The man watched Kyan with a disconcerting intensity, the drop of blood still floating in front of his hand. He studied it with an almost reverent gaze, as if it were something he hadn't seen in millennia. The silence between the three stretched on, thick with tension. The woman, on the other hand, seemed increasingly confused, glancing between Kyan and the man, her eyes flickering with incomprehension.
After a few moments, the man made an almost imperceptible gesture, and the drop of blood was drawn back into Kyan's wound. There was no pain. His resistance to pain was nearly absolute, and he hardly noticed the blood's return. Yet, at the same time, something strange happened. Kyan felt a shiver, a sensation of something invading his mind, as though a new layer of understanding was being forced into his consciousness.
Without understanding what was happening, he found himself overwhelmed by a torrent of words and symbols, sounds and meanings he had never encountered before. What began as a whirlwind of confusion soon settled, and he realized, somehow, he now understood the language of this world.
The man, his gaze unwavering, seemed to be waiting for something. And, with a newfound clarity, Kyan understood what he was saying.
"You… are human."
The phrase reached Kyan clearly, more like a mental command than a simple question. He stood still for a moment, processing the new information, until he finally responded, without hesitation, feeling an unfamiliar confidence speaking in this unknown tongue:
"I am human."
The woman, who had been silently observing until now, stepped forward, visibly surprised. She looked at Kyan as if he were something impossible, as if he shouldn't exist in this place, at this time. "You... are human?" she asked, incredulity evident in her voice. She seemed more astonished than anything else.
But before Kyan could respond, she continued, speaking more to herself than to him: "But… humans… were extinct long ago."
Kyan, now with his mind and language newly awakened, tried to grasp what she was saying, but it didn't make sense. Extinct? He had lived as a human, and that term didn't fit into his understanding of reality. He looked at the woman, trying to find some clue in her words, but she seemed unwilling to explain further.
The man, still staring at Kyan, tilted his head slightly, and his expression began to change. Before, he had seemed merely fascinated, but now something more took hold of his gaze. A predatory gleam, an intensity that seemed to consume the space around him. Kyan felt the shift in the atmosphere, as if the air itself had become denser, heavier.
Then the man began to approach, his gaze fixed on Kyan, and what had once been a feeling of curiosity now transformed into something more primal. He was no longer seeing Kyan as a rare relic or a key to something, but as something much more instinctual. Like a rare delicacy. A forgotten treasure, something he hadn't encountered in millennia.
The woman, still in shock, watched the man's reaction, completely unaware of what was happening. She seemed to be losing control of the situation, seeing the man now entirely absorbed by Kyan. It was as if he had become the only thing that mattered at that moment.
The man, his eyes still locked on Kyan, tilted his head as if evaluating the perfect moment to act. The way he looked at Kyan's blood, as though savoring every second, was clear and unsettling. Kyan felt a shiver down his spine—not out of fear, but from a visceral intuition. Somehow, he knew his presence there wasn't just a curiosity for the man—it was a necessity. Something he could no longer ignore.
The man extended his hand, and Kyan felt a light yet undeniable pressure on his chest, as if being drawn forward. An invisible but palpable force was acting upon him. He couldn't explain it, but he could feel that the being before him was hungry. And Kyan wasn't just any prey. He was the perfect catch.
The woman, now more uncomfortable than ever, tried to step forward, but something seemed to hold her back. She didn't understand what was happening, and that only made her more frustrated. She looked at the man with a questioning gaze, but he no longer seemed to pay attention to anything but Kyan. Whatever Kyan's blood represented, it was all he wanted at that moment.
Kyan, for his part, realized he was in a precarious position. He had survived so far on his instincts, but this man—this being before him—seemed beyond anything he had ever faced. Whatever that power was, it wasn't something Kyan knew how to counter.
The tension between the three reached its peak, and Kyan, now fully aware of his situation, began to mentally prepare for what was to come. If he had any chance of surviving, he would have to act quickly. The situation had changed—it was no longer just about fighting to survive but understanding what the man wanted and how he could escape without being consumed.