Sylren held her breath as the two Etherbeasts grew in size after ingesting a handful of lucentum crystals. They seemed to be craving lucentums so badly that they did not waste even a single moment for chewing them. The Beasts' skin stretched as their bodies expanded, shadowy forms enlarging. But they did not grow in the same way.
Both Beasts grew almost triple their original size, but one had massive forearms and the other had bulging quadriceps. The muscles of their other body parts seemed spindly in comparison.
"Of course," Sylren said to herself in realization. "They need more lucentums." The Beasts eyed her down as they heard this. But they didn't attack, nor did they run away. They simply stood still…and then…
One climbed atop the other's shoulder.
Sylren tilted her head at this behavior. "This behavior isn't unnatural. In fact, this is one of the key characteristics of—" She cut herself off, a bead of sweat trickling down from her brow as she sharply turned and gave the signal. "GO!"
A bright flash flooded the tunnel, engulfing the three bigger forms and several smaller forms in front. The smaller Etherbeasts did not skip a beat in running away from the light, but the larger ones stood their ground, still on top of each other.
"They look like…" Sylren gulped as she dared look at the creatures' hands—
'No!' she told herself. 'They could've simply grown another finger or two!'
"I even got the smaller ones, Mrs. Sylren!" Korven said excitedly. "Can't believe these timid little creatures killed… Never mind."
'I saw them too,' Sylren said. 'Especially their hands…when they gripped the lucentums. I saw their five-clawed hands…'
The Etherbeasts looked toward the source of the voice and then at Sylren.
'Why aren't they fleeing still?' Sylren thought. 'Is it that they…trust me because I fed them…?' She tried approaching them, a hand held open to the front.
The Beasts reacted not.
Sylren's hand touched that course dark-red skin of the Beast holding up another of its kind.
Tears. Both of her theories just came true.
Arold ran up to her just as her back fell to the wall behind her. "Are you fine, mom?" He gave the creatures a quick glance and gulped down his fear in doing so. Ever since Sylren started teaching the boy some archery, he'd carried that bow everywhere.
"Yes, Arold…" Sylren said, head tucked to hide her watery eyes. 'I can't believe it…' she thought, images that she'd burned in her brain appearing in front of her closed eyes—Master Dwajo lying on his own blood, claw marks all over his body. 'Why would anyone do such a horrible thing?'
Had it been for power? But they had cried, had they not?
Did their tears hold any weight?
She stood, walking to the light source. "Pack up. We're done."
Korven closed his camera with delight. "I got everything I needed, Mrs. Sylren. Thanks to you, I think I can finally…" He trailed off when he noticed that Sylren had walked past him.
"Arold," Sylren said as Trixina turned the lights off.
Arold jumped, removing his hand from the Beast. "I was doing it to beat fear—"
"Go to the secret base," Sylren said before leaving them. "I'll announce the results to everyone during dinner."
Arold didn't say anything, which was same for the other two as well.
Sylren bit her lower lip, sobbing as she made her way to Commander Befir's…no, Commander Lexnal's office.
###
Sylren slammed a hand on Lexnal's desk. "I need answers, what else!"
"Calm down, ma'am," Celd said from the left, opposite side of the room to whom stood Ernash. "You know this kind of behavior can get you in trouble, right?"
"And what about your behavior, tell me!" Sylren said, removing her hand from the table and leaving the lucentum crystal she was clutching. "Those Etherbeasts aren't some new species! They're flucking cavelurkers! All of them! I finally understand why they're critically endangered now!"
"All this ruckus for a bunch of animals?" Lexnal said, feet on the desk to his front, coat dressed on the chair his back was leaning to, hands pocketed, lollipop in mouth. "Being a researcher doesn't justify all this."
"But it does, Commander Lexnal," the newest captain said, a wide smile on his boxy face. "Everything is justified when you're expressing your passion!"
"It's not about passion, you bastards!" Sylren said. "You think I'm angry only because of that?" She gave Lexnal a cold stare. "Cavelurkers have five claws, Lexnal. Master Dwajo only had wounds of three-claw swipes."
Lexnal's composure broke for a second as he removed eye contact from her, which was more than enough for his lollipop to fall from his mouth. He coughed as he took out a new one. "It's getting worse. Sorry, can you say that again?" He brought his legs down from the desk.
"Take it easy, Commander Lexnal," the newer captain said. "Or rock lungs will kill you too."
"Where exactly are you going with that, Mrs. Researcher?" Celd said.
"You know exactly where I'm going to, Mr. Skyguard," she said, not removing her cold stare from Lexnal. "That day, a year ago, it wasn't the cavelurkers that had killed Master Dwajo. No. It was you.
"The three of you and Befir killed Master Dwajo for his position." She stepped back from the table and started pointing at them one by one. "That explains why you burned the corpses of those Etherbeasts, doesn't it? The cavelurkers here have been malnourished because you have stripped off the lucentum pockets from even the outer caves. They attack, even to this day, hoping they could get their hands on but a single crystal of lucentum.
"But you didn't want that, did you? Our research would expose the inner workings of lucentum mining, so you dealt with that in one fell swoop—by killing the only man supporting us. Master Dwajo didn't know. But you three and Befir knew. We too could've known about this conspiracy for power of yours, but you burned the proof. You burned the corpses of those cavelurkers you killed to hide this secret."
Lexnal put his elbows on the table, hands closed together. "So you're saying that Master Befir, Ernash, Celd and I…KILLED Master Dwajo to gain power over these Ezlus Mines?"
Sylren blinked once, breathing heavily as she kept her gaze at him.
"That's a wild accusation, don't you think?" Lexnal said calmly, putting the new lollipop in his mouth. "I mean…what proof do you have to back it up? The number of claws a wild animal has? Do you think the creatures that mercilessly mauled Master Dwajo gave a thought to how many claws they were going to use? And about the corpses, we had told you long ago. That was Master Befir's vengeance on those murderous creatures. And lastly—which I think is the main reason for you to accuse us—Legion 55 not supporting your research.
"I just don't want what happened to Master Befir occur again. Is that so wrong—?"
Sylren reached over with gritted teeth, grabbing Lexnal by the collar with both hands. "Just accept it! You won't fool me!"
"Take her outside, captains," Lexnal ordered calmly. "I can't talk with an unreasonable person. Being here this long has maddened you, Researcher. I advice bringing proof the next time you get through security to accuse me."
Captain Ernash and Captain Celd took Sylren out of the office as she continued to shout and point at their commander, who kept licking his lollipop without concern.
How could he kill a man and still be this calm? Where was his guilt after committing such a heinous act?
Commander Ernash reached for the doorknob, not before Sylren had one final say at this situation.
"I'll bring you your proof!" Sylren said. "Be ready to face the wrath of a hundred hungry cavelurkers!"
Lexnal smiled, holding the stick of the lollipop. "Do whatever makes you feel good."
The door slammed shut.
###
"Why wouldn't they do that?" Malaro said, baffled. "You just went and accused the commander who runs this place, a flucking skyguard of Legion 55 of Highplexian Aegis, of MURDER? What were you expecting?"
Sylren roasted another marshmallow over the campfire. "Them accepting fault, what else! The day Master Dwajo died, I knew something was wrong. You saw the video that we just shot, didn't you? Do you really think these devolved cavelurkers could harm a human—and a flucking skyguard at that?"
"Calm down, you two," Lariz said, gesturing with his hands. "Why is this overshadowing the discovery you just made? We were here to solve the mystery of these undiscovered Etherbeasts, did you forget? I mean, I never thought that they were simply cavelurkers that had devolved due to a drastic change in their diet—"
"Exactly my point," Sylren said, turning her head to him. "Cavelurkers have been one of those species that we don't know much about. To think the reason for that was the intentional and targeted destruction of their habitat by skyguards just for lucentums…? It truly makes me sick."
"But storming the commander's office was still a rash move, Sylren," Prestris said with a light exhale. "He'd greeted us so nicely back when we first came here. But now, when we leave, it's going to be a whole load of awkwardness."
"We're not leaving until Lexnal accepts that he and his partners killed Master Dwajo," Sylren said loudly. "And if you want to, then go ahead!"
Her marshmallow burned.
Sylren hissed and got up, walking back to the tent they'd set up. Arold and she had been living here instead of the provided quarters. The tent was just a makeshift roof to this homely interior. The cooking station was to the left and the living area opposite to that.
She got to her bed and crashed face first onto it, her face against the pillow.
Arold looked at her in confusion from the cooking station, turning off the water he was washing his dished under. "Are you fine, mom?"
Sylren turned her face up. "Do you believe me?"
Arold turned to her. "Of course."
"That's enough for me," Sylren said with sigh. "I'll keep at it until they confess guilty."
Arold gulped. "But I don't want that."
"What?"
"I don't want you to get hurt, mom," Arold said. "Those are dangerous people. Your research was a success. So let's just…leave with the others."
Sylren looked at her son's eyes in silence. She got off the bed and stood in front of him.
Arold looked up.
"You've grown, Arold," Sylren said, ruffling his hair.
"I'm not even 13 yet," Arold said. "That's when I'll finally be as tall as you."
Sylren smiled. "I didn't mean it that way."
'Are you fine, mom?' Arold always had said.
'In trying to make him confident and independent,' Sylren thought. 'I've been abandoning my own boy. Do I even care about him as much as he does?' She put a hand on her son's shoulder. "Fine. We'll leave tomorrow morning."
Arold smiled. "Really?"
Sylren nodded, returning a smile.
She went out of the tent, everyone around the campfire looking at her. 'So they've been expecting it…'
She walked closer to them and stood tall. "Team! We've finished our adventure in the Ezlus Mines. Our research is finished! We'll publish the information we've hunted for the past year and a half and reveal our discoveries about cavelurkers to all of Highplexia!" She looked down at them and smiled. "We'll be out of Ezlus Mines after the next sunrise!"
The researchers all gave her a smile.
"Thank the gods of science for bringing you to your senses," Malaro said sarcastically. "We'll pack up all this before we leave."
"I've got all the notes, Sylren," Lariz said, tapping his pen on his pad. "This book will blow away the competition."
"That's mostly thanks to Korven," Prestris said with a soft snort. "Anyway, the lucentum and cavelurker connection will add to the knowledge about a previous misunderstood creature."
Sylren smiled with a nod. "Get some quality sleep, you guys. Tomorrow, we're out of here."
###
Sylren rushed to Lexnal's office, tears flying off her eyes. 'You flucking bastard! I won't ever forgive you for this!'