Seriously, was he holding back on purpose? From what I could see, Deckard had plenty of chances to take their lives. His steps defied the laws of physics, yet somehow, they didn’t so much as crack a bone. It didn’t make a lick of sense.

  Nevertheless, having learned from past blunders, I dared not let my curiosity wander through the Union Ring link. One slip of his focus might doom us all. Still...

  "T-There’s got to be something we can do, right?"

  "Unless you have another trick up your sleeve, then…" Vara answered my plea, her voice laced with faint hope that I hid another secret from them. Well, she wasn't wrong. There was so much I didn't say. But those secrets were more awkward than helpful. What did it matter that I could talk to beasts and fart venom when he was fighting people twice the number of sigils and more than me? "... then I'm afraid not."

  ‘Hold on, I could talk to the beasts. What if…’

  "T-Then what... what if we took down a mossbear?" Bold words, considering the shape I was in. But if slaying three mossbears could bring down on us Esu, the Lord of the Forest, it was worth the risk. A long shot, by any measure. No telling if he would even care to listen to me. Still…

  "Deckard was clear - no killing any, no matter what," Elira protested, but her tone betrayed her doubt. With a bit of persuasion, she wouldn't be opposed to the idea. Still, if he had gone out of his way to say it, he must have had a solid reason. No killing mossbears then.

  The workhand didn’t seem to get that memo, though.

  "Die, you stupid animal!" Just as I was struggling to get my aching brain to come up with something useful, his voice cut through the air. Somehow, against all odds, he was still alive. And not only that, but the young mossbear chasing him looked worn out, barely able to keep up. Long-distance hunts clearly weren’t these beasts’ strength. Dumbstruck, just like Vara and Elira, I watched the thug chuck anything within reach at the beast - rocks, sticks, eveneven clumps of smouldering moss.

  "See, I told you not to mess with me, you..." His words choked off as the young mossbear growled, and down he went, stumbling hard. Yet when he rose again, a sword gleamed in his grip. My breath hitched, fear knotting in my chest despite what I suggested we do a moment ago. ‘Did he really intend to…?’ I stopped myself, actually hoping he would succeed, and instead painfully craned my neck to spot where the blade came from. Swords didn’t just sprout from the ground, and if he had it in his spatial storage, he would have used it long ago. His luck, though - he had landed by a dead Shadowbreaker. Not the one of the brainwashed lot but the guy unhappy with where Ward decisions had taken the Shadowbreakers, killed by the swordstress.

  Not that it mattered all that much who the blade belonged to. It was now in the hands of a fool who clearly thought swinging it about made him a warrior.

  "Surely he’s not..." Vara whispered, her voice tight with disbelief. No wonder. Even without the training she and Elira had, I could see he didn't know how to wield a sword. More than anything else, his efforts resembled swatting away flies.

  Neither of us foresaw what came next.

  "No!" Elira’s shout ripped from her throat too late and too far to do anything. One had to pity the beast for its bad luck. Just as it mustered the strength to lunge at its prey, the lad stumbled, his sword dragging him down he tumbled into the beast's attack, plunging the blade deep into its eye.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  For a breathless moment, it looked like the beast was going to just brush it off. The sword was pitifully small compared to its bulk. But then, in the span of a few pounding heartbeats, its strength gave out, and the young mossbear crashed to the ground, lifeless.

  The stillness that followed was deafening.

  The mossbears still left standing turned their eyes to their fallen sibling. Even Deckard and the Shadowbreakers froze where they stood, knowing full well this marked the third death. The tension hung thick as they waited, dreading what might come next.

  The workhand, on the other hand, oblivious as ever, let loose the moment the Lattice confirmed his kill. "YES! You shouldn't have messed with me, you stupid animal!" he shouted, loud enough to shake the air. And the fool didn’t stop there - he broke into a dance atop the mossbear’s body, drunk on his own success.

  But the forest stayed still, ignoring his disrespectful behavior.

  For a moment, at least.

  As doubts about the nursery rhyme’s truth barely took root in the minds of those in the clearing, a mournful wail of the mother mossbears rang out from beyond the flames of the forest. They grieved for their young, yet pride echoed through their sorrow. 'Was it joy over them returning to the forest?' The wails were complex, some parts slipping past my understanding, but they struck a chill deep in my bones, nonetheless.

  "Don't try anything stupid," Deckard warned, his sudden appearance beside us nearly sending my heart into my throat. "You can speak with beasts, can't you, girl?"

  "W-Why?" I stammered, choking on the words. Was he hoping I could talk us out of it? Sure enough, the thought crossed my mind when I was thinking about killing a mossbear myself. That didn't mean I had the confidence to actually do it.

  ?She, Lady.?

  ?Lady, talk.?

  ?Lady will protect.?

  If I hadn't known it would hurt like hell, I would have laughed. All the Scalehoofs, more than a dozen of them, gathered around us. Even the two who were pulling the wagon with the cage, still harnessed to the yoke that had broken off it, came in the hope that I would somehow get them out of this mess.

  "Fuck my tits, are you some kind of animal whisperer?" gushed Vara, her eyes wide as the animal circled us. Elira stood close, her cheeks tinged pink as she glanced at me. “You truly understand them?”

  “Um-hmm.”

  “Awsome, BUT - is it a good idea?” Vara whispered, her voice dropping low to keep it from the scalehoofs' ears. “Won't this look like a feast to the beasts?"

  The scalehoofs, clearly hearing her and annoyed, shot back with disgruntled neighs.

  ?You feast!?

  ?Stupid human.?

  Deckard flashed me a grin, amusement dancing in his eyes. "You truly are one in the world, girl. I'm very much looking forward to our lesson,” he said, his attention shifting to Vara. “And for your information, guardswoman Truthorb, mossbears don't like Scalehoof meat very much."

  "What about human meat?"

  "Do you see any feasting on the corpses?" The answer was no. The corpses of the two Shadowbreakers lay on the ground untouched. "Don't get your hopes up, though. They'll find a use for our corpses when it comes down to it."

  "Hold on. What do you mean by that...?" Her voice broke off as the howl of the mother mossbears ended. The trees, far and wide, groaned beneath the weight of their combined might. The fires that had raged across the woods died out, and so did all the noises of the nocturnal creatures disturbed by the fight.

  Oddly, none of the might fell on our shoulders.

  Then the earth trembled beneath our feet. The mother mossbears were coming. I watched the tree line, tense like the others in the clearing, when a sudden headache struck, tearing through my skull and bringing tears to my eyes, my body locking up.

  "At last, you brainless mutt." The cynical, steady, and really unsettling voice in my head made me panic. I rushed to put up my mental defenses, to use [Indomitable Will], something I realized with horror I forgot to do after I woke up from my death. Too late, though. She was inside, already there, and I could do nothing to rid myself of her, except…

  "No, you don't!" She stopped me cold, even from shifting when I let go of the reins of my beast. "Now, for once, be a good mutt you are and do exactly what I say..."