"How the hell...?"
Ace whispers softly. Elias opens his eyes to the Kharaneae just standing there in a neutral stance. Delmira returns to a neutral stance as well after a moment. Ace looks back to Elias, his face full of shock as it has already been multiple times today.
"How is that possible?"
He asks, mostly himself.
"W-what? Why did it try to attack us?"
Ace stares at the boy clinging onto his crumpled shirt. He thinks for a moment longer before turning himself around to face Eli.
"Okay...Um? I guess I should explain from the start since you've been living under a rock, quite literally. As you can see, the Kharaneae live these nest."
He motions to the nest behind them.
"There are many different nests, housing different Kharaneae. While they mostly all look similar, there are some differences between tribes of them. The most important being that they can only be tamed by those who belong to their tribe. The humans who have earned their trust. Delmira here can be 'tamed' by anyone in my tribe, but she's loyal to me before anyone else. That Kharaneae is from a tribe that was completely wiped out. No humans remain to keep them under control, at least that's what we thought."
"Then why did it stop?"
"Because you told it to."
"Me?"
Ace nods, looking back to the other Kharaneae. Others of its tribe begin to come closer to them.
"It's getting dark and it's too risky to travel at night, even with a Kharaneae. Shit... we'll have to camp here tonight. Tomorrow we'll go to my nest it's safer there."
Eli's stomach growls, he hasn't eaten anything since breakfast.
"I'll take Delmira and go find us some dinner. Will you be alright here with them?"
Ace asks, looking at the crowd of Kharaneae that had gathered. There must have been at least thirty of them already and more on their way. These Kharaneae were significantly bigger than Delmira and seemed much more intimidating, especially with their numbers.
"Yeah. I'll be fine."
Elias responds, sliding off Delmira's back, then jumping off her leg. He looks back to Ace as Delmira stands up and runs into the forest, then he looks back to the Kharaneae. They stand still, low rumbles escaping through their mouths every few seconds. He walks towards the one in front that tried to attack them. Along its side was a large scar, denting its tough skin. Eli cautiously gets closer and as he thinks about how he would like to get a closer look at the scar, it lays down, showing its side. He was a bit shocked, though the day had been full of shocking events already. Slowly he got close till he was right up beside it.
'Male'
He thought automatically, surprising himself that he could tell. But the funny thing is that it sounded like someone told him. It wasn't his own voice in his head.
'Odin'
The voice says.
"Odin."
Elias repeats out loud and the Kharaneae begins to purr. After a moment of thought, Eli climbs onto Odin's leg and runs a hand along his scar, feeling the rough skin.
"That must have hurt,"
He says halfly to himself. Eli looks up at Odin's back, placing his hands to pull himself up.
"May I?"
He asks looking at the back of Odin's head, Odin lowers his head and purred louder in response. Eli hauls himself up onto his back. When he had settled in, Odin slowly stood up and began to walk towards the nest.
"Woah!"
Eli exclaims as he scrambles to grip onto something to steady himself. The gathered Kharaneae move aside, creating a path for Odin to walk through. Odin had a lot of scars, most of them are really small and were most likely bullet wounds. Elias studies Odin's scars as they head towards the nest. He frowns as he thinks of all the pain that his father's men must have caused him. The people that live in the caves have they need, so why did they need to come up here to the surface? They can't even breathe up here. Elias felt a pain in his chest as he thought about the cave dwellers. He left everyone he knew and cared about behind, his mother, his friends, Ambrose. Though it's not like he could have brought them along anyway, living up here would be too difficult for them. But would he ever go back? He sits in silence with his thoughts as he enters the nest with Odin.