Samar wound through the woods trying to keep up with the serpopard. He followed it to the left and right, in the wake of the beast more through sound than sight, for aside from the occasional glimmer of moonlight through the bleeding canopy these woods were pitch dark.
Edon pursued his companion through the desolate wood, though he had lost track of him much faster than Samar did the beast.
He stopped running and began to wander forward, shouting for Samar to return to camp.
Now deep in the thicket, Samar had lost sight of the creature he was chasing after.
Consumed by the dark, he had also lost sight of the camp behind him.
The only sound he could hear as he stopped running was his own heartbeat and his lungs tirelessly beckoning for air.
Spinning around to attempt to gather his bearings, he had realized he was now totally lost, barefoot, and cold.
He started to sheathe his blade, though quickly decided against it.
A rustling of leaves approached from numerous angles. A familiar voice emerged from the darkness.
"Samar, there you are!"
It echoed.
The rustling continued.
Before Samar could figure out the direction the voice traveled from, Edon's figure emerged from the darkness in a distant spotlight created by the moon breaking through the canopy.
"Samar!" He echoed again.
"Edon, over here!"
Edon's figure had begun running towards Samar.
Samar sprinted towards Edon as well, though suddenly he stopped when his figure had disappeared.
The rustling around him continued, drawing nearer.
Fear began to settle in again, and there was no sign of Edon.
"Samar!" Edon's voice now echoed from another direction.
Samar looked to where he thought it had come from, but the sound of Edon's voice reverberated, again and again from different directions.
A cacophony of echoes shouting his name from many directions tormented the young man.
The echoing continued, though it no longer had a semblance of Edon's voice.
The voices had begun to strangle themselves into dying gasps and wheezes, still bellowing his name.
Three figures, holding no clear appearance aside from dark silhouettes appeared in his field of view.
These figures stood eerily still, and the voices Samar was hearing grew shrill and near deafening.
Samar did his best to cover his ears while still awkwardly holding his weapon outward to defend himself.
He paced backwards away from the menacing figures, which stood there without motion.
Samar blinked and the shadows appeared to double. There were six visible bodies, now covering more angles than before.
Backing up faster now, refusing to show his back to these shadows, he tripped over a tree root and fell onto his behind.
The echoes finally stopped.
Somehow the silence was more deafening.
More terrifying.
Time came to a halt, as did his perception of reality.
Samar choked on the air in his lungs, he had forgotten to breathe.
One of the shadows awkwardly hunched over.
Then another, and the rest did as well.
The one most directly before him hit a splash of moonlight as it strode forward, and what he saw could not easily be described.
It appeared to him as a viscous mass of stretched human flesh, with a multitude of teeth and eyes, not all of which humanlike, in places where you would not expect.
Its' many limbs contorted in array of directions that somehow still guided this unknown monstrosity eagerly forward.
With each step its mass molded and changed, with each visible aspect sliding around like the white beans in broth.
It bore a visible pit, probably from which it breathes and 'speaks', at the core of its everchanging form.
As this particular beast passes out of the light to become a silhouette again, all of the surrounding figures began to rush at Samar simultaneously.
Samar sat on the ground, too shaken to move, holding his sword forward.
A firm, cold hand graced Samar on his right shoulder and urgently pulled him upward.
Edon stepped forward and slashed at the closest of the silhouettes with his axe.
The shadowy figure melted into a bundle of branches and leaves on the ground.
"Go!" Edon pointed in the direction that Samar was certain he had been chasing after the serpopard.
He stumbled forward in the direction he was told to go, and quickly moved in that direction.
Edon followed his squire through the darkness.
After several minutes of running, they return to the camp.
The monster was no longer in pursuit.
Wheezing to catch his breath Samar sat beside the ebbing flame.
The look of terror had not left his face just yet and the Dovan diplomats stopped their tears to gather near him.
"I am sorry, sirs," Samar sighed looking up to the Dovans.
Edon walked up and sat beside Samar.
"He was already dead before you rushed into the woods after him," he scolded.
"I thought – "
"You really put us all in danger by chasing after him recklessly." Edon continued.
"Think before you throw your life away."
Edon gave his squire a fearful hug.
The tallest Dovan spoke as he gestured to the trail of blood that led beyond the camp.
"Let us pray in memory of our fallen brother, Aleph. For his death was that of God's will, and for it we will become stronger."
The Dovans gathered by Edon and Samar and prayed over the waning light.
Too terrified to sleep, the party sat up through the night.
For the first time the Dovans spoke with their Tadian escorts like human beings.
They learned that their names were Aleph, Caleb, Gerard and Basheer.
Gerard, the tallest of the diplomats began to tell stories of his childhood, which seemed surreal to both Tadians listening.
Even though they were relatively close in age, shy about five or so years, everyone around the fire had varyingly different stories to tell.
Caleb was the son of a librarian, who grew up in a great hall of books with elaborate leather binds.
Gerard was the son of a great artist and inventor of sorts.
Basheer was the son of a former diplomat, he wanted for nothing but his parents attention.
They inquired about Edon and Samar's life story and were incredibly surprised to find that not everyone has access to the opportunities they personally had growing up.
Growing up in Tadia sounded much more labor intensive, while the Dovan culture believed in setting up a better life for future generations through innovation.
The Dovans taught their new friends hymns to fill the silence until the sun came to break the darkness along the horizon.