As the Silent Treader was in command, it was moving so silently but so fast.
As a creature born in the dark, they have an instinctual understanding of how to find their way better than many beasts.
And so before the lion recovered from the pain, they reached a metropolis. A community of newborns with names.
The Silent Treader found a place and hid for recovery. Unbeknownst to them, the fact that they ate a newborn that hadn't gained its name, the father would hunt it till the end of the realm and their fate was intertwined till one of them perished.
The Silent Treader was an enigma beast to the point they didn't have any gene information about what they were.
The first of their awareness came when they opened their silence in the forest surrounded by the trees that consumed their energy the moment they moved.
They immediately learned to come together and huddle, protecting themselves from the trees and their nature.
The next event they recognised was the fact that when one of them lost too much energy to the trees they would just vanish without a trace. They assumed that was what death was.
Any herd of Silent Treaders that experience the death of one of them will immediately feel the urge to move away to find a new location where there are no trees. That was how they found many caves and fields that had no trees.
But the danger didn't stop there; apart from the cave that couldn't take many of them; the field was silent as they liked it, but from time to time, something loud would appear and go. They will then find some of them missing.
The cave was the only safe ground but it was too small. Despite that, they naturally take turns to who will hide inside for a moment and keep rotating.
Some herds will try to cross the large trench using the ladder or by falling inside and reaching the other side. Unfortunately, none that crossed ever returned.
The Silent Treader now knew that they had a natural enemy that fed on them the moment they crossed. The enemy seems to be there to prevent them from leaving their prison.
The Silent Treader was just fortunate to be alive at a time when the rite of the old castle began and one of the Blind Servants survived and became the Castle Maiden.
To them that was the greatest hope and accomplishment. At least they will be known, they will be able to feel the other side of reality.
The deepening silence will not consume them.
I'm the senses of the Silent Treaders; Zeera appeared to be light in humanoid form; her heart was a star that pulsed with endless power that nurtured them all. They feed on it, they also live in it.
Dying to protect her was the greatest gift they will ever have and failing will be their greatest shame and damnation.
Eugene didn't know it, but when he managed to preserve his life in the beast, he had 500 days worth of life, but the Silent Treader violently consumed them trying to kill him.
The saving grace was it couldn't eat them all, the beast became bloated as the amount was too much for it to consume. What really happened was that the energy from devouring 380 days' worth of life made it develop 9 different organs that it doesn't know the use of.
So, it helplessly watched Eugene able to hijack it and control it to a degree. But it felt happy later on as what Eugene did aided the most in saving their light.
Which was a point of pride to the Silent Treaders and it then completely submitted itself to the human.
The submission benefitted it more than anything as immediately, its silent brain became active, and a spark of individuality and colour began to populate its mind.
While the Hollowed Eyed were losing their personality the Silent Treader was gaining its, and its heart was pulsing with unknown things humans will only describe as excitement.
But the excitement it felt before was nothing to now, having control of a powerful body, with a nose that can smell things, a body that senses things, and the greatest of them all, the eyes that can see colours.
It was a new feeling from the dull one it has always known and it was happy because of this wondrous adventure it found itself at.
Despite all that, it knew it had to make changes to its chimaera body; it needed to remove things and add things. As it was far more calm and observant, it was able to feel the need for that change.
The Lion was greater, but the lion was burdened by emotions and had deep overconfidence in itself.
The Silent Treader can see the vast potential of the great beast it has and it has not even scratched the surface of its capability.
The Treader, on the other hand, can feel its limit and can take advantage of it as it grows. It has no ego or desire to surpass the lion, but it just wants to serve the lion and learn from it.
Despite the broken bones on its back and the ribs, the Silent Treader began to transform subtly, with the use of the lion mind and itself, they were able to have complex thoughts for the next order of things.
The claws became sharper, but they pulled inside the paws; the paw feet became so soft and smooth that they created extremely lower sounds if they moved or ran due to their shock absorbent nature that increased. This made it also easy to jump and bounce around.
The most prominent thing that happened was the elongation of the black hair on the tail tip, it became as long as the beast itself and each strand can move on its own.
Harmonizing Tail
These features will come in handy for what is to come.
The next thing that happened was the overall body; the height reduced a bit, the weight also became malleable, and the bones' rigidity decreased, making it capable of taking brunt attack without cracking.
The new Chimera Beast can bend flexibly way beyond its normal.
The eyes were next. The Silent Treader loved the lion's eyes as it was colourful and full of life, but hunting doesn't care about aesthetics, so the eyes changed and became its own eyes, still with minute portions to see the beauty.
Light Feeding Eyes
As for the ear, they completely changed to Silent Treader, they will keep it safe better than the eye and anything else it has.
Folded Ears
The lion fangs were extremely durable; they were like a hammer that could smash into anything and crush them. Unfortunately, the jaws of the lion, even with the Silent Treader, don't have enough power to utilize them to the best of their ability.
The best option was to have two rows of teeth. The Pearl Teeth of Silent Treader for slicing the target and then the lion fangs for crushing what was sliced.
This caused the head of the chimaera to elongate, and the jaws widened to a degree.
The whole changes take hours alongside the healing taking place inside them.
The last thing was the coat; it shifted and achieved synergy that took on the colour of the surroundings.
The Chimera Treader should wait for the lion to come back from pain and the bones to heal completely but its growing individuality wanted it to act and see what it can do by itself.
So, it gazed at the small metropolis before them and observed with keen observation.
The place was littered with hundreds of building structures, each floating inches to meters above the ground.
Some structures were flat and rectangular in shape but the majority of them were like a tower with multiple compartments.
There were multiple windows on them as if capturing air and light to illuminate the inside.
Each of the structures also has a place where they display a variety of weapons, and newborn denizens move around looking for what they like.
In some of the structures. One can see fresh beasts displayed, and many newborns stand there holding their crafted weapons, wanting a piece of it.
There were building structures that shifted and moved from their location and then touched one another before they moved ahead.
The Chimera Treader captured everything with its eyes, as well as every newborn that it could see moving around.
If it used the Lion terminology, they were all delicacies with a variety of burning spicy sources. But they were not that ripe; the lion had shown it needed to add some finishing touches before they were complete.
The lion was very patient to a degree, but the treader was more patient when it came to hunting.
The Chimera Treader slowly unravelled its ear, and it was assaulted with a variety of sounds, which made its sight reduce and its body sensitive, but its ears began to filter everything.
This was their primary way of observation, and they immediately began to filter everything they saw and analyze it.
It made a picture of everything it heard, from the movement of the newborns to the shifting of the building structure and also the conversation.
It was searching for a powerful dish delicacy that was powerful enough to cause a great challenge to itself. Or even cause it to die.