next problem was that their house… rotted, quite literally began to rot just like the food, and the clothes Mia wore. It was actually embarrassing for Clay how long it took him to realize that most of the food he had stored over the weeks in his home quickly rotted away. Anything barley organic was especially prone to Mia’s poison. That was also why the wood pillars, which most of the house supported itself on, were the first to rot away. At one occasion, one actually broke and caused some of the ceiling to crash down on them, so they were forced to move houses.

Twice to be exact, the wood just rotted too soon, which was also the reason why he forced her to spent as much time in the open as possible (to the misfortune of Mia), because after removing her from the tree the poison actually acted similar to a gas rather as if it was sentient. The moment she breathed it out, it was carried away by the cold winter wind.

But all of this was a temporary solution at best. If he wanted to return with her to civilization one day, she couldn’t possibly walk around poisoning everything and everyone around her…

“Why did you stop?” Mia asked charily from the side, before whispering, “Another Beast?”

Torn out of his thoughts, he just shook his head. “No, it’s nothing, let’s just move on.” She seemed to be confused for a moment, but then just shrugged it off. Clay just played with the thought of never returning to civilization. From his perspective, they offered nothing he couldn’t get himself. They were doing just fine on their own. He was also rather… hesitant to return to any sort of civilization.

If a group actually managed to survive until now, then only with great sacrifices, and he knew that humans could change and adapt rather… questionable ethics if they were desperate enough, and recent times were very desperate. Clay couldn’t remember a comparable catastrophe in all of humanity than this one.

Well he actually didn’t know if all of this was on a global scale, but considering a new moon, was now orbiting their planet and emitting an alien energy that had the power to fundamentally change the structures of animals, their very genes? Yeah, Clay, didn’t believe for a second this wasn’t happening on a global scale.

For now, he couldn’t change anything about their situation, he just had to keep going, keep surviving.

***

It was the fourteenth of March. A monumental day for Mia, as it was her twelfth birthday. The worst of the winter had passed, and the days would only grow warmer and longer as time passed on. Besides it being her birthday was Mia in no mood to celebrate, it reminded her of the family she had lost, the one she would normally celebrate this occasion with.

The only person she had was Clay – and she was grateful, for all the help he provided – but it was impossible for him to fill the hole in her heart. Clay knew this all too well, and was also the reason why he didn’t even try to organize a big celebration. He himself didn’t really celebrate his own eighteen's birthday.

Mia couldn’t even eat anything for the occasion, as she would throw it up in mere seconds. No, Clay had something different in mind and opted for a simpler approach. He woke her up as usual and wished her a good birthday and presented her with two presents. Besides being sad, she still was only a child in the end and was quickly excited and up on her feet to unpack them.

The first was a simple notebook, bound in thick dark leather, made to withstand long travels and the elements. Over the last few months with Mia, he noticed that she had an artistic talent, when it came to writing and drawing, and he wanted to foster this talent. She already wrote and drew a lot in her free time, but this notebook, had a special purpose, he would explain later.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Besides it being a very simple present, Mai was still very happy about it because she knew Clay made it himself – it wasn’t something he just got from one of the abandoned stores in the city – but it paled in comparison to the second present.

When she unwrapped it she was greeted by a wooden mask, that was with utmost care carved to fit her face, depicting an owl, Mia’s favorite animal as Clay had found out. The wood itself was of dark oak, that was tinted in a deep purple, giving off a supernatural feeling.

Touching over the mask, Mia could feel it clearly – credit to Clay’s effort in training her how to utilize essence. By now, Mia was able to feel her own essence and heart blood and thus clearly knew where this mask originated from.

Knowledge didn’t mean understanding, as her confused expression showed. Smiling, Clay pointed at the mask. “Try it on.”

She was still confused and hesitant, but eventually slowly brought the mask closer to her face and when it was just a few centimeters away, flinched, as the mask escaped her grasp and pulled itself closer to her face, causing it to snap in place, like a magnet.

Seeing this, a huge burden lifted from Clay’s shoulder. Making this mask costed him over a month of time and tinkering with various things. It was also very hard to hide this whole process from Mia because he wanted (for a reason beyond him) the present to be a surprise, pretty silly when he now looked back at it, but her reaction was worth it.

He was lucky that she didn’t question why Clay wanted to make a plaster face cast and just saw it as something to pass the time. He actually needed the cast to accurately carve this mask. Even if he didn’t intend to return to civilization, Clay soon realized that he had to stop the poison from spreading. Alone the fact that he had to regularly purge his body was reason enough, not to mention the house and clothes that rotted away, they were forced to move once again.

He thought long and hard of how he could stop this poison. Initially, he just planned to teach her how to control essence in the hope it would allow her to control her poison. Only after realizing how slow their progress was looked he for other solutions. There were a few ideas, but it eventually all turned back to the tree and the idea of having an object that prevented the poison from leaving.

In the end, he was able to utilize the oak tree that Mia was stuck on. Originally Clay expected it to die in a few days without her, but due to the blue moon that came not long after it not only survived but was thriving under the constant flow of essence.

This new ecosystems that grew around the tree never stopped growing since then. It was a slow process, yes, and it would probably take several years for the tree to overtake the whole city, but he didn’t doubt for a second it wasn’t able to do it, it was only a matter of time.

The wood used for the mask actually comes from the part where Mia was connected the longest to the tree, and they still had a deep connection, both being drawn to each other. Clay didn’t actually know how the mask was able to stick to her without any form of string or attachment.

He did several dozens of test over the past month with the wood just to make sure it wouldn’t harm Mia or suddenly grow roots that bored into her flesh once again, and he was certain that the wood separated from the tree was essentially dead. It kept some of its magical properties, but was in Mia hands completely harmless.

The reason why he even believed the mask could work was because of the inherent ability of the wood. It was able to absorb Mia’s poison and turn it over time into a sticky substance similar to that of sap from a tree. This not only stopped the poison from spreading, but also concentrated into a substance Clay was actually able to store.

He didn’t yet know where he would need it, but having a supernatural poison at disposal that had the ability to disturb and eat away at the essence of others seemed very useful. He actually carved a small pocket into the mask under the chin for the sap to gather, when it trickled down. In theory, Clay just had to scrap this sap into a container from time to time and be done with it.

Well, only time would tell how effective the mask would be, but he was rather optimistic, all his test lead him to this result after all.

While he was absorbed in his thoughts, was Mia busy with touching the mask that smugly fitted around her face, at one point she panicked, as she struggled to get it loose. Fortunately, holding her breath for a few moments caused the mask to fall right off, to her relief.

She looked at the mask in silence, observing every little detail with attention, before she eventually began to silently cry. It seemed like Clay underestimated how much this really meant for her. He knew that she felt sorry for him and that she blamed herself for the suffering he had to undergo over the past few months, which wasn’t entirely… wrong.

Because of her, Clay was forced to regularly cleanse his body from poison, they were unable to stay in a house for more than a month before it rotted away, Clay stored all the food and carcasses very far from her and the growing forest in the center of the city, and he went almost daily out to find the heart blood she needed to life, but Clay did all of this from his own free will and wasn’t angry about it.

Quite the contrary, he was grateful for all the trouble. He would be left without a goal otherwise and succumb to boredom in days. The world may be a more dangerous place now, but it was also a lot more exciting, the constant adrenaline caused his body to be on edge. Something Clay perceived as vital. It was hard to remain vigilant at all time, but if he wanted to survive, he had to force himself to never relax. It was all too easy to die because he underestimated a beast, or failed to react to an ambush in a timely manner.

The plenty of time Clay had on his hand was often spent in training his use of essence. It fascinated him to no end, and he learned over time how to control the essence inside his body. Stopping it from escaping, forcing it to circulate inside him, it was similar to when his inner flame burned brightly and filled his body with strength, but this was much more delicate in comparison, something he could freely control.

When he burned, he had no influence on where the essence went, it followed its own will. In the past, he was only ever able to guide his essence to cleanse himself of Mia’s poison. After gaining immunity, this only became harder.

Well this was in the past, with this new technique he would achieve grander feats in the near future then simple healing. For now, the circulation helped him safe some sleep, six hours were more than enough. The biggest problem were the embers smoldering ceaselessly inside him. They gave too little essence to fuel both his shield and the strengthening, not to mention to strain on the mind to keep control over two different flows of essence.

In time, he was sure to find a solution, for now he was just anticipating the warmer climate, that would hopefully make his hunt more bearable. He liked the winter, yes, but by now he grew tired of it.

***

There was a warmer breeze than usual caressing the skin of Mia and Clay, both of them wandering along the edges of the forest, not too far from the city, only a few days passed since her birthday. With her mask, Mia could stay in the house without damaging anything, but Clay didn’t dare to let her leave his sight. He couldn’t always watch over her, of course, but right now he didn’t dare leave. He has long begun to train her.

He wasn’t any expert, but at least familiarizing her with hunting some small animals couldn’t hurt. Most of his time was focused in teaching her how to use essence, which still progressed in a snails pace. Her feeling for essence considerably grew over time, but she was never able to burn her heart blood even once.

Even with little results he insisted on continuing, to the strong disapproval of Mia, causing more than one quarrel the past few months, but she listened in the end. He knew that Mia had to learn how to burn if she wanted to win against beast that were superior to her in every regard, even more so because of her gender and age.

The matchup between beast and human fundamentally favored the beast, that was, at least until the human started to use his wit to outsmart the beast. Humans may have no claws, but a well forged knife can prove just as lethal.

The obsidian dagger of Mia plunged deep into the rat that she just wrestled with moments ago, causing it to twitch and shiver before collapsing dead on the ground. Shoving the dead body away from her chest, she gagged strongly, causing some bile to rise to her mouth, grimacing she threw some curses around – Clay never taught her those.

If this was the first time, she would have scolded him how inappropriate it was to let a lady fight with animals to the death (no that he would ever allow her to die), but she knew better by now. Sometimes he questioned if his ‘education’ was appropriate, but he had no one to discuss this with and was left to his own devices.

Well, he just had to make sure Mia survived, no matter if she liked the process. Even though she complained a lot at first, she was quick to accept her circumstances, not harboring a grudge for longer than a few days. Whatever happened on her own, she was tougher than her appearance suggested, surprising him to this day in how quickly she was able to adapt.

Coming over, she looked sullen at the ground, clearly dissatisfied by something, but reluctant to voice it. Smiling, he said, “Mia, what is the second rule?”

“To be honest,” she replied, her voice muffled under the mask. He didn’t respond, just staring at her until she spoke from her own. “I’m thankful for the mask, I really am, it’s just that… it feels like a prison. Something that constantly reminds me of what I am – a monster!”

Frowning, Clay kneeled down, firmly grabbing her shoulder. “You are no monster. You are the purest and strongest person I have met, you are–”

“No!” She screamed, pushing him away. “You don’t understand, I-I… killed him! He died because of me!”

Clay’s frown deepened as he looked her in the eyes, that still desperately tried to avoid his own. He knew she hid some things from him, everyone did, even children, but he didn’t anticipate it to be something so concerning. Innately he didn’t want to force her into revealing anything she wasn’t comfortable with, but now that she let her tongue slip, it was impossible to ignore. “Mia, what do you mean, could you explain?”

She still avoided his gaze trying to turn her body away but with her shoulders strongly in Clay hands there was no escape, so she eventually fumbled her words into a response. “I-It was an accident…”