'How could this happen?'
Running through the obscure forest path, Fen continued to murmur those words under his breath. Only a small flame lingering on top of his palm served him for a light source. If not for the fact that he used this route many times over in the past, he couldn't just run around nearly-blind while hoping to escape the chase.
"Come on, don't slow down," Galia faintly whispered in encouragement. Together they trod forward. "We're almost there!"
As silent as her voice was, the young man could still hear the tunes of terror within her words. Looking backwards, Fen graced his friend with a cheerful smile, hoping the faint light of his fire would hide a greater load of horror in his eyes.
"There they are! Keep going!" A random voice in the distance reached the ears of the pair.
Hounds barking. Multiple voices of the people that continued to chase them down. This was the background music for the pair as they pushed forward, unwilling to give up just like that. Yet even the panic could only give the two of them as much strength. By the time they reached the last checkpoint marked by the village hunters, Fen could hear Galia's heavy breath, indicating how tired she was.
"No, let's stop here. You can't go any further. I'm too tired to protect you in the deeper parts of the forest. Just tell them I seduced or threatened you," Fen said.
Stopping nearly on the spot, just like he mentioned with his words, Fen could feel his longtime friend's body crashing into him. Two soft mounds pressing against his back, right where Galia's chest should be located. Yet, as pleasant as this feeling was for a young adult like him, their current situation made him immune to this kind of stimulants.
"Wait, what?" After taking her time to get back on her own feet, Galia suddenly raised her eyes, filled with disbelief. "You… You can't…"
"Yes, I can."
Fen Interrupted his friend even before she could finish her sentence. He placed his hands on her shoulders and spared her the last look filled with all the love he had for her. In this one moment, all the years they spent together, all those feelings he had for this quasi-little sister of his, surfaced in his eyes. Only to suddenly all disappear.
"GET LOST, YOU BITCH!" Despite knowing how it would hurt Galia in the short run, as he was the only target of the chase, Fen had no other choice than to go separate ways from now.
With all the positive feelings suddenly replaced by the fury generated out of his own fear and desperation, Fen's mental state changed so rapidly, that even the fire still burning on top of his palm wavered a bit. Adding just a tiny bit of force to his hands, the young man pushed the girl to the wet mud of the forest, before backing out a few steps.
"I wish you all the best."
Whispering those words as he turned around, Fen suppressed his tumultuous emotions and didn't dare to look back as he ran towards the darkness of the deeper parts of the forest. Passing by a huge boulder, marked with countless signs of ancient battles, he could still hear the lingering shout chasing him from behind.
"I will never forgive you for that!"
It was incredibly painful to hear such words from someone he considered to be a part of his family. But with no other choice, Fen killed all the sadness and regret that it created in his soul. In this part of the forest, he couldn't afford to lose focus.
BOOM!
A noise of some distant explosion only served as the further motivation for the young man, as he continued onwards. With the flame on his palm steadily growing to cover his entire right arm, he could spot the distinctive markings left all around the place by the hunters. Something that only four people in the village knew about.
'Come on, just a little bit further…'
Despite the constant risk of the wild monsters appearing to attack him, Fen couldn't pay attention to this possibility. Just a quick comparison between what would happen to him if he were to be attacked here, and what would become of him if he was caught, was enough to turn the vision of ending up ravaged into pieces by some wild beast into a rather pleasant experience.
Bark!
'To the left!'
Tensing up his arm to the limits, Fen's flame erupted right as he swung his hand into the direction the sound came from.
Crack.
The feeling of his knuckles smashing into something relatively soft lasted only for a moment, before the flame covering his arm finally found a new source of fuel, instantly turning the hunting hound into a medium-rare one.
'I've made a mistake…'
Once again resuming the escape, Fen couldn't stop himself from thinking about the events that transpired in the last few hours. From the moment he came back with a wild game to the village, he knew that something wasn't right. Just the presence of elaborately decorated carriages stationed in the middle of the village square, right in front of his orphanage, was enough for him to get wary.
Yet, who could've thought that just this slightly uncommon event would turn into such a situation!
A sudden growl alerted the young man.
It seemed that the old words passed to him by his hunting mentor were right. Beware the silent hounds. They might be slower, but they are the most dangerous.
From the fact that he could still hear its sound, it was clear that the worst wave of hounds has yet to reach his position. Turning himself towards the source of the noise, Fen was about to repeat the same move from before but stopped when a huge force weighed him down!
Thump!
Tackled to the ground, Fen had to push against the jaws of the enormous hound with all his might, just to stop it from ripping his throat apart! Nonetheless, the advantage of his fire allowed the young man to ignite his opponent again, turning it into nothing more than a pile of charred bones covered in dust.
'That was close…' Reprimanding himself, Fen pushed his hands against the ground and stood up.
Thump.
This time, there was no warning. This time, a true predator found his scent, not some kind of silly dog trained for the hunts.
Seeing the rows upon rows of sharp teeth reflecting the light of his own fire, Fen realised this was the end. In this short moment he could see the deformed muzzle of the monster, devoid of any eyes, replaced by enormous ears.
'I guess I'm just unlucky.'
In this one single moment, Fen couldn't feel any fear. His mind simply accepted the fact that after years of hunting, it was now his time to be the prey. Maybe if it was day time, maybe if he wasn't exhausted after running here all the way from the village, maybe… he would've triumphed.
There was no point in imagining 'what if' scenarios. The reality simply dawned upon him, depriving the young man of the last shred of hope that powered his actions so far.
Swish.
Hearing the unnatural sound, both the young man and the beast turned their attention towards it. At the same time, Fen noticed a thin blade of fire flying towards the creature that was currently nailing him to the ground with its paws.
Slick.
The thick skin of the monster above him didn't pose any resistance to this attack. Despite its large body, the beast was instantly cut in half. The blade of fire didn't give a chance to dodge. Escape was futile.
While this event made Fen overwhelmed with relief, a sudden burst of pain nearly made him lose his consciousness!
Looking down, he realised that it wasn't a single blade that made its way towards the commotion!
"I see him!"
This hateful voice belonged to the head inquisitor, who was the mastermind behind Fen's pitiful state. With those simple three words, Fen's escape decisively came to an end. In just a few moments, the trees no longer hid the inquisitor's fat body. Right now, the young man could see how his pursuer was completely covered in a thin layer of sharp, condensed fires.
As desperate not to get caught Fen was, there was only one thing left for him to do if he wasn't willing to end up in this bastard's hands!
Reaching towards his own stomach, the young man's hand instantly erupted in pain, as he attempted to grab the blade of fire, pinning him to the ground like some kind of horrific nail.
'PULL!'
Forcing himself to ignore the burning pain of his fingers, Fen managed to grab the blade and pull it out of his flesh, only to bring it up a bit higher, right where his heart was.
"No, you won't." Inquisitor smiled.
With a generous dose of sadistic pleasure, the fat man swung his arm to the side and made the blade of fire disappear in one instant. Doing so, effectively prevented the young hunter from taking his own life, in order to save himself from the torture this inquisitor surely had in store for him!
With no weapon available to him, and his own fire unable to harm his body, Fen could only lay down on the ground, unable to even take his own life. A few moments later, a man donned in a set of expensive robes stood above him, staring down with a devilish joy seeping out of his eyes.
"You must be wondering exactly how we managed to get on your trail."
Despite his clearly demonic disposition, the fatso above the young man didn't start his torture right away, as if a small part of humanity left in his soul demanded him to at least satisfy the curiosity of the soon-to-be-dead victim of his.
Yet rather than giving him the pleasure of following with his whims, Fen simply gnashed his teeth, attempting to at least do the impossible and swallow his own tongue, so that he could choke on it to his demise.
"To be frank, if not for your friend coming to us…" Clearly noticing Fen's desperate attempts at taking his life, the inquisitor wasn't bothered in the slightest. He even allowed himself to take a break in his sentence, as if in an attempt to build up the tension in his victim. "... we would never realise that there was such a juicy piece of heretic blood like you, in this obscure village! What was his name… Basil I guess?"
Despite all his efforts, when hearing those words, Fen couldn't help but freeze, allowing his tongue to return to its natural position. At this moment, it all made sense.
How did the inquisition get on his track? How did they know where he would escape? How did they even know he was in this village in the first place?
Yet as simple as an answer it was, it was its simplicity that hit Fen the most.
Bazil.
'To think that I saved that bastard's life…'
With this thought surfacing in Fen's mind, his face erupted in a plethora of emotions, allowing the observer to follow every single strange behaviour of this fake friend… No, fake brother of his, connected into one, greater whole.
"Oh boy…" Suddenly, the man above the young hunter finally revealed the same ugly expression, Fen noticed back when their eyes met all the way back in the village, precisely at the point where his desperate escape started. "... I will never get enough of this expression!"