Stroking a few loose strands of hair from the temple of Mia’s face, couldn’t Clay stop himself from letting out a deep sigh. She was exhausted and her eyes still red from the countless tears she shed when telling him of her story. For this night she slept without her mask, a night without it wouldn’t hurt much.

Returning to the kitchen of their current home, he grabbed a glass of water before sitting down on a chair, a dirty and dust tainted window on his left. He was lost in his thoughts, when a few strokes of blue light broke his concentration. Looking over his shoulder, he looked out of the window past the planks that he haphazardly nailed in front of the windows. The attacks of beast were too rare and the change of their abode too often, as that he would care much about these fortifications.

Following the light, he soon ended at its source. It was a cloudless night, with mild wind, very calm. It was in nights like these that the new moon shone at its brightest. Incomparable to the Moon from before. Well they had two moons now, one blue and the other dark gray, appearing almost black, with a veil of mystery that hung around it at all times.

It was strange to think that something so beautiful was the cause of so much suffering and cruelty. Well, there is no light without shadows or so they say… no that was wrong, how went that saying again?

Not that it mattered much. In a few more dozens of years, there wouldn’t be much left of the old world anyway. He didn’t know why, but he had a feeling that very turbulent times were ahead of them, and they will be led by one thing – change.

With Mia opening up to him, a lot of questions that puzzled Clay before were answered. To start, her poison actually developed after some snake bit her, while her parents got attacked. After she ran into her room and huddled under her bed, the poison went to work and transformed her. The pain was too much, causing her to lose conscious soon after.

She didn’t know how much time passed, but she would have probably died, if there wasn’t that kind old man that for reasons incomprehensible to Clay helped Mia survive. She was too tired and scared to move. The man helped her to get out and brought him to his house, caring over the next few days for her, but good times didn’t last.

It soon came apparent that the man was suffering from her poison and eventually came to a brutal end before Mia’s own eyes, coughing blood, while the same crimson liquid leaked from his ears, eyes and nostrils. The scene horrified her, and she ran in a panic to the only place she deemed as safe – her room.

She again fell into a state where she didn’t know what to do besides surviving the next day, thankfully Jim came not long after that, which gave her new hope, until, yet again she was left alone and somehow fused with the tree in the garden when she took a short nap, which ended in a several months long slumber.

She was abandoned by the world again and again until Clay finally found her and was also only able to survive thanks to a stroke of luck, otherwise he would have ended like the old man, and she would have been left alone yet again, perhaps permanently fusing with the tree to never separate with it…

Shaking his head, he pushed the disturbing thought away. He had to admit that the girl grew on him over the past several months. She was of course annoying in some aspects, as all kids, but she grew on him nonetheless. Who couldn’t have pity when one knew what suffering she had to endure with her tender age. He knew all too well how deep the pain was of losing family, friends… everything you knew.

When everyone around you dies, you begin to have dark thoughts. What was the point if everyone was gone? Thankfully, Jim not only saved his life but also gave him a new purpose, a new family. Closing his eyes for a moment, he prayed that Jim was happy wherever he was now.

This story also explained why she blamed herself so much for the pain that Clay had to endure, she already lost someone to the poison and didn’t want to let history repeat itself. It was most likely also the reason why she viewed herself as a monster. Alone, thinking about this caused Clay’s head to throb with a headache before the essence inside him quelled it.

This was also something he had to look deeper into. After surviving Mia’s poison it seemed his natural healing has increased drastically, and he wasn’t quite sure to what extent yet, but he knew that the inner circulation of his essence strengthened the effects several times over, causing him to feel it more apparently over the last few weeks.

Since barely surviving the encounter with the royal guard, he never had a noteworthy fight where he could test his new abilities. Well, with the ending of winter, and the infestation of ants dealt with, it shouldn’t be long before some beasts return.

***

Only a few weeks passed and like Clay suspected began the wildlife to return to the forest surrounding Churchville like a surging wave, that took him by surprise with its ferocity. He expected animals to come back, but not in such high numbers.

Whatever the ants did, it must have had a longer lasting effect than he imagined, because when he before barely encountered large predators like wolves, the forest was now overrun by them, not to mention all the other animals that became a lot more dangerous after their transformation.

He was lost in thought wandering through the perimeter of the forest, Mia strolling not too far from him, when a shadow rushed from the thicket, and before he could react he felt his aura rapidly decreasing, as a huge viper coiled from his foot, past his waist and over his chest before its fangs plunged into his left shoulder releasing some kind of poison.

The stiffening of his body, made it clear that Clay was paralyzed, causing him to drop his blade. He could see from the corner of his eyes Mia plunging her dagger deep into the flesh of the viper, which only angered it more, causing the grip around Clay’s body to tighten, if not for his aura his bones would have begun to break long ago.

Fortunately have the past battles put Clay’s senses on high edge and the moment he noticed something wrong he flared the flame inside him to live, and with it came the familiar rush of energy that pushed the paralyzing poison out of his system and with a shout he was able to barely free his arm and grab the viper by its neck stopping it from pushing its fangs into his eyes.

The tongue slithered over his face and he could see the drops of poison leaking from the fangs eager to end his life. Keen to prevent that pulled Clay, with another rush of burned essence, the head back before ripping with his teeth into the scales of the viper, causing it to hiss in pain as the crimson blood trailed past the corner of his mouth, while the taste of iron filled his mouth.

Ignoring the taste, he only bit deeper, ripping a huge chunk of flesh from the viper before spitting it away. He must have ripped some artery, as the blood sprayed into his face like a fountain, forcing him to close his eyes, but all the damage was enough to finally lose the grip around his body. A push from his left foot allowed him to break free from the viper.

Hitting the ground, Clay moved quickly to wipe the blood from his eyes, only to see the viper flying right at him. Still lying on the ground, he tensed his right leg and with the support from the rest of his body pushed upward, kicking the head of the viper sideways, knocking it out for a few seconds.

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Using the time he turned back and crawled to his sword and when he finally had his hand around it, he directly swung around, beheading the viper that yet again had thrown itself at him after it recovered. The body flailed a few more moments around before becoming still.

Breathing heavily, Clay swiftly stifled the flame inside him, not that he wasted more heart blood than he had to. Putting his arm over his temple, he concentrated on the circulation of energy inside his body, and before long he was sure that his body was completely cleansed of the poison.

With a foul taste still in his mouth, Clay was sure to cleanse it thoroughly with water, but before he could grab the flask with water, he was interrupted by a shadow that reached over him. Opening his eyes, he was greeted by an owl that looked concerned over him. He could swear that this mask developed facial expressions over time.

“Are you okay?”

Sitting up he replied, “Yeah I think so, the poison was already cleansed so – ah wait.” Pushing the clothes away from his left shoulder, he found the blood from the bite wound, but the wound itself was already healed, so he smiled. “Yes completely healed.”

With a sigh of relief, Mia sat down and reached for the thick leather book in her backpack and sat it on her lap, before grabbing a pencil with her right. “So how strong.”

Thinking for a moment, he replied, “Semi-awakened, but it still had a bit to go, it was probably relying on the factor of surprise to kill its prey.”

Going over to Mia’s backpack, he grabbed the flask of water, gurgling the bits and pieces of flesh that were stuck between his teeth away, before sheathing his sword and pulling out the rope he needed to secure the viper for transportation, he won’t waste the flesh he earned so hard.

Looking over his shoulder, he called out to Mia, “Can you lend me your dagger for a sec?”

Without a word of reply, the dagger came flying, which Clay caught, and then proceeded to head over to the severed head of the viper and began to work on cutting the venom gland free. He was by no means an expert when it came to butchering, but the last several months gave him a lot of practice. You learn quickly if your only real food source is meat. This was definitely not a healthy diet, but he didn’t really have a choice.

By now, he reached a point where he started to look into biology books from the library (Thank god it survived the onslaught!) to learn about the autonomy of some animals. Because Mia’s own poison also originated from some serpent, he even looked into them and thus knew roughly where the venom gland was.

While he worked, Mia asked, “What should one be cautious about?”

He paused in his work for a moment before explaining, “The most deadly weapon was its paralyzing poison, if it wasn’t for my potent healing I would have been knocked out for several minutes, maybe even an hour. Second is its camouflage and with it the ability to lay ambushes, lastly would be its overall strength. Its grip was by no means weak, so one should be very careful to not let it coil around you.”

Nodding along, she scribbled into the book, before asking, “Weaknesses?”

“Well, if you survive the ambush, you just have to go for the head. Its scales are not that hard and especially with a longer weapon like a spear it should be easy to kill, it is relatively swift but because it wants to attack with its fangs it opens up for counterattacks,” saying this he finally got the venom gland free. “Write also to not forget the venom gland, the poison can be used to coat weapons.”

Wrapping the gland into a piece of cloth, he went over to Mia, peeking over her shoulder to see how far she was. He gave her the notebook so that she could document the animals, flora and fauna they encountered. He didn’t really mean for the book to be used, but saw it more of practice to foster Mia’s artistic talent, as she could draw everything they encountered and who knows, maybe some day it will be useful.

There was that, but he also wanted to use the opportunity to let her become accustomed to the sight of blood and corpses, because that would be a sight they would see all too often in the future. It also gave her the opportunity to learn how to fight, even if that was risky. If they ever encountered a foe that was far stronger than them, they would have a problem, but well she had to learn how to fight one way or the other.

The viper Mia was currently drawing looked pretty normal at first glance, with its scales being in a diamond shaped pattern that ran down the length of its back, the color being grayish-brown, with some darker spots that ran along its side. It was a natural camouflage to help it hide in the undergrowth, which it succeeded at greatly.

Its appearance was normal until one came to the measurements, where one would realize that it was almost three meters long and more threateningly half a meter in diameter. This was definitely one of the more dangerous foes Clay encountered the last few weeks. Without his healing, he could have been dead…

Best not dwell too long into what and ifs. He survived and so did Mia. “You can finish your drawing when we get back home, I fear the blood could attract more beasts, so we should better get moving.”

Nodding, she hastily finished a few more strokes before putting the book and pencil away before shouldering her backpack. Firmly gripping the rope, Clay strained his muscles and began to drag the viper back home. He only took a third of it, as he couldn’t preserve more anyway, and the viper was way heavier than it looked.

Without the essence that always circulated inside him, which provided him with a constant flow of new energy, he would have been exhausted after only a few dozen meters. After making the two-hour track back home, Mia immediately resumed the work on her drawing, while Clay started to skin and butcher the viper.

***

Another few days passed and today was a great day for Clay. Then today he was finally able to complete his leather armor. It was a simple and yet very complicated process. He had quite a lot of time on hand and tried a lot of new things out, and well there wasn’t much to do in the winter months.

It was in the middle of winter after hunting another a deer that he became the idea to put all the hide he got from hunting to use. There was a lot of trial and error, but he eventually was able to finish his full set of leather armor. He had everything important, a sturdy chest plate, bracers, shoulder guards and grieves. Especially the shoulder guards would have been useful during the fight with the viper.

Well, not that it mattered much, he finally finished it. He would have been done a lot sooner if there wasn’t Mia’s mask that got in between, but he didn’t regret focusing on it. It proved more than useful after all.

Putting the armor on and tightening all the straps, Clay was more than satisfied with himself. This would definitely help to protect himself from the weaker attacks. Next he would make Mia a whole set. He first thought to make her armor first, but after considering it a bit, he chose to test it on himself first.

Like this, he could get experience and make an even better armor for Mia. In the best case scenario, she didn’t have to face any opponent much stronger than herself, but if the encounter with the viper taught him one thing, then that the best case scenario was not always the case, far from it.

It was the first real ambush he experienced since… forever. Before, he always relied on his aura sense to feel their presence before any other of his senses could. Now, with the high essence in the atmosphere, it was impossible to distinguish the weaker aura of the beasts he faced.

The viper was semi-awakend because she reached a stage where Clay was able to feel glimpses of its aura. He knew that his own aura was stronger than the one in the atmosphere, and just began to call this stage awakened. There had to be a moment where his aura changed. It could have been since the beginning or after surviving Mia’s poison, he didn’t know.

The point is that it changed, and he didn’t quite know yet what it meant, but he had a feeling that it was important. There wasn’t yet a single beast that he faced which’s aura was strong enough to withstand the atmosphere, but he wasn’t too keen on finding out.

The problem that bothered Clay so much was what if Mia had been first attacked by the viper and not him? Could she have survived? The answer was a definite no. Mia wasn’t able to control her essence to ignite her inner flame, let alone form an aura shield that could have protected her. She would have been crushed to death in seconds.

He wanted to train her, yes, but he doesn’t want to unnecessarily risk her life. With the animals roaming in the forest increasing each day, it wouldn’t be long before they would be overwhelmed with something that was too dangerous. She needed to learn how to ignite her inner flame and be able to form an aura shield before he would allow her to go with him, anything else would be far too dangerous.

Thankfully, he also wasn’t too concerned with leaving her alone there was after all a place where she would be safe, even against a whole army of beasts…